Starting a Home Based Business – Turn Your Hobby Into Cash

Starting a home based business and working from home can be exciting and fun, there are many people that have started a business from their hobbies. What was once was a past time of pleasure can turn into a full time work from home business. One industry that seems to keep growing by leaps and bounds across America is antiques and collectibles.There are many across America that start each year, for the simple reason, they were introduced by their Mom or Dad or a close relative, this hobby has an infectious way about it. Once you have a true desire to collect the treasure of the past, the desire will always be with you throughout your life, once you have been bitten by the bug there is no turning back and there is no known cure.There are many people that enter this business on a daily bases, not having been associated with anyone that can show them the ropes of how to go about it or to know the value of the collectibles and antiques. Many people start out collecting just one item, such as collecting dolls or collecting western gear and cowboy spurs or western prints etc.Many will start collecting as a team, that is husband and wife. The husband will collect the items that is of interest to him and the wife will collect what is of interest to her.• Where To Buy….If you’re a newbie to collecting, you might want to know where to start first in buying your collectibles. But, before you rush of on your buying spree, you need to learn a few things first, so you don’t get taken in on your purchases, not knowing to value of the items you buy can cost you a great deal of money in the end.• Buy Low, Sell High….You always want to buy with this in mind, buy at the lowest price you can negotiate, with a view of reselling at a profit, if you have the hope of starting your own home based business. To gain the knowledge of the value of antiques and collectibles come in various ways. Buy, collect and study the antique and collectibles appraisal books, always have the books with you for reference purposes when shopping for your treasures.• Starting With Garage Sales….Garage sales are a great way to start to learn about your collectibles you want to acquire. In order to get the best buys, it is advisable for you to line up your sales a day before they start, if they start on Saturday, make your list of ones that are advertising antiques and collectibles on Friday.• You’re Not The Only Dog in the Hunt….Be mindful that you’re not the only one looking for the great buys, there is a lot a competition searching out the garage sales. To get a leg up on the competition try to be at the garage sale an hour before they open, sometimes this works and sometimes it don’t. You will meet all kinds of people, some will let your browse around and others will flat out run you off if you are an early bird.• Trash or Treasure….
When mapping out your garage sales, always take the shortest distance between the sales. When arriving at the garage sale, if they have unpacked everything then you can make a quick scan of the merchandise and see if there is something of value in the collectibles category. Be aware, there are people that think they have treasures, but in fact they have trash and need to make a run to the dump.• Expanding Your Market….When shopping for the items you want to collect, you will invariably run across other valuable collector items, don’t pass them up, you need to expand your market, remember there is a buyer for each and every collectors item, the more versatile your inventory is, the greater your market will be. Your home based business can become a reality with patience and hard work.

Top 5 Reasons To Start A Home Based Business

Starting a home based business would have never been much of a thought 10 to 20 years ago. It was the norm to just accept the fact that going to school to get your high school diploma so you could get a good job. Then it became necessary to go to college for at least four years to get a degree in your choice of major. This would allow you to do what you “love” and be able to make a good income. You would be able to set aside some of that income for your retirement. At the same time be able to support your family with a steady income from your job. Those days are gone. The economy today has even gotten many advisers to encourage individuals to not rely on their jobs for that so called financial security. In fact, you will see that more and more it is the norm to hear that your best move is to get started in a home based business if you really want to get control of your financial security.The following are the top 5 reasons to start a home based business:Job SecurityWhat is job security? Today there is no such thing. Job incomes today do not equal the cost of living. There are more families in low income status because of the rise in cost of living. Eventually there will only be two classes: low and high income. Lay off’s are more prevalent today than ever before. More companies are going to outsourcing their work rather then keep employees on the payroll. Having a home based business will not only help in alleviating some of these stresses, but it can also aid in funding your retirement and most likely replace your jobs income.Pension PlanIt used to be that companies were graded by the type of pension or retirement plan they had to offer. Again, this is something of the past. Companies are everyday cutting back on pension plans, if not eliminating them. These plans are no longer being offered with many companies. How good does that make you feel? Social Security just is not even something that this generation and future generations can rely on. This is another reason it is a smart move to start a home business.Tax BenefitsMany don’t realize it but having a home business can actually aid you with different tax benefits. I am no expert in taxes so you may want to consult your tax preparer to see how you can benefit. But a point you need to consider is that running a business from your home may open many ways where you can cut back your taxes. You may be able to deduct portions of your monthly expenses that you would normally have without a home business.Save MoneyIn starting a home based business full-time, you will be able to save money on costs that you would normally incur on having a job. These things would involve commuting, childcare, and even grocery costs. Many have been able live on a less income or have a better family life due to being home.Better Well-BeingHow many times have you come home from work stressed out because you’re not sure if this weeks paycheck is going to cover your bills? How many nights of good sleep do you lose because of your concern of being able to provide for your family? Or how many times have you had no energy to spend with your family because you just put in 60 hours of work this past week? Your health unbeknownst to many, takes a huge impact when you are overwhelmed with concerns as stated. Depression, heart disease, and many more other health ailments can rear their ugly heads up because your job and current income is at the forefront of your stress. Starting a home based business would allow you to add a side income part-time. This would maybe take away some of the fear of being laid off. This could eventually develop into a full-time home based business where you would have total control of your hours and your income. You would be able to set aside time for the things that are more important to you: your family.If you are tired of the heartache of not having enough time for your family because of your job or because you want a better life, then I encourage you to connect with me. You too can succeed in a home based business like thousands are doing today. Are you prepared to dedicate another 20 plus years to just making a measly income and not being sure if you will be able to have a retirement? If your answer is no, then connect with me and take control of your life today.

Plan To Succeed With Information Product Creation: Why You Need To Split Your Process Up

One of the keys to succeeding in information product creation is to break the process up into discrete steps. This frequently isn’t an instinctive reaction for the typical information marketer. Especially on the internet where small sized learning products are the norm.

However, it is extremely important to your ultimate success. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you don’t do this you probably won’t succeed… even when you are starting out let alone as you move forward.

Your product creation system should do this for you if only to help you to understand the overall task.

But why?

In this article, I’m going to ignore chunking and focus on the practical aspects. That’s not to say that chunking isn’t important. It is. It’s important to understanding and to learning the process. But while you can use the same chunks as you move forward, long term your focus needs to be on the operation of the system not the understanding of it. Unless of course you are constantly training new people!

So why is chunking important to long term use of the product creation process? (Yes, I know systems design uses a different term for this process but I’m not teaching you systems design. So I’m going to use the word learning content designers use.)

The first reason that having individual discrete tasks is important is one of schedule estimation. Frequently it is very difficult to estimate how long the total task of creating a product will take. After all, the size and type of the products matters as does the number of products in your product funnel. And those are just the most obvious elements. However, estimating a discrete task is often much easier. The total can then be estimated as the total of the discrete tasks.

Secondly, scheduling a large task can be problematic. However, by segmenting the task into a number of discrete tasks, you gain a much greater flexibility in scheduling. Not only that but as your business begins to add people you are able to schedule multiple people to the product creation.

Finally, segmenting a large task into smaller discrete tasks allows you to have much better control over the product creation. This affects two different areas — status and quality.

By segmenting your process into discrete tasks you are able to schedule and record the progress at much more detailed level. As a result you are more in control of the status of the product creation. You know what everyone is doing. When they should complete it. And how much it should cost. You also know exactly what has been done.

You also improve your overall quality. Instead of waiting until everything is done you can check quality as you go. This allows you to immediate react to low quality products without absorbing their costs. This means that you have less rework and your rework costs less. And if the product is not going to meet its quality requirement you will know about it in time to stop the development, change the requirement or fix the product.