Work At Home Employment Opportunities, Experience Explosive Growth In A Slow Economy

Tele service, work at home and virtual agents are leading the revolution in self employment opportunities. By some accounts, there are currently about 100,000 virtual contact center agents in the United States, a movement that represents a growing global trend. Many large corporations that depend on call center organizations are turning to remote work at home agents in order to combat a tightening labor market. As such there will be a strong growth in the number of remote work at home agents working as independent contractors between 2005 and 2010.

Employers' Benefits

For the employer, the benefits of using remote agents are obvious. In this way the company minimizes the additional cost of providing on-site call centers. Employing remote agents can virtually eliminate these cost factors, as well as significantly increase ramp up times in step with business growth. At home or remote agents widen the employers' labor pool well beyond the confines of a geographic region.

Working as a Remote Agent

Simultaneously, the opportunity exists for those seeking employment as remote agents who can enjoy greatly expanded work schedules by choosing to work from home. Because they don't have to commute, at-home agents are more amenable to split shifts and part-time work.

So where does a potential remote agent begin searching for opportunities and education needed to be employed as a remote or virtual agent? First, examine the technology involved in supporting remote agents. To work at home, independent contractors will be working from their home computer using their high-speed internet access. Additionally, prospective virtual agents must demonstrate sophisticated knowledge of computer desktop management. Your computer screen will display log in access to employer back-end operations. Using high-speed internet access, these agents will be able to efficiently run reports and view customer profiles in their online software application from any remote location.

Prospective remote agents should spend some time learning about the new, emerging technologies that successful remote agents use, such as voice over IP and intelligent networks. Fortunately, many of the same tools that call centers use: monitoring, messaging, and work management software can be used with remote agents. Today, e-applications can also provide remote agents with easy access interface for scheduling, selling and the ability to monitor schedule adherence, and to improve their efficiency. The most successful remote agents view their work as a profession and not just a job.

Virtual Agent Opportunities

Here is what the trend seems to be regarding identifying some of the fastest growing employment opportunities for remote agents: consumer service representative, the virtual reservation agent, the virtual trainer, and the virtual tutor. Most of these forms of employment are W-2 and offer pay rates from $7.00 to $30.00 per hour. A virtual assistant may earn upwards of $11.00 to $50.00 hour and Virtual Teachers may earn $20,000 to $48,000 per year. One of the most recent growing opportunities is a virtual insurance agent. These independent contractors represent many carriers and can earn upwards of $40,000 to $70,000 part time to over $100,000 full time working for them selves utilizing technology to sell insurance and financial services over the internet and telephone. Low business overhead allows the virtual insurance agent to earn high commissions and yearly residuals while recruiting other agents into their agency down line. The ability to work from home encourages college-educated applicants to look more favorably on the idea of work at home opportunities and working mothers have also found this to be a great alternative to commuting and childcare.

Despite the many choices, the buzz about remote agents is alive and well. Most importantly there are legitimate companies that hire at-home virtual agents at all levels of income and business opportunities.