By James Pruitt, Senior Staff Writer

Small business opportunities are endless. You may have your own idea, but depending on your circumstances, there are so many potential opportunities. There is no limit to them. Some small business ideas require little overhead or almost no startup costs. Others do require a strong emotional commitment. 

Remember, many of these fields require licensure. In some cases, such as accountants or lawyers, jurisdictions mandate these licenses to practice your profession. In others, the state or jurisdiction may offer a license that could step up your game as a small businessperson. 

1. Home Organizer

Working in this field takes a special kind of expertise. Home organizing is an art form. As with many artists, home organizers should create a portfolio to demonstrate their skills. There are even companies that specialize in training home organizers as independent contractors. At the same time, sprucing up a messy house is in a field all its own. Professional organizers need to know what they’re doing before asking someone else to pay for their services.

2. Landscaper

Again, landscaping is an art. A portfolio might get you far. It helps to have experience or a special interest in the field. A green thumb can net you income on many fronts. A landscaping business may keep you busy with both residences and businesses. Also, growing your own plants can supply you with the stock for your own produce market! A talent for plants and landscaping can launch you on any of a series of trajectories as a small businessperson.  With current water shortages, there are opportunities for creative, cost-effective low-water landscaping.

3. Moving Service

Management skills and a good means of transportation can suffice for a decent small-scale moving company. A local operator can employ two or three individuals part-time and serve their clients well.   Perhaps contact a few furniture or appliance outlets to offer your services to their clients.

4. Music Teacher

Who said you can’t make a living off your musical talents? If you can play an instrument well, you can make over $50 an hour sharing your talents. To get started, you can connect with local music schools to find leads and get started. Again, music is a risky business to get into. For any artist, your heart needs to be in it.

5. Notary Public

A notary public verifies the legality of certain documents and bears witness to their signing. Once a notary has met certain licensing requirements, they can work from their own home or affiliate with a small business.  There is a big demand for mobile notaries too.

6. Opening a Repair Shop

Whether computers, cars, bicycles, or electronics, the market for repairers is inexhaustible. Depending on your talents and interests, any of a range of endeavors can make a successful living for a talented repairperson.

7. Photographer

Weddings, headshots, family photos, and event photography can provide a skillful photographer with a steady income. However, the field is competitive, so a background in the field may help you stand out from the crowd.

8. Ride-Share Driver

Uber and Lyft have both provided opportunities for independent contractors. However, the status of these contractors is still up in the air. Cleaning up your car and creating a Lyft or Uber account may very well suit you well. However, a little creativity can get you further.

9. Personal Trainer

Fitness enthusiasts can have fun and make money at the same time by helping others on their fitness journey. Personal trainers can help their clients to avoid injury as well as get the right results in a reasonable time frame. Just consider any licensure requirements, depending on the jurisdiction. Certification in this field may increase your employment prospects.

Conclusion

Once you’ve made the decision to go out on your own, look to your own interests and talents. People who start small businesses may do so for many reasons. Small business opportunities may come naturally to you, or you may look to any of several ideas that might help you hang out a shingle. 

In some cases, you may not be able to imagine doing anything else. In others, you may have obligations that restrict your ability to commit to a career where you don’t have flexibility.  You may have your own idea for a small business. In other cases, you may need to start a small business because of your personal circumstances. In any case, the above leads can place you on a path and allow you to take your first steps toward an independent work life.

VAMBOA, the Veterans and Military Business Owners Association hope that this first article of this two-part series has not only been valuable but provided some unique perspective.  We work hard to bring you important, positive, helpful, and timely information and are the “go-to” online venue for Veteran and Military Business Owners.  VAMBOA is a non-profit trade association.   We do not charge members any dues or fees and members can also use our seal on their collateral and website.   If you are not yet a member, you can register here:  

https://vamboa.org/member-registration/

We also invite you to check us out on social media too.

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/vamboa

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/VAMBOA

By James Pruitt, Senior Staff Writer

Choosing the Wrong Metrics of Success

Consider the industry and market. Many businesses are seasonal, especially in the eCommerce field. Short-term measurements may hold limited relevance for long-term success. In addition to sales revenue, important considerations may include customer satisfaction, customer turnover, customer engagement, as well as the cost of acquiring new clients. Feedback from customers may prove just as useful and important input for long-term growth as raw numbers reflecting factors such as sales revenue.

Remember the bottom line. Metrics such as site views are a good sign, but don’t let your head puff up until you’ve seen the end rewards. Beyond tactics such as “search engine optimization,” businesses should flesh out their intelligence with a multidimensional approach that provides multiple perspectives and can better develop strategies for the future.

Plan for a Reasonable Balance Between Supply and Demand

In the initial excitement of contract negotiation, business owners might overestimate demand for their projects. Wise entrepreneurs take baby steps while wading through the planning phase. The time for a deeper plunge is after a realistic assessment of product demand. Only after meeting demand becomes a challenge in itself should a new business expand its initial investment.

Too much product at the outset complicates a website, adds to maintenance costs, and wastes the original investment.  There is something to be said for keeping it simple.

Work Out Sales Promotion Strategies in the Early Stages

New business owners can also go overboard with their initial advertising. Remember to carefully ponder sales promotions, and tailor them to your company’s goals. Some business managers can dump money into advertising that can misfire, even harming brand image or simply wasting resources.

A tasteless, spammy, or annoying sales promotion does no one favors. Neither do wasteful practices such as carelessly executed free sample campaigns. Remember that ads should take advantage of the right time, place, and style to effectively influence potential clientele.

Prioritize Wise Contract Negotiation

Irrational optimism can doom new companies. Small business owners need to put together contracts with the worst possible outcomes in mind. Human nature tends to assume everything will go smoothly, but the inevitable snags often pop up unexpectedly. Veteran business owners should pour over contracts with a fine-tooth comb with an eye toward the life of a contract rather than the bare minimums and the foreseeable future.

Careless Choice of Advertising Partners

Remember that you have as much of a right to choose your advertisers as they do to choose you. Advertisers need to stay relevant, ethical, and lucrative. Advertisements should stay interesting and tasteful. In other words, new business owners should maintain self-respect and not get carried away in the excitement of finally receiving sponsorship.

Consider Effective Customer Contact Strategies

Email lists can provide a free method to reach prospects on demand. Remember to form these lists quickly, efficiently, and ethically. When soliciting contact information, make sure to obtain a full profile of the customer’s interests, goals, and potential. Effective customer contact lists can save a fortune in advertising later.

Conclusion

Ecommerce presents its own set of risks. Without careful contemplation, Veteran Business Owners can go overboard in the wrong direction at the outset, in ways that can quickly deplete resources. The remote nature of the online customer relationship amplifies these. Careful, realistic, and multidimensional feedback and planning can effectively prepare for success in the modern, largely internet-based economy.

VAMBOA, the Veterans and Military Business Owners Association hope that this article has not only been valuable but provided some unique perspective.  We work hard to bring you important, positive, helpful, and timely information and are the “go-to” online venue for Veteran and Military Business Owners.  VAMBOA is a non-profit trade association.   We do not charge members any dues or fees and members can also use our seal on their collateral and website.   If you are not yet a member, you can register here:  

https://vamboa.org/member-registration/

We also invite you to check us out on social media too.

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/vamboa

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/VAMBOA

Do not forget that VAMBOA members receive significant discounts on technology needs.   Check them out here: https://vamboa.org/dell-technologies/ 

By James Pruitt, Senior Staff Writer

The holidays can present challenges and opportunities for Veteran Business Owners. The increased demand presents to labor and supply issues, while also significantly increasing profit margins. A seasonal workforce often must pick up the slack. Meanwhile, customer demands may skyrocket, and nerves may fray. 

Various strategies can slice a bigger piece of the pie for your business.

1) Get in the Holiday Spirit for all holidays!

During the winter months, traditionally we hunker up with the hard-earned rewards of the rest of the yearly cycle. Remember to share this warmth with your workforce! They’re working extra hard especially during holiday seasons.

2) Respect Your Employees and their Additional Workload.

Seasonal workers may not always feel much warmth from employers. For some, the holidays are the season for overwork. 

Respect your employees, no matter what the type of business. Mandatory “ugly Christmas sweaters” and elf costumes affront human dignity and have no place in the workplace. Furthermore, consider that the workforce may be working extra hard to meet the spikes in demand. Some workers may even work extra hard during various holiday seasons for money to last over the year.

Respect for your workforce conveys positive vibes. Remember that most customers have been employees as well.

3) Keep Holiday Décor Tasteful

Some people think many decorations including some for  Christmas are “tacky.” 

Well, maybe they are. As alternatives for your business, tasteful alternatives abound. For example, the “snowy” look might appeal to more discerning customers. “Traditional” holiday decorations strategically placed provide the right vibe while maintaining a professional look for the establishment. Just remember the work for the cleanup crews at the end of any holiday season.

Cornucopias and colorful artificial fruits can last from November until early January. Furthermore, consider the final cleanup for the sake of both employees and employers.

2) Remember, some people celebrate a different holidays such as Channukah or Kwanzaa

Channukah ends in early December, while Kwanzaa lasts until January. Depictions of the season’s bounty convey importance to the Kwanzaa festivities as well as Thanksgiving and the Holiday period in general. 

Christmas colors are traditionally green and red. For Chanukkah, blue and white, and Kwanzaa colors are red, black, and green. The holiday season integrates diverse traditions. Winter decorations can integrate any medley of holiday baubles, so long as creative decorating brings that warm holiday cheer to your entire clientele. 

3) Make Things Local

Many holiday celebrations provide chances for local communities to come together. Participation in local events might win goodwill that could liven up your business. Maybe Santa can visit. Maybe a Christmas tree needs decorating.   Perhaps the Easter Bunny can help decorate eggs, etc. Regardless, presence at a local fair or festival can provide rich opportunities.

4) Holiday Promotions

Local festivities may even provide opportunities for coupon distributions and free samples. For example, raffles and contests may offer bundles of coupons as rewards. Sponsorships for entertainers and appearances may also bring attention to your business.

Online events can offer the same opportunities. Don’t forget your digital marketing skills while concentrating on the local state fair. Assuming the resources for the increased demand, remember the opportunities that each holiday season brings. When carefully planned, the increased demand can bring the opportunity to relax a little during the months afterward. Your online presence may even convey seasonal products. 

5) Finally, we wish joyful holidays for you and your families and staff from VAMBOA, the Veterans and Military Business Owners Association!

Holidays provide the opportunity to have fun while doing work. Remember to extend this holiday cheer to your employees as well as friends and family while directing this positive energy in safe directions. Don’t forget to take care of yourself during this busy season, and never grow out of the Holiday Spirit!

VAMBOA, the Veterans and Military Business Owners Association hope that this article has not only been valuable but provided some unique perspective.  We work hard to bring you important, positive, helpful, and timely information and are the “go-to” online venue for Veteran and Military Business Owners.  VAMBOA is a non-profit trade association.   We do not charge members any dues or fees and members can also use our seal on their collateral and website.   If you are not yet a member, you can register here:  https://vamboa.org/member-registration/

We also invite you to check us out on social media too.

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/vamboa

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/VAMBOA

Do not forget that VAMBOA members receive significant discounts on technology needs.   Check them out here: https://vamboa.org/dell-technologies/ 

By James Pruitt, Senior Staff Writer

Marketing is its own field within the business world. Specialists in marketing often come out of school with vast coursework and little experience. The generalities acquired by “professional marketers” often fail entrepreneurs seeking their niche in the economy. 

Every company is different. Each entrepreneur likely has their own set of values, as well as their own understanding of the niche of the economy they seek to occupy. Outsiders may provide guidelines and principles, but the core of a marketing strategy must come from the source of the business idea itself. Successful marketing ultimately comes from within.

Remember the sitcom Family Ties from the eighties? Consider the episode “The Spirit of Columbus.” In a classic standoff between money-obsessed Alex P. Keaton and his opposite, the artist Nick, Alex usurps Nick’s greatest artistic triumph and markets the sculpture “in volume” as home decor. In several fabulous colors to boot. 

These days, marketers rely largely on online strategies. Professional marketers know the web, social media, and other such channels. Entrepreneurs know their own hearts and the goals of their companies. Efforts of marketers fall impotent absent coordination with the leadership of their clients. Consider the ongoing lament of online gamers in the face of recent waves of offbeat, sometimes offensive marketing campaigns. “Why do they do this? The game is nothing like that!”

Entrepreneurs do their best to market themselves, often with advice from ad agencies. Marketers should stick to their roles. These days, marketers do have irreplaceable functions on the online and social media fronts. However, unless the marketer and entrepreneur are one and the same, no one can sell that great idea better than its originator. A marketer can filter the idea. A marketer can find the right channels. However, no one can express the idea’s heart and soul better than the entrepreneur themself.

There are strategies that business owners can use to market themselves. First, no matter the niche product or service, business owners should make their outreach efforts personable. Sometimes, a little creativity can liven up not only the brand but even the lives of its patrons. Perhaps the Michelin man can be an example. The iconic 120-year-old character is as old as the company itself. Over the years he has evolved from grease-monkey to symbol of fine dining. The Michelin brothers needed no marketing agency to accomplish that.

Second, entrepreneurs should ensure focus on their fundamental message. Marketing ideas should have organic roots in the core ideas of the company. Whatever the original focus of a business venture, a marketing campaign should beam this inspiration into their target clientele with laser intensity. A “meeting of the minds” does wonders between owners and clientele, at least in the early stages. Third-party marketers have the potential to complicate this process. Business owners should always stay in control of their message, at least until the enterprise diversifies and becomes too complex.

In the end, business owners should never allow third parties to market their idea in far-off directions, at least in the early stages. Marketers have their place and their own expertise, especially in the age of social media and other forms of online exposure. However, while the business owner provides the capital, the business owner provides the leadership. When the visionary separates from the vision, only broken dreams loom on the horizon.

VAMBOA, the Veterans and Military Business Owners Association hope that this article has not only been valuable but provided some unique perspective.  We work hard to bring you important, positive, helpful, and timely information and are the “go-to” online venue for Veteran and Military Business Owners.  VAMBOA is a non-profit trade association.   We do not charge members any dues or fees and members can also use our seal on their collateral and website.   If you are not yet a member, you can register here:  https://vamboa.org/member-registration/

We also invite you to check us out on social media too.

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/vamboa

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/VAMBOA

Do not forget that VAMBOA members receive significant discounts on technology needs.   Check them out here: https://vamboa.org/dell-technologies/ 

By James Pruitt – Senior Staff Writer

A blog allows agency over your company’s narrative. With a blog, your company’s news comes from your perspective. With news releases, any information must filter through another outlet. Your blog allows information through the horse’s mouth so to speak.

Blogs are essentially websites with primarily informational content. Your company’s blog should provide information directly from you and your organization. While news releases certainly have value as marketing tools and as evidence for recognition of your company’s accomplishments, blogs eliminate the hearsay factor and allow you to control the narrative of your company’s development.

Blogs are a boom to new companies. In the past, marketing was a more challenging process. News releases, public relations specialists, and advertisement executives mattered far more. Since the Information Age, blogs have done much of the initial marketing work, and applications such as WordPress have placed much of this work directly in the hands of the small business owner.

Assuming access to a newswire, a news release can in fact reach more people. Hence the continuing relevance of news releases. However, blogs allow a starting point for directed marketing.

From your blog, you can begin a directed marketing plan for yourself, under your own thumb. Not least important, blogs allow tracking of website traffic, and hence facilitate marketing through the most appropriate channels. No one likes spam. However, directed marketing works.

As you are starting a company, starting a blog allows opportunities for the initial pitch, for control over your own cycle of news, and for a plan to track site visits. Additionally, a blog administrator for a new business should consider the ins and outs of visitor feedback, and archiving information. The new blogger can trace organizations that may link back to your blog or track the number or origins of site visits. Such information can help with directed marketing and provide cues about the best routes for varieties of outreach strategies.

Blogs can serve as their own news release source.  The business owner can schedule posts over the course of the year regarding any variety of subjects, including new hires, new innovations, and new policies. The owner can set their own rhythm to these updates, and at their discretion, news outlets can respond accordingly.

Also, blogs allow an opportunity for feedback. In other words, blogs are interactive, rather than news sources which are under the control of some third-party news outlet. Therefore customers can provide business owners with feedback, and give endorsements and create greater opportunities for more business. The interactive nature of blogs is priceless for a new business owner. The old-fashion news report only spews information through any channel that will publish it. A blog allows a one-on-one with the ownership of the company.

This direct interaction can provide some of the most important feedback for a small company at its earliest stages.

Traditional routes such as press releases are not irrelevant for your new company. However, this deep into the Information Age, blogs allow the business owner unprecedented control over the initial stages of their marketing campaign. By setting up a blog, you, the business owner, may control your own business plan and marketing trajectory.

VAMBOA, the Veterans and Military Business Owners Association hopes that you enjoyed this first article on blogs in our mini-series.  Stay tuned….

If you are not already a member of VAMBOA, please consider joining.  There are not any dues or membership fees.  We provide a great deal of valuable information weekly.  You can also proudly display the VAMBOA seal on your website and collateral.

Here is a link to sign up:  https://vamboa.org/member-registration/