Turn £100.00 into £10.000.00+ by the end of 2010 official thread PART 2

kemo_2002

whoever suggested engraved shot glasses, great idea! only last night me and my fiance was on maybe about getting these!

skintbint_2

paulabear, have a look through ebay at the glass and see if you can get inspiration there. i would personally keep away from the usual wedding, 18th, 21st glasses and go for something unusual, does the engraver work on mirrored surfaces - mirror jewellery boxes for example

hypno06

I'm not officially part of this challenge, but I do the "make £10 a day" challenge every month on DFW, and had already decided to set myself an annual target rather than a monthly target this year.....and have been lurking on this thread as it is obviously similar....

Over the years I have done a number of things as part of my own challenge.....as well as the usual ebay/amazon/bingo/mystery shopping stuff, these are some of the things we have done which have brought in good money for us.....they may give some of you some useful ideas for this challenge:

- Take in foreign students....we have done long term students and put them up for a full school year.....they become part of your family, and you have to include them in everything you do, so not for everyone....but if you have a spare room free and are happy to have someone else live with you in term time, find out from your local education authority if they have visiting students that need host families. I played host mum to foreign students for 5 years - each one doing AS/A levels at a local school. In return for sharing our home, we received £128 a week in term time.....a nice amount when you add it up.

- you can do the same for uni students if you live in walking/easy bus journey distance of a uni.....have a word with the housing officer on campus. Maybe too late for the current academic year, but people will very shortly be looking for accomodation for 2010/11 year....

- short term exchange students also need host families - have a look in your local yellow pages or google any companies near you that sell language holidays to foreign kids. We have hosted lots of children between 13 and 18 in the summer holidays for 2-3 weeks each, in return for £98 a week each.....we don't have more than 2 stay at a time, but I know a family with several spare bedrooms who have hosted 5 or 6 at a time......

Remember, all these will be subject to things like CRB checks, home visits, and boiler inspections, so don't forget to factor those costs in.

- Weddings........people spend a ridiculous amount on their weddings, and are often not prepared to cut costs on their dream day.....I set up a small business doing helium balloons for wedding receptions........I started off by spending £40 on a tiny cannister of gas and a bag of balloons, and doing trial and error stuff in my front room. When I got something decent, I photographed it, and voila there was the start of my "portfolio".....birthday parties, retirement dos, golf club Christmas balls, blah blah blah.....if you can get a decent product, they will pay you a good amount of money for something that will transform a venue.

- bouncy castles......for several years we hired out bouncy castles. We bought our first one for £250 from the freeads.....and hired it out for £25 a time.....when we made enough, we bought another one, and ended up with about a dozen castles, two giant slides, a couple of ball pools and an assault course.....we hired them out for parties, summer barbecues, corporate events, and also accompanied them to school fetes, local marathons etc where we charged 50p for 3 minutes or whatever.....if you have a family who are waiting for dad to run a half marathon, they will be grateful for the chance to bounce about for a few mins and let off some built up energy!

Remember to factor in appropriate insurance - it is really important that you do not skimp on this.

- workshops....find a subject that you have a genuine passion about and give workshops in it. I have taught things from Assertiveness at work, to Indian Head Massage, and Hypnotherapy......

- Pamper evenings/therapy fayres.....if you have a "hobby", but it is not enough to do a whole event from, then get other likeminded people together, rent a hall, and charge each "exhibitor" £10.....then charge the public £1 to enter. Each exhibitor can then sell their own "therapy" or whatever, with taster sessions of massage for £5, or sell aromatherapy oils etc......you get to sell your own therapy/whatever, plus you get the profit on the exhibitors fees you have charged plus the entrance fee from the public.....less the cost of the venue you have hired. Village halls and school halls are ideal for this type of thing. Market it well, and you can do really well with a bit of effort and the right target audience.

It is a case of thinking outside the box a bit, giving things a try, not stressing if they fail, but instead look at them and work out why, and whether you could do anything different to make them work or whether they are just best put under the heading of "not worth it". Don't expect it all to happen overnight - some things take weeks of planning, but then reap excellent results.

Remember, PPPPP - prior preparation prevents poor performance.

Good luck!

mambury

paulabear wrote: »

Oh excellent!! I have a friend getting married in the summer, wonder if she'd like that? Could Ebay maybe, set up a shop if I get going properly Will definitely look into that, thank you mambury!

LOVE THIS THREAD SO MUCH!!!

you are very welcome!
My mum runs a wedding venue dressing service in Ireland and weddings there are BIG money, even in the recession! Might be worth marketing in Ireland via ebay too!

mambury

copperjar wrote: »

Ive made a big error! Sold 2 things on eBay yesterday and I don't know what I was thinking, but I accidently sent them both to the same person! I don't want to get negative feedback, not sure what to do. I was going to contact them both and ask the person who's going to get two things if they'll post the other item on for me. What do you think?

I would contact both buyers and let them know what happened. Get the buyer who received both items to send the wrong one back to you and then you will have to send it on. Unfortunalty this does mean you will have to pay postage twice but hopefully will keep your DSR's up to scratch!

Mambury

paulabear

mambury wrote: »

you are very welcome!
My mum runs a wedding venue dressing service in Ireland and weddings there are BIG money, even in the recession! Might be worth marketing in Ireland via ebay too!

:TThis is all great, thanks to everyone who's given me ideas! My friend with the wedding coming up thinks it's a good idea too. Like the idea with the mirrors too. And hypno, the thing about building a portfolio is great, think that would be a good idea as well as a free website design using that site that was mentioned. Maybe my horoscope could come true
if I make it come true that is!
Currently simultaneously feeding the baby and typing lol, listing stuff on Ebay

hypno06

Definitely have a portfolio of whatever it is you do.....you can make a few of them, so you always have one with you.....keep one in the car, one in your laptop case, a small pocket sized one in your handbag, and one in your desk drawer at work......that way, you never have to rely on someone saying they will look at your website when they get home - you can sieze the moment and show them your wares and the type of thing you do, wherever you are!

paulabear

Ooh, a little handbag-sized booklet, that would be good to hand to people too

hypno06

And for cheap and genuine forms of advertising......don't forget your local parish magazine....often issued monthly, and full of local plumbers, carpenters and the like.....I think ours charges £50 PER YEAR to advertise on quarter of a page......if you are a budding wedding photographer, or want to advertise your web-designing skills etc, you are targeting a very local, and therefore "easy" or relevant audience, for a very low cost.

murie

So far listed acouple of things on etsy and ebay-no takers yet tho but its early days.
On BB have won £165 so far but am splitting it with my son as I use his account too. I have had to use my winnings tho as I had to have my 11 year old dog put to sleep on Wednesday- gutted by that but at least I had ready access to the money which I wouldnt have had if I hadnt won. I would have hated to be in debt in order to put her out of her pain.
Had a few miserable days but am trying to be positive and get back on track now. Will go scouting for ebay but dont hink I will list on Sunday as I think ebay will be flooded for the next week.
Going to look at designing some wedding settings/invites etc to list on etsy. Will get back on Dooyoo and do some more reviews- was up to 21 premium reviews as of Tuesday.

Glad to see everyone is still quite motivated- its easy to start to flag once the intial enthusiasm has worn off.
Heres to the next £100!! Onwards and upwards!!