Buying into a franchise is a great way to start a business. Every McDonalds you see is a franchise! Basically you pay the franchise company a sum of money for their training and business plan. The business plan is a step by step instruction of how to run and operate the business that has been proven to work, every other outlet of this franchise has used it. You’ll also get everything you need to start up the business. The downside is that it usually costs a bit to buy into a franchise £1000 for a home based business to £500,000+ for a McDonalds style business. Not only that but you have to pay them a commission every month usually and can only use them as your supplier. It’s basically a business in a box and there’s 1000s of them out there. Be sure to make sure you have a territory agreed, so the franchiser doesn’t have a second or even third franchise business in your area. Make sure you discuss what happens in the event of selling your business, does the franchiser require a percentage and what additional sums from the new owner?
Become a professional writer. You don’t have to write a book, in fact that takes a lot of time and the chances of a first time novelist getting published are slim. Why not contact local businesses and offer to write them a company newsletter, or write an article for the local paper? Even consider publishing your own magazine or writing an online newsletter. I’ve often paid people to write sales copy for me, to promote my products, which is great if you have that talent or want to train towards it. Some webmasters will also want you to write a short article on something and then submit it to 100s of article directory websites along with a link to their website, which is a great method of promotion and website optimization for them. The market for helping students write their university papers is also growing, after all many students now have almost full time jobs along side classes. You could even advertise this service on eBay.
Producing your own arts and crafts products is also a lucrative small business idea. You don’t even have to have your own website, there’s enough established arts and crafts businesses out there that would be happy to sell your products for you. The best advice I can give is to plan what you’re going to create, it has to be a fresh take on the usual arts and craft merchandise. Taking used items like bottles and “recycling” them into fancy ornaments and vases is also a good idea. Try to make it very cute or funny. You can list items for sale on eBay, email arts and crafts websites and contact local craft stores. There’s 2 ways to sell merchandise to other businesses. The first is you sell it to them for X amount, and then they add their own fee to it and put it up for sale, basically a normal buyer-seller transaction. That’s the usual was businesses operate in the UK, they buy as many as they think they can sell. The second method is the business buys an amount of products from you with the understanding that after a certain period of time (usually a few months) if they’re not all sold the remainder can be returned to you for their money back. That means they order more upfront. That’s the common way businesses operate in the USA.
Make a how to program. If you know skills like plumbing, joinery, yoga, juggling, dancing, or just about anything useful you can make a how to product. The great thing about the internet at the moment is that both video and text are being combined on websites. You can use a digital camera to record clips of your moves and then briefly describe what you’re doing in an ebook type manual that goes along with the video files. All you’ll need to do is make up a simple website, get some sales copy there and set up a very simple member site where customers can log into and download their product. It should cost you around £100-£300 to do. Selling the products at £10-£30 you’ll recoup your costs easily, as it’s all electronic and there’s no inventory to be produced. You can advertise your how to product on video clip sites like Youtube, sell it on eBay and even buy adverts on Google, MSN and Yahoo (their prices are very very cheap!)