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Creating personal wealth or financial independence is a numbers game.

If you can create enough sources of cash flow, outside your normal day job, you can realistically replace the need for a full time job. Imagine, making the same money you make working 40 plus hours a week, dealing with traffic jams daily, putting up with slobs, and stressing over job security, without the headaches and hassles. Is it possible?

Yes.

One of my favorite pastimes is to crunch business opportunity and income producing numbers. If I wanted to replace a job that provided me with a $40,000 gross (before taxes) annual income, I would need to make $3,333 dollars per month, $769 per week, or $109 per day.

Hey, this is fun. I only need enough alternative forms of income to generate $109 per day, and I could spend my future enjoying life, expanding my business ventures, and investing wisely for a secure future for my family.

Think in terms of a round number, say $100. What could you do to create $100 of cash flow into your hip national bank 365 days per year? $100 may sound like a lot to make

each and every day, using your own wits and not depending on a government handout or an employer's paycheck, but it is a realistic number, starting from where you are at today.

The secret to financial success:
Taking deliberate action everyday
to move you towards your goals.

I will not ask you to spend 40 plus hours a week hustling around town bothering people, or engaging in illegal or unethical activities. You can do this honestly and be proud to share your moneymaking ideas with your mother. Consider this example. If you sold a product online for $10, you would only need to sell 10 units to make $100. If your item sold for $25, you would only need to sell 4 units. Or, if you sold a product for $769 profit, you would only have to sell one unit per week. Using the vast array of mediums to market and sell products today, as I will discuss in this report, you could feasibly replace your job income with a fraction of the time and effort you expend serving the goals and dreams of your employer.

As in any business venture, there are risks, setbacks, and disappointments. However, if you will use due diligence in all of your decisions, seek expert advice whenever possible, and persist while others dropout or quit, you can do this. You need to start by reading more about this concept. I recommend you read these books immediately:

The Automatic Millionaire, by David Bach
Rich Dad, Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki
Multiple Streams of Income, by Robert G. Allen
The 17 Principles of Creating Wealth, by Phillip Collinsworth

It has been said that we are what we eat. This may be true, but I believe we are also what we dream. What are your dreams? Your goals? Your ambitions? Finding success in any business endeavor begins with a dream, which must then be developed into concrete goals. Once you have established specific goals, break these goals into tasks, and then into steps. For example, if you have a dream to create an income outside your primary job, this dream could become a goal to make $20,000 profit per year selling products on Ebay. This goal could then be broken into tasks of identifying a hot product line, finding sources for your merchandise, and learning how to become a Powerseller on Ebay. At this point you must transform the tasks into steps. One step may be to visit local auctions and thrift shops for merchandise, another step may be to open Ebay and Paypal accounts, followed by actually listing items for sale, shipping the products and providing customer service. Each step in this process must be deliberately accomplished to achieve success, but it all starts with a dream. Therefore, we are what we dream.

As a home-based entrepreneur you need to take a look at a variety of opportunities. Keep your expenditures and fees low, if not zero, and then choose 1-3 ideas that you feel would inspire you to take action. Fortunes have been made on one idea, cleverly marketed, produced, and delivered to the customer.

A casual look at the most popular Internet search engine can reveal just how popular and widespread the desire to create wealth and generate multiple streams of income has become. Take a look at the keywords and number of websites you could visit, just from Google.com.

Income Opportunity: 21 million hits
Creating Wealth: 6.9 million hits
Business Ventures: 111 million hits
Marketing: 523 million hits
Small Business: 390 million hits

You could spend the rest of your life searching these sites for ideas and barely scratch the surface of opportunities available today.

If you're like me, you're thinking, "This is too much. Where do I start?"

The first thing I want you to understand is that there are a multitude of people and organizations out there who are desperate to claim a piece of your money. I want you to make money, not spend or lose money. You need to make investment decisions and purchases with resale and potential profit as your primary motive. You can't do that if you are being scammed out of your money, or wasting time on bogus schemes. Stick with solid, legitimate opportunities. Also, when evaluating an investment or business opportunity, analyze its potential to create the cash flow you expect, consider its potential to erode your capital base (that is, to lose value, as in stocks), and assess its staying power in the market.

Waiting for the perfect time to get started in a business is about as useful as waiting until all the lights are green before driving to town.

One website has become my anchor in this sea of opportunity-www.scam.com. Visit this site and read the forums. You will be amazed by what you learn, and probably save yourself a lot of heartache, false hope, and lost bucks. Also, I want you to be careful of email phishing scams. As you endeavor to create multiple streams of income, you will encounter a plethora of offers from strange sources, cleverly disguised to take your money. Never trust an unsolicited email, and never give your bank or personal data to a questionable website.

If you are interested in pursuing real estate as an investment or income vehicle, I recommend you visit www.johntreed.com. I am not affiliated with this site and cannot verify the veracity of his information. However, he makes a compelling argument about the legitimacy of numerous real estate gurus.

On a more cheerful note, America is a land of incredible opportunity-opportunity that can be yours if you will step up to the plate and claim your share. Recent wealth distribution statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau reflect a sad picture, however. Nearly 8 million households in America have a combined income of around $10,000 per year. Hardly enough to live on, much less prosper. Also, the top 10% of asset holders in our population own over 70% of the assets in America, with the bottom 40% holding less than half of one percent of all assets in America. What causes this huge disparity in income and wealth? In my opinion, a lot of this may be attributable to a lack of financial literacy among the bulk of our population. People just won't take the time and effort to learn about money and business, and as a result, must depend on government programs to survive, or spend their retirement years in frustrated poverty.

Rising above a poverty level existence is not easy. In the short-term you can use part-time jobs, yard sales, and sites like Ebay to help you get some immediate cash flow. For the long-term, you need to start thinking about ways to achieve your financial dreams. If you are in a financial rut, you must first stop digging the hole any deeper. Take a close look at your lifestyle. What have you been doing over the past five years or so to get into this position? Typically, when we have decent jobs we tend to spend up to and beyond or income levels. Obtaining financial security often requires delaying gratification until we are on more solid financial footing. Before you start to buy toys, fancy cars, vacations, and other doodads, you should have a minimum of 6 months' living expenses locked away in a certificate of deposit or savings bonds. Ideally, this money should never be touched. It is a cash reserve for life changing emergencies. A sudden urge to visit Montana is not a life-changing emergency. The subject of making a living and achieving a modicum level of financial security is both fascinating and nerve racking, so I suggest you read some good books on the subject. Start with books by Suze Orman, George Clason, Og Mandino, Thomas Stanley, and Robert Kiyosaki.

According to statistics published by the Small Business Administration and the U.S. Census, home-based businesses generate over $400 billion in sales per year, and provide self-employment for millions of Americans. In the past, home based businesses were scorned as envelope stuffers and seamstresses, but with the rise of the Internet home-based businesses have become big business, providing entrepreneurs an average income of $63,000 per year, with start up costs frequently below $5,000. As you can see, home-based businesses are viable, important to our national economy, and potentially profitable.

The Success Factory International recently claimed America is in an age of workplace transformation, with jobs moving out of the office and factory and into the home. You can become a part of this workplace transformation and join millions of others making a living from home. In my opinion, a person with energy, a drive to succeed, and the ability to think outside the box (read "Teach Yourself How To Think, by Edward De Bono), can succeed in a home-based business.

Business innovation and startups are often the victims or the beneficiaries of market trends and your ability to access specific market niches. So where and how can you find a niche market to serve?

Scroll down and keep reading for some crazy busine

15 Opportunities You Can Explore Today

Each of the opportunities presented in this report represents legitimate opportunities, in my opinion. However, you must make the effort to investigate each opportunity and conduct due diligence before engaging in them. The information in this report is for illustrative purposes only, and is designed to open your eyes to the opportunities around you-and is not intended to give specific investment advice or investment vehicle recommendations.

Money Maker #1

You: A Money Lender

Several of the opportunities discussed in this report require a certain amount of cash to start. This is one of them. However, this opportunity appears to have all the elements of legitimacy and staying power I look for to produce long-term income production and capital preservation.

www.prosper.com is a people to people loan site, where you can loan your money to individuals for interest rates above those available to you at your local bank. Lenders typically loan a maximum of $50-100 to any one individual, thus spreading their risk of default over dozens of borrowers. Borrowers usually receive a loan which is made up of funds from 20 or more different lenders. Prosper administers the loan, and forwards your portion of the proceeds of each loan to your account, where you can either re-invest it with Prosper, or withdraw it.

People with good credit ratings can also use Prosper to secure low interest loans, and then use the cash from the loan to re-invest in Prosper by loaning the money out at higher interest rates-exactly what banks do.

If you can do a few things right in your life,
over and over,
you will enjoy astounding
success.

Reality Check:

Loaning money to other people carries a risk of default, and Prosper makes no guarantee of repayment. Based on historical data available at Prosper, default rates vary, depending on each borrower's creditworthiness. Bid on loans that meet your risk criteria.

A second major concern with Prosper is the length of time your money will be locked up. Prosper makes loans with an established 36 month payback period. That means your $50-100 you have loaned out to a particular individual will be essentially out of your control for 3 years. Of course, the loan is hopefully being paid down throughout that time period, but this is not like a bank CD, where if you change your mind and want to buy a new sports car you can cancel the CD, pay the interest penalty and move on with your cash. At Prosper, there are no refunds, only loan payments.

Third, and perhaps one of the most frustrating aspects of Prosper, is getting your money placed with good borrowers. At Prosper you make bids on interest rates, just like you bid for prices on Ebay. Unfortunately, it may take 5-10 bids to place 1 loan. That's not such a big deal when you consider there are hundreds of loan requests at any time on Prosper; however, there may be only a handful of loans that meet your risk and investment criteria. That said, I still feel this is a good opportunity, worthy of your investigation.

Money Maker #2

You: A Used Car Dealer

Used car salesmen are those poor guys everybody loves to hate. But, have you ever thought about becoming one? I'm not talking about renting a car lot on some busy four-lane highway and spending the rest of your waking life blowing up balloons and writing soap signs on car windows.

What I am talking about is finding good deals on used cars in your community and reselling them for a profit, using classified ads, preferably free, and in some cases working with car salesman on a consignment basis. In some community Goodwill and the Salvation Army host car auctions on a weekly basis. There are also wholesale car auctions that you may have access to. Don't assume these auctions are open only to licensed dealers. Many are open to the public.

How big is this market? According to U.S. Census data for 2000, over 40,000 used cars were sold in America, with an average sticker price of $8,353. Used car sales is a big deal, and with a little leg work, you can carve out a piece of this market for yourself.

The key to success in this area is information. That is, you must know the value of vehicles and take advantage of the seller's need to sell his or her car quickly. I recently researched the market for a 1991 Ford F-150 pickup truck. The trade-in value ranged from $444 to $697, private party transactions ranged from $858 to $1,345, and buying it retail from a dealer ranged from $1.548 to $2,426. These price differences illustrate the room for a few hundred bucks worth of profit on a good deal. Several factors influencing car prices include reliability, maintenance costs, and customer satisfaction. You can get this kind of information from Edmunds.com and NADA.com.

Working hard to achieve a specific goal is
one of the greatest pleasures in life.

Reality Check:

Buying and selling used cars is not for everyone. But for those of us who have some mechanical skills, or can learn the resale value of automobiles, this is a viable way to make some money. Before you venture into this line of business:

· Become an expert on car values.
· Understand your state laws regarding vehicle sales, liability, and license requirements.
· Become familiar with state inspection and smog control requirements.
· Start slow and try to move your product quickly. Don't allow parked wrecks to clutter your street and discourage you.
· Sell a vehicle for a profit before getting involved with another.
· Learn from your mistakes and press on.

Money Maker #3

You: A Paid Survey Guru

Companies spend billions of dollars every year conducting market research to determine the marketability of new products, and how to improve customer service. When you sign up to complete surveys for pay, you will receive regular emails from various comapnaies asking you to participate in the survey. Payment rates and the time required to complete a survey varies.

One of the best sights I have found for this business venture is Survey Scout. Survey scout works something like a multi-level marketing plan, in that they will pay you for referrals to their website. Another site you may wan tto visit is www.cashcrate.com. Taking surveys can become very time consuming, so the idea of getting paid for other people's work fits in nicely with my long-term goals fo having automatic income producers. Here are just a few of the companies I have noticed offering paid surveys:

Do a Google search on any of the above keywords to get more information on these survey opportunities.

Doing paid surveys should be looked at like a business. First off, you need to give it time to work. Making money in this area is definitely a numbers game, so the more sites you sign up with, the more income potential you will have. You may also want to create and use a specific email address to do nothing but surveys. One word of warning: Before doing a survey, make sure you meet the company's criteria-that is, are you located in a part of the country they are surveying, or, are you in the right income or age bracket for their product. On a final note, make sure the payment will be made in cash-unless you are happy with coupons and product offers.

True success in any line of work or business venture demands that you learn everything you can about that business.

Reality Check:

Completing online surveys can become very time consuming, and remember, to make serious money in this venture, you will need to complete a lot of surveys. With that in mind, SurveySavvy's idea of network marketing the survey plan seems to make sense to me. Use due diligence and check it out. Also, you will be entering a lot of personal data into survey forms, so be very careful not to divulge information to potential identity thieves. I recommend you complete surveys for recognizable household name companies.

Money Maker #4

You: An Ebay Powerseller

It may not surprise you that I mention Ebay in this report, but are you using the power of this market to generate income for yourself? Accessing products to resell from auctions, flea markets, yard sales, and thrift stores is just to appealing to ignore.

Consider this example. At least once a week I can find silver tea sets, platters, salt-shakers, etc at my local Goodwill store. These pieces are generally tarnished an unrecognizable as silver to the stockers and pricers at Goodwill. A tarnished silver platter at Goodwill may sell for $1.25, but once I clean it up, photograph it, and list it on Ebay, it can sell for $25 and up. This is just an example, but hundreds of Ebay sellers are doing this same thing every day-and so can you.

This business venture is best suited for people who enjoy shopping in thrift stores and yard sales, looking for bargains. I'm not talking about accumulating useless knick-knacks to crowd your closets, I mean items that have resell value. Select items in perfect condition, use a digital camera to photograph and upload the image onto Ebay, and ship fast. You can succeed in this business. Also, Ebay has a wonderful feature under Seller Helps/Tools/Tutorials. Under the Seller Helps you can learn how maximize your profit potential, and best use the features of Ebay. One of the best tools in this area is the Ebay "Hot Categories." Using this information, you can focus your shopping and bargain scouting efforts in areas that will have virtually guaranteed results.

Planning to succeed is easy; the hard part is taking the action
necessary to execute the plan.

Reality Check:

Ebay fees can eat you alive. Never forget that every listing you create will cost you money. Scroll down to keep reading.

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Money Maker #5

You: A House Flipping Maniac

House Flipping has become an apparent craze lately, with several television shows dedicated to the investment game. However, house flipping is nothing new. People have been buying and selling "fixer-uppers" since the beginning of time. Why? Because there is big money to be made in this business venture.

The business of house flipping is deceptively simple, but approaching it with this attitude will ruin you financially. A successful house flipper needs to be a master of local real estate values (remember, property values are always local, so national averages mean little), home designers, amateur architects, and marketers. There is a lot to learn here, and of all the businesses discussed in this report, this one may be the most demanding as far as self-education and due diligence are concerned.

If the business of repairing homes and reselling them appeals to you, you should start immediately to become familiar with your local market. I am not suggesting you rush out and put a deposit on a home; rather, I am encouraging you to start laying the groundwork by mastering the real estate market. Start spending some time on the weekends visiting homes for sale, researching home listings, and talking to different brokers about the housing market. Also, as an inexpensive education tool, I would suggest you visit your local library and check out some books on real estate investing. Library books are typically dated, but the information in these books can help you become aware of the real estate business and various strategies used by investors in the past.

The U.S. Census has a wealth of information relevant to property values, including a geographical series that may focus on your area. Do a search for economic data at www.census.gov.

If tomorrow's "to do" list seems to be getting out of hand,
you may be a procrastinator.

Reality Check:

In a recent national survey, the market for new home sales dropped by over 16% on average, with the western regions seeing a 30% drop. This trend may reflect two things. One, people still need a place to live, so the avoidance of new homes may indicate a rise in the demand for used homes. Second, home sales in general, including used homes, may decline, making it more difficult to get out of a fixer-upper profitably. These are the kind of local market issues you need to be aware of before moving forward in this business.

An additional concern in this area is the need for cash and credit. You will need to be able to finance the purchase of a home, pay for repairs, and service the mortgage up to the date of sell. I would recommend as a start that you read books by Robert Allen and Mark Haroldson before diving in to house flipping.

When you purchase a home in need of refurbishing, you never really know what you have until you get into the home and start replacing walls, electrical wiring, and plumbing. Be on the look out for potential mold, lead paint, and asbestos. Any of these can create an environmental risk that will increase your repair costs. Also, some of the rundown properties you will be attracted to may have been former meth labs-creating a contamination issue beyond your control. Do your homework, and proceed with caution. Use a certified property appraiser and possibly a licensed building inspector to inspect the structure, determine market value, and assess environmental risks. All of these things will cost money, which makes knowledge of your local real estate market essential for success in this business. Flipping houses can be a profitable venture if you pay attention to what you are doing.

Money Maker #6

You: A Landlord

The basic idea behind becoming a landlord is to control an income producing property (real estate) that is expected to appreciate in value, allow certain tax breaks to the investor, and provide a positive cash flow to you. Positive cash flow is the most important aspect of creating wealth in real estate, as it reflects the ability to service the mortgage, meet maintenance costs, and provide for further investments and expansion.

As a potential property owner you must decide up front not to get involved with a property that does not provide positive cash flow. Things that impact cash flow include rental rates, vacancies, maintenance expenses, insurance costs, and competition in the rental market. The beauty of real estate is your ability to control a property at say, $100,000 value, with a down payment of perhaps $10,000. If the property appreciates at 10% in one year, your new value is $110,000, a 100% return on your initial investment. There are other benefits of ownership, including tax write-offs, depreciation, and cash in your pocket each month. The headaches of ownership can also be reduced by hiring property managers, if the cash flow permits.

www.zillow.com offers a great resource for local property values, but numbers should be measured against the actual sales data available in your market. For example, Zillow reflects home values for a small town in California two to three times higher than the actual values, due to a change in the local market and how county tax records that reflect home values lag the actual market.

www.realtytrac.com also offers information on an exciting aspect of real estate investments known as foreclosures. Using the information from Realtytrac, you can find out about homes for sale due to foreclosure, which may offer bargain prices on potential rental properties.

Success is just a matter of doing small things right-over and over.

Reality Check:

According to U.S. Census data, over 70% of the homes in America carry a mortgage, with the bulk of home mortgage payments ranging from $749 to $1,500 per month. The majority of gross rents however, range from $300 to $749 per month, or anywhere from 15 to 35 percent of the renter's income. These numbers serve to illustrate the variation in potential mortgage costs versus the probable rents you will be able to collect. Most income producing real estate investors also estimate building maintenance expenses will average between 10 to 20 percent of your monthly rental income. Therefore, if you collect $1,000 per month in rental income, only $600 may be available to service the mortgage. These estimates are probably a bit extreme, but they show how the costs of doing business in this area may be prohibitive on properties with high mortgages.

Real estate owners should also carry liability insurance, and ensure their properties are eligible for leasing (some building associations and condo rules may prohibit renters). The short answer for this exciting business opportunity is learn everything you can about real estate, tax ramifications, and local zoning laws before you jump in. Keep your eyes open and don't forget to read the fine print.

Money Maker #7

You: A Storage Unit Auction Capitalist

Have you ever wondered what happens to all the "stuff" abandoned in storage rental units? Storage companies are in the business of renting space to people like you and I, but occasionally people move, lose interest, or are unable to make the monthly rental payments. Following strict legal guidelines, the storage space owner eventually resorts to selling the contents of abandoned units at auction, often at incredible discounts relative tot the content's value.

Several years ago I came across a storage unit auction by accident. Curious, I registered and joined the small group of people following the auctioneer from unit to unit. At one unit the owner cut the lock off the door and revealed a space crammed with restaurant equipment from a closed pizzeria. I purchased a box full of restaurant quality dishes (which my family used for years) for about two dollars. When all the small items were gone, the storage unit owner was left with a large pizza oven, obviously worth several thousand dollars. The auctioneer could not get a single bid on this item due to its size and eventually offered to pay anyone in the crowd to haul it away. I didn't have the resources to move or store a huge pizza oven, so I walked away from it.

These kind of auctions happen everyday across America. If you are alert to auction announcements and have a plan for reselling the goods you buy, this could be a potential moneymaker.

According to recent statistics there are an estimated 100,000 storage units being auctioned off every month across America. This represents a huge bonanza of below wholesale goods that you could sell at yard sales, flea markets, and of course, Ebay. To find out about auctions, simply grab your Yellow Pages and start calling the units in your area.
I have found my level of success is in direct correlation to my level of preparation for success.
Reality Check:

I can really think of only two negatives associated with storage unit auctions. First, some auctions require you to purchase the contents of a unit sight unseen. That is, the storage unit owner starts bidding at a price close to the back rent due on the unit, and hopes to create a bidding frenzy, based on the unknown and anticipation of a possible treasure chest of goods behind the door. Keep in mind that people have abandoned these goods, so their value may be in question right there. My second concern is your ability to resell the goods you purchase. Remember, you are doing this to create income, not stuff your garage with unwanted knick-knacks. Bid carefully, and enjoy yourself-business should not always be sheer drudgery.

Money Maker #8

You: A Master of the Free Classified Ad

One of the best ways I know of to advertise for free is to use www.craigslist.org. This website is one of the hottest sites on the Internet, and features classified ads from around the country. The site is broken into regions and cities, allowing you to buy or sell with local dealers.

You may also market products for sale in other cities, but of course you need to keep shipping costs in mind when you do this.

Craigslist takes pride in its "alternative to Ebay" setup and is not nearly as elaborate as Ebay. Its advantage however, is that it is free, and specializes in bringing free classified advertising to local markets.

Make your goals big enough to change your life as you work to achieve them.

Reality Check:

Craigslist offers a viable way to buy, sell, or trade goods. Its one limitation is that they do not like to see multiple ads for the same product. This makes it difficult to sell products en masse, but protects the site from spammers. Also, if you prefer to keep your business operations anonymous, selling to local buyers may entail meeting with them at your home. Like any marketing effort, you will need to identify hot sellers that you can buy and resell for a profit.

Money Maker #9

You: An Internet Marketing Genius

Approximately 75% of the American population uses the Internet approximately 10 hours per week, with many of these surfers spending about $50 per month. With a population of over 300 million people, that means 225 million potential shoppers. While every Internet surfer does not routinely make purchases on the Internet, the market easily exceeds several hundred million dollars per month. The trick of course is to figure out how to get a tiny fraction of this market directed your way.

GoDaddy, Cheaps.net, and Discount Hosting are three sites specializing in offering web hosting for less than 10 bucks. Go to Google and do a search on these names, or simply type the words "web hosting" into the search box.

Creating an interesting and profitable website is a true artform. Fortunately there are literally millions of examples of websites available at your fingertips. All you need to do is conduct some research and see for yourself what works and doesn't work. Based on my research and experience, several key factors appear over and over again as critical success factors in the web hosting business.

1. Know and communicate the purpose of your website.
2. Ask your site visitor to do something, such as register for a newsletter or make a purchase, and make sure the prompt to act is clearly visible and not lost in a sea of graphics.
3. Know the demographics of your target market so you can slant search engine optimizers, keywords, ads, etc to the right niche market.
4. Ask your visitor to leave his or her email, and follow up with quality content and links back to your website.
5. Have your site professionally designed and provide real content on your homepage, both of which will serve to attract repeat visits.
6. Be security conscious, especially when asking for payments.

I mentioned several discount web hosting sites earlier; however, you should be aware of the limitations inherent to these discount offers. First, potential customers may be turned off by your "cheap" host, discount sites have higher levels of downtime than premium hosts sites, and discount sites may have lower bandwidth, which causes upload delays for your visitors.

A professionally prepared and maintained website, offering a marketable product, may be your ticket to incredible wealth.

It is hard to find fault in a man who aspires for greatness and takes bold action to achieve it.

Reality Check:

Operating a website offers significant technological challenges to some of us, which may pose insurmountable barriers to entry. Creating and publishing a website is no guarantee that customers will visit your site, or find your product attractive or valuable. This line of work will require educating yourself about HTML and web servers. Some sites, like squidoo.com have wizards to simplify the web building process and are flexible enough to give you some individuality.

In my experience, many webpage entrepreneurs throw a site onto the Internet and think that is all they have to do to achieve success. Creating the page is just the start. Your biggest challenge in this area will be directing traffic to your site. Be very careful with any pay per click advertising, as you may find yourself paying a lot of money for visitors that are not converted into sales.

Also, remember, your site is your sales force-make it as effective as you can. I recently read "A Millionaire's Notebook" by Steven Scott, and learned how specialized marketing can be. You may want to read this book and learn for yourself how to present a product and collect increased sales receipts.

Money Maker #10

You: A Wedding and Funeral Coordinator

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has identified a growth sector in the labor market that may spell opportunity for you. According to the BLS, families are looking to professionals more and more to assist with the organizing and tasteful planning of both weddings and funerals.

While these functions are obviously quite different, they are similar in nature when you consider the need to make announcements, process invitations, rent meeting hall spaces for receptions, plan and organize catering, contract with florists and photographers, etc. Sometimes these events are too overwhelming for family members to manage alone.

The market potential in this area is incredible, as families frequently spend up to $30,000 for a wedding, and $7,000 for a funeral. Additionally, according to BLS figures, over 136,000 are employed in the deathcare industry, and over 10,000 people consider themselves independent wedding planners.

Clearly, there is room for growth in this area. As an income opportunity I am not asking you to become an employee of a funeral home; rather, by becoming an expert in your local market for items such as hall rental, florists, and printing services, you may be able to position yourself to become a consultant in this area.

From a marketing stand point, I would approach local florists, bridal shops, and churches and let them know you are an Event Manager. Presenting yourself in a professional manner is critical here.

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.

Reality Check:

While weddings are happy events, both weddings and funerals are extremely stressful events. As a consultant, you will be rubbing shoulders with the families involved in these important functions. Therefore, you ability to keep cool and manage yourself in a professional manner will be critical to your success.

A successful wedding or funeral is one where all the participants perceive the event to have occurred with dignity, respect, and class. Marketing your deathcare services may be difficult because funeral homes have a tight grip on this market. Several word of mouth type marketing plans may include talking with florists, church leaders, and perhaps even advertising in your local paper.

Check your county and city governments for licensing requirements.

Money Maker #11

You: A Stock Market Genius

Okay, the stock market may not represent your idea of easy money, and it is certainly not for the faint hearted. The stock market is cyclical in nature, which means the value of stocks goes up and down with the economy and the nation's perception of corporate value. However, over time, the stock market has proven to be a reliable source of dividend income and stock appreciation.

Consider this example. If you owned $10,000 worth of a stock that issued an annual 4% dividend, you could make up to $400 per year from this investment. Four hundred dollars doesn't sound like much, but keep in mind that many of the old wealth families in America have done this very thing for generations. They call it "clipping coupons," and I don't mean grocery store coupons. In a nutshell, their ancestors put enough money into quality companies to enable their future generations to enjoy life without ever having to fax a resume or interview for a job.

Several thousand dollars a year locked away in dividend producing stocks can grow to become an estate that will support you and your grandchildren.
The key here is to contribute what you can to the stock market and leave it alone. There is an old story about a visitor to a New England town who noted a particular young man was being shunned by his neighbors. People actually crossed the street to avoid him. Curious, the visitor asked a resident what was going on. The resident responded, "He dipped into his capital." In other words, he spent the wealth his family had saved and accrued over generations, thus destroying his wealth foundation.

While I cannot make specific stock recommendations, I have learned to look for companies with earnings and a history of paying dividends-preferably in the 4% plus range. Go to Marketwatch.com and conduct a search for quality companies that pay dividends and have a history of steady growth. You may also follow the picks made by the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett.

Each year Buffett publishes his annual report that lists his specific investments. Buffett is famous for his incredible success in picking winners, based on careful analysis of the market and individual corporate attributes. Gurufocus.com is one website that lists his current holdings.

Getting involved with the stock market is about as easy as signing on to an online casino game. Check out online brokers like Etrade and Ameritrade for investment opportunities. The beauty of the market is the liquidity of stock. You can buy or sell virtually any listed

Money Maker #12

You: A Network Marketer

Network Marketing, also known as multi-level marketing (MLM), is not for everyone, but it does offer incredible opportunity for financial success, income generation, and business education. The numbers are almost impossible to accurately gauge, but some people estimate over 13 million Americans are involved in MLM, with about 80% of these being female.

Mary Kay, Avon, and other cosmetic and skin care companies may explain the bulk of this. Many of the easiest and most appealing opportunities available offer exclusive Intenet marketing plans, but statistics indicate only about 10% of all MLM sales, estimated at over $30 billion per year, are created over the Internet.

To put things into perspective, how much would you need to sell each month to achieve a $50 per week income? At a 10% commission rate, you will need to make about $2,000 worth of product or service sales per month. In my experience, you cannot expect repeat customers to spend more than $25 per month on your product, so you will need a stable of about 80 regular customers to make your income goals.

Prior to getting involved with an MLM opportunity, discuss commission and sales numbers with your sponsor. After your interview, spend some time alone or with your spouse to determine your potential to find and service a sufficient number of customers to make the opportunity worthwhile.

While I am not currently active in network marketing, I believe this is one of the best opportunities available for people short on the cash necessary to profit from some of the other opportunities discussed in this report. From my experience, the most successful people in this business are those who give it a serious effort for more than one year, develop a base of repeat customers, and are not shy about asking their satisfied customers to join their organization.

While many network marketing companies make a big deal about saying "no sales required," sales remain the foundation for any income in a commission based industry. Never forget, to make money in this business, somebody needs to make a sale-recruiting for the sake of recruiting is fine, but commission checks in hand is what keeps people interested in the opportunity. Network marketing companies that tout recruiting above sales may be misleading you and wasting your time, so be careful.

True success comes from finding an ethical way to make money doing what you love.

Reality Check:

Spend some time doing research before jumping into network marketing. Most of us become involved with this business through a friend or relative, which means you are jumping into something based on their involvement, not because you like the product or are familiar with its commission structure. Turn this around and do research on the Internet before joining.

Find a company that you wan to join. And remember, if you are not proud of the product or service your company sells, you will not find the motivation to share the opportunity with others. Also, the company you select should have a solid reputation, with prospects for growth and stability. Imagine the disiaster if you spend several years building an organization and healthy residual income, only to have the parent company fold under your feet.

My major concern for this line of business is the tendency for beginners to stock up on merchandise in an effort to achieve sales goals and distributor threshold levels. Be careful not to acquire a lifetime supply of soap or bug spray just for the sake of faking the numbers. Build your business on legitimate sales to repeat customers.

Money Maker #13

You: A Shopping Cart Golden Retriever

The Food Marketing Institute estimates U.S. retailers lose well over $100 million per year due to shopping cart loss and damage. Have you ever driven past an apartment complex and noticed a dozen or more shopping carts stacked along the fence? Each of those carts represents from $200 to $400 for the retailer. This is a huge loss that makes financial sense for the retailer to pay for help to recover.

In my community some stores have offered up to $3 for every cart returned. Ideally, you would negotiate a price with the retailer and set up some sort of contract that guaranteed payment when you drive up with a truckload of their carts.

Some enterprising people have expanded on this service and offer steam cleaning and repair to returned carts.

Some retailers use shopping cart containment systems that can electronically lock the wheels of a shopping cart when it reaches the end of their parking lot; however, these are limited in use, and reliability issues make them expensive to maintain. For the foreseeable future, shopping cart loss will continue to be a thorn in the side of retailers-equating to opportunity for the industrious entrepreneur.
Stretch the limits of possibility by accepting challenges others have labeled "impossible."

Reality Check:

Hunting down and retrieving shopping carts can become both time-consuming and expensive. It will also require a pick up truck, at least, to carry the carts, and loading and unloading the carts may pose physical hazards. The key to success in this area is to get the store manager to agree to a written contract that simply guarantees payment for returned carts, and your awareness of those dark hiding places lost carts tend to congregate.

Money Maker #14

You: A Copyright Salvager

What happens to books and photographs after the copyright expires? Usually these items fall into obscurity and never see the light of day again. However, for some enterprising souls, copyright expirations provide income opportunities. Here are two recent examples.

An old classic book "The Science of Getting Rich," by Wallace Wattles recently became available to the public domain. Somebody scanned this document and loaded it into a print on demand server. Recently this revived book has been a bestseller on Amazon and promises to provide a steady income to the new publisher for years to come. You can check out other available titles entering the public domain at Gutenberg.org.

Another example involves a young man who saw opportunity in old photographs. He enlarges the artwork into poster-sized pictures, and then frames them. He then sells, and sometimes leases, these photos to offices for decorative displays.
Creating wealth requires a degree of risk, but risk can be mitigated through knowledge and awareness.

Reality Check:

Copyright law is a daunting subject, and copyright violations can carry stiff penalties. Be careful. Do your research before proceeding with this venture. Taking advantage of expired copyrighted material will generally entail finding a way to economically reproduce the product and market it. Some print on demand companies available on the Internet may be able to help you with printing and distributing books, but of course this type of service comes with an upfront fee.

Pick your product carefully, evaluate the copyright expiration, and provide quality reprints.

Money Maker #15

You: A Yard Sale Queen (or King):

Don't under estimate the power of a simple yard sale to create some bucks. On any Saturday in my hometown there are literally hundreds of yard sales, with most of them crowded with treasure hunters. Can you find a yard full of valuable goods in your own home? Can you find items at deep discount for resale in your yard sale?

With a little effort I believe the answers are "Yes."
Yard sales are deceptively simple, but have the power to earn you anywhere from $100 to $1,000 in a single weekend. If you offered a yard sale one time per month, you could just about replace a week's worth of pay from your day job. The best part about this business venture is the research. Start by studying the yard sales in your town.

Look for items that sell best, identify acceptable price levels, and ask yourself how you could do a better job. If you come across a yard sale with a huge crowd take particular note of the merchandise for sale, how it is displayed, how they advertised, and how and where they posted signs. The quickest route to personal success is to copy somebody else's success.

Here is one way to expand your yard sale into big business. Network with three friends who live in different neighborhoods. Each weekend, on a rotating basis, one of the four people in your network would host a yard sale in their yard. Bring your goods and set up a way to account for your individual sales. With a small network of four people you could operate a yard sale every weekend of the year, without testing the limits of your city ordinances-or trying the patience of your neighbors. Check for local zoning and permit requirements before hosting a yard sale.

In your quest to achieve and succeed, take some time to enjoy the present.

Reality Check:

Yard sales are normally exciting, but doing one each weekend may take the glamour out of it. If you do decide to host regular sales, make sure you keep your enthusiasm high and make the shopping event enjoyable for your customers. Also, have plenty of change available to break those pesky 20s and 100s, and be careful not to flash too much cash. Price your items in round numbers to make change giving and negotiating easier.

One of the biggest challenges you may face is finding adequate material to sale. Visit thrift shops like Goodwill and the Salvation Army for bargains, and be sure to check items thoroughly before buying. You want quality merchandise, name brands, and no chips or cracks in glassware. I avoid consignment shops and nicer "boutique" type thrift shops, as their prices are generally too high. Be sure to wash or clean all items before placing them out for sale.

For some reason clothing seems to be a hot item in my hometown. As a guy I am not the least bit interested in clothing, but this attitude can become dangerous to my success.