Home Business Idea: Ebay Trading Assistant

Ebay has become a God-send for many home business entrepreneurs. More than providing a venue to monetize the "junk" cleared from attics or basements, Ebay has given small and home business entrepreneurs a thriving marketplace for products or services.

Ebay has also created a business opportunity for many home-based entrepreneurs - that of an Ebay Trading Assistant where you parlay your Ebay savviness by selling for others. As an Ebay Trading Assistant, you will sell other people's items in Ebay (e.g. make a listing, take pictures, write the description, monitor the bidding, and taking charge of the item's shipment) and earn a percentage of the sale profit in return. The article "Become an eBay Trading Assistant: Easy Home Business" by Stephanie Chadler details how to get started as an Ebay Trading Assistant and succeed in this business.

Other people, however, have taken the concept of an Ebay Trading Assistant a step further and built franchises around them! Two new franchises I've seen in a recent franchise trade show I attended in Washington DC are iSoldIt and Snappy Auctions . These two franchise opportunities share the same concept: you will sell other people's stuff on Ebay and earn commissions from the sale. This means that you will collect the items from local residents, seek out closeouts and overstock items from local businesses, staff your store, photograph the items, create Ebay listings, package and then ship the items. You also need to get an actual store where people can easily drop off their stuff for you to sell on their behalf! These two new franchise opportunities both require a store that is easily accessible with parking at the storefront and visible from the street, and about 1200 to over 2000 square feet in size.

So what's the difference with these two franchise opportunities from Ebay's Trading Assistant program? Well, having your own physical store and the large franchise expenses during your startup! Your out-of-pocket expenses when you sign up for any of these two franchise opportunities may be around $46,000-$55,000 (includes franchise fee for first location, fixtures & equipment, security deposit for lease, working capital, etc.) plus the monthly royalty fees and other monthly fees. On the other hand, compare the above expenses with the requirements of the Ebay Trading Assistant Program: (a) You've sold at least 4 items in the last 30 days; (b) You have a feedback score of 50 or higher; (c) 97% or more of your feedback is positive; and (d) Your eBay account is in good standing.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather apply to be part of the Ebay Trading Assistant program than pay $50,000 or more for a franchise opportunity that basically provides the same business.

Identity Thieves Targeting the Advertising Marketplace

We all know about the growing menace of identity theft. We may even know of someone who has been a victim of identity theft (or you may even be a victim of one!). Chances are, the stories we hear of identity theft often relates to someone stealing a credit card to purchase mostly big-ticket items. Hence, we often read of warnings to e-tailers (PowerHomeBiz has several articles on credit card fraud) about large orders with a request to ship the items immediately as a sign of possible fraud.

Well, today, we realized we were a victim of credit card fraud from a non-typical identity thief. Instead of purchasing physical goods (PowerHomeBiz does not sell anything physical anyway except for our CD-ROM), the identity thief purchased advertising space from us. To promote their website!

The advertiser, GeekTeck.net http://www.geekteck.net, first purchased advertising space (sponsored text links) from us in February. The campaign must have worked because they renewed the campaign for another month in March. This May, they renewed the campaign for another 3 months. The New York-based GeekTeck.net offers a merchant reselling program for a fee of $99/month.

But today (May 25), we received two chargeback charges from our merchant account provider. The credit card owner (a consulting business in Cincinnati, Ohio) complained that they never authorized the charges we made on their credit card account, along with a dozen other charges from other businesses (in one day alone, more than $10,000 was charged on the credit card!). I talked with someone from the company and she said that they have already closed this business credit card after discovering the fraudulent charges. They are also not connected in anyway with GeekTeck.net or involved in the same line of business as Geekteck.net.

We should have known better, but we were not expecting identity thieves to buy advertising to promote their businesses! There were warning signs that we missed. For one, they listed the address as Cincinnati OH when they first placed their advertising order, which is the address of the correct credit card holder (Geekteck's website list them as located in New York). In their renewal order this May, they used a different credit card account with Connecticut as the address (maybe because the first OH card has already been closed).

The listing in Better Business Bureau also raised some flags: according to the BBB of Metropolitan New York, the mail they sent in May to the company Liquidation Services Inc. (listed in GeekTeck.net's website as their main company) was returned by the post office.

We have contacted GeekTeck and removed all their advertising campaign from PowerHomeBiz.com. We have also reimbursed the companies defrauded (chargebacks, however, are never fun). By going public with this snafu, we hope that our visitors who responded to their offer would not be victimized by this company and use their credit card information.

It's sad, but there are a lot of crazy people on the Internet. Be careful!

Zoning Challenges Faced By Home Businesses

It is tough to run a home business. Not only are resources oftentimes limited, but home businesses face a barrage of challenges from government itself! Despite claims that majority of small businesses are operated from homes, the government has not really made it easy for ordinary folks to start and run a business from home.

For one, there is the perennial question of zoning laws. We often read or hear stories of those wanting to operate a business from home, but has to go through the eye of a needle in getting a zoning permit. In a recent news story in Pittsburgh PA, a woman in the Monroeville area cannot get permission from her zoning board to operate a daycare business from home. Once neighbors fear these three things -- the business would add too much traffic, create too much noise and reduce the value of their properties -- then the would-be home business owner is assured of an extremely tough battle ahead in the zoning board.

Nonetheless, there is hope. A growing number of communities are reassessing the contributions of home businesses in their localities, and amending their laws accordingly. In Shrewsbury NJ, for example, the borough recently introduced an amendment to the borough’s administrative codes that sanctions home-based businesses, "as long as they don’t infringe upon the rights of neighbors." They recognize that recent advancements in technology such as Internet, broadband cable, cellular communications and computers have made it easier for people to operate a business from home. The amendment also clarified the definitions of various activities from home that results in economic gain:

• A home business is defined as one that offers products or merchandise for sale and has more than one employee;
• Home occupations are identified as businesses in which the services of the occupant are offered on-site to clients, patients, patrons or customers; and
• Home office use provides a service that does not include a product or merchandise for sale.

Given the difficulties and uncertainties in dealing with the zoning boards, many home business owners instead hide the fact that they are running a business from their homes -- until a nosy neighbor complains and they are then forced to come out of the closet.

Characteristics of Home Based Businesses

Home-based businesses are the predominant form of small businesses (estimated to be roughly about 60% of small businesses) but the lack of data on this sector can be frustrating. The latest official government data goes way back in 1992 when the last Characteristics of Business Owners Survey was conducted by the Bureau of Census.

Nonetheless, below are some pertinent characteristics of home-based businesses based on the Census survey:

• Over 90% of home-based businesses are sole proprietorships
• Majority (60%) are in the service and construction sectors
• A huge majority (90%) have no employees, and 7.2% have less than 5 employees (The survey found that only 0.2% of home businesses have 20 or more employees)
• 77% have gross receipts of only $25,000 or less with only 3.5% earning $100,000 or more

Interesting facts but I suspect that the landscape may have changed! For one, Internet, which has become an important business channel for home-based entrepreneurs, was not yet around at the time the survey was conducted. I hope that more home-based entrepreneurs are earning $100,000 or more this time around.

Missing a Partner in a Partnership

One of PowerHomeBiz.com visitors asked if it is possible for a partnership to exist with only one person. While partnership by definition involves two or more people, what happens if one partner dies or leaves the business? Our incorporation Expert and CEO of New Ventures LLC Chrissie Mould discussed the often overlooked issue of what happens when a partner is disassociated from the business for whatever reason.

Read full advice

10 Tips for Avoiding Home Business Scams

Starting a home business has become a wonderful and attractive alternative for parents across the country. With the advent of the Internet, email and cell phones, working at home has been a very viable option. No other alternative allows parents the opportunity to create their own hours and work around their children's schedules while earning an income. But before investing in any home business opportunity, it is wise to take appropriate steps to research the opportunity and the company. Unfortunately, there are deceitful businesses ready to take advantage of parent's deep desire to be at home with their children. These steps will help you to avoid potential problems:

1. Research the company and always check them out with the Better Business Bureau(http://search.bbb.org/search.html\) located in their city.

2. Ask for at least three references of people they have worked with. Call each person and ask about his or her experiences with the company.

3. Be cautious of any company that asks for money for a work-at-home job

4. Don't be fooled by ads claiming you can make large amounts of money in short periods of time. And be cautious of companies that require you to sign up immediately. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

5. Avoid those Type from home scams that claim you can earn $40,000.00 a year typing from home. As Diana Ennen, author of Virtual Assistant ~ the Series, Become a Highly Successful Sought After VA (http://www.VA-TheSeries.com\) states, These are usually scams. They promise you a listing of companies looking for home-based typist and normally these companies aren t even aware they are on the list and seldom need help. Starting a secretarial business at home is a great work-at-home opportunity. However, you need to do it right and start one on your own.

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Home Business Success Story

We'd like to invite you to visit our newest website - WomenHomeBusiness.com, where we present real stories of women (and men too!) who have succeeded in their entrepreneurial ventures. Our aim is to help you learn how to start, run and manage a successful business through inspiration and emulation.

This week, our featured entrepreneur is Richard Busch, owner of Glenfiddich Farm Pottery, who at 63 decided to make a career shift and start a pottery business. He is part of the growing number of retirees who instead of slowing down started businesses to support the lifestyle that they love. After a 30-year career as a highly successful magazine editor, Richard made a 180-degrees turn and quit the job in 1997 at the age of 56 to pursue his passion for pottery.

To learn how Richard started his pottery business, read full article.

Making More With Existing Clients

Have you ever put on a jacket you haven't worn in a while and found a twenty-dollar bill in one of the pockets? You'd forgotten all about it, so discovering it is like getting a gift. If you've been in business for a year or longer, you may have gifts in forgotten pockets sources of additional revenue waiting to be discovered and tapped.

There are four ways to increase your net profits: reduce costs, increase prices, attract more clients or sell more to existing clients. When you consider that it costs you at least 60% and as much as 600% more to sell to a new client than to an existing one, it's clear that your best prospects are existing clients.

Are you selling as many of your services or products as you could to your existing client base? Could you increase your revenue by doing a better job of marketing to your existing clients?

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Average Orders in Top Online Retail Categories

According to the Nielsen/NetRatings' MegaView Online Retail report, the average orders in the top 15 online retail categories are as follows:

• Computer hardware = $584.47
• Event and movie tickets = $121.60
• Automotive = $119.23
• Office supplies = $102.47
• Consumer electronics = $99.12
• Child/baby care = $86.13
• Sporting goods and outdoor activies = $74.15
• Home and garden = $69.99
• Shoes and athletic footwear = $53.14
• Flowers, greetings and specialty gifts = $51.61
• Computer software = $46.76
• Jewelry and watches = $46.62
• Health/wellness/beauty = $45.94
• Apparel and accessories = $44.68
• Toys, games and hobbies = $40.41