Working from home is a dream shared by millions. There have been thousands of books written about how to start your own home business.
There are so many con jobs and rip-offs that most of us eventually get a little skeptical. There are endless promises, guarantees, assurances, and can not lose opportunities it makes your head spin. If you believe there is an ideal opportunity where you never have to sell, work, serve, or do anything but rake in the cash; wake up. If there were such an opportunity, I know I would have found it. And I have not.
Dont get me wrong, I still believe in my own home based business. I still believe people can make a living without a job. I assure you, I am not some rich guy either. You see, I still believe in work too. I just like to work from my house instead of driving to some factory job or office.
Working from home is exactly what my wife did for many years. Especially, when our five children were small, she would earn an extra hundred dollars a week or so sewing. We found that when she was teaching 7th grade, it just put too much pressure on the family for Mom to be gone so much. Her work from home really paid off.
By the time our youngest child was entering middle school, Donna wanted to do more than just an occasional project. So she started running a small ad in the classifieds. She passed out business cards, and generally let everyone know she was available to do custom sewing. She was already an expert and well known through church circles, but the advertising did help. Soon work was coming in by the bag full. An interesting thing happened, however, we also started getting requests from sewers for sewing machine repair.
I took a repair course with Allyn International in Denver. I found a repairman in Austin who would mentor me. I collected service manuals. Essentially, I learned to repair sewing machines so I could collect the dollars people were trying to push on me. Yes, within a few months I was repairing five to six machines every week all from my garage part time. Eventually, we opened a small store, then expanded, and expanded again. Currently, our company repairs about 150 sewing machines monthly.
I am amazed by the number of people I meet, who know nothing about sewing or sewing machines. It appears some people think sewing is something they to in China. When I tell them that I make a living doing sewing machine repair and selling sewing machines, they respond as if I were from another world.
I explain that there are some 85 million sewing machines in use just in the United States. Another 5 million new machines are sold every year. And guess what. Every one of those sewing machines requires sewing machine service and repair annually. That is a lot of sewing machines to fix.
I am not going to tell you that you can make a bundle of money without doing any work; but from my own experience, I will tell your there is a big opportunity in sewing machine repair. Here are some advantages: you can learn it in a matter of weeks; you can do business from your kitchen table, shop, or garage; you need no big overhead; you need no large investment; and you need no employees.
Start out by letting all your friends, neighbors, people at church, and everywhere else that you do sewing machine repair. Run a small ad in the newspaper. Pass out business cards. Maybe do a dozen or so machines free of charge. Then charge about half what the city sewing machine shops charge for another dozen or so. Then set your prices just under your competition.
Lets suppose that you do one standard service on one sewing machine per week. The going rate for sewing machine service is now about $99.00. Say you charge only $85.00. Of course, you sell any parts needed at retail. Over the course of a year, you have just earned $4,500. Would an extra $4,500 a year be helpful? No guarantees, just potential.
But what if you get aggressive. Maybe you are not satisfied with one machine a week. Maybe you decide you want to work your business say ten to fifteen hours a week and do say 5 machines a week. The numbers stay the same, but you multiply them times the added machines you do. In short order, you could be earning a part time income of better than $20,000 a year.
If and when you choose, you can expand your business. A really good full time technician might plan to service as many as 20 machines a week without working overtime. You can set up special arrangements with clubs, guilds, sewing shops, quilt shops, vacuum shops, and other locations to have them collect machines for you to service. You simply pick up and deliver the machines. Even if you pay a token fee or offer a group discount, you are in control. For each additional sewing machine you service per week, plan an additional $4,000 per year in income.
What is your maximum potential for full time sewing machine repair? Without opening a sewing store and without hiring employees, you will find that you max out between fifteen and twenty sewing machines per week. The more demand for your services, the more you can charge. The better job you do, the more you can earn. The faster you are, the more machines you can do. At $99 per machine and averaging 20 machines per week, you might see as much as $100,000 a year. Of course, this is really a pie in the sky estimate, however, you are in control. You set your own potential.
Here is a business that is practical and doable. It does require some basic mechanical skills, common hand tools, some sewing machine repair training, and a bit of work. It does not require a large investment. It does not require hiring employees. It does not require large over head, renting facilities, or opening a store. The potential of this business depends on you reaching out to those who sew and quilt to attract customers and properly servicing their sewing machines. You can start very part time and gradually expand your business as you desire.