what business should i start?
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The best home business that you can be sure is not a scam is one that you start yourself. It will depend on what you want, how you define to be interesting. A person may consider a pet sitting business to be the most exciting work in the world, while another person would rather watch TV than take care of dogs. \n\nThe key is to determine what your interests are, what you want to do, what is suitable for your lifestyle and your overall goals, and what can fit with your resources.\n\nDan Ramsey in his book "101 Best Home Businesses" has a chapter on how to find YOUR best home business. He suggests these 10 steps:\n\n1. List 5 things you do best\n2. List how others would benefit from what you do best\n3. Find out how to give people what they want\n4. Learn the value of your services to others\n5. Find out who else offers similar services\n6. Learn from the successes of others\n7. Learn from the failures of others\n8. Plan your own success\n9. Make low cost mistakes\n10. Enjoy what you do and how you do it\n\nHe then made suggestions on the best home businesses according to type. Here are a few of them:\n\nBest Businesses Using Craft or Physical Skills\n- antique restoration\n- auto detail service\n- carpet cleaning business\n- errand/delivery service\n- housecleaning business\n\nBest Service Businesses \n- bed and breakfast operator\n- caregiver\n- catering service\n- senior day care center\n- tutoring service\n\nBest Professional Businesses\n- desktop publisher\n- magazine writer\n- import/export service\n- income tax preparation service\n- event planner\n\nSome other home business ideas:\n\nTop 10 Home Businesses with Rapid Break-Even Time http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol33/breakeven.htm\n10 Profitable “Go-Out" Home Businesses http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol31/goout.htm\nLow Cost Startup Businesses http://www.entrepreneur.com/lowcostbusinesses/0,6617,,00.html
1013826
Think of all your interests & ask yourself if any of those could be expanded into a business. Just keep in mind...what's your expertise? What are your interests? What could you imagine yourself doing?\n\nBy researching the prospect of starting your own business -- what it entails, what you need to know, helpful hints, etc -- you'll feel better prepared to take that plunge.\n\nI found some book titles that are relevant to your specific question:\n\n* Small Business Savvy: A Woman's Guide to Building a Business by Norma J. Rist, Katina Z. Jones\n* The Woman's Advantage: 20 Women Entrepreneurs Show You What It Takes to Grow Your Business by Mary Cantando\n* The Women's Business Resource Guide by Barbara Littman\n* Powertools for Women in Business: 10 Ways to Succeed in Life and Work by Aliza Sherman\n\n* 101 Internet Businesses You Can Start from Home by Susan Sweeney\n* The Best Home Businesses for the 21st Century by Paul Edwards\n* Selling Online: How to Become a Successful E-Commerce Merchant by Jim Carroll\n* I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was: How to Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It by Barbara Sher\n* I Don't Know What I Want, But I Know It's Not This: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding Gratifying Work by Julie Jansen\n* The Best Internet Businesses You Can Start by Marian Betancourt\n* The Shoestring Entrepreneur's Guide to Internet Start-Ups by Robert Spiegel \n* Making a Living Without a Job : Winning Ways For Creating Work That You Love by Barbara Winter\n\nI also posted some article links in the source box.\n\nHope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!
129314
I don't have a specific business in mind but any service type business is a good bet. Think of things you don't like doing that have to be done as a way of developing ideas.\nTaking note of some of the simplest things might give you an idea.\nGood luck!
1071282
You should start a landscaping business.
271699
I recommend you to visit www.entrepreneur.com and click on 'Start-up' section. You'll find tons of information on how to start a business.
1066549
Think of all your interests & ask yourself if any of those could be expanded into a business. Just keep in mind...what's your expertise? What are your interests? What could you imagine yourself doing?\n\nBy researching the prospect of starting your own business -- what it entails, what you need to know, helpful hints, etc -- you'll feel better prepared to take that plunge.\n\nI found some book titles that are relevant to your specific question:\n\n* Generation, Inc: The 100 Best Businesses for Young Entrepreneurs by Elina Furman, Leah Furman\n* The Young Entrepreneur's Guide to Starting and Running a Business (Completely Revised and Updated) by Steve Mariotti\n* The Young Entrepreneur's Edge: Using Your Ambition, Independence, and Youth to Launch a Successful Business (Princeton Review Series) by Jennifer Kushell\n* Upstart Start-Ups!: How 34 Young Entrepreneurs Overcame Youth, Inexperience, and Lack of Money to Create Thriving Businesses by Ron Lieber\n\nI also posted some article links in the source box.\n\nHope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!
177812
The process of starting a business is easy; deciding on what business to engage in is the difficult part. There are literally hundreds of ideas you might think of that could bring in extra income. How do you know which of these business ideas will bring you success?\n\nThe first thing to do is to narrow down your business ideas. Evaluate what you think has the most market potential, what you think you can do best given the type and amount of resources you have.\n\nFrom the article "Evaluating Your Business Ideas and Products"  http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol13/evaluateideas.htm here are some questions to ask:\n\n1. Does it satisfy or create a market need?\n2. Will the product maintain market appeal?\n3. How unique is your product?\n4. How useful is your product?\n5. How much competition exists?
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Start by researching the business -- how to run and operate a retail clothing store, where to get suppliers, what is the type of clothes that your local market wants.  The article "10 Things You Need to Know When Starting Your Own Business" http://www.powerhomebiz.com/052006/startingbiz.htm lists the steps you need to take when deciding on starting a business.\n\nClothing store is very broad, so the first step is to define whether you want to be Macy's that sells clothes to everybody or do you want  a specialized clothing store such as JCrew or Banana Republic. Define your target market -- do you want a clothing store for teens, young professionals, tailored women, or plus sizes.\n\nI suggest you read the following articles on how to start a clothing store:\nhttp://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,287057,00.html\nhttp://www.powerhomebiz.com/guide/cases/anna1.htm\n\nI suggest you read the following books:\n\nSo You Want to Own the Store : Secrets to Running a Successful Retail Operation by Mort Brown, Thomas Tilling http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0809232367/ref=nosim/powerhomebizguid \nStart and Run a Profitable Retail Business (Self-Counsel Business Series) by Jim Dion, Ted Topping (Contributor) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1551801000/ref=nosim/powerhomebizguid\nStart Your Own Clothing Store (Entrepreneur Magazine's Start Up) (Paperback) by Entrepreneur Press http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1891984314/ref=nosim/powerhomebizguid\n\nYou also need to start scouting for a location. If you are going to find a location at the mall, here are some tips to consider http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol41/mall.htm \n\nWrite a business plan to help you plan out your business. Here are some resources that can help you write your business plan:\n\n- SBA Business Plan Basics http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/planning/basic.html\n- PowerHomeBiz.com Creating a Business Plan section http://www.powerhomebiz.com/startup/businessplan.htm\n- Entrepreneur.com Writing a Business Plan section http://www.entrepreneur.com/bizplan/0,7253,,00.html\n- Bplans.com http://www.bplans.com/sp/businessplans.cfm\n- MOOT Corp Business Plan competition winners\nhttp://www.businessplans.org/businessplans.html\n\nIf you need help in terms of guidance, you can find free advice and mentors from the following organizations:\n\nGovernment Mentoring Programs such as SBDCs, which works with community colleges and local business development councils to offer mentoring programs http://www.sba.gov/sbdc/sbdcnear.html ; or the Women's Network for Entrepreneurial Training http://www.sba.gov/womeninbusiness/wnet_roundtables.html \nVolunteer programs such as SCORE http://www.score.org  which is composed of mostly retired executives and entrepreneurs \nFormal mentoring programs such as Athena Foundation http://www.athenafoundation.org/programs/globallinks.html  , Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program http://www.helzbergmentoring.org/HEMP/  , or The Aspen Institute MicroMentor Program http://www.micromentor.org \nProfessional organizations such as the National Women’s Business Council http://www.nwbc.gov/Mentoring/programs.html \nIndustry and trade associations \nLocal business groups, such as the chamber of commerce \nLocal chapters of business groups
1028926
Think of all your interests & ask yourself if any of those could be expanded into a business. Just keep in mind...what's your expertise? What are your interests? What could you imagine yourself doing?\n\nBy researching the prospect of starting your own business -- what it entails, what you need to know, helpful hints, etc -- you'll feel better prepared to take that plunge.\n\nI found some book titles that are relevant to your specific question:\n\n* 101 Internet Businesses You Can Start from Home by Susan Sweeney\n* The Best Home Businesses for the 21st Century by Paul Edwards\n* Selling Online: How to Become a Successful E-Commerce Merchant by Jim Carroll\n* I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was: How to Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It by Barbara Sher\n* I Don't Know What I Want, But I Know It's Not This: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding Gratifying Work by Julie Jansen\n* The Best Internet Businesses You Can Start by Marian Betancourt\n* The Shoestring Entrepreneur's Guide to Internet Start-Ups by Robert Spiegel \n* Making a Living Without a Job : Winning Ways For Creating Work That You Love by Barbara Winter\n\nI also posted some article links in the source box.\n\nHope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!
1017907
Think of all your interests & ask yourself if any of those could be expanded into a business. Just keep in mind...what's your expertise? What are your interests? What could you imagine yourself doing?\n\nBy researching the prospect of starting your own business -- what it entails, what you need to know, helpful hints, etc -- you'll feel better prepared to take that plunge.\n\nI found some book titles that are relevant to your specific question:\n\n* 101 Internet Businesses You Can Start from Home by Susan Sweeney\n* The Best Home Businesses for the 21st Century by Paul Edwards\n* Selling Online: How to Become a Successful E-Commerce Merchant by Jim Carroll\n* I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was: How to Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It by Barbara Sher\n* I Don't Know What I Want, But I Know It's Not This: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding Gratifying Work by Julie Jansen\n\nI also posted some article links in the source box.\n\nHope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!
1141608
Entrepreneur Magazine has a good list of Low Cost Startup Businesses that you may want to consider http://www.entrepreneur.com/lowcostbusinesses/0,6617,,00.html\n\nThe best home business will depend on what you want, how you define to be interesting. A person may consider a pet sitting business to be the most exciting work in the world, while another person would rather watch TV than take care of dogs. \n\nThe key is to determine what your interests are, what you want to do, what is suitable for your lifestyle and your overall goals, and what can fit with your resources.\n\nDan Ramsey in his book "101 Best Home Businesses" has a chapter on how to find YOUR best home business. He suggests these 10 steps:\n\n1. List 5 things you do best\n2. List how others would benefit from what you do best\n3. Find out how to give people what they want\n4. Learn the value of your services to others\n5. Find out who else offers similar services\n6. Learn from the successes of others\n7. Learn from the failures of others\n8. Plan your own success\n9. Make low cost mistakes\n10. Enjoy what you do and how you do it\n\nHe then made suggestions on the best home businesses according to type. Here are a few of them:\n\nBest Businesses Using Craft or Physical Skills\n- antique restoration\n- auto detail service\n- carpet cleaning business\n- errand/delivery service\n- housecleaning business\n\nBest Service Businesses \n- bed and breakfast operator\n- caregiver\n- catering service\n- senior day care center\n- tutoring service\n\nBest Professional Businesses\n- desktop publisher\n- magazine writer\n- import/export service\n- income tax preparation service\n- event planner\n\nSome other home business ideas:\n\nTop 10 Home Businesses with Rapid Break-Even Time http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol33/breakeven.htm\n10 Profitable “Go-Out" Home Businesses http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol31/goout.htm\n6 Hottest Businesses on the Web  http://www.powerhomebiz.com/052006/web.htm \n\nYou can also check out the following books:\n\nTurn Your Talents into Profits: 100+ Terrific Ideas for Starting Your Own Home-Based Microbusiness \n The Best Home Businesses for the 21st Century \n 121 Internet Businesses You Can Start from Home \n The Best Internet Businesses You Can Start \n 101 Ways to Make Money at Home\n\nTo give you ideas on what exactly do you need to start your own business, here are ten things you need to know before launching your own business  “10 Things You Need to Know When Starting Your Own Home Business” http://www.powerhomebiz.com/052006/startingbiz.htm .
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Ask at your public library for books such as "The ultimate small business guide : a resource for startups and growing businesses," "202 Services You Can Sell For Big Profits,"  and "What business should I start?"
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Since your question is not too specific, I will make my answer as general as I can. \n1. decide what kind of business you want\nThis might be stuff that you are interested in doing. It might also be something that you might be good at. Perhaps you just want to find something that will provide you with a living.\n2. Learn as much about what you want to do. Read about it, maybe there are trade journals you can read. See if there are any trade shows for your prospective line of work. Talk to people in that line of work. You might want to work in your area of interest to get a feel for it before you risk any money of your own. \n3. Create a business plan. Write out all of your ideas. Write down what you want to do, and how you want to do it. Work on the business plan more. If you find writing difficult, you might want to take some business writing classes. Taking some business and accounting classes will help too.\n4. When you have a business plan you think makes sense, try to raise some money. Your business plan will include enough financial information that you will have an idea of how much it will cost to get started. Banks will probably need some collateral or a cosigner. You might try to find an Angel investor. This might be a person who has money and maybe even some experience with your chosen field, or it might be someone with a strong business background. \n5. Find a location. If your business idea is retail, you need visibility. A commercial real estate broker might be able to help you find the location you want. Your business plan will be your guide for this. \n6. Your location might need to be set up for your needs. The space might need shelves, counters, signs, etc. Again, you will use your business plan as a guide.\n7. Your area might have laws that require licensing or other requirements. Figure out what these are before trying to operate.\n8. After you begin operations, update your business plan. It is almost guarenteed that you will make some mistakes along the way. Don't let that get you down, learn from it. \nThe business plan is not something you finish, it is really a way to collect your thoughts and expirences and make some kind of sense of things.\nI hope this helps at least a little. Good luck.
1025708
The best routes to take are to research the process of starting a business as well as the industry you're interested in.\n\nAssociations may be a good avenue to explore as well. These organizations will address many of the thoughts, questions and concerns you'll inevitably have as well as many you haven't anticipated yet. See the source box for some relevant links. \n\nResearch, research, research – this cannot be stressed enough. Read as much as you can about the industry. Here are some book titles that are relevant:\n\n* Specialty Shop Retailing: How to Run Your Own Store Revised by Carol L. Schroeder\n* The Small Business Owner's Manual: Everything You Need To Know To Start Up And Run Your Business by Joe Kennedy\n* How to Get Rich in the Service Station Business by Edward R. O'Donnell\n\nHope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!
968703
The best routes to take are to research the process of starting a business as well as the industry you're interested in.\n\nI recommend checking out the SBA, Entrepreneur, The Start Up Journal & Nolo. All 4 are great informational resources for the new/small business owner. I posted links for you in the source box.\n\nResearch, research, research – this cannot be stressed enough. Read as much as you can. Here are some book titles that are relevant:\n* How to Really Start Your Own Business, Fourth Edition by David E. Gumpert\n* How to Really Create a Successful Business Plan: Step-by-Step Guide by David E. Gumpert\n* What No One Ever Tells You about Starting Your Own Business: Real-Life Start-Up Advice from 101 Successful Entrepreneurs (What No One Ever Tells You About Starting Your Own Business) by Jan Norman \n* Business Start-Up Kit by Steven D. Strauss \n* Start Your Own Business (Entrepreneur Magazine's Start Up) by Rieva Lesonsky\n\nThere are plenty of free informational resources out there. Check the source box for links to articles.\n\nHope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!
922516
There is no rule of thumb for this because it depends so much on the type of business you are looking at,its situation & how you want to launch it.Will you buy or rent a property or work from home?What equipment do you need & can it be bought in good condition 2nd-hand & thus save money?Why lawyers' fees?Does the type of business need a lawyer's input at this stage?What about accountants?They can be more useful in advising on the type of business to start with i.e sole trader/partnership/limited company?How to keep simple records,VAt registration,PAYE if you expect to have employees etc.I would advise finding a properly qualified accountant in a small practice.Their fees are usually less & you should get better treatment.the big firms are both horribly expensive & rather stuck-up.(Sorry,but I know a lot about this particular subject!)\n\n\n Why not do research via trade organisations etc & thus save \nhiring market reseachers?
764622
The best routes to take are to research the process of starting a business as well as the industry you're interested in.\n\nI recommend checking out the SBA, Entrepreneur, The Start Up Journal & Nolo. All 4 are great informational resources for the new/small business owner. I posted links for you in the source box.\n\nResearch, research, research – this cannot be stressed enough. Read as much as you can. Here are some book titles that are relevant:\n\n* How to Really Start Your Own Business, Fourth Edition by David E. Gumpert\n* How to Really Create a Successful Business Plan: Step-by-Step Guide by David E. Gumpert\n* What No One Ever Tells You about Starting Your Own Business: Real-Life Start-Up Advice from 101 Successful Entrepreneurs (What No One Ever Tells You About Starting Your Own Business) by Jan Norman \n* Business Start-Up Kit by Steven D. Strauss \n* Start Your Own Business (Entrepreneur Magazine's Start Up) by Rieva Lesonsky\n\nThere are plenty of free informational resources out there. Check the source box for links to articles.\n\nHope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!