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| One of my brother's bird houses and a wooden bird he carved. |
Home
business ventures are becoming more popular as technology makes it
possible to do many things from home that were not possible years
ago. Some people may be looking for some ideas, or just some
inspiration to make something happen. I hope to be able to
provide some inspiration for someone who has had this
desire, but doesn't know where to start.
To
start a home business you need a product or service to provide that
is of value to others. It could start with growing a pumpkin
seed in your back yard. It could be a skill that you are able
to teach others like the use of a popular computer program. It
could be a service like cleaning out gutters, or walking dogs.
I
remember years ago, when I was a teenager, Dad had an idea of
starting a lawn service business. He had an old lawn tractor,
and a trailer. He made an ad with Mom's help, and put
it in the classifieds of our local newspaper and we waited
to see how many responses we might get. We received one.
It was a number of miles away, probably around 15 miles. We
knew we were not going to make much money from the venture, though
gas was cheaper back then. We decided to do it anyway as a way
to start our venture. Dad figured it would be good to add up
our expenses over time so we could figure out if it was worth
making a trip like that. He knew that there was
the added cost of wear and tear on the equipment. The venture
was also a way we could work together as father and son.
The neighbors to the place where we mowed saw our work and asked if
we could mow their yard also. That's something that is true of
many businesses. The customers come more from word of mouth or
from watching the work being done at their neighbors than they do
from costly advertisements.
The venture didn't
last long. We once found it hard to get our payment, and
the man of the house decided at one point it might be worth mowing
himself. The neighbor didn't need their yard mowed
after we had cut down some extremely high grass that they were
unable to do. It was a good experience despite it being so
short lived. Dad and I took turns using the riding mower which
was fun to ride when it worked. Sometimes our maintenance time
seemed to be as much as our mowing time. The push
mower was good exercise, and for me, any amount of money was a
great thing.
It
is great when people can do something that they really like and sell
it. Often times the product a person likes to make just doesn't
have a market demand. I think the lawn business could have
really taken off if we knew how to market it because a large portion
of the population has a lawns, and many people don't
have much time to work on them. We also tried
another venture that probably had much less demand even if we
marketed it better. Dad had a scroll saw, and we would make
lots of cut out ornaments with it. I remember making some
wooden chipmunks of my own design and painting them with some
delicate features. We went to a craft sale and tried to sell
the various wooden items our family had made. We probably
hardly came away with more than the cost of setting up our table.
Dad really enjoyed working with pine wood and a scroll saw, and
the whole family seemed to find some enjoyment from it, but it didn't
seem to have much of a market. I was so happy that one of the
few things that sold was one of my wooden chipmunks.
My younger brother also had a love of producing things with wood. There were barn ruins behind our house that had lots of barn board. It was kind of like the idea of finding diamonds on your own property instead of searching for them abroad. My brother came up with the idea of producing bird houses and feeders with that wood that would otherwise go to waste. He did some marvelous work. We took some of his bird feeders and houses to a local festival to sell them. His handiwork received some good compliments, but few were sold because people at festivals have a hard time carrying things very far. Once again, the trouble was marketing. I knew a young man who was very successful at selling some fancy bird houses, but an advantage he had was that he lived in a densely populated area.
Today
I have a home enterprise of selling honey bee products. When I
first started beekeeping I remember a man from the honey industry say
that you didn't have to worry about marketing honey because honey
sells itself. Such did not seem to be necessarily the case, and
after years of producing honey I came to recognize that one of the
areas of weakness for the business was marketing. I made it a
fervent prayer that I could learn to market my products. That
prayer was granted especially on a local basis. For how rural
our area is, the amount of honey that I've been able to sell has been
tremendous. It could be better, I'm sure, and it will need to
be if I am to succeed in the future. One thing that helps with
marketing is to believe in your product. Another is to be very
familiar with it, and to share what qualities it has with others.
I went to local farmers markets with brochures that I had made, and
told people how good honey is. Many people really don't know how good
honey is.
I've
watched people go week after week at a farmers market trying to sell
craft products that don't seem to sell. They've had
some great products, but they were at the wrong place. Some
don't mind as they are retired and vending gives them something to
do. People at farmers markets are mostly looking for food.
When selling a product, keep in mind who it is that you are selling
to, and try to go where they are at. People
that are looking for crafts to buy are often thinking of getting them
as a unique gift for someone. The place for this is often a
craft fair, or holiday event rather than a farmers market. Even
if you find that your product isn't received well at one place, don't
get discouraged right away. Some products need to be seen a
number of times before people think of their value.
Don't
be afraid of starting small. Debt is something that causes many
businesses to fail. By starting small, your mistakes are likely
to be less costly. "For
who hath despised the day of small things?" Zech. 4:10.
A
business can start with putting a sign outside your house telling
what service or product you can provide. It can
start with telling your coworkers, family, and friends what you have
to offer. By talking about your business aspirations you can
get advice from others, knowledge of pitfalls in that venture,
encouragement, and even possible sales leads. This is
a subject I could go on and on with as I've spent a lot of time
studying it, but I hope these thoughts helped the wheels spin for
someone.
