Posts Tagged ‘work at home business’
What Should You Sell On eBay
For most new eBay sellers, the first question that comes to mind is “What should I sell?” quickly followed by “Where can I get items to resell?”
Just about any item you can think of is being sold on eBay, from jewelry to clothing to electronic items to computer software to collectibles to toys. How do you choose what you should sell?
For any type of home business, the best thing to focus on is something that you are knowledgeable about or something you are passionate about. Some people will know instantly what that is; for others there may be more of a struggle and a sense of confusion as to what direction to take.
It’s helpful to know what the market potential is for any particular item you may be interested in selling. Spend a good amount of time on market research. Watch trends in what types of items are selling and for how much. What are customers actually searching for and what are they buying?
eBay offers quite a few selling tools that can be very helpful in your research efforts. From eBay’s home page click on “Site Map” on the top right hand corner. Under Selling Resources, click “Seller Central”. To find out what’s in demand, click “What’s Hot”.
Also be sure to review the Hot Items. Here’s how:
- From Seller Central, click “Resources”.
- Under “Seller News”, click Hot Lists by Category.
eBay also offers “Marketplace Research” under Advanced Selling Tools, also from the Seller Central Resources.
Once you have narrowed down what category or what item you may want to sell, spend some time reviewing completed auctions to see how much of a market there is. Under search options, click the box that says “completed listings.” This will show you which items actually sold and for how much.
These are some suggestions as to how to find out what people want. Once you know what you want to sell, the next step is to decide the best way to obtain your inventory.
Should You Open An eBay Store
Should you open an eBay store? There are a lot of advantages to opening an eBay store, and if you are serious about using eBay as a vehicle to eventually quit your day job, opening an eBay store is one of the steps you should probably take to help you achieve your goals more quickly.
For one thing, an eBay store allows you additional exposure to your listings. According to eBay, within three months after opening a store, store sellers typically see an increase of 25% in sales. If you have a large number of listings, you will see a dramatic reduction in listing fees.
You will definitely save time by opening your own store. More tasks can be automated with an eBay store. For example, if you have been listing a lot of items individually, having an eBay store will save you time, because store inventory can be set to last for longer periods of time, such as 30, 60, 90 or 120 days, or “good until cancelled.” There is also automatic renewal of unsold items. You can also automate asking for feedback and keeping track of your orders.
Having an eBay store will allow you to have more exposure both on and off eBay. You will have your own web address (URL), so you can establish a web presence and drive traffic to your URL. You can actually establish a relationship with repeat customers by having a store newsletter. By using this tool, you will be able to remind your best customers what items you have available, what items are newly added or on sale.
To open an eBay store, you need a seller’s account and a feedback rating of at least 20. You must be ID verified or have a PayPal account. For anyone who is serious about making a full-time living on eBay, opening an eBay store should seriously be considered. A good rule of thumb is if you’re selling at least 20 items a month, an eBay store will increase your profits and save you time. It will definitely help you grow your business.
Getting Jobs on Bidding Sites
How do you improve your chances of getting jobs on bidding sites? Usually you’re competing against several other freelancers, some of whom may have more experience and more testimonials. Keep in mind that freelancers with a great deal of experience are probably going to place high bids. On the low end of the scale will be people from third world countries, who often don’t speak English as their native language. The new freelancer will probably fit somewhere in between these two extremes.
Write the best profile you can and make sure it doesn’t have spelling or grammatical errors. Spend some time reading the profiles of successful freelancers to get ideas on what to emphasize. You could even hire one of the very successful freelancers to help you write your profile. Be sure to include a variety of samples of your work for potential buyers to read.
For ideas on how much to bid, watch what other freelancers are bidding. Some ghostwriters post their rates on their own websites. Some bidding sites allow you to see what other people are bidding, like http://www.rent-a-ghostwriter.com. Even on sites where bidding is sealed, there is often a way to see the range of bids.
Top Freelance Bidding Sites
If you want to get started working as a freelancer, the best place to start is with freelance bidding sites. These sites are usually free to register. Each site then has different requirements, often with different levels of membership. Depending on the site, a fee might be charged to the buyer or the service provider or both. Choose a membership level, build a profile and start bidding on jobs.
Bidding sites are a great way to begin to develop a portfolio. They allow a new freelancer to gain valuable experience as well as testimonials to the quality of their work. Projects are usually posted daily, so they offer a great opportunity for a new service provider to find work. There is also some protection for new service providers in the sense that buyers pay up front for projects and the bidding site holds the money in an escrow account. This takes away the fear of not getting paid for projects you complete.
There are several bidding sites to choose from. Take your time exploring the sites and evaluating what membership options there are. These are the top freelance bidding sites:
- http://www.elance.com is one of the largest bidding sites and offers quite a few new job postings every day. Opportunities are available in programming, design, writing, engineering, administrative support, sales and marketing.
- http://www.getafreelancer.com offers opportunities in programming, web design, copywriting and technical writing.
- http://www.rentacoder.com is a great source of opportunity for software coders. There are also opportunities for graphic designers, writers and virtual assistants.
- http://www.guru.com has opportunities in web and graphic design, writing, programming, sales and telemarketing, engineering, finance and accounting and administrative support.
- http://www.ifreelance.com is one of the lower priced bidding sites and does not charge commission on the money you earn. Opportunities are available for writers, photographers, artists and programmers.
Check out these bidding sites and start bidding on jobs. To improve your chances of getting jobs on these sites, read my next post.
Great Chance to Win a Flip Mino HD
Ryan McLean from Smarter Wealth is giving away a brand new Flip Mino HD to one lucky reader. This will be the easiest Flip Mino HD to win because barely anyone is going to enter meaning more chances that you can win.
The Flip Mino HD is the coolest gadget around. You can shoot one hour of video in HD (so you can play it on your plasma) and you can even edit your footage right on your device. This device is so small that it will fit in your pocket so you will never miss capturing a moment ever again.
To enter all you have to do is sign up for Ryan’s newsletter and post about the competition.
Check out all the details of how you can enter the Win a Flip Mino HD competition now.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Freelancing
For those seeking work at home opportunities, what most people are really looking for is freedom. Freedom from time clocks, nerve-wracking commutes, performance reviews, asking permission to go to the restroom, etc.
One path to freedom is working as a freelancer. Freelancing means contracting a particular skill or service, often on a per project basis. You are contracted to do a particular job, but you are not employed by the person who contracts you. Some of the skills that are offered on a freelance basis are writing, photography, graphic design, editing and computer programming.
Some of the advantages of freelancing include:
- Variety of projects and people you work for. When a project is complete, you have no obligation to continue working for a particular company. You can work for more than one company or client.
- Control over what your time is worth. At a regular job, your income is limited to what your employer thinks you are worth. As a freelancer, you charge what you feel your services are worth, and you can adjust your bids at any time.
- Scheduling freedom. If you are a night person, you have the freedom to do the bulk of your work at 10 p.m. or later. Likewise, you can work at 5 a.m. if you’re most alert in the morning, and you can take the afternoon off to do errands or spend time with your kids.
The disadvantages of freelancing include:
- Lack of steady income. There is something to be said for knowing where your next paycheck is coming from. In the freelancing world, until you have established yourself with several steady clients, there is an absence of a steady paycheck.
- Time required finding jobs. For a freelancer, part of your business plan has to include spending part of your work day marketing yourself and looking for more work.
- Income taxes. Being self-employed means being responsible for your own record-keeping and income taxes. If you are single, you also need to worry about health insurance and retirement planning.
If you believe the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, learn more about freelance bidding sites in my next post.
Information Overload
Information overload is one of the most crippling problems for people who work at home from their computer. There is so much to do and learn. Everywhere you turn, there are new ebooks to read, blogs to follow, forum discussions to participate in, audios and videos to listen to. You subscribe to the newsletters of a dozen gurus. The next thing you know, it seems like you’re running in place, putting forth a ton of energy but never really making progress.
One of the keys to successful self-employment is productive use of time. Working at home means no one is looking over your shoulder. You don’t have to punch a time clock, so no one notices if you work two hours a day or twelve. But if you’re putting in a full day, or even if you’re working two or three hours a day around a full-time job, what do you have to show for the time you are putting in?
If you clearly know what you’re trying to accomplish, it’s easier not to get sidetracked. Each night before you go to bed, make a clear plan of what you are going to accomplish the next day. Put 3-5 things on your to do list and make sure those things get done. They may be adding an entry to your blog, writing a chapter in an ebook, sending out a newsletter, doing keyword research, working on an adwords campaign or learning something that you don’t yet know how to do (read an ebook or watch a video on a specific topic). Set a time limit for how much time you will spend on each task.
To further bring things into focus, you need to decrease the ton of information that is coming at you. Unsubscribe from newsletters that you never get around to reading. Turn off the TV. Complete one or more items from your “to do” list before side-tracking yourself with reading emails. In fact, for most people, a time limit has to be set for reading emails than for any other area.
Do what you can with each day. The more you plan ahead to take charge of your own time, the less information overload will sidetrack you and distract you from where you’re trying to go.
Why Do So Many New Businesses Fail?
Why do so many new businesses fail? Many people start new businesses - particularly online businesses - with a lot of drive and hope, but only a small fraction of people who start online businesses actually succeed.
Here are some of the reasons so many online businesses fail. A lot of these reasons apply to any type of small business.
- Failure to plan. Business success is not something that just happens. It’s something you have to make happen. The way to make it happen is to make a plan with specific steps. Your plan has to include a strategy for making your business grow. For example, if you start your own website, you have to make a plan for getting traffic to your website. This may include free methods and paid methods or both. Above all, it must include paying attention to what’s working and what’s not working. Your plan needs to include getting a handle on what you’re doing with your time, because in business, time is money.
- Lack of action. Many people talk about starting an internet business. They purchase ebooks, software and other products. They read ebooks, watch videos, listen to audios. But they never get started. They never set up a marketing campaign to promote a particular project, or they never get started writing their ebook, even though that’s what they mean to do. This ties in with #1: what do you plan to accomplish today or this week or this month? What deadlines do you have for completing what you’re starting?
- Going in too many directions. Internet marketing has a huge learning curve, and you can’t learn everything in a day or a week. You need to pick a direction and go in it. You can only learn one thing at a time. Slow down. Learn one thing thoroughly, then move on.
If you are new to internet marketing, there is a ton of information coming at you on a daily basis. How do you stay focused? Learn more about information overload in my next post.
Keeping Good Business Records
Keeping good business records is an important part of owning a home business. You need to be able to document how much money is coming in and how much is going out for several reasons:
- You need a clear sense of whether your business is actually making a profit. It’s only by clearly seeing your business trends that you can make decisions such as whether to invest more, spend less, or change your strategy.
- You need to be able to document your income for tax purposes.
- Good business records will be required if you seek outside financing. The larger your business grows, the more documentation will be required by outside auditors and investor.
For many business owners, record keeping is one of the less pleasant aspects of running a business. But if you develop good habits of organization early in the game, you won’t find yourself digging through mountains of paperwork at tax time.
Here are some basic tips for keeping good business records:
- Open a separate checking account for your business and keep business transactions separate from personal transactions.
- Keep receipts and invoices in a folder labeled “Expenses”. Also create clear documentation of any cash transactions. Expenses included advertising, bank fees, licenses and permits and inventory.
- Document all income in a spreadsheet or a separate folder labeled “Income.” Track any cash or checks received as well as PayPal payments.
Spreadsheets are a great tool for documenting income versus expenses. Consult with a tax professional to find out what expenses should be tracked besides those listed above. Get in the habit of filing and recording transactions daily
Keeping good records is the only way you will know for sure whether your business is actually making a profit. Good habits developed early will ensure that you are able to stay on top of your business decisions at all times.
Do You Have An Entrepeneurial Mind?
Do you have an entrepreneurial mind and spirit? The word itself “entrepreneur” sounds like someone larger than life. An entrepreneur is basically someone who takes on a business venture and all the risks and responsibilities that go with it.
What characteristics are needed to become an entrepreneur?
Determination. You must decide that failure is not an option. A very large percentage of small businesses fail, usually because of lack of capital or lack of experience. Your decision to start a home business will require all the determination you can muster.
Hard work. The funny thing is most people who want to work at home hope to work less than 40 hours a week, but in the early years, very likely you will work well over 40 hours a week. The phone will ring at all hours; there will be problem after problem that needs to be solved and all of them need to be solved by you. You have to be committed to getting the job done, even in the middle of the night at first.
Resourcefulness. All the answers you are looking for won’t be revealed immediately. You will have to find creative solutions from time to time. Chances are there won’t be anyone there to tell you what to do.
Ability to plan ahead. Your business isn’t going to just happen. You have to plan how it’s going to happen. You have to look at what might go wrong and what you’ll do if it does. You have to look at what your competitors are doing and consider what you should be doing to remain competitive.
Stay positive. There will definitely be bumps in the road. You can’t give up at the first sign of trouble – or at the second or third sign either.
Faith in yourself. The fact that you have the drive and the desire to start your own business is a very good sign that you believe in yourself enough to get started. Stay in your own corner no matter what. Don’t question yourself and your abilities whenever you make a mistake. You will make mistakes. You are doing something you never did before.
That’s what makes you an entrepreneur.