Business ideas

Today i remembered what the good idea i had a few years ago was....and now ive forgotten again.

Ah that's right.:dimbulb:

When i was doing Foxtel back at the turn of the decade i used to go into a lot of very nice homes in swanky Sydney suburbs and noticed a trend in new and renovated houses to decorate with custom tiles...a couple of times i saw what i would describe as feature mosaics, situated usually just after entry thru the main door/s or between entry area and open plan kitchen.

So got me to thinking that if you were a little artistic, you could have a nice little business making largish tile mosaics..you could do a selection of stock designs and also do custom jobs...charge heaps cos only rich people want em anyway, its easy to do at home, requires little set-up cost, no Govt crap or significant barriers to entry, no sweat required and lends its self to online sales.

Best one i ever saw was of like an Aztec sun design about 2 meters square, very intricate and colourful and probably sold for over a couple of grand, nice return considering the materials cost is very low....i remember now i actually talked to some tile sellers about sourcing broken and whole tiles and what type to use etc...he he .

Agreed So_cynical ........ but tiling entry ways takes a certain skill. Magnitude of thought is awesome by the way. Cheers and beers for the foethought and malice.

Ticks all the boxes !!! Except the skill factor, I LIKE IT !

DO you know how much people are willing to pay to digitize their memories
I had a plan to do this back when negative scanner were expensive.. back then the plan was sound i just happened to move countries a few time.

now there are VCR-DVD machines
picture scanner that are amazing and cheap.

as people get older , what they have they want to make sure they keep and can pass on.

noie said:

DO you know how much people are willing to pay to digitize their memories
I had a plan to do this back when negative scanner were expensive.. back then the plan was sound i just happened to move countries a few time.

now there are VCR-DVD machines
picture scanner that are amazing and cheap.

as people get older , what they have they want to make sure they keep and can pass on.

Click to expand...

Technology has caught up with you noie. Very sound idea by the way. Admittedly it was a very realistic proposition back about 4 years ago before picture scanners were sold by Demtel !

noie said:

DO you know how much people are willing to pay to digitize their memories
I had a plan to do this back when negative scanner were expensive.. back then the plan was sound i just happened to move countries a few time.

now there are VCR-DVD machines
picture scanner that are amazing and cheap.

as people get older , what they have they want to make sure they keep and can pass on.

Click to expand...

I have recently purchased a Kaiser Bass photo maker that scans any 35mm negatives, including slides and puts them on file or on a disc. Works great, cost $89. My family appreciated getting copies of photos and slides some of which date back almost 100 years.

yeah i missed the boat on that one..

now all can do it, and with better results.. hind-site moving saved me on that one..

I was also saved by Transport for London also when trying to get DVD rental vending machines onto the tube platforms..

4 weeks later a friend of the family started dvdsontap which turned into the UK Netflicks its easy to get trumped by better tech.

trainspotter said:

Agreed So_cynical ........ but tiling entry ways takes a certain skill. Magnitude of thought is awesome by the way. Cheers and beers for the foethought and malice.

Ticks all the boxes !!! Except the skill factor, I LIKE IT !

Click to expand...

Tranny...not tiling (that's hard yakka) just making and selling the mosaics...sticking the pieces onto the backing to form the picture/pattern.

So_Cynical said:

Tranny...not tiling (that's hard yakka) just making and selling the mosaics...sticking the pieces onto the backing to form the picture/pattern.

Click to expand...

Ahhhhhhhhhhh .. got it thanks .... Ok I am with you now. How do we set this up to make money?

It would appear that the Gubmint has caught onto my idea at last. Take a little bit off everybody and no one will complain. Flood levy at $1 per week per tax payer yadda yadda yadda = 2 BILLION AUD per annum. Now ...... do you think they will stop after one year?? hahahha HA a ha ahA HA h ah h HA HAh ha haa a a * cough* heh eh ahahe h ah ehahheheh heeheeeeeeeeee . Like vampires they will keep on sucking the proletariat dry !!!!!!!!

WAKE UP AUSTRALIA ....... you are being dudded yet again !

I was watching a Doco on ABC last night about a guy in London setting up a peoples supermarket...a supermarket based on like a farmers market but where people pay a small annual membership fee (say $25 bucks) and do 2 to 4 hours of unpaid work every month at the supermarket...stacking shelf's, cashiering, serving in the deli etc.

http://www.thepeoplessupermarket.org/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodandd...upermarket-communal-cheap-and-democratic.html

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/the-peoples-supermarket/story-fn9d34el-1226230560354

Idea being that the peoples supermarket can offer prices to members significantly lower than the majors because they only need to cover costs and most of the labour is provided free.... apparently there is a market like this in NY that's been running for over a decade and has 50000 members.

http://foodcoop.com/

Anyway i reckon this could work here, especially in Sydney's inner west...with the right location and rent agreement and 50 or 60K start up money i think it could work in the Newtown, Enmore, Erskineville, Alexandria area...all the ingrediants are there.

• Alternative youth co-op culture, students
• Many suitable locations, lots of empty commercial space
• Lots of high density housing..people per sq meter
• Reasonably close to Flemington markets

So_Cynical said:

I was watching a Doco on ABC last night about a guy in London setting up a peoples supermarket...a supermarket based on like a farmers market but where people pay a small annual membership fee (say $25 bucks) and do 2 to 4 hours of unpaid work every month at the supermarket...stacking shelf's, cashiering, serving in the deli etc.

http://www.thepeoplessupermarket.org/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodandd...upermarket-communal-cheap-and-democratic.html

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/the-peoples-supermarket/story-fn9d34el-1226230560354

Idea being that the peoples supermarket can offer prices to members significantly lower than the majors because they only need to cover costs and most of the labour is provided free.... apparently there is a market like this in NY that's been running for over a decade and has 50000 members.

http://foodcoop.com/

Anyway i reckon this could work here, especially in Sydney's inner west...with the right location and rent agreement and 50 or 60K start up money i think it could work in the Newtown, Enmore, Erskineville, Alexandria area...all the ingrediants are there.

• Alternative youth co-op culture, students
• Many suitable locations, lots of empty commercial space
• Lots of high density housing..people per sq meter
• Reasonably close to Flemington markets

Click to expand...

Wow, I watched that last night, and was thinking of bringing it up myself. Thanks for doing the research, I'd support something like that - would work anywhere in Melbourne I think.

I really enjoyed the first episode. I loved his passion - the freegan thing he did in his restaurant was fantastic - good luck to him. Really looking forward to how the series pans out.

This Coles/Woolworths situation we have now in Aus is the same thing - very underwhelming. In the next 10 years I can see us going back to basics.

Having been in business all my life I can associate with all those suggestions already posted.

However I am a little different in thinking.

Firstly I like bigger ticket items
The deli type mentality of lots and lots of little sales to make a buck I replaced long ago with bigger items which require just as much work to turn over but have a margin of 100 times the small item ( whatever that be in you business model)

You must look for demand and fill the supply hole.

I set up business as the hub
I employ people with liciences I don't have. ( I do have a builders licience).
That way I can supply spin off work from my main income producing business to other trades and make a cop out of them just for arranging the trade.

Here is an example.
I,m in civil construction.Times are tough
Our main line is Retention--- retaining walls both civil and domestic
rwi.com.au

Anyway a while ago we noticed that clients wanted fencing on boundaries retained or no.
We didn't do fencing.
We arranged excellent buying of product and as it's tight contractors beat a path to our door looking for work.
We buy product for $33 a meter and contractors to build $ 16/ meter.
All boundaries normally fenced at $69./ meter.from 50-100 meters.
Around $ 1500 a pop.
We do 2-5 / week.

Currently looking at solar.

There are infinite variations
Paving
Concreting
Landscaping
Irrigation
Storm water
Pool cleaning
Etc

All you need is the vehicle to establish clientele
THAT is YOUR job!!!