Low start up business ideas

[EarlOfHazard]

crosseyedlion said:

Also, forgot to mention.

The stunning thing so far is...customers seem to think I'm some sort of wizard. I'm doing nothing extraordinary, I'm just doing the job and paying attention to the process from initial contact through to completion with professionalism. Literally just doing the job. And it makes me stand out apparently.

This industry is in a terrible state.

Best of luck to you, this looks it could be the start of great things!!

[RickRolled]

Well done, make sure your customers leave your a review on your Facebook page - every little help.

[alfabeat]

Really well done. I was expecting the thread to drift off to nothing as they mostly tend to do, but was very pleasantly surprised to see you actually go and do it!

As above, really work hard on the Facebook page, push customers for reviews and your local Facebook Area page. Local businesses in our area do really well on that and it's free advertising.

Please keep us updated and best of luck with it all.

[200Plus Club]

It's a very good point about just doing a good thorough job. My friend started up on his own as a specialist in one make (alfa) and now has more work than he can handle as he likes to do a very thorough professional job. He has got premises and overheads but he's 3 weeks or more in front with solid bookings all the time, within a few yrs of start up.
Well done And good luck. You should "leave" a few details lying around lol as I'm in South York's too and may need you if there's something I can't do myself :-)

[Glasgowrob]

one thing I will offer in way of advice,


never promise to fit someone in or "i'll get round to it"

always give yourself enough wiggle room in a day if theres any problems arise you can deal with it and still make the next appointment in good time.
it might be tempting to squeeze extra jobs in and its great when things go to plan but when things go wrong you let people down and that is the worst thing any business can do. a customer scorned outweighs a 100 good reviews and feedback.

as you seem to have found though the industry is in a terrible state and the attitude is shocking. be realistic when booking people in and if you do branch out down the line and take staff on experience and skill is not everything, a can do flexible attitude makes or breaks good staff. skills can be taught, experience gained but attitude is something you will struggle to adjust.

[crosseyedlion]

Glasgowrob said:

one thing I will offer in way of advice,


never promise to fit someone in or "i'll get round to it"

always give yourself enough wiggle room in a day if theres any problems arise you can deal with it and still make the next appointment in good time.
it might be tempting to squeeze extra jobs in and its great when things go to plan but when things go wrong you let people down and that is the worst thing any business can do. a customer scorned outweighs a 100 good reviews and feedback.

as you seem to have found though the industry is in a terrible state and the attitude is shocking. be realistic when booking people in and if you do branch out down the line and take staff on experience and skill is not everything, a can do flexible attitude makes or breaks good staff. skills can be taught, experience gained but attitude is something you will struggle to adjust.

That's very wise advice, because those lessons I learnt in my old garage business! Building in lots of extra time into my day, already paying dividends. Yesterday I could finish at 2, today a 2 hour job turned into 4. No big deal.

And about staff, I hired a mid 60s very experienced mechanic in my old business. He was frankly horrendous and one of the reasons for the downfall of the old place. I'd much rather hire on attitude now.

Thank you all for the kind words and advice!

[carinaman]

I wish all the best for your business and look forward to the updates.

[ReaperCushions]

Congrats OP for getting it off the ground. Nice to see a success story in the making actually happen.

Maybe a few others of us can take the baton from you now you are on your way as a way of keeping the thread alive?

My situation is somewhat different, but I'm after similar ideas.

I have around 2 hours per day free right now outside of my regular job that I think I can spend more productively.

I don't have huge amounts of space to store things, or any particular manual skill (Like being a mechanic). My day job is in sales and marketing.

Ideally, it would be something that I could spend those 2 hours a day in front of a computer. I'm also happy to invest some cash so doesn't have to be a super low startup idea.

I don't like the idea of these borderline scams (Matched betting, FX trading, Crypto trading) etc... As I'd like to build a sustainable business that provides some degree of passive income in the future, so a business rather than a second job (Data entry, uber driving etc)

Any bright ideas for internet-based startups you can do at home?

[Tony Angelino]

ReaperCushions said:

Congrats OP for getting it off the ground. Nice to see a success story in the making actually happen.

Maybe a few others of us can take the baton from you now you are on your way as a way of keeping the thread alive?

My situation is somewhat different, but I'm after similar ideas.

I have around 2 hours per day free right now outside of my regular job that I think I can spend more productively.

I don't have huge amounts of space to store things, or any particular manual skill (Like being a mechanic). My day job is in sales and marketing.

Ideally, it would be something that I could spend those 2 hours a day in front of a computer. I'm also happy to invest some cash so doesn't have to be a super low startup idea.

I don't like the idea of these borderline scams (Matched betting, FX trading, Crypto trading) etc... As I'd like to build a sustainable business that provides some degree of passive income in the future, so a business rather than a second job (Data entry, uber driving etc)

Any bright ideas for internet-based startups you can do at home?

Much the same situation so I am watching too.

[200Plus Club]

Daft as it sounds a friend is a scrap man, (legit) and makes very very decent money for an unqualified type person. When metal prices /scrap are low he tends to store stock and then drop onto simple garden and house clearances which you could do in a transit van /pick up.
Ie today he's earned £470 in just under 6 hrs doing 3 clearances of untidy garden bulk and paid £70 out to tip it (official). He does one day a week generally on this type work.
Trade insurance for one vehicle, waste carrier license, cheap van. Overheads aren't massive and he regularly takes 500 quid for 6-8hrs work of this nature. His only advertising is his van with number on it and a free Facebook page plus word of mouth and being extremely flexible and helpful.

[Sunnyone]

ReaperCushions said:

Congrats OP for getting it off the ground. Nice to see a success story in the making actually happen.

Maybe a few others of us can take the baton from you now you are on your way as a way of keeping the thread alive?

My situation is somewhat different, but I'm after similar ideas.

I have around 2 hours per day free right now outside of my regular job that I think I can spend more productively.

I don't have huge amounts of space to store things, or any particular manual skill (Like being a mechanic). My day job is in sales and marketing.

Ideally, it would be something that I could spend those 2 hours a day in front of a computer. I'm also happy to invest some cash so doesn't have to be a super low startup idea.

I don't like the idea of these borderline scams (Matched betting, FX trading, Crypto trading) etc... As I'd like to build a sustainable business that provides some degree of passive income in the future, so a business rather than a second job (Data entry, uber driving etc)

Any bright ideas for internet-based startups you can do at home?

How about freelance/commission only sales . Loads of sites looking for agents and if you choose the right product it could be lucrative.

[Undercover Agent]

ReaperCushions said:

Any bright ideas for internet-based startups you can do at home?

I'm about to start filming as a bit of a side-venture for a new YouTube channel, fairly generic mildly niche tech reviews, how-tos and so on, link it to Amazon Associates and hope people buy the tech im reviewing, in theory this could lead to some fairly hefty payouts. will see....

[singlecoil]

Undercover Agent said:

ReaperCushions said:

Any bright ideas for internet-based startups you can do at home?

I'm about to start filming as a bit of a side-venture for a new YouTube channel, fairly generic mildly niche tech reviews, how-tos and so on, link it to Amazon Associates and hope people buy the tech im reviewing, in theory this could lead to some fairly hefty payouts. will see....

So presumably these reviews will be framed in a positive way?

[Undercover Agent]

singlecoil said:

Undercover Agent said:

ReaperCushions said:

Any bright ideas for internet-based startups you can do at home?

I'm about to start filming as a bit of a side-venture for a new YouTube channel, fairly generic mildly niche tech reviews, how-tos and so on, link it to Amazon Associates and hope people buy the tech im reviewing, in theory this could lead to some fairly hefty payouts. will see....

So presumably these reviews will be framed in a positive way?

Not necessarily, but probably :-)
Aside from just affiliate links, I need to drive subs etc, so have various plans.....
People have gone full time on the back of this model, so its not easy but possible to make a very tidy passive income if done right.

[Hoofy]

Tony Angelino said:

ReaperCushions said:

Congrats OP for getting it off the ground. Nice to see a success story in the making actually happen.

Maybe a few others of us can take the baton from you now you are on your way as a way of keeping the thread alive?

My situation is somewhat different, but I'm after similar ideas.

I have around 2 hours per day free right now outside of my regular job that I think I can spend more productively.

I don't have huge amounts of space to store things, or any particular manual skill (Like being a mechanic). My day job is in sales and marketing.

Ideally, it would be something that I could spend those 2 hours a day in front of a computer. I'm also happy to invest some cash so doesn't have to be a super low startup idea.

I don't like the idea of these borderline scams (Matched betting, FX trading, Crypto trading) etc... As I'd like to build a sustainable business that provides some degree of passive income in the future, so a business rather than a second job (Data entry, uber driving etc)

Any bright ideas for internet-based startups you can do at home?

Much the same situation so I am watching too.

If it's a business rather than a second job, I'd think about scalability and how you can take what you can do well and move it into a scalable business that ultimately means you can sit back and sleep while people throw money at you.

[Zoon]

200Plus Club said:

paid £70 out to tip it (official).

Could you let me know where he tips?
Landfill tax is £88.95 a tonne alone, never mind tipping charges.

[48k]

Zoon said:

200Plus Club said:

paid £70 out to tip it (official).

Could you let me know where he tips?
Landfill tax is £88.95 a tonne alone, never mind tipping charges.

Where does landfill tax come in to it? He's cleared three gardens of rubbish and taken it to the tip so would be paying trade waste charges.

Eg. my local council charges £55 for up to 250KG of trade waste or £35 for clean green waste.

https://www.buckscc.gov.uk/services/waste-and-recy...

[200Plus Club]

48k said:

Where does landfill tax come in to it? He's cleared three gardens of rubbish and taken it to the tip so would be paying trade waste charges.

Eg. my local council charges £55 for up to 250KG of trade waste or £35 for clean green waste.

https://www.buckscc.gov.uk/services/waste-and-recy...

Correct it goes in as trade waste on weight.

[illmonkey]

I've run a forum and a website selling a service much like drop shipping, but not, fully automated and just ticks along.

My aim was to have 5 or 6 of these, to bring in enough to think about going full time, then expanding 1 or 2, or doing something new. Typically, I lost focus on them and sales/revenue has dwindled, but they still tick along. Little upfront costs and the odd hosting bill was all my costs.

When out of work for a few months, I did help the old man who had picked up some work from the estate agent my mum worked for. These houses were rented out as maintained, so the agent needed someone who could jump over to a house, and fix what ever was needed. Being a handy chap, my dad was inundated with random work from changing lightbulbs to erecting sheds.

Money didn't seem to be a problem to the landlord! The tenant would request something, agent ask dad for a cost, then just inform the landlord, who'd agree and away he went. Dad was paid by the agent, so had to do little invoicing/chasing.

We were once paid £250 to put up a 4x6 shed, which took 2 hours for both of us. And £600 for 2 days a piece doing some basic garden work. The thought crossed my line to buy a cheap van, little bit of advertising and approach some more agency's and you'd be laughing. Not bad for non-skilled manual labour.

[13aines]

illmonkey said:

I've run a forum and a website selling a service much like drop shipping, but not, fully automated and just ticks along.

My aim was to have 5 or 6 of these, to bring in enough to think about going full time, then expanding 1 or 2, or doing something new. Typically, I lost focus on them and sales/revenue has dwindled, but they still tick along. Little upfront costs and the odd hosting bill was all my costs.

Would be interested to hear more about this