I am currently on Mat Leave and unfortunately my job doesn't allow for me to work from home due to the nature of 'Patient Confidentiality'

Even so once Mat Leave is up I couldn't commit to 5 day per week!

What could I do from home? What do you do?

bookkeeping?

Bump

At one point I was doing Acc Rec for a company from home. I would go into the office once a week to pick up / drop off. Very flexible. Everything was commincated via email so that made it much easier.

What is your speciality or skillset?

This question was asked only a couple of weeks ago. I think in the WDYT section.

I'll link it later if you don't find it first.

I do a barrister's word processing from home.

I'm not doing it now but in the past I did freelance journalism from home. The catch it that I got my "in" by doing a month's unpaid internship at a magazine.

I work for a local govt which prides itself on being family friendly, so I do one day from home and two in the office. I believe some other government depts may also have the same conditions. If you had a skill set that would translates to a government agency, it might be worth looking into.

I work 2 days in the office and 1 day at home. I work for a small family business and i do accounts works and wages. To be honest the reason i go to work is because i find it hard to stay focused when at home. While at work i find i get more done.

I also take my baby to work as i have my own office away from all the commotion. it did make my decision on returning to work a lot easier knowing that i could take her with me.

In my other life, when I was at uni studying Vet I still worked for a family lawyer, I used to take 20 or so files home and churn out legal proeedings like Statements of Claim etc. it was great work. I had all the forms on my computer at home and would just emai them to my boss to print out and file.

I don't do it but I know you can do sub-editing for newspapers from home.

HR, 1 day a week from home, rest in the office.I use the day to draw up contracts, preso's, job ad's complete reports etc etc etc.

I'm an accountant and I started doing that from home as an employee when I finished mat leave. I then started my own bookkeeping business which I do solely from home. I only have one client who I see on site. I love it, it's so convenient and flexible, but can be a little isolating at times. It beats working for someone though.

Marketing / PR for a couple of small businesses in my local area. I quoted Leggy because my 'in' was also doing unpaid work experience for one business who then was happy with me and didn't want to lose me so put me on the payroll, and then a couple of others saw my work and word spread I do have to go in on the odd occasion for meetings etc but most of my work can be done from home.

Sometimes with these things you have to go out and approach businesses and be prepared for a few dozen knockbacks (I got so many knockbacks while looking for experience that I was getting really downhearted), you just need that foot in the door - once it's there you are set. With modern technology there are so many jobs that can be done from home these days, apply for normal jobs and at interview stage tell them that you are looking for flexible working options - it might be something the organisation hadn't considered but willing to try for the right person

I work for our family business every now and then - not consistently but will do so once DD2 is a bit older. I receive deliveries of stock from OS and send spare parts to companies all over Australia. When I work, I do all the mail, filing, accounts etc. We had a turnover of 3/4 million last financial year so there's a bit to do. Not too much though

I've also done some editing for a University but that was also because I knew someone.

While looking for work to do from home I found that it is more about who you know that can introduce you to something/someone rather than 'finding' it the conventional way of searching 'wanted's.

Good luck!

I run my own business doing research for the horse racing industry. I have 5 major clients that I do various tasks for - data analysis, writing for a magazine, ghost writing a book, marketing research, etc. Most of it is done by sourcing information from various places online (some publicly available information, others from subscription databases) and compiling it into useful reports depending on what people are looking for.

I have a mathematical background and when I quit full time work to have babies I started out writing for the mag (an industry specialist publication) and it's grown from there. It works out to about 20 hours a week atm - but can fluctuate depending on the time of year. Some parts of the racing season are more intense than others (especially the sales season which is about to start: Jan-Easter).

presumably you work in the medical industry given your work place won't allow you to work from home due to "patient confidentiality"?

I work 4 out of 5 days from home (only 1 in the office) for a specialist. Phones transferred, logged into server at work, report typing etc. I also have 2 other admin staff on site for patient contact etc.

I also do medical report typing for 3 other specialists "after hours". If you have a similar medical background put the "word" out that you can type from home and set up with the software. Easy money. Plenty of people out there looking for fast, efficient and accurate typists. Most doctors use digital dictation now and email the voice files.

Good Luck!

I run my own business from home - I create programmed Microsoft Office templates.

I suggest that no matter what you're thinking of doing, it will take a few years to build up into continual work. I started about 8 years ago, and I have a employing a part-timer starting in January, but in the first few years, I could go weeks without having any new jobs come in and you start to get a bit nervous. Thankfully DH's wage is enough for us to survive on, but without my income we can't do anything extra.

Mind you, I did one single day of cold calling (which was soul-destroying!), and from that one day, I have never had to do any marketing or spend time trying to get work. It's all word of mouth and the snowball effect - one job leads to another! But it does take time to get to that.

Now I can't go a single day without new jobs or requests for quotes coming in... which is a whole other problem.

By the way, working for yourself is not all it's cracked up to be. Yes, I do have a certain amount of flexibility to tend to my boys' needs, but my type of work is very timeline driven, and when you have big companies pushing you to turn around an urgent job, it can be quite stressful, particularly with no one else to fall back on.

My friends are always saying that I'm so lucky because I can work from home, but they don't see me sitting at the computer at 1am trying to get something in by the morning.

Of course, it does have it's upsides too... I was able to work as soon as DS2 was born, and I can earn the equivalent of a full-time wage whilst only working part-time.

I second PP suggestion to look for some medical dictation type of work. I get the odd non-medical dictation job every now and then and just give it to one of my friends to do with my machine.

Good luck.

I like the sound of customised templates PP. Please tell me more.

I customise mostly Word and PowerPoint templates for companies so that their documents look the way their corporate brand guidelines specify. I also program/automate them so that the more complicated and repetitive tasks are done via a click of a button, so users can produce professional looking documents without needing to be highly skilled in Word or PowerPoint.

I work mostly for large corporates, but occasionally smaller businesses also.

I write porn lol! Great conversation starter!

I work from home, choose my own hours (provided my work is done), and it allows us to be a two income household while still essentially as SAHM. Its getting bit harder with DS being so busy now so he goes to CC 2 days a week so I can knuckle down and get more done.

I work for an online retailer.

And no, we have no other vacancies to fill

I found my job through seek.com.au

Im a travel consultant who is mobile. I work from home logging into the remote desktop. I love it...can work during the day or 10pm..doesnt matter as long as I get it done.

I have a Facebook business making childrens clothes. I also do two data entry jobs from home. Means I have no spare time (except EB time :-P but I love it

I'm due back at work in 26 days after my year of mat leave and have negotiated working one day from home. I'm a business banking manager looking after a portfolio of clients, so a role that requires alot of client contact face to face and on the phone. So I consider myself quite lucky to be able to work one day from home. I will remote in from home and have a blackberry and plan to mianly catch up on emails and admin that day. My office phone will most likely be diverted to my assistant.

To be honest, I plan to spend a few hours on my work at home day doing housework..like grocery shopping...so that I have the whole weekend free with DS.

This is why some employers won't allow work from home arrangements - many people can't be trusted to work the hours they are supposed to. I'm sorry if I've misunderstood what you've said here, but if I haven't, then if you ever own your own business, how would you feel about paying someone to work for you, when they're actually off doing their housework etc?

josh2003...soo true! I thought the same thing....

I have a friend who is a sales rep and gets paid 9-5 and is always home by 3.30 when her son is home from school...she does her targets which I guess is why she gets away with it but still if I was her employer I would be peeved..no wonder a lot of companies o/s are putting gps trackers in the cars....and catch their employees out at home

I'm a corporate Learning and Development Consultant and work from home.

Thought this might be useful for some ideas: http://www.freelancer.com/

Also consider tutoring, I know some high school maths & science tutors who are paid $90 per hour, students come to their house. Good money if you are Maths/Science inclined!

I currently work from home doing tutoring of Primary School Children. I currently work two afternoons a week and I do three children in each afternoon. I have three children of my own two school aged and one almost three year old. My DH is home one of the days to take care of our children and the othr afternoon my mum helps out. I have never advertised I think I could work 5 days a week if I wanted I have a waiting list of children who are wanting tutoring. I charge $40 for 45 minutes.

I was working from home doing bookkeeping/tax accounting work for the organisation that employed me prior to maternity leave. It was very flexible I would take a file home and return it as soon as I could. The only problem was I wasn't very good at it, I would get motivated for awhile and do quite a bit then slack off and feel really bad looking at the files sitting there in my cupboard. So I have now changed and go into the office to do the exact same thing once a week in the evenings and sometimes on during the week when DS is in childcare. I still do all our family books from home though but only cos I can't slack off on those

HR - I used to work 3 days in the office 2 days at home, but I have recently changed jobs and now work 4 days in the office with flexible hours, and 1 day (for my previous employer) from home. Mainly policy / agreement writing, contracts, investigations etc.

I am currently in the process of setting up my own Bookkeeping business from home.

I am due back to work in April after 2 years mat leave but the thought of having to organise 4 kids, travel an hour each way to the office and run a household is overwhelming. I went back after each of my older 3 were only 6 months old, but I just cant do it again. Plus I am really enjoying being a SAHM for the first time.

So, I have cleared out my toyroom and created a great office, I enrolled in the Cert IV in Bookkeeping and am looking forward to all the challenges ahead, which will hopefully give reward down the track.

Good luck with what you decide to do.

Mandy

See - I'm a sales rep too, and I can sometimes find myself at home earlier, or leaving home later. Yep - it has it's perks. But I'm also on the laptop or the phone (time differences) at some crazy time of the night at least a few nights a week, so I think it all evens out in the end!

This is what I am thinking of doing... I am currently 16 weeks pg and unemployed so have been trying to come up with things I can do at home, and possibly out of home down the track when bubs is older. Have you started your course at all Mandy? Do you have bookkeeping experience already?

I quit my job to start my own business just before I found out I was pregnant. I used to work for an international company looking after marketing across Asia Pacific so there was always very long hours, 5am meetings and lots of travel. I have been able to work from home for a few years which is why I put up with the sometimes 17 hour days and stress of the job for as long as I did.

My business now is about helping people find their passion and turn that into a successful business. It's about creating multiple streams of income so you are creating a business not another job.

I have a small transcription business that I run from home. I absolutely LOVE it, and consider it a bit of a hobby as well because I enjoy it so much. I probably work nearly double the hours that I would do with an office job, but I wouldn't change it for the world!

I sell online baby/childrens products. We have a website and also sell via ebay. Depending on time available I can work 1hr to 8 hrs a day. The more I work the marketing side the more I sell.

The down sides are it took a little bit of capital to buy the stock to get started and it took time to pay that stock off etc. The upside side is that its a great part time business. Its all online apart from posting orders. If my time is tight I can work an hour in the afternoon when hubby is home and pick/pack the orders and take them to the post office. If I have more time I can work on our fb page and other online marketing efforts.

It has taken time but I wasnt in it for a quick buck. It was a plan to take 2-3 years to establish the business so it would be a long term viable source of regular income, so far so good. With our 4th child on the way and all the issues that come with having a large family child care, being home for a sick children etc we thought it made more sense to focus on one parent being able to stay home and have more flexible work.

I work for a insurance call centre from home, using their equipment on scheduled hours... I'm not a huge fan of the call centre part but the work from home part is hard to knock back that's for sure!

I run an accommodation business from home. It can be very intense, and needs a dedicated five or six hours per day. Plus there are all the last minute problems to solve as I am the 'on call' person for the guests.

Over the years I have done a lot of things from home - I had an ebay store in 2004 and then my own online store selling handbags. I could have made money, except I didn't have the money or skill to establish a good supplier who wouldn't let me down.

I have also ironed from home, that worked out to be okay - in 2006 I earned an extra $300 week cash doing that.

When I went back on mat leave, way back in 2002, I had excellent admin skills, and still do, but there wasn't anything available to utitilise my skills from home. Not that I found anyway.

My SIL has just started a job from home. She is a registered nurse and she will be working eight hours per day, being a diabetes educator over the phone for a health insurance company. It isn't something you could do with a child around, as her calls are monitored and she only gets a small break of 60 seconds between phone calls.

In my travels, I have noticed that a lot of mums with graphic design skills work from home.

I do customer service for a bank from home. I worked in office for 4 years before having to opportunity to work from home.

My company advertises internally and you have to be in certain roles to work at home, as well as meeting targets. Due to a restructure I have had to change roles and retrain while at home which was very hard.

I have to work to a set roster, but I was able to basically choose my hours so was very lucky with that.

ETA: I am not allowed to be the carer for DS while working so my shift is split between times he is at daycare and when he is asleep. DH can deal with him waking up but if he was home and active during my shift he wouldn't understand/cope with the stay away and be quiet requirements.

I've done Science and Maths tutoring (but not for $90/hr ).

I have the option to work from home this year. It would be writing teaching and learning resources. This sort of work comes through my job - when I'm not on mat leave. I've done it in the past but this resource would be published by an outside agency so the deadlines are tight. I have to work out whether it will be viable.

It's pretty ideal other than the deadlines. I longed for this kind of opportunity when my DD was small.

I put in a commercial kitchen in my garage and started a gluten free cake business. So far I sell at a local farmers market and to some cafes.

So far there's not much profit in it and it's a lot of long hours but it's something I love and it means I can stay home with the kids.

It was a lot of work setting up the kitchen, getting council approval and appropriate insurance etc but hopefully it will be worth it

I work for a non-for- profit organization uploading content to their website. I work approx 6h a week. It was great with a baby as i was able to do it while the baby was being held and breastfeeding. I did my housework while the baby slept. Now that my baby has become a toddler it is a bit harder so i have a friend babysit while i do my work. I got the job as I did some work for this organization few years back so when they needed someone they called me as I was already familiar with the organization and had some experience with them.

i run my own home cleaning agency, its great, very busy, make my own hours, work school hours,
meet lots of people, nothing like a clean house!!

i am a medical transcriptionist and would love to set up something from home. I have done some work for big transcription companies but am unsure how to gather local work.

These days I do odds and ends of product photography for a couple of ongoing clients. It is sporadic, but it helps pays the bills when it comes in!

I have been doing some mystery shopping! Not great pay but the freebies can be awesome and it is something I fit into my regular shopping/lifestyle. I also do admin/marketing for our business and I am just about to start doing some web stuff for a UK based business.....very flexible and pays ok!

I'm an engineer and work from home up to 2 days a week. I pick and choose which days I spend in the office and which I spend at home. It's nice to have the flexibility.

I do bookkeeping as a PT job from home.

I also have a FT job.