This is the big one, if you really want to make money, you won't do it working for someone else. For those of you of a nervous disposition please stop reading now as in order to progress this option you need to take a risk.
Once again, I cannot talk directly about setting up of a successful business that has made me millions, if I had done that I wouldn't be writing this blog would I, I would be selling you the concepts via Internet Marketing, whilst sunning myself in some far away clime ;-) I can however reflect on a couple of businesses that I know of that can be run part time and could become full time if you need.
For ease of classification I will start with low risk, low cost and work my way upwards. But first some fundamentals.
1) No business can succeed without having a market
2) You must have a good proposition
3) Businesses can fail more often than they succeed so do not commit money into a business that you cannot afford to lose
4) Manage your costs, if you make a loss you won't stay in business
5) The most important thing in business is your customer, no customer means no business.
6) Did I mention the customer? They are the most important thing, keep them happy!
So where to start, first spot your market, you are looking for a demand that needs filling, that you can fill. Early in my career, when the PC was in it's infancy, I worked for an insurance company as their PC support centre manager. My job was to support people using their PC's. I came up with an idea, if people had PC's at home they would learn skills that could be brought back into the office. So I put together a proposal that the company should lend their staff money to buy a home PC and reclaim it at x pounds per month from salary. I canvassed a few dozen people who nearly all thought it would be a good idea! Went to see HR who thought it was feasible, took it to the management team who sent me away with a flea in my ear. (Not their core business to sell computers etc etc.) The trouble was I was being rung up constantly by people wanting to know when the scheme would start.
Rather than disappoint them, I took the initiative. I contacted a well know direct sales computer company and negotiated a discount of 15% off their already keen prices, based on volume. Then got everyone who wanted to buy to a machine to choose one from the company price list, and give me a cheque for the cost less 5%. I then bought them the machine, kept the 10% profit and Robert was your mother's brother, we were all happy. See what I mean, there was a demand, I could fulfill it. For me it was even better as all machine came with support, so even when there were issues I could get them resolved for free. Sadly over time the opportunity died. PC's became more of a commodity item and prices dropped.
Risk on a scale of 1-10: 0, Investment on a scale of 1-10: 0
Lately the Intranet has made doing business so much easier. Nowadays you can buy stuff from China from your home PC and sell them via the web (you know what I feel about Ebay!) or car boot sales. My son has recently been doing the Young Enterprise scheme. His company decided to become a marketing organisation, selling gifts for Xmas was their first go. They found a web site selling costume jewelry at a reasonable price, bought £80 worth of stock (about 60 items) which they sold at a Christmas market. Each piece was packaged in an individual organza bag (price a few pennies) In the end they took home about £150 after the cost of their stall they cleared £70 profit in less than 4 hours. They didn't have a market (other than the Christmas gift market) but they offered value for money and were selling at the right time.
Risk on a scale of 1-10: 2, Investment on a scale of 1-10: 2.
Marketing a product, whether on the internet or directly can be a very profitable option. In my next blog we'll have a look at some options.
Posts
Autumn Update
6 years ago
