Connect organizations spending money with ways to save money.
During the last recession, plenty of entrepreneurs scored by selling businesses on doing a phone bill audit. They took 30% of the first year's savings and did the work for free. Today, there are countless ways businesses can save money using technology and outsourcing, but few take full advantage. You can train them to do this and keep a share of the savings.
This requires truly creative thinking. There isn't anything that cannot be outsourced today -and outsourcing saves companies money. So throw your eyes out of focus and look around you. What do you see that can be outsourced by a company that you know,that you can arrange. Put the proposal together and present it. Then ask as your fee a percentage of the savings. Then do it again.
Connect like-minded people into a movement.
We've seen plenty of headstrong bootstrapped entrepreneurs turn a blog into the cornerstone of a multi-million dollar empire. The secret: they don't write their message for everyone. Instead, they use the blog as the center connecting point for a niche, and then go from there. It's easy to list the tech successes, but there are literally 10,000 other niches just waiting for someone to connect them.
Theoperative word here is niche - your corner of the world - that special groupthat is interested in the same things as you. Connect the niches - that is thisconnection. One message that suits all.
Connect people buying with people who are selling.
You know how to use Craigslist and eBay to buy and sell... but most people don't.How about finding people in your town with junk that needs removing, items that need selling, odd jobs that need filling... and then, for a fee, solve their problems using your laptop and these existing networks? Imagine the power, justto pick one example, of building an email alert list of 500 garage sale bargain hunters. Every time you email them, they show up. Now, you can walk into any home in any town and guarantee the biggest garage sale success they've ever seen... and you have the photos to prove it. As long as you protect the list and do for them, not to them, this asset increases in value.
And then be super smart and take two of these ideas and tie them together. Do the garage sales and write about them in your own newspaper.
When is the best time to start these new businesses?
The best time to do any of these projects was five years ago, so that today you'd be earning thousands of dollars a week. Too late. The second best time to start is NOW. So don't delay and get yourself going and make 2009-2010 a time to remember.
