Have you ever looked around your house and wondered if there was a way to get rid of some of the items you’ve accumulated over the years?  If you have children, finding extra, unused stuff is not that hard.  Turn those unused toys and clothes into a little extra cash by learning to sell them online with eBay.  If you’re a Stay-At-Home Mom, this is a perfect low stress work-at-home opportunity. 

As a parent, you know how quickly your child grows out of their clothes and changes their favorite toy on a daily basis.  If you’re like me, you even have some children’s clothes that haven’t been worn!  Why not turn your excess into a little extra cash?  It’s simple and it doesn’t require too much of your time to accomplish.  Selling on eBay is also a great way to learn some habits and techniques that can quickly be turned into a full-time home based business.  Clothes are just a start, there are plenty of other profitable items that can be sold online through eBay.

Thousands of people sell on eBay everyday and make a good living from it.  Since this is probably your first experience selling, start off small and focus on one idea.  Some of the best items Moms have for selling on eBay are clothes.  Take the time to go through your child’s out-grown clothes and make “packages” of related items that you can group together and sell.  Perhaps you have several articles of clothing left over from last Easter that would make a great little Easter outfit package for some child.  Be creative in designing your assortments.  Your originality is what will catch buyer’s eyes and make them view and hopefully purchase your products.

Understand that eBay does have policies on the types and condition of clothing that can be sold at auction.  Read through the policies so that you have a good understanding of what needs to be done before offering your goods for sale.  Much of the information is common sense, but you’d be surprised at what some people try to sell.

For tips and information on selling online, visit World Wide Brands for useful eBay selling strategies and marketing ideas.  Once you are comfortable with selling online, check out World Wide Brands wholesale directory called OneSource that gives you access to hundreds of legitimate distributors willing to dropship their products directly to your customers.

Remember, start off slow and learn the basics.  Trying to accomplish too much too fast will leave you feeling stressed and discourage you from completing your goals.

From the time the kids wake up in the morning to the time they go to bed, they want Mom!  Non-Stop!  But Mom has some good ideas on how to make some extra money by working from home.  How do you balance family and business?  Answer:  Carefully.

For those of you Moms that have babies or young toddlers not yet in school, time can be a very difficult task to manage, especially if the time is for you.  This juggling act between family and business will mean that you need to be very creative in your approach.  Below are three suggestions to try to help you organize your time so that you can try to get (or start) some of your business activities.

1.  Hire Your Kids!

That’s right, you read that correctly, hire your child.  I don’t mean that you are actually going to include him as an employee on your schedule C, do it as a game.  You need to find time, and if pretending that your son or daughter is an employee of your company doing small tasks will keep them occupied, then everyone wins.

Make them feel useful.  If you have a small work area and desk, give them one too!  Give them some crayons, markers, paper, etc. and ask them to draw some pictures for you to hang in your home office.  Tell them that every office needs decorations, and you are hiring them as little artists to customize your office space.  Most children love doing arts-and-crafts and best of all, their occupied and where you can watch them.  Be creative and come up with different projects throughout the week, and if you’re lucky, you’ll be able to get 30-60 minutes a day to catch-up on e-mails or phone calls.

2.  Nap Time Is Your Time

Most young children sleep about 1-2 hours-a-day as naps (if they’re younger and you’re lucky, maybe more).  Whatever time they give you, take it and make the most of it.  This time is great for important phone conversations where you don’t want to be interrupted every two seconds, or for composing important documents.  Web development and research can be done during this time too since they usually require longer work times.

If you’re a Stay at Home Mom, then you probably can’t be doing this everyday since you’ll have other normal day-to-day tasks to handle, but try to do it several days a week and keep to a schedule.  This way you’ll get into habits of doing certain projects on specific days which will help you gauge progress.

3.  Time Away From Mommy

Mommies need breaks from being Mommies so that they can spend time building their business.  Remember, you’re doing this for your family, so don’t feel that you’re being a bad Mom by taking a day (or at least a few hours) for yourself!  Every 2-3 weeks, try to get a day to yourself to work.

See if you can have a family member take your child(ren) for the day or for a few hours so that you can work on your business activities.  Grandparents and close relatives are good choices.  Also, consider swapping days with a relative or close friend who has children.  One week they’ll watch your children, and another week, you’ll watch theirs.  It may not be the best scenario, but it will at least give you the occasional time to get something done.

Remember, there are many ways to make time, but try to find a good balance between your family and your business.  Your children are your priority and they’re only young once.  Don’t get too carried away with running your business that you forget to enjoy those precious moments with your children.