Work From Home Mums Blog – Resources, Return To Work Advice, Online Business Ideas

Readers Question: I have returned back to work part time, but ideally I would love to work from home for myself or for a company that allows a work from home arrangement. Why is it so hard to find employers in Australia that are that flexible?? If I am wrong please enlighten me!

Answer:

We are very fortunate in Australia to have a strong telecommuting community (people who work form home), many of these people have self made jobs and many are also work from home mums like me. There are of course still some old school employers that feel if they can’t see you, you’re not working.

The point of working from home is the lifestyle it affords you. So it should not matter if you swim in the pool with your kids during the day or go out with friends for coffee, if you sit down after the kids are in bed and begin your days “real” work ; ) But for some that just doesn’t compute and they can’t let their workers telecommute.

Now don’t get me wrong, some people really can’t work from home, my husband for one. He yaks my ear off, makes endless cups of coffee, does loads of washing and sometime even cooks dinner … this is sounding quite good for me, but not his boss. Being organised is important and making sure you and your family know you really are at work when you are working at home.

Finding these types of jobs is not easy, and there are businesses like mine, that help mums find jobs they can truly do from home or maybe during school hours. The area I find very exciting at the moment is now commonly referred to as ‘future jobs’. These are jobs that we will do in the future but don’t formally have now, some already in limited but growing amounts, jobs like; professional forum moderators, professional ‘content specific’ bloggers, and directors/managers of community content etc. In addition, roles like copy writing, people who write the content for brochures, sales letter, websites etc, are increasing exponentially as small businesses are discovering the need for well written content on their home made websites that have suddenly begun to grow.

Other areas on the increase for home based workers is call centre operators from home, this can be outbound sales work which is a little difficult if you have young children that scream whenever you sit down to talk on the phone. The upside is a lot of roles, certainly on Hire My Mum, are now inbound calls. Many companies have discovered overseas call centres have not worked how they hoped, this has meant this type of work is coming back to our shores. The fact it was overseas has highlighted to business already that the operator can be based anywhere.

I personally work a few shifts per week as a forum moderator for a famous UK chef website in addition to my businesses, this is great work, we have UK and Australian moderators that enable the company to moderator 24/7, and it means that I can attend to B2 when he is hungry, tired or wants to play.

There are many roles out there, finding them is hard, convincing old school employers is difficult and being flexible is important but they are out there.

These are some companies that help mums find work from home jobs;

• Hire My Mum
• Forum-Moderators.com
• Your Part Time Workforce
• CareerMums

Sorry this is so long, it is a bit of a passion finding these illusive jobs. Hope it helps.

Leigh

Provided By MumZone – Resources for Mums www.mumzone.com.au

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Readers Question: I want to return to work but don’t understand the childcare rebate… does it cut my weekly childcare cost straight away or will it give me a bigger tax return?

Answer: Wow this is a great question and it is no wonder you don’t understand it … what a mine field?

Well the basic answer is; both is ‘probably’ correct, depending on whether you qualify for the two payments that are available. The two types of payments are Child Care Benefit CCB and Child Care Tax Rebate CCTR. CCB is available to low income earners, your approved child care provide will reduce your payments based on your eligibility, meaning you will pay less than their advertised rates. You actually pay less up front.

CCTR is an additional amount you can claim if eligible, in a lump sum when you do your tax return annually, or now available in quarterly payments and adjusted in the final quarter after the ATO and Family Assistance Office have assessed your entitlement. This amount is 50% of your out of pocket expenses to a maximum of $7500 per year. This does not reduce your up front payments.

An example is; your provider reduces your fee by $20.00 per day and you pay $30.00 per day, that is CCB applied to your situation, you can then claim 50% of the $30.00 per ‘days of attendance’ that you physically paid, in your tax return or quarterly payment. That is CCTR applied to your situation. (*Not based on any actual fees.)

The Family Assistance Office website has full details about eligibility levels, go to these links to see if you are eligible:
Family Assist.gov CCB or Family Assist.gov CCTR

I hope this helps.

Leigh

Provided By Mum Zone – Resources for Mums www.mumszone.com.au

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Readers Question: I was just wondering if there was any work available for stay at home mums being a nurse? I have a 5 month old and don’t want to go back to work at the hospital.

Answer: It is important that we don’t stereotype ourselves when we stay home with our children, and choose to take on part-time work. There are many skills we have known as transferable skills; acquired from volunteer work, paid work and life experience. Being flexible is very important when choosing to work from home.

My personal experience has been there are jobs for people with medical skills, that can be used in call centre work (from home – inbound and outbound) that requires a certain level of knowledge as they are dealing with doctors, therapists and specialists. If you have typing skills you could consider extending your skills with a medical typists course to become a transcriptionist. This is a very busy field.

Other roles that come to mind are school nurse, medical receptionist, medical centre nurse, community nurse, medical blog writer, and running first aid courses. I hope this gives you some food for thought.

Leigh

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Readers Question: If I return to work, and my boss is amenable to the idea, how does one juggle working from home with a baby? My baby seems to take up my whole day anyway, so when do I find time to “work” in there as well as look after him? Does it really work when my baby is at an age where he can’t entertain himself?

Answer: Working from home can work when you have children of any age. What it really comes down to is the different abilities of the individual to juggle all the balls in their own lives. We all have different factors in our lives, and working from home is not for everyone. It is hard work and requires some strategies to make it work.

Firstly it is important to discuss your employer’s expectations. Some employers require set hours while others are happy for the work to be completed at a time that suits you so long as it meets a deadline. Discussing your plans with your partner is also important as it will effect them by way of extra housework help, or caring for the children if you work in the evenings etc.

Other considerations are; whether someone can offer childcare, how many hours do you have available to work each week (i.e.: when baby is sleeping, evenings), type of work you would be doing (phone work requires quiet, while being a forum moderator doesn’t have the same necessity).

Ultimately, stay true to yourself and don’t over commit yourself. Develop some strategies to help you in an emergency for example; personally when I am on an important phone call and B2 decides he is going to cry, I open the door to B1′s bedroom and let him play in big brother room for the 5 or 10 minutes I need. It really comes down to what works for you. I hope you gain some clarity about your plans for the future.

Leigh

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