The FINANCIAL -- Ana Mushkudiani has been running a handmade crafts business at home for
several years. She claims that selling handmade accessories can earn one
decent money.
“My accessories cost from 5 to 30 GEL,” Mushkudiani said to The FINANCIAL. “This business can’t pay for all my needs, but it does bring in enough money for daily expenses.”
Mushkudiani is 25 years old and has a family: a husband, a four year old daughter and two year old son. Because of her small child she can’t work away from home. That’s why Ana works on making accessories. She mostly makes brooches, frequently using different stones. She promotes her accessories on the internet and has found a few buyers for her items via the internet.
“I started this work when I was a student and my family couldn’t afford to pay for all of my needs and wishes. I tried but couldn’t find a suitable job for myself as I was still studying and lacked enough free time for a proper job. After a lot of thought I decided to make accessories and then sell them. It really is very convenient as I make them at home when I have free time,” Mushkudiani stated.
“It’s a type of job that you can enjoy whilst at the same time making money. The handmade crafts business is quite optimistic,” she added.
Intellectual service, educational activities and e-commerce are the most common activities that can be done from home, according to experts in Georgia.
“It’s quite tough to run a business and earn proper profit from one’s home in Georgia,” Davit Narmania, Economic expert, told The FINANCIAL. “Consulting, including law consulting, giving lessons in different disciplines and e-commerce, buying and selling products, are the best activities that can bring in proper profit whilst being run from the home.”
E-commerce businesses run from the home are becoming more and more popular in Georgia. There are several small entrepreneurs who offer the service of online shopping. They sit at home helping people to find preferable items and then order them. The majority of such entrepreneurs run their business via the social network Facebook.
One of them is Jewellery Online Gallery. Gaga Giorgadze, the owner of the store, runs it on Facebook as well, but he plans to launch a webpage of the store.
“I carried out a focus group and decided to sell official patents of famous brand accessories,” Giorgadze said. “We have partners in various countries and they provide us with accessories.”
“I don’t need an office or anything else for my business. I run the business from home and this is quite convenient for me,” he added.
The prices at Jewellery Online Gallery vary from 12 up to 50 GEL. The main demand is for products of 15-25 GEL. The store has about 50 orders a week, but the owner plan to triple that number in the near future.
“I already have some items in Tbilisi , others will be delivered after they are ordered. The service is quite popular among Georgians, especially women between the ages of 15 and 40, but sometimes men also order accessories for their partners,” Giorgadze noted.
Soon official patents of bags, sunglasses and watches of famous brands including Hermes, Guess, Prada, Fendi, Armani and Louis Vuitton will be available as well, Giorgadze promises.
Being a private teacher is another profitable home-based job in Georgia. Georgian university entrants tend to do special one year courses in every discipline they are going to have to pass to enter high school.
Iza Svanidze is a Russian language teacher. She suffers from obesity and has some other health concerns, therefore Svanidze can’t teach at school or university, so she teaches at home.
“I have taught at school for years, but now I can hardly walk,” Svanidze said to The FINANCIAL. “Russian isn’t very popular nowadays, but I still have enough pupils to pay for my living. I enjoyed teaching at school at the time, but to tell the truth I now prefer staying at home and receiving pupils here. Such lessons are more interesting for me.”
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