Any ideas on how to set my business ideas to action?

I'm thinking more and more about starting my own little business - i've got two ideas in mind which i think could take off in the area i live - namely opening a thrift shop and the second idea is operating a bookkeeping service - i'm not looking at large scale - just starting out. How best could i let people know what i'm offering and basically be known? Also any ideas on how to stock up for the thrift shop? Thank you in advance.

First of all, I would write a small business plan to give you some direction on the idea you want to pursue. I'm not going to tell you which ideas is better for you since only you can determine that.

Some of the things that go into a business plan are the very questions you need to ask yourself -- and the business plan forces you to answer.

What is the market like for your product/services?

Who are your competitors and what do they charge?

What will set you apart from the competition?

How much will you charge for your services/products?

How will you income and expenses balance out over the next 3 years?

What are you business policies?

What are your long term and short term objectives for your business?

Write these all down and get them out in the open so that you are held accountable to them.

Really how can anyone know your business if you have not clearly defined what your business is and the value it provides to your potential customers?

Don't worry about marketing until you get this down first.

Good luck on starting a new business! I am in the same boat as you! I hope you are successful! Report It

i would go with bookeeping, at least you will not need to buy inventory

try posting on the local paper, or grocery store,
my old boss advertised for free by putting flyers on shopping carts. So when people go to pick them up, they can't help but read it what it is.

I suppose that you have to advertise your buseness to your friends first and then have a look how it promotes. Give ads in different newspapers etc.

Firstly don't rush into advertising - you can spend a fortune and get nothing in return and it's often difficult to monitor advertising success. If you go for the book-keeping then a few cold calls to small-medium sized businesses could be fruitful. (Bear in mind that small companies won't want the expense and large firms will already have staff in place for this service. Introductory special offers could be useful just to get a few clients and then hopefully word of mouth may create more business for you. Simple notices in busy shop windows or supermarkets are often a good way of attracting attention.

Good luck

hi, try this site for exploring your ideas http://www.starttalkingideas.org/ and if you are aged 16-30 then use this site to send for their free start-up tool kit as there is a cd-rom you can use in the pack to help you work through your ideas http://www.shell-livewire.org/
as for starting up on a small scale this would be a wise idea as you can 'test' your market, you could perhaps get some business cards made to distribute and just network (tell friends, family, colleagues etc) what you are doing and ask them to tell their friends, family etc.
for low cost business cards use this link (tip don't order the free ones - pay a little extra for the premium ones, or register your email address and wait for them to send you an email with an offer for free or half price premium ones, and also use the .com site and not the .co.uk site as they are much cheaper and don't take long to be shipped over) http://www.vistaprint.com
good luck with your ventures! x

I will let others answer the specific question but my advice to any small business starting up would be to watch your cash flow. A lot of potentially good busnesses fail because they do not accurately estimate their cash flow in the early months. Good luck, I really hope you succeed.

If you are going to start your own business, make sure to get your own website/domain name. Its cheaper than you think. Here is a guide to getting started: http://www.richkahmer.com/build-a-websit...

Once you get your website setup, put it on everything.
Your car, letterhead, business card, newpaper ad, press release...