Money Making Ideas for a Bad Economy - Work at Home Business on the Rise
1. What are you interested in?
Do you like cooking and baking? Companies like Watkins offer quality cooking and baking products, as well as eco-friendly cleaning products. Are you interested in health? There are many great health products, like the Amega Global Energy Healing Products out there that truly help people live healthier, happier lives, and the sale of health products is on the rise, even in this bad economy. Energy Medicine alone is a $300 million business in the US each year and growing.
2. Once you choose 4-5 companies you’d like to promote, check out the sign up fees involved.
If you’re building a new business, even if it’s working at home, you’ll have a few start up costs. However, don’t invest hundreds of dollars in any business until you find out if it’s for you and if you can be successful at it. Certainly don’t spend money on business building programs or advertising right away either. There are many ways to promote your business for free so try these before you spend any money.
Some work at home business opportunities are free to join, others have a fee, whether it’s a one time cost or an annual fee to belong to the business. Decide what you can spend, if anything, and stick to that. You may want to invest in a few catalogs or perhaps a website, if you plan to sell on the Internet but again, many of these money making ideas can be done on a shoestring budget. For instance, you can create a blog to promote your business for free.
Using health as an example, you could create a health tips blog like mine chat with others who also love health or are looking for ideas for healthy weightloss for instance, or healthy recipes. Blogspot blogs are free to create and you can put ads on them with no problem.
Some business opportunities offer free websites, just for joining, and the moment you sign up, you have your own business website. One such work at home health business is Amega Global, a company which offers zero point energy wands, magnetic jewelry, and more energy healing tools.
3. Check out the company’s reputation. How long has it been in business? Check with forums to see if there have been complaints about the company. I was recently researching Acai berry products and found several people talking about the downside of belonging to MonAvie - namely the products are expensive and the ingredients are undisclosed. Look for an honest and straightforward company to deal with.
4. How do you want to market your business? Do you like giving home parties or would you prefer to sell your products online? Watkins has an entire set up for home parties, called “Good Tastings” and even awards for representatives who have the most in a month or sell the most products. Mary Kaye and Tupperware also offer home party systems for selling.
You can also sign up for a company website and then link it to your blog. Most companies, however, charge a set-up fee of anywhere from $40-$60 and then about $20 per month to maintain it. Some, like Amega Global, provide a free website to their independent business owners. Also be aware that these “replicator” sites do not do well in the search engines so you need a blog or website with original content to hook your business site to.
Most companies have policies about what you can say about them on your blogs or websites so read these thoroughly before deciding on either the company or an internet promotion as a way of doing business.
5. What is your personality? Do you like people and selling? If you’re passionate about your products and you like talking to people, you’re well on your way to a great money making idea. or you like the idea of running your own business and working for yourself, making your own hours? If you aren’t a self-starter, then working at home isn’t for you.
Despite the economy and perhaps because of fears about what is happening with health care reform, more and more people are interested in health products, especially alternative health. More people are also cooking at home so businesses like Watkins and Tupperware are doing well.
6. What sort of products to you use and enjoy? With the right money making idea for you, you can also get your own products at a discount. I save on Watkins products for my cooking and baking, I use Watkins natural dish soap, hand soap, laundry soap and Watkins shampoo, all at a savings. I joined Amega Global because I wanted a Zero Point Energy Wand to help me heal for neuropathy so I got one for wholesale.
7. Consider affiliate programs for products you use and would enjoy promoting. Are there products you like? The company probably has an affiliate program which will offer you links and banners to post on your website or blog. Companies like Linkshare and Commission Junction have hundreds of companies to choose from and your earnings go into one lump sum to be paid to you, rather than many small checks.
If you’re looking for money making ideas, (and who isn’t?), it’s even possible to create multiple streams on income from several different sources, like I have. Just remember, though, to be successful at working at home, you must be ready to commit time and energy to making it work. No money making idea works by itself but it is possible to earn several hundred dollars a month to supplement income with about 25 hours a week.
