Working at Home on the Internet » Business

The Real iPad from 1994 [Video]

Joe Hauckes — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 10:07:19 +0000

So you think Apple came up with the idea of the iPad just recently? The predicessor was designed and worked quite well. That was in 1994!

Check this out…

For those reading in RSS or through an e-mail subscription, please click here to view the video.

Wholesale or Home Parties?

Brooke Long — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 11:00:14 +0000

My business partner and I are coming up on a year of making beaded hair accessories and jewelry. We are doing okay – in the black – but all of our money is pretty much just going back in the business.

We have our pieces in quite a few stores – many of them are not doing great – but a few are doing really well. So with those stores we are setting our sites on other things to do.

There are two different things that we are considering:

1. Wholesale

2. Home Parties

Wholesale could be good. All we would have to do is sit and bead. And we could potentially make some good money. We spend a lot of time driving around and managing the stores that we are in – including online sales. (Not good.) But the main problem that I see is the work load and the money that we will (will not) make. The store will take a big percentage – and there are just two of us that each have two kids. It will be quite the challenge to get some of these pieces done in large amounts.

The other option is home parties. This could be good money. We get 100% of the money and we may only need to do 2 parties per month. The nice thing is that we don’t have to manage stores! I would love that. But there are two major downsides that we see. 1. What if we don’t get people to have parties? 2. It’s really hard for us to ask friends.

The thing is I think that we both have different ways that we are leaning. That makes it really hard. Maybe we should both persue our own ways and then see what actually works.

So…what do you think about this? What are your opinions and why?

Brooke has been a part of the WAHI family since March 2009 writing articles for the WAHM Wisdom section. She has had her own business since 1997, – Cataluña – web sites redesigned from scratch. Her newest business venture is Cataluña Designs – unique beaded hair accessories and jewelry for girls.

Does Technology Help?

Brooke Long — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 11:36:47 +0000

I used to be a web designer – a good one at that. (Well I still sorta am) And when you are in that business, technology is a must. I have a great (had a great) computer, two screens, wonderful software, a scanner, a fax machine, a color printer, a laptop, and a Blackberry. Things were really great for me.

Well, now I am at home full time and I also create beaded hair accessories and jewelry. What technology do I really need? A computer is nice, but I found that having a good computer with great software is really handy. We are trying to make a better website, communicate with prospects, create cool business cards and constantly emailing.

For us technology is a must – even though it does not seem like it.

What about you?

Brooke has been a part of the WAHI family since March 2009 writing articles for the WAHM Wisdom section. She has had her own business since 1997, – Cataluña – web sites redesigned from scratch. She also creates web sites, e-newsletters, blogs, e-commerce sites etc. as well as print collateral including logos.

What Is Overhead?

Brooke Long — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 10:59:42 +0000

Today it was all about bead shopping. Bead shopping? Yep. Shopping for beads for all of the great hair accessories and jewelry that we make.

We have to really stock up on beads because these shows come along only 2 times per year. This is really hard – for my business partner and me. We know we have to make that investment, but to drop a chunk of change all at once is not easy.

But it is the only overhead that we have. We don’t have a store front, we don’t have employees – it’s just us working out of our homes.

Because we have only been doing this for 9 months, we just don’t have a full understanding of what we need. We can look at all kinds of beautiful stones and we know that we want them – but can we make something that we like out of them? And then can we sell them?

That is the hard part – but I have to say that working out of our homes has kept costs really low. We can enjoy ourselves, hang out together, be home with our girls, and be home when our boys get home from school.

Perfect situation.

What is your biggest overhead?

Brooke has been a part of the WAHI family since March 2009 writing articles for the WAHM Wisdom section. She has had her own business since 1997, – Cataluña – web sites redesigned from scratch. Her newest business venture is Cataluña Designs – unique beaded hair accessories and jewelry for girls.

Just Try It.

Brooke Long — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 11:43:15 +0000

Everything that you do in your life you will have a first time.

The first time reading
The first time skiing
The first time on a date
The first time talking to a new client
Etc.

The first time can be very overwhelming, exciting, and let’s face it – a little scary. It is hard to do something new and to really put yourself out there. But you have to. You have to make that first call, go down that first hill etc. Because you won’t know unless you try.

Yesterday I had to do that. I wanted to talk to the owner of this one store to see if they would be interested in our pieces. I have done this before, but this was a little different. I just thought that they might not like our stuff. But I did talk to them and they did seem interested. Now we will just wait.

Brooke has been a part of the WAHI family since March 2009 writing articles for the WAHM Wisdom section. She has had her own business since 1997, – Cataluña – web sites redesigned from scratch. She also creates web sites, e-newsletters, blogs, e-commerce sites etc. as well as print collateral including logos.