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Resources to
understand your Income
The following table
identifies the cost of each business.
Any business, whether
McDonalds or one of the following will have costs associated with it.
The initial cost might be considered a "franchise" fee. Just to
keep costs in perspective: McDonalds franchises are $45,000 with
an initial investment of $690,000 minimum. The annual fee is
$45,000 and the royalties are 12.5%. Culvers, a midwestern
restaurant, has a franchise of $50,000 with an annual fee of $30,000
and only 4% royalties, Another franchise is a home inspection
business. Home Team Inspectors offers a franchise for $30,000
with an initial investment of $60,000 to $80,000.
I know it is easy to
confuse the product with the business in the case of home based
businesses. So many people wonder why there should be any cost
for a home based business. I do think each home based business
should be viewed as just that, a business. So any business will
have costs for a franchise (or your own business development), some
way to attract or meet customers, and some administration.
Each of the home based
business provide resources just like McDonalds, etc. Those
resources are a recognized name (some more than others), a product or
service, a level of national marketing, administration (most commonly
now you have a website that allows prospects to enroll themselves and
allows you to track sales and other activities.)
Some businesses require
you to be a user of the product. Most have a website that is used to
setup your customers and to identify your business revenue sources.
Several also allow you to define the scope of your business. In
each case your customers may self enroll. You do not have any
"inventory" requirements with any of the following.
One can see offers of
"home based" businesses with no investment. Here are some ideas:
1. Affiliate marketing
where you refer people to a service or product. (I am involved
in some of these, such as Business Expert Webinars. I treat this
more as a sidelight to my other Internet activities, since it
primarily requires exposure to a large audience. Also, I get
paid for participants that I invite to a webinar, but I don't get paid
for inviting others to participate in the business. Having said
that I still am happy introducing you. We may develop other
business relationships from this.)
2. Free lance writing,
etc. I have seen this listed as a no investment business.
It is, if you are a writer and have a market to sell to.
3. E bay sales. I
had a neighbor who did well with this. But they did have to buy
inventory (antique furniture that they were experts in). Then they had
to handle the shipping, etc.
Ongoing costs:
Assuming you are looking
at doing your home based business as a source of actual income, your
market will have to be larger than your friends and relatives.
Harassing friends and relatives is probably the most common mistake
for home based business failure. (Try to enlist their help in a
non-threatening way for them. Who do they know, can they get you
an invitation to speak at a group that they are involved with, etc.)
So, your market will
need additional people. There are many approaches and almost all
have been successful for some people. (And by the same token,
they all have failed for others.)
Look at the groups that
have a related interest. (My associate Evelyn has created
EvSays.com to combine her interest in the Civil War and nutrition.
There are opportunities to present at school career days and other
groups looking for speakers of interest. And of course, those
interested in the Civil War provide another large group to contact.)
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