Remember pet rocks? I am sure a lot of you don’t. Back in 1975 Gary Dahl came up with the idea of a pet rock (a pet that was easy to take care of) and became an instant millionaire! Just think of what he would have done if he could have taken his pet rock online!Billions of people worldwide are now using the internet and that number will continue to grow. Online spending is increasing rapidly and according to Forrester Research will increase 62% by the year 2016. Many small businesses with no online presence will cease to exist.If you are thinking of starting an online business, you have many options from which to choose. Below are ten authentic ideas for your own online business.1. eBooks – Selling digital products of all kinds can be a very lucrative business. eBooks have exploded in popularity over the last few years and will continue to do so. Digital store websites will take your orders and deliver them automatically. With ebooks, there is no need to continually restock your products. One ebook sells many times over. This can be a 100% online business.2. Proofreading Services – Many businesses will gladly pay you to proofread all their documents. Many people miss their own mistakes so they need a fresh pair of eyes to find their errors. You can be those eyes! You can also add editing to your services as well. Once you find the mistakes, you can then get paid to correct them. Professional proofreaders and editors either charge by the word, page, hour or project. This would totally be up to you. You also want to set a minimum price for small jobs.3. Freelance Writer – Bloggers, ezine publishers, magazines, newspapers, etc., are constantly searching for good content for their readers and visitors. You do not have to be a college graduate to become a freelance writer. As long as you can write grammatically correct, helpful, interesting content, you can sell your services. By providing well-written content to all these different companies, you can build a lucrative business.4. Unique Products – If you are creative enough to have discovered your own unique product then selling it online could be the catalyst to your success. You can develop your own online store or you can sell your product via online marketplaces such as Amazon. Using such sites might be a good starting point but be sure to look into developing your own online store.5. Virtual Assistant (VA) – A virtual assistant is a professional who provides administrative, creative and/or technical help to another business. The skills of a VA are usually widespread and similar to an office manager. VA’s can perform many duties including managing appointments, setting up meetings, customer spreadsheets, billing, newsletters, customer inquiries, etc. The list is virtually endless!6. Online Event Planner – Start your own online event planning business by helping other businesses plan and promote their online events. These events could include webinars, online classes, online networking events, online fundraisers, etc.7. Website/Graphic Designer – Designing websites and/or graphics can be a lucrative career but you must be skilled in the appropriate programs. Be sure you know the ins and outs of web and/or graphic design before jumping into this business.8. Freelance Researcher – Many businesses need information, facts, statistics, etc. but are unable to do all the time-consuming research themselves. Offer your services at a good price. Take the time to find all the facts needed. Present them in a professional manner and build a reputation as a good solid researcher.9. Flipping Websites – You know about flipping houses but have you considered that flipping websites can be lucrative as well. Look for websites that are low in price and have potential for success. Tweak them for maximum success and make a high profit.10. Webhost Reseller – Many of the big webhosts offer reseller opportunity. You purchase hosting space from them and resell them to your own customers. This is similar to reselling ebooks. Your income would be recurring as people will continuously pay for their hosting. This can add up to big profits!There are many ways to earn a good living online but be sure to do your research on each one you are considering. Take the time to make a plan and know what you are getting into. Above all else, know this: Building a business (online or offline) requires a great deal of commitment, work and time. Keep this in mind as you are starting and building your business.You will be frustrated at times, overwhelmed and feel like throwing in the towel. Work through those feelings. Remind yourself why you started your own business. It always helped me to think of my family, which is the reason I wanted to work from home. Turn those feelings into determination and commit to becoming a success!
What Are The Greatest Changes In Shopping In Your Lifetime
What are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime? So asked my 9 year old grandson.
As I thought of the question the local Green Grocer came to mind. Because that is what the greatest change in shopping in my lifetime is.
That was the first place to start with the question of what are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime.
Our local green grocer was the most important change in shopping in my lifetime. Beside him was our butcher, a hairdresser and a chemist.
Looking back, we were well catered for as we had quite a few in our suburb. And yes, the greatest changes in shopping in my lifetime were with the small family owned businesses.
Entertainment While Shopping Has Changed
Buying butter was an entertainment in itself.
My sister and I often had to go to a favourite family grocer close by. We were always polite as we asked for a pound or two of butter and other small items.
Out came a big block of wet butter wrapped in grease-proof paper. Brought from the back of the shop, placed on a huge counter top and included two grooved pates.
That was a big change in our shopping in my lifetime… you don’t come across butter bashing nowadays.
Our old friendly Mr. Mahon with the moustache, would cut a square of butter. Lift it to another piece of greaseproof paper with his pates. On it went to the weighing scales, a bit sliced off or added here and there.
Our old grocer would then bash it with gusto, turning it over and over. Upside down and sideways it went, so that it had grooves from the pates, splashes going everywhere, including our faces.
My sister and I thought this was great fun and it always cracked us up. We loved it, as we loved Mahon’s, on the corner, our very favourite grocery shop.
Grocery Shopping
Further afield, we often had to go to another of my mother’s favourite, not so local, green grocer’s. Mr. McKessie, ( spelt phonetically) would take our list, gather the groceries and put them all in a big cardboard box.
And because we were good customers he always delivered them to our house free of charge. But he wasn’t nearly as much fun as old Mr. Mahon. Even so, he was a nice man.
All Things Fresh
So there were very many common services such as home deliveries like:
• Farm eggs
• Fresh vegetables
• Cow’s milk
• Freshly baked bread
• Coal for our open fires
Delivery Services
A man used to come to our house a couple of times a week with farm fresh eggs.
Another used to come every day with fresh vegetables, although my father loved growing his own.
Our milk, topped with beautiful cream, was delivered to our doorstep every single morning.
Unbelievably, come think of it now, our bread came to us in a huge van driven by our “bread-man” named Jerry who became a family friend.
My parents always invited Jerry and his wife to their parties, and there were many during the summer months. Kids and adults all thoroughly enjoyed these times. Alcohol was never included, my parents were teetotallers. Lemonade was a treat, with home made sandwiches and cakes.
The coal-man was another who delivered bags of coal for our open fires. I can still see his sooty face under his tweed cap but I can’t remember his name. We knew them all by name but most of them escape me now.
Mr. Higgins, a service man from the Hoover Company always came to our house to replace our old vacuum cleaner with an updated model.
Our insurance company even sent a man to collect the weekly premium.
People then only paid for their shopping with cash. This in itself has been a huge change in shopping in my lifetime.
In some department stores there was a system whereby the money from the cash registers was transported in a small cylinder on a moving wire track to the central office.
Some Of The Bigger Changes
Some of the bigger changes in shopping were the opening of supermarkets.
• Supermarkets replaced many individual smaller grocery shops. Cash and bank cheques have given way to credit and key cards.
• Internet shopping… the latest trend, but in many minds, doing more harm, to book shops.
• Not many written shopping lists, because mobile phones have taken over.
On a more optimistic note, I hear that book shops are popular again after a decline.
Personal Service Has Most Definitely Changed
So, no one really has to leave home, to purchase almost anything, technology makes it so easy to do online.
And we have a much bigger range of products now, to choose from, and credit cards have given us the greatest ease of payment.
We have longer shopping hours, and weekend shopping. But we have lost the personal service that we oldies had taken for granted and also appreciated.
Because of their frenetic lifestyles, I have heard people say they find shopping very stressful, that is grocery shopping. I’m sure it is when you have to dash home and cook dinner after a days work. I often think there has to be a better, less stressful way.
My mother had the best of both worlds, in the services she had at her disposal. With a full time job looking after 9 people, 7 children plus her and my dad, she was very lucky. Lucky too that she did not have 2 jobs.
Business Loans In Canada: Financing Solutions Via Alternative Finance & Traditional Funding
Business loans and finance for a business just may have gotten good again? The pursuit of credit and funding of cash flow solutions for your business often seems like an eternal challenge, even in the best of times, let alone any industry or economic crisis. Let’s dig in.
Since the 2008 financial crisis there’s been a lot of change in finance options from lenders for corporate loans. Canadian business owners and financial managers have excess from everything from peer-to-peer company loans, varied alternative finance solutions, as well of course as the traditional financing offered by Canadian chartered banks.
Those online business loans referenced above are popular and arose out of the merchant cash advance programs in the United States. Loans are based on a percentage of your annual sales, typically in the 15-20% range. The loans are certainly expensive but are viewed as easy to obtain by many small businesses, including retailers who sell on a cash or credit card basis.
Depending on your firm’s circumstances and your ability to truly understand the different choices available to firms searching for SME COMMERCIAL FINANCE options. Those small to medium sized companies ( the definition of ‘ small business ‘ certainly varies as to what is small – often defined as businesses with less than 500 employees! )
How then do we create our road map for external financing techniques and solutions? A simpler way to look at it is to categorize these different financing options under:
Debt / Loans
Asset Based Financing
Alternative Hybrid type solutions
Many top experts maintain that the alternative financing solutions currently available to your firm, in fact are on par with Canadian chartered bank financing when it comes to a full spectrum of funding. The alternative lender is typically a private commercial finance company with a niche in one of the various asset finance areas
If there is one significant trend that’s ‘ sticking ‘it’s Asset Based Finance. The ability of firms to obtain funding via assets such as accounts receivable, inventory and fixed assets with no major emphasis on balance sheet structure and profits and cash flow ( those three elements drive bank financing approval in no small measure ) is the key to success in ABL ( Asset Based Lending ).
Factoring, aka ‘ Receivable Finance ‘ is the other huge driver in trade finance in Canada. In some cases, it’s the only way for firms to be able to sell and finance clients in other geographies/countries.
The rise of ‘ online finance ‘ also can’t be diminished. Whether it’s accessing ‘ crowdfunding’ or sourcing working capital term loans, the technological pace continues at what seems a feverish pace. One only has to read a business daily such as the Globe & Mail or Financial Post to understand the challenge of small business accessing business capital.
Business owners/financial mgrs often find their company at a ‘ turning point ‘ in their history – that time when financing is needed or opportunities and risks can’t be taken. While putting or getting new equity in the business is often impossible, the reality is that the majority of businesses with SME commercial finance needs aren’t, shall we say, ‘ suited’ to this type of funding and capital raising. Business loan interest rates vary with non-traditional financing but offer more flexibility and ease of access to capital.
We’re also the first to remind clients that they should not forget govt solutions in business capital. Two of the best programs are the GovernmentSmall Business Loan Canada (maximum availability = $ 1,000,000.00) as well as the SR&ED program which allows business owners to recapture R&D capital costs. Sred credits can also be financed once they are filed.
Those latter two finance alternatives are often very well suited to business start up loans. We should not forget that asset finance, often called ‘ ABL ‘ by those Bay Street guys, can even be used as a loan to buy a business.
If you’re looking to get the right balance of liquidity and risk coupled with the flexibility to grow your business seek out and speak to a trusted, credible and experienced Canadian business financing advisor with a track record of business finance success who can assist you with your funding needs.