When Roy van Broekhuizen returned home after helping with relief efforts following the 2004 earthquake and subsequent tsunamis in Indonesia, he was driven to do more. So he and his wife Louise formed Laga Designs International to provide employment and hope for survivors.

Tsunami survivors and others in need handcraft Laga’s embroidered handbags and travel bags, natural fiber bags for the Tasik Collection, and beaded purses. Independent consultants sell the bags at home parties and through other direct sales methods.

Get more information by visiting the Laga Handbags website or find information on this company and many others direct sales companies in the InternetBasedMoms.com direct sales directory.

Image courtesy of SharkeyinColo.

We’ve all heard stories about ordinary people turning their hobby into a profitable business. Artists and crafters are often encouraged to sell their creations. And the advice most often offered to someone looking to start a small business is to “turn your passion into profit.”

Is it really possible to make money from a hobby? Can a craft or passion become a full-time career?

Yes, it’s possible. It won’t happen overnight, but with a great idea, a marketing plan, and dedication and hard work you can make money from a hobby.

Think about how much you’ve personally spent on your hobby over the past year. Like you, many people happily spend on hobbies and crafts because they provide entertainment and relaxation. And some people are willing to make a huge investment in their passions. It’s estimated that in the U.S. crafts are a $10 billion industry.

There are many ways to profit from your hobbies. Some people create and sell their arts and crafts at local shows, fairs, and consignment shops. Others sell their creations online through auction sites like eBay, at marketplaces like Etsy, or by launching their own website.

If you sell your own creations you are limited by the number of items you can make. An alternative is to sell supplies for your hobby or craft. You might also consider teaching your craft by offering classes locally or online through ecourses and ebooks.

Many people start out seeing a little bit of money trickle in from turning their hobby into a business, but with the right approach, your passion can bring you a decent income in addition to a lot of satisfaction.

Other resources to help you profit from your passion:

• How to Start a Craft Blog
• Candy Wrapper Business Ebook
• How to Start a Greeting Card Business

Do you like to keep everything in its place and in order? Do you enjoy helping friends arrange and organize their homes? Did you develop the filing system and organize all the paperwork at your job? If so, the perfect career for you may be as a professional organizer.

A professional organizer does just what it sounds like they do; they help people get their lives, offices, and/or homes in order. If you watch reality TV, you’ve probably already seen shows that highlight the work of organizers. They come into a house or office, clean out the clutter, install organizational equipment and teach the owner how to stay organized.

There are a few skills that are key to being a successful organizer:

• Organization (of course)
  If you’re going to be a professional organizer, you need to be very highly organized youself. It’s not enough to be able to teach someone else how to get and stay orgainized. If your life is obviously not organized, no one is going to hire you. You have to really love organization. If you aren’t passionate about it, your clients will see right through it.
• Adaptability
  Just because you are great at organizing your own life, doesn’t mean you’ll be great at organizing for someone else. To be a successful professional organizer, you need to be able to understand the needs of others and adapt your methods to each individual client.
• Teaching skills
  Getting someone organized isn’t enough. You have to teach your clients to maintain the changes and make them permanent. This means you not only need to be able to communicate effectively, but you must also be able to read and understand individual people, and have patience if they don’t catch on as quickly as you like.

How to get started as a professional organizer

The easiest way is to start with someone you know. Ask a friend or neighbor to let you organize a room in exchange for referrals or a testimonial. Often an organizer will make such a difference in a person’s life, they’ll be more than willing to spread the word about you, even if you don’t ask them to. If you need to be more active, you can make flyers and advertise in your neighborhood, or make a website and promote yourself online. Once you get your first few customers, you’ll probably find that the business keeps rolling in.

Another option is to join a direct sales party plan company that sells products that help people get organized. You can then base your marketing efforts and home parties on organizing tips and services. There are a few companies that sell products to help organize the home, including Clever Container, Signature HomeStyles, and Tupperware.

You might also consider joining the National Association of Professional Organizers and/or get certified by the Board of Certification for Professional Organizers.

*image courtesy of lunawhimsy

If your teenager is having trouble find a part-time job, you may want to explore online options with him/her. Definitely be on the lookout for schemes and scams that aren’t worth the time and effort, but there are plenty of legitimate ways for teems to earn some money online.

(Be advised that I normally advise against thinking of paid surveys as a real business, but teens may be able to make a little pin money by completing surveys. As cautioned in the article, don’t pay for information about surveys; you can join all the survey sites for free. As you begin to research survey sites, you will probably also come across “paid to read emails” or “paid to surf the web” offers. Those types of opportunities typically pay pennies and in my opinion are not worth the time and effort.)

The article below by S McIntyre includes suggestions for several other ways teens can earn online.

7 Job Ideas For Teens To Earn Money Online
by S McIntyre
More teens are turning toward the Internet searching for online jobs to earn extra money from home. Despite the age requirements, teenagers can find real money making opportunities. If your teen is looking for ways to work at home online discuss with them their interests, commitment and goals.

All of these work at home job ideas will require some help or involvement from either parent. Here are seven online job ideas for teens looking to expand their wings and or to explore their entrepreneurial side.

1. Surveys and focus groups are simple, fun and one of the easiest things to do. It doesn’t require any experience, just a teenager’s opinion. The types of surveys vary from topics about video games, movies, fashion, music, and other teen interests. Your teen may be compensated with money, Amazon or retail gift certificates, or points redeemable for cash or products. Signing up is always free; don’t ever pay! Monetary payments are usually paid out to a PayPal account or by cheque.

2. Many teens have their own blogs and they can use it as a way to promote their affiliate programs or get referrals from survey companies they have joined. They can sign up with Clickbank, a marketplace with merchants who offer digital products for people to sell. These commissions are set anywhere from 1% to 75%. LinkShare and Commission Junction are other affiliate marketplaces.

3. If one or both parents have their own home business, you can hire your teenager and delegate some of the monotonous and time consuming tasks. These simple tasks could be typing and printing out address labels, submitting articles to article directories, link checking and so forth. Parents can also help their teenager get the word out to others who may have limited budgets, but need to outsource some work.

4. Some kids like to follow in their parents’ footsteps, so if your teenager is interested in owning their own home business, you as a parent will have to be a co-signer.

5. Teens are very computer literate and savvy. Many are also artistic and creative. Becoming a web designer is a lucrative and rewarding career. Your teenager could be designing websites, creating blog templates, designing Twitter and MySpace backgrounds, buttons, logos etc. for anyone who can’t or don’t know how to do it themselves.

6. Open a lemonade stand; not a traditional one anyway. At Lemonade.com your teen can create an e-commerce online lemonade stand by recommending products that they love like music, sports, clothing, food, movies, video/electronic games and more.

7. If your teenager enjoy making crafts or he builds model airplanes, with the help of a parent they can open up their own online store at Etsy.com.

These are all worthwhile job ideas for teens who are interested in working at home and earning an income online. With a little help and support from you, your teenager can start earning their own spending money and maybe even put some away for college.

Find jobs for teens at WorkAtHomeSpace.com, a free work at home resource focusing on work at home companies, daily telecommute job leads, articles, business resources and other work at home related topics.

Sophia co-owns WorkAtHomeBusinessOptions.com, a comprehensive work at home business resource focusing on helping others who are looking for opportunities and ideas to work from home. You will also find tips and articles on how to balance work, family and play in your daily life.

California based Chartreuse is a young direct sales company offering earth-friendly products such as shopping bags, organic personal care and cleaning products, recycled paper products, and more. With the increased awareness of the importance of protecting our environment and natural resources, consumers are more and more interested in purchasing green products.

Independent consultants market products at home parties, online, and through other direct sales methods.

Learn more about the company and contact a consultant to start your own home business by visiting the Chartreuse Products company page in the InternetBasedMoms.com Direct Sales Directory.

If you’ve been looking for a home business but don’t want to sell products or your family obligations or schedule don’t really lend themselves to direct sales parties, a service business might be a good option. With some basic computer skills, office skills, and good communication skills you can set yourself up as virtual assistant fairly quickly and inexpensively.

What is a virtual assistant?

A virtual assistant or VA is a self-employed, home-based entrepreneur who assists other businesses, often in administrative work. In addition, most business owners have particular tasks that they will turn over to their virtual assistants, and these can go beyond basic office or business administration.

What skills are needed to become a VA?

The basic skills a VA needs are office and business administration skills. A VA also needs to be highly organized, communicate effectively and pay careful attention to detail. Some clients look for additional technical skills, such as writing, marketing, social media, blog or website maintenance, and multimedia production – even podcasting!

The skill set you’ll need as a VA depends on the type of clients you want to work with. Find out what they need and build your skills to respond effectively.

What kinds of work does a VA do?

VAs commonly do office-related stuff, such as responding to emails, making travel arrangements, researching and compiling information, business writing and typing up notes or transcribing audios

In addition, VAs nowadays are often expected to write and publish or schedule blog posts, work with autoresponders, rewrite private label rights content, optimize a website for search engines, update websites, and set up social networking profiles/pages.

Is being a VA a good option for Moms?

Oh yes! A lot of work at home Moms I know are VAs and they make good incomes from the comfort of their home, without having to leave their children in the care of others. Virtual assistance is a home business, which means it’s flexible. You decide how many hours a day you want to work, on which days, what type of work you want to do, and even whom you will work with.

On the other hand, if you have small children, remember that occasionally you will need to be on the phone or web chat with a client, supplier or other associate. In this case you’ll need somebody else looking after your small children so you can have some quiet and be able to focus on the call or chat.

How much money does a VA make?

The hourly rate of VAs depends on several factors. These include their skills and experience, whether they specialize in certain services or a particular industry, and any certifications they may have (those who are certified by recognized institutions charge higher fees). VA fees vary widely, ranging anywhere from around $15 to $70 per hour. So you can see, it’s entirely possible for a VA to make a full-time income working at home.

How can someone get started as a VA?

You can try and figure everything out yourself, of course. But better yet, get the guidance of experienced VAs who have successful virtual assistance businesses. Two such VAs are Jen Houck and Nell Taliercio who have a combined experience of over 5 years in virtual assistance. They share their success stories and step-by-step tips in the
Just Add Sweat Guide To Becoming A Virtual Assistant.

The guide includes:

• an audio course on everything from setting up your VA business, to marketing your services and finding and keeping clients
• a workbook to get you into action
• 5 videos teaching essential Internet skills
  …and more.

This is the guide that will get your VA business up and running in no time.

Many small business owners use virtual services to help them with a variety of tasks. Becoming a virtual assistant may be the next perfect “job” for you.

Affiliate link or our product link (Why tell?)

I have a free gift for you as a token of my appreciation for my loyal readers. Thank you for making the time to read iRepNetwork’s blog, Business Opportunity Connection.

Have you ever wondered how all the work at home and Internet business owners learned how to successfully run an online business? Many of them purchased “how-to-guides” and other information products. And it’s not just the beginning marketers who need help. As business grows so does the business owner’s need for new information and resources.

This ongoing need for information offers you the opportunity to build your own successful business selling special reports on a variety of topics. And you don’t even have to write the reports yourself!

Find out how to get started without a huge investment of time or money.

Claim your free Guide to Selling Special Reports.

To view and print this guide you will need a PDF reader. If you don’t have one, you can get Adobe Reader for free here.

 
Affiliate link or our product link (Why tell?)

Are you new to our blog or did you miss our other gifts? Find them all here.

Thanks again for sticking with us and as always, we welcome your feedback. You can offer your opinions and make requests and suggestions by leaving a blog post comment or by contacting us.

PartyLite is probably best known as a candle direct sales company, but their product line includes gifts, home accents, bath and body care, and more. And they’ve expanded further with the parent company’s recent acquisition of Two Sister’s Gourmet.

The company is well-established and has a reputation for quality products. The consultant opportunity became available just over 35 years ago, but the company got it’s start in the early 1900′s when Mabel Baker started making candles.

To learn more about this candle and gift home business opportunity, visit the PartyLite company page in the InternetBasedMoms.com direct sales directory.

Scentsy consultants market a unique product line in the popular direct sales category of candle sales. The company offers wickless, flameless candles in a variety of fragrances.

According to the National Candle Association, retail sales of candles in the U.S. is about $2 billion a year and 7 out of 10 households use candles. Scentsy’s wickless candles appeal to the segment of that market that loves candles, but doesn’t like to burn them.

Check out the video below and then get more information about the company and contact an independent consultant by visiting one of these sites:

• Candle Companies, including Scentsy.
• Scentsy company page in the IBmoms.com direct sales directory.

What could be more fun than a business that gets you invited to lots of birthday parties where you help kids make their own stuffed animal friend? As a Noah’s Ark Animal Workshop independent consultant, known as a “Crew Member” that’s exactly what you’ll be doing at all kinds of children’s events and programs including parties, scout meetings, preschools, and libraries. Consultants sell the company’s exclusive line of stuffed animal kits and also conduct “Bella Bee Workshops” where girls learn about beauty that comes from the inside while getting a new look for their outside.

Many direct sales consultants are moms who want to contribute the the family income while being at home with their children. As Annette Yen knows, Noah’s Ark Animal Workshop can help you do just that; she’s been working it with her children for five years now. Read her article below for tips on how to involve your kids in your home business.

As a founding Crew Member and a top leader, and with twenty years of experience in direct sales, Annette will teach you how to successfully start and run your home business.

Get more information about Noah’s Ark Animal Workshop and contact Annette through the InternetBasedMoms.com direct sales directory.

—————————

Little Entrepreneurs – Starting them Young and Creating Good Habits for Life
Written by Annette Yen

I’ve been working from home since my youngest daughter was born. It’s been a great adventure and I’m so blessed to be able to stay home with my kids and bring some income to the family budget. I love it.

The key to making this work for our family has been having our daughters work with me in my businesses from the beginning. Now I know, that sounds impossible. And obviously a newborn can’t stick labels on my mailing etc. But as soon as my kids could walk and talk I started training them to be little entrepreneurs and helpers, beginning first with helping me around the house so that I could get the business work done.

Here are a few quick steps you can take with your little ones to start them on the road to success in helping you with your business and even toward helping them get their own home business started when they’re older.

1. While they’re still in your arms, use a sling or a backpack to carry baby with you while you work. Talk about what you’re doing and how they can help you when they’re older. The key at this age is have them WITH you as much as possible and then use nap time to get those things done that might be impossible to do with a young one strapped to you.

2. When your little ones can walk, have them help you with some simple tasks…filling up the dog food, folding washcloths, snapping beans. Always talk about how much help they are to you and how much you’ll love it when they’re ready to do this job all by themselves. Before you know it they’ll be saying, “I can do it mom!”

3. Praise them often for their efforts. They may not put the fork on the right side of the plate but it’s there and it helped. Let them know it! Make simple jobs easy for them. Put items in drawers that they can reach. For instance, a two or three year old can easily set the table with silverware, but it would really help them if they had a placemat to tell them where each piece goes and if the flatware was in a drawer at their level. You can easily make a vinyl placemat a silverware map with a sharpie. Just draw each piece on there and use the placemats at every meal letting your child set the table.

4. Let them work the business with you. In the beginning that might just be having them sit in the high chair or booster seat at the table while you work the computer and they put paperclips in Dixie cups. Or buy some tape and construction paper and have them tape away … it’s cheap and you’re using items that they’ll be using in the future to really help you with your business. As soon as they’re ready, have them put the stickers and postage stamps on your mailings, strap the packing tape on your boxes (it doesn’t have to be perfect!) sort and/or file your papers, etc. Again, the key when they’re young is working with them and encouraging them.

5. Let them work independently when they’re ready. Kids are often ready to take on bigger responsibilities before you think they are. A 10 year old can easily handle the checkbook and just imagine how great it will be for his math skills too – plus the bank checks his work!

Involve your young kids in your business from the beginning. You’ll be amazed at how the investment of time (and maybe some frustration) in the early days will pay off greatly down the road when your children can handle huge parts of your business without you because they’ve been well trained.

Article by:
Annette Yen and her daughters have worked together in their home-based business from the beginning. You can learn more about them at their website www.kidspartybusiness.com. Find out more tips for raising your kids to be entrepreneurs at www.showkidsthemoney.com.

—————————