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The following are some various notes I've accumulated on Product Management. Enjoy!ResponsibilitiesProduct Manager is accountable for the overall success or failure of the products. This includes not only envisioning how your product will be successful today but how it will continue to grow revenue, profitability and market share over time.- maintain a prioritized list of market requirements that continually improve your products’ performance and the financial return to your organization- manage a rolling tactical roadmap that outlines what customers can expect from your going forward- lead cross-functional collaboration efforts across the organization in support of product objectives- interact externally with customers, prospects, analysts and business partners which include focus groups advisory committees surveys or customer visits- provide training and support to internal stakeholders who interact with the customers that use your products- establish and communicate performance metrics for your products and report progress versus plan- allocate most of your time to the 20 percent of activities that drive the highest probability of your organization’s success- execute a 3-5 yr vision and a shorter term tactical execution plan that covers a rolling 12 months- to balance competing priorities ask 2 key questions: does this help us attain the company’s product objectives more quickly? will supporting this request enable you to become more efficient by reducing future or redundant requests for your time?- Apply your time first to those things that help you attain your objectives or make you more efficient by reducing future demands on your time- Central mission of product managers is to know their markets, customers’ needs, competitors, and trends better than anyone else. Objective is to collect information from a variety of sources and focus on what is most important based upon the best data and facts available.Draw an influence map that visualizes people who will be the most important contributors to your product’s success and get access to a copy of the business plan or at least the sections that pertain to your dutyFigure out what the company is trying to accomplish with its product activities: creating new value through innovation or augmenting existing valueStartups focus on creating new value through innovation - a high degree of flexibility is required to succeed as your assumptions about the market and customer needs are continually challenged. Lots of facetime with clients and development team and a lack of detailed processes. Skills needed at this stage are:Creative thinkingEntrepreneurial SpiritConceptual and analytic abilitiesMidsized companies focus a significant amount of resources on augmenting their existing products to ensure continued high rates of growth - company is tapping into mass market and bringing along early adopters that initially made it successful. Customers are looking for complete products with all the bells and whistles AS WELL as a product roadmap. Skills needed at this stage are:StrategicProcess developmentCross-functional engagementAnticipating problemsCalm under pressureLeadershipBudgetingMature companies require both augmenting and innovation skills. Innovation is necessary to achieve ever growing revenue targets via partnerships, or M&A. Skills required are:StrategicLeadershipPolitical astutenessAnalyticHighly developed interpersonal skillsCross-functional abilitiesProfit and lossCalm under pressureThree Product Management ApproachesCapturing the voice of the customer - what customers tell you they want.Allows you to capitalize on readily available sources of info, many of which reside inside the organization.Enables you to augment existing product and preserve existing prod. dev. momentum while you gather necessary market info with which to make informed decisions about product’s future direction.Good for augmenting existing products. NOT well suited for developing new innovations given its reliance on explicit needs.Establish process to capture customer inputs from variety of sources, ranging from 1on1 convos to customer queries.Establish framework for prioritizing various inputsEnsure proactive collection and a continuous feed into a product decision framework for evaluationFollowing these methods will quickly point to ways that your existing product line can be augmentedDecision frameworks provide logical rationale for explaining why you decide to invest in one product enhancement over anotherWorkflow Analysis - What you observe about how customers do their job.Allows you to gain deep insight into how your customers and prospects accomplish their work and correctly identify the problems they deal with so you can provide solutions.Allows you to identify common business problems shared by a broad set of customers and prospects, which provide insight into larger market opps. to reduce inefficiencies, save time, save money and increase the satisfaction of those performing tasks as part of the business process.Allows you to be embedded in your company’s processes, resulting in a codependent relationshipUltimately this allows you to transform the way your customers accomplish their objectives and make your marketing and sales processes more effectiveGood for both identifying opps. to augment or creating new value through innov.Approach customers with a clear and compelling value prop, with a promise that your insights will generate a significant return that both parties can benefit from as these steps require a significant amount of cust. engagement and time.Spend time with customers and capture steps that are taken to achieve a desired outcome, the people involved and their interactionsDocument each step of a customer’s workflow - the interactions between people in a process, their productivity and output, to establish a baseline.Outcome-driven approach - Understanding what customers are trying to achieve as they do their jobs and the metrics used to define success. It postulates that once you know what jobs and outcomes cust. are trying to accomplish, you’ll be able to methodically create products and services that generate valueAllows you to determine which performance metrics matterAllows you to reduce variation in the success or failure of value creation activities by offering a means to fully understand customer success metrics upfront BEFORE any investment in developing or extending a product.Allows you to target areas that give you the best chance of enabling cust. success without wasting resourcesGood for augmenting existing prod. and creating new value through innov.Determine where you need to focus: end user, buyer, partner or someone else? Who in the value chain makes the most important judgments about value and the metrics used to define success?Capture the measures of value that define how customers want to get the job done: the process steps taken, outcomes they are striving to achieve, definition of what it means to do the job perfectly, and the constraints that stand in a way of successfully completing the job.To collect this info, conduct a series of customer interviews from a statistically significant sample of the client baseScore the collected data and chart them on a graph that shows areas of opportunity that reveal 3 categories of needs:Underserved - opp. for growthOverserved - opp. for ceasing investment. cost reduction or potentially disruptive innovationAppropriately servedTurn a blind eye explicit customer statements that don’t conform to the process you’re followingCustomer ResearchMarket Research - used to investigate new business opportunities, identify causes of problems and provide additional information to aid in making an important decisionsMarket information - size of market, how its segmented or current trendsMarket structure - identifying the major players and their market share, brand market share or market’s distribution structureBuyer perceptions - buyer needs’ assessment or perceptions of various brands and suppliersProduct - analysis of the available products, usage and consumption patterns, differentiation, segments served or satisfaction levelsNew Prod. Dev. - defining unsatisfied needs, product acceptance or communicationPricing - sensitivity, trends, or mapping existing pricing structuresCustomer satisfaction surveyCustomer list - acquire a descending dollar volume list of active customers from finance department. If list includes inactive clients than ever better.Look for patterns in active customer listWhat do top 20% of customers have in common?How far reaching are your products in terms of geography?Does the list contain resellers of products or end users?Look for patterns in inactive customer listWhy did they stop?Any common characteristics?Identify thought-leading and valued customers who will help you enhance your product and plan to meet them once readyCollect presentations and collateral - collect the most current sample of your cust.-facing presentations from each functional area currently in use across your organization (brochures, PR, publications, articles, advertising, product fact sheets, white papers, case studies, webinars etc.)Is the product(s) consistently portrayed?Do they discuss future dev. activities? if so, what is promised?Does the sales support materialWin/Loss Analysis DataAllows you to gain current understanding of how new customer or prospects perceive the product and organizationAllows the sales team to identify ways they can improve executionStart by reaching out to unsuccessful sales prospects or newly acquired client and ask a series of questions:What companies were involved in selection process?How did we stack up?What are our perceived str and weaknessesWhat factors led to our victory or loss?Can you overview the decision-making process? who was involved and what were the key selection criteria?What could we have done diff. to improve?Customer Agreements and Signed ContractsAsk for recently signed customer agreementsAnalyze patterns and any changes that emergedAvailable Competitive InformationRequest competitive information available ‘in the public domain’.This Allows you to develop a superior market position by understanding customer needs better than anyone elseIdentify Internal Customer Data SourcesInvestigate where databases of customer information are being kept within your organizationLook in incoming customer support calls, online client discussions groups, fan page interactions, info related to lead generation, trade shows, conferences etc.Defect or “bug” reportsMany of these defects are identified during QC processOthers make it past QC and are identified by customersOnce a defect is confirmed, a priority rating is assigned to the problem using the following framework: critical issue, high priority, medium priority and low priority.Ask engineering team for defect reportsProduct Cost or Profit and Loss InformationAcquire a product P&L statement IF there is oneAsk Finance to walk you through it to make sure you fully understandThis allows you to determine if your product(s) are profitableExisting Product-Related MaterialsProduct roadmaps, visioning documentation, product-level business cases, product launch materials etc.External info sourcesAnalyst ReportsSocial mediaBusiness IntelligenceSurvey your internal constituentsWhat do you see as the biggest opps. and challenges in next 2 months to a year? 2-5 yrs?Do you believe we have clear prod. vision? is it clearly communicated throughout the org?Does our prod. roadmap enable achievement of our vision and plan?Are we on track?Is prod. management appropriately aligned with other functions?3 yr product visionbounce off ideas with thought leaders in your org. and then clientsThink of a 3 yr vision and begin with end in mind. Highlight what will happen at end of year; mid-point and end of 3 yearsList strategic product milestones in a ‘vision slide’ along with key deliverablesProduct MilestonesCall thought leaders together and facilitate a brainstorming session to capture their views of the marketBefore meeting, send every attendee explanation of meeting objective and copy of product vision MARKED DRAFTDuring meeting, capture all comments in bullets on the slideKeep everyone involved although a few will dominateStart from discussion of current state, jump to end and then goto middleAfter the meeting review the ideas and follow up with those who provided itPull out customer list and reach out to key customers and prospectsDiscuss with sales people and thought leaders in org. who the key customers areSetup meetings, preferably in person and take the sales person alongDuring meetingExplain objectives and ask the client where they believe the market is headedHave them describe the top 3 challenges they are facing today and how they are handling them.Explain to them you are finalizing thoughts regarding future direction of product and that you’ve developed a plan that you want to get their feedback on.Post-meeting assess customer’s reaction and see if the vision addressed any of the top 3 challenges the customers told you aboutFurther define each concept for the vision slidePull together several short paragraphs that describe the substance behind the concept; flesh out each conceptual milestone that will enable everyone in your org. to receive the same message and help you manage client expectationsThe presentation slide detailing each milestone contains:Title of milestoneDescriptionCustomer value prop.Operational considerationsDate slide was createdHave 1 slide per milestone and create short paragraphs that describe the substance behind the conceptual milestone. i.e. FOR “public accountability” milestone, write: Public accountability reporting will provide relevant executive level summary information and trends at a glance in real time to support governance and public reporting mandates.Next construct the value prop outlining why your cust. should be interested in the capability you’re planning to bring to market. i.e. Alpha Tech Ventures’ real-time public reporting capability will enable executives to review and effectively comply with mission-critical governance and public reporting mandates and reduce the risk of incurring a legal liability by 50 percentFinish with operational considerationsCreate a Solid Business Case - cost benefit analysis justifying investment. Business case details the various benefits, costs, and risks of pursuing a suggested course of action and supports the request for a budget to enable the effort to proceed. This allows you to align executive leadership team behind your product vision, build momentum, enlist support from diff. components, and align thought leaders, key customers and prospects behind your vision.Executive summaryConsolidation of most important info that enables a busy exec. to understand at a glance (1-3 pages)Should be the last section you writeProblem or opportunity statementProvides the necessary context to understand your request for additional resources.Needs to be aligned with company’s overall business strategyDescribe what is happening today that provides an opportunity to capitalize on (i.e. if you identified new market niches that are underserved or a means to improve your product’s market performance by adding services)Solution overviewHigh-level description of desired outcomeExplanation how your proposed sol’n addresses the market opp. or problem that you’ve highlightedRange of alternatives consideredDescribe why you’ve selected preferred option, demonstrating you’ve considered all available options to sol’n you’re proposingCost estimatesOutline total projected costs and future financial return on investmentCosts include prod. dev costs, FTEs, QA/testing, maintenance etc.Benefit analysisOutline benefits with the goal to compare estimated costs with benefitsProjected financial returns need to exceed anticipated costs and hurdlesMention all benefits: incr. market share, cust. satisfaction, decr. employee turnover etc.Implementation timetableState key milestones and how long it will take to bring new capabilities to marketIdentify what resources will be required to make this happen.Critical assumptions and risksConclusion and final recommendationsSummarize key themes and benefits and anticipated financial returnsProduct Lifecycle Management (PLM) Framework - guides products from an idea to ultimate retirement, going through 4 distinct stages (introduction, growth, maturity and eventual decline). PLM integrates cross-functional product activities - information, people, and processes throughout the product lifecycle with the aim of increasing efficiency and reducing execution risk.This allows each participant to understand the overall process, their role and expectations.This allows the company to create standardized deliverables that other parties involved in the process are counting on to do their jobs7 Phases of product lifecycle - each has defined activities, owners, collaborators and a descr. of expected deliverables at each stepStrategyRequirementsAnalysis / DesignDevelopmentDeploymentOperationRetirement12 diff activities that take place over the course of a product’s life - and each has defined owners, collaborators and descr.Strategy (development)Business case (justification)RoadmapRequirementsPlanAnalysisDesignBuildTestDeployOperateRetireDetermine who owns the PLM process. If none exist, then collaborate with key participants to define the PLM process for your org.Developing requirements - gathering inputsDetermine which product management methodology to useIdentify which sources you will use to collect inputs fromCollect relevant inputs into a central repository and convert the data into a useful formCreate a rational framework for evaluating and turning centralized inputs into prioritized requirements (Product Decision Matrix)Begin by drafting the metrics you intend to use to filter the inputsPresent draft to senior leadership team for buy-inExplain to everyone involved, and the requirements that rise to the top become the foundation of your product roadmap.Once you create your own product decision matrix, you end up with a prioritized list of high-level requirements in descending importance that list opp. your org. has to create value for customers.Form a standing cross-functional team of members from various areas to look at each prioritized requirement from an operational perspective and identify potential issues before they happenSelect people knowledgeable about the product and good team contributors with influence over their counterpartsHave a range of divergent perspectives (not just yes people) and preferably those in the same room as youList possible candidates (2 from each functional area)Explain mission of the group and decide on first meeting date as well as frequencyYou now have a req. list vetted by cross-functional counterparts for operational feasibilityDeveloping Product Roadmaps - operational plan that highlights your products’ quarterly development activity over a rolling 12 months. Most companies have 1 roadmap per product or family of related products. It’s best to create 2 types of product roadmaps: internal and externalRelease - planned deliverable that is slotted into a calendar quarter over the course of the annual plan.Items placed in roadmap provide high-level descr. of each release (not intended to communicate detailed scope or cost)Releases fall into 1 of 3 categories and you must balance these to sustain market growthNew Value Creation - release of a new product, component, capability or feature that gives customers increased value.Maintenance and Support Releases - updates to existing cust-facing products that preserve product’s revenue stream. This does not create new value but enables cust. to continue to extract expected value from productInternal Product Releases - investments made in the components of your offerings that aren’t seen by customers. These help daily ops.Internal use - roadmaps are used to coordinate cross-functional activities in support of a release, manage expectations of internal constituents, drive accountability and measure product dev. team’s productivity and performance (scope, cost and schedule)Your company’s staff must be trained on new products’ capabilities to support client inquiriesMarketing must be prepared to get the message outSales must be ready to communicate value of release to clientsExternal use - used to manage client expectations and as part of the sales processProduct Development - execution phaseAlign incentives by drafting shared performance-based objectives between different functional groups and improve coordination.This allows the company to achieve their desired goals by linking them to compensationEngineering and product management team need to accurately estimate the time and resources needed to create a given requirement.Product management must communicate clearly about the scope of what is to be accomplished based on previous prioritizing efforts; this involves relating priorities back to the business value they are attempting to createRevise the cross-functional meeting structureHold coordinated meetings at standard intervals (at their end) in the PLM process:Strategy - Objective is for prod. manag. to propose the new prod. capabilities to internal cross-functional prod. dev teamReq. - Objective is to establish a final set of expectations that clearly demo. that the commercial success criteria can be metObjective is to focus on the proposed design of prod. or capabilitiy and seek approval from biz owner and buy-in from extended cross-fxnal team members who would support the prod. post-dev.Development - Obj. is to be sure that your prod. is ready to launch, with testing and refinement complete and sign-off from biz owner and cross-fxnal dev. team.Include the business owner and internal cross-functional team members involved in prod. dev.This allows you to make sure that there is a business owner review with the extended team to agree to the plan, mitigate risks and improve overall coordinationFurther Defining Requirements - Various sections of the requirement document. It’s important to maintain flexibility and to indicate that any plans are subject to change based on market conditions (markets, competitors, M&A etc.)About this documenthistory of the doc (date, version, who made changes, descr.)descr. of key termsBusiness analysisDescribe business need at a high level and highlight key business questions the new capability is attempting to addressProposed release date tied to product roadmapList high-level biz/market req., with associated descriptions, If necessary insert SWOT and any underlying assumptionsFeature Matrix - prod. dev. estimates for prioritized list of features. Goal of this is to provide a ‘cut off-line for prod. dev. based upon available time, resources and moneyHigh-level use casesUse cases capture detailed biz req. which are then turned into fxnal specs for your productCreate a diagram illustrating the system that the user is interactingw ith to receive value from the new capabilities you’re developingList an actor heirarchy if more than 1 party is using product and list all use cases that have been developedFunctional req.These are the specific elements that define what a product is supposed to accomplish and are used to the guide the design of the productThese roll up into a use case - into the behavioral elements of how the product will be usedCompliacne req.Regulatory compliance refers to any rules, regulations and req. that re relevant to meeting a governing body’s laws or mandated procedures.These might include data use rules, security, contractual requirements, governmental obligations etc.Report req.Inputs, layout, report fields, headers and footers and any groupingsUI req.Begin with a conceptual site map and detail the associated navigationOften presented in a diagram detailing the analysis that has been conductedEnvironment req.This often includes architecture standards relating to system performance and any environment considerations as well as operational and integration requirementsIterating with customersinteract with customers as much as possibleTake a structured approached with your customers that lets them know that you value their timeStart by defining an objective.. what are you hoping to accomplish?Assess how much time they have by asking them upfront.Pick an appropriate forumSite visitsSurveysVirtual meetingsVisits to your corporate locationRegional client meetingsClient conferencesFocus groupsCreate a frameworkWalk them through product visionReveal your roadmap quarter by quarterDemo a prototypeExplain various pricing scenariosSend a thank you noteCustomer Advisory CouncilsAllows you to put a structured client input process in place to aid your product activities by ensuring thoughtful customer input into strategic or tactical product matters.Typically comprised of 7-9 clients who possess a keen insight into your market or the use of your productAsk yourself what roles do you intend to include in your council? hands-on users or economic buyer who may not be the hands-on user?Geographic distribution - its better to have those in the same room as youAdvisory council charter should cover the following topicsObjective of the groupFrequency of meetingsMeeting durationMeeting locationParticipants in the councilTimeframeMeeting dates and topicsOther expectationsExpensesPoint personSupporting the Product LaunchLaunch stylesLaunching your product into an existing marketExisting markets typically have a # of dominant competitors all jockeying for market shareRequires you to have a distinct value prop that lets you stand outLaunch plan needs to single-mindedly focus on acquiring new customers and creating demand for your productLaunch plan relies on ‘all in’ approach using every available demand creation tool at your disposal to gain maximum attention over a specific timeframeLaunching your product in a new marketPrepare to invest for the long term with the objective of driving awareness and ultimately adoption of your productTarget early adopters to establish momentum and spark interest of a currently uncaring mass market by educating themResegmenting an existing marketThis effort focuses on carving out a piece of an existing market by offering a lower-priced product than your competitors or by targeting a segment of the market that plays to your product or services strengthsObjective is to both educate and capture market shareIf market is ready to buy then consider the “all in” approach; if not focus on attracting early adoptersCreate a product brief on the product or capability you’re launchingOutlines the critical information regarding your value prop., customer audience you’re targeting and the key messages and channels you’re use to get your message outContent will be created once and used many timesThis allows your executive team to see your thought process and value prop. before the launch.Marketing will use the structured content you provide to professionally craft the message in their marketing plan and sales support materials as well as select the right channelsIt contains the following information:Product name and release dateWho the product is targeted toDescr. of the product or capabilitySummary of the key customer business needs that the prod. or capability will addressCustomer value prop.Client impactDescr. of the launch plan and timing of key eventsBenefits and featuresSales and cust. service talking pointsPricingResources and additional info.Create a launch plan frameworkEstablish your launch date and work back from thereList the activities that need to take place before that date to determine when your plan needs to startCreate a calendar that includes dates and breaks time down into weekly increments over that timeCreate columns to list the activity, owner, deliverable, target and source of needed material in chronological sequenceMarket Dynamics and Competitive Analysis FrameworksPoint-in-time Analysis: Market view analysis generally consists of the following. Place each in 1 slide.Market focus - Frames the specific market that your company is targeting and sets the context for other aspects of the analysis (i.e. BI software sol’n for U.S. hospitals)Market Size and anticipated Growth Rate - (i.e Detail how the segment targeted fits inside the overall U.S. healthcare market)Current Company Market Position Overview - Market leader? contender or further back in the pack? List company’s market share and detail where company fits into context of competing companies all vying for a piece of the BI sol’ns market)Market Segments Description (i.e. BI sol’ns for hospital finance, clinical decision support, and client satisfaction)Top Competitors Matrix, segmented by market - describe how competitors compete with organization. Do they only impact 1 market segment or multiple? List competitors on left and have series of columns that show revenue and market segments they play inDetailed Competitor Breakdown -Prepare short narrative describing each top competitor’s profile, strategic direction and partnerships.The profile paragraph should outline each company’s primary focus and what differentiates their market approach from competitors.Strategic direction segment should outline known strategy and where you think the company is headedCurrent Position Overview - Describe company’s core capabilities. Ask, what are the core gaps that need to be filled? What segment-level opps. exist that can be capitalized on?Buy-vs-Build Opportunities - Outline each gap that needs focus and the str and weakness of the current position. Also frame whether it’d be better to buy or build certain aspect of products’ future capabilitiesPossible Acquisition Candidates - detail possible targets over short and long-term to shore up competitive position. List target companies, revenue and market segment they serveList of Risks and Contingencies - detail risks with buy recommendations.Is it clear how target company should be valued?Spell out contingency plans. What happens if preferred target is not open to being acquired? what is next step? will organic dev. be pursued or other acq. targets be looked at?Potential Competitive MovementsHave competitors been on acq. binge lately?Have they raised capital?Are they trying to control strategic channels important to business?Deep Dives into Specific Competitors - Create a quick summary of each competitor, annual revenue, # of employees, ownership status, products and any conclusion that has been reached.Narrative Competitive Analysis: Customer-facing frameworkName of competitorOrg. historyBusiness model and revenuesMissionVisionStrategyEstimated client levelsPartnershipsPositioningDetailed analysis of product/service offering and stated benefitsPricingRecent developments

Need a Business Idea? Here are 55NEXT ARTICLEThe 15 Most Profitable Small-Business Industries in 2016Next ArticleImage credit: EntrepreneurThe Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.•Entrepreneur StaffThis article has been excerpted from 55 Surefire Home Based Businesses You Can Start for Under $5,000 by Entrepreneur Press & Cheryl Kimball (2009).Today, tens of thousands of people are considering starting a home based business, and for good reasons. On average, people can expect to have two and three careers during their work life. Those leaving one career often think about their second or third career move being to their own home. People who have been part of the traditional nine-to-five work force and are on the verge of retiring from that life are thinking of what to do next. The good news: Starting a homebased business is within the reach of almost anyone who wants to take a risk and work hard.$1,500 or less to start up1. ACCOUNTANTExperience, training or licensing may be neededCreate a flier outlining your services. Before you do that, you need to know what those services will be. Do you want to simply do bookkeeping for a small business? A more involved level of accounting would be do actually work up balance sheets, income statements, and other financial reports on a monthly, quarterly, and/or annual basis, depending on the needs of the business. Other specializations can include tax accounting, a huge area of potential work. Service companies like Due.com assisted freelancers with payments. Many owners don't mind keeping their own day-to-day bookkeeping records but would rather get professional help with their taxes.2. BICYCLE REPAIRIn many parts of the country, this business tends to be seasonal, but you can find ways around that. Rent a storage unit and offer to store people's bicycles over the winter after you do a tune-up and any needed repairs on them. If you want to cater to the Lance Armstrong wannabes, you can have business all year round. These road race riders are training through snow, sleet and dark of night. Some of them work on their own bicycles, but many of them don't, so you can get their business all year. And if you keep Saturday shop hours, you can be sure you will have a group of enthusiasts coming by to talk all things cycling.3. BOAT CLEANINGExperience, training or licensing may be neededBoats that are hauled out of the water for the winter or even just for mid-season repairs will need the hull cleaned. And depending on the type of boat, it is a good time to give a major cleaning everything else too--the decks, the sleeping quarters, the head, and the holds. Start by approaching homes that have a boat sitting in the yard. Or you could market your services to the marina to contract you to do the boat cleaning it offers to customers.4. BUSINESS PLAN SERVICEHas expansion possibilitiesOffer a soup-to-nuts business plan, including market research, the business plan narrative and the financial statements. Plan your fee around the main one that the client will want and offer the others as add-on services. You can give clients an electronic file and allow them to take it from there, or you can keep the business plan on file and offer the service of tweaking it whenever necessary. Have business plan samples to show clients--and make sure to include your own!Read This: Write Your Business Plan by The Staff at Entrepreneur Media | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble5. CHIMNEY SWEEPLearning to be a chimney sweep may mean nothing more than apprenticing with someone already in the business. By becoming a chimney expert, you can combine a chimney sweep business with a chimney inspection service--covering more than just whether or not the chimney needs cleaning but whether the chimney is in good working order or in need of repair.6. CLEANING SERVICEThere are many directions you can take this business. If you want to work during hours when no one else does, you can focus on office clients. You can focus on retail businesses and keep your customers clumped into one or two blocks. Restaurants are in great need of daily thorough cleaning and can be a great source of steady clients. Perhaps you would be more interested in house cleaning. Many times with cleaning services you don't have to spend lots of money on advertising or marketing because your customers will come by word of mouth.Read This: Start Your Own Cleaning Service by Entrepreneur Press and Jacquelyn Lynn | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble7. COMPUTER REPAIRExperience, training or licensing may be neededStudy the main types of software that system users will want--word processing, photo manipulation software, mail merge, spreadsheet, design and especially security software. Investigate all the components--monitor types in all their varieties; keyboards, from wired to ergonomic to wireless; mouse types; as well as peripheral components like printers and scanners. Become completely familiar with all the ISPs (internet service providers) available in the market area you plan to cover. Establish yourself as the guru who can meet the needs of the personal computer user, the small business or a larger corporation.8. CONSULTANTHas expansion possibilitiesTo be a consultant, you need to have an expertise in something so you can market yourself as an advisor to others looking to work in that area. Perhaps you managed several large warehouses in your career with a drugstore company, you did all the marketing for many years for a large shoe manufacturer or you set up a chain of beauty supply shops or take-out restaurants. You can use this experience to help others do similar things without making the same mistakes that you made along the way.Read This: Start Your Own Consulting Business by Entrepreneur Press and Eileen F. Sandlin | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble9. DOG WALKINGExperience, training, or licensing may be neededDog walkers take pooches out for their daily constitutional one or more times a day, either individually or in small groups. In some cities across the United States, like New York, dog walking alone can be a booming business. But it's actually more common for dog walkers to offer additional services, including playing with and feeding pets, bringing in newspapers and mail, and turning lights on and off.Read This: Start Your Own Pet Business and More by Entrepreneur Press and Eileen F. Sandlin | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble10. EBAY ASSISTANTDo you have items lurking around your household that you could sell on eBay? Figure out your asking price and decide whether to auction it or put it in your eBay store. Then decide if you want a minimum bid and how long you want the auction to last. You will want to establish a PayPal account to use for transactions. The eBay website provides all the information you need to know to get up and running with an eBay business. Chatbots are offering creative new ways to help businesses with these functions.Start Your Own Freight Brokerage Business, 5th EditionBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromEntrepreneur Voices on Strategic ManagementBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromEntrepreneur Voices on Effective LeadershipBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromStart Your Own Etsy BusinessBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromStart Your Own Nonprofit Organization, 2nd EditionBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromStart Your Own Freight Brokerage Business, 5th EditionBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromEntrepreneur Voices on Strategic ManagementBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy From12345Read This: eBay Business All-in-One For Dummies by Marsha Collier | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & NobleFrom Editorial Services to Household Organizer11. EDITORIAL SERVICESHas expansion possibilitiesHere are some of the editorial services you can provide from the quiet of your own home:Copyediting. This is where fact checking takes place, and where grammatical, stylistic and typographical errors are caught.Proofreading. This is the last stop for a "finished" piece. The proofreader makes sure the copyediting changes have been properly made and no new errors are created in the process.Indexing. There are indexing courses available and you can get indexing software.Developmental editing. A developmental editor works with a manuscript on big-picture things like organization and content issues.Book doctoring. This is an editorial service provided for manuscripts written by experts. They create a manuscript as best they can and then a book doctor puts it into publishable shape.Ghost Writing. As a ghost writer, you actually do the research and write the book and someone else's name is attached as the author.Copywriting. Also known as business writing, this is writing that promotes a product or a service.Book writing. Do you have an expertise in something professional, such as accounting or interior decorating? Or personally, like knitting? Why not write a book about it?Magazine article writing. Magazines and newspapers are a great way to get your writing published before tackling the daunting task of writing a whole book.Web page content provider. Providing content for a web site is a good way to make some money writing.Read This: Start Your Own Freelance Writing Business and More by Entrepreneur Press and George Sheldon | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble12. ELECTRONICS REPAIRHas expansion possibilitiesThis business is similar to the computer repair business, but you will take on all sorts of electronic equipment besides just computers. With smaller electronics, you will need to be prepared to have customers bring their repair projects to you, as you would have difficulty recovering the cost of driving around picking up broken equipment and returning it. You may also want to encourage people to give you their old electronics so you can use them for parts.13. EVENT PLANNINGHas expansion possibilitiesOne of the first things you need to do is visit every potential event location with which you plan to work. Work with the marketing manager to tour each site and learn what is available at each location. Start a database that will allow you to sort venues by varying features--the number of people each site holds, if there is AV equipment available on site, will you need to arrange for rental chairs, etc. Then when you are beginning to plan an event with a client, you can find out what the key parameters are for the event and easily pull up the three or four sites that meet the basic criteria. and engagement parties, etc.Read This: Start Your Own Event Planning Business by The Staff at Entrepreneur Media and Cheryl Kimball | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble14. EXPERT WITNESS SERVICEExperience, training or licensing may be neededOne way to make money in this field is by being an expert witness yourself. If you have an expertise that could be useful in legal cases, you can market yourself to attorneys to act as an expert witness. Another way to be active in the expert witness field is to play a sort of matchmaker, matching attorneys up with expert witnesses for their cases--either for the defense or for the prosecution. Expert witnesses for big money cases can be expected to fly anywhere to testify. There's no reason your database of witnesses can't be from all parts of the country.15. FINANCIAL PLANNERExperience, training or licensing may be neededTo start, you should go through the certification process so that you can label yourself a CFP (Certified Financial Planner). Your certificate shows that you have expertise and credibility, and this differentiation will help people choose you as their financial planner.16. FLEA MARKETHas expansion possibilitiesPeople love to spend weekends rummaging through tables full of other people's unwanted items, looking for treasures. Make sure to change your layout and put new stuff out for sale often. You want people to come back time and again to see what's new. You don't even have to have that much new stuff to make things look new. Just moving an item from a table to the top of a bookshelf might get it noticed, even though the item has been in your inventory since you first started having sales.Read This: Flea Market America: The Complete Guide to Flea Enterprise by Cree McCree | Amazon | Barnes & Noble17. GOLF COACHExperience, training or licensing may be neededLet the local public courses know about your coaching business. Cultivate relationships with the staff and encourage them to recommend you as a coach. Another place to look for customers is the corporate world. Golfing is a game that business people use to develop relationships outside the office. You do need to be a better than average golfer to develop a reputation as a golf coach. You also need to be a good teacher, know how to be motivational and be willing to work with many different types of people.18. HOME ENERGY AUDITORExperience, training or licensing may be neededAll homeowners are always on the lookout for ways to save on their utility bills. You can come to their aid by providing them with an audit of their house and giving them a breakdown of how they could accomplish real savings in heating, cooling and electrical use. You can go one step further and do the implementation and installation of some of your suggestions in their home yourself. Do a complete appliance audit, with efficiency ratings and calculations based on the age of the appliance. And don't forget the water heater!Read This: Toward a Zero Energy Home: A Complete Guide to Energy Self-Sufficiency at Home by David Johnston and Scott Gibson | Amazon | Indigo.ca | Barnes & NobleGetty Images | David Sacks19. HOME INSPECTIONExperience, training or licensing may be neededIn order to be successful, you will want to establish contacts with real estate agents who can recommend your services to customers. The home inspection field is one where you will need to do constant updating of your education and knowledge. New products are constantly coming out on the market--if you only know about decks made of wood, you will not know how to inspect and assess the new materials on the market, such as composites that are made to look like real wood. Also keep apprised of all safety updates of materials and issues with things like off-gassing, carbon monoxide production, and other chemical precautions.Read This: Start Your Own Home Inspection Service by Entrepreneur Press | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble20. HOUSEHOLD ORGANIZERHas expansion possibilitiesStart Your Own Freight Brokerage Business, 5th EditionBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromEntrepreneur Voices on Strategic ManagementBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromEntrepreneur Voices on Effective LeadershipBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromStart Your Own Etsy BusinessBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromStart Your Own Nonprofit Organization, 2nd EditionBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromStart Your Own Freight Brokerage Business, 5th EditionBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromEntrepreneur Voices on Strategic ManagementBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy From12345You can choose either to do the organizing work or to come in to a home and consult on the things the homeowner could do to better organize. Have a portfolio of different organizational scenarios in different rooms in the home and talk with the homeowner about the style he or she likes. Create checklists and questionnaires to understand how the family uses the home. Are the kids wildly busy with after-school activities? Or are they usually home after school and want access to their toys? Do they share rooms? All of these things will help you tailor an organizing plan and become the family hero.From Import/Export to Solar Energy21. IMPORT/EXPORT SPECIALISTExperience, training or licensing may be neededIf you don't already have work experience with importing and/or exporting, you will have a longer learning curve. You can start by learning the basics and hosting educational sessions to teach others what they need to know to get started in import/export. That alone would probably gain you your first couple of clients. If you keep going with educational seminars and expand your reach to outside your immediate region, you could probably develop a sufficient and ongoing customer base very quickly, but be careful not to outpace your learning curve!Read This: Start Your Own Import/Export Business by Entrepreneur Press and Krista Turner | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble22. INTERIOR DECORATORExperience, training or licensing may be neededMarket your talents to building contractors. People purchasing new homes can often be overwhelmed with the choices and possibilities in home decorating. Design some questionnaires for each major element and each major room in the house. Find out how the homeowner will use the home--are there children? Pets? Does the woman of the house wear high heels? Do the home's residents neglect to remove shoes? How will each room be used? Where might task lighting and ambient lighting be most appropriate?23. JEWELRY MAKINGExperience, training or licensing may be neededThere are many different ways of getting into the jewelry business and many different types of materials with which you can work. Working in metal will probably require the most in the way of specific tools. You need to be able to heat the metal to manipulate it, and you need metalworking tools to cut and engrave it. But there are many other materials that you can work with to make jewelry--glass, plastic, beads, feathers, even wood, to name just a few.Read This: Start Your Own Fashion Accessories Business by Entrepreneur Press and Eileen F. Sandlin | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble24. MARKETING COPY WRITERExperience, training or licensing may be neededIf you can write copy that gets people excited about purchasing what your client has to sell, you can make good money in this business. Unless you are highly experienced from working in the copywriting field, take a course. There are online courses or classes at community colleges and universities that can give you a leg up in getting savvy at writing copy for brochures, catalogs, advertising and, of course, marketing copy for the web.25. NOTARY PUBLIC/JUSTICE OF THE PEACEExperience, training or licensing may be neededIn most states in the U.S., a notary public is a state officer who is authorized to witness and attest to the legalities of certain documents by signature and stamping a seal. Most states require that you pass an exam and a background check. It costs very little to become a notary and your income from notary work is negligible. A justice of the peace typically performs wedding ceremonies. States have varying rules and procedures for becoming a JP and performing services. Becoming a JP and/or notary public does not cost much money. And it is not a big moneymaking venture! Many states set the fees you can charge for JP services. JPs can add additional fees, and often do, including travel and hourly rates for additional meetings such as rehearsals, other prep time and any special requests.26. PERSONAL CONCIERGEThis business is for someone who is supremely efficient and has the ability to make things happen. People who hire you will expect things when they want them and you need to be able to come through with not only what they want, but with a personal touch and a smile on your face. The most likely clients for a personal concierge service are top executives who find themselves at the office by 7 a.m. and are there most nights until 9 p.m., leaving them very little time to do all those things that often need to be done during those very hours.Read This: Start Your Own Personal Concierge Service by Entrepreneur Press and Ciree Linsenman | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble27. PERSONAL TRAINERExperience, training or licensing may be neededAdvertise your services in places where everyone goes, like restaurants and grocery stores. Having a website is a good idea--people want some privacy in their decision-making when it comes to getting fit. They can go to your website and determine if your approach to personal training is an approach that would work for them. It is important to emphasize the safety aspect of using a personal trainer. You can help clients get fit and avoid injury.Read This: Start Your Own Personal Training Business by The Staff of Entrepreneur Media and Cheryl Kimball | Amazon | Indigo.ca | Barnes & Noble28. PROPERTY MANAGEMENTYour job, in the case of rental units, will be to make sure the property is running smoothly. For seasonal properties, you will most likely spend your management time making sure the property is ready for seasonal visits and well-maintained when no one is around. If the owners go away for six weeks in the winter, the property manager makes regular checks on the property. You will be the contact number if the security system operator needs to contact someone about a breach in security.29. SMALL ENGINE REPAIRExperience, training or licensing may be neededMost community colleges offer some level of engine-repair courses. Another way to learn would be to take a part-time position at a repair shop or a rental facility where you could learn on the job, although you will want to be open about your plans. You should be prepared to work on push-behind lawn mowers, riding lawn mowers, generators, garden tools such as rototillers and edgers, chainsaws, wood chippers and snowblowers. You need to decide whether you'll want to take on bigger jobs, such as tractors, snowmobiles and ATVs; space may be your decision-maker.30. SOLAR ENERGY CONSULTANTExperience, training or licensing may be neededHas expansion possibilitiesAs a solar consultant, you can basically conduct a home inspection and give clients a report on their solar options for their particular home and site. This can range from full-fledged general solar installations that generate electricity to simple solar walkway lighting. You might want to start by working in a solar products company to become knowledgeable in the solar energy field. However, to be a consultant, it is often best not to be affiliated with any one company or product and be able to recommend products and options across the field of solar energy.Start Your Own Freight Brokerage Business, 5th EditionBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromEntrepreneur Voices on Strategic ManagementBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromEntrepreneur Voices on Effective LeadershipBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromStart Your Own Etsy BusinessBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromStart Your Own Nonprofit Organization, 2nd EditionBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromStart Your Own Freight Brokerage Business, 5th EditionBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromEntrepreneur Voices on Strategic ManagementBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy From12345Read This: Solar Energy: Technologies and Project Delivery for Buildings by Andy Walker | Amazon | Indigo.ca | Barnes & NobleFrom Tax Preparer to Graphic Design31. TAX PREPARERExperience, training or licensing may be neededMost tax preparation franchises offer courses, seminars, and training to get you ready to work for them. You will learn a lot about tax preparation while working for them before going out on your own. There is a lot of educational support out there to learn tax preparation and all its complexities. And there are lots of individuals and businesses willing to spend a few hundred dollars a year to have someone else prepare their taxes and keep watch for tax breaks or tax burdens on their behalf.32. TAXIDERMISTExperience, training or licensing may be neededToday's world of taxidermy isn't exclusive to preserving real specimens. Taxidermy also refers to recreating a specimen using completely artificial materials. Taxidermy schools where you can learn the trade are located almost throughout the country, typically as courses over several weeks specializing in certain levels of expertise, from beginner to master's level. Like any enterprise, there are taxidermy conventions that you can attend and learn about the latest techniques and materials.Getty Images | Jetta Productions33. UPHOLSTERINGIf you have a knack for sewing, upholstery repair might be a perfect business for you. One of the best ways to learn how to upholster is to get some discarded upholstered furniture and start tearing it apart. Many books and some videos are available to help you learn this trade. Often furniture ready for upholstering will also need repairs. Have a list available of furniture repair people you can recommend to your customers. Or you can take the piece in, have repair people you work with do this work for you, and add it to the overall cost. You can also learn to do this work, especially minor repairs, yourself.Read This: Spruce: A Step-by-Step Guide to Upholstery and Design by Amanda Brown | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble34. USED BOOK SALESAlmost everyone has a few boxes of books stashed away in the house somewhere. Why not make a business out of them? In order to gain customers--especially repeat customers--you will need to have some regular shop hours. Make your shop known for something-a specific category (or two) of books, having some first editions for sale, all paperbacks a dollar and all hardcovers two bucks, and/or a swap program. Maps, illustrations, postcards, greeting cards and magazines are good sidelines to include in your shop.35. WEDDING PLANNERYou will need to be up-to-date on wedding trends and fads, dress styles, color trends--almost everything under the sun! Offer your customers an ala carte menu of services, from helping pick flowers, the wedding gown and bridesmaid dresses to picking the venue and hiring the caterer. Before you open your business, shop at all the wedding shops, and even pretend you are a bride-to-be to see what kinds of services the wedding gown shop provides and how they treat potential customers. You need to know every detail of the business to give the accurate impression that you are the go-to person for anyone planning a wedding.Read This: Start Your Own Event Planning Business by The Staff of Entrepreneur Media and Cheryl Kimball | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble$1,500 to 3,000 to start up36. APPLIANCE REPAIRExperience, training or licensing may be neededEvery household has a number of appliances, large and small. You can work on your own or on contract with appliance stores to cover their warranty service calls--or, best of all, you can do some of each. Plan to start slow and build your customer base on recommendations and referrals based on work well done. Consider developing relationships with contractors to be the go-to person to install appliances in newly constructed houses.37. COMPUTER TRAININGExperience, training or licensing may be neededHas expansion possibilitiesIf you are proficient in both Macintosh and PC, you should offer training in both types of computers. You could probably make a living helping seniors learn how to use the internet and e-mail to keep in touch with their loved ones, who are now commonly spread around the country. Err on the side of caution in this business. People do not want to know all the details about what makes a computer work. If you overload them with information from the beginning by explaining bits, bytes, and megapixels, they will stick to their paper and pencil forever.38. DESKTOP PUBLISHERExperience, training or licensing may be neededYou can use desktop publishing software to create newsletters, magazines, books or even marketing materials. You can create the content for your desktop publications, or you can pay a writer to create the content for you. Alternatively, you can advertise your desktop publishing services to design and create newsletters and books for others with their content.39. FENCE INSTALLATIONSFences are everywhere. And they don't last forever, so they need to be repaired and replaced with a certain amount of frequency. The most common fence material is wood. However, vinyl has become a popular fence choice due to its longevity and relative freedom from maintenance. Wrought iron is another common fencing, especially in urban environments. You can have fun shopping for vintage wrought iron fencing at salvage yards.40. FREELANCE GRAPHIC DESIGNERExperience, training or licensing may be neededDespite the proliferation of the internet, print media is here to stay for the foreseeable future! Fliers, newsletters, magazines, information sheets, letters and advertisements are just a few of the types of print media that business hire freelancers to create for them. Websites and online advertising need graphic design services as well. Even if your expertise is only in design, offer the works for potential clients, including the editorial creation and the printing and even mailing of the final piece. You can line up regular freelancers for those parts of the job you can't do.Start Your Own Freight Brokerage Business, 5th EditionBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromEntrepreneur Voices on Strategic ManagementBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromEntrepreneur Voices on Effective LeadershipBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromStart Your Own Etsy BusinessBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromStart Your Own Nonprofit Organization, 2nd EditionBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromStart Your Own Freight Brokerage Business, 5th EditionBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromEntrepreneur Voices on Strategic ManagementBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy From12345Read This: Start Your Own Graphic Design Business by Entrepreneur Press and George Sheldon | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & NobleFrom Gift Baskets to Rug Cleaning41. GIFT BASKET SERVICEHas expansion possibilitiesFinding a niche is the best way to start out in the gift basket business. Are you a dog lover, horse lover, or exercise guru who could put together baskets that hold the things that people with this interest would like? Do you already create a product that a gift basket could be built around? Have you made your own soaps for the past 10 years? A gift basket that included one or two of your soaps, hand lotion, a scrub brush and manicure kit could be a lovely basket to receive.Read This: Start Your Own Gift Basket Service by Entrepreneur Press and Cheryl Kimball | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble42. GRAFFITI REMOVALCreate an arsenal of cleaning products that can clean almost every kind of product (paint, chalk, markers) from every kind of surface (cement, wood, pavement). The best way to conduct a graffiti service is to offer a subscription-like arrangement. Once a month or whatever interval makes sense for your clients, go around to their property and clean off the graffiti. Charge them a monthly or quarterly fee and make it simple for everyone--they don't have to think about graffiti, and you just do your job.43. HAIRSTYLISTExperience, training or licensing may be neededHairstyling is a popular business that can be quite lucrative. Generally a home based hairstylist business is likely to be started by someone who has already has a cosmetology career and wants a change. If you already have your cosmetology training and license, and loads of experience under your belt working in a hairstyling salon, you probably have a following that will follow you right home without any hesitation.Read This: Start Your Own Hair Salon and Day Spa by Entrepreneur Press and Eileen F. Sandlin | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble4. HERBAL FARM STANDYou need to decide whether you will sell your herbs as live plants, picked or cut in bunches and packed, or dried. If you plan to market to cooks instead of gardeners, you will want to sell your herbs either fresh cut and packed in sealed bags, or dried and sold in baggies. You can also consider a "pick-your-own" arrangement; however, be aware that herbs are more delicate than most P.Y.O. products. You may save your garden a lot of strife and your plants a lot of wear and tear if you do the picking.45. LANDSCAPERExperience, training or licensing may be neededIf you have a knack for this type of work, a degree won't be necessary. Most people want their yards tidied up in the spring, their lawns mowed in the summer, their leaves removed in the fall, and their shrubs and driveways ready for winter snow. You will also want to offer garden work such as spring planting of annuals and perennials; vegetable garden preparation, planting and fall cleanup; pest control and watering. You can offer tree care service. There is plenty to do in the yard that has nothing to do with plants: stone wall restoration, fencing, irrigation system installation.Read This: Start Your Own Lawn Care or Landscaping Business by The Staff of Entrepreneur Media and Cheryl Kimball | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble46. MASSAGE THERAPISTExperience, training or licensing may be neededYou will want to become certified in massage therapy to be able to effectively market your services. Courses that lead to certification include not only information on human anatomy and physiology and the effects that massage has on both, but also on how to make a business out of the field of massage. You could do either a certification program or an associate's degree and stay within the $5,000 scope of this book.Read This: Start Your Own Day Spa and More by Entrepreneur Press and Preethi Burkholder | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble47. MOVING SERVICELots of people who are moving want to hire someone to do the heavy lifting for them. You can leave the large-scale, long-distance moving to the big moving companies. Your work can be the local, moving-across-town or to the town-next-door jobs. These are the ones that people start off thinking perhaps they could do themselves, and it will be your job to convince them otherwise. Your signs around town will tempt them to let you take care of that part of the move, while they are busy taking care of those other 500 items on their list.48. MUSIC LESSONSExperience, training or licensing may be neededYou want to stick to the instrument(s) you know, but you may be a skilled enough musician to offer lessons on several different instruments, or those in a particular class, e.g., stringed or woodwind.You can decide to take on individuals or classes, depending on space and availability of instruments. Public schools are continually reducing their commitment to art and music classes for students, so you can try to work with the public school system to supplement their efforts in those areas.49. PHOTOGRAPHERExperience, training or licensing may be neededMaking money as a photographer can be done in a number of different ways. You can specialize in one area, the most common being weddings. There are niches you can explore for photography: portraits of people and their pets, families, and homes; photographs of holiday events, birthday parties or Christmas cards; the possibilities are endless.Read This: Start Your Own Photography Business by Entrepreneur Press and Charlene Davis | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble50. RUG CLEANINGStart Your Own Freight Brokerage Business, 5th EditionBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromEntrepreneur Voices on Strategic ManagementBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromEntrepreneur Voices on Effective LeadershipBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromStart Your Own Etsy BusinessBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromStart Your Own Nonprofit Organization, 2nd EditionBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromStart Your Own Freight Brokerage Business, 5th EditionBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy FromEntrepreneur Voices on Strategic ManagementBy: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.Buy From12345You will need to learn how to work with all kinds of carpet fabrics, from synthetic to wool carpets. Decide whether you will take on valuable antique carpets and family heirlooms; if so, you will want to get specialized training in how to handle these carpets and the specialized ways of cleaning them. Learn how to get tough stains and odors out of carpets--such as dog and cat odors--and your services will be in great demand.From Websites to Pet Sitting51. WEBSITE DEVELOPERExperience, training or licensing may be neededMany courses exist (many of which, logically, are offered online) where you can learn the language of website creation and can learn about the details, like how to set up shopping cart systems, security concerns, etc. You will, of course, need to learn about each company you design for. What is the atmosphere of the company that you need to reflect in the website design--is it wild and contemporary, meaning brilliant colors and fun graphics? Or will more classic colors like black, navy blue and maroon be more appropriate?Offer: Get a 10-day free trial to Lynda.com and learn web development – among many other topics and courses – anytime, anywhere.$3,000 to $5,000 to start up52. BED AND BREAKFASTDo you have a room that has its own bathroom and is private from the rest of the living space? Are you near attractions such as a tourist area, sports stadium or venue for a large annual event? Or is your home in the country with spring peepers, summer crickets and crisp fall nights that could give a city-dweller a weekend of peaceful living? Say you can rent the room for $150 a night for Friday and Saturday nights 48 weeks a year--that's $14,400 in revenue! Utilize what you have and create a unique experience.Read This: Start Your Own Bed and Breakfast by Entrepreneur Press and Cheryl Kimball | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble53. CHRISTMAS TREE SALESIf you want to start a Christmas tree farm, you need to plan ahead. It takes approximately seven years for a Balsam fir--perhaps the most traditional Christmas tree--to grow from a small sapling to a 5- to 6-foot tree. Selling your trees yourself is the best option. Consumers come to the property, pick the one they want, and you harvest it for them. The other option is to buy your trees from a wholesaler and sell them either in your yard or in a vacant lot that you rent from Thanksgiving to Christmas.54. DAY CAREExperience, training or licensing may be neededPerhaps you love children. Perhaps you have children of your own and the idea of taking care of a few more for part of the day appeals to you. Child-care needs continue to soar in the United States. Many people prefer the option of their child being cared for in a home environment while they are at work, opposed to a more institutional-like setting. These things mean that a homebased childcare business can get off and running immediately.Read This: Start Your Own Child-Care Service by The Staff of Entrepreneur Media and Jacquelyn Lynn | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble55. PET SITTINGExperience, training or licensing may be neededStarting a pet sitting service requires almost nothing in start-up costs. You do need some general credentials that will cost little or nothing to acquire. Your list of credentials should probably include personal pet ownership--if not currently, at least in the past--as well as other pet-related experience, including working at a pet food store, an animal hospital or other animal-related business. You will need to spend a little to become "bonded." This is known as "honesty insurance," and ensures your clients that you won't get their house keys and make off with their valuables (or that they'll get their money back if you do).i hope that could be more help

Today, tens of thousands of people are considering starting a home based business, and for good reasons. On average, people can expect to have two and three careers during their work life. Those leaving one career often think about their second or third career move being to their own home. People who have been part of the traditional nine-to-five work force and are on the verge of retiring from that life are thinking of what to do next. The good news: Starting a homebased business is within the reach of almost anyone who wants to take a risk and work hard.$1,500 or less to start up1. ACCOUNTANTExperience, training or licensing may be neededCreate a flier outlining your services. Before you do that, you need to know what those services will be. Do you want to simply do bookkeeping for a small business? A more involved level of accounting would be do actually work up balance sheets, income statements, and other financial reports on a monthly, quarterly, and/or annual basis, depending on the needs of the business. Other specializations can include tax accounting, a huge area of potential work. Service companies like Due.com assisted freelancers with payments. Many owners don't mind keeping their own day-to-day bookkeeping records but would rather get professional help with their taxes.2. BICYCLE REPAIRIn many parts of the country, this business tends to be seasonal, but you can find ways around that. Rent a storage unit and offer to store people's bicycles over the winter after you do a tune-up and any needed repairs on them. If you want to cater to the Lance Armstrong wannabes, you can have business all year round. These road race riders are training through snow, sleet and dark of night. Some of them work on their own bicycles, but many of them don't, so you can get their business all year. And if you keep Saturday shop hours, you can be sure you will have a group of enthusiasts coming by to talk all things cycling.3. BOAT CLEANINGExperience, training or licensing may be neededBoats that are hauled out of the water for the winter or even just for mid-season repairs will need the hull cleaned. And depending on the type of boat, it is a good time to give a major cleaning everything else too--the decks, the sleeping quarters, the head, and the holds. Start by approaching homes that have a boat sitting in the yard. Or you could market your services to the marina to contract you to do the boat cleaning it offers to customers.4. BUSINESS PLAN SERVICEHas expansion possibilitiesOffer a soup-to-nuts business plan, including market research, the business plan narrative and the financial statements. Plan your fee around the main one that the client will want and offer the others as add-on services. You can give clients an electronic file and allow them to take it from there, or you can keep the business plan on file and offer the service of tweaking it whenever necessary. Have business plan samples to show clients--and make sure to include your own!Read This: Write Your Business Plan by The Staff at Entrepreneur Media |Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble5. CHIMNEY SWEEPLearning to be a chimney sweep may mean nothing more than apprenticing with someone already in the business. By becoming a chimney expert, you can combine a chimney sweep business with a chimney inspection service--covering more than just whether or not the chimney needs cleaning but whether the chimney is in good working order or in need of repair.6. CLEANING SERVICEThere are many directions you can take this business. If you want to work during hours when no one else does, you can focus on office clients. You can focus on retail businesses and keep your customers clumped into one or two blocks. Restaurants are in great need of daily thorough cleaning and can be a great source of steady clients. Perhaps you would be more interested in house cleaning. Many times with cleaning services you don't have to spend lots of money on advertising or marketing because your customers will come by word of mouth.Read This: Start Your Own Cleaning Service by Entrepreneur Press and Jacquelyn Lynn | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble7. COMPUTER REPAIRExperience, training or licensing may be neededStudy the main types of software that system users will want--word processing, photo manipulation software, mail merge, spreadsheet, design and especially security software. Investigate all the components--monitor types in all their varieties; keyboards, from wired to ergonomic to wireless; mouse types; as well as peripheral components like printers and scanners. Become completely familiar with all the ISPs (internet service providers) available in the market area you plan to cover. Establish yourself as the guru who can meet the needs of the personal computer user, the small business or a larger corporation.8. CONSULTANTHas expansion possibilitiesTo be a consultant, you need to have an expertise in something so you can market yourself as an advisor to others looking to work in that area. Perhaps you managed several large warehouses in your career with a drugstore company, you did all the marketing for many years for a large shoe manufacturer or you set up a chain of beauty supply shops or take-out restaurants. You can use this experience to help others do similar things without making the same mistakes that you made along the way.Read This: Start Your Own Consulting Business by Entrepreneur Press and Eileen F. Sandlin |Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble9. DOG WALKINGExperience, training, or licensing may be neededDog walkers take pooches out for their daily constitutional one or more times a day, either individually or in small groups. In some cities across the United States, like New York, dog walking alone can be a booming business. But it's actually more common for dog walkers to offer additional services, including playing with and feeding pets, bringing in newspapers and mail, and turning lights on and off.Read This: Start Your Own Pet Business and More by Entrepreneur Press and Eileen F. Sandlin | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble10. EBAY ASSISTANTDo you have items lurking around your household that you could sell on eBay? Figure out your asking price and decide whether to auction it or put it in your eBay store. Then decide if you want a minimum bid and how long you want the auction to last. You will want to establish a PayPal account to use for transactions. The eBay website provides all the information you need to know to get up and running with an eBay business. Chatbots are offering creative new ways to help businesses with these functions.Read This: eBay Business All-in-One For Dummies by Marsha Collier | Amazon |eBooks.com | Barnes & NobleFrom Editorial Services to Household Organizer11. EDITORIAL SERVICESHas expansion possibilitiesHere are some of the editorial services you can provide from the quiet of your own home:Copyediting. This is where fact checking takes place, and where grammatical, stylistic and typographical errors are caught.Proofreading. This is the last stop for a "finished" piece. The proofreader makes sure the copyediting changes have been properly made and no new errors are created in the process.Indexing. There are indexing courses available and you can get indexing software.Developmental editing. A developmental editor works with a manuscript on big-picture things like organization and content issues.Book doctoring. This is an editorial service provided for manuscripts written by experts. They create a manuscript as best they can and then a book doctor puts it into publishable shape.Ghost Writing. As a ghost writer, you actually do the research and write the book and someone else's name is attached as the author.Copywriting. Also known as business writing, this is writing that promotes a product or a service.Book writing. Do you have an expertise in something professional, such as accounting or interior decorating? Or personally, like knitting? Why not write a book about it?Magazine article writing. Magazines and newspapers are a great way to get your writing published before tackling the daunting task of writing a whole book.Web page content provider. Providing content for a web site is a good way to make some money writing.Read This: Start Your Own Freelance Writing Business and More by Entrepreneur Press and George Sheldon | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble12. ELECTRONICS REPAIRHas expansion possibilitiesThis business is similar to the computer repair business, but you will take on all sorts of electronic equipment besides just computers. With smaller electronics, you will need to be prepared to have customers bring their repair projects to you, as you would have difficulty recovering the cost of driving around picking up broken equipment and returning it. You may also want to encourage people to give you their old electronics so you can use them for parts.13. EVENT PLANNINGHas expansion possibilitiesOne of the first things you need to do is visit every potential event location with which you plan to work. Work with the marketing manager to tour each site and learn what is available at each location. Start a database that will allow you to sort venues by varying features--the number of people each site holds, if there is AV equipment available on site, will you need to arrange for rental chairs, etc. Then when you are beginning to plan an event with a client, you can find out what the key parameters are for the event and easily pull up the three or four sites that meet the basic criteria. and engagement parties, etc.Read This: Start Your Own Event Planning Business by The Staff at Entrepreneur Media and Cheryl Kimball | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble14. EXPERT WITNESS SERVICEExperience, training or licensing may be neededOne way to make money in this field is by being an expert witness yourself. If you have an expertise that could be useful in legal cases, you can market yourself to attorneys to act as an expert witness. Another way to be active in the expert witness field is to play a sort of matchmaker, matching attorneys up with expert witnesses for their cases--either for the defense or for the prosecution. Expert witnesses for big money cases can be expected to fly anywhere to testify. There's no reason your database of witnesses can't be from all parts of the country.15. FINANCIAL PLANNERExperience, training or licensing may be neededTo start, you should go through the certification process so that you can label yourself a CFP (Certified Financial Planner). Your certificate shows that you have expertise and credibility, and this differentiation will help people choose you as their financial planner.16. FLEA MARKETHas expansion possibilitiesPeople love to spend weekends rummaging through tables full of other people's unwanted items, looking for treasures. Make sure to change your layout and put new stuff out for sale often. You want people to come back time and again to see what's new. You don't even have to have that much new stuff to make things look new. Just moving an item from a table to the top of a bookshelf might get it noticed, even though the item has been in your inventory since you first started having sales.Read This: Flea Market America: The Complete Guide to Flea Enterprise by Cree McCree | Amazon | Barnes & Noble17. GOLF COACHExperience, training or licensing may be neededLet the local public courses know about your coaching business. Cultivate relationships with the staff and encourage them to recommend you as a coach. Another place to look for customers is the corporate world. Golfing is a game that business people use to develop relationships outside the office. You do need to be a better than average golfer to develop a reputation as a golf coach. You also need to be a good teacher, know how to be motivational and be willing to work with many different types of people.18. HOME ENERGY AUDITORExperience, training or licensing may be neededAll homeowners are always on the lookout for ways to save on their utility bills. You can come to their aid by providing them with an audit of their house and giving them a breakdown of how they could accomplish real savings in heating, cooling and electrical use. You can go one step further and do the implementation and installation of some of your suggestions in their home yourself. Do a complete appliance audit, with efficiency ratings and calculations based on the age of the appliance. And don't forget the water heater!Read This: Toward a Zero Energy Home: A Complete Guide to Energy Self-Sufficiency at Homeby David Johnston and Scott Gibson | Amazon | Indigo.ca | Barnes & NobleGetty Images | David Sacks19. HOME INSPECTIONExperience, training or licensing may be neededIn order to be successful, you will want to establish contacts with real estate agents who can recommend your services to customers. The home inspection field is one where you will need to do constant updating of your education and knowledge. New products are constantly coming out on the market--if you only know about decks made of wood, you will not know how to inspect and assess the new materials on the market, such as composites that are made to look like real wood. Also keep apprised of all safety updates of materials and issues with things like off-gassing, carbon monoxide production, and other chemical precautions.Read This: Start Your Own Home Inspection Service by Entrepreneur Press | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble20. HOUSEHOLD ORGANIZERHas expansion possibilitiesYou can choose either to do the organizing work or to come in to a home and consult on the things the homeowner could do to better organize. Have a portfolio of different organizational scenarios in different rooms in the home and talk with the homeowner about the style he or she likes. Create checklists and questionnaires to understand how the family uses the home. Are the kids wildly busy with after-school activities? Or are they usually home after school and want access to their toys? Do they share rooms? All of these things will help you tailor an organizing plan and become the family hero.From Import/Export to Solar Energy21. IMPORT/EXPORT SPECIALISTExperience, training or licensing may be neededIf you don't already have work experience with importing and/or exporting, you will have a longer learning curve. You can start by learning the basics and hosting educational sessions to teach others what they need to know to get started in import/export. That alone would probably gain you your first couple of clients. If you keep going with educational seminars and expand your reach to outside your immediate region, you could probably develop a sufficient and ongoing customer base very quickly, but be careful not to outpace your learning curve!Read This: Start Your Own Import/Export Business by Entrepreneur Press and Krista Turner | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble22. INTERIOR DECORATORExperience, training or licensing may be neededMarket your talents to building contractors. People purchasing new homes can often be overwhelmed with the choices and possibilities in home decorating. Design some questionnaires for each major element and each major room in the house. Find out how the homeowner will use the home--are there children? Pets? Does the woman of the house wear high heels? Do the home's residents neglect to remove shoes? How will each room be used? Where might task lighting and ambient lighting be most appropriate?23. JEWELRY MAKINGExperience, training or licensing may be neededThere are many different ways of getting into the jewelry business and many different types of materials with which you can work. Working in metal will probably require the most in the way of specific tools. You need to be able to heat the metal to manipulate it, and you need metalworking tools to cut and engrave it. But there are many other materials that you can work with to make jewelry--glass, plastic, beads, feathers, even wood, to name just a few.Read This: Start Your Own Fashion Accessories Business by Entrepreneur Press and Eileen F. Sandlin | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble24. MARKETING COPY WRITERExperience, training or licensing may be neededIf you can write copy that gets people excited about purchasing what your client has to sell, you can make good money in this business. Unless you are highly experienced from working in the copywriting field, take a course. There are online courses or classes at community colleges and universities that can give you a leg up in getting savvy at writing copy for brochures, catalogs, advertising and, of course, marketing copy for the web.25. NOTARY PUBLIC/JUSTICE OF THE PEACEExperience, training or licensing may be neededIn most states in the U.S., a notary public is a state officer who is authorized to witness and attest to the legalities of certain documents by signature and stamping a seal. Most states require that you pass an exam and a background check. It costs very little to become a notary and your income from notary work is negligible. A justice of the peace typically performs wedding ceremonies. States have varying rules and procedures for becoming a JP and performing services. Becoming a JP and/or notary public does not cost much money. And it is not a big moneymaking venture! Many states set the fees you can charge for JP services. JPs can add additional fees, and often do, including travel and hourly rates for additional meetings such as rehearsals, other prep time and any special requests.26. PERSONAL CONCIERGEThis business is for someone who is supremely efficient and has the ability to make things happen. People who hire you will expect things when they want them and you need to be able to come through with not only what they want, but with a personal touch and a smile on your face. The most likely clients for a personal concierge service are top executives who find themselves at the office by 7 a.m. and are there most nights until 9 p.m., leaving them very little time to do all those things that often need to be done during those very hours.Read This: Start Your Own Personal Concierge Service by Entrepreneur Press and Ciree Linsenman | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble27. PERSONAL TRAINERExperience, training or licensing may be neededAdvertise your services in places where everyone goes, like restaurants and grocery stores. Having a website is a good idea--people want some privacy in their decision-making when it comes to getting fit. They can go to your website and determine if your approach to personal training is an approach that would work for them. It is important to emphasize the safety aspect of using a personal trainer. You can help clients get fit and avoid injury.Read This: Start Your Own Personal Training Business by The Staff of Entrepreneur Media and Cheryl Kimball | Amazon | Indigo.ca | Barnes & Noble28. PROPERTY MANAGEMENTYour job, in the case of rental units, will be to make sure the property is running smoothly. For seasonal properties, you will most likely spend your management time making sure the property is ready for seasonal visits and well-maintained when no one is around. If the owners go away for six weeks in the winter, the property manager makes regular checks on the property. You will be the contact number if the security system operator needs to contact someone about a breach in security.29. SMALL ENGINE REPAIRExperience, training or licensing may be neededMost community colleges offer some level of engine-repair courses. Another way to learn would be to take a part-time position at a repair shop or a rental facility where you could learn on the job, although you will want to be open about your plans. You should be prepared to work on push-behind lawn mowers, riding lawn mowers, generators, garden tools such as rototillers and edgers, chainsaws, wood chippers and snowblowers. You need to decide whether you'll want to take on bigger jobs, such as tractors, snowmobiles and ATVs; space may be your decision-maker.30. SOLAR ENERGY CONSULTANTExperience, training or licensing may be neededHas expansion possibilitiesAs a solar consultant, you can basically conduct a home inspection and give clients a report on their solar options for their particular home and site. This can range from full-fledged general solar installations that generate electricity to simple solar walkway lighting. You might want to start by working in a solar products company to become knowledgeable in the solar energy field. However, to be a consultant, it is often best not to be affiliated with any one company or product and be able to recommend products and options across the field of solar energy.Read This: Solar Energy: Technologies and Project Delivery for Buildings by Andy Walker | Amazon | Indigo.ca | Barnes & NobleFrom Tax Preparer to Graphic Design31. TAX PREPARERExperience, training or licensing may be neededMost tax preparation franchises offer courses, seminars, and training to get you ready to work for them. You will learn a lot about tax preparation while working for them before going out on your own. There is a lot of educational support out there to learn tax preparation and all its complexities. And there are lots of individuals and businesses willing to spend a few hundred dollars a year to have someone else prepare their taxes and keep watch for tax breaks or tax burdens on their behalf.32. TAXIDERMISTExperience, training or licensing may be neededToday's world of taxidermy isn't exclusive to preserving real specimens. Taxidermy also refers to recreating a specimen using completely artificial materials. Taxidermy schools where you can learn the trade are located almost throughout the country, typically as courses over several weeks specializing in certain levels of expertise, from beginner to master's level. Like any enterprise, there are taxidermy conventions that you can attend and learn about the latest techniques and materials.Getty Images | Jetta Productions33. UPHOLSTERINGIf you have a knack for sewing, upholstery repair might be a perfect business for you. One of the best ways to learn how to upholster is to get some discarded upholstered furniture and start tearing it apart. Many books and some videos are available to help you learn this trade. Often furniture ready for upholstering will also need repairs. Have a list available of furniture repair people you can recommend to your customers. Or you can take the piece in, have repair people you work with do this work for you, and add it to the overall cost. You can also learn to do this work, especially minor repairs, yourself.Read This: Spruce: A Step-by-Step Guide to Upholstery and Design by Amanda Brown | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble34. USED BOOK SALESAlmost everyone has a few boxes of books stashed away in the house somewhere. Why not make a business out of them? In order to gain customers--especially repeat customers--you will need to have some regular shop hours. Make your shop known for something-a specific category (or two) of books, having some first editions for sale, all paperbacks a dollar and all hardcovers two bucks, and/or a swap program. Maps, illustrations, postcards, greeting cards and magazines are good sidelines to include in your shop.35. WEDDING PLANNERYou will need to be up-to-date on wedding trends and fads, dress styles, color trends--almost everything under the sun! Offer your customers an ala carte menu of services, from helping pick flowers, the wedding gown and bridesmaid dresses to picking the venue and hiring the caterer. Before you open your business, shop at all the wedding shops, and even pretend you are a bride-to-be to see what kinds of services the wedding gown shop provides and how they treat potential customers. You need to know every detail of the business to give the accurate impression that you are the go-to person for anyone planning a wedding.Read This: Start Your Own Event Planning Business by The Staff of Entrepreneur Media and Cheryl Kimball | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble$1,500 to 3,000 to start up36. APPLIANCE REPAIRExperience, training or licensing may be neededEvery household has a number of appliances, large and small. You can work on your own or on contract with appliance stores to cover their warranty service calls--or, best of all, you can do some of each. Plan to start slow and build your customer base on recommendations and referrals based on work well done. Consider developing relationships with contractors to be the go-to person to install appliances in newly constructed houses.37. COMPUTER TRAININGExperience, training or licensing may be neededHas expansion possibilitiesIf you are proficient in both Macintosh and PC, you should offer training in both types of computers. You could probably make a living helping seniors learn how to use the internet and e-mail to keep in touch with their loved ones, who are now commonly spread around the country. Err on the side of caution in this business. People do not want to know all the details about what makes a computer work. If you overload them with information from the beginning by explaining bits, bytes, and megapixels, they will stick to their paper and pencil forever.38. DESKTOP PUBLISHERExperience, training or licensing may be neededYou can use desktop publishing software to create newsletters, magazines, books or even marketing materials. You can create the content for your desktop publications, or you can pay a writer to create the content for you. Alternatively, you can advertise your desktop publishing services to design and create newsletters and books for others with their content.39. FENCE INSTALLATIONSFences are everywhere. And they don't last forever, so they need to be repaired and replaced with a certain amount of frequency. The most common fence material is wood. However, vinyl has become a popular fence choice due to its longevity and relative freedom from maintenance. Wrought iron is another common fencing, especially in urban environments. You can have fun shopping for vintage wrought iron fencing at salvage yards.40. FREELANCE GRAPHIC DESIGNERExperience, training or licensing may be neededDespite the proliferation of the internet, print media is here to stay for the foreseeable future! Fliers, newsletters, magazines, information sheets, letters and advertisements are just a few of the types of print media that business hire freelancers to create for them. Websites and online advertising need graphic design services as well. Even if your expertise is only in design, offer the works for potential clients, including the editorial creation and the printing and even mailing of the final piece. You can line up regular freelancers for those parts of the job you can't do.Read This: Start Your Own Graphic Design Business by Entrepreneur Press and George Sheldon | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & NobleFrom Gift Baskets to Rug Cleaning41. GIFT BASKET SERVICEHas expansion possibilitiesFinding a niche is the best way to start out in the gift basket business. Are you a dog lover, horse lover, or exercise guru who could put together baskets that hold the things that people with this interest would like? Do you already create a product that a gift basket could be built around? Have you made your own soaps for the past 10 years? A gift basket that included one or two of your soaps, hand lotion, a scrub brush and manicure kit could be a lovely basket to receive.Read This: Start Your Own Gift Basket Service by Entrepreneur Press and Cheryl Kimball | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble42. GRAFFITI REMOVALCreate an arsenal of cleaning products that can clean almost every kind of product (paint, chalk, markers) from every kind of surface (cement, wood, pavement). The best way to conduct a graffiti service is to offer a subscription-like arrangement. Once a month or whatever interval makes sense for your clients, go around to their property and clean off the graffiti. Charge them a monthly or quarterly fee and make it simple for everyone--they don't have to think about graffiti, and you just do your job.43. HAIRSTYLISTExperience, training or licensing may be neededHairstyling is a popular business that can be quite lucrative. Generally a home based hairstylist business is likely to be started by someone who has already has a cosmetology career and wants a change. If you already have your cosmetology training and license, and loads of experience under your belt working in a hairstyling salon, you probably have a following that will follow you right home without any hesitation.Read This: Start Your Own Hair Salon and Day Spa by Entrepreneur Press and Eileen F. Sandlin | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble4. HERBAL FARM STANDYou need to decide whether you will sell your herbs as live plants, picked or cut in bunches and packed, or dried. If you plan to market to cooks instead of gardeners, you will want to sell your herbs either fresh cut and packed in sealed bags, or dried and sold in baggies. You can also consider a "pick-your-own" arrangement; however, be aware that herbs are more delicate than most P.Y.O. products. You may save your garden a lot of strife and your plants a lot of wear and tear if you do the picking.45. LANDSCAPERExperience, training or licensing may be neededIf you have a knack for this type of work, a degree won't be necessary. Most people want their yards tidied up in the spring, their lawns mowed in the summer, their leaves removed in the fall, and their shrubs and driveways ready for winter snow. You will also want to offer garden work such as spring planting of annuals and perennials; vegetable garden preparation, planting and fall cleanup; pest control and watering. You can offer tree care service. There is plenty to do in the yard that has nothing to do with plants: stone wall restoration, fencing, irrigation system installation.Read This: Start Your Own Lawn Care or Landscaping Business by The Staff of Entrepreneur Media and Cheryl Kimball | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble46. MASSAGE THERAPISTExperience, training or licensing may be neededYou will want to become certified in massage therapy to be able to effectively market your services. Courses that lead to certification include not only information on human anatomy and physiology and the effects that massage has on both, but also on how to make a business out of the field of massage. You could do either a certification program or an associate's degree and stay within the $5,000 scope of this book.Read This: Start Your Own Day Spa and More by Entrepreneur Press and Preethi Burkholder | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble47. MOVING SERVICELots of people who are moving want to hire someone to do the heavy lifting for them. You can leave the large-scale, long-distance moving to the big moving companies. Your work can be the local, moving-across-town or to the town-next-door jobs. These are the ones that people start off thinking perhaps they could do themselves, and it will be your job to convince them otherwise. Your signs around town will tempt them to let you take care of that part of the move, while they are busy taking care of those other 500 items on their list.48. MUSIC LESSONSExperience, training or licensing may be neededYou want to stick to the instrument(s) you know, but you may be a skilled enough musician to offer lessons on several different instruments, or those in a particular class, e.g., stringed or woodwind.You can decide to take on individuals or classes, depending on space and availability of instruments. Public schools are continually reducing their commitment to art and music classes for students, so you can try to work with the public school system to supplement their efforts in those areas.49. PHOTOGRAPHERExperience, training or licensing may be neededMaking money as a photographer can be done in a number of different ways. You can specialize in one area, the most common being weddings. There are niches you can explore for photography: portraits of people and their pets, families, and homes; photographs of holiday events, birthday parties or Christmas cards; the possibilities are endless.Read This: Start Your Own Photography Business by Entrepreneur Press and Charlene Davis | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble50. RUG CLEANINGYou will need to learn how to work with all kinds of carpet fabrics, from synthetic to wool carpets. Decide whether you will take on valuable antique carpets and family heirlooms; if so, you will want to get specialized training in how to handle these carpets and the specialized ways of cleaning them. Learn how to get tough stains and odors out of carpets--such as dog and cat odors--and your services will be in great demand.From Websites to Pet Sitting51. WEBSITE DEVELOPERExperience, training or licensing may be neededMany courses exist (many of which, logically, are offered online) where you can learn the language of website creation and can learn about the details, like how to set up shopping cart systems, security concerns, etc. You will, of course, need to learn about each company you design for. What is the atmosphere of the company that you need to reflect in the website design--is it wild and contemporary, meaning brilliant colors and fun graphics? Or will more classic colors like black, navy blue and maroon be more appropriate?Offer: Get a 10-day free trial to Lynda.com and learn web development – among many other topics and courses – anytime, anywhere.$3,000 to $5,000 to start up52. BED AND BREAKFASTDo you have a room that has its own bathroom and is private from the rest of the living space? Are you near attractions such as a tourist area, sports stadium or venue for a large annual event? Or is your home in the country with spring peepers, summer crickets and crisp fall nights that could give a city-dweller a weekend of peaceful living? Say you can rent the room for $150 a night for Friday and Saturday nights 48 weeks a year--that's $14,400 in revenue! Utilize what you have and create a unique experience.Read This: Start Your Own Bed and Breakfast by Entrepreneur Press and Cheryl Kimball | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble53. CHRISTMAS TREE SALESIf you want to start a Christmas tree farm, you need to plan ahead. It takes approximately seven years for a Balsam fir--perhaps the most traditional Christmas tree--to grow from a small sapling to a 5- to 6-foot tree. Selling your trees yourself is the best option. Consumers come to the property, pick the one they want, and you harvest it for them. The other option is to buy your trees from a wholesaler and sell them either in your yard or in a vacant lot that you rent from Thanksgiving to Christmas.54. DAY CAREExperience, training or licensing may be neededPerhaps you love children. Perhaps you have children of your own and the idea of taking care of a few more for part of the day appeals to you. Child-care needs continue to soar in the United States. Many people prefer the option of their child being cared for in a home environment while they are at work, opposed to a more institutional-like setting. These things mean that a homebased childcare business can get off and running immediately.Read This: Start Your Own Child-Care Service by The Staff of Entrepreneur Media and Jacquelyn Lynn | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble55. PET SITTINGExperience, training or licensing may be neededStarting a pet sitting service requires almost nothing in start-up costs. You do need some general credentials that will cost little or nothing to acquire. Your list of credentials should probably include personal pet ownership--if not currently, at least in the past--as well as other pet-related experience, including working at a pet food store, an animal hospital or other animal-related business. You will need to spend a little to become "bonded." This is known as "honesty insurance," and ensures your clients that you won't get their house keys and make off with their valuables (or that they'll get their money back if you do).