Choosing The Right Work From Home Option For You
Wake up, grab a cup of coffee and sit down at your computer. Sounds like a dream commute, doesn’t it? For a growing number of people, this is their morning routine. Some make the transition from working outside of the home to working from home by choice; others begin out of necessity. No matter why you decide to do it there are some basic steps you should follow to make sure you are successful.
There are multitudes of business opportunities out there. Do you want to run your own business, own your own company, or work for someone else?
Working for someone else is the most straight-forward of the options. You are an employee of another person or company and on their payroll; however you do not drive into the office. These jobs can be hard to find but they do exist! Try looking on Work From Home message boards for ideas and job postings. Remember – A job pays you and will not ask for money!
Owning your own company can be as simple or involved as you want it to be. You can do anything from answering phones to party planning and anything in between. There are a growing number of opportunities for contracted employees such as virtual assistants and customer service representatives. When it is your company, you make the rules, you set the hours and you set your rates. You are also responsible for making sure you follow local, state and federal regulations for your business, having a lawyer or accountant help you with setting everything up can be very helpful.
The third option, and the one I am most familiar with, is running your own business for a direct sales company. There are hundreds of these companies and I am sure you have heard of many of them. If you don’t already have one in mind, try looking online you will find plenty to pick from there! As with any other job, be sure to select a company whose corporate culture and goals work well with your personal goals. For example, if you are a supporter of animal rights you might want to make sure the company does not do any animal testing.
There are many ways to run these businesses; go house to house and do home parties, sell out of brochures, sell on websites, sell to family and friends, run fundraisers, recruiting and many others. Each company has their own set of rules their distributors must follow which will let you know what selling methods they endorse or prohibit.
When you are an independent distributor for a direct sales company, you are your own boss and the hard part of starting a company has been done for you – the product or service you are selling has already been created, packaged and usually even marketed for you!
Since you are running your own company and not working for someone there are costs associated with getting started and the costs vary greatly depending on the company you choose. Some have minimums and quotas they require you meet as well. All of these things need to be looked into before you sign-up. Here are a few suggestions of what to ask when you finally decide upon the company you want to sign-up with:
Find out how much you pay for the brochures and how often new ones come out. Sometimes this is once or twice a year, some companies put out new brochures for their distributors to buy every other week. If you are working on building a customer base and do not yet have a lot of sales these brochures can be costly. Does the company allow you to make your own business cards or do they require you to buy theirs? This can be another added expense that adds up fast. Do they offer a website? Is this a free service, or do you pay? Can the website be customized? What types of advertising are you allowed to do own your own? Newspapers, online classifieds, flyers, direct mailing? Can you make up your own, or do the ads need to be approved before you use them? What is the commission plan like? Does it vary depending upon sales or is it always a flat rate? Do you set your own prices based upon your local market, or are you obligated to use the MSRP? How many distributors are already in your area? If a market is over-saturated with already established distributors, how much will you be able to earn? What training and support is offered? Make sure you check with the company as well as the person who signs you up! I learned the hard way that not all sponsors are as interested in the success of their recruits; some just want to sign-up as many people as possible to increase their commission but are never available after that initial meeting. Take your time and talk to a couple of sponsors from the company and find the one you feel most comfortable with before signing up.
Whether you are considering working from home full-time or to supplement your existing income be certain to take your time and fully consider all options. No matter which of the above opportunities you choose, make sure you are doing something you enjoy. If you are not happy, you will not be successful.