When you’re looking for a serious work-at-home job that replaces (or fills in for) your 9-to-5 job, one frustrating thing might pop up over and over:
Many work-at-home jobs want you to be available to work nights and weekends.
If you want to preserve your non-work life as much as possible, whether it’s because you want to maintain family time or it’s just your personal preference, finding the right job might be a little bit tricky.
One Tip to Get You Started
When you don’t want to work nights or weekends, don’t look for jobs at companies that are open on nights and weekends. Or look for jobs there, but don’t apply for roles in departments that are running beyond the bounds of the traditional workday. These include things like customer service and many types of sales.
So where are some places you can start looking? I’ve dug up a bunch of options for you. Let’s take a look!
Do What You’ve Been Doing, Remotely
This tip isn’t for everyone, but it’s good for a lot of people! If you’ve got a traditional office job, look for ways to do that same type of work (or even going a level up) remotely rather than in another office.
There are all kinds of companies hiring at-home managers and directors remotely. So whether you’re starting out as an administrative assistant or a Vice President, odds are good that with enough scouting, you’ll be able to find something you can do remotely.
It may take some time to find this type of job, but you can get a shortcut by looking at job boards. My favorite is FlexJobs because it specializes in remote work and it’s highly regarded in the corporate world, so lots of great companies will post their remote jobs there. (You can read my FlexJobs review here if you want more info.)
Sales and Support
While most sales and support roles are going to require you to be available nights and/or weekends, there’s one area where this isn’t the case, and it’s called B2B.
B2B stands for “business to business” and it refers to businesses that market products and services to other businesses (as opposed to customers, for example). A B2B business is going to sell catering services to big offices, custom machinery to manufacturing companies, and donor tracking software to nonprofits.
When you’re looking for a customer support role, keep an eye out for companies that deal with other companies. Because both parties operate during typical business hours, it’ll be much more likely that your support hours will also take place during typical business hours. Look for that information on the job description, where it’s likely to appear.
The other facet of B2B work is in the sales department. Whether you’re an appointment setter or doing the actual sales calls, you can be fairly certain that these working hours are going to be between 9am and 5pm during one of the major U.S. time zones. That’s when your potential employer’s client will be operating, and it makes no sense to have you calling a business that’s closed for the day. I know that cold calls aren’t for everyone, but if you’re someone who’s willing to go for it, there’s a big opening for you to make your calls during the day rather than dealing with people who aren’t happy to be hearing from you during their dinner hours.
These are some companies that are known to hire at-home workers in both the B2B and B2C (business to consumer) industries:
- NexRep – This well-known company specializes in outsourced customer service. Some of their clients include Red Bull, Priceline and more. For those looking to work weekdays only, watch for openings in their Republic Wireless line among others. Bonus: You do not need a landline for this one and you can work on a Mac computer.
- FROSCH – This company specializes in travel. Some of they positions they have available for virtual workers feature employee benefits – dental, health, vision and more.
- ABC Financial – This is another company that serves a variety of clients. Occasionally, those clients only need service on weekdays.
Virtual Assisting
One of the great things about being a virtual assistant is that many clients are happy for you to work regular business hours, so if you’re in it for the flexibility and “flexibility” means working daytime hours, there’s definitely a place for you in the VA world.
There are two routes to virtual assisting: being your own boss, or working for an agency. You may even be able to do both, if that’s something you want. I have a lot of information on the blog about becoming a VA (and I highly encourage you to consider starting your own VA business). If striking out on your own isn’t for you, though, you can look at these agencies that hire virtual assistants and pay fairly decently:
- Time Etc. – This company requires a 20-hour per week commitment with those hours being worked Monday through Friday. You need 2 years of relevant work experience (ex. appointment scheduling, making travel arrangements, taking phone calls, typing, writing, etc.). The pay starts at $11 per hour.
- Worldwide 101 – This VA firm specializes in customer service, marketing, administration and project management. They are currently seeking proactive agents with a minimum of 7 years experience. Pay is $18 to $22 per hour with a weekly maximum of 25 hours. You need to be able to commit to 20 hours per week during business hours.
Flexible Work That’s Truly Flexible
Many work-at-home companies proclaim their flexible working hours, but they’ll still require you to be available during weekends and/or evenings. You can pick your hours (which is why they get away with calling themselves flexible) but you don’t have complete autonomy.
Not so with every company, though! These are some companies that let you be truly autonomous with your hours, which means you can choose to work during regular business hours if that’s what you want!
- Leapforce – This company offers search engine evaluator and ad evaluator positions. This is project-based work so work availability will come and go.
- Liveops – This customer service company occasionally has clients that don’t work weekends. Their current job board breaks everything down nicely.
I also explored a ton of flexible-hour work options in this post. Some of them are with traditional companies, some are after hours, and many of them let you decide when to work.
Be Your Own Boss
If none of these ideas give you some inspiration and you don’t want to mess around with surfing job boards and doing endless Google searches, you may want to consider working for yourself. If you’ve got 8 hours every day to devote to building your business, you really can turn it into something within a few months.
I’ve covered quite a few great ways to start working for yourself on the blog. The things that will give you the utmost flexibility, though, typically have to do with starting an online-based business. This might include any of these models or services:
Sounds intriguing but not quite right for you? Check out more ideas here.