Work That Enables You To Be Anywhere And Be Self-Employed

Parent Cafe
1

<p>I think that an ideal life is a) Self-employment; b) The ability to do the work from any location; c) The ability to dispense with meetings. It sure is nice to be able to take extended trips or even live somewhere else AND be able to support yourself.</p>

<p>I have been trying to come up with a list of realistic careers that are not tied to a location.</p>

<p>For example, a successful writer, like Rowling of the Harry Potter books can work whereever she wants, whenever she wants. She can write her book on a beach, ship it off by mail to her publisher, and watch the money come in.</p>

<p>An inventor or developer of a product/process can do this, but the likelihood of a successful invention/process is probably much more remote than being a successful author.</p>

<p>An attorney who does not have a “court intensive” practice can basically do the work anywhere, but is still tied to a location due to licensing requirements (you don’t get admitted to the whole US or world, just each state you apply to). I suppose an accountant could do the same thing. Have work mailed to whereever, draft a return or whatever, and mail it back. But there are licensing issues, same as for a lawyer. There are a lot of “virtual offices” on the net, and there are plenty of people willing to forgo face-to-face contact, but the licensing issue is the problem.</p>

<p>I think that some ebay sellers can meet the above ideals, if they are just the “arranger” to have things drop-shipped.</p>

<p>So what other lines of work enable people to meet the ideals stated in my first paragraph?</p>

2

<p>My job(s) basically fit your definition. I work in the area of educational testing, in two different jobs. One is as an online essay reader/scoring leader, scoring various standardized tests. While I must be able to be online and must have a phone line open, with a laptop and cell phone, I really could do it almost anywhere.
My other job is writing test questions, which also can be done anywhere, as long as I have Internet access.
And eventually–when I don’t need to earn so much for college expenses–I hope to spend more time in my own freelance writing, which only earns a small proportion of my income at present.</p>

3

<p>Insurance brokerage and mortgage brokerage and even stock brokerage things can be done online, as long as one is completely knowledgeable in their field</p>

4

<p>They don’t completely fit the “self-employed” box, but CPAs, diesel mechanics, and registered nurses are in demand practically everywhere in the world all the time. Some of our best friends (he’s a CPA and she’s an RN) packed up their home in California and left for the Big Island in Hawaii. He had a job pre-arranged, but she took almost a week to find a job. Now they live on a coffee plantation a half-mile from the beach.</p>

5

<p>Sorry Washdad, your ideas also violate the “no need for meetings” requirement. You have to be at a location to be a diesel mechanic, you need a license in each state to be a CPA, and nurses have to meeting each state’s licensing requirements and must see people unless the nurse is just doing phone/legal document consulting.</p>

6

<p>My spouse has been working from home for twelve years for a large U.S. corporation. He can work anywhere he has high speed Internet access and we have lived several places, the last few years in the Caribbean. Once a year he spends a week with his colleagues but that is all the work-related traveling he does. There are phone meetings, but far fewer meetings than he had when he worked on site. This firm does not generally allow telecommuting, so to do something like this you would have to be someone they would rather employ on your terms than have you employed by someone else. We really appreciate our situation and have heard that some people at the firm are envious, so I do worry that some day he will be asked to return to work on-site. Also, he has been with the firm a long time and is one of their more costly employees when his extensive vacation days are added in, so there is also the concern that out-of-sight, out-of-mind will lead to out-of-work. Nevertheless, we would make the same choices if we had it to do over again and since we make a point of always trying to live our dreams, there’s nothing we wish to do that we haven’t done. No doubt there will be more excitement in our future, but we’re content with our life right now. </p>

<p>Writing is the most location flexible, meeting light career. If you have a technical background, there is always a need for technical writers and many are very well paid because great technical writers are a scarce commodity.</p>

7

<p>Diesel mechanic is a favorite occupation of live-aboard boat bums. They sail into town, work at a marine or truck mechanic’s shop for a while, restock the boat, and take off. It’s a portable skill, and in demand all over the world.</p>

<p>As for RNs, all I know is that it seems pretty easy to practice in other areas once you are registered. I suppose someone who actually knows what they are talking about will chime in soon.</p>

<p>If the real requirement is, “what occupations can be done without having any real responsibility?” I can’t help you. Even writers have deadlines and editors, and I, for one, would never use an attorney or CPA who wouldn’t meet with me in person.</p>

8

<p>…many a lawyer, cpa and or other professional would love to have some of their knowledge when dealing with a balky inboard or generator. Washdad–sail or stinkpot?</p>

9

<p>Computer programming and technical writing are both plausibles. I do technical writing remotely, consulting with companies all over the US. Some phone meetings required - as is true with almost any task where you are getting someone else to pay you for your work. I know computer programmers and web designers who work the same way.</p>

<p>Completely eliminating the meeting (which really means eliminating an employer/customer) is tougher. Running a web site, selling on ebay, making a craft item (jewelry, furniture, etc.) are all plausibles, I guess.</p>

10

<p>Ok, well maybe I need to clarify a little bit. I’m not really interested in work for the perpetual bachelor/bachelorette who wants to sail the world. </p>

<p>For example, someone I know trained to be an RN, licensed in NY. She is very intelligent and was working on her masters degree while working as a nurse educator. Barely into her career, she developed rheumatoid arthritis and a latex allergy. Her situation was severe enough to qualify her for disability. Compounding this situation is the fact that she was also the single parent of an extremely high-maintenance child (ADD). </p>

<p>Some years have passed, and this woman is depressed that “her education has gone to waste”. The biggest problem is that there are days that she feels good, and then there are days that she cannot get out of bed. For this reason, she cannot “commit” to being anywhere at any specific time. She now regrets that she got her degree in nursing, because in hindsight, she a) never really wanted to work with “sick people”, b) Never wanted to work the long hours for a doctor that would take her from her child, and c) Her line of work will not accomodate her disability.</p>

<p>This woman is now married and her child is almost grown, but this woman feels that her life is being wasted. This woman always had an interest in books and geneaology. Consequently, she started to sell books on amazon. Nothing large scale, but she’d sometimes pick up books at the thrift store and resell them. She also started delving into family history, and this led her to decide that she’d like to do more geneaology work. With this type of work, it’s possible that someone in another part of the country could ask her to help him/her with researching family background. It remains to be seen if this will be lucrative.</p>

<p>Anyhow, I also know that there are many appellate criminal law attorneys who work out of a home office and never see their clients because their clients are in far away prisons. Client hand-holding actually means nothing on appeal. You simply gather all trial level documents, review them, research any issues (can mostly be done online, or a short trip to a law library on your own schedule), write it, mail it in. The deadlines are also not intense because of the time needed to gather documents. This is actually an ideal line of work that meets the above criteria, EXCEPT that you need to be licensed whereever you practice law.</p>

<p>I’ve thought alot about how it seems that a lot of intelligent disabled people have to forgo happiness in life. I’ve thought of the intelligent people who have had to choose between a career or a full life with their family. </p>

<p>But not everyone has to. For example, Rowling is now an extremely successful author, but she was once a single parent. What I bet she wouldn’t give to have been able to turn back time and have been able to be a successful author while raising her child. I’m not sure what she did, but hypothetically, she could have spent days on the beach with her child, made nice meals, been at every school school function, always been home to greet her child, all while earning a nice living from her computer while the child was at school.</p>

11

<p>I think that people have to realize that there are trade-offs in most jobs. Lawyers–can have fantastic salaries–horrendous hours especially as associates. Medical professions–job stability but it is a 24/7/365 commitment, and sometimes it is your Christmas to work. Teachers, the 3 month vacation is balanced against low pay. The diesel mechanic has the mobility to move from Isla de Mujeres to the Keys to Tahiti, but might not be able to afford a broken arm or bout of pneumonia due to no medical insurance. My D is fascinated by my best friend–jetting around the world while working for a petroleum company. Dubai, Britain, South America, etc etc. But my friend never tells her about the hotel meals, the crappy motels in small drilling towns, and the constant nasal drainage from being on a plane all the time. I try to be content with what I have, and hopefully the young ones will catch on in time.</p>

<p>And as for the diesel mechanic being a bachelor bum, there are many circumnavigating families around. One in particular, Cap’n Fatty, had his daughter get a full ride to Brandeis I believe.</p>

12

<p>I don’t think that a periodic meeting is bad. What I think can be problematic is the regular, time specific types of situations. </p>

<p>For example, a self-employed trial attorney is going to have regularly scheduled court appearances. It’s part of that practice area. If you wake up ill on the day of court, you are out of luck. On the other hand, if you are an appellate attorney, you can generally deal with inconvenient paper deadlines with extension motions, and you don’t even need to go anywhere to do it.</p>

<p>The nurse educator cannot work for an agency where she is required to put on presentations (that’s what she was doing). What are they to do if she wakes up ill and they have to cancel a seminar? However, that same nurse educator can probably write content for a medical related site (I’m guessing) and other than a proposed deadline for the content, the nurse writer can work when she wants.</p>

13

<p>mystery shopper- make your own schedule, work anywhere you want. you control how busy or not you are.</p>

14

<p>If you don’t count time in hotel rooms as meetings–call girl meets a lot of the criteria mentioned above, as does drug dealer. However, I don’t think that convenience of being able to call in sick, set own hours etc etc offsets the moral/health & safety/legal issues.</p>

15

<p>This nurse could become a recruiter, specifically for RNs, traveling nurses or anything related she is familiar with. Being a recruiter is a job you can do from home, anytime you want, as long as you have a computer and a phone. Many very successful recruiters came out of industry and now recruit for the same industry they came out of. They can speak intelligently about the positions they are recruiting for and already have many contacts.</p>

16

<p>This is kind of an extreme example, but I know a person who developed a serious video game problem as a teen. He did not continue his education and he never got a job after high school. He has literally lived in his father’s house without leaving to go outside for anything (his father is nuts and wanted it this way). Now he is 25, and he has serious employability and social problems. </p>

<p>He cannot seem to stick to any one thing and gets discouraged if he is not “instantly gratified”. I think at one point he was trying to teach himself C++ or whatever that programming language is, but I think he gave it up.</p>

<p>He also cannot “free himself” from his hole because he lacks the money to even get clothes or transportation to get a job or alternate housing. Before anyone suggests the military, his weight, serious asthma, and his lack of any work/school history for the past 7 years would likely preclude it.</p>

<p>Despite all of this, he is extremely intelligent, and has perfect grammar and spelling. You would not be able to tell that he has not gone to college. He is extremely tech saavy. </p>

<p>His brain is going to waste. He’s dying a slow death. I am worried that he’s going to commit suicide eventually. His ability to earn a living, his self-esteem, and the ability to free himself from his situation is compromised. Surely there is work out there that he can do, this person of perfect spelling and grammar, even from his room?</p>

17

<p>My husband and I were discussing jobs that require your whole body vs. jobs that just require your brain. </p>

<p>My husband’s uneducated, 40 year-old cousin made a nice chunk of weekly pay at his factory job, but with kids, he never saved much. But he just had his fingers chopped off of his dominant hand at work, and so he is now out of work, with no future prospects. And his disability/comp/whatever has not even come in, he’s got no cushion. The bottom line is that he has to physically show up whereever he works to be paid, his mind alone isn’t “worth anything” to anyone.</p>

<p>On the other hand, an online professor could feasibly lose everything from the neck down, and so long as the ability to communicate exists, that professor can still do some kind of work.</p>

18

<p>Regarding the original intent of this question, I am in contact with a number of families living with a child with special health care needs (autism, cerebral palsy, etc.). The desire in these households is high to find employment that offers enough flexibility to accomodate a “bad day”, usually an illness on the part of the child. </p>

<p>After a short on -site training Jet Blue reservations has been a good option except when you have to be on the phone, you have to be on the phone, not at a doctor appointment. </p>

<p>Some families have had luck with various multilevel marketing firms, but I would recommend this with caution. Know what you are getting into and be realistic about your desire to manage a bunch of downstream sales people.</p>

<p>Other families have started small businesses making and selling clothing, toys and so on that are customized to their child’s needs. The typist that I use for transcriptions does a nice business out of her home while raising her four kids. I have often thought that the work I do paying my mom’s bills and so is done at a distance (largely). As there are more and more elderly parents who need support at a site distant from their children there might be an opportunity for a “household manager” in the same town to schedule maintenance, pay bills and so on. The problem with this is that an emeregency in the aging parent’s life (i.e., broken water line) might require immediate attention by the manager.</p>

<p>The biggest downside of all of these employment options is that they are essentially “hourly” work and have no benefits (the exception being Jet Blue and it comes with the loss of flexibility). So that is the tradeoff I see - benefits versus flexibility. </p>

<p>Along with What A Pain, I would really like to see the creative ways that other with disability have approached this issue.</p>

19

<p>Lol at Aggie. Callgirl doesn’t work because you have to do ALOT of physical work in person to make ends meet. However, phone sex operator or virtual sex assistant might work! Drug dealer would require many physical meetings at specific locations, unless you are the head honcho who just orders everyone else around.</p>

20

<p>My own daughter is undecided on her major, but she wants to travel and make a lot of money. I was talking to a friend of mine who was a Marine who visited many countries, and he said “She thinks that she wants to travel, but that may change if she has kids”.</p>

<p>My daughter has thought of being a physician, but from what I’ve read, this is actually a terrible career if you want to have a personal/family life. So is going to law school and working in a “big NYC firm” (which student loans pretty much drive many towards). Just the other day, I read an ad from a physician couple who is looking for childcare for their 3 month old baby. They’ve already got an evening and weekend caregiver, now they need a full-time nanny for the day. But the ad says “She’s our highest priority”. How is that possible? The sad thing is that they probably mean what they say, but the nature of the debt that you must take on to become a physician, and the hours imposed upon physicians, preclude a meaningful family life.</p>

<p>I don’t think that my daughter would be a happy doctor. Even though she has her moments now when she says “I’m never having kids” after my son has a tantrum, she is a very family-oriented girl. She wants to see the world, but I don’t think that she’d ever want to be “trapped” by a career that imposes it.</p>