The main stereotype about work at home jobs is that they’re scams. There’s good reason for this stereotype. Too many work at home opportunities of all sorts are scams. They’re far more numerous than the legitimate opportunities. This reputation becomes a problem when you start working a legitimate work at home job and everyone either assumes you’re being scammed or that you’re scamming other people. It gets old fast.

You will have to deal with people who greet your new job with a great deal of skepticism. You may not be able to cure their skepticism with anything so simple as getting your first paycheck or even working for years successfully at it. Some people are really resistant to the idea that anyone can make a legitimate living from home.

Ask Them Why

If someone keeps insisting that you’re either scamming or being scammed, ask them why they think that way. Odds are they don’t really understand what you’re doing. Sometimes you can address their specific concerns. Not everyone is going to listen or be convinced, but if you understand their side better you might be able to help them see your side.

Compare Your Work to Similar Work Outside the Home

When you talk about your work, odds are you can compare it to work other people would do from an office away from home. Work at home jobs don’t require skills that can only be used from home. Think about how you can make the work make sense to people stuck on the “at home” or “what if it’s a scam?” parts.

Talk About Your Day

Many people who work at home work as hard or harder as people in similar jobs outside the home. It’s tough balancing your home life and your job all in one building. The more  it sounds like regular work, the more familiar it may be to the skeptics.

Know That You Can’t Convince Everyone

It doesn’t matter how hard you try to convince some people that you aren’t falling for or participating in a scam, some people will never believe that your work at home job is legitimate. You have better ways to use your time than to argue the point.

You don’t have to tolerate it if they get insulting about it, of course. Focus your attention on the others around you and see if they get it. You don’t have to convince everyone, so long as you get some people who support what you’re doing and don’t act as though you’re a sucker or a criminal for the work you do.

Too often I see people just say they want to work at home so they can be there for their kids. They haven’t put much more thought than that into it. Many people don’t know what they can do from home, what the income potential is or what to look out for. This can cause problems not only when you’re trying to avoid being scammed as you look for home based work, but as you try to build your career.

1. Learn the basics of spotting a work at home scam.

It almost doesn’t matter what you’re going to do as a work from home job. You need to know what work at home scams look like, or it’s too easy to fall for one. Simply knowing that you shouldn’t pay to show that you’re serious about applying for the job and that pay rates should be realistic for the kind of work you’ll be doing will help you avoid a lot of scams. A bit more research can be necessary to spot other signs, but those basics will help you avoid the most obvious issues.

2. Know what kind of work you expect to do from home.

Don’t go around applying for every work at home job you hear about, whether or not you have the ability to actually do the work. It’s just not a good idea.

Employers want people who are interested and capable of doing the job they’re applying for. Your resume should show that you have some sort of experience relevant to the job. Training is a bit more challenging when you’re at home, so employers don’t want to have to do an excessive amount of it.

3. Is this a job until the kids are old enough for school or your career you’re planning?

Many stay at home moms only stay at home until the kids are old enough to go to school. They then head back to work. Others plan on staying at home pretty much forever, and want to build a career from home.

While you may be looking at similar jobs, they won’t necessarily be entirely the same. If it’s a career at home you’re after, you want to know if you can grow in the job and still stay at home. If you’re planning on going back outside the home to work eventually, you need to know that you can move the skills you’re using in the job to either move to the office with that company or move along to another business in your area.

4. Do you know how you’re going to work at home?

It’s easy to say that you’re going to work at home. Doing a good job of it is something else entirely.

Motivation is one of the first issues people face when they start out. There are so many distractions at home, and it’s often all too easy to skip out on work when you don’t have to report to an office. That’s fine, so long as you don’t mind risking your job. Home based employees do get fired for not working when they’re supposed to just as people do when they work outside the home. Just because you don’t have direct supervision doesn’t mean they don’t know when you’re working or how productive you are.

Children are another distraction even when you’re feeling motivated. It takes time to teach them to let you work, and very young ones won’t understand at all. Many work at home parents do use daycare or have a family member or friend take the kids so they can get work done. Have realistic expectations for your family.

5. Are you comfortable with all the technology you’ll need to use?

If you’re terrible with computers, most work at home jobs aren’t going to work out for you. They’re a big part of most positions.

You need to be comfortable enough that you can quickly learn any new software your job requires. There will probably be some programs you learn to use in order to do your job that you wouldn’t be exposed to otherwise. You may even use familiar programs in unfamiliar ways.

This includes knowing some basic troubleshooting. If your computer freezes up, what do you do? You shouldn’t need to call someone for help for minor problems.

6. How consistent is the work?

One problem many home based jobs face is that the work isn’t consistent enough for you to maintain a constant income. Some weeks your employers are begging you to put in overtime; others they have no work at all for you.

If you’re going to depend on the income, you need work that is consistently available. Depending on the industry, you may need to work for more than one employer to build a reasonably consistent income. Other industries, the one job is plenty.

This isn’t even about being laid off when the company is really low on work. Some jobs have times when they naturally have less work for employees, then a surge of work, and they’ll keep you hanging on even when there’s not much to do. Considering that many home based employees are paid on production rather than hourly, this can be terrible for your income.

7. Are raises available?

Some work at home jobs pay pretty respectably. Others not so much. But in either case, you probably want to know if you will be able to get a raise as your skills improve or for other reasons. The cost of living increases over time – odds are you’d like your income to do the same.

8. What about benefits?

This is particularly important if you’re trying to be the one to provide health insurance for your family. In some types of work at home jobs benefits are hard to come by while in others they’re about as common as they are in the office based versions of the same job.

Remember that benefits aren’t only about health coverage. Look at retirement plans, educational opportunities and other offerings that may be available to you.

9. Will you be considered an employee or a contractor?

The difference between an employee and a contractor is very important when it comes to handling your taxes and sometimes other issues. Companies that hire home based workers don’t always pay enough attention to the legal differences, and that can mess up your taxes pretty badly, as the difference determines factors such as who is responsible for certain taxes.

Do you have any further suggestions for things people should consider as they start looking toward a work at home job?

It’s wonderful when the kids reach school age and you’re working at home. Suddenly you have all this time to work on your job or home business. But then winter comes, and sometimes that means you get hit by a snow day.

Unlike regular school holidays and weekends, you don’t always get much warning for a snow day. The weather gives you some hints as to what may happen, but you don’t know until you check in the morning. If snow days are a normal part of your student’s school year, you need to have plans in place so you don’t lose more work time than you’re willing to give up. You might want to play in the snow too, time permitting.

Plan Ahead

Planning ahead for snow day activities will help you to cut down on lost productivity. What can the kids do when they aren’t at school on a day you’d normally be working? How much can you reasonably expect to get done?

Have several activities planned that the kids can do. They probably won’t want to play in the snow all day, although that may take up a part of the day.

Snow days are special to kids, so keep it fun for the most part. You may get some great ideas for things the kids can do when its snowing just by asking them in advance what they would like to do when it has snowed too much for them to go to school.

Remember the television and computer for the kids too. They may be quite content to take it as a day to veg out. Just make it a special day without the usual limits on screen time if you like. An occasional day of too much television probably won’t hurt them.

Get Help

If the snow is bad enough that your spouse is home, enlist some help in caring for the kids. There’s no rule saying you have to do it all just because you’re the one who’s usually home with them. If your spouse has an extra day off because he or she can’t get to work, make sure they understand that you are at your work and need to work, so they get to deal with the kids. Tell the kids the same.

If you have local enough family or friends who would be willing to take the kids for the day, that’s another option. This may not be possible if the snow is severe enough, of course.

You may also want to invite a friend over for your kids. So long as the situation doesn’t cause a lot of arguments, having an extra kid over can actually help. It keeps the kids from asking you for things to do.

Consider Taking the Day Off

If the kids are going to interfere too much with productivity, consider taking the day off. You may be able to make it up over the weekend, or just think of it as a plain old day off. Especially if you’re working for yourself and don’t have any immediate deadlines, there’s no reason to not enjoy the day a bit yourself.

Don’t take it off if it’s going to make things too hard for you later. Sometimes you really need to work. If that’s the case, find a way to make it happen.

This may include taking the daytime off, but staying up and working into the night. For some people that’s the better work option anyhow, but if that’s not your habit it can be a tough choice to make.

One of the advantages of working at home is sometimes said to be that you can work at your kitchen table. It’s meant to emphasize the flexibility you have when you work at home. But is working at your kitchen table  or other convenient but not quite comfortable spots really a good idea?

If you have an option, I’d recommend working elsewhere in your home. Sometimes the kitchen table really is the best choice for your situation. If you have a better spot to work, however, I’d suggest using it. There are a couple of reasons.

1. Too much in the middle of things.

The first problem with working at the kitchen table is that you’re right in the middle of things. This makes it too easy to let work get in the way of enjoying your family life. It’s too accessible, and too easy to stop and just do “one more thing” when you should be paying attention to other things.

It’s also too accessible to any kids in the house. This is particularly true if you have little kids who don’t always understand the limits you set. Kids can be accidentally destructive. We nearly lost my daughter’s gingerbread house project, for example, because my son spilled water all over the kitchen table while the parts were sitting there. It’s too easy to have things like that happen to your work things as well.

The other problem is when you’re trying to work. You’re easily interrupted. You may be able to see what the rest of the family is doing and be distracted by the goings on. The kitchen table or other common areas of the home just aren’t separate enough to give that “at work feeling” that helps many work at home parents focus on what they need to be getting done.

2. A kitchen table setup is rarely good ergonomically speaking.

Most of us don’t pay a lot of attention to ergonomics while working. Many don’t know that much about ergonomics. But if you want to keep working and cut down on the odds of repetitive stress injuries, you’ll want to consider ergonomics, even if you feel comfortable working just about anywhere now. It takes time to get a repetitive stress injury, and they’re no fun to recover from.

If you’re having to bend your wrists much up or down in order to type, you’re not in a healthy position. You’re putting strain on your wrists.

You also shouldn’t have to look up at your computer monitor. The top of the screen should be about level with your eyes. Looking up for long periods puts a strain on your neck.

While it’s not easy to build the habit of paying attention to ergonomics, it’s a really good idea to do so. You can save yourself a lot of pain in the long run. There’s a lot more to it than these basics, but the general idea is to avoid putting strain on any parts of your body while you work. It wouldn’t hurt to read up on ergonomics on your own.

No Home Office Space? What Options Do You Have?

Of course, most people don’t choose the kitchen table or other awkward spots to work out of a preference. Most people who work at the kitchen table do so because there’s a lack of space anywhere else in the home. Is there anything you can do about it when that’s really the only place you can work?

Look for places where you can work effectively and more comfortably. Just where this is depends on the equipment you need to use and the furniture you have available. You have more flexibility with a laptop and wireless internet connection than you do with a desktop computer and a wired connection to the internet. Either way, look for a way to work with your wrists nearly flat, not particularly bent up or down.

You may also want to consider a program such as Dragon Naturally Speaking, or the voice recognition software included with Windows 7. You’ll type less once the program is trained, and you can give your hands and wrists a rest. Very much worth the money and the trouble of training the program if it saves you money on medical bills dealing with repetitive stress injuries, not to mention work time lost.

An ergonomic keyboard may be another good investment. I love my Microsoft Natural keyboard, but there are a number of different styles for different preferences. My wrists feel better using that one than after using a regular keyboard for a long time.

We can’t all have that perfect home office with the door you can close – I don’t have one. But we can think about where we work and think about the long term impact on our bodies so we cut down our chances of dealing with painful injuries from poor work habits.

Working at home successfully doesn’t come quickly to all of us. Many people have to try several opportunities, whether they be stay at home jobs or home business opportunities, before they find the right match for their availability and income needs. This work at home stuff doesn’t come that easy.

It’s often a school of hard knocks before you really get it. You may feel like a failure for months or years before you really get things moving the way you’d like to.

Don’t be Ashamed of Falling for Scams

It’s embarrassing when you realize that you’ve fallen for a work at home scam. It happens to lots of us. That doesn’t mean you’re destined to fail as a work at home parent. It means only that you made a mistake.

The only way you fail by falling for a work at home scam is if you don’t learn anything from the experience. It may be painful, especially if you have to admit monetary losses to a spouse or other family members, but it’s something you have to do.

The prevalence of work at home scams is why it is so very important to really think before signing up with any opportunity. Do your research. Ask around. This will help keep you from falling for scams.

You May Not Always Earn What You Hope to Earn

Whether you find a work at home job, do freelance work or start some other sort of home business, you probably won’t always earn what you hope to earn. It’s not a good feeling to come up short on your goals, but you have to be realistic. It takes time to get things to where you really want them to be.

Be realistic with your financial goals, and don’t give up on them easily. You probably wouldn’t make your dream income working outside the home right off either. Most of us have to work up to it.

You Won’t Always Have Perfect Cooperation and Respect for What You Do From Family and Friends

Supportive family and friends are a huge help when you work at home. It’s hard to get everyone to take you seriously when so many people you know are certain that you’re getting scammed, or it won’t work out, or just don’t think what you’re doing is real work.

What matters is that you take it seriously. The people you know will take their cues from you on how to treat your work. A few may never get it, but the more seriously you take your work, the more seriously most others will take it too.

Working at Home Doesn’t Always Mean Working When You Want

There’s the old bit about how you can set your own hours when you work at home. It’s one of the most appealing parts of working at home. The problem is that it’s not entirely true.

Many people are dismayed to find out how many hours it really takes to successfully work at home. It’s not easy. You may work more hours than you would have outside the home. You can’t always choose which ones you want, at least not if you want to bring in an income. Sometimes your work hours are set by the needs of the kind of work you’re doing.

Working at home also tends to blend into daily life and family time. Your work is always right there. Learning to separate work and family time takes practice.

It’s even rougher when you have infants and toddlers who really need your attention. You may find their needs and the needs of your job or business don’t mix too well. Despite any intentions otherwise, many work at home parents do resort to paid childcare so that they can get work done. That’s not a failure. That’s dealing with reality.

Fortunately, you often will have flexibility. Be prepared, however, to deal with the times when you need to sacrifice some of the fun times to earn a living.