I wouldn’t consider myself to be especially risk-averse when it comes to starting a business (which might be a reason that I am currently running 4 different businesses, and loving it!). But as someone who also highly values getting to be home with my children, I can certainly understand the hesitation that so many moms have about starting their own businesses from home. It’s one I had before I decided to just take the leap and turn my first business (this blog) into an actual business instead of a hobby, because simply put, I couldn’t guarantee that it would be a success, and I wasn’t sure if the time it would take would defeat the purpose of me being home. Furthermore, when considering pursuing a work-from-home opportunity, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all of the options and it is tricky to determine which ones you might actually make money pursuing rather than just spending a lot of money and having precious little to show for it.
I have different reasons for being excited about each of the businesses that I run, but I can tell you that I have given careful thought to each and every one of them and done some risk analysis on them (and yes, some of them are riskier than others). Today I want to highlight one of the businesses I chose to pursue because I think it offers one of the very lowest risks I have ever seen for starting a business and it also offers some of the greatest rewards simply for giving the business a try for a few months. Simply put, if you are a mother with a child aged 12 or under (or if you have children in your life you buy gifts for), giving Barefoot Books a try is a no-brainer.
So What is Barefoot Books?
Barefoot Books is a children’s book company that values raising the next generation to be global citizens. As such, books published by this company emphasize understanding and exploring other cultures, highlight children of all backgrounds, and strive to open hearts and minds through the power of stories. Furthermore, the books are always beautifully illustrated. The quality is exceptional and the price points are quite reasonable, too.
I love that Barefoot Books made the decision to step away from working through book distributors and instead developed a sharing model that could create meaningful work for people who shared a passion for these literary treasures. I myself have been purchasing Barefoot Books for several years, and after hosting a very successful Barefoot Books party recently and then carefully reviewing the costs to start and maintain a business with the company, I decided to go for it.
What’s the Risk?
I think one of the big questions you should be asking as you look at different work-from-home opportunities is what the risk is for you to get started. In other works, how much money are you going to need to spend to start your work, and beyond that, what are you expected to spend down the line? This is where Barefoot Books really stands out from many other options, because the costs are SO low. For $79.99 you can get the Barefoot Basics in a Bag (below is a video of me unpacking the contents), and this contains 9 products from Barefoot Books (which retail for over $100), as well as a canvas tote and promotional materials such as catalogs to hand out to friends and family to get you up and running.
There is absolutely no requirement to purchase ANYTHING else from Barefoot Books in order to run your business, but if you ever do want to place a personal order, because you are an ambassador, your books are now a whopping 30% off! The only fee that comes into play happens on your one year sign up anniversary, when you will be charged $50 for your website maintenance (this fee is completely waived for your first year, which helps keep the risk low for you!). If the business isn’t working out for you, simply opt not to renew and that’s perfectly fine. You will know by that point if this is a business you are enjoying, anyway. 🙂
How $80 = $222 and 37 Free Books
In addition to the collection of products you receive to start your business, you are also eligible to earn up to 28 additional books in your first 60 days in business. This is where things get super awesome, friends. Let me introduce you to the Kickstarter bonuses!
If you sell $300 in product in your first 30 days, you will earn bonus 1, and 14 Barefoot Books titles will be sent to you completely free of charge. If you sell a grand total of $600 in your first 60 days you will earn bonus 2, and an additional 14 Barefoot Books titles will be headed to your home as a thank you for sharing! So in addition to the 9 books you already have from your starter kit, you will have 28 more thanks to the bonuses. You, my friend, have just built yourself an incredible library of books!
And now let’s talk about the $222. You see, when you sell Barefoot Books you earn commission (hooray!). You will earn 30% commission on all purchases, and in the months where you sell at least $300, you earn 10% of your bonus volume. If you want to dig into the nuts and bolts of the compensation plan, here’s a great place to start, but for now, just suffice it to say that $600 in sales will provide you with $180 in commission and a $42 bonus volume payment, which means a check for $222 is headed your way.
How Hard is Selling?
So earning $222 and getting 37 beautiful books for an $80 investment sounds pretty darn awesome, right? But is it really hard to accomplish? The answer is absolutely not! In fact, one of the reasons I decided to join as an ambassador was that I was the host for a Barefoot Books party which brought in almost $500 in sales in that one hour-long event which happened on Facebook (nobody even had to clean their house!). I would say that you will want to plan on hosting 2 parties, or perhaps hosting one party and then connecting with your child’s school to see if you can sell books to their library or even hold a fundraising event for the school with the parents. Your upline can help you brainstorm some ideas to quickly get some sales under your belt so that you rack up every bonus offer on the table.
Additionally, jumping in and making those initial sales will be very telling for you. After you hit your bonuses, get your free books and hold that commission check in your hand, you should take a moment to reflect: was sharing about Barefoot Books fun, miserable, or somewhere in between? What about the time commitment that you gave to the endeavor; was it reasonable, too demanding, or do you think you could put in even more hours in the future? If you decide that it’s a good fit for you, then you will already be connected with your support team and can simply continue on with the great work (and with a very nice collection of books to show to prospective buyers…no need to buy anything else unless you just want to!). You will love all of the training provided, the collaborative team spirit shared by all ambassadors, and the amazing perks that keep coming down the pipeline as extra fun incentives to share (such as winning plane ticket vouchers, conference registrations, sales aids, etc. There’s always a fun bonus up for grabs!).
And what if you give this a go and it’s just not for you? Well, the worst possible case scenario is that you purchase the Barefoot Basics in a Bag and never do a single thing with it, and for your $80 you get over $100 worth of product that will be loved by your kids. And if you earn all those bonuses but still aren’t feeling it, you’ve made $222 and have 37 books on hand to keep your gift closet stocked for quite some time (no more running to the store to grab last-minute birthday party gifts!).
But maybe, just maybe, you will love it. So why not give it a go? Let’s talk! stuffparentsneed (at) gmail (dot) com
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