Hot Extra Income Ideas for Working Moms (Part 3)

DIRECT SELLING CHILDREN’S BOOKS

What is it:  Selling books and other educational reference materials through direct-selling or through one-step distributorship where you pay commission for every book sold.  The products are not available in your usual bookstore. For a little additional cost, too, you get quality materials and colorful and attractive designs that appeal to children of wider age brackets. It’s convenient for the customer, allows flexible hours, and if you’re the aggressive type, does not require any formal setting when and where you can peddle your goods. Bumping into fellow moms in a  fast food joint or at your kid’s preschool are only some of the opportunities where you can bring out and offer your samples.

What you may be up against:  People who as for terms and then don’t pay. Or disappear.

What to consider:  Will you allow payment terms? How will you collect?

How you can be different from the others: 

• Know your products thoroughly. Know what books you can offer your clients. Some may only know the age of the child and are just looking for gifts for their godchildren. Follow this with a suggested succession or program of related titles that the client may subsequently purchase.
• Improve your selling strategies. Since you have only a fixed inventory, your sales pitch will help you a lot.
• Start by scouting around your neighborhood for preschools or daycare centers where you can explore profitable partnerships. Preschools and daycare centers have more flexibility in terms of customizing their curriculum compared to higher,  more formal education levels.
• Offer to customize the students’ workbooks, exercise or practice sets according to their requirements, in collaboration with the preschool or daycare owners. (If you’ve got the time and money, you may also have the option to produce or print these materials yourself, making for diversified business opportunity for you).
• Start joining bazaars but make sure you have sufficient stocks available. Be prepared either to sell or offer distributorship. Be ready with your flyers for both customers and potential distributors. The latter just may be your key to penetrating the malls and other similar commercial establishments.
• Branch out to offering second hand titles but only after you’ve secured possible sources. Having relatives and friends abroad who can get you the stocks you need will be very useful. Second had bookstores and flea markets are just some of the possible sources.

SOAP-MAKING

What is it:  The art of the bath, the pursuit of beauty, and lots of vats lying around the house.

What you may be up against:  A cramped house, or your pets or children eating the newly minted bars of soap.

What to consider:  If you’re already into soap-making, it’s assumed that you already use natural ingredients. Explore blends! Mix and match scents, like rose,  lemon and lemongrass. Also, you have to stock up on basic raw soap materials, like glycerin.

How you can be different from the others: 

• Get into malls, schools, and offices. Explore the possibility of putting up a kiosk. 
• When demand increases and you aren’t just doing it as a hobby, hire a chemist and pharmacist to help you formulate and test your products.
• Get into producing other bath and grooming essentials such as shampoos. lotions, hand gels or foot lotions and scrubs.
• Instead of usual molds, get theme molds — you can have a candy line if the scents of your soaps are chocolate and vanilla; a bee line if they’re made of beeswax; flowers or fruits depending on their main ingredients.

More on: 

Hot Extra Income Ideas for Working Moms (Part 1)

Hot Extra Income Ideas for Working Moms (Part 2)

I also have links to my other articles through my blogs: Sharing my Thoughts and Lifestyle Magazine for Moms

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