730. Bring out a card index box which has reprinted cards for holding different kinds of information. This is a card index version of personal organisers, instead of carrying around a pocket folder of information, everything is held on pre-printed cards in a desktop card index box.

731. Design and organize the production of stop smoking penalty boxes. Every time a person smokes, he or she pays a fine. Pay a plastics injecting mouldings firm to manufacture the boxes. Distribute the finished plastic boxes to wholesalers and a wide range of retailers. 

732. Make good, old-fashioned wooden tool carriers of some sort and have them stocked at hardware shops and tool shops. Or produce kits for making tool carriers and sell by mail order from ads in DIY magazines. 

733. Produce and distribute a selection of ashtrays which feature the face of a hated person. Every time a smoker finishes a cigarette they stub it out in the face of the hated person. 

734. Make leather folders for salespeople to use when making presentations. Have these stocked at stationers or produce a catalogue about your range of folders and send it to businesses. 

735. During the Christmas period, sell holly and mistletoe door-to-door.

736. Put together a home study course about theatrical directing. Call this business a postal drama school. Students will include: amateur drama directors, professional actors and other theatre enthusiasts. 

737. Write and publish a manual which is about how to start and organise your own football team. Sell from ads in football magazines and programmes. 

738. Set up a window cleaning round and employ students and other young people to do the work. Build up lots of individual rounds and employ a person for each one.

739. Place classified ads in newspapers which read: ‘Anything bought, Cash paid’ or ‘Houses cleared’. Make money from reselling what you pick up.

810. Start a service which organises the painting of murals in bedrooms, dining rooms, residential games rooms, etc. Advertise in up-market publications.

811. Call door-to-door and offer to take top quality passport photographs. Take the photographs in the customers house. Someone returns at a later date to deliver the photographs and collect payment. All family members might have their photos taken for passports, ID cards, bus and train passes, etc.

812. Start a production line which turns out hand-painted wooden egg cups for selling at shops. Or at a market stall paint personalised egg cups while the buyer waits.

813. Set up a caddie service for photographers, film makers and video makers. Hire out yourself, and others, to carry equipment for people in these groups. Place ads in suitable magazines to offer your service and send a leaflet to photographers who do location work for businesses.

814. Produce coloured acetate paper printed with painting by number designs for shops. The designs could include elaborate ‘sale’ signs and pictures with a Christmas theme. A shopkeeper sticks the acetate sheets to one side of a window and paints the design or picture on the other.

815. Begin a firm which produces and distributes a range of I’m in love’ products. These will include T-shirts, car stickers and badges.

816. Bring out a board game about buying and running a shop. The shop might be a newsagent or the game might involve several types of shops. Sell from ads in publications which list shops for sale.

817. Rent out model trains by post to railway enthusiasts. This service would allow enthusiasts to examine and use a wide range of trains. You could include an option for the customer to buy if they are particularly fond of any model.

818. Make simple footstools – up to twelve inches in height, for standing on to reach things from shelves. Sell through local shops. 

819. Contact the owners of houses with small letterboxes and offer to supply and install a large letterbox.

820. Bring out a video which consists of a long recording of an open fire. By playing the video anyone can have the charm of an open fire in their home without the mess and the hassle.

821. Make peg abacuses. Each abacus is a wooden block which has rows of dots instead of beads. A row has one peg to indicate the value of that row. Package these and sell as either a children’s educational aid or a novelty for adults. 

822. Write and produce a correspondence course about how to start and build a successful craft business.

Subjects covered by the course might include: How to choose and design a winning product, how to sell craftwork, how to use other craft workers in your business, etc.

823. If you have a porch, hold a porch sale. Raise extra cash by displaying your unwanted items at your sale.

824. Set up a direct mail business which sells business books. This type of business offers the greatest potential for profit if you publish the books you sell. Do this by 1) Writing a book of your own; 2) Advertising for authors’ manuscripts; and 3) Contacting literary agents. 

825. Start a trade publication for small mail order businesses. Give the latest news and views relevant to small mail order businesses. Distribute by post.

826. Publish a newsletter for those who want to make money from manufacturing kits. Kit manufacturing provides a spectrum of opportunities. Deal with all aspects of starting a profitable kit making business.

827. Put together a correspondence course about how to become a professional investment adviser. Sell through ads in the financial press.

828. Learn the craft of woodcarving. When you become skilled earn money from carving popular first names in relief and turn these into brooches. Also turn out other carved jewellery such as pendants, bracelets and earrings.

829. Produce a selection of memory adoption cassettes. People often wish they had more pleasant childhood memories than they do. These cassettes would consist of recordings of pleasant memories. A listener can adopt these memories and pretend they are his or her own.

830. Use sea-shells to make a range of jewelery, including sea-shell brooches, bracelets, earrings and necklaces. Place these on racks and have them stocked at suitable shops.

831. Cut chess pieces into slices and use them to make earrings, necklaces and key-ring fobs. Sell at craftwork markets and fairs. 

832. Begin a direct mail or mail order business which sells crafts books to craft workers. Buy books from publishers, buy manuscripts from authors and publish these yourself, or write a craft book which has universal appeal and sell this.

833. There seems to be an insatiable demand for quality, novel or inexpensive clocks. If you want to start an import business, this would be a suitable area to try.

834. Begin a business which produces a syndicated mail order catalogue. Most catalogues consist of the goods of one firm. A syndicated catalogue could have details of products from hundreds of suppliers. 

835. Become a street handbag polisher. This service is similar to a street shoeshine, except handbags are polished. Also offer to polish leather clothes, such as jackets and coats.

836. If you are physically attractive, become a freelance escort. Place adverts in local papers which state you will accompany an unattached person to social or business functions. 

837. In a large city operate a telephone information service for amateur photographers. Photographers who subscribe to your service can telephone you to get a list of today’s photo opportunities. For example: a film star arriving at an airport and a record breaking attempt.

838. Set up a mail order business which sells kits for making leather products. For example, kits for wallets, chequebook covers and pension book covers. Design and manufacture the kits yourself and produce a catalogue. 

839. Put together a correspondence course about palmistry. Sell from ads in astrology magazines. One attraction of the course is that the palmist skills learned could be used to make money.

840. Compile and publish a directory of sales messages, phrases and selling points. The format of this directory might be copyright free art clipping books. All businesses are potential buyers. Sell by direct mail.

841. Deal in collectible bookplates. Promote the hobby of collecting bookplates by offering potential collectors a free selection. Thereafter send collectors a regular list of bookplates for sale. Also bring out and sell albums for storing and displaying bookplates. 

842. Devise a programm which is designed to make a person more dynamic. A more dynamic, confident person has a greater chance of achieving success in life. Publish your programme and sell it by direct mail to business opportunity seekers. 

843. Buy a portable children’s mini-railway. Children can sit on the carriages and are taken up and down a short track. Hire out your railway for fund raising at fairs and money-making tourist sites. 

844. Rent out large snooker tables and cues in a similar fashion to the way television sets are rented out. Rent them to householders, clubs, businesses, colleges, unions, etc.

845. Start a publishing enterprise which specialises in producing quality hand printed poetry books. Get these stocked at bookshops and sell by post to poetry lovers. 

846. Devise and produce an easy-to-use system for cataloguing coin collections. Sell this through stamp and coin shops, or from ads in alot of collectors magazines. 

847. Be a crossword puzzle designer who specialises in a particular subject, such as football, painting rocks, photography or stamp collecting. Sell football crosswords, for example, to publishers of football magazines and programmes. 

848. Publish a newsletter for those people who want to become children’s authors. In each issue include advice and information which will help children’s authors to get work accepted for publication.

849. Produce and launch a correspondence course which teaches people how to write fiction for adolescents for profit.

850. Bring out a correspondence course about how to write screenplays for feature films. There is obviously a lot of skill involved in writing a screenplay and there are numerous people who would be willing to pay to learn.

851. Publish poetry in a way similar to music sheets. On a printed folded sheet feature a main poem and maybe 3 or 4 support poems. Get these ‘poem sheets’ stocked at bookshops and newsagents. The price might be the same as a daily newspaper. Also organise a chart of top selling poem sheets.

852. Use classified ads to sell a selection of English language newspapers from around the world. Buyers will include those who are curious about what overseas English language newspapers are like.

853. Start a service which writes persuasive monologues for individuals. For example, a C.V. designer helps a person get an interview, your service provides monologues for people to use at interviews. Or help people to get a date or to propose marriage.

854. Begin a gift service which provides a nostalgic selection of magazines from the month of a person’s birth. Advertise your service in the columns or classified ads which feature other gift ideas. 

855. Set up a mail order business which sells casting equipment, supplies and books. Potential customers include a wide range of craft workers and hobbyists. Begin by learning everything you can about small scale casting then track down trade suppliers of products related to casting.

856. Devise and invent puzzles and word games. Sell these through specialist magazines and newspapers and to book publishers.

857. Start a business which brings out a library of children’s stories on audio cassettes. Have these stocked at toyshops and bookshops or start a monthly club.

858. Compile and publish a bulletin which informs subscribers of photography competitions they are eligible to enter in this country and around the world. Advertise in photograph magazines.

859. Set up a mail order business which is devoted to selling products designed to increase a persons attractiveness to the opposite sex. Products might include books, cassettes, courses, systems and aids. Produce some of the products yourself. 

860. At a tourist site earn money from painting a persons name on a print. The name thus becomes part of the picture. For example, there might be a hoarding of posters in your picture and a persons name becomes one of the posters. Design and produce the prints yourself.

861. Produce an aerial video of your area. Duplicate this and have it stocked at video hire shops and other local shops. 

862. Publish a newsletter about human interest stories, unusual facts, interesting paragraphs, etc. Subscribers would include people who produce their own, regular, amateur publication. They would use your newsletter as a source to provide fillers for their own publication.

863. Start a school of English and give lessons to an ethnic group who want to improve their written and spoken English. You might give tuition either in your own home or at hired premises.

864. Start a dating agency or marriage bureau specially for the separated or divorced. Use local advertising to attract clients. 

865. Begin a business which specialises in organising romantic breaks and holidays. Arrange for courting couples, newly-weds and mature couples to have breaks at hunting lodges, cottages and castles.

866. Earn from teaching people how to find a lover or life partner. You could hold classes in a hired hall, produce an audio cassette course, give lessons in your home or write a manual.

867. Produce painting by numbers outlines specially designed for hobbyists. For example, do outlines of locomotives, or background scenery for railway modellers. Sell these from ads in hobby magazines or get them stocked at modelling shops.

868. Begin a service which organises a telephone chess playing club. A member might have four chess boards and pieces next to the phone. When a member has worked out his move on each board, he telephones his opponent.

869. Put together a mail order catalogue which has a wide range of business posters. The posters might be about: inspiring, sales efficiency, hard work and saving energy. Send the catalogue to most businesses.

870. Make a selection of leather wallets for playing cards. For example, a pocket wallet or a wallet for attaching to a belt. Include a pack of playing cards in each wallet. Have them stocked at a wide range of shops.

871. Begin a venture which arranges for business and sales meetings to take place at exotic and unusual venues. For example, a businessman can negotiate a contract with a client at a castle, or on a yacht or in a sightseeing plane. 

872. Put together a range of spoken word audio cassettes. Have them stocked in video rental shops and rented out as an alternative to a video.

873. Make hand-painted badges. These might feature: a tiny traditional painting, an abstract painting, witty statements, popular symbols and funny faces.

874. Set up a business which organises record, stamp or book fairs. Find a venue, sell places to stall holders

by placing ads in hobby magazines and publicise to attract customers. 

875. Attend pop concerts, festivals, fairs and other large public events and sell funny hats and baseball caps.

876. Start a theatrical play of the month club. Operate this like a book club but sell only theatrical plays. The club will not offer discounts on publications, but you can send copies of the latest plays opening at theatres.

877. Sell Jazz memorabilia by post. Start a world-wide search for products to put in your catalogue. The products might include: photographs, slides, posters, old magazines, duplicate press cuttings, books, video and audio cassettes. 

878. Begin a board game of the month or quarterly club.

879. Sell unusual musical instruments from your own catalogue, by post. For

example: folk music instruments from Third World countries, and early musical instruments.

930. Start a service which commissions artists to do drawings of business premises or private residences. Also arrange for the drawings to be reproduced on: stationery, postcards, calendars, business cards, etc. Advertise in business publications and also do work for established printers.

931. Manufacture marbles draughts sets. Instead of a checkerboard there is a wooden board with 64 round holes. The holes become the squares of the draughtboard and the marbles sit in them. Each side has marbles of a different colour and some extra colours to use as ‘kings’.

932. Produce a series of booklets or audio cassettes about ideas for saving a variety of things. For example: ‘Ideas for Saving Money’, ‘Ideas for Saving Time’, ‘Ideas for Saving You the Trouble of Dieting’, etc. Sell by mail order as a complete set.

933. Produce a correspondence course about cartooning. Pay a skilled cartoonist to devise the course. 

934. If you have the artistic ability to become a cartoon caricaturist, earn money from doing amusing portraits at a thoroughfare of a shopping or tourist area. Or do caricatures outside football grounds on match day, at festivals, concerts, exhibitions, etc.

935. Compile and publish a year-book or ‘Yellow Pages’ type directory for those who want to start a business. In the directory list, for example: sources of finance, small business advisers, franchise companies, etc. Also sell advertising space to business opportunities promoters.

936. Learn the art of calligraphy. When you become a skilled calligrapher earn money from teaching others in your own home or at evening class.

937. Start a home party hire service. The hosts of children’s and adults’ parties hire from you: chairs, tables, cutlery, plates, glasses, barbecues, etc. Advertise your service either in local newspapers or newsagents windows. Provide a free delivery service.

938. Provide a sales service for oil-painters. Sell the work of artists by finding outlets and take a commission on all sales. Outlets might include: antiques shops, gift shops, private art exhibitions, overseas shops, etc. 

939. Bring out a selection of posters which are packed with biblical quotes. Sell these through religious bookshops and by post to schools and practicing Christians.

940. Set up a promotional sheet music publishing business. People who write music and lyrics would find it easier to sell their compositions if they were published. Published compositions could then be circulated to people in the music business.

941. Bring out novelty voodoo model brains. A voodoo model brain represents the brain of the target person and is marked with different areas such as stress, love, anxiety, pain, etc. Pins are placed in selected areas to stimulate the feelings associated with that area.

942. Set up a party plan business which sells gardening equipment and supplies. You might, for example, hold the parties in gardens during the afternoons. Once you have developed a successful presentation and range of products, increase the size of your business by recruiting agents.

943. Start a spring-water bottling and distribution business. Advertise for someone who owns a property which has a natural spring water supply. Negotiate a contract with the owner which allows you to bottle and sell the spring water. 

944. Design and have produced novelty sex maniacs score cards and find trade buyers or sell by mail order.

945. Write and publish a manual which has a title like ‘How to Start Your Own Mail Order Business’. Use classified ads and direct mail to sell this to business opportunity seekers.

946. Set up a mail order business which sells books and products related to ventriloquism. Produce booklets and cassettes which give instructions about ventriloquism and ideas for stage acts. Also sell props and dummies.

947. Bring out an ‘ideas’ newsletter for writers. In each issue suggest ideas for: locations, characters, events, phrases, use of words, etc. One of the main selling points of your newsletter is that it will help a writer to become a published author.

948. Help people to get jobs by starting a C.V. design service. Conduct your own research into what information in a C.V. impresses employers. Basically, a good C.V. is professionally printed and presents the most important facts about a persons career history in a simple, clear way.

949. Publish a weekly or monthly large type newspaper for people with poor eyesight which summarises the news of the previous week or month. 

Identifying your target market when starting a home based business should be high on your to do list before you look at anything else. People starting a work from home business are vulnerable in the in itial stages.

That is, they are more than likely going to fear rejection. And make no mistake, it lurks just below the surface like a shark waiting to pounce on it’s unsuspecting prey.

Take a look at the messy statistics in the business which show a almost horrific attrition rate. You’ve almost got a better chance of surviving a full force hurricane than the first three months of network marketing.

Why is this?

Because prospecting in a hit and miss style will give you hit and miss results. The truth is, it will mostly be miss but not only that, you’ll also suffer a dose of rejection. And that’s what will maim the unfortunate MLMer. Most don’t recover and bail out and it doesn’t take to many rejections to cause an exodus.

So make sure you identify your target market when starting a home based business and for network marketers, that means narrowing it down to their own nich – network marketers.

Network Marketers Are Your Number One Prospects

This may surprise many MLMers that their number one target market is their own back yard. It’s a known fact that the failure rate in MLM is huge. In fact, more than 90% quit their business within the first three months. That means those people without a business to their name are caught in what we know as the transition period and just the mere fact they looked at and tried an opportunity once, means they’ll more than likely be looking again.

Despite the failure rate in the business network marketers are a hardy lot and many know that one failure doesn’t mean MLM does not work. So when starting an at home business in this niche you will want to target this market.

Know Your Prospect

The next thing you will want to do is to really find out who this person is. Things like what they want, what they’re interested in and the problems they want solved. Once you put yourself in your prospect’s shoes and are able to feel their needs, wants, desires and pain, then you’re in a better position to know what solutions to offer them.

The next step is understanding the principles of attraction marketing. If you’re starting a home based business today such as network marketing and don’t have any online real estate to speak of then you’d better build some or learn how to produce it.

Websites and blogs will be your conduit to intercepting these prospects as they go online looking for information on working from home. The beauty about this is these people are already looking for a solution. By putting your online real estate in front of them then you’ll be ahead of the curve – that is, ahead of most of the rest of the MLM crowd trying to build their business off line.