In each one we give the basic concept of the business, what
product or service it provides to your customers, and how it is
operated, and (if any are necessary) what equipment or
facilities or help will be needed.
But whatever business you choose, remember that no business can
succeed without your effort. remember that determination and
hard work are the mother and father of success. If you supply
those, and use the information we supply, you can’t miss. Good
luck!
1. Television Computer Pictures
Lease a computer printer and a video camera and a monitor
screen that produces large-size, high contrast portraits of
customers in 30 seconds, while they wait. You will find this a
sure-fire crowd attracter, as the printer chatters away. Set up
in a crowded resort are. Charge at least $4 a picture, framed
in a simple mat, almost all of which is gross profit. Net cost
of all materials, about 8 cents.
Hot source: The equipment to do this is available from
Sketch Division, 140 Wood Road, Braintree, Mass. 02184
2. Badge-Making
Rent a small multilith printing machine and a badge sealing
machine, and using self-adhesive Presstype for typesetting,
design and set cut sayings for the badges. Sell as a custom
service, making slogans to order, or make a wide range of
far-out sayings in bulk quantities and sell them to local gift
and novelty shops for resale.
3. Run a “Consignment Shop”
It requires very little capital and accepts goods for sale from
members of the public and sells these items for them on a
commission basis. You might try a wide variety of items at
first, to see what sells best and most regularly.
4. Picture Framing, In Your Own Home
Relatively inexpensive materials with a good sense of color and
style and a reasonable ability with carpentry tools, will build
a large custom-framing business, since people who spend money on
art won’t skimp on the frames either, if they want a
good-looking result.
5. Rental Equipment
Be the source of supplies for do-it-yourselfers. Working only
Saturdays and Sundays, when they do, you rent out power tools,
such as circular saws, jigsaws, reciprocating saws, gasoline
chain saws, electric drills, electric planers, belt and orbital
sanders, routers, paint sprayers, wallpaper-removal steamers,
staple guns, pumps, home cleaning machines, Roto-tillers, and
other equipment for daily fees. Operate out of your garage.
6. Talent Bureau, For Kid’s or Adults’ Parties
Using local ads, or your own contacts, line up 10 to 20 local
entertainers, magicians, comics, puppeteers and other talents,
and supply them for parties, club meetings and other functions.
Have a list of films you can also supply for the same, or other
groups, which they can project themselves, if they wish, or you
will supply an operator.
7. Throwing Parties for Profit
Everyone loves to go to a party, and nowadays some smart
operators make a mint running them for everybody who wants to
attend. You can too! Hire a hall and a band, plan to set up a
bar (if you can get a temporary liquor permit), and promote the
hell out of it with ads, handbills, bumper stickers and
lamp-post posters. Special parties aimed at a particular group
do best, such as singles, or under-thirties, or over-forties.
This idea is especially good in college towns.
8. Start a Hobby Center
Make money on your unused space (and maybe the power tools
you’ve already paid for!) Turn your basement into a woodworking
center, your spare bedroom into a photo darkroom, and your
garage into a pottery workshop with a wheel and a small kiln.
Rent the space and equipment by the hour, expand into more
hobbies as time and money permit, and charge additional fees for
instruction in any of those fields you’re good at.
9. Organize a Babysitting Service
One of the troubles most people find is that their babysitter is
always busy just the night they want to go out. You set up a
service, finding good reliable teenage girls and boys,
middle-aged or older women, and act as a go-between, providing
sitters whenever your customers want them, collecting the fees,
and paying the sitters. Advertise your service, and handbills
house-to-house locally being a good way.
10. Make Money From Your Hobbies
Are you an expert at something that you do at home for fun?
Then make it pay off for you! If you’re a gourmet cook, give
cooking lessons in the haut cuisine. If you’re an accomplished
painter in oils or water-color, offer a portrait-painting
service. If you’re a skilled carpenter, design and make custom
cabinets to order. Almost any hobby you’re good at can be
turned to making a profit if you think about it carefully, and
decide who could use your expertise – as a consultant in that
field, if nothing else. All you really have to do to get
started is to place an ad!
11. Publish a Buy/Swap Paper in Your Town
Get money from both ends in this sweetheart deal. Publish the
weekly paper with classified ads from the public offering stuff
for sale, arranged according to category, and charge the people
for their ads (some operators let them pay only if and when they
sell, but in that case charge them a percentage of the selling
price, 5% for smaller items, 2% or 3% for automobiles), and then
sell the newspaper (suggest price is 25 cents) as well, through
local newsstands and by subscription (in the mail). Once you
have a fairly decent circulation, local merchants will also pay
you for display ads, because they know people really read buy
and swap newspapers religiously cover-to-cover.
12. Do Custom Photo Developing
Quality is essential, and speed is generally also required,
although you can charge a premium for rush service. If you
already have an elaborate dark-room set-up in your home, so much
the better, but if not it can be fitted in anywhere you have
room, the basement being ideal, since windows are not a
requirement. You must be able not only to develop and print
every normal size of film from 35 mm to 8″ x 10″ but handle
enlargements up to a minimum of 30″ x 40″, and preferably 5″ 8*”
or more, and do copying both of opaque material and slides. An
ability to offer retouching, restoration and coloring as well is
helpful, even if you have to send that specialized work out.
13. Publish a Part-Time Jobs Directory
Make this a newsstand book, as well as offering it, with small
ads, by mail order. List all the possible jobs people can get
part-time, especially angling it at college kids on vacation,
teachers after school hours, housewives with time on their
hands, and moonlighters looking for part-time second jobs.
14. Run a Children’s “Explorer Club”
Take kids on Saturday and Sunday outings. Ten kids each day,
to zoos, farms, theaters, children’s shows and sports events. A
small micro-bus (rented and, or eventually bought) can be used
to travel in. Many parents are delighted to have weekend days
to themselves, even though it costs them some dough.
15. Be an Instructor
Teach whatever you know. Your trade, profession, cooking
skills, a second language, woodworking, chess, photography,
knitting, karate, bridge, auto repair, etc. People will pay for
good lessons in these useful and enjoyable skills.
16. Run a Floor Scraping/Polishing Service
You buy or (at first) rent, a heavy-duty machine, and do the
cleaning and waxing of fine, hardwood floors. If the floors are
in very bad condition, machine sand them and them completely
refinish them with modern super-durable polyurethane finishes.
17. Operate a Children’s Hotel
This is sort of a “boarding house” for kids while their parent
go away for a week-end or two-week vacation. Requires a large
house, and preferably, a large yard or grounds, swings, slides,
and facilities useful for kids. Must be done very responsibly
and carefully. Also, don’t take very young children (less than
9 or 10 say) because they may require too much dressing,
feeding, etc.
18. Start a Mail-Order Business
Write a booklet about something people really want to know
about, print a few hundred copies, and place some small ads.
You’d be surprised how much money you can make. Sell modern
copies of out-of-print uncopyrighted material or books. Or sell
something unusual you make at home, providing that it is
something really useful to your prospective customers. Or sell
some of your ideas such as #2 badges, #37 genealogy, and others.
19. Operate a Xerox Copy Center
The secret of this is not just selling one or two copies of each
original (although on a 300-page original manuscript, that can
add up too), but using one of the latest high-speed high-quality
mass-production Xeroxes so that you can compete with the guys
operating those quick printing services, by turning out 100 or
200 resumes, letters, or circulars just as fast, and probably a
great deal faster, for the same (or potentially less if you want
to be competitive) money as they charge. This way you have two
kinds of work, giving you twice as many customers, and twice the
profit opportunity, and with the right location, a chance to
clean up.
If you want to offer even more services, and have the space in
your shop, as well as the potential customers, you can offer
Xerox reductions (New York Times-size page down to 8-1/2″x11″),
and Xerox copies in full-color, which are remarkably good. The
color machine will also make color copies directly from 35 mm.
color slides in one quick step.
Of course, you can consider using other brands of xerographic
copiers, such as IBM, Kodak, Savin, Canon, Minolta or others,
but although you may theoretically save money, make sure of
their service policies, and that they have field servicemen in
your locality, or you may find yourself stuck with a copier on
the fritz for a week, which could ruin your business.
20. Be a Local News Correspondent
For big city papers some distance from your town. When an event
occurs in your area you write the story for those papers (they
have correspondents in many big places but not in most small
towns or isolated areas) and they pay you for it. This is known
as being a “stringer”. If you’re good with a camera, take
photos to accompany the story.
21. Campground Store-On-Wheels
Use either a panel truck or a camper body on a pick-up truck
chassis. Go to public park areas and campgrounds selling
charcoal, paper plates, water-melon, ice cream, eggs, milk,
bread, insect repellent, sunglasses, newspapers, etc.
22. Create a New Tour-Bus Service
Even in affluent America, not everyone has a car, and even those
who do often prefer to leave long trips to a professional bus
driver. and although there are bus tours offered to some
familiar places, there are still so many interesting, even
exciting, places people would like to go to, if they were
offered the chance. Here’s where you come in. You must be
creative about it, and study all the six-State areas around your
hometown, to discover some original and different places to
travel to on day trips which will “turn on” your prospective
customers, and get them to sign up.
The rest is easy. You get competitive quotes (from commercial
bus companies) for a quality bus to do the round-trip, with a
suitable stopover at the destination point (enough to do the
sights, shop and maybe eat as well). Then you figure you tour
price per person so you can make a profit even if the bus is
only half full or so. Then you have a safety margin – and if
you sell every seat you will do very well indeed.
Then all you have to do is sell. You put little ads in your
local papers, paste up flyers wherever you can (supermarkets are
good), contact local travel agents (of course you give them a
percentage on what they sell for you), local hotel clerks, etc.,
and you also contact women’s clubs, religious groups, fraternal
societies, factory social organizations, and so on (they may
take a whole bus, or even two, and you give them a special
price, naturally).
23. Run a Pet Hotel Service
For dogs or cats or both. People will pay high fees to ensure
high-quality care fo the animal they love. Separate kennels for
each animal are essential. Good food and adequate care and
attention must be assured also. You can hire responsible
teenagers to help you. Advertise with posters in pet shops,
veterinarians’ offices; and if they’re cheaply available, get
the mailing lists of local ASPCA groups and other animal welfare
groups, as well as membership lists of dog and cat clubs.
24. Sell Second-Hand Kids Clothing
Children usually outgrow their clothes rather than wearing them
out. So many families have such clothing left around. You
collect it, paying nothing or as little as possible. Then you
resell it; you can do the selling by ads, handbills or through
your church or community groups.
25. Breed Tropical Fish
This requires only a moderate amount of space and a small
investment in equipment. Properly done, it needs only a small
amount of your time yet can make you a good profit. You can
obtain your beginning stock from the large wholesale dealers.
You can sell direct to consumers (the hobbyists) or to stores in
your area.
Hot Sources:
Betta Tropicals Inc., 1310 Unionport Rd., Bronx, NY
Tropa Co., 1685 3rd Ave., New York, NY
26. Make Plastic Engraved Signs
All you need is a simple-to-operate machine that engraves
lettering in various types onto sheets of plastic of many
colors, finishes and sizes. Perfect for signs for merchants,
banks, doctors, dentists, schools and colleges, private front
doors, and many other uses.
Hot Source for the Machine:
New Hermes Engravograph from New Hermes Inc., 20 Cooper Square,
New York, NY 10003.
27. Sell Christmas Trees
Seasonal, but if you have the time in the few weeks before
Christmas, can be a good money maker. Find a vacant storefront
or lot, or space inside a larger building, where people pass by.
But be sure to order a supply of trees enough in advance. And
if you own country land that is not being used, consider growing
the trees yourself. Your first crop can be ready in four years,
with steady crops from then on.
28. Open a Rubber Stamp Business
Manufacture them in your basement. The materials needed are
cheap. And the finished stamps can be sold to many people,
storeowners, offices, individuals. You can market them by mail
and through local merchants.
Hot Source: The machine and a financing plan to buy it ar
available from: Rubber Stamp Division, 1512 Jarvis Ave., Chicago,
IL 60626
29. Camper’s Equipment Rental Service
With urban living, the back-to-nature movement is growing and
camping is becoming very popular. Rent out tents, sleeping
bags, portable propane stoves, chairs, etc. Demand
identification from customers and reliable security (keeping one
of their credit cards is good).
30. Operate a Key-Safety Service
Each customer is sold a special tag to put on his or her key
ring. It says “Drop in any mailbox” and has the address of a
post office box that you rent (Don’t use your home address for
the same reason your customers shouldn’t have their home address
on their keys – dishonest people finding the keys will come
prowling around). You assign each customer’s tag a code number
from a list that you keep. When someone’s keys arrive at your
post office box, you return them to him, for another fee.
31. Be a Used Car Buying Consultant
With a knowledge of cars, plus the proper test equipment (for
checking the engine, transmission, brakes, font-end alignment,
and chassis), you go with your customer to check out the used
car he is thinking of buying. Advertise your service next to
the ads offering used cars for sale. After a while you will get
to know people in this field and you can pick up more money by
acting as a middleman in sales between private individuals.
32. Sell “Loss Leaders” for Profit
This may sound contradictory but it isn’t. Supermarkets aren’t
the only ones who use loss leaders. A good mail-order idea is
offering a cute item (worth much more) for $1 in women’s
magazines, giving prompt delivery and including with it stuffers
(ads with order blanks) for half a dozen more expensive items.
The repeat business on the other items makes the $1 offer
profitable.
33. Baby Items Rental Service
You rent everything needed for a baby’s care – stroller,
playpen, high chair, etc. When the customer’s baby outgrows
them you rent to the next couple. Of course, you must
advertise, and also send direct mail pieces to all couples with
new births (get their names from hospitals and newspapers and
list brokers).
34. Operate a “Give a Party” Service
You rent out everything needed for a party: tables, chairs,
punch bowls, table cloths, cutlery, and napkins. You can also
supply waitresses and bartenders, finding them through agencies
that supply temporary help such as Manpower. But if you can
find good workers yourself, you can save the agency fee and make
more money.
35. Operate a Miniature Slot Car Racing Track
In your basement (or wherever you can fit it) build a large and
elaborate miniature slot car racing track (with a least 6 or 8
slots). Local kids, and often adults, pay you by the hour to
race, using either your cars or theirs. To boost interest you
can hold monthly contests with trophies.
36. All-Service Service
You line up the specialists in fixing almost anything, and take
care of getting them customers by delivering handbills to homes
and placing ads in supermarkets and local papers. They pay you
5% of every job refer to them, which can soon add up.
37. Genealogy for People Who Want Roots
You seek out the records in public or university libraries,
county courthouses and elsewhere, as necessary, for a sliding
fee, depending on the size of family, difficulties in getting
information, geographic dispersion, and other factors.