anybody have any free advice on how to make a decent living from home?

Question

someone who has or is doing it and something i can duplicate and make some money. i dont want to have to reinvent the wheel or be super creative. i am so tired of the rat race and want to get ahead in life with out the day to day grind of a job with a giant corporation. i want to make my own money for a change. i would even be willing to start a cheap franchise or dealership. any advice please.im desperate, im not gonna live forever and feel like i havent lived yet, just worked the first half of my life away for someone else

Answer 1

The best home business that you can be sure is not a scam is one that you start yourself. It will depend on what you want, how you define to be interesting. A person may consider a pet sitting business to be the most exciting work in the world, while another person would rather watch TV than take care of dogs.

The key is to determine what your interests are, what you want to do, what is suitable for your lifestyle and your overall goals, and what can fit with your resources.

Dan Ramsey in his book "101 Best Home Businesses" has a chapter on how to find YOUR best home business. He suggests these 10 steps:

1. List 5 things you do best
2. List how others would benefit from what you do best
3. Find out how to give people what they want
4. Learn the value of your services to others
5. Find out who else offers similar services
6. Learn from the successes of others
7. Learn from the failures of others
8. Plan your own success
9. Make low cost mistakes
10. Enjoy what you do and how you do it

He then made suggestions on the best home businesses according to type. Here are a few of them:

Best Businesses Using Craft or Physical Skills
- antique restoration
- auto detail service
- carpet cleaning business
- errand/delivery service
- housecleaning business

Best Service Businesses
- bed and breakfast operator
- caregiver
- catering service
- senior day care center
- tutoring service

Best Professional Businesses
- desktop publisher
- magazine writer
- import/export service
- income tax preparation service
- event planner

Some other home business ideas:

Top 10 Home Businesses with Rapid Break-Even Time http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol33/breakeven.htm
10 Profitable “Go-Out" Home Businesses http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol31/goout.htm
Low Cost Startup Businesses http://www.entrepreneur.com/lowcostbusinesses/0,6617,,00.html
6 Hottest Businesses on the Web http://www.powerhomebiz.com/052006/web.htm

You can also check out the following books:

Turn Your Talents into Profits: 100+ Terrific Ideas for Starting Your Own Home-Based Microbusiness
The Best Home Businesses for the 21st Century
121 Internet Businesses You Can Start from Home
The Best Internet Businesses You Can Start
101 Ways to Make Money at Home

To give you ideas on what exactly do you need to start your own business, here are ten things you need to know before launching your own business “10 Things You Need to Know When Starting Your Own Home Business” http://www.powerhomebiz.com/052006/startingbiz.htm .

Answer 2

Food for thought...

After years of suits and rat race, I made the jump 10 years ago to being a webmaster (now called a web designer).

For the first 5 years, I took any account I could get. Now I have a nitch market, and gave away the rest of the customers.

If this isn't your cup of tea, other businesses that people have succeed at:

Photo restoring: You already have a computer, learn Photocopy and restore damaged & aged photos. You would be surprised how many folks use services like this, for the average person Photoshop is too expensive and the lack the knowledge of how to use it to its fullest abilities.

Animal sitting, house sitting, elderly sitting; There is a lot of folks out there what to travel, cut have ties the limit them. Low start up cost, pick and chose the days you work, chance to expand into a full size company.

Used plants, don't laugh this is a very profitable company. Find companies & nicer homes who want indoor plants, but not the upkeep. You set them up, go by once a week and care for the plant. If it's a location that plants won't do well, you rotate them out, taking the old one back home and nursing it back to health. After a while, you move to a commercial location and sell your plants.... as used plants.

Another off the wall, but again has proven to make $$ is pooper scoopers. Many people have doggies, but hate to scoop the yard. You charge by how often, how many dogs, and size of dogs (amount of output). Depending on where you live, business might be slow in the winter, but have strong summers.

If you have enough start up money and like cats... a cat hotel! Most cat lovers, hate to board their cats in kennels with dogs. If you are a dog person, doggie day care. You will need a bit more cash, and have to hire help, but again it can be a good profitable business. Target groups are people who work outside of the home and have new puppies, dogs with 'home alone' problems, people who need to do work on the house/apt and need the doggies out of the way for the day, and of course those folks who think their doggies are their kids.

As stated by others, do a self inventory be honest with yourself!

Also don't forget to figure in the hidden costs... no paid vacation, no paid sick leave, you pay the full 17% of your social security tax and most of all you pay 100% of your own health insurance.

Answer 3

I think the question is do you want the baby? Mind you, there's a lot of opportunities you'll have to give up raising a child at your age. I've seen many of my friends pregnant around your age, and they all wonder what life would be like, but they certainly agree raising a child has its rewards. It's part of you. If you're prepared to stay up late, and change diapers, listen to the child, caring for it without putting yourself first, knowing every choice you make will effect how your baby grows up as a human -- If you want no one else to raise your child then you should keep it. There's no being scared anymore when you're a mommy to be. That child will always look to you for support and comfort. Truly, it's amazing. However if you feel you're not ready, and you want to continue living a teenage life and go to school you should give the child up for adoption. (I suggest an open adoption... but that's up to you.) Then there's also the fact this baby will have no father. There's no reason the baby should go anything difficult -- In the end the decision is yours alone. I don't mean to be shrewd, but it is another human you're bringing to the world. Good Luck for you and your baby girl.

Answer 4

If you are desparate, you would be better off not looking for an at home job. I have been told that the jobs do exist but it requires a lot of research to find those positions.

It is not something you will find one day and start making hundreds of dollars the next. Regardless of the ads, a real at home job is exactly that, A JOB. Most all work at home offers also require you to pay a fee for membership, training materials, or they'll give you a list of companies that are looking to hire people. You can do that yourself by searching on the internet!

If you need a job immediately you would be better off applying at temporary agencies. They will often start you on a position quickly and pay you for your work at the end of the week. I've enclosed the url for a website I've used to keep a record of ads and letters that I've sent out while job hunting. It is very useful and FREE. It will keep companies and contacts in the database for you so you can refer to it daily.

Best of Luck,

Karen
http://jobsearchlog.com

Answer 5

I have been working from home for a short time now and love ever minute of it. I can offer you free information about it. Our company has been in business for over 20 years now and has been a member in good standing with the BBB for all of those years. We were also awarded the BBB's Hall of Fame award at the end of last year. If you are interested email me at [e-mail] or check out my web site and click on "Get More Info"

http://www.theceonetwork.com/cgi-bin/team.cgi?id=LE464989&action=show

Answer 6

I am working with a concept similar to franchise, in that it is systemized and duplicatable, but without the high cost start-up of traditional franchises. Work from home, 8-15 hours per week, with the full support of a business team. Company training and business materials; own your own web portal. Contact me for no-obligation information.

Answer 7

I myself make money from home and I'm confident that you can too. I think the best way to make a living from home is to start your own online business. It can be confusing though. I have written a simple step by step guide on how to do it at:
http://www.webcashlink.com/moneycourse.html

Hope that helps. :)

Answer 8

Make a blog or your own website, you can make money just by telling people your thoughts on various issues that you are familiar with, which would bring people to your site or blog, sell products or information and you can put up ads (example, Google Ads or Yahoo's Publisher), it extremely easy to make money from this recommendation visit http://webinfo1.shorturl.com for more help
(2) To make extra pocket change daily Check out this website http://winner.2fortune.com it has tips and tricks to help you make extra money from sitting at home on the computer
Other suggestions for making money on the 'net:
(3) Sell stuff on Google Base http://base.google.com/
or EBay http://www.ebay.com .Also there might be a local auction site that you can use to sell your stuff...don't expect to be a billionaire overnight, just be consistent and you will make extra money

Answer 9

Well, get youself well educated, and wait for some luck coming in..

50% education, 50% luck (or whom you know)

Answer 10

Check out this business. It is easy and inexpensive to start.