The books and the workshops are out there. Monetize your passion…. Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow …. Start Your Business Now ….. Making a Living Without a Job….. So how do you actually do this?
Step 1: Brainstorm. Take a moment, or hours, or even days to write all your ideas down. Do not think about what will work and what might not work.. This is your brain storming session and you are allowed to write down whatever comes to mind. Turn your censor off.
Step 2. Make a List. Take the list of ideas from your brain storming session and write each idea on a separate piece of paper or index card. Use as many cards as you need. Each idea should have its own card.
Step 3: Categorize. Look at each of your ideas, and sort them out, put them in categories. Are any of them similar? Do some of them go naturally together so they all might be done within one business? For example, you love to cook and you love to help people with dietary restraints find foods and recipes they can use. These two ideas would go in the same pile. The cards that state your love of doing stained glass and decorating your home for the holidays will go into separate piles.
After someone dies their family is left with the accumulated possessions of a lifetime. After selecting the items that have particular meaning or value to them, they must find a way to sell the items so the house can be sold or the apartment cleaned out and rented. Usually they will hire an auction service to run an estate sale. This means that everything gets sold but some things will be sold very cheaply.
So how can you make money? To get started, buy the cheap remains from the auction service directly or at a rummage sale they may have after the auction. Once you know the market and business well, you can approach families to buy the entire contents of the home of the deceased.
Finding new job can be difficult. Even jobs that once only required that you fill out an application may now require a resume. I have met hairdressers, nurse’s aids and welders who have needed a resume. By requiring a resume, the hiring manager has fewer but more committed applicant to screen. Of course, those seeking professional positions need resumes that showcase their achievements and key skills.
It is easy to get a professional looking template online or even from the applications that came with your computer’s word processing system. Looking good is easy but getting one’s experience on one or two pages that impress a prospective employee is not easy in a crowded, competitive market. After trying it for themselves, many people will call a Resume Writer and pay to have the resume written.
Resume
Resume writing is an easy field to enter. If you are curious about people, write reasonably well, able to do word processing, and proofreading, you can probably learn to write resumes. Start you training at the local library by borrowing some of their books. Pay attention to the copyright dates, as resume styles have changed dramatically in the last 20 years. Continue by looking at some of the books available at bookstores or on Amazon. There are plenty of example of resumes on line, but just because someone posts resumes online does not mean they are exemplary resumes. As a resume writer (it is one of my long-standing halfpreneurial ventures) I use the resumes on the web when I am writing a resume for a field with which I have little familiarity. Recently that included a child model and a veteran with 20 years of artillery experience seeking a position in construction or facilities maintenance.
Resume writers can work from home. The basics for starting the business are a computer, laser printer, and telephone. A website and business listing in the phone book will contribute to your professional image.
Very reasonably priced training is available from American Artists and Writers Inc. http://www.awaionline.com/resume/p/ for $99.00 and from http://resumebiz.com/# Teena Rose offers her book for $44.95. Both books will help you begin to write resumes and set up your business.
If you are serious about resume writing consider seeking certification from:
Read and stay current. The NRWA offers a monthly newsletter and there are blogs and articles to follow online.
In addition to resume preparation, you can offer cover letters, Reference sheets, Bios, and resumes formatted for Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) http://tinyurl.com/lddw2oh. You can branch out and offer interview coaching, job search coaching, and career coaching.
No business is without pitfalls and for a resume writer income may not be reliable and your local market can have an effect on what you can charge. The advantages of resume writing include working from home, low start up costs, high income potential, and meeting interesting people.
So you love to cook. Can you turn it into a lucrative part time business?
Catering for small events would be one idea, but it probably would be a great deal of work: food purchase and preparation, cooking, delivery, clean-up.
But you can share your love of cooking and not have to do very much cooking.
Teach a Cooking Class
If you have a large kitchen or have use of a large kitchen you can offer cooking classes. If you plan ahead you can teach your cooking class in a night program for adults, here we call them “Night Life” and a variety of cooking classes are held at the vocational high school. Depending on the class, the cost of the class might range from $15.00 – $50.00.
If you have expertise in some area of cooking: nutrition, weight loss, cooking for diabetics, great meals for folks on low sodium diets, gluten-free deserts …. You get the idea. You could teach classes or you could offer coaching or a tele-seminar series.
Even if you have no specialty, just some really good recipes, you can become an author. Books can now be easily self-published. Sell your book at your classes. Teach a class based on your book. Offer a discount on the book to those who sign up for your next series of classes.
Publishing a Kindle book will also establish you as an author. Offering a free cookbook with 10 or 20 recipes can be a way to build a list for your future coaching or tele-seminar business. Or your business can just be selling Kindle cookbooks. When I last checked Amazon, most Kindle cookbooks were selling for $2.99. What kind of Kindle cookbooks were being sold?
Prepare your Paleo food in a slow cooker
Paleo Food cooked in Slow Cookers
Slowly cook the food your ancient ancestors loved while you put in your eight hours in some 21st century techno cave
Salad in a Mason Jar
Salads in Mason Jars
Veggie salad, bean salads, fruit salads salads……
Dump Cake
Dump Cakes
They seem to begin with cake mixes and then other “stuff” gets dumped in.
Dump Dinner
If these are not among your specialties with a little research, you could probably become an authority. Or become one of the first authors providing recipes for dump dinners. I think they used to be called soups and stews!
You can publish both Kindle and print editions and you can increase the sales on your books by starting your own affiliate program so other people can earn money for promoting your book on their blogs and websites or recommending it to their social media fans or email subscribers. With an affiliate program you do not have to pay out until after the sale is made. Two companies that can help you set up an affiliate program are www.topwebcart.com and www.clickbank.com. Whichever you choose, you affiliate software will automatically calculate the commissions you owe each affiliate.
Authors have credibility. And even though publishing a cookbook requires limited writing ability, you are an author! If you are comfortable with public speaking, you may want to seek out opportunities to be a guest speaker. Consider groups who have monthly meetings and Meetup groups. After you give a talk or give a recipe demonstration, attendees will want to buy your book. Some Meetup groups charge admission and give their speaker half of the admission fees.
Just spent some time scanning the ads in a free monthly “New Age” magazine. Besides the usual ads for massage, Reiki, and Yoga classes , creative entrepreneurs have created a variety of trainings and certifications. Is your next career Ayurveda, Bodywork, Holotrophic Breathwork, Therapeutic Sound Healing or Vibrational Light Healing? There are Herbal apprenticeships and certifications to do Angel Readings and Angel Therapy or become an Akashic Record Practitioner.
Looking for more creative, spiritual ideas. There are practitioners offering Hope and Healing Counseling, Aroma Therapy, Herbal Medicine, Thermography, Equine Massage, Spiritual Guidance, Psychic Intuitive Life Coaching, Past Life Regression, Angel Readings, Angel Therapy, Hypnotherapy, Soul Clearing, Chakra Clearing, Tarot Card reading, Soul Retrieval, Acupuncture, EFT, Pranic Healing, Shamanic Energy Healing, Plant Spirit Medicine, Astrological readings, Intuitive Spiritual Counseling, Pet Reiki, Animal Communicator, Relocation Astrology, Dowsing , Aura Photography, Ghost Removal, Financial Consulting, Money Coaching, and Psychic mediumship. Some of these practices do require specific training but others have “no entrance requirements;” only the confidence that you can do the work.
For the holistic or “spiritual” halfpreneur there are many paths to part-time or full-time income.
This New Age niche not only pays for services but apparently buys Nature and Fantasy paintings, Herbs, Medicinal mushrooms, gem stones, jewelry, incense, soy candles, and Rejuvenizers (I don’t know what they are made of but they protect you from EMFs, the damaging frequencies from your computer, cell phone, TV, and wireless internet, as well as from other people’s negative energy!)
Are you a Reluctant Halfpreneur? You’ve never wanted to start your own business. You like working for someone else. There are benefits, a stable paycheck, and people who you enjoy working with. Start your own business! No way!
Then …… Management changed and your position changed too, and not for the better. Perhaps you are a parent and you have lost the flexibility to come in early so you can leave early for your children’s sporting events. Or, the handwriting is on the wall – your job or your whole company is at risk and local opportunities for someone with your skill set are nil. Or you thought that your career was secure for the next 5, 10, 15 years, but now you are over 55 and out of work. The odds of finding another comparable position in your field are slim. Not impossible, but all the government and business statistics warn that it will take you much longer to find a job than it will for a 40 year old. Part-time at fast food service or retail sales is not what you have in mind when your unemployment compensation runs out.
If your experience does not immediately translate into something you can start your own business in and it is important to you that you work at something professional, with a potential for good pay, and offers the opportunity to interact with interesting people, where do you look for ideas. There are some career and life coaches that specialize in working with individuals in the position that you find yourself and be able to help you find your passion. Before going the coaching route, here are two more reasonably priced options.
Look over the catalogs for your local colleges, especially community colleges. Take a look at what is being offered in certificate programs and in their noncredit programs. These offerings will indicate what may be in demand in your community. You may want to earn a certificate or take a course or maybe you have the background to make the transition into this new field. Employment or self-employment in this new field may be possible.
Visit http://www.entrepreneurbookstore.com. They sell two types of books: kits to help you start your own business that generally cost $69 and start-up books that retail around $18 – $22. The kits have business forms and worksheets and walk you through the entire planning process. The start-up books have plenty of information about the business and how to start it, but not the forms. If you are exploring your possibilities, the books are helpful. I purchased one recently thinking that it represented an area I could expand my current business into. Well, I could go that route, but I discovered that there were many aspects of this new business venture that would not be a good fit with my current life style. I got some ideas I might use so it was $19.99 well spent.
Since Entrepreneur Press is the publisher (my only affiliation with Entrepreneur magazine is that I subscribe to it) many of the kits and start-up books are appropriate for those with a professional or administrative background. Title include: Public Relations, Event Planning, Consulting, Freight Brokerage, Tutoring and Test Preparation, Executive Recruiting, Staffing, Online education, Import- Export, Home Inspection, College Planning Consultant.
Event Planning
If more than one idea interests you, research it further – interview someone who does this type of work; research your local market; talk to the former executives who staff your local SCORE office or visit or agencies (at colleges, Chamber of Commerce, Small Business Bureau) that assist those starting new businesses. Can’t narrow down your choices – a career coach or Profiting from Your Passions coach can help. Need guidance in setting up a business – consider a new business coach.
Does your business enterprise need a boost? Is more income one of your goals for 2014? Is list building one of your New Year resolutions? Consider using special reports to add revenue and build a business contact list for future use.
What are Special Reports?
Special reports are short reports that contain helpful information on a subject. The reports are anywhere from a few to 30 or so pages in length. If you have the know-how, you can write them yourself or hire a writing service to do it for you. There is very little work involved in creating them but they are versatile tools for building an online business.
Here is what you should do!
One popular subject for a special reports is a how-to. A how-to directs a reader, step by step on how to do something. If you are knowledgeable with computer software and hardware, you have a perfect niche for special reports on your website. People are always having trouble figuring out their computers and looking for help.
How-to guides on infant care, raising children, and finding romance are popular too.
Marketing Special Reports
There are several options for marketing your special reports. If you are trying to build a business list of customers, use these special reports as a freebie when any visitor signs up to be a part of your email mailing list. For this type of promotion, use a shorter report like a five page report on how to navigate problems with Windows Vista or MS Office 10 (if your website has a computer niche).
You can create a five-part course and use the first part as the free promotion. This free information is your hook. Once individuals sign up for the mailing list, you can grant them access to the other installments through emails that also advertise your website products. Signing up for a business newsletter subscription can also be the reason to gift a free special report.
Making Money
All of your special reports don’t have to go towards list building. Besides your other products or services, you can sell special reports on your website. Many reports sell for between $5 and $20 a piece, but if you offer very valuable information, you can command a higher price. Sell single reports or create various courses to interest your customers.
People love to learn about money-making opportunities. They will pay the money for any information that is a how-to guide to making money on and offline in various ways. How have you made money? Begin your “career” as a special report writer with accounts of your successful money-making experiences.
As you build your library of special reports and your lists, you have the option of alternating free promotional reports and new reports. You can create combination offers – Buy Two, Get One Free.
If you become a successful special report writer and your business is growing as your special reports sell, you can consider creating an affiliate program. This gives customers a way to help you make more money and also allows them to make money. Offer certain special reports as additional compensation for reaching a certain selling level in the affiliate program.
2014 GOALS
So if your 2014 goals are increasing your income or increasing your contact list, consider writing special reports. They are low cost to create and will both build lists and increase your profit margin.
Hobbies can often be turned into business ideas that can make you money. As a digital photographer you can make money from your photos.
Stock photography is one of the best ways to break into the online digital photography market. You can sell your photos to supplement your income and help businesses get the right images for their websites, newsletters, magazines, e-zines and other media. If you surf the Web, your may fine that many of the photos look the same. Your photos, if they are of sufficient quality, can add a new flavor to what is currently being offered.
Many photographers are daunted by the stock selling process but in reality it is very simple. Here are some ways to get started.
Understand how the stock photography business works. On these sites, customers can purchase pictures or lease them for a certain amount of time. On some sites, photos are free to use when signing an agreement of use and including a link back to the site. As a photographer, you will make more money if your photos are leased as opposed to being sold. The one time sale may net you some cash but the lease will provide a continuous source of income off of that one photograph. And, many people can pay to lease the photograph at one time. Through the leasing process, your work will be viewed by a large audience. Start by researching current stock photography sites. Find one that offers the leasing option to customers and also has an easy-to-navigate site. This is the site that you may want to begin with to test the waters with your work.
Continue researching stock photography sites, but now take a careful look at the photographs. What do they have in common? What types of photographs are selling/leasing well? Can you produce photographs that are similar yet also unique? Depending on your photographs consider submitting them to a specialized market.
Produce some high quality work to submit. Businesses using these sites are looking for professional quality at a price they can afford. You may have to submit to several stock photography companies.
Do more research. Make sure you understand how each stock photography company works so you know what kinds of images to submit, what licenses to grant your work, and make certain that this is not a company that exploits its contributors.
Create a website or blog with links to the stock photography sites featuring your work. This will send more people to view your photographs and may lead to other opportunities in the future.
Are you a shutterbug? If you like to snap pictures at family events or just out in the neighborhood, put that camera to good use in ways that will earn you money for your efforts. This article mentions eight ways that you can make money with digital photography.
The world of photography has changed since the instant camera was developed. With a digital camera, you can take a not so good shot and make it perfect using a variety of software options. Best of all, pictures can be printed on quality paper on your printer or at a store kiosk for just a few cents per picture.
Technology has created memory cards much like the flash drive storage medium to file and save pictures for sharing on the Internet. You can easily upload pictures from the memory card to your friends, family and a blog or website if you have one.
1. Stock photography. This business is growing. For website newsletters, magazines and articles, publishers look for photos that capture the essence of their articles. It is not terribly convenient to go out and snap some pictures every time you need one. Selling stock photographs to businesses and individuals is convenient for them and lucrative for you.
2. Wedding photographer. Okay so if you aren’t a professional you won’t be the main photographer at first but you can be hired to take candid shots at the reception or wedding photos after the ceremony. The happy couple can order as many pictures as they want and you can create wedding CDs of the pictures you took.
3. Newspaper pics. If you are in the right place at the right time, you might capture photos that are worthy of the newspaper. When news happens, a newspaper photographer might not be on the scene. You can capture the moments and sell them to newspapers. Snapping shots at community events may also earn you some money from local newspapers.
4. Magazine photographer. Create a portfolio of photos that you’ve taken and submit them to magazines. Looking at your work, they may hire you for assignments. Magazines are a tough market to break into so cut your teeth on other smaller assignments for local newspapers.
5. Local photography business. Ever gotten a mailing that shows cars for sale or houses for sale? Someone had to take those photographs. It could be you. Hire yourself out to area businesses to do the photographs for them.
6. Event photographer. Some families like to document their events like family reunions, christenings, bar mitzvahs and birthday parties. You can be the eyes in the room catching candid shots of everyone.
7. Photography website. If you know a lot about digital cameras and photography, create a website to sell photography products. Keep visitors and customers coming back with engaging content on various aspects of photography.
8. Teach a photography class. Those cameras look easy to use but some of those symbols can mix people up. Teach others to use their digital camera and create great pictures that they, too, can market as a business.
Do you like photography? What started off as a hobby can become a new business venture.
If you are considering going into business, you may want to consider having multiple streams of business. Having multiple streams means that you have more than one profit center. Now you may hold the belief that one should be focused and put all your effort into just one product of service. Being focused is necessary but most big businesses have a primary product or service and more than one profit center. Small businesses, too, can benefit from having more than one source of income in a changing economy.
There are at least three reasons to consider having multiple streams of business
Economic
You’ve chosen a business that can bring in only a certain amount of profit. You can write only so many resumes per week and then there are weeks when you have too few clients. There is a limit to how many dogs you can walk before and after your full-time job. You can only accept so many children into your popular after-school art classes. You love what you do; it brings in some income, but you are limited by time and/or space.
Growing Your Main Business
Developing new business streams might be a way to grow your main business so it brings in more money or to enables you to do it full-time. The resume writer can offer interview coaching or job search coaching, of publish an e-book or paper on Amazon on how to ace interviews. The dog walker might have a blog or website about dogs that has space available for advertising or that leads visitors to online retailers to purchase their products (affiliate marketing). The after school art teacher could do affiliate marketing of art and craft supplies for children or create a course (online or DVD) or a membership site for moms who want to learn how to teach art to their children. (Desired by moms that home-school and moms that are concerned because art is one of those subjects that cash-strapped school systems have eliminated from the curriculum) These ideas are all related to your core business but they provide another source of profit.
Variety
You need variety and change. You can’t see yourself focusing on one thing for the rest of your entrepreneurial life! So make or do the several things that you want to do. Maybe you will have a business for each season. Maybe you will blog about something you find fascinating and do affiliate marketing for a related product. Maybe you will write an e-book on how to do something and promote it with YouTube videos. You probably have more than enough creativity to pull this off.
Some of the above examples of streams are active and some are passive. Active income streams generally involve a trade of work for money, which means that your time is consumed. If you are already trying to do too much, you may want to consider a passive income stream because once they are set up they provide income without additional work contribution. Some passive income streams require significant money to start with, but significant cash is not needed to publish an e-book, start a membership site, become an affiliate marketer, or create apps.
So how can you identify what new stream of business you should try first or next? Barbara J. Winter in Making a Living Without a Job: Winning Ways for Creating Work that you Love offers a number of tips, that have been adapted for this blog.
Figure out what you want to do. Brainstorm, mind map, ask your friends and family what you do best. Then pick out one stream of income that you will be happy doing and put it at the top of your list. Prioritize any additional ideas that you might like to try later.
Estimate how much it will cost to put each of your priority business streams into operation. This step will most likely require some research. Interview people who are in a similar business, use the internet to find the wholesale cost of item you will need, make an appointment and talk to someone at the SBA (Small Business Association)
Estimate how much profit each of your potential streams will generate in the first year. You are looking for a realistic view of what your profit margin will be during your start-up.
Take a look at the analysis you have done on these business streams. Which will cost the least to start? Which will be more profitable? Do you have the time and energy to get the stream started?
The best solution is to choose the business that will make the most profit and cost the least amount of money to start.
