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Good Business Ideas
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Small Budgets

Looking for good business ideas and profitable business ideas low in start-up costs?

Can't decide on the best business idea for you? Stuck on how to proceed?

Jim Micheal, from Owenton, Kentucky was just were you are. A small town boy with lots of ambition, little money and wondering what low risk venture he should get into to make his fortune.

That was 24-years ago and 3 good business ideas later.

I chatted with Jim Micheal one whole afternoon. What follows is a summary of his entrepreneurial experiences as the owner of 3 profitable small businesses over those years.

They are outlined below.

Jim's Road to Good Business Success

Jim, where did your courage come from to make you want to take the time and financial risk to start a company?

Courage? I’d say scared.

No one in the history of my family was ever anything other than an employee of someone. Oh, they did reasonably well, but they were not risk takers by any imagination.

In high school, I began to notice that more and more retail stores were opening in the northern part of Kentucky. Someone had to own them. Why not me?

So, you were rich?

You have got to be kidding me!

When I graduated I had less than $300 to my name. In terms of today’s dollar, that was about $900. I had worked part time all through high school. I spent very little and stashed what I could in an old toolbox.

So, what was your first venture?

Good Business Ideas #1: Making and Selling Candles

I had a candle making business that I started in a neighbor’s shed. Mrs. Allen was so kind; she wouldn’t take a cent for rent.

I saw a notice posted at the grocery store listing candle molds for sale. As it turned out, it was a bunch of stuff her Sister gave her a couple of years earlier. It was gathering a ton of dust!

I bought the whole lot for $26 (about $80 in today’s money). Off I went. I had no clue how to make candles. I hitched a ride to the library and read every thing I could find on candle making.

I was real good at it too. I retailed and wholesaled them for about four years. I sold this entire business for $9,800 (today’s money). I was in heaven!

Good Business Ideas #2: Importing Unique Product for My Retail Store

Next, Jim Micheal told me that he had been fascinated for some time by nick knacks that are scattered around furniture stores.

There was no store, that I could find, that only sold this stuff. I thought this would be a real winner.

But how to get these products puzzled me. Again, off to the library I went to lean about importing.

Four months later, at the age of 23, I opened a small 840 sq. ft. retail shop on a busy road near a neighborhood with big homes.

Two larger locations later, it still is a huge success. But I sold my company after 12-years for roughly $161,000 (today’s money). There is still a wide-open opportunity for entrepreneurs interested in importing products and distributing them, really, around the world.

Good Business Ideas #3: Starting My Internet Business

This is the most profitable business idea I ever had, Jim told me.

About 8 or 9 years ago I discovered the Internet. I just loved it.

But I knew zero about building a website let alone how to build a business website. There is a major difference!

One morning at the Y, my friend Ralph told me that he was building an online business where he didn’t need to know a thing about how to do it. This got my attention!

My life has never been the same.

While I don’t earn millions of dollars (not even close), my four websites provide a 6-figure income…and I can do it from nearly anywhere in the world!

How did you create your own websites if you didn’t know anything about doing it?

Let me respond this way.

Ralph was using the methodology of a company called Solo Build It (SBI) to build his online business.

He decided to use SBI for 3 reasons:

• All the tools I’ll ever need to build my Internet business are included, even hosting.
  

• I had no clue what online venture to start. They literally would hold my hand to help me decide what niche I should choose to begin.
  

• A SBI produced website may rank in the top one-half of one percent of all websites.
  

Any other good business ideas you’re going to start?

Yes, more online businesses. The potential is actually unlimited!

Thank you Jim for sharing.

And, Thank You for visiting Good Business Ideas for Small Budgets.

Helpful Professional Resources

The National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors

 National Candle Association

 U.S. Small Business Administration: Exporting and Importing

Additional Small Business Ideas