Low start up business ideas

Low start up business ideas

Author
Discussion

DSLiverpool

14,671 posts

201 months

Thursday 26th July 2018
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crosseyedlion said:
jeremyc said:
Bicycle repairs, second hand sales and hire?

Is there a significant cycling/mountain biking scene in the Peak District you could serve? Maybe offer mobile repairs/recovery as a differentiator?
Excellent suggestion and one I hadn't really thought of or looked into. From a quick Google, its going on the list!
Hire out e-bikes / bikes, fix them, service them and sell them - differentiate by offering bespoke personal service.

Tim2k9

132 posts

78 months

Thursday 26th July 2018
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Frimley111R said:
Random thought but there are always these people on the web who tell you how you can make a lot of money doing what they say, they can't all be bullstters.
They all aren’t but the vast majority are. Only this week have I had Facebook adverts with a nice flashy video trying to sell a system that could make $xxxx per day. Problem is the system they were selling stopped working in roughly 2009, obviously they have heard it, tried it themselves and couldn’t get it to work so copied it and tried to sell the method.

There are still things that do work online though. Some harder than others.

Building websites with affiliate offers on driving traffic to them works. Rather than paying for any guide though check out https://www.buildersociety.com/forums/digital-stra...
Probably the best course out there and completely free, you do need to sign up to the forum though.

Paid advertising works. If it didn’t you wouldn’t see adverts all over the web. Truth be known though to get started in this you will want a $99 per month subscription to https://stmforum.com plus a $99 a month tracker, such as Voluum. Then ideally to give yourself a leg up a $250 a month subscription to what runs where. On top of this you will need a dedicated server (another $50 a month) and a minimum of $10,000 to purchase “data” or in other words advertising spend. (All this info is in dollars as that’s what everyone charges in)

Finally matched betting, sports trading, arbing, casino offers, etc is a genuine way to make money. Here’s a guide https://www.escapetherace.today/matched-betting-gu... the first £500-1000 is easy to make but after that it takes more effort. People do it full time but I’d treat it more as a second income.

Most other things offered are variations or methods to make money from these, or forex trading (which I have no idea about and never really looked into) or a new one seems to be bitcoin trading. Which worked for a few when the price was going up quickly, gone a lot quieter now.

Alternatively you could just pretend to teach one of these methods, get a picture of yourself next to an old Lamborghini and use words like ballin’.

moustachebandit

1,264 posts

142 months

Friday 27th July 2018
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What about servicing & repairs for classics?

Surprisingly under serviced market, generally affluent customer base, not time driven and classics are usually significantly easier to work on than moderns.

Shuvi McTupya

24,460 posts

246 months

Friday 27th July 2018
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JQ said:
No wonder he's got a superbike, our window cleaner charges £6.
He is well behind the times then. I had a window cleaning round in about 1990 and I charged a fiver for a small house with no conservatory.

Our window cleaning company here charges £12 per house, all done from the ground. They do our little cluster of five houses in about 40 minutes.




BoRED S2upid

19,643 posts

239 months

Friday 27th July 2018
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Hoofy said:
Have you considered giving quotes for major gas plumbing work? A customer calls you re a problem with their central heating. You diagnose it within 20 minutes and then charge £140 for the quote. You could bring along a £20 damp meter for added importance.

Remember to make the quote massively overpriced so they don't go with you then you don't need to do any work and thus be qualified.
Who in their right mind pays for a quote?

Shnozz

27,422 posts

270 months

Friday 27th July 2018
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Frimley111R said:
Handyman could well mean doing loads of little jobs for similarly little £?
Van collection/delivery and building of IKEA furniture?

Blackpuddin

16,409 posts

204 months

Friday 27th July 2018
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Ice cream trike. Low consumables, high profits.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ice-Cream-Cart-Ice-Crea...


Hoofy

76,253 posts

281 months

Friday 27th July 2018
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BoRED S2upid said:
Hoofy said:
Have you considered giving quotes for major gas plumbing work? A customer calls you re a problem with their central heating. You diagnose it within 20 minutes and then charge £140 for the quote. You could bring along a £20 damp meter for added importance.

Remember to make the quote massively overpriced so they don't go with you then you don't need to do any work and thus be qualified.
Who in their right mind pays for a quote?
Pregnant women, I understand.

rival38

485 posts

144 months

Friday 27th July 2018
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What about Gardening : Hedge cutting, pruning & mowing etc.

No premises needed.

Outdoors and physical, if you like that.

I expect there will be a local college where you can do some basic courses to make sure you don`t make silly mistakes.

There are lots of cowboys doing it of course for cash in hand, with knackered kit and poor knowledge & skills. But if you do it right and are not too greedy you will have as much work as you want by word of mouth.

A friend of mine did this 2+ years ago when he lost his job in print and wanted a change. He loves it, seems to be doing OK too. Now also offers turf and patio laying and has taken on an apprentice from the local college where he has done some basic courses. He has a book of regular work and also takes on one off projects when it suits.

He is a bit of a perfectionist, turns up in a liveried van & wears a polo shirt with his logo on it. His tools are always immaculate and he is very tidy / takes debris away. Customers get a proper invoice. He thinks on average he is charging £30 ph for his time `on site` and this is in Norwich which is not a London price point type of place.

iphonedyou

9,234 posts

156 months

Saturday 28th July 2018
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BoRED S2upid said:
Who in their right mind pays for a quote?
14,625 posts and that sailed over your head?

98elise

26,376 posts

160 months

Saturday 28th July 2018
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Painter and decorator.

When I needed a whole house I interior painting,the quotes were through the roof and the lead in times were weeks if not months.

Stick leaflets through doors with fixed costs based on room sizes, and stick a postcard in the local post office window.

I recently got the end wall of my house painted by a well known local firm. They charged £100 and it took less than 4 hours. They did a st job of it, (rather then cutting in they simply left a bit unpainted around the windows) yet remain in business.

cholo

1,126 posts

234 months

Saturday 28th July 2018
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Guy round here started a delivery service for Takeaways who don't do delivery (Including Macca D's KFC etc) as well as the small chains.

Very simple business and he seems to be doing ok..

48k

12,981 posts

147 months

Saturday 28th July 2018
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cholo said:
Guy round here started a delivery service for Takeaways who don't do delivery (Including Macca D's KFC etc) as well as the small chains.

Very simple business and he seems to be doing ok..
Define "ok" though. Can't see him clearing £100 a day 5 days per week delivering McDonalds.

bearman68

4,642 posts

131 months

Saturday 28th July 2018
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moustachebandit said:
What about servicing & repairs for classics?

Surprisingly under serviced market, generally affluent customer base, not time driven and classics are usually significantly easier to work on than moderns.
This. Need welding skills,fitting skills and time.
We get them all the time, and I bloody hate them. I try desperately not to do them, and customers are really insistent that I do. I really hate doing classic stuff. You need something called 'Imperial' spanner sizes. Whatever they are?? <shiver>

Mashwort

83 posts

153 months

Sunday 29th July 2018
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Have a look at https://www.profitaccumulator.co.uk/

I've played with it as have a couple of friends. We've average £50 per day and it takes approx 1 hour per day once you get the hang of it. Need a little upfront cash to pre load the accounts otherwise minmal cost. Might get you some cash flow whilst you build up other ideas.

98elise

26,376 posts

160 months

Monday 30th July 2018
quotequote all
BoRED S2upid said:
Hoofy said:
Have you considered giving quotes for major gas plumbing work? A customer calls you re a problem with their central heating. You diagnose it within 20 minutes and then charge £140 for the quote. You could bring along a £20 damp meter for added importance.

Remember to make the quote massively overpriced so they don't go with you then you don't need to do any work and thus be qualified.
Who in their right mind pays for a quote?
It seems common in the joinery trade. I wanted a custom staircase built a few years back and all of the companies I rang would only come out and quote for a fee.

In the end I bought a router and built it myself. It's was reasonably simple with a bit of planning and maths.

Frimley111R

15,537 posts

233 months

Monday 30th July 2018
quotequote all
98elise said:
Painter and decorator.

When I needed a whole house I interior painting,the quotes were through the roof and the lead in times were weeks if not months.

Stick leaflets through doors with fixed costs based on room sizes, and stick a postcard in the local post office window.

I recently got the end wall of my house painted by a well known local firm. They charged £100 and it took less than 4 hours. They did a st job of it, (rather then cutting in they simply left a bit unpainted around the windows) yet remain in business.
i was going to suggest this. The back of our house took a morning to paint (2 guys) and yet we had quotes for £1000. Eventually some guys did it for £350 but they were the exception. Ridiculous money for the amount of work. On your own you could have taken a couple of days over it and still have made some very good money. All they had were ladders and bushes.

48k

12,981 posts

147 months

Monday 30th July 2018
quotequote all
Mashwort said:
Have a look at https://www.profitaccumulator.co.uk/

I've played with it as have a couple of friends. We've average £50 per day and it takes approx 1 hour per day once you get the hang of it. Need a little upfront cash to pre load the accounts otherwise minmal cost. Might get you some cash flow whilst you build up other ideas.
How long does the "once you get the hang of it" take? It's just taken me best part of an hour to get going and have a dabble. If it works my bets are going to net a shade over £4. laugh (Dutch Connection in the 3pm at Goodwood tomorrow, decimal odds 13, backed on Coral, layed on Betfair). Which seems like a lot of effort for little return.

Edited by 48k on Monday 30th July 11:54

InitialDave

11,856 posts

118 months

Monday 30th July 2018
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Sounds like you have reasonable technical and computer skills, so perhaps consider 3D printing? Combined with doing the measuring and modelling (Autodesk Fusion 360 is free to use for low turnover/small business scenarios), either replicating obsolete small components or prototyping stuff could both be a good niche.

I know people who have a home business doing it for props/accessories for cosplay (dressing up like film/game/anime characters), they're up to something like 9 machines running in parallel kicking out commissions for people constantly.

I also know of a local guy with a few programmable sewing machines for embroidered logos on work shirts, doesn't seem to be short of orders because he has quick turnaround and can work from a basic supplied image of a logo etc.

Frimley111R

15,537 posts

233 months

Monday 30th July 2018
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You'll make the most money for whatever it is you are skilled in. If you can leverage your skills and experience as a consultant on a few days a week it'll be easier than competing with people with few skills/financial requirements doing basic work