Doing an at home business with home shows?

Question

what places do you reccomend, and can you make money doing this?

Answer 1

Hello,

My name is Melinda and I have had a successful home business for a while now. I decided to get together with my self-employed friends and family a create a free website to help others start their own business (and avoid scams).

Our site is:

Great Home Based Businesses and we have specific pages on:

- Hundred's of Great Ideas for Home Based Businesses by Category

- Resources for Selling from Home

- Resources for Providing Services from your Home

- Avoiding Scams

- Kit businesses such as Pampered Chef

and a lot of other pointers.

PLEASE NOTE: we do not have a business or product that we want to sell you - our site is all about providing information.

As for kit businesses like Pampered chef etc... - we have a page dedicated to these businesses on our site but the short answer is that: these businesses are ideal for people who do not have the time (stay-at-home parents) or comfort to leap into self-employment without a well established business concept and support system. These kits provide everything from products to sell - to marketing material - to business forms - to advice. HOWEVER you need to be comfortable selling and hitting up your friends and family and complete strangers to buy items directly from you. You also need to stage alot of "home parties" in order to make any money with the low margins alot of these companies provide. People who are successful with these businesses earn their money by getting recruiting alot of other people into their "sales teams". If you are comfortable with this then these businesses can be great.

The examples that we discuss on our site are:

1. Epicure Selections

Epicure selections is a Canadian company which sells food (mainly herb and spice blends, dip mixes, teas, baking ingredients) and cookware (mainly stainless steel and silicon baking, cooking and brewing items). It has been in the direct selling arena for around 12 years and has been selling their products for even longer. My good friend has been able to resell products from home (largely through tasting parties and open houses) for a while now.

2. Mary Kay

Mary Kay is a US-based company which was started approximately 35 years. With over 1.7 million - yes - MILLION "independent beauty consultants" in over 30 countries around the world, this is one of the most successful direct selling companies ever. Their beauty consultants sell beauty products for men and women ranging from bath and grooming products to make-up and perfume. I have various family and friends who have sold Mary Kay and had varying success. Of the those who have not done well with Mary Kay - 100% of them actually gave up due to the time investment required.

SIDEBAR: This is not an issue that is isolated to Mary Kay. Most kit-based, direct reselling from home businesses required the salesperson to travel and put on/host product parties. It is important that people realize this before spending the money to buy their start-up kit (typically between $0 to $500).

HINT: Start-up kits are periodically changed to include new or different product samples. Many companies also put their kits on sale once or twice a year. If you are not in a rush to get started then check back with the companies website often for these changes.

3. Partylite

Partylite is a US-based company which has been around for approximately 35 years. Their salespeople sell candles and accessories for indoor and outdoor use via home parties.

4. Pampered Chef

Pampered Chef is a US-based company which was founded in 1980. Salespeople sell professional quality kitchen tools via home parties.

5. Fantasia

This is a Canadian-based company which has been in business since 1980. The salespeople sell sensual products and fine lingerie via home parties.

6. Touchstone Crystal

Touchstone Crystal is a young US company. Their salespeople sell jewelry kits and gems via make-our-own-jewelry home parties.

7. AVON

Avon was founded in the US over 120 years ago. Their salespeople currently sell beauty products, home decor and gifts through catalog and door-to-door sales in over 100 countries.

My key pieces of advice in picking your business:

1. Do what you know and love.

2. Follow your instincts.

3. Figure out how to provide value to your clients.

4. Talk to successful home business owners that you know and trust.

5. Whatever you do - try not to limit yourself to one income source - one of the best ways to grow your small business is to open yourself up to other income streams. If you start a catering business maybe you could also teach cooking classes in your house, or if you start house cleaning business then you could also stage houses for sale. This approach has been invaluable to me - allowing me to get through slowdowns in my "core" business.

6. Accept that "get rich quick" schemes only work for 1 in every million people and generally require illegal activity - instead try to build a lasting business that will continually pay you a reasonable amount.

Anyhow - that's my two cents - Good luck with your business - I'm sure if you do your homework you'll be very successful!!

Answer 2

Its not everyday that you hear someone stating they would "like" to do home-shows, lol. What I can say is that I work with a great company that doesn't require the use of home shows, but definitely is another of many forms of marketing you can use to help grow your business. The difference between our business and that of kit businesses like Avon and Mary Kay is that we don't sell a product but a service, that many need not want. We assist those who need help with their healthcare costs, what better way to give back! You can check out the details at www.thinkbiggerthanajob.info.

Hope this helps,

Trhonda

Answer 3

You may want to check out Heritage Makers.  I'm a storybook consultant with this company (my site is www.KeepYourStoriesAlive.com  - check out the "Business Opportunity" link towards the bottom of the page), and I love what this company stands for!  It's all about family and making kids aware of their own heritage and stories.  You know, to give them heroes within their own families, instead of off of TV.  

We've only been around for a few years, so it's still very much a ground-floor opportunity, ESPECIALLY if you're in the mid-west or the East Coast.  It's all on-line, digital storybooking. Clients design their cards, calendars, posters, playing cards, and library-bound (sewn & glued, not just glued) hard-cover books on-line, then their products are delivered right to their door.  You make commissions off of whatever they purchase, and off of their (optional) monthly subscription to access the 32,000+ (more added each month) pieces of Premier artwork.   The premier account also comes with unlimited storage of uploaded photos. Basic/free accounts are also available to those who do not wish to participate in the subscription, with a more limited selection of artwork. The Basic account comes with 2GB of photo storage.

They can design their books from a blank page on up, or they can use any of our many templates.  It's all drag-and-drop.  

Like any sales job, you have to put in your time before you can make a LOT of money, but I know several gals who are making thousands of $$ a month. (I'm not their YET. *grin*)  If you add the scanning service to your business (helping clients scan in their shoe boxes of old photos into a digital format), you can make this much, and more, rather quickly.

You can do parties (we call them Celebrations), you can do events like trade shows, and/or you can do workshops, where you teach your clients how to storybook.  Lots of possibilities.

Good luck in your decision!

Answer 4

I do home shows with Brown Bag Parties. The average per party is $285. That's cash in your pocket that night too. You earn 50% commissions all the time.

We are having the half off kit sale right now. This only happens twice a yr so check it out while you can get in for less.

Answer 5

Hello...I to was looking for at home work and found 3 opportunities that allowed me the flexibility that I wanted and the money that i needed.

1. I sold high end artwork for personalpreference. I used my friends and former coworkers to schedule parties and displayed my artwork and they actually purchased it. Depending on your audience you can make a decent amount of money each month.  Here is the link for that.

http://www.personalpreference.com/retail...

2. I sold stun guns, pepper stray, tasers and other personal safety devices for a company called Safety Technology out of Florida but make sure that this is legal in your area but It has a listing of states where stun guns are prohibited. I made about 600.00 a showing with these products because you buy them at almost 50% mark up from Safety Technology but they are very inexpensive. My target audience was women who needed to protect themselves. I have business cards, and hosted parties in my home, theirs or at their offices.

www.safetytechnology.com

3. Home interior parties are always an option to but the money was really slow for me but you might have more success than I did.

http://www.homeinteriors.com/corporate

Answer 6

Yes, but have to be a really good "independent sales person"

Avon

Tupperware

Mary Kay

Answer 7

http://ecommerce-times.blogspot.com