ALT-14 How to use the Internet to Work from Home
We live in a world of upward-spiraling gas prices, traffic congestion and urban and suburban sprawl. The auxiliary costs of being both an employer and an employee are much greater than they have ever been. This is one reason why the concept of working at home has such great appeal. The days of driving (walking?) a mile or two from home to a job located in your same small town are long gone and not likely to return.
At the same time, the demand for information and knowledge is rapidly expanding and has gone global. The days of trotting on over to the neighborhood library to use the Dewey Decimal System to identify research on a topic investigated by some scientist in Shanghai three years ago is a relic from the past as well. And why shouldn't it be? If we can work at home to gain our knowledge, what advantage is there to traveling to the source?
What we need to know, we need to know now.
Fortunately, we have the vehicle we need at our disposal to put information and knowledge on any topic, from any corner of the world, just seconds away from our fingertips - the Internet.
This magical cauldron of knowledge, affordable and readily available to a large portion of the world's population, has brought with it another wonderful opportunity - the ability to work at home. Telecommuting - the choice to work at home which gives you all the advantages of working at the office while not physically being in the office - has opened up an entirely new world of employment options.
Thanks to the Internet, the definition of working at home has taken on a whole new meaning. The Internet has opened up avenues in many directions for employment. Because of the Internet, corporate executives, scientists, researchers, financial gurus and sales people are able to get the job done while working at home in the comfort of their home office or in the corner of their game room where they have taken up residence with their laptop.
This option cuts the cost of doing business for both the employer and the employee.
Telecommuters save their employers the added expenses of providing the physical facilities of office space, office furniture, heat, electricity, and a parking lot when they work at home. Working at home saves the employee the cost of gasoline (no longer an insignificant concern), wear and tear on their automobile, a workday wardrobe, meals away from home and needless time away from their families due to lengthy drive times.
Employers, employees and the environment all benefit every time an employee can work at home.
The Internet offers employment opportunities to work at home that extend beyond the business professional. Students, stay-at-home parents, and others not part of the formal work force can use the Internet to become part of the income-generating segment of society by working at home.
Anyone with a computer and a little technical ability can set up shop on one of the on-line auction sites. The hours are totally under the control of the worker - work at home one hour a week or work at home 40 hours a week, the choice is yours. Earnings may be sporadic, but it's an opportunity to rid oneself of life's clutter - and maybe some of the clutter accumulated by friends and family as well.
With a little more computer ability and a willingness to give a larger time commitment, an avid work at home enthusiast can set up their own website. Extensive knowledge of HTML, while extremely helpful, is not an absolute requirement. Software is available to take much of the technical aspect of web design out of the hands of the work at home novice, freeing up time to pursue the true goal - selling product, service or knowledge to the world.
Maybe the talents of the work at home enthusiast lie in the area of organizational and administrative skills. An entire industry of "virtual assistants" has sprung up due to the increasing popularity of hiring someone to work at home, getting the job done, and saving the employer time, money and benefits involved in securing a full-time, on-site employee.
If you can do it, rest assured, someone else needs it done. Outsourcing, which has worked against so many workers in society can, with the help of the Internet, be turned around to create "in-sourcing" opportunities for those willing to take on the exciting challenges that come with working at home.
