10 Low-Cost Weekend Businesses to Start | Slideshow Whether you want to just make some extra money in your free time or desire to one day quit your day job and create a full-time business, starting a low-cost business on the weekend is an easy way to test the entrepreneurial waters. You'll need to invest little more than your time, and before long, you'll know if owning a business full time is the right choice for you. To help you get started, we've developed this list of 10 great businesses to start. No matter where your interests or talents lie, you'll be sure to find an idea that'll fit you like a glove. Party Balloon Service The demand for a party-balloon decorator is endless and certainly not limited to only children's birthday parties. Storm Window Installations and Storage Starting a business that provides residential homeowners with a service of installing storm windows in the fall and removing the windows in the spring is a very straightforward endeavor to initiate. You Might Also Like...
5 Sources for Learning What It Takes to Become a Millionaire When it comes to learning the ropes of how to be a millionaire, nothing is as important as your education. Getting an education on becoming a millionaire may differ slightly from your traditional educational approach, but it is still all about the learning process. If you are interested in becoming a millionaire and earning substantial money that will cover you over the long-term, then here are a few education techniques to consider. 1. The Internet is a great educational resource for anyone seeking more information about earning money through their investments. Related: What It Takes to Go From Dead Broke to 6 Figures in 6 Months 2. Reading is the cheapest but most effective way to learn the valuable tools needed to trade smart and earn a great deal of money. 3. To learn how to be successful you need to know what other successful people are doing with their time. Related: The 5 Mistakes Standing Between You and Your First Million 4. 5.
7 Stupid Branding Mistakes Your Small Business is Making When you think about great branding, Coca Cola’s distinctive red and white lettering, Nike’s swoosh and Adidas’s three stripes likely come to mind. But as a small business, imagining the level of investment that’s gone into these iconic images can make the thought of undertaking your own branding initiative seem overwhelming. It’s actually easier to do than most imagine. Just make sure to avoid some common pitfalls and branding mistakes. 1. Defining your brand is also valuable from an SEO perspective. Related: 3 Ways to Get Graphics for Your Website 2. Logo (both an overarching logo and any logo lockups your company uses for individual product lines) Brand colors Taglines Fonts and typography The “voice” used in your branded materials Imagery Mascots and spokespeople Clearly, this list isn’t comprehensive. 3. Small businesses can learn a lesson from this beverage industry giant. Related: 4. So what’s the solution? 5. Can you do it? Related: Building Your Brand's Warmth and Competence 6. 7.
Page 2 105 Service Businesses to Start Today At your service: Convenience-craving consumers are always looking for a way to do things better, faster and cheaper. Often, that means turning to a specialty-services entrepreneur who knows how to get the job done right. Here, we provide some inspiration for aspiring service providers-from adventure-tour leaders to window washers. With 105 ideas to choose from, you have no excuse not to get started today with your own service business. Once you've scrolled through our ideas and gotten a taste of what's out there, read "How to Start a Service Business" to learn how to get started. Personal ServicesMobile Pet GroomingSnip, clip and brush your way to success as a mobile pet groomer. Collectibles SearchCollectibles searchers, who carefully canvas swap meets, thrift stores and garage sales, can collect a bundle locating objets d'art for clients. Diaper DeliveryWhoever said cloth diapers couldn't be convenient--and user-friendly? Dry-Cleaning Pickup & DeliveryAre you clothes-minded?
Steps to Starting a Small Business So you’re thinking about starting a business? Terrific. About 543,000 small businesses are started each month in the United States according to data from DocStoc. However, for those thinking about starting one, it’s often the mental hurdles that prevent you from forging ahead. Unanswered questions can get in the way of advancement. Starting a business is exciting, heady stuff, and it’s not for everyone. Why Start a Business? For some, entrepreneurship is inspired by the need for autonomy, like in Jayson DeMers' case. “I questioned everything and felt uncomfortable being bound by someone else's rules,” he says. After gathering freelance clients, DeMers was eventually able to quit his full-time job. For others, starting a business comes from solving a problem in their own lives, like it did with Sujan Patel, the vice president of marketing at When I Work, an employee software scheduling company. “That's when I knew I had something people really wanted,” he says. Are You Ready?
The 10 Fastest-Growing Industries for Small Business Past performance is no guarantee of future results, as the old business truism says. But you also may have heard that you can’t know where you’re going without knowing where you have been. To get a sense of which industries small businesses are growing in, the analysts at Raleigh, N.C.-headquartered private-company financial-information company Sageworks ran some numbers for Entrepreneur.com. Here’s a look at the industries where U.S. companies with $10 million or less in annual sales have shown the highest and lowest percentage change from Jan. 1 to Dec 31, 2012. As a benchmark, the average growth rate across all U.S. small businesses in the time period was 8 percent, says Libby Bierman, an analyst at Sageworks. Fastest-Growth Industries for U.S. Related: Hunting for Business Ideas? Slowest-Growth Industries for U.S. Related: Franchise Forecast Continues Strong for 2013 Not all of the businesses on the fastest-growing list are service based.
2011 Trends: This Way Up | Slideshow In his inauguration speech, President Obama paid homage to entrepreneurs. The path to greatness, he rhapsodized, has been paved by "the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things--some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom." Almost three years later, it's clear he was spot on. Entrepreneurship has been one of the precious few bright spots in a terribly gloomy economy, and this new generation of entrepreneurs, both intentional and accidental, has taken it upon themselves to keep things chugging along. Consider American Express' slick ad campaign featuring Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard; foursquare's founders as models in glossy Gap mag ads; and the cults of celebrity surrounding "the Zuck" and the late Steve Jobs. Entrepreneurship has never been more practical, either. Here, 10 sectors to get in on while they're trending up. If you like this, then … Retail was just the start.
5 Hobbies That Can Make You Smarter (Infographic) Your teachers were right: Your brain is like a muscle. To make it smarter, all you need to do is lift intellectual weights -- and often. Studies show that regularly exercising our minds with challenging new stimuli -- not endless hours of Keeping Up With the Kardashians -- increases IQ. Sure, crossword puzzles and sudoku are brilliant ways to sharpen your intellect and expand your neuroplasticity, but they’re far from the only options here. Related: You Have the Power to Rewire Your Brain for More Joy Believe it or not, playing video games is another fun, engaging way to boost your brainpower. For more brain-feeding activities you can do to get smarter, feast your mind on the bright infographic below, care of ProEssayWriter.net. Click to Enlarge+ Related: This Is Your Brain on Not Enough Sleep (Infographic) Limited Time Offer Get a FREE Strategy Session Work Smarter, Not Harder!
Startup How-To Guides Quitting your job to launch your own business can be a hard pill for your company to swallow, particularly if your company is in the same industry. Here's some advice. Laying the Startup Groundwork Starting your own business is not just about having a dream. Planning for a Successful Start The old adage goes: failure to plan is a plan for failure. Raising Capital You've got the idea and you've got a plan. Establishing Your Image You may have a great idea, product or superior service, but have you thought about what image your startup will take on? Finding Customers Without customers, it doesn't matter how great your product is, how well you branded you are, or how well funded your start-up is. More Startup How-To Guides How to Start a Foundation BY Gwen Moran Establishing a nonprofit requires an ongoing commitment, not just an initial injection of funding. An Introduction to Business Plans Why is a business plan so vital to the health of your business?
Beyond the Food Truck: Six Ideas for Mobile Food Businesses Even when you don't have a lot of money or time, you still want a tasty meal, and mobile food businesses are uniquely positioned to provide it. Whether serving crepes from a splashily painted food truck, a bacon-wrapped hotdog from a push cart, or Baskin-Robbins ice cream from a franchised kiosk, food is going where consumers are. Even though street food is enjoying a resurgence, this is a tried-and-true business model that's fed generations of eaters. Today, there are approximately 3 million food trucks operating in the U.S., more than 5 million food carts, and an unknown number of kiosks. If you multiply the following six mobile options with the myriad cuisines and foods you can serve, possible locations, and the time of day you are open, your options for a mobile food business are endless. 1. 2. This style of mobile food business has been around for decades and is a multibillion-dollar industry. Related: Food Trucks 101 -- How to Start a Mobile Food Business 3. 4. 5. 6.
5 Ways to Make Your Product Sell Itself We are creatures of habit. American families, on average, buy the same 150 products over and over again, which make up 85 percent of their household needs, according to research out of Harvard Business School. So how can you get people to take a chance on your new business and become loyal customers? The trick is helping customers overcome their initial hesitation and making your new item speak to customers in a relatable way. Here are five ways to help your product sell itself in a crowded marketplace: 1. Even cleaning products, the most mundane of all consumer necessities, can win using this theory. 2. 3. 4. 5. Local products or services benefit from actual social interaction: an informal gathering in a home where guests can "play" with the product or try the service, a farmer's or open-air market where consumers can touch and taste what you're selling and meet you. Join Entrepreneur in Long Beach, Calif. on 12/15–Increase Productivity and Business in 2016.
Choose Your Business Structure Sole proprietorship, corporation, LLC: Try them on for size to find out which legal structure will best suit your business. Of all the choices you make when starting a business, one of the most important is the type of legal structure you select for your company. Not only will this decision have an impact on how much you pay in taxes, it will affect the amount of paperwork your business is required to do, the personal liability you face and your ability to raise money. Mark Kalish is co-owner and vice president of EnviroTech Coating Systems Inc. in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, a company that applies powdered paint through an electrostatic process to items ranging from motorcycles to musical instruments. Kalish has also been involved with a number of other start-up businesses, both as an owner and in various management positions. It's not a decision to be entered into lightly, either, or one that should be made without sound counsel from business experts.