A Guide to Working from Home: Selling Books and
Video
The home computing revolution
and the advent of the Internet has made the dream of “Working from Home”
a very real and lucrative possibility for millions of Americans. And
this does not only apply to those who have found they can now
"Telecommute" in their chosen professions. Many have been bitten by the
next wave of entrepreneurial spirit that is sweeping the nation, and are
actually leaving their jobs to start their own home based businesses.
But choosing the right home based business can be a challenge.
Selling Books and Videos
on line is a great way to enter into the hugely profitable world of
E-commerce as a home based business. All experts agree the key to
becoming a successful “E-tailer” is to sell something that you love, and
who doesn’t love books and movies? The most profitable way of starting a
Home Based business selling books and movies leverages two of the most
powerful strategies available for home based Internet businesses, eBay
and Amazon.
AT A GLANCE
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Expected Hourly
Income |
3000 –4000.00 Month
Potential |
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Start-Up Costs
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High,
Moderate, Low
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Start Up Degree of
Difficulty |
Easy,
Moderate, Difficult, Very Difficult |
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Potential Problems |
Suspension of Accounts –
difficulty obtaining inventory |
Getting Started
Using eBay Auctions and Amazon
to start a lucrative home-based business selling Books, e-Books and
Movies and DVD’s basically means you will become a retail book seller
without a Book store, and will be entering the world of e-commerce. The
wonderful thing about eBay and Amazon is that you will be leveraging an
infrastructure that is already in place, and when used right with the
right product, such as Books and Movies can set you up for life. As an
E-tail book seller, you will not only have the opportunity to partner
with Amazon as an associate and sell their products off of your
websites, find original content to sell on eBay and other sales
channels, but also one of the links here on this page shows you how you
can inexpensively creator your own books and movies and use eBay's
infrastructure to sell and market them for you. You also may want to
consider becoming a “niche” seller of collectable or hard to get titles
on DVD or Videotape – one housewife in Texas started a small business of
finding hard to get movies from the 50’s, which is now a multi-million
dollar business.
Start-up costs
Since starting a home based Book
and Video Selling Business using eBay and Amazon equates to starting an
actual retail business, there are some start up costs, but these are
certainly far less then opening an actual bookstore. To get started even
in the simplest way possible you should expect to lay out about $2500.00
in start up costs. This should cover the name searches, registrations,
licenses, incorporation fees if you choose that route, and the cost of a
mail drop address and box. In addition if you do not already have a
digital camera; you should consider purchasing one to take quality
photos of the covers of the books and DVD’s item you will be selling.
Easy to use high quality digital cameras can be purchased for about
300.00. Of course you should have a computer with a high-speed Internet
connection and a website. While the total start up costs for a Home
Based Business Selling Books and Movies can be somewhat higher then some
other simpler Home Based Businesses – they are still significantly less
then starting a similar “real world” retail business or purchasing a
franchise. As in any Home Based Business – if you have left work to
pursue Selling Books and DVD’s as a full time income, and do not have
access to health benefits through a spouse, you need to include the cost
of health benefits in your monthly budget. More information on Insurance
for the Self-Employed can be found at
www.insurancebudget.com or
http://www.nase.org/
Hours and Income
As we have been saying, starting
a Home Business Selling Books and Movies using Amazon and eBay is much
like starting a retail business. Expect to put in full-time hours, and
expect to reap fulltime rewards. Following the suggestions made here and
at the links provided throughout this page, you can build a primary
income stream selling books and movies that can result in six figure or
greater profits.
Potential Problems
The greatest pitfalls with
becoming an On-line Bookseller occur with those looking for the “short
cut” or trying to buck the system. Do not try to defraud the state in
terms of Taxes. Any profits you make from eBay Auctions or as a reseller
on Amazon must be reported as income. Don’t mess with eBay. Do not
falsify any claims in your listings – and forget about getting a “shill”
to falsely pump up your auction prices, not only will it likely result
in your permanent suspension from eBay- you may face criminal charges.
There are also more costs involved in book selling then other On-line
business as you may be paying out of pocket to obtain inventory such as
from used book stores, however there are many bargains to be found in
used book stores that can be resold for heavy profits on eBay and
Amazon
Other Resources
Professional Advice on Starting
and Maintaining an On-line Book Selling Business
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y201/m06/abu0039/s05
Conclusion
Selling Books and Movies Online is a great way for someone with little
or no experince and a modest amount of start-up capital to enter the
multi-million dollar market of e-commerce and Internet retailing.
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Fed
up with the rat race?