Plenty of work is available for those wishing to work from home, online and largely free from the need to commute to a workplace. Whether you have years of expertise or a bit of self-taught know-how, there’s plenty available to a dad with a few technology skills who is starting a new career from home.
The big benefit of working from home comes with workloads and working hours you can set yourself, with only deadlines to meet and the ability to take on as much or as little as you like. This makes it ideal for productively using the spare minutes and hours that may, surprisingly, become available to a dad working from home.
Work from home with some of these options:
Proofreading and Editing
An eye for detail, but most importantly an ability to follow instructions, is useful in this line of work, which can often be achieved with just a computer and internet connection. It can however require your full attention, which may not be ideal for all stay-at-home parenting situations. Text reading work is readily available from a number of online and crowdsourcing work sites. Initial tests and examinations are often used to select candidates, so a little time needs to be invested up front.
Translation Services
If you are fluent in more than one language, then being a translator could earn you a good income. This job requires you to translate audio files or documents from one language to another while preserving the intended message. You are also required to know the effect of cultural differences in mind when doing the translations.
Online translation services have allowed many companies to access home-based translators who are fluent in some of the hard-to-find language skills. Payment is valued for each hour done when translating, and goes up to quite a high hourly wage. This also depends on a particular industry with professional, scientific and technical services being the highest paying jobs.
Running and Reporting on Analytics Campaigns
Running analytics campaigns allows digital marketing professionals to collect data and analyse how effective their campaigns are. It also gives them an opportunity to measure how effective their marketing strategies are performing. Either running campaigns or reporting on existing campaigns is a valued skill that many digital agencies or small businesses do at times look to outsource.
Applying analytical tracking and affiliate advertising to websites, and optimising their search engine performance, are skills that can be learned online or from books and taught training. It’s a rich area that can be tapped into working from home, offering your services directly or through agencies. Open-source and micro-job sites can offer a lot of work related to analytics – either writing keyword-filled content or verifying it by performing searches and categorisation tasks from the user’s point of view.
Voice Over Work
Not only broadcasters and advertisers, but providers of all kinds of media and training will always have demand for scripts and soundtracks. These may be recorded in a tightly prescribed style, or some imagination and flair may be desirable on the voice over artist’s part. Some editing know-how and suitable equipment is a must, however, a quiet, controlled recording environment may not be the natural habitat of a stay at home dad!
Video Editing
Freelance video editing skills can be employed, as with voice overs, by software and training providers in addition to more obvious kinds of film makers. Whether you just have a little commercial experience with the video tools in the Adobe product range, or a deeper expertise within the trade, a lot can be achieved with just a laptop and in working hours to suit.
Design of Business Cards, Flyers and Posters
Creative skills, or more formal training and education in art and design can be put to profitable use, as agencies and crowdsourcing websites offer work. It’s a competitive but valuable market for a designer with an eye for professional, attractive promotional material. Production and materials can be left in the capable hands of print shops to keep disruption due to normal family life to a minimum.
Logo design
Many businesses, companies, websites and institutions need new logo designs to create new brands or promote themselves. By being a logo designer, you can provide logo services using your design and graphics skills. If you are a talented artist, you can make use of online tools and logo samples to come up with beautiful, functional logos that represent various institutions. Logo design is a competitive marketplace which may require some promotion of your work to get potential customers’ attention, and may also need investment in technology, software and training.
Infographic building
Like logos, these can be a satisfying and lucrative application of existing design flair. The stay-at-home dad who combines this with an economic or statistical mindset may have an advantage here, but assignments with very precise requirements and specifications may be available too.
Infographic design relies on your ability to create visually appealing information that is made up of images, graphics and drawings in order to present complex information in an easy to understand way. By being able to build an infographic, you will present information in a pure form that speaks to the audience in an interesting, useful and fun manner. This job requires a combination of software such as Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. If you are working from home, then you can opt for DIY tools which allow you to design infographics without graphic design training. Some tools have full free versions while others require you to pay for them e.g. Easel.ly, Inforgr.am, Picktochart and Venngage
WordPress sites
You may have acquired commercial experience and skills for developing sites using WordPress, but this popular and accessible platform for blogging and online media management can be picked up working from home in your own time, or perhaps through your own interests and social activities. There could be demand – locally, through word-of-mouth – for complete sites from scratch or rebuilds of existing ones, or individual tasks available through open-source work providers.
Website design
Today, there is a high demand for web designers with artistic talents and conversant with making functional websites for various clients. If you are good at coding and knowledgeable in any of the major programming languages such as Java, CSS, HTML and JavaScript, then there’s a lot of work for you. It is also an added advantage if you are good at Photoshop.
If you have a deeper background in technology, you could put your skills to work creating branded and functional websites, offering your services directly or bidding for smaller tasks and projects among the open-source and crowd-sourced job websites. Again, having your own examples and online references will help catch people’s eye, and is the best way to demonstrate that you’re current with the very latest tools and designs. Staying up to date will require investing some time in research and knowing good sources of the latest information.
Building mobile apps
This may appear more of a specialist field of software engineering. But open source work and micro-projects are available as a way into this valuable market sector with its insatiable desire for brand new content. And with young, flexible companies involved – often with the more enlightened culture of a start-up – remote working and work-life balance are often at the forefront of their planning. Even while working from home, there may be opportunities to play a full role in a project team. It will need some dedication and time to keep abreast of the latest technologies while working from home.
The stay-at-home dad can continue an existing career, or help establish a new one, fitting his work in around family demands. These may impose certain limits in terms of movement and communication, but they needn’t stifle creativity or put a career on hold. It can provide the ideal environment to learn and practise new skills away from the pressures and schedules of traditional nine to five work.