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Are you interested in Are you interested in starting a recycling business? Do you want to know what it takes to setup a recycling plant? Then i advice you read on as I explain in detail how to start a recycling business from scratch.Recycling is one of the businesses of the future that you must invest in now if you have the means. As the green awareness trend and eco-consciousness increases, the demand for recycled products or items will also increase. This opens an avenue for smart entrepreneurs to capitalize upon, make a living and amass wealth. Now for those who are yet to understand the concept of recycling and potentials it holds, I will give you a brief definition about it.What is Recycling?Recycling is simply the process of making of new products from products that has been used and disposed as waste. As a green entrepreneur, your duty here is to get these assumed useless waste products, recycle it into useful products and resell it to the same people who disposed it. Now if only you can catch the vision behind the concept of recycling, you will benefit immensely from a trend that is still in its beginner’s phase.Another interesting potential of this recycling business is that most people still see it as a business about collecting soda cans, bottles, and old paper. While in reality, recycling businesses focuses on other items and materials, such as the gold found in cell phones and computers, or re-selling household goods.Now setting up a recycling business requires a good knowledge of where to site your company, how to collect your trash goods and where to market or sell them, along with strong entrepreneurial skills and perseverance. But before I dive into the intricacies of setting up a recycling plant, let me briefly show you the potentials or running a recycling business and why I strongly recommend you venture into it.4 Untold Facts about RecyclingNow for those who are naïve about the potentials of establishing your own recycling plant, let me throw in some proven statistics.1. The average person generates over 4 pounds of trash per day and about 1.5 tons of solid waste every year.2. In 2009, Americans alone were able to produce enough trash to circle the Earth 24 times and discarded almost 9 million tons of glass. That could fill enough tractor trailers to stretch from NYC to LA (and back). Statistics also shows that Americans discards 25,000,000 plastic bottles per hour and over 87 percent of Americans have access to curbside or drop-off programs of paper recycling. If all Americans recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we could save about 25 million trees in every year.3. In Nigeria and other developing nations like Ghana, Kenya, Brazil, India, etc with huge populations; the concept or recycling is still a mirage to them. In Nigeria, only Lagos state has taken the bold step to launch a waste-to-wealth initiative but the potential is still fresh and untapped.4. Over 75 percent of waste is recyclable, but only 30 percent of it are being recycled presently. We generate 21.5 million tons of food waste in every year. If the food were composted, it would decrease the same amount of greenhouse gas equivalent to taking 2 million cars off the road.This list can go on and on but I think the few I have said is enough. Are you still not convinced? Then here are some reasons why you should start a recycling business today.3+ Reasons why you should start a recycling businessNow what are the benefits of recycling? The importance of recycling to the economy and environment can never be over-emphasized. This is why the government is urging people to go green.Starting a recycling business makes you an entrepreneur with a sustainable means of livelihood. Why did I say this? The reason I said this is because unlike other industries that are dying, the green or eco-conservation industry is just emerging and still holds a lot of untapped potentials. The green movement is on and people are becoming more eco-conscious, so why not profit from this trend.Starting up a recycling plant also contributes to the economy, with respect to taxes, conservation of power consumption, local content creation, small and medium scale development, job creation and wealth distribution. For instance, the money saved through the consumption of less energy means more competitive price of goods. The producing cycle can be greatly decreased. Taking paper as an instance, the whole wood growth time lag is removed from the producing process.As a green entrepreneur or owner of an eco-conscious company, you are also contributing your quota in the movement for environmental protection because that little company you established will help curtail the problems of blocked drainage, incineration, carbon and greenhouse gas pollution, landfills, deforestation (tree conservation) and the conservation of mineral resources like fuel, coal, iron ore, etc. It means that energies from non-renewable resources are protected and saved for the future generations.Starting a Recycling Business – Sample Business Plan Template1. Decide on the aspect of recycling you want to venture intoYes, this is the first and most important step. You must carry out an investigation on the type of recycling that will catches your interest and offers a good revenue potential or return on investment. Example of niches you can focus on withing the recycling industry include:Glass RecyclingPaper RecyclingScrap Metal RecyclingAluminum Can RecyclingCardboard Paper RecyclingPlastic Bottle Recyclinge-Waste RecyclingFor instance, the recycling of paper, bottles, scrap metals and cans is labor intensive and does not yield much revenue unless you will be charging people for collecting their recycling from their homes. Recycling computers, cell phones, and other items containing scrap gold is also labor intensive and yields profitable revenue, while recycling household’s items for re-using seem to be the most rewarding.2. Acquire the basic knowledgeKnowledge is power, and the application of knowledge is tremendous power. Before jumping into invest your money in establishing a recycling plant, you must research and know everything that needs to be known about the specific recycling business you want to start; and green industry as a whole. You must study and understand the mode of operation and processing channels of a recycling plant. To gain such knowledge, you may need to spend some time working or researching in a recycling plant.3. Conduct a feasibility studyAfter acquiring the basic knowledge of your choice investment, you need to conduct a feasibility research so as to ascertain the profitability of the proposed business, the existing market demand, the type of equipment required to run your recycling plant, the best location to site your company, the manpower needed, the overhead capital and operating capital needed, where to source funds from, the level of competition, the financial forecast or projections, etc.4. Write a business planIf you took the pain to conduct a feasibility research, then you have no problem writing a business plan. All you need to do is to turn your feasibility report into a business plan by adding a vision and mission statement, a strategic marketing plan and a biography of your management team. Once this is done, your business plan is ready to be presented to investors.5. Source for fundsMost recycling businesses are capital intensive and you may not have the capacity to self finance it, so you have to figure out a way to raise money for the project. Are you going to raise capital from angel investors, Venture capitalists, government agencies or NGOs? Or would you rather take a bank loan? The choice is yours to make.6. Assemble a team and commence the projectOnce you have succeeded in executing step one to five, you can then proceed to assemble a business team that is both technical and management inclined. This team will help you in the setting up of the recycling plant and running the company. However, it is important that you obtain the necessary license and permit from both the federal, state and local government before commencing business operation.A sample list of equipment needed for a recycling businessRecycling process management softwareBusiness cardsWaste collection vehicles such as trucks, open end vans, etc.Conveyors: – This is used to move both the trash and recycled products from receiving station to sorting station.Hydraulic lifts: – This is used for transporting and loading both trashed and recycled materials like scrap metal, bottles, etc.Industrial loaders: – This is used to transport materials to and fro the collection areas.Magnets: – This is used in separating metals from other materials and to separate ferrous metals from non-ferrous metals.CranesVibratory feedersRecycling screensBalersCompactorsPulverizers: – They are used between the sorting and refining stages of the recycling process. Grinders and pulverizers are use for handling friable materials such as glass.Shredders: – This is used for reducing materials like metal, paper, plastics, tires into smaller bits.8 Challenges of starting a recycling businessThough recycling business is very lucrative and has many advantages. Yet, there are so many challenges accompany it. So below are some of the challenges to expect when starting a recycling business.A recycling business takes time, effort and resources to setup.It is capital intensiveIt is labor intensiveSourcing for scraps and waste products may proof a challenge as it takes a great effort to gather a reasonable quantity. Also, this is a very big challenge because not all scraps are worth it. It is required that you sort out those scraps are useful and in high demand.This business involves dealing with garbage, so it is been perceived as a dirty business. You must possess an enduring spirit to be able to deal with this kind of business as it involves dirt and garbage. The business has to do with sifting through garbage.Some of these scraps are hazardous. So you are likely to sustain injuries when gathering some of these scraps, as some of them are sharp metal objects, examples of this sharp metals are; aluminum, copper, etc.Toxins are inevitable because the nature of this business involves sifting through waste, so you are likely to come across toxins and these toxins are harmful to humans.Transporting the scrap to the recycling plant might prove a challenge because most recycling plant are sited very far away and will require a lot of money to transport the scraps to the place of recycling.Recycling Business ideas and OpportunitiesNow what can be recycled? What business ideas or opportunities exist in the recycling / waste management industry? These are the questions most people ask. Well, I want you to know that the opportunities in recycling can never be exhausted. Examples of some of them are:Garbage collection or sourcingGarbage haulingSetting up a recycling plantList of 50+ things that can be recycledHuman hair, Old Jewelry, Wine corks, Newspapers, Scrap Metal, Mattresses, Hearing Aids, Bones, Shoes, Cloths, Aluminum Cans, Fluorescent Bulbs, Food Containers, Eyeglasses, Bathtubs, sinks and toilets, Refrigerators, stoves, washers, dryers, Batteries, Old cars, Cell phone, Computers, Smoke detectors.Paint, Rugs, Carpets and padding, Plastic Bottles, Old Bricks and concretes, electronics, kids toys, Curtains, Ink and toner cartridges, Tires, Roof shingles, Scrap wood and furniture, Washing machines, Screened doors, Foam packing material, Magazines, Christmas trees, Motor oil, CDS, DVDS, Game Discs.Plastic Bags, leather bags, Phone books, Toothbrushes and Razors, Fire extinguisher, Fencing, Styrofoam containers, Leaves, Clothing hangars, Packing foams and peanuts, Grass clippings, e waste, cardboard, printer, light bulbs, PVC, waste water, steel, pallets, asphalt, antifreeze, etc.? Do you want to know what it takes to setup a recycling plant? Then i advice you read on as I explain in detail how to start a recycling business from scratch.Recycling is one of the businesses of the future that you must invest in now if you have the means. As the green awareness trend and eco-consciousness increases, the demand for recycled products or items will also increase. This opens an avenue for smart entrepreneurs to capitalize upon, make a living and amass wealth. Now for those who are yet to understand the concept of recycling and potentials it holds, I will give you a brief definition about it.What is Recycling?Recycling is simply the process of making of new products from products that has been used and disposed as waste. As a green entrepreneur, your duty here is to get these assumed useless waste products, recycle it into useful products and resell it to the same people who disposed it. Now if only you can catch the vision behind the concept of recycling, you will benefit immensely from a trend that is still in its beginner’s phase.Another interesting potential of this recycling business is that most people still see it as a business about collecting soda cans, bottles, and old paper. While in reality, recycling businesses focuses on other items and materials, such as the gold found in cell phones and computers, or re-selling household goods.Now setting up a recycling business requires a good knowledge of where to site your company, how to collect your trash goods and where to market or sell them, along with strong entrepreneurial skills and perseverance. But before I dive into the intricacies of setting up a recycling plant, let me briefly show you the potentials or running a recycling business and why I strongly recommend you venture into it.4 Untold Facts about RecyclingNow for those who are naïve about the potentials of establishing your own recycling plant, let me throw in some proven statistics.1. The average person generates over 4 pounds of trash per day and about 1.5 tons of solid waste every year.2. In 2009, Americans alone were able to produce enough trash to circle the Earth 24 times and discarded almost 9 million tons of glass. That could fill enough tractor trailers to stretch from NYC to LA (and back). Statistics also shows that Americans discards 25,000,000 plastic bottles per hour and over 87 percent of Americans have access to curbside or drop-off programs of paper recycling. If all Americans recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we could save about 25 million trees in every year.3. In Nigeria and other developing nations like Ghana, Kenya, Brazil, India, etc with huge populations; the concept or recycling is still a mirage to them. In Nigeria, only Lagos state has taken the bold step to launch a waste-to-wealth initiative but the potential is still fresh and untapped.4. Over 75 percent of waste is recyclable, but only 30 percent of it are being recycled presently. We generate 21.5 million tons of food waste in every year. If the food were composted, it would decrease the same amount of greenhouse gas equivalent to taking 2 million cars off the road.This list can go on and on but I think the few I have said is enough. Are you still not convinced? Then here are some reasons why you should start a recycling business today.3+ Reasons why you should start a recycling businessNow what are the benefits of recycling? The importance of recycling to the economy and environment can never be over-emphasized. This is why the government is urging people to go green.Starting a recycling business makes you an entrepreneur with a sustainable means of livelihood. Why did I say this? The reason I said this is because unlike other industries that are dying, the green or eco-conservation industry is just emerging and still holds a lot of untapped potentials. The green movement is on and people are becoming more eco-conscious, so why not profit from this trend.Starting up a recycling plant also contributes to the economy, with respect to taxes, conservation of power consumption, local content creation, small and medium scale development, job creation and wealth distribution. For instance, the money saved through the consumption of less energy means more competitive price of goods. The producing cycle can be greatly decreased. Taking paper as an instance, the whole wood growth time lag is removed from the producing process.As a green entrepreneur or owner of an eco-conscious company, you are also contributing your quota in the movement for environmental protection because that little company you established will help curtail the problems of blocked drainage, incineration, carbon and greenhouse gas pollution, landfills, deforestation (tree conservation) and the conservation of mineral resources like fuel, coal, iron ore, etc. It means that energies from non-renewable resources are protected and saved for the future generations.Starting a Recycling Business – Sample Business Plan Template1. Decide on the aspect of recycling you want to venture intoYes, this is the first and most important step. You must carry out an investigation on the type of recycling that will catches your interest and offers a good revenue potential or return on investment. Example of niches you can focus on withing the recycling industry include:Glass RecyclingPaper RecyclingScrap Metal RecyclingAluminum Can RecyclingCardboard Paper RecyclingPlastic Bottle Recyclinge-Waste RecyclingFor instance, the recycling of paper, bottles, scrap metals and cans is labor intensive and does not yield much revenue unless you will be charging people for collecting their recycling from their homes. Recycling computers, cell phones, and other items containing scrap gold is also labor intensive and yields profitable revenue, while recycling household’s items for re-using seem to be the most rewarding.2. Acquire the basic knowledgeKnowledge is power, and the application of knowledge is tremendous power. Before jumping into invest your money in establishing a recycling plant, you must research and know everything that needs to be known about the specific recycling business you want to start; and green industry as a whole. You must study and understand the mode of operation and processing channels of a recycling plant. To gain such knowledge, you may need to spend some time working or researching in a recycling plant.3. Conduct a feasibility studyAfter acquiring the basic knowledge of your choice investment, you need to conduct a feasibility research so as to ascertain the profitability of the proposed business, the existing market demand, the type of equipment required to run your recycling plant, the best location to site your company, the manpower needed, the overhead capital and operating capital needed, where to source funds from, the level of competition, the financial forecast or projections, etc.4. Write a business planIf you took the pain to conduct a feasibility research, then you have no problem writing a business plan. All you need to do is to turn your feasibility report into a business plan by adding a vision and mission statement, a strategic marketing plan and a biography of your management team. Once this is done, your business plan is ready to be presented to investors.5. Source for fundsMost recycling businesses are capital intensive and you may not have the capacity to self finance it, so you have to figure out a way to raise money for the project. Are you going to raise capital from angel investors, Venture capitalists, government agencies or NGOs? Or would you rather take a bank loan? The choice is yours to make.6. Assemble a team and commence the projectOnce you have succeeded in executing step one to five, you can then proceed to assemble a business team that is both technical and management inclined. This team will help you in the setting up of the recycling plant and running the company. However, it is important that you obtain the necessary license and permit from both the federal, state and local government before commencing business operation.A sample list of equipment needed for a recycling businessRecycling process management softwareBusiness cardsWaste collection vehicles such as trucks, open end vans, etc.Conveyors: – This is used to move both the trash and recycled products from receiving station to sorting station.Hydraulic lifts: – This is used for transporting and loading both trashed and recycled materials like scrap metal, bottles, etc.Industrial loaders: – This is used to transport materials to and fro the collection areas.Magnets: – This is used in separating metals from other materials and to separate ferrous metals from non-ferrous metals.CranesVibratory feedersRecycling screensBalersCompactorsPulverizers: – They are used between the sorting and refining stages of the recycling process. Grinders and pulverizers are use for handling friable materials such as glass.Shredders: – This is used for reducing materials like metal, paper, plastics, tires into smaller bits.8 Challenges of starting a recycling businessThough recycling business is very lucrative and has many advantages. Yet, there are so many challenges accompany it. So below are some of the challenges to expect when starting a recycling business.A recycling business takes time, effort and resources to setup.It is capital intensiveIt is labor intensiveSourcing for scraps and waste products may proof a challenge as it takes a great effort to gather a reasonable quantity. Also, this is a very big challenge because not all scraps are worth it. It is required that you sort out those scraps are useful and in high demand.This business involves dealing with garbage, so it is been perceived as a dirty business. You must possess an enduring spirit to be able to deal with this kind of business as it involves dirt and garbage. The business has to do with sifting through garbage.Some of these scraps are hazardous. So you are likely to sustain injuries when gathering some of these scraps, as some of them are sharp metal objects, examples of this sharp metals are; aluminum, copper, etc.Toxins are inevitable because the nature of this business involves sifting through waste, so you are likely to come across toxins and these toxins are harmful to humans.Transporting the scrap to the recycling plant might prove a challenge because most recycling plant are sited very far away and will require a lot of money to transport the scraps to the place of recycling.Recycling Business ideas and OpportunitiesNow what can be recycled? What business ideas or opportunities exist in the recycling / waste management industry? These are the questions most people ask. Well, I want you to know that the opportunities in recycling can never be exhausted. Examples of some of them are:Garbage collection or sourcingGarbage haulingSetting up a recycling plantList of 50+ things that can be recycledHuman hair, Old Jewelry, Wine corks, Newspapers, Scrap Metal, Mattresses, Hearing Aids, Bones, Shoes, Cloths, Aluminum Cans, Fluorescent Bulbs, Food Containers, Eyeglasses, Bathtubs, sinks and toilets, Refrigerators, stoves, washers, dryers, Batteries, Old cars, Cell phone, Computers, Smoke detectors.Paint, Rugs, Carpets and padding, Plastic Bottles, Old Bricks and concretes, electronics, kids toys, Curtains, Ink and toner cartridges, Tires, Roof shingles, Scrap wood and furniture, Washing machines, Screened doors, Foam packing material, Magazines, Christmas trees, Motor oil, CDS, DVDS, Game Discs.Plastic Bags, leather bags, Phone books, Toothbrushes and Razors, Fire extinguisher, Fencing, Styrofoam containers, Leaves, Clothing hangars, Packing foams and peanuts, Grass clippings, e waste, cardboard, printer, light bulbs, PVC, waste water, steel, pallets, asphalt, antifreeze, etc.

I never made it to 6k/mo before giving up on contracting. A few years ago I quite my job at Adobe in San Francisco to travel and thought I might as well try contracting while I'm at it. My logic was it would keep my skills fresh and if I didn't have work, hey, I can just enjoy the cool places I'm visiting that much more. A year ago I folded up the contracting business to just do my own thing... may my own "app"... 'cause I'm super original. :) I consider it a failure, but the kind of failure one is supposed to have in life to prove that you're pushing yourself. So I'll give a few places why I failed, which won't 100% answer your questions, but kinda will.(1) Starting a new business is not a part time endeavor.My plan to travel and build a contracting business in between was doomed from the start. One has to be dedicated and willing to work *extra* hours to build a successful business.(2) Contracting is about contacts. It can't be done well in isolation.I was in Europe 9 hours ahead of my contacts in San Francisco and 6 ahead of those in NYC/Boston. This just generally makes business relationships hard. Meanwhile, friends who had quit their jobs to start their own company and stayed local were getting pounded with offers for contracting work. They were being seen. Often from fellow small businesses in the same co-working location. Or just friends of friends they get to talking with on weekends. You say you work remotely, too. I've found that there is a little lack of trust for remote workers, and there is also for contractors. Put the two together and no one wants to take a risk on you.(3) It's not so easy to cut out the middle man.Software Engineers can get contracted out to companies for roughly a bazillioooon dollars an hour. And we know this as well as the fact that we are the only ones *doing* any work for the client, so why can't we just make the bazillion ourselves?Ok, we don't simplify it that much. But that's roughly the idea when wanting to do your own contracting business. We also know that we engineers are smarter than your average middle manager, so we can do their jobs, too. No problem!In the end we underestimate how much time goes into finding clients, building relationships with them, answering their asinine questions, setting up the contract, so after all that the engineer can show up and do her thing. As well as refining your image as reliable, expert, valuable, and all that goes into branding a company.This crap will easily take half your time. And it's mostly not billable.(4) You need to attract a client who can afford youOne of my problems was I made no effort to all that mentioned above. I got all my jobs from a friend of a friend and these were mostly small companies. The work just found me, and that seemed cool. But software engineers are expensive. If I wanted to keep with it, I would get myself certified and set up to work as a government contractor (talk about bottomless pockets). The small clients who found me did not want to pay a software engineer rate. They couldn't pay that rate.(5) No generalists welcome.When someone hires a contractor they want an expert in X who will solve their immediate problem with X. I had a hard time with this. I'm a software engineer with a computer science degree and years of experience doing all kinds of software related work. I had always worked at big companies and I was used to being expected to learn a little for any project. I also had a "I can solve any problem" mindset. Clients don't want a generalist (in my experience, maybe a more successful contractor would have another opinion), they want a specialist. And you can'y be a specialist in 20 things. You get one or two. So, you have to pick.By contrast. I've recently gotten a bit of a reputation as a Web Designer -- which is kinda funny b/c I couldn't design my way out of a box. But I started throwing quick WordPress sites together for people I knew who needed a website (using lovely templates or "Themes"). These are real things that a person can see and understand. So clients tell their friends, "you need a webpage? Kait does webpages". As a general computer scientist / software engineer, I couldn't explain my abilities well enough that other people could sell for me. Having other people remember you and that you do X is so important b/c they remember and mention you when their friend talks about their problem with X.And even though I don't want contracting work now, I've started doing this on the side. But I would never make 6k/mo with that, these clients just can't pay that. But while I'm making 0k/mo working on my own projects, it's a nice bit of pocket change.Lessons learned.So it was a failure, but I learned a lot. I was also reading and watching all I could on business at the time, which is handy now that I have a new business. Lynda is my favorite recourse: lynda.com library | Trial SubscriptionYou actual questions.No, I don't think freelancing/contracting is a good way to make more money than you are now or about the same with less time.No, contracting isn't really more "flexible". It's true as a contractor I didn't have to work any set hours. But I always had to reply to emails. It was more like being on call 24/7. The work and the threat of work never go away. I often had no work, but at the same time I couldn't confidently plan a vacation. A client could have an emergency at any time. And even more likely, after not having any work for weeks, suddenly this new job needs to be done NOW NOW NOW and I have to work crazy hours for weeks. During those weeks, I've no time to look for other clients, so as soon as this job is done, work's dry again.Freelancing sites are mostly crowd sourcing. You may not feel like a commodity with your 10 years experience, but you will when you see kids, and people in other countries, and even experienced developers bidding on programming jobs for $7/hour. Seven! I made more than that as a lifeguard in high school.Again, if I wanted to keep at it, I would go the government contracting route. All the info for that is at The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA dot GOV).SummaryAgain, I was a failure. I have to assume there are people who do this more successfully and they would probably give you a more positive answer. But I don't think I've even ever met a one-person-shop contractor making over 6k/mo. I think the only way to do that (especially working short hours, like you want) is to be the world renowned expert on some specific thing. And those I think are mostly old retired dudes who are the last left who still know X legacy technology. If you're making that money working from home now, I don't know of any way to get a situation significantly more comfy and flexible. Definitely not an easy way.Best of luck!Oh, and if you find that way to make over 6k/mo, from home, working short flexible hours, let me know about it! =D

The Number One Thing to Understand Is:Magento is not Fast Food (Wordpress).Magento is a Proper Meal, takes time to sit down and take it all in for everyone involved. Anyone starting, with less than 6 months of experience isn't going to be experienced enough to have a holistic view of the development Product, or the solution it can provide. (it has over 5.6 million lines of code: The Magento Open Source Project on Ohloh)What to look for: The VendorEvidence!Look for firms, or high level individuals with a strong background of completed projects.Review the completed works in detail and ask questions.Hone in on projects that you like with particular questions in mind regarding: Frontend, Backend, Data, Design, Development Period, Project Completion, Hourly Rate, and Budget. How do they work? Do they use GIT? How are they going about hosting? (ie: Crucial webhosting or Nexcess? Rackspace? Custom?)What further steps did that client take, what were some of the challenges, and how did they go about working through them?Find out if they have any Enterprise experience. Find out how long they have been doing Magento Development and what versions they have worked with. Review average load times of the site, and discuss their actions-per-second for page-to-page loading times, and review search response times and the checkout process speed.What to look for: Your SideWhat are your deal-breakers for your business?Make sure that you understand your business requirements (product/service, attributes etc.), and bring them up during a discovery period.Responsive Design, Taxes, Shipping, POS Integration, Simple Products vs Facade, SKU's, Image's Per Product, Blog's, CMS Integration, Multi-Server Setups, Wholesale Stores, Multi-language setup, Mobile Stores, Enterprise Search, API Access, Custom Code & Module Development requirements can all be big budgeting factors. Also you will want to understand your SEO requirements and post launch marketing requirements (Mailchimp & Newsletter Signup)If you don't know what you need, you will not get accurate quotes and your add-on's will be out-of-scope.Communication & Milestones:Developers work Maker hours, not Manager hours -- so they spend a lot of time 4-6, 4-8 hours focused on a single task until its done. They generally aren't checking emails every 15 minutes as it would interrupt work flow. Its important to know who you will be talking to, how often, and what the post launch support process is. Many will prefer email for historical tracking and or using a project management Suite like Basecamp, ActiveCollab, Sifter for bugs and development progress. If you're planning a project, its important to understand the Major milestones and figure out where the Development process is in relationship to those milestones. Falling behind schedule can happen if clients submit information late, and often there are other projects co-inciding which may offset your new deadline by a week or more.Budget: How Much, When?With small mom-and-pop shops, the basics can be $20k with 200+ hours into the project. 2 Weeks Design, 2 Weeks Development, 1 Week for Data & Customer Training, usually another leg of improvements to happens 3-6 months later, and some time needs to be built in for customer follow-up with up to 25% of the time being dedicated to Project Management. Pre-existing store, + data migration etc.The range of Magento products are vast and wide from industry and customization. Entertainment, Retail, Wholesale, Private, Public, Locality, US, US + International (VAT) all come with differing requirements. Larger store's with 100k to 1million+ Sku's need additional attention with dataflow due to size. Multi-million dollar large traffic stores, may require load balancing setup's with multiple heads, and resources.Basic Magento (E-Commerce) Development Area Requirements:Front Page, Listing Page, Product Detail Page, Cart Page, Checkout Page(s), Email Templates (28+), My Account Pages, Static/Content Pages, Registration & Login Page, Contact Page, 404 Page ... you get the idea. + Customization and or Add-ons.Low:As noted, the low end projects are generally starting at $20,000 with a single project manage and a single developer.The Overhead for any store is generally similar, there is a requirement to hit on all the elements and make sure they are working for production properly. Because of the amount of work involved for any Catalog, prices wont generally be below the 20k marker. The time to create the catalog/shop properly is hard to develop within 200 hours and would be cautious with firms promising to deliver a quality product far under market price (usually 3rd party outsourced) or under-experienced not understanding the scope of the work involved. Ultimately, the cart you develop is going to be (not) used by clients if it's not meeting expectations and trust.Median:Shops are $40-80k for small firms, additional human capital is added to the project in terms of Development/Design Resources.Larger:Larger shops are going to do a lot more with a dedicated, larg team comprised of: a development cycle, staging environment, storage submission and tracking (git), a Quality assurance person, UX/UI person, designer, 1-4 Developers ( 1-2 Backend Developers, and 1-2 Frontend Developers or 1 "Universal Developer" ) a Project Manager and a CTO. With 8x the resources dedicated towards the project, and normally double to quadruple the timeline due to advanced considerations, the price can be 16x Median Shop Prices ( $640k -> $1.2+MM USD).Certs & Other:In NYC here, there are only 2 Frontend / 6 Developer / 15 Developer Plus registered Developers (source: Magento) as of this response.The reality is, teams have been deploying Production ready and Enterprise systems for Magento up to 2 years before the certs came into existence, so proof-of-history is where everything counts.Generally, You'll want to be looking for a Software Engineer, CS, MIS lead with a strong Magento/PHP/Zend background.Front End Designers will need to know:Designing for MagentoBackend Will Need to Know this:Magento for Developers: Part 1 - Introduction to MagentoUsers Will need this:Magento - Wiki - CHAPTER 1Deeper Understanding:There's no secret list of access, many have asked for a cheat sheet. The real Cheat Sheet is Comprehension, which many miss: Design Patterns!Magento is a MVC framework based on Zend and uses Design Patterns.It uses: Creational Patterns, Structural Patterns and Behavioral Patterns (The 23 Gang of Four Design Patterns .. Revisited)ie:Factory: $product = Mage::getModel('catalog/product');Registry: Mage::register('key',$value);Prototype: Mage:getModel('catalog/product')->getTypeInstance();Observer: Mage::dispatchEvent('event_name', array('key'=>$value));Helper: Mage::helper('core');Lazy Loading: $productCollection = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->getCollection();$productCollection->addFieldToFilter('sku','12345');Iterator: Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->getCollection();Object Pool: $id = Mage::objects()->save($object);$object = Mage::objects($id);Cheers,-J