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Business Startup Ideas
By Jayme Hanson
Starting a business takes plenty of time and determination but doesn't necessarily have to take a pile of money. Here are some business startup ideas that won't cost you a fortune to get up and running.
Business Startup Ideas #1: Direct Retail Sales - Companies like Avon, Mary Kay and Home Interiors & Gifts will pay you to go door to door and make sales. It will cost you somewhere between $10 and $200 to start on of these businesses. Most of your money will be spent on advertising but you could cut costs by word of mouth advertising.
Business Startup Ideas #2: Interior Design - With the huge economic downturn that the housing market is experiencing, homeowners can't afford to upgrade to bigger houses but they might like to spruce you the house they currently own. Redecorating will cost a fraction of the cost of buying a newer house.
Business Startup Ideas #3: Event Planner - The $122 billion dollar meeting and events industry needs plenty of planners. You will need a computer, phone, Internet access, business cards, a camera and filing system. You'll want to have a creative website and you might also want to consider "event insurance" if for some reason, such as heavy snow or rain, the meeting or event gets cancelled.
Business Startup Ideas #4: Home Landscaping - Home landscaping can turn your ordinary backyard into a relaxing environment that you can entertain in. More and more individuals are incorporating their outdoor living space with their indoor living space to create additional living and entertaining space.
If you are looking more towards starting a home based business then you might want to consider these options:
Business Startup Ideas #5: Virtual Store - You can start an online business with very
Lawler: single-family starts, sales inflection in '12
Starts and Permits Down in December, Closing a Record-Setting Year
Last year set quite a few records for the home building industry?just not the kind anyone wants to celebrate.
Single-family starts up; multi- down ... total 2011 is the worst
Residential real estate's word of the year for 2012? Apartments
Starts and Permits Up on Strong Multifamily Lift
Single-family numbers were also up in November, a sign that the sector may finally be coming up from the bottom.
Multi bene! While single-family starts nudge up, multifamily kicks it up a notch
The headline number on housing starts, permits, and completions from the Census Bureau this morning had to cheer rather than begloom housing industry observers. Multifamily starts--which, by nature, run up and down fitfully off a low base--powered a collective breakthrough total that eclipsed the year-ago showing by better than 20% on both starts and permits. Calculated Risk's Bill McBride comments with customary pith and truthieness. <a href="http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/12/housing-starts-increase-in-november.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CalculatedRisk+(Calculated+Risk)&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Read More ...</a>
Starts and Permits Show Signs of Life for Single-Family
In October, permits came in at the highest level seen in 19 months.
Starts Up, Permits Down, Trajectory Unchanged
The multifamily market?s dramatic jump in starts was tempered by fewer permits, leaving the direction of the housing market about the same.
Economic Recovery Still Depends On Housing, Says Wells Fargo Economist
Mark Vitner expects housing starts to begin growing again next year.
Slow Growth Recovery Ahead
<a href=http://www.builderonline.com/housing-data/slow-growth-ahead.aspx?rssLink=Slow+Growth+Ahead >
<img src=/Images/tmp4115%2Etmp_tcm10-880650.jpg width=90 height=59 alt =dashboard_illo_0911_HERO_6.jpg(90) title=dashboard_illo_0911_HERO_6.jpg(90) /></a>
Forecasts are showing gradual recovery over the next two years.
Double-helix of housing starts and unemploy-ment shows slow rebound
When you look at the way single-family housing starts and the rise and fall of unemployment rates move across economic cycles, it makes you wonder how policy might be strengthened around "fixing housing," which is to say setting in motion a virtuous cycle to replace this vicious one. Calculated Risk's Bill McBride sees this silver lining: "The good news is residential investment should increase modestly in 2011, mostly from multi-family and home improvement, but construction job growth will remain sluggish until the excess housing supply is absorbed." So, jumpstarting non-construction sectors that necessitate domestic hiring and result in speedier household formations needs to be part of the solution. <a href="http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/08/housing-starts-and-unemployment-rate.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CalculatedRisk+%28Calculated+Risk%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Read More ...</a>
Starts and Permits Drop as Single-Family Languishes and Multifamily Zigzags
While multifamily's permit numbers were the third highest in the last 30 months, single-family permits logged the 12th lowest number on record.
July housing starts, permits eclipse expectations thanks to multifamily
For a July data release, the Census Bureau's <a href="http://www.census.gov/const/newresconst.pdf" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Permits, Starts and Completions</a> report is acting a bit like a check-out counter tabloid celebrity, perhaps envious of the limelight Angela and Nicolas are generating in the Eurozone. Still, the starts print beat the Street, if only because the awakening giant of multifamily has begun to emerge as a statistically significant factor in residential construction's aggregate. It's that aggregate--roughly range-bound, but gaining traction toward ascent--that one should focus on for the balance of 2011. For single-family denizens, the new "it is what it is" has become "it isn't what it isn't." Namely, limbo needs to suffice for now as a bit better option than hell. On the permits and starts data release, Hanley Wood Market Intelligence's research chief Jonathan Smoke says, "Looking at single family construction, we do not expect any improvement for the rest of 2011, barring some economic miracle that resuscitates job growth and pumps up consumer sentiment. While multifamily benefits from declining home ownership, the net effect to new construction is that nationally we already have excess existing housing stock. The level of activity we see now is purely in response to replacement of aged or destroyed housing stock and weak improvements in only the healthiest areas of the country. It?s likely to remain this way until markets really see fundamentals improve, which hopefully will begin in 2012 for many key markets. We will see that improvement first in home price stability and existing home sales, and then new single family construction will start to recover, one healthy market at a time." Calculated Risk's Bill McBride, who produced the graphic above, notes, "This shows the huge collapse following the housing bubble, and that housing starts have been mostly moving sideways for over two years - with slight ups and downs due to the home buyer tax credit. This was slightly above expectations of 600 thousand starts in July. Multi-family starts are increasing in 2011 - although from a very low level." Improved residential investment bodes well. <a href="http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/08/housing-starts-decline-slightly-in-july.html" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Read More ...</a>
'Shovel ready' gets a new meaning as Bank of America starts bulldozing vacant home stock
Housing Starts and Permits Jump in June
The Census reports improved housing numbers in June driven mostly by multifamily construction.
Distress' pipeline depresses lifeline
Cleveland Fed economic researcher Guhan Venkatu studies the relationship between foreclosure, short sale, and distressed home sales and residential new construction in the state of Ohio as it compares with national figures. He notes that as "properties emerge from foreclosure, they will keep downward pressure on prices and on the number of new homes under construction. According to RealtyTrac, distressed properties?those that have been through foreclosure or that were sold for less than the owner owed prior to the completion of foreclosure?accounted for about a quarter of all home sales in Ohio in the first quarter of 2011. RealtyTrac also reported that among the states, Ohio registered the largest discount for distressed properties, which sold for about 41 percent less than their nondistressed counterparts. As far as the impact these properties are having on home construction, residential building permits and housing starts in Ohio remain near the lowest levels on record." For buyers, 59 cents on the dollar means they can party like it's 1999. <a href="http://www.clevelandfed.org/research/trends/2011/0711/01regact.cfm" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Read More ...</a>
Vacancy rates head downward as rents push up--and the upshot is 'excess home units' are absorbed
The folks at Zelman & Associates say that the big beneficiaries of refugees from the single-family, for-sale foreclosure tsunami are not apartments so much, but single-family, for-rent homes. That may be a valid observation, but if it's true, it doesn't account for the influx of demand for multifamily, for-rent units which is outpacing new supply by a long shot. Multifamily researcher Reis yesterday reported that the apartment vacancy rate for its 82 markets shrank to 6.0% in the second quarter of 2011, from 6.2% in Q1. The vacancy rate was at 7.8% in Q2 2010; its peaked was 8.0% at the end of 2009." Calculated Risk's Bill McBride toplines the report this way: "Vacancy rates are falling fast (the excess supply is being absorbed). Note: The excess housing supply includes both apartments and single family homes. A record low number of multi-family units will be completed this year (2011). Only 8,700 apartments came on the market in Q1 (in the Reis survey area). This is the second lowest quarter since Reis has been tracking completions - the lowest was 6,000 last quarter. The falling vacancy rate is pushing push up effective rents. This also pulls down the price-to-rent ratio for house prices. Multi-family starts are increasing, and that will help both GDP and employment growth this year. These new starts will not be completed until 2012 or 2013, so vacancy rates will probably decline all year." We're watching this carefully because we're hearing of more than passing interest among big for-sale builders in the for-rent space (see <a title="PulteGroup announces appointment of Avalon Bay chief Bryce Blair to board" xlink:href="tcm:10-830688" xlink:title="PulteGroup announces appointment of Avalon Bay chief Bryce Blair to board" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">PulteGroup item</a>). <a href="http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/07/reis-apartment-vacancy-rate-falls-to-6.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CalculatedRisk+%28Calculated+Risk%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Read More ...</a>
Multifamily Sector Boosts Starts and Permits Report
May?s numbers reflect a larger shift from owning to renting, says economist Patrick Newport.
A starts, permits 'beat,' although movement is sideways versus upward
Housing <a href="http://www.census.gov/const/newresconst.pdf" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">starts and permits data</a> solidly beat economists' polls today. Starts and the National Association of Home Builders housing market index normally are joined at the hip as they move, except when they don't. Like now. The reason home builder sentiment could de-couple on occasion from starts and permits activity could have to do with the NAHB sample, which may not sweep some areas that may be responding to local economic conditions. At any rate, we've heard that at least some volume builders may have embarked on a spec building initiative that locked in lower sourcing, materials, and manufactured product costs in anticipation that price inflation will kick in in a significant way as the months progress. On the record, most builders will tell you their materials costs are in control, if not actually decreasing, and that they're offsetting any areas of higher materials costs with labor cost reductions. However, we've heard on pretty strong authority that at least one high volume home builder is kicking specs up a notch to avoid getting smacked with inflation impacts later this year. Meanwhile, Calculated Risk's Bill McBride strikes an iterative note in his take-away line on the starts print: "This was above expectations of 547 thousand starts in May. Multi-family starts are beginning to pickup - although from a very low level - but single family starts are still moving sideways." <a href="http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/06/housing-starts-increase-in-may.html" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Read More ...</a>
Economists Trim 2011 Housing Forecasts, Call for Recovery in 2012
Weak economic growth and a double-dip in prices have prompted revisions to predictions that previously had hope for recovery late this year.
little money and sell everything from trips to books. Retail sales is a cut throat business both online and offline so target a niche where there is a high demand and very little supply. To increase your success, offer excellent customer service.
Business Startup Ideas #6: Domain Flipping - You can purchase and then resell unused domain names. To attract buyers, run tests to determine how often certain key words are searched so you can determine if the keywords in the domain name are valuable. Remember that the best domain names are short, sweet, specific and easy to remember.
Business Startup Ideas #7: Virtual Assistant - Virtual assistants work from home offices and receive their project instructions by phone, fax or email. Virtual assistant services include areas such as marketing, graphic and web design, IT support and well as general office support. Industries most often hiring virtual assistants include real estate, coaching, financial services, accounting and legal.
These are just a few business startup ideas to get you going. Do a little research and find a niche to provide a service or product to and you will have a successful business.
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