Customer Reviews

Making money with your computer at Home

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In remarking about her entrepreneurial success, Liz Claiborne once said, 'Start with a low overhead and be willing to do everything yourself'. While I am very impressed with the comprehensive knowledge that the Edwards team possesses and conveys on the subject of home business, and the thoughtful, intelligent organization of their book, I believe that their thinking falls short in a couple of areas.

The key word for this book is: outsourcing. They believe, and are very likely correct, that outsourcing is the future. Everything that you or a company would have done yourself a decade ago you are now outsourcing to others to do for you today. They also appear to ignore the fundamental organizational and economic implications of the world wide web. The barriers to entry on the internet are almost non-existent for practical purposes. Anything that you can do, someone ten thousand miles away in Rangoon can do, too- most likely for less. Outsourcing is touted as giving you more control, allowing you to work less while giving you more. However, many who engage in outsourcing are actually working harder than they were when they held full-time jobs. Proximity, or the close location of business to client, does have its merits, but these are more often weakened rather than strengthened by computers and the internet. Outsourcing and proximity can work for the home business, but they more often work against it.

Yet, this does not mean that the Edwards team did not write an excellent book. In many ways, this is probably the best book out there for those who are not one hundred percent technology literate or computer savvy. Whereever possible the Edwards team encourages the reader to support and work with other home business people. Bluntly speaking, the real selling point of this book is not its computer aspects, but its ability to prepare the prospective entrepreneur to carefully consider the market for his or her product and work with computers and high technology to do business.

The book is organized into seven thoughtful chapters brimming with information. As advertised on the cover, the focus of the book is computer centered home based businesses, and the first chapter is a simple sketch and summary of one hundred such businesses. Each summary includes a list of resources (books, web-sites, and organizations) as well as a basic run-down of the type of business, its profit potential, the time committment, and start-up costs. However, some of the resources cited in the book tend to carry a high price tag, and are either out of print, out of date, unavailable, irrelevant to the business described, or not very useful. Many of the book's business ideas reflect the increasing subdivision and specialization occuring in many industries. Also, some of the business ideas are either quite related (billing and invoicing, payroll, and bookkeeping- all subdivisions of accounting) or highly ambiguous (HTML programmer and web designer, desk top publishing, publishing, and form design service).

The book is good simply because it tells you everything you need to do to be taken seriously as a business. One chapter each is devoted to outfitting your office, getting good phone service, and selecting the best computer for your home office. One of their main points is that the telephone is a very important piece of equipment for the home business, and they strongly suggest that the entrepreneur have as many lines as possible. One minor flaw with the book is that the computer information, though fairly up to date for a 1997 publishing date, is repeated ad nauseum, and could have been better presented perhaps as a separate chapter, chart or table listing the software and hardware needs for the different businesses.

Although some readers may be more advanced than others, overall, there is a lot of good, straightforward, and practical advice to be found in this book. The book is not only thorough, comprehensive and exhaustive, but also addresses all of the major (and minor) questions of the fledgling entrepreneur (though not in the order I would have liked). Aside from the exaggerated projections of potential profit for the various ventures, this book is definitely worth reading twice at least. The Edwards should be commended for producing such a straightforward, hype-free, and first-rate volume.

This is a good book with some good ideas, and it is cross-referenced so that you know what kind of business each idea involves. There are some ideas that I did not think of, along with additional resources listed.

The only problem is that the book is very dated now. This book was born when the internet was still gaining in popularity. One of the job descriptions suggests that companies are still unsure of how the internet can best be used.

I'd love to see an undated version of this book. Until then, it's a good, but limited resource for my needs.

I host a work at home parents bulletin board and I highly recommend this book to my posters. It's packed with a lot of useful information about taxes, business set-ups and ideas for starting a work-at-home business.

The only complaint I would have is about the brevity of some of the ideas. In the interest of condensing the size of the book, the authors seem to have chopped several much-needed paragraphs from many of the ideas, such as suggestions for researching the idea and talking with people already in the field.

Finally a making money at home book that is worth buying! This is an outstanding, easy read loaded with ideas for everyone. The 100 computer-based businesses listed each come complete with resources to follow up on in addition to what to expect in the area of salary. Paul and Sarah Edwards seem to really have a knack for communicating what so many of us are looking for. Of course the book contains all of the important money and business issues as well. I highly recommend this book as a "one-stop-shop" on the subject.

This book was clear and concise on getting the information needed to determine if one is suited for self employment on the internet. The authors obviously have alot of experience with online promotion of a business. This is what I was looking for. I would recommend it to anyone who is serious about working at home thru the internet.

If you want to earn money from you home, you must read this book. I have read a lot of books in Russian and English like this one in the last year. Besides irrevalent information, all I got was nonsense! This book, though, tells you everything you need to know and simplies it in easy to read format.

I was amazed at some of the ideas presented in this book. I highly recommend the book for everyone who wants to work solo and be his/her own boss. I have always wanted to stay home and be my own boss! This is the real way to the dream.

Maybe I was expecting too much, but this book is nothing more than a list of jobs to choose from. There are no great secrets. It will say "Website Graphics Designer - A lot of money can be made on the web, get a computer and take some classes, blah, blah, blah." Really common sense stuff. I guess it gives you some ideas for jobs but I would have been happier keeping my money.

This is another of Paul and Sarah Edwards'home business books, originally published in 1997. Much of the information here is similar to the computer-related material in their "The Best Home Businesses" book. Unlike the other book, this one has an Index.

While my comments about their other book obviously hold for this version of that information, the rapid changes in the computer industry make this a trickier buy unless you are already fairly computer savy, in which case you probably wouldn't need it anyway. The tremendous upsurge in outsourcing computer jobs to other countries, as well as sheer technological progress, has changed the face of some of these job categories considerably. You will need to research much more current information before committing to a business mentioned here.

That said, they do provide a good basic overview of what each business might entail. If you do not know much about computer-based business, this would be a good primer to see if something along that line interests you. I would recommend, however, that you do much more research with current information sources before you make a decision.

My name is Stacy and I really have found Making Money At Home With Your Computer to be an asset! This was the very first money making book I have ever received. My friend got it for me for Christmas because she new I wanted to work at home. I started reading this book, the ideas were flowing through my head rapidly. My pen couldn't keep up with my ideas! I couldn't believe all the ideas I had to make a living at home for myself. I read the entire book and couldn't believe how informative it is. Today, I am a stay at home mom, working at home with my own profitable website. I have to say and I do recommend this book to anyone looking for a how to do it book. People wanting to know how to get started and ideas for home businesses, this is the book to get! This is one of the best resource books out there for anyone wanting to make money at home. This book has helped me grow my ideas for new avenues of opportunities. If you are wanting to learn how to stay at home and make a living, I strongly recommend reading this book first!

~~~~ Stacy

Warning!!! DO NOT PURCHASE THIS BOOK!!!

It is a complete wast of money.
Even though this book was written a few years ago, there is absolutely nothing in it that could even possibly be helpful. Basically, they just give you a little synopsis of 100 different potential business, from catering, daycare, tutoring, etc ; Businesses that are going to cost you a lot more than you could ever make in profits. And most of the websites they give you(few and far between) and just about all of the newsgroups they give you are gone.

There are many books out there about how to make money at home with your computer, and just save yourself the time and most importantly, the money, and look somewhere else...