Business Opportunities Weblog

January 9, 2008 by Rich Whittle | 1 Comment

Houston Chronicle:

At one moment, Jeanine Brown is selling Ronco knives. Five minutes later, she’s answering questions about the secrets of getting rich from real estate foreclosures.

Brown is an agent for LiveOps, a company based in Palo Alto, Calif., with a national network of 16,000 operators who work from home answering the phone for TV infomercials.

Brown, who lives in Houston, works in her pajamas and never knows what she’ll be selling until the script pops up on her computer screen.

“You have to learn to be relaxed,” Brown said.

LiveOps is on a hiring spree, ramping up to handle all the calls for exercise machines and diet plans from viewers trying to live up to their New Year’s resolutions.

LiveOps would like to add 200 agents to the 180 who are already working in Houston, said Tim Whipple, vice president of the virtual call center, whose clients include the sellers of Ronco knives and rotisserie ovens, Hip Hop Abs fitness program, WalkFit shoe inserts and the Whitney Education Group’s program on foreclosure investing.

LiveOps also handles the calls for 1-800-Flowers.com and Pizza Hut, he said.

The work-at-home model works well for the company, which must staff up when its customers are in the buying mood — and that often occurs in the middle of the night.

The sophisticated shift-scheduling program it uses can also handle huge short-term spikes such as pizza orders during the Super Bowl, Whipple said.

It’s also an attractive model for the many stay-at-home moms — and some dads — who want to pocket extra cash.

Read more.

Photo by Erin Trieb.

In Sales, Telecommuting, Work at Home | 1 Comment