Money Saving Ideas and Tips | Start Planning Your New Money Spinning Business

It’s day one of this 4 part guide on how to make money with a home grown business.

Before we start, we need to ask what makes a great business This is a personal question For some of you it might be a giant in the marketplace; a company that turns over millions a year. For others it might be a little more sedate. Maybe something that brings in enough hard cash so that you never again have to scrimp and save just to enjoy life. Regardless of your views, we’re going to spark a few ideas. Whether you turn them into a corporate giant or simply bring in a little extra money, it’s up to you.

Before you unleash your money making upon the world you need to consider a few things first.

How Much Will It Cost To Start Up

Currently, the easiest and cheapest way to start a home business is to use the internet. This doesn’ t mean you have to build a website. There are plenty of other ways to get started and we’ll talk about them later.

Don’t Get Into Debt

The reason you’re here is to find a way to make cash to reduce credit card debt

. The last thing you want to do is heap even more misery onto your financial woes.

Before you grab the reins and whip your cash cows into life do a little research. Start looking at all the expenses and costs that could rear their ugly heads. Here are a few things to consider:

• Buying and selling on sites like Preloved or eBay are a great way to dip your toe into world of buying and selling. Beware of the costs. Preloved charges you a minimal amount of money but you could spend a great deal of time travelling back and forth and you buy and sell goods. Charges on eBay can soon mount up so make sure you’re making enough money to cover your costs.
• If you’re building a website to showcase your goods to the world stop and ask yourself what you need. It’s unlikely that you’ll have an army of eager buyers beating a path to your site on the day it’s launched so try to keep costs down. Don’t pay for the most expensive web hosting possible. There are plenty of hosting discounts available and some companies charge as little £1.50 per month for hosting your website.
• Premium products are not what you need right now. Once you set up a home business you’ll probably start receiving all kinds of literature promising you everything from guaranteed buyers to web design services for a meagre £2,000 upwards. In most cases, you won’t need any of this. If you decide to grow your business then reconsider them in the future but only when you have enough money

What Do You Know Or Have?

Buyers have a need. It’s a simple as that. What can you offer them that will ease their hunger? I don’t what you think about building a business around what you love but let me give you my thoughts.

We all have a passion. Model trains, running, pole dancing, boxing… the list goes on and on.

Now, Grasshopper, before you start your own Karate club you need to be sure that people will pay you to attend. Passions are fantastic when there’s a need but you have to be sure that you can get paying customers through the door.

Instead of jumping on an idea because you’re good a chopping bricks in half with you hand, stop and think. There may not be enough demand for a club in your local area but there might be a gap in the market elsewhere. Can you launch a blog or a website that uses videos to teach? Is there a market for a specific type of protective equipment. Even better, is there a single supplier for this kit? If so, you may have just found your niche.

Maybe You Have No Skills

Don’t let that put you off. Skills are useful when you’re aiming to corner a market or teach people something. There are plenty of other ways to make money even if you have no skills whatsoever.

If you like the outdoors how about dog walking for the old and infirm? Maybe you’re fanatical about making sure your clothes are smart and presentable. Why not charge people to iron their clothes for them. Are you a dab hand with a needle and cotton? In that case you can offer a clothes repair service.

You see, there’s no such thing as having no skills. We all know or can do something that is in demand. You just need to figure out what it is.

Likewise, building a blog or website where you share your views and thoughts with readers doesn’t require you to be an expert. Just look at how Facebook got started and the reasons behind it. All you need is your personality and a little perseverance (or maybe a lot if you want to make it big).

How Much Time Do You Have?

Do not say you don’t have any spare time. How much time do you spend watching television during the day or at night? Two or three hours? That’s time you could be investing in your new money spinning idea. Do you work? It’s hard to stay motivated after a long day at the office. The trains are late, you’re tired… the list of excuses goes on. I work from 0800 to 1700 (and later). I commute by train to London. The journey takes one hour each way. In fact, guess where I am as I’m writing this article? You see, there are very few excuses that you can offer up.

Do you have a family? Maybe you’ve got small children. Well, if you want to earn some extra cash or build a home business you need to start prioritising. I’m not saying you should ignore your family (I’m sure they wouldn’t let you do that). What you need is planning, planning and even more planning. Schedule your time with them. Get them to agree that they will support you in your endeavours and recognise that you are doing something that will benefit all of the family. Then start getting up at 0500 to do your work!

How Much Money Can Your Home Business Make?

How much do you want or need? As I said earlier, a home business can built to either bring you some extra cash for luxuries or scaled up to a point where you resign from you day job. The approach depends entirely on what you want.
Here are a few things to consider:

Profits

How much profit can you make? A decent profit margin is essential. Fail to make enough and you’ll be doing a lot of work for little return. I’ve been buying and selling all sorts through places like Craigs List and Preloved for quite some time and, as a rule of thumb, I aim for a minimum of 10% profit.

Things you need to consider:

Travelling. If you’re going to be delivering your goods you’ll need to factor in fuel and time costs. These nibble away at your bottom line (your profit).

Postage/delivery. Carriage of goods costs money. Make sure you factor delivery costs into your sums. Think about how much packaging will cost.

Insurance. You may not be quite ready to think about business insurance but if you’re posting stock then it will need to be insured. This will normally be covered as part of your delivery costs.

Time. How much does your time cost you? This is closely tied to your profit margin. Working 5 hours per day for a profit of £10 is going to get you nowhere fast!

Taking Your Home Business to the Next Level

Think big. Even when you start small you need to think about where you can take your business. Regardless of how much money you aim to make with your home business you’ll need to put the effort in. I’ll cover this topic in a later article.

Home Business Resources

Before I wrap up for the day here are a few resources that should kick-start the creative juices:

Home business ideas – exactly what it says. Some ideas for anyone wanting to start a home business.

Inc.com – want to go large? Inc.com has some great resources for entrepreneurs great and small.

Mixergy.com – even more food for thought. Although this is a great resource for seeing how others build a big business it’s also great motivational material.
Urgh! HMRC! – I really didn’t want to add this link but if you’re planning to scale up you need to know where you tax liabilities begin and end.

Hopefully I’ve given you some food for thought. Now it’s time to start brainstorming some ideas for your home business. I’ll be back tomorrow with some ideas you can use as a starting point for your new business.