image:marleeward.com
culled from:www.entrepreneur.com
Today, tens of
thousands of people are considering starting a home based business, and for
good reasons. On average, people can expect to have two and three careers
during their work life. Those leaving one career often think about their second
or third career move being to their own home. People who have been part of the
traditional nine-to-five work force and are on the verge of retiring from that
life are thinking of what to do next. The good news: Starting a homebased
business is within the reach of almost anyone who wants to take a risk and work
hard.
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$1,500 or less to
start up
1. ACCOUNTANT
Experience, training
or licensing may be needed
Create a flier
outlining your services. Before you do that, you need to know what those
services will be. Do you want to simply do bookkeeping for a small business? A
more involved level of accounting would be do actually work up balance sheets,
income statements, and other financial reports on a monthly, quarterly, and/or
annual basis, depending on the needs of the business. Other specializations can
include tax accounting, a huge area of potential work. Many business owners
don't mind keeping their own day-to-day bookkeeping records but would rather
get professional help with their taxes.
2. BICYCLE REPAIR
In many parts of the
country, this business tends to be seasonal, but you can find ways around that.
Rent a storage unit and offer to store people's bicycles over the winter after
you do a tune-up and any needed repairs on them. If you want to cater to the
Lance Armstrong wannabes, you can have business all year round. These road race
riders are training through snow, sleet and dark of night. Some of them work on
their own bicycles, but many of them don't, so you can get their business all
year. And if you keep Saturday shop hours, you can be sure you will have a
group of enthusiasts coming by to talk all things cycling.
3. BOAT CLEANING
Experience, training
or licensing may be needed
Boats that are hauled
out of the water for the winter or even just for mid-season repairs will need
the hull cleaned. And depending on the type of boat, it is a good time to give
a major cleaning everything else too--the decks, the sleeping quarters, the head,
and the holds. Start by approaching homes that have a boat sitting in the yard.
Or you could market your services to the marina to contract you to do the boat
cleaning it offers to customers.
4. BUSINESS PLAN
SERVICE
Has expansion
possibilities
Offer a soup-to-nuts
business plan, including market research, the business plan narrative and the
financial statements. Plan your fee around the main one that the client will
want and offer the others as add-on services. You can give clients an
electronic file and allow them to take it from there, or you can keep the
business plan on file and offer the service of tweaking it whenever necessary.
Have business plan samples to show clients--and make sure to include your own!
5. CHIMNEY SWEEP
Learning to be a chimney
sweep may mean nothing more than apprenticing with someone already in the
business. By becoming a chimney expert, you can combine a chimney sweep
business with a chimney inspection service--covering more than just whether or
not the chimney needs cleaning but whether the chimney is in good working order
or in need of repair.
6. CLEANING SERVICE
There are many
directions you can take this business. If you want to work during hours when no
one else does, you can focus on office clients. You can focus on retail
businesses and keep your customers clumped into one or two blocks. Restaurants
are in great need of daily thorough cleaning and can be a great source of
steady clients. Perhaps you would be more interested in house cleaning. Many
times with cleaning services you don't have to spend lots of money on
advertising or marketing because your customers will come by word of mouth.
7. COMPUTER REPAIR
Experience, training
or licensing may be needed
Study the main types
of software that system users will want--word processing, photo manipulation
software, mail merge, spreadsheet, design and especially security software.
Investigate all the components--monitor types in all their varieties;
keyboards, from wired to ergonomic to wireless; mouse types; as well as
peripheral components like printers and scanners. Become completely familiar
with all the ISPs (internet service providers) available in the market area you
plan to cover. Establish yourself as the guru who can meet the needs of the
personal computer user, the small business or a larger corporation.
8. CONSULTANT
Has expansion
possibilities
To be a consultant,
you need to have an expertise in something so you can market yourself as an
advisor to others looking to work in that area. Perhaps you managed several
large warehouses in your career with a drugstore company, you did all the
marketing for many years for a large shoe manufacturer or you set up a chain of
beauty supply shops or take-out restaurants. You can use this experience to
help others do similar things without making the same mistakes that you made
along the way.
10. EBAY ASSISTANT
Do you have items
lurking around your household that you could sell on eBay? Figure out your
asking price and decide whether to auction it or put it in your eBay store.
Then decide if you want a minimum bid and how long you want the auction to
last. You will want to establish a PayPal account to use for transactions. The
eBay website provides all the information you need to know to get up and
running with an eBay business.
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