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Are you frustrated by the scheduling requirements of many work-at-home jobs? Maybe you’re a stay-at-home mom, a student, a single mom – whatever you are, you are BUSY. But you still need to earn some dough – I hear your frustration. That’s why I’ve put together a list of 10 flexible work-from-home jobs that may allow you to work when you want or can without having a company-dictated schedule. Whether you can only work in small blocks or late at night (or early in the morning), there’s bound to be a job with flexible hours for you.
1. Freelance Writing
Being a freelance writer offers the ultimate flexible schedule – you arrange deadlines with your clients, and then you make sure to hit those deadlines. It doesn’t matter when you write that blog post or how-to article or catalog listing. All that matters is delivery and quality. So if you’ve got to make an impromptu trip to the doctor with a sick kid or you’re busy outside the home on variable days each week, you can get in your writing time whenever it fits into your schedule.
Freelance writing is also one of the most mobile-friendly work-from-home jobs! If you’ve got an ultra-portable laptop or a tablet with a bluetooth keyboard, you can set yourself up to write anywhere – in the classic coffee shop while waiting on your child to finish their karate lesson, or while sitting in a waiting room for an appointment. You can make time work for you.
Check out this list of places to find freelance writing jobs.
2. Search Engine Evaluator
As a search engine evaluator (or ad reviewer or rater), you’re not required to have a set schedule. Instead, you simply sign on when you’re available to work. That’s it. Most of these companies will require that you put in a certain number of hours each week but, beyond that, your schedule is your own.
Having the right equipment is key for these positions, along with being someone who’s familiar with pop culture and the latest trends in American socio-political culture. You should also be an avid user of the Internet and/or an active downloader of new apps. Some of these positions require the use of Google Chrome, an active Gmail account, and an Android smartphone. For those that let you use a laptop or smartphone, this position is also a portable one.
Companies to check out:
- Appen
- Lionbridge
3. Transcription
Many transcription companies put no schedule restrictions on their transcribers – you can work at 2 AM in your pajamas if that’s your preference. You just need access to a high-speed Internet connection and headphones to listen to the recordings in many cases.
Many companies will specify the most likely times for you to find work, though you may be able to claim assignments during those times and complete the transcriptions later as long as you meet their deadlines.
Companies to check out:
- Rev.com
- TranscribeMe
- 3Play Media
4. Virtual Assistant
For those of you trying to break into the virtual assistant game, good news – it doesn’t have an inflexible schedule built in! Your schedule as a VA will depend on your clients and what you’ve negotiated with them – whether your list of duties includes calls that need to be completed within a certain portion of the day or drafting newsletters and blog posts for which you just might have a deadline.
If your work hours each week are pretty limited, you may just have one or two clients and do a small number of tasks for each. If your schedule opens up, your business can scale to accommodate more and you can increase your earnings.
Check out this list of places to find Virtual Assistant jobs
5. Teaching English
As an English teacher online – mostly of Chinese children and teens – you can expect a certain amount of scheduling flexibility. You do have to submit your schedule in advance so that students can book classes with you – in some cases, you may need to submit your availability a month in advance, but others require less lead time. You generally only get paid for what you teach, so being able to attract bookings is crucial.
These types of tutoring jobs reward participation in addition to performance. For example, Cambly lets you set your own schedule – and gives certain teachers with good availability and participation stats access to Priority Hours. This system allows you to sign up to be active during select hours, making you more visible to potential student callers.
Also, if you’re an extreme morning person or an extreme night person, working with students in China is great since they’ll most likely be booking classes during the early AM hours in the United States.
Companies to look into:
6. Driving & Delivery Jobs
Maybe you don’t have a set schedule because you have to get out of the house often – either due to running errands, chauffeuring children, or something else. These hours of being out and about can be converted into earning hours too with flexible services like Uber and Lyft or programs like DoorDash and Amazon Flex.
Your car or your bike can become your office! Whenever you’re available, set yourself as active with the app or program in question. For Uber or Lyft, that’s as easy as scanning for nearby fares going in the direction you’re going as well. Both Amazon Flex and DoorDash requires you to pick up something and then deliver it, so make sure you’ll be spending time in the same area when you go active on those gigs.
7. Small Task Sites
Tasking apps are similar to the driving and delivery apps, except they may take more time investment since you’re performing an action for a person or company. You still have complete control over your own schedule, only looking for and taking jobs when you choose to do so by opening the app. Apps for these kind of jobs include GigWalk and TaskRabbit, and you might be tasked with doing someone’s shopping and delivering it to them, investigating a local store’s product display for a certain brand, or even hanging shelves or wall mounting a flat screen TV.
The jobs you take depend on your skill set as well as your availability, and you must realize that you’ll have the choicest pick of jobs during the high volume periods for each day. You’ll also need to judge the time investment required for each task – the more involved it is, generally the better it pays. Just make sure it fits into your variable daily schedule.
Also check out this list of micro job sites
8. Social Media Manager
Thanks to the power of social media scheduling programs, you can make your schedule as a social media manager work for you! Take on as many clients as you can handle with your variable schedule, and then just make sure you meet your deadlines of drafting content for their social media streams and scheduling that content. (Your schedule may become more constrained if you choose to offer active monitoring of social media to your clients – but that’s your decision and something you’d work out with them.)
This is another job that can go with you beyond the home office, as long as you have a laptop or tablet and a secure wireless Internet connection. Use resources like Hootsuite, Loomly, Buffer, MeetEdgar, Sprout, and others to schedule social posts – depending on your operations budget, there’s a social media calendar tool that’ll work for you.
9. Retail Arbitrage
For those who love shopping – and do a lot of it – you can put all that time you spend shopping for bargains toward actually making you money as well. Retail arbitrage is the art of buying low and selling high – enjoy the chase of finding the best deals, then turn around and sell what you buy to others for a price closer to retail. There are apps out there that will help you in this quest by giving you information on a bargain item, to help you understand what you might be able to sell it for and how popular that item is. (If it’s popular, you’ll move it more quickly.)
To learn more about retail arbitrage along with 45 ways to buy low and sell high, check out my guide. You should also read these interviews with successful Amazon FBA sellers.
10. Tutoring
The best things about tutoring are that you get to share your knowledge and set your own schedule. While afternoons and evenings may be the better times to do local tutoring in your home, the Internet means you can virtually schedule tutoring sessions at pretty much any time – literally, in cases where your students are either night owls or on the other side of the world.
Whether you’re helping someone with their math homework or teaching a student to play a musical instrument, you can put together a variable schedule that will work for you. Check out this list of online tutoring jobs.
Need even more work-from-home possibilities to fit your schedule and lifestyle? Check out my list of part-time jobs that have flexible schedules.
