More and more peope are discovering the benefits of running their business from a home office. Some build out fancy and impressive home offices while others simply work at the kitchen table.  All sorts of businesses can be run from a home office, and even professionals like lawyers and accountants are starting to discover this.

But sometimes home business do hit some limits. A physical address in a commercial office building can help a business look more professional. Traditional office buildings can also provide meeting rooms for traning, team meetings or client consultations. There is a simple and affordable solution.

The virtual office provides a great way to meet business clients or hold team meetings, have a physical address for ads or verification, and keep rent low. You can often find deals for less than $100 a month. Many business people know that impressing important clients with a nice conference room or having a spacke for team meetings is worth a lot more than that!

An affordable virtual office can help you grow your business without ruining the advantages of doing most of your work from home!

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It is fairly easy to get cynical about work at home opportunities because we have heard about so many scams, or maybe even gotten involved in some fairly shady schemes that really did not work out very well. But there are many people who have either started, or continue to, run real legitimate and useful businesses from their homes. Sometimes they even hire other home workers, and so they provide work at home jobs.

Many of these opportunities can be started part-time with a very small investment. So they are the type of small businesses where a person can dip a toe in, as they say, to see how it works out. Then they could expand or contract as the individual owner requires.

Food Catering Business: The general term, food catering, actually covers a lot of niche businesses. They could range from specialized mobile catering or lunch trucks to preparing gourmet treats for business events and weddings to delivering healthy meals in the same way that a pizza man delivers, well, pizza!

This can be simple or complicated. Some areas may require a licensed kitchen in order to prepare food for sale. If you run a snack truck where you only sell pre-packaged food from wholesale distributors or if you prepare food at the customer’s house or location (personal chef), you will need much less paperwork than if you want to prepare the food on your own site and deliver it.

You may be able to cater from home, but in many locations you would need a seperate commercial kitchen. Legally, you probably cannot use your family kitchen. However, many flexible caterers have solved this problem by renting (or working out an agreement) with a local church or similar organization that does maintain a commercial kitchen.

Otherwise, the rest of the business like planning, meeting clients, or advertising for more clients, can be done from a home office.

Party Planner:Again, this could cover anything from planning a toddler’s first birthday part to a wedding with 300 guests. It all depends upon your own particular expertise, talents, and ambitions.

Virtual Assistant: This field is actually growing right now. As small businesses try to control costs, they are more willing to hire out certain tasks. Of course, the particular tasks you would be open for will depend upon your skills, abilities, and training.

You may work purely from home, over the Internet or a phone, setting appointments, filling out spreadsheets, handling social media (i.e. Facebook, etc.), or handling customer service. If you are mobile, small businesses may need somebody to run errands, hand out fliers, or man booths at local events.

Real Business Ideas?

If you have any other real business ideas, we invite your comments!

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Here is a booming business in the offline world that may surprise you. Thrift shops are moving from the dusty places we used to sneak into to brightly lit stores, that are even getting franchised, that are so popular that even teens like them! If you are not familiar with the new wave in second hand shops, you may want to read this: Thrift Shops Are In!

How Can Second Hand Shopping Be A Good Home Business?

Look, the simplest form of this is hardly new. I used to know a couple of people who woud snatch up great deals at garage sales, and then hold their own garage sales with markups to earn money! They had learned what sorts of things peope who shopped garage sales wanted to buy, and had learned how to find them fast at other sales. This was a simple form of on the street arbitrage!

But I am not suggesting you do this. I am suggesting that this is a great idea of an ecommerce website or even EBay store.

Lower Profit Margins Still Equal More Profit

In an upscale used clothing store, for example, they may sell gently used brand name clothes for about 1/3 of the retail price. In return, they will buy those items for 1/3 to 1/2 of that. Those stores have a lot of overhead like rent, utilities, and employees. You, on the other hand, have less overhead if you do this from home on the internet!

So where they may pay $8 for a $60 pair of Abercrombie jeans (that has been gently worn), and then retail it for $20. You may be able to profit by paying a bit more and selling for a bit less. Just remember you will have to recoup shipping charges most of the time. So you could pay $10, and sell for $15 with a $3 shipping charge. You are still coming in for less, and paying more. You can probably operate at a lower profit margin than a big brick and mortar store can!

Consider a Second Hand Online Business!

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Are you crafty? Do you know that more and more people are actually making a good living out of selling their crafts online? A new online marketplace, Etsy.com, has provided artisans with a 24/7 online craft fair for their work!

The mission of this website is to help people who make things by hand also make a living. They hope to connect, or reconnect, buyers and sellers! Most of the crafts people are in the USA, but they are distributed throughout the 150 countries.

What do people make by hand to sell on Etsy?

Well, they have dozens of categories from Accessories to Woodworking, and just about everything in between. Some of the featured items the day I wrote this include photography, jewelry, and furniture. If you have a passion for making things, you can probably find a place to sell it on Etsy!

Can You Make Money on Etsy?

Well, some sellers have exploded their business. Others make a handful of sales. The website, itself, can help you promote your goods, but you probably also need to promote it through other websites, word of mouth, press releases, etc. to really get your own Etsy Store to take off. You can find some Etsy Success Stories for inspiration.

We’d love to hear some Etsy sucess stories here! Just register for free to comment!

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I am always on the lookout for home business ideas that are fairly quick to train for, but which can be run as actual full or part time businesses. I just got a call from a friend who is a full time para-legal, but who runs a commercial notary public business in the evenings, one week-ends, and on alternate Fridays which his flex hours give him off. Now, I understand that is is common for para-legals, and other types of legal assistants, to act as notaries. But I was still interessted enough to do a little more research.

How Much Do Notaries Make?

You may have taken advantage of free notary services at your bank or place of business. Some companies keep a notary on their staff, and they provide free services to their customers or employees. This is because fees are regulated at a state level. Individual fees are fairly low. But commercial transaction fees are higher, like $100, so some notaries make a business as a signing notary. Some are mobile notaries, and they will travel to different offices, like title companies, to put their seal on contract.  Even though fees are strictly regulated, it may be possible to also charge for travel expenses.

Here is an example of a Houston Mobile Notary website.

Notary Public Training and Certification

Notary Training requirements may vary by state, but even in states where it is not requires, most associations recommend it. We found an online notary course which can be completed in about 3 hours for $25. We also found a reference to a 1 day course which was given in a college setting.

Notary Certification requires also vary by state. In some states you will need to pass a state test, but in other states you just have to apply, be over 18 years, have no felony record, and be a legal resident of your state. You will have to pay a fee for your state application, be bonded, and pay for some supplies.  Notary associations also recommend purchasing an E&O policy to protect yourself against any claims of eerrors.

This may seem like a lot of requirements, but I found information that one association sold a package for Texas residents which only cost $79 for everything. Even if you add in another $25 for an online class, your initial investment is only a little over $100. This can almost be recouped in your first commercial transaction.

More Information

This website has a lot of information on becoming a Texas notary. You can certainly find similar online information for your state.

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What is dropshipping?

You can find suppliers who will allow you to order products after you have sold them! You will pay more for these products, ordered one at a time, than you would if you purchased a bulk lot of them. But you should be able to find distributors who will still sell at wholesale prices so you can make a profit when you sell them retail. In return for making less profit, you do not have to store a large inventory, and you do not have to risk a large sum of money to buy products before you sell them.

Where to Sell Products?

Of course, EBay is a popular market for drop shippers. The large online auction website brings in traffic and provides a lot of tools for sellers to research markets. The downside is, of course, is that the market place is very competitive. Since you already know you will be paying a bit more than bulk buyers, you need to find products that are unique and in demand.

You can also build an ecommerce website that displays products you have dropshipping sources for. In fact, I would suggest combining EBay sales with a personal website. You can use the online auction website to bring in new customers, but mention your website for future orders when you communicate with buyers. This way you can avoid fees in the future, and maybe you can even offer a discount if customers make future purchases on your website. You can link to your website on the About Me Section of your Ebay advertisement, but are not allowed to link to it in the advertisement.

Where to Find Wholesale Dropship Suppliers?

Most of the lists you find are not very good. And many services that claim to offer products probably won’t offer prices that are low enough to allow you to profit in a competitive market. However, one service that provides a lot of valuable training and carefully researched list of dropship suppliers is WorldWideBrands. In fact, they are the only EBay certified dropshipping list. Membership is expensive, but if you are new to the business, I believe it is a good investment.

Learn more – What Is WorldWide Brands?

This website has some great tips for people who are considering their own EBay Dropshipping Business.

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The Stay-At-Home Resume Article Starts Here. It was originally published as Tips On Writing A Resume for Stay At Home Moms.

Experts in the field say moms reentering workforce are becoming more recognized as the hidden pool of talent they are, so don’t apologize for the gap.

Begin with a strong cover letter and the decision makers name in the salutation and talk about how you can benefit the company. According to Barbara Corcoron a successful businesswoman (The Corcoran Group a $5 billion business) employers form their initial opinion from the cover letter.

She advises you emphasize how the skills you learned as full-time administrator of you household – time management, budget management and volunteering will translate to workplace skills. If you organized an event you can write about it in terms of skills used – staff management, marketing, budgeting etc.

Don’t go with the chronological resume, use a summary of your skill sets you have acquired as stay at home mom. Barbara strongly advises no silly titles for yourself (ex. domestic godess).

End your resume with a short chronological section outlining your education, places, and dates of employment, and job titles. Also, add a sentence about what you’ve done while you have been out of the workforce. Example – 2001 to present: Full-time homemaker, PTO Treasurer, community volunteer.

Corcoron says by the time your prospective employer is done reading your resume they will be so impressed with your skill set and accomplishments, the employment gap won’t matter.

Want more help with problems that plague working women? Visit us atWomanwork.net. We also have helpful information about employment stay at home jobs for moms

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Home offices can be deducted for:

One – Exclusively and regularly as either: your principal place of business, or as a place to meet or deal with patients, clients or customers in the normal course of your business. Where there is a separate structure not attached to your home, the regular and exclusive use does not need to be your principal place of business as long as the use is in connection with your trade or business.

Two – On a regular basis for certain storage use — such as storing inventory or product samples — as rental property, or as a home daycare facility.

So if you have a room that you use for your business (i.e. a home office) or you have a storage space you use for your business, you should be able to satisfy one of the criteria.

In general, you can dedcuct the percentage of your home expenses that is the equal to the percentage of your home you use. For example, if your home is 2200 square feet, and your home office is 220 feed, you would be able to use 10% as the amount of certain home expenses you can use to deduct.

Advantages of Building a Home Office

This plan has worked out for a couple of types of home business owners I know. Rather than renting office space or using space inside their homes, they built an outside structure on their property. They could take advantage of the home office deductions (read the IRS guidelines for clarification), and use their money to increase the asset value of their home because of the home office building!

Do you have more home office tax tips or comments? Sign up for free to post.

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I was browsing some social bookmarking websites, like Digg, and noticed that articles about unemployed college grads are getting a lot of buzz (diggs). Actually this story is not new, but seems to appear during every economic downturn.

College graduates leave school, some with a lot of debt, and then they cannot seem to find anybody to hire them because they lack experience. And how can they get experience to make them more competitive in a tight market when they cannot find that first real job?

Should the Law School Graduate Mow Lawns?

I even saw a post where the man had his JD (law degree), and he could not find work so went back to take post-doctoral work, probably so he could stave off paybacks on loans. But with all of this guys education and honors, he still wailed about the state of the economy.

Heck, the guy who mowed my lawn was displaced from New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. He borrowed a lawn mower and a truck and started knockig on dooors, and now he has a business, employees, and also a shiny new truck and lawn tools.  He probably makes more money now than lots of lawyers do.

Am I suggesting that the JD should mow lawns? Well not really, though that is an honorable and legal way to make a living. What I am suggesting is that this guy does not need a six figure job at a fancy law office to be a lawyer. In fact, I know several lawyers who are very happy to run modest law firms from their kitchen tables.

I am sure that there must be some lawyer-type work this guy could do which does not take a lot of experience, like helping people with business forms, etc. I also read the demand for para-legals is very high right now, and that includes a lot of freelance paralegal work. Maybe this guy should try to take that on, get a good reputation, and then network himself into a real lawyer job.

How Does that Apply to Other Unemployed College Graduates?

OK, so you are reading this and you do not have a law degree. You just completed a 4 year college or university, and your degree is in English or Government, etc., and you need a job without any real skills to hang up a shingle, or so you think.

But you do have have skills or you could not have completed your education. Can you tutor middle school students, do freelance writing, or find work with a non-profit agency? If you are enterprising, maybe you could self-publish a book, start a blog, or become active in an online or offline community that interests you. All I am saying here is that activity generates results, and the lack of activity does not.

I have brought in some of my best clients and projects because I was involved in community service, busy promoting ideas, or chasing a wild goose. It sounds like a cliche, but you may need to think outside the box, decide that you will have to generate your own first job rather than be hired for it, and approach your problem sideways.

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If you are looking for an “at home job“, do not overlook freelance work. Even though a contract job will not have benefits, you can make good money, find lots of clients, and keep a flexible schedule. Freelancing is not for everybody. But many freelancers I know started out doing it to tide them over between jobs, and then decided they loved the lifestyle and turned it into their full time business.

Who Wants to Write? Almost everybody I know has dreamed about writing in one form or another. And freelance writing can be very satisfying, as well as lucrative. In fact, one freelancer I know said she had joined writers groups because she dreamed of writing a book one day. As with many budding authors, the book never got written or published, but she still is happy to have found a way to get paid for writing!

How To Find Freelance Writing Jobs

It really isn't that hard to find this type of work at all, and even though many jobs are declining, the demand for freelance writers is actually increasing! Why? Internet sites need content, and many webmasters pay for articles. Also, as companies cut back on employees, they still need work done, and so they look for freelancers.

Freelancer Job Boards – These are quite popular all over the internet. You can find general job boards, and you can find job listings and websites that are devoted to freelance writers.

Webmaster Forums and Websites – Most websites that provide webmaster communities, like webmaster forums, will have a help wanted/jobs wanted section. You can find that section and post your services there, being careful to follow any set guidelines. You may want to offer a special price to the first couple of people who take advantage of your service in order to get a good reputation and attract new business.  Some people have built a steady stream of business from webmaster communities, and others have actually gotten hired for full time jobs.

Writing Contents – You can also find writing contests that you can enter for publicity and cash prizes.

Start your ow blog or website – We have already discussed the advantages of having your own website. You can profit from it with sponsor ads. Or you can use it to showcase your work and the services you offer. Even if you look for work in other places, it helps to have a website for potential clients to review. If you do not have a lot of previous experience, your website or blog can be your online resume too.

Want more?

I'd be very happy to see your comments and questions. So sign up and post away!

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