16 posts tagged “home based business”

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 44 percent of new establishments were still in existence 4 years after their birth. Dun and Bradstreet surveys show that 60 percent of businesses fail in their first five years.

So how do you guarantee success? Start a business with built in downside controls. This is what practical entrepreneurship is all about. Diversify your revenue streams, spend the most time on marketing, get paid in cash where you can, and set realistic goals!

Wantads

Corporate downsizing is here to stay. When large corporations total up the health care costs, retirement plan, vacation pay, life insurance, and disability insurance, a $35,000 college graduate really costs $50,000.

Outsourcing takes care of the downsizing problem. Consider the trends: IT outsourcing topped $100 billion in 2005, 80 percent of companies expect to increase their investment in outsourcing., companies love India because English is a second language

Résumés are confetti paper: Every graduate uses the same MS Word and WordPerfect templates, so all resumes look the same. When a company asks for a scannable (keyword) resume, candidates become even more indistinguishable!

Job skills change every few years. The average undergraduate student takes 5 years to get a B.S. degree. In that period of time, the entire world has changed. According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, the careers showing the most promise through 2012 are service related, health care related and homeland security related. Of those, only highly skilled health care jobs – doctors, nurses, and specialists – are paying a livable wage.

Human Resource departments are there to keep you out, not grant you an interview. They are not the hiring decision makers, you future boss is. Did you know that most jobs are never advertised? The jobs are filled before there is any need for an advertisement.

• What to save over $130,000 over your lifetime?
• Want to leave the 9 to 5 grind entirely?
• Want to have constant income streams?
• Want to stop paying the payroll tax?
• Tired of losing money in the stock market?
• Do you want to live like the other sheeple or be free?

If you answered yes to all 6, you should work some or all of the programs in my sidebar. My previous post documents realistic earnings. You have nothing to lose except your wage slavery and betting the farm on one career!

I have yet to share all of my alternative income streams. I do this so you can realistically see what it takes and understand my philosophy of real diversification. **Please note that you can participate in most of these income streams by clicking them in my sidebar**

I converted all values to a daily basis and then sorted from most profitable to least profitable:

1. Collecting stock dividends = $17.60 (high dividend strategy available to folks who order my seminars)
   
2. Trading stocks = $15.50 (based on my realized capital gains divided by 365)
3. Teaching a few classes during the year = $13.25
4. Selling covered call options = $1.90
5. Selling college textbooks on half.com = $1.62
6. Freebies and coupons = $1.50
7. Playing video poker = $0.40 (I'll have a separate post on how to win every time, so be sure to check back)
8. Collecting aluminum cans = $0.30
9. Amazon Mechanical Turk = $0.15
10. Swagbucks = $0.14
11. Selling my seminars on this blog = $0.14
12. Taking glass bottles bought in Indiana to Michigan to get their deposit = $0.05
    
13. InboxDollars = $0.04
14. Sponsored Tweets = $0.04
15. Youdata ads = $0.02

You get $5 just for signing up and InboxDollars generally sends you 2 or 3 paid emails per day. If you want to earn more than that, InboxDollars offers surveys, shopping, and playing games for cash. This isn't going to make you rich, but to give you a sense of earnings, here are my results after being in the program for 2 weeks.

Innbox dollars

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Wizetrade

The projections of the Wizetrade software are almost identical to charts of moving averages. Moving average data is free and up to date on Yahoo finance while Wizetrade charges almost three grand.  I haven’t spoken to one serious trader that relies on this type of software to manage a successful portfolio.

InvesTools

Prices start around $1000 and can go up to $10,000+. They try to keep the cost a secret until you attend one of their workshops, then you get the hard sell According to their SEC filings they have graduated over 320,000 and only about 1/3 (98,000) are still Investor Toolbox subscribers. Huh?

Bottom Line

The only people that make money from these are the people that sell them to you. If you can afford $3, I'll link you to the scientific approach to trading the market. It takes all the emotion out of buying and selling, and teaches you bankroll management. What have you got to lose? Oh yeah, thousands of dollars on software that doesn’t work!

Crime Stoppers

Mcgruff

For tips that bring results, programs pay $50 to $1,000, with some jurisdictions giving bonuses for help solving the most serious crimes, or an extra “gun bounty” if a weapon is recovered.

In Chicago, Crime Stoppers of Cook County is getting 10 high schools involved using text messaging. Tipsters will receive a code number and can call (800) 535-STOP to see if their tip resulted in an arrest.

WeTip

WeTip (1-800-78-CRIME) is a toll free number, answered live 24 hours a day, seven days a week for people to report information they may have about a crime. WeTip arranges payment of rewards.  Callers are eligible for up to a $1,000 reward when their tip leads to a conviction.

Please take time to tip me whatever you can afford. Information is not free, and I provide a service that saves you money and makes you money. I’ve given you something worthy of compensation.

Here are some ideas that only cost time:

• Grab some chalk, find a busy sidewalk, and write down your web site
• Take those business reply envelopes and stuff them with your marketing materials
• Go to the library and place business cards inside books that represent your business (an artist placing cards in art books)
• Participate in online discussion forums and include your web site/blog as your signature
• Use YouTube and make videos (commercials with some free information)
• Use widgets to aid in viral marketing
• Tip me if you like these ideas! ;-))

1. Virtual Assistant jobs including medical transcription, transcription, administrative, data entry, customer service, writing, and computer, programming
2. AlpineAccess.com - virtual call center provider using home-based customer service agents
   LiveWork offers many temporary projects for skilled professionals
3. ConvergysWorkatHome.com - an independent contractor home agent providing customer care, human resources and billing services
4. eLance.com - Links freelancers with employers in IT, graphic design, writing, engineering, translation, marketing, accounting and administrative and legal services
5. LiveOps offers call center jobs from home
   

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Here is the basic idea from HungryPod. If you have some technical skills, can find enough lazy/busy people, your potential revenues should exceed $100,000. Read the NY Times here.