100 New Business
Ideas
1 MINIATURE MODELS OF LOCAL AND
HISTORICAL INTEREST
Models of local buildings, especially those with some
significant historical interest, or miniature statues of people with local or
national historical appeal, will always have a large and eager market. Make moulds from latex, then produce and colour plaster models and sell through local shops, craft
shops and at Collectors' Fairs and Fleamarkets.
2 CRAFTSMAN MADE JEWELLERY
There is as always a great
demand for designer jewellery, the more unusual the
better. If made from local stones, such
as Whitby
jet, even beach pebbles or local shells, so much the better, especially if sold
to the local tourist trade. Sell through
gift and souvenir shops, or at car boot fairs, Collectors' Fairs and Fleamarkets.
3 SELLING PAPER EPHEMERA
'Ephemera' is the grand name
given to paper collectables: tickets, adverts, magazines, books, stamps,
advertising inserts, old billheads and letterheads, etc. The older the better, these items are in
great demand by collectors at the Collectors' Fairs and Fleamarkets,
Antiques Fairs, and through the post to a clientele attracted via
advertisements in Book collectors', phemera and stamp
magazines.
4 SPECIALISING IN TOYS, DOLLS, TRAINS, ETC
At Antiques Fairs, Fleamarkets, and Collectors' Fairs, many traders make a
good living simply by specialising in those
collectors' items sometimes referred to as 'Juvenalia'. Because they specialise,
they are the traders to whom the collectors turn when they want to dispose of
collections, thereby ensuring an adequate flow of stock. They are also the ones collectors consider
first when seeking to increase or improve upon their collections. Fellow dealers also consider them first when
offloading stock that doesn't exactly fall within their own trading spheres.
5 SELLING BOOKS
Either sell cheaply all
books that come your way, or specialise in books on
such as local history, biographies, specialist subjects, eg
dogs, railways. Sell at local car boot
fairs, Collectors' Fairs and Fleamarkets, or through
the post by means of lists or adverts in book collectors' magazines. Alternatively allow customers to view your
stock in your home, by appointment.
6 SELLING CURIOS
Curios, falling within the
scope of 'collectables', are as the name suggests,
items that are just that little bit different.
At Fleamarkets, Antiques Fairs, even Car Boot
sales we find fans, policemen's whistles, sugar tongs, and many other items,
the use for which is not always immediately apparent.
7 SELLING JUNK AND BRIC-A-BRAC
An inexhaustible stock potential
awaits you here. Almost anything other
than reproduction items, antiques, consumer durables, can be sold within this
category. Perhaps the best marketing
outlet is the car boot fair, or for slightly better items the Fleamarkets and Collectors' Fairs.
8 SPECIALISING IN THE SALE OF BETTER STAMPS
Philately at its finest
concerns the collecting of better stamps, some rare, some counterfeited, some
with errors. Here you will not be likely
to find the juvenile collector, and purchases can amount to many hundreds, even
thousands, of pounds. Best left to
someone with an interest and experience in stamp collecting, the dealers'
stocks are correctly identified by catalogue number, condition, and priced
accordingly. Sell by approval or at
specialist Stamp Fairs.
9 SELLING STAMPS IN PACKETS
Here, no specialist
knowledge of stamps is required. All you
need do is packet together several stamps with some common factor. They may perhaps originate from one
particular country, or be of a similar theme such as space or animals, or else theymay all be of unusual shapes,
perhaps triangular. Price the packets
and mount them on a large display boards for sale in local shops. Alternatively make bulky selections of World
stamps and cover them with cellophane to protect them and make them more
attractive. Sell again through local
shops or at Fleamarkets and Collectors' Fairs.
10 SELLING STAMPS BY APPROVAL
Stamps may be sold through
advertisements placed in stamp collecting magazines or through such as the
'Exchange and Mart'. Mount them by
country, theme, shape or simply world mix, in special booklets or mounting
cards available again from wholesale stationers advertising in the stamp
collecting magazines. Some simply offer
stamps loose in boxes for the collector to pick from, all at some low common
price, paying for those retained and returning the rest with remittance.
11 SPECIALIST IN A MUCH-NEEDED ITEM
eg buttons, socks, ties, items relating to railways,
etc. Once you decide to specialise, you must deal in almost
every conceivable item or design within your chosen area. One women sells
buttons on a large London Street Market, but she sells thousands of different
shapes, made from all manner of materials.
The Sock Shop, Body Shop and Tie Shop fall within this category.
12 WRITING LETTERS TO THE PRESS
Here lies a potentially very
lucrative opportunity indeed. Most
magazines and newspapers offer cash rewards, sometimes as much as £150, for
readers' letters, jokes, anecdotes, recipes and such. Study your target publication with care for
some prefer short, snappy letters; some choose family-orientated subjects; some
magazines cater more for the woman independent of family strings. Make an exact assessment of the publications'
preferences and GO FOR IT!
13 GREETINGS CARD VERSES
Greetings card producers in Britain and
overseas are always on the lookout for new writers of verses for their
cards. Some require writers of humour, even of the risque
variety; others require what can only be described as sentimental 'slush'. Study several cards from producers within
your preferred area of writing and send at least half a dozen examples of your
work to each.
14 COMPETITIONS ENTRY FORM SUPPLIER
Look in any copy of
Competitors Journal, the hobby's fortnightly magazine, and you'll find several
adverts from people offering to supply competition entry forms to readers who
often have little time or inclination to search these items out for themselves. This sometimes involves a little travel as
you search out potential sources, but must be worthwhile in terms of the
dividends recouped by those suppliers with a large clientele.
15 PREPARING CURRICULUM VITAE
A
curriculum
vitae consists simply of the biographical details, both personal and
career-related, of persons wishing to change jobs or seek advancement,
training, and so on. Application forms
present problems which are compensated for by the curriculum vitae. If you have access to a typewriter or
preferably a word processor, you may be the one to provide this much needed
service often for extremely high rewards.
16 INVENT - A - GAME
Monopoly, the Rubik Cube,
and Trivial Pursuits are amongst the most popular games and pastimes of today,
and surely none can have disappointed their creators in the handsome dividends
they provided. But careful consideration
of these great games will convince you of the reason for their massive success
- each and every one is unique - not a variation of ludo
in sight! Create something different -
that's the key.
17 CHERISHED NUMBER PLATES
Many drivers seek number
plates a little different from those of fellow drivers, whether for investment
purposes or simply for reasons of pure snob value. Recent auctions of numbers by the Government
have yielded massive profits, sometimes one sale making the vendor many
thousands of pounds richer. Extremely
straightforward regulations for transfer are laid down by the Government.
18 TREASURE HUNTING
Treasure hunting can uncover
some of the rarest of specimens used by our ancestors, and in turn can provide
handsome rewards for the discoverer when sold, usually by auction. But to yield profits the items discovered
need not be of the rare or priceless variety.
I know for instance of one man who stocks his stall at Fleamarkets with Victorian bottles, many sporting very high
price tags. Even broken ones are put to
use - cut down and decorated they form beautiful vases, paperweight, ashtrays
and such. Another man I know stocks his
stall with old potlids and dolls' heads; whilst at
the craft fairs another hunter, of seaside locations this time, makes elaborate
flower arrangements, the focal piece being the driftwood she finds and
varnishes to form the most natural, and beautiful, of creations.
19 ACCOMMODATION ADDRESS SERVICE
This business can be
operated from home or from small office premises. Look at advertisements in 'Exchange and Mart'
from people operating a similar service, if you need any convincing that some
people will pay you to collect and forward their mail at regular intervals; the
prime reason often being that of maintaining their privacy at home.
20 UPHOLSTERY
Many families seek not to
constantly change their furniture, but to have much-loved pieces repaired and
reupholstered. Whether due to financial
constraints or for sentimental reasons, the answer to their problems could
easily come via the services of someone skilled in the art of renovation and reupholstery.
Courses are available at most colleges.
21 FURNITURE STRIPPING
As an adjunct to upholstery
we find individuals and firms specialising in the
stripping of furniture, removing the years of polish and grime from antique or
more recent items, and restoring them to their former glory. The french polisher
also provides a much-appreciated service, often making minor improvements to a
piece perhaps a little battle-scarred, but too valuable to be relegated to the
dustbin.
22 TYPING SERVICE
If you already can, or could
learn to type to a professional standard, offer your services to local
factories and shops, hairdressers, hotels, writers, students, and the general
public. Providing your fees are competitive
with those for full-time or agency staff you should find no trouble in
maintaining repeat custom, particularly is you can offer to complete work
within tight deadlines.
23 CUSTOM CURTAIN MAKING
It is rare that a customer
finds curtains of the exact material and design that he or she is seeking. Someone who can offer a professional sewing
service, producing curtains made up from the customer's material and chosen
design, will find him or herself in great demand, especially if costs are
reasonable.
24 SOFT TOYS
At craft fairs and in craft
magazines we discover all manner of cuddly toys, as well as a sizable
proportion not intended for the youngsters' sticky fingers, but destined
instead to occupy pride of place on some teenager's dressing table. But it is essential, if rewards are to be
high, to provide something a little different to that which can easily be
obtained from the larger manufacturers - what about those teddies with their
individual greetings and names of the recipient embroidered on their clothing?
25 HIRING
We find here all types of
items, particularly those required for only a limited duration, eg designer dresses, wedding attire, baby hardware, and so
on. Hire the items out for the hiring
fee and a deposit which is refundable when the item is returned intact. One firm of which I have personal knowledge
will hire out almost anything: from lawnmowers to typewriters, to prams and
televisions; even offering to lend me their own computer over a weekend when
their staff were off duty and my computerwas
out of action.
26 CAR BOOT TRADER
Car boot sales offer a good
income to those prepared to investigate suitable venues and to offer reasonable
stock at realistic prices. Stock is
unbelievably easy to acquire whether from your own garage or from the attics of
friends and relatives, jumble sales, other car boot traders, private sales, and
charity shops.
27 MAKING VIDEO FILMS
The cost of a video camera
prohibits many families from capturing those rare moments in their children's
lives: the parties, first steps, first day at school, and so on. So here we have a great business opportunity,
providing a service much in demand at weddings, birthday parties, anniversary
celebrations, and on many, many other occasions.
28 LEAFLET DISTRIBUTION
Many firms and businesses
advertise their services and goods by means of leaflets and brochures delivered
to selected addresses, but Post Office charges often present them with
extremely high processing costs.
Employing people to deliver the same can be equally prohibitive. But a leaflet distributor dealing with
several client workloads at the same time, can offer a
much lower cost to the customer. Your
services can be advertised locally or nationally, and can attract much repeat
custom if costs are kept competitive and an efficient standard of service is
maintained.
29 HOME PUBLISHING
This must surely rank as one
of the few businesses in which massive profits can be earned, whilst demanding
of the newcomer very little in the way of capital or experience. The publisher usually offers his stock
directly to the public, primarily by direct mail or advertisements in
appropriate publications. He or she may
either write the manuals and books that form his stock, or else may buy them
straight from the writer, or from other publishers offering reproduction rights
in the manuscripts concerned. All the
home publisher requires to hand is one good quality manuscript for
photocopying, and advertising leaflets for each title. You may choose to deal in such as
self-improvement topics, 'How To' titles of all kinds, or perhaps to specialise in one of the most profitable of home publishing
lines, that of business and moneymaking titles.
30 PARTY PLAN
Almost anything can be sold
via the medium of the house party where clients gather to enjoy tea and cakes, then later watch a demonstration of the products on
offer. Items are ordered usually at the
party, with payment being made when the goods are delivered some time
later. The hostess will require some
worthwhile gift or percentage of the takings as her reward for assembling
potential customers and providing the venue and fare for the party. The massive profits made by such as
Tupperware must surely have prompted today's endless round of parties for goods
such as lingerie, kids' wear, basketware, perfumes, to
name but a few.
31 HOUSE AND PET SITTING
Here the entrepreneur offers
a service whereby the clients' home, possessions and pets are safeguarded
during his or her absence. The service
may be one of total surveillance, whereby the person actually lives on the
premises, or may be a partial service involving such as daily visits whereby
all signs of absence are removed. Plants
may be watered and small domestic pets cared for. Alternatively, a dog-walking or caring
service may be much in demand where a customer is obliged to be away from home
for more than a few hours at a time.
32 COLOUR ANALYSIS
Now that quality make-up and
fashions are within the scope of most women's budgets, something further is
sought by which to set them apart from their peers. That something may well be colour analysis, the method of designating clients as winter, summer, spring or autumn
personalities, according to their skin,
hair and eye tones, then subsequently providing them with a colour
scheme from which they will choose all future wardrobe and make-up shades.
33 CALLIGRAPHY
This is the rather grand
name for the even grander art of creating beautiful handwriting and
printing. We see swirling flows of
lettering, created by hand with the aid of special pens and inks, adorning
menus in the better eating establishments, on examination certificates, formal
invitations, signs, notices, doorplates, to name but a few creations demanding
a thoroughly professional and attractive end-product.
34 PHOTOGRAPHY
You don't have to outrank
Lords Snowdon or Lichfield to take great pictures of junior's
birthday party, for parents who profess not to know one end of a camera from
another. You do though need a little
better than the 'point and press' type camera, though not necessarily one that
requires much setting-up of buttons and selectors before you even set eyes, or
eye, upon the viewfinder. Courses are
available at many local colleges. A good
photographer can be in regular demand for weddings, parties, christenings, and
as a freelance for local newspapers and businesses.
35 SANDWICH SERVICE
Not all offices and
workplaces have suitable canteen or food vending services for their employees,
and not all are within easy distance of suitable shopping facilities. Some employees have little time or
inclination to provide themselves in such circumstances with a sufficiently
tempting packed lunch. Here lies the
opportunity for the enterprising businessman or woman to operate a sandwich
delivery service, preferably one offering unusual fillings, perhaps also
providing the lunchbox which isthen retrieved the
following day and another, complete with sandwiches, substituted in its place.
36 PARTY CATERING
Almost all of us enjoy house
parties, dinner parties, even children's parties. Not all of us though, relish the thought of
long hours preparing for the event, only to find we're too tired to enjoy the
fruits of our labours. Someone who can undertake the preliminaries
on our behalf, leaving us to enjoy the party free of hassle, must surely be
worth paying highly for.
37 CHILDREN'S ENTERTAINER
If like me, you hate the
thought of leading children in an endless round of 'Farmers in his Den' and
'Ring a Ring o Roses', then have you considered doing what I now do - hire a
children's entertainer. Clowns,
magicians, Punch and Judy puppeteers, and jugglers, are just a few of the many
types of entertainer ready, willing and able to take the hassle out of the
party. His or her fees may seem high,
often amounting to œ30 - œ50 for each one hour session, but to many parents,
that's a small price to pay for the happy smiles this different form of
entertainment generates.
38 GROWING HERBS
An easy one this, and not requiring much in the way of time and
attention, it's a moneymaking proposition that could easily survive alongside
other ventures. Fresh herbs are much in
demand as an alternative to the dried-out tasteless variety we find in bottles
and jars on supermarket shelves. Grown in little pots they can be sold to
supermarkets, hotels, restaurants, even direct to the public either on a
door-to-door basis, at car boot fairs, or on roadside stalls.
39 KNITTING
As all ladies know there's
'knitting' and 'knitting'. For some of
us the old plain and purl will suffice, for others only the finest fair-isle or
most intricate of aran designs can truly lay claim to
the title of 'knitting'. It's the same
for those wearing the finished garments, or perhaps giving the same as
gifts. Almost everyone can produce
professional garments of the simpler variety; very few can produce those
falling within the 'designer label' category.
If you can create better items, perhaps from patterns you have created
yourself, you might be surprised at just how much customers are willing to pay.
40 SEWING AND ALTERATIONS
Those who can sew garments
from intricate patterns, especially if those patterns are self-created originals,
can find their services in great demand by customers who seek something just
that little bit different - and are prepared to pay for it! For knitting, sewing, crochet, and craft
specialists of all types, it's a much more than worthwhile investment to at
least try their hands at fashion designing.
41 GROWING AND SELLING HOUSEPLANTS
Here we have a product in
constant demand by old and young alike, whether for their own use or else as
gifts for the vast majority of us who take pleasure in adorning our homes with
a natural form of ornamentation. Usually
all you will need is a selection of 'mother' plants, from which your cuttings
are taken before being replanted in the small pots or containers they will be
sold in. We find plants sold at car boot
sales, indoor and outdoor markets, from roadside stalls, even by means of signs
placed on the roadside to direct customers into the home - careful though on
the latter point, since such signs are sometimes forbidden by local authorities
- always check first!
42 OLD PHOTOGRAPHIC VIEWS
Sometimes called 'photo
antiques', here we are offering photographic reproductions, usually
enlargements, of old street and village scenes, or pictures of social
interest. Original postcards and
photographs of such views are becoming increasingly beyond the means of those who
want the items for their intrinsic value; at something like œ20 a time these
items are now truly in that category known as 'Collectables', for people
prepared to pay high prices for rare and prized specimens. The cost of an
original is low in terms of the endless reproductions that can be created from
it, to be sold at a few pounds each if unframed, higher if mounted or framed.
43 AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS
We can stand outside forever
taking snaps of our homes, village, places of work, and so on, but rarely will
we be rewarded with anything sufficiently different to warrant the time or
money spent in obtaining it. A shot from
an unusual angle though, is another matter entirely, especially if that
direction is one not readily accessible to us all - like the sky! One highly successful firm hires a plane,
once in summer, again in winter. With
the firm's own photographer on board the plane circles a wide area taking
hundreds of photographs of houses, shops, farms, schools, as well as many
general interest views. The photographs
are then taken to the owner or occupier of the buildings photographed, and
offered for sale in several different forms including small and large framed
prints, plates, jigsaws, table mats and so on.
The charges are high but for something so different, who cares?
44 RESEARCHER
There are times when we all
would like information not readily accessible to us. Whether we need it desperately enough to pay
someone to gather the information on our behalf is another matter. For many
private individuals it's an easy matter to visit the library to find the
information we require; for others it's too time-consuming a task, particularly
when other demands take priority. In
this category we find writers, market analysts, larger firms, advertising agencies, to name a few. Here therefore is an opportunity for someone
who likes digging and delving, to actually spend all day amongst the reference
books of the local library, making notes that will later be transferred to type
for the customer. This service can also
be in demand amongst those studying their family or firm's history.
45 SLUSH MONEY
Subtitled 'when Words are
Simply Not Enough', here we have a business opportunity that caters for an
almost insatiable need for anything by which to preserve our cherished
memories. So we find baby's first shoes
enshrined forever in a coating of bronze, silver or gold, embroidered cushions
on which were placed our wedding rings for their blessing, and picture frames
adorn a sealed container wherein are displayed precious or rare items. I recently discovered one businessman who
made framed containers each of which contained a ragged piece of rock, but not
any ragged piece of rock - these were pieces of the Berlin Wall.
46 CRAFT CLOTHES
Another potentially
insatiable market, here we find the entrepreneur catering for the demands of
the fashion-conscious and those wanting something different,
or just something that needs no loudspeaker to scream 'money'. Handcrafted clothes of the better variety, are hugely popular amongst the more affluent
sectors of society, often for purely snobbish reasons. Whether for the adult or child, it's no big
deal to spend several hundreds of pounds on that hand-made, hand-painted,
hand-embroidered garment, that absolutely guarantees no-one, but no-one will
have anything remotely similar.
47 TELEPHONE ANSWERING SERVICE
This facility is much in
demand amongst small businessmen and women who work outside of the home, yet
need telephone contact with potential customers - remember not all can stretch
to purchasing a mobile phone. There are
also companies who require agents in other parts of the country to take
telephone calls and messages, for passing on to their agents. Whether you choose to advertise your service
to businesspeople or look for advertisements placed by firms is entirely at
your discretion - why not do both?
48 DISCRETION BUYER
Basically, a discretion
buyer is one who undertakes the purchase on behalf of one who, for reasons of
his or her own, prefers to remain anonymous.
The most obvious example of such is in the auction house where often
massive sums are bid by agents for the true buyer. Sometimes the reason for such anonymity will
be that of maintaining privacy; at other times it is for reasons of security.
49 BULK BUYING AND SPLITTING
Wholesalers of all types
cater for those who require items in bulk, be they shopkeepers, offices, large
businesses or whatever. How nice
therefore for all of us to take advantage of the often massive price reductions such
bulk-buying allows. Anyone
willing to purchase in bulk and split, offering the item at a price still lower
than shop prices will find a ready market amongst small businesses, car boot
traders, nurseries, and so on.
Items can range from stationery, to small toys, party tableware, kitchen
items, ad infinitum.
50 TYPED PICTURES AND PORTRAITS
How marvellous
it must be to have something so personal and so
original as a typed portrait of yourself!
The keys of the typewriter are chosen for their suitability in providing
shaded areas, stark lines, darkness and so on, until a
picture emerges of the chosen subject.
It's an easy task to undertake, especially with
a word processor in which case the 'picture' can be created and amended on the
screen before it appears in print. There
are books available by which you can learn this beautiful craft.
51 VIDEO PICTURE PRINT OUTS
Recently, at a village show,
I saw droves of people congregating in one tiny corner of a marquee, and
curiosity being what it is, I decided to find out
why. The reason consisted of a video
camera with which the stallholder took portraits of his customers. The image was then transferred to a machine
which churned out a copy very similar to that of a photocopying machine - and
at only 50p a time! Another
idea of a truly personal and one-off service.
52 SECOND HAND ITEMS
Sadly, we can't all buy the
things we want brand new. Indeed not
many of us want to spend hard-earned cash on items we might not require for any
great length of time. So we find shops
selling second-hand baby hardware, office machinery and filing systems, even household goods.
53 FADS AND GIMMICKS
Massive profits have been
made this year (1991) by those cashing in on the current craze for anything
remotely connected with those 'Teenage Mutant Hero' TURTLES. Greenbacks are provided in more ways than one
by the makers and sellers of turtle puppets, games, jigsaws, clothes, etc.,
etc., etc., Watch
out for their successors and get in there with a vengeance.
54 ONE-OFF GIFT SERVICE
Here we aim to make a
customer of every single person who ever needs to buy a gift, by offering
something unique and highly appropriate.
Think for example of businesses currently operating without competition
in this fantastic market: delivering
bottles of champagne to the recipient; delivering teddy bears with a message
and the recipient's name embroidered on the front; providing hampers of 'not on
my wage' goodies to delighted recipients; providing story books with the
child's name and those of his or her friends and pets incorporated into the
text.
55 UPHOLSTERY AND 100 new
A good opportunity awaits
anyone prepared to undertake a service much in demand by householders, who
cringe at the thought of hiring for themselves the heavy industrial cleaning
equipment needed to carry out a good cleaning job on furniture and carpeting. Contracts can be obtained from larger
customers, for example hotels, pubs, restaurants, and so on. Advertise your services in the local press
and shop windows, or else via leaflets delivered door to door.
56 GROWING MUSHROOMS
Not a full-time occupation
in terms of the attention growing mushrooms requires, but certainly a way to
provide an attractive second income.
Many specialist kits are available to set you up in such a business, but
much the same basic information as they contain is also available in books from
the library. Apart from a very small
outlay for initial products, a small dark area of space is all that you require
to produce something always in great demand by the
general public and commercial enterprises alike.
57 TEACHING COMPUTERS
If you decide to offer this
much-needed service, make me customer number one, for I am useless with
anything mechanical, let alone anything with a brain superior to mine. Many of us are keen to learn how to use a
computer but sadly, like myself, find the reading and digesting of manual
information a long and arduous task.
Someone to teach the very basics and perhaps provide a back-up service
for the future, must have the makings of a very
profitable business in his or her hands.
58 COMPUTER DIAGNOSIS
Similar to the the teaching of computer basics, there is a great demand
for help when things go wrong. I once
succeeded in wiping clean three disks it had taken me three months to
produce. I threw them away! Ages later I discover that the information
was not lost; it could have been retrieved had I the information to hand - and
for returning three months' work to me I would have paid well, but sadly
no-one, as far as I knew, could help.
Now in a writers' magazine I see a service that helps with all computer
problems, or else there is no charge.
Computer whizzkids - come to our assistance!
59 CORRESPONDENCE COURSES
The whole world is keen to
learn something new; we don't all have the time though, or the opportunity, to
attend local college courses, assuming of course such courses as we require
actually exist. Correspondence courses
come to the aid of such students, allowing them to learn in the comfort and
privacy of their own homes. And, perhaps
surprisingly, it doesn't take a college professor to produce good
and much in demand correspondence courses; anyone who knows his or her subject
can enter this extremely lucrative field of business.
60 PRINTS
Much in demand at local fleamarkets and antiques fairs, are advertisements from
early magazines, engraved prints of local views, and other prints often taken
from long obsolete publications. In
themselves they are worth a few pounds each; coloured
and framed they sell for upwards of œ20, AND there is a huge demand for such
items. I know because I sell them!
61 STORIES
Not just at Christmas time,
but at all times of the year, there is an advertisement placed in many
publications, whereby the brilliant originator of this idea, offers a service
he discovered almost by accident. Typing
out stories on his word processor he decided to enter his child's name instead
of that of the heroine; the compliments and requests for similar items for
other children came in thick and fast, and so another great business idea was
conceived. With your own stories you too
could benefit.
62 CO-ORDINATOR FOR HOBBYISTS AND SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS
The groups concerned here
exist not primarily to correspond with one another, but to have their interests
co-ordinated in a manner that will keep them
well-informed and up-to-date with events, trends, and techniques relating to
their special interest or hobby. So we
find a monthly magazine 'Picture Postcard Monthly' which contains articles,
private and dealer advertisements, events diaries, auction and sales notices,
for all of us interested in - wait for
it - 'Deltiology', the hobby of collecting or merely taking an interest in
those early picture postcards our ancestors sent to one another in great
profusion. Similar magazines exist for
those interested in autographs, cigarette cards, and many other collecting
interests. We also find specialist
magazines and group newsletters for those interested in consumer competitions,
creative writing, and almost anything else you can imagine.
63 CUTTINGS SERVICE
Writers, historians, firms,
and newspapers, are amongst the many people and organisations
requiring information they simply don't have the time to research for
themselves. A cuttings service is one
which obtains as many newspapers and periodicals as possible and removes all
items of interest, to be filed under subject headings. A writer wanting for instance, to research
and collate as much information as possible about some past incident, perhaps a
particular Olympic Games, or person of notoriety, simply contacts the cutting
service which then retrieves the information required, photocopies it and hey
presto - another happy customer!
64 SPECIALISE IN WRITING OR SELLING BOOKS
ON SPECIAL INTERESTS
Look in any hobby or special
interest magazine, such as those for writers, competitions enthusiasts, craftworkers, stamp collectors, and so on, and you'll come
by a host of publications catering for the special needs of the readers. Often they are written by individuals with
interests similar to those of 9the readers; sometimes they are from an
individual who merely researches the information imparted and presents it a
readable form. Try just one hobby or
interest at first, write a few titles, then move on to
something different, always of course continuing your advertisements for the
earlier publications.
65 PRINT AGENCY
Charges for small-run
photocopying are high, but greatly reduced for bulk and larger orders. Here the entrepreneur takes orders for
photocopying on a small-run basis, collates the orders which are then taken to
a photocopying specialist who has earlier agreed a low cost for bulk
printing. Alternatively, you could lease
a photocopier yourself and advertise the service which you carry out
personally.
66 PEN PAL/CORRESPONDENCE CLUB
'Lonely in a crowd' they
say, and never was a truer statement uttered.
Look at the number of advertisements we find placed by people wanting to
contact others whether for friendship or to share a common interest. Some mechanism is necessary to facilitate the
coming together of thousands of currently isolated individuals who share this
common need or interest. This is where
the astute businessperson comes into play, acting as middleman, who often does
little more than coordinate, collate, and distribute details relating to the
activities and interests of members.
67 CRAFTWORK SUPPLIER
There are a great many
publications on the market to cater for the needs of craftworkers,
from those interested in embroidery, to sewing, knitting, building and
renovating dolls' houses, modelmaking, and so
on. Look also at the classified
advertisements contained in those publications and you'll discover many
suppliers of items much in demand by these hobbyists. These items include: beads, dolls' house
furniture, bags of material remnants, patterns,
complete kits, and much, much more.
Hobbyists of course are unlikely to want bulk items such as a wholesaler
might offer; so here we have a variation of the old favourite
bulk buyer/splitter enterprise.
68 DOLLS' CLOTHES
If you doubt the viability
of this proposition, take a look in any toyshop and discover for yourself the
massive prices being asked for often inferior clothes for today's favourite dolls.
Well-made designs for clothes, and such as bedcoverings,
cot and pram covers will always provide a steady demand.
69 PUB AND HOTEL DECOR
Gone are the days when the
publican could bank on a regular clientele merely by keeping his premises
clean. With the growth of wine bars,
hotels, nightclubs, and private clubs, the landlord or owner must now make his
establishment that much more inviting if he is to survive. We now find firms dealing in pub decor but
not of the wallpaper/paint variety.
These firms offer something different, in most cases unique. They offer blown-up sepia photos of the pub
and its environment in earlier days, sepia photos of famous 'regulars' perhaps
with a printed write-up of their achievements, framed early advertisements for
alcoholic beverages, framed collections of old beer labels and beermats, and so on.
70 MAN WITH A VAN
I recently came by an
advertisement in my local paper for an entirely new and much-needed
service. For something like £3 for a
local trip, the 'man with a van' collects and delivers to you those items that
simply won't fit into the family car, and for which the firm selling them
offers no delivery service.
71 RENT - A - .......
When I first saw the
advertisement for 'Rent-a-Nappy', I doubted the mentality of the couple who
offered to deliver boxes of nappies to the customers' doors. Seeing their advertisement grow larger over
the months that followed, I realised perhaps there
must be something profitable here, of potential interest to others. The couple, it seems, deliver nappies in bulk
to the door, saving the mother the cost and inconvenience of travelling with a new baby.
Their prices too for the items were competitive since they bought their
stock in bulk, and actual cost to the customer was very little higher than the
cost of the same product bought in the shops.
The 'Rent-a' principle applies also to personal
services, for example: 'Rent-a-Nanny', 'Rent-a-Mrs.
Mop', and 'Rent-a-Gardener' being but a few of the many examples I have
recently come by.
72 GIANT KIDS' THINGS
Fantasy will always be big
business particularly perhaps in respect of children, who simply love to bounce
on huge cushions and foam-filled play equipment. Life-size stuffed dolls and toys add another
dimension to their world of make-believe, as do those beds in the shape of
motor racing cars and castles. A vastly
under-exploited market this one for the imaginative
businessman and woman.
73 HORSE BLANKETS, COVERS ETC
Visit any cross-country
event or gymkhana, and you'll see the most beautiful garments carefully laid
across the owners' equine pride and joy.
Horse blankets come in many shapes and sizes and many of them are
extremely expensive to buy via the usual sources, and often very plain
too. Several small firms however specialise in making blankets to order and to design; often
embroidered with the horse's name; sometimes incorporating club colours or motifs, and so on.
74 DOG TRAINING CLASSES
We are a nation of dog
lovers, so they say, and many of us loving our pets as we do, want them to be
well-behaved if only for their own safety in the world outside of the
home. So we take them to classes, where
they are taught to 'sit', 'stay', and 'heel', and we are willing to pay
considerable sums for the privilege of having someone teach us and our pets how
to behave in an acceptable fashion.
Normally classes consist of anything up to 50 owners and their pets,
usually paying for each session as and when attended.
75 RUNNING A NURSERY
Sadly, unlike many other
countries, Britain
falls far short of providing those childminding
facilities which would enable parents to re-enter the workforce. Individual child-minding facilities take a
huge slice from the wage, and often a private nursery catering for several
children at the same time, can cut the cost to the
parent. There are of course standards
set in respect of all facilities for childcare; standards with which you must familiarise yourself before attempting to enter this
lucrative area of business - ask your local Social Services department for
information.
76 STABLES, FEEDING, LIVERY, PADDOCK
Buying the horse is not the
expensive part of horse-ownership. That
once-off cost becomes almost insignificant compared to the cost of maintaining
the animal, if that is, you can find good
accommodation in your area. Standards
and types of accommodation vary from simple paddock facilities, whereby the
owner pays rent to the owner of the land for nothing more than a field in which
his horse may graze, hopefully with at least basic facilities for sheltering,
to full livery, and plush stable complexes with daily grooming and feeding provided
by trained staff. If you have land
attached to your home, here is an opportunity to make it pay.
77 KNITTING/EMBROIDERY/NEEDLEPOINT ETC. PATTERN DESIGNER
Look at T.V. stars such as
Noel Edmunds, Russell Grant, and Giles Brandreth, and
you'll notice one thing they all have in common - knitted garments for all
manner of occasions, each emblazoned with the most appropriate of patterns and
motifs. 'Horsie'
folk have their garments decorated with cartoon 'Thelwell'
horses; 'Turtlemania' has caused a great demand for
appropriately designed children's wear; some prefer to have the slogan of a favoured organisation splattered
across their chests, whilst others require just our children's names for
decoration of their clothing. The actual
designing of such patterns ready for incorporation into the basic knitting
pattern is an extremely easy task to undertake.
My designs require nothing but a rule, pen and a piece of graph paper - even an unused
football pools coupon. Take the original
design you wish to transfer to the garment and section it out into 1/8 inch
squares. Then transfer the design to the
graph paper of similar proportions, merely by colouring
each appropriate square using that colour it takes on
the master design. Each square now
represents a stitch, to be knitted in the colour you
have indicated.
78 CROSSWORDS
Crosswords are surprisingly
easy to produce with a little practice, and many books on the subject of
writing will guide you through the basic techniques. As an adjunct to producing crosswords for the
many markets requiring the services of the compiler, there is the opportunity
to provide 'personalised' crosswords for clubs,
presents, individuals and so on. I have seen advertisements from people
offering to create a crossword incorporating words appropriate to the person
who will receive the end result as a gift; such as name, pets, occupation,
hobbies and interests are all potentials for inclusion.
79 BIRTHDAY MEMORABILIA
Another highly individual
gift service is offered by those who locate original newspapers from the actual
date of the recipient's birth. How much
more personal can you get? But have you
considered the potential of offering original magazines from relevant dates,
calendars from the year of one's birth, original framed horoscopes from the
day, month or year concerned, even just a framed advertisement from a
publication of the time? With the
exception of the newspaper service this is a greatly under-exploited area
within the field of specialist gift services.
80 BIG BYGONES
Nostalgia will always be a
winner, in the business world at least.
Oh, how I wanted one of those red telephone kiosks sold off when the
yellow designs came into being, but sadly I was not one of the many hundreds of
people who could afford to buy one. Juke
boxes are another 'biggie' in both physical and financial terms, as are old
cars, vans (particularly those complete with advertising signs), and huge early
enamel advertising signs once used outside shops and now a collecting area know
as 'street jewellery'.
81 NEEDLEWORK PATTERNS OF HOUSES,
ANIMALS, FAMILY, ETC
Refer, if you will, to idea
number 77, concerning the creating of patterns for use by the adventurous
knitter. Designs created in a similar
manner would also be of interest to those craftspeople working in needlepoint,
cross-stitch, and embroidery. Many kits are on sale, at high prices, offering
little more than a squared pattern such as we have discussed, the appropriate
background material, together with the wools and needles required. Dogs, cats, famous homes, all feature in the
designs available, but I still have not found anything to compare with the
offer to create a pattern from your children's and pet's portraits, photos of
your home, and any other coloured photo with sufficiently
clear definition to allow an accurate transfer to the colour
pattern the designer provides.
82 PHOTOCOPYING PRINTS, ETC
Sometimes the customer
desires a copy of some item as opposed to an original document, be it an early
magazine, advertisement, diary, calendar, or photograph of his village or
town. Recently, I succumbed to
purchasing 100 copies of early black and white advertisements. The originals cost something in the region of
œ3 to œ10 each; these were photocopies and served my purpose just as well as
would the originals. I paid œ39 for
them; almost 40p each for a photocopy that would cost under 10p - and I was
extremely pleased with my purchase.
Similar items I have seen offered for sale include photocopies of old
maps, colour photocopies of early picture postcards,
early engravings; and many a dealer is selling hand-tinted prints and maps, at much lower prices than an original
copy would cost.
83 ORIGIN OF NAMES
Along with an insatiable
need to learn more about our family ancestors there is a growing interest in
learning more about the origins of our family names. A new computerised
system has been introduced into one or two city and town centres,
a business that as yet is grossly under-exploited. From several huge volumes the customer
locates the surname he is interested in having traced, whereupon the operator
keys such into the computer immediately at hand. The resulting print-out is offered to the
customer on parchment-like paper in Old English lettering. The fee is something like £9 for this unique
piece of historical interest. For an additional charge the document is framed
behind non-reflective glass.
84 FORTUNE TELLING
Not with a glass ball and
dressed as the latest descendant of Gypsy Rose Lee, there is a great revival
taking place in the grand old art of predicting the future. I was amazed when walking in my local town
centre, to observe a man with mobile stall, computer and long trailing
print-outs. He was telling the fortunes
of passers by from handprints produced when they placed their palms flat on the
computer bed. The fortune was actually
told by the computer and interpreted by the businessman in charge. The customers received computer print-outs of
their handprints, full prediction details, and verbal interpretation. If the number of satisfied smiles coming away
from that stall are anything to go by, I think this is another business well
worth consideration by the enterprising entrepreneur, looking for something
just that little bit different.
85 VILLAGE HISTORY
Still seeking to satisfy an
insatiable interest in anything concerning the past, a number of enterprising
individuals have discovered a way of serving a large number of customers with
just one item, copied many times. These
individuals collate the historical details relating to villages, towns, even
cities, and write them up to the delight of avid readers with little time to
unearth the facts for themselves - often with little inclination to sit delving
into volumes wherein the details are contained.
Here lies the opportunity for someone who enjoys discovering such
facts. All that is required is one copy
of the end product, to be photocopied or printed, and sold in local shops,
door-to-door, or by means of advertisements placed in the local press.
86 SWAP SHOP
Collectors of such as
stamps, postcards, coins, books, and a great many other items, often find
themselves with many duplicate items in their collections. The same applies to people requiring such as
forms for entry to consumer competitions.
The business idea here consists of acting as middleman for the swapping
of such items, charging a fee of course for each transaction. There are many things people would like to
swap, not all of them falling within the category of collectables. Household goods, baby hardware, school books,
are further examples of items we simply sometimes find no further use for. Someone to offer a service whereby we can
offload such items, and await a suitable swap for them, must surely be in great
demand by all of us.
87 BIORHYTHMS
Biorhythms are cycles that
rule our minds, bodies and emotions.
Life it is said, goes through a series of
rhythms, and their pattern of ups and downs have a great influence on the
functioning of the body and its emotions.
Cycles can be positive or negative, and critical periods can be
identified, enabling the persons to whom they apply to take extra care on
certain occasions, or else to modify their behaviour
accordingly. Sounds complicated, doesn't
it? But it is actually extremely easy to
chart and analyse the biorhythms of any individual at
any time in his or her life. Small
wonder now that the science has gained a high degree of credibility, that
businessmen, sportsmen, students, and politicians, are but a few of the groups
to have their biorhythm charts compiled before making any important decisions
and plans. Your services can be offered privately or postally, and the whole art can be learned from appropriate
text books.
88 BOOK-KEEPING
The book-keepers' skills are
highly valued amongst small traders and businessmen and women, particularly
with accountants charging high rates for a similar service. You will be in great demand, either on a
temporary basis as the Tax Year draws to a close, or on a permanent part-time
basis, thereby alleviating the need for businesses to employ their own staff.
89 WRITING
Whether they choose to write
readers' letters and fillers, articles or short stories, a good living awaits
those who are tuned into meeting the requirements of the various editors and
publishers desperate for new talent. The
market for articles is much greater than that for short stories, and usually
means a more regular acceptance rate.
Seeking further to satisfy the lesser known and lower paying markets
will also lower potential rejection rates, as you break your way into this
highly lucrative area.
90 FAMILY TREES
In Government records,
Parish registers, graveyards, and in many other places, are segments of
information, which when located and pieced together, offer an extremely
accurate and interesting profile of one's family history. But a problem presents itself which precludes
many a man or woman from researching his or her family history - TIME! Time in many of our lives is an extremely
scarce commodity and other demands allow insufficient time to undertake
sometimes painstaking research. This is
where you come in, as a specialist and highly paid researcher.
91 COMPETITIONS
Every day, someone,
somewhere, receives the news that he or she is the new owner of something well
beyond the scope of his or her own financial resources. It might be a classic car, or a house in an
exclusive area. The recipients are
devotees of consumer competitions sponsored by manufacturers, hotels, shops,
and many other businesses, as a means of attracting new customers. To qualify for the excellent prizes on offer
every day, the competitor is faced with an array of tasks, from the simple
prize draw, to spot-the-ball exercises, order-of-merit tasks, and to creating a
slogan or tiebreaker. Try a copy of
'Competitors Journal' and see for yourself what you might be missing.
92 CONSULTANT
Many of us, whether we are,
or have been employed in professional careers, in a skilled trade, or many
other occupations, are unaware of the untapped talent we might be able to offer
to other than our '9 - 5' employers.
Some firms and private individuals welcome the services of trained and
experienced people from all walks of life, but have insufficient need to employ
them on a regular, part or full-time basis.
We might for instance, require a nanny or nurse to look after our
children, or a recruitment specialist to help us through the hurdles of job
interviewing techniques.
93 THE BIG FREEZE
Life being as hectic as it
is, especially for the younger ones struggling to meet mortgage repayments, not
everyone has the time or inclination to make small economies around the
home. Freezing food whilst in season, and freezing large
portions of main meals for future use, are just two such ways to save on the
household food budget, but sadly something time prevents many of us from
doing. Someone willing to perform such
services on our behalf would be more than welcome, even if there must of
necessity be an additional cost over and above that of raw materials. Your service can extend beyond fresh fruit,
vegetables, and everyday main meals. You
might for instance offer gourmet cuisine, and freezer portions of the more
exotic fruits and vegetables we find in the up-market foodstores.
94 PRODUCING CASSETTE TAPES
There are many types of
commercially produced tape, some for the music lover, or for the lover of novels but with little
time to sit around indulging him or herself, preferring instead to carry on
with normal chores whilst the story or whatever is read aloud, usually by some
famous personality. Purchasers might
want to have a bestselling novel read to them, or else to hear a story you have
written, perhaps to learn some new hobby, or to have multiplication tables set
to music, thereby reinforcing the learning process in the minds of school-bored
children.
95 STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER
If I had a couple of acres
of land, even if
