Work at Home Ideas Blog

Starting a Business as a Public Relations Consultant

ShanaAlbert — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 17:01:42 +0000

Public relations is a service which is in high demand these days. It seems like everyone is doing something that can benefit from public relations promotion. However, most people don’t know too much about public relations and how to make it work for them. That’s why so many people are turning towards the assistance of a public relations consultant to help them get the job done. If you’re someone who happens to be in the know about public relations (or you think that it’s something you’d like enough to want to learn about it) then you can sell your services to others. A public relations consultant business can be a successful business that allows you to work out of your own home and explore both your creative and business sides.

Although much of the work that you’ll do as a public relations consultant can be done from home, you will need to get out of the house quite a bit as well. The job of PR is one which requires you to know people in different industries and to be able to connect clients to others in the community. This means that you’ll need to attend networking events and just generally be out within the community getting to know people and making positive connections. If you really do love PR work, this shouldn’t be difficult for you. In fact, it will probably be the most fun part of the job!

Knowing people in the community isn’t all that a PR consultant’s job is about, though. As a consultant, you’ll be working to develop plans for your clients that let them expand their publicity. This means that you’ll get the chance to be creative in your business. Every time that a client comes to you with a question about how to garner publicity for a product or event, you’ll be able to work on crafting a unique approach to assisting them. This means that there’s a lot of room for self-expression in your work. It also means that you need to be constantly working to get new ideas so you should be reading and researching regularly into the marketing and publicity approaches which are being used by others.

The first place to start getting experience in public relations is to do the work for your own PR consultant business. You need to gain publicity for the services that you are providing so you can start from the ground up in developing your business approach by seeing what works and doesn’t in promoting your own business. As you work to get attention in the community (and beyond) for the services that you offer, you’ll be able to see first hand what your PR consultant job is going to be all about! Take notes and learn from your mistakes so that you can prove to your future clients that you understand from the inside out what good and bad publicity can mean for a business.

Technorati Tags:work at home, home business, public relations, pr business

Start a Pet Sitter Business

Shana Albert — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 03:08:28 +0000

Working as a pet sitter can be the ideal job for someone who loves animals. For some people, the idea of going to an office and working all day with other people is stifling. These people may find that the freedom of working as a pet sitter is perfect. As a pet sitter, you get to spend more time with animals than people and you have a significant amount of freedom to do as you please during the day. Of course, you’ll need to be a responsible person to work as a pet sitter since people take the care of their pets very seriously. If you have the kind of personality that allows you to be responsible when you aren’t being watched by a boss, then you can probably stand out as a pet sitter and gain the trust of a growing clientele.

If you want to work at home as a pet sitter, you’ll need to determine what exactly this means to you. Some people run pet sitting services out of their home. This means that the client will bring the dog or cat to your house and you will provide all of the care there. This may be done daily on an ongoing basis for a client who works all day and doesn’t want to leave their pet home alone. Alternatively, it may be done day-and-night for clients who are going out of town. If you are going to be working from your own home, you need to determine how you are going to restructure your house to accommodate your news business. Find out if there are city rules dictating how many pets can be in your home at one time and take care of other such legalities.

If you want to be a pet sitter but don’t want to do the care in your own home for one reason or another, then you can work as a pet sitter that cares for pets in other people’s homes. You might stay overnight at the home while a person is on vacation or you might be a pet sitter that just checks in on the pets a few times a day to provide food, water, personal attention and exercise for the animals. You might be on a tighter schedule if you do out-of-home pet sitting because you’ll have worked out a time frame of care with your clients. However, you’ll also have less hassle in some ways because you won’t have to worry about the upkeep of your home in relation to the pet sitting business.

After you’ve determined which kind of pet sitter you want to be, you can start looking for jobs and advertising your services. To get a good amount of work as a pet sitter, you’ll want to approach the job search from both of these angles. Look online and through classified ads for people who are seeking a pet sitter. These people are already looking for someone like you so you stand a good chance of getting a job with them if you can present yourself as a qualified pet sitter. Don’t stop with the available jobs, though. You should also set up a website, create fliers to leave at places like vets and groomers and otherwise market your pet sitting services to pet owners who may not even realize yet that they want the service that you can provide.

Being a pet sitter lets you have a fairly relaxed job. You can wear jeans and T-shirts to your job, talk on the phone while you are working and to some extent even come and go as you please. However, you shouldn’t mistake this for meaning that you can be irresponsible. Make sure to always present yourself professionally to clients in your appearance and behavior. Doing this from day one will greatly assist you in establishing yourself as a qualified work-at-home pet sitter.

How to start a Pet Sitter Business

Become a Mystery Shopper

Shana Albert — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 14:31:37 +0000

“Become a Mystery Shopper”. We’ve all seen those advertisements in the backs of weekly newspapers or in the online classifieds but most of us have never followed through on answering them. Being a Mystery Shopper can be an ideal work-at-home job for the right person. It allows you to bring in an income without having to stick to a set working schedule. And it lets you get that income by doing something that you probably love to do – shopping. But being a mystery shopper requires a little more skill than just going out and buying things. And if you’re looking into working as a mystery shopper for a company that doesn’t require more skill than that, you’d better watch out because you might be getting scammed. If being a mystery shopper sounds like a great job to you, you should definitely go for it. Just make sure that you go for it carefully so that the job works for you and doesn’t backfire.

The main thing that you should look for when applying to become a mystery shopper is the terms of your employment including what is required of you and what kind of compensation you are going to get. You should be getting paid to do this work, not paying a fee to be part of it. Places that scam you are places which require you to purchase shopping goods out of your own pocket without reimbursement. Some places may even request fees for you to work through their agency. These are not genuine places and you shouldn’t be lured in to them by your desire to work as a mystery shopper. There are legitimate secret shopper jobs out there so hold out for a good one.

To find one of these jobs, you simply need to start registering with legitimate secret shopper sites. You can find them by looking for “secret shopper”, “mystery shopper”, or “quality assurance” in your favorite search engine. You can register for these sites online and begin working as a secret shopper. Just make sure that you understand all of the terms in advance. Always get the contracts of your employment in writing and keep a copy for yourself. Once you’ve registered, you will slowly begin getting jobs as a mystery shopper. To get better and more frequent jobs, you should make sure that you do a superior job on all of your initial assignments. This means that you work hard to meet your deadlines and provide good information to the company employing you.

You should also be aware that there is a new market for doing some mystery shopping on your own, without going through one of these companies. This will require investment on your part but if you want to work entirely for yourself, then it’s something to consider. The way to do this is to learn about how to make revenue from blogging. Then, you can do mystery shopping on your own and set up a blog to report your findings. If you develop this blog into a revenue-earning blog and gain a good following for the consumer information that you’re putting out there, you can effectively be a self-employed mystery shopper.

Click Here to Discover How to Become a Mystery Shopper

Technorati Tags:work at home, home business ideas, mystery shopper, secret shopper>

Are you Obsessed with Social Media… Check out SocialDesire.com

Shana Albert — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 23:57:29 +0000

Earlier this month I wrote a post about my obsession with Social Media…. "Social Media - The New Bad Boy". I had so much fun writing it and it was a very successful post for me. I love Social Media and Web 2.0…. truthfully, I am totally addicted to it. If I’m not actively participating in Sphinn, StumbleUpon, Facebook,or any of my other Social Media addictions then I want to be writing about it.

I have decided to creat a Blog that will be exclusively about Social Media and Web 2.0. The Blog is named Social Desire….. named for the strong desire I have for everything relating to Social Media.

Please come join me there. If you are as obsessed with Social Media as I am, you will not regret it. And, please don’t forgot to subscribe to SocialDesire’s feed.

Technorati Tags:social media, blogs, web 2.0, shana albert

Start a Business as a Professional Organizer

Shana Albert — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 23:35:42 +0000

Have you seen those television shows in which a professional organizer comes in to a home and cleans up all of the clutter in a matter of hours? If you get a tingly sensation inside when you see shows like that, thinking that you’d be terrific in a similar job, then you might want to consider starting a business as a professional organizer. Obviously, you need to be organized to work in this kind of job. You also have to be a self-starter if you’re going to create your own professional organizer business. If you have both of those qualities, there’s no reason that you can’t get started in work as a professional organizer. There is relatively low start-up cost and a lot of need out there for these kinds of services.

The first thing that you’ll need to do is determine exactly what kind of professional organizer services you want to offer. Some professional organizers are hired specifically to clean up a messy home. However, there are many other things that professional organizers might do. They may organize offices or home offices which can include setting up a paper filing system and assisting with computer organization. They may offer not only organization services but also ongoing assistance in helping an individual or family develop organizational skills of their own. A personal organizer may come in to a home just once or may do work on a semi-regular basis for the same people. Figure out which services you want to offer, how you will provide them and what your rates will be. Determining this is going to set the foundation for your personal organizer business.

After determining this basic information about your work, you can begin marketing your new personal organizer business. Set up a website that promotes your services. Consider starting a blog providing personal organizer information to others so that you can rapidly grow your credibility in the industry. Get business cards that have your website on them. Develop fliers, brochures, newsletters and other marketing materials that explain and promote your services. Basically, you’re going to want to make sure that other people out there know how you can help them organize their lives.

As you are beginning your personal organizer business, you will want to make sure that you aren’t forgetting any of the legalities of being a business owner. Go get a business license for your business. Make sure you know about the tax laws related to your new personal organizer business. If you are going to be hiring others to assist you with the business, make sure that you get an employer ID and understand about employees taxes. Put your organizational skills to use in making sure that you have all your I’s dotted and T’s crossed in the business department. After all, the first thing that people are going to see about your business is you. What would you think if your personal organizer didn’t appear to be very organized in his or her own life?!

Technorati Tags:home business, work at home, professional organizer

How to Start a Home-Based Business as a Mortgage Broker

Shana Albert — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 02:40:49 +0000

Many people have begun shying away from trying to break into the self-employed real estate business. This is because changes in the housing market across the nation have made people think that this is a bad industry to get into at the current time. That’s actually not the case. If you are willing to put in some effort to learn about changes in the industry and how to help serve your clients, you can do well these days with a home-based real estate business. If you’ve always wanted to work for yourself as a mortgage broker and have been holding off because of the market, you should stop waiting and start thinking about getting that business up and running.

Before you start your home-based business as a mortgage broker, you will want to make sure that you understand the market that you are getting in to. A lot of things have happened in recent years that a mortgage broker must be aware of. For example, the sub-prime mortgage bust has greatly affected the housing industry in different parts of

the country. You will want to be well-aware of the ups and downs of the industry. This isn’t just so that you can know it for yourself but so you can share this information with your new clients.

In fact, as you begin your home-based mortgage broker career, you will want to establish your credibility in the industry by letting clients know up front about the research that you’ve done into the field. When you set up your website, you should include articles which you have penned about the mortgage industry. This increases your credibility and will help you gain business. If you can get some work like this published on other sites or in magazines, you will do even better for yourself in your new career. People these days want to know that they are working with a mortgage broker who is knowledgeable and trusted.

You’ll also want to make sure that you have the credentials you need to be a mortgage broker. This means that you’ll have to take some Mortgage Broker classes to get some certifications. The actual certifications vary depending on your geographic location. Make sure that you look into this as you launch your mortgage broker business and get all set up with the things that you need. You don’t want to launch a business and start to get clients only to find yourself shut down due to legalities. You’ll want to join the National Association of Mortgage Brokers for assistance with these kinds of details as well as for additional credibility. In addition to the mortgage broker certifications, you will need a business license and business tax ID. Working with your government licensing agencies will help you get all of this taken care of.

You’ll have a lot of decisions to make when you start a home-based mortgage broker business. You’ll need to determine what neighborhoods you’re comfortable working in, what types of clients you want to take on and which types of mortgage loans you most want to work with. You’ll also need to decide how you are going to market yourself within the community and how you are going to network with real estate agents and lenders. But one decision you won’t have to make anymore is whether or not to become a mortgage broker because you’ll already be one!

Party in New York City and Help Cure Cancer

Shana Albert — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 05:20:44 +0000

Marty Weintraub from Aimclear Blog wrote a very personal post the other day about his battle with Lymphoma, a form of Cancer. Thank Goodness Marty is in remission, but in his post he shares with us an email that he wrote to his friends and family the day he found out he had Cancer.

I was especially touched by Marty’s post as I lost someone very close to me to Cancer about 14 months ago. This person was like a second mother to me and not a day goes past that I don’t think of her. I watched her battle cancer the entire 8 years that I knew her, but unfortunately, she lost her battle with Cancer.

Marty, The Super-Blogger, is using his Blogging Powers for Good and Not Evil!! He is passing the word about Internet Marketers of New York Charity Party sponsored by Best of The Web. Many of you SEOers will be in New York City for the SMX Social Media Expo and you have been invited to attend this Charity Bash on October, 15th. Simply, donate $40 at the door to help the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society fight cancer and enjoy three hours of open bar partying with fellow social internet marketers.

Click here to get more information on the Internet Marketers of New York Charity Party

Tagged: Tanner Christensen, Liz Strauss, Mark Laymon

Blog Improvement “To-Do” List Meme

Shana Albert — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 00:45:10 +0000

I was tagged by Rob Watts of Yack Yack SEO for a Blog Improvement Meme. I was actually tagged more than a week ago and put off blogging about it. Not that I don’t want to participate… I do. I love that Rob tagged me…. Memes can be a lot of fun. But, Blog improvement can be a lot of work…. so much so that many Bloggers, me included, put it off. When you put something in writing, like a blog improvement, you have acknowledged a need for change and made it aware to others…. which means that people will remind you until the improvement is done.

I was actually tagged for my Preschool Education Blog, but I felt that this Work at Home Blog fits the SEO niche of Rob’s Blog a bit more. So, let’s get started. I’m going to call it my Blog Improvement “To-Do” List.

This Blog is only a week old, but don’t let the newness of this site fool ya… this site needs a lot of work. I made the decision to put the Blog online before I had done much to it.

Blog Improvement “To-Do” List

Tweaking my Layout

I need to figure out how I would like my Blog to look. I’m not thrilled with the color. Other than my Work at Home header I haven’t done a thing to the colors on this Blog. I need to figure out what colors work well together. I love bright colors, but I also like the look of a clean white site. So, I need to come up with how I ultimately want my Blog to look.
As far as the sidebar goes I think I want just the bare minimum there. I actually don’t mind what is there now and I might keep it like that…. other than the color. I hate baby blue. The baby blue has got to go!! I do plan on adding a list of my favorite Blogs to the sidebar. I will work on that this week.

I haven’t thought about this yet. I would like to have some advertisements on the sidebar, but I haven’t even looked into what advertisements I want there. I am more concerned about finishing tweaking the site and getting posts up at this point. Eventually, I will start putting up a few small advertisements.

Marketing my Blog

Even though All Work At Home Ideas has been around for years this Blog is brand new and I need to market this Blog the same way I would a new site.

Join Networks in the Work at Home Niche.
Participate in Comments – I don’t do this enough, but I need to start. I love networking with other Bloggers, but for some reason I fall short when it comes to commenting on other Blogs. I will make a point to start doing this.
Submit to Blog Directories – I believe most Blog Directories you need to have around 5 or more posts in order to submit, so I should be able to start submitting to the Blog Directories later this week.

There is probably so much more that I need to do, but this is a start and it will keep me busy for a while.

Thank you Rob for tagging me to this Blog Improvement Meme. Putting these improvements in writing is a reminder of what I need to do… and sometimes even I need a good kick in the butt to get motivated.

Since this is a Meme I need to tag a few Bloggers. So, I will be tagging Matt Keegan, Jeff Quipp, TappingCreativity, Mark Laymon , Brian Wallace

How to Start a Business as a Personal Trainer

Shana Albert — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 21:04:04 +0000

If you are thinking about starting a business as a personal trainer, there are probably a number of factors influencing you. For one thing, you probably love physical fitness. Personal trainers spend a significant amount of time in the gym and enjoy every minute of it. Additionally, you probably enjoy working with others, providing a service that betters their lives. But if that was your only motivation, you would probably get a job at a local gym. If you want to start your own business as a personal trainer you probably also desire a level of freedom and self-direction that allows you to grow your career. If all of this sounds like it describes you then you are probably a great candidate for starting a personal trainer business.

Here are the steps that you’ll need to take to start a business as a personal trainer:

Get experience and / or education in physical fitness. You probably already have some sort of gym experience because that’s what has sparked your interest in being a personal trainer. The more credibility that you have, the better for your personal trainer business. Get experience training under someone at your gym or take some community college classes in fitness and nutrition.

Figure out where you’re going to do your work as a personal trainer. If you want to work out of your home, you’ll need to invest a significant amount of start-up capital in equipment. Alternatively, you may rent space at a local gym to save on start-up costs but you’ll be limited in your hours and other restrictions of the gym.
Learn about the licensing required in your area. You will need to get a business license at the very least. Speak with your local business licensing agent to determine if you need other licenses to start your business as a personal trainer.
Create a business plan. Before you even get started working as a personal trainer, you should draft a plan of how you’d like to proceed. You don’t have to stick with this plan by getting it down on paper will significantly assist you in understanding all that is going to be involved in starting and growing your personal trainer business in the first few years of operation.
Clearly delineate for yourself what services you are going to offer and what your rates are going to be. Many personal trainers specialize in a certain area of fitness. Some work in conjunction with other personal trainers who have specialties in different areas (such as nutrition) to offer a whole package to clients. You want to clearly know what you have to offer before you start trying to tell clients what you do.
Begin marketing to get your first clients. You will want to have a website that describes what you do. You’ll also probably do brochures or fliers (which can often be placed at local gyms and health food stores) as well as business cards and other standard marketing tools. Get yourself a few books about business marketing and tailor your approach to the personal trainer industry.

Technorati Tags:become a personal trainer, home business, work at home

Social Media - The New Bad Boy

Shana Albert — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 00:54:56 +0000

Lust!! Have you ever felt lust? Lust is this craving…. This must have feeling of great desire.

I believe Social Media is my new Lust. I crave Social Media constantly. I want it when I’m working, I want it when I’m cooking dinner, I even want it when I’m in bed at night. I just can’t get enough of it. I am totally obsessed with it.

I had no idea I would fall so hard for Social Media. You see up until a few months ago I didn’t know too much about it. I was fine going about my normal business with no worries. I was focused on my home business, kids and running my household. Then, Wham!! Social Media hit me head on and I haven’t been the same since.

In the past I had “Bad Boy” issues. I would fall in ~~love~~ lust with the wrong guys. Guys that weren’t good for me. You know, the typical bad boy. All my energy would be wrapped around this bad boy. Taking care of his needs and wants…I land up giving up on mine. After years of Therapy, I’m happy to say, “I’m Cured!!” Or, am I?

I’m doing the same thing with other “bad boys”. I probably shouldn’t use their real names, but what the heck? What do I have to lose? I can’t stop spending all of my time with Sphinn, StumbleUpon, and Facebook. They are amazing!! And, I ~~love~~ lust them. I can’t stop Sphinning and Stumbling. Every time I do I get such a great feeling. And, when I see others Sphinning and Stumbling of the same posts it really gets me excited. I’m totally hooked. And, Facebook…. My wonderful, lovely Facebook. Not only can I have fun with all of my buddies on Facebook, but I can also keep an eye on my other loves, Sphinn and StumbleUpon right from my Facebook Homepage. I can’t stop spending all of my free time with them… I just hope they feel the same about me.