Hi,
I have been looking over the responses of a survey I took last week. I”d like to address some of the comments over the next few blog posts.
Some people asked for information on ways to do a home business that do not require money to start.
I have a couple of things to say on this. There ARE some home based internet businesses you can start for a low startup cost. Some examples are:
- Affiliate Marketing – you sell other people’s products and earn a commission on each sale you make. Most affiliate programs are free to join. You do not have to have a website, but it certainly helps. You could promote the products on a blog, which you can setup for free, using blogger (blogger.com) or WordPress (wordpress.org) With affiliate marketing, you do have to actively promote the products and give people a reason to buy through your affiliate link. Such as, offer a bonus if they buy through you, such as a free information product that relates to the product they are purchasing, free advertising on your blog or website, or something more out of the ordinary. If you are good with graphics, offer creating a free button or banner ad. Use your imagination and your skills to create a unique offer that will attract people to buy through your link.
- Write and sell your own information product – if you do the research and writing yourself, this should not cost you anything to get the product created. Again, promotion is key. But there are many ways to promote your products that are free (another question for another day!)
- Offer your services such as proofreading, research, transcription and a whole score of others. Again, you guessed it, you need to PROMOTE your services. You will have to approach online business owners and let them know of your services (in a non-spam kind of way). You can do this in forums you both belong to. Once you get your first few clients, word of mouth referrals will be your best approach. You can offer a referral bonus to further encourage referrals.
There are many things you can for a low cost startup when you are starting your own business. Now, if you’re joining a direct sales company, that’s a different story. There is usually a startup kit to purchase, which is very understandable, as you need to acquaint yourself with the products you will be selling. You will also need the sample products to show others to spark their interest.
In most cases, a website is very helpful to have. If you are so inclined, you can create one yourself. There will be the hosting fees (less than $10 per month.) To be honest, if someone isn’t able to invest $10 per month in their business, starting a business may not be the way for them to go.
I hope this helps get you thinking as to what kind of business you could do that won’t cost you an arm and a leg to get it going.
Leave a comment and let me know what you think or if you have an idea for a business you want some feedback on.
Til next time,
Laurie
Thanks so much for being there.pls.inform me if you have any book or tecnique that can enhance my performance especially on adwords.
I don’t really know what is wrong am yet to make a dime on my business.irrespective of al what i have put in.
This is good information but why dont you name some names of companies that are reputable that you know that can be trusted.
Hi Ted,
Thanks for your comment.
Can you give me some more specific information, as far as what type of business you’re interested in?
I have listed a lot of companies I feel you can trust in my Home Business Guide, but since I can’t list all of them here (over 80), if you give me some specifics, I”ll try to name some in your field.
Thanks!
Hi adesegun (sorry, don’t know your name)
I asked my son your question, who has used Adwords a LOT. He recommends Perry Marshall’s book on Adwords. You can get it at perrymarshall.com (The Definitive Guide to Google Adwords. It’s $97.
My son (Josh) says it is by far the best on the subject.
Hope it helps!
Laurie
Hi Laurie,
We have started our business, My husband makes stones for jewelry from the rough. He has been doing his stones since He was maybe 6-9 years or age.
So far no loan yet, I enjoy selling & we hope this will work for us.
We are wondering what might happen to our country. But our hope is in God!!!!!!
God bless & maybe me will meet some day1
god bless you1
Debbie S.
Hi Debbie,
Nice to hear from you! Wow, your husband has done this for a long time. He must do a great job at it.
I agree – our hope is in God. The economy is shaky, but God is faithful.
Do you sell you stones online also, or just offline? I hope you see much success in this.
Thanks so much for sharing.
Laurie
Thanks !
Hello! I have lost my job and I really need a new one to support my mother and schooling of my nephew. I am comtemplating on starting with proofreading job but I don’t know where to offer my services.
I am a bookworm and I love reading a lot. I am an accountant here in the Philippines and I could also do accounting work at home.
By the way, I am practicing baptist, male and still unmarried.
Please help me. God Bless!
Hi Fred,
As far as proofreading jobs, you could try Elance.com. Also, I would suggest you join forums where other business owners congregate. You could try warriorforum.com or other home business type forums (do a search on google.)
Here’s a thought. If you have a financial background, you could specialize in offering proofreading services to financial business owners for financial documents.
If you want to do accountant type work, you could put an ad in your local paper, start a website that could tell about you, your services and pricing. Of course, you would need to bring traffic to your website to make it worth it. There are many free ways to do that, but I am unable to go into them all here.
Possibly specialize in doing bookkeeping/handling money matters for the elderly or the single population. It helps to specialize as then you can focus your efforts in certain areas where you would connect with these people. Otherwise, you get so scattered, it makes it difficult. Plus you get to know the concerns of that particular age group and can become an expert to them in your field.
I hope this helps as a beginning.