Business Overview:

The travel industry is booming and travelers are always looking for a helpful online travel guide business to aid them in their vacation decisions. When travelers load up the family and drive them across the country or brave airports, planes and trains, they want to know that their destinations will be perfect for their needs. Consulting an online travel guide will give them the knowledge they need to make their vacations successful. You’ll find that there is plenty of competition in this area so you’ll need to set yourself apart by finding a special niche. For example, you could focus on pet-friendly hotels or resorts that are handicapped accessible. Imagine travelers finding not just one hotel that meets their needs in a particular city but dozens. That would give them much more control over other aspects of their stay instead of having to settle for the one place that offered them the bare minimum of their requirements. And with today’s technology, you can work on one of the best online business ideas available today from your own home. The first thing you’ll need to do when starting your business is decide what your specialization will be. Look to your experience or area of interest to help you find your niche. For example, if you have traveled with your pet, where did you stay? Once you have selected your area of expertise, you will need to build a website and populate it with as much information about that area as you can. Look to friends and family as well as Internet research and phone calls to find out more. The more details and “off the beaten path” information you can provide, the more repeat visitors you’ll have to your site. When your site has plenty of useful information, you need to establish relationships with hotels in that area, rental car facilities, restaurants, etc. You can also set up your site so that travelers who book through your site will earn you a commission. But even if all the visitors don’t make their reservations through your site, they still have access to loads of free information to assist them in making their travel plans. Make contact with travel companies and ask them to advertise on your site. If your area of expertise is cruises for elderly travelers, you could ask AARP to advertise. If your target market is pet owners, look for local pet hotels to advertise—or you could pursue large corporations, like PetSmart to advertise. The more useful information you have on your site, the more advertisements you’ll be able to sell and the more revenue you’ll generate from those ad sales and travel booking commissions. Start your research, find your niche and help travelers have a wonderful vacation while you enjoy a successful business.

A Day in the Life of an Online Travel Guide Business Owner:

You will start your day checking for any new revenue generated from travel bookings. Next you will check out your website and see if any content needs to be updated. You will only be successful with this business idea if your information is current and accurate so you will constantly be updating and adding information. You will contact businesses aimed at your target market to discuss advertising on your site.

About Your Customers:

Your customers will be prospective travelers looking for the best information on destinations that cater to their various needs (pet-friendly, kid-friendly, wheelchair access, etc.)

What You Need to Start:

• Travel niche
• Website
• Content
• Partnership with travel agencies
• Finance software

The Good:

• Start-up investment is low.
• You can operate this business from home.
• You can work as much or as little as you like.
• Franchises are available to help you get started.
• If your site offers top-notch information, advertisers will jump at the chance to be in front of their target market.

The Bad:

• Gathering the information to populate your site with useful information will take some time.
• You will constantly need to update and add to your site to keep it current and accurate.

Resources:

• Travel and Tourism Research Association
• American Society of Travel Agents
• Bureau of Labor Statistics Article on Travel

Technorati Tags: online travel guide business

Business Overview:

Starting your own franchise consulting business could be your key to freedom while you provide services that will help other entrepreneurs achieve success. Franchising is the practice of using another firm’s successful business model. For example, an individual may purchase a McDonald’s franchise, which would give them the right to open their own McDonald’s restaurant. Usually a royalty would be paid by the franchisee to the franchisor (McDonald’s), but the franchise owner would keep the majority of the profits while benefiting from owning an already successful business model. With this business idea, you offer advice to potential franchisees to help them decide which franchise to purchase. You might also offer financial and legal assistance to you clients as a part of your service if you want to be a full-service business. Statistics show that the majority of new businesses fail within three to five years. Franchise businesses, however, have been shown to have a far higher rate of success in the long term because they are built upon pre-existing business models that are already successful. However, while franchises are statistically more likely to be successful, that success is dependent to a large extent on factors such as the commitment and dedication of the franchisee. Building a successful franchise business still requires hard work and dedication, so it will be important that your clients purchase franchises that are right for them. Your franchise consulting service will help potential franchisees determine the best franchises for them by assessing important factors like the personal interests of your clients, the amount of capital they have available, their geographic location, and so on. You’ll find this to be a very rewarding service to provide as you’ll know that your services will help give your clients a higher chance of business success. They will also give your clients a stronger sense of confidence when embarking on their franchising ventures. If you already have a strong level of experience and expertise in building successful franchise businesses you may offer franchise consulting services personally. Alternatively, you can hire franchise consultants to work for you. When marketing your franchise business you’ll be able to attract clients on a national or even global level by promoting your franchise consulting business online—meaning there’s great potential for generating big profits with this as an online business idea. You can also promote your franchise consulting business locally. In addition to being able to market to a huge client base via the internet, you can also consult on a very wide range of franchise types (coffee franchises, DVD franchises, fitness franchises, etc.) by hiring specialist consultants. With this business you’ll have a huge potential market and many opportunities for growth and expansion. Learning how to become a franchise consultant really could lead to great financial success and a highly rewarding business.

A Day in the Life of a Financial Consulting Business Owner:

As a successful financial consulting business owner, your day will start with a review of your diary. You will have a number of consulting appointments booked with clients. Many of these “meetings” may be done online if you choose to focus on clients outside of your local geographic area. During your consultations you will offer expert advice to your clients on purchasing franchises, and you will help them determine which franchises might be best for them to purchase based on factors such as their interests, the amount of investment capital they have available, their geographic location, and so on. Alternatively, you may have hired franchise consulting experts to provide your consulting services for you. In that case, on a typical day you would focus on marketing your business to attract more clients. You may also spend some time investigating new franchises to understand their business models. It will be important for you to know how they work and their rate of success before you recommend them to your clients.

About Your Customers:

Your customers will be individuals or companies who are considering purchasing a franchise business.

What You Need to Start:

• Expertise on purchasing franchise businesses (or you can hire experts to do your consulting for you)
• A website to market your services
• Marketing plan
• A business license
• Business insurance
• Financial tracking software

The Good:

• It’s a rewarding business—your services will increase your clients’ chances of long-term business success.
• If you are not an expert on purchasing franchises you can hire experts to provide consulting for you (you can also hire experts to expand your services and consulting on specialist areas that are beyond your personal areas of expertise).
• You can start this business from the comfort of your own home at a relatively low cost.
• You will be able to reach a large market as a result of marketing your franchise consulting business online.

The Bad:

• It will take time to build up your business and see good profits.
• If you aren’t currently an expert on starting franchise businesses, the initial start-up costs for this business will be higher (due to the need to hire expert consultants to provide your consulting services).

Resources:

• Association of Professional Consultants
• Professional and Technical Consultants Association
• Bureau of Labor Statistics on Management, Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
• Wikipedia on Franchising

Technorati Tags: franchise consulting business, how to become a franchise consultant

Business Overview:

If you’d like to know how to generate great profits by providing a service everyone needs in order to get their websites online, learn how to host websites. Every website on the internet requires storage space in order to make their website accessible to the world. With this business idea, you provide the storage space and software that website owners need to get their websites online. To do so you purchase or lease a server—which is a piece of equipment on which data is stored. You then allocate a certain amount of space on your server(s) to your clients to store the data for their websites, and you provide software that allows the website data that your clients upload to your server to be made accessible to the world via the internet. For an even easier approach, you can pay an existing webhosting company for a specified amount of space each month, and then you can allow others to host their websites from that space. Think of it in the same way that you would if you were to sublet an apartment: while you are actually the one paying the monthly fee to the “landlord,” others are paying you for all or part of that space. Not all webhosting companies allow this, but many actually encourage this approach—and will even offer the technical support to your customers. With a website hosting business you’ll have a number of options in regards to how you generate your profits. For example, you can charge your clients a monthly fee in return for a certain amount of data space on your server (typically a low-end cost would be around $10 USD, although it will depend on the amount of data space your client requires). Alternatively you could offer your hosting service for free, and in return for the free hosting have your clients display adverts on their websites which generate your revenue. In addition to the various options available to you for generating revenue, one of the most attractive things about starting a website hosting business is the high retention rate and high lifetime value you can gain from your clients. As long as you provide a competitive, quality service, your clients will be unlikely to leave you. This is because once a website has been set up with a host, transferring it over to a different hosting provider can be a technically complicated and difficult process. Therefore once you have gained a client, so long as they remain happy with your services you can expect them to remain with you for many years (if not indefinitely). It is for this reason starting a website hosting business is one of the most potentially lucrative online business ideas — because if you can attract lots of clients, the chances are good that you will keep the majority of them, and therefore generate great profits consistently over the long term. You can easily start this business from the comfort of your own home either by purchasing server space from an existing company or, if you’re truly tech savvy, by purchasing relatively small servers and updating your hosting capacity as your business and server space demand grows. Staying committed over the long term is key to making great profits with this business. Therefore with the desire and a willingness to work hard, you can definitely build a successful hosting business that generates fantastic profits.

A Day in the Life of a Website Hosting Business Owner:

As a successful website hosting business owner, a large part of your time on a typical day will be spent providing quality customer service to your clients. This is because setting up a website with a host can be a technically challenging process to those who aren’t familiar with it, so you will spend a fair amount of time in your day assisting your clients either over the phone or via email. You will also spend time overseeing the performance of your servers—if you’ve chosen to purchase your own—ensuring everything is running smoothly. Additionally, you may spend time updating your hosting infrastructure in order to meet demand as your business grows. Of course, you can hire staff to provide support and customer service for you. You can also hire assistants to take care of system maintenance and upgrades for you. And if you don’t want to be bothered with these details at all, you can choose to purchase space from an existing webhosting company that also will agree to provide technical support to your customers. In this case a typical day would likely be spent focusing on growing your business by seeking out new marketing opportunities, and ensuring that your hosting business is ticking over smoothly.

About Your Customers:

Your customers will be anyone wanting to set up a website. They will include businesses and individuals wanting to set up websites for either commercial or personal purposes.

What You Need to Start:

• A server on which to host your clients’ websites (you can either purchase your server, or you can lease it)—or server space that you’re paying for from an existing webhosting company
• Storage space for your server / hosting equipment
• Website hosting software
• A customer service phone line
• Marketing
• A business license
• Financial tracking software

The Good:

• Every website needs a host—so the market for your service is huge.
• You can start this business and run it from the comfort of your own home.
• There are several options available for generating great profits (monthly subscriptions, advertising).
• Due to the technical difficulties associated with changing website hosting providers, your clients will be unlikely to leave you so long as you provide a quality service and keep them happy (therefore the lifetime value of your clients will typically be high once you gain them).

The Bad:

• Purchasing the servers/software that you need to start this business can be expensive, though you don’t need own your hardware unless you choose to.
• You will need to provide an excellent service and be committed to working hard to achieve great profits as website hosting can be competitive.

Resources:

• Association of Internet and Hosting Service Providers
• Web Hosting Association
• Web Design and Developers Association
• Bureau of Labor Statistics on Data Processing, Hosting and Related Services
• Wikipedia on Web Hosting Service

Technorati Tags: how to host websites

Business Overview:

If you are highly organized and looking to start your own business, you should consider starting a relocation service working with corporations worldwide. A relocation service helps employees move their families and their belongings to another city or country following being newly hired or promoted. Typically the new position comes quickly and there is not enough time or resources for the individual to make all the arrangements necessary to make the move. Relocation services are usually handled through a company’s human resources department and then outsourced to a third party relocation business. With companies doing everything they can to get the right people into the right positions and get them working as quickly as possible, a relocation service is a great business idea to consider. If you have any experience in event planning, this type of service should be easy for you to pick up. Or, if you would prefer, you can hire trained relocation specialists to work for you. And since all of the arrangements can be done over the Internet and phone, this is the perfect online business idea for you to run from your home office. Corporate relocation services are similar to other types of move managers, but you will be dealing with issues like obtaining visas, finding schools for the employees’ children, helping the spouse find a job and arranging language training if the job is overseas. If you market your new business to international corporations, you may be able to become the exclusive relocation service used by several companies. You may need to hire more staff to help you keep up with the demand.

A Day in the Life of a Relocation Service Business Owner:

Your day will begin with a check of any new relocation requests. You will contact the company and the employee and get all the information you need to start making arrangements. Next you will get back to work on any on-going relocations. You will follow up with realtors, schools and government offices to check the progress of various searches and requests you have submitted. Finally, you will follow up with any recent relocated employees (and the companies they work for) to ensure the move went smoothly and your clients are happy.

About Your Customers:

Your customers will be corporations who need relocation services for their employees.

What You Need to Start:

• Relocation experience or a skilled staff
• Marketing plan
• Excellent customer service and time management skills
• Computer with finance software

The Good:

• Start-up costs are low.
• Corporations will pay top dollar for excellent relocation services.
• You are likely to get repeat business if your clients are satisfied.
• You can easily run this business from home.
• You can hire a staff to help you when demand becomes more than you can handle alone.

The Bad:

• You will need to be patient while you build your client list.
• Making all the appropriate contacts will take some time.

Resources:

• Association of Relocation Professionals
• EuRA
• Society for Human Resource Management
• Wikipedia on Relocation Service

Technorati Tags: Relocation Service

Business Overview:

Starting an online travel agency is a great way to help people find the perfect vacation while being your own boss and starting your own small business. The travel industry is always popular, even in questionable economic times. People still go on vacation, they just might choose a closer location or they may choose to drive instead of fly. But these people still need the help of travel agents to book their hotels and travel packages. It’s a good idea to write up a business plan before going too far with your travel agency. Specializing in a certain niche—such as cruises, European vacations or safaris—is a great idea because you can really stand out from the other agencies with a well-defined focus. You’ll realize when you start an online travel business that not only can you operate it from the comfort of your own home but you can work as much or as little as you want. Even if you’re not an experienced travel agent, this is still one of the best business ideas to get into today because there is a lot of assistance available to you. You can buy a franchise agency or partner with a host agency which acts as a liaison between you and the airlines, cruise lines and tour companies. Their experience can help you learn the ropes while still making money and helping people with their travel arrangements. When you have learned how to start an online travel agency on your own, you can break away from the host company and make the arrangements directly with the airlines, cruise lines, etc. Since this is an online business idea, you will need to have a website where your potential clients can go to review your services, your fee structure and perhaps read testimonials from satisfied travelers. It is also a good idea to join travel agent organizations to increase your profile in the travel community and to raise the confidence of potential customers in your company. Associations you could join include the American Society of Travel Agents and the International Air Transport Association. Once your business is up and running and you are comfortable with the process, you could offer additional services on your website like vacation home swapping. Then, not only would you earn one-time fees from travelers booking airfare and hotels, you would earn regular monthly fees from your members. The travel industry is booming and there is always room for a new agency to join and help travelers have the perfect vacation experience.

A Day in the Life of an Online Travel Agency Business Owner:

Your day will begin with a check of your business email to see if you have any new potential customers inquiring about your services. You will contact them to discuss their needs and proceed with their travel arrangements. You will also spend some time during the day marketing your business in various online publications that cater to your target audience.

About Your Customers:

Your customers will be individuals, couples and families looking for excellent travel planning for business or personal getaways.

What You Need to Start:

• Business plan
• Marketing plan
• Travel agent experience, partnership with a host company or a franchise
• Website
• Computer with finance software

The Good:

• Even with today’s do-it-yourself travel sites, travel agents are still very much in demand.
• The startup costs are low.
• Travelers will pay hefty fees for your knowledge in your area of expertise.
• You can run this business part-time and from home.
• This business is scalable; you can offer additional services over time.

The Bad:

• If you are not an experienced travel agent, it can take some time to learn all the secrets of the industry.
• You will need to be patient while your reputation and your client list grow.

Resources:

• American Society of Travel Agents
• National Association of Career Travel Agents
• Outside Sales Support Network
• The International Air Transport Association
• Bureau of Labor Statistics on Travel Agents
• Wikipedia on Travel Agencies

Technorati Tags: how to start an online travel agency, start an online travel business, starting an online travel agency

Business Overview:

A roommate finding service can be a valuable tool for college students and older single people alike and can make a wonderful part-time business. Renting an apartment, especially in a big city, can be outrageously expensive, so many people look for a roommate to share the expenses. However, living that closely with someone you don’t know can be difficult if you don’t share the same ideas on things like television volume, sleeping hours and sharing food. A service that matches roommates based on personality sounds a lot like an online dating service but instead of love, your clients are simply looking for someone they can peacefully live with. Another difference between a membership site like a dating service and a roommate finding business is that you will likely not have repeat business since once a client finds a roommate, they don’t need your service anymore (assuming they found a good match). However it might take a client several months to be matched with a suitable roommate so you can either charge your clients a monthly membership fee or a one-time registration fee then give them a certain number of months for free. If they have not found a suitable roommate in that time, they have the choice of paying a continuation fee or leaving your service and going it alone. Business ideas like this one require that you have a database in which to keep your clients’ information. You’ll need a website that displays pictures of your clients along with information about their likes, dislikes, religious preferences, etc. You can choose to let roommates find each other or you can be more personally involved if you want to keep things small and search through your database regularly for people who would make a good match. The internet makes this the perfect online business idea that you can operate completely from home in your spare time; however, you don’t have to be limited to an online-only service. If you happen to live in a college town, for example, you might choose to specialize in college students and organize meet-and-greet activities for your clients so they can meet each other in addition to seeing each other on your website. Other areas you could specialize in are single moms or elderly people looking for younger roommates who can help them with various chores, etc. Finding just the right person to share a living space with is an important aspect of day-to-day happiness for most people. Owning a business that helps roommates find each other could prove to be quite a satisfying venture.

A Day in the Life of a Roommate Finding Service Owner:

Assuming your website is up and running, you will spend your day looking through your database for clients who might make a match. If you choose not to be that hands-on in the matching process, you will spend your day marketing your site. You will look for websites that align with the interests of your target market. For example, you might want to advertise with AARP if your market is elderly people. You will also want to check your email each day to see if any members have issues or questions that need to be addressed.

About Your Customers:

Your customers will be individuals in need of a roommate to share living expenses. They will pay your service for access to other people looking for the same thing.

What You Need to Start:

• Business plan
• Website
• Marketing plan
• Computer with finance software

The Good:

• The startup capital required for this business is low.
• Once your website is set up, very little hands-on work is required.
• This type of service will always be in high demand.
• Members will gladly pay more for access to your site that is specialized to their particular situation (religious preference, pets, children, etc.)
• It’s rewarding to help people solve a problem.

The Bad:

• It can take a while to build up your membership.
• You will need to be sure to protect yourself legally in the case that a roommate match goes sour.

Resources:

• American Seniors Housing Association
• National Apartment Association
• Wikipedia on Roommates

Technorati Tags: roommate finding service

Business Overview:

Starting a vacation house swap business is an excellent way to offer a much needed service while building your own low maintenance business. House swapping is the practice of trading homes with another homeowner and in any economy, this practice is cost effective and wise on many levels. Similar to house sitting, you would let a vacationing couple or family stay in your house and you would stay in theirs. But how do you find homes available for swapping? Build a website and offer memberships that allow your clients to list their homes and find homes available in places they are looking to visit on vacation. Using a service like this would easily save a family thousands of dollars on hotels during their stay. This is one of the most helpful business ideas available. The Internet makes this type of service simple to operate from your home or anywhere in the world. There is competition, however, so you should look into offering vacation house swaps in a certain niche to attract more people in one target market. You might concentrate on offering only “green” homes, homes that allow pets, homes that are adults-only or offer wheelchair access. Chances are a family who lives in a green home would enjoy (and prefer) to stay in another green home while on vacation. It’s a lot like a dating service; you’re just matching up people based on their needs and charging them a monthly membership fee. The best part about this online business idea is that once your site is up and running, your membership will grow and you will make money automatically from monthly membership fees. How and where you advertise your site will depend on your target market. If your market is people with children, consider putting ads in magazines and on websites like Parents and Cookie. You’ll find that once a couple or family uses your house swap service and has a great vacation, they will come back again and again which means continued monthly payments and an income with very little day-to-day work on your part.

A Day in the Life of a Vacation House Swap Business Owner:

Your day will begin with a check of your website to see if any new members joined. You will check user comments to see if a problem needs to be addressed or if you have an unsatisfied customer that you need to contact. Since you only make money when members keep paying, you will need to have excellent customer service. You will spend most of your time looking into new ways to advertise your business.

About Your Customers:

Your customers will be couples and families looking to trade homes for vacation. They will pay you a monthly membership fee to gain access to your members and their home listings.

What You Need to Start:

• Business plan
• Website
• Marketing plan
• Computer with finance software

The Good:

• Once it’s up and running, your website will do all the work for you.
• This is such a money-saver for your customers, they will be happy to pay a higher monthly fee to have access to a greater number of homes that meet their needs (pet friendly, for example).
• Startup costs are low.
• You can easily run this business part-time and from home.
• It is rewarding to offer such a valuable service and hear from satisfied customers.

The Bad:

• It’s a competitive market so you will need to set yourself apart.
• It may take some time to build up your membership.

Resources:

• Wikipedia on House Swapping

Technorati Tags: vacation house swap business

Business Overview:

Starting your own stock day trading business may be the perfect venture for a licensed money manager but you must have a day trading business plan first. As you know if you are in finance, this industry is heavily regulated and without a good plan, you could not only fail as a small business but you could run into legal trouble as well. Day trading is defined as the buying and selling of stocks or other financial instruments within one trading day so that the positions are closed before the market closes each day. Typically, day trading is done by licensed employees of banks and fund companies but with the ease of trading over the Internet, day trading has become more popular with unlicensed home traders. These independent day traders use their own money so they do not have to have any special licenses and are not subject to SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) regulation. But when you start handling the money of clients, that’s when all the rules kick in. To trade stocks, you must hold a Series 7 license (General Securities Representative) as well as a state license for each state in which your clients live. Additional licenses are required depending on the level of service you plan to offer. If you will be advising your clients on money managing, you will need additional licenses. These licenses are overseen and administered by the FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) which works closely with the NASD (National Association of Security Dealers), the administers of the Series 7 exam and regulators of the NASDAQ. Assuming you are fully licensed and skilled at trading stocks, futures, stock options and currencies, starting a business of your own could be one of the best business ideas available to you. You wouldn’t want to take any clients from the firm you currently work for so you will need to market your services to clients who are only interested in day trading and are looking for short-term investments. This is why having a business plan is so important since you will need to fully develop your business model including how many trades they can expect you to perform each day, what your fee structure looks like, how much money you are comfortable dealing with, how you will properly protect yourself in the event of a “bad day” and thus, the loss of clients’ money, etc. You will need to ensure your clients are well aware of the high-risk environment of day trading. Have a policy in place that allows clients to put more money into their accounts and take money out so that it does not interfere with your money management plans any given trading day. Since there is so much regulation with this industry, you may want to hire a professional firm to help you draft your business plan. Be sure the firm is aware of financial industry regulation so you are fully protected and are following all the rules. With the right plan, excellent trading skills and proper communication with your clients, you may be able to turn this part-time online business idea into a full-time business with a long list of happy clients.

A Day in the Life of an Online Day Trading Business Owner:

You will begin your day well before the US markets open (although you can also trade on the exchanges in other countries – FTSE in the UK, Nikkei in Japan, etc.) to see what the futures are and what the “buzz” is on certain companies’ stocks. Depending on how many clients you are trading for that day, you will need to have a general plan for each one each day. This plan will obviously change depending on how certain stocks do throughout the day. You will spend your day watching multiple computer monitors displaying the stocks you (your clients) are invested in. If they go up a certain amount, you will sell. You will also watch other stocks and wait for them to get to a certain low point and you will buy. At the end of the day you will contact your clients to let them know about the day’s activity and see if they want to take money out or put more money into their trading accounts.

About Your Customers:

Your customers will be individuals with money to invest who want the immediate results day trading can provide but perhaps don’t have the confidence or knowledge to day trade themselves.

What You Need to Start:

• Proper financial licenses
• Business plan
• Computer with several monitors
• Accounts with various brokerage companies (E-Trade, Scottrade, etc)
• Extensive bookkeeping software or another method of keeping meticulous records of your activities since you are subject to SEC regulations

The Good:

• For a licensed trader, this is a great opportunity to hone your skills.
• You can offer investors the thrill of day trading.
• If you communicate the risks properly, your clients will keep giving you more money to trade with, thus increasing your profits from the fees they pay you.
• You can run this business from your home office.
• You can operate this business part-time although you will need to work the entire trading day (North America markets: 9 a.m.–4 p.m. ET, Europe: 3 a.m.–11:30 a.m. ET, Asia: 8 p.m.–3 a.m. ET).

The Bad:

• This is a highly risky method of investing. If your clients are not made fully aware of this, they may pull out their money prematurely.
• It is a high stress work environment that requires you to essentially sit at your computer for up to eight hours at a time.

Resources:

• Financial Industry Regulation Authority
• National Association of Stockbrokers
• Bureau of Labor Statistics on Securities, Commodities and Financial Services Sales Agents
• Wikipedia on Day Trading

Technorati Tags: day trading business plan, starting your own day trading business

Business Overview:

Learning how to start an online dating service could be the ticket to your financial freedom while having to do very little day-to-day work. In today’s Internet world, finding a mate online is a booming industry. Popular sites like eHarmony and Match.com have 20 million and 15 million members, respectively. Online dating is one of the most lucrative business ideas out there today with an estimated worth of one billion dollars (USD). And with more and more people looking for love each day, there is plenty of room for a specialized service catering to a particular segment of the dating population. When researching how to start a dating website, you may be overwhelmed at how many people are drawn to the larger sites. But if you offer services for a smaller segment of the dating community, you will find higher success. Some areas you could focus on are:

• Divorcees
• Single parents
• Senior citizens
• Ethnic groups
• Handicapped

Each of these groups can face difficulties when trying to enter the “mainstream” online dating arena. Having a place they can go where all the members are like them will increase their chances of finding what they are looking for in a mate. These singles will also be willing to pay more for this type of specialized membership site service. It’s a good idea when starting a dating website to either purchase a dating site builder or hire a website designer to build your site. The better your site looks and works, the more members you will get and retain. Since members pay a monthly fee to have access to your site (and its other members), the more members you have, the more residual income you will get. If you are not sure how to start a dating site, there is plenty of information and research available online. A Google search for “how to start an online dating site” returns over 46 million results. But once you get a good idea of what type of site you want to run and who your target market will be, you can build and advertise your site accordingly. If your market is seniors, advertise on online publications aimed at seniors such as AARP. And although this is a wonderful online business idea that can be run exclusively over the Internet, you can still go after local clients and advertise in area magazines, newspapers and leave fliers around town. With a clear business model, excellent membership services and good prices, you can build an online dating site that gains new members each day.

A Day in the Life of an Online Dating Service Owner:

Your day will begin with a check of your website to see if any new members have joined and see that their membership fees have been collected correctly. You will check your email (associated with the website) for any customer issues that need to be addressed. You will spend some time marketing your business by analyzing your market and discovering new places and methods with with to advertise.

About Your Customers:

Your customers will be singles looking for relationships via online dating.

What You Need to Start:

• Business plan
• Dating website
• Marketing plan
• Computer with finance software

The Good:

• Once set up, this business will run itself.
• Startup costs are relatively low.
• Income from your membership-based website will come in each month.
• It is rewarding to help people find love.
• You can easily run this business in your spare time from your home.

The Bad:

• Competition is high in this industry; you will need to work hard to set yourself apart from the big players.
• It might take some time to build up your membership list.

Resources:

• The Dating Association
• International Association of Dating Websites
• Wikipedia on Online Dating Services

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Business Overview:

If you’re looking for a rewarding and highly lucrative online business opportunity, you should learn how to start an information product business. With an information product business, you create, market, and sell quality electronic products based on topics of information that people are looking for online. When most people go online they do so to look for information. For example, someone might go online to look for information on how to healthily lose 10 pounds in 30 days, or they might search for information on how to become more attractive to the opposite sex and get more dates. With this business idea you conduct research into the types of information people are looking for and then you create and market information products that provide the information that people want. It’s important that your products help the people reading/listening to/watching them to solve the problems that started their search to begin with. You’ll find a deep sense of satisfaction with this online business idea because you’re genuinely helping people. By providing information products to people looking to know how to become more attractive and get more dates, for example, your product will help your clients solve their relationship problems. While you may choose to create information products based on subjects that you have knowledge and expertise on, you don’t have to be an expert on the information products that you create and sell. You could interview experts on your chosen topic (over an Internet connection using special software). The fastest way to start an information product business is to research subjects people are looking for information on, and then hire a writer or expert to create a high quality information product for you. Often online information products are delivered in the form of an eBook which your customers pay to download. However, there are many other ways to deliver information products. For example you can deliver your information products via online audio or video, or via physical products such as DVDs and workbooks. One of the most attractive things about this business idea is that the cost of delivery for information products is usually very low—yet high quality information products can often sell at high prices. For example, you might create an eBook on how to lose 15 pounds in 30 days which sells at $47—yet the cost of delivery is virtually nothing as your clients simply download your eBook to their computer without any printing or shipping costs on your part. Even physical products such as DVDs and workbooks can be produced and delivered at a relatively low cost, and some information products sell for thousands of dollars. Added to this, as an information product creator you can arrange for other online marketers (affiliates) to market and sell your information products for you in exchange for a commission (typically around 50%). Once you’ve created a quality information product and have an effective system in place for selling it, you can reach a point where others do the majority of your marketing and sales for you. Top information product creators earn six or even seven figures or more annually, so starting an information product business certainly represents a very lucrative opportunity. Additionally, you can easily run this business from the comfort of your own home (or from anywhere in the world as long as you have access to the Internet) and it is possible to start your information product business at a relatively low cost. Therefore with dedication and commitment you can achieve fantastic financial success and a great deal of personal freedom by starting your own information product business.

A Day in the Life of an Information Product Business Owner:

As an information product business owner, you’ll have the luxury of choosing your own hours of work. Added to this, as a successful information product business owner you’ll be in a position where you’ll have products and sales systems in place that generate much of your income for you automatically. This is because you’ll have successful information products that are being sold for you by affiliates. You will have to be committed to continually growing your business, which is why you will periodically set about researching and creating new information products. To do this you would spend time researching what types of information people are looking for on the internet. You might assess which information products people are already buying, and consider how you might be able to compete with and improve upon the products that are currently available with your own product. Alternatively you might use search engine data, for example, to look for information that people are searching for but about which there might not be existing information products available. Once you have identified something that people are looking for information on (how to lose weight if you are diabetic, for example) you would then set about creating your product. If you are an expert on the subject, you might decide to create your information product yourself. Alternatively, you would hire someone to create it for you (for example, you would hire a freelance writer to create a quality eBook for you). Having created your product you would then set up a sales system which would allow your customers to buy your product. Usually this would consist of a sales page with a checkout allowing your customers to buy your product via credit card or PayPal payment. You could write and set up your sales page yourself, or you could hire someone else to do it for you. Having created your product and set up your sales system, you would then go about marketing your product. You would do this either by notifying affiliate marketers in niches relevant to the subject of the information product you created so that they sell your product for you (in exchange for a commission), or by setting up websites to market and sell your product on—or both. Of course, researching your product, creating it and setting up your sales system may take you more than a day (and possibly a week or more depending on the approach you take). If you decide to have someone else create the product for you, a typical day will be spent overseeing the smooth running of your business and reviewing and approving the information product ideas your subcontractors will present to you. You will also spend time networking with other information product creators and building your associations with affiliate marketers (so that you have lots of people available in related niches to sell your information products for you).

About Your Customers:

Your customers will be people looking for information on specific subjects. Usually this information will help them solve a problem (such as in health, relationships, money etc.), or it may be related to something that they are very passionate about (or a combination of both).

What You Need to Start:

• An information product (such as an eBook, audio or video program, DVD, workbook, etc.)
• A website to sell your information product through
• Marketing (i.e. having affiliates to market and sell your info product for you, and/or having your own online marketing via search engines, ads, etc.)
• A business license
• Financial tracking software

The Good:

• Information product businesses can be very lucrative (top information product business owners generate six or seven figures or more annually).
• You don’t have to be an expert to create information products (you can hire experts to create your information products for you).
• You can run this business from the comfort of your own home—or from anywhere in the world as long as you have access to the Internet.
• The start-up costs for this business can be relatively low (especially if you choose to create your information products yourself).

The Bad:

• Achieving success as an information product creator won’t happen overnight—it will take time and commitment.
• Big markets for information products (such as weight loss and dating) can be competitive, so finding lucrative information product opportunities will require good research and persistence.

Resources:

• Product Development and Management Association
• Information Marketing Association
• eBook Developers Association
• Wikipedia on E-Books

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