No investment WAHM jobs?

a) sell stuff you already have on eBAY (you do need digital camera and high speed internet)

b) print-to-order t-shirts such as cafepress.com (you make the art and get $0-5 per shirt)

c) sell friend's stuff on eBAY, take 30% (note... works best for high-value items!!)

d) www.insiderpages.com has a review program right now, get a $50 Target gift cert ofr 50 reviews... note: you need them to email you the "invitation" BEFORE you make the reviews. A one-time deal. See below

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Beyond selling things you already have, I can't think of a single business that requires absolutely no investment. I mean, even if you do in-home daycare, you're going to have to invest in CPR & First Aid courses, the state license, continuing training, and possibly improvements to your home/equipment. Online businesses require the investment in a website and all that entails (domain registration, web design & maintenance, etc.), beyond just having a product to sell or a service to offer. Transcriptionists need to have special equipment, virtual assistants must have a home office set-up and pay for advertising/website design and maintenance, diaper/sling makers have to invest in the equipment and materials and (again) the website, and on and on.

I know of some businesses that are low investment, and some that are even better, with little investment and the opportunity for BIG payoff, but that's about all I can come up with. Why does the investment turn you off? I, personally, believe that it takes money to make money, however much I don't like it.

I think the scary part about the investment is that sometimes you never recoup it...
I figured I give the 'online survey' thing a shot. Paid $35 bucks to get access to the database just to find out that it would take me 2000 hours to even make $35. Luckily they had a refund policy.

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I know sometimes it can be scary to think about not recouping your investment, which is why I think you have to be very careful about researching the business into which you intend to invest your time and money. However, I still think that you will need to invest some money into that thing that you find that is just right for you.

I run a home based business into which I invested an initial sum of $2000. Pretty paltry in the long run, as I have already recouped that investment (in about 2.5 months). And when I first thought about doing this business, I thought that even if it didn't work, I'm using the products myself, and I can sell them pretty easily on ebay, too. However, I knew this business was going to work for me, and work well. I did a lot of reasearch, as I've been involved in other home based businesses that were not right for me and I was leary of getting involved in something like that again.

BTW, when I was doing surveys, I never had to pay a thing to register with the companies. And I usually made $20 a week for a couple of hours of work. Just FYI.

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I guess I am just in the wrong demographic group. The survey's that pay are never in need of my age group and I got tired of wasting my time on the ones that promised points (the equivalent of 3 cents for 20 minutes) or sweepstakes...

I just remembered a fun part-time job I had:
Community Education. I taught German and used their facilities but I wonder if you could teach from home- just once a week? Zero investment.

The thing that turns me off about investment is well I dont have any money to invest. Where we sit right now we are short nearly 300 a month anyway, if I were to invest even $50 in something that would cause a huge problem. Plus most of the time (at least what I have seen and researched) home based businesses are selling something.....I am a horrible sells person! I would love to do something that could help people in some way.
If I KNEW that I would recoup the money without hard core selling, throwing parties, ect then I could try for a loan, but that is so iffy.
I was hoping that there would be some legit companies that someone knew of that hire for data entry, virtual receptionist, and the like.

So of the businesses that require investement, who would you reccomend?

I had one work at home job. You needed high speed internet and a phone line with no features. If you already have that or think its something that you can handle for yourself and for working it might be good for you.

The website is www.workathomeagent.com and you can register and test for nothing. Its a legitimate job. It is a job you have to log in and take calls to earn money but theres no hard selling. You ever called an infomercial to buy something and they place the order for you then try to upsell you? They read a script and if the customer says no then thats all. Thats what that website does. They have many many many different projects but right now they are just hiring for direct response which is just the normal infomercial calls. You get paid $0.17/min that your on the line with a customer.

I personally am not doing it anymore as I was trying to cut out costs and since I have an 18 month old who is always wanting my attention or be with me on the computer it was hard to juggle. There are slow times and if you only take a 10 min call in an hour then you only get paid $1.70 which really sucks but it may be better for you because you could be on there any time you have time off, have a cordless phone with a cheepo ($12) headset and still clean the house, cook dinner, do the laundry and stuff like that.

Theres also www.liveops.com (i think thats the right website) which does the same thing I think but I haven't worked for them at all. I believe they said they paid $0.20/min tho.

Good Luck!!

I started my floral design business with no money. I didn't even really mean to start it, so my ramble might inspire. My husband is a chef at a fancy restaurant, inside a historic boutique hotel. They are separate businesses. Our wedding reception was at the restaurant. My husband was standing outside with the hotel manager, (ok it was pre-baby and they were smoking). The manager was thinking about offering flower specials to his guests, he asked my husband if he knew anyone who knew anything about flowers. Husband said, yes, my wife. We showed manager the pictures, and the first orders I bought the materials at the wholesaler using his account (they got flowers already for the lobby). Then I got a tax number myself. I buy vases at Goodwill and garage sales. The total for each flower order (wholesale) is only 1/3 to 1/4 of what I bill. The wealthiest gay man in our city saw my work- and started dating the manager of the restaurant. They are broken up, but I still have his account, and he bought perhaps ten grand of flowers from me last year. So I don't have to look for other clients, and invest bucks in advertising, I want the biz small. My recorded income is just around what you need, after expenses. Look for business opportunities everywhere- one could fall in your lap- and take a free or $20 class at the nearest small business development center or the like. At first I made purses, but they were very labor intensive, and I could have repeat customers of both genders with the flowers, so it was a better business model that way.

There are actual telecommuting "jobs" you can do, but most of them revolve around answering telephone which I know is difficult with children. And the competition to get such jobs is pretty fierce. But there are those types of jobs, as well as freelance jobs for computer related stuff, freelance writing, etc.

Get creative with it! Starting your own business is easier than it first appears. I started working from home with no investment designing websites, and now I've started making a good amount of money each month doing that as well as making ad revenue off my own websites.

It's easier to help if we know what skills you already have. Good luck!

Thanks for all the ideas! My mind is constantly over flowing with ideas and if I had even and extra 200 I could really have a great business....its just getting that money to start with.
I live in the middle of no where with some big fancy resorts nearby- I would LOVE to make specialty soaps and sell to the inns around here. Even if that didnt work there are plenty of small shops that specialize in custom products. Sooooooo if/when I get the money to I do want to invest in soap making equipment.
I also want to take free class at the local college on wedding cake decorating- we have A LOT of weddings around here and it would be a good way to supplement our income.
I've always wanted to do a newsletter/magazine and this is being formutaled in my mind right now.

So its not that I lack ideas.....its the money issue. We have a hard time making bills every month so.....anyway thanks for all the ideas.