Small Business Tips

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The Donald is returning to the place where he first staked his claim as a TV personality.

NBC has announced a premiere date for its “Celebrity Apprentice.” The seventh edition of the show, which will feature 14 reasonably famous people vying to raise money for their favorite charities, is scheduled to premiere at 9 p.m. ET Thursday, Jan. 3.

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Entrepreneurs: Need $25,000 or less? For lower interest rates than traditional banks, consider using a social lending Web site

Scoring a loan from a bank to launch or expand a business isn’t easy, and with the credit crunch, it’s only getting tougher. One alternative to a bank is an online social lender, which handles both personal loans and business loans and offers some new twists on an old practice. The premise is by logging onto one of these peer-to-peer networks, an entrepreneur can reach thousands of potential lenders instead of pitching one loan officer at a time. Without a commercial bank’s overhead, these marketplaces’ main selling points are lower interest rates for borrowers and better returns for lenders.

Management

Personal Concierge
A personal concierge handles “anything in the Yellow Pages as long as it’s legal, moral and ethical,” says Katharine Giovanni, founder of the International Concierge and Errand Association, now with 600 dues-paying members in 20 countries. Some established concierges act as general contractors who hire and manage a host of services, from cleaning to shopping.

Start-up costs: Minimal–other than basic liability insurance, perhaps a few hundred dollars per year.

Income: Dollars vary drastically depending on the client base, though six-figure incomes are not unheard of, says Giovanni.

Tip: Build a network of dependable vendors before you tackle bigger, more demanding clients.

Dog Walking
Yes, you can make a living cavorting with canines–it just takes a little scale, transportation and only a mild distaste for waste.

Start-up costs: A few leashes, some chew toys and maybe a vehicle, and you’re ready to go. You’ll also want a Web site and some insurance. One problem: Gas over $3 a gallon will sting walkers who round up their customers in sprawling suburbs.

Income: Depends on pricing and the number of dogs you can handle. Kevin Meadows, owner of Austin Dog Walkers, handles between 20 and 30 dogs a day. Annual pretax profits: about $60,000.

Tip: Take an animal first-aid course or volunteer at a shelter–if only to convince clients that they should trust you with their prized pets.

Wedding Consultant
You won’t find a more fanatical customer base than anxious brides, grooms and the parents writing the checks. Some consultants coordinate everything from scratch, while other parachute in on the big day to make sure things run smoothly.

Start-up and ongoing costs: All you need to get going is a phone, an Internet connection (for researching vendors) and a lot of patience. Consider advertising on wedding Web sites like TheKnot.com and WeddingChannel.com. Bridal trade shows cost as much as $5,000 per booth.

Income: Consultants charge $1,000 to $20,000 per event, depending on location and breadth of services. The best clear $100,000 a year.

Tip: Focus on the visual. Kerri Cooper, owner of Seattle-based Bliss Events, mails clients a formal, mock-wedding invitation when scheduling an introductory meeting.

Vending Machine Operator
Install the machines and let the masses snack to their hearts’ discontent.

Start-up costs: Between $2,000 and $3,000 apiece for new machines. Check out www.vending.org.

Income: A typical “45 Select” machine carrying 45 snacks (10 to 20 of each) generates $5,200 to $7,800 in annual sales; operators might keep 25% of that. In general, schools and hotels are the best locations. And don’t forget maintenance. “Half the battle with these machines is keeping them in working order,” says Lori Endres, owner of S & L Vending, an operator in Phoenix.

Tip: The more machines you own, the better pricing you’ll get from vendors. Note: Beware “blue sky” operators leasing machines at usurious rates.

Innkeeper
This one demands a bit of up-front capital, but not much more. Buy an existing business or rent out extra rooms in your house. In either case, you’ll be handling the cleaning and cooking (breakfast, mostly). You’ll also want to know something about the surrounding area to guide guests from out of town.

Start-up and ongoing costs: After liability insurance, you’ll need duplicate sets of linens, towels, dishes and silverware for all rooms. Ongoing expenses include gas, water, heating, food and cleaning (if you don’t feel like doing that yourself).

Income: Inns charge anywhere from $100 to $400 per room per day, depending on the location, amenities and season.

Tip: Run the largest inn you can afford–there is operating scale here.

Laundromat
Unlike a dry-cleaner, you don’t need to understand the art of stain removal to run a coin-operated laundromat. Nor do you have to spend all day at the office.

Start-up costs: Existing laundromats sell for up to several hundred thousand dollars, depending on location. Heavy-duty washers that can handle 50 to 75 pounds of clothes (four to eight typical home loads) cost up to $5,000 apiece; dryers, maybe $3,000. Maytag, Whirlpool and Speed Queen each have local distributors.

Income: Depends on the number of machines and how often they run. A 50-pound capacity washer will bring in up to around $7.50 per cycle (15 cents per pound of clothes); a 25-pounder, about $3. A busy laundromat can keep its machines running 30% of the time. Typical operating margins: 20% to 30%.

Tip: Downtime is a killer, so have competent maintenance people at the ready.

Nightclub Promoter
Socialites on steroids might like this gig, which involves rounding up partiers to drink and dance at local hotspots. And with all those viral social networking sites, you don’t even need a big Rolodex to start.

Start-up costs: Mainly your time. Work everybody–the doorman, wait staff and possibly the club owner–to land your first gig, says Noah Tepperberg, the owner of Marquee nightclub in New York City.

Income: Promoters get paid a flat rate or on a commission basis, depending on the number of people they bring in. Snag a high-roller and you might even get a percentage of what he or she spends. The best promoters in New York City pull in a few thousand dollars in one night.

Tip: It’s easy to get ripped off in this business. Work only with club owners you trust.
 

Business Tips

If your Website promotion ended after your site went live and you invited a couple of friends to look at it, your website development was a waste of money! You have to work at your small business website marketing. Your job as a small business owner is to attract as many visitors to your site as you possibly can. There are many online tools available to help you increase your website’s traffic which will result in increased sales.

A great method to increase the number of visitors to your website is marketing with articles. Pick a topic you are knowledgeable about that is relevant to your target audience and write an article about it.

When you write an article, you instantly become an expert on the topic, in the eyes of your readers. After your article is written, you include a ‘resource box’ at the end which includes a mini bio about you and a link to your website. Marketing in this fashion will have people interested in your industry or field coming to your website in droves if the article has helped to establish you as the go-to person for your product or service. Website marketing needn’t be expensive or difficult. There are many free ways to boost the amount of search engine traffic you receive, you just have to look for them. Article marketing is a great method of Website marketing.