Small Business Idea

People’s #1 Asset: Their Own Health

Most people, especially the young, take their health for granted. However, once an illness or accident strikes you or affects a loved one, people start to re-examine their priorities and realize how precious their mobility, clarity of mind, energy, and well-being truly are.

And, of course, they’re willing to spend for it. And, of course, that means a big business opportunity.

The Most Important Point

As with all businesses, the integrity of the business owners, employees, products and services are of critical importance in the health products sector. Partly because you’ll find a discriminating audience, partly because its heavily regulated (ie. liars and frauds go to jail), and partly because (I would suggest) at our root level, we all simply want to do the right thing for each other.

Some business owners feel okay about screwing over their customers in the widget business or when selling useless luxuries, but few people feel okay about cheating their customers (ie. other people; their sisters, brothers, grandparents and nephews) when it comes to matters of health. If you’re uneasy about this topic or feel unsure about your ability to legitimately offer something useful to people of ill or mediocre health, you should move on to another business idea now.

Intro the Natural Health Sector

In most western, developed countries, “health” is commonly thought of by the state and insurance companies as “stuff that’s related to drugs and surgery”. Things like exercise, diet, attitude, happiness, flexibility, exposure to plastics/toxins/fast-food, “eastern medicine”, meditation, “natural healing”, acupuncture, and so forth are not included. Yet, they can be essential contributors to good health. In other words, there are many important topics relating to “health” that are not directly handled by the state (drugs or surgery), which gives entrepreneurs a bevy of prospective business ideas.

The health sector is a huge market. Including hundreds of billions of dollars spent each year, you could argue that 90%+ of our purchases directly or indirectly affect our health. Name one purchase you’ve made over the past month that doesn’t in some way affect your health, lifestyle, level of fitness, exposure to toxins, or overall attitude, and I’ll stop suggesting that the health sector is one enormous business opportunity.

Big companies and industries have already been built up around the most obvious markets. Nutriceuticals (vitamin pills, special daily oils, mineral supplements, etc.), props for physical ailments (motorized wheelchairs, splints, tension bandages, vehicle modification kits, etc.), and professional services (home care, specialized practitioners like homeopaths or naturopaths, meal services, etc.) are all heavily saturated and regulated. So, unless you want to go through the years of training and set-up required to get into these industries, you need to look for a smaller, less populated, less regulated niche.

Possible Health Product Ideas for Your Small Business:
When searching for small business ideas within the health sector, consider some of the following ideas and then start brainstorming:

1. Natural Organic Food Supplier - Get your garden or plot of land certified as 100% organic, plant 15,000 carrots, rent a spot at a local farmers’ market, and let your business “grow.”
2. Grow Niche Herbs, Plants, Teas… - Many dietitians and health gurus make reference to specialized ingredients such as Milk Thistle, Echinacea, Senna Leaf, Buckthorn Bark, etc. Throw up a backyard greenhouse, post posters in local health food stores, yoga studios and left-wing political centers, set up a website to let people know where to find fresh rare herbs close to home, and become a small-scale farmer. (Be sure to check your local laws too, to make sure you’re 100% legal…)
3. Health Books, Plans, or Tips - If you’ve got killer information on how to cook, eat, exercise, or do something else that leads to better health, get your information together and monetize it via book or ebook sales, seminars/workshops, web traffic, or something else.
4. Exercise Equipment - Selling complex machinery may be beyond your scope of investment, but what about smaller items like squeeze balls, pedometers, office-friendly props, or exercise clothing (perhaps a catchy slogan on a tshirt or hat, sold via your website)?
5. Organize a Local Activities Club or League - Charge administrative fees for setting up, marketing, and managing a local sports league or activity club. Whether aiming for a multi-sport, multi-thousand-member organization or a simple once-a-month club for a niche activity (lawn bowling club, women’s recreational curling league, cycling club, regional beach volleyball tournament, regular all-inclusive ski or golf trips, moms-only weekly outdoor activity club with childcare included, seniors-only walking club with transportation included each week to a new location, etc.), this has the potential to be a very pleasurable social experience that also acts as a side stream of income for you.
6. Gardening / Health Food Co-op - Provide healthy food options to members on an annual subscription basis: fresh vegetables, niche herbs, fine teas, free-range non-medicated meats, etc. Advertise in dense urban areas where urban hippies (apartment and condo dwelling folk) lack access to gardens or healthy meat supplies.
7. Resell Natural Health Products - Perhaps the most obvious idea, consider setting up a website, small shop, or mobile stand selling healthy treats or health supplements. Essentially a widget business, be sure you’ve got a solid business plan and market in place before spending a lot of money to set up a store or mobile food stand.

The Bottom Line

Some people take their health very seriously, and those that do are willing to pay for high-quality health supplies. If you spot an unoccupied niche in your local community or on the web, health products could be great for you. Even if your idea is only peripherally related to health (its not drugs, surgery, wheelchairs, home care, or vitamins), try using the health angle in your marketing and watch people’s acceptance of your ideas grow.

In a time where we are quickly realizing that our food-production system, network of restaurants and entertainment options, educational materials, and personal routines have led to record obesity rates, a cancer epidemic, and other unprecedented health complications, demand for legitimate and natural healthy stuff is huge and growing. Pick an idea, make sure its healthy, make sure its natural, make sure its legal, make sure you have a clear business plan, and ride the health wave that is sweeping across North America.

Dogs, Cats, and other Million Dollar Small Business Opportunities

Whether or not you find it absolutely ridiculous (personally, I do), people spend gobs and then more gobs of cash on their pets. Doggy collars, bird treats, cat medications, home door alterations, art nouveau litter boxes, and so forth. And people spend these dollars gladly, willing to do anything to pamper their pooch (or, what the owner thinks will pamper their pooch… chances are Rover would rather have a week-old pork chop, no leash, no haircut appointment, and a few hundred acres to explore… but that’s beside the point. )

So, just how much are people willing to spend on their pets? Some estimates put the figure at over $25 billion in the US alone. WTF?!

Okay, Pets - But What’s the Business Plan?

There are plenty of angles a person can aim for. The keys are to find a business plan that has real demand (something pet owners would actually pay for) and not too much local competition (if there are already 50 kennels in your neighborhood, you might consider something else.) For starters, how about beginning a brainstorming session on one of the following ideas?

1. Certified Pet Health Services - In other words, becoming a vet. Yeah, its a ton of work to go through school and get certified, but at least you won’t have much competition (because the barrier to entry is so high.)
2. Uncertified Pet Health Services - Remembering that fraud is a crime and you should not lie about what you do, there are pet health service options that do not require professional certification. For instance, how about setting up a pet spa, doggy massage clinic, cat stress relief center (an entertainment center filled with cat nip, scratching poles, sunbeam, window sill, and a ready supply of fresh tuna?), pet gourmet dietary center (selling crickets, meat scraps, rare international grains, etc.), and so forth. In other words, something that appeals to the health and well being of a pet without the hassles of surgery, prescription medications, plaster casts, and other activities that require licensed pros?
3. Other Pet Services - This category of ideas may be the best for you because of one big factor: big national companies can’t compete with a local, well-known option. In other words, in most neighborhoods, you’re not likely to find a lot of competition. Options to consider include:
   • Dog walking service - Great for kids or other part-timers
   • Dog bathing/grooming service - Good for monthly or weekly appointments
   • Pet babysitting - Requires a place to keep the pets, plus an impeccable level of trustworthiness
   • Pet-friendly _____ (fill in the blank) - If you’re running another business already, switching to a pet-friendly model (and including it in your website or advertising) can reap big benefits primarily from attracting more humans (pet owners) to your establishment. However, the added revenue from running a pet-friendly hotel, restaurant, tour, museum, park, etc. could be very handy!
4. Useful Pet Supplies - All pets need a multitude of items. Selling these items, either online or in a local shop or farmer’s market, might be right for you: pet houses (cages, kennels, houses, fences, etc.), feeding supplies (dishes, water cans, food), out-and-about supplies (collars, chains/ropes, mobile kennels, etc.), and other necessary supplies. For more ideas, visit a local pet store and scan through their inventory.
5. Non-Useful Pet Supplies (Toys) - This is where the money is - mainly because non-useful supplies (”kitch”) is a non-saturated market, leaving room for your creative juices to flow. Decorative items “for the cat to enjoy”, toys, fashionable collars, extra clothing (cat jackets, dog boots, etc.), and other non-essential items (how about a krypton dog bed?) have the advantage of being fickle, meaning that one more catchy or witty item on the market (yours) might just have a chance of taking off.
6. Useful Supplies for Pet Owners - Pet door modification units, chains, functional collars, house barriers, dog mats, blankets for on top of the bird cage, etc. Again, check through a local pet store for a fuller list of items. Also, note that this marketplace is already pretty full.
7. Non-Useful Supplies for Pet Owners - As with non-useful pet supplies, this category of items has as much potential as you have creativity. The funny part of this category is that, while pet owners pretend to buy witty t-shirts, bumper stickers, hats, etc. for their pet, they are really just buying presents for themselves. For instance, every time you see a sign in a car window reading “Caution - Cat on Board!”, you can see an example of a non-useful pet owner supply who spent $12 on something for themself, but sort of for their pet. Taking advantage of this type of buyer is the name of this category’s game.

Extra Tips

Aside from choosing a business model with an economic upside, its essential that you take care of a few other things.

If you don’t love animals, don’t try any of these plans. Your lack of enthusiasm will eventually show and kill your business.

Likewise, if you don’t realize the difference between a business and a hobby, don’t choose this business. You’d be better off getting a pet than starting this business.
Honesty, trustworthiness, and the ability to communicate those two are essential in this business. If prospective customers get the impression that you’re second-rate or that their beloved pet might be mistreated, you are guaranteed to have a failing business. Be friendly, be exquisitely clean, keep your facilities exquisitely clean and “happy”, and be sure to be a great listener (when prospects are talking about inane details about their pets).

Good Luck!

Pets are a happy part of people’s (prospect’s) lives, so this has the potential to be a very pleasant and joyous sector for your small business!

Writing Your Idea Down

When a brainwave hits, the clouds part, and it seems like you’ve just uncovered the ultimate money-making idea, drop whatever you’re doing, get some quiet space, explore the idea with your mind, and start jotting down notes. Don’t pick up the phone. Don’t turn on the TV. And whatever you do, don’t simply assume you’ll remember the idea the next day.

In those few moments of clarity that may only come along once a month, once every 3 years, or even less (there are many people who may NEVER come up with a good business idea), take advantage of it. Without worrying about the format, simply record your thoughts and go where the idea takes you. Without worrying about the parts you don’t know, jot down the ones parts you do. Without worrying about the business administration, investment capital, or manufacturing requirements, simply roll with the aspects of the idea that seem exciting, original, and guaranteed to make you a million. You can fill in the boring holes and details later on.

Using Props and Tools

Create spaces or props to support your brainstorming. If you come up with ideas at home, get yourself a blank notebook. [insert pic of my brown notebook] Or, some people prefer thinking at a keyboard with a word processor (personally, I like notepad.) If you’re a nocturnal thinker, keep wads of paper and pencils by your bed so you can capture the fleeting moments of clarity. If you come up with great ideas while at work, get a stack of sticky notes and jot down reminders to develop at lunch or later on. Keep records in your phone or PDA. Snap pictures of thought-provoking objects, book titles, signs, or other images with your low-res camera phone. Leave yourself phone messages. Do something, anything, to help yourself round the corner from “wow, what a vague, fancy, interesting thought I have” to “here’s a concrete brainstorm which I can easily implement later on.” Whatever you do, do it religiously, and do it often. This is the first commandment of generating and developing great small business ideas!

There are a few reasons to do it frequently:

• Most of your ideas will be terrible, so you’ll need a lot to choose from. Don’t take failure personally; its just the price of brainstorming your business. Recording artists typically write 10 songs for every 1 that gets recorded, just as sports stars take 100 shots hoping that a few of them go in. It’s the same thing with brainstorming, so your notebook or camera phone better have lots of room in it…
• You’ll get better at it over time. After brainstorming 15 businesses and trying 2 or 3 of them, you’ll get much better at realizing which of your ideas are only half-baked, avoiding pitfalls and recognizing recurring holes in your business assumptions.
• You’ll start to recognize your own patterns. Looking back over your past 15 business ideas, you’ll start to see recurring elements such as revenue model, distribution systems, geographic focus, subject material (cats, software design, etc.), scope, etc. Once you start to see your own patterns, you’ll be able to move beyond your limitations and leverage the ideas that surpass your own preferences and shortcomings.

After the Brainstorming Calms Down…

Once your wave of brainstorming is finished, put your notebook down, go for a bike ride, call up some friends, or do something else active and fun, and come back to your idea in a few days. In other words, let your subconscious play with idea without any help from you.

Often, an idea you thought was brilliant at 10pm the night before can look pretty stupid even by the next morning. Even for brilliant inventors, over 90% of new ideas turn out to be not worth the effort of actually developing. However, if an idea keeps looking good and catching your imagination for a week or longer, it might be time to develop the idea further and consider developing a more detailed business plan. If you’re lucky, the idea will be a hit, it will be easy to implement, and you’ll be off to the small business races before you know it!

Small Online Business Idea: Making money with your high traffic and/or high reputation website using Donations.

(The rest of this post assumes you’ve already got one or many high traffic/high quality websites. If you haven’t finished step 1 yet, go here for information on how to build a high traffic website.)

Getting Money from Donations on your Website - Basics:

Rather than trying to offer a direct trade for people’s money in a traditional two-way transaction, some websites can get away with simply asking visitors to make a donation. Whether this donation seems worthwhile or not (whether you’re a legitimate charity, community organization, or just some kid hoping for a quick buck off your blog) anyone can ask their online community for a donation and see what happens.

Most websites that try this technique will get virtually or literally no money via donations. However, the sites that do get money can get big amounts of money. It all depends on what kind of website you’re running.

How it Works:

Setting yourself up to receive donations is remarkably easy. The hard part is getting people to actually donate.

From a technical standpoint, set-up is as easy as 1-2-3

1. install the code on your website (see below for details)
2. instruct visitors how they can donate, why they should do so
3. collect the money in your account and do whatever you want with it.

If you’re interested in actually getting people to donate, the following tips may be helpful:

• People only want to donate to a legitimate cause. This can include charity, entertainment, voluntary payment, support for a website the visitor found helpful, etc. If your website offers nothing that would lead a person to donate, consider whether you can offer a donation-friendly motive or if you should simply forget about donations.
• Fraud is illegal. If you say donations will be used for one thing, then turn around and do something else, you’d better have a good lawyer or an international hide-out. If you’re simply looking for a few extra bucks to help keep your website afloat or increase your income, be sure to say so on your website.
• Use a trusted, secure donation service (see below.) This reduces visitors’ fear of getting scammed. Don’t build your own unless you’ve got a big-time major brand at your disposal.
• Let potential donors know what their money will go toward. Be as specific as you can without getting pedantic or dishonest.

Dangers:

Aside from potentially diluting the focus of your website (too many options makes a website confusing), calling for donations may hinder the overall messaging of your website. If you think your visitors will be turned off by seeing a donation option, maybe you shouldn’t include one.

Important Partners:

• My favourite option is offered through Paypal. Paypal is trusted, secure, and easy to install on your site.
• Another fair option is offered through Amazon. Similar concept, similar process.

Small Online Business Idea: Making money with your high traffic and/or high reputation website using Affiliate Programs.

(The rest of this post assumes you’ve already got one or many high traffic/high quality websites. If you haven’t finished step 1 yet, go here for information on how to build a high traffic website.)

Getting Money from Affiliate Programs & Your Website - Basics:

Affiliate programs are basically the same concept as lead-generation, a sales person, or a “middleman”. In short, you neither close the sale nor create the product. The only value you need to provide is to connect a prospective buyer to someone else’s store. With the right kind of website, this can be an easy addition to your content that pays dividends for little extra work.

How it Works:

Large numbers of suppliers and internet retailers (who are trying to sell more stuff) realize that, even if they pay you a percentage of the cost of an item they’ve got stocked, its still in their best interest to make the sale and pay you a sales commission. So, even if they pay you $10 on a $100 camera sale, they still get $90, which is still a good deal for them.

In order to organize this demand, large “affiliate programs” have been set up to accommodate the sale of just about any item imaginable. As a result, its quite easy to offer products for sale on your website that your visitors may be interested in buying. Once you’ve hooked up with one or several affiliate programs, which is pretty easy to get going, you simply sit back and hope that some of your website’s visitors feel like buying.

Dangers:

Any time you send a visitor away from your website, you may never see them again. So, only get involved in an affiliate program if the overall impact on your site and revenue is positive.

Also, by promoting other companies’ products, you are endorsing items which may or may not match your own quality standards. If you promote crappy content and your visitors have a bad experience with them (or if they simply see you endorsing them), their opinion of your site may weaken and that may be that last that you see of them.

Important Partners:

In your search for an affiliate program that offers ease of use, products that fit your website, and a payment model that maximizes profits, consider some of the partners below. For quickly introducing yourself to the principles and common issues surrounding affiliate programs, play around with the Amazon Associates program first and then consider moving on to the other programs.

• Amazon.com
• iTunes Affiliates
• WidgetBucks
• LinkShare
• zanox
• uSuggest LLC
• Auction Ads LLC
• Commission Junction Inc.
• shareasale.com
• ClickBank
• Chitika RPU
• Chitika ShopCloud$
• Chitika Linx

Small Online Business Idea: Making money with your high traffic and/or high reputation website using Merchandising.

(The rest of this post assumes you’ve already got one or many high traffic/high quality websites. If you haven’t finished step 1 yet, go here for information on how to build a high traffic website.)

Merchandising & Your Website - Basics:

Every time you see some kid wearing a sports jersey or musician’s album cover, you’re seeing evidence of someone else’s merchandising. Or, someone else’s $3 profit. Learning how to do merchandising for your own brand is surprisingly easy, especially when leveraging partners like CafePress to help you on your way.

How it Works:

Businesses with custom production and delivery capabilities combine with your custom merchandise needs (logo’d tshirts, pens, mugs, mousepads, books, etc.) to create a virtual store in almost no time. Setup is as easy as 1-2-3:

1) You create a suite of customized products and place them in your “store”

2) You send mobs of eager traffic to the store (possibly on your site, possibly a “store” on another site)

3) You collect cheques after someone else does all the hard work

Dangers:

The main dangers involved are:

• Wasting your time setting up a store that no-one will buy from:
  • If your online community does not want to buy things with your logos or ideas on them, all your creativity and set-up time could be wasted.
• Wasting your money setting up a store that no-one will buy from:
  • Choosing a free system (see below) to start with is the best way to avoid this risk. If you start selling material like crazy, you can then do the math on how much %’s you’ll save by moving to a more complex, independent, custom-built system.
• Setting up a store that people do want to buy from:
  • What will you do with all that extra money?? J

Important Partners:

The following websites are great places to start (and likely finish) your search for an easy-to-operate and inexpensive merchandising system:

• CafePress
• Printfection
• Lulu
• GoodStorm

Small Online Business Idea: Making money with your high traffic and/or high reputation website using Ads.

(The rest of this post assumes you’ve already got one or many high traffic/high quality websites. If you haven’t finished step 1 yet, go here for information on how to build a high traffic website.)

Getting Money from Putting Ads on your Website - Basics:

One of the easiest ways to make money online is by selling advertising on your website. There are many major services on the market, so the process is extremely simple. In other words, they’re easy to install, easy to run, and its easy to collect payment.

How it Works:

Businesses all over the world are trying to get consumers’ attention and get their message in front of an audience. In the offline world, this includes magazines, TV, radio spots, etc. In the online world, it means any website with an audience, which means you and your website.

In order for ease of administration, these businesses go to a major broker in order to sell a bunch of ads across a network of good websites. The biggest brokers are listed below. These brokers then need websites to place their ads on, which is where you come in.

By adding a small piece of code to your website, major brokers gain the ability to display ads on your website for as long as the code is left untouched. Once the ads are there, there are 3 main methods by which you can get paid for having these ads:

1) CPM (cost per mil / cost per thousand / cost per impression) – Every time an ad gets displayed 1000 times, you get paid the agreed amount. This can be good for very high traffic websites.

2) CPC (cost per click) – Every time a visitor clicks on an ad, you get paid the agreed amount. This can be good for a high traffic website or a site within a niche where visitors are likely to click on ads for more information.

3) CPA (cost per acquisition) – Every time a visitor buys an item on another site after getting there directly from your website, you get paid the agreed amount or % of revenue. This can be really lucrative or result in little revenue, depending on your niche and the likelihood of people buying something.

The best thing to do is try different models, let each system run for an appropriate amount of time, and then see which model produces the best results.

Dangers:

The biggest danger is the loss of a hot prospect in the event that you have a higher-value potential conversion on your website. If a visitor might be worth $500 dollars to you, but they leave on an ad that gives you $0.15, putting ads on your site might be the worst strategy you can implement.

For information-based sites, some website visitors do not like seeing ads. As a result, your readership may be offended and culled if you introduce ads to your website.

Also, putting ads on a high-profile website can look petty or unprofessional, which is not worth the damage to your brand if you’re only going to get a few bucks out of it.

Some of these sites sell ads primarily to get inbound links to their website to trick Google into giving them higher search rankings. Sites that try to sell links based on their value for “increasing your link value” are highly disfavoured by Google. So, if your website relies heavily on Google traffic and you don’t want to get penalized by Google, consider staying clear of these companies (see list below). The details surrounding this last danger are contentious and numerous; a fodder for a future post…

Important Partners:

By far the easiest and best system to get started with is Google’s Adsense program. Sign-up should take less than 5 minutes, and you can have ads on your site in as little as 10 minutes. Plus, its free, trustworthy, user-friendly, and has a large number of people buying ads through it (so the ads on your site will likely be relevant to your content.)

For those of you convinced to try something beyond Adsense, the following vendors are places to start your search (although I think this list is a complete waste of time):

• Yahoo! Publisher Network
• ValueClick Inc
• Tribal Fusion
• Clicksor Inc
• Indeed
• AdSonar
• AdVolcano LLC
• grokAds.com
• Adify
• AdBriteInc
• Blogads
• Casale Media Inc
• DoubleClick Inc
• Chitika eMiniMalls
• BlueLithium
• Exelate
• ExpoActive

User beware if you rely on Google traffic:

• Text Link Ads
• LinkWords
• Textlinkbrokers.com
• LinkAds
• PaidTextLinks.com
• Kontera ContentLink
• LinkAdage Auctions
• Vibrant Media

Small Business Funding 101: The money needed to finance initial start-up costs, new product development, and infrastructure set-up.

Basic Assumptions: You’ve already got a good idea, a business plan, and a schedule of how much time it will take to become profitable. Now, you just need the capital to get things started and/or upgraded.

Primary Small Business Funding Options:

1. Self-funding
2. Raising capital privately
   • Official private investment options & angel investors
   • Less official private investors
3. Raising capital publicly
4. Government grants

Pros and Cons of Small Business Funding Models:

1. Self-funding (funding the business with personal savings or exclusively using profits to fund expansion) has a major pro and, depending on your business, a considerable con.

• The pro is that you own your business 100% once it becomes a success, having used no-one else’s money in getting it going. In other words, you won’t have anyone asking for their share of the pie once the pie gets tasty.
• The con is that, depending on the depth of your pockets or the initial profitability of the company, you may not have much money to grow your marketing budget or pay expenses (including yourself) as quickly as you’d like.

Personally, I recommend self-funding for all of your businesses, with a heavy emphasis on keeping expenses (and your personal risk) at a minimum. Nothing trims excess spending or quells a bad business idea better than a shoe-string budget of your own money. However, this model assumes that your business can scale from a potentially small start to larger success, which is not the case for every business (although, I’d argue, it is true for almost all of them.)

2. Raising capital privately (official sources such as angel investors, or venture capital; unofficial sources such as Grandma, a bank loan or credit card balance, or asking 5 friends to each chip in $_____ ) gives you a potential pro, a potential huge con, and an guaranteed additional level of complexity.

• The pro is that, given a lump of money to begin with, you can address expenses with immediacy that may be critical to a successful launch of your business. Common expenses may include research&development, staffing, supply chain, marketing, insurance, administration, a personal allowance, etc.
• The cons are multiple. As soon as you start to spend money, you start to owe money that may or may not ever be recovered. Regardless of whether its Grandma, the bank, investors or shareholders, this can get very complicated if anything goes sideways. (And 9 out of 10 business ventures go sideways.)

  In addition, people who lend money typically want something in return: either interest on the investment or a percentage of the company. Beware of building a business using other people’s money, only to discover down the road that “your” business is really making money for someone else!

3. Raising capital publicly (becoming listed on a stock exchange) is much too complicated for the average small business owner to contemplate. Whether going public via an IPO (Initial Public Offering), merger, or other process, if you’re new to this ball-game, simply sit it out. By funding your small business in an alternate manner, you can still go public later on. For now, simply pretend this option doesn’t exist.

4. Government grants (different for every country and region within countries) have a pro and a hidden con not many people realize.

• The pro is, typically, free money given by the government under the assumption that, somehow, your business will aid society. Common grant types include “public investment” in technological development, environmental technology (a hot topic), military development, and social programs.
• The con, which comes as a surprise, is the amount of paperwork and administration required to possibly receive the grant. Even when a grant comes through, many companies would have been better off on a $/hour basis doing something like working at McDonalds. While this is not so for every grant, the allure of “easy government grants” is one that may or may not be a good use of your time.

Summary: Choosing a method of funding your small business is an important step. Getting it right (and not getting yourself in a big hole) can make the difference between business success or huge failure!