Part time stay at home employment?

[BMW]

I am currently not homeschooling. I have been associated with these boards for many years - a few years ago some of you might have known me as CapitolaMom. I have 7 children, was in an abusive marriage for 17 years and by the end of 2006 decided enough was enough and divorced. I battled all of 2007 for custody of my children, which was awarded to me, but the court also ordered the children to be in public school, which I didn't fight because I couldn't handle the divorce and homeschooling at the same time. It has been very important for me to be an at home mom, though, the children have needed me to be here for them! Now I look at my future and think, "What now?" I have thought about returning to college or taking correspondence courses for a future career... but I am just not sure what I want to do. Then I heard about working at home as a medical transcriptionist. Not sure what that even is, but it got me thinking, I am smart, bright, dependable and I have a solid 4 hours of quiet each day that I could work here at home, then not have to worry about someone else telling me when to be at work and how to deal with childcare.

Any ideas? I am NOT a salesperson. I would HATE to work in network marketing or telemarketing. I don't want a bunch of odd business to show up if I google "work out of home". Any ideas?

Thanks,

B

[Pamela H in Texas]

I just want to respond but hopefully some others will have some other answers for you.

 

I REALLY didn't think I was a phone person and I couldn't sell ANYTHING.

 

However, I really have enjoyed working LiveOps and the money is good. There are LOTS of people making $1-3K per month with them working from home. You just can't beat the commute and it doesn't cost much to get started with them (background check and corded telephone and the line were my only costs). I didn't have to be able to sell because it's completely scripted. I'm not calling people; they call me. That makes a big difference.

 

Anyway, just a consideration. LiveOps (well and me working with them) saved my house from foreclosure last summer. They are SUPER flexible in that you can just not work if kids are home sick from school or whatever. You can take vacations as necessary. You can work 30 minutes or 10 hours or whatever you want at a time. The average newbie is making $8/hour (so I hear), but I have never made that low except during the training calls.

 

Anyway, I don't get anything for suggesting it to you. I just wanted to encourage you because I never thought I would like doing it but it has been a great opportunity for me.

 

I hope you find what you need :)

Pamela

[Kay in Cal]

I don't know how she got into it, but my aunt does phone customer support out of her home. She answers calls from people using home dialysis machines. Sometimes she gets lots of calls, other times just a few... she just has to be there and available to answer. If you are really interested, I could email her for info?

[Carol in Cal.]

You used to live in Alaska, right?

 

I'm sorry that you have been through so much.

 

Santa Cruz is pretty amazing. Lots of homeschoolers and alternative schools there, and yet you are not the first person I have heard of who was forced to put their children into school by their family courts.

 

Have you looked at indexing? I have heard that it can be an excellent homebased career. Basically you take a class to learn the typical indexing strategies and how to mark things up, and then you join the local and national societies, and then you look for your first book by networking in the societies. From what I understand, if you are a fast reader you can make good money, and if you know how to effectively read technical material, you can earn more.

 

Are you familiar with Pacific Collegiate Academy? It's a charter school in Santa Cruz that has attracted a lot of former homeschoolers. It started as a high school, but now I believe that it also includes the junior high grades. I have friends in two former homeschooling families who have been very happy with it. You might want to check it out.

 

If you want to talk about other resources, please feel free to PM me your contact info. since I am local. If you would consider a part time office job, I have some contacts who might be helpful.

 

Best of luck to you.

[happy2homeschool]

If you have a computer then another idea might be working for a court reporting business. A court reporter attends a court hearing or trial and somehow transcribes or puts the verbal testimony on a tape. Then the tape must be typed up. I know that it does not have to be typed up by the same person who transcribed it -- thus, the business can hire people to work at home and type up the transcript tape. I knew someone in AZ who did this, but I don't know any other details about it.

 

Good luck finding what you need. :)

[Frankie]

If you have a computer then another idea might be working for a court reporting business. A court reporter attends a court hearing or trial and somehow transcribes or puts the verbal testimony on a tape. Then the tape must be typed up. I know that it does not have to be typed up by the same person who transcribed it -- thus, the business can hire people to work at home and type up the transcript tape. I knew someone in AZ who did this, but I don't know any other details about it.

 

Good luck finding what you need. :)

 

I am a former court reporter. I quit in the late 90s. No one dictates tapes and uses typists anymore. Everyone is on computer using court reporting software. The steno machines make files and everything is done on the computer. No dictation at all. There would be no jobs for typists as you describe today--that's definitely a thing of the past--unless you happen to find a reporter who is about to retire.

 

However, because everyone is on computer, meaning they have special steno machines and software, a new field opened up in the early 90s. Scopists learn to read court reporters' notes and prepare transcripts on court reporting software. The rub is it is a highly competitive market. In the mid

90s when I used scopists, there were 30 or more available for every one job I had.

 

To tell you how competitive the scopist market is, I wouldn't even try it. I have 11 years' experience as a top-credentialed court reporter. I had a superior reputation, (tooting my own horn). I also lectured at state conventions teaching fellow reporters how to use scopists. It is a field I could jump right into -- but I wouldn't, because the market is flooded with scopists.

 

Many former court reporters go into medical transcription, because there are more jobs available.

[happy2homeschool]

I am a former court reporter. I quit in the late 90s. No one dictates tapes and uses typists anymore. Everyone is on computer using court reporting software. The steno machines make files and everything is done on the computer. No dictation at all. There would be no jobs for typists as you describe today--that's definitely a thing of the past--unless you happen to find a reporter who is about to retire.

 

.

 

It actually isn't a thing of the past, at least not in Arizona. Maybe it is done more for administrative hearings though. Last year our law firm received tapes from administrative hearings and they were actual voice recordings. We called our local court reporting business to have them typed up. Their staff was unavailable to give us a quick turnaround time so they gave us names of people to contact to get the tapes typed up -- we needed to hire more than one person because we needed a very quick turnaround. We used two women who worked out of their homes. Thus, at least in AZ, our local court reporting business had employees and outside contacts that could perform this service for us.

 

In any event, it sounds like the person who posted the above quote has a good knowledge on the business overall and gave you good information -- I just wanted to clarify that the legal world does still use this type of business.

[Adrianne]

I am currently not homeschooling. I have been associated with these boards for many years - a few years ago some of you might have known me as CapitolaMom. I have 7 children, was in an abusive marriage for 17 years and by the end of 2006 decided enough was enough and divorced. I battled all of 2007 for custody of my children, which was awarded to me, but the court also ordered the children to be in public school, which I didn't fight because I couldn't handle the divorce and homeschooling at the same time. It has been very important for me to be an at home mom, though, the children have needed me to be here for them! Now I look at my future and think, "What now?" I have thought about returning to college or taking correspondence courses for a future career... but I am just not sure what I want to do. Then I heard about working at home as a medical transcriptionist. Not sure what that even is, but it got me thinking, I am smart, bright, dependable and I have a solid 4 hours of quiet each day that I could work here at home, then not have to worry about someone else telling me when to be at work and how to deal with childcare.

Any ideas? I am NOT a salesperson. I would HATE to work in network marketing or telemarketing. I don't want a bunch of odd business to show up if I google "work out of home". Any ideas?

Thanks,

B

 

I work at home as a medical transcriptionist. I work for a company that does business over the internet. This means I do not have to leave the house for work. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

 

I do recommended you go through some type of program for transcription as it is hard to get your foot in the door. After that, there is plenty of work out there!

[my2kidsmom]

When I was looking at medical transcription, I was told by a guy that works for a company that hires MTs to look into Career Step. http://www.careerstep.com/

He said they hire graduates from there all the time.

[my2kidsmom]

Oh...I forgot to add. You may want to look at driving a school bus. I know a lady that does this and she gets benefits and gets to have her kids on the bus with her.

I posted some links in another thread of a couple of good forums where people talk about working from home.

[Mamagistra]

Aw, B... I have no ideas for you. I just wanted to say how sorry I am to read the things you've been through. Best wishes to you and your family as you go forward. :)

[Frankie]

 

In any event, it sounds like the person who posted the above quote has a good knowledge on the business overall and gave you good information -- I just wanted to clarify that the legal world does still use this type of business.

 

Gosh, I just cannot seem to communicate properly today. My apologies.

 

I wasn't referring to the legal community as a whole, I was referring specifically to the court reporting community. Court reporters today use real-time and computerized technology for the actualy jobs they report, so it is extremely rare to have a reporter dictate a job. Even schools have been computerized for years now.

 

I do remember some freelance firms that would do typing for others, and of course they're in the know of professional transcribers. The reporters who did transcription work for others were usually brand-new reporters eager for work of any kind.

 

After reading your response, I was reminded that sometimes magistrate courts use tape recorders instead of court reporters. They do hire typists. And of course things such as administrative hearings, discipline hearings, etc. use recording devices rather than court reporters because reporters are expensive.

 

Thinking back to my working days, getting a job as a transcriptionist where I worked would have been tough. Lots of secretaries that worked for the judicial system moonlighted and transcribed at night.