Make $2 Million A Year Setting Up Christmas Lights
Bob Martin and his employee-turned-partner, Larry Jones, couldn’t help but notice the attention they were receiving as they put up their first client’s Christmas display. “We had 25-foot toy soldiers, a 40-foot arch going across the driveway, a 36-foot-long Santa’s Express in the front yard, and about 400,000 lights going throughout the property,” says Martin, 45. The extravagant display even attracted the attention of the local media in New Lenox, Illinois.
That was in the winter of 1996. Martin got the creative spark for his company, BrightIdeasInc.com, when he realized most people dread the yearly task of hanging holiday lights. Confident that people would pay for the convenience, Martin launched the business from his garage. He spent just $2,500 at startup, purchasing supplies such as advertising signs, ladders, lights, timers and other equipment.
In 1997, BrightIdeasInc.com also began offering year-round landscape lighting services along with its seasonal decorations. Now with two showrooms and four warehouses in Illinois, the company projects nearly $2 million in sales this year.
Selling Office Sounds
A lot of times, a client’s perception of a business run from home is inferior compared to a business run in a usual office. An office setting provides them the credibility they are looking for in a business.
One dead giveaway that people know its a home office is through the background noise. When your client calls your home office, do they hear..
dogs barking?
doorbell ringing?
the TV?
kids on the background?
To sound more professional on the phone, home businesses have started playing a unique CD in the background. It’s called Thriving Office and it’s filled with the sounds people expect to hear from a successful business, such as background conversations, phones, computers and file drawers. One track is “Busy†and the other is “Very Busyâ€.
Bill Freund was trying to start a business in his home. Since he had worked at a big company, he knew how different the background in his home sounded. Although he developed the product for himself, when he saw how effective it was, he started selling it to other home businesses.
Freund offers the CD for around $13 and you can download the office sounds for just $6. Some home businesses even play the CD when they’re off the phone, reporting that it increases their productivity.
Popular Home Based Business Opportunities
Self-employment is now a major part of our entrepreneurial economy, now approaching almost 20 million Americans. Many of the self-employed are choosing to work from home due to family considerations. For example, self-employment allows more flexibility for parents with young children.
Homestead Technologies commissioned a study on home-based businesses and found the following as their list of “hot” opportunities that can be run from home:
E-Learning: With advances in new web application tools such as podcasts and video blogs, development costs will decrease.
E-Bay Aftermarket: Helping companies conduct market research, pricing strategies, shipping, and competitive analysis is a great niche business.
Children Arts Education: There is a major market for teachers of right-brained education who are thought to help foster the development of future innovators.
Garage Organizers: Just as organizing closets was the next big thing in the 80’s, the messy garage is the final space to clean up.
Background Checks: Small businesses with limited resources are turning to background check companies to handle investigation and due diligence.
Pet Sitting: An ideal home-based business where you get paid to walk and enjoy the companionship of pets.
Specialized Coaching: The coaching market has boomed in the recent years including specialized areas such as life, spiritual, corporate, relationship and business.
Home-based Debt Collection: Debt has become a way of life for many Americans. Operating a low overhead home-based collection service can serve the niche sections of this market.
Specialized Outsourcing: The small business market has limited resources and a focus on core competencies. Specialized outsourcing from home to small business will have a solid position market position for years to come.
Scrap Booking: In today’s easy to save and store digital age, opportunities abound for the home-based scrapbook artist, workshop teacher, or a direct sales rep.
Will one get rich with any of these ideas? Probably not. But, that is not the point for most who choose to run a home-based business. It is to earn income while enjoying the flexibility and freedom of running a small business from home.
Work-at-Home Scams: They Just Don’t Pay
Most work-at-home jobs don’t guarantee regular, salaried employment. Many neglect to mention that you have to work many hours without pay. Others require that you spend your own money for products or instructions before finding out how the offer works. And the “work” may entail getting others to sign up for the same job–which continues the fraud.
Work-at-home scams have cost victims thousands of dollars. Check out all jobs before responding. Legitimate companies provide information in writing.
There’s no easy road to wealth. Operating a home-based business is just like any other–they require hard work and good products or services, and it takes time to make a profit.
Order a free DVD from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service on work-at-home scams.
Fear Factor
Think big, and muscle your way into success on a grand scale.
In war, management of fear is constantly the issue. In actual combat, fear created cowards out of some, and heroes out of others. Fear made some Marines smarter, while others became fools.
The same is true in business. One of the reasons many entrepreneurs stay small is because they act more like Pee-wee Herman.
My rich dad often said, “You cannot see the size of a person by looking at the person. You need to look at their reflection… what surrounds them.”
Last November I was in New York City for a meeting with Donald Trump. Walking into his office building took my breath away. His reflection in his building is very big.
Later that day, I was on my way to the CNBC studios. Suddenly, off to my right, I noticed several tall, brand-new buildings with the name “Trump” on them. “Holy Cow!” was all I could say. I could only begin to guess how much work it had taken to clear so much land and erect so many buildings in Manhattan. Just dealing with the unions, city bureaucrats, environmentalists, the media and neighborhood committees would slay mere mortals. As the limo passed the rows of Trump Condominiums, I said to the driver, “Can you believe what Trump has done here?”
The driver smirked and said, “So what? You know he went broke once, so he’s not that smart.” I realized I was riding with Pee-wee, looking at the work of Rambo… and I was somewhere between the two of them.
As a Marine, I learned that fear, when it takes the form of self-doubt, kills more men than the enemy. The same is true in business–especially in entrepreneurship. Given the choice, I would rather be Rambo.
By Robert Kiyosaki, for Entrepreneur Magazine – February 2006
Marketing Invention Without Losing Savings
Three years ago inventor Steve Grant was thinking about designing a new kind of desk-top fish tank. He didn’t see any on the market that he liked, and he wanted to tinker with his idea. But he was worried. “So many times the people that I’ve read or heard about commit their life savings for their inventions,” he said.
Grant came up with an invention called the Lavarium, a miniature tank for betta fish that is shaped like a lava lamp. It comes with an air pump, glass pebbles and a switch for seven different-colored lighting choices.
But he had to figure out a way to get the Lavarium to market without taking any big financial risks. So he kept his day job, worked on his invention in his spare time, and came up with a game plan.
Here are his five steps for turning an idea into a profitable invention:
1: Have a prototype. Anything that you can piece together to give prospective companies a vision of your invention will work.
2: Protect yourself. Grant found out that he could have his idea somewhat protected by filing a provisional patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trade Office.
3: Find the right company. Grant went “shopping” at the stores that sell small fish tanks. He wrote down the names of the companies who manufacture them, and later he chose Hawkeye Aquarium based in Kansas City and Fenton, Mo.
4: Get an appointment with the right people. Ask for the sales manager, Grant said. Usually that person will be involved in the decision-making process. Then ask that person who else should be involved and how they can all get together.
5: Look for the right contract. Grant decided to transfer the rights on the product to Hawkeye, giving them the responsibility of production, marketing and patent protection. And 18 months after their first meeting, Lavariums were in stores and for sale around the country.
“I think the most satisfying thing was when I saw it in the store,” Grant said. “It was the coolest thing.”
Photo by Hawkeye International.
Where Do You Find The First Customers?
Ask yourself this question: Who most likely either buy from you or send you referrals? Yes, those who know you or you know. How do you approach to tell them about your business? Making a list of people who you want to contact is a start. Here are a fewe questions to stimulate thinking:
- Your friends and their friends
- People from schools: classmates, teachers, club members…etc.
- People you know from work: co-workers, employers and customers
- People from organizations that you also belong to: churches, special interest clubs…etc.
- People who are your contacts in trade associations you’ve been a part of over the years.
- Tradespeople you know: lawyer, pharmacist, doctor, dentist, plumber, insurance agent, hairstylist, mechanic and even your babysitter or nanny.
- Neighbors, past and present
- People you know through sports and hobbies, such as hunting, fishing, running and golf.
- People you know because of your home: lender, real estate agent, builder, installers, handyman…etc.
- Contact you have through families: your own and your spouse’s
We all know alot of people to tell about our business. Now, how do you scan through this list to land your first customers?
- Send a personal letter and follow up with a phone call a week to 10 days later. In this letter, announce your new business. Offer a free consultation or a special discount, something to create interest and excitement in what you’re doing. Perhaps you could offer to pay a “word-of-mouth” fee to those contacts who send you referrals who buy from you.
- Use the telephone. Call some folks to “catch up.” Find out what they’re doing and then share about your business.
- Set up breakfast, lunch or coffee meetings. Set it up as a “feedback session” where you present your product or service in a low-key manner as a way to solicit feedback from the person. At the end of the meeting, ask the person for referrals to people who might benefit from your offering.
