Don’t give up your day job… start a part time home business!
If you want to make extra money you don’t need to take the risk of starting a full time business. In fact it can make a lot of sense to keep your main job, and just run a sideline business in the evenings and weekends. That way, there’s hardly any risk. You keep your full time employment, and just increase your income.
A small, sideline business needn’t be difficult to do. You could still run it from home, on a part time basis.
I’m not talking about starting some kind of massive mega-business like Tesco. (Is there anything left that Tesco don’t do or sell?) I’m thinking more in terms of a small, sideline business.
You probably couldn’t expect to make your fortune from something like this. But £50, £100 even £200 a week extra cash isn’t out of the question, even from a small project.
What sort of things could you sell in a sideline business?
It’s up to you. How about footwear and fashion? Or jewellery and cosmetics? Electronics are a good one. Especially computer stuff. Or how about tools, spare parts or car stuff. Anything to do with hobbies is a good niche product area too.
And how could you sell them?
Well, with a sideline business you don’t want to burden yourself with high expenses, like shop rent. There are lots of other low cost sales outlets you could try ….
- eBay. I know people can be a bit sniffy about eBay, but it’s a massive, busy marketplace that you can plug into very easily and cheaply.
I think the secret of eBay (or really any kind of buying and selling business) is to do your research before you buy anything to sell there. Look for product areas that are busy. But not so overcrowded with sellers that they’re all having to give things away for nothing to make a sale.
Find out likely selling prices of whatever you want to sell then work backwards. Knock off your profit margin. That tells you what you need to buy the product at to make a profit. Then find wholesalers and other sources where you can buy them at that price (or less).
- Amazon is a great alternative to eBay too. It’s not just for books. You can sell all kinds of other things there. Like CDs, DVDs, clothes, tools, garden stuff, household goods and toys to mention just a few. Usually Amazon is less competitive than eBay – so good for sellers.
Here’s a useful article about all the other non-book things you could sell on Amazon. There are 19 different ideas to choose from!
- Car boots and Sunday markets. I know getting up at 6am on a Sunday morning doesn’t sound like a really appealing idea. But would you do it for the chance to make some extra readies? To make money in these places you need to sell cheaply and that means you need to buy REALLY cheaply. Bankrupt, clearance and surplus stock suppliers are good sources for this type of thing. As are auctions.
- If car booting isn’t for you how about doing collectors’ fairs or crafts fairs or something similar? They’re a bit more upmarket.
- Then there’s always good old mail order. Put a few cheap classified ads. in magazines that are read by people who are likely to be buyers of whatever you’re selling. Try free ads. places like Loot and Gumtree too.
A few tips for a small sideline home business:
- Keep all your costs as low as possible.
- Look for methods of advertising that are cheap or even free.
- Offer your customers good value.
- Try to provide really good personal service. This is one area where giant companies (even Tesco) find it hard to compete.
Very importantly – go for products that need to be replaced regularly. Especially things that are consumed or used up. That way you can build up a regular trade with customers coming back to you again and again.
Remember you can find lots of ideas, and free reports and blueprints in our Business Opportunities Library.