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How to Make a Living at Home
Is it really possible to work at home and
make a decent living? If you search the internet or scan business
opportunity publications, you'll soon discover
that there are literally thousands of scams and ridiculous schemes for every real opportunity.
(Actually, many of the scams are just copies and adaptations of each
other.) Just give them your
money and then see how fast you make your own fortune.
It's enough to discourage anyone.
Businesses You Can Operate at Home
But there are also many, many ways to make a
real income at home. Even some of the "multi-level" marketing
ideas are pretty good business opportunities, if taken seriously.
For example, owning your own business as a distributor for Watkins
spices, flavorings and other household goods,
provides genuine income. And lots of moms, dads, retirees and others
are doing it. So don't think that everything being promised is a
pipe dream.
Operating a community newspaper is
only one of the ways to build a good income at home. Here are a few others:
You can do research work for private
investigators (but check their reputation first).
You can provide administrative services for
businesses in your area or in other areas.
You can produce resumes for people looking
for a
better job (that's a lot of people, by the way).
You can produce graphics, illustrations, ad copy,
proofreading service, or even publishing services from your home.
You can publish a special interest magazine
(or several
magazines) for local areas, or for international special interests (such
as wrestling, popular automobiles, or a unique hobby.
You can provide technical support, becoming
a "help desk" for people all over the world who work for a large
corporation, or who operate a specific brand of software (see
just one example).
You can make unique and well-crafted items
from wood, leather, metal, paper, etc., that others want to use and own. Make them at home
and sell them on your own website.
And the list goes on and on. You can
do all kinds of things at home that will make a decent income.
Sandra Gurvis lists nearly 100 interesting jobs you can have (many of
which you can start in your own home) in her book, "Careers for
Non-Conformists."
When it comes to making a living at home,
the only real limit is your imagination, your willingness and ability to work
unsupervised, and
your determination to be at home. If you cannot discipline
yourself to work alone, you will never prosper. But if you can
properly motivate yourself to stay on the job during working hours, you
can make a great living at home.
OK, Back to Running a Newspaper
As I mentioned on the opening page of this
site, you can certainly start a newspaper at home. You can run a
small paper from your own apartment or your house. As the paper
grows, you can then move its office to another location.
The draw-backs to having your office at home
include being bothered by folks at strange hours who want to give you a
photo, a story, or an ad. But you can help yourself by installing
a fax machine, and by providing a special email address available to the
public for such materials.
Small newspapers are not usually printed by
the publishers. They are taken to another newspaper, or to some
other commercial "web" press that is large enough to run them off.
(You just want to avoid having the local daily run your paper, since
they may see it as competition.)
The point here is that you don't need to
worry about how you might cram large presses into your garage, house, or
apartment. You simply build your paper on the computer and then
send the document file(s) by email or by ftp upload to the printing
operation who has agreed to produce it.
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