Avon Vintage Perfume

Everything You Need to Know to Start Your Own Work At Home Business

Discussing great opportunities and resources available for people wanting to start a new work at home business.

Everyone knows that there are many online and work at home jobs are for technical services but there are jobs out there for the non-techies too!!

SALES:
Are you hoping to start selling from home? What if you do not have handmade, used or value-added products of your own? If this is the case then there are many other options available to you. You may want to consider investing in a kit business or a franchise . Either option allows you to start selling from home and yet still receive the support of a pre-existing business with well established systems. These options also help to give your business credibility as the products are better known.

Kit Business
Another major category of companies which support you with reselling from home are kit-based businesses . These businesses are ideal for people who do not have the time (stay-at-home parents) or comfort to leap into self-employment without a well established business concept and support system. These kits provide everything from products to sell - to marketing material - to business forms - to advice. HOWEVER you need to be comfortable selling and hitting up your friends and family and complete strangers to buy items directly from you. You also need to stage alot of "home parties" in order to make any money with the low margins alot of these companies provide. People who are successful with these businesses earn their money by recruiting alot of other people into their "sales teams". If you are comfortable with this then these businesses can be great. Some examples of such businesses are:

1. Epicure Selections
Epicure selections is a Canadian company which sells food (mainly herb and spice blends, dip mixes, teas, baking ingredients) and cookware (mainly stainless steel and silicon baking, cooking and brewing items). It has been in the direct selling arena for around 12 years and has been selling their products for even longer. My good friend has been able to resell products from home (largely through tasting parties and open houses) for a while now. View Sharon's site here. Also check out her owners talk article about her experiences selling Epicure Selections products.

2. Mary Kay
Mary Kay is a US-based company which was started approximately 35 years. With over 1.7 million - yes - MILLION "independent beauty consultants" in over 30 countries around the world, this is one of the most successful direct selling companies ever. Their beauty consultants sell beauty products for men and women ranging from bath and grooming products to make-up and perfume. I have various family and friends who have sold Mary Kay and had varying success. Of the those who have not done well with Mary Kay - 100% of them actually gave up due to the time investment required.

SIDEBAR: This is not an issue that is isolated to Mary Kay. Most kit-based, direct reselling from home businesses required the salesperson to travel and put on/host product parties. It is important that people realize this before spending the money to buy their start-up kit (typically between $0 to $500).

HINT: Start-up kits are periodically changed to include new or different product samples. Many companies also put their kits on sale once or twice a year. If you are not in a rush to get started then check back with the companies website often for these changes.

3. Partylite
Partylite is a US-based company which has been around for approximately 35 years. Their salespeople sell candles and accessories for indoor and outdoor use via home parties.

4. Pampered Chef
Pampered Chef is a US-based company which was founded in 1980. Salespeople sell professional quality kitchen tools via home parties.

5. Fantasia
This is a Canadian-based company which has been in business since 1980. The salespeople sell sensual products and fine lingerie via home parties.

6. Touchstone Crystal
Touchstone Crystal is a young US company. Their salespeople sell jewelry kits and gems via make-our-own-jewelry home parties.

7. AVON
Avon was founded in the US over 120 years ago. Their salespeople currently sell beauty products, home decor and gifts through catalog and door-to-door sales in over 100 countries.

Franchises
A franchise is a business where the "franchisor" authorizes the proven methods and trademarks of his business to the "franchisee" for a fee and a percentage of gross monthly sales. Various tangibles and intangibles such as national or international advertising, training, and other support services are commonly made available by the franchisor. Agreements typically last five to twenty years, with premature cancellations or terminations of most contracts bearing serious consequences for franchisees.

Franchise markplace has a listing of franchise opportunities and allows you to search by company name, industry or desired investment amount. Some of the more well-known examples of these businesses are:
Jani-King (commercial cleaning); Servpro (insurance/disaster restoration & cleaning; Chem-Dry Carpet Drapery & Upholstery Cleaning (carpet, drapery & upholstery cleaning, tile and stone care); Matco tools (tools); Jazzercise Inc. (dance/exercise classes; WSI Internet (internet services); Candy Bouquet (floral-like designer gifts & gourmet confections; Coffee News (weekly newspaper distributed at restaurants; Home Helpers/Direct Link (nonmedical care services); ActionCoach (business coaching, consulting and training); Aussie Pet Mobile (mobile pet grooming); CertaPro Painters Ltd. (residential and commercial painting); Lawn Doctor (lawn, tree & shrub care; pest control); Rooter-man (plumbing, drain & sewer cleaning); Cruise Planners Franchising LLC/American Express (Travel services); Bark Busters Home Dog Training (dog training); Proforma (printing & promotional products); Novus Auto Glass (windshield repair & replacement); MARS Int'l Inc. (auto appearance reconditioning services) and Mr. Handyman Int'l LLC (home maintenance and repairs).

You may find it artistically and financially fulfilling creating items and selling them from home. With the advances in the internet and the introduction of drop ship manufacturing - it is easy for many people to design and sell their own products with little effort or capital investment. The best part of this new era is that most of the websites listed below offer full services from marketing to payment collection to drop shipping - making it easy to quickly start selling from home!!!

1. eBay or Kijiji - online marketplaces to sell all goods
eBay is the premier online marketplace for selling from home - locally, nationally and globally. I have used eBay to buy things many times and have sold with it a few times. Kijiji is eBay's free alternative to online auctions - it is an electronic classifieds board. There are a few different forms of eBay businesses:
A. Selling your own used items.
B. Selling other people's used items on commission or consignment.
C. Resell consumer products at a mark-up. Many people will buy low costs items and re-sell them for more. There are many reasons why this works.
- some items are not available around the world;
- some items are not available in particular lots sizes (ie. you could buy items only available in bulk and then sell them individually);
- items can be modified slightly (ie. painted, wrapped, sorted, etc...) and sold for more money; and
- items can be purchased separately then sold in kits, gift baskets, or complimentary packages.
D. Sell your own goods.

2. Etsy - online marketplace to sell homemade goods
Etsy is an online marketplace for buying & selling homemade or vintage items. Like eBay this service takes care of the listing, marketing, ordering and money transfer for you. You simply need to make the item and then ship it to the purchaser. They have a great help section that not only teaches you how to use their site they also cover: setting you prices, marketing, how-to craft guides and many, many other items.

3. Cafepress - online marketplace that allows users to apply their designs to customizable merchandise.
CafePress.com is an online marketplace with millions of members who have created over 150 million unique products on customizable merchandise ranging from apparel, home and office accessories to music and data CDs and books to prints, posters and cards. With this service you are able to upload graphic designs, logos, sayings, pictures, texts, music and more. Your creative designs are then paired with CafePress.com's customizable merchandise. These custom items (logo'd T-shirts, your pictures on postcards, etc...) are then marketed on CafePress.com. The site takes care of marketing, ordering, money transfer, manufacturing and drop shipping your items - to allow you to seamlessly sell products from home.

4. Lulu - online, on demanding sale of your books, videos, CDs, DVDs, calendars, reports and more. In it's own words "Lulu is not a publisher. Its a digital marketplace". Lulu provides tools to format your digital content, market it, print or burn it and distribute it. I have not used this service and do not know anyone who has - however it has won awards and the buzz about it is great. Whether you want to use lulu for vanity publishing or small publishing you can take advantage of their print and ship on demand platform. This allows you to start selling from home without maintaining an inventory and prepaying for volume book publications.

Of course if you want to "go it alone" selling from home - you can stick to more traditional ways to advertise the products that you are selling from home, for example: listing yourself in the yellow pages or on directory websites and community bulletin boards; signs and vehicle wraps; distribution of flyers, business cards, mailers, magnets, pens, brochures, dvds, cds or photos; cold calls; business website; home parties and open houses; community events; and trade shows and conventions.

SERVICES:
There are many different types of online or work at home service businesses but they generally fall into one of the following five categories:

Small business consulting: Providing expert advice to customers on your area of expertise online.

Telecommuting: Working for clients exclusively from home.

Infopreneur: Providing free information on a website. Money is earned through advertising, affiliate links and attracting customers to your other business ventures. Check out one of the most successful infopreneur platforms in the world SBI or read about my experience using SBI here.

Lead generation: Generating sales leads, contacts and customer lists for companies.

Other services: Providing other services for clients.

There are many services out there to help people who want to create home based businesses providing services. Some examples of such services are:

A. oDesk.com
oDesk is a lot like eBay for computer services - it allows buyers of services to post technological jobs online. Service providers are able to bid on the jobs. After the buyer has selected the service provider and the work has been completed both buyers and service providers are given the opportunity to provide feedback for each other - again similar to eBay. oDesk also facilitates the exchange of money for the services performed.

B. Elance.com
Elance provides an opportunity for everyone to find work and do what they love. Individuals and firms join Elance and create their online profile in order to be immediately connected to businesses looking for their expertise. The Elance platform is an end-to-end solution for working on demand. Elance lists jobs in the following fields: web & programming; design & multimedia; writing & translation; administrative support; sales & marketing; finance & management; legal and engineering & manufacturing.

C. Guru.com
Guru.com is the world's largest online marketplace for freelance talent. Through their free service, employers find top freelance and contract talent locally, nationally, or globally. Created in August of 2000, Guru.com's web-based marketplace directly connects businesses with more than 100, 000 active freelance profiles specializing in over 160 professional categories including: website design, programming, graphic design, business consulting, and administrative support. Employers seeking professional expertise post their projects or contract work on Guru.com for free. Professionals seeking work either register as a free (Basic) member or a subscribing (Guru) member. In addition, employers and professionals can take advantage of Guru.com's SafePay Escrow and Dispute Resolution services which greatly reduce transaction risks.

D. DoMyStuff.com
DoMyStuff.com allows you to post a chore that needs doing (ANYTHING like - picking up dry-cleaning, mowing your lawn, cooking your dinner, installing software, walking the dog) and then individuals or businesses in your area will bid on your proposal.

E. Mechanical Turk
Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is a crowdsourcing marketplace (breaks up jobs into tiny pieces so that work can be shared by many people) that enables computer programs to co-ordinate the use of human intelligence in providing services which computers are unable to do. Job posters, post tasks such as choosing the best among several photographs of a storefront, writing product descriptions, or identifying performers on music CDs. Workers can then browse among existing tasks and complete them for a monetary payment.

F. iLetYou:
iLetYou is a product rental search engine, and provides a store platform for rental businesses (new, large and small) to build a customizable online rental store. Earn commissions for referrals for signups to both free and paid rental stores:* Free Plans: $1.50 per lead (creates a store, must adds at least 1 items for rent); * Paid Plans: $39.95 and $99.95 commissions (1st month subscription fee); * 90 return days iLetYou is a great work from home, entrepreneur and business opportunity. The need for online rental software cuts across may products, but one great place to start is with the highly lucrative party and event rental business. Rental businesses carrying anything from jumpers, games, linens, decorations and much more make great businesses to start given their low startup cost.

Of course there are also the more traditional ways to advertise the services you are providing such as: listing yourself in the yellow pages or on directory websites and community bulletin boards; signs and vehicle wraps; distribution of flyers, business cards, mailers, magnets, pens, brochures, dvds, cds or photos; cold calls; business website; community events; and trade shows and conventions.

TYPES OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Not sure what type of product or service you would like to provide?

Even if you have an idea in mind I recommend that you look at other ideas for two reasons.
The first reason is that you may find that there is a completely different business idea that is better suited to you and your skills.

The second reason is that you may discover a different niche or income stream within your original idea. These new ideas may be easier or better to undertake or may be well-suited to be done in conjunction with the original idea in order to diversify your business.

Consider many different fields of products/services such as: arts & entertainment; book & magazine; business & consulting services; construction & trades; food & beverage; gift & special occasion; health & fitness; high tech; home service; personal service; pet and other businesses.

SCAMS
Due to the unfortunate rise in scams in this area, it is critical to do your research. There are MANY, MANY scams out there - which is why it is so important to be able to recognize them when you see them. Avoiding scams is tough but we are here to help!! If you are unsure then you need to ask yourself the following questions:

1. What is the value that you have added to the product or project?
If you are not adding value to the product or project - then why would anyone pay you for your work? The exception to this rule would be the instances where you are making money off of peoples differing perception of value. The risk you take is that you are involved in a company that is scamming you or teaching you to scam others or both. You also need to ask yourself: even if this is legal - is it ethical?

2. Would someone pay you to perform this service in person?
If you can't get paid for it in person, then why would anyone pay for it online? Again it is possible that the business is perfectly legal and yet pays you for things online that a person in real life would not pay you for - but the odds of this being the case are extremely small. It is more likely that the business is designed to scam you or to train you to scam others or both. I have a low risk tolerance and if either: (1) I am not adding value or (2) no one would pay me for this in "real life" then I would walk away - maybe even run!!

3. Do they need money upfront?
Some legitimate businesses may require that you pay a franchise fee or buy a business kit in order to start your business with them. The presence of an upfront fee is not a definite sign of a scam - many businesses have legitimate reasons for requesting upfront fees. Reputable franchises spend a lot of money on advertising, research, branding and other items. They charge a franchise fee in order to cover these costs and in order to earn a profit from the companies operating under their banner. Chances are decent that if you have heard of and seen the franchise in your real life (other than from the person "selling" it to you!!) then it is legitimate business. Kit based businesses can collect fees for the same reasons and also to cover the cost of your business start-up kit. Again this is a mixed bag - some companies charge fees that merely recover their costs of material - knowing that they will make their money off the mark-up on their products. Other (less reputable) companies often sell "kits" that are made up of books and other materials that provide little or no value to the person purchasing it - they do not care if you sell any of their products - some do not even have real products - they make their money from selling these "kits". Again it is important to go for businesses that you are familiar with or do your research.

4. Do you KNOW anyone that has successfully made money with this business?
The main reason I wanted to start this website and develop a 'owners talk' section is so that people who have a legitimate tried and tested business can help others to start their own. There is no testament stronger than the endorsement of someone that you know and trust!!

5. Does the person "recruiting" you make money just by signing you up?
Beware of "pyramid" schemes - schemes in which people are paid based on how many people they sign up not based on sales or other indicators. Finders fee or referral fees are very common in all businesses but they are not the main source of money in a legitimate business. Not only are pyramid schemes illegal in most places but only the first few people in a pyramid actually make any money - the people in the centre are lucky to recover their initial investment and the people at the bottom are the ultimate losers - they lose their full investment.

and the main question:

6. Does it sound too good to be true?
Because if it does - then it probably is!!
You need to RESEARCH all aspects of starting a small business. This means checking with your local and federal better business bureau or other business verification agency.

SIDEBAR: seeing a "Verified" or "BBB" (Better Business Bureau) logo on their website does not mean that they are actually registered with any qualified agencies. Many sites will put a dummy logo on their sites and some go as far as providing a link to a dummy verification page on their own domain!! You should be able to go directly to the agencies site and lookup that business there. If you find such a logo on a website then find that they are not members in good standing with that agency - then they are SCAMS!! Run away from this business, pausing only to report the site to your local fraud bureau.

Some of the more common scams are:
i. Stuffing envelopes: this common scam has you "buy" envelopes and flyers from a company - once you have stuffed the envelopes and submitted then the company will often say that the quality is below standards and do not pay you for your work - worse you never get your initial fee back.

ii. Home assembly: this is very similar to the scam discussed in (i) - you pay for the raw material - make the products and company rejects them - leaving you out both money and time.

iii. Medical billing: some reputable companies provide medical billing services from home and look for new typists all the time. Unfortunately, scammers have caught onto this and are trying to get people to pay hundreds of dollars to special equipment and software to do this from home. Most legitimate companies looking for workers will NOT charge the person any fees upfront. They will sign a contract with the person and provide a license to their existing software - they will also provide all of your work - you do not have to (and usually can not) try to get jobs directly from medical clinics.

iv. "E-mail processing", "typing from home" or claims to "use your computer to make millions" or to help you "make money online": your return for investing in these scams? a half-baked summary of how you can scam others the same way you have been scammed. There are ways to earn money typing from home - but again - legitimate companies will not ask you to pay up front fees - they will not offer to sell you "customer lists" - they will provide you work directly.

v. "E-mail us for more information" or "call us at 1-900 for more information": these scams collect contact information for legitimate and scamming marketing lists. Further 1-900 phone numbers cost you money - money that goes to the scammer. The other concern is that these scams often request additional information to sell to other scammers or to engage in identity theft.

vi. Chain letters / e-mails promising that you will "make money fast" or requesting that you send them personal or financial information or send money: these scams collect contact information for scammers, facilitate identity theft and take money from those unwitting enough to send it.

Whatever you decide to try out - it is essential to look into it. Talk to people who have undertaken similar ventures, if possible try to shadow this person for a day and see what it is like to work in this area. This will allow you to have a clearer picture as to what you are getting into while allowing you to network with other business people and get familiar with how a successful person runs this business.

GOOD LUCK!!

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Everything You Need to Know to Start Your Own Work At Home Business

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