|
|
All About Home Based
Businesses -
What are the real costs?
|
What are the real costs of a Home Based
Business?
The real cost to a home based business is far
more than just sending in $39 to whatever company is trying to seduce your
money away from you.
Some of the costs include the following:
- What product?
Before starting your home-based business, what product will you sell? Have
you done the research to show that people want your product? Never get
sold on something because someone else declares it's the next best thing
to free winning lottery tickets - always verify claims yourself.
- Knowledge.
Are you familiar in-depth with your product? Do you know who your competitors
are? Do you know the best way to market it? If your family was interesetd
in it, would you be proud to sell it to them?
- Packaging.
If you have a great product, but your packaging is as exciting as blank
space, you will lose out on that crucial first impression. When writing
my book, I hired a graphics artist to design the front, back and spine
of the cover. I knew what I wanted to convey - the additional artwork emphasized
it.
- Production cost. Does
your product require any assembly? How about materials?
- Inventory.
Where will you keep excess inventory? I recently converted my dining room
to a storage facility.
- Web sites.
Business web sites are crucial to providing a storefront and letting your
customers know what you have to offer. Do you know enough not
to get ripped off when buying a web site? And after you buy a site,
there is the monthly hosting fee to take into account and more.
- Credit card processing. Once
your cusomter is interested in buying your product, how do they purchase
it? Do you know how to get a merchant account
without getting ripped off? Do you want to process credit cards realtime
on the Internet? Again, another cost.
- Stress. While
one can never put a precise price upon stress, it certainly will take its
toll on you. Is your home-based business your only source of income? Will
you have to worry about more bill-paying? If your stress levels increase,
can you catch the warning signs soon enough and
manage them?
It helps if you are passionate about your business.
What kinds of businesses are good
for HBB?
[ Return to top
]
More
Information
|
