Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi all. I am wondering if anyone can think of a good legitimate home based service business that will not drain my checking and savings account?

I already have an Ebay business, which is hot and cold. I want a business that I can actually make a living with rather than just re-invest the cash into the business.

My wife has been ill over the last few weeks and we have lost about $800.00 at this point.

I am really concerned about how we can make a living in the future... my wife and I are both heading toward 50, I have a new position at work, but I need to know that we can aways bring some income in to meet the bills and other life occurances.

Animekid.

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Anime Kid

Think of your qualifications, you could post your services on places like guru.com and work as a freelancer. Even your wife could list herself, she wouldn`t have to leave the house for that. I`ve hired several folks from there at least three times. 

We`ve been reading a very famous book called "Think and Grow Rich," and having a SuN book club discussion group about it. The book is available in its entirety online.

In the first chapter is a story about a gold miner who invested lots of time and effort, then finally gave up. Another miner came along, ran some tests and took over the mine. 3 feet later and the second guy struck the gold. The lesson was about giving up when you`re so close.

I looked at your Web site, and you`ve said you`re now an exclusive dealer for the Anime figures. First of all, the single thing eBay people search for is an identifiable maket niche where they can stand out. Secondly, there have been many postings here about how to find a way to break into the overseas distributorship area. You seem to have done both.

This is going to sound strange and off-topic, but indulge me. Do you enjoy what you`re doing with the anime figures? Is it fun?

The reason for the question is that we can`t know the future. Nobody is omniscient. We can`t know if there`s a destiny, a higher purpose in life, or what will happen to us tomorrow. We can use trend analysis, logic, past experience, but too many times a "wild card" comes along and totally changes the entire picture.

However, what we CAN do, is to examine our daily actions and decide if we`re having fun with it or not. It`s important because there isn`t any possible way to know if we`re "giving up three feet from the gold," or if we`re in a totally failing proposition. Since we can`t know, the remaining measure is how much fun is it what we`re doing? Does it still seem like a good idea?

Another important point in the growing rich book is that ALL entrepreneurs (it seems like) go through the trials and tribulations, fear and depression, of seeing the future as a hopeless swamp of unrealized dreams, utter failure, catastrophic financial loss, and being the laughingstock of everybody "back home." It`s so typical that even in 1938 it was worthy of notice.

It`s as if we have to strip away all the grandiose expectations, ego trips, wrongheaded notions, and live in total risk for some reason. What`s that reason? Nobody knows...we can only speculate. But I think it has to do with overcoming fear. It has to do with choosing to forevermore believe that we live in a benevolent universe, and that things will work out for the best, no matter what.

Maybe you need to look around for a way to supplement your income, but I`d encourage you to stick with the anime thing. I don`t know how it works, or what it is, but CaboBill just released his new site on something called CafePress.com. From what we`ve seen of eBay, it`s not a great place to struggle along with anymore.

I know anime is a growing field. Everywhere I look, people are getting more into it, not less. There`s huge money in the field, and for you to have the exclusivity could be a "gold mine."

Besides....what else would you do? :-D Babysit? Mow lawns?

Hi CraigL.

I love the Anime business. Ebay is just terrible, and I have already looked at another sight called  " Shopify " which is free to have your bussiness site on and they take a small percentage of each sale you make.

As far as the exclusive deal with the company in China, that was hard fought, but with all the things happening with foreign trade in general right now, that may be hard to maintain. It`s also tough to do this full time while working a full time job. As far as the business right now, I am in the hole for a lot of cash due to Ebay and some miscalculations as far as overseas shipping goes. And it`s tough doing all this by myself.

Honestly, I would much rather take the business from the web and put it in a brick and mortor. It would take a lot of cash, but the idea here is that this could eventually become a franchise oppertunity. The business would also cater to the Collectible card & Collectible Miniatures industry. Holding tournments, selling the product and being sanctioned with the big organizations like Wizards of the Coast and Upper Deck Entertainment. This would also give me the oppertunity to work with underpriviliged children and get them involved in playing these types of games and keep them out of gangs and the like.

A lofty plan and I would definetly need an angel or two who understand this type of business.

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Anime Kid

Alright, if you really want to make it brick and mortar, and that seems like the good idea for the time, then do it! I know it`s hard, when everything seems to be going wrong, money`s in the negative numbers, nobody is around to help, and life seems bleak.

But I can`t count the number of times I, friends of mine, and people I`ve come to hear about, all have started with the desire to want something. Not casually want it, but to really want it---to sit down and plan out on a list, the things they`d need to get started actually accomplishing or getting what they want.

It seemed to them an exercise in futility...writing a dumb list that would never happen, couldn`t happen, was too expensive, and seemed impossible. But they wrote it anway. In particular, they didn`t write what they didn`t want...the focused or reworked each item on the list to what they did want!

So instead of saying, "I don`t want to sell on eBay anymore," you would rework it to say, "I want to sell on Shopify from now on!" Then, examining that, you decide...well...maybe on Amazon, too. So you change the list item to, "I want to only sell on Shopify and Amazon.com!"

As you begin writing these things down, thinking them through as though they`re absolutely going to happen, you also begin to wonder about some of your wants. "Hmm...do I really only want to sell on two places?" So you rework it again, "I want a nice little shop, located on the corner of Hollywood and Vine, where I can put some nice displays together."

Then you start wondering what sort of displays, how much they`d cost, where you`d get them. And so forth.

You`ll be amazed at how "suddenly" and for no apparent reason, things start happening. Opportunities will appear because you`re aware of what it is you actually want. Personally, I`ve found that it works best for me when I want the things money can buy, rather than some number of dollars. So many times I end up with those things and they cost far less than I ever imagined possible.

There is going to be a network marketing company coming to New York , in about the first quarter of  2007.  It started in Texas with the deregulation of electricity.  This retail electric provider company in only about 2 years old and people are already making 100k a month. The great thing about it is unlike Mary Kay Cosmetics ( Network Marketing) all you half to do is switch people over to IGNITE(Company Name) and that is it.  You do not half to go back and ask your customer if they want more electricity.  In a downed economy people are not going to take out electicity out of their budget in order to live. People Need Food, Water, and electricity to live, remember that.

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King