Business Ideas USA

Craig Cortello asked:




Developing an innovative spirit in the workplace doesn’t require extraordinary measures. As a manager, you can experiment with simple ideas that merely break routines, allowing your employees permission to drop the facade that we all don to some degree when we punch the clock. Here are a few ideas that will help you lighten things up for your staff and get their creative juices flowing, if you have the courage to take the leap.

1. Dart Board

Start every staff meeting by allowing everyone a shot at the dart board. Best shot gets to kick off the meeting, appoint the moderator, or tell what they did over the weekend. Starts things off on a playful note and gets your people out of their chairs. For safety purposes, stick with the magnetic or Velcro variety.

2. Colored Markers for the Flip Chart

Sounds simple, but we are programmed from an early age to correlate the amalgamation of colors with the awakening of our imaginations. If you need further evidence of this phenomenon, observe a classroom full of first graders the next time a teacher instructs them to put away their math books and take out their crayons. And experts agree that the key to creativity lies in the ability to awaken the child inside each of us.

3. Music Creativity

Ask each team member to write a 4-line verse to a song that relates to their job duties, hobbies, business ideas, etc. Go around the room and ask them to sing, rap, or simply recite (military cadence perhaps) their verse. Print the
compilation in the next company newsletter to get a little PR for your department or office (others in the organization might want to transfer in when they realize that you’ve given your staff permission to have fun).

4. Music Creativity II

Ask your staff to bring in a CD with a song that describes their personality, work attitude, or how their weekend went. Play excerpts before the meeting for a laugh.

5. To Serve Mankind

Ask your staff to convey what they did over the weekend that was a service to another person, charitable organization, or noble cause. Vote to determine whose action was most heroic and award a gift certificate to the winner, let them leave work early on Friday, or take a longer than usual lunch break. This will encourage your staff to think of new ways to develop a sense of community. It will also help your people feel good about their co-workers, get to know them better, and give them a sense of pride in the organization.

6. Vocabulary Expansion

Ask your team to bring a rarely used or obscure word to the next meeting. Have them use it in a context that is applicable to your business.

7. Memory Exercise

Read a list of 10 or 15 things, preferably something related to your business, your industry, or to a customer and give an award to the person who can commit the most items to memory. This exercise can help your staff become more familiar with your organization and with your customers. Memory development is also a key to developing new customer relationships that will help your business prosper.

8. “If I Ran This Place…”

Ask your staff what they would consider the ideal job, the ideal workplace, and the ideal location. You can’t transform your place into utopia, but you might gain some insight into feasible, marginal changes that will improve things. Now that you have them thinking without barriers, ask them what they would do first or different if they ran the company, office, or department. You’ll be surprised by the answers.

9. Show and Tell

Have your staff bring something that they’ve created, that they are proud of, or from their childhood that the group would find interesting or funny. Demonstrate an interesting or unusual talent, perhaps. We loved this game when we were in kindergarten, and for some reason they made us stop playing as we got older.

10. Top 10 Lists

Until David Letterman decides to pursue intellectual property infringement, go ahead and try this one. Give a topic at your staff meeting, and ask for the answers the following week. Remember to keep it clean and non-offensive. Have your staff rank the answers and use a point system to determine the winner.

We would never ask our employees for quality without offering the resources, direction, systems, and commitment to develop procedures that ensure improvement in that area. Yet we ask employees for creativity or to “think outside the box” all of the time without giving another thought as to how to initiate the creative process. Take the first step and give your staff permission to shake things up a bit at your office. You’re likely to see some changes – for the better!

Copyright 2005, La Dolce Vita Enterprises, LLC

business ideas

Forest Marie asked:




While the Internet is filled with a plethora of opportunities for entrepreneurs to take advantage of, many people do not have the money to put down hundreds of dollars to become a member. However, there are a number of inexpensive business ideas you can jump on as well. Here are five ideas for you to look into today.

1. Create a web site

Although it is extremely time consuming and it does not happen over night, creating a web site for yourself to work with provides you with the best chance to make money with. There are really just two charges you will make to get your site up and rolling. You will have to purchase a domain name and pay for hosting, which together can be under ten dollars.

2. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is a great inexpensive business idea to go with your own web site. There are thousands of affiliate programs to join on the internet and most do not have a start-up cost to join. With so many programs to choose from, it gives you the chance to do something you really enjoy and are knowledgeable with. And there is nothing stopping you from taking on several different programs all at the same time.

3. Freelancing

Much like affiliate marketing, freelancing gives you the opportunity to put your skills and knowledge to use. There is a dire need for several different services on the internet including graphic design, writing, and advertising. Many entrepreneurs either do not have the time or do not have the skill to do everything with their business. This is where you can become a great commodity to other people’s businesses.

4. eBay

It is amazing how some businesses and companies come out of nowhere and become a hit overnight. eBay is an extremely inexpensive business idea as it requires you to spend no money whatsoever. Who would have ever known you could clean out your crawl space while filling up your wallet.

5. Advertising

Pay-per-click advertising used to be one of the easiest ways to make money on the internet. All it entailed was you placing ads on your web site and getting paid for visitors coming to your site and clicking on the ads. While this opportunity still exists, it has tapered quite a bit. But if your web site receives a heavy traffic flow, you can make quite a bit of money off of people paying you to place their text link or banner ad on your site for exposure.

The Internet is filled with inexpensive business ideas to choose from. It is up to you to take the time to research and find the legitimate opportunities that suite you best.

business ideas

Sean R Mize asked:




You are new to internet marketing and you need some advice on how to start. You are not alone, and here are some home business ideas for beginners to the big, big, world of internet marketing.

The fact that you are new to this business does not necessarily imply that you do not have a product. In fact most people who enter into internet marketing with their eyes open either have a product to sell or an idea for one. However, let’s assume that you have none and are looking for a quick entry into this fascinating industry. What are the possibilities?

In order to make the most of internet marketing you need your own product. While you are working on it, you can make money selling other people’s products. There is more than one way to do this. The first is affiliate marketing whereby you sell another person’s product for a commission. Although you can sell hard goods and soft electronically delivered goods, the best commission deals are with the electronically deliverable goods such as software and ebooks. You can sell the same product time and time again, whereas with hard goods there are material and delivery costs involved with every item.

Typical commissions for hard goods are 5% – 10%, whereas those for electronic goods such as software or ebooks are around 50%. That’s right. You typically earn 50% for every ebook you sell. That is why affiliate marketing is a technique of choice by many internet marketers who have no intention of producing their own product other than an ebook relating to others how they did it.

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Suzanne E Morrison asked:




Do you want to start making money online in 2009? January is a popular time to start an internet business, as many people make new year’s resolutions and want to create a better life for themselves and their families. Thanks to the internet you can now start your own business online much more quickly and easily than ever before.

Here are 6 online business ideas for 2009:

1. Start your own affiliate marketing business. Affiliate Marketing allows you to receive a commission every time you sell someone else’s product. Often you can receive commissions as large as 50% and it is easy to get started. There are millions of affiliate programs on the internet and it is easy to find affiliate products in almost any market.

2. Join a network marketing company and work at building a residual income. This has matured into a profitable business model and is a great way to make money online if you enjoy working with people. Building a downline distributorship is one way to create a residual income for a lifetime.

3. Niche marketing is a term that has really taken on a life of its own in the past year and will be an extremely good online business idea in 2009.

Narrowing down a broad theme into a smaller niche is a great way to make money and have fun too. This is especially true if you can find something to sell in an area that you have an interest in or a passion for.

4. Blogging is a good choice if you are good at or enjoying writing. You can also monetize your blog and make money selling advertising on it as your traffic increases.

One easy way to get started with blogging is to create your blog using Blogger.com.com for free. Blogger is a free blogging platform owned by Google and it is very easy to monetize your blog with Google AdSense and get paid every time a visitor clicks on an ad.

5. Selling private label rights products is a fast way to jumpstart an Internet business. One of the main benefits is that the product idea has already been thought through and created for you.

It helps if you can make some of your own customizations to the product. Another great thing about selling PLR products is that all the profits are yours to keep.

6. Email marketing is a fantastic way to build security for yourself and should be a part of your online business efforts in 2009. Co-registration leads are one way to jumpstart a list and as you develop relationships with your subscribers you can begin to sell products to them.

As we mentioned earlier there are many great ideas for earning money on the internet. You can use one or more of these ideas to make as much money as you want in the coming year!

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Richard Blaine asked:




Many people think that if they want to start a farm, they will have to take out a huge loan to buy a large piece of land. In reality though, there are many farms out there that are available to rent. This is a great way to get your feet wet and be sure it’s the business for you before taking on a huge financial risk. Some of these farms even include all the equipment you need. All you need to do is provide great farm business ideas, some hard work and a little capital and you’ll be well on your way to a successful farming venture.

If you’re just getting started in the farming industry, it’s best to surround yourself with the best people out there. Your first step should be to hire a foreman to oversee the farm. Be sure that you hire someone who understands your vision and will work hard to make it a reality. After you’ve found the right person, they should be able to help you decide what the best route to start with is, and how many people you should hire.

One of the most important aspects of running a successful farm is making sure that you’re getting feed and other supplies at reasonable costs. Be sure to take advantage of the internet to find the best deals out there. If you have a hard working team, a nice piece of land the right attitude, it is definitely possible to make your farm business ideas a reality by renting land.

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Peter Bissel asked:




Business often is an idea that is so promising when you contemplate about how you will invest your money and time in it. Two it is so easy to make a living from small businesses than big business ideas that require huge capital and attention. A kiosk is one of those small business ideas that require little capital and less labor. Most kiosks have been able to grow from a small kiosk status to a supermarket chain. In fact, most supermarkets are progenies of kiosks.

How to start up a kiosk; you need to have no trouble at all to start up a kiosk. All you need is to stock it up with the kind of products your target market needs and al will be well.

Identify a strategic location for your kiosk. The best places to set up one are within sprawling estates and strategically, in a densely populated area. This guarantees you customers no matter what time of the day.

The location of your kiosk should be very strategic. You need to set it up in the buildings so that even late night customers can always find you and get what they want.

Pile a stock so that everything they want is available easily. Arrange your stock well so that you will easily kiosk an item once on of them asks for it. Be courteous and polite. You will become the most loved and prosperous man around. Your kiosk will grow from a mere kiosk to a mini shot, a mini supermarket.

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Bella H asked:




For the cost of cleaning supplies and a stack of marketing materials – you can be well on your way to starting a Home or Office Cleaning business! A cleaning business is flexible and versatile in many ways. You can offer your services to small business offices, churches, day care centers, private homes, and much more. Due to the ease of start-up and low overhead costs, the cleaning business is often crowded and can be very competitive in some areas.
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Here are a few things you will want to keep in mind if you are considering a Home or Office Cleaning Business:
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1. What range of services will you offer?: This is one service based business where it may be best to keep your list of services as flexible as possible. Where one client may want to hire you for a weekly deep cleaning of their home, another client may need a one time service of clearing a cluttered garage. Someone may want a laundry service while another wants carpet cleaning. Be open to your clients needs and wants.
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2. In what ways can you set yourself apart from the rest?: A home-owner or business in the market for a cleaning service ultimately want just two things – a clean home or office and peace of mind. How good you are at providing those things will determine the success of your business. When a person allows you into your private space, they are trusting that you will not steal or do anything else to betray their trust. As a small business owner, you do not have the brand recognition of a larger cleaning company, so you will have to work harder to gain clients. To give them peace of mind it may be wise to insure and bond your business, keep an up-to-date copy of your driving record, and criminal background check. You should offer to show any new client this information.
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As society grows more conscious of the environmental impact of certain chemicals, people are moving towards eco-friendly or “green” alternatives. You can reach that demographic by offering green cleaning solutions and child-friendly methods. This will be very important for families.
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3. How can I market and advertise my cleaning business: When it comes to advertising – you will want to concentrate your efforts to high volume social places. Your local grocery store, day care facility, church or shopping plaza are ideal locations. Consider spending the money to run a print ad in your towns newspaper and CraigsList.com is another great (free) alternative. Building your word of mouth reputation will be important, offer to clean the homes of friends and associates in exchange for a testimonial of your services. You may also want to consider marketing a contract deal to local apartment complexes, Realtors and credit unions. These companies will always need a reliable service to thoroughly clean apartments and homes after leases end, evictions and foreclosures. In fact, specializing in foreclosure clean-up may prove to be highly profitable.
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Though the overall start up costs of a cleaning business are very low, you don’t want to make the error of skipping over the important steps. Make sure to register your business legally with your county, state and the IRS. Purchase a domain name and establish a website. Finally, you are a cleaning professional and must present yourself as such at all times. Although you are cleaning messes, your appearance should remain tidy!

Website content

Harvey Ramer asked:




So you have a business idea that you believe will solve pressing issues for your business clients. Maybe it will even end world hunger and rid the world of AIDS? Congratulations are in order! Now what?

How can you find out if the idea you dreamed up will make it in the real world? You can follow the conventional route of hiring consultants to do market research if you have enough money to bankroll a project and are confident the risk is worth the possible payoff. But are there other options? Thankfully, the path to exploratory market research has been shortened by the advent of pay-per-click advertising tools like Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google Adwords.

You can get started with exploratory market research online in 5 easy steps!

1. Digest your business idea and the benefits it will offer your target market for a few days. Do conventional research in your area of specialty by reading industry periodicals and blogs from industry leaders. Then write a short article or white paper that offers some key tidbits of information about the benefits of your new business idea or product without compromising any of your intellectual property.

2. Either learn enough HTML to create a basic HTML landing page with your selling points picking up the thread from your pay-per-click ads, or hire a designer to set up a simple landing page for you.

3. Learn the editorial rules for Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google Adwords and write your first Ads using the keywords you discovered during step 2. These ads should accurately reflect the content your article or white paper will provide.

4. Use keyword research tools like Google Adwords Keyword Tool and Yahoo’s Keyword Selector Tool along with search engines like Google and Ask. The latter has a useful “Narrow Your Search” prompt in the right hand sidebar that will speed up your task considerably. If you want to get serious, subscribe to Wordtracker and do some research based on the past behavior of search engine users – this is an effective way to find key phrases that will work.

The landing page should require a minimum of customer information, such as name and email address. Remember, you can start a dialog and learn more from your site visitors once they decide to trust you with their email address. Include a brief privacy policy that states your intention to protect the security of your site visitors’ information.

When submitted, the form should send you an email notifying you of the name and email address of the site visitor who wants to read your valuable article or white paper. If the site takes off, you’ll want to automate this step, but this simple form will be enough to get you started.

5. Set up accounts and campaigns with Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google Adwords keeping your cost-per-click as low as possible. If your keyword research was effective, you should be able to get traffic for a free product like your article for between.15 and.25/click. Once you have traffic coming to your site, you will want to learn about conversion rates – (the number of visitors who sign up for your article)/(the number of total visitors to your site or page) – and tweak your landing page to improve your conversion rate as much as possible.

Conclusion There you have it, my 5 easy steps to testing your business idea. Of course, this is only the beginning. Once you have your campaign set up, you will probably want to develop surveys and have conversations with your subscribers regarding your idea. However, you will have qualified potential clients with whom to examine the effect of your ideas in the real world.

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Sean R Mize asked:




Are you leaning towards starting your very own small business? Then, consider these business ideas:

1. Online jobs. If you want to make money at the comforts of your own home, I recommend that you find business that you can operate online. Depending on your skills and expertise, you can offer SEO, ghostwriting, link building, and website creation services. You really don’t need much to get started in this endeavor. All you need aside from the required know-how is a reliable computer and internet connection.

2. Specialty store. You may also opt to set up your own specialty store. When deciding on the items to sell, I recommend that you consider the things that you do best or your hobbies. If you are into water sports, you can sell snorkeling gears, scuba diving tools and equipments, and swimming lessons. It’s important that your business is aligned to your areas of interest so you will wake up each morning excited to go to work.

3. Franchising opportunities. If you don’t want to spend time and energy on thinking about products that will sell like hotcakes and if you don’t want to struggle building customer base, franchising is perfect for you.

4. Massage parlor and spa. More and more people are now rewarding themselves with spa and massage after a long day at work. You can take advantage of this demand by setting up your own massage parlor and spa. Just make sure that you offer something different to easily get ahead of your competitors like home service or week day promos.

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Nazir Daud asked:




Every time I have a business idea or come across a new opportunity I analyse it using these criteria:

Is it really any different from what is currently on the marketplace? What wants and needs am I fulfilling? Who will be buying my products or service offering? How strong are my competitors? Is the market for my idea growing or shrinking? Do I have the time and energy to follow through? Who is going to handle what? How much initial capital is required? How am I going to raise extra funding? What is my maximum total loss including money, time and effort? What is the potential for return on my investment? How long is the time frame between initial investment, break even point and getting a return? What is my exit strategy?

I believe that one should be very careful about how they invest their money. Very often I see people that invest a huge sum of money when the potential for return is low and the risks are high. In this scenario it is better to leave your money earning interest in the bank.

The ideal business idea or opportunity for me, offers a potential for high return, with low initial investment. It focuses on a fast growing marketplace and there is something unique about the proposition.

Alternatively another great form of investment is when the potential for return might not be high but the risks are low, little effort is required and the profits are almost guaranteed. I will only usually consider this type of investment if the payback is rapid and the amount of work required is low.

Let me give you an example based on personal experience on how not to do it. One of the first businesses I started was a packaging company. The market was served by established players and it was being eroded by cheaper imports. Britain’s manufacturing base (my customers) was declining as the UK was slowly turning into a service economy. Margins were tight and my customers were willing to change suppliers at the drop of the hat.

Although we did end being successful, the amount of effort and sheer stubbornness required was out of all proportion to the money making potential. This is a classic business idea that should be avoided at all costs! I vowed when I sold this business that next time I was going to get into a fast growing market place where exactly the opposite was true.

Your evaluation for investing in an opportunity might be different from mine, based on your propensity to risk. If you have a family to support than this reduces the amount of risk that you can take on. Your age, your sex and business background all greatly influence the types of opportunities that you can examine.

Before starting a new business, bear in mind that working as an employee has many advantages to being self employed. Your hours are fixed, the return of investment of time might be less but it is certainly guaranteed, at least for the short to medium term. Starting any new business especially for the first time is risky and demands extraordinary effort before any returns are forth coming.

How do you evaluate any new business ideas or opportunities?

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