Good small business ideas?

[Wyote]

A few key pointers from what I've learned in business.

- If you're working from home. You can take advantage of taxes. I'd go over with a CPA if you have the time. Learn about deductions and exemption as it can vary from individuals and states.

- Whether selling a product or providing a service. Keep records of everything from bills, invoices, documents, insurance policies, etc. Also, organization is essential. Of course if you like to keep things minimized and decluttered try scanning and keep a digital copy, except for critical physical documents such as a business license.

- Learn Microsoft Excel to help keep track of revenues. QuickBooks is also a good program to keep track of business as well.

- Depending on how large you want to scale. If it's just a side hustle to make some extra $$$ here and there Excel will suffice. However, if funding allows market and advertised the hell out of your business. Otherwise good old fashion word of mouth still works (most of the time).


There, Will's somewhat business advice for business stuff and thangs.

Cheers!

 

[Will]

^Yeahh, but humans are unpredictable.

 

[Gaze]

@Gaze what did you end up doing?

Tried the online bookstore thing and of course that didn't pan out . I tried jewelry but too much competition although I still do the jewelry thing mostly as a hobby. May still try to sell a few things on the side. Now, I'm into arts and crafts, paintings an such. Always wanted to open an art gallery, but honestly, not sure anything will really succeed long term. May try to still sell things I make on the side, but don't expect it to turn into anything.

Have you done anything with small business?

 

[Will]

Tried the online bookstore thing and of course that didn't pan out . I tried jewelry but too much competition although I still do the jewelry thing mostly as a hobby. May still try to sell a few things on the side. Now, I'm into arts and crafts, paintings an such. Always wanted to open an art gallery, but honestly, not sure anything will really succeed long term. May try to still sell things I make on the side, but don't expect it to turn into anything.

Have you done anything with small business?

Yes, I’ve worked in a small restaurant owned by my parents. It was quite educating and learned some invaluable lessons.

Currently, I sell car parts on eBay on the side hehe.

I say give it a try. Exhibit a few art pieces and if you sell at least one painting, then you’ve just made $$ being an artist.

 

[MoonFlier]

Tried the online bookstore thing and of course that didn't pan out . I tried jewelry but too much competition although I still do the jewelry thing mostly as a hobby. May still try to sell a few things on the side. Now, I'm into arts and crafts, paintings an such. Always wanted to open an art gallery, but honestly, not sure anything will really succeed long term. May try to still sell things I make on the side, but don't expect it to turn into anything.

Have you done anything with small business?

Online competition is fierce. I find selling without creating to be down right mundane.
Years back I had a company with my ex. Just a small little mom & pop shop. While it didn't last the 3 years to get to that important turning point I did learn some valuable lessons.

• Believe in and love your product.
• Listen to the customers
• Do not go into a partnership with anyone who thinks they're better than you
• Quality drives repeat customers. Cheat out on those special little touches and your name will not get around.
• Don't eat all the product.

 

[dragulagu]

An open idea:

Healthy juice on delivery, being a full meal on its own. There's some books and sites that have recipes. I've got a book myself, but it's in dutch, but here's an example of what I mean:



As you can see, it can for example easily be delivered in a bottle.

The why: I've noticed here in Belgium that online takeaway is used a lot, heck I used it myself a lot of times, still do from time to time, purely out of convenience.
However, all of these foods, with perhaps the exception of stuff like sushi / soup / ... are bombed with calories, tasty but not good in the long run.
And making your own juices is off course doable, but cleaning the juicer / pulp every time is a pain in the ass.

So with juice on delivery, it's a quick meal with enough good stuff in it in for the evening and it will cost less than say a full takeaway meal, which is easily around 20 euros here.

You can also easily market it by making specific juices targeted to specific wants (detoxing, energizing, whatever, add some fancy label on it). And also add some bread/meat/fish/... snacks on the side to
"complement" the juice.

And for an initial business, the only thing you need is a website and a means to promote your product, a method for delivery (car with cooling box, ...), a couple juicers and a cooling/freezing unit where you can store the juices for a day or so, dependable on the supply and demand.