business ideas

One man’s junk is another’s treasure – this is the core idea behind the best small business idea that became big on the Internet. eBay.

It started with the owner selling a broken laser pointer on his website – and he thought that no one would buy this – and that it was a dumb idea at that time. Before he knew it someone had made an offer on his broken pointer and it was sold.

He was so curious that he actually called the buyer up and asked him if he’d read that the pointer was broken. And the buyer informed him that he collected broken laser pointers. Thus eBay was born.

My point is don’t rule out your junk – literally and metaphorically. Literally, you can sell you junk on eBay and make some quick money. You might not be able to make a lot of money online from this. But you will certainly make more money than if you did not try at all.

Metaphorically – don’t discard your ideas when they come to you. In fact write down your ideas and follow through with them. The best small business ideas have started with a ‘silly’ thought and have become big.

Think of eBay, Amazon, Zappos, dpreview, and other such companies making millions online. All of them were small business ideas – until they became big. You just might have a similar idea that could become big with the right direction and some follow through.

Think of your business idea as being a small child. For the child to grow up and become a man, he/she has to be taught a lot of things. How to talk, how to walk, how to think, how to do anything.

Just like you would not abandon a small child – because the child was just small and didn’t know anything. Don’t abandon your small business ideas – because it’s a small business and it’ll never work. Work on it – and it will work.

If for some reason you feel that this is not working for you – or that you are spinning your wheels than the best thing for you to do is find someone who has gone through the process and follow them. Do exactly what they are doing, what they do and how they do it. Just by following someone who has taken their small business ideas to the next level will help you get to making massive money online as well.

Need some home business ideas? You are not alone. What may work well for someone may not work for you. The choices are simply overwhelming but no less interesting. There is a lot more to a home-based business but once you know what opportunities and ideas are, you will be able to decide which is best for you. So let us take a closer look at some home business ideas worth considering.

Idea #1. Health and Fitness Niche.

Depending on your educational background, skills, and interests, you can do what you love or have a passion and experience for within the health and fitness service niche. If personal services is your expertise and in reasonable demand by customers, then you may have a good idea assuming there is growth and profit potential. Example home business ideas in the health and fitness services niche are personal fitness trainers and yoga instructors who address the needs of longevity and anti-aging. The possibilities are virtually unlimited.

Idea #2. Financial Services Niche.

Loads of companies of all sizes outsource their accounting services to save money on their direct labor costs. If you are qualified as a certified public accountant, you can make good income servicing and filling gaps. Certification is critical and necessary given the amount of financial oversight and regulatory compliance. Networking and word-of-mouth referrals are key growth ingredients for this worthwhile home business idea.

Idea #3. Internet and Computers Niche.

More and more businesses require a web site or tuning up of their current web site. Tech savvy help with designing a web site to accommodate mobile platforms such as smart-phones is a recent growth area. If you have the skills to tackle web design, you can succeed. Another outsourced service in reasonable demand is computer repairs. You can provide general or specific computer repairs to both individuals and businesses.

Idea #4. Assignment Photography Niche.

Do you like and are you good as a photographer on assignment? You will provide services like pictures at weddings, special events, or a portrait studio. This business idea has plenty of competition and requires artistic and creative skills as well as expensive equipment.

Idea #5. Virtual Assistant (VA).

With the recent economic downturn, outsourcing key administrative and technical services to virtual assistants are on the rise. Specialized skills include office administration/secretarial, data-entry, travel services, topic research, and writing reports all from your home. You can check with active VA communities and professional organizations that provide education, job resources, and promote networking for its members.

There are many people who are earning part-time and full-time income from each of these home business ideas. To succeed in not only these sample ideas but any home business idea, you will have to begin with yourself. Only you can decide what business fits your dreams and goals. Think big, do your research and weigh the risks and rewards. Start small before making the leap with these home business ideas. Thinking clearly about any one of these sample ideas or one of your own and their relative profit and growth potential will help you put your best foot forward.

If you are considering a work from home business idea, you might want to think about starting just part time. A number of people just starting out, take this approach. Working part time helps you lower the risk that can be associated with starting a new business. If your part time work from home business is not a success, you still have your other job.

When your work from home business idea is doing great, then you can take it up as a full time business. One problem with combining a part time business and your full time job is maintaining the balance.

For this reason, it is a good idea to have a business where somebody else does all the stocking and selling and shipping of products. Your main job then is, to promote your business to bring in targeted traffic and get sales. This work from home business idea is of course an affiliate program. Affiliate programs are the simplest and easiest way to get started part time or full time as a work from home business idea.

Work from home business owners can ensure traffic to their business by creating a blog. Then what happens is that they use the popular blog that they created, to drive lots of traffic to the site where they are selling their home based business idea product or service.

Your hobby or your interests can help you create a profitable work from home business idea. There are many people that dream of doing what they love to do for a living. Most, however, do not think that their work from home business idea will allow them to make a living. A good idea would be to do some research, and learn how to take your work from home business idea and convert it into a successful business, being able to spend the rest of your life doing what you love.

When you begin a work from home business idea, one of the most important keys to success is self-motivation. You must be willing to push through any obstacles. A home business is not always easy, and there are always sacrifices that need to be made. A work from home business idea is a just a starting point, you must be willing to put in the hard work that it will take to make a very successful business.

In order for your business to succeed there is need to come up with sound business management practices especially when it comes to implementing new business ideas. Many business owners have been known to squash on new business ideas even before they have been assessed. They claim their argument on the fact that the ideas have been tried elsewhere and failed.

Since the company may be having other priories, managers take this as an excuse to ignore or put on hold the new business ideas just because they do not embrace them. Good business management calls for putting in place effective and proper evaluation of innovative ideas.

For there to be business growth, managers need to have structures that best help in evaluating and trying new ideas with minimum expense. These ideas have to be examined swiftly to find out if they are worth the try. As a business manager you need to know the importance of logic management so that no good idea goes to waste and decisive action is taken when necessary.

Creative business management takes into account the risks involved in implementing new ideas and that with proper techniques these ideas can produce positive results. As much as new business innovations are not welcomed or encouraged, as a business owner should learn how to appreciate them.

It may sound like you are playing it safe when you do not leap into a new business idea, but the drawback is seeing the same idea you ignored working out when implemented by your competitor. Rather than stamping on new ideas, put in place systems that would test, implement and even reward individuals that come up with these ideas.

For a couple of months last winter, the UK was hit by gale force winds and a months worth of rain in just days. Homes and businesses had been flooded and the rain kept on coming. Fortunately, it didn’t affected me much but for others if had been an absolute nightmare!

Businesses were losing money because they had to shut up shop as the flood water entered their premises and others had lost a lot of trade because nobody could get to them. Also some homes and businesses had been without power for weeks.

Would an online business be affected by these kinds of storms?

To a degree, yes but not the same kind of damaging scale as a normal bricks and mortar business. If you run your online business from home then your home could still get flooded… but your business can still be running in the background.

If you have no power to your home, you won’t be able to log onto the internet to do updates to your websites or other online tasks… but it is still running online on the server.

People can still come to your website and order from you, auto responder emails will still be sent. A few customers with power cuts won’t be able to order from you but as your business is open to a global market this will have very little affect on your profits.

However, if you sell physical products there could be some delivery issues if you can’t get to the post office or the post office is flooded! So you might get cancellations if you can’t get the products out to your customers.

Digital products though such as eBooks, ecourses, membership websites etc won’t be affected by delivery problems.

Normal bricks and mortar businesses will need to wait for the floods to reside, get their premises back up together before they can let customers back through the door!

An online business will still be able to take orders even if your office or home is flooded. You won’t need to shut up shop completely until the floods reside and your premises refitted.

Think how damaging it would be to your life if you couldn’t trade for 2 months or more.

So in these kind of storms an online business will still have an advantage over other businesses. Quite a big advantage!

Maybe you could use an online business as a second income stream to your main business and then at least you still have some money coming in if something like this happens to you.

Once you’ve got to grips with online marketing and you have many online customers your profits may even start to exceed your traditional businesses as your expenses costs are much, much less!

You may even decide to close your traditional business and continue as an online business only. Some companies have already done this.

So get an online business started today whether you already have a traditional business or are looking to start a new business from scratch. An online business has so many more advantages.

The following article provides a high-level summary of some key eCommerce law issues online business operators face in running a website or other eCommerce business. Conducting business online or maintaining a website may subject companies and individuals to unforeseen legal liabilities. The following is a brief survey of 12 key eCommerce law issues to consider:

1. Internet Business & eCommerce

A good starting point is analyzing a company’s online presence and auditing their procedures to determine how to grow their brand and online influence. As part of this, the company’s agreements and websites should comply with the myriad of laws and regulations affecting websites and online businesses, such as COPPA.

2. Domain Name Acquisition

Domains are often the key to an online business, but can present a number of problems. Domain name issues include securing a domain name initially, as well as protecting domain names from adverse parties that attempt to trade off the goodwill associated with the company’s brand. Sometimes, the company needs defense, retrieval, and protection of domain names on the Internet.

3. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) Compliance

Companies operating websites, particularly where third-party content may be uploaded directly, should consider adopting agreements and procedures to shield themselves against claims of liability and copyright infringement. This procedure is sometimes referred to as a “copyright policy” or “DMCA takedown” procedure. Compliance with the DMCA can provide the online operator with a safe harbor from liability.

4. Online Privacy

Online privacy continues to become a bigger issue. With the spread of mobile devices, tablets, and apps, privacy issues are becoming more complex. Companies should consider composing or updating their privacy policies as well as adopting internal security protocols aimed at protecting the online privacy of customers and website users.

5. Social Media Law

While a powerful vehicle to build brand strength and interact with customers, social media can create a number of legal issues for online businesses. A social media policy provided to employees as well as guidelines can be effective steps to reduce risk. A few key areas to consider are employment related use of social media, confidentiality, sponsorship, and branding guidelines.

6. Privacy Policies

Privacy policies should not be copied from online templates or rival companies. They should be drafted comprehensively to address unique issues of a specific online business and to accommodate future growth. Whether a company looks to collect analytics or more personalized information, the company should focus on its specific business needs and risk factors. Privacy policies should be updated as a business evolves.

7. Terms of Use Agreements

Terms of Use (TOU) agreements can limit liability for companies that maintain an Internet presence. These agreements should be optimized to address a company’s specific business and should not be simply cut and pasted from the Internet. What works for one company may not work for another company.

8. eCommerce Agreements

eCommerce agreements come in many forms such as licensing, advertising agreements, and payment processor agreements. eCommerce agreements should be drafted to address the primary legal risks involved in a particular eCommerce contract or business transaction.

9. Online Sweepstakes & Games

Online sweepstakes, contests, and games create a number of legal pitfalls. Depending on the sweepstake, contest, or game, compliance with the laws of all 50 states as well as the federal government may be required. Registration in specific states may also be required. Online businesses may benefit from guidance as to whether a particular new initiative is considered a sweepstake, contest, or game.

10. Domain Theft

Recovering hijacked domains can often be difficult and time-consuming. Typically, avoiding domain theft in the first place is much easier than attempting to recover a stolen domain. While difficult, it is possible to recover a hijacked domain.

11. Website Agreements

Website agreements can be customized to limit legal liability and reduce risks of disputes by analyzing an online business’s intellectual property portfolio, business processes, and brand objectives. Website agreements can be used for mobile applications in addition to websites.

12. Impersonation and Username Squatting

Impersonation and username squatting can occur when a third party registers a social media account using someone else’s identity. This can result in harmful posts and information being published in social media. Username squatting can also prevent a trademark or brand owner from controlling their trademark. Typically, registering usernames in advance is the best strategy to avoid impersonation or username squatting.

While the above identifies a number of eCommerce and internet law issues affecting website and online business operators, an in-depth analysis may be required. For more information, you may want to contact an eCommerce attorney.

Disclaimer – As with any discussion of legal topics, this article is intended to be educational only, and is not a substitute for legal advice, nor does it provide legal advice or form an attorney-client relationship with the reader. Please seek legal counsel before making any decisions. Also, please note that this article will likely not be updated, so the law and circumstances may have changed by the time you have read this article.

Lifecycle of Management Ideas

When evaluating the sustainability of lifecycle management ideas, it’s important to evaluate the ideas in the context of the company. Performance is more relative than absolute. For this reason, the success of business ideas can’t be replicated in every company. If ideas can be replicated, the competitive advantage is lost.

The Role of the Business Leader

Managers with revolutionary business ideas usually have a different concept about authority and have a unique management style. These managers are dedicated to making the organization much different from when they started.

For example, P.V. Kannan, CEO and Co-Founder of 24/7 Customer, a company that focuses on outsourcing, developed a company that managed email (before companies routinely used email communication). He ran into a lot of resistance when marketing the idea to business owners. However, companies use email routinely today, which makes Kannan a revolutionary leader (although the idea doesn’t provide a competitive edge any longer). Kannan also launched a call center in India and received a lot of push back. The call center currently has over 7,000 employees and is a huge success.

Some business leaders aren’t confident there are many new business ideas in the marketplace. They believe that most leaders are taking existing ideas and tweaking them to improve success. Business ideas often go through cycles. What’s successful today may be obsolete several years down the road and then make a come back in 20-years.

Recognizing Good Management Ideas

Even the brightest leaders get confused about drivers and results. Management should invest time ensuring that data is independent and reliable. When testing the success of an idea, make sure the independent variables are truly independent and aren’t influenced by outside factors. If you don’t follow this rule, companies don’t have an accurate picture of what is driving the results.

For example, Kannan was asked by a large client to develop two new customer service measures. Customer service representatives were now required to end the call by asking if there’s anything else needed and saying “have a nice day.” However, by measuring the impact of these changes, Kannan found the new changes didn’t make a positive impact. In fact, customers were annoyed by representatives prolonging the conversation and wanted to get off the phone quickly.

Generating Larger Pools of Ideas

When coming up with good ideas, it should be generated from a large pool of ideas. This way, management can throw out the bad ideas, and hone in on the most promising strategies. Employees developing the pool of ideas should come from a variety of business units. When everyone in the room comes from the same place, the organization may miss out on a truly great idea. Conformity in this process will only lead to short-term results. More diversity provides more opportunities for long-term results.

Another challenge in implementing good ideas is taking the ideas from concept to implementation. As management teams go through changes, ideas often get lost in the mix and don’t see the light of day. Streamlining the process for rolling out new ideas will ensure the strategies aren’t sabotaged by unnecessary roadblocks.

Rolling out revolutionary ideas can seem risky. However, having good research to support the new ideas allows leaders to make educated guesses when the outcome is risky. Taking calculated risks provides an opportunity to win market share and boost long-term results. When planning new ideas, management should think outside the “boom and bust” cycles and build capabilities that have the potential to provide a competitive advantage for years to come.

The Future of Management Practices and Thinking

Generating the best business ideas to create long-term success will require a higher degree of attention paid to daily events. Managing daily activities more efficiently will continue to drive better performance and revenue. Management need to change practices to become more accountable for results. Companies also need to develop new ideas that will keep pace with the changing marketplace. Executives of the future will need to focus on ideas for generating better data and improving the accuracy of decisions.

Resource:

Bridget Finn. “The Life Cycle of Great Business Ideas” Booz & Co, September 2008.

Most entrepreneurial types have a million business ideas, and under pressure they could come up with a million and one. The trick to a successful startup is picking the right one for the time, resources, and market available when you are ready to launch. Very few businesses fail because the idea is not viable, but a great many opportunities are missed because the entrepreneur doesn’t take the time to evaluate the best idea to pursue given the circumstances.

Every startup requires time, money and hard work to succeed, but the road is much smoother if there is a sufficient, reachable market for your product. Every business idea should go through a cursory analysis before any significant resources are spent. A rudimentary pros and cons list can go a long way in eliminating bad business ideas and can give you a head start in developing the good ones.

The pros and cons of any new business idea should include, at a minimum, the following areas:

Difficulty

How much do you know about the actual operations of your business idea? How much effort is required to produce a single unit of your product? Do you have the skills to produce it yourself or will you partner up, hire experienced employees, or outsource the skills that you lack?

Market

Is there a sufficient market to support your business idea? That is, are there enough people or businesses that will benefit from your product that marketing can be fairly broad? Or will you have to seek and find a very limited number of opportunities to sell? Is your idea a positive innovation on something people already use or will you have to introduce an entirely new concept to your market? Does your idea provide a greater benefit to your customers than the competition’s products? Will that increased benefit be enough to draw your own market share? How will your product be distributed initially? Down the road?

Industry

How crowded is the industry you are entering? Are there a lot of big guns you will be competing with? How will you fit into the marketplace? Will you compete on quality, benefits, price or some other factor? And, will the market respond to those differences? Remember that competing on price is the most difficult, unless you have concocted an innovative way to produce for far less than anyone else. Where is the industry headed? Will your idea expand to meet the needs of an ever-changing marketplace?

Resource Needs

What do you estimate your startup will cost? Do you have access to enough cash to launch it on your own? Assume, worst-case, that finding outside funding will be impossible…is there a way to modify your idea to make it affordable? Do you have the time to devote to your startup? Can you afford to work a few months without significant income? How much of your personal resources are you willing to risk?

Interest

Objectively consider whether the business idea will hold your attention and interest over time. If you are motivated purely by profit, but have no interest in the product itself, it will be difficult to stay motivated through the dark days of your startup…and there will be dark days. You don’t necessarily have to love your business idea to succeed, but you need to find satisfaction in the day-to-day work. Somebody made millions from producing twist ties…it is doubtful that they adored the idea of twist ties before launching the business. More likely, they enjoyed the manufacturing and production industry in general, and saw a need for that particular item.

Path Forward

Write down every relevant factor you can think of related to your business idea and list out the pros and cons of each. Be as objective as possible about each aspect Talk to people about your idea and accept their input. Never be offended by negative responses, but try to dig for information that might improve on your original idea. Most of the time solid planning results in a far different venture than initially considered — this is a good sign. The more you learn, the more you can refine your idea into one that is bound for success.

If you have multiple business ideas, list the pros and cons for each of them, then compare the outcomes. Begin your entrepreneurial career with the easiest option; you can always launch the other ideas later. In fact, a little experience in starting any size and type of business will probably reduce the cons of your other ideas by the time you get around to launching them.