When most people start looking for a way to work at home online they don’t really know what they are looking for, even if they think they do. The phrase “work at home” is actually very general and several different things fall under it. You are most likely looking for one of these three things: A work at home opportunity, a work at home job, or a home business. They all have quite a few similarities but they also have some very big differences in many cases.
Below is an explanation of the three types of “work at home” so you can see the similarities and differences. There is a lot of natural overlap between them so it’s almost impossible to perfectly categorize them, but I have done it as closely as possible.
A work at home opportunity is somewhere in between a work at home job and a home business. It’s a way for you to make money at home without actually working for someone else, but you aren’t really in business for yourself either. You can sometimes earn pretty good money this way but you’ll never become wealthy doing it. Your pay will mostly depend on how much time you can put into performing tasks and you obviously only have so much time in a day so it limits your income potential.
Your typical work at home opportunity will consist of taking paid surveys, completing free offers for money, paid forum posting, getting paid to blog, and other “get paid to” or GPT programs. You might also do some freelance work or some sort of data entry. Although those are more “work at home jobs” than anything.
A work at home job is where you work for someone else performing a certain task (job) or a number of tasks for them but you do it from home. It’s basically the same as a regular job that you do offline but you are doing it from home instead. These jobs can pretty much involve anything but often times it will be technical support, customer service, telemarketing, transcription, data entry, and other similar jobs.
The thing you have to remember is that you are working for someone else when you have a work at home job. Even though you are working at home, you will still not have the freedom you might think and you will never get paid very much money this way. If all you really need to do is make a little extra money for whatever reason but want to do it from home, then finding a work at home job would be ideal. The best part is that you know exactly what you have to do to make money and exactly how much you will be paid for doing it.
Starting a home business is the best way to work at home, in my opinion. You have the freedom to work when you want and make money from home doing something you choose and enjoy. There are virtually unlimited things you can do to build a home business and this is the only way you can actually create complete financial freedom for you and your family. Some of these include; MLM, affiliate marketing, SEO for local businesses, running your own blog, selling things online, and other ideas along those lines.
The only downside to a home business, compared the other two ways of working at home discussed above, is that you don’t have the security of knowing just how much money you are going to make and when you will be paid. But you do have the luxury of knowing that your income depends solely on your efforts and has almost no limitations. Use your time wisely doing the right things and you can eventually be making money like it’s nothing.
I hope you now have a much better understanding of the differences between work at home opportunities, work at home jobs, and home businesses. They are similar but they are certainly not the same things. The differences should not be ignored because they can have a significant impact on what you do to make money and how much you can make.
When you are looking for a work at home opportunity you need to be sure you know what you are specifically looking to do so you can find the right system for you.