Earning from home doesn’t have to be complicated. As someone who usually had a side hustle floating along beside my day job, I can tell you that earning from home requires 4 steps to Economic Independence.
Steps to Economic Independence as in, taking that trip away without worrying about finances, helping with the college fees so your kids don’t finish school with a degree and an Anvil of debt.
It boils down to what your goals are, and how much you’re looking to automate your income.
So how much are looking to earn? A few hundred a month, just getting rid of stuff on E-Bay?.
Or something more substantial in these times of unusual circumstances, as seen by today’s media headline…
20% of Brick and Mortar Stores to Go Bust.
So say all the Corona virus headlines. The media thrives on misery. We see that most days.
Business owners are generally smart operators. They have websites or are having sites set up to keep their business’s afloat.
My colleague and business analyst Sirnivasan Mahanti ( I call him Rab), Points to this article as an example of someone not caring about the “News” or media “speculations” and just went and did his own thing.
Cafe’s are showing how creative business’s can be. By having websites done, so customers can order online and… offering the customer the opportunity to become…. a
Subscriber
Nothing new in subscriptions, people have been subscribing to things for years. It is the most common of all online business tools.
Also one of the most cost effective and efficient tools for any work from home business to utilize.
If you offer physical products, there is no difference than what is done in most brick and mortar stores these day’s.
A sale special, they send a text to all subscribers.
On this page much is made about having a website to earn from home.
For too long most of us have been happy to go along with the status quo and battle on from there.
Covid-19 has changed all that. But change was always coming.
Call it accidental prophecy, or what ever, some people were getting up to speed and picking the best options for picking up regular paydays . As this woman wrote.
We are going a step further here as you will see.
4 Step System to Earning From Home.
The first three steps.
- Brainstorming: Deciding on the product, reviewing your infrastructure. Amount of Financial outlay required. Setting aside a dedicated area for your work area. Health and Safety requirements, Insurances. etc.
- The product of course determines whether you need to build an extension or even a new building, if you have a broad trade such as carpentry
- The competing interests between partners need to be defined. If this can’t be settled don’t even start . Keeping records for tax purposes needs to be accommodated in this phrase as well.
Implementation
If you have gone through the brainstorming session thoroughly, then you should have the costs nailed down and your new work area demarcated from the rest of the home.
It is generally advised to keep the office area separate but this is sometimes impracticable.
If you are going to register your home or part of your home as a business then local by-laws come into play.
Although you may have investigated this in the Brainstorming, health and safety has to implemented. This is part of the local by laws and your certificate to operate is dependent on having set up properly.
The benefit of this is lower insurance premiums !. All sorted it is time to…
Lets Rock ‘n Roll
You have some product ready. It has passed your quality control and ready for market.
Maybe your first piece of advertising is a sign at the front of the home. If you have demarcated your workspace from your home, there should be no reason to launch a search and rescue for the emerald necklace, you left near the T.V.
But now you have enough to move onto bigger and better things. such as…
Craft Shows
These are a fun and affordable way to introduce your products to a new audience. If you’ve never participated in one of these types of events before, the prospect can be a bit daunting at first.
The good news is that once you develop a system for constructing and accessorizing your booth, you’ll find your anxiety, replaced with enthusiasm.
“Time spent on reconnaissance is never wasted”, and when it comes to exhibiting at craft fairs.
Make sure BEFORE you set up a stall, that you know as much as possible about the show. What kind of people attend. Who else is exhibiting. And what other competition you might face.
There are a few ways to do this. One is to do online research… Another is to speak to the organizer. And another is to visit a fair as an attendee first and do a little “market research”.
Knowing what you’re getting into allows you to prepare in advance and give yourself the best chance of success.
The worst thing you can do is show up to a craft fair with exactly the same product as other exhibitors. Ideally, you want to be different and uniquely desirable to your target market.
Creating a visually appealing booth will encourage more passersby to stop and check out your items for sale.
Using simple items like small blocks of wood, or even a brick, covered by a colorful fabric square will create multiple levels within your booth.
Other key display elements can include items such as inexpensive shelving units, a simple wooden step stool, or one of your storage tubs turned upside down and covered by a fabric drape.
Use your imagination to create unique display surfaces that are easy on the wallet, but pack a strong visual punch.
While all this is good experience, you should also be taking as many photos as you can. So you can upload them to social media and…
The Final Step. Your Website.
If you are a small artisan product producer producing hand made bath and spa products …is having a website really all that important?
The answer is a resounding YES. And the good news is that it has never been easier.
You can go through this site and find many examples of people setting up websites. Etsy and Artfire have good examples of artisan wares as well.
The trouble with websites, is they can take some time to get to a stand alone profitable entity.
Rome wasn’t built in a day either.
Recent posts on this site mention this.
With the Covid -19 shutdowns it is only reasonable that people will opt to take greater control of their lives.
There are many options out there.
This site generally concerns itself more with physical products, than selling get rich programs that show you how to get rich.