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SELF - EMPLOYMENT IN ONE HUNDRED EASY WAYS 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. Make moulds from latex, then produce and colour plaster models and sell through local shops, craft shops and at Collectors' Fairs and Fleamarkets. 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. Sell through gift and souvenir shops, or at car boot fairs, Collectors' Fairs and Fleamarkets. 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, Antiques Fairs, and through the post to a clientele attracted via advertisements in Book collectors', ephemera and stamp magazines. 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. They are also the ones collectors consider first when seeking to increase or improve upon their collections. Fellow dealers also consider them first when offloading stock that doesn't exactly fall within their own trading spheres. 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, or through the post by means of lists or adverts in book collectors' magazines. Alternatively allow customers to view your stock in your home, by appointment. SELLING CURIOS Curios, falling within the scope of 'collectables', are as the name suggests, items that are just that little bit different. At Fleamarkets, Antiques Fairs, even Car Boot sales we find fans, policemen's whistles, sugar tongs, and many other items, the use for which is not always immediately apparent. 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. Perhaps the best marketing outlet is the car boot fair, or for slightly better items the Fleamarkets and Collectors' Fairs. SPECIALISING IN THE SALE OF BETTER STAMPS Philately at its finest concerns the collecting of better stamps, some rare, some counterfeited, some with errors. Here you will not be likely to find the juvenile collector, and purchases can amount to many hundreds, even thousands, of dollars. Best left to someone with an interest and experience in stamp collecting, the dealers' stocks are correctly identified by catalogue number, condition, and priced accordingly. Sell by approval or at specialist Stamp Fairs. 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. They may perhaps originate from one particular country, or be of a similar theme such as space or animals, or else they may all be of unusual shapes, perhaps triangular. Price the packets and mount them on a large display boards for sale in local shops. Alternatively make bulky selections of World stamps and cover them with cellophane to protect them and make them more attractive. Sell again through local shops or at Fleamarkets and Collectors' Fairs. SELLING STAMPS BY APPROVAL Stamps may be sold through advertisements placed in stamp collecting magazines or through such as the 'Exchange and Mart'. Mount them by country, theme, shape or simply world mix, in special booklets or mounting cards available again from wholesale stationers advertising in the stamp collecting magazines. Some simply offer stamps loose in boxes for the collector to pick from, all at some low common price, paying for those retained and returning the rest with remittance. 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. One women sells buttons on a large Street Market, but she sells thousands of different shapes, made from all manner of materials. The Sock Shop, Body Shop and Tie Shop fall within this category. 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. Study your target publication with care for some prefer short, snappy letters; some choose family-orientated subjects; some magazines cater more for the woman independent of family strings. Make an exact assessment of the publications' preferences and GO FOR IT! GREETINGS CARD VERSES Greetings card producers in USA and overseas are always on the lookout for new writers of verses for their cards. Some require writers of humour, even of the risque variety; others require what can only be described as sentimental 'slush'. Study several cards from producers within your preferred area of writing and send at least half a dozen examples of your work to each. 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. This sometimes involves a little travel as you search out potential sources, but must be worthwhile in terms of the dividends recouped by those suppliers with a large clientele. 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. Application forms present problems which are compensated for by the curriculum vitae. If you have access to a typewriter or preferably a word processor, you may be the one to provide this much needed service often for extremely high rewards. 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. But careful consideration of these great games will convince you of the reason for their massive success - each and every one is unique - not a variation of ludo in sight! Create something different - that's the key. 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. Recent auctions of numbers by the Government have yielded massive profits, sometimes one sale making the vendor many thousands of dollars richer. Extremely straightforward regulations for transfer are laid down by the Government. 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. But to yield profits the items discovered need not be of the rare or priceless variety. I know for instance of one man who stocks his stall at Fleamarkets with Victorian bottles, many sporting very high price tags. Even broken ones are put to use - cut down and decorated they form beautiful vases, paperweight, ashtrays and such. Another man I know stocks his stall with old potlids and dolls' heads; whilst at the craft fairs another hunter, of seaside locations this time, makes elaborate flower arrangements, the focal piece being the driftwood she finds and varnishes to form the most natural, and beautiful, of creations. 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, if you need any convincing that some people will pay you to collect and forward their mail at regular intervals; the prime reason often being that of maintaining their privacy at home. UPHOLSTERY Many families seek not to constantly change their furniture, but to have much-loved pieces repaired and reupholstered. Whether due to financial constraints or for sentimental reasons, the answer to their problems could easily come via the services of someone skilled in the art of renovation and reupholstery. Courses are available at most colleges. 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. The french polisher also provides a much-appreciated service, often making minor improvements to a piece perhaps a little battle-scarred, but too valuable to be relegated to the dustbin. 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. Providing your fees are competitive with those for full-time or agency staff you should find no trouble in maintaining repeat custom, particularly is you can offer to complete work within tight deadlines. 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. 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. But it is essential, if rewards are to be high, to provide something a little different to that which can easily be obtained from the larger manufacturers - what about those teddies with their individual greetings and names of the recipient embroidered on their clothing? 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. One firm of which I have personal knowledge will hire out almost anything: from lawnmowers to typewriters, to prams and televisions; even offering to lend me their own computer over a weekend when their staff were off duty and my computer was out of action. 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, jumble sales, other car boot traders, private sales, and charity shops. 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. So here we have a great business opportunity, providing a service much in demand at weddings, birthday parties, anniversary celebrations, and on many, many other occasions. 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. Your services can be advertised locally or nationally, and can attract much repeat custom if costs are kept competitive and an efficient standard of service is maintained. 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. He or she may either write the manuals and books that form his stock, or else may buy them straight from the writer, or from other publishers offering reproduction rights in the manuscripts concerned. All the home publisher requires to hand is one good quality manuscript for photocopying, and advertising leaflets for each title. You may choose to deal in such as self-improvement topics, 'How To' titles of all kinds, or perhaps to specialise in one of the most profitable of home publishing lines, that of business and moneymaking titles. 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. The hostess will require some worthwhile gift or percentage of the takings as her reward for assembling potential customers and providing the venue and fare for the party. The massive profits made by such as Tupperware must surely have prompted today's endless round of parties for goods such as lingerie, kids' wear, basketware, perfumes, to name but a few. HOUSE AND PET SITTING Here the entrepreneur offers a service whereby the clients' home, possessions and pets are safeguarded during his or her absence. The service may be one of total surveillance, whereby the person actually lives on the premises, or may be a partial service involving such as daily visits whereby all signs of absence are removed. Plants may be watered and small domestic pets cared for. Alternatively, a dog-walking or caring service may be much in demand where a customer is obliged to be away from home for more than a few hours at a time. 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, then subsequently providing them with a color scheme from which they will choose all future wardrobe and make-up shades. CALLIGRAPHY This is the rather grand name for the even grander art of creating beautiful handwriting and printing. We see swirling flows of lettering, created by hand with the aid of special pens and inks, adorning menus in the better eating establishments, on examination certificates, formal invitations, signs, notices, doorplates, to name but a few creations demanding a thoroughly professional and attractive end-product. 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. Courses are available at many local colleges. A good photographer can be in regular demand for weddings, parties, christenings, and as a freelance for local newspapers and businesses. 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. Some employees have little time or inclination to provide themselves in such circumstances with a sufficiently tempting packed lunch. Here lies the opportunity for the enterprising businessman or woman to operate a sandwich delivery service, preferably one offering unusual fillings, perhaps also providing the lunchbox which is then retrieved the following day and another, complete with sandwiches, substituted in its place. 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. Clowns, magicians, Punch and Judy puppeteers, and jugglers, are just a few of the many types of entertainer ready, willing and able to take the hassle out of the party. His or her fees may seem high, often amounting to $60 - $100 for each one hour session, but to many parents, that's a small price to pay for the happy smiles this different form of entertainment generates. 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. Fresh herbs are much in demand as an alternative to the dried-out tasteless variety we find in bottles and jars on supermarket shelves. Grown in little pots they can be sold to supermarkets, hotels, restaurants, even direct to the public either on a door-to-door basis, at car boot fairs, or on roadside stalls. 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'. It's the same for those wearing the finished garments, or perhaps giving the same as gifts. Almost everyone can produce professional garments of the simpler variety; very few can produce those falling within the 'designer label' category. If you can create better items, perhaps from patterns you have created yourself, you might be surprised at just how much customers are willing to pay. 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 - and are prepared to pay for it! For knitting, sewing, crochet, and craft specialists of all types, it's a much more than worthwhile investment to at least try their hands at fashion designing. 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. Usually all you will need is a selection of 'mother' plants, from which your cuttings are taken before being replanted in the small pots or containers they will be sold in. We find plants sold at car boot sales, indoor and outdoor markets, from roadside stalls, even by means of signs placed on the roadside to direct customers into the home - careful though on the latter point, since such signs are sometimes forbidden by local authorities - always check first! 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. Original postcards and photographs of such views are becoming increasingly beyond the means of those who want the items for their intrinsic value; at something like $40 a time these items are now truly in that category known as 'Collectables', for people prepared to pay high prices for rare and prized specimens. The cost of an original is low in terms of the endless reproductions that can be created from it, to be sold at a few dollars each if unframed, higher if mounted or framed. 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. A shot from an unusual angle though, is another matter entirely, especially if that direction is one not readily accessible to us all - like the sky! One highly successful firm hires a plane, once in summer, again in winter. With the firm's own photographer on board the plane circles a wide area taking hundreds of photographs of houses, shops, farms, schools, as well as many general interest views. The photographs are then taken to the owner or occupier of the buildings photographed, and offered for sale in several different forms including small and large framed prints, plates, jigsaws, table mats and so on. The charges are high but for something so different, who cares? 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. For many private individuals it's an easy matter to visit the library to find the information we require; for others it's too time-consuming a task, particularly when other demands take priority. In this category we find writers, market analysts, larger firms, advertising agencies, to name a few. Here therefore is an opportunity for someone who likes digging and delving, to actually spend all day amongst the reference books of the local library, making notes that will later be transferred to type for the customer. This service can also be in demand amongst those studying their family or firm's history. 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. So we find baby's first shoes enshrined forever in a coating of bronze, silver or gold, embroidered cushions on which were placed our wedding rings for their blessing, and picture frames adorn a sealed container wherein are displayed precious or rare items. I recently discovered one businessman who made framed containers each of which contained a ragged piece of rock, but not any ragged piece of rock - these were pieces of the Berlin Wall. 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'. Handcrafted clothes of the better variety, are hugely popular amongst the more affluent sectors of society, often for purely snobbish reasons. Whether for the adult or child, it's no big deal to spend several hundreds of dollars on that hand-made, hand-painted, hand-embroidered garment, that absolutely guarantees no-one, but no-one will have anything remotely similar. 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 - remember not all can stretch to purchasing a mobile phone. There are also companies who require agents in other parts of the country to take telephone calls and messages, for passing on to their agents. Whether you choose to advertise your service to businesspeople or look for advertisements placed by firms is entirely at your discretion - why not do both? 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. The most obvious example of such is in the auction house where often massive sums are bid by agents for the true buyer. Sometimes the reason for such anonymity will be that of maintaining privacy; at other times it is for reasons of security. 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 amongst small businesses, car boot traders, nurseries, and so on. Items can range from stationery, to small toys, party tableware, kitchen items, ad infinitum. 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 of the chosen subject. It's an easy task to undertake, especially with a word processor in which case the 'picture' can be created and amended on the screen before it appears in print. There are books available by which you can learn this beautiful craft. 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! Another idea of a truly personal and one-off service. 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. Think for example of businesses currently operating without competition in this fantastic market: delivering bottles of champagne to the recipient; delivering teddy bears with a message and the recipient's name embroidered on the front; providing hampers of 'not on my wage' goodies to delighted recipients; providing story books with the child's name and those of his or her friends and pets incorporated into the text. 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. Contracts can be obtained from larger customers, for example hotels, pubs, restaurants, and so on. Advertise your services in the local press and shop windows, or else via leaflets delivered door to door. 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. Many specialist kits are available to set you up in such a business, but much the same basic information as they contain is also available in books from the library. Apart from a very small outlay for initial products, a small dark area of space is all that you require to produce something always in great demand by the general public and commercial enterprises alike. 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. Many of us are keen to learn how to use a computer but sadly, like myself, find the reading and digesting of manual information a long and arduous task. Someone to teach the very basics and perhaps provide a back-up service for the future, must have the makings of a very profitable business in his or her hands. 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. Now in a writers' magazine I see a service that helps with all computer problems, or else there is no charge. Computer whizzkids - come to our assistance! 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. Correspondence courses come to the aid of such students, allowing them to learn in the comfort and privacy of their own homes. And, perhaps surprisingly, it doesn't take a college professor to produce good and much in demand correspondence courses; anyone who knows his or her subject can enter this extremely lucrative field of business. 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. In themselves they are worth a few dollars each; colored and framed they sell for upwards of $40, AND there is a huge demand for such items. I know because I sell them! 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, and so another great business idea was conceived. With your own stories you too could benefit. 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. So we find a monthly magazine 'Picture Postcard Monthly' which contains articles, private and dealer advertisements, events diaries, auction and sales notices, for all of us interested in - wait for it - 'Deltiology', the hobby of collecting or merely taking an interest in those early picture postcards our ancestors sent to one another in great profusion. Similar magazines exist for those interested in autographs, cigarette cards, and many other collecting interests. We also find specialist magazines and group newsletters for those interested in consumer competitions, creative writing, and almost anything else you can imagine. 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. A writer wanting for instance, to research and collate as much information as possible about some past incident, perhaps a particular Olympic Games, or person of notoriety, simply contacts the cutting service which then retrieves the information required, photocopies it and hey presto - another happy customer! 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 come by a host of publications catering for the special needs of the readers. Often they are written by individuals with interests similar to those of 9the readers; sometimes they are from an individual who merely researches the information imparted and presents it a readable form. Try just one hobby or interest at first, write a few titles, then move on to something different, always of course continuing your advertisements for the earlier publications. 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. Alternatively, you could lease a photocopier yourself and advertise the service which you carry out personally. 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. Some mechanism is necessary to facilitate the coming together of thousands of currently isolated individuals who share this common need or interest. This is where the astute businessperson comes into play, acting as middleman, who often does little more than coordinate, collate, and distribute details relating to the activities and interests of members. 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. Look also at the classified advertisements contained in those publications and you'll discover many suppliers of items much in demand by these hobbyists. These items include: beads, dolls' house furniture, bags of material remnants, patterns, complete kits, and much, much more. Hobbyists of course are unlikely to want bulk items such as a wholesaler might offer; so here we have a variation of the old favorite bulk buyer/splitter enterprise. 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. Well-made designs for clothes, and such as bedcoverings, cot and pram covers will always provide a steady demand. 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. We now find firms dealing in pub decor but not of the wallpaper/paint variety. These firms offer something different, in most cases unique. They offer blown-up sepia photos of the pub and its environment in earlier days, sepia photos of famous 'regulars' perhaps with a printed write-up of their achievements, framed early advertisements for alcoholic beverages, framed collections of old beer labels and beermats, and so on. 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, and for which the firm selling them offers no delivery service. 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. Their prices too for the items were competitive since they bought their stock in bulk, and actual cost to the customer was very little higher than the cost of the same product bought in the shops. The 'Rent-a' principle applies also to personal services, for example: 'Rent-a-Nanny', 'Rent-a-Mrs. Mop', and 'Rent-a-Gardener' being but a few of the many examples I have recently come by. 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, as do those beds in the shape of motor racing cars and castles. A vastly under-exploited market this one for the imaginative businessman and woman. 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. Several small firms however specialise in making blankets to order and to design; often embroidered with the horse's name; sometimes incorporating club colors or motifs, and so on. 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. So we take them to classes, where they are taught to 'sit', 'stay', and 'heel', and we are willing to pay considerable sums for the privilege of having someone teach us and our pets how to behave in an acceptable fashion. Normally classes consist of anything up to 50 owners and their pets, usually paying for each session as and when attended. RUNNING A NURSERY Sadly, unlike many other countries, the United States 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. There are of course standards set in respect of all facilities for childcare; standards with which you must familiarise yourself before attempting to enter this lucrative area of business - ask your local Social Services department for information. 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. Standards and types of accommodation vary from simple paddock facilities, whereby the owner pays rent to the owner of the land for nothing more than a field in which his horse may graze, hopefully with at least basic facilities for sheltering, to full livery, and plush stable complexes with daily grooming and feeding provided by trained staff. If you have land attached to your home, here is an opportunity to make it pay. 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. 'Horsie' folk have their garments decorated with cartoon 'Thelwell' horses; 'Turtlemania' has caused a great demand for appropriately designed children's wear; some prefer to have the slogan of a favored organisation splattered across their chests, whilst others require just our children's names for decoration of their clothing. The actual designing of such patterns ready for incorporation into the basic knitting pattern is an extremely easy task to undertake. My designs require nothing but a rule, pen and a piece of graph paper - even an unused football pools coupon. Take the original design you wish to transfer to the garment and section it out into 1/8 inch squares. Then transfer the design to the graph paper of similar proportions, merely by coloring each appropriate square using that color it takes on the master design. Each square now represents a stitch, to be knitted in the color you have indicated. 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. As an adjunct to producing crosswords for the many markets requiring the services of the compiler, there is the opportunity to provide 'personalised' crosswords for clubs, presents, individuals and so on. I have seen advertisements from people offering to create a crossword incorporating words appropriate to the person who will receive the end result as a gift; such as name, pets, occupation, hobbies and interests are all potentials for inclusion. BIRTHDAY MEMORABILIA Another highly individual gift service is offered by those who locate original newspapers from the actual date of the recipient's birth. How much more personal can you get? But have you considered the potential of offering original magazines from relevant dates, calendars from the year of one's birth, original framed horoscopes from the day, month or year concerned, even just a framed advertisement from a publication of the time? With the exception of the newspaper service this is a greatly under-exploited area within the field of specialist gift services. 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. Juke boxes are another 'biggie' in both physical and financial terms, as are old cars, vans (particularly those complete with advertising signs), and huge early enamel advertising signs once used outside shops and now a collecting area know as 'street jewellery'. 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. Many kits are on sale, at high prices, offering little more than a squared pattern such as we have discussed, the appropriate background material, together with the wools and needles required. Dogs, cats, famous homes, all feature in the designs available, but I still have not found anything to compare with the offer to create a pattern from your children's and pet's portraits, photos of your home, and any other colored photo with sufficiently clear definition to allow an accurate transfer to the color pattern the designer provides. 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. Recently, I succumbed to purchasing 100 copies of early black and white advertisements. The originals cost something in the region of $6 to $20 each; these were photocopies and served my purpose just as well as would the originals. I paid $78 for them; almost 80 cents each for a photocopy that would cost under 20 cents - and I was extremely pleased with my purchase. Similar items I have seen offered for sale include photocopies of old maps, color photocopies of early picture postcards, early engravings; and many a dealer is selling hand-tinted prints and maps, at much lower prices than an original copy would cost. 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. A new computerised system has been introduced into one or two city and town centers, a business that as yet is grossly under-exploited. From several huge volumes the customer locates the surname he is interested in having traced, whereupon the operator keys such into the computer immediately at hand. The resulting print-out is offered to the customer on parchment-like paper in Old English lettering. The fee is something like $18 for this unique piece of historical interest. For an additional charge the document is framed behind non-reflective glass. 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. I was amazed when walking in my local town center, to observe a man with mobile stall, computer and long trailing print-outs. He was telling the fortunes of passers by from handprints produced when they placed their palms flat on the computer bed. The fortune was actually told by the computer and interpreted by the businessman in charge. The customers received computer print-outs of their handprints, full prediction details, and verbal interpretation. If the number of satisfied smiles coming away from that stall are anything to go by, I think this is another business well worth consideration by the enterprising entrepreneur, looking for something just that little bit different. 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. These individuals collate the historical details relating to villages, towns, even cities, and write them up to the delight of avid readers with little time to unearth the facts for themselves - often with little inclination to sit delving into volumes wherein the details are contained. Here lies the opportunity for someone who enjoys discovering such facts. All that is required is one copy of the end product, to be photocopied or printed, and sold in local shops, door-to-door, or by means of advertisements placed in the local press. 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. The same applies to people requiring such as forms for entry to consumer competitions. The business idea here consists of acting as middleman for the swapping of such items, charging a fee of course for each transaction. There are many things people would like to swap, not all of them falling within the category of collectables. Household goods, baby hardware, school books, are further examples of items we simply sometimes find no further use for. Someone to offer a service whereby we can offload such items, and await a suitable swap for them, must surely be in great demand by all of us. 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. Cycles can be positive or negative, and critical periods can be identified, enabling the persons to whom they apply to take extra care on certain occasions, or else to modify their behaviour accordingly. Sounds complicated, doesn't it? But it is actually extremely easy to chart and analyse the biorhythms of any individual at any time in his or her life. Small wonder now that the science has gained a high degree of credibility, that businessmen, sportsmen, students, and politicians, are but a few of the groups to have their biorhythm charts compiled before making any important decisions and plans. Your services can be offered privately or postally, and the whole art can be learned from appropriate text books. 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. You will be in great demand, either on a temporary basis as the Tax Year draws to a close, or on a permanent part-time basis, thereby alleviating the need for businesses to employ their own staff. 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. The market for articles is much greater than that for short stories, and usually means a more regular acceptance rate. Seeking further to satisfy the lesser known and lower paying markets will also lower potential rejection rates, as you break your way into this highly lucrative area. 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. But a problem presents itself which precludes many a man or woman from researching his or her family history - TIME! Time in many of our lives is an extremely scarce commodity and other demands allow insufficient time to undertake sometimes painstaking research. This is where you come in, as a specialist and highly paid researcher. 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. It might be a classic car, or a house in an exclusive area. The recipients are devotees of consumer competitions sponsored by manufacturers, hotels, shops, and many other businesses, as a means of attracting new customers. To qualify for the excellent prizes on offer every day, the competitor is faced with an array of tasks, from the simple prize draw, to spot-the-ball exercises, order-of-merit tasks, and to creating a slogan or tiebreaker. Try a copy of 'Competitors Journal' and see for yourself what you might be missing. 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. Some firms and private individuals welcome the services of trained and experienced people from all walks of life, but have insufficient need to employ them on a regular, part or full-time basis. We might for instance, require a nanny or nurse to look after our children, or a recruitment specialist to help us through the hurdles of job interviewing techniques. 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, but sadly something time prevents many of us from doing. Someone willing to perform such services on our behalf would be more than welcome, even if there must of necessity be an additional cost over and above that of raw materials. Your service can extend beyond fresh fruit, vegetables, and everyday main meals. You might for instance offer gourmet cuisine, and freezer portions of the more exotic fruits and vegetables we find in the up-market foodstores. 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, usually by some famous personality. Purchasers might want to have a bestselling novel read to them, or else to hear a story you have written, perhaps to learn some new hobby, or to have multiplication tables set to music, thereby reinforcing the learning process in the minds of school-bored children. 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 goodies, before joining another of the long queue of customers one sees at these P.Y.O. (Pick Your Own) establishments. 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. So here's your chance, all of you who actually enjoy wielding paint brushes and rollers. 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. A sample pictured in the magazine showed a man, some features undoubtedly exaggerated as is necessary with cartoons, and with a head enlarged about three times. Now whilst almost anyone would cringe at the thought of the 'Spitting Image' crew portraying them in caricature, there was nothing in this cartoon to offend even the most sensitive of subjects. The colors were muted and the whole thing extremely easy on the eye - and very different! 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. This is often done by buying or renting names and addresses from specialist operations or from a middleman dealing in the provision of such information. Lists are required for many other reasons, not all of them in the field of selling. Parents for instance, might appreciate a list of all of the private schools in a certain locality. We also find lists offering access to hundreds of things that are free for the asking, as well as lists of firms requiring homeworkers, or offering details of opportunities to work abroad, and many, many others. 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. It is the job of the graphologist to interpret the reasons behind certain styles and peculiarities of writing. A few years ago no-one, except perhaps our American cousins, would dream of paying someone for such an analysis. Today however, the technique has developed a great deal of credibility, and the services of a good graphologist are much in demand, especially in the workplace, where many employers now view the art as an essential staff recruitment tool. 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. These classes can become regular little meeting places, and many a bigger dance exercise studio has started from such humble beginnings.