TOP 10 BUSINESS TO START WITH LITTLE OR NO MONEY

What is the best business to start in 2013? What is the best business to start from home with little money? Which business opportunity has the potential for rapid growth? Do you have the capital and passion to start a business but you can’t seem to decide what business to start?

  What is the best business to Start from Home in 2013?

Well, before I reveal to you the best business to start this year; I want you to take a careful look at the list below.

1.            1900 – Andrew Carnegie made his money from steel – $475 million

2.            1910 – John D. Rockefeller became a billionaire in oil – $1.4 billion

3.            1920 – Henry Ford became a billionaire in the auto industry – $1 billion

4.            1940 – Howard Hughes became a billionaire with military aircrafts, contract, tools and movies – $1.5billion

5.            1957 – J. Paul Getty became a billionaire in oil – $1 billion

6.            1962 – Henry Ross Perot became a billionaire with EDS – $3.8 billion

7.            1970 – Sam Walton took retailing giant Wal-Mart public and became a billionaire – $22 billion

8.            1980 – Ron Perelman made fortune as a Wall Street deal maker – $3.8 billion

9.            1990 – Jerry Yang founded Yahoo! – $3.7 billion

10.          2008 – Aliko Dangote became the richest black man in the world as a manufacturer – $3.3 billion

11.          2010 – Mark Zuckerberg became a billionaire with FaceBook.com – $6 billion

Some of the successful entrepreneurs mentioned in the list above were school dropout billionaires. Is this list exhausted, my answer is no. Oprah Winfrey became the richest black woman in the world with television show productions. J, K. Rowling joined the billionaires list with her book “Harry Potter Series.”

Debbi Field’s became a multi millionaire selling cookies; and Mary Kay Ash became a billionaire with her company “Mary Kay Cosmetics. Rupert Murdoch and Ted Turner became billionaires by running their own cable network channel company; “Fox Broadcasting Corporation” and “CNN” respectively.

Now what is the best business to start from home with little money? My answer to the question above is this:

“The best business to start this year that can yield the highest returns on investment is non-existent.”

Are you surprised? Please don’t be. I know you might be expecting me to make a list of businesses ranging from oil and gas to web based businesses. I am sorry to disappoint you because there is no stipulated best business opportunity with respect to the illustrations I cited above.

However, there’s a contradictory twist to my answer. I believe the best business opportunity exists but you have to create it or make it a reality yourself. Now what am I trying to stress? The point I am trying to stress is that becoming a successful entrepreneur does not depend on the business opportunity; it depends on you. So if you are going to successfully go through the entrepreneurial process, you will have to find your own best business opportunity.

Well, instead of telling you to start an oil and gas supply business or an internet business; I am going to reveal to you five criterion to creating your own best business opportunity. If you are still willing to learn, then below are five questions that will help you decide the best business to start this year.

   How to decide what is the Best Business to Start from home in 2013

1.     What is your level of preparedness?

The first key to finding the best business to start is you; and the reason is because building a successful business starts with you, the entrepreneur. Are you in the right mindset? Do you have what it takes to build a successful business?

I listed the entrepreneurial mindset here because it the fundamental key to starting, building and growing a business. The state of your mindset will determine how far you will go in the entrepreneurial process of building a business. Choosing the best business to start begins with you answering the following personal questions:

• What is your risk bearing capacity?
• Are you prepared to face business challenges?
• Are you prepared to handle business failures?
• What’s you perception towards making mistakes in business and life?

These are the type of questions you need to ask yourself before even deciding what business to start. These questions will reveal your mental preparedness for the entrepreneurial journey at hand.

2.    How much Capital do you have?

The start-up capital you have access to, is another factor that will determine the best business for you to start. The best business opportunity for an entrepreneur with access to a $1,000 start-up capital will be quite different from that of an entrepreneur with a million dollars in start-up capital.

The best business to start for an entrepreneur with a $1,000 start-up capital may be an online niche store while the entrepreneur with the million dollar capital will feel that starting a gas distribution business or a manufacturing firm will be the best bet. So take note that your start-up capital is a predominant factor when deciding what business to start.

3.    Who is on your Team?

The competence of the management team you have on board will determine the kind of business opportunity to pursue. If your business team has a track record of successes; then raising capital to pursue big projects will be a piece of cake. But if you are a solo entrepreneur, then your best business opportunity will be quite different.

4.    How Strong is your Business Plan?

If you have the right plan, coupled with the right team and the right mindset; then you can pursue mega projects. But an entrepreneur who lacks the orientation of the use of a business plan will just bootstrapped his or her business on a shoestring budget. The extensiveness of both your personal and business plan will determine the kind of business opportunity you will pursue.

5.   What Business idea do you have in mind?

Lastly, the best business to start varies from entrepreneur to entrepreneur based on the ideology of the entrepreneur and the prevailing circumstances. Your best business opportunity may differ from mine based on prevailing circumstances such as trend, your passion, hobby, skill, geographical terrain, demographics, psychographics, demand, supply, economic policy, etc.

The best business to start for someone in Nigeria or China will differ from that of someone in United States, Canada or India. And most importantly, I listed the “business idea” last because it is the least important necessity to starting a business. Remember, the world is filled with brilliant, million dollar ideas but the world lack savvy entrepreneurs.

An average business idea with the right mindset, a strong business management team and the right business plan will outperform an excellent million dollar idea with a poor mindset and a weak management team.
So when deciding what business to start, make sure you do your preliminary feasibility study. Also make sure that the right combinations are in place and when contemplating on the best business to start; be sure to take into consideration the five questions above and I will see you at the top.

What are the best food business ideas to start this year? I am interested in the food industry, which business do I start? What opportunities exist in the food industry? If you want answers to the questions above, then read on.
If there is an industry that is unlikely to go down, it is probably the food industry. Regardless of the economic situation, weather or whatsoever, people must eat. People might stop buying clothes and jewelries but they will never stop eating. Also, this is a business you can start in any locality or region; whether Nigeria, Canada, USA, U.K, Ghana, India, Singapore, etc. So if you are interested in starting a food business, below are some food business ideas to help you start or expand your existing food business.

Top 10 Best Food Business Ideas to Start

• Become a food Producer

The food industry is highly dependent on the producers. To make hamburgers, fast-food chains need meat and flour; which in turn are produced by the farmers. To offer vegetable salads, restaurants need lettuces and potatoes. You don’t need cooking skills and extensive business plan to become a farmer. If you can grow crops or raise animals like cow, snails, grasscutter, rabbits, pigs, turkeys or chickens, you will surely find buyers both locally and internationally. You can also establish large scale plantations such as palm oil plantation, plantain, orange, pineapple, etc.

• Food Cart or Stand

Selling food is probably one of the problems for people who want to start a food business. The reason is because most people don’t have the needed capital to invest in restaurants or fast food joints. If you really want to sell ready to eat foods, you don’t need a space with a high monthly rent. One of the top food business ideas for those with small capital is to use a food cart or stand. You can operate for free or for a small fee. The success or failure of this business depends on your location. You don’t even need to push the cart around, you can just concentrate on cooking and employ people to push the cart and sell the food.

• Food Retailing

You can also retail raw food or processed food stuffs. I mean food stuffs such as yam, rice, beans, flour, maize, etc. Your aim here is to source for the food stuffs at a wholesale price and resell for a profit. You can even take it a step further by sourcing it from the producers or farmers and resell it both wholesale and retail.

• Frozen Foods

Not everybody likes going through the stress of killing and preparing animals for consumption; thereby creating the need for ready-made frozen foods. There are a lot of foods that you can sell frozen. There include chicken, meat, ice creams, yoghurt, etc.

• Food Processing

Do you have the capital to invest in machines and structures? Then you can start a food processing plant. In fact, there is no limit to the food to the foods that can be processed and packaged. It is up to you to decide. You can process palm seeds into palm oils, cassava, yam, corn, millet into flours, cocoa into beverages, raw cow milk into refined milk, fresh tomatoes into canned tomatoes, etc.

Top 10 Best Food Business Ideas to Start

• Restaurant

If you possess cooking skills, you can start a restaurant and serve those who eat out. You can start this business on a small, medium or large scale. You can also choose to serve local or continental dishes.

• Fast Food

Setting up a fast food shop is another profitable idea to look into. Despite the popularity and dominance of companies such as McDonald’s, StarBucks, KFC, Domino’s, Mr Biggs, Tantalizer etc; you can still breakeven if you will be willing to find a small niche and serve it. In Nigeria, the market is still very much untapped.

• Roving Food Van

If you don’t want your food business to be stationery, you can use a vehicle such as a van to go around the city offering your food products. It is more expensive than a food cart but you can reach more people and you wouldn’t have to rely on passersby.

• Organic Foods

This list of top food business ideas would never be complete without the inclusion of organic foods. Over the years, organic foods have been sought after because of their health benefits and as health awareness increases, this business is bound to grow. Ideally, organic foods are free from chemicals, fertilizers or preservatives. You can brand yourself as a provider or retailer of fresh organic foods or better still, you can just serve vegetarians.

Weight Loss or Dietary Foods

Aside from organic foods, there is also a craze involving foods that help people lose weight or at least don’t make them fat. If you can specialize and come up with foods that have weight loss effect, you can easily find customers.

Top 10 Best Food Business Ideas to Start

• Cake Decorating

This is much like the previous idea but this one suggests that you be creative in designing the food itself.  These days, baking cake alone no longer holds water; customers want to see creativity. Most people are used to decorating cake for special occasions such as weddings and birthdays but many enthusiasts proved that cake decorating can be done on regular days. You can also take cake decorating for special occasions to the next level. Veer away from the traditional decorations.

• Baking or Cooking Lessons

Food business ideas don’t have to be only on processing or selling foods. If you are good at baking or cooking, you don’t have to focus on merely selling foods. You can sell your knowledge for money. You can conduct group or individual baking or cooking lessons. You can even set up a catering school. However, you need to demonstrate outstanding skills to gain students.

• Food Blogging

In conclusion, you can also try food blogging especially when you don’t have the capital to set up to invest in the business ideas listed above. Your blog can focus on suggestive ways to develop usual food preparation and cooking techniques. Just write about a new way to make an omelet; or come up with an innovative pasta dish and see your blog traffic surge. You can make money from your blog by selling advertising space, selling your own products or selling other people’s product. So regardless of the capital you have, you can still tap into the food industry by being a food producer, a food seller or teacher. The choice is yours.

HOPE TO SEE YOU AT THE TOP

10 WAYS OF THINKING YOU NEED TO GIVE UP TO BECOME AN ENTREPRENEUR

I WAS THINKING  WHAT ARE THE THINGS YOU HAVE TO GIVE UP TO BE AN
ENTREPRENEUR

1. “Success.” I wasn’t able to quit my job until I gave up on the vague ideas I had about success. Stuff like having a good job and making a good salary. I remember saying to myself: it’s possible that nobody will ever think you are successful.

When my answer was finally “screw it,” I quit. At the time I did not realize how fulfilling it would be to work directly with customers and products I was passionate about.

2. Over-worrying about screwing up people’s lives (or being perfect for your customers). If you try to make meaningful change with your business, you will create collateral damage. Period. Even relatively benign assertions like: “if you want to make some extra money on the side, try building some niche sites” can waste a year of somebody’s spare time. I’ve seen it happen. Seems harmless, eh?

3. Reliance on cultural scripts for decision making. I’ll share something embarrassing: one of my biggest concerns with following the entrepreneurial “weird expat” path was that I wouldn’t be able to find a wife. The cultural script I was working off of said something like: position yourself in a nice secondary US city, have a high-quality job, and watch the wife candidates flow in.

To hardcore entrepreneurs, this might sound like a petty concern, but to me it was a meaningful fear I had to overcome. I know more than one guy who never followed his dreams of being a musician or of traveling abroad or of starting a small business because they thought it would hurt their chances of meeting ‘The One.’

4. Your desire to make money. This might be different for other professions, but for entrepreneurs, money focus can destroy businesses. Money forces you to compromise your values, which should be at the core of great products and company cultures.

A money focus inspires short-sightedness. If you could just do something and ::: BOOM! ::: make money from it, it wouldn’t be that valuable. Entrepreneurs focus on value. Specific, elusive, unseen– it can’t be bought and sold on the open market.

Have you ever spoken to full time investors in financial markets? These are generally people 100% motivated by money. Ask them “if you had a great year, what percentage would you make on your money?” You’ll hear answers ranging from 11 to 20 percent, generally. Now ask the same question to an entrepreneur. 20% would very much be on the low end.

5. Your desire to avoid feeling like an idiot. A month ago I set up a writer’s mastermind group (which has been hugely useful to me). We’ve all tried to address this issue of “feeling stupid” head on. It’s been liberating to post half-baked, ambitious projects in our group chat.

I put a lot of stuff out there, and I suspect most of it doesn’t work. I’m dumb and dangerous, and that’s probably the way it goes for many entrepreneurs. The punchline is that the small percentage of good stuff that sticks around and gets refined, re-worked, and cultivated. One day you wake up with something great. Speaking of dumb, go ahead and download my first 50 podcasts if you want a confidence boost!

6. Your fear of change. I was listening to (a must-listen) Mixergy episode today and Robert made a point. Let’s call it the “paleo theory of fear.” His point: we are wired to fear change. I suppose that’s because back in the good old days, when things changed, you died. Now, not so much. Learning how to both enjoy and engineer change is the foundation of business success. I’ve found that over the years the idea of re-working everything becomes more thrilling and I seek change out.

7. What you are doing right now. Something popped out of my mouth the other day as my good friend (and US expat tax guy) David McKeegan was interviewing me for his podcast. He was asking me about hiring and said “why do business owners find it so difficult to relinquish control and let other people run their business?”

My response got us laughing: “they aren’t having a hard time relinquishing control, they are having a hard time finding something better to do.”

9 times out of 10 that’s true. It’s one of the things I love about creative pursuits in general– you are always at square one. You are always in danger of utter failure. Where you play, there isn’t any sure thing. Read this book and watch a software legend bomb. Listen to John Mayer talk about how songwriting is a great equalizer.

It’s the same with writing and entrepreneurship. Falling back on your cash flows is the same thing as falling back on a job. Often I’ll fail, but I’m always looking for ways to move on and find something more important to do. Hopefully I can backfill the space I create with processes and team members.

8. Your self-focus. Or: putting your immediate needs in front of the principle or the project. This is the part of the post where I diverge from the hoards of broke-ass personal development bloggers telling you to express yourself more fully or follow passion and stuff like that. Yes, I’m all about that. But we are talking about being Samurai’s here– it’s tough to stay focused on meaningful projects when our passion for Youtube lurks! Entrepreneurship is a strange mix of personal drive and egoless ear-to-the-ground care. It’s a dichotomy I’m fascinated by.

9. Following the advice of others. Have I ever ever mentioned the sharks or the dolphins thing on this blog? Sharks and dolphins are two different types of entrepreneurs. There’s a lot of things that distinguish them. Here’s one: dolphins listen to advice, sharks watch it. Be a shark. Or rather, watch me to tell you to be a shark.

10. Your desire to avoid conflict. For all the kumbaya talk in the blogosphere, you’ll notice that when you meet-up with some of your favorite peace, love, and change bloggers that they’ve got some teeth. I’ve met some of the kindest online personas (and most popular) on the planet, and despite what you see online, they are very often the object of controversy, conflict, extortion attempts, petty attacks, and outright jealousy.

Get in line. It’s par for the course. Asserting yourself in the world means you’ll have detractors. Some of them might even be those closest to you. It’s okay. I try to be thankful for the attention in the first place, pick the places I ought to improve, and try to understand precisely which elements of the feedback are about my projects and which are really a reflection of their own ideas about themselves.

That’s it. I’d be grateful to hear yours.

Cheers,

OSARO