Who can give me any ideas on starting a business? -

I ve just come in in to some spear change and I want to start a business but I have no idea what to do or what type of business I want to start. I have $30K at hand. Can you guys and gals offer any suggestions on what I can do, serious!!

A short term investment. 6 month note would be good at this time. Think things threw! Don t rush! Find something you like and is viable. A franchise Business? Might be a good place to look. For that amount of money. But check them out! Before you spend!

Tips for selling on ebay? -

like to maximize money made and cut down on shipping costs?

The shipping costs are paid for by the buyer, which is the norm for all online purchases, with few exceptions. As such, this should not be a concern or issue, provided your shipping charges are not excessive.I can help you with tips:Be honest and accurate in your descriptions �C One-sentence descriptions are for lazy sellers. One paragraph should be sufficient for most items. My general guideline is the more expensive (read higher priced) an item, the more you should ��talk it up.�� It won��t be time wasted. Use lots of adjectives in your descriptions. Adjectives make prose and your items come alive. Without them, prose is dull and your items less appealing. Just add a little ��sizzle�� and even have a little fun with it. In short, make your descriptions stand out above the crowd.Be professional - use good English with no spelling errors �C AVOID ALL CAPS TEXTPICTURES:Including one picture is a MUST, more pictures for higher priced items. Make sure your pictures are clear. There are far too many pictures on ebay that are dark. If prospective buyers can��t see your items clearly, your items, more than likely, will not fetch the closing prices they deserve. To remove darkness, use any photo editor to add some brightness and a wee bit of contrast. Eliminate clutter. Prospective bidders don��t want to know what kind of cereal you eat or what kind of kitchen table or bedspread you have. Use a SOLID backdrop when taking your pictures as you want to focus all of the attention on your item. In short, the one and only thing you want in your picture is the item being sold. A SOLID white or light blue backdrop is best. However, there are certainly items that won��t show well on a light backdrop. In these cases, use a darker backdrop. And for gosh sake, don��t even think of using a plaid blanket as a backdrop for your pictures as I once saw on ebay. You should also crop the photos in your photo editor. Good pictures can add 5% to 10% to final closing prices. GOOD DESCRIPTIONS + GOOD PICTURES = GOOD PRESENTATION. This is what you should strive for.COMMUNICATION:GOOD Communication is a must - Always notify buyers when you mail their items. It is not only a courtesy you would want and expect as a buyer but it is also both good customer service and good business practice. After all, you are the President CEO of your company running your business but using ebay as your selling medium. In short, conduct your business so that it reflects well on you as a person. Treat everyone as a human being, not a living being and this includes people who have inquiries about your items, not just your buyers. Prospective buyers making these inquiries could ultimately be the winning bidders and possible repeat customers.TIPS TO MAXIMIZE PROFITS:Do not limit your auctions to one country. SELL WORLDWIDE. The reason is elementary. You now have access to the largest market ebay has to offer. Limiting your auctions to only one country also limits your potential profits. A basic business tenet is, the greater the potential market, the greater the potential to maximize profits. But do note in your listing that PayPal is the only form of payment you will accept from overseas bidders/buyers. Through experience, you will learn that there are certain problem countries. Italy seems to be one of them. Mail sent to buyers in Italy very often ��mysteriously disappears.�� If this is the case, just note in your listing you sell to all countries EXCEPT (name(s) here).However, if you decide to limit sales to only one country, such as the USA, never say NO when you receive an email asking if you would ship to Taiwan, Germany, Australia or wherever. The reason is that you have a ��FISH ON THE HOOK!�� This person will bid! When he or she does, this may force a previous bidder to enter another, higher bid or force later, first time bidders to come in with higher bids. So always say YES to these emails if you want to maximize your profits. But do say that PayPal is the only form of payment you will accept from these overseas biddersAvoid selling ��nickel and dime�� items. People who list and sell a steady stream of items that close for $5 or less are wasting their time. Less expensive, similar items ($5 or less) are best sold as a group to save time. If you have a large number of these cheaper, similar items, divide them up into sub lots of three, four or five. More expensive (higher priced), similar items are best sold individually to maximize profits. There are ebay ��vultures�� who just love to swoop down on similarly grouped items in one listing. When they win these auctions, they turn around and sell the items individually and, in most cases, get one and a half to 2 times and sometimes three times what they paid for them on an average item basis. I know this works. When I had more time (read unemployed), I was one of these ��vultures.�� This is one of those situations where the parts are worth more than the whole. However, do be cautious if you venture into this arena. You have to know your merchandise. Stay in those areas you are familiar with. You can��t jump in blindly to any and every auction that has grouped items.If you can buy a large lot of similar merchandise for $100 to $300 and turn it around for $150 to $900, it works out very nicely, indeed! Most buyers of these large lots will be vultures as well so you could be ��butting bids.�� Keep in mind that the higher the closing price at ebay, the less your profit on the turnaround. It��s not an exact science and it does take a little experience to really know what you��re doing but you can��t be afraid to go out on a limb. That��s where the fruit is. When I see an auction of grouped items it tells me loud and clear that the seller is far more interested in getting rid of their stuff the quickest, easiest way possible and ��be done with it�� rather than in making a decent profit or profit at all. If you wish to do your listings offline, download the Turbo Lister program free from eBay. You can then upload them ��en masse�� anytime.Lastly, keep in mind that experience is the best teacher. Once you get your feet wet and gain confidence, start listing more items on a weekly basis. You will soon learn the ins and outs and the dos and don��ts in short order and ultimately settle on a system that works best for you. The more items you list, the more items you will sell, the more $$ you will make and the harder you will work. Nothing in life comes easy and that includes becoming a successful seller at ebay. If you are conscientious and put in a little extra effort, you will do well. If you are lazy or indifferent in selling your items, you won��t. Good luck happy selling!

I think it may be difficult to cut down on shipping costs. Depending on the item, a big profit on ebay will be hard because ebay is all about getting bargains. When you list something, look at similar items and price at no more than the midway vale that everyone else has priced there item at. If you want to charge top dollar, you will have to add in extras to justify the retail price or greater.

Buy stuff that s from your country.

Can a self-taught freelance designer still make good money? -

Once upon a time, I tried going to college to study design. It was horrible. I d learned more in my years of computer design to know that basic HTML for my entire first semester was not worth the cost of courses.So here I am. A designer with a normal job, looking to enter the field of freelance more seriously. Though it won t be my sole bread-winning job, it will be my passion. I m not concerned with making millions off designing. I just want to a comfortable amount from it as a side job.With no fancy paper saying I m University-bred and my own talent being my meal ticket to succeed, will I be able to do what I m wanting to do?

The freelancer one is good advice. It s legit. Others are rentacoder.com and elance.comYou will need an online portfolio of your work. When it come to creative skills like web designing it s more important that your site looks good and functions well and a degree won t help that.Advertise on craigslist. The sites will have to be cheep at first, but you can use them for your portfolio later. (Then you gradually charge more.) Craigslist allows HTML, so you can really show off your skills.

Yes, you can. But it will take hard work and you might have to design websites for free so that word of mouth gets around.

Go here http://www.getafreelancer.com you offer bids on work people need done online...