My friend has worked for the same company from home for over 13 years. She is an expert in how to land and KEEP an at-home W9/Employee position. After her interview, I will add my experience of arranging and keeping an At-home Employee position as well.
Welcome friend…
Q. Would you like to keep this anonymous or not?
A. Yes, anonymous.
Q. What inspired you to begin working?
A. I wanted to keep a foot in the working world.
Q. How did you go about starting your business or arranging a work at home position?
A. My husband’s job requires him to work some nights and every other Saturday – so he is off every other Friday. My dad’s company needed a part-time employee and I was able to go into the office whenever my husband was home. So I work one morning a week and every other Friday. As technology has advanced, I have been able to work from home more and more for the company.
Q. What are some tips you would like to share with others who are interested in doing something similar?
A. There are a lot of companies who allow you to work from home. You may have to be willing to work flexible hours.
Q. How many hours do you work a week or how much of your time does this position require? Is it flexible? Is it consistent?
A. My hours are usually really flexible. I work about 25 hours per week. Sometimes 20, sometimes 30. I work in accounting, so the hours are not always consistent. At month-end there are a lot more hours required.
Q. When/how do you find the time to work?
A. When my child was younger, I worked when he napped. Now I work while he is in school. And I work at night a lot of the time.
Q. Was training/schooling required for the position? How/when did you complete it?
A. I have a bachelor’s degree and I completed it before I was married.
Q. How much do you make? Or What is the income percentage you bring in?
A. I make about 30% of our household income.
Q. Are there certain tips/advice you’d want to share with others who want to start working like you?
A. You have to be able to focus and be dedicated to your job. I don’t ever watch TV and work. If I were in the office, I wouldn’t be watching TV, so why would I watch it when I am at home? I also use a headset for phone calls.
I just want to say thank you to my friend for sharing her experience!
I, Anita (the author/owner of LiveLikeYouAreRich.com) would like to add my experience with arranging an at-home W9 position with a business…
Q. What inspired you to begin working?
A. My husband and I are on track to pay our mortgage off in 10 years so our payments are quite large. I knew that it would help immensely if I could continue bringing in income and not have to pay for daycare. Further, it’s always been a goal of mine to be a Stay at Home Mom.
Q. How did you go about starting your business or arranging a work at home position?
A. I did a lot of thinking and arranged an appointment with my employers. I said, “As your full-time employee I typically do A through Z (showing them a list of my tasks). I know newborns and toddlers sleep a lot and I will have a lot of uninterrupted time. If you are willing, I would like to continue working for you. I could do tasks B, D, T, R, and W (showing them the list of tasks I could do from home) just as easily as doing them here. Would you be willing to have me work from home?”
They had to think about it for a few weeks. But ultimately they trusted me, my skill, and my integrity so although they had never done something similar, they agreed to give it a try.
Q. What are some tips you would like to share with others who are interested in doing something similar?
A. Agree to a trial period. This ensures that both you and your employer are happy with the arrangement. Before my son was born we embarked on a work-from-home trial period. After they saw that I could work effectively and honestly, they kept me on with them.
I was also able to prove to myself that I could work honestly and efficiently from home. In fact, I was surprised to find that working from home had a lot fewer distractions than working at the office. I was more productive as I wasn’t surrounded by people and distractions as I was at the office. It has now been almost 2 years since beginning our trial-period and I am still working for them.
Q. How many hours do you work a week or how much of your time does this position require? Is it flexible? Is it consistent?
A. I worked about 15-25 hours a week when my son was born and continued on that schedule for about a year. After my blog started getting more popular/demanding I requested to only do two projects (or about 7 hours a month) for them.
They have been very flexible. If I had not scaled the work back, they would have continued giving me more to do.
Q. When/how do you find the time to work?
A. Newborns and babies sleep a lot! I would always work while my son was asleep. I could also work while he was on a play mat or in his vibrator chair. As he has grown older I work while he is napping or watching a cartoon.
I used to work in the evenings but it was negatively affecting my marriage. Now I only work in the evenings when my husband is gone or when he is working in his office. I really try to reserve 4:30-8:30 PM as family and dinner time.
On the occasional day when I’m swamped I will arrange for Denali to go to the next door neighbor’s home daycare. I usually have him babysat one or two days a month (but this is only if I have more work than naptime and downtime allows).
Another thing I did for a few months to make time for work was hire a sitter. When Denali was 7 months old and it was summer break, a sweet neighbor girl wanted experience baby sitting and something to do in the ‘boring summer mornings’. I paid her $3.00 an hour to come babysit daily for a few hours (while I was home working). She would play with him, read to him, and put him down for his nap. If he would ever cry or needed me I would come out of my room (where I worked) and was there for him.
It was pretty inexpensive for me to hire her and because she was there, I was also able to take on more work during this time. Thus, it more than paid for her hours. When she went back to school I scaled back on work.
Q. Was training/schooling required for the position? How/when did you complete it?
A. I was already trained through the company but no specific education was required.
Q. How much do you make? Or What is the income percentage you bring in?
A. I was making anywhere from $900-1,400 a month until I scaled my hours back. (In Utah that is an average part-time income for a middle/lower-wage-job). It was enough to really help with expenses. Now that I’m very busy with my blog, I make about a couple hundred a month doing the two small monthly projects they need me to.
Q. Are there certain tips/advice you’d want to share with others who want to start working like you?
A. As my friend mentioned above, don’t watch T.V. or do other inappropriate things while on the clock. And never ever lie about hours or projects worked/completed. Even though you are home, your employer will know whether you have done your job or not and how well you’ve done it. Always do your best work and you will most likely always have your position.
Also, work-at-home employees are becoming more and more popular. I have a few friends who also arranged to work at home when they were pregnant and are still working from home for those same businesses.
If you are about to have your first baby or considering working from home for the first time, I’d recommend meeting with your employer and presenting him/her with a plan.
If you have already left employment consider reaching out to some old employers to see if they have projects or tasks that their current staff doesn’t have time for. Paying someone for a few hours a week is a lot easier for a business owner to handle than hiring a full or part time employee.
Another way to land an at-home employee job is to advertise your skills/talents on social media, word of mouth, or even local classifieds.
And of course the final way to land an at-home job is to look daily on classifieds and keep an open ear.
At-home positions are becoming increasingly popular so you may be able to find one that fits your schedule and skill set.
Other Posts in this Series:
Introduction to Money-Making SAHM Series
Series 2: Starting an Online Business
Series 5: At-Home Airline Assistant
Series 6: Become an At-Home Employee
Series 9: Run an at-Home Daycare
Series 10: Write and Self-Publish an eBook Part 1 & Part 2
Series 11: Teach Music Lessons from Home
Series 12: Distribute a Product You Love
Series 14: Become a Virtual Assistant
Series 15: Buy and Resell Cheap Finds
Series 17: How to Make Money as a Transcriptionist
Series 18: How to Write and Publish a Paperback or Hardback Book
Series 19: Do Online Tech Support from Home
Series 21: Sell Your Own Sheet Music Part 1 and Part 2
Series 22: Start a Preschool from Home
Series 23: Start Your Own Boutique
Series 24: How to Make Money on YouTube
Series 25: Take Legitimate Online Surveys
Series 27: Become a Photographer
Series 28: Become a Property Manager
Series 29: Make Money Locally Teaching a Talent, Sport, or Hobby
Series 30: Substitute Teaching
Series 31: Sell Shaklee (MLM)-removed
Series 32: Review Websites for UserTesting
Series 33: Sell Mary Kay(MLM)-removed
Series 34: Become an Affiliate with Spark Naturals Essential Oils
Series 35: Quilting and Embroidery
Series 36: Make Money by Doing Laundry for Others through Laundry Care
more coming…pin or bookmark for more.
For other ‘rich living’ and Money-Making Stay at Home Mom case studies please subscribe, like me on Facebook, and follow me on Pinterest.
Her answers are very vague. If you are sharing your ideas or your experiences with people who want to know…Let it out…..Example: How much do you make? her answer) about 30 % ….Oh…now I know that I can start this too…ha ha
Julie- Asking a friend who has volunteered to help me provide useful information was already asking a lot. Income is somewhat of personal thing. I gave the option to respond in percentages or a dollar figure. I feel like she did offer a lot of useful information. I did provide two examples for even more useful information. and said that I made anywhere from $900-1,400 a month part-time from home until I scaled my hours back. I appreciate your respecting her freedom of confidentiality.
I have a 2 month old daughter and have been looking to make some money at home since I breastfeed and babies are demanding at times. She sleeps most of the day. Her bedtime is from 5-6:30am! Do you Anita Fowler have ANY suggestions!?
Sarah- Are you needing to make a little or a lot? If you just need some supplemental income, I’d consult your strengths, talents, what you enjoy and see if you can turn that into some extra cash. Like selling things you make, making money through YouTube, and many of these other interviews found here. I have two or three more interviews coming, please check back for those. Some may be more do-able than others. I am hesitant to recommend just one of these many ways to make money from home found on that link I just inserted, because it depends on your personality and money-making needs. Best of luck, please check back for the interviews that are coming soon!
Hello, I currently reside in the Bahamas and I am in search of a stay at home job opportunity. I am familiar with bookkeeping, customer services, operations, insurance underwriting, etc. I need a job hopefully by the end of this month. Your assitancce in this regard will be greatly appreciated.
I would recommend reading the other interviews in this series and trying out something that you really like.
Cool.