Farmer's Markets And Other Ways to Sell and Make Money

Another source of income that you may not have considered would be selling produce, herbs and handmade products at your local farmer's markets, which will be opening up soon.

We have a lot of Farmer's Markets here in Oklahoma not only in many of the small towns but in the large ones as well.  You can usually find anything from fresh produce and eggs to bouquets of fresh flowers and fresh local honey. Some will also have booths where people sell homemade items like baby clothes, quilts, candles, potpourri, homemade soaps, and wooden products like cute plaques for your walls and garden stakes to cutting boards.

You might start checking in now to see what might be available in the way of booth spaces and what other requirements might be needed in order to sell your goods. Some states will require that you have a business license whereas others won't.

Also with spring right around the corner, we will start seeing people having yard sales, or in some parts of the country they are called "tag sales."  Some people have found this to be a very profitable way to get rid of things in their house that they don't really want. Sometimes several neighbors will all go in together and have a big sale which is great because it increases your customer traffic up and down the block.

Others may find it more financially rewarding and less of a hassle to just clean out their closets and take things to either a consignment store or a pawn shop to be put out for sale. Now granted, the consignment store and the pawn shop will take a percentage of the sale of the item, but you will have longer exposure to customers than with a yard sale (some cities only allow you so many per year and also charge you a fee to have one) and the stores also will handle the pricing and the actual sale and all you have to do is come pick up your money when it sells.

Some people have found a little storefront internet site called Etsy.com that has proved to be very profitable for them. There are certain requirements about being homemade items only advertised, but if you are talented and make things it would be a great venue to look into.

Others will advertise on Craigslist.com. This is something that I have never done personally, but I do know others who have had tremendous success with this.

There are quite a few books out about starting your own home based businesses including















When I started my gift basket business many years ago, one of the books I purchased was this one by Barbara Brabec
I used it to help me decide what type of business I wanted to go into and gave me a ton of valueable information!