Tag: business ideas
Mar
02
Turning Childhood Drawings Into a Business
Juliette Brindak loved to draw and at only 10 years old she conceived the characters that make up the Miss O series of books. She launched a website, http://missoandfriends.com/ that has been a huge hit with tweens. Watch the video, and start thinking homeschoolers. There is a vacant niche in the tween crowd, a very influential age. You may want to take a second look at some of the pictures your children are drawing…Juliette is only 19 and worth over 15 million dollars. Ask your tweens what they like to read about, or assign your teens a writing project that might have spoken to their heart a few years ago. You might be surprised what surfaces.
More From HomeschoolEntrepreneur
Nov
16
Unusual New Ideas For Start Ups
Springwise has been one of our favorite stops for business ideas (along with our all time favorite, Dane Carlsen’s Business Opportunities, a blog you must sign up for updates from!) and we have cited ideas from Springwise here several times before as a great place to fuel your entrepreneurial dreams. Actually, it’s probably more like food for thought, because many of the ideas are often so ‘out there’ that the homeschooler in us would shudder to think of trying to launch them.
For instance, the business idea for marketing ‘Living Grass’ or live bacteria as (!) a marketing medium (see: http://www.curbmedia.com/). Interesting, maybe-natural, of course. Do-able? Questionable, at least for an average entrepreneur that wants to work at home as a family.
This week Springwise has presented a few ideas that I thought were ‘do-able’ that you might like…some with a little added twist:
Re-Jigged – Taking the old and making it new again
Re-jigged is a UK company that “reclaims unwanted clothing and upgrades them with some signature stitchery for sale to new owners, so UK-based Re-jigged turns unwearable castoffs into bespoke, one-of-a-kind children’s clothing.” I saw this business as one that is perfect for the homeschool family – that is, if you have at least one member that is talented in sewing, mending and creating.
Re-jigged is run from a farm in rural Herefordshire (UK), and in partnership with EnviroAbility, helps the firm source, wash, sort and arrange the clothing and process it as needed to accomplish their goals. EnviroAbility is a non-profit in the UK that appears to be somewhat similar to our Salvation Army or Goodwill here in the US.
In the US there are Goodwill Stores in almost every state and usually the central store in any area will sell you bags of clothing for pennies on the pound the clothes that aren’t sellable in their other stores within one month. Of course, there are many other sources of clothing discards that would be easy to find for practically nothing here in America, also. If you could efficiently re-purpose these discards into something worthwhile, you could do quite well selling what will be primarily your investment of time. Time is what it would take, along with a little ingenuity, but it was an idea I thought worth considering and IMHO, a business fitting for a homeschool family. Another Springwise discovered business that is similar is http://www.dothegreenthing.com/saved.
We Go Look – at things needing looked at!
WeGoLook is a concept that could catch on, while I’m still wondering how they find enough people to accomplish their goals. In case you’re wondering what they look at, it’s items on Ebay and Craigslist that are too far away for you to make a trip for-yet know it would be wise to SEE the item.
You could apply to be a ‘looker’, or consider a service of your own! See it in action at : http://www.wegolook.com/
Vision Walks - Giving tours for a living
Do you live somewhere interesting that you could offer a tour of? Maybe not one tour, but maybe group a series of interesting tours in your area? Be creative! Vision Walks utilize night vision goggles. What new technology could you use? An i-Phone maybe? Visit or take a look at Vision Walks for some possible ideas.
Ebay goes green – and maybe another GREEN opportunity?
Ebay’s Instant Sale, a new offering for used electronics, could be a way to recycle your old electronics…and maybe other electronics that you are able to round up. I haven’t read all the details, but thought it was worth looking into. Many people that I know have no idea what to do with their old electronic devices..maybe you can help others, the environment, and make some cash from home in the process.
go to: http://green.ebay.com/instantsale/
Are you a Foodie looking for an entrepreneurial outlet?
UpBox, “Gourmet Food in a Box”, is another UK company that is offering prepared food to go. A niche that may be a big UK hit. In the US, there are always opportunities to satisfy America’s take-out urges. UpBox is smart in targeting the upscale market, knowing that they have a little more pocket change to spare in this economy.
However, one niche in America that almost any non-poverty budget will spend a little extra on is healthy or organic food. I’ve often thought how valuable a delivery service would be for those that are too sick to go out to buy food, or to prepare their own. That’s when they need healthy food the most, but often resort to unhealthy alternatives out of the inability to manage anything else. We can’t forget that there is a big world out there that may not have family, friends or a church to help when sickness strikes. Many would pay a premium price for healthy food, prepared AND delivered. (a service that could also be a ministry!) This is also a needed service in our growing elderly community.
That’s not all!
You can read more about these new start-ups and more ideas that will boggle your entrepreneurial mind at Springwise.com. What are some unique business ideas that you have ‘spotted’ recently?
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More From HomeschoolEntrepreneur
Aug
05
How NOT To Encourage Young Entrepreneurs
If you have been reading this blog for long, you know that one of my favorite entrepreneurial blogs is Business Opportunities.biz. Written by Dane Carlsen, a Christian homeschool dad, you will find a endless supply of ideas and useful information for starting a home business. Today’s post, “Please Sir, Don’t Kill My Dream” is a story you may have heard before. It’s about a man who shut down a lemonade stand started by neighborhood children on the technicality of an ordinance that any sale of food requires a permit. You and I both know that ordinance was not intended for children’s lemonade stands, but there is no provision for that in the law. It’s hard to believe there are people out there that will do things like this, but it’s even more absurd that such an ordinance hasn’t been amended.
The editor of this article had an excellent point: How will this affect them when they grow up and want to start a business? Encouraging entrepreneurship in our youth is the future of our country… this isn’t helping! Taking steps to have that ordinance changed would be a good place to start.
Read more: http://www.business-opportunities.biz/2010/08/05/please-sir-dont-kill-my-dream
Business-Opportunities.biz – Take One Daily
As one of my favorite blogs, if you are interested in starting a home business or teaching your children to do so (which is why you are reading this blog, I’m assuming..) this is a blog you will find very useful. I thought I’d show you just a small sample of what you will find relevant to teaching your teens – or yourself – how to start a business:
14 Year Old Sets Up Coffee Shop – if you have a business already and have been trying to think of a way to also set up your teen in business, read this.
Teens Sew Up Duct Tape Contest – add this to your list of uses for duct tape!
A College Student T-Shirt Entrepreneur - inspiration for dorm room entrepreneurs
August is National Inventor’s Month – now we know…let’s get inventing!
Family First – Making At-Home Businesses Work – a must read.
Working Moms and Little Helpers Helps Moms Work at Home – there are more articles like this to read.
Don’t forget to check out their..
CLASSIFIED ADS
After you have read your fill, check out their CLASSIFIED ADS. If you have a business, you can buy one for just $5. When you sign up for their newsletter, you often receive coupon codes for a free one. Not a bad deal.
Last, but not least, if you have a blog, check out the “How much is your blog worth” widget. You never know-too bad it doesn’t include a check for the projected amount! Business Opportunities.biz is worth almost 10 million. Perhaps we can think of blogging as a retirement account?
Do YOU have a blog you’d like us to feature?
If you are a home school parent or teen that has a blog, email me at deb@homeschoolent.com with your details and I’ll get back to you promptly. The widget above that predicts what your blog is worth is primarily based on back links to your blog, which is what featuring your blog on this blog will give you!
Jul
30
3 Ways To Test Your Business Idea
Do you have an idea for a business, but aren’t sure if it would really make it? Here’s 3 ways to test it out for free:
1. Send a survey to everyone you know. Zoomerang has a free survey creation tool that you can put together in minutes. Just ask the questions like you would if you were talking to your friends…and then send it to all your friends and relatives. Everyone loves to be asked their opinion.
2. Ask a SCORE representative. It still surprises me how many people don’t realize one of the best free business tools is only an email away. Receive counsel and opinion from experts in your idea’s field. www.Score.org
3.Google’s Keyword Tool is an excellent way to determine the popularity of your idea. Not sure how to do this? Entrepreneur.com has a great article on testing business ideas with Google’s keyword tool-
http://www.entrepreneur.com/ebusiness/ebusinesscolumnist/article206188.html
Now, once you know your idea is a good one, what do you do next? Most would say write your business plan. You can find all the info you need on writing a business plan including a free online workshop at http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/plan/writeabusinessplan/index.html
Or-you could ask your SCORE representative….
Just do it.
Jun
18
Find Your Business Idea From This List of 50 Start-Ups
There is no doubt that coming up with the right idea for your home business is absolutely the most difficult part of starting a business. It also goes without saying that it’s the most critical decision you will make, too. So how do you decide on what will work?
Researching your idea
It takes a great deal of time and effort to be sure your idea will be profitable. Surveying consumer habits, knowing the competition, and evaluating availability are just part of the process. Big companies will spend millions on research before actually launching a new product.
Timing
Many great ideas were launched before their time and fell flat. Timing is as important as how it is launched.
Determining profitability
It may be the greatest idea ever, but if you can’t make any money at it, then you may want to reconsider. . . unless you don’t need the money.
Is there a big enough market
This may be a subgroup of the first two, but knowing if the market you are targeting is actually big enough to support a new product.
The reason I wanted to list the very basics of deciding on a start-up idea is because I wanted to point out the work that has already been done on this list I found. You may notice that the majority of these start-ups are tech based, but it costs a great deal to launch any of these ideas. Rest assured that the market research has already been done – in a big way.
This list if from http://blog.louisgray.com. Louis Gray is focused on much of what is happening in Silicon Valley, but if you read much of his writing, you will notice he has a keen entrepreneurial eye. That’s why I wanted you to take a look at his opinion on the 50 Start-ups Worth Watching.
One more thing - don’t look at each business as something for you to start. Look at these 2 things:
1) WHO the start-up is targeting
2) The SOLUTION the start-up is solving.
Many, if not most, of these start-ups are social-networking based. If you are hoping to start an online business, then these are necessary (evils?) to get very familiar with. Social networking is here to stay – but will not stay the same. It’s rapidly changing, and if you hope to survive online, (especially if you are over 40 . . .-maybe 30) then learn from it. If you go through this list with your “entrepreneurial mind” you will never look at social networking the same. (IMO)
So-what do you think? What did you come away from this list with?
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