Discover A Working Business

By David Trumble

Have you ever heard that it takes money to make money? Have you perhaps invested several hundred dollars in a business opportunity only to realize it really did not offer results? There are literally thousands of books, courses, and programs promising a dream of working from home, but how many really pay off?

There are probably more scams promoted under this theme than any other. Some purport fantastic guarantees. Some insist there is no selling needed, no product needed, no work involved; just rake in the money. Perhaps you have tried some of those MLM, Network Marketing, or Home Business ventures only to end up broke and disappointed. I understand because I have been there too.

Dont get me wrong, I still believe in my own home based business. I still believe people can make a living without a job. I assure you, I am not some rich guy either. You see, I still believe in work too. I just like to work from my house instead of driving to some factory job or office.

Since the late 1960s my wife has operated an intermittent sewing business from our home. Now she did not get rich, but the extra money did help. As a small church pastor for over 30 years, we had to pinch every penny. By working only a couple of hours per day, Donna was able to bring in a few hundred dollars a week. When she didnt want to work, she didnt. Her business activities were a bit hit and miss. She would go for a year or so, and do no business at all. If she was teaching school, she did less sewing. It was her choice. When we needed extra money, she would let her friends know and maybe run a small classified ad in the newspaper. In a matter of a few days, she would have work to do.

By the time our youngest child was entering middle school, Donna wanted to do more than just an occasional project. So she started running a small ad in the classifieds. She passed out business cards, and generally let everyone know she was available to do custom sewing. She was already an expert and well known through church circles, but the advertising did help. Soon work was coming in by the bag full. An interesting thing happened, however, we also started getting requests from sewers for sewing machine repair.

I thought I can do that. So, in 1992, I started learning how to repair sewing machines. I ran a little ad in the local newspaper, and soon had half dozen machines to repair every week. Over time, we opened a sewing store, and the repair business grew. We expanded and the repair business grew. We now own three sewing stores and do about 150 sewing machine repairs each month.

Not everyone sews today. Those who do, however, do so with such passion that it overwhelms. When I talk with non sewers, and mention what I do, they sometimes look at me as if to say, You arent Amish are you? Many people just do not realize how big the sewing business is in America.

I explain that there are some 85 million sewing machines in use just in the United States. Another 5 million new machines are sold every year. And guess what. Every one of those sewing machines requires sewing machine service and repair annually. That is a lot of sewing machines to fix.

I am not going to tell you that you can make a bundle of money without doing any work; but from my own experience, I will tell your there is a big opportunity in sewing machine repair. Here are some advantages: you can learn it in a matter of weeks; you can do business from your kitchen table, shop, or garage; you need no big overhead; you need no large investment; and you need no employees.

Start out by letting all your friends, neighbors, people at church, and everywhere else that you do sewing machine repair. Run a small ad in the newspaper. Pass out business cards. Maybe do a dozen or so machines free of charge. Then charge about half what the city sewing machine shops charge for another dozen or so. Then set your prices just under your competition.

Nobody can guarantee you will make any money at all in your own business. It is certain that if you do not work at it, you will make no money. On the other hand, the potential for your own sewing machine repair business operated from your home is very real. For example, lets say you decide to charge $80.00 per standard service. Since you have no overheard, employees, or other major expenses the $80.00 is yours. If it takes you 2.5 hours to complete the service, what is your hourly rate? Now can you live with better than $30.00 per hour? If you did just one machine a week you would earn over $4,000 per year. All this for working about 2.5 hours per week at home.

The more machines your repair, the more money you will make. The more machines you do, the faster you will be able to complete a service. If you want to expand your business, all you have to do is increase the number of machines you repair. For example, lets say you contact a church group and agree to service twenty sewing machines in the month of January. That would be about 6 machines a week. Or maybe you decide you want to take off for vacation or Christmas holidays and do no machines for a week or two. You are in control. Remember, on average you will need to schedule about two and a half hours per machine. If you want to work twenty hours this week, you might compete 8 to 10. Now, what if you did on average 5 machines a week. How much would you earn for each one? In a month? In a year? Increase the average by just one machine per week and see an additional $4000.00 per year.

Now if you were to expand and set up a few collection sites in quilt shops, fabric stores, and other repair shops; what kind of potential do think you could achieve?

The potential of this business really depends on you. How your sewing machine repair skills develop; How long it takes you to fully service a sewing machine, How many customers you attract; and How much you charge all contribute to the potential of your business. You can open a sewing machine store, run advertising, or hire an employee any time you choose. If you do all the work yourself fulltime, you will likely peak between fifteen and twenty machines per week. If you charge $99 per machine, then your projected potential would be between $75,000 and $100,000 per year. If you charge less, you will earn less. If you do fewer machines or more machines, you will earn accordingly.

Here is a business that is practical and doable. It does require some basic mechanical skills, common hand tools, some sewing machine repair training, and a bit of work. It does not require a large investment. It does not require hiring employees. It does not require large over head, renting facilities, or opening a store. The potential of this business depends on you reaching out to those who sew and quilt to attract customers and properly servicing their sewing machines. You can start very part time and gradually expand your business as you desire.

About the Author:

Discovermore about repairing sewing machines, discover Dr. David Trumble's comprehensive sewing machine repair courses. Seehis tips and tricks and get your free copy of his beginner's course 7 Steps To Peak Performance.

Sure Fire ways to expand your Network with Email Marketing.

By MLMAbsolute

In sales, customers are your lifeline. Therefore, you need to maintain contact with them for many purposes. You can contact them for feedback survey, product updates, or upcoming promotional events.

Doing MLM/ Network Marketing online lack the human touch that offline marketing have. But it is possible to make up for that flaw.

Before you can contact your customers, you need to have their contact. Doing business online, the main contact information is usually the Email address. You can collect email addresses through your website through a squeeze page or opt-in page. The main advantage is that the leads are targeted.

These are your potential cash cows. You need to follow up with them, update them regularly, forming a relationship. The purpose of doing this is to increase their awareness of your company or product. Imagine, today if you keep seeing the advertisement of, say, MacDonald's, the next time you make a decision on where to eat, you will probably be thinking of MacDonald's. You need to get them to see your advertisements. The easiest way is to send them emails.

To make people remember you, your company, or website, you can use email marketing to reach out to them. Email Marketing is a powerful way to reach out to your leads, and convert them into potential sales.

Be Professional

Take note of some points in order to make your emails professional.

- Source

People will see who sent them the email before opening them. This makes your email address very important. To look more professional, please refrain from using free email accounts like @gmail, @yahoo or @hotmail. Use something that your customer recognizes, such as your name or company name. e.g. support @yourcompanyname.com. Most hosting package gives you a number of emails account you can create under your own domain name.

Another factor that determines if a person opens up your email is the subject line. Your subject line must attract them or create interest to know more. Generally as a rule, keep it under 50 characters.

- Message text

Quickly identify yourself and the purpose of the message. It will be better if you state who referred you to them. Restrict the use of fancy pictures, keep it business like, or make it in line with the style of your website.

Improve conversion of your Emails

Increasing the effectiveness of your emails means to increase action rate. Action in terms of the people reading the emails to visiting the website. Here are 6 tips on how to improve your emails to increase your conversion rates.

- Focus on Branding

Remember to brand yourself or the Company, whichever you are representing. Good branding will make readers remember you, or your company. Keep to the branding you choose, and use it consistently, every time you email them. Use the branding in your from line or subject line, so they can recognize you.

- Honesty

Be honest and truthful in your email subject line. Don't use false information to trick readers into opening the email. It is also a legal requirement to have accurate subject line.

- Create urgency to take action

In order to make readers take action, you have to instill a sence of urgency in them to take action. Use time sensitive words like "Buy Now, While Stocks Last, Limited time, For first 100 sign ups only".

- Entice them

To further entice them to read our email, you can also give them some benefite to do so. Everybody likes free stuffs. Include a gift in your subject line to entice them to open the email. Some examples are; Get your free E-Book, Redeem your free trial, etc...

- Don't overdo it

In your text, avoid using too many bold, capital letters, bright colors, and punctuation (referring to ! ). For the simplest reason, it makes your text very confusing and distracting. It also triggers spiders and filter to classify it as SPAM.

- K.I.S.S Keep It Short and Sweet.

Don't try to put in tonnes of information and updates in one email. Keep it short and sweet, focusing on the main points only. Practice your own discretion when writing emails to your audience and purpose of message.

*P.S Include a unsubscribe tab for all your email correspondence. It is a legal requirement for all email newsletter to include the unsubscribe option to reduce SPAM.

About the Author:

MLM Absolute is a learning portal for MLMers/ Network & Internet marketers who are sincere in achieving success in the online marketing career. visit us to know more about Email Marketing, click here to find out more. We bet you will like it!