Home Business Ideas 4
Here’s another 50 or so home money making and business opportunities which require no or very little start up capital to get going.
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.
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.
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’, ephemera and stamp magazines.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 they may 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.
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.
SPECIALISE 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.
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 upwards, 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!
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.
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.
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.
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?
HIRING SPECIALIST 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. Some firms will hire out almost anything: from lawnmowers to typewriters, to prams and televisions.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 is then retrieved the following day and another, complete with sandwiches, substituted in its place.
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.
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 £30 - £50 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.
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.
KNITTING As all ladies know there’s ‘knitting’ and ‘knitting’. For some 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.
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.
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!
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 £20 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.
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?
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.
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. There’s one 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.
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.
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?
