Small business idea for the US market

If you want to try to be an entrepreneur, but do not know where to start consider the websites like alibaba.com.  It is like a Chinese eBay for small business designed for people who want to access suppliers, manufacturers and wholesaler.  You can sort by country, and type of product you are searching for. The economies of scale here are small so even for under a thousand dollars you can start a business.  Can this type of website work for you? Yes.

I now live in the artistic town of St. Augustine, Florida. It amazes me how many people make their living, own homes, drive big cars just by being artists or importers here. If you walk the downtown or at any open market you see scores of people who are making a living with stands and shops and things they import or create. There are also a number of online stores.

I have talked to a number of the small business owners and amazed at how laid-back they are. They just set up a shingle and people come in. It is like they have no business sense whatsoever beyond, buy cheap sell high.

Granted it is a tourist town, but you can do the same online or in your town in a different way. People satisfy their basic needs at your towns super stores but in anytown, USA there are people who love to browse and shop for more than a three-pound drum of mayonnaise at Wal-Mart. There will always be people who desire uniqueness. That is where you come in.

import ideas
This is a typical shop in St. Augustine packed with artistic little trinkets. I estimated the net profit in the owner's pocket, to be about 65k a year based.

I believe a well marketed supply creates its own demand. Primary goods like food and oil will always be in demand and depending on barriers to entry will enjoy normal economic profits. However, intellectual good and artistic goods in particular have a loose connection to intrinsic value and prices is subjectively determined. This means no matter what you create, import or sell it can yield a nice profit if you market it correctly.

business ideas
Travel the universe on the wings of your imagination

The idea for your business will be based on what you love to think or dream about.

ideas for small business
Look at a websites like alibaba.com and search for ideas. eBay is too competitive nowadays, but the international market is wide open. The international market with some good old fashion Yankee ingenuity will make a profit.

I want to keep this post simple. It is the idea that selling tangible goods or intangible intellectual good (I would but artistic works in this category) are two ways to make money in the USA market work, are time-tested and do not take a lot of capital, mostly intellectual capital. You could create something on your laptop in any open source design software program and send the specifications to China, they send it to the USA and you market it. It is a simple formula.

You do not need to hire a staff, you can do it all yourself. I had hired a small cottage group of people in Krakow, Poland where I live but it is better do most yourself or hire a consultant to get you set up.

  • I wrote a post on how people make money that is worth exploring if you want to understand on an abstract level how people make money with small and large business.

 

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