Need a Business Idea? Here are 55

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 up
1. ACCOUNTANT
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
Create 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. Many business owners don't mind
keeping their own day-to-day bookkeeping records but
would rather get professional help with their taxes.
2. BICYCLE REPAIR
In 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 CLEANING
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
Boats 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 SERVICE
Has expansion possibilities
Offer 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!
5. CHIMNEY SWEEP
Learning 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 SERVICE
There 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.
To learn more about this business idea, check out Start
Your Own Cleaning Service.
7. COMPUTER REPAIR
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
Study 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. CONSULTANT
Has expansion possibilities
To 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.
To learn more about this business idea, check out Start
Your Own Consulting Business.
9. DOG BREEDER
Experience, training, or licensing may be needed
Pets are phenomenally popular in the U.S. While many
people are willing to adopt from animal shelters, others
are looking for a specific breed. Purebred dogs are more
popular than ever and can command large sums of
money. But becoming a dog breeder is serious business
catering to savvy consumers with high expectations of
their pet purchases. You will need to establish yourself
as a conscientious breeder who cares about the health
and welfare of the animals you bring into the world.
10. EBAY ASSISTANT
Do 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.
From Editorial Services to Household
Organizer
11. EDITORIAL SERVICES
Has expansion possibilities
Here 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.
To learn more about this business idea, check out Start
Your Own Freelance Writing Business and More.
12. ELECTRONICS REPAIR
Has expansion possibilities
This 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 PLANNING
Has expansion possibilities
One 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.
To learn more about this business idea, check out Start
Your Own Event Planning Business.
14. EXPERT WITNESS SERVICE
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
One 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 PLANNER
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
To 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.
For more information and details on certification, click
here. http://www.cfp.net/become/Steps.asp
16. FLEA MARKET
Has expansion possibilities
People 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.
17. GOLF COACH
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
Let 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 AUDITOR
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
All 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!
19. HOME INSPECTION
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
In 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.
To learn more about this business idea, check out Start
Your Own Home Inspection Service.
20. HOUSEHOLD ORGANIZER
Has expansion possibilities
You 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 Energy
21. IMPORT/EXPORT SPECIALIST
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
If 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!
To learn more about this business idea, check out Start
Your Own Import/Export Business.
22. INTERIOR DECORATOR
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
Market 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 MAKING
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
There 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.
24. MARKETING COPY WRITER
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
If 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 PEACE
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
In 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 CONCIERGE
This 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.
To learn more about this business idea, check out Start
Your Own Personal Concierge Business.
27. PERSONAL TRAINER
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
Advertise 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.
To learn more about this business idea, check out Start
Your Own Personal Training Business.
28. PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
Your 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 REPAIR
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
Most 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 CONSULTANT
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
Has expansion possibilities
As 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.
From Tax Preparer to Graphic Design
31. TAX PREPARER
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
Most 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. TAXIDERMIST
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
Today'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.
33. UPHOLSTERING
If 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.
34. USED BOOK SALES
Almost 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 PLANNER
You 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.
$1,500 to 3,000 to start up
To learn more about this business idea, check out Start
Your Own Wedding Consultant Business.
36. APPLIANCE REPAIR
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
Every 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 TRAINING
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
Has expansion possibilities
If 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 PUBLISHER
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
You 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 INSTALLATIONS
Fences 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 DESIGNER
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
Despite 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.
To learn more about this business idea, check out Start
Your Own Graphic Design Business.
From Gift Baskets to Rug Cleaning
41. GIFT BASKET SERVICE
Has expansion possibilities
Finding 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.
To learn more about this business idea, check out Start
Your Own Gift Basket Business and More.
42. GRAFFITI REMOVAL
Create 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. HAIRSTYLIST
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
Hairstyling 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.
To learn more about this business idea, check out Start
Your Own Hair Salon and Day Spa.
44. HERBAL FARM STAND
You 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. LANDSCAPER
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
If 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.
To learn more about this business idea, check out Start
Your Own Lawn or Landscaping Business.
46. MASSAGE THERAPIST
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
You 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.
47. MOVING SERVICE
Lots 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 LESSONS
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
You 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. PHOTOGRAPHER
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
Making 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.
To learn more about this business idea, check out Start
Your Own Photography Business.
50. RUG CLEANING
You 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 Sitting
51. WEBSITE DEVELOPER
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
Many 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?
$3,000 to $5,000 to start up
52. BED AND BREAKFAST
Do 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.
To learn more about this business idea, check out Start
Your Own Bed & Breakfast.
53. CHRISTMAS TREE SALES
If 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 CARE
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
Perhaps 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.
55. PET SITTING
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
Starting 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).