New claims in unemployment nationwide jump unexpectedly as 500,000 unemployment applications submitted nationwide last week were the most in nine months as reported in the Los Angeles Times August20, 2010 edition.
The economy has not picked up yet and more people are still looking for jobs.
What happens if the unemployment benefits has been exhausted?
What else are the options?
One option for the unemployed individuals is to start looking into a home-based business even on  a part-time basis in order to generate income.
A business person once told me, “Nothing moves in America unless you sell.†If you want to make money by running a business, you have to sell something.  The goal should be ensuring that the revenue (or proceeds from the sales) should be greater than the overall business expenses.
Photo credit: Herald Post
So the next question would be “What would you sell for your home-based business?â€
“What would be your new career?”
Before we go to that, we should first understand the types of home-based businesses:
A. Product Oriented – those that involve selling tangible products which are either manufactured by a you or others. Example Career Options are: eBAY or Amazon.com sellers, dropshippers, network marketing independent contractor.
- 1. Sell products manufactured by you: – Most people have a special talent or skill. This could be knitting, crafting, beading, software programming, or even inventing something. Some people have sold products they created such as bracelet beads, craft items, computer software, help manuals, hard copy books or e-books.
2. Sell products manufactured by others: – There are two ways that this could be done, by becoming one of these:
- Retailer – where you buy the products yourself in wholesale price and resell them at retail price. You are responsible for delivering the goods to the consumer whether in person or shipping the product from your home-based store. The disadvantage of retailing is you carry the risk of getting stuck with the inventories if you do not sell them unless the company has a good return policy.
- Agent or Broker – where you don’t actually buy the product yourself but you market it as if it is yours and the company pays you commission for the sale. The advantage of this is that you don’t handle the delivery of the goods to the consumer, the company does it for you and it pays you a commission once the sale is consummated. In addition, you don’t risk getting stuck with inventories you do not sell. Example career options: real estate agents, loan officers, insurance agents, credit cards agents, network marketers.
B. Service Oriented – pertains to services provided to consumers or businesses. There are usually some tangible product involve for companies in the repair business (selling parts), catering business (selling food), beauty service (shampoos, lotions, etc), etc. If you have a particular skill or perhaps the one that you do at work, you can probably convert this into a good home-based business.
Examples:
- Computer Related – During the recession, there are probably a lot of information technology professionals that are affected. People who have skills in web design, programming, computer repair and maintenance, or networking and servers can start a computer business. Home-based career options: Web Designer for small businesses and bloggers, computer repair and maintenance help for individuals and small businesses.
- Accounting & Financial Services– accounting is probably the most recession proof of all the careers and even as a home-based business. Small businesses will always need help with bookkeeping and no matter where the economy is at, people will always have to file taxes. Home-based career option: Bookkeeping Service, Tax Preparation Service, Financial Planners, Insurance Agents.
- Fitness Instructor – With more people involve on improving their health, fitness instructors has been very in demand. Home-based career option: Zumba Lessons and  Taebo lessons, Dance Instructors
- Events Related – Wedding Planner, Events Planner, DJ Music, Photographer
- Media Publishing – Media publishing is probably the easiest to get into and probably the cheapest. When I say media publishing, it’s mostly about creating websites or blogs to publish information and make money from advertising and affiliate income. But the success rate on this one is very low especially if you do not know what you’re doing. There are a lot of blogs and websites that barely make an income. Home-based Career Options: Freelance Writing, Blogging, website infopreneur.
- Consulting – When the economy is down, consulting is probably the first to get cut on the business budget. However, financial planning professionals would probably strive since people would need help more on trying to save even more or manage their finances at this bad economic times.