Home Based Business: The Right Choice

The most exciting thing about being self-employed is the control it gives you over your life.  First and foremost that control is of time and money.  The goal here is to be making enough money in as little time as possible.  The second goal is that if what you choose to do is time intensive, you’re doing something you really enjoy so it doesn’t seem like work.  The fact you can charge a fee for doing it is a bonus.

When you choose to become self-employed instead of working for someone else you are making the first of many choices.  The other major choice you need to make is what to do.  Traditionally people’s main option has been service businesses or skilled services.  Most of the information on this Blog will center around service businesses and skilled services because that was my main option 40 years ago.  It is still the favored option for many people and we want to help you choose the right business venture if you want to offer a service business or a skilled service.

Now you have another option – Intenet and Information Marketing.  Log onto our main website at http://www.LowdownReports.com and click into Affiliates and Links and read about Affiliate Marketing.  With a few basic computer skills and some knowledge about how Internet Marketing works you can build a business on goods that other people have developed.  You can also log onto http://bizreports.us/Reports and check out the Reports available on the right sidebar.

Or, click on the left sidebar and request Shawn Casey’s “Internet in a Box.”  Casey’s organization is at the top of my list of Internet information providers who go the extra mile.

The power of the Internet allows you to do business electronically.  No need to pre-purchase products.  No need to warehouse products to sell and ship.  No need to maintain a storefront presence.  It’s a whole new area of home based business  Be sure to check it out thoroughly.

Some people put themselves in a position of delivering skills, services or goods for a price.  The smart person chooses a skill or service with a high enough profit that they can attain their goals.  For everyone that accomplishes that, there are 8 to 9 people offering a limited product or service where their profit margin barely exceeds expenses.  Choice – another key to success and profitability.

You need clients/customers who are willing to pay you for what you want to do.  First you need to find what it is, then you need to develop ways of doing it quickly and as efficiently as possible.

My business journey started with my first business venture – a home sewing business – and evolved to a very exciting business I am now involved in – providing casino dealers for private parties, corporate events and fund-raising parties. 

The sewing business was not highly remarkable, but it was a great business for 15 years.  It enabled me to stay home, raise my children without day care, take great vacations, put my children through private schools – all things I thought we would have to struggle like most couples to achieve.  Like most wonderful things in Life, I didn’t go looking for it, but I will be forever grateful that my eyes were opened enough to see the possibility when it was put in front of me.  The business grew, changed, added services, and therefore profited consistently.  And, the most important of all, it led me to The Fantasy Casino entertainment product we offer today and that is what feeeds my soul.

A year after the birth of my second child the nest egg I had managed to put aside while I was a working person waiting to have children was just about gone.  We could make it on my husband’s salary, but I had never been much of a penny-pincher and I certainly didn’t want to have to start at the age of 30.  My thoughts were going over and over all sorts of possibilities for making money at home.  There was something inherently wrong in everything I looked at.  Usually the plan required an investment I didn’t want to make.  I really felt that my efforts should be enough of an investment.  Upon deeper reflection, the product or service I was coming up with wouldn’t have much of a market.  While I was going through this thought process, the answer just fell in my lap.

I was working on a civic project and one of the women in the group mentioned that she picked up extra money sewing for people. 

In retrospect, I’m sure that if I had not been in a search mode and looking for something, I might not have taken seriously what this woman was saying.  Because I was looking and eliminating, what she said really caught my attention.

Sewing for people – it hit me like a brick.  I had been born with a needle and thread in my hands.  Sewing was second nature to me.  My earliest memories of pleasure and satisfaction centered around sewing for myself and my family.  However, the thought that anyone would actually pay money to have sewing done was totally beyond my “frame of reference.”   As I thought about it, I remembered that one of my aunts in Montana did some sewing for pay once in awhile, a cousin did alterations for friends, another cousin in Chicago sewed costumes for a nightclub.  People I knew actually made money sewing for other people, but it had never occurred to me that could be a viable business.

Once I made the decision, I asked people I knew if they knew of any seamstresses in the area (always check out the competition).  I covertly checked pricing with the local department stores and some dry cleaners.  Everything looked good.  I had a great machine, plenty of time at home with two children so, why not! 

My first step was to compose a letter to every woman I knew.  Fortunately for me, I knew a lot of them.  The letter said simply that I had time on my hands and wanted to continue to stay at home with my children so I had decided to offer my sewing skills to anyone that needed them.  I listed the things I felt I could do well and offered to tackle any projects they might have. 

I wrote the letter out on white paper in black felt pen and ran 100 copies.   I then wrote Dear (Name) at the top of each letter so that it appeared to be a personal note and mailed them off.  Since I was going to be working at home I wasn’t sure if I would advertise directly to strangers, but I asked all of my friends to feel free to refer me to any of their friends who might need sewing or alteration services.

It took about 14 months to build the business to the point I had all the business I could handle.  Through the first five years of that business I learned many valuable lessons that served me well in later business and sales ventures.  Picture this – a few weeks after I mailed the note to family and friends and had done a couple of fittings I was vacuuming my living room wondering how long it would take to build a decent business.  A year later I didn’t have time to do my own vacuuming.

This journey we call Life is a wonderful thing.  For those of us who live in a free enterprise country your imagination and drive are your only limits.