So, you want to start your own business?Okay, you would like to be in your own business. You would like to get up at lunchtime, work for yourself through the afternoon, and go dancing all night. You also expect be able to get a lot of money at the end of the week. If that’s what you really want out of a business, you may not do too well. Being in business involves a commitment that is more likely to see you laboring over your paper work till 3 am, rather than working on your dance steps. There are many opportunities to set up your own business, but there are some very serious things you must think about first. You may really not be suited to be in business. Dancing may be more important to you, and you won’t put the hours in. You also need to have some money, not much for some ideas, but you’ll certainly need some for advertising, and so on, when you get going. On the Internet you can read about many opportunities to get started for nothing, and make $10,000 by the weekend. But there ARE some good business opportunities there, amongst the not-so-good ones. You just need to be cautious about some of them. If they want you to put money up front, you probably need to get some advice from a professional about that particular business. You also need to develop a business plan, not too complex, but sufficient to look at all the issues that may arise. You can download a business plan template off the internet. Don’t make it too complicated, for a small home business, the best plans are developed sitting around the kitchen table with the family, and sipping tea. Whatever happens in the World, the Internet is growing rapidly, and your customer base is guaranteed to grow in leaps and bounds. There is no doubt that there are great opportunities for Internet based business, but they still involve hard work, and an element of risk. In the US alone, every 11 seconds someone starts up a homebased business. 95% of the internet-based home businesses will fail. The most common reasons for failure is lack of experience, unwillingness to learn new marketing tecniques, not realising the amount of work involved in running your own business, and not keeping on top of the paperwork!
An internet based business may only involve sitting at the computer and writing, or emailing prospective clients, or whatever, but to be successful, it still involves work. Later on we will look at some Internet opportunities. If you don’t enjoy working hard, if you don’t enjoy being involved with people, even by mail, perhaps you are better of going dancing, and getting a day job! Before we go any further, here's an excellent example of lateral innovative thinking!
Click here to see how one artist makes money from garden weeds!
The first story is about a business I started many years ago. I had just arrived in Australia from New Zealand with my family. It was meant to be a working holiday, but I loved Australia so much I never went back. I had a job to start with, but the business was sold, and I lost the job. I’d spent all my money on air fares, and renting a flat to live in. I was broke! I started a small cleaning business, just a few houses and shops, but it was slowly building up. I had no startup money, and just a small old car. I bought a floor polisher and a couple of ladders on tick (credit) from one of the big department stores. Then my car was stolen from the yard one night, rolled over several times, and totally wrecked. You guessed it, the ladders were on the roof, and the polisher was in the boot! I was in a fair bit of trouble! Wife and three young kids, living in a flat, a fair way away from the bus stops, no car and no money. And I expected someone to come round and repossess the busted ladders any day! What to do? Well, I borrowed a small stepladder from a neighbor, got the window cleaning squeegee, a bucket and some cloths, and started walking. I called in at every low-built house I saw, and offered to clean their outside windows for $5. If there was no one home I went back at the weekend. Even in those days, $5 wasn’t much. But I didn’t just clean the windows either, I brushed away cobwebs, and cleaned the sills as well. I made sure I did a good job, and made sure I was seen doing a good job, especially by the neighbors, because I'd be calling on them next! Sometimes I spent a couple of hours there, just for the 5 bucks, and being seen working hard. Often the lady of the house was so pleased she would give me $10. I always arranged to come back in 2 or 3 months to do the windows again. Some times they would ask me to do the inside windows, which usually cost a bit more, because there was often furniture to move. I was always dressed tidily, and made sure I always looked presentable. Even in my younger days, that wasn’t easy either! The first thing I did when I said “Good Morning” was to hand the householder a handwritten business card. The ladder and the card seemed to give me some credibility! I went around the local shops too. Wasn’t too long and I had a string of return customers, and some money to buy another old car. Then I got a few contracts to clean pubs and even a racecourse, and I was away laughing, in window cleaners heaven! A year or so later I sold out to one of my young workers, and I went away with some hefty dollars in my pocket, and started another business. The moral of this story is; there are times when you will get knocked over, perhaps two or three times, but you always have to get up and try again!
The second story is about making the most of a hobby. The bloke in this story was photographed in front of the Coolum Beach Surf Club, in Queensland Australia. I watched him working his metal detector for a while, and then persuaded him to come into the Surf Club for a cold beer. He wife was surfing, he didn’t take much persuading, and I got his story from him.
Metal detecting had been his weekend hobby, to get him and his wife out of the City and away from the rat-race. He worked the old local gold fields, and had found quite a few reasonable sized nuggets. He and his wife were both keen surfers, but they lived in a large inland city, away from the ocean. He retired early, they bought a camper-van, loaded up the surfboards and metal detector and took off. He told me they stayed at the popular southern beaches in the summer, and when winter arrived, they headed North to search and surf their way around Australia. With his metal detector, he would go over the tracks down to the popular beaches, and find jewelry, money, watches and other valuables dropped by people walking down, or back, from the beach. Some Australian beaches have 50,000 people visit them daily in the summer! He also looked around old demolished hotels, and around historical sites. He assured me that mostly he made more each week with the metal detector than what he received in his pension. The moral of this story is, many hobbies can turn into full time businesses. If you have a suitable hobby, you already have the equipment and the skills to get up and running very quickly. And metal detecting on the beaches, how about that for low business overheads, only a hat, shorts, and bottle of suntan lotion! And where could you find better on-the-job scenery? I know another couple who work the gem fields in a similar manner. They visit the southern gem fields around Oberon in the summer, and the northern fields around Emerald in the winter. They sell the sapphires they find, and make a comfortable living, doing something that they love. All right, all right, enough, having learnt those two valuable lessons, come back again soon, and we will look at some low-cost business startup opportunities. We will look at Gardening, Non-internet, and Internet related business opportunities. Sincerely, Patrick
Some ideas to make money from your home garden!
Here you will find more opportunities and ideas to start your own low-startup-cost, profitable, business at home.
Ideas for you to start your own home business!
There is no doubt that there are great opportunities for Internet based business. There are hundreds of downloadable books about how to make money on the Internet. Don’t buy any until you have read the free ones! When your head stops spinning, you will have a bit of an understanding about internet marketing. What about an Internet-based home business?
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