working from home opprtunities?

hey guys,

im sure some of you will be able to help me.

at the moment i am in two minds about whether to leave my job at the moment or not.

bottom line is i need to be earning more money.
I did sell Tupperware last year which was great while it lasted but died very quickly.

I am after your experiences with home based businesses, what yo did, what you earned etc.

thanks!

Moving to Work, Maternity Leave & Work After Baby

ATM i do party plan selling for a childrens' educational book company, but like you said about the Tupperware - great while it lasted.

Have you looked into pamphlet distribution or something like that? A friend of My Mums does that and she gets x amount of money per pamphlet distributed. There are work from home opportunities advertised in the papers all the time.

ive seen the ones in the paper but am wondering if they are legit.

and am looking for something with minimal outlay.

hoping somebody has already done their homework for me?? O:)

Danni, I think these days you need to actually create the work yourself. So look at what skills you have and see how they can be transferred to working from home. Most party plans, and advertised work from home schemes are mostly about lining someone elses pocket. If you love children, how about family day care?

It is not that easy, I am trying to get work from home bookkeeping, everyone tells me it is out there, but it is difficult to find and i'm very experienced in the area. It is all about who you know sometimes.

I do recommend starting work from home before having a child. It is what my sister did with before her 1st. She just cut back on jobs after the birth. I am kicking myself for not starting before getting pregnant I would not have some of the hurdles I have now. It seems to be easier to find work when you can be more flexible and then change it later, than to find work that fits into tight restrictions.

Sorry if I have rambled, I hope I have helped.

I was thinking of doing the Body Shop party planning.... just an idea... if you do go to work for someone else, it may be a good idea to go with a company that is definately legit ykwim?

if i work for someone else, i am just amaking them rich iykwim.

but i understand the security.

i hated doing party plans. people can be so negative about your products and i didnt like being around people i didnt know. got quite uncomfortable some times.

does anybody know anything about importing products and reselling?

Ok, first of all get yourself a good accountant to make sure you are properly set-up. The GST issue with imports can be confusing. If you are not good with the paperwork, then consider a bookkeeper to do the monthly processing for you. Don't think of it as an expense, but as allowing you to spend that time making money.

Find a good website host and possibly a designer. A good looking web page is a must and find someone who knows how to get it listed on the search engines. Think about marketing, banner ads etc. Not much use in selling a product that people do not know about.

Costings - work with your accountant or bookkeeper. Find out what your fixed costs are (site hosting, wages, advertising etc) and variable costs (cost of goods, postage) and work out what you should be selling products for.

Training -where are you lacking in skills. Do you need to do a basic word/excel courses or even how to use your accounting software. I think there may be adult ed courses on how to start a business.

Have a chat to others who are dong something similar, but don't expect to hand all the info over. It is nice to see that someone has done a bit of their own research before helping them. The Vic government has a good website about starting up a business.

Could go on for ages, but I think this should help.

Hi - a lot of those ones that advertise in the paper about working from home - about how they used to work for an employer but now make heaps working part time for themselves - a lot lead to the same website that goes for pages and pages without actually saying what it's about. The ones I looked at ended up being about selling some vitamin/health products from America. And they wanted you to send money before they did anything else.

I think party plans are a rip - how many people further up the totem pole are making money off your sales ? They might be good to learn something about sales from though ??

You read all the time about mums who invent something that really takes off. When I was pregnant with Cait (early 2001) I used to think that I had a year and a bit to think of something to enable me to work from home ... still thinking about it now in 2006 !

Danni - do you have any secretarial skills? Sometimes doing typing from home is flexible and you can earn good supplemental cash (considering how much work you are able to fit in). It can pay around $20.00 an hour.

Might be worth thinking about.

Hi girls,

Don't get party plan and multi-level marketing confused. MLM is a definte rip - it's just about getting people in underneath you AND you usually have to buy a certain amount of the product yourself per month (as do the people underneath you) which IMO defeats the purpose. MLM usually has nothing to do with actually selling a product at all.

I do Body Shop at home (party plan) and have been doing so successfully for over a year. Of course it's successfull because people know and trust the products, and the business ethics. That makes a huge difference. You also have to really like what you sell, so if it's something boring, or something you are not interested in otherwise, you probably won't go anywhere.
Some party plans have excellent back up and support, some don't.
Also, you are in business for yourself, so you do have to go out and keep the interest happenening, call for bookings etc, but that is with any business, you cant expect everyone to know what you are doing and for business to come from nowhere.

Just to clarify - I don't get a cut from what my team make ( I am a team leader), but the Bodyshop do pay me based on the performance of my team, I earn it from supporting and mentoring them, which I actually find a lot of fun and suits me down to the ground. I do make a good income, it's fair and you don't need to get other people to join up to make any money. That and the fact that I really do work the hours that I want, I only need to leave the house once or twice a week.

Danni, I looked at heaps of stuff before I took this on, pm me if you want any info I may be able to give you.

Astrid - I am looking for a bookkeeper, myself (I HATE doing the books!) do you live far from me?

I'm having an information session on this Thursday 1st June if anyone wants to come and have a look-see. It's in Ringwood (vic). A good chance to see whats involved. It is a great opportunity, I am having great success. PM me if you want to come along and I'll give youthe details. xxxooo

thanks for the invite Lulu and i am so glad you are having great success with it but i really dont want to be doing party plans anymore. I dont feel comfortable hassling people for parties and going into peoples homes. I felt intimidated and embarassed :(

I hear you on that Danni, I wouldn't go to parties at all. Even though I liked the idea of shopping that way and having it delivered to me (I'm a slackarse and I hate big shopping centres), I didn't like having it put on me to have a party just cos I was there.
It's more the fact that it's such an ethical and well loved company that I thought I'd try it out. I am glad it worked out for me, but I tell you what, I just refuse to do the 'hard sell' , and so do the rest of the team. I don't know why people think that works anyway.
We are a different breed at TBS@H......!

Hi Danni

I've done a LOT of study over the last 12 months because I really don't want to go back to work once bub is born, so have been looking for a "way out". I've tried party plans, MLM, and anything else you can think of!

12 months ago I came across a company that go into all sorts of ideas including internet marketing, property investment and sharemarket trading. The internet business can be as simple as joining a free affiliate program, and promoting it - you don't even need your own website.

Also, if you've got a product or you know about something others might be interested in, you can sell it (or info about it) on your own website.

It takes a bit of work to get going, and there might be some cost of setting up (if you build your own site, you need to automate everything so you make money while you sleep!), but it's definitely worth it.

I've already made some money through my affiliate links (I just get an email on occasion, saying I've just earned X amount of money), and my mother and I are currently working on setting up our own web business - we're just trying now to find a niche market!

If you need any info about what I'm doing, please feel free to email me.

Hello, Girls
This is my first post. I found my way here after googling "work from home"
My Bub (in approx 8 months) is coming and I would really like to get into home based things that will allow me to spend time with baby instead of working 9-5.

Impatient. Can you give me some info about your affiliate program. I have looked into this a little but never started it. Perhaps you can give me some tips on what and how your actually making $.
I tried to email you but I cant seem to find a way! lol.
I dont know if email link are permitted in a post. So I will refrain until someone replies to this,
Thank you

Hi BeeBee

welcome to bellybelly. You can put in your own email link in a post if you want someone to contact you just not business websites. HOpe this helps.

Love

Thanks, Astrolady

How can i email other members, or PM them. It seems a bit different to other forums.