I’m sorry I missed your note. I’ve been getting a lot of spam lately and although I try to filter it out, sometimes I delete legit emails by accident.

Your note highlights the problems with finding work even traditional work. There are a couple of thoughts…first I’m not sure where you got the idea that it takes 2-3 years to get a tutoring business in the black. It takes as long as it takes for you to get clients. Have you run the numbers to know how many you’d need? I don’t know the current rate for tutoring, but I would imagine it’s more than $15 per hour. Let’s say its $25 an hour, to make $375 a week you’d need 15 regular students. Now seems like a great time to talk to guidance counselors, network with teachers, leave flyers where parents hang out etc and get students. Also have you checked out Connection Academy or other online schools?

You probably aren’t going to find customer service jobs for more than $12 per hour. To get paid more than $12 an hour as a virtual assistant, you’d need to start your own VA business. So your options are to take a lower paying job and work more hours or change your job search.

Finally, have you considered writing? At Demand Studios http://www.demandstudios.com you can get paid $15 per article which means you’d need to write 25 articles per week. There are a variety of topics to choose from. Love to Know is another option http://www.lovetoknow.com/.

Leslie:

This note is written out of not knowing what to do next as far as looking for a work at home job. For the past two years, I have looked very diligently on a consistent basis for work at home jobs and nothing has come up.

Both my sister and I need to make at a minimum $13 – $15 an hour part-time, 25 hours a week. Primarily, I look at your site, Flex jobs, Home Job Stop, The Homeworker, & Craig’s List. When I look at these sites (especially yours & Flex Jobs), the jobs pay under $13 – $15 per hour or they may pay that or even better, but they want the person to live in the area where the job is originating from.

My sister & I want to get a house together and work at home, but what has been found so far will in no way make a mortgage payment for the cost of an average house ($230,000) even if we split the payment between us. My sister wants to have her own tutoring business (at home), but it takes a while to build up a clientele for this kind of business (2-3 years). Therefore, she (as well as myself) needs a work at home job until her tutoring business starts taking off.

Both of us have average computer skills. My sister’s background is primarily in math (teaching). She has looked into online tutoring jobs, but practically all of these pay $10 or under, and you are only paid when you are actually helping a student (so this is not an option). My background is in education (former elementary teacher) and secretarial/clerical. Also, both of us have had small shopping center commercial management experience.

The types of jobs we’ve looked at are: (1) education (non-tutor type position –for example, you are evaluating state standards for educational materials. The pay is good for a job like this, but most of them last for only several months, nothing permanent. (2) Customer service – The pay is $10 or under and usually a person is only paid by “talk per minute” instead of per hour, and (3) virtual assistant – As I have already mentioned, the pay may be $13 – $15 per hour or above, but you have to reside in a certain area. I live in Dallas and rarely do I see a VA job with Dallas as the location. For the jobs we have applied, we have gotten no response/feedback.

Please advise and thank you for your time.

Sharon Head

Thanks & regards
Vivekraj Shetty