How to Start Up a Home Business on a Shoe String Budget

Doc Polly, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Jul 31, 2007 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

I enjoy being a housewife and staying home to care for my husband and our home. I did not relish the idea of going out into the job market and searching for a 9 to 5 job, or at my age, not being able to find a job at all. Since I had already retired from my career at the age of 45 and I wanted to be able to stay home with my new husband, I needed to devise a way to supplement our income so that it was not a financial burden on my husband.

I was seeking an opportunity that would be financially profitable, rewarding and enable me to work at my own pace and sometimes in my spare time. I also had to consider what I had to invest into a home based business that would not take away from our current budget.

Since I had a secondary degree in Business and Finance, it was relatively simple for me to start up a home based business and to make it profitable and virtually pay for itself. I gave myself a 6 month trial period to "make it or break it" so to speak.

Since I love to write, I decided to start up a community newsletter called " Friends Helping Friends". I started with about $25.00 in my pocket that I knew would not be missed from our current budget. The $25.00 paid for the printing and mailing and mailing supplies that I needed to get started.

To begin, I typed up an order form for local people to place advertisements-just about anything they wanted to place in the newsletter was acceptable as long as it was not offensive. The order form contained the categories that they would be allowed to place their ads under. Since this was going to be a monthly newsletter, ads were placed for one month at the cost of $5.00 per ad per 100 words or less. I decided that the newsletter would be Free to anyone who requested a copy or to anyone who picked up a copy at local business's who would carry the newsletter. I copied the ad form and place them in several strategic locations in our community. Within days, I began receiving ad placements from auto parts to babysitting services.

I was constantly going to the post office to pick up the tons of mail that I was receiving. My first newsletter blossomed into 20 pages of ads from our local community. At the price of $5.00 per ad for a month, people were placing several ads at a time.

This newsletter has now ballooned into a small published book of ads and I have hired several freelance writers to type up the ads in their homes and submit them to me at the cut off date for ad submissions. So by beginning my newsletter, I had given several other people in the community the opportunity to stay at home and earn a modest income as well.

This is a fun and rewarding home based business, it helps our community with low cost advertising that anyone can afford and it also helped several people to be able to quit their daytime jobs, stay at home and earn money to supplement their existing income. I recommend this Home Based Business to anyone who wants to be a stay at home worker.

Published by Doc Polly

Retired professional ( Criminal Psychologist) living in the Ohio, Cleveland area. I enjoy the New England Patriots,The Boston Red Sox, various types of crafts and craft ideas, reading,Classic rock and roll m... View profile

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Start A Home Based Business On A Shoe String Budget

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How to Start Up a Home Business on a Shoe String Budget

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