A spark of inspiration…

1. Gym Coach

Potential: Many corporate companies have a gym within their premises but few have dedicated coaches to work out sustainable routines for staff.

2. Pilates/Yoga

Potential: Either or these less intense fitness systems are extremely popular with women and can be implemented from home, in hired premises, at the local community centre, schools or corporate environments. If you’re thinking of online classes an excellent LMS is LearnWorld which will accommodate video and PDF transfers PLUS they help you with your marketing to get your course out there and sold.

3. Sports Coach

Potential: If you enjoy an uncommon sport offer training in various areas around your city to expand its reach and build teams of new opponents.

4. Hiking Guide/Club

Potential: City dwellers love to get out and active during weekends and short hikes close to their area are usually well attended.

Hiking clubs are common as are photo walks, which are aimed at tourists or local photography enthusiasts. Offering themed walks and end of day competition prizes for the best photo motivates participation on a regular basis.

1. Cosmetics

Potential: Being an Avon Lady has gained prestige over the years especially with the progress made in anti-ageing products for both men and women, and with men becoming more conscious of their appearance, there are many opportunities in the cosmetics industry including; MLM.

2. Day Spa

Potential: A much sort after service if you have the premises, there are a myriad of young people qualifying to work in Spas.

3. Beauty Salon

Potential: Offerings such as; facials, nails, hairdressing, slimming and tanning treatment and much more, can be run from home, hired premises or you can take it on the road.

4. Health Shop

Potential: Everyone is into getting healthy and staying healthy. These are also good products for expo’s and markets and there are numerous MLM opportunities in this arena.

1. Wedding Planner

Potential: With the fast pace of life, there is always a demand for someone to help with important aspects of life such as planning a wedding. Of course we always think of the beautiful young bride in a white dress, but the suggestion here is a focus on 2nd time weddings which may not be as extravagant but no less import to the bridal couple and the business attending to their needs.

2. Function Coordinator

Potential: From corporate events to romantic evenings for two, pick your size and excel

3. Project Management

Potential: Some functions are bigger than others and require the services of a project management team. Music concerts, campaigns and the like might last a weekend or a month and need constant attention from a dedicated project manager.

4. Trip Planning and Coordination

Potential: Compiling trips for overseas guests, corporate events or private parties is an interesting and fulfilling business model if you love to travel and play host.

1. Affiliate Marketing

Potential: Internet-based, selling other people’s products and/or services for a commission. Depending on your choice products you can make use of Google AdSense and AdWords or Facebook marketing as well as blogging.

2. Photography

Potential: A vast number of sites offer payment for photos, video and various combinations, if you love the idea of people using your work for commercial purposes and use a laptop, you can submit to a number of sites, but save an idea to open a site of your own to showcase your work and extra advertising or submitting it to companies directly may be needed to establish yourself.

3. Blogging

Potential: Develop a blog for your offline business or make it your business to blog. Whatever interests you have can most likely be blogged about and you can earn AdSense income from allowing Google to place related advertising on your blog.

4. Online Consultancy

Potential: If you’re an expert in your field of business or a hobby and can connect with people via the Internet, becoming an online consultant is a definite option for you. From teaching English to reading the Tarot, there are sites that cater for that and much more, or go it alone.

1. Accounting

Potential: Since every serious business strives to stay compliant with statutory laws and best practices, offering an accounting service is a sort-after business model.

2. Office Administration

Potential: Every office has a certain amount of administration functions from typing and filing, to general or high-level secretarial work including the preparation of contract documents, PPT’s, spreadsheets, board documents to industry specific functions.

3. Bookkeeping

Potential: Every successful, sustainable business has to keep account of their operational income and expenditure. Your expertise and experience opens the door to entrepreneurship.

4. Debt Collection

Potential: If debtors is your forte there are always companies needing to collect on outstanding monies owed to them to keep their cash flow - well... flowing.

5. Virtual Assistant

Potential: Offering your choice of administrative and secretarial services to travelling business people who need a solid base but do business internationally. Tasks may include taking messages, responding to written communications, making bookings, setting up online conferences. There are also a number of online facilities you can register with to get work in.

1. Editing and Proofreading

Potential: Although there is a big hype online about this business model, it will be best for you to market your services independently. There are ways too many freelance platforms online and although you should register with some, there is so much competition that the amount of work being passed to you might be disheartening. Still, everybody is an author now days and new products, courses and instruction manuals all need editorial services.

2. Information Product Creation

Potential: Many medium and small companies need the services of a professional person in their field who can compile technical information brochures, create courses or training manuals, more so now than ever before due to the Internet and the number of platforms that cater to instructors. If you’ve been working in a particular field or have a unique skill or interest but don’t revel in the idea of presenting courses yourself.

3. Ghost Writer

Potential: For excellent writers who love listening and have great organisational skills.

4. Copy Writing

Potential: Advertising demand is at an all-time high with pricing to suit. Agencies are under pressure to keep their customers satisfied with new and exciting content and freelance sites are chock full, there is an open market for talented copy writers to forge their way into the world of business providing a much-needed service to their peers in the small business sector.

1. Animation Assets

Potential: There are a number of online platforms available to creators of animation characters for games, movies etc. These along with assets such as clothing, architecture, props, models and more are all potential products for sale.

2. Vector Image Creation

Potential: Using freely available software or another package and your artistic skills to create advertising material for business, cartoons, training material and the like is an excellent business model if your creative skills extend to this level.

3. Animation Production

Potential: Are you a 3D generalist and serious about the movie business? It takes a while to create a full movie but with the number of platforms available where you can buy characters and accessories needed it’s possible to start a one-person business and outsource certain aspects you’re not skilled at to freelancers. Since you’ll have to fund your project and stay alive in the meantime, you’ll probably have to create commercials, short films or teach.

4. Computer Games

Potential: If you know coding or are familiar with, or eager to learn the appropriate software such as Blender or GameMaker this market is at an all-time high.

1. Online Courses

Potential: Online studying is a reality in our era and we are equipped with the most amazing facilities on the Internet, where you can learn anything from making goods to making wine to how the brain works and the basics of Astrophysics, via video courses. In fact, universities around the world often recommend the use of these platforms for students to learn more on specific subjects.

2. Online Teaching/Tutoring

Potential: There are many brick and mortar educational facilities and online platforms offering a service where you can teach live one-on-one or group classes or help with homework. If you have a higher qualification in a particular field the world is your oyster.

3. Skills Development Mentoring

Potential: Whilst it’s possible for anyone to learn anything in this day and age, the truth is we’re floating in a world of too much information and if we don’t have a proper road map we soon get lost and disheartened. A mentor acts as a field guide to ensure clients arrive at their destination in the shortest possible time. Can be done on or offline.

4. Training School/College

Potential: From dancing to music, skydiving to cake baking, from cleaning services to maths and accounting, you name it, there’s a training facility for it.

1. Tutoring

Potential: Apart from the numerous online platforms you can teach from, there are franchises as well as the opportunity to help youths struggling in school, college or university. In addition, you can set up programs to compliment your own skills and offer them to first time job seekers.

2. After-school care centre

Potential: This service can be done in small scale if you have the premises and facilities. Another option is to find out if your local school, sports club or community centre can accommodate such a venture. Services, such as transportation to and from school and/or extra murals, depend on how you structure your business. Help with homework will be necessary.

3. Playground Design and Equipment

Potential: A lot of crèches, nursery and primary schools are in need of someone who can help out with playground projects, such as installing, renovating or moving playground equipment. Another popular trend is installing a sensory garden and of course, maintenance.

4. Write eBooks for Children to Young Adults

Potential: Do you have a keen imagination that can captivate the youth? Many children have online devices and are able to download eBooks. Creating an exciting series is destined to keep you and them interested and busy into the future.

1. Party Acts

Potential: For children’s parties all the way to corporate events party acts are a viable small business venture. Select your scenes or create them to order, from Snow White to drumming to gorilla messaging...

2. Home Cinema

Potential: A very exclusive business model where the entrepreneur creates a home cinema, either in their lounge or another room. Usually attendance is by invitation only, guests are treated to dinner and the show or any number of other themed events. For example; a showing of the original Great Gatsby might require guests to come dressed in costume, décor and dinner would be appropriate to the occasion. A membership business model would suit this venture.

3. Venue Hire

Potential: If you have your own premises and enjoy the hustle and bustle of organising and catering for small events renting out your venue can be a very satisfying business proposition for you. If you don’t have the premises, there is also the option to hire premises on behalf of your clients and coordinating the event yourself.

4. Party Shop and Services

Potential: Everybody loves a good party and party shops are springing up all over, combine your organisational and décor skills to create a well-supported service to your local community.

5. Fancy Dress Costumes

Potential: We all love a theme party and dressing up to suit the occasion. Apart from the conventional costumes, how about some original creation?

1. Travel Photography and Content Writing

Potential: Are you an avid traveller and love photography? There are many businesses that pay well for original, high quality photos, video footage and written content of foreign destinations.

2. AirBnB

Potential: Do you have a spare room or are you thinking of starting a B&B? You can register with AirBnB to let your space out and they’ll help market it for you.

3. Safari Tours

Potential: This venture can either depend on an agreement with an existing Tour operator where you go along as the host, or you can package and host the tours yourself if you have suitable transport.

4. Speciality Tour Coordinator

Potential: Thinking more of up-market international clients? Communicate with travel agents or secure your own clients through international businesses and design tours according to their preferences.

1. Retail Store

Potential: With all our amazing malls a retail outlet is still a great opportunity. It’s a tried and tested business model and with the Internet available to simplify communications, orders and shipping, imported items become accessible to almost anyone. Local designers are also always looking for outlets for their creations and if you love creating glamorous, chic, sporty or kinky outfits yourself then this could be for you.

2. Fashion Designer

Potential: A flair for fashion is big business but you don’t need to be Louis Vuitton or Christian Louboutin to make a living. Apart from clothing we use endless accessories and most women, like me, love a trendy handbag and stylish belts, to name a few.

3. eCommerce Store

Potential: If you love to work buying and selling online and can source quality fashion items such as shoes, sophisticated lingerie/lounge-wear, sports gear etc. There are numerous eCommerce platforms to choose from but be aware, this is a highly competitive business model so additional marketing will be needed to secure success.

4. Fabric and/or Pattern Design

Potential: Original fabric designs and pattern are always in demand - design and create to order.

5. Seamstress

Potential: From sewing scarves to sophisticated evening or wedding gowns to casual attire, there is always work for a professional seamstress but creating a proper business is recommended to ensure growth and prosperity.

1. Garden Services

Potential: Love gardening? It’s not just about driving your workforce around to mow lawns and tidy up edges. Offering minor landscaping services including lovely pebble pathways and water features are just a few of creations customers will ask you about.

2. Landscaping

Potential: Know stuff about plants and garden layout and design? Landscaping is an art many clients are eager to hire someone to help them with, at their homes, at residential complexes and office parks and more.

3. Garden Furniture Design and Manufacturing

Potential: Talented with metal or wood work? Many people and retail outlets import high quality garden furniture. In South Africa we love our outdoor living and the market for both furniture and weather-proof fittings such as table cloths, cushions, custom umbrellas and covers enjoy a healthy market.

4. Herb and/or Vegetable Garden Planning and Planting

Potential: With the ever-increasing trend towards healthy living specializing in herb and vegetable garden design and planting is in demand, especially for small space, complex gardens.

1. Cleaning Service

Potential: An annual spring cleaning or monthly or weekly cleaning service in homes is popular among business people who spend a lot of time at the office or travelling. If you prefer to go bigger, there is a perpetual market in the corporate and medical fields as well as specialised service requirements in the industrial sector.

2. Professional Organiser

Potential: A professional organiser will assist with tidying up packing spaces such as cupboards, rooms and attics in homes and may also be called upon to pack and unpack when families or businesses are moving premises.

3. Concierge Service

Potential: A concierge service usually takes care of home-related chores when the owners travel for business or pleasure. Tasks may include; doing laundry, collecting post or dry cleaning, attending to pets, some secretarial work may be included, depending the client’s requirements.

4. Window Cleaning

Potential: From homes to schools, clubs and big business, a window cleaning service can be highly lucrative.

1. Caregiver Services

Potential: With the fast pace of life, it’s difficult for working families to take care of ageing parents or incapacitated relatives. Employing the services of an in-home or day-care carer is an option many of these families opt for. People generally prefer to hire registered carers from a business that is able to take responsibility for vetting employees and attending to the administration of their needs.

2. Senior Concierge Service

Potential: Many elderly people living by themselves or in retirement facilities prefer to hire someone from outside to help when they want to go out or to run errands for them. This may entail shopping excursions or further afield trips, attending to chores or the needs of their pets.

3. Chronic Carer

Potential: Undertaken by ex-nurses who are qualified to administer medication such as injections or cleaning wounds, attend to degenerative condition and checking on dietary requirements. Forms of entertainment may also be included such as playing games, reading and watching TV or a movie with them.

4. Senior Relocation Specialist

Potential: If seniors decide to downsize and relocate to a retirement facility, they may need help finding a suitable home, then packing and a “friend” who can help them settle in their new place.

1. Online Dating

Potential: There are a number of white label platforms online. In case you’re not familiar with the term, white label means you can brand it yourself, and dating platforms are some of the most popular.

2. Image Consultant

Potential: Some people have style whilst other have to learn it. There are so many people looking for a make-over because; they’ve qualified and need to adopt the corporate look for business purposes or, they let themselves go at some point and need a quick fix to get their lives back on track or, they simply want to try something different and want some direction.

3. Coaching

Potential: Lasting change never happens instantly and that is why life coaching is one of the fastest growing industries globally. You select your niche and focus on helping your clients achieve their goals. From confidence building to spiritual work to pre-marital to executive and team coaching, your services are needed.

4. Relationship Counsellor

Potential: Misunderstandings are the cause of most of the unhappiness people suffer in our world. Not only between married couples but often between parent and child.

1. Renovations

Potential: Are you a great negotiator with second to none project management skills? There’s always someone looking to spruce up their work or home environment but they’ll expect you to improve on the legendary contractor reputation for being tardy.

2. Drafting

Potential: Project managers, home owners, developers, who doesn’t need a self-employed drafts person to turn their vision into workable blueprints?

3. Interior Design

Potential: Do you love turning empty spaces or tired old rooms into elegant masterpieces or bright new beginnings? Other skills you will need is the ability to negotiate on behalf of and with your clients. Not everyone can afford your prestigious services so you’ll be working for up-market clients who expect the best - for less. Your understanding of the term; “the customer is always right” will help secure a sustainable business and comfortable future for yourself.

4. Outdoor Projects

Potential: What’s your speciality; gates, walls, roofing, painting, tiling, sliding doors, garden or water features, fences, pools, entertainment areas, paving, construction, thatching…? The list goes on, and on. The most important skill you’ll need is marketing, even when you’re busy.

5. Brick and/or Tile Production

Potential: Love to get your hands dirty? There are numerous ventures available, complete with mixers, moulds and instructions that can have you creating your own designs and marketing to the built industry or private home owners.

1. Tour Organiser

Potential: Do you support a NPO? There are many ways to help them raise funds and one to consider is to invite guests to buy tickets for a tour of the premises or village where your beneficiaries carry out their work. A traditional meal or extended safari tour, to promote South Africa with foreign visitors will add value to their donations. If you don’t sponsor such groups, you can start your business by offering this service to corporate companies that do.

2. Social Club

Potential: People love to mingle with those who share their interests or hobbies, so if you have a special interest, starting a social club to encourage interaction can turn into a lucrative business is run efficiently. Make sure your members receive ultimate value for their money, such as a monthly newsletter covering events they can attend and ensure they feel included.

3. Cooperative

Potential: A great initiative for a group of people who work together on projects or contracts. If each person prefers to take responsibility for one particular aspect everyone stands to benefit.

4. Skills Training

Potential: Do you have a project that you need many hands for such as bead work, detailed painting, sewing? Why not offer training at minimum wage and once qualified your protégés will be in a position to find employment for themselves

1. Coaching

Potential: What started out as Life Coaching has diversified into a guiding light for millions of people around the world. From Spiritual interests to corporate group and executive coaching, get your qualification, find your niche and help people to achieve their goals in life.

2. Financial Services

Potential: Budgeting is a necessary skill for each household to master. If you’re qualified in the financial field there are numerous opportunities to earn commissions on financial products as well as helping clients to create a secure future for themselves.

3. Physical Therapist / Trauma Counsellor

Potential: Either of these business models will require you to have a qualification and can be practised from your home, consulting rooms and/or out in the field. From rehabilitation after an accident to drug rehabilitation and trauma counselling - people are in desperate need of help to repair damage in their bodies, minds or souls.

4. Psychic Consultant

Potential: Are you psychic; Clairvoyant, Clairaudient and/or other? There are very many avenues open to you now days. Online platforms are plentiful, but competition is great and earnings are not magnificent, register with one or two anyway. You can also try your local Esoteric store, they often host psychics, the best option is probably a website of your own.

1. Fashion Accessories

Potential: We all want to be different, yet fit in. Personal fashion accessories make the statements we don’t want to turn into words, even if they’re printed all over our garments. If you have a flair for fashion, this market is ever-changing and very active.

2. Home Décor Accessories

Potential: This is an ever-active market with an excellent selection for local and imported products. Everyone is looking for something unique to turn their home into their personal nest so the market is vast and specialising in one area is definitely recommended.

3. Child Accessories

Potential: From pre-natal to young adulthood, there are gadgets and goodies to help parents and their children through prevailing circumstances during the years of growing up. Take a walk around a baby shop, as toy store and even the Internet or your local supermarket… find anything you could improve on, anything that sparks your imagination for a brand new creation? Whether you decide to manufacture yourself or import, this is an active and lucrative target for a new business venture.

4. Digital Accessories

Potential: Contrary to popular beliefs there isn’t an App for everything yet and there are many accessories and gadgets that haven’t been invented yet either. The world awaits your genius.

1. DJ

Potential: Music is a way of life and DJ services are always in demand and not only in the real world, if you love mixing up beats you can also consider a YouTube channel or podcasting for the kind of music you enjoy most.

2. Music Shop

Potential: A good venture with our many malls of today. Other alternatives are markets where we can still buy vinyl records and sometimes even cassette tapes. A further alternative, if you have the necessary equipment, is to offer a recording facility where you transfer people’s “old” music onto modern devices such as USB or CD so they don’t have to re-buy.

3. Live Performance Artist/Group

Potential: You know when you’re talented and when it’s time to stride out of the box. If you’ve reached this peak in your career, designing the next step to monitor your success is an absolute must to keep control of sustainable growth and progress towards achieving your dream.

4. Management

Potential: The music industry holds a vast number of opportunities all of which need management, if you’re familiar with the business, have solid experience and a good reputation, help artist build successful careers for themselves.

1. Vending Machines

Potential: If you’re still working and want something to start growing for your retirement years, vending machines can be a lucrative option. You’ll probably invest in one or two to start with and allow these to deliver the finance to invest in more. There are endless machines-types available from snack products to cosmetics, medical supplies and more.

2. Manufacturing Machines

Potential: For the hand-on business owner who wants to get stuck in and produce and sell something solid and countable that s/he has some control over, and/or use to compliment a going concern, there are innumerable machine types to get the job done in the quickest possible time.

3. Invention

Potential: Do you have an idea that you’re sure the world will benefit from, even if it’s just a very specific kind of person? There’s a way you can get your prototype into solid form to either present to investors or get the project going yourself.

4. Invitations

Potential: Apart from gorilla-mail and magnificent, hand-crafted invitations for wedding and other special occasions there are many ideas that have not yet been explored, and frankly - email, social media, messaging and other online offerings are okay for kids or informal parties but up-scale events like weddings need something to deliver a genuine aura of appreciation of a guest’s time, effort and expense in attending the function.

5. Party Pranks

Potential: There’s always something new and exciting to liven up a party. From an elegant soiree to a conventional, South African bring ‘n braai, wherever there’s gathering people look for a reason to smile, a new topic to discuss or a jolly old good laugh. Your knack for good taste in humour and silliness could be just the business you’re looking for.

Cathy is a qualified and experienced Life and Business Coach, able to advise you on any issues you might need guidance on.

You can book a 30, 60 or 90 minute consultation with her to talk about your business venture, at any stage of its development and operating cycle.