Many of us have migrated to different parts of the world for various reasons. Chances are that people in your new home see where you are from as an exotic place full of interesting and wonderful things to see and do. This presents a number of opportunities from which you could profit from. People are always on the lookout for something different or to get something that reminds them of the home they left behind.
The opportunities can range from selling arts and crafts, providing services, becoming a tourist operator and so on. You just have to sit down and have a think about what you think people would want and how you can go about providing them with it.
I will use my homeland Zimbabwe as an example and list some sites that have been set up by Zimbabweans:
Tashanda, a website that sells various arts and crafts was founded in 2006 by a group of Zimbabweans who are currently based in the United States. They sell products that range from bags to wall hangings to stone sculptures just to name a few. Arts and crafts are things that people are always on the look out for and if you do it right you really can’t go wrong in this area. Their site is user friendly and easy to navigate through. Payments can be made via credit card or PayPal and they ship worldwide at very reasonable rates.
Mukuru.com, a company based in the United Kingdom is a site that provides a number of services for people in Zimbabwe and South Africa. They provide a portal for people in the Diaspora to carry out money transfers or purchase services such DStv (satellite television) and internet subscriptions and fuel for relatives and friends back home. They have partnered up with a number of service providers in Zimbabwe of which their clients can purchase services from via Mukuru’s site. They rely on the use of not only the internet but mobile phone technology as well. For example, when a fuel order transaction is completed on their site a voucher is sent to the recipient via SMS or email which they present at a collection point in Zimbabwe for redemption. When they started out they only serviced Zimbabwe but are now servicing South Africa and they are currently extending their services to include other countries within Africa.
Another site that’s provides services that are almost similar to Mukuru.com is Zimbuyer.com. They are also based in the United Kingdom and deal more with delivering groceries to people in Zimbabwe. All the above mentioned sites accept payment via credit card, PayPal or deposits directly into their bank accounts.
Making money from your homeland is not limited to people who are living away from their homeland. If you are living in your homeland you could take advantage and profit from what is has to offer. We will leave Zimbabwe now and go to another part of world and take a look at a relatively new site Himalayacrafts.com. They sell Nepalese handicrafts at a very affordable price. I have done a bit of a search online and really couldn’t find a lot of places that sell Nepalese handicrafts which gives them a bit of an advantage and are sure to do well
What I have listed above is just an example of what one can do. If selling items is what you want to do for your merchant solutions take a look at ProStores and Yahoo! Merchant Solutions. Making money from your homeland is not limited to what is in this post. There are endless possibilities. Get your creative juices going and see if you can come up with anything. If you come up with something viable, give a try and see how far you get.
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