Online Baby Names

Business Overview

Some business opportunities have a lot of competition and this business startup is one of them. However, as an entrepreneur your greatest skill may lie in your ability to take a new and fresh approach to an old business or concept. The old saying in business you can live by is 'don't invent a new mouse trap, just build a better mouse trap.' That is the case with this business venture. Baby name books in print have always been popular, and maybe you can create and write a new book with a fresh outlook on an old idea and post it online. One idea may be to feature historical names and what they mean or perhaps celebrity names and how they came to be changed or altered to suit the personality. Visitors could browse through the name listings for free, and by renting advertising, space or selling products you could earn income. Additionally, seek out interesting ways to make the site more inviting. Perhaps hold a contest or feature a poll to find out the most popular names.

Day Care Center

Business Overview

The escalating cost of living has made child day care a booming industry simply because many families require two full-time incomes to make ends meet. Day-care facilities can be homebased, operated from a storefront or office location, or in conjunction with an established business or office complex. Investment budget, business objectives and demand will likely dictate what is the best operating location for you. In the United States and Canada, day-care facilities as well as child-care staff must obtain proper licensing and certification to meet minimum operating requirements. Because every state and province has its own individual licensing requirements, you will need to contact your regional municipal offices to make inquires, or contact the associations listed on the next page to inquire about certification and licensing requirements in your area. Once your center is open, you will find that the problem is not finding kids to fill your facility, but having to turn down parents daily because you are at your limit. Word-of-mouth advertising is generally all that is required for marketing in this industry.

T-Shirts in a Can

Business Overview

Designing novelty T-shirts and the can the shirt will be sold in is a very interesting business opportunity to get rolling. The T-shirts can feature jokes, images or messages based on a variety of themes from political humor to children's cartoon caricatures. Once the silk-screening is completed, the T-shirts can be packaged in tin cans that have a slot in the top to serve a second function of a piggy bank. T-shirts in a can make a terrific novelty gift and can be sold to retailers on a wholesale basis or directly to consumers via a sales kiosk or the internet. Furthermore, to keep initial startup costs to a minimum, the silk-screening aspect of the business can be contracted to a local silk-screener as opposed to purchasing the equipment. In addition to selling T-shirts in a can, larger sweatshirts can also be printed with humorous messages and packaged in larger, one-gallon paint cans.

Direct-Mail Service

Business Overview

With a direct-mail coupon service, you'll sell local businesses on placing coupon ads in your publications, then mail them out to local residents. Everybody benefits, including you! With the new plethora of small businesses these days, direct-mail couponing is positioned for success. Entrepreneurs can advertise in a medium where results can be measured quickly and easily--the more coupons customers bring in, the better the campaign. And coupons generate more sales than other types of ads. People respond to ads where they have to take action, even if it's something as simple as clipping along a dotted line. The advantages to this business are legion for the extrovert. You get to talk to all kinds of people in all sorts of fields, and you do it all day long. You can feel good about helping people improve their businesses and their revenues while at the same time aiding the consumer with savings. Since you'll visit customers at their business locations, you can be homebased. To succeed in this business, you should have a sales background--or at least a sales personality. It also helps to have a background working with the printing, graphics and mailing industries. You'll outsource all of this work, but you'll need to know the basics to get the best prices and timeliest turnout.

The Market

Your customers will be community businesses. Those with mass appeal like restaurants, auto service shops and general interest retail stores will benefit best from your services, but you can also target walk-in clinics, general dentists, hair stylists, carpet-cleaning services, child-care services--get creative and make up your own list! How will you sell these people on your company? In the best tradition of the sales representative, by walking into their places of business and introducing yourself and your service.

Needed Equipment

You'll need a computer and inkjet or laser printer and the usual office software so you can invoice customers, and a fax machine so they can send last-minute changes to their ads, and you'll need a vehicle for zipping around town on your rounds. Since you'll be out-of-pocket a lot, you should also consider a cellular phone or pager so customers can reach you easily

Online Advertising Agency

Business Overview

Not only will you be providing a valuable service for site visitors, but you will also be establishing your own potentially successful business. The business concept is very straightforward. Start by designing a website that features information about various advertising mediums including rates, contact information and any special promotions or discounts in terms of advertising rates. Business owners who visit the site simply locate the type of advertising that suits their marketing program and budgets. Income is earned by charging the advertising companies a fee to be listed on the site, as well as by selling advertising space featured on the site.

Online Diet And Fitness

Convenience is key for people trying to lose weight. Give it to them with programs and tips online.

Business OverviewA recent government survey indicated that 50 percent of American adults wanted to lose weight and start a regular diet and fitness program. And given the fact that there are more than 200 million adults in the U.S., this means there are potentially 100 million customers for any business venture that specializes in diet and fitness products and services. Thus developing a website dedicated to providing visitors with diet and fitness information and services can potentially make you rich. The options are unlimited. The site can provide users with diet and fitness information, products for sale, online fitness training and diet coaching and offer online fitness evaluations, or a combination of any or all of these products and services. This is one of those rare situations in business wherein the potential marketplace is so large that the products and services provided almost become secondary to the methods used to attract and retain site visitors.
Related Business Ideas

Online Business Brokerage

Business OverviewThousands of established businesses and business opportunities are bought and sold annually in North America, and now is your chance to cash in on the public’s demand for opportunities in self-employment by posting a business for sale website. The site will have to be indexed into numerous sections that represent various businesses for sale and opportunities like manufacturing, distributorships and so on. In exchange for a $100 posting or listing fee, clients would receive a six-month posting on the site that describes their business or business opportunity for sale along with contact information. Once the website has been developed, it can be kicked into high gear by employing subcontract sales consultants to solicit listings. To secure listings the sales consultants could simply scan classified business for sale advertisements in their local area and contact the owner to pursue a listing agreement. Objections should be few, as this is a very low-cost, highly effective method for business owners wishing to sell their business to reach a global audience.
Related Business Ideas

Grocery Delivery Service

Busy people across the country will appreciate not having to go to the store for their groceries.

Business Overview
You have a few options available in terms of starting a grocery delivery service. The first is to simply contract with local grocery stores to deliver customer orders for a fee. The grocery store would bill the customer, market the service and manage the deliveries. You simply deliver the groceries. The second and more lucrative option is to establish a buying account with a grocery wholesaler and resell groceries to your customers at a profit. This method means you'll have to create a catalog of the grocery items you stock as well as market the service. However, once again the potential to generate more profit is greatly increased. Grocery delivery services are often very profitable business ventures, as the convenience of home delivery makes getting customers very easy.