What to Look for When Starting a Home Business

What should I look for in a home business? That’s the million dollar question! OK actually it’s not, but it should be an important step you take when looking at home business ventures. Here are a few key items I have found to be helpful.

Start up cost: This is an important step in finding the apt home business. Commence by finding out how great the sign up fee is and if it is monthly or a one time fee. There are several home business plans that require no money up front, they advertise FREE sign up. Now before you go jump and sign up with every free opportunity that comes along, ask yourself if it’s really free. Free means no money up front and most times you will get a recent URL website to advertise and send customers to. This usually does not include any supplies you may need, Internet advertising, business cards, flyer’s, catalogs, brochures whatever it is the company uses for promotion. Another thing to factor in is the time you will spend working your business, do you have the time to invest to form your business work?

Websites: A good portion of the home party plans/direct sales businesses offer a website with sign up. This is a new URL that links to your page, that customers shop at, other’s sign up and you are credited for those sales/sponsoring. When looking at the business secure out if the websites are included in sign up or do you have to pay extra? If they are extra, how great do they cost and how often do you pay for them? Often times if the company doesn’t give you a website, you can purchase theirs or develop your maintain and depending how computer savvy you are you can create a location for great less than it would cost through the company. There are a lot of consultants that have the company website but still have a personalized site they expend instead when it comes to recruiting. You can build one yourself for free with Freewebs, you can pay for a site through Yahoo or GoDaddy or the millions of other website hosts out there. Either way I recommend getting your own URL .com because they are shorter, easier to remember and you get to personalize it.

Commission: This is almost the most important question and to some it is the MOST important query. Find out how much are you going to invent, not the dollar amounts (that will vary based on how much you work the business) but the actual percentage of commission. The average commission is around 25% for the lower start up cost businesses and as high as 40% to 50% for some of the more well established higher originate up cost businesses. Figure out which is most important to you, lower start up and lower commission or higher begin up (can be up to $400) and higher commissions. You will also want to find out when you get paid. Is it prior to submitting your order (most party plans work this way) or do you get paid monthly when customers order online? Some businesses offer a combination of both. For example Tupperware: home parties we collect the money the night of the party so we get paid upfront and for online orders we get paid monthly via direct deposit.

Don’t forget that many companies offer other incentives for high personal sales and/or team sales. Some of those rewards come in the form of Cars, Trips, Jewelry and other products.

Team Commission: Do you get rewarded for building a team? Find out if you will earn any money from your downline and if so how much it will be? Some companies only pay you for personal recruits, other’s pay you several levels deep. Ask for a commission chart so you can see exactly what you can earn and how to salvage it. Next gain out will you need to meet any requirements to earn money on your team sales? Several companies require you to meet your own personal sales requirement and have team sales of a specific amount as well.

Quotas or Minimums: For many this is a deal breaker, if the company has a high monthly or quarterly quota/minimum they must meet they tend to start looking at other businesses. This isn’t always a bad thing, having a quota or minimum to meet means sales, sales means commissions. If you take a company that has 200 consultants but no one is really selling anything the company does not make any money therefore the consultants will not earn any money.

The important thing about the quotas/minimums is to ask yourself are they obtainable? If you are working a business piece time and your quarterly sales quota is $500.00, do you have enough time to dedicate to your business to meet that? If you do not meet that quota what will happen? Do you become inactive, do you lose your downline or commissions? These are principal questions to ask your potential sponsor and they should be more than happy to answer them.

Sponsors: This is the person who will be your mentor, your upline, your go to person when you have questions or have a problem. They should be available to answer your questions and assist you in the right direction for your goals. You need to earn someone you can communicate with and they respond in a timely manner and if they do not know the respond they will try to find out for you. The important thing to remember about sponsors is that they are not going to build your business for you or make you money, but they should lead and show you how to duplicate what has made them successful.

When I first started looking I had a hard time finding something I didn’t feel was over saturated and that people would cherish. I looked at all the “normal” business ideas, Avon, Tupperware, Mary Kay to just name a few. I really was involved in Tupperware but at that time they were selling at Target and I didn’t want to compete with that. I was very worried the market was over saturated and I wouldn’t make a dime.

I started thinking about things I like…….I love candles and burn candles a lot. So the light bulb went off, and I started looking at the many different companies. I knew about Partylite, but didn’t want to join them and found several other companies. In the slay I decided on Mia Bella which I love the candles but they were a bit pricey for me, but I could see how they would sell. I ended up throwing myself into this business and worked it as much as I could in my spare time. I recruited, I sold candles, I did craft shows but it wasn’t enough. It simply was to much money out of pocket for me. So at that point after having almost $1000 worth of inventory in my house I decided to call it quits. It wasn’t an easy decision for me but I talked to my husband about it for a few weeks before I did it.

The upright of my story is you can love the products, no matter what it is but are you going to Cherish selling the product? I hear people talk about passion, it is important to be passionate about your company, products or business, but you need to be passionate about selling it. If you love candles but have no interest in selling them, then that may not be the best business for you.

I also hear a lot about finding a business with Consumable Products. Sure it helps to have something that is consumable IE. food, candles, makeup etc but its not required to make money. There are many direct sales/party plans out there that do not sell consumable products and they make good money. For instance: Tupperware, Pampered Chef, Adult Party Plans, Kids Toys etc.

So start by researching the hundreds if not thousands of companies out there check out the DSA, talk with several reps within the company. Find out what it costs to come by started, how much time you will need to put into it, how they are building their business and most of all find a company with products you will be passionate about selling.