Just One More Reason to Work for Yourself

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Insurance/KnowYourRights/EmployersGrabAccidentVictimsCash.aspx

Buying in Bulk? You Might Be Giving/Throwing Away Your Money.

I like to read articles about tips to save money and not let the store scam me out of my money. Of all that I have read in the last few years I haven't seen anything about how grocery stores are using the unit prices to scam you out of more money.

Most people were brought up to believe that you save money when you buy in bulk. The idea was, since you were buying more at a time and the manufacturer didn't have to use as much packaging, the cost to you was less(as long as you could use all that extra product before it went bad).

I was also taught to always check the unit price anyway. The unit price will tell you what that jar of mayo costs per ounce. For the first years that I had grocery shopped the larger containers were almost always the cheapest but now things have turned around. I believe it is because the stores know that most people think they are getting a better deal when buying larger packages and don't know about or think that comparing unit pricing is too hard. I've seen my friends and my husband do it!

Hey, I look at it as a positive for me because I don't have to always buy a larger quantity and I save even more because there's less of a chance that I will throw away extra food but for others who aren't aware of this, these stores are really taking advantage of them.

Feeling Scatterbrained

Back when I was locked in a cubicle for a good portion of my day, I would use my lunch hour to research ways of working from home. This little hobby has resulted in a file cabinet drawer filled with articles, magazines and notes that I had hoped one day would pay off. I have been feeling very overwhelmed with everything I had to do and everything I wanted to do so I didn't dare touch that drawer. Lately, I've been feeling like I have my energy scattered in too many places to be productive anywhere. So while continuing to scout out oppurtunities, I haven't really acted on some I would like to.


I had a thought today and knew that the information I needed was in that drawer. I actually only got 4 items in when I came across this article called Diversifying Your Online Income. Basically it advises you not to put all your eggs in one basket regarding your home business.

After reveiwing the first side of the article I was already feeling better about stepping into some other areas I've been interested in. Then I turned the page over, and there I had highlighted this sentence:

"You'll be hard-pressed to find a successful work at home entrepreneur who has focused his or her efforts on only one product or business model."

This may have just been the answer to the question I have been struggling with for the last few months. It's funny because the information I had originally began digging for relates to a job outside of the home I was afraid I would become desparate enough to take. I'm going to take this as a sign.

SMC on Ebay

I did a little research on SMC items being sold on ebay. I wasn't suprised to find many sellers competing with eachother, pedaling items that people didn't really want. My thoughts are that most of the SMC items are not products that people would go to ebay to purchase. Take this for example. I watched 16 items from various sections of SMC's "World of Products" catalog. Of those one sold and not suprisingly for much less than SMC's listed retail prices.

Just Under the Wire

Despite the initial issues I had with SMC, I decided since I had gone as far as to order the kit and I had it in my possesion that I would give it a try. My plan was to distibute catalogs to friends, family and other acquintances but my main goal was to recruit wholesalers and fundraisers. This way, I didn't have to sell the actual products to many people to make money. I just had to sell one person at a time on the oppurtunity. I had even called the PTA president who was going to consider me for a fundraiser. This made it all the more difficult to make the decision to send back the kit and time was running out on my 30 days!



What made me reconsider returning the kit after I had called the PTA? The shipping costs. My shipping costs would have been 27% of my cost of goods sold for orders of $30-$500. Which they say all you have to do is charge your customers 10% of their order and you will have more than enough to cover the 27%. Well that justifies nickel and diming me to death, now doesn't it? I can't see where a person can make any money with 27% going towards shipping and don't forget about the cost of other supplies ie. catalogs.



I had also figured on doing some selling on ebay but that would have been a waste of time as well.


Here is a link to the Ripoff Reports on SMC, 198 total.



Oh, yeah, I sent it back on my 30th day. I hope I get a refund without any problems.

Checked Out FHTM

When I checked out FHTM on the BBB website two things struck me:

"Some callers indicate the offer appears to focus on making money by recruiting others rather than on the sales of goods or services." That's nice.

And under the "Educational/General Comments" (3rd paragraph) is a blurb about pyramid schemes. Wonder why that is there.

I had three votes on my survey about wether I should send back my SMC kit. One voter refered me to her FHTM site which, I am only assuming but, I think was one of her recruiting techniques. The other only refered me to the main headquarters website.

I found this other cool site (wish I had before I bought into SMC) Ripoff Report. There are three reports here.

I will probably be bombarded with recruiters now, but again, the reason I was turned off by this company from the start, without checking into it further, was the lack of information I recieved from a 96 page magazine I purchased for $5.95. Oh, and that magazine, by the way was "Success from Home". You shouldn't have to buy a magazine to be sold on getting into business with one company. I bought it thinking that I would get some ideas from it.

Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing

Always on the lookout for inspiration and opportunity, I stopped by the magazine/book rack at Staples and this one caught my eye. One headline read “How to Make Money By Saving Money”, this was one of the selling points for me and after checking that the others didn’t look more impressive, I purchased it.

I was excited to begin reading, the feature stories looked very interesting and I was hungry for money making ideas. When I finally got to sit down with the magazine my excitement turned to disappointment when I realized the entire magazine was a come on for Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing (FHTM), a network marketing company. I flipped through the entire magazine full of success stories, a little bit of product information and from what I could tell, no contact information or website. I thought at least if I could find a website, I could by-pass all the fluff, find out what this is all about and make a decision on whether this was worth while to persue.

I have to admit the health products and organic shampoo intrigued me. That, combined with the tech products, conflict me. And the fact that I couldn’t easily find contact info ticked me off. Oh, and that blurb on the front cover, “How to Make Money By Saving Money”, I can’t comment on it because I found nothing in the magazine that referred to it. Now maybe if I read this thing front to back I would feel differently but so far reading any further feels like a chore rather than an exciting peek into what might be a very good opportunity.

I popped in the “free dvd” hoping to get more information. In hind-sight I would hardly call it free since I paid $5.95 for what I am now considering a sales pitch of some sort.
One of the first things I heard was that the “sole purpose” of this company is to help people. The bottom line is not determined by how much money it makes but by how many lives it impacts. That sounds really good but is hard for me to believe. They don’t want to make a lot of money but they want others to. Again, the dvd, is loaded with success stories but I still don’t know exactly what’s involved.

Has anyone heard of or dealt with this company? Any comments? Can anybody answer for me: how does it work?