Work From Home

[UncleLim]

In the past, when sewing was a cottage industry in Singapore, it was possible for many lowly or un-educated women to make a small living in a HDB flat and looking after their children at the same time. My mother was one of them. The factory van will deliver the ready-cut cloth to your block. After a few days, when the sewing is done, call them and the van man will come back to collect the completed clothing. These seamstresses earn peanuts and had to keep on sewing day and night. But it helped to put food on the table and buy our school books.


Sewing is no longer a key industry now. Intensive labour is out for most of us because we not longer accept $150 as a reasonable monthly pay. But many women are also more educated and hence can do outsourced tasked that require more intellect. Some trades these days that can be successfully run from home include:

- Part time writing and editing for periodicals and magazines
- Telemarketing
- Recruitment
- Web design and photography
- Consultancy (whatever it means)
- Operating an online or blog shop
- Freelance book keeping (this requires going to clients’ offices at times)
- Forex/Equity/Index/Options-etc trading for yourself and your family/friends

I recently met an old friend who transformed one of his bedrooms into a robotics research lab ! He is a tech wizard and makes machines and kiosks for exhibitions. He is one of the rare people who I see making a very comfortable living from home.

[concern2]

UncleLim:

In the past, when sewing was a cottage industry in Singapore, it was possible for many lowly or un-educated women to make a small living in a HDB flat and looking after their children at the same time. My mother was one of them. The factory van will deliver the ready-cut cloth to your block. After a few days, when the sewing is done, call them and the van man will come back to collect the completed clothing. These seamstresses earn peanuts and had to keep on sewing day and night. But it helped to put food on the table and buy our school books.


Sewing is no longer a key industry now. Intensive labour is out for most of us because we not longer accept $150 as a reasonable monthly pay. But many women are also more educated and hence can do outsourced tasked that require more intellect. Some trades these days that can be successfully run from home include:

- Part time writing and editing for periodicals and magazines
- Telemarketing
- Recruitment
- Web design and photography
- Consultancy (whatever it means)
- Operating an online or blog shop
- Freelance book keeping (this requires going to clients' offices at times)
- Forex/Equity/Index/Options-etc trading for yourself and your family/friends

I recently met an old friend who transformed one of his bedrooms into a robotics research lab ! He is a tech wizard and makes machines and kiosks for exhibitions. He is one of the rare people who I see making a very comfortable living from home.

Interesting. 2 things came to mind:
1) trades \"that can be successfully run from home\" may not necessarily mean they are suitable for SAHP. One reason that I've cited before is the concentration required, which means the child has to be sleeping or occupied with another adult for the parent to be able to focus. Another reason is that certain jobs still require some kind of meeting up, and so some kind of childcare or baby sitting is required. Things like trading is worse, as you need to keep your eyes on the screen - sorry, not a trader, correct me if I'm wrong. And imagine if market's going down and you're in a panicky mood - won't that have an effect on your baby-caring?

2) If these jobs can be easily taken up by SAHP, doesn't it sound like those who do them professionally loses their market share so essentially everyone's earning less? And if customers finds more supply of these people, market becomes more competitive, and will be those who are willing do these for less, these so called \"more intellectual\" skills become less and less worthwhile to do?

Then, another thought is: how does one define 'comfortable living'? Can get by? Can afford to retire early? Have surplus for future? Have bright future? Make more than last time? Make less than last time but more flexible working hours?

Just thinking...

[pojo]

Uncle Lim raised some useful suggestions.


From what concern2 wrote, one obvious "job" SAHP can do is to provide the childcare or baby sitting service. This will also help other SAHP to take on jobs which require outside meetings.

[concern2]

pojo:

Uncle Lim raised some useful suggestions.


From what concern2 wrote, one obvious \"job\" SAHP can do is to provide the childcare or baby sitting service. This will also help other SAHP to take on jobs which require outside meetings.

Agree with you on point 1.

As for point 2, I think it depends on the age of the kids of the SAHP. Many SAHM are already hands full these days dealing with their own kids (they may already have more than 1 to take care of). However, I do wonder how baby-sitting hadn't taken off in Singapore - yet.

[UncleLim]

Hi concern2, good points.


Possible to do at home does not mean every parent at home can do it. You are spot on there. There will still be a trade-off. Attention otherwise directed at the children's welfare will be focused on tasks at hand to deal with customers, online presence, payments, suppliers etc etc. Sometimes, when kids get sick or marital problems surface, the home-based business can suffer or even collapse.

Do home-based workers or businesses pose a competition to the real-world kind out there offering the same services? Yes and No. Home-based businesses are generally priced lower. This translate into cost savings for the client. But the client is also aware of the constraints of this type of business and sometimes use a mix of vendors. The critical or larger sized projects are usually given to SMEs or MNCs.

What makes a \"comfortable\" living is subjective. If you have a spouse who is already bringing in the bread and butter. The desserts you earn is comfortable. For some, like my hi-tech friend mentioned in my earlier post, \"comfortable\" will have to be a lot more as his wife is not working.

Some home-based businesses do grow and in time, require a real office or shop or factory. Some stay home-based forever. In any case, home is a good place to start.

[concern2]

UncleLim:

Hi concern2, good points.


Possible to do at home does not mean every parent at home can do it. You are spot on there. There will still be a trade-off. Attention otherwise directed at the children's welfare will be focused on tasks at hand to deal with customers, online presence, payments, suppliers etc etc. Sometimes, when kids get sick or marital problems surface, the home-based business can suffer or even collapse.

Do home-based workers or businesses pose a competition to the real-world kind out there offering the same services? Yes and No. Home-based businesses are generally priced lower. This translate into cost savings for the client. But the client is also aware of the constraints of this type of business and sometimes use a mix of vendors. The critical or larger sized projects are usually given to SMEs or MNCs.

What makes a \"comfortable\" living is subjective. If you have a spouse who is already bringing in the bread and butter. The desserts you earn is comfortable. For some, like my hi-tech friend mentioned in my earlier post, \"comfortable\" will have to be a lot more as his wife is not working.

Some home-based businesses do grow and in time, require a real office or shop or factory. Some stay home-based forever. In any case, home is a good place to start.

You are optimistic, and it rubs on me. I just hope home it isn't a good place to end for some...