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#1
February 13, 2013, 12:51 PM
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Seeking idea for $50-$100 small business services or products to offer.
I am a teacher, coach and a passionate entrepreneur who is looking to find a single service or product I can offer local small businesses in my area. Like most folks I have a limited amount of time to devote to supplementing my income. I have been following this forum for 5+ years and am calling on fellow Sowpubers to help me and anyone interested to creat a list of specific, simple, yet valuable services to offer small businesses in order to earn extra money. I am hoping this list can help many in the forum to create a nice side income if they are willing to take action. Thank you.
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#2
February 13, 2013, 06:49 PM
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Re: Seeking idea for $50-$100 small business services or products to offer.
How about offering a packing service for companies struggling to fulfill their internet orders.
A wee starter for you. Margaret
__________________
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#3
February 14, 2013, 02:48 AM
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Re: Seeking idea for $50-$100 small business services or products to offer.
Offer to liven up their facebook pages. Find "hot" articles and pics, etc. and post to their FB page to increase their "engagement" factor.
Do it for a week for free, then, if the results are good, have them pay you $100 / month to keep it going. -- TW PS: Many (MOST!) biz fanpages are "dead." They tried, but gave up eventually.
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#4
February 14, 2013, 07:05 AM
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An idea based on your background as a teacher...
Quote:
When I read that you are a teacher, the following post sprang to mind... In short, it's about a teacher in Georgia to made quite a bit of money selling lesson plans, to other teachers! It was originally posted here by Phil... Here are some links to read more about it, including a link to Phil's original post... I've also included the article below (in case it disappears)... Georgia teacher rakes in $1 million by selling lesson plans -- to teachers http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012...ns-to-teachers http://www.teacherspayteachers.com http://www.sowpub.com/forum/showthread.php?p=31967 ------ Georgia teacher rakes in $1 million by selling lesson plans -- to teachers By Sevil Omer, NBC News Who says teachers can't make a million bucks? Deanna Jump is a first-grade teacher in Georgia who made $1 million by selling her upbeat lesson plans -- to other teachers. She’s now among 15,000 teachers nationwide to cash in on their creativity by promoting original materials through TeachersPayTeachers (TpT), an online marketplace to help educators share and sell resource materials, site founder Paul Edelman says. Edelman characterizes his site "sort of like an eBay or an Etsy for lesson plans, units, activities, projects, exams, PowerPoints, smartboard activities." He started the site in 2006 as a way for teachers to help teachers -- and earn some extra cash. "Even if a teacher is just making an extra $50 a month, it's a significant boost to their meager salaries," Edelman said in an email to NBC News, adding "our sellers find great pride in the fact that other teachers are using their ideas in classrooms around the country and world." Today, the site has about 1.1 million registered members and has earned about $14 million so far, Edelman told NBC News. "It’s a place where teachers who love curriculum development can open up shop and sell their materials to teachers who thrive on delivery more than creation. It’s symbiotic and elegant," said Edelman, a former New York middle school English teacher who now lives in Fontainebleau, France. In August, the company grossed $2.5 million in sales, up from $305,000 the year before. Teachers pay $59.95 for an annual premium membership fee to sell materials on the site, with the agency taking a 15 percent cut of most sales, according to Businessweek. Similar sites are popping up on the Internet: WeAreTeachers, another online community for teachers allows educators to chat and exchange ideas and win cash and prize and Udemy, a site for online classes, recently announced 10 of its teachers had earned a combined $1.6 million over the last year, according to TechCrunch. Jump never dreamed of raking in the cash, she told Businessweek last month. For years, the 43-year-old educator and her husband, also a teacher, struggled financially, barely making enough to pay the bills in their town of Macon, Ga. She teaches at Central Fellowship Christian Academy, where she earns about $55,000 a year. Attempts by NBC News to reach Jump were unsuccessful Tuesday. She decided to use TeachersPayTeachers about three years ago after much urging from a fellow colleague. “My units usually cover about two weeks’ worth of material,” Jump told Businessweek. “So if you want to teach about dinosaurs, you’d buy my dinosaur unit, and it has everything you need from language arts, math, science experiments, and a list of books you can use as resources. So once you print out the unit, you just have to add a few books to read aloud to your class, and everything else is there, ready to go for you.” Within two years, Jump earned her first million by creating 93 separate lesson plans and selling 161,000 copies for $8 each. While she's made a hefty amount, two teachers have sales over $300,000 and 23 others have sales over $100,000, and most of that money was earned over the past 18 months, Edelman said. Jump told Businessweek in September her new wealth hasn't changed her, or her lifestyle, but has given her a source of financial relief. She has paid for her daughter's college tuition and purchased a special van for her quadriplegic brother, she told Businessweek. “When I realized that we could buy that van and it wouldn’t be a financial hardship for my family, that was really something,” she told Businessweek. “But we really haven’t changed our lifestyle. I drive a Kia, okay? I’m just trying to keep it real.”
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#5
February 14, 2013, 07:12 AM
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Another teacher-based idea...
Quote:
Here's another idea... First, there are people (as you know) who tutor for a living, to help students get better grades. Of course, you could do the tutoring yourself. However, you can also do this as a slightly larger business. How? If you know how to get tutoring jobs, then you could do the following. You get the customers (i.e. students who want tutoring, or the parents of students are your real customers in many cases), then hire others to actually do the tutoring, and take a small percentage of the money for each tutoring job that you get for your tutors. Getting the customers might require spending a little bit of money on advertising. I know people who have done this as a business in the past. Best wishes, Dien
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#6
February 14, 2013, 01:31 PM
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Re: An idea based on your background as a teacher...
Excellent advice from Dien...
 Follow what you Know... Specialize in those Passion related niches, Whether you're in them... Even if Some might not Exactly be in those Specialized fields also... Simply find a Nice little Re-Workable idea that's Somewhat {Twistable}... Even on the Marketing side of Creativity and Ideas... So Many have {Cool and Awesome} ideas But absolutely No Ideas on How to Take their Concepts further into those Specialized niche Marketplaces that Oh so Many have Very little Ideas about...  Endless Entrepreneurial success stories All over the Web worth Seriously studying and Re-Creating into your Own Fresh new Ideas...  Another one the comes to Mind from a few years back from a Teachers Mindset and Brain Power into Success... A Blast from the Past on Good ol' Dragons Den Canada! EH? ... Sep 23, 2008 – During her 20 years as a high school language teacher, Kathryn ... Thousands of hours and several years later, her company, eStudent.ca, has wracked up $500,000 in sales to more than 1,200 schools across Canada, the U.S. and U.K. of software that the mother of two created and sells from her basement ... http://www.canada.com/victoriatimesc...8-92be83be01a8 https://www.google.ca/search?q=http%...ient=firefox-a All the best, Phil Last edited by Phil : February 14, 2013 at 01:34 PM. Reason: additional info...
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#7
February 14, 2013, 05:46 PM
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Re: Another teacher-based idea...
An infrequent poster here, Dave Vallieres, has a son, Brice, that does this. His website is http://www.tutordudes.com
He is selling a manual that details his methods at: http://www.manual.tutordudes.com (I have not read the manual.) Quote:
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#8
February 15, 2013, 04:50 AM
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Re: Another teacher-based idea...
Quote:
I've been following Dave Vallieres' stuff for years (and he's posted here in the past, too)... I didn't know about his son, Brice, though. Sounds like his manual could be very useful if you wanted to start a tutoring-based business... Best wishes, Dien Last edited by Dien Rice : February 15, 2013 at 05:10 AM.
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#9
February 15, 2013, 05:00 AM
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Re: An idea based on your background as a teacher...
Quote:
I love all these shows... Dragons' Den (both UK and Canadian), and Shark Tank in the US... I can see how the idea in the article you linked to could be adapted to other subjects, too, apart from foreign languages. If she can do it, why not you? All you need is a bright student who can program, like she had! Although, you can also hire a programmer too (such as through oDesk, for example)... Best wishes, Dien
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#10
February 15, 2013, 12:18 PM
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Re: Seeking idea for $50-$100 small business services or products to offer.
Great ideas-thank you! Here is one of my ideas that "paid" off. Don Alm actually inspired me several years ago to sell ads on a magnet. I designed a 6" X 4" maget and sold 1/2" spots to local businesses. I touted it as a "business directory" and sold about 28 spots at $150 each. I also told business that I would print up 5000 magnets and deliver them to every door in town. I neted several thousand dollars on this project. I was somewhat known in town, but not as a marketer. It was hard work, but if you can walk in and ask for the owner and show them an example(mock-up) you can do this. Another way to do this would be to sell less ads and charge more. Don's ideas do work if you work. I hope this inspires someone to go for it. Also, I am a middle school PE teacher in Iowa. Thanks again to those who have taken their time to share ideas.
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