- MINIATURE MODELS OF LOCAL AND HISTORICAL INTEREST
Models of local buildings, especially those with some significant historical interest,
or miniature statues of people with local or national historical appeal, will always
have a large and eager market.
- SPECIALISING IN TOYS, DOLLS, TRAINS, ETC
At Antiques Fairs, Fleamarkets, and Collectors' Fairs, many traders make a good
living simply by specialising in those collectors' items sometimes referred to as
'Juvenalia'. Because they specialise, they are the traders to whom the collectors
turn when they want to dispose of collections, thereby ensuring an adequate flow
of stock.
- SELLING BOOKS
Either sell cheaply all books that come your way, or specialise in books on such as
local history, biographies, specialist subjects, eg dogs, railways. Sell at local car
boot fairs, Collectors' Fairs and Fleamarkets,
- SELLING CURIOS
Curios, falling within the scope of 'collectables', are as the name suggests, items
that are just that little bit different.
- SELLING STAMPS IN PACKETS
Here, no specialist knowledge of stamps is required. All you need do is packet
together several stamps with some common factor.
- SELLING STAMPS BY APPROVAL
Stamps may be sold through advertisements placed in stamp collecting magazines
or through such as the 'Exchange and Mart'.
- GREETINGS CARD VERSES
Greetings card producers in Britain and overseas are always on the lookout for
new writers of verses for their cards.
- COMPETITIONS ENTRY FORM SUPPLIER
Look in any copy of Competitors Journal, the hobby's fortnightly magazine, and
you'll find several adverts from people offering to supply competition entry forms
to readers who often have little time or inclination to search these items out for
themselves.
- PREPARING CURRICULUM VITAE
A curriculum vitae consists simply of the biographical details, both personal and
career-related, of persons wishing to change jobs or seek advancement, training,
and so on.
- TREASURE HUNTING
Treasure hunting can uncover some of the rarest of specimens used by our
ancestors, and in turn can provide handsome rewards for the discoverer when
sold, usually by auction.
- ACCOMMODATION ADDRESS SERVICE
This business can be operated from home or from small office premises. Look at
advertisements in 'Exchange and Mart' from people operating a similar service,
- UPHOLSTERY
Many families seek not to constantly change their furniture, but to have
much-loved pieces repaired and reupholstered.
- FURNITURE STRIPPING
As an adjunct to upholstery we find individuals and firms specialising in the
stripping of furniture, removing the years of polish and grime from antique or more
recent items, and restoring them to their former glory.
- TYPING SERVICE
If you already can, or could learn to type to a professional standard, offer your
services to local factories and shops, hairdressers, hotels, writers, students, and
the general public.
- CUSTOM CURTAIN MAKING
It is rare that a customer finds curtains of the exact material and design that he or
she is seeking. Someone who can offer a professional sewing service, producing
curtains made up from the customer's material and chosen design, will find him or
herself in great demand, especially if costs are reasonable.
- HIRING
We find here all types of items, particularly those required for only a limited
duration, eg designer dresses, wedding attire, baby hardware, and so on. Hire the
items out for the hiring fee and a deposit which is refundable when the item is
returned intact.
- LEAFLET DISTRIBUTION
Many firms and businesses advertise their services and goods by means of leaflets
and brochures delivered to selected addresses, but Post Office charges often
present them with extremely high processing costs. Employing people to deliver
the same can be equally prohibitive. But a leaflet distributor dealing with several
client workloads at the same time, can offer a much lower cost to the customer.
- HOUSE AND PET SITTING
Here the entrepreneur offers a service whereby the clients' home, possessions and
pets are safeguarded during his or her absence.
- COLOR ANALYSIS
Now that quality make-up and fashions are within the scope of most women's
budgets, something further is sought by which to set them apart from their peers.
That something may well be color analysis, the method of designating clients as
winter, summer, spring or autumn personalities, according to their skin, hair and
eye tones,
- CALLIGRAPHY
This is the rather grand name for the even grander art of creating beautiful
handwriting and printing.
- PHOTOGRAPHY
You don't have to outrank Lords Snowdon or Lichfield to take great pictures of
junior's birthday party, for parents who profess not to know one end of a camera
from another. You do though need a little better than the 'point and press' type
camera, though not necessarily one that requires much setting-up of buttons and
selectors before you even set eyes, or eye, upon the viewfinder. .
- SANDWICH SERVICE
Not all offices and workplaces have suitable canteen or food vending services for
their employees, and not all are within easy distance of suitable shopping facilities.
- PARTY CATERING
Almost all of us enjoy house parties, dinner parties, even children's parties. Not all
of us though, relish the thought of long hours preparing for the event, only to find
we're too tired to enjoy the fruits of our labours. Someone who can undertake the
preliminaries on our behalf, leaving us to enjoy the party free of hassle, must surely
be worth paying highly for.
- CHILDREN'S ENTERTAINER
If like me, you hate the thought of leading children in an endless round of
'Farmers in his Den' and 'Ring a Ring o Roses', then have you considered doing
what I now do - hire a children's entertainer.
- GROWING HERBS
An easy one this, and not requiring much in the way of time and attention, it's a
moneymaking proposition that could easily survive alongside other ventures.
- KNITTING
As all ladies know there's 'knitting' and 'knitting'. For some of us the old plain
and purl will suffice, for others only the finest fair-isle or most intricate of aran
designs can truly lay claim to the title of 'knitting'.
- SEWING AND ALTERATIONS
Those who can sew garments from intricate patterns, especially if those patterns
are self-created originals, can find their services in great demand by customers who
seek something just that little bit different
- AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS
We can stand outside forever taking snaps of our homes, village, places of work,
and so on, but rarely will we be rewarded with anything sufficiently different to
warrant the time or money spent in obtaining it.
- RESEARCHER
There are times when we all would like information not readily accessible to us.
Whether we need it desperately enough to pay someone to gather the information
on our behalf is another matter.
- SLUSH MONEY
Subtitled 'when Words are Simply Not Enough', here we have a business
opportunity that caters for an almost insatiable need for anything by which to
preserve our cherished memories.
- CRAFT CLOTHES
Another potentially insatiable market, here we find the entrepreneur catering for the
demands of the fashion-conscious and those wanting something different, or just
something that needs no loudspeaker to scream 'money'.
- TELEPHONE ANSWERING SERVICE
This facility is much in demand amongst small businessmen and women who work
outside of the home, yet need telephone contact with potential customers
- DISCRETION BUYER
Basically, a discretion buyer is one who undertakes the purchase on behalf of one
who, for reasons of his or her own, prefers to remain anonymous.
- BULK BUYING AND SPLITTING
Wholesalers of all types cater for those who require items in bulk, be they
shopkeepers, offices, large businesses or whatever. How nice therefore for all of
us to take advantage of the often massive price reductions such bulk-buying
allows. Anyone willing to purchase in bulk and split, offering the item at a price still
lower than shop prices will find a ready market
- SECOND HAND ITEMS
Sadly, we can't all buy the things we want brand new. Indeed not many of us
want to spend hard-earned cash on items we might not require for any great length
of time. So we find shops selling second-hand baby hardware, office machinery
and filing systems, even household goods.
- FADS AND GIMMICKS
Massive profits have been made this year (1991) by those cashing in on the
current craze for anything remotely connected with those 'Teenage Mutant Hero'
TURTLES. Greenbacks are provided in more ways than one by the makers and
sellers of turtle puppets, games, jigsaws, clothes, etc., etc., etc., Watch out for
their successors and get in there with a vengeance.
- ONE-OFF GIFT SERVICE
Here we aim to make a customer of every single person who ever needs to buy a
gift, by offering something unique and highly appropriate.
- UPHOLSTERY AND CARPET CLEANING
A good opportunity awaits anyone prepared to undertake a service much in
demand by householders, who cringe at the thought of hiring for themselves the
heavy industrial cleaning equipment needed to carry out a good cleaning job on
furniture and carpeting.
- COMPUTER DIAGNOSIS
Similar to the the teaching of computer basics, there is a great demand for help
when things go wrong. I once succeeded in wiping clean three disks it had taken
me three months to produce. I threw them away! Ages later I discover that the
information was not lost; it could have been retrieved had I the information to hand
- and for returning three months' work to me I would have paid well, but sadly
no-one, as far as I knew, could help.
- CORRESPONDENCE COURSES
The whole world is keen to learn something new; we don't all have the time
though, or the opportunity, to attend local college courses, assuming of course
such courses as we require actually exist.
- PRINTS
Much in demand at local fleamarkets and antiques fairs, are advertisements from
early magazines, engraved prints of local views, and other prints often taken from
long obsolete publications.
- STORIES
Not just at Christmas time, but at all times of the year, there is an advertisement
placed in many publications, whereby the brilliant originator of this idea, offers a
service he discovered almost by accident. Typing out stories on his word
processor he decided to enter his child's name instead of that of the heroine; the
compliments and requests for similar items for other children came in thick and fast
- CO-ORDINATOR FOR HOBBYISTS AND SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS
The groups concerned here exist not primarily to correspond with one another, but
to have their interests co-ordinated in a manner that will keep them well-informed
and up-to-date with events, trends, and techniques relating to their special interest
or hobby.
- CUTTINGS SERVICE
Writers, historians, firms, and newspapers, are amongst the many people and
organisations requiring information they simply don't have the time to research for
themselves. A cuttings service is one which obtains as many newspapers and
periodicals as possible and removes all items of interest, to be filed under subject
headings.
- SPECIALISE IN WRITING OR SELLING BOOKS ON SPECIAL INTERESTS
Look in any hobby or special interest magazine, such as those for writers,
competitions enthusiasts, craftworkers, stamp collectors, and so on, and you'll
- PRINT AGENCY
Charges for small-run photocopying are high, but greatly reduced for bulk and
larger orders. Here the entrepreneur takes orders for photocopying on a small-run
basis, collates the orders which are then taken to a photocopying specialist who
has earlier agreed a low cost for bulk printing.
- PEN PAL/CORRESPONDENCE CLUB
'Lonely in a crowd' they say, and never was a truer statement uttered. Look at the
number of advertisements we find placed by people wanting to contact others
whether for friendship or to share a common interest.
- CRAFTWORK SUPPLIER
There are a great many publications on the market to cater for the needs of
craftworkers, from those interested in embroidery, to sewing, knitting, building and
renovating dolls' houses, modelmaking, and so on.
- DOLLS' CLOTHES
If you doubt the viability of this proposition, take a look in any toyshop and
discover for yourself the massive prices being asked for often inferior clothes for
today's favorite dolls.
- PUB AND HOTEL DECOR
Gone are the days when the publican could bank on a regular clientele merely by
keeping his premises clean. With the growth of wine bars, hotels, nightclubs, and
private clubs, the landlord or owner must now make his establishment that much
more inviting if he is to survive.
- MAN WITH A VAN
I recently came by an advertisement in my local paper for an entirely new and
much-needed service. For something like $6 for a local trip, the 'man with a van'
collects and delivers to you those items that simply won't fit into the family car,
- RENT - A - .......
When I first saw the advertisement for 'Rent-a-Nappy', I doubted the mentality of
the couple who offered to deliver boxes of nappies to the customers' doors.
Seeing their advertisement grow larger over the months that followed, I realised
perhaps there must be something profitable here, of potential interest to others.
The couple, it seems, deliver nappies in bulk to the door, saving the mother the
cost and inconvenience of travelling with a new baby.
- GIANT KIDS' THINGS
Fantasy will always be big business particularly perhaps in respect of children, who
simply love to bounce on huge cushions and foam-filled play equipment. Life-size
stuffed dolls and toys add another dimension to their world of make-believe
- HORSE BLANKETS, COVERS ETC
Visit any cross-country event or gymkhana, and you'll see the most beautiful
garments carefully laid across the owners' equine pride and joy. Horse blankets
come in many shapes and sizes and many of them are extremely expensive to buy
via the usual sources, and often very plain too.
- STABLES, FEEDING, LIVERY, PADDOCK
Buying the horse is not the expensive part of horse-ownership. That once-off cost
becomes almost insignificant compared to the cost of maintaining the animal, if
that is, you can find good accommodation in your area.
- KNITTING/EMBROIDERY/NEEDLEPOINT ETC. PATTERN DESIGNER
Look at T.V. stars such as Noel Edmunds, Russell Grant, and Giles Brandreth, and
you'll notice one thing they all have in common - knitted garments for all manner of
occasions, each emblazoned with the most appropriate of patterns and motifs.
- CROSSWORDS
Crosswords are surprisingly easy to produce with a little practice, and many books
on the subject of writing will guide you through the basic techniques.
- BIRTHDAY MEMORABILIA
Another highly individual gift service is offered by those who locate original
newspapers from the actual date of the recipient's birth.
- BIG BYGONES
Nostalgia will always be a winner, in the business world at least. Oh, how I wanted
one of those red telephone kiosks sold off when the yellow designs came into
being, but sadly I was not one of the many hundreds of people who could afford
to buy one.
- NEEDLEWORK PATTERNS OF HOUSES, ANIMALS, FAMILY, ETC
Refer, if you will, to idea number 77, concerning the creating of patterns for use by
the adventurous knitter. Designs created in a similar manner would also be of
interest to those craftspeople working in needlepoint, cross-stitch, and embroidery.
- INVENT - A - GAME
Monopoly, the Rubik Cube, and Trivial Pursuits are amongst the most popular
games and pastimes of today, and surely none can have disappointed their
creators in the handsome dividends they provided.
- CHERISHED NUMBER PLATES
Many drivers seek number plates a little different from those of fellow drivers,
whether for investment purposes or simply for reasons of pure snob value.
- PHOTOCOPYING PRINTS, ETC
Sometimes the customer desires a copy of some item as opposed to an original
document, be it an early magazine, advertisement, diary, calendar, or photograph
of his village or town.
- FORTUNE TELLING
Not with a glass ball and dressed as the latest descendant of Gypsy Rose Lee,
there is a great revival taking place in the grand old art of predicting the future.
- VILLAGE HISTORY
Still seeking to satisfy an insatiable interest in anything concerning the past, a
number of enterprising individuals have discovered a way of serving a large
number of customers with just one item, copied many times.
come by a host of publications catering for the special needs of the readers.
- CAR BOOT TRADER
Car boot sales offer a good income to those prepared to investigate suitable
venues and to offer reasonable stock at realistic prices. Stock is unbelievably easy
to acquire whether from your own garage or from the attics of friends and relatives,
- MAKING VIDEO FILMS
The cost of a video camera prohibits many families from capturing those rare
moments in their children's lives: the parties, first steps, first day at school, and so
on.
- SWAP SHOP
Collectors of such as stamps, postcards, coins, books, and a great many other
items, often find themselves with many duplicate items in their collections.
- BIORHYTHMS
Biorhythms are cycles that rule our minds, bodies and emotions. Life it is said,
goes through a series of rhythms, and their pattern of ups and downs have a great
influence on the functioning of the body and its emotions.
- HOME PUBLISHING
This must surely rank as one of the few businesses in which massive profits can
be earned, whilst demanding of the newcomer very little in the way of capital or
experience. The publisher usually offers his stock directly to the public, primarily
by direct mail or advertisements in appropriate publications.
- PARTY PLAN
Almost anything can be sold via the medium of the house party where clients
gather to enjoy tea and cakes, then later watch a demonstration of the products
on offer. Items are ordered usually at the party, with payment being made when
the goods are delivered some time later.
- BOOK-KEEPING
The book-keepers' skills are highly valued amongst small traders and businessmen
and women, particularly with accountants charging high rates for a similar service.
- SOFT TOYS
At craft fairs and in craft magazines we discover all manner of cuddly toys, as well
as a sizable proportion not intended for the youngsters' sticky fingers, but
destined instead to occupy pride of place on some teenager's dressing table.
- FAMILY TREES
In Government records, Parish registers, graveyards, and in many other places, are
segments of information, which when located and pieced together, offer an
extremely accurate and interesting profile of one's family history.
- DOG TRAINING CLASSES
We are a nation of dog lovers, so they say, and many of us loving our pets as we
do, want them to be well-behaved if only for their own safety in the world outside
of the home.
- RUNNING A NURSERY
Sadly, unlike many other countries, Britain falls far short of providing those
childminding facilities which would enable parents to re-enter the workforce.
Individual child-minding facilities take a huge slice from the wage, and often a
private nursery catering for several children at the same time, can cut the cost to
the parent.
- COMPETITIONS
Every day, someone, somewhere, receives the news that he or she is the new
owner of something well beyond the scope of his or her own financial resources.
- GROWING MUSHROOMS
Not a full-time occupation in terms of the attention growing mushrooms requires,
but certainly a way to provide an attractive second income.
- TEACHING COMPUTERS
If you decide to offer this much-needed service, make me customer number one,
for I am useless with anything mechanical, let alone anything with a brain superior
to mine.
- TYPED PICTURES AND PORTRAITS
How marvellous it must be to have something so personal and so original as a
typed portrait of yourself! The keys of the typewriter are chosen for their suitability
in providing shaded areas, stark lines, darkness and so on, until a picture emerges
- VIDEO PICTURE PRINT OUTS
Recently, at a village show, I saw droves of people congregating in one tiny corner
of a marquee, and curiosity being what it is, I decided to find out why. The reason
consisted of a video camera with which the stallholder took portraits of his
customers. The image was then transferred to a machine which churned out a
copy very similar to that of a photocopying machine - and at only $1.00 a time!
- CONSULTANT
Many of us, whether we are, or have been employed in professional careers, in a
skilled trade, or many other occupations, are unaware of the untapped talent we
might be able to offer to other than our '9 - 5' employers.
- WRITING
Whether they choose to write readers' letters and fillers, articles or short stories, a
good living awaits those who are tuned into meeting the requirements of the
various editors and publishers desperate for new talent.
- CRAFTSMAN MADE JEWELLERY
There is as always a great demand for designer jewellery, the more unusual the
better. If made from local stones, such as Whitby jet, even beach pebbles or local
shells, so much the better, especially if sold to the local tourist trade.
- SELLING PAPER EPHEMERA
'Ephemera' is the grand name given to paper collectables: tickets, adverts,
magazines, books, stamps, advertising inserts, old billheads and letterheads, etc.
The older the better, these items are in great demand by collectors at the
Collectors' Fairs and Fleamarkets,
- ORIGIN OF NAMES
Along with an insatiable need to learn more about our family ancestors there is a
growing interest in learning more about the origins of our family names.
- THE BIG FREEZE
Life being as hectic as it is, especially for the younger ones struggling to meet
mortgage repayments, not everyone has the time or inclination to make small
economies around the home. Freezing food whilst in season, and freezing large
portions of main meals for future use, are just two such ways to save on the
household food budget
- SELLING JUNK AND BRIC-A-BRAC
An inexhaustible stock potential awaits you here. Almost anything other than
reproduction items, antiques, consumer durables, can be sold within this category.
- SPECIALISING IN THE SALE OF BETTER STAMPS
Philately at its finest concerns the collecting of better stamps, some rare, some
counterfeited, some with errors.
- PRODUCING CASSETTE DVDS
There are many types of commercially produced DVD, some for the music lover, or
for the lover of novels but with little time to sit around indulging him or herself,
preferring instead to carry on with normal chores whilst the story or whatever is
read aloud
- STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER
If I had a couple of acres of land, even if it wasn't my own, I'd have that horse I've
always wanted. On the rest I'd grow strawberries - and gooseberries, tomatoes,
blackcurrants, and lettuce..... Then every year I'd throw my garden open to the
public to pick their own
- GROWING AND SELLING HOUSEPLANTS
Here we have a product in constant demand by old and young alike, whether for
their own use or else as gifts for the vast majority of us who take pleasure in
adorning our homes with a natural form of ornamentation.
- OLD PHOTOGRAPHIC VIEWS
Sometimes called 'photo antiques', here we are offering photographic
reproductions, usually enlargements, of old street and village scenes, or pictures of
social interest.
- SPECIALIST IN A MUCH-NEEDED ITEM
eg buttons, socks, ties, items relating to railways, etc.
Once you decide to specialise, you must deal in almost every conceivable item or
design within your chosen area.
- WRITING LETTERS TO THE PRESS
Here lies a potentially very lucrative opportunity indeed. Most magazines and
newspapers offer cash rewards, sometimes as much as $300, for readers' letters,
jokes, anecdotes, recipes and such.
- PAINTING AND DECORATING
Not everyone, myself most definitely included, relishes the thought of donning
rags once a year, retrieving brushes thrown angrily into the garage last year, and
setting about the arduous task of decorating the home.
- CARTOONS
Only the other day, in a top women's magazine, I came by something so different
I'm sure there can be few people yet cashing in on this ingenious idea. For about
twenty dollars, the customer gets a cartoon drawing of his or her chosen subject,
created from a photograph submitted with the order.
- LIST SELLING
Many businesses, even if they primarily deal fact-to-face with their customers, often
find the need to contact others for a great many reasons, whether for the purpose
of buying or selling.
- GRAPHOLOGY
Once almost certain to elicit mocking criticism, graphology is the art of analysing a
person's character from a piece of writing he or she provides. Certain strokes of
the pen, swirls at the end of words, a preference for mingling capital letters into
one's handwriting, all have some deep, and until expertly interpreted, hidden
meaning.
- KEEP FIT
These days we're all that little bit more health conscious, as we seek to ward of
illnesses and the effects of growing older. Few of us though want to put a great
deal of effort into the process. Not for us the long hours of playing squash, or
jogging in the park. But give us a little exercise class, to music perhaps, and
that's a different matter entirely.
