SIX PROFITABLE HOME-BASED BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES Bed And Breakfast Inns Within the past decade, the bed and breakfast industry has undergone a rapid revitalization, and the number of bed and breakfast inns has increased dramatically. Today, more and more travelers are shunning commercial hotels and motels and are choosing instead to stay in the more rustic, home-like atmosphere of a bread and breakfast inn. Now is a good time for an enterprising homeowner with "room to spare" to seize the opportunity to make a comfortable profit by turning an extra room into a paying room. As more and more people seek the comfort and hospitality of bed and breakfast inns, innkeepers can expect high occupancy rates and high profits. A check of the industry indicates that most innkeepers charge anywhere from $50 to over $200 a night, with the average rate falling somewhere between $50 to $100. Depending on the number of rooms an inn has available, it is entirely possible to bring in a sizable yearly profit. That's because there are many potential clients from practically every age group. Business people, homeowners, tourists, even local residents who may not have room in their own homes to accommodate out-of-town visitors, are all potential clients. Many home-based entrepreneurs find innkeeping attractive because it usually offers substantial profits from a very low initial investment. If your home is in good condition and no renovations or additions need to be made, it is likely your biggest investment will be in linens for your rented room. Obviously, if major renovations such as getting new carpeting and/or adding a bathroom are called for, the investment could turn into a few thousand dollars. Before you start knocking out walls and adding on, contact your local city hall and find out if there are any zoning regulations concerning innkeeping in your area. You will need to be in compliance with any and all such zoning regulations. Of course, once your inn is in operation, you'll have plenty of hard work ahead in order to make it a successful venture. You will not only need to be a friendly host, you'll also have paperwork and cleaning chores to tend to. You should also be able to offer genial conversation, and of course, be able to prepare a good breakfast. It should come as no surprise that preparing breakfast is one of, if not the most important responsibility of a bed and breakfast innkeeper. Some inns feature elaborate breakfast fare such as omelettes, eggs benedict, waffles, and so on. Others are successful serving a typical continental breakfast of juice, coffee, tea, and some kind of fresh bakery item. The menu is entirely up to the innkeeper and may depend on the rates charged the guest. If you enjoy meeting people, and have a spare room or two, the bed and breakfast industry offers a potentially profitable home-based business opportunity. A good source of information about the bed and breakfast industry is the new book, "Open Your Own Bed And Breakfast: Second Edition", by Barbara Notarius and Gail Sforza Brewer, discussed in the book review section of this edition of Home Business News. Gift Basket Business The gift basket industry offers creative home-based entrepreneurs year-round profit potential. There's always an occasion that requires giving a gift, and "gift-givers" are turning to the cottage industry of gift basket making for unique gifts that are suitable for any occasion. With that as incentive, many people have entered into the business of creatively arranging various products in attractive, decorative baskets or containers, and making these "gift baskets" available to a receptive market. Operating a home-based gift basket service is an especially attractive opportunity because of the relatively low initial investment required. This type of business requires very little equipment and, of course, no rent to pay for office space. A home-based gift basket business with one or two part- time helpers and a high mark-up, can bring in well over $50,000 in gross yearly sales. Just selling an average of 5 to 10 baskets per day at average prices of $15 to $50 can mean substantial profits. Some gift basket service operators, working an average of only 25 hours a week, report yearly gross incomes ranging from $15,000 to $25,000. Of course, actual profit depends on several factors including individual goals and initiative, effective marketing, and creative ability. If you have "craft-oriented" creativity, as well as marketing skills, turning empty, unadorned baskets into decorative and useful gifts can result in both personal and financial reward. After all, the market is nearly unlimited because gift-giving is not a seasonal matter. There are numerous gift-giving occasions every month, and by creating beautiful and affordable gifts, suitable for everyone and every occasion, home-based entrepreneurs can realize substantial profits, and have fun in the process. The cost of starting a home-based gift basket business can be quite low. Many entrepreneurs have reported starting up with investments of under $2000. And, the gift basket industry is a repeat business. As long as you supply unique and attractive gift baskets, customers will keep coming back. The gift basket industry ranks consistently among the top home-based entrepreneurial opportunities, and is the ideal business for energetic and creative people. You can get more information about the gift basket industry from Tara Perkins Baskets. Tara Perkins publishes a comprehensive manual that describes in detail how to operate, successfully, a gift basket business. To find out how you can get the manual write to: Tara Perkins Baskets, 2796 Harbor Boulevard, #107, Costa Mesa, CA 92626. 976 Phone Lines A 976 phone line business does not require an office or part-time help. It is a part time business anyone can operate and make almost unbelievable profits. When you operate a 976 phone business, you will be working with the major phone companies to bring in hundreds, even thousands, of calls per month. And, as an operator of such a business, you'll get up to as much as $1.40 per call. It isn't at all unheard of to make well over $100,000 a year simply by furnishing information over the telephone-- no direct selling and no special skills are required. The field of telecommunications is rapidly becoming one of the most promising ways for entrepreneurs to "cash in" on substantial profits. All it takes is some kind of information to present to the public. Some successful 976 numbers furnish financial information, horoscopes, news, sports scores, weather reports, fishing reports, employment opportunities and so on. The information is usually readily available, so you won't have to spend a lot of time with research-- just take from 5 to 10 minutes each day to update the information on your phone machine's message. Depending on the demand for the information you supply, you can make $10,000- $20,000 or more per month. If a 976 phone line business sounds like an exciting prospect to you, contact GC Publishing and find out about their book, "Making A Fortune with 976". It's a guide to help entrepreneurs start up and operate a successful 976 line business. For information about the book, write to: GC Publishing, 12021, Wilshire Boulevard #7063, Los Angeles, CA 90025. Flower Vending A flower vending business is a retail business that offers a very high profit potential in a wide market. It is a relatively easy business to start up and to operate with little or no experience in the floral industry, necessary. There's also minimal facility and equipment requirements, making the initial start-up investment very low. All in all, flower vending is an exciting and potentially profitable home- based opportunity. Operators of a flower vending business rely heavily on an impulse market. That's why selling flowers at strategic locations can be such a profitable venture. Single men on their way to a date will often stop and purchase flowers from a roadside vendor. Husbands are more apt to buy flowers for their wives if a roadside vendor is available. The ease of buying such a lovely gift without having to get out of the car, makes buying flowers from roadside vendors an almost irresistible idea. Women also buy flowers on impulse, as decoration for their houses, apartments or offices. And more and more women are choosing flowers as gifts for the men in their lives. To be successful with a flower vending business, operators must be able to take advantage of the two basic types of selling locations in order to be available to the impulse market. Restaurant selling--either dinner or lunch restaurants--offer ideal locations for flower vendors because fine restaurants usually attract couples. Any restaurant with a romantic ambiance is, of course, a natural location for flower vending. Lounges, taverns, or pubs are also good locations, if they are quiet, and couple oriented. The other type of selling location for flower vending is roadside, or street selling. A successful flower vendor will need to know where the high traffic areas are and at what times of the day traffic is heaviest. Morning and evening rush hours are generally the periods of highest traffic, but people on their way to work may be in too much of a hurry to stop and buy flowers. Those people on their way home are more than likely to have the time to stop and purchase a gift of flowers. Once you locate your business (safely) in a high traffic area, every passing car, or pedestrain is a potential customer. You can actually begin a home-based flower vending business with an investment of as little as $500. Your own garage or outbuilding can serve as storage space for flowers, supplies, and equipment. Your kitchen table will do quite well as your preparation area. With a minimal investment, and a reasonably large market, a flower vending business could net anywhere from $10,000 to $80,000 per year, depending on the time and effort put into the operation. For more information about starting up and operating a successful flower vending business, contact Entrepreneur Magazine and find out about their AEA Business Manual #10 on flower vending. The manual is reasonably priced and is a complete guide for prospective flower vendors. Find out about the manual by writing to: Entrepreneur Magazine, 2311 Pontius Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90064. Selling Imitation Designer Perfumes Don't let the word imitation fool you-- the fragrances sold through Paris Perfume's versions of famous perfumes are virtually impossible to tell apart from the originals. And you can make up to $1500 a week selling clones of nearly every desirable designer perfume. This is a great idea for the entrepreneur as well as the customer, because the profits are very high (as much as 200%) and the savings off the originals are as much as 80% to 90% . For example, Giorgio, the original, best-selling perfume from Beverly Hills, retails for $150 per ounce. The Paris Perfume's Giorgio clone may be sold to your customer at 90% off the original price, and you pay only $5 and keep $10 for every bottle you sell. You can easily make a large profit on every order you write. Paris Perfumes is a leading seller of cloned perfumes, and they are so confident your customers will buy their product, they will buy back any unsold bottles. That's a risk- free offer. To find out for yourself if the fragrances offered by Paris Perfumes are as good as their higher priced inspirations, send $1.00 to cover postage and handling, and they will send you samples of their versions of Giorgio, Opium, Chanel No.5, and others. Send $2.00 and you'll get an even larger assortment of sample fragrances to test against the originals. Some entrepreneurs report earning several hundred dollars a week selling Paris Perfume's versions of famous designer fragrances. Even more profits are possible if you feature your perfumes in a party plan along with other related products such as cosmetics, jewelry, or lingerie. So far, competition in this market is scarce, with cloned fragrances being sold at exclusive shopping malls. It may be a good time to take advantage of a potentially excellent opportunity. To get more information, and to get samples, write to: Paris Perfumes, 129A Fletcher Avenue, Cranston, RI 02920. Making Money With A Video Camera Millions of homes are now "equipped" with VCR's. Many businesses also have VCR's available to facilitate different aspects of their operations. That all means there is a potentially huge market for low-cost movie-making. If you own a video camera, you can take advantage of this growing market and provide a vast range of services to both homeowners and businesses. Turning your video camera into a profitable business tool is a fairly easy matter. Obviously, the first thing you'll need is a good quality video camera, and some editing equipment. Unless you already own such equipment, it may initially be more practical to rent what you need in order to save money on start-up costs.You can rent the necessary equipment for the first few months and then, if the business is good, purchase your own equipment. Renting the necessary equipment may cost anywhere from $150 to $300 per month, while buying video equipment could mean an investment of from $2,500 to $13,000 depending on the quality you chose. Obviously you should purchase the best quality equipment you can afford. The amount of money you can make depends on several factors, not the least of which is personal initiative. You'll have to be aggressive in marketing your service through advertising in newspapers, on local radio stations, word-of-mouth, etc., and you'll have to demonstrate a certain amount of expertise and quality in your finished product. The rates you charge should be entirely your own decision, but anything less than $10 a hour is too low. Usually, a $15 to $25 per hour rate is acceptable. You'll have to decide how much your time and talent is worth, how much you need to make to cover expenses and still make a profit, and how much the market can afford. Some of the typical ways to make money with a video camera include filming weddings, birthdays, family reunions, or simply making home movies for a fee. Many video services also offer a wide variety of options including taping video resumes, educational videos, cable television advertising, vacation videos, videos for businesses, filming graduations, local sporting events, parades, and so on. The type of work you do may only be as limited as your imagination. Before you run out and buy or rent your video equipment you should get as much information about the "business" of using video equipment to make money as you possibly can. One excellent source of information comes from the Kasper Publishing Company in television news photographer Paul Casper's book, "How To Make Money With Your Camcorder and 35 MM Cameras". In addition to dozens of fully-explained money-making ideas, this book provides illustrated photo tricks and techniques for both video and 35MM cameras. You can find out how to get Kasper's book in the News, Sources, and Ideas section of this edition of Home Business News.