Christine Durst - Work at Home Now: The No-Nonsense Guide to Finding Your Perfect Home-Based Job, Avoiding Scams, and Making a Great Living

The No-Nonsense Guide to Finding
Your Perfect Home-Based Job, Avoiding
Scams, and Making a Great Living

By Christine Durst and
Michael Haaren

Copyright 2010 by Christine Durst and Michael Haaren

All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher, The Career Press.

WORK AT HOME NOW

EDITED BY JODI BRANDON

TYPESET BY DIANA GHAZZAWI

Cover design by Rob Johnson/Johnson Design

Printed in the U.S.A. by Courier

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www.careerpress.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Durst, Christine, 1963

Work at home now : the no-nonsense guide to finding your perfect home-based job, avoiding scams, and making a great living / by Christine Durst and Michael Haaren.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-60163-091-9

1. Telecommuting--United States. 2. Home-based businesses--United States. I. Haaren, Michael, 1949 II.Title.

HD2336.35.U6D87 2010
658.0412--dc22

2009036389

To my parents, Ron and Bev Champany, for your constant love, guidance, and support. You taught me from a young age the importance of hard work, big dreams, and unshakable faith. Your lessons are with me always.

Christine Champany Durst

To my wonderful children, Travis and Jazz. Some dads are lucky, but Im the luckiest.

And to Ben and Betty Anne Fordney, who gave a teenager much-needed guidance.

Michael Haaren

First, wed like to thank all the visitors to RatRaceRebellion.com and readers of the Rat Race Rebellion Telework Bulletin for supporting our work with your kudos, suggestions, and critiques. This book wouldnt exist without you. Also online, wed like to thank the members of WorkPlaceLikeHome.com, WAHM.com, and other work-at-home communities who have shared warm and generous comments about us and our work.

To the many busy executives, home-based workers, and public relations representatives who took time from their days (and nights) to provide indispensable quotes and interviews for this bookour gratitude and appreciation.

The work-at-home movement would be crippled by scams if the media didnt alert consumers to the latest con games. Wed especially like to thank Jim Avila, Carla DeLandri, Ann Varney, and Ruth Reiss at ABC News 20/20, and Don Lemon, Kyra Phillips, Randi Kaye, Glenn Emery, and Mykal Kristopher-Frierson at CNN for their work on exposing scammers, and giving us the opportunity to assist.

Telework is also indebted for innovation to the U.S. State Departments Family Liaison Office. Foreign Service families are fortunate to have you, as are we to work with you. On the Armed Forces side, we could fill whole books with good people, but for now would especially like to recognize Nancy Seckman, at Schriever Air Force Bases Airman & Family Readiness Center.

To our agent, Bob DiForio, go our thanks for invaluable support and effectiveness, and wise and patient counsel as the book came to life.

The team at Career Press has once again been a delight to work with, and wed especially like to thank Michael Pye, Laurie Kelly-Pye, and Kirsten Dalley. Our line editor, Jodi Brandon (a writer in her own right), kept the egg off our faces repeatedly. Our gratitude to all.

Almost every day by e-mail, and in our U.S. State Department and Armed Forces work-at-home workshops as well, people tell us they need to find a home-based job now:

I lost my job and want to replace it with a home-based job now.

My commute is killing me and I need to work at home now.

I need a home-based job now, that I can take with me when we move again.

My retirement nest egg vanished and I need a job now.

Im caring for a sick child and need a home-based job now.

While writing this book, we focused on the now that job seekers have emphasized, to help you find the quickest route to home-based jobs and projects that meet your needs. Youll also find in-depth, action-ready details on more than 400 legitimate companies and other trustworthy sources of home-based work, rather than an introductory or overview approach.

Lastly, weve strived to avoid statistics-heavy discussions of telework studies (including our own), analytical treatments of business process outsourcing (BPO), and so forth. These are important, certainly, but arent to the purpose here.

In short, weve tried to create the most practical guide we could, to help you find your best home-based job or project in the briefest possible time.

Chris likes to say that we know the work-at-home arena better than most and as well as the rest, and, at the risk of sounding boastful, its true. But bragging rights dont come without hard work in the right places. For us, these right places have included:

At the magnifying glass, where every week we look at 4,5005,000 work-at-home job listings and ads, to determine which are legitimate and which are scams.

In the media, with CNN, ABC News 20/20, The Wall Street Journal, Consumers Digest, Womans World, and many more, where we expose scams and help people find authentic home-based work.

In our briefings to the FBI, the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Labor, and other agencies on the status of home-based jobs, scams, and telework.

At the podium, in presentations to the Presidents Committee on Employment of People With Disabilities (home-based work is an important option for people with disabilities), the Presidential Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities, the U.S Department of Labors Workforce Innovations Conference, and many more.

In training rooms around the world, where, in addition to programs for the State Department and Armed Forces, we and our certified trainers deliver virtual-career workshops to state agencies, colleges, faith-based organizations, nonprofit groups, and more.

Online, on our popular RatRaceRebellion.com Website, in our virtual-careers column at Military.com, and in our telework bulletin, where weve helped people around the world make their work-at-home dreams a reality.