Profitable Home Businesses In Nigeria

There are two fairly new, and very important conditions existing in the world today that have not only made the carpet cleaning industry a "billion dollar business,"but also practically guarantee your success as an entrepreneur in this field.

First, almost all homes and office buildings built since 1980 have wall-to-wall carpeting. Secondly, the replacement costs and the cyclical faltering of the national economy have caused people to want to make what they already own last longer, especially in the case of carpeting, which is a sizeable investment.

Most businesses employ janitors or janitorial services to vacuum their carpets after hours daily, and then "master" carpet cleaners to deep-clean them every three months or so. Homemakers also generally vacuum their carpets perhaps several times a week, and then hope to deep-clean every spring or fall, depending on the kind of household traffic, and on their budgets.

It's true that people everywhere try to save money by handling these jobs themselves. However, empathy with the people, and an understanding of this trend, should be neither cause for alarm nor a deterrent to your success in this business.

Most people are just too busy to handle all their do-it-yourself projects. They continually put off until later any chore that requires special equipment .This is especially true with carpet cleaning, because deep down, they're fearful of botching the job. Thus, they're more than willing to pay an expert or a specialist to do this kind of work for them

It doesn't take any special education, skill or experience to operate a professional-type, deep-cleaning carpet cleaner. Yet, from, your first job onward, you should project the image of a thoroughly experienced expert in your field. And, we're going to show you how you can get started in this business, and make $300 or more per working day, with virtually no investment!

The important part of this business - or any other business - is the owner operator's "sense of marketing" and salesmanship. Make no mistake about it, all businesses succeed through marketing strategies and salesmanship. You won't be selling a product with this business; you'll be selling a service. And the selling of services is often more difficult than product sales.

Your success in this business will be predicated upon the sales effort put forth. Getting if off the ground will require a great deal of selling expertise on your part. You'll have to sell yourself AND your services.

Therefore, it will be to your benefit to learn all you can about selling. Then, you should continue to add to your knowledge through an ongoing program of learning. Keeping up to date and being aware of successful selling ideas and methods will add to the total success of any business person.

Even before the acquisition of equipment, you need customers. Your prospects are all the businesses and homes with carpets in your area. Your problem is going to be in reaching these prospects, impressing upon them the benefits of your service, and getting them set up with an appointment for you to do the work.

We have found that the least expensive and most productive method of reaching these people is by way of neighborhood "hand-out" flyers or announcements, delivered door-to-door by Brownies or Cub Scouts, or members of other youth organizations. These flyers are advertisements or announcements of a "Carpet Cleaning Special," printed on 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 sheets of paper that invite the recipients to call you for an appointment.

Study the carpet cleaning service ads in your local newspapers, the yellow pages of your telephone directories, and any similar flyers you may have received or seen. Make a pencil sketch of your own flyer, emphasizing customer benefits and your capabilities of doing the job take your ideas to the advertising class at a local college. Explain your project and ask for volunteer help. In most cases, you'll be favorably impressed with the work, and will only have to pay with a copy of the finished flyer for the student's portfolio, and a recommendation or testimonial about his work for you. Even if there should be a charge for the work you have done at the college, it will be a reasonable one.

Contracting with an advertising agency will probably take longer and will cost a significant amount of money. However, you might be able to contact a staff member who does free-lance work on the side. But you should set a specific date for completion of the project, and agree to pay no more than half the total estimated cost until the job is finished, and meets with your approval.

The next step is to take this original of your flyer to a printer, and have printed whatever number of copies you want to start. Most quick print shops will be able to print up to 20,000 copies, and deliver in a reasonable time, with nominal costs. If you decide to start with more than 20,000 copies, you will do better by going to a regular commercial printer. Larger quantities that would take a quick print shop all day can be handled by a commercial print shop in a few hours.

While your flyers are being printed, you should be lining up your delivery people - local Brownie or Cub Scout Troops. No big problem here. Either look up their local headquarters office in your phone book or call a friend or two with children about the right age and ask for the name and phone number of troop leaders. Arrange to pay these scout troops $10 for each thousand circulars they hand out door-to-door.

One other thing before you start handing out your flyers - be sure that you have someone available to answer the phone and set up appointments for you. It's usually best to have a woman do this; it makes the caller think of your service as an established business. You can pay an answering service to handle these calls for you, but if your wife or a friend is available, that would be even better. It is, however, imperative that a "live voice" answer your phone. People have some strange ideas about answering machines, and most businesses find they do much better not using them.

Your "secretary" should have a set pattern of answering your calls, and an appointment book. Usually, your flyer will advertise a special such as "Your living room carpet deep-cleaned for just N3000.Get all the ground-in dirt and unpleasant odors out. A professional job by experienced master carpet cleaners, and we can do it all for you tomorrow. Give us a call; set up a carpet cleaning appointment with us now; and we'll have your home sparkling clean, ready for company in no time at all!" This special offer should take you no more than an hour in the customer's home, meaning that your secretary can book appointments for you at the rate of one every ninety minutes or less, depending on the travel distance between appointments.

THINGS YOU NEED TO START THE BUSINESS
* Dirty carpet
* Vacuum cleaner
* Large box of Baking Soda
* Vinegar
* Sponge or rag
* Mild soapy water

By setting your first appointment for 8:30 in the morning, and working thorough the whole day, allowing 30 minutes between appointments, you'll be able to handle seven appointments per day. At N3000 per call, you will gross N21000 per day. Your secretary should book you solid from 8:30 through 5:30 each day. Naturally, some people may want you to stop by at a certain time that's already booked. In that case, you set them up for their requested time on an open day. You'll also find that as you gain experience, you can cut down considerably the time it takes you to handle each job, as well as your travel time between jobs, enabling you to book more appointments.

Just as soon as you have job appointments lined up, hurry over to your local carpet cleaner distributor, your local rent-all store, or even some super markets and rent a steam-clean carpet cleaner. Most of the time, you won't have to pay until you return it, but even if you do have to pay at the time you take it, the cost is usually N2000 or less for twenty-four hours. Read the directions and make sure you know how to operate it. Then load it into your car, van or pickup, and set out for your first appointment.

You should bear in mind that carpet cleaning is a type of service business that takes you into the homes of your customers. Therefore, how you look, dress, and handle yourself - particularly in the presence of your customers - will have a direct bearing on the success of your business.

Be clean, and conduct yourself in a business like manner at all times.Dress neatly. In fact, one of the best ways to get off to a fast start is to purchase a working uniform. Drop by a "pennant shop" and have them make up a special oval name tag which can be sewn over the left breast pocket. At the same time, have them make up a large oval with the name of your business and your phone number to sew on the back of the uniform. When you hire people to help you with the work, outfit them similarly.

Go out of your way to be polite and friendly with your customers, but refrain from being fresh. Avoid getting involved in extended conversations - if you are to keep on schedule, you won't have time for a lot of talk.

Keep your equipment clean, properly maintained, and operating smoothly. Have your supplies organized and within easy reach. Don't allow yourself to be caught in a position where you have to make excuses because the equipment won't function properly, you can't find what you need, or you suddenly find yourself out of certain supplies.

When working these advertising specials, just concentrate on doing the job and moving on to your next customer. If the customer questions you about the cost to do the other rooms, give an estimate and set up a tentative appointment, which you should later confirm with a call-back after checking your schedule. Don't try to sell your complete carpet cleaning services on this first call, but do be sure to leave a business card with the name of your company and your phone number.

Your service is the "deep-down shampoo cleaning" of carpeting in your customers' homes or places of business. Always strive to use the best equipment that's available. Later on - possibly in a month or six weeks - you'll want to buy or lease your own equipment. Your business will grow and flourish as a result of your doing a good and complete job every time. It may take you a few minutes longer - especially when you are learning the equipment and establishing a procedure - but in the end this will pay off with satisfied customers; and a group of satisfied customers is the key to your becoming wealthy in this business.

You want your customers to call you again and again to clean their carpets. Being pleased with your work, they'll spread the word about your service for you, free of charge! And this, of course, will generate an almost unlimited amount of ongoing work for your new business.

The average price to the customer to have a 12 by 18 foot wall-to-wall carpet "shampoo cleaned" is about N7500. Your materials to do that size job will cost about N1000.

The typical job involves more than just one room, and the average period of time spent on the typical job is about two hours, with an average billing to the customer of N10000- materials for each N10000 job cost you about N1000 all of which means that with just five appointments per day, five days per week, your gross income before expenses will be approaching N180,000 per week.

Most people who set up carpet cleaning businesses manage to gross $50,000 or more the first year. We've described to you how to get started with virtually no real investment.However, we do advise you to either purchase or lease your own carpet cleaning equipment just as soon as you can possibly afford it.

Several equipment manufacturers have financing plans available. It would be well to check out several of these plans before purchasing your equipment. Even better than the financing plans offered, some of the manufacturers have business start-up programs to help you along the way. They will provide you with a complete carpet cleaning business plan, numerous advertising materials, a regular newsletter featuring business ideas from all the buyers of their equipment, and low cost supplies.

Before actually starting work in your carpet cleaning business, you should register your business or company name with your county clerk. The cost for this is nominal, and you will receive a registration certificate or card, which you will need to open a bank account in your company name. You should also talk to a few business insurance agents to get complete business insurance against damage to any of your customers' carpets or accidents in their homes. Being able to state "All work fully in sured," will greatly add to your business image.

Think seriously about buying or leasing a van for your service calls. A uniform with the name of your company emblazoned on the back, plus a late model van with your company name neatly painted on the side will do just about as much to build your image and your business as a full page advertisement in the Sunday paper.

On the subject of advertising, so long as you don't erect a sign on your front lawn or your roof, proclaiming for all the world to see the fact that you're operating a carpet cleaning business, you won't have any problems operating your business from your home. Sooner or later though, you'll have to buy a City or county business license. So, the sooner you do this and are approved by the licensing agency in your area, the better you're going to feel and the more confidence you'll exude in all your business dealings.

Definitely plan to run a quarter page ad in your local business and telephone directories. You'll really be surprised at the number of calls you get from these ads. At least in the beginning, you should run a regular ad in your newspaper. This should be a display ad, at least 2 columns wide by 4 inches deep, and should appear in your Wednesday and Thursday papers. As you become established, it won't be necessary to run more than an ad every other week in your Wednesday papers and before the holidays such as Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas, when people always want to spruce up their residences.

Radio or television advertising really doesn't pull that well for this kind of business when you compare the costs to the number of jobs you get from it.I would suggest, , that you contact these media and try for a trade or barter agreement. You clean their carpets on a regular basis, and they allow you to store up advertising credit to use in the spring and fall when people are really serious about spring cleaning, and and Christmas preparations.

It's also recommended that you register as a "probationary member" of your Chamber of Commerce. This will add prestige to your business, and enable you to associate on equal terms with the various other business leaders in your community. Joining and attending civic club meetings, participating in their causes and events, will also result in long-range business income for you.

Something else to keep in mind: Get the word about your being in business out to the people in your area. Get the Chamber of Commerce to mention you in their newsletter; send "blurbs" about your business and service to all your area newspapers, TV and radio stations; arrange to put on an all-day demonstration of your work on the carpeting in the covered mall areas in your city's shopping centers, and hand out brochures to all the people watching; rent a booth and hand out brochures at all the home building, remodeling, and home improvement shows. Do the same thing at your county fair, and hold seminars on the care of fine carpets. The ideas for free publicity and promotion arelimitless, so use your imagination and -push" to get your name in the paper and on radio and TV as often as possible.

There's always going to be competition. Some of it will be good for you, and some of it will be bad for you. Accept it as a part of life. Just keep in mind that you're in business because you feel you can do a better job; you can do it more efficiently; and you can do it with greater satisfaction to your customers than anyone else. Be aware of the competition, but don't worry about it. Just stick to your own business plan, and you'll be okay.

Depending on the population of your area, you should be planning for additional carpet cleaning machines and the hiring of people to do the work for you within three to six months - that is, unless your original motive for a business of your own was to see how fast you could work yourself to death. Assuming that all goes well with you, within a couple of years you should have "hired help" running the business while you enjoy the fruits of all the hard work you put in at the outset.

I personally don't see the need for you to even consider buying a franchised operation. There's just too much real help available for the "independent" to go to the considerable expense and obligation of a franchise. Starting from scratch, and as an independent, this is most assuredly a low-investment, low-overhead type business - the kind we recommend for anyone and everyone who's determined to make it on his own.

A carpet cleaning business of your own is one of the easiest of all small businesses to start. You'll find the initial start-up costs well within your reach, and the margin of profit most astounding! It's an easy business to operate, and yet one that can be called necessary to today's standard of living. It carries a very high rating on all business evaluation stability charts, and it's a business that will grow rapidly to bring you the monetary rewards you desire. your service for you, free of charge

I have listed Other lucrative 160 tested and proven home businesses you can do in Nigeria
Visit
www.business-home-page.com/homebiz
OR
http://www.tinyurl.com/160business. for more details.

Michael Eke
www.business-home-page.com
mikky4real2@yahoo.com

Maps serve a purpose. People use them for directions. They trust them and depend on them to get them where they want to go. It tells them where the local attractions are, and other places if interest, particularly among tourists - the people who use maps the most.

Considering the credibility and the power of maps as a printed medium, it takes an entrepreneur 2 seconds to realize that there's money in maps...as an advertising vehicle.

You can design your city map to be as large as 28" x 40" which can be printed by commercial print houses with large format presses. Or you can use the 11"x 17" format and bring it to your neighborhood quick printer.


THE MAP
What you're going to make a map of is as critical as deciding about how you're going to do it. These are the two questions that will make the foundation of your business.

Big cities are very seldom a great market for City Maps. However, if you break them apart and make maps for selected business districts, even down to selected neighborhoods, the taking is plenty.

Focus on dense retail districts. Target those with neighboring restaurant rows,historical spots or other tourist attractions.

Purchase reprint rights of already existing maps as this would prove significantly easier and more cost efficient than producing one yourself.

"Cartoon" maps may be visually entertaining, but they are seldom useful. You will probably attract more advertisers if you can equate your advertising rates with potential use.

Advertisers position advertising blocks on the outer edge of the map area. Depending of the size of your map and the paper you plan to print it on, you can have as many or as few "blocks" to offer for advertising. Encourage your advertisers to buy more than 1 block of advertising. This will not only makeyour map look more exclusive,but it will also make your selling task much easier.

I have listed Other lucrative 160 tested and proven home businesses you can do in Nigeria
Visit
www.business-home-page.com/homebiz
OR
http://www.tinyurl.com/160business. for more details.

Michael Eke
www.business-home-page.com

VIDEO YEARBOOKS
These are growing in popularity. They usually consist of short scenes of important high school events, such as sports, clubs, candid "people scenes," still photo montages, and other memorable items for the students. A well-edited hour-long video should be able to be sold for N1000 to N3000, depending upon the editing complexity of the video and the size of the school.

The larger the school, the more you can expect to sell. You should first contact the school administration with this idea. Put together a good presentation for them, explaining your services and how your video yearbook will work with the regular yearbook as an added remembrance. A good idea is to offer to donate a portion, N200 for example, per tape sold to a school fund or student-supported charity. After the administration, you will probably need to speak to the school board, principals, and school yearbook sponsors. This work will be worth it, though.

Try to include in your tape, from time to time, current events or subjects which will remind the viewers about what was going on at the time they were in school. One caution, though. Be careful about including copyrighted items, such as popular songs, in your tape. You will need to get permission
from the copyright holders or risk legal action.

The best way to sell your tape is to obtain permission to distribute a flyer to the
students in the school at the same time as the regular yearbook information is distributed. Then, follow up later in the year, giving those who haven't ordered yet another opportunity. Finally, give another chance at the end of the school year.

From time to time, go to the school and shoot material. Get sporting events, clubs, quiz bowl tournaments, science fairs, special events, pep rallies,ordinary day-to-day video, and, of course, graduation. If you're ambitious, do a video yearbook for each class! That way, students can end their high school years with a four-video set, documenting that time of their lives from
start to finish!

DUBBING AND DUPLICATING

Here's an easy service to offer. With a film-to-video transfer device, commonly available for under N10000, and a movie projector, you can put customer's old home movies on video tape. There are a few different types of transfer devices available. The best place to check would be your local quality camera shop.

You should be able to charge around N2000 per hour of film for this service. A good idea is to add background music to the home movies. Copyright-free music is widely available on CD. Check advertising and marketing magazines such as Advertising Age for ads.

You can also offer a duplicating service for customer's home videos, so they can give relatives (Nigerian or America's Funniest Home Videos) a copy. You can usually charge a flat fee for this service, depending upon the length of the tape. Editing together still photos is also a good service to offer,
particularly to people who travel frequently.

There are many other areas just starting to be tapped _ video resumes, video postcards, even video wills. If you come up with a good original idea, research the market for it. If you find a reasonable amount of people will be interested in your new service, you may just have a winner on your hands!

I have listed Other lucrative 160 tested and proven home businesses you can do in Nigeria
Visit
www.business-home-page.com/homebiz
OR
http://www.tinyurl.com/160business. for more details.

Michael Eke
www.business-home-page.com

Surfing the Internet

You may have a habit or hobby of going online and searching around the Internet for something interesting. You might be taking one to two hours daily for your online activities. So, it will be great if you can get something back (money, Vouchers, etc) from your regular online activity of surfing the web. Well, yes you can now. The program called Swagbucks.com allows you to earn just for doing that.

By registering on Swagbucks, you can download and install the SwagBucks toolbar right away. Then you can start searching on the web using the toolbar. You’ll earn points called ‘Swag Bucks‘ each time you use the toolbar to search the web. The more you search the more points you’ll be accumulated. Once you have earned enough Swag Bucks, you can use them to redeem electronic products, Amazon gift card, etc.

Swagbucks is real. A lot of people are happy with it because they can get some prizes as a return of searching on the web. However some Internet users think it is not worth it since you need to take time searching on the web daily and the search results provided aren’t as quality as Google provided, even though Swagbucks claimed that are giving the search result similar as Google.

Swagbucks might be interesting to you but getting some prizes from searching on the web seems not enough. You want to earn more of course. The program called Treasuretrooper can help you on this.

Treasuretrooper is for you to earn extra cash if you have hours of time to spend online every day. It is basically a program that has a lot of offers where you can sign up and earn cash. It’s simple but consume some time. What you do is complete or sign up trial offers and get $0.50 to $1.00 per completed offer. By completing a couple of offers daily, you can earn extra cash each month.

Both Swagbucks and Treasuretrooper are available for US, Canada and UK residents only at the moment.

Photographying


Is taking photos one of your favorite things to do in your free time? If the answer is yes, then you probably have loads of photos kept in your album. These photos can be turned into cash.

How to turn your photos into cash?

It’s simple. You sell them online through the micro stock photo sites. The micro Stock photo sites welcome anyone to upload photos for inclusion into their database for sale. Each time someone purchases and downloads your photo, you earn anywhere between $0.30 and $0.60. Your photo will be put for sale again and again and you are guaranteed to earn for each download. Some of the reputable Stock photo sites that you can partner with to sell your photos are:

http://www.istockphoto.com/sell-stock-photos.php
http://www.dreamstime.com/sell
http://www.bigstockphoto.com/forphotographer.html

You just have to sign up as a seller or photographer in these micro stock websites and then you can upload you photos for sale right away. Payment will be sent to you once your sale earning have reached minimum payout.

Sharing Videos

OK photographing isn’t your hobby but making web video is. There are video sharing sites that pay you to upload your videos as well. Break.com is a good example. The site has a lucrative earning program for the video creators. For a short film or video that you uploaded onto Break.com and your video gets featured on the homepage of Break.com, you’ll get paid $400. Not bad the pay huh.

To be qualified for this program, the video that you upload must be originally created by you. You can upload as many of your interesting videos as possible to get more chances of featuring on the homepage.

There is also another video sharing site rewarding the video creators. It’s is Blip.tv. Blip.tv allows all the video creators to share advertising revenue. You’ll earn 50% of the advertising revenue generated from your all video pages.

Making Craft


Do you know that you can make money online just by doing what you are passionate about or doing something that you like? There are websites and opportunities on the Internet that were created to let people earn extra cash by doing what they are interested. Let see what they are

If making craft is something that you love to do, and then you can turn this hobby into a business. By selling your hand-made crafts on Internet, you not just will earn money but also you get the chance to show your creations to the world.

Some of the good places for you to start selling your crafts online are eBay and Craiglist. Both places allow you to put your different creations up for sale quickly. eBay charges a little listing fee for each item you put up for sales and Craiglist is totally free. There is no marketing work necessary since eBay and Craiglist will display your offers to the potential customers. This certainly is a good opportunity to test sell your crafts.

You can also think about setting up an online crafts store to market your products to more potential customers. This could potentially increase your sales and grow your craft business.

Craft selling is a home based business that can provide you serious income if you have a business plan on it. You need to be a little bit more creative to come up with the craft products that sell. And you are going to need to take time to learn about Internet marketing and selling so that you know how to reach your products to massive global audience.

Writing


For people who are passionate about writing, the Internet is a good place for them to make a long term income. The web publishers have a continuous demand on unique content and articles. So, you can become a freelance or article writer to provide your writing service to the web publishers.

One of the best places to start a small freelance writing business is the Digital Point Forum. This is the forum that the web publishers, bloggers and Internet marketers
around the world are met and discussing about web publishing. Many of them are purchasing content and articles in the forum. So you can start off by offering your writing service in the Digital Point forum. It involves four easy steps to start selling article service in DP forum:

1) Join the forum and participate in discussion.

2) Once you have been a member more than 14 days and your post count reached 25, you can begin to post ad in the Digital Point Buy, Sell and Trade section.

3) Write an ad about the writing service you are offering and post the ad up to Digital Point Buy, Sell and Trade section.

4) Wait for the article orders to come.

To make your offer compelling, you should start off with low price service. i.e. $3 per 400 words article on any topic. Also you should include links to your previous work samples or you can just copy and paste part of your previous work sample into your ad, letting people to read your offer and see your sample of work at the same time. Anyone interested will then contact and request you to write the topics or titles they want.

In addition to that, you can sell pre-written articles in another section of Digital point Marketplace. Pre-written articles are articles that you have written and ready for publication. Often Pre-written articles are sold in one pack consisting of 3, 5 or 10 articles. You can sell pre-written articles on any topic but I would suggest you focus on topics like Internet marketing, SEO, blogging, Twitter, make money online, WordPress, affiliate marketing and some other related topics. The buyers often like to order articles on these topics.

Again lowering your price is one of the best ways to get your first article pack sold in the forum. $3 per article is the ideal price level. So, if you are selling a pack of 5 articles, the price will be $15.

Make sure your articles are unique and haven’t published anywhere before. You’ll get complain if you sell duplicate articles to the members of the forum.

Other places that you can sell your freelance writing service are Guru.com, Elance.com, V7n.com/forum and etc.

Besides selling articles, there are a few other options of making money with writing:

Write for the Content Networks
The well known content network like Associated Content, Hub Pages, Squidoo and ehow are rewarding authors who contribute content to them. You choose to write any topic you like and publish as many articles as you want. In return the content networks will allow you to share the advertising revenue that generated from all your article pages.

Write for Blog Networks
The established blog network such as Creative Weblogging are also welcoming new authors to join and contribute in their blog network. You choose the topic that you are interested and then the network will assign a blog to you. You’ll be responsible for writing content on the blog and get paid a fixed income monthly. A few other reputable blog networks that offer paid blogging opportunities are B5media and Weblogsinc.

Write Your Own Blog
Blogging is enjoying. You can share your life or things that you know to others. You can keep posting interesting stuff on your blog to attract visitors. Once you have gained consistent blog traffic, you can begin to monetize your traffic. There are many advertising programs that you join and display ads on your to earn revenue. Google AdSense, Yahoo Publisher Network, Bidvertisers are some of the well known advertising programs you can use on your blog. Also a few other ideas of making money from blog are selling direct ad, promoting affiliate products or service, etc.

Playing Online Games

Online games are fun and addictive. You might be one of the Internet users who play online games often. A game site that has recently got quite a lot of buzz is the Moola.com. This game site probably will impress you because it is free to join and play for cash.

When you just started, Moola will give you $0.01 to play game. Every time you win, you double your balance. So, if you play your first game and win, your balance will double from $0.01 to $0.02 and then if you go on to play another game and win as well, you are up to $0.04. Winning 30 times in a row, you’ll get $10,737,418.24.

Winning $10,737,418.24 seems impossible in reality. No one has ever won that amount before. But, there are members reporting that they have cashed out thousands to date. So, you can potentially earn some extra money playing games in Moola. The games in Moola require more luck than skill.

I have listed Other lucrative 160 tested and proven home businesses you can do in Nigeria
Visit
www.business-home-page.com/homebiz
OR
http://www.tinyurl.com/160business. for more details.

Michael Eke
www.business-home-page.com

As millions of Entrepreneurs look for greater control over their financial destiny, the dream of self-employment has become more compelling than ever. Just the idea of launching a small business to become their own boss, and financially independent, drives many people to stake their life savings on everything from franchise opportunities to some gadget they've invented.

The entrepreneurial spirit is, of course, a part of our great national tradition. The problem is that many people devote a lot of their time to half-baked ideas and high-risk flings that have little chance of success.

There is always some gamble involved when you start a business, whether your investment is $50.00 or $500.00, or more. But once you begin to view your new business as "gambling," the risk-to-reward ratio tilts out of wack! The shrewdest and most successful entrepreneurs know that "taking the plunge" works best when you take along time-tested principles that put the odds in their favor.

TAKE WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED
AND BUILD YOUR BUSINESS AROUND IT

If you decide to join the ranks of self-employed freelance photographers, you will soon discover there is no magic in being able to earn thousands of dollars every year. Forget about the notion that you can start up a business just because you have a camera laying around you know little or nothing about. If you try the casual "learn on the job" approach with photography, your competitors will capitalize on your mistakes, promoting customers to turn elsewhere for the products and services you market.. Then your business will be floundering by the time you acquire the knowledge of what it takes to succeed. Never expect people to pay you while you practice on them and waste their time and money. And never take an assignment you know you can't handle. Being honest with yourself and your customers will be to your benefit in the long-run.

The best approach to starting your freelance photography business is to start off slowly and build on a base of knowledge and experience. In other words, take the knowledge that you presently have about your camera and build a company around it. Start out by offering a particular service where you can be competitive from the first day you are open for business.

YOU DON'T NEED A STUDIO & FRENCH
PROVENCIAL FURNITURE TO GET STARTED

You don't have to open a studio with elegant French provincial furniture, glass showcases, and large expensive frames all over the walls, to go into business as a freelance photographer. It's actually just the opposite; you don't need a studio at all!

What you will need is: a camera, a couple of strobe lights, light stands, and a black-and-white darkroom setup. From there, it's just as easy for you to go to your customers as it is for them to go to a studio.

How much money you make will depend on the amount of time you want to devote to your business. The beauty of being a freelance photographer is that you can create your own markets, and establish your own rates. If you go into freelancing with the intent to earn extra money working on weekends, you should be able to earn $1,000 - $2,000 per weekend if you did nothing but shoot weddings followed with package deals. If you decide to go into business on a full-time basis, then you could earn up to $50,000 and more depending on your specialty. It really boils down to one important thing; you must have the ability to use the equipment you have to produce a good photograph. People are willing to pay top dollar if you produce quality results. They don't like paying for poor work that isn't pleasing or effective.

BEING SUCCESSFUL IS SELLING
WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW HOW TO PRODUCE

In this report we are assuming that you already know something about operating a camera, taking pictures, exposure, lighting, composition, and darkroom prodedures. That is the production end of it. Turning that knowledge into salable photography is the next step.

The first rule to remember is that if you are offered a job, and you don't even know the basics, you better say "no thank you," and tell your client why you're passing it up. Tell him what you do specialize in at that moment. When the next job comes around, you will have an established reputation of being honest and that same person will be back 1) because he respects your honesty; and 2) because if you say you can do a job, you can.

ADVERTISE YOUR WORK IN A PORTFOLIO

Make up a portfolio of quality 8x10 prints to show your potential clients. It should consist of both color and black-and-white prints. Mount our 8x10 prints on attractive 11x14 boards. That way you can include a few 11x14 prints as well.

A complete portfolio should include some 35mm slides. Display them in 8.5x11 plastic sheets, which will hold 20 slides. If you intend to produce 24x22 transparencies for commercial and industrial assignments, sheets are available.

When you are satisfied with your portfolio, call on advertising agencies and show the art director what you are capable of. Make appointments with the art and fashion directors of department stores and boutiques. Show business and industrial firms, and consider beforehand how their advertising and public relations departments could use your services.

Be prepared to show your work to anyone at anytime. Everyone is a potential customer, and you never know who will be needing your services next. Carry your portfolio in the car at all times. If you are proud of your work, show it! Make advertising what you do a part of yout everyday life.

KNOWING WHAT TO CHARGE

The first thing to remember is that you aren't going into business to give it away. Being fair to both yourself and your customers is the principle you should follow when setting fees.

The way to do that is to determine what amount will adequately compensate you for your time, talent, and investment in equipment on a job-by-job basis.

Don't fall into the trap of charging less for your work just because you aren't working out of a studio, or don't have brand-new, expensive equimpent. You still have overhead!

At times your expenses will seem endless as you pay for photo supplies, office supplies, advertising, travel expenses, water and electricity if you operate your own darkroom, darkroom supplies and equipment, taxes, business license, business stationery, portfolio costs, business cards, and depreciation on your vehicle and photo equipment. Never let anyone convince you that you should work for less because you don't have overhead.

What you ultimately decide to charge for your work is something you will have to decide yourself. The area you live in, the economy in that area, the competition, and how much you need are all influencing factors.

These are basically two ways to set your fees: 1) You can charge per individual photograph or job. On a job you would have to know exactly how many different shots they would require, and allow for differences in your price quote; or, 2) You can charge an hourly rate that compensates you for your time and talent. Your hourly rate does not include the rolls of film you shoot, proofs, processing, or prints ordered by client. Your hourlly rate does not include the rolls of film you shoot, proofs, processing, or prints ordered by your client. Your hourly rate is for your time only, starting from the time you leave your home until you finish the job and return home. In some cases charging by the hour just wouldn't be practical. For example, prom sets, graduation packages, dance schools, or Little League Teams where you are further ahead to charge by the photo. Commercial shots on the other hand, where you may be asked to take a single photo that ends up taking 1-2 hours to set up, wouldn't pay if you charged by the photo.

EARN $50,000 PER YEAR WORKING ONE DAY A WEEK!
Whether it's a good or bad economy, one thing is for certain - there will always be weddings and work for freelance photographers.

Word-of-mouth advertising works well no matter what product or service you are selling. But it works especially well if you are a photographer in the wedding pictures business. When a bride is pleased with the quality of your work, she will pay a $1,000 for your time, talent, albums for each of the parent couples, wall photos, and her album. But it is her album that everyone she ever knew, or ever will know, will be invited to look at.

Most of your work will come through referrals from brides who were happy with your work. You should also promote your business, however, by showing samples of your work to florists, bridal shops. boutiques, and caterers who normally have a lot of wedding business.

Just tell them you would be happy to send business their way, if they will do the same.

Always sign a contract with the bride so there are no misunderstandings. Specify exactly which photos will be taken, and of whom. Always include a "Release Paragraph" which states that you are not responsible for the loss of photographs resulting from camera malfunction, accidents in development, or film lost in the mail. You may also want to include a "Model Release" which will give you the right to use any photos as samples for advertising purposes.

SETTING YOUR FEE

Make certain the bride completely understands what your fee is, and what she will receive in return. There are various ways you can price weddings:

1) Offer a complete package that includes an engagement photo for the newspaper, formal bridal portrait, and coverage of the rehearsal party,wedding and reception.

2) Coverage of the rehearsal party, wedding and reception.

3) Wedding and reception

4) Wedding only

Weddings can be a goldmine. It's not uncommon for a complete package that includes an 8x10 album for the bride, and a 4x5 album for each set of parents to run $1,000 or more. Many photographers set a $500 minimum charge for weddings. Even if you only did two weddings per weekend at the minimum charge, you could easily make $52,000 per year. Two complete wedding packages per week would earn you over $100,000 per year. That's working one day per week! Now imagine how much money you could earn working full time!

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The firewood business is better than ever. The high cost of fuel oil and heating gas has created high demand for firewood. What a business opportunity this provides you.

A firewood supply and delivery business is just what your empty wallet needs.

No doubt you have seen home owners selling firewood as a part-time business. The nice thing about this business is you can start small and grow the business to the point where you need a small crew to help you.

This business isn't for everyone. The very nature of the business requires hard physical work. Logs and firewood are, after all, quite heavy and a large operation requires special log handling equipment.

If a little hard work doesn't bother you, then great! You will have less competition because of it.

Business Location

The firewood business is not a business you can run from your suburban garage, at least on a large scale. Most likely it will violate your local zoning ordinance.

You will need a property large enough, in a properly zoned area, where you can handle large log trucks and have a large enough area to store the firewood.

You will need to dry the firewood for a minimum of 6 months, and preferably one year for hardwoods. Unseasoned firewood will not burn well, and creates more smoke and creosote.

Firewood Terminology

The basic unit of firewood measurement is the cord. A cord is a 4ft. high x 4ft. wide x 8 ft. long stack of firewood. A face cord or rick measures 4ft. high x 8 ft. long x 16 inches wide. A face cord is 1/3 cord.

Well, there you have the basics of the firewood business. Give good customer service and you will have repeat customers for many years to come.

The Firewood Market

You need to decide what market you want to serve. Retail and/or wholesale. Understanding the needs of your market will help you decide how to best meet those needs.

Do the customers in your region burn firewood in wood stoves, fire places, or indoor or outdoor wood furnaces?

An apartment dweller will require smaller bundles of wood. They don't have the room to store more. Wood stove users like shorter lengths and smaller diameters than someone who uses a fireplace or wood furnace. Wood stove and wood furnace owners need larger quantities also.

My father heats his house almost entirely with wood. He buys 5 to 7 chords of firewood per year. He only uses about one 200 gallon tank of fuel oil a year.

Every state will have firewood customers. People in southern states like to have a warm toasty fire to watch and heat their homes as much as those in northern climates.

Your firewood market may require you to deliver firewood to their door. You limit your market if you expect people to come and get their firewood themselves. They may not own a trailer or truck.

Some customers will want you to also stack the firewood for them.
stacking firewood

Sources of Firewood

Your firewood business requires a few sources of logs. Where are you going to get the wood? Do you want to be a lumberjack and harvest the trees yourself cutting the trees down in the forest or wood lot and skidding them out?

My brother-in-law was a lumberjack and a sawmill operator in his younger years. Lumberjacks usually work in the winter months to cut the trees and skid the logs out.

You need to work when the ground is frozen as you will encounter swamps and marshy areas. It is far easier to work these areas in the winter.

If you don't own any wood lots then you will need to contract with land owners to harvest their wood lots. Selective cutting is required. Clear cutting (cutting all trees down) is frowned upon by many land owners and conservationists.

State and national forests may be harvested in some areas. You will need to obtain a permit from the governing body. Contact the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, or Ranger Station. Usually the agency's forester will only allow you to cut up windfall trees.

Small sawmills are a source of wood for your firewood business. They have mill ends that can be purchased. These you buy in quantity and then package into sacks of firewood. Apartment dwellers are your market for these.

Sawmills may have logs that were unfit for lumber, or slab wood, available.

Perhaps you would prefer to have logs delivered to your property so you can cut them to size and split them yourself. Personally, I prefer this method. Contact logging operators and sawmills for these.

Cutting trees down is dangerous work. I just lost a friend of mine when his son cut a 3-4 inch branch off a tree. The branch hit him on the head. Cutting a whole tree down is far more dangerous.

Furniture factories and woodworking shops are sources of scrap wood that may be used as firewood. Some people like to buy kindling wood to start their fires. Another source of profit for you.

Firewood Equipment Needed

You will need to invest some money into your firewood business and buy the equipment and tools you will need. Here is a short list to purchase as your business grows.

* Large chain saw
* Helmet with face guard and ear protection
* Chaps
* Steel toe shoes
* Log splitter
* Stake or dump truck

As your firewood business grows you can increase production by purchasing these tools:

* Firewood processors
* Firewood conveyors
* Forklift
* Tractor
* Log Grapple

I have listed Other lucrative 160 tested and proven home businesses you can do in Nigeria
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Michael Eke
www.business-home-page.com

There's an exciting new "down-home" kind of business springing up among homeowners all across the country. It's called Bed and Breakfast.

Basically, this is a transplant of European Hospitality, adapted and refined to the American way of doing things. To foreign visitors, it's the comfort and hospitality of home - staying overnight "with people of the land" and enjoying a hearty breakfast - without the traditional gaudiness and plastic feelings visitors get from most big cities in the United States. To U.S. citizens, it is a welcome alternative to the same old hotel/motel circuit,Well For The Nigerian it will shock but many of my own friends are rushing into this

Now, all it takes is a spare bedroom, a good cook and an outgoing personality. Prices per night range from a low of N3500 to N14000 or more.

If you have an extra bedroom, a large home, or extra space in your farm house, you have the necessary beginnings to start making extra income as a Bed and Break fast Inn. One of the beautiful aspects of this idea is that so long as you're hosting "over night visitors" on a small scale, no licenses will be required. It's always best, however, to check with your local authorities just to be sure.

Naturally, your "visitors" will expect a clean, neat and comfortable home. So assuming that your home meets these prerequisites, and you have a spare bedroom, simply "doll it up" a bit. Make sure it's painted brightly, there's an outside window, lots of room, closet space and bureau, and perhaps a small writing desk, and a large comfortable bed, or twin beds.

Most foreign visitors will expect and appreciate a "quick tour" of the interesting sights in your area. However, as your particular popularity as a B & B Host grows, you'll find that a lot of tourists and business people on the road will begin availing themselves of your hospitality. Certainly with these people, it won't always be necessary to give the "Red Carpet" visitors' treatment.

Which brings us to the basic appeal of a Bed and Breakfast Inn. Travelers seem to be looking for, and appreciate a quiet "home-style" place to stay. Generally, they enjoy visiting with the people off the superhighway and want to get away from the sterilized atmosphere and sameness of hotels and motels.

Most people will either write to you ahead of time, inquiring about the possibilities of staying at your home while in your town or city. This means a bit of advertising on your part, or listing your availability with a B & B broker. Some people will check the local telephone listings, and the newspaper advertisements when they arrive in a strange town. And some people will just be driving across the country, come to a town or city they think is interesting, and start driving through the residential areas looking for Bed and Breakfast Inns.

Thus, you should have a small sign posted either in your front yard or on the front of your house. This sign needn't be much more than about two feet wide by about ten inches deep. It need only state: BED AND BREAKFAST - Inquire Within or Call
0806???.

For newspaper advertising, a similar listing in the personal column of your local paper, particularly on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, will be all you'll need. But when it comes to the yellow pages of your telephone and business directories, go with a small display ad that describes in greater detail the comforts and pleasures of your services.

Be sure to list your services with all the travel agencies in your area. A brochure or a short synopsis of what you offer will most assuredly give the travel agents an idea for steering visitors your way. At the same time, listing your services in a number of national travel magazines - particularly those that cater to women - will bring customers in for you.

Listing your services with a broker usually won't cost you anything up front, but they will expect a certain percentage - usually about 25% of the total bill. This same arrangement applies with travel agents.

Now, suppose you're organized and ready to receive your first customers. You greet them as host or hostess and offer to assist them in getting situated in the room or rooms you have for them. If they'd like to take a drive around your area and see the points of interest, you do that. And then in the morning, serve them a big, delicious breakfast.

You'll probably find that foreign visitors will want to stay several days. With most people of this country who are just travelling through your area, it'll be a one-night stopover. Whatever, if they want to sleep comfortably through the night, eat breakfast and be on their way, so be it. If they want to sit around after breakfast and plan an itinerary for a complete visit of your area, your assistance and help will be greatly appreciated. (Remember those recommendations)!

That's it! The complete how and why of this tremendously profitable business that's becoming more and more popular. It's called Bed & Breakfast, and it's very definitely a low investment idea. And you can parlay it into a very interesting and comfortable income producing business - all from the comforts of your own home!

I have listed Other lucrative 160 tested and proven home businesses you can do in Nigeria
Visit
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Michael Eke
www.business-home-page.com

The gift basket industry has exploded over the past few years and continues to be a consistent money maker for those involved in it. In many ways, it's the ideal business. You can run it from the home.It's an extremely inexpensive business to start (you only need supplies and a marketing budget).The product is in demand (who doesn't like getting an artistic basket with fresh fruit, candies, or cheeses?). Competition isn't much of a problem (you can easily set yourself off from the rest by producing specialized types of baskets). It's a dynamic business that is changing and developing with the times.

One of the newest developments is the CANDY FLOWER BASKET.This is a new type of gift basket that will definitely set you apart from your competition.It's very artistic and creative, and pretty, too! The Candy Flower Basket is easy to make, and will turn heads wherever it is given.

Here's what you need for a Candy Flower Basket: You'll need a basket, of course, preferably around the size of a medium to large flower pot (remember, we'll have "flowers" here). Next, a large piece of flower arranging or art styrofoam, large enough to fit in the bottom of the basket,filling it well and reaching up to around 3 inches below the lip of the basket. Also, plenty of stiff, green wire used in flower arranging; green flower tape; 2 1/2" green wood sticks, pointed on one end, blunt on the other; thin wire; a good supply of different wrapped hard candies,
preferably with colorful wrappers (yellow, orange, red, pink, and other "flower" colors are best); and, finally, a LOT of bright, colorful cellophane sheets (green and red, especially). Many of these supplies can be found at craft stores or flower arranging supply stores.

First, we'll make our candy flowers.Cut the stiff green wire into 1 foot lengths. Make around 15 for a decent size basket. Now, sort your candies by wrapper color. You'll need 5 or 6 candies per wire. Take one of the candies and hold one twisted end of the wrapper against the end of the wire. Now, wrap the green floral tape tightly around the wrapper and wire a few times. Don't tear the tape; once the candy is firmly attached to the wire, continue the tape down the wire and wrap another candy around 1 to 1 1/2 inches below the first, depending on how many candies you'll put on the wire. Continue this down the wire. When you've wrapped 5 or 6 of the same candies on the top half of the wire, trail your tape off another inch or two on the wire. You've just made your first candy flower! Set that one aside and start on the next one. Try to have at least 4 different types of candies, so all the flowers won't be the same color.

Next, wrap the styrofoam in green cellophane and put it into the bottom of the basket. Take your colored cellophane sheets and cut around fifty 6" x 10" rectangles. Don't worry about making them perfectly sized. Take one of the rectangles and loosely fold it in half the short way (to make a 6" x 5" rectangle) and then in half the long way (to make a 3" x 5" rectangle). Don't crease the folds, and again, don't worry about being perfect _ it'll look better if it's not. Insert this rectangle into one of the open spaces closed point down (the point that would be the center of the rectangle, if it was unfolded.

Do this with 20 to 25 of the rectangles, until the open spaces are filled, though not tightly. Fluff the open corners of the rectangles out. Now, insert yourflowers into the styrofoam.

Space them out evenly, and put around four inches of the wire down into the foam, so it's secure. Here's a tip _ slightly curve the wire and insert it at a slight angle, so the flowers sit realistically.Real flower bouquets don't stand straight up. Finally, take one of the remaining cellophane rectangles, and fold it in the same way as you did with the "fill-in" rectangles. Now, take one of the short green sticks and a six inch length of the thin copper wire. Wrap the wire three or four times around the blunt end of the stick, around 1/8" from the end.

Put around 1/2" of the closed corner of the rectangle against the blunt end of the stick, and wrap the remaining wire tightly around it. Insert this in the styrofoam,
in between the flowers.Do this with the remaining rectangles, cutting more if necessary to completely hide the styrofoam and fill out the basket.When done, fluff the open corners out. You now have a Candy Flower Basket!The best thing about this is the fact that it looks BETTER after the candy is removed!

Put a note in with your basket suggesting that people unwrap only the unattached end of the wrapper to remove a candy.The candies look like buds while they're wrapped; they look like blooming flowers with the candy removed!Try it with one of your flowers and you'll see!

Take into account the cost of your supplies and your time when pricing your Candy Flower Basket. These can be a bit time-consuming, but you can always make a large stock of flowers and fill-in "greenery" ahead of time while watching TV. Or, get some friends involved.Baskets like this can easily be sold for N4,000 to N6000, depending on the size of the basket, with only a few dollars worth of supplies. Their uniqueness will definitely be an important selling point. Make a few baskets of different sizes up, for sales examples.

Candy Flower Baskets can be a great addition to your line, if you already produce gift baskets, or they can be a fantastic way to start out in this profitable business.And don't think it's just for women;there are many men who are producing great gift baskets out there.Anyone,young or old, can produce these baskets and make massive profits...and have a lot of fun in the process

I have listed Other lucrative 160 tested and proven home businesses you can do in Nigeria
Visit
www.business-home-page.com/homebiz
OR
http://www.tinyurl.com/160business. for more details.

Michael Eke
www.business-home-page.com