1  SELLING BRIC-A-BRAC AND COLLECTORS' ITEMS

 

Vast profits are made selling toys, dolls, trains, books, pottery, stamps, curios, even junk, at fleamarkets and collectors' fairs.  Since the same dealers turn up week after week there must be a good liv ing to be made here, and still there is room for newcomers, particularly if they can offer something a little different.  A stall at suitable venues is extremely easy to arrange.   Either telephone the organiser to reserve a stall on a particular occ asion, or much more preferably, visit one of their venues as a customer yourself to gain experience.

 

2  STAMP DEALING  (Without capital or experience)

 

At Stamp Fairs and Collectors' Fairs, dealers carry in their huge boxes of unsorted stamps for eager collectors to rummage through. 'All stamps 2p each' the signs say, and business is brisk.  Stamps in bulk are very easily obtained as a browse through any specialist stamp collectors' publication will reveal.  Stock can be offered for sale on approval, as again a browse through such magazines will prove.  Another opportunity lies in the 'packeting' of stamps for sale to other dealers, or for fixing to display boards for sale in local shops.

 

 

3  TRADING AT CAR BOOT SALES

 

Car boot sales offer a good income to those prepared to investigate suitable venues and to offer reasonable stock at realistic prices.  Stall fees are cheap in comparison to those for fleamarkets and collectors' fairs.  Stock is unbelievably easy to acquire, whether from your own garage or the attics of friends and relatives, from jumble sales or other car boot traders, charity shops, and private sales in the Classified pages of the local press.

 

4  DEALING IN USED BOOKS

 

Books can be sold face-to-face with the buyer, perhaps at car boot sales, fleamarkets, collectors' or book fairs, through the post by means of a list, or on approval to selected customers. You can acquire all the stock you need by means of regular and early visits to car boot sales, jumble sales, collectors' fairs and auctions.

 

5 BOOK-KEEPING

 

The book-keepers' skills are highly valued amongst small traders and businessmen and women, particularly with accountants charging high rates for a similar service.  You will be in great demand, either on a temporary basis as the Tax Year draws to a close, or on a permanent part-time basis, thereby alleviating the need for businesses to employ their own staff.

 

6 WRITING

 

Whether they choose to write readers' letters and fillers, articles or short stories, a good living awaits those who are tuned into meeting the requirements of the various editors and publishers.  The market for articles is much greater than that for short stories and usually means a more regular acceptance rate.  Seeking further to satisfy the lesser known and lower paying markets will also lower potential rejection rates, as you break your way into this highly lucrative area.

 

7 PREPARING CURRICULUM VITAE

 

A curriculum vitae consists simply of the biographical details, both personal and career-related, of persons wishing to change jobs or seek advancement, training, and virtually any other change within their working lives, which necessitates them giving interviewers, employers, and college heads, sufficient details to make a full and accurate assessment of the candidate.  The person who enters this lucrative business must of necessity possess two things: an ability to put his or her customers at ease whilst personal details are elicited as fully and accurately as possible, and, access to a good typewriter or preferably one of the most ingenious and invaluable inventions of our time, a word processor.

 

8  RESEARCHING FAMILY TREES

 

In Government records, Parish registers, graveyards, and in many other places, are segments of information, which when located and pieced together, offer an extremely accurate and interesting profile of one's family history. But a problem presents itself which precludes many a man or woman from researching his or her family history - TIME!  Time in many of our lives is an extremely valuable commodity, and other demands allow insufficient time to undertake sometimes painstaking research.  This is where you come in, as a specialist, and highly paid researcher.

 

9  CONSUMER COMPETITIONS

 

Every day someone, somewhere, receives the news that he or she is the new owner of something well beyond the scope of their own financial resources.  It might be a classic car, or a house in an exclusive area.  The recipient s are devotees of consumer competitions sponsored by manufacturers, hotels, shops, and manufacturers, hotels, shops, and many other businesses, as a means of attracting new customers.  To qualify for the excellent prizes on offer every day, the competitor  is faced with an array of tasks, from the simple prize draw where nothing more is required of him but to enter his name and address on an appropriate form, to spot-the-ball e xercises, factual questions and placing items in order-of-merit, to name but a few of the many techniques employed.  Persistence and acquired skills play their part in the vast majority of competitions, which in addition to one of the above preliminary tasks, require the competitor to create a slogan or to complete a tiebreaker sentence, perhaps a limerick, or to take part in some other tiebreaking method.  Get a copy of 'Competitors Journal' copy of 'Competitors Journal' from your newsagent.

 

10 INVENT-A-GAME

 

Monopoly, the Rubik Cube, and Trivial Pursuits, are amongst the most popular games and pastimes of today, and surely none can have disappointed their creators in the handsome dividends they provided.  A look at these handsome dividends they provided.  handsome dividends they provided.  A look at these examples should convince you convince you of one notable and common characteristic - each and every one possesses that most unique of qualities, in the the shape of uniqueness itself! the the shape of uniqueness itself! Create something different - that's the key!

 

11 CHERISHED CAR NUMBERS

 

This term usually refers to registration plates with a combination to registration plates with a combination of letters and numbers which when read, convey some and numbers which when read, convey some message, or else resemble to a greater or lesser extent, some familiar word or name.  For example, a car I see regularly bears the registration 'JEN 1F' - clearly the property of someone named 'Jennifer'.  Even one sale can yield several thousands of pounds, and the procedure for transferring transferring the plate from the donor vehicle to the recipient vehicle is usually straightforward, within guidelines as laid down by the Government.

 

12 SOCKS OR ITEMS IN CONSTANT DEMAND

 

Specialising can pay the handsomest handsomest of dividends, especially when the item chosen is one required by every man, woman or child, all of the time.  Hence the massive businesses set up by those who cashed in on the market for socks of every kind, for those who sought to provide ties of every shape and size, and for the woman who seeing the need for a range of natural beauty products, natural beauty products, decided not only to provide a few everyday creams and potions, but to stock ou t shops that covered the country.  Once the decision has been made as to what to specialise in, and it needn't be clothes or cosmetics, it needn't even be for human use, then you are faced with the possibility of providing just about every single var iation upon that set theme.

 

13 TREASURE HUNTING

 

Treasure hunting, whether on rubbish tips, on beaches, or in fields which provided the venue for happy family picnics many generations ago, can turn up some of the most useful of articles, whether for sale, or in the case of rare specimens, for auction to waiting droves of big-time rare specimens, for auction to waiting droves of big-time collectors. One woman combs the beach looking for suitable pieces of driftwood in which to display the beautiful flower arrangements she sells at craft fairs and in local shops.  A man I heard of simply hunts for attractive stones and shells which will adorn some of the most original and appealing pieces of jewellery.  Another man has his hoard of Victorian bottles displayed on his stall at local fleamarkets, whilst whilst the broken ones he finds are cut down and shaped into ornamental pieces are cut down and shaped into ornamental pieces such as paperweights, ashtrays, stone-shaped pieces for jewellery and a host of other highly tempting pieces.

 

14 ACCOMMODATION ADDRESS AND OFFICE SERVICES

 

Not all of us want to set up business in our homes, at least not insofar as our home address is the only contact customers have when address is the only contact customers have when they decide to pay a personal visit at the most inconvenient of times. Many other reasons, including privacy, lead people to seek the services of an accommodation address agency which will 'rent' them an address for business or personal use, and subsequently collect, retain, or forward all mail received for the customer concerned.  Many such businesses businesses provide additional businesses provide additional services often of a secretarial nature, including typing, a telephone answering service, an appointments service, fax machine facilities, book-keeping, some financial services, and so on.

 

15 UPHOLSTERY AND STRIPPING SERVICE

 

Whether it's a chaise longue or granny's fireside chair, there comes a time in the life of almost every piece of upholstered furniture when the owner prefers to have the item recovered, instead of disposing of it to make way for a new model.  Whether because of financial constraints or for sentimental reasons, the answer to their problems could easily come via the services of someone skilled in the art of renovation and reupholstery.  As an adjunct to upholst ery we find firms specialising in the stripping of furniture, removing the years of polish and grime from antique or more recent items, and restoring them to their former glory.  Incidentally I have come by several people who make a very, very good l iving buying good living buying small pieces of antique furniture, restoring them, and selling them at local antiques fairs, restoring them, and selling them at local antiques fairs, or in their own shops.

 

16 CALLIGRAPHY

 

Calligraphy is the rather grand name for the even grander art of creating beautiful handwriting and printing. We see swirling flows of lettering, created by hand with the aid of special pens and inks, adorning menus in the better eat ing establishments, on examination certificates, formal invitations, signs, notices, doorplates, to name but a few of the creations that demand a professional and thoroughly attractive presentation.  An easy art to learn from books or local colleges.

 

17 COPY TYPING

 

Not perhaps the way to make a vast fortune, this is an ideal occupation for someone needing or preferring to work from home.  Many businesses either have insufficient workload or finances to warrant have insufficient workload or finances to warrant employing a full-time finances to warrant employing a full-time secretary or typist, and would welcome the services of an accurate typist to provide for their needs. You can also provide a much needed service typing students theses, writers' manuscripts, letters, documentation and curriculum vitae for the general public, and meeting a host of other customer requirements.

 

18 CURTAIN-MAKING

 

If you've ever tried to buy ready-made curtains at the right price, and in a particular style and design, you'll know the enormous problems encountered, and hence the opportunities here for someone skilled with with a needle or machine, who can provide a custom-made service at a lower price than the shops.  Whether it is the customer or yourself who provides the materials and pattern is entirely up to you to decide, usually on an individual basis, taking into account your customers' preferences.

 

19 CASSETTE TAPES

 

There are many types of commercially produced tape, some for the music lover, or for the lover of novels with little time to sit around indulging him or herself, preferring instead to carry on with normal chores whilst the story is read to him or her, usually by some famous personality.  Purchasers might want to have a bestselling novel read to them, or else discover how to relax, how to begin learning some new hobby, even to hear a story you have written, or to have multiplic ation tables set to music, thereby reinforcing the learning process in the minds of school-bored children.  Your own children's stories could be set onto tape, thereby airing any second string you might have to your bow.

 

20 SOFT TOYS

 

To be fair, you're never going to get rich by making carbon copies of the ever popular elephants and teddy bears, but create something different, and you might even find yourself with a contract for sole distributorship to some big comp any or business concern, such as those specialising in greetings teddy bears carrying their individual messages, and delivered to the doorstep of the delighted recipient.

 

21 HIRING

 

Not everyone can afford to pay the sometimes tremendous prices asked for today's exclusive wedding gowns.  The same applies to those gloriously elaborate party dresses we find children paraded in, and the designer hat mum wears to her off spring's wedding.  And what about the firm's annual dinner dance when madam simply must look her best, but can't really afford the outlay to possess a designer gown, which must of necessity not be the choice for next year's get-together? Get the pic ture?  They don't buy these creations at all - you do! Whether you in fact make them or buy them, and whether you buy them new or good quality second hand, is entirely up to you.  You simply hire out the garments with a refundable deposit, clean them on their return, and horror of horrors, make any necessary repairs, then hire the items out again.

 

22 STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER

 

If I had a couple of acres of land, even if it wasn't my own, I'd buy that horse I've always wanted.  With the rest I'd grow strawberries - and goosberries, tomatoes, With the rest I'd grow strawberries - and goosberries, tomatoes, blackcurrants and lettuce.....  Then every year I'd throw my garden open to the public to pick their own goodies, before joining another of the long queues of customers one sees at these P.Y.O long queues of customers one sees at these P.Y.O (Pick Your Own)

establishments.

 

23 MAKING VIDEOS

 

If you have a child, but finances will not allow you access to a video camera of your own, the most fascinating and speedy part of your child's development could soon be lost to you for ever.  So here we have another way of offering a service, also much in demand at weddings, birthday parties, anniversary celebrations, and on many, many other occasions.

 

24 PAINTING AND DECORATING

 

Not everyone, myself most definitely included, relishes the thought of donning rags once a year, retrieving brushes thrown angrily into the garage last year, and setting about the arduous task of decorating the home.  Here's your your chance, all of you who actually enjoy wielding paint rollers and paste brushes.

 

25 CARTOONS

 

Only the other day, in a top women's magazine, I came by something so different I'm sure there can be few people yet cashing in on this ingenious idea.  For about twenty pounds, the customer gets a cartoon drawing of his or her her chosen subject, created from a photograph submitted with the order.  order.  A sample pictured in the magazine showed a man, some features undoubtedly exaggerated as is necessary with cartoons, and with a head about three times too big for his body.  The piece was framed and a copy of the actual photo from which it was copied was displayed alongside.  Now whilst almost anyone would cringe at the thought of the 'Spitting Image' crew portraying them in caricature, there was nothing in this cartoon to offend even the most sensitive of subjects.  The colours were muted and the whole thing was ext remely easy on the eye - and very different!

 

26 WHEN WORDS ARE SIMPLY NOT ENOUGH

 

Baby's first shoes can be preserved for ever in a coating of gold, silver or bronze, thereby sealing those cherished memories of the owner's first tottering steps for doting grans and grandads.  Every Valentine's Day finds a rush of firms offering heart-shaped offering heart-shaped this, that, and the other.  Can you think of something something to rival these ingenious something something to rival these ingenious enterprises? You can? Great!

 

27 HOW TO....................

 

Information, they say, is free.  Personally, I doubt this oft-quoted maxim if the speed with which new business and self-improvement guides enter the market is anything to go by.  For anything from ś1 to ś10, and perha ps much, much, much more, they'll tell us how to do anything from making a kite, to joining the ranks of the seriously rich and famous.  Some of these guides are simply a rehashed version of many others, and are rarely likely to create a fortune for their 'writers'.  A 'one-off' guide or manual though is a different matter entirely.  Anyone who has access to appropriate information not currently readily available, should waste no time in writing it up, then having it typed, copied and marketed.  Many markets exist, perhaps one of the best being the Opportunities pages of 'Exchange and Mart'.

 

28 COME AND JOIN US

 

'Lonely in a crowd' they say, and never was a truer word spoken.  Look at the number of advertisements we find placed by people wanting to contact others whether for friendship or to share a common interest.  Some mechanism is necessary to facilitate the coming together of thousands of currently isolated individuals who share this common need or interest.  This is where the astute businessperson comes into play, acting as a middleman who often does little more than coordinate, collate, and distribute details relating to the activities of members.

 

29 LIST SELLING

 

Many businesses, even if they primarily deal face-to-face they primarily deal face-to-face with their customers, often find the need to contact others for a great many reasons, whether for the purposes of buying from or selling to them.  This is often done by buyin g or renting names and addresses from specialist operations or from a middleman dealing in the provision of such information.  Lists are required for many other reasons not all of them in the field of selling.  Parents Parents for instance, might appreciate a list of all private schools in a certain locality.  We also find lists offering access to hundreds of things that are free for the asking.  There are also lists of firms requiring homeworkers, or offering opportunities to work abroad, and many, many others.

 

30 LEAFLET DISTRIBUTION SERVICE

 

Many firms and businesses businesses advertise their services or goods by means of leaflets and and brochures delivered to selected addresses, but to employ someone solely for the purpose of delivering this literature is not always a a cost-effective proposition.  The cost of Post Office delivery can be similarly prohibitive. Leaflet distribution agencies though, are able to keep their costs competitive by having the leaflets of several customers included in each household delivery.

 

31 GRAPHOLOGY

 

Once almost certain to elicit mocking criticism, graphology is the art of analysing a person's mocking criticism, graphology is the art of analysing a person's character from a piece of writing he or she provides.  Certain strokes of the pen, swirls at the end of words, a preference for using capital letters mingled into one's handwriting, all have some deep, and until expertly interpreted - hidden meaning.  It is the the job of the graphologist to interpret the reasons behind certain styles and peculiarities of writing.  A few years ago no-one, except perhaps our American cousins, would dream of paying someone for such an analysis.  Today however, the technique has developed a great deal of credibility and the services of a good graphologist are much in demand, especially in the workplace, where many employers now view the art as an essential staff recruitment tool.

 

32  HOUSE AND PET SITTING

 

Recently we have seen the emergence of an innovative security service whereby you can go on holiday, perhaps into hospital, without the need to worry that the home will be safe in your the home will be safe in your absence.  The entrepreneur here offers two methods by which the surveillance of the owners' homes are are carried out.  In the least expensive method, and one probably adequate for most customers, the person visits the house regularly, regularly, perhaps daily, or several times a day.  He or she arranges to remove obvious signs that the house is unoccupied, eg taking away mail, opening and closing curtains, and so on.  The service might also include watering plants and attending to small household pets.  On a grand er scale, the person person offers to actually live in the house during the owner's absence, thereby reducing the risk of burglaries, fires, and other potential disasters to an absolute minimum.

 

33 KEEP FIT

 

These days we're all that little bit more health conscious, as we seek to ward of illnesses and the effects of growing older.  Few of us though though want to put a great deal of effort into the process.  Not for us the long long hours of playing s quash, or jogging in the park.  But give us a little exercise class, to music perhaps, and that's a different matter entirely.  These classes can become regular little meeting places, and many a bigger bigger dance exercise studio has started from the humblest of beginnings.

 

34 CONSULTANT

 

Many of us, whether we are, or have been employed in professional careers, in a skilled trade, or many other occupations, are unaware of the untapped talent we might be able to offer to other than our '9 - 5' employers.  Some firms and private individuals welcome the services of trained and experienced people from all walks of life, but have insufficient need to employ them on a regular, part or full-time basis.  We might for instance need a children's nanny or nurse to look after a child sick from school, or for an interior designer to put into practice the great plans we have for our home decorations, but without unfortunately the analytical skills to match.  We may feel the need to employ a recruitment s pecialist to help our children through through the hurdles of their first job interviews.

 

35 PHOTOGRAPHY

 

You don't have to be David Bailey to take great pictures of junior's birthday party, for parents who confess not to know one end of a camera from another.  You do though need a better than average pocket-type camera.  These handy little gadgets might eliminate the need to concentrate on shutter speeds and focussing, but they usually produce pictures no-one would be truly proud of.  A good photographer can be in regular demand for weddings, parties, christenings, and as a freelance for local newspapers and businesses.

 

36 THE BIG FREEZE

 

Life being as hectic as it is, especially for the younger ones struggling to meet mortgage repayments, repayments, and working every hour that's sent to accomplish that task, there is often insufficient time to make small economies around the home.  Freezing food whilst in season, and freezing large portions of main meals for future use, are just two ways to make the household food budget go that little bit further.  further.  BUT not everyone has the time as we've already said, to stand peeling many pounds of spuds and carrots, or to make twenty extra extra portions of their favourite curries and pizzas.  Someone willing willing to perform this service on their behalf would be more than welcome, welcome, even if there must of necessity be an additional cost, over and above the price of the raw materials.  Your service can extend beyond fresh fruit and vegetables and everyday main meals.  You might for instance offer gourmet cuisine, and freezer portions of the more unusual fruits and vegetables we find in some of out of the way supermarkets nowadays.

 

37 OFFICE LUNCHES

 

If you've ever worked in an office and perhaps on the umpteenth floor, or on a building site in the middle of nowhere, you'll know how uninviting those sandwiches you prepared in the mad panic of the morning can subsequently becom e.  If there are no shops nearby to allow you to undo the damage, that's it!  You either eat the stuff, or sit with an embarrassing rumble emanating from your empty stomach for the rest of the day.  A sandwich service is a boon to staff either reluct ant to prepare their own packed lunches, or else unable to buy suitable items within a short distance of their workplaces.  The more ambitious amongst distance of their workplaces.  The more ambitious amongst you might see the possibilities here for an up-market service to management for an up-market service to management personnel, who very oft en would welcome the opportunity opportunity for a boardroom lunch of something different to the 'sandwiches all round' variety.  You might for instance offer to arrange small buffet parties for visiting industrialists, even, as we become more Americanised, to cater for the growing trend in boardroom breakfasts.

 

38 PARTY CATERING

 

Hosts and hostesses look forward to the the dinner party they plan for close friends and business acquaintances.  But when the hard work of preparation is done they feel little like undertaking what now seems the impossible task of shaking off the strains of the day, manicuring overworked and reddened hands, and simply making themselves presentable for their guests.  What they need is someone to undertake the party preparations for them, leaving preparations for them, leaving them free to enjoy the get-together, now that the hassle of preliminaries is a thing of the past.  This much needed service can This much needed service can be applied to children's parties, as much as to dinner and cocktail parties, and big family celebrations.  Another possibility lies in catering for the growing possibility lies in catering for the growi ng number of home-based wedding receptions.

 

39 HERBS AND HERBALISM

 

In some shops, in garden centres and on market stalls, even at car boot sales, we find herbs offered for sale in the little pots they were grown in.  The little pots they were grown in.  The cook now has a constant supply of fresh herbs ready and waiting to be pi cked, from the pots he or she will display on the kitchen window, or in some other suitable position.  Growing herbs is almost childishly easy, and it is in the marketing of them that your efforts will be rewarded.  You can sell to shops, to market traders, or on order to individual households.   Restaurants and hotels would no doubt be interested in throwing out their pots of the dried-out and years in throwing out their pots of the dried-out and years old variety, in favour of something more befitting to guests paying the prices they do for meals these days.  You could even sell them yourself at local markets and craft fairs.  The possibilities are endless, and speaking of endless, have you considered the requirements of herbalists with their much revered alternative medical therapies? Have you indeed considered what might lie in store for you if you decide to study herbalism yourself, and to stock your medicine chest with the freshest..................?

 

40 BIORHYTHMS

 

Biorhythms are cycles that rule our minds, bodies and emotions.  Life that rule our minds, bodies and emotions. Life it is said, goes through a series of rhythms, and their pattern of ups and downs have a great influence on the functioning of the body and its emotions.  Sounds complicated, doesn't it? But it is actually extremely easy to chart and analyse the biorhythms of any individual at any time in their lives.  Small wonder now that the science their lives.  Small wonder now that thescience has gained a high degree of credibility, that businessmen, sp ortsmen, students, and politicians are looking seriously at the technique when making the more important decisions and plans of their lives.  The technique of preparing and analysing a biorhythm chart can be studied from the many excellent text books on the subject, and though the whole concept sounds complicated, it most certainly isn't.  But don't under any circumstances tell your c lients that - the library is never far away, and we don't want them availing themselves of the information it takes to make so important  an analysis.

rkets nowadays.