Ever feel like you want to ditch the day job and take hold of your career?
Although this may be a dream for many of us, a recent survey found that 20 per cent of women would rather stand under a tree during a lightning storm than choose to be self-employed.
Silpada Designs, a direct sales company operating in the US, Canada and UK, recently commissioned Angus Reid to survey Canadian women's opinions on self-employment.
Results show that 51 per cent of adult women have considered self-employment, but that 45 per cent felt there are financial barriers and 40 per cent felt the overall risk prevented them from choosing this option for employment.
The survey further showed that women with university education or higher are more likely to consider self-employment and Alberta leads the way with 70 per cent of women in that province considering self-employment, while 52 per cent of women in Ontario and 48 per cent in British Columbia are thinking to make an employment change to becoming their own boss.
In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, 60 per cent of women believed that being your own boss was the greatest benefit of self-employment.
Silpada Designs entered into the Canadian market in 2008, establishing an office in Mississauga, Ontario and now have 3000 sales representatives across the country. It is the world's largest sterling silver jewellery home party company and had a combined sales of $280 million in the US and Canada in 2009.
Created by two stay at home Moms Bonnie Kelly and Teresa Walsh in 1997 in the US, Silpada Designs currently employs 30,000 sales representatives in the US, Canada and UK, who are predominantly women. The price range of Silpada jewellery is from $14 to $338, with an average price of $78. All Silpada Designs jewellery is .925 sterling silver, made by artisans from around the world and is comes with a lifetime guarantee.
According to Silpada Designs research, an average jewellery party takes three to four hours of preparation and participation, with sales representatives choosing their initial investment and are under no sales quotas. On average, party participants spend $1250.00, resulting in $375 earned by the sales representative, who sets his or her own hours, and can be your own boss.
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10 Businesses to Start in Your Pajamas
What can be better than working at home and turning in huge profits? If you're sick of working 9 to 5, sitting in rush hour, and working on someone else's schedule, check out the top 10 businesses you can start, and run, in your pajamas.
From medical billing to graphic design, there are the hottest industries for home-based businesses.
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10 Businesses to Start in Your Pajamas
What can be better than working at home and turning in huge profits? If you're sick of working 9 to 5, sitting in rush hour, and working on someone else's schedule, check out the top 10 businesses you can start, and run, in your pajamas.
From medical billing to graphic design, there are the hottest industries for home-based businesses.
10 Businesses to Start in Your Pajamas
Selling homemade organic beauty products or customized T-shirts is no longer just a weekend hobby for earning some extra pocket change. In the age of e-commerce, a growing number of retailers are capitalizing on the Web to sell their products, and making more than a supplementary income in the process.
10 Businesses to Start in Your Pajamas
Business audiences, support groups, and even government agencies are constantly looking for new sources of inspiration. Get paid to offer up the expertise you never got to share in the office. No special education required, just confidence in your speaking abilities and your message.
10 Businesses to Start in Your Pajamas
As companies try to keep up with a changing workforce dynamic, human-resources professionals are more in demand than ever. Companies big and small need advice about structuring benefits that will woo the younger generation, as well as on creative ways to retain their seasoned employees.
10 Businesses to Start in Your Pajamas
Like so many in search of work-life balance, lawyers are finding ways to spend less time at the firm and more time at home with the family. Established lawyers, who have spent years building a loyal client base, now have the luxury of branching out on their own with relative ease.
10 Businesses to Start in Your Pajamas
If writing is your craft, penning lines for someone else is a good way to earn reliable cash flow. Websites like Guru.com now cater to hooking freelancers up with ghost-writing opportunities, with projects ranging from updating a company's Web content or compiling research in a white paper, to writing promotional articles for a company's newsletter.
10 Businesses to Start in Your Pajamas
As more professionals and retirees seek home-based work opportunities, the need for big corporate firms to offshore jobs like customer service representatives or virtual tech support has decreased. Instead, companies are filling these jobs inshore with the likes of stay-at-home moms, seniors, and even the occasional burnt-out exec. Home-based employees are contracted and have the ability to set their own schedule.
10 Businesses to Start in Your Pajamas
With a second phone line, a computer, and an Internet connection, you could be booking travel reservations from your home for companies such as JetBlue and Marriott Global Reservations. For several years now, JetBlue's reservation agents have been home-based and experts say that in the coming year, other bigwigs of the travel industry will follow suit. There are also opportunities for entrepreneurs with knowledge of the travel industry to start their own agency out of their home.
10 Businesses to Start in Your Pajamas
Many people who start home-based businesses are doing the same jobs they did in the corporate world, but on a consultant basis -- and financial analysts are no exception. If you have the skill set to digest large amounts of information and present it in a way that is accessible to the public, you may be just as happy doing that at home as you would be in the office.
10 Businesses to Start in Your Pajamas
Entrepreneurs who provide a service to companies or individuals continue to be some of the most successful in the home-based business sector. As businesses move to increase their Web presence, freelance opportunities for graphic designers are abundant.
10 Businesses to Start in Your Pajamas
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-29-2010 @ 12:37PM
katie said...
I found this article disingenuous. The heading suggests it will give advice on how to diminish risk when starting a business, but on reading it, all it sounds like is an ad for the jewellery company! I have no interest in hosting parties to flog something to my friends and acquaintances and frankly, I seem to move in the wrong circles if these parties generally have guests who can drop $1250 in a night at a jewellery party!
The jobs suggested in the slide show weren't good examples of entrepreneurship either - they mostly appeared to be glorified call centre type work. That's hardly self-employment, in any real sense of the term.
I generally like Walletpop, for the record, which is why I read this, but please, if you want me to keep reading your articles, give me some real information! I found myself wondering if the writer of this article wanted to sell me jewellery...
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8-05-2010 @ 4:49PM
vk said...
This article is a front for marketing material for home based businesses. It does not provide hard numbers or really useful information about which of these businesses is successful, what is the expected ROI, or any truly relevant that an entrepreneur can use in making a home business decision.
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