11-25-2016, 02:58 PM
Goes through a number of ideas for starting a home business for little start up cash. Nothing earth shattering, but there might be some new names and websites you've never heard of to check out.
This is a lot of text in two posts, but I guess it beats another file on your computer and saves a few bucks.
INTRODUCTION
Why do people want to start their own business? I suppose that the answer is as individual as the person, but the basic reasons are usually.
I have always wanted to be my own boss
I hate the idea of being a wage slave
To give me a sense of achievement
To do something I am really interested in
To make lots of money
To give me the life style I have always wanted
I want to work from home
I want to work around my family
I want to sack the boss!
How many people go on to start their own businesses and how many people are put off by thinking that starting their own business means a huge amount of cost and that there are a lot of different skills that need to be mastered. Well it rather depends on the type of business you choose to start, some of the best and most profitable businesses have grown from very modest beginnings.
I started my first business in my box room at home buying and selling computers, I did not need premises or an accountant, I simply kept my own accounts in a ledger that I bought from my local store for a couple of dollars. The economic recession and uncertainty in the labour market and the need to make a second income has provided many with the impetus to start their own business through necessity. This makes the chance that the business will succeed much higher as there will be a real commitment to its success.
Contained in this course are my top dozen start up ideas that you can set up and profit from some are entirely free none will cost more than $100 to start with. All of these are tried and tested ideas but they all require one important ingredient and that is called the ACTION STEP.
It does not matter how many business blueprints you buy or how many coaching programs you subscribe to it will never work unless you take the ACTION STEP. It really is all about taking action and taking it consistently on a daily basis.
The information you now have in your hands is potentially life changing. Wishing you all success
Robert Corrigan
BLUEPRINT 1
MAKING A START
One of the biggest fears people have in starting their own business is the fear that they might lose money. This is a natural fear, if we have spent our hard earned money on starting a business or have used our savings we are always fearful that we could lose our investment. By setting the limit on your start up costs I have already limited the risk for you.
The important thing is to limit the risk at every stage. You may not wish to use your wages or your savings so you need to find another way of financing the business.
You will need to cover your start up costs in other ways. So rather than searching for something with a big learning curve think if you can offer something you are already successful at.
Can you work some additional hours and use that money for the start up capital? There is also the temptation to spend the money and become used to the extra in the pay packet so we become dependant on this money instead.
Can you offer some sort of professional service such as accounting, design work, tutoring, gardening or any number of other services to make the start up capital? If so you have started your business for free. You could always offer your services on such sites as Upwork, people per hour or student gems to name just a few.
But what if you are unable or unwilling to offer these services? They may be exactly the things that we are wanting to get away from. So lets look at other ideas to raise our start up capital.
TIME TO DE-CLUTTER
I have no doubt that in every household there are many items that are no longer wanted or needed. These items may be unwanted gifts, items that have been replaced but still in working order and a host of things that are no longer wanted. What we have here is dormant capital that we can use to monetise our business. There are a number of ways to do this.
1. HOLD A CAR BOOT/GARAGE OR TABLE SALE
Collect all the items that we no longer want and offer them for sale, book a pitch or hire a table at a popular venue, you can check this out in the local press or you can search for weekend markets online. A pitch can be hired for a modest fee, you can easily make your start up capital in one or two sales.
2. LIST YOUR ITEMS FOR SALE ON EBAY
List your items for sale on eBay, this requires a little more research work. Use the 'eBay completed items' search to find similar items that have finished and their final selling price. With this information you can decide if an item is worth selling on eBay or if you be better off selling the item in a table sale. Remember for eBay you will need to pay a listing fee, a final value fee and a PayPal fee which will eat into your start up capital There is also the possibility that your item will fail to sell.
3. USE AMAZON
Resell your books on Amazon (see Blueprint 1) if you have any books you can dispose of you can sell these on Amazon's Market Place. Just make sure that the price you will receive back for the item makes it worth the effort. Very popular items sell at very low prices and this is the attraction for the buyer so to make this work we need to be looking at the items that will bring in a decent return.
4. USE THE FREE PRESS
Place a series of small ads in the free papers such as Loot etc, also try Craigs List and Gumtree all who have local sites or Hubs where adverts can be placed. Expect buyers to haggle over the price.
However you make the start up capital the most important point is not to dig into this capital, use it to start your business.
But what happens if I lose the lot? Well what have you actually lost? Really it is just your time, because all you have lost otherwise is things that you no longer wanted or needed anyway, it really would take a supreme talent not to make anything. So let us take a look at these low cost start up opportunities together with the advantages and disadvantages of each.
BLUEPRINT 2
SELLING SPECIALIST BOOKS
This opportunity may not even depend on finding your start up capital. This is a very simple business to start and run and that is selling books on Amazon. If you have used Amazon in the past you will know that when you log on to Amazon there is always a page of recommendations based on your past purchases. You may also be tempted into selling your previous purchases using Amazon market place.
If you have bought popular books in the past the bad news (or the good news if you are buying) is that these popular books may not be worth very much, just a few cents each. At first appearance that looks like the end of your business venture but that is not the case.
The way to make money on Amazon is to offer books in niche areas such as academic, specialist and hobby books (the same holds true for specialist DVD's and CD's). To give an example, the latest Dan Brown may be selling for just a few dollars, whereas books bought for a college course, specialist or hobby books sell for considerably more.
There are two types of Amazon account that you can sign up for. These are 'Individual Selling Account' for sellers who make less than 40 sales per month. Or, you can open a 'Trading Account' for sellers who sell more than 40 items per month, this is subscription based at approx $39.99 per month. The exact amount vary from one countries site to the other
Check out the scale of fees by using the links. If all this seems complicated and off putting don't worry it really is very simple. Just click on the link “sell your stuff”
There are 7 Amazon sites world wide but the most commonly used is Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
So how do you find out what each book may be worth? Basically there are 2 ways.
Search by Title and Author
Search by using the ISBN number
Having found a suitable book for resale we will need to list it. The following screen grabs will give the out line of the whole process of listing an item for sale.
The great advantage of Amazon over eBay is that you only pay when an item sells, again consult the table of fees. Also there is no need to work out the postage fees as Amazons system adds the postage rate to your product automatically.
SOLD YOUR OWN BOOKS? WHERE DO YOU OBTAIN NEW STOCK?
This really is the easy part when you start, Charity shops, car boot and table sales are all full of rich pickings. The very best part is that academic, specialist and hobby books sell for very little from these sources as by their very nature there is very little demand for these items in the charity shop. Consider this, if you wanted to buy a specialist book would your go around your local Charity shops to search for it? Or would you try to buy it online?
Use the ISBN number to determine the selling price on Amazon from that information you will be able to see the resale price and the books popularity. A notebook and pencil or the ability to store information in the memory of a phone or portable PA is all that is required.
What's more this method of trading takes very little time and effort. Always endeavour to offer a first class service. Put a time limit on your expected dispatch time for each book you sell and stick to it. As with eBay there is a feedback system that allows purchasers to rate you as a seller, I personally always dispatch items within 2 working days. Always use a padded bag for safety and security.
OBTAINING MORE STOCK
Once you have been selling books for sometime you will get a feel for your market so you will need to start looking for suppliers who can supply volume on a consistent basis. There are many specialist book wholesalers that can be approached to supply stock for resale. You will need to make sure before you buy that you have a good chance of making a decent profit on the stock you are interested in buying. Use 'book wholesalers' as a search word you can also use specialist niche in the search title also try 'book close outs' as a search term on google or other search engines.
A substantial business can be built trading books on Amazon, don't neglect using eBay to find stock and flipping it on Amazon for a profit.
Other products sold on Amazon have their own unique identifier codes which can be used to search for prices and to do your listings. The code numbers will load a catalogue description and an image. If you are successfully selling a product on eBay you can also sell that product successfully on Amazon.
BUILD YOUR BUSINESS
If you find that you are dealing with a large volume of sales then storage will become an issue as well as the constant visits to the post office. There are two solutions to this problem but only one solves the storage problem.
You could use another delivery service that will pick up your parcels from home to save you the constant trips to the post office. You may be able to negotiate a cheaper delivery rate from them. There are plenty of companies that will do this but they often require commitment to a minimum number of parcels each month to claim the discounted rate.
The better alternative is to use Amazon's own fulfilment services. This means that you can send your entire inventory to Amazon's fulfilment warehouse and they will deal with all the order fulfilment, packing, distribution and payments on your products in exchange for a small fee. This will be completely hands free and will free up your time to find new inventory and build your business. Remember this box?
Click on the Fulfilment by Amazon Link. You can then sign up and review how Amazon's fulfilment services work.
ADVANTAGES
Minimal start up costs, as low as zero if you already have a book or books you can sell
It is very easy to source new stock very cheaply when you are starting
You can start and stop this business to suit the demands on your time
It is very simple to run and you can have you inventory fulfilled by Amazon
DISADVANTAGES
If you have a lot of stock this demands storage space for it
Most items you sell will be “one off” items when you start
There is a continual search for good selling items available in bulk when your business takes off
BLUEPRINT 3
SELL SECOND USER COMPUTERS.
The selling of second user computers is a very easy start up opportunity, second user stock can be bought very cheaply from wholesalers and disposal specialist and there is constant supply of “new” stock. Unfortunately most of the companies that deal in specialist stock have a minimum spend which will vastly exceed our $100 start up limit.
To make a start in this market we will have to approach it from a different direction. Search your local press for details of Computer Marts or Computer Fairs, you will often find a wide range of systems available at budget prices. You may be able to purchase an entire system (or systems) or more likely be able to assemble your own systems by buying base units from one vendor and monitors from another.
Before you decide to buy it is worth visiting a fair purely to get a feel for what is available, and to check out prices against the resale prices in the local press. There are some very important pieces of research that you will need to do before you can work out the total cost of a system made up from different vendors.
VITAL RESEARCH
Cost of base units(s)
Cost of monitor(s)
Keyboard/mouse
Speakers (if required)
Power leads
A complete system will have all of the above as part of the package so if you are assembling from parts then you will need to budget for all the components you require. It is false economy to buy second hand keyboards or mice. They will look worn, they will not perform as well and it costs only a few dollars for new ones, this creates a better quality look and feel when someone looks at the system for the first time.
Once you have the exact figures you can compare these computers to ones with a similar specification in your local press, you will then be able to see the profit potential of this idea.
SOME ADVICE
What to look for in a system:
Base unit, make sure that there are no obvious defects or damage to the base unit and that all the connections are undamaged, check that the CD/DVD drive functions correctly
Monitor, make sure all the controls work and that the monitor does not have screen burn (the residual image that can be seen burnt onto the monitor display)
Check any peripheral components for damage
Always obtain a receipt and the terms of the warranty offered
A good clean system will sell itself, a grubby system will not inspire confidence in the quality of the system or in yourself as a seller.
STAY LEGAL
Remember this, most software including the Operating System is copyright. Each computer will need a licence for the software loaded with it. Some systems have an OEM (original equipment manufacturers) licence this software is often stored on a partition on the main hard drive and is intended to allow you to reinstall the OS in case of a software failure. It is a legal requirement that the seller must ensure that all software loaded onto a computer is licensed.
Copyright on software are rigorously enforced by law and has severe penalties including imprisonment for piracy. For full information on software compliance follow the link, HERE. It is your responsibility to stay legal, ignorance of the law is no defence against prosecution.
There are a number of programs that are readily available to use at zero cost, they include.
OS: Linux is a free operating system that is available from a number of websites for download and use, it does not have the kudos of a Microsoft OS but most versions can be installed free or at a modest cost
Open Office: A complete office suite to rival Microsoft Office that is free to download and use it is very easy to use (this book was written on it) follow open office to download a copy
Graphics Program: The following are just a small sample of the programs available to download free. Irfan View, Serif, Paint Shop Pro
HOW TO ADVERTISE YOUR SYSTEM
It goes without saying that you need to make your advert stand out. So a good description may go something like this.
Dell Multimedia PC DVD RW
Intel i3 multimedia PC mega fast LCD screen
DVD RW all cables included genuine bargain Windows XP with licence lots of useful software $100
or a more general specification that will attract more general enquires
Broadband Windows PC 15” flat screen 2 Gb Ram XP (licensed), 350Gb Hard Drive, CD- ROM, speakers. First to see will buy $100 (pitch this price at what the market will stand).
Look at the adverts in the publication that you will be advertising with to get a feel of the type of adverts that are the most common look at the ones that attracted your attention and try to write a better more eye catching ad.
Include as much free (legal) software as you can this will add to the perceived value of the system you are offering. Offer more than your competitors and offer better value.
DEALING WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS
How you deal with your customers is of vital importance as initially the first contact is often made via the telephone. Here are the important points to observe when dealing with your customer.
Always be polite and helpful on the phone to your prospective customers they may have many questions, try to answer them as fully as possible, they may need some advice and you are the expert. You will soon get a feel for the time wasters
Set the computer up in a spare room or on a table, never divulge that you have more than one system available initially, this will put some people off and will either result in a none sale or a substantially reduced offer. Some people hate the idea that you are making a profit from them, you will also get a feel for these customers. Always offer a 30 day guarantee. Most of your competitors will not be doing this so you are already offering better value. Get a receipt book and make sure you use it.
Show the customer how to switch on the system and give them a quick tour of it, then leave them alone to play with it. Do not say anything unless they ask you a question.
Some customers will want to haggle, expect this, set a minimum price and stick to it don't disclose this price and don't be haggled beneath it. You have worked hard for this and you need to be rewarded for your labour. Most customers will pay the asking price. Some will offer you a pittance for your system just let them walk away there will always be another customer.
Don't offer to keep a system for a customer without a substantial deposit, most won't come back and you will lose sales to people who will be willing to pay you cash there and then not in a few days.
DEALING WITH THE AWKWARD CUSTOMER
There will always be a customer who is never satisfied with anything, constantly on the phone about one issue or another. Here is some simple advice, save yourself the grief and your own sanity. Offer to buy the system back at the purchase price you don't need customers like this, just sell the system to someone else.
ADD VALUE
There are several things that you can do to add value:
Home Set Up: You could offer to set up the system in their home you could charge a small fee for this service.
Upgrades: You could offer an upgrade service for such items as memory, hard drives and graphics cards etc., but make sure you have the necessary skills for the job or know someone who can do this cheaply.
BUILD YOUR BUSINESS
Use the profits from your first 2/3 computers to buy in larger quantities of systems, if you are only buying one or two at a time then you will never get the quantity discounts. If you are buying several systems at a time you can haggle the price from the traders at the computer market. Get to know them they are not your competitors or enemies they are your potential business partners.
When you have been trading with them for a while you may be able to JV (Joint Venture) with them to buy a larger quantity of stock at a substantial discount.
ADVANTAGES
Small initial outlay to start up.
Continual demand for the products.
Continual supply of new systems.
Potential for building a substantial business.
DISADVANTAGES
Face to face selling will not suit everyone.
Some knowledge of computer systems is required.
Storage space required for the storage of systems.
Lots of lifting involved.
You could also supply Laptop or Netbook computers, these are more expensive to buy in and more difficult to upgrade and repair. The market will be slightly different than for the desktop systems, there will be a lot of interest from students due the portability of Laptops and Netbooks.
BLUEPRINT 4
AUCTIONS AND ARBITAGE
An easy start up which anyone can do, it can however be very time consuming. If you look in your local press hardly a week goes by without an advert for goods to be disposed of at auction. The range of goods offered for auction is vast and varies from auction to auction.
Let it be said straight away that all auctions are not equal and the phrase “Caveat Emptor” or buyer beware should be prominent in your mind. Goods sold at auction seldom have a warranty of any kind and even with ones that do the warranty is very limited indeed and can be almost impossible to make a claim under.
An example of a well run legitimate auction is one that takes place at a companies own premises. Many “trade auctions” are held at different hired venues, although this is not necessarily a bad thing it should be a sign to proceed with caution at all times. These are usually themed, such as computers, kitchen equipment or white goods etc.
A CAUTIONARY TALE.
When I was in the computer trade I attended several auctions of computer equipment, these were advertised in the computer press and most were a complete rip off. Over 50% of the equipment was non working junk. How I managed not to bid on the lot of 50 non-working CD-ROMs I will never know, but someone did. Some of the auction items came with a 24 hour warranty, you register your warranty claim by ringing a number that goes unanswered for days at which point your warranty has run out. Some of this rubbish was auctioned at prices in excess of what you would have paid for brand new guaranteed items at the computer fair taking place at the same time only 10 minutes walk away.
The advantage of attending auctions at the auctioneers premises is that you know that the company is legitimate and that it has a reputation to uphold. The lots available will vary from auction to auction and will include a mixture of bankrupt stock, repossessions, overstocks, lost property, house clearances and disposal lots from other traders.
Identify any lots that you want to bid on, this can be done easily online as most companies have an online catalogue which is available free or at a modest charge. You can then visit the company on the day of the sale to check out the auction lots you are interested in. Before you go and bid it is very wise to research the resale value of the items you are interested in as this will be a determining factor in assessing your highest bid.
Use eBay completed listings and search Amazon market place to get a feel for the popularity and the expected selling price of the products you are interested in. You will need to register as a bidder when you arrive with a refundable deposit the auction house will then issue you with a bidding card.
IMPORTANT POINTS
The auction house will charge you commission on your winning bids, the rate of this commission will be clearly displayed at the auction house and in your catalogue. Your purchase will also be subject to tax at the going rate. This may be a local or a national tax such as VAT. So the price you bid is not the price you pay, that is the second important factor you will need to consider when you are interested in making a bid on a lot. When you have all this information (the possible resell price, the commission rate and the rate of tax or duty) can you work out your maximum bid. Despite what you may see on TV make your bidding very clear, raising an eyebrow subtly to auctioneer does not work, and you need not worry that scratching your ear means you have bid several million dollars on a Picasso, it does not work like this. The auctioneer will only take clear unambiguous bids.
I am going to write the following in BOLD capital letters, make sure you read it and act on it.
“DON'T GET INVOLVED IN VANITY BIDDING”
Set your price and stick to it, DON'T go above this figure, if you have done your research you will know your price. This also applies to online auctions if you pay too much for your stock it will suck your business dry. Now this may be an exciting afternoon out but it is massively time consuming it could even take a whole day.
You then have to transport the items, write descriptions, take photographs and list them on eBay or Amazon, another full day?
There must be an easier way than this, and here it is.
USE eBAY TO FIND WHOLESALE AND JOB LOTS
Use eBay to find job lots, break them apart and sell them at a profit. As with physical auctions the products are many and varied and you should always question the reasoning for selling them as a job lot. Some items will have simply failed to sell so are being disposed of for the highest bid price.
For example take games consoles they are always being offered for sale on eBay, you are looking for ones that are being sold with lots of extras such as controllers and games. Believe it or not these packages seldom make much more than the games consul on its own, there is the possibility here of breaking the package up and selling them separately.
Use the same approach to find other products which can be re-sold separately it just takes some research work to find these products. Here is a screen grab from eBay which shows the number of items for sale on any one day. It is simply a question of weeding out the good deals as the stock for sale varies on a daily basis.
With the correct choice of products an entire business can be built without ever leaving home to attend auctions.
ADVANTAGES
A simple start up opportunity
Massive turn over of auction products on a weekly basis
Huge amounts of stock can be obtained very cheaply and with a high resale value
DISADVANTAGES
Stock will vary from week to week in both physical and online auctions
it is easy to get caught up in vanity bidding
For offline bidding it is very time consuming
BLUEPRINT 5
JEWELLERY
This is a very economical start up opportunity. The business works at any time of the year but there are also times of the year when there is a very large increase in sales, these are Valentines Day, Mothers Day and Christmas. The easiest way to start the business is to find a local wholesaler by using your local business directory or searching online for local suppliers (preferred) so that you can inspect the merchandise. Failing that there is a huge choice of online wholesalers.
You can also find suppliers at trade fairs, you will find a huge selection of suppliers all competing for your custom. Trade and wholesale magazines from most large outlets such as The Trader again will give an enormous selection of wholesalers to choose from. The minimum buy in from these wholesalers is often much less than $100. There are many different types of Jewellery you can sell but if we are to keep our start up costs to the $100 limit we can sell costume jewellery (at least at the start).
Costume jewellery is big business but only if we approach the selling of it from the right perspective. Hint, eBay is NOT the answer. Now that may come as a bit of a shock as eBay is perceived as the answer to every way of making money. So we will leave eBay until later. So let's start making money from costume Jewellery.
It is a fact that this is one of the opportunities that the Ladies will excel at, sorry boys its a fact of life, its one of those things that we will just have to live with, the product will also sell itself. It is easy to do this during a lunch hour at work and apart from your initial stock very little else is needed.
A simple black velvet cloth can be spread across a table which will form a simple display background. Although you can use display busts to show off necklaces and bracelets can be displayed on stands they are certainly not needed to start with.
As with all fashion items, jewellery colours change with the seasons. So every season presents a fresh opportunity to sell. Jewellery is a feel good item and leads to repeat sales. Let us suppose that you have found a supplier here how to proceed.
SOME POINTS TO WATCH:
Don't buy too many of the same item even if there are discounts no one wants to have the same item as everyone else.
Keep a notepad handy to take orders for popular items.
You will be able to sell items in this way for about a week and a half before the boredom factor slips in, so in this time you can look at different outlets to sell into. Can you supply the local hairdressing salon or the local tanning salon or nail bar where impulse purchases are often made.
By approaching other outlets you can smooth out the peaks and troughs that are inevitable selling at just the one location.
FINDING A NICHE
The steps shown below work in ANY niche area. It is worth remembering that it is the method that is important, not the product being sold. Let us use Jewellery as a sales area, The screen shot below shows that Jewellery is a hot market but just look at the competition! The search has returned 45,055 items for sale there are obviously lots of pages to trawl though.
The chances of getting our item seen is very small and the profits on inexpensive costume Jewellery is razor thin to say the least so we need to specialise further. Let's look at some of the sub categories within the Jewellery section.
Silver
Gold
Goth
Amber
Let us look at a more specialist area of fine jewellery. This reduces the number of items on show and refines the search so that the targeting is more specific to the item that the buyer wishes to purchase. However, it is still a large market so it helps to think like a buyer. What search words might a buyer use? Make a list of possible search words and try them in turn.
We could decide to list our item in the more specialised areas, there will be much less competition, try to list where there are no more than 2/3 pages of listings and start off initially with the auction format as the listing will finish in chronological order. Here are some examples of niche areas that you can trade in where the competition is much less fierce. It is possible that you could have an entire sub category almost to yourself (at least for a little while).
Other traders will be looking at the niche areas as well and as soon as they see successful sales in a category they will try to muscle into the market. That is why you must always be looking to extend your product range and find other categories or sub categories to trade in.
Ok, so you may say that none of this is new, I have read similar stuff before. But its all about taking action and actually doing something. Don't be put off by false starts, the method is sound, it works but it needs to be applied with diligence.
In this example search for a niche Jewellery I have been able to find some niche areas I can trade in, imagine what you could find if you were to concentrate on areas that interested you? Well that's exactly how I set up my own eBay businesses. The next step is the crucial step to building your business and yet there are less than one in a thousand eBayers who use all these tactics.
EXPAND YOUR BUSINESS:
SET UP YOUR OWN WEBSITE
My personal belief is that it is not worth setting up a website to sell costume Jewellery and I am sure that there are plenty of people that would disagree with me. But it is well worth while to set one up when trading in the niche markets and this goes for every niche market you could trade in. You will dramatically increase the chance of success by specialising.
Now at this point there is usually an attack of the vapours before the often spoken expression “I could never do that”! Whilst this was true only a few years ago it is no longer true today.
When I first started the thought of setting up a website brought me out in a cold sweat, if the thought of setting up a website fills you with dread as it once did me, don't let it! The most common reasons given for not setting up a website are:
Cost
Lack of technical knowledge
When I convinced myself (very quickly) that I couldn't produce my own website I made enquiries of several web designers. The cheapest quote was over $800 and the most expensive $3,000. In other words well outside of our $100 start up costs. Naturally I decide not to pursue the website idea and the project went on the back burner for over a year. When I came back to the idea of a website I had a bit more confidence and I had researched the possibilities in rather more detail.
In that year I had discovered that many of the web hosting companies have their own e-commerce solutions. These are simple template driven websites that can be set up for a few dollars a month. You simply add the price, the product description which you already have from your eBay listings (you may need to edit it to fit the template) and a picture of the products.
These template driven websites allow you to customise the website to suit your theme and needs. This is a very economical way of having your business on line as fast as possible and hosted for you at a small monthly fee.
All payments for goods can be handled by PayPal, world pay or equivalent payment system. The entire payment system is automated, you will receive an e-mail when an item sells, you can set your stock levels to inform you when you need to restock an item. You can add or delete products and add multiple options as you refine your product range.
123reg.co.uk and 1&1.com are just two of the companies that I have used for my e-commerce websites, these are easy to use and configure, there are many other companies that offer similar packages so it is worth spending sometime on your research to get a package that is most closely suited to your needs.
The next method will require a bit more work but the finished website will be absolutely unique to yourself and your products. The method is to build or have built a simple e-commerce site using WordPress. Don't panic this is easier than it sounds as there are many website builders that can do this very economically and there is also a complete get you started e-commerce solution from Woo Commerce which even provide a theme for you to customise and a plugin to handle the sales and inventory.
There are a number of options for this solution.
Approach a web designer design company to produce a website for you. Need not be an expensive solution.
Put the project out to tender with elance, people by the hour, student gems or other similar organisations, use due diligence examine the work the bidders have done for other clients and agree in advance the payment schedule
Author it yourself, there are some very good tutorials on Youtube that show you exactly how to do this. The advantage of this approach is that you have complete control over all aspects of the project. The disadvantage is that it takes time to learn how to get the best from the software and this cuts into the earning time and becomes learning time. You will need to purchase a hosting account which has a monthly or yearly fee
Considering all the above points the advantages of using the e-commerce solutions become obvious and this is the path that I recommend at least to begin with.
PARTY PLAN
Expand by recruiting sales people to sell your higher priced items via Party Plans on a commission basis.
THE BASICS
You will need to recruit some well motivated sales people, they must have good presentation skills, be well turned out and good with people. As you will be paying on a commission basis they will need to be highly motivated and commit to a minimum number of parties per month or week.
Be mindful when recruiting that these sales people are the public face of your business so take your time to get the right people. Always present a friendly but professional aspect so the need for proper stationary such as an order form and business cards is a must.
You must be well organised and your sales people need to be too, you should have a stock number for each item and know how long it will be before the item is supplied.
You may also need a merchant account to process card payments although this can be done through your company website using mobile broadband which means that you can use PayPal or similar which is considerably cheaper to run than a merchant account. You should issue several pieces of each stock item you sell as people will want to examine them close up.
Presentation is now much more important and this is where you will have to invest some money in props. Some items will come pre-packed but often the presentation could be much better. The black velvet cloth will still work but other display items are now needed.
Items such as these are very inexpensive but pay for themselves by presenting your products in the best possible setting.
Process all orders immediately and deliver upon receipt. Only offer items that are available from stock. If someone orders 5 items and only receives 3 what impression would they have of your business? Put yourself in their place what would you think?
HOW TO RECRUIT YOUR SALES PEOPLE
It is best to start with doing every party yourself, that way you will learn what works and more importantly what does not work. You will find the method that works for you best. Start with your own party in your own home, a little wine to get the mood flowing and some inexpensive snacks, here is an opportunity to find recruits amongst the attendees it is also an opportunity to arrange further party's as the attendees will be different. Use the opportunity to hand out your business cards to all the attendees.
Most importantly the hostess should be rewarded with a gift for hosting the party. This is always a tricky one but goods to a % of the value sold at the party is usually a good starting point. Accompany any new salesperson on their first few parties unless you have hired tried and trusted sales people, they may be nervous and your presence will help to calm them down.
Expect a high turn over of staff some people will find out that it is not for them others will have other commitments and some will simply not be cut out for the party method and so will not gain the rewards from it that they expected. Others will learn from you and set up on their own, don't be bitter towards these people they are simply trying to do what you are doing and that is to make some money.
You could offer a higher commission to your top selling sales people in an attempt to keep them.
Make sure that you conform to all the necessary legalities, the sales people are NOT your employees. They will be responsible for their own tax arrangements and insurance contributions
ADVANTAGES:
Low cost start up opportunity.
No specialist equipment is needed to start.
Lots of return business.
More specialist items can be sold on eBay or Amazon for a higher mark up.
DISADVANTAGES:
It is unlikely you will make a good profits selling costume jewellery on eBay and Amazon.
If you go down the party plan route you will need to recruit sales staff on a regular basis. Recruit before you need to, recruiting in a panic will lead to poor decisions.
BLUEPRINT 6
MAKE MONEY WITH YOUR DIGITAL CAMERA
Before I start let me tell you that this is NOT the “Use Your Digital Camera To Take Wedding Photos” business that you see everywhere. I personally would not feel confident enough to do this and I would be mortified if the results were not everything the happy couple would have wished for. There are lucrative profits to be made but it also it takes up most of the day.
If you are a confident enough photographer you will have already thought of this idea and decided whether it is for you or not.
What I am talking about is entirely different and will produce a steady passive income for years if you approach it in the correct manner. One of the biggest mistakes 'would be' business owners make is in lack of perseverance in their endeavours before moving on to the next get rich quick scheme.
The digital camera has made it very easy and inexpensive to produce high quality photographs. The massive advantage over film is that there is an instant result, if you do not like what you have taken then you can just retake the picture. With film you do not see the result until the film is developed and printed than its too late if there is a problem.
There are no hours in the darkroom working with chemicals and expensive accessories to produce the results you are looking for. The advent of the “Digital Darkroom”in the form of Photoshop and other image manipulation software has made it easy to produce first class results on a home computer.
Excellent digital cameras can be bought for under $100, well within our budget or if we want to spend more then we can.
The way of making money from your digital camera is to submit your images to photo libraries. A photo library is an online catalogue of images, the photographer (you) submits the images to the catalogue. Each time an image is downloaded for use then the photographer receives in return for the rights to use the image a payment less a commission to the photo library.
So you may ask who would want to download my photos? Well it rather depends on the theme and quality of your photographs, to give an example. Newspapers, magazines, web designers, advertisers, online businesses of all descriptions have a ravenous appetite for photographs.
Now if it is for a specific purpose then they will commission their own photos to suit the promotion but that still leaves a considerable amount of business for the photo libraries.
Many ebayers use images from these photo libraries to illustrate their listings. It is a service that I use on some of my own listings for some of my product range.
Each images is made available in a series of different resolutions at an increasing cost to the buyer, the purchase also comes with a licence agreement that tells what or more importantly what you cannot do with the image.
These are a very inexpensive way of obtaining quality images for a product range, a promotion or websites. Let's be clear, not every image will be a winner and it pays to be brutal in the choice of images that you submit so let us start with some basic research.
Is there a minimum resolution needed for pictures to be included in each photo library. Is your camera capable of the required resolutions needed?
Look at the number of downloads for each image and the keywords used, correct choice of keywords is essential to ensure that your image stands the maximum chance of being seen.
Look at what makes a good selling picture and try to emulate the qualities in the image.
Compare the various photo library terms and conditions, they are all broadly similar and this will give you a feel for what is required in a submission.
Look at your own pictures and analyse them as to how they could be improved. Get used to manipulating the images in your photo editing software. Read as much as you can on digital photography, there are some excellent books available. My own recommendation would be Digital Photography Handbook by Tom Ang published by Dorling Kindersley.
There are many others which you can pick up second hand through Amazon market place. And the most important thing is to practice constantly, both in the picture taking and in the image manipulation. Try to emulate the photos that are the most downloaded in the niche that you are interested in.
UPLOADING AN IMAGE
When you upload an image you will need to provide a set of keywords to aid purchasers in finding your picture. The more you use, the better chance of your picture being found. Here is a sample image together with the keywords associated with the image.
KEYWORDS
Below are the keywords the photographer has used to make sure the image gets seen when a customer searches Fotolias database for images, note the breath and scope of the keywords. Use of a thesaurus and researching the keywords associated with similar images are essential.
Keywords:
background beautiful beauty bright care clean close-up concept copy-space cosmetics eyelashes face fashion female girl half happy harmony health healthcare healthy human isolated lifestyle light long look lovely make-up makeup natural portrait purity rejuvenation relaxation sensual sexy skin skincare smile smooth soft spa treatment well being white woman wrinkles young
Simply choosing the correct niche could make you a re-occurring income from your hobby.
Build Your Business
My friend started up photographing mountain scenery in his native Wales selling his pictures through photo agents and makes a small income in doing so. However he now makes much more selling these images from his own website as digital downloads at a small cost or as a poster print available as a variety of sizes at differing costs. These he has printed via eBay vendors and posted out to his customers.
He has expanded his business by selling pictures of castles, tourist attractions, scenery, waterfalls, indeed anything to do with Wales or with a Welsh theme. As an example of exploiting a niche market, dogs, cats, railways, cars animals etc.
Don't neglect your old negatives and slides there maybe a small fortune lurking in those old slide boxes and negative files. Quality slide and negative scanners are available at budget prices so it will be easy to rescue old gems from your slide boxes.
As you are the photographer you retain copyright on all of your images, you are simply selling the reproduction rights to the images. In return the photo agencies will take a commission from each sale this can start at 15% with some agencies and up to 50% with others.
Although this may seem very high it is important to remember that once you have uploaded your images there is no more to do. The agency will take and process all payment on your behalf, they will handle all downloads and support and they will pay you on a regular basis. They have a massive advantage over trying to do this as an individual in that they will be able to put your work in front of a world wide audience of millions.
It is important to remember when you start that this is not some get quick rich scheme as it may take time before you see large commission payments come in, this will simply mean that it will free up your time to take more pictures and practice your image manipulation skills. Try to concentrate on the categories of images that are showing you the best returns, its all about refining the way you run your business.
Prolific producers of high quality work will never need to take on a paid commission as selling their work online will earn them a significant income on auto pilot from the agencies.
There are literally thousands of photo agencies that you can contact, some are general and others are very specialised so you will need to do some research. At the end of this blueprint there is a list of some agencies you can use as a starting point, this business is truly International so don't be put off by the fact that the agency may be in a different country.
ADDING VALUE
Can you offer a scanning and restoration service for old photos, if you have a scanner, computer and photo editing software you already have everything you need to extend your business by offering a new service.
ADVANTAGES
Low cost start up, nil if you already have the equipment.
Most photo agencies are free to sign up to.
Continual residual income.
Highly motivating if you choose the right niche.
DISADVANTAGES
Practice time if you are not already proficient as a photographer.
Extra equipment may be needed if you do not already have a scanner etc.
Time to learn the image manipulation software.
USEFUL LINKS
Fotolia
istock
Dreamstime
BLUEPRINT 7
FRAMING PHOTOGRAPHS AND PRINTS
A very simple start up opportunity which can be run from a spare room or work space in the home. The start up costs are very low as basic framing kits can be bought for well under $100 from eBay, Amazon and specialist craft shops either online or on the high street.
There is always a demand for high quality framing work which ranges from photographs, prints, paintings, sports memorabilia, post cards, collectable cards to press and magazine cuttings. The basic requirement (apart from the cost of the framing kit) will be mounting board, frame moulding, tape, fixings, non reflecting glass or plastic and the ability to cut these items to size.
The growth of the business comes with its continual promotion and repeat sales, so the ability to frame a print or photograph to a high standard is of paramount importance. Practice in framing is therefore essential. Have a go at framing a variety of your own prints to gain experience at zero additional cost. Frame the largest first as you will be able to re-use the materials to frame smaller photographs or prints. Use these as examples of your work so that customers can see the quality of work that you produce.
ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS
The obvious place to start is with friends' and family, this will allow you to gain much needed experience and therefore learn “your trade”. When you are happy with your results advertise in local shop windows, the local free press and the local paid for press. Have a high quality leaflet produced and use a leaflet distribution agent to distribute these in your chosen area, the cost is usually so many $ per thousand leaflets or multiples thereof.
This strategy will need to be repeated on a frequent basis, have a high quality business card printed and use every opportunity to distribute these.
EXPAND YOUR BUSINESS
Expand into framing sports memorabilia such as sports shirts, autographs or programs. Try to offer as many options as possible without carrying too much stock, this costs money and the longer you have it without it generating income the longer you will have capital tied up with it. So beware of carrying a massive stock line of different frame mouldings or mounting card. Some mouldings will be more popular than others. You will need to tinker with your business to find out what works best for you in your area.
You can expand onto the internet, but I rather suspect that there will not be a lot of business to be had as most people who require a framing service will use a local framer rather than an Internet based service. So you will need to look at alternatives that will enhance and expand your existing business.
Selling prints is big business but only if you choose the right type of prints to sell. Magazines that deal with the trade such as “The Trader" will have many adverts for posters. In this approach you could be offered a selection of posters for a fixed price, typically some of these will be good sellers and others will never sell, so it pays to be rather more selective about what you are offering.
This is where you will need to research your market, the obvious place to start is eBay and Amazon. To give an idea on how vibrant this market is here is a screen grab from Amazon.
At the time I made this screen grab there were in excess of 800,000 posters and prints for sale on the site. Some of the vendors even offer a framing service as an additional cost option.
If you wanted to offer posters in a specialist area or areas you can source images from specialist picture agencies such as F otolia or i Stock or similar. Where you can buy the licence to reproduce the photograph or print. You can find out full details of how to do this in the “Make Money With Your Digital Camera” Blueprint.
More specialist items will often command a much higher selling price. Items such as framed illustrations from old books, post cards and prints are good sellers particularly if they have a rarity value.
Old maps and prints of towns and cities are good sellers as are reproductions of the work of famous illustrators and renowned artists. Old books which are damaged can be bought very cheaply and the illustrations carefully removed, mounted and sold. These items are easily found in flea markets, table sales and old book sellers, you can often pick up some postcards or old prints for resale at these events. Now I am not really an expert at this but I do know that there are substantial profits to be had if you get the formula right.
Two experts that I know that do this for a living are Avril Harper and Stuart Turnbull, both have produced excellent step by step instructions to making a living dealing in this area.
“Make Money Tearing Up Old Books and Magazines and Selling Them on eBay” by Avril Harper.
Here are Avril's own words
For the past few years I've been tearing up old books and magazines and selling them on eBay and generating very good profits. I'll show you how to do exactly the same.
You could be making money from items other people throw into their rubbish bins each day! Items they're glad to get rid of, which serve no obvious purpose once they're more than a few hours old. Just ask and most people will stockpile these items for you, some will even pay you to take them away to make room for more of the same.
We're talking everyday items here, even recent publications available in abundance, alongside other paper items which are old and quite rare yet still just cost pennies at auctions and flea markets or even on eBay itself.
We're talking about newspapers….. magazines….. and books….. the sort of things most people buy to read and bin soon after. 'Rubbish' that could earn you upwards of $200 a time - and doubtless a great deal more - every single day!
Priceless? Today's Newspaper? How Can That Be?
Read More Here.
Prints Make Profits by Stuart Turnbull
A little known strategy to get your slice of the huge 'eBay pie'
eBay is THE marketplace, you can buy and sell almost anything to almost anyone. It, therefore, provides an unrivalled way to make money quickly and easily without the tedious commute, the long hours, the unsympathetic boss.
Most people are excited when first discovering this vast and vibrant marketplace, excited but confused!
"What do I sell?" is the most common question budding eBay entrepreneurs ask when faced with the thousands of eBay categories.
Stuart Turnbull faced the same challenge 4 years ago before he chanced upon the basis of his strategy. He spent the next 4 years researching, testing and refining his idea into a plan that ANYONE can follow to make incredible eBay profits.
No special equipment is required, you can be up and running within days for a few dollars and an hour or 2 a day is all that is required to operate this business successfully.
So now you have the secret to the perfect eBay product there really is no excuse for not grabbing your slice of that pie!
Read More Here.
To recap here are the advantages and disadvantages of this business model
ADVANTAGES
Very small start up costs for materials
Easy to operate from home
Prints can be easy to obtain if you do your research properly
Large potential profits for a small investment
DISADVANTAGES
For your framing business you will need to re-advertise on a continual basis
Availability of suitable prints will vary, you need to trial the market and work in different areas to maximise profit potential
BLUEPRINT 8
PROMOTING AFFILIATE PRODUCTS THROUGH SMALL ADS
The selling and promotion of affiliate products is big business, as there is a substantial income to be earned promoting other peoples products. Here's how it works, I create a product, now I could decide to sell this entirely myself and keep all the proceeds or, I could offer a commission in exchange for other people promoting my product.
In the first example I am dependent on my own ability to find buyers, in the second I have a small army of affiliates who promote the product for me in exchange for a commission. The advantage of the second method is that the product gets placed before a much wider customer base, this will massively explode your sales completely hands off.
In reality we use both methods of promotion to gain the maximum exposure to the product. Most marketers employ both methods of working but unless you are very well known and you have an excellent reputation you can always use some help and your affiliates will lever their good reputation to sell your product to a wider market and make their commissions.
Now successful affiliate marketing is the subject of a whole book in itself (hint), but essentially to be a successful affiliate you will need to build a mailing list of prospective buyers to promote the products too. This will take time to establish, there are some costs involved and it will be a while before you see a substantial return.
You will need a website or blog to review products and provide your subscribers with lots of great content and useful free information (don't see your subscribers as
a cash cow). As an example here is my own blog robert-corrigan .com note the amount of free products I am giving away. You can start off with a simple review blog by signing up to Blog
There is one method of affiliate marketing that we can start with right away and it is an often neglected source of income, this is the one we will focus on here.
PROMOTING PRODUCTS VIA SMALL ADS
At first this may seem to fly in the face of conventional Make Money Online wisdom, instead of placing adverts online we are going to place them in national free papers, newspapers, magazines or Exchange and Mart type publications.
The method described below uses Clickbank but the principle is exactly the same for other vendors affiliate programs. There are some excellent ones out there such as JV Zoo.
Always look at the level of affiliate commissions offered for each product, often there is a funnel with further products and therefore commission offered as part of the package, these are excellent ways of making additional income. HOWEVER make sure that the product you are promoting is of excellent quality as YOU will be judged by the recommendation.
The first thing we will need to do is to sign up with Clickbank or JV Zoo as an affiliate. Below shows the sign up for Clickbank but JV Zoo is very easy to do and works in a similar way.
Sign Up To JV Zoo Here
Sign Up To Clickbank Here
Follow the screen shots below and sign up as a Clickbank affiliate. JV Zoo has its own setup but is very simple. Clickbank pay out by check every two weeks at a threshold level that you can set. JV Zoo integrates with with Paypal so that you can get paid. The product owner can either put you on instant commission or delayed commission (or deny you) expect them to ask how you intend to promote it, they may have very specific ideas as to how they want it done.
Once we have a Clickbank ID or (Nickname) we can find a product to promote. Let us take one of mine as an example.
METHOD 1: Find A Product To Promote
I am using one of my own products here as an example. The product is not for sale at the moment as it is being revised and updated but the method works for any product in any niche. Have a list of some niches that appeal to you to avoid wasting too much time.
I can find products via a Clickbank search (or JV Zoo market place) choose siutable search term, think like a buyer! Or I could just browse each category until I find suitable products to promote. Each product should come with an affiliates page or a JV page, which is a list of resources that can be used by affiliates to promote the product.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you will see the affiliates link, this will take you to the affiliates page. You will also be able to see a large promote button next to the product in the search results. This will generate your unique affiliate link.
A good affiliates page will contain a wide range of promotional materials such as email titles, e-mail copy, blog posts, forum signatures, product review and graphics of the product. But the most important thing is the affiliate link this will always look like this.
You replace the your id in red text with your Clickbank ID
Here is my affiliate page and the link so that you can examine it fully. pluginauctionprofits .com/affiliates/
Now that you have your own affiliate link, test it out by copying and pasting the link into the address bar of your web browser this should take you to the sales page via your affiliate link. If anyone buys the product you will get paid an affiliate commission, simple.
METHOD 2
Because I already knew that this product existed I could go straight to the sales and affiliate pages. Now you may want to search Clickbank market place for more products in different niche areas, there are about 10,000 products that you can promote. You can browse the categories down the left hand side or use the search facility.
When you have found another product you can load the sales page by clicking on it and then follow Method 1 or you can generate your affiliate link by clicking on the promote button.
This will load the link generator.
Add you ID and click the create button this will generate your affiliate link.
Test as before by copying and pasting the link to your browser, the link will look different as this one is encrypted with your affiliate ID embedded in it.
Now write a series of small adds for the newspapers or magazines, they need not be large or fancy ads, sometimes simple lineage adds work very well. These ads are very cheap to run so you will only be risking a few dollars per ad.
EXAMPLE 1
Get Into Shape for The Summer Here's How!
EXAMPLE 2
Learn To eBay Like A Pro
EXAMPLE 3
The Secrets Of Natural Beauty
rm1digital. productname.hop.clickbank .net/
Use the affiliate materials to include graphics if required.
Very simple titles, not too much detail, but just enough to make you want to look further. But, do you notice the problem? The URL's contain your affiliate link and they do not look like proper website addresses. So we will remedy this in the next Step.
We need to now replace our affiliate links with proper domain names, these will look right to our customers and will encourage people to look further. What we are going to do is called domain forwarding. We register a new domain and we place the URL of this domain in our adverts. When someone types in the new URL in the address bar of their browser that will be directed to the sales page via your affiliate link. If they go on to make a purchase you will make a commission on the sale.
To start with you will need to buy a domain name for a hosting company, I personally use 1&1 simply because I have never had a problem with them in all the years I have dealt with them. The example below is from 1&1 but the principle is the same no matter what hosting company you use.
Use the Domain Search box on the home page to search for a suitable Top level Domain name, in this example I am using my own passport2profits. com
As you can see on the screen grab that passport2profits .com has already been registered by myself but the software will suggest some alternatives that are available for purchase.
TIP
When I think of a good Domain name I register it even if I do not have a product to sell, I can always produce the product later but the Domain may no longer be available when the product is finished.
When your domain is ready you will receive an e-mail (this is usually less than 24 hours) when you log into your account you will see the Domain(s) you have purchased. Here are some of the Domains I have purchased.
Once you see the ready message you can then enable forwarding of your domain to that with of the products sales page which of course contains your affiliate link.
Follow the steps below to see how easy it is. In this example I am going to use auctionsamuri .com as I have already forwarded the other two Domains to my hosting package.
Click on the words auctionsamuri. com and this will open the window below.
Click the destination edit button and the following window will open.
Paste in your affiliate link in the “Forward Your Domain” box make sure that the radio button “HTTP redirect
This is a lot of text in two posts, but I guess it beats another file on your computer and saves a few bucks.
INTRODUCTION
Why do people want to start their own business? I suppose that the answer is as individual as the person, but the basic reasons are usually.
I have always wanted to be my own boss
I hate the idea of being a wage slave
To give me a sense of achievement
To do something I am really interested in
To make lots of money
To give me the life style I have always wanted
I want to work from home
I want to work around my family
I want to sack the boss!
How many people go on to start their own businesses and how many people are put off by thinking that starting their own business means a huge amount of cost and that there are a lot of different skills that need to be mastered. Well it rather depends on the type of business you choose to start, some of the best and most profitable businesses have grown from very modest beginnings.
I started my first business in my box room at home buying and selling computers, I did not need premises or an accountant, I simply kept my own accounts in a ledger that I bought from my local store for a couple of dollars. The economic recession and uncertainty in the labour market and the need to make a second income has provided many with the impetus to start their own business through necessity. This makes the chance that the business will succeed much higher as there will be a real commitment to its success.
Contained in this course are my top dozen start up ideas that you can set up and profit from some are entirely free none will cost more than $100 to start with. All of these are tried and tested ideas but they all require one important ingredient and that is called the ACTION STEP.
It does not matter how many business blueprints you buy or how many coaching programs you subscribe to it will never work unless you take the ACTION STEP. It really is all about taking action and taking it consistently on a daily basis.
The information you now have in your hands is potentially life changing. Wishing you all success
Robert Corrigan
BLUEPRINT 1
MAKING A START
One of the biggest fears people have in starting their own business is the fear that they might lose money. This is a natural fear, if we have spent our hard earned money on starting a business or have used our savings we are always fearful that we could lose our investment. By setting the limit on your start up costs I have already limited the risk for you.
The important thing is to limit the risk at every stage. You may not wish to use your wages or your savings so you need to find another way of financing the business.
You will need to cover your start up costs in other ways. So rather than searching for something with a big learning curve think if you can offer something you are already successful at.
Can you work some additional hours and use that money for the start up capital? There is also the temptation to spend the money and become used to the extra in the pay packet so we become dependant on this money instead.
Can you offer some sort of professional service such as accounting, design work, tutoring, gardening or any number of other services to make the start up capital? If so you have started your business for free. You could always offer your services on such sites as Upwork, people per hour or student gems to name just a few.
But what if you are unable or unwilling to offer these services? They may be exactly the things that we are wanting to get away from. So lets look at other ideas to raise our start up capital.
TIME TO DE-CLUTTER
I have no doubt that in every household there are many items that are no longer wanted or needed. These items may be unwanted gifts, items that have been replaced but still in working order and a host of things that are no longer wanted. What we have here is dormant capital that we can use to monetise our business. There are a number of ways to do this.
1. HOLD A CAR BOOT/GARAGE OR TABLE SALE
Collect all the items that we no longer want and offer them for sale, book a pitch or hire a table at a popular venue, you can check this out in the local press or you can search for weekend markets online. A pitch can be hired for a modest fee, you can easily make your start up capital in one or two sales.
2. LIST YOUR ITEMS FOR SALE ON EBAY
List your items for sale on eBay, this requires a little more research work. Use the 'eBay completed items' search to find similar items that have finished and their final selling price. With this information you can decide if an item is worth selling on eBay or if you be better off selling the item in a table sale. Remember for eBay you will need to pay a listing fee, a final value fee and a PayPal fee which will eat into your start up capital There is also the possibility that your item will fail to sell.
3. USE AMAZON
Resell your books on Amazon (see Blueprint 1) if you have any books you can dispose of you can sell these on Amazon's Market Place. Just make sure that the price you will receive back for the item makes it worth the effort. Very popular items sell at very low prices and this is the attraction for the buyer so to make this work we need to be looking at the items that will bring in a decent return.
4. USE THE FREE PRESS
Place a series of small ads in the free papers such as Loot etc, also try Craigs List and Gumtree all who have local sites or Hubs where adverts can be placed. Expect buyers to haggle over the price.
However you make the start up capital the most important point is not to dig into this capital, use it to start your business.
But what happens if I lose the lot? Well what have you actually lost? Really it is just your time, because all you have lost otherwise is things that you no longer wanted or needed anyway, it really would take a supreme talent not to make anything. So let us take a look at these low cost start up opportunities together with the advantages and disadvantages of each.
BLUEPRINT 2
SELLING SPECIALIST BOOKS
This opportunity may not even depend on finding your start up capital. This is a very simple business to start and run and that is selling books on Amazon. If you have used Amazon in the past you will know that when you log on to Amazon there is always a page of recommendations based on your past purchases. You may also be tempted into selling your previous purchases using Amazon market place.
If you have bought popular books in the past the bad news (or the good news if you are buying) is that these popular books may not be worth very much, just a few cents each. At first appearance that looks like the end of your business venture but that is not the case.
The way to make money on Amazon is to offer books in niche areas such as academic, specialist and hobby books (the same holds true for specialist DVD's and CD's). To give an example, the latest Dan Brown may be selling for just a few dollars, whereas books bought for a college course, specialist or hobby books sell for considerably more.
There are two types of Amazon account that you can sign up for. These are 'Individual Selling Account' for sellers who make less than 40 sales per month. Or, you can open a 'Trading Account' for sellers who sell more than 40 items per month, this is subscription based at approx $39.99 per month. The exact amount vary from one countries site to the other
Check out the scale of fees by using the links. If all this seems complicated and off putting don't worry it really is very simple. Just click on the link “sell your stuff”
There are 7 Amazon sites world wide but the most commonly used is Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
So how do you find out what each book may be worth? Basically there are 2 ways.
Search by Title and Author
Search by using the ISBN number
Having found a suitable book for resale we will need to list it. The following screen grabs will give the out line of the whole process of listing an item for sale.
The great advantage of Amazon over eBay is that you only pay when an item sells, again consult the table of fees. Also there is no need to work out the postage fees as Amazons system adds the postage rate to your product automatically.
SOLD YOUR OWN BOOKS? WHERE DO YOU OBTAIN NEW STOCK?
This really is the easy part when you start, Charity shops, car boot and table sales are all full of rich pickings. The very best part is that academic, specialist and hobby books sell for very little from these sources as by their very nature there is very little demand for these items in the charity shop. Consider this, if you wanted to buy a specialist book would your go around your local Charity shops to search for it? Or would you try to buy it online?
Use the ISBN number to determine the selling price on Amazon from that information you will be able to see the resale price and the books popularity. A notebook and pencil or the ability to store information in the memory of a phone or portable PA is all that is required.
What's more this method of trading takes very little time and effort. Always endeavour to offer a first class service. Put a time limit on your expected dispatch time for each book you sell and stick to it. As with eBay there is a feedback system that allows purchasers to rate you as a seller, I personally always dispatch items within 2 working days. Always use a padded bag for safety and security.
OBTAINING MORE STOCK
Once you have been selling books for sometime you will get a feel for your market so you will need to start looking for suppliers who can supply volume on a consistent basis. There are many specialist book wholesalers that can be approached to supply stock for resale. You will need to make sure before you buy that you have a good chance of making a decent profit on the stock you are interested in buying. Use 'book wholesalers' as a search word you can also use specialist niche in the search title also try 'book close outs' as a search term on google or other search engines.
A substantial business can be built trading books on Amazon, don't neglect using eBay to find stock and flipping it on Amazon for a profit.
Other products sold on Amazon have their own unique identifier codes which can be used to search for prices and to do your listings. The code numbers will load a catalogue description and an image. If you are successfully selling a product on eBay you can also sell that product successfully on Amazon.
BUILD YOUR BUSINESS
If you find that you are dealing with a large volume of sales then storage will become an issue as well as the constant visits to the post office. There are two solutions to this problem but only one solves the storage problem.
You could use another delivery service that will pick up your parcels from home to save you the constant trips to the post office. You may be able to negotiate a cheaper delivery rate from them. There are plenty of companies that will do this but they often require commitment to a minimum number of parcels each month to claim the discounted rate.
The better alternative is to use Amazon's own fulfilment services. This means that you can send your entire inventory to Amazon's fulfilment warehouse and they will deal with all the order fulfilment, packing, distribution and payments on your products in exchange for a small fee. This will be completely hands free and will free up your time to find new inventory and build your business. Remember this box?
Click on the Fulfilment by Amazon Link. You can then sign up and review how Amazon's fulfilment services work.
ADVANTAGES
Minimal start up costs, as low as zero if you already have a book or books you can sell
It is very easy to source new stock very cheaply when you are starting
You can start and stop this business to suit the demands on your time
It is very simple to run and you can have you inventory fulfilled by Amazon
DISADVANTAGES
If you have a lot of stock this demands storage space for it
Most items you sell will be “one off” items when you start
There is a continual search for good selling items available in bulk when your business takes off
BLUEPRINT 3
SELL SECOND USER COMPUTERS.
The selling of second user computers is a very easy start up opportunity, second user stock can be bought very cheaply from wholesalers and disposal specialist and there is constant supply of “new” stock. Unfortunately most of the companies that deal in specialist stock have a minimum spend which will vastly exceed our $100 start up limit.
To make a start in this market we will have to approach it from a different direction. Search your local press for details of Computer Marts or Computer Fairs, you will often find a wide range of systems available at budget prices. You may be able to purchase an entire system (or systems) or more likely be able to assemble your own systems by buying base units from one vendor and monitors from another.
Before you decide to buy it is worth visiting a fair purely to get a feel for what is available, and to check out prices against the resale prices in the local press. There are some very important pieces of research that you will need to do before you can work out the total cost of a system made up from different vendors.
VITAL RESEARCH
Cost of base units(s)
Cost of monitor(s)
Keyboard/mouse
Speakers (if required)
Power leads
A complete system will have all of the above as part of the package so if you are assembling from parts then you will need to budget for all the components you require. It is false economy to buy second hand keyboards or mice. They will look worn, they will not perform as well and it costs only a few dollars for new ones, this creates a better quality look and feel when someone looks at the system for the first time.
Once you have the exact figures you can compare these computers to ones with a similar specification in your local press, you will then be able to see the profit potential of this idea.
SOME ADVICE
What to look for in a system:
Base unit, make sure that there are no obvious defects or damage to the base unit and that all the connections are undamaged, check that the CD/DVD drive functions correctly
Monitor, make sure all the controls work and that the monitor does not have screen burn (the residual image that can be seen burnt onto the monitor display)
Check any peripheral components for damage
Always obtain a receipt and the terms of the warranty offered
A good clean system will sell itself, a grubby system will not inspire confidence in the quality of the system or in yourself as a seller.
STAY LEGAL
Remember this, most software including the Operating System is copyright. Each computer will need a licence for the software loaded with it. Some systems have an OEM (original equipment manufacturers) licence this software is often stored on a partition on the main hard drive and is intended to allow you to reinstall the OS in case of a software failure. It is a legal requirement that the seller must ensure that all software loaded onto a computer is licensed.
Copyright on software are rigorously enforced by law and has severe penalties including imprisonment for piracy. For full information on software compliance follow the link, HERE. It is your responsibility to stay legal, ignorance of the law is no defence against prosecution.
There are a number of programs that are readily available to use at zero cost, they include.
OS: Linux is a free operating system that is available from a number of websites for download and use, it does not have the kudos of a Microsoft OS but most versions can be installed free or at a modest cost
Open Office: A complete office suite to rival Microsoft Office that is free to download and use it is very easy to use (this book was written on it) follow open office to download a copy
Graphics Program: The following are just a small sample of the programs available to download free. Irfan View, Serif, Paint Shop Pro
HOW TO ADVERTISE YOUR SYSTEM
It goes without saying that you need to make your advert stand out. So a good description may go something like this.
Dell Multimedia PC DVD RW
Intel i3 multimedia PC mega fast LCD screen
DVD RW all cables included genuine bargain Windows XP with licence lots of useful software $100
or a more general specification that will attract more general enquires
Broadband Windows PC 15” flat screen 2 Gb Ram XP (licensed), 350Gb Hard Drive, CD- ROM, speakers. First to see will buy $100 (pitch this price at what the market will stand).
Look at the adverts in the publication that you will be advertising with to get a feel of the type of adverts that are the most common look at the ones that attracted your attention and try to write a better more eye catching ad.
Include as much free (legal) software as you can this will add to the perceived value of the system you are offering. Offer more than your competitors and offer better value.
DEALING WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS
How you deal with your customers is of vital importance as initially the first contact is often made via the telephone. Here are the important points to observe when dealing with your customer.
Always be polite and helpful on the phone to your prospective customers they may have many questions, try to answer them as fully as possible, they may need some advice and you are the expert. You will soon get a feel for the time wasters
Set the computer up in a spare room or on a table, never divulge that you have more than one system available initially, this will put some people off and will either result in a none sale or a substantially reduced offer. Some people hate the idea that you are making a profit from them, you will also get a feel for these customers. Always offer a 30 day guarantee. Most of your competitors will not be doing this so you are already offering better value. Get a receipt book and make sure you use it.
Show the customer how to switch on the system and give them a quick tour of it, then leave them alone to play with it. Do not say anything unless they ask you a question.
Some customers will want to haggle, expect this, set a minimum price and stick to it don't disclose this price and don't be haggled beneath it. You have worked hard for this and you need to be rewarded for your labour. Most customers will pay the asking price. Some will offer you a pittance for your system just let them walk away there will always be another customer.
Don't offer to keep a system for a customer without a substantial deposit, most won't come back and you will lose sales to people who will be willing to pay you cash there and then not in a few days.
DEALING WITH THE AWKWARD CUSTOMER
There will always be a customer who is never satisfied with anything, constantly on the phone about one issue or another. Here is some simple advice, save yourself the grief and your own sanity. Offer to buy the system back at the purchase price you don't need customers like this, just sell the system to someone else.
ADD VALUE
There are several things that you can do to add value:
Home Set Up: You could offer to set up the system in their home you could charge a small fee for this service.
Upgrades: You could offer an upgrade service for such items as memory, hard drives and graphics cards etc., but make sure you have the necessary skills for the job or know someone who can do this cheaply.
BUILD YOUR BUSINESS
Use the profits from your first 2/3 computers to buy in larger quantities of systems, if you are only buying one or two at a time then you will never get the quantity discounts. If you are buying several systems at a time you can haggle the price from the traders at the computer market. Get to know them they are not your competitors or enemies they are your potential business partners.
When you have been trading with them for a while you may be able to JV (Joint Venture) with them to buy a larger quantity of stock at a substantial discount.
ADVANTAGES
Small initial outlay to start up.
Continual demand for the products.
Continual supply of new systems.
Potential for building a substantial business.
DISADVANTAGES
Face to face selling will not suit everyone.
Some knowledge of computer systems is required.
Storage space required for the storage of systems.
Lots of lifting involved.
You could also supply Laptop or Netbook computers, these are more expensive to buy in and more difficult to upgrade and repair. The market will be slightly different than for the desktop systems, there will be a lot of interest from students due the portability of Laptops and Netbooks.
BLUEPRINT 4
AUCTIONS AND ARBITAGE
An easy start up which anyone can do, it can however be very time consuming. If you look in your local press hardly a week goes by without an advert for goods to be disposed of at auction. The range of goods offered for auction is vast and varies from auction to auction.
Let it be said straight away that all auctions are not equal and the phrase “Caveat Emptor” or buyer beware should be prominent in your mind. Goods sold at auction seldom have a warranty of any kind and even with ones that do the warranty is very limited indeed and can be almost impossible to make a claim under.
An example of a well run legitimate auction is one that takes place at a companies own premises. Many “trade auctions” are held at different hired venues, although this is not necessarily a bad thing it should be a sign to proceed with caution at all times. These are usually themed, such as computers, kitchen equipment or white goods etc.
A CAUTIONARY TALE.
When I was in the computer trade I attended several auctions of computer equipment, these were advertised in the computer press and most were a complete rip off. Over 50% of the equipment was non working junk. How I managed not to bid on the lot of 50 non-working CD-ROMs I will never know, but someone did. Some of the auction items came with a 24 hour warranty, you register your warranty claim by ringing a number that goes unanswered for days at which point your warranty has run out. Some of this rubbish was auctioned at prices in excess of what you would have paid for brand new guaranteed items at the computer fair taking place at the same time only 10 minutes walk away.
The advantage of attending auctions at the auctioneers premises is that you know that the company is legitimate and that it has a reputation to uphold. The lots available will vary from auction to auction and will include a mixture of bankrupt stock, repossessions, overstocks, lost property, house clearances and disposal lots from other traders.
Identify any lots that you want to bid on, this can be done easily online as most companies have an online catalogue which is available free or at a modest charge. You can then visit the company on the day of the sale to check out the auction lots you are interested in. Before you go and bid it is very wise to research the resale value of the items you are interested in as this will be a determining factor in assessing your highest bid.
Use eBay completed listings and search Amazon market place to get a feel for the popularity and the expected selling price of the products you are interested in. You will need to register as a bidder when you arrive with a refundable deposit the auction house will then issue you with a bidding card.
IMPORTANT POINTS
The auction house will charge you commission on your winning bids, the rate of this commission will be clearly displayed at the auction house and in your catalogue. Your purchase will also be subject to tax at the going rate. This may be a local or a national tax such as VAT. So the price you bid is not the price you pay, that is the second important factor you will need to consider when you are interested in making a bid on a lot. When you have all this information (the possible resell price, the commission rate and the rate of tax or duty) can you work out your maximum bid. Despite what you may see on TV make your bidding very clear, raising an eyebrow subtly to auctioneer does not work, and you need not worry that scratching your ear means you have bid several million dollars on a Picasso, it does not work like this. The auctioneer will only take clear unambiguous bids.
I am going to write the following in BOLD capital letters, make sure you read it and act on it.
“DON'T GET INVOLVED IN VANITY BIDDING”
Set your price and stick to it, DON'T go above this figure, if you have done your research you will know your price. This also applies to online auctions if you pay too much for your stock it will suck your business dry. Now this may be an exciting afternoon out but it is massively time consuming it could even take a whole day.
You then have to transport the items, write descriptions, take photographs and list them on eBay or Amazon, another full day?
There must be an easier way than this, and here it is.
USE eBAY TO FIND WHOLESALE AND JOB LOTS
Use eBay to find job lots, break them apart and sell them at a profit. As with physical auctions the products are many and varied and you should always question the reasoning for selling them as a job lot. Some items will have simply failed to sell so are being disposed of for the highest bid price.
For example take games consoles they are always being offered for sale on eBay, you are looking for ones that are being sold with lots of extras such as controllers and games. Believe it or not these packages seldom make much more than the games consul on its own, there is the possibility here of breaking the package up and selling them separately.
Use the same approach to find other products which can be re-sold separately it just takes some research work to find these products. Here is a screen grab from eBay which shows the number of items for sale on any one day. It is simply a question of weeding out the good deals as the stock for sale varies on a daily basis.
With the correct choice of products an entire business can be built without ever leaving home to attend auctions.
ADVANTAGES
A simple start up opportunity
Massive turn over of auction products on a weekly basis
Huge amounts of stock can be obtained very cheaply and with a high resale value
DISADVANTAGES
Stock will vary from week to week in both physical and online auctions
it is easy to get caught up in vanity bidding
For offline bidding it is very time consuming
BLUEPRINT 5
JEWELLERY
This is a very economical start up opportunity. The business works at any time of the year but there are also times of the year when there is a very large increase in sales, these are Valentines Day, Mothers Day and Christmas. The easiest way to start the business is to find a local wholesaler by using your local business directory or searching online for local suppliers (preferred) so that you can inspect the merchandise. Failing that there is a huge choice of online wholesalers.
You can also find suppliers at trade fairs, you will find a huge selection of suppliers all competing for your custom. Trade and wholesale magazines from most large outlets such as The Trader again will give an enormous selection of wholesalers to choose from. The minimum buy in from these wholesalers is often much less than $100. There are many different types of Jewellery you can sell but if we are to keep our start up costs to the $100 limit we can sell costume jewellery (at least at the start).
Costume jewellery is big business but only if we approach the selling of it from the right perspective. Hint, eBay is NOT the answer. Now that may come as a bit of a shock as eBay is perceived as the answer to every way of making money. So we will leave eBay until later. So let's start making money from costume Jewellery.
It is a fact that this is one of the opportunities that the Ladies will excel at, sorry boys its a fact of life, its one of those things that we will just have to live with, the product will also sell itself. It is easy to do this during a lunch hour at work and apart from your initial stock very little else is needed.
A simple black velvet cloth can be spread across a table which will form a simple display background. Although you can use display busts to show off necklaces and bracelets can be displayed on stands they are certainly not needed to start with.
As with all fashion items, jewellery colours change with the seasons. So every season presents a fresh opportunity to sell. Jewellery is a feel good item and leads to repeat sales. Let us suppose that you have found a supplier here how to proceed.
SOME POINTS TO WATCH:
Don't buy too many of the same item even if there are discounts no one wants to have the same item as everyone else.
Keep a notepad handy to take orders for popular items.
You will be able to sell items in this way for about a week and a half before the boredom factor slips in, so in this time you can look at different outlets to sell into. Can you supply the local hairdressing salon or the local tanning salon or nail bar where impulse purchases are often made.
By approaching other outlets you can smooth out the peaks and troughs that are inevitable selling at just the one location.
FINDING A NICHE
The steps shown below work in ANY niche area. It is worth remembering that it is the method that is important, not the product being sold. Let us use Jewellery as a sales area, The screen shot below shows that Jewellery is a hot market but just look at the competition! The search has returned 45,055 items for sale there are obviously lots of pages to trawl though.
The chances of getting our item seen is very small and the profits on inexpensive costume Jewellery is razor thin to say the least so we need to specialise further. Let's look at some of the sub categories within the Jewellery section.
Silver
Gold
Goth
Amber
Let us look at a more specialist area of fine jewellery. This reduces the number of items on show and refines the search so that the targeting is more specific to the item that the buyer wishes to purchase. However, it is still a large market so it helps to think like a buyer. What search words might a buyer use? Make a list of possible search words and try them in turn.
We could decide to list our item in the more specialised areas, there will be much less competition, try to list where there are no more than 2/3 pages of listings and start off initially with the auction format as the listing will finish in chronological order. Here are some examples of niche areas that you can trade in where the competition is much less fierce. It is possible that you could have an entire sub category almost to yourself (at least for a little while).
Other traders will be looking at the niche areas as well and as soon as they see successful sales in a category they will try to muscle into the market. That is why you must always be looking to extend your product range and find other categories or sub categories to trade in.
Ok, so you may say that none of this is new, I have read similar stuff before. But its all about taking action and actually doing something. Don't be put off by false starts, the method is sound, it works but it needs to be applied with diligence.
In this example search for a niche Jewellery I have been able to find some niche areas I can trade in, imagine what you could find if you were to concentrate on areas that interested you? Well that's exactly how I set up my own eBay businesses. The next step is the crucial step to building your business and yet there are less than one in a thousand eBayers who use all these tactics.
EXPAND YOUR BUSINESS:
SET UP YOUR OWN WEBSITE
My personal belief is that it is not worth setting up a website to sell costume Jewellery and I am sure that there are plenty of people that would disagree with me. But it is well worth while to set one up when trading in the niche markets and this goes for every niche market you could trade in. You will dramatically increase the chance of success by specialising.
Now at this point there is usually an attack of the vapours before the often spoken expression “I could never do that”! Whilst this was true only a few years ago it is no longer true today.
When I first started the thought of setting up a website brought me out in a cold sweat, if the thought of setting up a website fills you with dread as it once did me, don't let it! The most common reasons given for not setting up a website are:
Cost
Lack of technical knowledge
When I convinced myself (very quickly) that I couldn't produce my own website I made enquiries of several web designers. The cheapest quote was over $800 and the most expensive $3,000. In other words well outside of our $100 start up costs. Naturally I decide not to pursue the website idea and the project went on the back burner for over a year. When I came back to the idea of a website I had a bit more confidence and I had researched the possibilities in rather more detail.
In that year I had discovered that many of the web hosting companies have their own e-commerce solutions. These are simple template driven websites that can be set up for a few dollars a month. You simply add the price, the product description which you already have from your eBay listings (you may need to edit it to fit the template) and a picture of the products.
These template driven websites allow you to customise the website to suit your theme and needs. This is a very economical way of having your business on line as fast as possible and hosted for you at a small monthly fee.
All payments for goods can be handled by PayPal, world pay or equivalent payment system. The entire payment system is automated, you will receive an e-mail when an item sells, you can set your stock levels to inform you when you need to restock an item. You can add or delete products and add multiple options as you refine your product range.
123reg.co.uk and 1&1.com are just two of the companies that I have used for my e-commerce websites, these are easy to use and configure, there are many other companies that offer similar packages so it is worth spending sometime on your research to get a package that is most closely suited to your needs.
The next method will require a bit more work but the finished website will be absolutely unique to yourself and your products. The method is to build or have built a simple e-commerce site using WordPress. Don't panic this is easier than it sounds as there are many website builders that can do this very economically and there is also a complete get you started e-commerce solution from Woo Commerce which even provide a theme for you to customise and a plugin to handle the sales and inventory.
There are a number of options for this solution.
Approach a web designer design company to produce a website for you. Need not be an expensive solution.
Put the project out to tender with elance, people by the hour, student gems or other similar organisations, use due diligence examine the work the bidders have done for other clients and agree in advance the payment schedule
Author it yourself, there are some very good tutorials on Youtube that show you exactly how to do this. The advantage of this approach is that you have complete control over all aspects of the project. The disadvantage is that it takes time to learn how to get the best from the software and this cuts into the earning time and becomes learning time. You will need to purchase a hosting account which has a monthly or yearly fee
Considering all the above points the advantages of using the e-commerce solutions become obvious and this is the path that I recommend at least to begin with.
PARTY PLAN
Expand by recruiting sales people to sell your higher priced items via Party Plans on a commission basis.
THE BASICS
You will need to recruit some well motivated sales people, they must have good presentation skills, be well turned out and good with people. As you will be paying on a commission basis they will need to be highly motivated and commit to a minimum number of parties per month or week.
Be mindful when recruiting that these sales people are the public face of your business so take your time to get the right people. Always present a friendly but professional aspect so the need for proper stationary such as an order form and business cards is a must.
You must be well organised and your sales people need to be too, you should have a stock number for each item and know how long it will be before the item is supplied.
You may also need a merchant account to process card payments although this can be done through your company website using mobile broadband which means that you can use PayPal or similar which is considerably cheaper to run than a merchant account. You should issue several pieces of each stock item you sell as people will want to examine them close up.
Presentation is now much more important and this is where you will have to invest some money in props. Some items will come pre-packed but often the presentation could be much better. The black velvet cloth will still work but other display items are now needed.
Items such as these are very inexpensive but pay for themselves by presenting your products in the best possible setting.
Process all orders immediately and deliver upon receipt. Only offer items that are available from stock. If someone orders 5 items and only receives 3 what impression would they have of your business? Put yourself in their place what would you think?
HOW TO RECRUIT YOUR SALES PEOPLE
It is best to start with doing every party yourself, that way you will learn what works and more importantly what does not work. You will find the method that works for you best. Start with your own party in your own home, a little wine to get the mood flowing and some inexpensive snacks, here is an opportunity to find recruits amongst the attendees it is also an opportunity to arrange further party's as the attendees will be different. Use the opportunity to hand out your business cards to all the attendees.
Most importantly the hostess should be rewarded with a gift for hosting the party. This is always a tricky one but goods to a % of the value sold at the party is usually a good starting point. Accompany any new salesperson on their first few parties unless you have hired tried and trusted sales people, they may be nervous and your presence will help to calm them down.
Expect a high turn over of staff some people will find out that it is not for them others will have other commitments and some will simply not be cut out for the party method and so will not gain the rewards from it that they expected. Others will learn from you and set up on their own, don't be bitter towards these people they are simply trying to do what you are doing and that is to make some money.
You could offer a higher commission to your top selling sales people in an attempt to keep them.
Make sure that you conform to all the necessary legalities, the sales people are NOT your employees. They will be responsible for their own tax arrangements and insurance contributions
ADVANTAGES:
Low cost start up opportunity.
No specialist equipment is needed to start.
Lots of return business.
More specialist items can be sold on eBay or Amazon for a higher mark up.
DISADVANTAGES:
It is unlikely you will make a good profits selling costume jewellery on eBay and Amazon.
If you go down the party plan route you will need to recruit sales staff on a regular basis. Recruit before you need to, recruiting in a panic will lead to poor decisions.
BLUEPRINT 6
MAKE MONEY WITH YOUR DIGITAL CAMERA
Before I start let me tell you that this is NOT the “Use Your Digital Camera To Take Wedding Photos” business that you see everywhere. I personally would not feel confident enough to do this and I would be mortified if the results were not everything the happy couple would have wished for. There are lucrative profits to be made but it also it takes up most of the day.
If you are a confident enough photographer you will have already thought of this idea and decided whether it is for you or not.
What I am talking about is entirely different and will produce a steady passive income for years if you approach it in the correct manner. One of the biggest mistakes 'would be' business owners make is in lack of perseverance in their endeavours before moving on to the next get rich quick scheme.
The digital camera has made it very easy and inexpensive to produce high quality photographs. The massive advantage over film is that there is an instant result, if you do not like what you have taken then you can just retake the picture. With film you do not see the result until the film is developed and printed than its too late if there is a problem.
There are no hours in the darkroom working with chemicals and expensive accessories to produce the results you are looking for. The advent of the “Digital Darkroom”in the form of Photoshop and other image manipulation software has made it easy to produce first class results on a home computer.
Excellent digital cameras can be bought for under $100, well within our budget or if we want to spend more then we can.
The way of making money from your digital camera is to submit your images to photo libraries. A photo library is an online catalogue of images, the photographer (you) submits the images to the catalogue. Each time an image is downloaded for use then the photographer receives in return for the rights to use the image a payment less a commission to the photo library.
So you may ask who would want to download my photos? Well it rather depends on the theme and quality of your photographs, to give an example. Newspapers, magazines, web designers, advertisers, online businesses of all descriptions have a ravenous appetite for photographs.
Now if it is for a specific purpose then they will commission their own photos to suit the promotion but that still leaves a considerable amount of business for the photo libraries.
Many ebayers use images from these photo libraries to illustrate their listings. It is a service that I use on some of my own listings for some of my product range.
Each images is made available in a series of different resolutions at an increasing cost to the buyer, the purchase also comes with a licence agreement that tells what or more importantly what you cannot do with the image.
These are a very inexpensive way of obtaining quality images for a product range, a promotion or websites. Let's be clear, not every image will be a winner and it pays to be brutal in the choice of images that you submit so let us start with some basic research.
Is there a minimum resolution needed for pictures to be included in each photo library. Is your camera capable of the required resolutions needed?
Look at the number of downloads for each image and the keywords used, correct choice of keywords is essential to ensure that your image stands the maximum chance of being seen.
Look at what makes a good selling picture and try to emulate the qualities in the image.
Compare the various photo library terms and conditions, they are all broadly similar and this will give you a feel for what is required in a submission.
Look at your own pictures and analyse them as to how they could be improved. Get used to manipulating the images in your photo editing software. Read as much as you can on digital photography, there are some excellent books available. My own recommendation would be Digital Photography Handbook by Tom Ang published by Dorling Kindersley.
There are many others which you can pick up second hand through Amazon market place. And the most important thing is to practice constantly, both in the picture taking and in the image manipulation. Try to emulate the photos that are the most downloaded in the niche that you are interested in.
UPLOADING AN IMAGE
When you upload an image you will need to provide a set of keywords to aid purchasers in finding your picture. The more you use, the better chance of your picture being found. Here is a sample image together with the keywords associated with the image.
KEYWORDS
Below are the keywords the photographer has used to make sure the image gets seen when a customer searches Fotolias database for images, note the breath and scope of the keywords. Use of a thesaurus and researching the keywords associated with similar images are essential.
Keywords:
background beautiful beauty bright care clean close-up concept copy-space cosmetics eyelashes face fashion female girl half happy harmony health healthcare healthy human isolated lifestyle light long look lovely make-up makeup natural portrait purity rejuvenation relaxation sensual sexy skin skincare smile smooth soft spa treatment well being white woman wrinkles young
Simply choosing the correct niche could make you a re-occurring income from your hobby.
Build Your Business
My friend started up photographing mountain scenery in his native Wales selling his pictures through photo agents and makes a small income in doing so. However he now makes much more selling these images from his own website as digital downloads at a small cost or as a poster print available as a variety of sizes at differing costs. These he has printed via eBay vendors and posted out to his customers.
He has expanded his business by selling pictures of castles, tourist attractions, scenery, waterfalls, indeed anything to do with Wales or with a Welsh theme. As an example of exploiting a niche market, dogs, cats, railways, cars animals etc.
Don't neglect your old negatives and slides there maybe a small fortune lurking in those old slide boxes and negative files. Quality slide and negative scanners are available at budget prices so it will be easy to rescue old gems from your slide boxes.
As you are the photographer you retain copyright on all of your images, you are simply selling the reproduction rights to the images. In return the photo agencies will take a commission from each sale this can start at 15% with some agencies and up to 50% with others.
Although this may seem very high it is important to remember that once you have uploaded your images there is no more to do. The agency will take and process all payment on your behalf, they will handle all downloads and support and they will pay you on a regular basis. They have a massive advantage over trying to do this as an individual in that they will be able to put your work in front of a world wide audience of millions.
It is important to remember when you start that this is not some get quick rich scheme as it may take time before you see large commission payments come in, this will simply mean that it will free up your time to take more pictures and practice your image manipulation skills. Try to concentrate on the categories of images that are showing you the best returns, its all about refining the way you run your business.
Prolific producers of high quality work will never need to take on a paid commission as selling their work online will earn them a significant income on auto pilot from the agencies.
There are literally thousands of photo agencies that you can contact, some are general and others are very specialised so you will need to do some research. At the end of this blueprint there is a list of some agencies you can use as a starting point, this business is truly International so don't be put off by the fact that the agency may be in a different country.
ADDING VALUE
Can you offer a scanning and restoration service for old photos, if you have a scanner, computer and photo editing software you already have everything you need to extend your business by offering a new service.
ADVANTAGES
Low cost start up, nil if you already have the equipment.
Most photo agencies are free to sign up to.
Continual residual income.
Highly motivating if you choose the right niche.
DISADVANTAGES
Practice time if you are not already proficient as a photographer.
Extra equipment may be needed if you do not already have a scanner etc.
Time to learn the image manipulation software.
USEFUL LINKS
Fotolia
istock
Dreamstime
BLUEPRINT 7
FRAMING PHOTOGRAPHS AND PRINTS
A very simple start up opportunity which can be run from a spare room or work space in the home. The start up costs are very low as basic framing kits can be bought for well under $100 from eBay, Amazon and specialist craft shops either online or on the high street.
There is always a demand for high quality framing work which ranges from photographs, prints, paintings, sports memorabilia, post cards, collectable cards to press and magazine cuttings. The basic requirement (apart from the cost of the framing kit) will be mounting board, frame moulding, tape, fixings, non reflecting glass or plastic and the ability to cut these items to size.
The growth of the business comes with its continual promotion and repeat sales, so the ability to frame a print or photograph to a high standard is of paramount importance. Practice in framing is therefore essential. Have a go at framing a variety of your own prints to gain experience at zero additional cost. Frame the largest first as you will be able to re-use the materials to frame smaller photographs or prints. Use these as examples of your work so that customers can see the quality of work that you produce.
ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS
The obvious place to start is with friends' and family, this will allow you to gain much needed experience and therefore learn “your trade”. When you are happy with your results advertise in local shop windows, the local free press and the local paid for press. Have a high quality leaflet produced and use a leaflet distribution agent to distribute these in your chosen area, the cost is usually so many $ per thousand leaflets or multiples thereof.
This strategy will need to be repeated on a frequent basis, have a high quality business card printed and use every opportunity to distribute these.
EXPAND YOUR BUSINESS
Expand into framing sports memorabilia such as sports shirts, autographs or programs. Try to offer as many options as possible without carrying too much stock, this costs money and the longer you have it without it generating income the longer you will have capital tied up with it. So beware of carrying a massive stock line of different frame mouldings or mounting card. Some mouldings will be more popular than others. You will need to tinker with your business to find out what works best for you in your area.
You can expand onto the internet, but I rather suspect that there will not be a lot of business to be had as most people who require a framing service will use a local framer rather than an Internet based service. So you will need to look at alternatives that will enhance and expand your existing business.
Selling prints is big business but only if you choose the right type of prints to sell. Magazines that deal with the trade such as “The Trader" will have many adverts for posters. In this approach you could be offered a selection of posters for a fixed price, typically some of these will be good sellers and others will never sell, so it pays to be rather more selective about what you are offering.
This is where you will need to research your market, the obvious place to start is eBay and Amazon. To give an idea on how vibrant this market is here is a screen grab from Amazon.
At the time I made this screen grab there were in excess of 800,000 posters and prints for sale on the site. Some of the vendors even offer a framing service as an additional cost option.
If you wanted to offer posters in a specialist area or areas you can source images from specialist picture agencies such as F otolia or i Stock or similar. Where you can buy the licence to reproduce the photograph or print. You can find out full details of how to do this in the “Make Money With Your Digital Camera” Blueprint.
More specialist items will often command a much higher selling price. Items such as framed illustrations from old books, post cards and prints are good sellers particularly if they have a rarity value.
Old maps and prints of towns and cities are good sellers as are reproductions of the work of famous illustrators and renowned artists. Old books which are damaged can be bought very cheaply and the illustrations carefully removed, mounted and sold. These items are easily found in flea markets, table sales and old book sellers, you can often pick up some postcards or old prints for resale at these events. Now I am not really an expert at this but I do know that there are substantial profits to be had if you get the formula right.
Two experts that I know that do this for a living are Avril Harper and Stuart Turnbull, both have produced excellent step by step instructions to making a living dealing in this area.
“Make Money Tearing Up Old Books and Magazines and Selling Them on eBay” by Avril Harper.
Here are Avril's own words
For the past few years I've been tearing up old books and magazines and selling them on eBay and generating very good profits. I'll show you how to do exactly the same.
You could be making money from items other people throw into their rubbish bins each day! Items they're glad to get rid of, which serve no obvious purpose once they're more than a few hours old. Just ask and most people will stockpile these items for you, some will even pay you to take them away to make room for more of the same.
We're talking everyday items here, even recent publications available in abundance, alongside other paper items which are old and quite rare yet still just cost pennies at auctions and flea markets or even on eBay itself.
We're talking about newspapers….. magazines….. and books….. the sort of things most people buy to read and bin soon after. 'Rubbish' that could earn you upwards of $200 a time - and doubtless a great deal more - every single day!
Priceless? Today's Newspaper? How Can That Be?
Read More Here.
Prints Make Profits by Stuart Turnbull
A little known strategy to get your slice of the huge 'eBay pie'
eBay is THE marketplace, you can buy and sell almost anything to almost anyone. It, therefore, provides an unrivalled way to make money quickly and easily without the tedious commute, the long hours, the unsympathetic boss.
Most people are excited when first discovering this vast and vibrant marketplace, excited but confused!
"What do I sell?" is the most common question budding eBay entrepreneurs ask when faced with the thousands of eBay categories.
Stuart Turnbull faced the same challenge 4 years ago before he chanced upon the basis of his strategy. He spent the next 4 years researching, testing and refining his idea into a plan that ANYONE can follow to make incredible eBay profits.
No special equipment is required, you can be up and running within days for a few dollars and an hour or 2 a day is all that is required to operate this business successfully.
So now you have the secret to the perfect eBay product there really is no excuse for not grabbing your slice of that pie!
Read More Here.
To recap here are the advantages and disadvantages of this business model
ADVANTAGES
Very small start up costs for materials
Easy to operate from home
Prints can be easy to obtain if you do your research properly
Large potential profits for a small investment
DISADVANTAGES
For your framing business you will need to re-advertise on a continual basis
Availability of suitable prints will vary, you need to trial the market and work in different areas to maximise profit potential
BLUEPRINT 8
PROMOTING AFFILIATE PRODUCTS THROUGH SMALL ADS
The selling and promotion of affiliate products is big business, as there is a substantial income to be earned promoting other peoples products. Here's how it works, I create a product, now I could decide to sell this entirely myself and keep all the proceeds or, I could offer a commission in exchange for other people promoting my product.
In the first example I am dependent on my own ability to find buyers, in the second I have a small army of affiliates who promote the product for me in exchange for a commission. The advantage of the second method is that the product gets placed before a much wider customer base, this will massively explode your sales completely hands off.
In reality we use both methods of promotion to gain the maximum exposure to the product. Most marketers employ both methods of working but unless you are very well known and you have an excellent reputation you can always use some help and your affiliates will lever their good reputation to sell your product to a wider market and make their commissions.
Now successful affiliate marketing is the subject of a whole book in itself (hint), but essentially to be a successful affiliate you will need to build a mailing list of prospective buyers to promote the products too. This will take time to establish, there are some costs involved and it will be a while before you see a substantial return.
You will need a website or blog to review products and provide your subscribers with lots of great content and useful free information (don't see your subscribers as
a cash cow). As an example here is my own blog robert-corrigan .com note the amount of free products I am giving away. You can start off with a simple review blog by signing up to Blog
There is one method of affiliate marketing that we can start with right away and it is an often neglected source of income, this is the one we will focus on here.
PROMOTING PRODUCTS VIA SMALL ADS
At first this may seem to fly in the face of conventional Make Money Online wisdom, instead of placing adverts online we are going to place them in national free papers, newspapers, magazines or Exchange and Mart type publications.
The method described below uses Clickbank but the principle is exactly the same for other vendors affiliate programs. There are some excellent ones out there such as JV Zoo.
Always look at the level of affiliate commissions offered for each product, often there is a funnel with further products and therefore commission offered as part of the package, these are excellent ways of making additional income. HOWEVER make sure that the product you are promoting is of excellent quality as YOU will be judged by the recommendation.
The first thing we will need to do is to sign up with Clickbank or JV Zoo as an affiliate. Below shows the sign up for Clickbank but JV Zoo is very easy to do and works in a similar way.
Sign Up To JV Zoo Here
Sign Up To Clickbank Here
Follow the screen shots below and sign up as a Clickbank affiliate. JV Zoo has its own setup but is very simple. Clickbank pay out by check every two weeks at a threshold level that you can set. JV Zoo integrates with with Paypal so that you can get paid. The product owner can either put you on instant commission or delayed commission (or deny you) expect them to ask how you intend to promote it, they may have very specific ideas as to how they want it done.
Once we have a Clickbank ID or (Nickname) we can find a product to promote. Let us take one of mine as an example.
METHOD 1: Find A Product To Promote
I am using one of my own products here as an example. The product is not for sale at the moment as it is being revised and updated but the method works for any product in any niche. Have a list of some niches that appeal to you to avoid wasting too much time.
I can find products via a Clickbank search (or JV Zoo market place) choose siutable search term, think like a buyer! Or I could just browse each category until I find suitable products to promote. Each product should come with an affiliates page or a JV page, which is a list of resources that can be used by affiliates to promote the product.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you will see the affiliates link, this will take you to the affiliates page. You will also be able to see a large promote button next to the product in the search results. This will generate your unique affiliate link.
A good affiliates page will contain a wide range of promotional materials such as email titles, e-mail copy, blog posts, forum signatures, product review and graphics of the product. But the most important thing is the affiliate link this will always look like this.
You replace the your id in red text with your Clickbank ID
Here is my affiliate page and the link so that you can examine it fully. pluginauctionprofits .com/affiliates/
Now that you have your own affiliate link, test it out by copying and pasting the link into the address bar of your web browser this should take you to the sales page via your affiliate link. If anyone buys the product you will get paid an affiliate commission, simple.
METHOD 2
Because I already knew that this product existed I could go straight to the sales and affiliate pages. Now you may want to search Clickbank market place for more products in different niche areas, there are about 10,000 products that you can promote. You can browse the categories down the left hand side or use the search facility.
When you have found another product you can load the sales page by clicking on it and then follow Method 1 or you can generate your affiliate link by clicking on the promote button.
This will load the link generator.
Add you ID and click the create button this will generate your affiliate link.
Test as before by copying and pasting the link to your browser, the link will look different as this one is encrypted with your affiliate ID embedded in it.
Now write a series of small adds for the newspapers or magazines, they need not be large or fancy ads, sometimes simple lineage adds work very well. These ads are very cheap to run so you will only be risking a few dollars per ad.
EXAMPLE 1
Get Into Shape for The Summer Here's How!
EXAMPLE 2
Learn To eBay Like A Pro
EXAMPLE 3
The Secrets Of Natural Beauty
rm1digital. productname.hop.clickbank .net/
Use the affiliate materials to include graphics if required.
Very simple titles, not too much detail, but just enough to make you want to look further. But, do you notice the problem? The URL's contain your affiliate link and they do not look like proper website addresses. So we will remedy this in the next Step.
We need to now replace our affiliate links with proper domain names, these will look right to our customers and will encourage people to look further. What we are going to do is called domain forwarding. We register a new domain and we place the URL of this domain in our adverts. When someone types in the new URL in the address bar of their browser that will be directed to the sales page via your affiliate link. If they go on to make a purchase you will make a commission on the sale.
To start with you will need to buy a domain name for a hosting company, I personally use 1&1 simply because I have never had a problem with them in all the years I have dealt with them. The example below is from 1&1 but the principle is the same no matter what hosting company you use.
Use the Domain Search box on the home page to search for a suitable Top level Domain name, in this example I am using my own passport2profits. com
As you can see on the screen grab that passport2profits .com has already been registered by myself but the software will suggest some alternatives that are available for purchase.
TIP
When I think of a good Domain name I register it even if I do not have a product to sell, I can always produce the product later but the Domain may no longer be available when the product is finished.
When your domain is ready you will receive an e-mail (this is usually less than 24 hours) when you log into your account you will see the Domain(s) you have purchased. Here are some of the Domains I have purchased.
Once you see the ready message you can then enable forwarding of your domain to that with of the products sales page which of course contains your affiliate link.
Follow the steps below to see how easy it is. In this example I am going to use auctionsamuri .com as I have already forwarded the other two Domains to my hosting package.
Click on the words auctionsamuri. com and this will open the window below.
Click the destination edit button and the following window will open.
Paste in your affiliate link in the “Forward Your Domain” box make sure that the radio button “HTTP redirect
MAX REPS!