Free Business for Stay at Home Moms

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Moms Can Have Their Own Shops for Free

As a stay at home mom, I wanted to find a way to earn a little extra money and also express myself.

I discovered what are known as Print on Demand sites (aka POD). These sites allow you to upload your own artwork and create t-shirts, coffee mugs, posters, magnets, pins, tote bags and lots more.

Most of them are free to use. Cafe Press is limited on your free shops, in that they only allow you to have one of each product type in a free shop. However, you can sign up for what they call a Premium shop and they will deduct the fee from your earnings.

buy unique gifts at Zazzle

Here's how they work:

You set up your shop with your own unique user ID. You upload your artwork and put the art on whichever products you choose. You set the sale price for the items (how you set the price varies from site to site, but you can select your own sale price). Customers purchase one of your products. The POD site takes the order, processes the payment, creates and ships the product and handles any customer service issues. You get your commission (which you set when you determined the sale price of the item) after 30 days. Why 30 days? Because the sites give customers 30 days to return their items, so they're not going to pay you until they are certain the customer is keeping the product. The site normally pay just once a month. So, for example, all the commissions that clear for sales made in the month of April will be payable on May 1st.

Here's how they work:
Why this is Great for Stay at Home Moms
Creating Products
Finding Images to Use
Final Notes:
A Sample of My Free Images
Visit My Shops and See For Yourself How Easy It Is.
Some of my Items on CafePress
Stay at Home Mom's Businesses
Moms - Tell Us Your Stories!

Why this is Great for Stay at Home Moms

The beauty of this type of business for stay at home moms is that we can work whenever we want to and not work when we don't feel like it. Naturally, as with any business, the more work you put into it the more successful you are likely to be, but you can still work at your own pace and decide for yourself when and how much time to put into it.

Got a busy week? Soccer practice? Kids have the flu? In-laws visiting? Guess what? No problem! It's your business. You don't have to answer to anyone but yourself.

Plus - it's free. All it costs is your time. Which is obviously worth something, but you don't have to put out any $ unless you choose to.

Creating Products

Creating products is easier that you think. Just create your account, then upload an image
then decide which product you want to put it on. Make any changes to the image you may need, then publish the item for sale.

Yes, it can be a little more involved than that, depending on your design and the product, but basically, that's it.

Each POD site has it's own unique design tools. Personally, I find Zazzle's design tools the best. Zazzle is the only one that allows you to create items as templates for your customers to personalize. They also allow you to add text, with your choice of font and color, and background colors on most item.

Some prefer Cafe Press' design tool because you can create a bunch of items with the same image at once. Personally, I find when I do that I have to go back in one item at a time a tweak them, so it's not much of a time saver for me, but I know a lot of people really like that feature.

It's a matter of personal preference, and which one you get used to first. But, after a little while, you'll be used to each site you choose to work with.

Here are a few of the product types you can make at the various POD sites:

Below is an example of a card using Zazzle's template feature. Customers can easily add their own picture and customize the inside text themselves.

Finding Images to Use

Now, you are probably saying that you don't have any artistic ability or you don't own any programs to help you create digital images. Not to worry. There are a lot of free graphics programs out there on the internet. You can also draw and scan your work, if you are so inclined. Many self-taught folk artists do well on these sites. You can also use your camera to take pics of flowers, pets and other items of interest.

If you are just convinced you have no artistic ability of your own to contribute, you can look for images to use on the internet. NOTE: Only use images that very clearly state that you are allowed to use them for commercial purposes AND that those commercial purposes include things like t-shirts. Many sites do not allow any commercial use at all and some only allow commercial use for editorial purposes and the like and either do not allow products to be made with the images or require an additional license to do so.

But, that being said - there are sites out there that do offer images for people to use, royalty free, on sites like Zazzle, Cafe Press, Printfection and Red Bubble.

If you are ever in any doubt, contact the site owner and ask. If there is no way to contact the site owner - don't use them.

Final Notes:

Don't worry if you find that the images you are using are being used by other shops. The odds are that you will find a way to make your use unique and even if the finished products aren't very different, you and the other person both have equal chances of customers seeing and buying your product.

Finally, there are plenty of ways to promote your business. Many people run lists that you can advertise your site on. You can submit your site for free to Google. You can get business cards, or even print your own with blank cards from your local office supply store, and hand them out to friends and family. Be sure to give them extras to hand to their friends and coworkers. You can start a blog, create a page on Squidoo and lots of other free to use sites that allow promotion.

Over time, you may decide to invest some money in the business. You may purchase software, get your own domain name, purchase art supplies, even a new computer or a drawing tablet. If you do, remember to keep receipts and keep track of every penny you spend on your business. You can write it off on your taxes.

I have found that working on my shops, creating designs and getting to know other artists and shop keepers on the internet has been a wonderful experience. I express myself with my art. I get a fun, rewarding creative outlet. I have a place- even if it's on line - where I am not Aidan or Julia's Mom. I am Kerry. And, I have gotten to the point where my shops do so well that I get a payment every month. Sure, the amounts vary and some months are a lot better than others, but it's always at least the cost of my cable bill and sometimes a lot more. So I get to contribute financially to my family's expenses.

In order to give back and help those who were once like me: looking for something to do from home where they could contribute, I have a site where I offer many of my own designs for others to use for free. You can use these images on all of the POD sites mentioned in this post.

www.krwgraphics.com

Also, I will say that I think Zazzle is the most user-friendly of all the sites and easy to set up and get started. Plus it's 100% free. www.zazzle.com If you need any help or have any questions while you're on there, just do a search for KRW. You'll find some of my products and can follow the links to any one of my galleries and use the Send a Message to contact me. I'm always glad to help.

So - go ahead - give it a try. You've got everything to gain and nothing to lose!

Good luck!

Kerry

A Sample of My Free Images

Here's a sample of the images you can find on my graphics site. This is show at only 7%. That means the real file is 93 times bigger! Great for printing on t-shirts and other products

Visit My Shops and See For Yourself How Easy It Is.

KRW Graphics: My graphics site where you can find images to use on the Print on Demand sites.
KRW Designs at Zazzle: My first and main gallery. As you will see, it has a very eclectic product base.
KRW Wedding: This is my gallery just for wedding related designs
KRW Old World: This is my gallery of vintage and antique designs.
KRW Baby: This is my gallery of designs for babies and expecting moms.
KRW Holidays: This is my gallery of Christmas and Hanukkah designs.
KRW Business Cards: Here you will find designs for business and profile cards that customers can personalize themselves.
KRW Name Game: This is a gallery full of names and monograms done in different styles.
KRW Designs at Cafe Press: This is my premium shop at Cafe Press.
KRW Fancy Feet: My gallery of custom Ked's sneakers
KRW American Pride: My gallery of patriotic, military and USA pride t-shirts and gifts
KRW Halloween: My gallery offun and creepy Halloween designs

Some of my Items on CafePress

If You Think I'm Cute You Should See My Mom Bib

Stay at Home Mom's Businesses

Other Web Sites Run by Stay at Home Moms

Are you a SAHM with your own business? Please feel free to list it here.

Free Business for Stay at Home Moms

Moms Can Have Their Own Shops for Free

Here's how they work:

Table of Contents

Why this is Great for Stay at Home Moms

Creating Products

Finding Images to Use

Final Notes:

A Sample of My Free Images

Visit My Shops and See For Yourself How Easy It Is.

Some of my Items on CafePress

Stay at Home Mom's Businesses

Other Web Sites Run by Stay at Home Moms

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Moms - Tell Us Your Stories!

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