You have seen me spit out ideas for a couple months now. I assure you all of these are either original, or altered for my own needs. Many people will call out an idea and leave it. “Lawn Mowing”. OK, now what? “Baby Sitting”. Now what about rates? “Paper route”. How do I find people hiring? The thing is, if you want to create your own idea, or better the idea of someone else, you need to follow my method. Pretty soon, you will just be an idea-making machine.
Here is the basic outline:
Come up with a basic product/service
Estimate the cost to you
How to operate the business to run smoothly
What to charge customers
How to gain customers
Think “So what do people need?”. That is the key thing to remember. No one buys something they don’t need. If a kid came up to me right now and said, “Would you like to buy a broken phone with glitter on it?” I would have to say “no”. No matter how cute you are, no matter what your sales pitch is, no one will ever need a broken phone with glitter on it. The actual product or service is key. It is good to start in your home. What does your mom complain about? Are there always too many dishes to be washed? Does your dog always need a bath? Is your little sister having trouble with math because of a new teacher? Chances are, if your family is having these problems, people around you have the same needs. So that is your first step, find out what they need. We’ll pick an easy example. Your little sister having trouble in math, think tutoring. If a new teacher means your sister has trouble, that means there is at least a class full of kids that need your help. Welcome to the world of tutoring. But that’s not your entire idea, you need to think of other parts.
The next step in forming an idea to make money is to figure out how much it will cost you. How much time, how much energy, and how much money. With the tutor example, will you need to buy materials for the kids you teach? Where will you meet them? If there is no room at your house, you may have to meet at a library or their houses. Do you have enough time in the day to make such trips? What will you have to sacrifice to make this work? These are all things that need considering. With this information, you can better understand what you should charge and how you should operate.
In the world of tutoring, if the kids are in a same class, it is often better to deal with them in groups. This is because, if they have the same assignments, they will ask the same things. It saves time to deal with all questions at once. With any idea, you need to consider each subtle thing like that. Your specific situation is always different in some way. With this in mind, you need to think of a price.
To assign a price to a job, it is best to first look at competition. Find out what other businesses offer. Always go lower than professionals. If possible, find out what other kids charge. Sometimes it is best to go to your parents. Ask them how much they would pay a tutor for you. In most cases, you want to look at an hourly rate. Younger children won’t need as much so will not pay as much. A good rate is about $12-$15 an hour. Some one-on-one cases might be $20 an hour if you are really good. In any business, always consider price.
After your format is done, and you ask yourself all of the questions I have put in this article, then you may look for people. Contact teachers to refer you to parents who ask how to help their child’s grade. If you’ve had the teacher before, it’s even better. Consider the best ways to get customers in each idea you make. You will here me bring it up a lot, but, I really like business cards. They get your point across and are professional. If you don't have business cards, get on that. Even comment to ask me for help or e-mail me directly. stark324@gmail.com
Without all of these components, your idea is just a title. Bring more to it.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Be an artist-for-hire
Are you good at drawing or cartooning? Do you love to doodle? Maybe you could be a sketch artist. These people are paid for their sketches and you can organize these types of jobs anywhere. You can set up downtown (With an adult or large group), you can rent yourself out at parties, or you can take your business online. There is a lot of room for expansion and if you have the talent, then there is little to no start up cost.
The first things you need to do is find your niche and create a portfolio. A niche is a place or style for your art. Are you good at realistic pictures? Then portraits might be your thing. Maybe you can do cartoons. That is also very successful. You can create funny comic-like pictures of people you meet. To realize your style, you can practice drawing your friends and family. Or go to the park and start drawing people who walk by. This will help you with your speed and portfolio. A portfolio is a collection of your drawings. Customers look through this portfolio to decide if you are a type of artist that fits their needs. I suggest having a wide range of pictures in your portfolio. Also include some famous people. Doing sketches of famous people attracts attention, and some people might buy them just for the person you drew.
Once you have a decent portfolio, I suggest taking your show on the road. Set up a booth at a street corner (if possible, with tourists), pin up some work from your portfolio. This attracts customers. Pin up the famous people portraits I mentioned with some price tags to help you out. You love to draw, but if someone can give you $20 for a cartoon of a basketball player, that gives you more time for other people. Be sure to check with the city for any licenses you might need to sell on the street. They are normally cheap and you can get your money back through sales.
If possible, bring a scanner or a digital camera with you. While drawing others, it is possible to add to your portfolio. Or, you can take pictures for people so you can draw them while they do other things.
As always, I always consider how to expand. In this case, parties and other types of get-togethers could be your source of business. Like always, I suggest business cards. Keep a stack with you on the street while you draw and a stack with you at all times. Clearly put on there your style, rates, and the fact that you do private parties. Have a phone number, e-mail, and you can even set up a web site.
For more expansion, you can sell through the website. Whether you draw pictures that people send you, or if you sell portraits of famous people, you can benefit from the idea. It gives a nice central location for people to look you up. You can even expand through this by adding other people. Maybe your friends can draw, or you can hire people. Tag their work up there and create a map of the city with points that represent where each of your employees is at what times.
The first things you need to do is find your niche and create a portfolio. A niche is a place or style for your art. Are you good at realistic pictures? Then portraits might be your thing. Maybe you can do cartoons. That is also very successful. You can create funny comic-like pictures of people you meet. To realize your style, you can practice drawing your friends and family. Or go to the park and start drawing people who walk by. This will help you with your speed and portfolio. A portfolio is a collection of your drawings. Customers look through this portfolio to decide if you are a type of artist that fits their needs. I suggest having a wide range of pictures in your portfolio. Also include some famous people. Doing sketches of famous people attracts attention, and some people might buy them just for the person you drew.
Once you have a decent portfolio, I suggest taking your show on the road. Set up a booth at a street corner (if possible, with tourists), pin up some work from your portfolio. This attracts customers. Pin up the famous people portraits I mentioned with some price tags to help you out. You love to draw, but if someone can give you $20 for a cartoon of a basketball player, that gives you more time for other people. Be sure to check with the city for any licenses you might need to sell on the street. They are normally cheap and you can get your money back through sales.
If possible, bring a scanner or a digital camera with you. While drawing others, it is possible to add to your portfolio. Or, you can take pictures for people so you can draw them while they do other things.
As always, I always consider how to expand. In this case, parties and other types of get-togethers could be your source of business. Like always, I suggest business cards. Keep a stack with you on the street while you draw and a stack with you at all times. Clearly put on there your style, rates, and the fact that you do private parties. Have a phone number, e-mail, and you can even set up a web site.
For more expansion, you can sell through the website. Whether you draw pictures that people send you, or if you sell portraits of famous people, you can benefit from the idea. It gives a nice central location for people to look you up. You can even expand through this by adding other people. Maybe your friends can draw, or you can hire people. Tag their work up there and create a map of the city with points that represent where each of your employees is at what times.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Lasagna and other food type-businesses
Ever since I was in the 6th grade, I have made and sold lasagna. It’s much easier than people realize, very tasty, and sometimes, even fun. I could make about 3 an hour, including cooking time. The great thing about lasagna is that it’s not exactly common and people like variety. For guests coming over, people would ask me to whip up lasagna. It was easy to do. It is also handy for lunch. If I make someone lasagna on Monday, then they can cut slices off for lunch all week. Adults prefer it to buying lunch every day as it saves them money, time, and gas. That is a thing to consider with any business scheme. Find something that saves adults time and money. Everyone likes to do that nowadays.
You can ask your parents how to make lasagna, research recipes on the web, or even sell something that you better know how to make. Lasagna is just my suggestion, there are many other foods that you can make. Maybe your parents have a family treat that you can make. It would bring in a lot of money to introduce the treat to the world. Sandwiches are always nice to sell. People like them for on the way to work. Set up sandwich sales in front of corporate buildings. Notice at about 11:30 to about 1:00, many people will come and buy from you.
You can make brownies, cookies, cakes, pastas, full meals, lunch combinations (snacks, sandwich, and drink), any type of food is good. Everyone needs food at some point, it is your job to be in the right place with the right type of food.
You can ask your parents how to make lasagna, research recipes on the web, or even sell something that you better know how to make. Lasagna is just my suggestion, there are many other foods that you can make. Maybe your parents have a family treat that you can make. It would bring in a lot of money to introduce the treat to the world. Sandwiches are always nice to sell. People like them for on the way to work. Set up sandwich sales in front of corporate buildings. Notice at about 11:30 to about 1:00, many people will come and buy from you.
You can make brownies, cookies, cakes, pastas, full meals, lunch combinations (snacks, sandwich, and drink), any type of food is good. Everyone needs food at some point, it is your job to be in the right place with the right type of food.
Monday, July 27, 2009
The Power of Non-Profits
Your goal is to make money. That is a very direct and simple thing to understand. Right now, you might not care much about global warming, political parties, or monkeys in Africa. But for the sake of your business and the world, you might want to consider partnering up with organizations like cancer research and organizations like whale savers. It increases your amount of customers, gives you some experience with community service, and makes you feel good. Do you have a dog? Then you can advertise your cookie sales as giving 50% of all sales to the local animal shelter. Even people that wouldn’t have wanted your cookies will buy so they can support animals, and you are helping out in an area you care about. Maybe there are no parks or playgrounds in your area, talk to the city about putting one in, offer to donate money through sales. You can then say that for each lawn you mow, $5 will go toward the creation of a new park in your area. Watch how many people will ask for your service then!
It is also great for free advertising. Newspapers and radio stations will write about your efforts. Let them know what you are trying to support, and they will mention it. People will call you asking for your service, in some cases, you will get donations for your cause. This is a great thing for websites and eBay sales as well. On eBay in particularly, you can donate sales directly to an organization. Then eBay will tell the community how much in sales has gone toward your non-profit.
This isn’t unheard of. Many millionaires and other successful businesses give money to organizations to give back and to put their name out there. McDonalds gives to the Ronald McDonald house for children, Adidas gives money to children in Africa, and many companies offer discounts for those with financial problems.
Trust me. Your business will soar, you will be looked up to, and you will feel better than you can even imagine. It will all be worth it. You have been given an opportunity by the world with your business; now give the world an opportunity.
It is also great for free advertising. Newspapers and radio stations will write about your efforts. Let them know what you are trying to support, and they will mention it. People will call you asking for your service, in some cases, you will get donations for your cause. This is a great thing for websites and eBay sales as well. On eBay in particularly, you can donate sales directly to an organization. Then eBay will tell the community how much in sales has gone toward your non-profit.
This isn’t unheard of. Many millionaires and other successful businesses give money to organizations to give back and to put their name out there. McDonalds gives to the Ronald McDonald house for children, Adidas gives money to children in Africa, and many companies offer discounts for those with financial problems.
Trust me. Your business will soar, you will be looked up to, and you will feel better than you can even imagine. It will all be worth it. You have been given an opportunity by the world with your business; now give the world an opportunity.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Sport type jobs for kids: film/photography
With the talk of tournaments in my last blog, I’ve been on a recent sports-streak. And looking at vendors at the tournaments I go to, I just had to share. How are you with cameras? How are you with computers? Chances are, you’re better than the average adult trying to cheer on their son at his soccer game. Use that to your advantage. Go to tournaments and advertise a picture taking business. You go around with a digital camera and take pictures of certain players or multiple players for a game. Parents tell you what games to go to, you just take the shots. You can have as set rate for going to a game to take pictures and include a certain number or shots. Parents can pay extra for more prints. Even easier if you or your parents have a laptop is to offer CD’s of entire games. Parents can then get whichever ones printed they want. That means, parents can watch the whole game and someone else can worry about not missing the perfect shot. Believe me, parents love this.
If you are good with editing software, you can take videos of people playing. You can have people pay you to follow them and tape a whole game. Many coaches like to show their team how to improve by watching past games. In this case, the best way to go about this is to go to good matches, find out what high schools and middle school teams are good matches. Go in and bring your camera, tape the whole thing if you can. If the game is good enough, you can offer a copy of the tape to coaches, parents, or players as a memento or to learn by. High school athletes like to have what is called a “highlight video” to send to colleges. You can provide this footage. What you do in this case is tape only one person for the game, and edit out parts that are uneventful, you make the player look very good by editing your tape in the right way. Many college teams ask for about 15 minutes of continuous play by the whole team, let the parent know this and you may be able to sell another tape of complete pay.
This is the type of business you want partners for. At tournaments, you will want multiple people to tape and photograph the multiple games happening. You might have specialists in certain sports and they will better know what to put in a highlight video. Know that you can’t please everyone and sometimes you will sit in the stands taping for a week, maybe only one person wants a copy. For this reason, I suggest this idea for those who really enjoy the sports they tape. If you like basketball, you may want to tape these types of games because you will learn about the competition and learn more about the game. If you don’t like golf, don’t spend hours at a golf course trying to sell photographs. Always do what you enjoy. That way, your reward isn’t based just on how much money you make, you can get paid for something you would want to do anyway.
If you are good with editing software, you can take videos of people playing. You can have people pay you to follow them and tape a whole game. Many coaches like to show their team how to improve by watching past games. In this case, the best way to go about this is to go to good matches, find out what high schools and middle school teams are good matches. Go in and bring your camera, tape the whole thing if you can. If the game is good enough, you can offer a copy of the tape to coaches, parents, or players as a memento or to learn by. High school athletes like to have what is called a “highlight video” to send to colleges. You can provide this footage. What you do in this case is tape only one person for the game, and edit out parts that are uneventful, you make the player look very good by editing your tape in the right way. Many college teams ask for about 15 minutes of continuous play by the whole team, let the parent know this and you may be able to sell another tape of complete pay.
This is the type of business you want partners for. At tournaments, you will want multiple people to tape and photograph the multiple games happening. You might have specialists in certain sports and they will better know what to put in a highlight video. Know that you can’t please everyone and sometimes you will sit in the stands taping for a week, maybe only one person wants a copy. For this reason, I suggest this idea for those who really enjoy the sports they tape. If you like basketball, you may want to tape these types of games because you will learn about the competition and learn more about the game. If you don’t like golf, don’t spend hours at a golf course trying to sell photographs. Always do what you enjoy. That way, your reward isn’t based just on how much money you make, you can get paid for something you would want to do anyway.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
How exactly do you run a tournament?
One great idea for making money comes up a lot, but isn’t as common. It’s the idea of setting up tournaments. Do you play any sports? Do you have a talent for organizing? Can you keep a level head? Maybe you can set this up!
First, find out what sport you will be organizing a tournament for. I live in Florida about 15 minutes from the beach, so we can use beach volleyball as an example. Really this can work for any type of sport. Your first step is to either establish the type of tournament, or hire a friend that plays the sport you have chosen. It isn’t a good idea to set up a tournament that you don’t understand, always stick to what you know. So let’s set up your tournament!
You need to set up a time frame and type of play. The easiest way to do this is “bracket style”. Just research that on Google. It means that two teams play each other and two other teams play each other. The winner of those matches will then play each other. It works until one team is left standing. I suggest going to a local tournament to understand the concept better. Another type is called the “Round Robin” system. In this, you have each team play each other once. This is good if you don’t have a lot of teams. What you do in this case is assign points for each outcome of a game. Give 8 points to winners, 4 points to teams that tie, and 0 points to teams that lose. You can add up the points to determine a winner, or have the two teams with the most points face off in a championship.
Then, you need to find a place to host the tournament. In this case, you will need to ask either the city, or a private owner to give you exclusive access to a field for the day or weekend. Figure out how many teams you are expecting. Divide the cost of setting up the tournament by as many teams you expect. This becomes your price per team. After you have that set, you need to get people.
Now, let’s get you some teams to play in your creation. To the beach volleyball idea, set up flyers along the beach. Post them at all beach volleyball nets. Go to all the sports shops you can find, ask the owner if you can set a bunch of flyers on counters for customers to grab many shops will agree as people will want to buy equipment. Or surf shops as people who go to the beach are over there. Just anyplace you can think of. If there are any leagues in the area, call them and tell them to offer the tournament to teams that are members of the league. The best bet is to contact a league for teams.
Not many people will do a tournament just for fun, many will, but others will want some incentive, something to win. Cash prizes and trophies are good for adult and teenage competitions and winner T-Shirts and medals are great for kids. You can even get sponsored and ask a store to offer gift cards. For instance, I can ask a beach shop to offer $100 in merchandise to the winner in exchange for advertising. Or even restaurants may offer free meals to winners, hoping other competitors will come by after the long day of playing. Ask areas around the tournament spot for the best results.
Remember, tournaments can be very complex, it helps a lot to make the teams smaller. Try this: 3v3 tournaments for soccer, lacrosse, and basketball. Maybe on the side, you can host a 1v1 challenge where individual players can try to get a goal against each other. These are personally my favorite to enter. Tag teams work great. Just set up 2v2’s for sports like basketball or soccer. These work just fine. People have loads of fun and there is still great competition.
For even more earnings, you can offer drinks (buy Gatorade and water wholesale and resell), food (chips, fruit, burger, etc.), or merchandise (have local businesses set up tents for their stuff). Ask famous players to come, give away extra prizes like raffle drawings, make a whole event! This is one of the most fun ideas that you can work. You set it up, just have an adult be the overseer for legal reasons.
First, find out what sport you will be organizing a tournament for. I live in Florida about 15 minutes from the beach, so we can use beach volleyball as an example. Really this can work for any type of sport. Your first step is to either establish the type of tournament, or hire a friend that plays the sport you have chosen. It isn’t a good idea to set up a tournament that you don’t understand, always stick to what you know. So let’s set up your tournament!
You need to set up a time frame and type of play. The easiest way to do this is “bracket style”. Just research that on Google. It means that two teams play each other and two other teams play each other. The winner of those matches will then play each other. It works until one team is left standing. I suggest going to a local tournament to understand the concept better. Another type is called the “Round Robin” system. In this, you have each team play each other once. This is good if you don’t have a lot of teams. What you do in this case is assign points for each outcome of a game. Give 8 points to winners, 4 points to teams that tie, and 0 points to teams that lose. You can add up the points to determine a winner, or have the two teams with the most points face off in a championship.
Then, you need to find a place to host the tournament. In this case, you will need to ask either the city, or a private owner to give you exclusive access to a field for the day or weekend. Figure out how many teams you are expecting. Divide the cost of setting up the tournament by as many teams you expect. This becomes your price per team. After you have that set, you need to get people.
Now, let’s get you some teams to play in your creation. To the beach volleyball idea, set up flyers along the beach. Post them at all beach volleyball nets. Go to all the sports shops you can find, ask the owner if you can set a bunch of flyers on counters for customers to grab many shops will agree as people will want to buy equipment. Or surf shops as people who go to the beach are over there. Just anyplace you can think of. If there are any leagues in the area, call them and tell them to offer the tournament to teams that are members of the league. The best bet is to contact a league for teams.
Not many people will do a tournament just for fun, many will, but others will want some incentive, something to win. Cash prizes and trophies are good for adult and teenage competitions and winner T-Shirts and medals are great for kids. You can even get sponsored and ask a store to offer gift cards. For instance, I can ask a beach shop to offer $100 in merchandise to the winner in exchange for advertising. Or even restaurants may offer free meals to winners, hoping other competitors will come by after the long day of playing. Ask areas around the tournament spot for the best results.
Remember, tournaments can be very complex, it helps a lot to make the teams smaller. Try this: 3v3 tournaments for soccer, lacrosse, and basketball. Maybe on the side, you can host a 1v1 challenge where individual players can try to get a goal against each other. These are personally my favorite to enter. Tag teams work great. Just set up 2v2’s for sports like basketball or soccer. These work just fine. People have loads of fun and there is still great competition.
For even more earnings, you can offer drinks (buy Gatorade and water wholesale and resell), food (chips, fruit, burger, etc.), or merchandise (have local businesses set up tents for their stuff). Ask famous players to come, give away extra prizes like raffle drawings, make a whole event! This is one of the most fun ideas that you can work. You set it up, just have an adult be the overseer for legal reasons.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Buy-Low sell-high: On the internet
Buy-low sell high on the internet is both the easiest and hardest of the business methods. It is the easiest to run, but the hardest to compete in. Not much profit can be made at once, but there is much potential for long term earning. One of the biggest, if not the biggest market, is eBay.
The whole idea is to buy in bulk. Just like the candy bar description mentioned earlier, by buying in large quantities, the prices of an individual item will drop. But you can’t just buy anything again. Research in interest is required. Say you want to sell DVDs. You can find many sellers on eBay who sell 500 DVDs at a time. Not many people want this many DVDs at random. You will, you plan on reselling all of these DVDs. But how good is the market exactly? This is what I do to check a market. Find people who sell mostly DVDs on eBay. Check for these things: 1) how much they make off each DVD (see the price they pay for each DVD by looking at recent bulk purchases, then see how much they sell them for). 2) How many sales do they have a day? This is done by looking in the feedback section. If 3 people leave feedback a day for the same item, then the seller is doing pretty well, and you can see that there is a chance in the market.
When checking out sellers, there are some things to consider, if they are a store, then you really shouldn’t compare yourself to them. They are expected to do much better. They pay extra in listings and they have a reputation to their name. You will be coming in with no one knowing about you, so it is best to find casual sellers. You can be competition for the big stores some day, but for now, you need to build credibility. Another thing to see is how much they need to pay for shipping. Most cases, you can’t raise the product price by more than $2-$3 for DVD’s. Other markets vary. But if you have to pay $2 to ship the item, then it wouldn’t be actual profit, your business would just pay to keep track of the business.
When starting a reselling business, it could be helpful to cut costs as much as possible. To do this, it can be helpful to use the same bulk buying methods that got your business where it is. I buy bubble mailers the size of my items by the 100 pack. They take a lot of space, but you wind up spending $.10 for each container instead of $.50 each. That saves money in the long run, and in the reselling business, money saved is money earned. Any way you can cut costs is a great way to increase efficiency of your business. Increasing efficiency is the key to having a successful business that makes you money. If you put all your money back into your business, then there really isn’t much of a point and you’re just spinning your wheels.
The whole idea is to buy in bulk. Just like the candy bar description mentioned earlier, by buying in large quantities, the prices of an individual item will drop. But you can’t just buy anything again. Research in interest is required. Say you want to sell DVDs. You can find many sellers on eBay who sell 500 DVDs at a time. Not many people want this many DVDs at random. You will, you plan on reselling all of these DVDs. But how good is the market exactly? This is what I do to check a market. Find people who sell mostly DVDs on eBay. Check for these things: 1) how much they make off each DVD (see the price they pay for each DVD by looking at recent bulk purchases, then see how much they sell them for). 2) How many sales do they have a day? This is done by looking in the feedback section. If 3 people leave feedback a day for the same item, then the seller is doing pretty well, and you can see that there is a chance in the market.
When checking out sellers, there are some things to consider, if they are a store, then you really shouldn’t compare yourself to them. They are expected to do much better. They pay extra in listings and they have a reputation to their name. You will be coming in with no one knowing about you, so it is best to find casual sellers. You can be competition for the big stores some day, but for now, you need to build credibility. Another thing to see is how much they need to pay for shipping. Most cases, you can’t raise the product price by more than $2-$3 for DVD’s. Other markets vary. But if you have to pay $2 to ship the item, then it wouldn’t be actual profit, your business would just pay to keep track of the business.
When starting a reselling business, it could be helpful to cut costs as much as possible. To do this, it can be helpful to use the same bulk buying methods that got your business where it is. I buy bubble mailers the size of my items by the 100 pack. They take a lot of space, but you wind up spending $.10 for each container instead of $.50 each. That saves money in the long run, and in the reselling business, money saved is money earned. Any way you can cut costs is a great way to increase efficiency of your business. Increasing efficiency is the key to having a successful business that makes you money. If you put all your money back into your business, then there really isn’t much of a point and you’re just spinning your wheels.
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