Your brain juices required......!

[mattley23]

My friend has recently found out he is going to be made redundant and feels now is the time to do what he's always wanted and start up his own company rather than search for another salaried job. He has the drive and enthusiasm but becuase he's all in a tizzy about his future he's not really thinking straight and is finding it hard to come up with ideas.

He came to me asking for ideas becuase im self-employed and thinks I should have loads of ideas but after brainstorming things with him ive kinda come to a dead end too so im turning to you guys from some inspiration.

I told him to do the usual 'list what your good at and what you like' thing but everything I came up with from the lists he didnt really go for so see what you guys can make from this:

Skills my mate has from past jobs:
Good at face to face selling (advertising, IT equipment)
Good and confident on the telephone (sales activities, as above)
Merchandising products for sales
Organising small scale events
Very good with computers (not programming or owt just using programs, researching & t'interweb)
Works well with children (use to work in an ice rink years ago helping kids)
Has done a bit of building work with me in the past (if you can call that a skill ha ha!!!)


Things my mate is interested in:
Adventure sports (particularly snowboarding - he goes every year)
Football
Music
Holidays
Property
cars
kids toys & books (he has a 2 year old so you cant blame the fella!)
Films
Going to gigs
Business


I hope some kind fellow or fellowette wouldnt mind spoending a few minutes of their time to try and peice these together and come up with some business ideas becuase i'm running on empty, plus it will get my mate off my back too!!

Thanks in advance ;-)

Matt

 

[DuaneJackson]

Computer classes for kids?

 

[falconinternetlimited]

Kids 5-a-side footie league & competitions (inter and intra-community challenges etc)

Business model options:

Free to enter a side (or minimal entry fee per team)
Advertising and sponsorship for local businesses
Web site league table (again with advertising)
League sponsor
Knock out cup competition - again with sponsor
Local grant?
Once setup and successful - franchise out to other communities and then run inter-community challenge cups etc etc

Rupert

 

[mattley23]

Thanks guys some great ideas there, I mentioed about the kids group type of thing buut he was kind of shying away from working with children again, maybe I shouldn't have put that skill down there!

He's leaning towards the internet side of things but doesnt mind if the business requires face to face meetings, sales opportunities etc

things I suggested were:

Appointment setting business (telemarketing/telesales) - rejected!
Property developing - rejected
Estate agency - rejected

I dont know a great deal abnout opportunities on the internet hence relying on your kind people for some ideas based on the info abve

Thanks again

 

[falconinternetlimited]

Adventure / Active Holiday company?

 

[mattley23]

Adventure / Active Holiday company?

Yeah good idea, how could you make it specialised though? Basically, different from all the other similar type companies out there?

 

[falconinternetlimited]

Make it ultra personalised. So although you are web based you develop specific itineries based around the requirements of the client : Geography, activity(s), length, numbers etc etc

I think the hook would be to be the 1 contact that could sort anything from sky-diving to pot holing to white water rafting to biking - whatever the activity you (he) could sort out and build a holiday itinery out of it. He could also offer to go along with the group to act as a personal organiser for the duration.

I can imagine the ramp-up to get to launch-position would be quite a piece of work but...

Rrupert

 

[mattley23]

Thanks Rupert,

Would you mind if I dropped you an email to pick your brains some more?

Matt

 

[falconinternetlimited]

Matt,

Happy to be used as a sounding board.

Cheers,

Rupert

 

[Jon123]

Hi,
Has you mate thought about, a purely snowboarding travel agent, he must know some good places to board so he could arrange the accomadation, board hire, best places to board in the area, car hire, nightlife, etc.

He would get to visit many places snowboard related and people would prefer to book with him for a snowboarding holiday than your average travel agent because he has expertise and knowledge where your average travel agent is likely to be reading from a piece of paper.

Maybe buying a few shallays in the mountains and rent out to borders,

Or both!!

Jon

 

[falconinternetlimited]

Or to simply keep costs down work with some chalets in the alps / Austria / the states and get a comission for every group sent their way....

 

[Mike by the Sea]

Hi Matt

Some exciting ideas coming up, far too strenuous for me. Does your mate fancy doing something that will take a couple of years to mature, but once done, will generate income whilst he sleeps - thats my idea of a good business plan. :smile:

This would cover the following skills that your mate has from the past....

Looking at the skills your mate has from past jobs:
Good at face to face selling (advertising, IT equipment)
Good and confident on the telephone (sales activities, as above)
Organising small scale events
Very good with computers (not programming or owt just using programs, researching & t'interweb)

If it sounds vaguely interesting, then follow the link for loads more details. I have been doing it for about a year and it pushes my buttons.

Any questions, please just ask.

All the best

Mike

http://www.telecomplus.org.uk/mikey

 

[mattley23]

I'll pass on your web address to him Mike.

 

[mattley23]

Anymore for anymore?