Early in his career, Travis Barker decided he wanted to be a drummer so badly that he was willing ta take a huge risk. He wanted to make sure he was unemployable so he couldn’t escape from his dream by taking an ordinary job. So, he got some tattoos on his face. Any prospective employer would look at him and say, “No way.”
Now, Travis had to be a drummer. He had quite purposely eliminated all other choices. For Travis it worked to such a degree that he is world-famous, and has branched out into multi-million dollar merchandising.
I’m not sure I recommend something so drastic for you. On the other hand, many people have fallen short of the life they really wanted because they took the easy way out.
You can make real money with your guitar, even if you aren’t a great musician.
1. Teach beginners to play. Most lessons are given to beginners. Few students are intermediate or advanced players. As long as you know the fundamentals and are one step ahead of your students, you can teach. This is especially true if you have an empathetic personality. Any teacher can make $60/hour or more. Typically lessons are 1/2-hour for $30. You can make even more by teaching multiple students concurrently, even online through Zoom lessons.
2. Street performing can be surprisingly lucrative. It is important to find a location where street performing is legal and appreciated. It also has to be quiet enough that people can hear you. This can pay in excess of $40/hour. One of the coolest things about street performing is that you get to practice or work out new material while you’re getting paid. The next time you see an experienced street performer, hang around for a while, and watch how much money is going in their hat or tip jar.
When you first start street performing, you’ll make mistakes. You may even find the whole thing embarrassing, but in time, you’ll be like a rock star to the people who stop and listen.
You get to set your own hours, play the music you like, and do everything your way. What could be better?
You might want to perform on an acoustic guitar. This is fine if the environment is quiet enough. More commonly, performers will use a little battery-powered amp.
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3. If you’re a typical musician, you appreciate good instruments. Leverage your knowledge of guitars by buying one which you know is a particularly good deal. Sell it at a profit through local networking, Craigslist, or Ebay. Take the profit and buy two more guitars. Sell those, and so on, until you’ve built up a profitable guitar sales business. In order to success, make sure there is a good markup on each purchase. You don’t want to spend $100 on an average guitar and sell it for $125. Instead, you might prefer to buy an especially nice guitar for $150, and sell it for $600.
4. Run a music camp. This can be as basic as having paying musicians come to your living room on a regular basis to a full-on camp where you rent live-in facilities and provide all sorts of activities for a week or two. Camps don’t have to be just for children. Many adults would love mixing with other adults in a music camp.
There’s money in specialization. If you’re a flamenco player, love finger picking, are remarkable with slap guitar, have a knack for composing, or can do anything most other guitarists can’t, you win!
The main rule in business that overrides all others, no matter what business you’re in, is that you have to take in more money than you spend.
It’s just that simple.
“You have to take in more money than you spend.”
Consider this rule in all your decisions, and you are much more likely to do well.
That’s the magic right there: Remember to take this into account when you’re thinking about anything that could cost money.
There are exceptions to the rule, but they should all be temporary. For instance, you may need to break the rule for a while to replace your broken-down delivery van. Or, you can add high turnover products to your inventory. Or, a relative needs dentistry.
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Getting back to the rule: On average, you need to take in more than you spend. Factor that into everything and you’ll have a good life!
Most businesses that failed were owned by people who have repeatedly disregarded this rule.
Josephine Baker was a sexy and highly sexual woman. She became the biggest African-American star in the world. Here is her strange mini-biography.
Josephine was born in 1906 on the wrong side of the tracks in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA. Her grandparents on her mother’s side had been slaves.
Her parents had a vaudeville background. Vaudeville was live variety entertainment presented in theaters. Acts ranged from singing and dancing to magic, juggling, trained animal acts, and comedy. Back in the day, vaudeville was an attractive pursuit that was profitable for some performers, but barely made ends meet for most.
Her deadbeat father was a drummer who left when Josephine was one year old. He may have been of Native American heritage. No one seems to know for sure. Her poor mother had to take in laundry to barely put food on the table.
To make matters worse, her mother found another man to marry. Another deadbeat. Oh, this one didn’t leave the family, but he didn’t work either. He spent his days sitting around reading the newspaper. The family was so poor that Josephine, her younger step-brother and two step-sisters, her mother and father all slept in the same bed.
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After a while, that was too much for her, so she took to sleeping on the floor, under a blanket made from newspapers.
When she was eight years old, to bring in more money her mother sent her off to work for a white family as a maid. Things got worse, not better. Josephine slept in that family’s basement with their dog.
One time, she put too much soap in the laundry. The white woman burned her hands. Evidently, it was just mild enough not to leave permanent scars.
Despite all that, Josephine managed to stay in school until age twelve.
Things weren’t yet bad as they could be. By the age of thirteen, she was living on the streets, scavenging for food and using cardboard boxes for shelter from the weather. Needing money, she took up unskilled street performing. She emulated popular dances of the era, Trucking, The Tack-Annie, The Itch, and Messing Around.
Finally, things started to improve. She met and married Willie Wells. She was thirteen years old at the time. He was fifteen. One can only imagine what kind of sex life they had. How much did they even know about sex at that age?
Josephine’s rough street performing improved and she started performing with the Jones Family street performers in front of Booker T Washington theater.
One day, the opening act in the theater, the Dixie Steppers, failed to show. You guessed it. The Jones family, along with Josephine were invited into the theater to perform on stage.
By this time, Josephine could dance, cross her eyes, and play trombone at the same time. She had comedy talent.
By the time she was 15 years old, she had divorced Willie, and married a guy named William Howard Baker at age 15. Just like her father, William turned out to be a lazy non-worker. Isn’t it amazing how often people will marry someone who has the same traits as one of their parents?
Right around this time, the manager of the Dixie Stepper took the Jones family and Josephine to New York. During this time, Josephine’s career evolved. She was truly a professional, although not by any means well-paid.
Still only fifteen years old, Josephine won a role in the 1921 all-Black production “Shuffle Along.” She played comedy clown at the end of a chorus line who couldn’t keep up, stumbling around out of time, and making a hilarious mess, but she ended the routine with skillful dancing.
She performed in New York City for four years as her skill continued to grow. Then, at age nineteen, she moved to Paris, France.
She became a nearly instant sensation. Billed as having come from an African tribe, she could dance like no other, taking what she had learned on the streets of Saint Luis including things like popping and locking, which she was doing decades ahead of time, to the stages of Paris.
Some have said that she’s the founder of much modern dance including hip-hop. Reviewers at the time called her style ‘uninhibited.’ Beyonce, among other modern celebrities have attributed some of their skills to Josephine’s influence.
It didn’t hurt that she was an exceptionally beautiful Black woman, a rarity in France. Furthermore, it didn’t hurt that she danced nearly naked, something that was somewhat common in Paris at the time. Did I say ‘nearly naked?’ She was absolutely topless other than some necklaces, and had invented a skirt made of sixteen rubber bananas that were hung from a belt and swayed back and forth in such a way that the audience could see everything. She was obviously not afraid to be seen in her entirety. According to some reports, she sometimes performed 100% naked.
Two years later, Josephine Baker became the ‘Toast of Paris.’
Great opportunities came her way. She was the the first black star in a major motion picture, Siren of the Tropics, a silent film released in 1927. Later she starred in “Zuzu” in 1934, and “Princes TamTam” in 1935.
One of her trademarks was a spit curl, a little lock of hair that was pasted to her forehead, Betty Boop style. In fact Betty Boop, who came along in 1930, may have been inspired by Josephine Baker. Josephine started selling the paste she used for that spit curl, calling it BakerFix, and made a literal fortune with her acting plus that product.
Another trademark, besides nudity in performing and the spit curl, was that she seldom if ever wore high heels, preferring flats. That was probably influenced by her dancing.
While many people have a housecat or a dog, Josephine fell in love with Chikita, a cheetah, giving her kitty a diamond collar that matched Josephine’s diamond bracelet. Josephine were sometimes spotted around Paris in her white convertible Rolls Royce, with Chikita by her side. She often performed with Chikita on stage. Sometimes the cat would wander down to the orchestra pit, scaring the musicians, which added to the show.
She fell in love with Giuseppe Pepito Abatino, a former stone mason from Sicily. Unlike her father and now estranged second husband, Pepito actually worked. He became her agent. She couldn’t marry him because she was still technically married to William.
Already on a spectacular projectory, with Pepito’s management, she became the most successful Black woman in Europe.
With all her success, she still missed America. She pestered Pepito to get her a booking on Broadway. He got her a starring role in the 1936 Zigfield Follies. However, this was America. She couldn’t drink from ‘white’ drinking fountains, couldn’t use ‘white’ bathrooms, or eat in ‘white’ restaurants. She had to use the service entrance of the very theater in which she was performing.
As you can imagine, she went back to France as soon as the Zigfield gig was done.
In time, she could have married Pepito, but he died of stomach cancer when she was 30 years old.
She counted among her friends Jean Cocteau, who is described in Wikipedia as “French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic.”
Ernest Hemingway called her the ‘most sensational woman anyone ever saw.’
Picasso featured her in art.
So what about her sex life? When asked, she would say she believed sex was a good workout, it was fun.
She had many affairs with men, sometimes picking up random guys in nightclubs. Women too. She had an affair with Ada “Bricktop” Smith, who was the other famous Black woman in Paris at the time. Ada was a singer, dancer, and owned a nightclub in Paris.
Ada “Bricktop” Smith
According to a Wikipedia article, Josephine also had affairs with French novelist Colette, and possibly Frida Kahlo.
Colette
Frida Kahlo
Time went on. She continued in her success. In 1937 she married Jewish French industrialist, Jean Lion. For a year, they had a wonderful time, riding horseback, flying in private planes, going fox hunting, and wining and dining with the biggest of celebrities. She left Jean after fourteen months, at least in part because of her many affairs with both men and women.
Along came World War II. She hated the Nazis. They were like prejudiced white people in America, but they tormented Jews instead of Black people. Josephine also loved France so much, the country where she was invited to dine with white people for the first time in her life, the country where everyone adored her for who she was rather than shun her just for her skin color, that she signed up as a spy with the French Resistance.
She also performed for the troops. She never charged any money for these performances. At the same time, being the celebrity that she was, she could wine and dine with many influential people, including Nazi dignitaries. She was able to get next to them – in bed one would assume, listen to their secrets, and pass them on to the French military intelligence and eventually President Charles deGaul.
At one point, she was asked to set up an army entertainment camp in Morocco. She did entertain the troops, but it was really a cover for her continuing spying activity. While in Morocco, she nearly died from the last in a series of miscarriages, probably brought on by improper abortions. This one was so bad that she developed peritonitis and a blood infection. Her uterus was removed.
Even as she was still recovering from that, she continued not only her spy work, but also, along with a entourage, she entertained the troops, charging no money, and allowing no civilians in the audience.
When the German men spilled the beans, ‘mansplained’ as one biographer called it, she wrote notes that she folded into her panties. She had no problem passing through customs as she went from country to country. No one was going to strip search the famous Josephine Baker. Instead, customs officials asked for her autograph.
Another bold trick she used to smuggle information was to write in invisible ink on her sheet music. Of course she’d always be carrying sheet music in her business.
When she was forced to leave France, she took out as many Jewish refugees as she could fit in her Rolls Royce.
The war ended. Time went on. The little girl who grew up abused and in abject poverty remained one of the biggest and wealthiest stars in Europe.
In 1947 at the age of 41, Josephine married orchestra leader, Jo Bouillon. Jo Baker and Jo Bouillon.
By the age 45, she could sing in English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Yiddish.
May 20, 1951 was declared Josephine Baker day by the NAACP.
Even though she could perform at the world-renowned Stork Club, she evidently couldn’t sit in the audience. When the management tried to expel her, Grace Kelly, later to become Princess Grace of Monaco, held her arm and walked out with her, including Grace’s entire entourage. They became close friends.
Also in 1951, while performing at the Stork Club, she complained about their policy of discouraging black audience members. Her friend Walter Winchell did not come to her defense, she she got mad at him. He retaliated by calling her a Communist in his newspaper column. That, among other complications, resulted in the government canceling her visa. Once again, she had to return to France.
She came back a few times to the United States, where she was also a celebrity, but not on the same scale as in France. In the US, she was still a ‘Negro’ and relegated to only designated restaurants, bathrooms and hotels. At one point, she was turned down by 36 hotels because she was black. People were still so fucked up about race in America that her magnificent performance in the follies earned her bad reviews.
Here’s a Time Magazine review:
“Josephine Baker is a Saint Louis washwoman’s daughter who stepped out of a negro burlesque show and into a life of adulation and luxury in Paris during the booming 1920s. In sex appeal to jaded Europeans of the jazz-loving type, a Negro wench always has a head start. The particular tawny tint of tall and stringy Josephine Baker’s bare skin stirred French pulses, but to Manhattan theater-goers last week, she was just a slightly buck-toothed young negro woman who’s figure might be matched in any nightclub show, who’s dancing and singing could be topped practically anywhere outside France.”
Shortly after the war, and possibly starting before, she began executing a brilliant idea, one many years ahead of its time. In 1936 she had purchased Château des Milandes, a chateau with a village that she hoped to turn into something like Dollywood, with peacocks, a J-shaped swimming pool, hotel, rides, and much more.
She also started adopting children, but not just any children. She wanted variety for a very special reason. She initially wanted a white child, a black child, a yellow child and a red child. She did manage to adopt White, Black and Asian children, but never managed to find a ‘red’ – American Indian child.
In total, she had twelve kids, ten boys and two girls, that she called her Rainbow Tribe. The kids she selected came from varied backgrounds, Catholic, Jewish and Muslim. She was intent on proving that people of different backgrounds can get along just fine. She said, “They will serve as an example of true democracy and be living proof that if people are left in peace, nature takes care of the rest.”
Most of her kids grew up to become successful, although one did commit suicide as an adult.
One of her children, Finnish-born Jarry, came out as gay at the age of 15. Uncharacteristically, Josephine, herself a practicing bisexual, threw him out, forcing him to live with his adoptive father, Jo Bouillion, by then in Argentina. This must have been due to what she figured would be negative publicity for her Rainbow Tribe. But still! Right?
How was Josephine as a person? People say she was sweet and kind, but also could act like a demanding brat, in the way that rapid wealth can spoil people.
When in America, she was a big civil rights advocate, being the only female speaker in the 1963 March on Washington.
When Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated, his wife, Coretta Scott King, asked Josephine to lead the civil rights movement, but she turned it down out of consideration for the safety of her children.
The Château des Milandes experiment never quite worked out. If you’ve ever owned a village with a chateau, then you know they can absorb a lot of money. In fact, Château des Milandes ate up all of Josephine’s fortune. By 1968, she was flat broke, and was evicted from the villa. Leaving her home of 32 years was not easy for her. She had to be removed bodily.
Fortunately, her friend actress Grace Kelly, gave her an apartment in which she could stay and live in style for the rest of her life.
In 1975, at the age of 68, Josephine Baker was still a very well-regarded celebrity. A sold-out show celebrating Josephine’s fifty years in entertainment was arranged at Carnegie Hall. She performed brilliantly. The show was attended by Mick Jagger, Sophia Loren, Jackie Onasis, among others.
Four days later, she died peacefully in her bed, surrounded by newspapers all with glowing reviews of her performance.
You probably know that you can post on Facebook to promote your business. Creating free posts, known as ‘organic posting’ can be effective, but is usually not enough to make you wealthy. However, Facebook offers an option called ‘boosting’ posts. This starts with an organic post. You pay Facebook a few dollars and they will expose it to more people. The number of additional people can be remarkable. For instance, you may make a post that is seen by 25 people. If you boost the same post, it might be seen by 400 people.
You can experiment with boosting without spending a fortune. Boosts can be as little as a few dollars per day. The minimum boost is $1 per day for seven days.
You can run experiments over and over again, until you find one that starts to work. That post, you can boost further. Once you know it works you can spend $1,000 per day. Of course you’ll be happy to do so if your profit exceeds $1,000 per day.
You probably figured this out already: Don’t pay more than just a few dollars per post until you find one that works.
On the other hand, don’t be discouraged if your boosted posts don’t work at first. The cost is so low that you can just keep changing things, trying new posts, until you discover what works.
Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social venues have similar paid posting programs. I like to recommend sticking with Facebook at the beginning because it’s easy, is seen by potentially billions of people, and has a low cost of entry.
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In this article we’ll talk about organic posting. Organic posting is about publishing free posts in social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest. You can also pay for advertising in social media. A common technique is called ‘boosting,’ which is covered here: Carefully Boosting Facebook Posts.
When you’re starting a new business, or trying to build up an existing business, there is no need to spend a fortune on advertising. In fact, that’s not even a good idea, since most advertising fails to make even enough money to pay for the advertising.
You can actually build your business with organic posting. It will help if you incorporate these techniques:
1. Every post should contain a description with a link to your website.
2. If you can make videos, then you can post on YouTube, Vimeo and WhatsApp. Videos can be very effective. However, they are time-consuming to develop.
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3. Memes are nearly as effective as videos. The term ‘meme’ can have various meanings, but is generally understood as a picture with embedded text. You may need to do some learning to create your own memes with something like Photoshop, Windows Paint, or Gimp. Or, you can use one of the several online meme generators. They are easy to use, but most require that you sign in, and buy a small membership for typically $4/month.
4. Target your audience. It doesn’t generally hurt to attract people who will not buy your product or service, unless you swamp your website’s server or invite lots of phone calls that would waste your time. By targeting your audience, you’ll attract the kind of people who are most likely to buy your product or service. Targeting can be done by using the words they are most likely to use when they are looking for what you offer.
5. Put keywords in your post descriptions. ‘Keywords’ can be words or phrases. For instance, if you are offering piano lessons in Marin County, your keywords might be ‘piano lessons’, ‘piano lessons San Rafael,’ ‘piano lessons Novato’, ‘piano teacher’ and so on.
6. Leverage hashtags. You may have seen posts with hashtags in front of keywords, such as #Novato or #SanRafael. Hashtags cannot have spaces or punctuation. Typically, to make multiple-word hashtags more human-readable, the first letter of each word is capitalized,
Most people don’t quite understand how hashtags work.
Let’s say you’re in the reptile business. In your posts, you hashtag #reptile. Other people posting will hashtag reptile also. Imagine a visitor comes to someone else’s post about reptiles and that other poster also hashtagged reptile. The visitor who is particularly interested in reptiles may click the hashtag in the other person’s post, and will be shown a list of other recent posts that have used the same hashtag. That’s where you win. Your targeted visitor is shown your post even if they otherwise would hever have found you.
7. Be more specific in your keywords and hashtags. You could hashtag #SanDiego. The problem is that hundreds of others, maybe thousands of posters have also tagged #SanDiego. However, if you hashtag some of the surrounding communities, such as #LaJolla, #Encinitas or #ChulaVista, you’re very likely to capture everyone interested from those communities.
8. Make your posts interesting, cute, or positively eccentric. By ‘positively eccentric’ I mean something catchy and unusual, maybe even crazy, but not so nutty that it would hurt your brand.
If your posts excite people they’ll click their ‘Like’ buttons, email their friends and so on. If you get it right, your post could go viral overnight. Of course the likelihood on any one post going viral is small, but if you make enough positively eccentric posts, something is likely to work quite well.
9. There is generally no limit on posting. Two former presidents of the United States used to tweet (create posts on Twitter) up to twenty times per day. If you make a few posts, don’t expect much business, but if over the course of a few weeks you publish a hundred posts, some of the are likely to work well.
Below are some posts I’ve created for past clients.
What does a toaster oven have in common with a pond fountain? Absolutely nothing! You can’t even buy a toaster oven at discount-pumps.biz. But you can get floating pond fountains, waterfall pumps, pondDye, and all sorts of other things to enhance your acreage on a pond or lake. (#pump, #fountain, #pondFountain)
At the House of Bread in Anchorage, Alaska, they baked a 100-pound cinnamon roll. You can have fun like that in your own franchise #bakery. Find out all about it at HouseOfBreadFranchise.com (#businessOpportunity, #franchise, #franchiseOpportunity, #baking, #bread, #bakery)
Docking your sailboat, fishing boat, speed boat or any kind of recreational boat is fine until the day another boat comes too close or bad weather sets in. It’s easy to fix with a mooring whip. Get your mooring whip and other marine supplies at DockingProducts.com. (#marine, #mooring, #mooringWhip, #boat, #boating, #sailboat, #speedboat, #fishingBoat)
Can’t talk to your family and friends? We understand you. Welcome to the safe, friendly, and informative community of lightworkers helping each other to get through the spiritual awakening process at HigherSelfPortal.com. (#spiritual, #spiritualAwakening, #family, #friends, #relationships)
She doesn’t know what’s expected of her. Can she bark or not? How does she walk with a leash? Who’s in charge? Dogs need to know this stuff. Obedience Training is the answer, but dog training is expensive, right? Not if you do it yourself. Check out the puppy training videos at trainingforpuppy.com (#dogTraining, #dog, #puppy, #puppyTraining, #obedienceTraining)
As shown here, four ounces of organic, biodegradable pond dye starts a wonderful transition in your lake or pond. It’s completely non-toxic and It’s much more than just a pretty color. Find out what it does at discount-pumps.biz/pond-dye.php – where you can also get floating pond fountains, waterfall pumps and more. (#pondDye, #pond, #lake, #fountain, #floatingFountain, #pondFountain)
When it comes to painting your house, you probably don’t want this guy to do it. It’s better to hire a professional painting contractor. If you’re lucky enough to live around San Jose, Campbell, Almeden or Saratoga, California, you can contact MikeLundPainting.com at (408) 514-5415 (#paintingContractor, #paintingYourHouse, #SanJose, #Campbell, #Almeden, #Saratoga, #California)
I’m about to tell you how to make money by giving things away!
Perhaps your church or group has sponsored an occasional clothing exchange. I’m not talking about a rummage sale where you donate your unwanted clothes and they sell them to support the organization. I’m talking about an event where everyone brings their unwanted clothes, perhaps on a Saturday morning, and everyone can carry away other members’ unwanted clothes. So, you can get rid of that funky sweater someone ‘gifted’ you with and pick up a great pair of pants, or whatever.
What if this happened on a grander scale and was about whatever you’re interested in, not necessarily clothing? Imagine a regular location where this free exchange went on every weekend, or even every day?
Do you see where the profit is in this? Since you could be the one who organizes and maintains it, it is only fair that you get first pick on everything that comes in. If you let everyone know right up front that that’s exactly what you’re doing, they’ll all be OK with it. I can assure you of that, because I set up a business that grew nearly overnight into a large, ongoing free general exchange in Marin County, California, and that’s what actually happened.
More specifically, I rented a 2,500 square-foot store, primed it with stuff I bought for next to nothing at garage sales, and opened to the public. In my exchange, I allowed exchange of anything of reasonable size (no refridgerators or mattresses, please!) There were many books, garden tools, car parts, sports equipment, you name it. But I could have specialized in appliances, bicycles or car parts and accessories, clothing, computer gear, or pretty much any type of thing. A couple of years later, I set up a quite successful specialty exchange, dealing just with books, CDs and DVDs.
Never once did anyone complain that I had first pick. Quite the contrary, I received complements all day long for the nature of the business.
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Another thing that might surprise you is that I received much more stuff than I gave away. There was so much stuff coming into my exchanges, that much had to be discarded.
When people decide to clean out the attic, basement or garage, they tend to bring multiple boxes full of stuff. There were hundreds of wealthy people who brought things to the exchange just so other less wealthy people could get them. All these donors knew full-well that I was supporting the business by picking the cream off the top.
I’m sure you can imagine what I did with the one percent or so that I picked. Right, I sold them on Amazon and eBay.
I only ran my exchanges as experiments for four months each.
During my first four months, in the general exchange, a volunteer ran some math and worked out that I gave away $44,000 per month worth of stuff. This was just wonderful for all the people who came from the poorer areas east of Marin and were able to get good things for their children and themselves. Even though the store was in a rather fancy suburban neighborhood, and many of the ‘shoppers’ came in junky cars and looked kind of scary to the locals, I was often told how much it was a great community service by the well-off locals.
I have been more of an experimenter than a do-the-same-profitable-thing-year-after-year person – probably to my detriment, but my exchanges could have been huge successes. Instead of moving on to the next experiment, I suppose they could have branched out, and I’d be very successful in the exchange business. But, being an experimenter and a writer, I’ll leave starting the next exchange up to you.
Imagine the potential. If you specialize in musical instruments, you’ll get instruments into the hands of children and adults who couldn’t otherwise afford them. If someone has had their instrument stolen or broken, you can provide them with another. You can provide sheet music. It wouldn’t be surprising if your free sheet music collection could become larger than what any store in town carries. You could have walls filled with free CDs. Interestingly, your place can become a destination for musicians. Many will volunteer to help your efforts. Everyone will just love hanging out, offering advice, repairing instruments, talking shop, jamming – well, you get the idea. What a place it can become!
If you specialize in clothing, you’d be offering a great service indeed, as people who can barely afford to clothe themselves and their children will get what they need. Their hard-earned money will go to better quality food, paying back bills, and so on instead of clothing, and they can dress proudly, not shabbily.
Of course much of the stuff that comes in will be in sad shape. You’ll get brass instruments that are quite dented. You’ll get torn clothing. You’ll get books that are 30 years old. You’ll get unidentifiable car parts. You’ll get wobbly furniture. But not all of it will be junk!
When it’s free, you’d be surprised how delighted someone can be with “70’s Pop Tunes.” When it’s free, people will figure out a way to fix that chair with the missing leg, or the vase with the crack in the side. Or if they can’t fix it, they’ll have fun trying. You may not be too happy about selling the good things that come in, even though that could be quite profitable. But if a stamp album comes in that you can sell on eBay for $4,000, that money will go along way to support the exchange, wouldn’t it? That way, you can get a lot more servicable goods into a lot more hands.
Perhaps the bulk of the money will be from selling pieces of broken things. As far as I went with pieces is that I experimented with two student-model flutes. I took them apart and listed the pieces on eBay. They each brought just over $100, after all expenses, selling most of the bits and pieces for $10 each. I once took in a guitar that was cracked on all sides, and missing a couple of tuners. It was not a production model. It appeared handmade, having no brand name and no model, but it had excellent inlay around the sound hole. I put it as-is on eBay, expecting maybe I’d get lucky, with a winning bid of around $20. It sold for $203.
The reason I created two exchanges was that I wasn’t quite happy with the first one.
My first version started out quite large, and I had a rag-tag assortment of about 20 volunteers. Not being a great manager, I quickly lost a degree of control over these people. Some came in drunk, some complained about everything in sight, some treated the clientele crudely. So, if you’re going to do this, you’ll either want quality employees rather than volunteers, or you’ll want to screen your volunteers better, or you’ll want to have a more alpha personality. Or, perhaps the best solution, is keep it small and manageable, perhaps in a 700 – 1,000 square foot space in a smaller community, or hidden away in a neighborhood.
That’s what I did with my second exchange. I wanted something smaller and more manageable. It was 1,000 square feet, about a third the size of a typical 7-11 store, in a town of just under 20,000 residents. Initially I did everything myself, no volunteers. I decided to specialize in books, CDs and DVD movies, because I figured I’d have a quieter, more focused clientele. I was exactly right. The second exchange was just as profitable, yet much less hectic, and therefore more fun for me.
Speaking of profit, I spent about $10,000 setting up the second exchange. I could have done it with less, but in my case, I didn’t need to. By the end of the second month, I was making $5,000 per month profit. At the end of the four-month experiment, I sold it quickly for $32,000. (If I had wanted to, I could have held on for a year, and sold it for much more!)
A bit of a problem with the first, general exchange was waste. Since I was taking everything, not just books and disks, I had to rent larger and larger dumpsters to accommodate the things that weren’t worth even giving away. At the end of the fourth month, I was paying $250 per month for dumpster rental.
To avoid discouraging people from bringing things, I decided never to decline any reasonable donations. I stand by this, and believe it’s better to spend a bit on garbage pickup than losing donations from people who start to figure you may not accept what they bring. Interestingly, things they assume you don’t want may be wonderful donations. I received a sousaphone that’s bell was crushed all out of shape. It was awful in appearance, but still played, so I gave it away.
If an item needs repair, you may be surprised how many volunteers are available to fix it. They may prefer to fix it in the exchange – if you have the space for a repair area. This is so they can become part of the social scene. Or, they may want to take things home to repair them. But what if the volunteers are unreliable? What if someone brings a sweater home to reknit a blown seam, and never brings it back? If you were going to give it away anyway, no loss!
In the case of an item beyond repair, you can sell what parts are good. There’s good money in a sousaphone mouthpiece or valve if someone needs that exact part on eBay. I have studied the bicycle parts sections of eBay from time to time, and am amazed how many ordinary everyday parts are being sold there. I once took apart a Roomba vacuum cleaner, and sold all the parts for well over $100.
I had a sign on the front window of my general exchange that told people not to leave donations after hours. But they did. Most mornings I’d find a enough bags of worn-out clothing, broken lawnmowers, sofas without cushions, and so on to fill a pick-up truck. These were the things that people just wanted to dispose of, didn’t want to pay landfill fees, and would be too embarrassed to try donating to the store during the day. Of course this wouldn’t be so much of a problem with a specialized exchange. In fact, the nighttime donations might surprise you. Someone once left two banker’s boxes full of old records. I called my friend Ken, who paid $100 per box for the collection. He took about six albums per box, and donated the rest back to the exchange.
In my media exchange, I learned to solicit nighttime donations. I had a drop box with a slot outside. Hundreds of books per months came in through that slot. I used a slot rather than an open container, because I didn’t want other people coming by and rummaging through the books before I had a chance to pick through them. I also put a free shelf outside, so visitors could get books, and occasionally music CDs, any time of the day or night.
Taking the concept one step further, you might be able to design an exchange that doesn’t need your presence at all. One way is to staff it with volunteers. Another is to have drop boxes around town, much like some clothing companies do, in which you ask people to drop of things they’re not using. On the drop boxes, you’d have signs indicating what you’re doing – donating most of the stuff to children overseas – or locally, for that matter.
I believe you should also state that you’re making a profit in the process. If you’re up front, not only will no one complain, but many will just love what you’re doing. If you try to hide it, people will undoubtedly get the wrong idea. Unfortunately, some of those companies that put out clothing donation boxes a few years ago developed a bad reputation for not actually fulfilling the promise of making good use of the donated clothing.
A little aside here: As I understand it, a fellow in Boston advertised on Craigslist that he would pick up unwanted books. He didn’t mention what he was going to do with them. He didn’t promise anything. Yet, many people gave him thousands of books, which he sold on Amazon.com.
Taking it even a step further, I can imagine that you might have a charitable arm. But that’s up to you. It is quite possible that a year or two after you start an exchange it becomes so profitable that you would have money left over with which to do good work.
To round out the picture, it would also be possible to have specialty exchanges that are simply shelves in public locations. The idea is people can drop off CDs, DVDs, books, toys, or whatever they don’t care about any more, and pick up ones they like – all for free, of course. Your job, besides keeping the shelves organized and clean, is to go through the stuff that comes in, gleaning what will sell online. Quick oil change places, laundromats, and restaurants would all love to have such a shelf.
You can tighten up the efficiency of free exchange shelves a bit by having a box with a slot on the shelves. Signs tell people to drop donated music into the slot, and take whatever they want. The point is you don’t want people carrying away the obscure and possibly valuable items. You want to be able to sort everything that has been donated before it gets away.
Don’t forget to have contact info so if someone has boxes and boxes of stuff, they know how to contact you for a free pickup.
If have not tried this exact business model myself. I did, however, put book shelves in eight laundromats. These weren’t exchanges. I purchased the books by the boxful at garage sales, paying on average five or ten cents per book. I then put them in the laundromats with signs saying, “Put $3 in the slot per book.” I split the money 50/50 with the laundromat owners or managers. Sure, some books were stolen from my shelves, but I never noticed, and it didn’t significantly impact the bottom line. These shelves were quite profitable for the small amount of time involved.
Music CDs ought to work especially well. Millions of people are looking for music they haven’t heard to put on their iPods or smartphones, and then discarding the CDs once they’ve finished uploading. It’s recycling at its best, isn’t it?
Getting back to the idea of a full-size exchange, when you pick a location, it is important to have good parking. This can be even more important than for an ordinary retail store, because many people are going to be bringing large loads of stuff. If they have to carry it a hundred yards (100 meters), they’ll be less inclined to bring stuff next time. Fortunately, the parking was very close to my first exchange. Even still, I provided hand carts for people to get things from their cars into the exchange. You don’t want anything to come between people and their desire to bring things to your exchange.
And yet, parking was a problem. My store became rather popular within a very short time. (Advertising and publicity is absolutely not necessary in a business that exists to give things away.) The problem was the parking lot became congested. And that, ultimately, was the downfall of my experiment. When traffic started clogging the little strip mall I was occupying, the neighboring businesses started to complain. The property manager suggested I leave. Oh, I could have worked things out, but since I was ready to move on, I just pulled the plug.
So, you can learn from my experiments. One thing I’d recommend if you want to start your own exchange is to start very, very small. You don’t need to rent a store. Depending on where and how you live, you might want to start it out of your garage. Or you can rent a space in a flea market. Or set up something cooperatively with someone who has commercial space available. For instance, you might find a quick-change oil change place who would gladly donate some lobby space in trade for hundreds more people getting their oil changed there.
I’m not the first one who set up a store to give things away. The precedent was set in 1968 at the Digger Store in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. The Diggers were a loosely assembled group of entertainers (one of whom was Peter Coyote) who started making free soup, beans, and bread for the hippies that came to the Haight during the Summer of Love. In time, they rented a storefront where they accepted donations of clothing and general merchandise, and gave everything away. I did a bit of research and never found out how they paid the rent. My guess is that they came up with the first month’s rent, then just coasted until they were evicted. That store, too was a short-lived experiment. Digger Archives
In my youth, my dad gave me a catalog from a supplier of scientific equipment. It used to be called Ward’s Natural Science Establishment. Their website is Wardsci.com. He let me buy things from the catalog from time to time. I started with some things like flasks and microscope slides. I was rapidly turning into a happy science nerd.
I noticed they had a little kit to make something called “Bio-Plastic Mounts.” With that little kit, I could take specimens such as bugs, coins, or postage stamps and embed them in clear plastic blocks. I fooled around with it for a while, then moved on to other pursuits.
What I’m thinking now is that embedding things in clear plastic could be a great business for someone. So far as I know, it’s not being offered anywhere.
Imagine, a client could send you an important keepsake, maybe a four-leaf clover, or a snapshot, or a scientific specimen, or a special coin. You embed it in plastic, and charge a lot of money!
Now there will be some difficulties to overcome. First, so far as I can tell, Ward’s no longer sells the kit. All they have is the bio-plastic material, a two-part liquid that hardens. The kit contained a mold, some of the liquid plastic, and mold release compound, plus some miscellaneous brushes and such, as I recall.
The procedure was to prepare the specimen. It had to be dry. I found out early on that any liquid would leak out and contaminate the mount. Then, I’d coat the mold with release compound, mix up some of the plastic liquid, and fill the mold about a third of the way. Shining an incandescent lightbulb on the mold, I let the plastic layer harden overnight. Then I’d set the specimen on that layer of hardened plastic, and fill the remaining two thirds of the mold with plastic. Once the plastic was hardened, I’d snap it out of the mold.
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You’d think that would be it, but no, the work was just beginning. The surfaces of the mount were rough and not entirely transparent. Each surface had to be sanded until there were no bumps or depressions, then sanded and polished with ever finer grits until it became fully transparent. I did it by hand, and by the time I was done, the edges were often rounded. If I had a belt sander, my mounts would have been finished much faster, and come out much better.
No doubt you could improve on the process. There may be molds that you can acquire or make that leave a smooth enough finish that sanding and polishing is not required. There may be another, better source of plastic. I remember how stinky the stuff was. Perhaps Ward’s discontinued it because it was toxic.
If you can work out a nice process, you’d have a very nice home business on your hands! You could make mounts of things like four-leaf clovers (that you can buy on Ebay) and sell them locally such as at flea markets, or online through Ebay, Etsy or Amazon. You could let people know they can send their keepsakes or specimens to you for embedding. You would have to be practiced and careful, because you don’t want to wreck things that could be very important to your clients. But, you could charge a heck of a lot of money for a mount, right?
Taking the concept a step further, one could make coffee tables and other large things with embedded specimens in plastic.
Let’s say you’re particularly interested in vacuum cleaners. If you can photograph all sorts of unusual vacuums, then you can create a virtual museum. You might or might not like to write up extensive descriptions, add videos, sound bites, a blog, discussion area, and so on. You could have a membership area, where those who pay a small monthly fee get to see otherwise hidden pages. Some membership sites are free. Instead of charging money, you give a membership to anyone who is willing to give you their email address. Then, perhaps monthly, you can send them an e-letter with advertising for collectible vacuum cleaners or whatever. If there are serious vacuum collectors, you could buy and sell vacuums on your site, or link to your eBay listings. You could even charge money for people to post classified ads on your site.
Is there a way to go beyond a virtual museum? You bet! How about a ‘real’ museum? Perhaps your interest is railroads. You’ve traveled over the country taking pictures of steam engines, rail lines, signal trees, water towers, stations, engine repair shops, and so on. All you need is a small storefront. There, you build stand-alone ‘walls’ to display all your photos. No doubt you’ve collected some hardware, some of which may be antique. Perhaps some spikes, a coupling, a bell or sand dome, maybe even an entire small switch engine. You could build a replica station or engine shop. The interesting thing about many such small museums, is that they are mostly photographs. You do not need an extensive collection of tangibles to make it appealing. In your little storefront, you charge a per-head admission. You get to talk ‘railroad’ all day long with other interested parties. Ideally, it brings a sufficient income so that you can travel around the world taking more railroad photos.
For most privately owned museums to succeed, it is very helpful to be in just the right retail environment. Areas crowded with tourists are best. If you are in the right location, most of your business will be walk-in traffic. If not, you’ll need to provide brochures to the Chamber of Commerce, all the hotels, restaurants and other venues that attract tourists in your area.
I remember a motorcycle museum on the Oregon coast between towns. It had a large inviting parking lot, with signs that could be easily seen from Highway 101. That highway hosts two million cars a year. I doubt the museum had to do any advertising or publicity. Just being there was sufficient.
The prestige and freedom that comes from having your own retail store can put a long-lasting smile on your face. It’s your place, so you can have wonderful conversations with your customers. You can decide to host jams, groups, or parties after hours. The local celebrities may drop in from time to time. You’ll probably eventually end up making more than any hourly wage, and you can hand the whole works over to your children forty years later.
Being primarily a writer, I lost interest in the stores I started, so I did what you can do with your stores too – if you are impatient as I am: You can build your store up, then sell the business for what will seem like a remarkable amount of money. The longer you keep your store, the more it is worth. The downside is that you’ll be making so much after a few years, you may not want to sell it.
I have found that the idea of starting a store from scratch scares many people. That’s why so many will pay so much for an established store. However, as one who has done it several times, I can tell you starting a store from scratch is really quite easy.
It is also easy to lose money, so I’ll offer a few pointers in this chapter to help you start successfully and stay successful.
Consider this, the first rule of business: You’ve got to make more than you spend.
A good second rule might be: Don’t invest more than you can afford to lose.
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Given those two rules, you may have to start something on a shoestring, and let it pay for its own growth. That’s very possible, and what this chapter is about.
But you may not yet have even a shoestring. If you don’t yet have the money for a retail store, you can put this book away and give up. Wait a minute! Of course, I don’t recommend that. There is another way.
you might like to start small – very small. You can usually find a way to start with a very few of whatever you’d like to sell, or something similar, put them in the trunk of your car, sell them to friends and aquaintences, list them on Craigslist if it serves your area, and possibly sell at flea markets or in consignment stores. As your mini-business grows, and as you are gaining experience with your product line, you can start building a pile of inventory and a pile of money, until you have enough to easily and safely start a retail store. I know a fellow who did it with camping gear. He started with second-hand things he bought at flea markets and garage sales. It’s been several years since he started. He now owns two full-fledged and full-service retail camping goods stores. His stores don’t compete with K-Mart. He mostly sells high-end used and new camping gear to expert hikers, climbers, hunters and others. It turns out there are plenty of those expert enthusiasts to keep his two stores plenty busy.
The biggest expense for most people starting a retail business is space. A typical store is around 1,000 square feet. Rent in a ‘good’ neighborhood is $1 to $2 per square foot (10 – 15 Euros per square meter), or more. So, right away, you’re looking at $12,000 to $24,000 per year.
Then you might want to consider heat or air conditioning, electrical usage for lighting and so on, liability insurance, telephone, credit card processing, and city or county licensing. All these typically add up to another $10,000 per year.
Then there’s advertising costs. And there could be the rather huge expense of employees.
These are the expenses for someone starting a typical retail store.
If you want to start a business in the usual way, you must be able to afford to lose a lot of money, at least until your business is up and running. And many businesses take from two to five years to become profitable.
Worse, many, make that ‘most,’ businesses never do become profitable. The statistics are staggering, and interesting. Did you know that one out of every four women fail in business? Ah, but what about the men? How well do they do? Four out of every five men fail in business!
Of course there are stories of people who failed two or even three times before becoming successful. Can you afford that? Would you want to go through that kind of stress?
But there is the other way – starting small – in which you can avoid most all the stress, most of the expense, and the risk of failure. Starting small has been covered in other chapters.
You can shortcut this process. You can do it your way. But I don’t recommend it. What I’m going to tell you is a rather safe and sure way to get into the retail business once you have some experience and money built up. Starting from absolute scratch has as much chance of growing into something big, maybe even huge, as those who start with $500,000 cash.
You want to choose a business that will work in our modern world. Urban blight, WalMart, a troubled economy, and inexpensive machine-made products are part of our world these days.
So, let’s rule out some things: If you have a hand-made product that’s the same as, or no better than what anyone con buy in a variety store such as K-Mart, then you probably aren’t going to be able to sell it. If it costs you $10 to make each of your ‘things,’ then the big companies can have the same ‘thing’ made in an Asian factory for perhaps $2.
If you want something that can be purchased wholesale, and you can buy them in lots of 100, you’ll pay more per item, and more for shipping, than the big chain store companies who can buy in lots of 100,000. They make all sorts of back-room deals with the manufacturers with which you can’t compete. UnlessÖ (more about that in a minute.)
You’ll find service is easier to sell. Yes, the big chain stores offer computer repair, eyeglasses, they have a big photography department, some offer tayloring, you can have window screens replaced, paint mixed, keys made. However, everyone knows this is boiler-plate service. The service is generally done by minimum-wage employees with relatively little training.
If you offer service by an expert, in a field that needs quality attention, you’ve got something you can sell. Then, if you can offer that, you can pump up your sales with hard goods – the very things I said you can’t buy at competitive prices. As you’re writing up service tickets, you can suggest this replacement part or that accessory. The customers who come into your store start to become familiar with what’s on your shelves, and will start coming for the specialty items they can’t find at the department stores. And, even though you have to pay more for items purchased from wholesalers in lots of one or a dozen (instead of 100,000), you’ll be able to sell them for more.
A small bicycle shop fits the mom-and-pop retail paradigm nicely. Wal-Mart does not offer high-end bicycles. They do not have special cycloscross tires, or Zefal pumps or Kool-Stop brake pads. They do not have employees that know how to custom fit your bike to you, or even sell you the right size. They do not offer any after-sale service other than a complete refund. They don’t know how to get you the same model, but in lime green. What else? They don’t know about accessorizing the bike: fenders, lock, lighting, luggage and so on. They cannot tell you from their own experience how it is to bicycle tour in Bulgaria, how to train for a double-century, how to strategize a BMX race, or maybe even how to fix a flat tire.
The same is true for a fabric store, a pet shop, or a musical instrument store. The department store employee doesn’t quite know what pinking shears are used for, why someone might like 12-inch hacksaw blades instead of 10-inch, or what a red-eared slider eats.
I think you’re beginning to see why a specialty shop would be successful, even with a huge chain store right next door. Maybe even more so, since all the chain-store buyers will see your sign and drop into your shop when they want something that the chain store can’t offer.
What other kind of store might work? Musical instruments. Tool supply. Certain kinds of appliances, many kinds of specialty sports or hobbies, as long as there are enough participants in the sport or hobby in your community. Ethnic foods. Organic natural foods are particularly good if your community is one that is aware of good eating, and doesn’t already have too many such stores. Automotive accessories. Antiques. Used merchandise can be a great choice, especially second-hand clothing and furniture.
Do you see the common factor in these? They offer products that can’t be found in the department stores, or something that requires more knowledge or service than those stores can offer.
It is probably important to pick something that you know quite a bit about. Whereas a person can just decide to start a guitar store without even knowing how to play music, it is harder that way. On the other hand, the owner will probably enjoy learning to play guitar, how to determine the value of guitars, and so on – but it can be an expensive process as mistakes are made, and customers are left without the advice they need.
So what do you know and enjoy? Second-hand building materials? Home crafts? Spanish cuisine? Sound systems? Digital photography? Soccer? Laptop computers? Organic gardening? You don’t have to start out as the world’s leading authority in your field. But it helps to know enough to advise your customers properly, and know what kind of inventory they will want to buy. And if you’ve been through this process and that, you’ve read the books, you know you’d want to buy certain brands and models, then you have the knowledge you’ll need.
What people notice first about a piano store is the pianos. A successful piano store doesn’t sell the kind of keyboards you find in the department stores. They start at mid-level, and go up in price from there. That’s because they can’t compete with low-end keyboards. You can purchase an entry-level Yamaha keyboard from a typical wholesaler for $119. You can buy the same thing at Radio Shack for $79. But when it comes to keyboards for $400 and up, with a USB port and weighted keys, they simply aren’t available at Radio Shack. On the other hand, customers shopping in that price range are rather specific about what they want. So, you need to carry a variety, be well tuned into what people want, or expect sales of new keyboards few and far between. Then, assuming there are other high-end music stores in your area, you’ll have to keep your prices competitive, making only a rather small mark up.
So, eventually, you’ll want to carry new keyboards and pianos because they bring customers in who buy sheet music, amplifiers, microphones, and all that. They come to look at your keyboards, as if it were a museum, but they don’t leave without buying a patch cord, a speaker cabinet, a sheet music book, or some other accessory.
However, if you were to start your music store with new keyboards and pianos, you’d be in debt on your first day – or maybe you would have blown your inheritance foolishly.
So now let’s talk about this shoestring concept. That’s how I started. I took it to the extreme, by necessity. You see, I was 16 years old at the time, with just about no money at all – maybe $10. So doing what a 16-year-old sometimes would do: I started fixing bikes for kids in the neighborhood, trading used bike parts, and just having a good time puttering around. Every now and then, I’d make $20 or $30 on a repair or a trade. Then people started paying more regularly for repairs. The trading inventory became so attractive that people bought my second-hand things more and more often. It wasn’t long before I outgrew my one-car garage, and my parents’ patience. But by then I had a couple of thousand dollars. That’s when I made the leap to a retail store. I found a place of about 700 square feet for rent in the ‘bad’ part of town. It was a place I could afford. And I moved my eight used bikes, handful of used parts and tools into the store. I painted my own sign and kept the heat very low all winter. I was willing to do whatever it took. I remember one time regluing a bunch of wooden dining room furniture because I had a customer who was willing to pay for that. But I also taught some bicycle repair courses in the shop. By spring, I had made it through the winter without going in debt. In fact, I had more than when I started. Actually, it was right before Christmas that I was able to make my first-ever wholesale purchase. I bought $200 worth of lights, pants guards, reflectors, patch kits, tires, seats, and things I thought might sell as Christmas gifts, or be good general inventory. I had found a wholesaler who was willing to sell in quantities of one or two, not dozens of anything. Some of the stuff sold, and I bought more. By Spring, I was able to place my first order for honest-to-goodness NEW bikes. It was only 6 bikes, but oh, I was so proud!
Let’s fast forward four and a half years. My shop had turned into a ‘pro’ shop. In a city of 400,000 people there were 10 other bike shops. Too many, really. But I did well anyway, because I treated each and every customer as if they were important – because they were. I studied, practiced, and listened, and became a bike expert. I was able to offer advice. I’d steer someone away from a certain brand of patch kit because I knew the glue would always dry up after the first use. People like this kind of personalized service, and went out of their way to buy things at my shop. They told me all the time that they drove past this bike shop or that, to come to mine. I taught more bike repair lessons. I learned how to build custom frames, and taught frame-building lessons. I hired people to help. At the peak of the summer season, I had eight employees and had expanded into other units in the building. I was then operating out of a couple thousand square feet. To fill the extra space, I went crazy and bought 125 new bikes in one batch and sold them all within a month.
Actually, new bikes wasn’t the focus. The part of the profit pie that came from new bikes was actually rather small. The piece that came from the accessory sales, repairs and customizations those new bikes brought was larger.
The two biggest parts of the pie were the general repair trade and used bikes. It turns out that all my customers told their friends and family that my shop was good, honest, fast, and all the other right things when it comes to repair. So during the summer, I had enough work to keep four mechanics going full time.
Used bikes turned out to be much more profitable than I had figured. They were more profitable than new bikes. You see, I learned early on to ask anyone who was considering buying a new or used bike whether they’d like to trade anything in. I could buy bikes all the time for $25, put perhaps $25 worth of labor and parts in, and sell them for $125.
And that’s my advice for someone who wants to start on a shoestring. You may not have to start as small as I did, or maybe that’s just right. Can you work out of your back yard? Your basement? A tiny rented space? I have seen bike shops set up in 10 x 20 foot flea market stalls. What about partnership? If you don’t have everything you need, perhaps you can find a partner who has the missing knowledge, money, time, space, whatever you lack. Check out the Partnerships chapter.
As your business slowly outgrows your space, you’re gaining experience in your product line, and in dealing with your customers. By the time you have the money to move into a bigger space, you also have the expertise to make sure your profit is more than enough to pay for it.
What happened after 4-1/2 years? I sold the business for quite a bit of money. I bought a motorhome and traveled around the USA for several years on the profit. In retrospect, that may have been foolish, but I was still young. If I had kept the shop, it would probably have been a chain of bicycle shops by now. I may have had my own manufacturing plant. On the other hand, by traveling, I gained more and varied experience, and at any time I could have started another bike shop. In fact I did, twice. And I created some other businesses. Then I sold them. I can always start another. But of course today, I’m having too much fun writing about businesses.
Here is some more detailed advice:
1. Remember the first rule? Don’t spend more than you take in. If you take that quite literally in your first months, you’ll stay safe. Furthermore, you’ll learn all sorts of shoestring tricks, ideas and work-arounds that will serve you well, even once you’re making millions of dollars. Then, you can have your managers show your employees some of the same things you once did to save money, so each of your employees is also profitable to you.
2. And the second rule? Don’t invest more than you can afford to lose. Once business is gaining momentum, you may be tempted to speed things along a bit by investing too much, too soon. I remember a camera store that had one Hasselblad, a very expensive camera. After a while, it sold. So, they bought five more. It took years to sell all five, and in the meantime, those five high-end cameras tied up a lot of inventory money that could have been used for everyday things that sell more quickly.
When you first start, it is completely acceptable to focus mostly on service, if your product line has a profitable service component. If you can fix the things you deal with, you have an immediate income in the repair business, without having to put much, or any money into inventory. As your repair business grows, you’ll know which parts and accessories to stock that will sell frequently.
It was quite common in past decades to find many stores in a town that were really almost entirely repair shops. You’d walk in, and see almost no retail displays. It felt like walking into a, well, repair shop. Right up to the front door was equipment in all stages of repair, tools everywhere, the ‘salesman’ who probably owned the place greeted you in dirty overalls. You may still see this from time to time. Shoe repair stores come to mind. TV repair stores often were like that. TV repair, however, has gone bye-bye, since solid-state electronics are more reliable and the cost of new TVs is so low in comparison to repair costs. But for many businesses, starting out as a ‘repair shop’ can be just as successful today as it was back then.
If your product doesn’t really have a service aspect, look into what else you can do. Can you teach in the back room? I know a health suppliment store that teaches classes on many aspects of nutrition and healthy living in their back room. They make more money out of the back room than the front room, with all its cans and bottles. Can you buy, sell, consign or broker used items? Can you set up profitable local events of some sort based around your product line?
Listen to your customers. Talk to everyone. Find out what they want, and do your best to provide it.
Be on the look-out for pride. What if I told the dining room furniture person, “No, this is a bicycle shop, I refuse to stoop so low as to fix your chairs!” Well, I’d have to borrow money for groceries that week! Plus, it turns out, the furniture guy bought bikes for both of his teenage sons that spring, and another bike when one was stolen, and spent perhaps $400 that year in parts and service.
Finding the right retail building can make a world of difference. If you can find a location where many people drive by, and where it is easy to park, you’ll be much more successful. Even better, if you can rent a spot in a mall, tourist location, or where there are plenty of people walking by, people who are there to shop, you may never need to do any advertising or publicity at all. Just put up your sign, and you’re in business! Really check out your location before signing a lease. If it is in the ‘bad’ part of town, there may be people who are afraid to come to your store. You may also have to deal with shoplifting. On the other hand, depending on your product line, you may find many grateful people in the ‘bad’ part of town who no longer have to commute a long distance to get what they want.
Parking meters are the death of a retail business. Many customers would rather drive across town to their competitor than be worried about whether 25 cents was enough the whole time they are shopping in your store.
Exposure is the thing. I’m sure you’ve heard the expression, “Location. Location. Location.” Getting the wrong place can ruin a business before it gets started. Getting the right place, even if it is small, or the cost per square foot is high, can mean that you start making money from your very first month.
Most small retail businesses start with rented stores. Unless you are prepared for an entirely different kind of investment, commercial real estate, you’ll be better off renting. Commercial leases are pretty much like residential leases. They are usually one-year or five-years in length.
In upscale settings, there is something called “Triple Net” abbreviated as NNN. This is a monthly fee added to the rent for maintenance, such as mowing the lawn, cleaning of the common areas, and upkeep of parking lot. The ‘triple’ in triple-net means nothing. The amount is anything the landlord decides. Typical triple-net for a 1,000 square-foot (100 square-meter) retail store is from $35 to $100 per month.
once you’ve found the right place, you may want to have the one thing that’s missing from most leases written in: An escape clause. What if a dry cleaner next door fills the neighborhood with perchlorethylene fumes? What if a family situation requires you to move to Philadelphia? What if the dog next door just won’t quit barking? You laugh, but these things really happen. What if your business grew faster than you thought, and you need to expand into a larger building? You don’t want to be stuck with a one-year or five-year lease. So, the escape clause is something that both you and the owner of the building can live with. For instance, you might suggest that if you want to move before the end of the lease, you’ll pay three months rent up front.
Finally, before you sign that lease, you need to work out a business plan. Oh, I don’t mean a fancy plan to show a banker for a loan. I do not advocate starting with a loan. If you don’t yet have enough money saved up, and the ability to risk that money, there’s no hurry. You can just keep selling your stuff on craigslist, out of the trunk of your car, the flea market, or whatever, until you do have enough money. This is a better plan, because you’ll be proving to yourself that your business is profitable, while you learn the ropes.
A business plan just for yourself can be as simple as scratching some numbers on the side of a grocery bag. What you want to see is whether you’re biting off more than you can chew. Figure that you’ll need to pay first and last rent, then pay the rent for a few months until your business is running and established. You’ll need to cover the electric bill and other overheads. If you’re smart, you won’t figure in employees. They come later, after you’ve become successful. This is a business that you’ll run entirely by yourself at first. Finally, you need a starting inventory. Ideally, you already have plenty of items. If you don’t, go ahead and step back for a year or so, continuing to do your business out of the flea market or whatever, until inventory surrounds you. Until it fills your garage, living room, bathroom, and takes up all the space under the kitchen table.
Moving forward, let’s say you have figured out the finances, and rented a store. Now what? There’s just a little bit of paperwork, and it is easier than you thought.
Through your chamber of commerce, find your local business license office. There, you can get a DBA – Doing Business under Assumed name, also known as a business license. This costs a little bit. Typically from $20 to $200 per year, depending on your community. You fill out a one- or two-page form with the usual stuff – name, address, phone number, and they give you the license. No one is refused. Furthermore, you don’t have to know anything about it. The people in these offices know that you are not an expert in what they do. The typical person coming in wants to start a car repair shop or a beauty parlor, and knows all about car repair or cosmetology, but nothing about business. So, they are there to help you. They want you to succeed, so you can keep paying your annual license fee to the community.
You’ll probably want a business checking account, and in some cases, the local government wants to see your business checking account number before they’ll grant the DBA. No problem, any normal bank can do this for you in twenty minutes. Most banks offer business checking accounts for free.
Customers coming to retail stores often expect to pay with credit cards. In the past, this was somewhat expensive and difficult to set up. Now, you can go to PayPal.com, and get set up to take credit cards easily. In one of my stores, I was unable to take credit cards for the first couple of weeks after opening. I told people up front – so as to not suprise them once they approached the sales counter, and let them know there was an ATM a block away. So far as I can tell, I did not lose a single sale during that time.
Finally, you need to get set up to collect sales tax or VAT in most countries unless you are in a place without sales tax such as Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, or Oregon. This costs nothing, and also requires filling out a simple one- or two-page application. The certificate, often called a resale certificate or tax number is usually given to you right away. They also hand you a pamphlet explaining how sales tax works in your area. You’ll learn what percentage to charge, and which items and people are tax-exempt. For instance, in New York State, American Indians do not have to pay sales tax if they present the retailer with an exemption form. In some states, labor is taxable, and in some, it is not. To find the tax office in your community, simply ask at the business license office. They already know that’s where you’re going next, and will certainly have the address. Now-a-days, you can often set up your sales tax account entirely online or by mail.
Collecting sales tax can be thought of as a right, responsibility, or privilege. I won’t get into the philosophy here. The usual arrangement is that you set aside the tax money you collect, fill out a one-page form, and mail a check to your tax office every three months.
Once you’re in business, you do need to keep track of income and expenses. You’d want to do this anyway, so you can understand how things are going, and what to adjust from time to time to make sure you’re making a good profit.
The old-fashioned way still works: You can buy an ordinary ledger book, and enter your expenses and income by hand. Domes Monthly is a ledger you can buy in any stationery store in the USA. There are no doubt equivalents in every country. Keeping track isn’t rocket science, although it may seem so at first. The only thing you need to do is list everything you spend money on and enter the amount of money you take in every day. You can optionally break out the income into categories such as “new,” “used,” and “service.” You’ll want to break out the expenses into categories such as “inventory,” “rent,” and “utilities.” You may want to additionally list all legitimate business expenses such as “automotive,” and “advertising.”
It is much easier to use automated software. For under $100, you can buy any of a variety of business bookkeeping packages, such as Quicken. This software tells you what to do at every step. The people who make the software know that you’re a musician, beautician, or bike mechanic, not an accountant, so you’re not expected to know what to do. The software has a lot of built-in help.
If that still seems intimidating, you can hire a bookkeeper for a single session to set up your system, and tell you what to do. Only after your business becomes successful, unless you are already wealthy, do you want to hire a bookkeeper on a regular basis. Some bookkeepers are better at teaching than others. If your first bookkeeper is not good at explaining things, try another.
At the end of the year, you need to figure out your income tax. This too, is easier than it might seem. In the US, the basic addition to your taxes for business is a Schedule C. It is a single two-sided page. The categories are obvious. But it is easier to get the automated software that does it for you. At the HR Block website, you can do the whole thing on line, and then just pay $30 to $80 to file your taxes. With a business, it takes about twenty minutes longer than someone who is only filing an ordinary 1040.
What if you make a mistake? All the government officials are on your side. Really! They’d rather have you succeed, than harrass you. They know you’re not an MBA or accountant. They want you to succeed, so you can go on paying taxes year after year. If you make a mistake, they tell you what to do different. They may issue a reasonable fine – just part of the cost of doing business, and you get to move on. No one goes to jail. Well, OK, I knew one fellow who did. He was a professional ice skater who paid no income tax at all. Still, he wouldn’t have spent six months in jail if he didn’t stand up to the judge and the whole court and make a big presentation about why he shouldn’t pay income tax. Only rebels go to jail. In fact, even with all the small mistakes all of us make, almost no one gets audited. I’ve received perhaps five letters from the IRS and sales tax agencies in all my 35 years in 18 various businesses. In each of the three cases where I actually did something wrong, I had to pay a small fine. My fines ranged from $20 to $150. I knew one fellow who didn’t report his income tax at all for several years. This one was a professional juggler. He was probably making around $150,000 per year. He didn’t even keep any records, so no one, even he, knew how much he made. The IRS stated that he owed them approximately $20,000 in back taxes, which he gladly paid. Of course from that time on, he did have to keep records and pay the appropriate taxes. I know a lot of business people and these two are the worst case scenarios.
Something like a signage violation is so minor that some business people play with them. For instance, in a little store that had a maximum 3 x 2 foot (1 meter x 66 cm) sign requirement, I made a much larger sandwich sign and put it out on the sidewalk every day from the first day I opened. I knew this was in violation, and I knew someone would notice it. They did, after two months. The zoning office did not issue a fine. They only issued a ‘cease’ letter, telling me I had 30 days to comply with the law. So I kept my sign out for another month, then I threw it away. It had done its job. I’m not recommending that you play with your government regulations, unless you know what you are doing is morally correct and the repercussions are safe.
Once you are in business, you can get wholesale catalogs and the wholesalers’ secret price lists. In order to qualify for a wholesale account, all you normally need is to fax or mail a copy of your resale certificate or DBA. Some wholesalers do require a photograph of the front of your store. Some have protected dealerships. This means that if someone else is selling their brand within a certain distance, perhaps 5 miles (3km), you can’t also sell the same brand. That’s fine, find other brands that aren’t protected or aren’t yet represented in your neighborhood. You can find the wholesalers online. Often, they find you, sending representatives to your store, to let you know about their wares.
Whereas you might start your store with only second-hand or collectible items, you now have the opportunity to sell new merchandise. The biggest advantage is that you can buy multiples of things that sell well. I have always imagined how nifty it would be to have a store that sells nothing but 25-pound (10kg) bags of dog food. Only one brand, only one type. I’d sell them over and over, the same to everyone who comes in. This is of course an oversimplified dream, but you can imagine that in a typical store it would simplify things if you could sell 100 copies of the same thing.
You’ll find the markup is remarkable in the lower-priced items, if you’re not familiar with retail. Things over $100, in most specialty businesses are marked up 50 percent. So if you pay $100, you sell it for $150. If you can ‘turn’ your inventory six times a year, meaning sell six of those $150 items in a year, your profit will be $300, on what amounts to $100 invested. A 200 percent annual return on investment (ROI). Compare that to a money market account! But wait, it gets better. the mark up on things in the $5 range is 100 percent. So things that you sell for $10, you paid $5 for. And under $2? It can run as high as 800 percent. If your business sells a lot of left-hand-threaded ‘thingamajigs’ for $2 each, you may find that you can buy them for 25 cents each. But you do have to sell a lot of left-hand-threaded thingamajigs to make any real money.
Insurance presents an interesting quandary. You want to be covered for liability, especially if you’re selling anything like ladders, saws, bikes or automotive accessories. But at first, you may not be able to afford $500/year for general liability insurance. On the other hand, if you can’t afford that. then you have no money, and no lawyer will take the case against you, because there’s no money to be had. So, you can buy insurance when you can afford to. By then, you may have assets to protect.
The one hole in the theory is that you might want to help people who have somehow have had a loss due to something you may have done. Its like driving a car. You want insurance in case you bump into someone. You want them to have their fender fixed without paying for it out of their own pocket, or your pocket.
So, my advice regarding insurance is to keep it high on the priority list, and get it as soon as you can after you’ve decided you’re going to grow a business.
Most local insurance agents are a bit unfamiliar with general liability insurance for businesses, but they can talk to their parent companies or refer you to agents who know how to help. Shop around, because you’ll find the costs vary considerably.
Most general liability insurance comes packaged with some other things that you might enjoy having, such as loss of contents. If your building is flooded, and if you have the right insurance, you can be covered for your lost inventory, equipment, and even loss of income while you were repairing the damages.
Then there’s advertising. The huge mistake most new retailers make is to buy too much of the wrong kind of advertising.
Especially when you are starting out, try to do as much as you can with free publicity. If you’re offering something new or different, or even if only something about what you’re offering is new and different, the newspapers (press releases, editorials), TV and radio stations will want to tell the public about it. After a while, when your initial publicity wears off, maybe you can invent something else that’s new and different about your business, and get another round of publicity. See the Publicity chapter for some crazy ideas.
In absolutely every case I can think of, placing display ads in your main newspaper, your local ‘throw-away’ newspapers, merchant maps, or anything else like that, works remarkably poorly. In this country, literally billions of dollars have been spent on advertising that brings absolutely no new business.
The advertising salespeople always have the same story when your advertising doesn’t work: “You didn’t buy enough yet.” Don’t fall for that!
Coupons work better, but don’t pay very much for any sort of coupon ad campaign. In fact, I’d suggest staying away from that altogether, unless you can make the coupons yourself and place them with restauranteurs, on bulletin boards, and so on. The nice thing about coupons is that you have a way to gauge the effectiveness of your advertising.
A reasonably small yellow pages ad, in the main phone company phone book (not any sort of third-party phone book) can be useful. But today’s customer mostly looks online, trying to find your phone number on your website.
So, of course you’ll want to build a website. Even if it’s just a home-made blog with a couple of pictures of you at work, your storefront if you have one, etc. All you need to do is display your phone number, hours, directions and a description of your products or services. In most cases, the website won’t initiate new customers. They need to have heard of you elsewhere, then they’ll use the website to see if you carry X-brand, or if you’re open on Sundays. So, don’t spend any significant money on a website.
In some cases however, SEO – Search Engine Optimization can work wonders. The basic idea is that you put product or service and the name of your community in the right places on your website, and the search engines such as Google, will display your website high on the page of search results if others in the same product line, in the same community haven’t already optimized their pages in the same way. You can read much more about website and business in the Website chapter.
Craigslist can be useful if it serves your area, and it is free! See the Craigslist chapter for techniques for maximizing Craigslist.
Once your business grows, you’ll want employees. There are four ways to handle this:
1. Only when your business is very small, you can pay a part-time person in cash to help you out. This is truly illegal but seldom enforced. So, you’ll want to seriously consider the following alternatives:
2. Contract worker: This is not an employee at all, but a person who technically has their own business and is designated to provide a specific service. This may be delivery, repair, cleaning, or commission sales. It is important to understand the distinction between a contract worker and an employee. Generally, the contract worker sets his or her own hours, often works off-premises, has his or her own tools, and does a specific task. If you can tell this worker to clean the bathroom, then this person is not a contract worker, but an employee. You can pay this person like any supplier – just pay cash or write a check weekly, monthly, whenever, in trade for an invoice. Contract workers are entirely legal – assuming they’re not illegal aliens or anything else that violates other labor laws. Be careful about having contract workers rolling around in vehicles. You’ll want to make sure you have the right insurance coverage if anything happens.
3. Temporary: You can contact a temporary agency (or “head hunters”) to get workers. This involves almost no paperwork on your part. All you do is pay the temp agency every month. They take care of all the employee insurance, the taxes, everything. But they also charge you 30 to 40 percent more than the employee would cost you directly. ‘Temporary’ is just a term. If you and your ‘temp’ like the arrangement, it can last as long as you both wish.
4. Employee(s): To do this legally, you need to provide workers’ compensation insurance and collect and submit payroll taxes. New software packages make this easy, but it gets even eaiser when you use an agency that exists for the sole purpose of helping you with employee paperwork. ADP is an example. You tell them the name, social security number and amount of pay for any new employee. At the end of every pay period (week, or two weeks), you tell them how many hours the employee worked. They do all the magic, filing federal forms, state forms, collecting from you any taxes that are required, sending those taxes to the government, and provide you with whatever accounting you may want. Occasionally they forward a form to be signed. For all this service, they charge around $50 per payroll period per employee. Another version is a bookkeeper who comes to your place every week for an hour or two, files all all your paperwork, pays your bills, fills out any tax or official forms, has you sign a document or two, offers suggestions to organize your business better, and then comes back next week. This is great, and relatively low cost, so you can focus on what you do best, and don’t have to learn anything. Bookkeepers are not licensed or tracked in most communities, so be sure you get a good one – one who knows what he or she is doing. When shopping for a bookkeeper, ask about training and experience, and check references. With a bookkeeper, probably more than any other worker, you really want to check references. In addition to possible embezzlement, you could get into trouble with the government, or lose money, if your bookkeeper is confused or uninformed. With a great bookkeeper, you’ll learn about and implement utility discounts, better credit terms with suppliers, and other tricks that might more than conpensate for the bookkeeper’s cost.
When hiring a worker, make sure not to discriminate. You can read more about this, but basically, be fair. Hire people based on their skills (including being able to co-exist with others in your business), and on their references, not based on skin color, sex, religion, etc.
So you see, it’s all easy. Especially if you think about the process only one step at a time.
And, it’s reasonably safe and likely to succeed if you remember the two rules:
1. Don’t spend more than you take in.
2. Don’t invest money you can’t afford to lose.
You may be amazed at how much a small store can grow, and how it can grow from almost nothing. Especially if you let it be a natural process. Imagine that you happen to like Lowrey organs.
Now, that may or may not be your favorite contraption, but they are expensive. So, if you happened to like them, you might eventually get yourself a used one on eBay. Perhaps it’s an old one and costs you only $1,000. You play it, enjoy it, and in time get a newer but still used one for $4,000. You sell the first one on Craigslist, and to your surprise, it brings $1,800. So, you put your $4,000 organ up for sale at $6,500, just in case someone would actually pay that much. And sure enough, after a bit of wheeling and dealing, you agree to sell it for $6,000. But now, you have no organ! So you quickly order another on eBay. Two in fact. And you end up selling them. Fast forward a year, and you have four Lowreys in your garage, and two in your living room, and you’re selling one every week or two. At some point, you realize you’re making $30,000 per year with your organs, and so you quit your job, devoting your full time to it. Now, you’re making $50,000 per year, and have $20,000 in a savings account. So, you rent a store, put the six Lowreys you currently have in the store, order four more, and things just keep growing.
As the years pass, you almost don’t notice the growth of your business, because you’re having such a good time. You spend your days playing your various organs, demonstrating them to customers, or just noodling around for your own amusement. You get to talk shop with lots of other people who love organs, including your sales people. Eventually you get a Lowrey dealership, and we won’t even talk about your income ten years later, because, well, wealthy people don’t talk about their money!
If you know quite a bit about cats you could be a cat whisperer. No license and no certification is necessary in most communities. It helps to understand their mentality, the reasoning behind the things they do, and the ways they are likely to react to various situations. Perhaps just as important, if you know something about people, and especially how they interact with their pets, you’ll have a big advantage.
Hang out your shingle, and you can do housecalls, helping people with their cats.
Your technique doesn’t much matter. You might offer the cat treats, you might talk to the kitty, you might wave a wand. Hopefully, your technique will correct cats’ behavior, or the cats’ owners’ behavior in a majority of the cases, but even if it doesn’t, and you certainly don’t want to guarantee it, you can charge your clients a surprising amount of money.
I’d launch a business like this on Craigslist, or any community website that serves your area. Have a nice personality. Tell all your clients how much you appreciate them talking you up to their friends and relatives. You’ll be amazed that even when the kitty’s behavior doesn’t change, they’ll still recommend you. Crazy, but true. However, I recommend being 100% legitimate. You really do want to do your best to help these kittycats, and their people.
By the way, it will probably more often be the people’s behavior that you’ll want to change, not the cats.
Tips and Tricks
Here are a couple of tricks you may find useful:
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If two cats don’t get along, put a drop of perfume on their backs. The cats will smell just like each other, and they’ll think of each other as family. This can have an immediate effect.
If you’re trying to slow a busy cat, lift up slightly on the scruff of the neck. This lifting mimics what the mother cat does to carry kittens, and it sets off a reflex that causes the cat to immediately stop wiggling or resisting. You don’t need to lift the cat entirely off its feet. In fact lifting an adult cat in the air by the scruff might hurt the kitty.
An older male cat that starts urinating in bad places is probably suffering from urinary tract problems. I don’t know if it’s too late to help, but I highly recommend changing the diet right away if the cat has been eating solid cereal-like food all it’s life. Cats are meat-eaters, with a short intestine appropriate for a carnivorous diet. Giving them the wrong kind of food, even if the companies that make it insist it’s alright, can result in urinary problems, and probably other medical issues as well.
A cat that doesn’t want to be picked up is probably suffering from early memories of being held captive. Have the owner pick up the cat a few times a day, but set the cat back down right away, or as soon as the cat starts wiggling. In time, the cat will realize that it’s not being held captive, and may learn to love the warm attention.
A cat that scratches furniture will stop immediately if the furniture is covered in aluminum foil. They also won’t walk on aluminum foil, so that’s a good way to protect things like half-done picture puzzles.
Is a cat too playful with it’s claws? Are the owners getting scratched? Whenever the owners can, as they play with their kitties, have them gently press the kitty’s claws back into a retracted position, and hold them that way for several seconds. It may take a while, but eventually the cat will play better. Under no circumstances should a cat be declawed. It makes them miserable for weeks afterward, and leaves them unprotected if they have to deal with predators outside the home.
Avoid any sounds that sound like hissing. This upsets cats. They may not show it, but even mild hissing noises can set them off into bad behavior.
What do you do with a cat that stays under the furniture and hisses at anyone who comes by? First, put the cat’s food and toilet where it can be reached without undue exposure. Cat’s in fear worry about attacks from overhead, like big birds coming out of the sky. So they like to stay under things. People can, and should be in the same room with the cat. Let the cat get used to people all around. Don’t try to make friends with the cat. Don’t stare at the cat, and try to make the kitty come out and be your friend. Same with some dogs and cats. As long as the other animals in the room don’t attack or tease the cat, the kitty will slowly get used to the environment, and venture out from under cover a little more each day.
How to give medicine to a cat: If it’s liquid, put it on the kitty’s back. The cat will lick it off. If the cat needs pills, one of the best techniques is used by veterinarians: They quickly wrap the cat in a towel, so the cat cannot scratch, and cannot wiggle away. That seems terrible, but it’s less traumatic than a long battle. Another thing about the towel that’s interesting: Many animals, and sometimes people too, like being gently squeezed in a restricted space. It calms them. In cattle ranching, they have a thing called a “squeeze frame,” in which a cow is placed. It keeps the cow calm while medical procedures are administered.
If you have woodworking skills, you’re all set to start a business. All you need is an idea for something you can make quickly that the public would like to buy.
Unique clothing buttons, desk toys, children’s toys, high-end ballpoint pens, and similar small objects come to mind.
Using rare and beautiful woods is a big plus.
Ordinary plywood can be made into interesting objects. For instance, I once cut a 42-inch disk from a piece of thick plywood. With a router, I carved a chess set into the middle by cutting alternate squares down through the top layer. The squares underneath were darker. I then covered the whole thing in a thick layer of clear resin. The thick resin-coated concept is a very 1970s art style, but it could make a great comeback.
I’m sure smaller objects could be carved from plywood, showcasing it’s unique laminated look as well.
Selling your objects can be done in all the usual ways. Find ones right here in the General Business Action Pack such as selling on Ebay, Etsy, Craigslist, yard sales, and consignment.
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Electric bicycles are so popular now that I believe you could source them on Amazon or Ebay and resell them locally. You could use Craigslist to sell your bikes, or just ride them around and talk with people.
This would be an easy experiment to run because you can start with a single electric bike and see what happens.
It is important not to go with low-end junk electric bikes that have short battery lifespans, or frequent mechanical failures, since you don’t want to be responsible for them.
In fact, it is a good idea to make it very clear that you don’t guarantee your bikes – unless you’re willing to take that on.
You could also resell used e-bikes, but be very careful that the batteries aren’t worn out. Batteries are very expensive and can be hard to get.
As your business grows, you could buy bikes from wholesalers or manufacturers, move into a glass-front retail store and hire a sales and repair staff.
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I’ll bet there’s a rapidly growing need for someone who can rebuild electric bike batteries with new cells. I suppose someone would have to know about sourcing cells, soldering, voltages, and opening and closing all the various ways the cells are encased. Do you have that skill?
You are probably not limited to a local market. Desperate e-bike owners would be quite willing to mail you their dead batteries from all over the country.
You might look into postal regulations, however. There may be restrictions on mailing batteries.
Because lithium-ion batteries are prone to fire and explosion, you’ll want to be very sure to do everything in a safe manner.
The harsh reality is that one out of every four women fail in business. If you think that’s bad: Four of every five men fail in business.
There are various ways to look at these statistics.
One could assume that if you try several businesses, one of them will work.
However, there are some people who are not cut out to work for themselves. Maybe you have too many family obligations. Maybe in your religion every day is a sabbath. Maybe you’re too addicted to television to accomplish anything besides your 40-hour-a-week job. That’s all OK. Hopefully you can be aware of the potential risks and benefits.
I had an unemployed friend. He used to be a ski mechanic at a big sports shop. He and I talked a bit. I ended up renting him some bench space in one of my retail stores. His rent was $80/week. He put a paper sign in the window, and sure enough he had some ski tune-up customers come in on the first day. He took the profit from the day and bought himself a nice pair of cowboy boots. At that moment, I knew he was doomed. During the rest of the week, he could have invested in some advertising, some more equipment or inventory, but he did not. He took friends to dinner, he lent some money to his girlfriend, he bought custom wheels for his car. At the end of the first week, he did not have his $80 bench rent. I gave him some leeway on the rent, but he knew himself well enough to realize it wouldn’t work out, so he declined my offer for the second week.
As your author, I don’t want to give you unrealistic expectations. So, please understand that you may read about a business you could start. Everything seems fine, but after a while you’ll discover it isn’t working. In my opinion, that’s fine. One has to experiment to break out of the trap. And if you do fail, just pick up and try something else.
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Now here’s the good advice: Don’t put your whole life’s savings into a business. Don’t quit your job until you have something that’s assured up and running well. Most of the businesses discussed here can be started with little money, and in your spare time. Even if your business is wildly successful right out of the box – which does happen sometimes, you can always expand it slowly and carefully.
I knew a guy who owned a small camera store. He had one Hasselblad, a very expensive camera, in stock. It sold. He bought five more, not realizing that the sale was a fluke. It took him over a year to recover his investment in the five Hasselblads. He almost lost everything.
Be prepared for failure, a natural component of eventual success. Expand slowly and carefully!
A guy named Louie, who’s big ambition in life was to become a millionaire. got this idea to hire handicapped people to assemble a product he invented. It was a very nice arrangement, but when he used up his supplier’s inventory of parts, he went bankrupt. He then started a commission business selling sports equipment. He spent a lot on advertising, but the business just sat there making no money. He went bankrupt again. He came across a restaurant that was going out of business. He bought all their equipment, and sold it at a profit. That became the idea behind his third business: Buying and selling restaurant equipment. Now, Louie is a multi-millionaire.
I counseled a fellow who was similar to Louie in that his goal in life was to become a millionaire. I asked him why. He said it was because he wanted a big house. I asked him why he wanted a big house. He said ‘because then, I can have a cat.’
“So what you really want is a cat,” I responded.
He thought for a moment, then he said, “Yes, that would make me very happy.”
I asked, “What stops you from having a cat?”
“My landlord,” was his answer.
Then, thinking it over, he suddenly smiled became quite animated. “Hey, I don’t need to go through all that. All I have to do is find another apartment where cats are allowed!”
He did just that. Two months later, he had his cat and was very happy. He was then able to focus on a business idea that would be fun, but not necessarily a fast track to a million dollars. A few years went by. He is now a millionaire, and he still has his cat – and a wife, and two children and a big house.
If you have or can build a unique vehicle, you can earn a living from that vehicle in several ways.
The Smile Shuttle, pictured above, started life as a DC-3 airplane. The rumored history is quite colorful. It started flying in World War II. Later, when in service as a passenger plane for Allegheny Airlines, it was hijacked to Cuba, not once, but twice. On another occasion, while coming in for a landing at 180 miles per hour, it hit a goose going about 20 miles in the other direction. The poor goose broke through the fuselage, breaking the copilot’s legs. Another time while being serviced in Florida, a mechanic revved up an engine too much. The plane overran the wheel chocks, and crashed into a glass wall, narrowly missing passengers in a terminal.
Around 1976, it was purchased by a private person who made it into a motorhome by sawing off the wings and last 15 feet. The fellow who did the original work was very creative in reusing available components. There were seven different vehicles involved in the steering compartments. The steering wheel was from a Jeep Wagoneer. The column was from a Cadillac, The front wheels were originals on the International bus chassis. The flexible coupling from the steering shaft to the Ford steering gearbox was a 1/2-inch Craftsman socket set flexible joint. (That was quickly replaced by the new buyer:))
In the early 1980s, it was sold to a couple who decided it looked like the Space Shuttle, which was a very popular NASA program at the time. They invested in new paint and many other improvements including an 8-foot diameter clear Plexiglas dome to cap the back end. The interior was designed to be multi-purpose. Someone said that at the time, it was the second-most famous vehicle in America, behind the Oscar-Meyer Weinermobile.
At one point, the Smile Shuttle gridlocked Las Vegas, as thousands of people stopped or drove around the block to take another look.
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They rented the vehicle for $250/hour for anything from private parties to parades. Sometimes, the action was inside, such as ferrying a group of executives to a special event. Other times, the action was more on the outside. For instance, the inside could be staffed with people who handed out advertising flyers to everyone who came close.
Later, it was made into a cafe, as shown in the picture above.
This promotional vehicle can be put to many purposes, but single-purpose promotional vehicles can make a big and profitable splash as well. You can rent your vehicle to movie production companies, attach advertising banners to it, or have it be an attraction at grand openings and special events. Your vehicle doesn’t have to be street-legal or even be in running condition for many purposes, as long as you can get it to where someone wants it.
Furthermore, it doesn’t need to be custom. Many small businesses would be happy to make use of your antique tractor, classic car, or any unusual vehicle in their advertising and promotion strategy.
Here’s a little knowledge to help you get the right laptop for your needs.
Let’s first discuss Chromebooks vs Windows and Mac laptops.
The Chromebook has an operating system similar to Android phones, with the same limitations. The Chromebook will be fine if all you do is participate in social media, watch movies or write email. For heavier operations such as creating art, music or movies, you’ll find software selection and storage space is limited. If you are a content creator, or want to store media for offline use, A Windows or Mac computer is recommended. Chromebooks almost always have a lower-quality sound system than other computers. However, the Chromebooks are generally less expensive and quite reliable for long, hard use.
You don’t want to be annoyed by a laptop that’s slow. I recently bought a cheap Windows laptop as a backup and was astounded at how slow it was to boot up and load web pages. You’ll want at least 8gb of RAM (memory), and a decent processor (CPU). You can check online to see what is currently fast in the CPU world.
Some laptops seem to have sufficient specifications, but due to poor bus (internal wiring) design or other issues, they can still be slow. If you can physically try the laptop before buying such as in a retail store, turn it off and see how long it takes to boot up. Try visiting a few websites such as YouTube, and see if they seem to come up fast, or take a long time. Of course this will also be dependent on the WiFi available in the store, so you can test several laptops to see if some load the same pages faster than others.
If buying online, make sure the company has a good return policy and reputation, then read reviews on the laptop you’re considering.
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Know your processor needs – For basic tasks, an Intel i3 or Ryzen 3 is fine; for heavier work (video editing, programming), go for Intel i7/i9 or Ryzen 7/9.
Get enough RAM (memory) – At least 8GB for general use, 16GB+ for gaming, creative work, or multitasking. The jump from 8GB to 16GB of RAM is probably the single most-important factor in computer speed. That’s because as apps fill up the RAM space, they juggle additional content on and off the hard drive, which is much slower than accessing directly from RAM.
Choose SSD (Solid-State Drive) over HDD (standard, spinning hard drive) – SSDs are much faster.
Consider your storage needs. If all you do is watch movies online, participate in social media or write text, a small amount of storage is sufficient, otherwise, you’ll want at least 256GB of storage.
Check for upgradability – Some laptops let you upgrade RAM or storage later; others don’t.
Consider battery life – Look for 8+ hours if portability and mobility matter.
Look at GPU needs – Only get a dedicated GPU (e.g., NVIDIA or AMD) if you game, render video, or do 3D work.
If you are able to touch the computer you’d like to buy, check the sound quality. This is sometimes difficult in stores, where the ambient noise is high. The difference in sound quality from one computer to another, even in the same price range, might amaze you. Some have reasonably quality, but only low volume. This is fine if you’ll always use a headset or external speakers.
Think about ports – Need HDMI, USB-A, USB-C, SD card reader, headphone jack? Check what’s included.
Most people don’t need DVD drives any more. If you want to play your old movies, or music, or look at assets stored on DVDs, you might look for a built-in DVD drive. However, if you don’t mind something dangling off the side, you can buy external drives for under $30.
Keyboard quality matters – Try to test it in person if you type a lot. Backlit keys are a plus.
Check thermal performance – Thin laptops can run hot. Read reviews for heat and fan noise. Some laptops that are nicely silent until they warm up from doing heavy processing tasks. Then, the fan starts and they make noise that you might find terribly undesirable. Most Chromebooks do not have fans to make noise.
Test the trackpad – A clunky trackpad can ruin daily use.
🖥️ Display
Screen resolution – You’ll want at least 1280 pixels across the screen. Higher resolutions are slightly clearer and allow for juggling more open windows on the same screen.
Screen brightness and contrast can also be an issue. If in a store surrounded by bright lighting, you may not get a clear understanding of a laptop’s brightness.
Size matters – 13–14″ is portable; 15–16″ is great for productivity; 17″ is for power users or people with minor vision impairment. My wife and I sometimes watch movies on a 17″ laptop in bed. We don’t miss the big screen at all.
Refresh rate – 60Hz is fine for everyday use; 120Hz+ is better for gaming or smoother visuals. Most people in most situations do not notice the difference.
Panel type – IPS panels have better color and viewing angles than TN.
Consider brightness – 300+ nits for indoor; 400+ nits for outdoor use.
💡 Software & Operating System
Choose your OS – Windows, macOS, or ChromeOS? Each has strengths. Match it to your workflow. Most people will be opinionated when it comes to operating systems, so you might ask for several opinions. If you have a certain program you’ve been using for a while, make sure it will run on your new computer. If you’ve become used to one operating system, switching may be bothersome until you get used to the new ways of doing things, such as pressing the [Command] key when you used to press the [Control] key.
Check for bloatware – Many Windows laptops come with pre-installed junk software; clean installs are better.
Verify OS version – Make sure it includes the latest OS version or free upgrade eligibility. This is not an issue on Chromebooks and Apple (Mac) laptops.
🌐 Connectivity
Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0+ – These ensure faster, more reliable wireless connections. Again, this is not an issue most people will notice.
Cellular options – Some laptops offer LTE/5G if you need internet on the go.
🧳 Portability & Build Quality
Weight matters – Under 3 lbs is ideal for frequent travel.
Build material – Metal bodies (e.g., aluminum) tend to be more durable than plastic.
Hinge quality – Check how sturdy it feels – some wear out or get wobbly quickly. Right now, we’re putting up with an Windows laptop in which within a year the plastic casing around one hinge broke, rendering the screen all wobbly. You can’t really determine hinge strength on a new laptop. Hopefully, if the model you’re considering has hinges that will fail, you’ll catch that in online reviews.
🛍️ Shopping Smart
Set a budget range – Decide what you’re comfortable spending, but be flexible based on your real needs.
As with most gadgetry, mid-range is the most economical. If you go for an extremely low-end laptop, you may have issues with speed, brightness, sound quality, battery life, heat, or fan noise. However, going beyond mid-range is generally a waste of money. A laptop with 16GB of RAM, 512GB hard drive, a good multi-core CPU with known good sound and screen quality in a mid price range will be nearly indistinguishable in daily use from a super-expensive model. The exception would be if you need lots of storage for movies, or processing speed for gaming or video creation.
Apple doesn’t make any low-end computers with disappointing performance. However, most folks don’t need their top-of-the line variations with options such as 8TB of storage, 32+GB of RAM, and highest-level CPUs in the $4,000-plus range.
There are few Chromebooks beyond $350. At the highest level, they are still Chromebooks with limitations.
Wait for deals – Watch for back-to-school, Black Friday, or manufacturer refurb sales. Be careful about refurbished laptops. Some cost only slightly less than new models, yet the new ones tend to have more storage, faster CPUs, more memory and better screens.
Compare multiple models – Don’t buy the first one you see; often better deals are nearby.
Watch out for ugliness. For many people this doesn’t make any difference at all, but there are some who might settle for a dark gray patterned case, or a bright purple case that they later can’t stand.
Read recent reviews – Don’t rely on specs alone. Look at user feedback and benchmarks.
Buy from reputable retailers – For warranties, returns, and post-purchase support.
Check the return policy – Just in case it doesn’t meet expectations or has issues.
Consider extended warranty or protection – Especially if you’re hard on gear or using it daily for work. Look at the fine print on extended warranties. Some are quite liberal and will cover nearly everything even a degree of abuse, sometimes even with in-store service. Others require sending the laptop to somewhere out-of-town, and paying $100 or more for repair plus covering shipping costs yourself.
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