What type of hair accessories are easiest to sell to hair salons? Good sellers are decorated hair sticks and forks as well as unusual pony tail holders and beaded combs. These accessories are usually quick and easy to make and if they differ from what's found at local department stores and other outlets they should sell very quickly in a salon setting.

The best way to test the market for handmade hair accessories in your area is to purchase a few combs or hair sticks from your local craft or bead store and make up some samples. Print out a professional looking price sheet on your computer and make an appointment at local salons to show your merchandise. To sell hair accessories, approach retailers like a professional with a carrying case and a display board to present your handmade items in their most attractive light. Presentation is critical to getting the order. If the salons don't want to order your hair accessories outright, you may want to offer to sell to them on a consignment basis where you would pay them a certain percentage after each item sells.

Once you have your first order, search the internet for “wholesale hair accessories” and purchase the necessary supplies in larger quantities at the best wholesale prices you can get. If you use beads in your designs, you can also find a variety of wholesale bead resources online. Once you have an order, deliver the goods on time to show you're a professional and not just an amateur dabbling in hair accessory design.

To expand your business, approach more hair salons and consider setting up a website to display your goods. You can also sell hair accessories in an online gallery such as beadiest.com as well as display your hair accessories at craft shows, festivals, and farmer's markets. You could even rent space at a local mall on a busy Saturday and demonstrate your hair accessories at a kiosk.

When you sell hair accessories, you have lots of outlets for your creations with less competition than you'll encounter in the handmade jewelry market. Why not give this fun business idea a try?

Another way to sell designer handbags is through designer purse parties. These popular parties are generally held at someone's home. A group of women get together to spend the evening socializing and trying on designer purses and usually end up buying one to take home. This is a relatively easy business to start. All you need is a room in your home to hold the party, some light refreshments, a group of friends, and a source of designer handbags at wholesale prices.

You can even build a small business selling designer purses at local offices in your area. Many women who work have limited time to shop and would love to have the opportunity to buy purses at their office. You could speak with office managers in your area and see if they would allow you to display your purses during the employee lunch hour. Most office managers would prefer not to have their employees leave the building during lunch and would welcome an special event to keep them in house.

If you decide to enter into the purse business, you're going to need a source for designer handbags at wholesale prices. It's important to be aware that many of the online suppliers of designer purses who call themselves “wholesalers” are actually selling just below retail prices. This doesn't leave you a lot of profit margin. There are legitimate designer handbag suppliers but it may take some research to locate suppliers who will sell to you at prices low enough to get an acceptable profit. If you choose to purchase a directory of designer handbag suppliers make sure you buy from a reputable publisher such as designer-purse-party.com. You don't want to end up with an out of date list of suppliers.

If you're looking for a fun and fashionable business with low overhead, consider entering the exciting world of designer purses. It could be your ticket to financial independence.

Co-Market with Veterinarians

Regardless of what pet related service you choose to offer, co-marketing with veterinary offices in your area is a recipe for success. Ask if you can place brochures in the waiting room or display a container of business cards at the counter where customers check out. This should give you lots of targeted marketing without costing a fortune.

Market at the Dog Park

If you're offer a dog related service such as training or doggy day care center, you'll want to become a regular at your local dog park. When you visit the park take along a generous stack of business cards. Mingle with dog owners while introducing your business in a low key, unobtrusive way. You can also talk to dog owners to see what additional services they would like to see offered.

Sponsor a Charitable Event

Attract the attention of the community and do a good deed at the same time by sponsoring an event for charity. For example, if you do dog grooming, hold a Saturday event where all of the proceeds collected for the grooming goes to an animal rescue organization or your local SPCA. Send out a press release to local publications letting them know about the big event.

Co-Market with Other Local Pet Businesses

Team up with pet stores and other non-competing pet businesses in your area. Do joint advertising in a targeted, local community publication. By featuring both ads in one space, you'll cut your advertising costs in half. You can also team up with other pet businesses locally and sponsor special pet related events in your area.

Do Your Research

Go to your local library and ask the reference librarian to help research which areas of your city have the highest density of pets. Once you have this information, prepare flyers advertising your services and distribute them door to door.

Give Something Free

Give customers an incentive to use your service by offering something free. For example, if you have a pet grooming service, offer a free photo of the freshly groomed dog for the dog owner to take home. Customers love getting something for nothing.

Running a pet business can be lots of fun and potentially quite lucrative when you market successfully to your audience. Why not give these pet business tips a try?

Everyone is vying for how they're going to spend that shiny new rebate check, and yet, most Americans will stimulate the economy and have nothing to show for it by next year. Have you considered how you could possibly double its value by using some of it to invest in your business?

I recommend four ways to utilize your rebate check to maximize your business and

also get the money back next year when you file your 2008 taxes.

1. Tools & Equipment

   Think of the new laptop you could get that would pay for itself in less than a year.

2. A “Conference” Vacation

   If your family insists on going out of town, why not find a location or cruise that also has a conference going on related to your business? That way the trip can be at least 50% tax deductible as opposed to 0% deductible if it was a personal vacation.

3. Marketing Budget

   How about funding that great advertising campaign that could get your business more name recognition. Sponsor a local event or get an ad in a local newspaper.

4. Pay Off Debts

   Make an extra principal, interest, or lease payment. Not only will it lower your liabilities, but it can be deducted next year if you file Schedule C.

Think of the long term gains that could be had if you earmarked some or most of that windfall from Uncle Sam towards these four financial strategies. You never know, those diamond earrings you were eyeing could come a lot quicker through your own business success if you consider investing in your business.

Earn Money From Micro Stock Sites

One of the simplest ways to earn money from food photography is to sign up with one of the growing number of micro stock photography sites. These sites allow you to upload your food photos and make them available to the public for purchase. Each time your photo is purchased, you receive a commission. Because photos uploaded to micro stock sites are usually sold inexpensively, the commission paid on each photo download will be small which you'll need to make up for with volume. The beauty of this system is you can sell a photo multiple times which means more money for you.

One micro stock photo site that gets good traffic is Shutter Stock. To find others, do a Google search for micro stock sites. Once you get a certain volume of food photos uploaded which will take some time, you can earn a nice income from these sites. There's a great demand for food photos on sites such as this since many website owners don't have the skill to take their own food photos. Visit some of the micro stock sites and browse through the food photo offerings to see which photos are selling the best.

Do Food Photography For Local Restaurants

Have you ever noticed how much more appealing a food dish is when it has a photograph on the menu? People like to see what they're getting before they place their order. Offer to photograph menu items for local independent restaurants in your area. Show them samples of your work and emphasize how important a photograph is for promoting food sales. You can also offer to photograph menu items for their web page. Most restaurants don't have the expertise to do their own professional food photography and would welcome the outside help. You can build up a strong business in your area as a local food photographer.

Sell Your Photos Directly Online

One site that will allow you to upload your photos and sell them directly to the public is BVConstant Content. They allow you to set the price for your work and they take a commission when a photo sells. This eliminates the task of having to maintain and drive traffic to an independent website. Once your photo is uploaded, the rest is taken care of for you. The quality standards are rather high at this site so make sure you submit your best work.

Why not make money doing something you enjoy? Food photography is a great way to earn extra income and combine a passion for photography and good eating. Give it a try!

Give Away The Recipe And Sell a Product

If you have recipes for dishes that require use of a particular appliance or cookware, it might be more profitable to give away your recipes while promoting the cookware needed to make them. You could set up a small website that lists your recipes along with links to affiliate programs that sell the items needed to make them. Affiliate programs are companies that give you a percentage of all sales you refer to them. To find an affiliate program, you simply do an online search for the name of the product plus affiliate program. For example, if you've developed a delicious line of smoothie recipes, you would set up a website giving away your smoothie recipes. You'd include lots of attractive photos of smoothies and photos of blenders you're promoting to make the recipes. At the end of each recipe would be a link to purchase the blender you recommend. Many internet marketers do quite well with this technique.

Sell Recipes Through Online Classifieds

There are some people who have success selling recipes on online classified sites such as Craig's List. The most successful entries seem to be ones who have compiled a collection of several recipes using a specific ingredient, appliance, or technique. For example, here are some of the recipe related classifieds recently on Craig's List:

• Grape wine and Homemade Ky. Beer recipes - $5
• Quick and simple lasagna recipe - $1

If you can make your recipes sound fresh and appealing and if they can't be easily found on the internet, you may find success with this method. Plus, advertising on many of the online classified sites is free.

Sell The Ingredients As a Packaged Mix or Kit

Have you ever walked through a country craft mall and seen little packages containing everything you need to make a cup of soap or a tray of muffins? They're usually packaged quite attractively in country fashion which appeals to the emotions of the person browsing. If you have a recipe where you can readily package the ingredients into a mix or kit, you can sell them at old country stores, craft malls, and craft shows. Try visiting some of these venues and take note of how these entrepreneurs have packaged their offerings. Determine whether or not you can sell your recipe in a similar manner.

Of course there's always the option of packaging your recipes into an ebook or submitting a proposal for a recipe book to a publisher. Cookbooks always seem to have a ready market particularly if it's marketed to a niche audience.

If you love cooking, there are a variety of avenues you can use to sell your recipes. Why not give these ideas a try?

Before you can hope for success in business, you need to know exactly what else you want: Where do you want to go? When do you want to get there? How do you want to travel? And what's your starting point?

A business plan is used primarily to convince financial backers to invest in a business, but even if you are planning a one-person, work-from-home, low-investment, low-overhead company, the business plan can help you in a number of way.

Don't panic: Writing a business plan is not difficult. You've already done most of the work in your head; now you just need to put those thoughts on paper. A business plan is just the hard copy version of your brilliant ideas.

What Can a Business Plan Do For You?

1. It will help you spot potential problems and ward off catastrophe
2. It will help you organize your ideas.
3. It will reveal gaps that exist in your mental plan.
4. It will help you define your talents, skills, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and liabilities.
5. It will help you determine where you are now and give you an idea of where you'll be in the future.
6. It will help you make decisions about the nature and future of your business.
7. It will help you define your goals for the company.
8. It will send a message to employees, customers, and potential investors, telling them that you are organized, business-like, and bound for success.

There is no hard-and-fast rule for writing a business plan, so take the basic elements outlined below and modify them to suit your needs. Then pretend you're a potential investor, a potential client, or your own competition, and read over the plan you've devised. What questions would those people ask after seeing your plan? Do you have answers for them? If not, go back to the beginning and think through your plan one more time.

What Goes Into a Business Plan? Any or All of These:

• Cover page
• Table of contents
• Executive summary
• Market analysis
• History and description of your company
• Marketing strategy
• Organization overview
• Product or service description
• Funding request
• Financial data
• Appendix

Let's take those items one by one and see just how simple this really is.

Cover Page Contains:

1. The name of your business.
2. The name, address, and phone number of the contact person.

Table of Contents Contains:

Exactly that - a list of the contents in your completed business plan.

Executive Summary

The Executive Summary (or Summary, if you feel the former is too pretentious for you) is a synopsis of all the items listed above. It's very likely that potential investors will read only the summary, so spend time on it. It's okay to write the summary after you've put together the rest of the package, but for goodness' sake, don't rush it!

The Summary should provide the reader with an overview of your business, explaining what it is, where it stands, and your vision for the future. Describe the nature and goal of your business, your employees and their assets, your product/s or service/s. Explain why your business is unique, or provides something unique to potential clients.

The Summary needs to be simple, succinct, and snazzy. Keep to within two pages and include only the essential information, such as:

• Your mission statement
• A brief history of your business, including the date of start-up
• Information about owners/management, their skills and experience
• Size, location, and type (sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation) of your business
• The product or service your company provides
• Information about any current investors
• Current status and expected growth of your business
• Future plans for your business

Market Analysis

The object here is to show potential investors that you've done your homework and that you are familiar with your market. Convince them you've researched the industry, that you've studied the competition, and that your target market is clearly defined in your plans.

Include in This Section:

• Any conclusions you've drawn about the market based on your research, including your take on the current status of the market.
• Information and conclusions about your particular target market.
• Everything you know (and it had better be a lot!) about your competition.

History and Description of Your Business

• The exact nature of your service/s or product/s.
• The type of business (sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation).
• Date of start-up.
• Location of the business.
• Facilities.
• Your strategy for making your business competitive.
• Any other information about the business history or status that is pertinent.

Marketing Strategy

• The needs of your target market.
• The number of potential clients for your product/service.
• How/why you are well suited to help your target market.
• Your pricing plan, including details of any group or individual discounts you provide.
• Trends that might affect the numbers or purchasing habits of your target market.
• A secondary market.
• Promotion and advertising strategy.
• Sales force description and strategy.

Organization Overview

• Describe the structure of your company.
• Provide information about the ownership or officers, including profiles and qualifications.
• Explain the departments and functions within your company.
• Provide information about the board members, including names, positions, backgrounds.
• Information about salaries and benefits your company provides to employees .
• Any additional resources related to the organizational structure.

Product or Service Description

• Give a detailed description of the service/product your company provides.
• Include copies of any relevant copyrights or patents.
• Describe any research and development projects, either in progress or planned.
• Stress the unique features of your service or product.

Funding Request

• Your current financial requirement.
• A projection (5 years) of future financial requirements.
• Detailed explanation of how the funds will be used.
• The type of funding you're requesting.
• The terms you desire and a suggested repayment plan.

Financial Data

• A financial history covering the past 3-5 years.
• Income statements.
• Cash flow statements.
• Collateral.
• Forecasted income (1-5 years).
• Balance sheets (quarterly for one year).
• Capital expenditure.

Note: Double and triple check your math!

Appendices

Here's where you put anything that might woo the potential investor. Some suggestions:

• Market share.
• Return on investment.
• Organization charts.
• Credit history.
• Resumes.
• Pictures of your product.
• Letters of reference.
• Market studies.
• Media coverage you've received.
• Licenses, permits, or patents.
• Any related legal documents.
• Leases.
• Contracts.
• List of consultants.
• Census or demographic information.

If all this seems overwhelming, then break it into sections. Work on only one section of information at a time. Enlist the help of your partners. Ask a friend or family member to help you gather and organize information.

Remember to take your time when writing your business plan. Details matter, and giving over a few weeks or even months to preparation will prevent headaches in the future.

1. Selling necklaces, bracelets, and earrings.

   There's a large market for handmade beaded jewelry, especially if you make sets of beaded jewelry designs. You can market your handmade jewelry through your website, at craft fairs, local boutiques, home jewelry parties, at your workplace, as well as through a variety of other outlets. Emphasize that your jewelry is handcrafted and you'll increase its appeal and marketability.

2. Teaching the art of beading and jewelry making

   There are lots of people who would love to learn how to make their own jewelry but don't know where to begin.. Offer to teach a class on beading at a local school, club, or church. You can ask to be paid a percentage of the fee charged to each class member with the remainder going to the organization sponsoring the class. You could also work out a similar arrangement at a local bead or craft store. You could even offer beading classes in your own home. Add to your revenues by selling class participants the beading supplies they need to get started on their projects.

3. Custom jewelry designs for special occasions.

   There are a variety of reasons people might want to have custom jewelry designed. Sometimes they'd like to showcase a particular pendant or centerpiece with sentimental value or they just want a unique look for a special occasion. One of the largest markets for this type of service is the bridal market. You might consider setting up an arrangement with a local bridal supply store or an independent bridal consultant company that allows you to make their custom jewelry requests. You would then be paid a percentage of the fees they collect. If you have this arrangement with several stores, this could be a nice source of extra income.

4. Designing and selling unique home accessories using beads.

   There's no end to the household accessories you can accentuate with beads. Using heavy gauge wire and beads, you can create beautiful napkin holders and wine glass charms. Ordinary silverware can be transformed into artistic utensils by wrapping the handles with heavy gauge wire and beads. How about making plant sticks out of beads and wire? Use your imagination and you can come up with a myriad of marketable beaded home accessory ideas. These can be sold through Ebay auctions, a website, or at craft shows and boutiques.

5. Publishing your beaded jewelry designs

   There are quite a few magazines in circulation devoted to the art of beading. These magazines are always looking for beading projects and ideas to publish. If you can come up with your own unique designs, these magazines may be interested in publishing your bead designs in project form. The next time you're at your local bookstore, look through the beading magazines and find out where to submit your designs and projects for consideration.

6. Beads and beading supplies.

   Locate wholesale sources for beads and beading supplies and sell them directly from your website or via online auction. It would probably be to your advantage to specialize in one particular type of beads or beading supplies so you're not in direct competition with the larger companies. For example, you might specialize in artisan glass lampwork beads that you buy directly from the bead artist at wholesale prices. You can sell the beads separately or use them to design beading kits for the busy person who doesn't have time to come up with her own designs.

7. Unique beaded dog and cat collars

   People are devoted to their pets and want to show their devotion by giving them the very best. These days this even means giving them jewelry. Design some cute dog collars using beads and sell them through local veterinarian offices, pet supply stores, pet shows and festivals, craft shows, and online auctions. Show photos of dogs wearing your beaded collars as a marketing tool. You can even donate a portion of the proceeds to your local animal shelter. If you brainstorm a bit, you can come up with lots more ideas for starting a bead business Why not get started in a successful bead business of your own?