Business and Finance

Check out every listing you review. Find out if there’s a salary or if you’re paid on commission. Ask how often are you paid and how you are paid. Ask what equipment (hardware/software) you need to provide.

Avoid listings that guarantee you wealth, financial success or that will help you get rich fast from home. Stay clear of listings that offer you high income for part-time hours. They will do none of the above.

Ask for references – request a list of other employees or contractors to find out how this has worked for them. Then contact the references to ask how this is working out.

If the company isn’t willing to provide references (names, email addresses and phone numbers) do not consider the opportunity.

If it sounds too good to be true, you can be sure it is!

The Work at home jobs You Don’t Want

Data Entry Jobs – You’ll see lots of listings for data entry jobs. They are usually either positions posting ads or a sales pitch for a kit that will get you started.

Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) which involves recruiting new people, and more new people, to sell the product. If all you are doing is trying to find more people to do what you’re doing, keep in mind that there are probably thousands of other people attempting to do the same thing. None of them are getting rich.

Online Businesses – Do you want to start your own online business and get rich? Be very wary of these type of ads too. What ‘ll you do is end up paying for a guide to working at home which duplicates information you can find free.

Posting Ads – There are lots of ads saying workers are needed to post ads on online bulletin boards and forums. You don’t get paid to post, rather you may get paid if other people sign-up.

Processing Claims – In order to get “hired” you’ll need to buy equipment, software and pay for training.

Stuffing Envelopes – Believe it, or not, there are still people saying that you can earn $3 or $4 per envelope to stuff them. You can’t. All major companies have postage machines which stuff, sort and meter mail.

The winner in the scam contest are the sites that offer to sell provide you with information on only legitimate work at home jobs – for a nominal fee, of course. Don’t do it!

How to Find Out

How do you find out if the posting you are responding to is legitimate or a scam? Check our Work at Home Scam information to research companies before you apply.

A lot of places around the world call it A Curriculum Vitae, in North America, it’s a Résumé. This is definitely one of the most important tools that any jobseeker has at their disposal. You may be THE best candidate for a particular job by a long way, however, if you don’t make it to the interview stages the company will never know.

Many companies (especially the larger corporations) will use computer software to “read” all the résumé’s and reject any that don’t fit a particular template. This may seem unfair, but it’s cost effective.

So, for some jobs you have to beat the computer and still read well enough for someone who may not have any knowledge of the position you are applying for. It is definitely worthwhile to adapt your resume for the position that is advertised. There may well be some of the “buzz” words the “filter” is looking for mentioned in the job description.

It is very important that you can substantiate all the claims you make, preferably with physical examples or letters. This will be essential in any in interview situation.

There is now a wealth of information available online, from books, local employment offices and with professional writing agencies. You can also access other people’s résumé’s that are posted online which will give some great ideas for style and content.

Professional writers may seem the answer, but, all the research I have done seems to lean away from them. I have never used one and feel that it will give a good impression if you have written it yourself (this will display literacy). Apparently, if they are professionally written, they are easy to spot; however, they may be worth the expense if you are stuck. You can always “customise” what has been written to make it your own work.

In my case, I had been in the military since I left school and had never written a resume or had an interview. I spent a lot of time writing, copying other people’s styles and changing things. I didn’t realise how difficult it is to catch up on 16 years – I’ll never allow mine to go out of date again! I found the hardest part was to actually start writing. The best advice I was given was to just write anything that you can think of and it will soon start to flow. With modern word processors it’s relatively quick and easy to cut and paste so you can keep on changing it until you are happy. More detailed information can be found at

Friday announced the current unemployment numbers, which are yet again on the rise.  There are over 130,000 people who have lost their jobs in recent months.  One might think that would mean there are jobs out there to get for those who have completed their upper education, but despite the many who have lost their jobs there are less than 50,000 available.

The government keeps telling us the recession is over, but evidence in the job market would suggest recovery is a long way off.  Many companies are no longer willing to keep employees who are not making them money.  They are also getting rid of employees with higher salaries in an effort to cut their budgets.  Some places contract out work only to find the budget is no longer as available as they believed.

No matter what the reason for the job cuts they are still ongoing and thousands are out of work.  It means their financial life is about to be turned upside down.  It also means many may begin to seek answers in the form of cash advance loans.

These types of loans can help in the short term, but if one doesn’t have the money to pay it back by the due date the interest will continue to pile up and eventually become an even bigger debt.

Anyone facing the issues with a job loss needs to act now regarding their financial situation. They need to map out how much they have in savings and how long that will help them pay the bills.  They also need to look at how they can save.

In most American states it gets really hot in the afternoons, with the summer heat.  It’s nice to have air conditioning, but is there a way to save money without turning on the air conditioner?  If you have ceiling fans and a few extra fans lying around you might be able to save money.

Look at how much you spend with your television provider.  Is it possible to eliminate that expense?  Surprisingly many of the channels have their most recent episode posted for at least a week online.  In fact many have the three newest episodes online.  You could spend $20 to $40 on cables or a converter box that would give you your favorite television shows on the television by downloading them legally from online sites.  To do this you either go to the official network website or something like Hulu.  If you have Netflix you could download movies and shows via WII or your computer access.

The point being made is there are ways to save, especially if you have lost your job recently and need your savings to last for many months to come.