Types
If you'd like to work from home, there's an in-between option: retail and online arbitrage, which is buying stuff at a really low price and selling it again for a profit. Retail arbitrage is where people scour stores and others look at charity stores and garage sales looking for great deals on items that sell quickly and with enough of a profit margin online. Online arbitrage is when people only look at cheap prices online. If you don't want to have to drive from store to store to sale, OA is better. It's not for everyone, but if you're a shopping wizard who loves to shop, RA may be your ideal gig. Some people prefer to do both, and that's fine, too.
Popular sites to resell what you found include eBay and Amazon, and there are TONS of tools out there to help you get started, and a lot are free. Keep in mind, you'll need to have ready access to the post office and the ability to store stuff in your home, as well as have repackaging stuff and a computer. A barcode/UPC scanner is a definite plus, but there are phone apps you can use that will not only scan the code for you but they'll also tell you that items rank on Amazon and how much it'll get you. Buying a product for $1 when you can only sell it for $1.10 on Amazon isn't worth it - but what if it's worth $10? Some people are VERY good at this and not only earn huge incomes but became so successful that they have to get a warehouse and hire people to help them!
If you're using Amazon, they sell it and take a fee, and you can either be the dropshipper (FBM), or ship to Amazon and they'll ship it to the customer (FBA). Which is best? Both have pros and cons: Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) vs Fulfillment By Merchant (FBM) and
Obviously, it's better if you have a vehicle to go to the post office, but enterprising individuals can make do until they can afford a vehicle. One important note is that if you want to do FBM to save money, you'll need to have a lot of space in your home (or have a storage space/warehouse), preferably a vehicle since you'll be going to the post office and other places daily, packing materials and boxes and, if your business grows, you'll need staff. FBA can mitigate, but not get rid of, many of these factors, at a price.
If you don't have much "seed" money, do some research and find items that have a high profit margin and quick turn-around, and start there. When it gets close to the holiday shopping frenzy (3 months before November), you can start buying up stuff that will be big sellers for gifts (again, you'll need to research to find out what's hot and what's not). In this way, you should be able to get your seed money back, plus a hefty excess, which you should reinvest back into your business. Keep increasing the seed money so that you can increase your profits and eventually you'll be at the point where you're safe and who knows - maybe you'll quit your day job.
Arbitrage can be lucrative if you're smart and diligent, so you should start looking for resources (many of which are free, but the pro stuff has a price). There are a lot of websites, browser add-ons, phone apps and PC software to help. Here are some articles, videos, sites and apps to get you started, in no particular order.
- How I Make $200/Day With Online Arbitrage
- A Complete Guide to Online Arbitrage Sourcing Tools and Programs
- How to Sell $98K per Month on Amazon Doing Online Arbitrage (In Summer):
Here's a quick list of some extensions you may find useful (sorry, no links since there are too many browsers): Amazon Assistant; Amazon Quick Copy; Amazon Search Tools; Cently; Completed Listings on eBay; Ebates Rakuten: Get Cash Back for Shopping; FBA Calculator Free Extension; FBA Multi-Tool Restriction, Calculator + More; Giving Assistant Button; Honey; How Many?; Invisible Hand; Keepa - Amazon Price Tracker; PriceBlink Coupons and Price Comparison; RevSeller; Scanalyze - For Online Sourcing/Arbitrage; Tactical Arbitrage - Popular Products; Textrader; The Camelizer; and Walmart's Savings Spotter.
Aside from arbitrage, however, most remote jobs require a computer and/or a phone, sometimes with special software installed and/or specific websites. Here are some jobs that you can definitely find remote work for: Chief ____ Officer, VP, director, founder, manager, supervisor, team lead, customer service, tech support, graphic designer, programmer, web developer, executive assistant, administrative assistant, sales, PR, marketer, research, QA, tester, educator, trainer, escalations handler, scheduler, engineer, architect, and pretty much any other job that can be done with a computer and telephone, including most IT, creative and research jobs.
A Note about Job Sites
Aside from fraudulent job sites, some job sites do nothing more than recycle other sites's jobs, either by using an aggregation service which either shares job openings to multiple sites through a network (like Nexxt Network, formerly Beyond.com, which includes Monster, TechCareers, RetailGigs and 50+ other job sites), or by mining the data (scraping) from other websites without permission. Employers tend not to like websites that scrape their job openings.
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