Beating the downturn by staying at home to work - Watching the Web, Opinion - Belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Beating the downturn by staying at home to work - Watching the Web, Opinion - Belfasttelegraph.co.uk: The web offers a low-risk way of starting up in business.
So you won’t be surprised to learn that these entrepreneurs are not alone in their quest for online riches.
Let me introduce the “mousewives”, as they’ve become known — women who work from home using their computers to boost the family income during the recession.
According to one piece of research, almost half of stay-at-home mothers use the internet to make money.
The survey, by the European Inkjet Systems division of Kodak (www.kodak.com), found that one in 20 made at least £200 a month, with many earning much more.
The work ranges from selling CDs and books on eBay to doing accounts for other businesses.
It also encompasses market research work, secretarial services, party planning, mystery online shopping and web site design.
The main motivating factor is that money can be made with a relatively small investment. In many cases, the additional investment is nil, because the budding entrepreneurs already have a PC and internet connection.
There’s a web site dedicated to “mousewives” at www.mouse wives.com, as well as an online magazine at www.wahm.com (the initials stand for “work at home moms”, so you’ll gather that the site is American). Incidentally, the reason I keep putting “mousewives” in inverted commas is that some of the women engaged in running their own business from home object to the term.
They prefer the word “momtrepreneur”. Whatever the preference, there’s no shortage of clever shorthand for the practice!
Some stay at home mothers have branched into online franchises for everything ranging from toys to jewellery. See www.wahm. co.uk. In fact, the web is packed with sites dedicated to this new breed of businesswoman.