(Don’t miss Wednesday’s webinar at 2 pm CST by Michael Simmons, Co-Founder & CEO, Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour,  on Why Every Student Should Be an Entrepreneur! See details below or click here)

This week, February 20-27, the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education is sponsoring the 4th annual National Entrepreneurship Week. In 2006 the US Congress established National Entrepreneurship Week as a celebration of American entrepreneurs and the lifelong learning educational opportunities that prepare the NEW business leaders of the future. Supporting the entrepreneurial culture is part of their emphasis, but advocating entrepreneurial education is their primary objective.

Who is the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education?

“A national membership organization composed of 100+ agencies and institutions supporting entrepreneurship education as a lifelong learning process. Member organizations represent over 40,000 teachers that annually reach at least 2 million students nationwide. Our mission is to incorporate entrepreneurship education within all disciplines, to infuse students with the entrepreneurial mindset, and encourage our members to work together to create educational opportunities to meet the demands of a global economy. We believe that entrepreneurs are not “born”, but rather they “become” through the experiences of their lives.”  (taken from their website, Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education)

Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education and the information they offered was largely responsible for the inspiration behind Homeschool Entrepreneur. Their philosophy of exposing all students to the basics of entrepreneurship as an essential component to any education was a revelation to me. As a child, I grew up with the spirit of entrepreneurship, which progressed naturally to making it an integral part of our homeschool. It’s one of those moments you realize that something you’ve always taken for granted isn’t necessarily a part of everyone’s experience – yet see the intrinsic value of making it so. Hence, Homeschool-Entrepreneur was born – as a way to share simple ways to make entrepreneurial thinking a part of every family that catches the vision.

Check out their website, www.entre-ed.org,  for a wealth of information to satisfy your entrepreneurial cravings. If you know someone that is unemployed, send them to their new “One Stop Career Center” that is providing entrepreneurship education, training, and coaching to the unemployed as a viable alternative to the traditional job hunt. Individual entrepreneurs have been the fastest growing segment in the current recession.It simply works.

Find Activities In Your State

So, what exactly happens during National Entrepreneurship Week? Well, that depends on where you live. It varies dramatically, but a good place to start is the map at www.nationaleweek.org and click on your state. Many states (like Tennessee) don’t have anything at all, but there is something that I haven’t had a chance to catch yet that looks interesting that anyone reading this can access. The Small Business Administration is offering FREE Youthpreneur webinars at 10 am and 2 pm (CST) all week. I intend to catch Wednesday’s webinar by Michael Simmons, Co-Founder & CEO, Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour,  on Why Every Student Should Be an Entrepreneur. For more information and access codes to this week’s webinars (held at readytalk.com) go to www.nationaleweek.org/eweek_files/SBANationalEntrepreneurshipWeek.pdf

We’ll cover more of this week’s activities later this week. Don’t miss it!

Selling used books on Amazon isn’t the money maker it was a few years ago. When we first started listing used books on Amazon in 1999, you didn’t need a large inventory of books to make a nice part time income. Now, there are so many sellers selling GOOD books for a penny it’s difficult to find many books to really make it worth your time.

That doesn’t apply to selling textbooks though! There is a great deal to be made selling used textbooks online. Many students still haven’t realized the benefits of selling their last semester’s textbooks online rather than selling them back to their school’s bookstore for much less than they could sell them for themselves. Then there are those that want to keep their textbooks for whatever reason, not thinking about how quickly the information is outdated. They may not be aware of how much they can sell them for, even if they didn’t pay full price for them.

My son goes to a private college and many of the students there don’t care about keeping their textbooks OR selling them. My son and his roommate made several hundred dollars last year just selling textbooks offered on a giveaway table at school. If you or someone you know is a student at a college, there are many places to find used textbooks that still have significant value, some close to $100 or more. I’ve even seen tents set up around our community college with the sign “We Buy Your Textbooks”. There is a way to look up what a textbook is currently worth and can be reasonably certain it will sell for.

HOW And WHERE To Sell Used Textbooks:

There are a few ‘tricks of the trade’, but it’s really quite easy to sell textbooks online. Amazon is the venue of choice, offering you traffic that can’t be matched. However, you will pay the highest fees selling on Amazon. Half.com, an Ebay company, is different from selling on Ebay directly. Their fees aren’t much less, but you do save a little on fees. You will not receive the traffic you’ll find on Amazon. (You will find the best prices on textbooks on Half.com is you’re purchasing them, though!) If you are an experienced Ebay seller, many find Ebay to be the most profitable – but the lowest rate of sales.

Selling a book on Amazon is as easy as clicking on “Sell Your Stuff” and following the prompts. Making a reasonable business out of doing this takes a little training which fortunately is free for the study on Amazon and other major sellers.

Amazon’s Webinar On Selling Textbooks is FREE

Amazon offers a great deal of help for their online sellers, and is offering a webinar Wednesday at 10 am, Jan 13th specifically to help textbook sellers. You can find information on this webinar, and details and fees for selling any book in Amazon’s Marketplace. Books aren’t the only item you could sell on Amazon, you can sell unwanted CD’s, DVD’s, videos games and much, much more.

There are several books (available on Amazon, of course!) that will help you get started selling online, but always check the copyright date. Selling online has changed dramatically in the last five years, even the last few years, so be sure it’s offering you very current information. It’s very easy to sell a book on Amazon, but difficult to make a decent income doing so. It is possible to make a healthy income selling used books online, and is an excellent home business for homeschoolers. The hardest, and most important, activity is finding the right books to sell. Excellent customer service is also critical.

Click here to find information on selling textbooks on Amazon and their webinar this week: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200270440

Details and where to start selling books on Amazon: http://www.amazonservices.com/content/sell-on-amazon.htm?ld=AZFSSOA

Christine Miller has written a good book recently on selling books on Amazon for stay-at-home moms. Anyone that needs to make money on a crazy schedule at home will find this book useful, not just SAHM’s! Check out  How to Sell Books on Amazon: The Stay-at-Home Mom’s Secret Guide to Selling Used Books on Amazon

Cyber Monday, for computer geeks and those of us that do most of our shopping online, is better than Black Friday. There are some amazing deals to be had, and Homeschool-Entrepreneur plans to add to the pile.

From now until December 10th, we will be offering our entire Homeschool Entrepreneur course, Entrepreneurship 101, for half price. That will include all the free ebooks and one year of full access to the Business Resource Center for just $33.50.

But that’s just the beginning . .

You asked for it . . .

We’ve had many requests for a hard copy of our Entrepreneurship 101, so this is what we have come up with-just in time to give you a way to give the gift of entrepreneurship in a way you can WRAP.

We’ve placed the entire course onto a CD in a 5″ x 8″ (approx) case.  The CD includes the entire E-101 Course in an easy to print format, templates for all the business forms,  links to the Resource Center, and several bonuses. Order now to reserve this CD version at half price, gift wrapped and shipped free of charge! (you will also receive instant access to the online version)

The CD’s will be ready for shipment Dec 10th, in time to receive and wrap up for Christmas. We’ll even giftwrap it for you. There will be a limited number of these available, so order now to reserve your copy! You must order with this link to receive the CD for the $33.50 price (regular price, $67).

Read more details about the course at HomeschoolECourse.com or see a video tour of the course and the Resource Center at Homeschool-Entrepreneur.com. Remember to return here to get your special price available only through the following link:

Order Entrepreneurship 101 on CD at 50% off>>

*remember, we offer a 59 day, 100% satisfaction, money back guarantee. No hassle. We promise.

One of the more difficult aspects to starting a retail business is finding true wholesalers. While there are services like Doba and others, sourcing out good suppliers is an ongoing task for every new business owner. That’s why I wanted to share this resource I really just stumbled on quite by accident, and since I just did a post on selling books online as told by Family Business Ideas.com, I thought I’d throw it up. (that didn’t come out right, did it??)

Bargain Books Wholesale has a good selection of books offered with a minimum order of 3 of any title , and a $150 order. I couldn’t find them in the BBB, so there must not be any reports against them, and a brief online search didn’t reveal any problems. I will assume most of their books are what are referred to as ‘remainders’, which are basically printer’s overstock. I did take a random book called “God’s Word For Boys” which is available for $4.50, and looked it up on Amazon and found it is sold on Amazon for $18.99, or $7.97 by individual sellers (new). You could list it there for $$7.95 and be the first choice from Amazon’s Marketplace!

Hope it helps. Anyone else have a good wholesaler they’d like to share? mmmm, didn’t think so. Seems to be one of those resources businesses don’t like to share.

In my constant search for great resources for homeschool entrepreneurs, I still can’t believe I’ve never come across this website, but better late than never! Written by a homeschool family with eleven children in upstate NY, Michael and Julie Anna Schultz have been booksellers online for over five years now AND they are powersellers on Ebay.

Leaving a lucrative job in corporate America four years ago, Mike is a stay at home father with their book business on Ebay as his primary income. He also travels all over America teaching eBay classes, as well as entrepreneur classes! Mike and Julie Anna’s have caught the ‘Homeschool-Entrepreneur’ vision – uniting families through home entrepreneurship.

On their website, FamilyBusinessIdeas.com, you will find many great ideas for your family business, as well as help on how to get started. They offer a very reasonably priced ebook giving you everything you need to succeed on Ebay selling children’s books, and a book for the WAHM,  Cybermoms Home Income Ebook, also available on Ebay.

You can also subscribe to a monthly report that keeps you up to date on the most valuable books that you can be looking for to sell yourself. You may have one or more on your shelf at home!

Visit their bookstore at Book Jewels For Children.com