anyone have any good business ideas????

Trumpman

Watsup everybody,

After Hours, well i'll have plenty of time for that now and looking forward to it to!!!!!! problem is i was made redundant today (Which i've only known of for 4 weeks) so i'd like to be able to turn around to my former nazi employers in a year and say f*ck you, i don't need your poxy job.

I have a good idea of how a business should be run given i witnessed so many f*ck ups and idiots working where i was. SO the question is what do i do. I'm not really in this for the money....if i had my own company i'd certainly never fire of make myself redundant, so call it a new type of job security. I don't think i'd like the uncertainty of a regular job

Apparantly setting up a business is something which anyone can do if they have a good idea and the balls to go and do it. I NEED IDEAS.

I'd love to hear some suggestions.......think of things that piss you off.....or things you know could be done better or done with a bit more attitude.

There must be millions of ideas out there, so come on people help me prove that my ex corporate bosses are assholes and could'nt cut it at what i'm going to do.


F*UCK EM

Trump

Gordon

What do you think the world needs?

Memnoch

A decent uncapped broadband service in ireland?

I reckon if ANYONE could provide this they would be filthy rich quick. Especially if u offered something like free installation like it is in the UK so it wouldn't cost ppl with existing connections anything to switch. I personally would leave netsource in a flash after the way they have behaved

Caesar_Bojangle

cotton condoms, now there is an idea for ya.

gerire

Gven the new smoking laws in January
Smokeless Cigarettes.
With an option of having extra lung damage and not knowing it for the first few years.

Actually wait. This may work, Im taking this post at this time as my self addressed envelope being sent to me via mail.
Ahh Ha its mine

bonjour2utoo

Depends on what area youv'e worked in and what your talent or interest lies and also amount of capital you intend to invest. the best businesses are started with little capital therefore you cannot loose.

weemcd

if its possible go with Memnoch you would rake the money in!!! every gamer, serious downloader in the country would be yours, plus you could build more exchanges.

Trumpman

Thanks people,

What do i think people need........well having worked in marketing people always need and want stuff and are never satisfied always wanting bigger , better or faster things cheaper. So there's always opportunity.

The smoking ban is interesting....i'll bet when it comes around we'll be sitting somewhere in late january and realise that some guy has been dreaming of this legislation to be passed and will absolutly coin it.. and we'll be thinkin s*hit if only i had thought of that.

Some things to think of:

What do people in general
like:
dislike:
want but can't get
get but don't want
need
not want


This can be quite fun....i'm doing it tonight so ill post it for ye all to look at. Cheers for the earlier replies

I'll make of all of ye directors....how's that!!!!!!

nahdoic

You need to develop a portable device that you slide your fag into when in public places. You click the switch on this small slender device and it lights your fag for you instantly. Very handy. It also means that people will be able to smoke on windy days without having to bury their head in their jacket with their neck at a 90 degree angle to what it should be, while they try to puff up.

But the crucial feature will be that no fumes from the fag will be able to escape the portable device.

It should also come in a variety of clip on covers so the smoker can customise their fag portable device to the clothes they are wearing that day.

mrbungle

If you want to do it right you have to go after a niche. No point in rolling out what every body already has, except that "We provide a better service with blah-de-blah".

Get a business plan made up. I make it water tight.

Use other peoples money. Get your idea, goto Enterprise Ireland, Venture Capitalist. The product/service doesn't have to be novel, it has to make money. VC's and banks are not a flippant with their cash as they used to be, a al dot.com years.

Maybe find something practical. I know a guy who used to be a tiler and went from zero to millionaire in f@ck all time. He now does industrial tiling in pharmaceutical and electronic companies. Intel, Elan to name but 2 monsters !!!

Look at changing legislation and standardisation. A couple years ago any spod could fit an alarm to a house or car. Then these EU standards came in and left a load of previous contractors out on a limb with hardware that didn't conform. A couple of people got in at startup and made a packet. When I was in college a guy in my class went on work experience with himself !!! He set up his own company on these lines and made a fortune. He came back after 2nd year driving a Toyota LandCruiser. Good if you can get it.


Don't go on previous experiences and workplaces if you setup your own joint, so what if your bosses were Nazi's. Your the Fuhrer now and the Allies (Creditors) have landed in Normandy !!

Anyhow just a couple of quick thought, I might have more if this thread gets interesting.

BTW: Did you work for 3Com ??

Agent Smith

a pay as you go credit card. i know t6hge hguy who one's the idea who is looking to sell it
!

Specky

I really resisted getting drawn into this one for a while but my natural tendency towards ranting was too strong!

The "my employers are a bunch of gits and I know better than them" attitude is annoyingly common but generally not true. Sure you may see thing around you that are badly done or that you may consider wasteful but your employer's agenda is different to yours.

A fact that seems to be neglected or forgotten is that your employers are not there for your entertainment, they're there to make money. You, as a result, earn money and gain other benefits which make you a more valuable commodity.

The closure of labour intensive, manufacturung businesses (particularly multi-nationals) in this country is an inevitable that anyone with a bit of cop has been predicting for years. It will continue to happen. There is no right or wrong in it, it will just happen. It is not pleasant when it happens and I do sympathise with people who fall victim to closures but mostly I feel angry the government who pat themselves on the back for attracting the multi-nationals in with ENORMOUS grants and tax incentives then deny the inevitable (that these same companies will one day leave when their operations become economically unsustainable) and do little or nothing to put in place structures to develop indigenous companies to take their place.

Someone mentioned Enterprise Ireland. I will come to them shortly. The same person mentioned venture capitalists.....sorry I'll stop laughing shortly.....

So you now want to start your own business. Are you sure? You can't immediately put your finger on what you want to do so the chances are you will not succeed anyway. If you've been working in a large organisation you probably (almost certainly) have very little idea of what is involved in running a business as you will have been seperated from the real world by layer upon layer of management and dozens of individual departments, each put in place to support you and allow you to perform your job function.

Start your won business and you're on your own.

OK, so maybe you could just take what you do now for a living and find a way of providing that service as a specialist sub-contractor to other businesses. I'd have to say that if you can't come up with an idea for a business for yourself this is probably your best bet. But you still have to form the business, define precisely what you do, put in place the resources you need to do that, find customers, get them to use your service, get them to pay for your service, repeat until age 65.

If you think it's easy just go into work one day and make a list of everything you use...you don't own any of that, so if you wanted it in your business you'd have to source it, buy it and pay for it, and come up with the money to pay for it from your income...make a list of all the tasks you do and come up with reasons why someone might ask you to do these tasks rather than doing them themselves, and try to work out how much each task you perform is actually worth in money. Going to the toilet, chatting with your mates, reading your emain, having a cup of coffee etc don't make you any money, they cost you money. So if you're in business you have to deduct these from the money your company earns. At the moment your employer pays you to do all these things. Not such nazis are they really?

OK, so say you are going to start a business, how long do you reckon before you can make a living from it? It doesn't happen on day 1 you know. So you're going to need money.

Enterprise Ireland purport to provide start up money but they don't. In order to qualify for a grant from EI you have to be deemed a high potential start up, that is a business that satisfies a number of fixed criteria concerning the sector you are working in, your target market, your potential turnover and the growth potential (ie employment capacity) of your company. As a complete start up you will not get even an interview with EI, they will send you to your city or county enterprise board. Now this is not sour grapes 'cos we managed to get ourselves into EI and we are classified as a high potential start up, BUT the process is difficult and time consuming and I would suggest that for the majority of start ups your time could be more profitably spent talking to customers and doing business.

The quality of support you can get from county enterprise boards is highly variable from county to county and the amount of money they have available to offer start ups in grants (employment or feasibility) is pityfully small.

All of the basic grants available from EI or the CEBs is based on a 50:50 contribution so you need to be able to show you've invested in the business yourself before you can get anything back ...so grants are not a source of free money,

I could rant on about this all day but I won't.

Running a business is hard.

Starting a business from scratch is very hard.

You will hear anecdotal rags to riches stories every five minutes only some of which are only partly true (and which never tell the whole story). Yes, you can get rich running your own business but only if you want to give up your social life, get yourself into a lot of debt and not be too worried about it, willing to be the person with whom every buck stops (every little problem from finance to toilet roll is your problem) and will accept that you will have sleepless nights....and that's only if you succeed. Many businesses fail, then you have to pick up the pieces and go out and get a job....after you've paid off any staff you might have to let go....

You can't go into business blindly, it's no bed of roses for anyone. If you don't even know what you want to do and you have to ask people on boards for ideas I'd suggest you've got a fair bit to learn before you're ready to take such a step so I'd go find yourself another job for now and let your employer have the sleepless nights worrying about how he's going to pay your wages and provide you with a pension instead.

nahdoic

Nice post. Wouldn't consider it a rant at all. I especially liked

repeat until age 65

lather, rinse, repeat. always repeat.

hamster

Sounds like what Rich Dad Poor Dad was trying to get people to avoid. Good read but many people can't or won't aspire to. Long term investment is one. Where over the long run more and more of your own money works for you untended rather you working for money. Unfortunately this is a pipe dream for most unless you manage to save 70%+ of your wage every month. Hell, even pensions are starting to become unrealistic...

trap4

I would have to say that Specky's post above is probably the best I've ever read on these forums.

As someone who was lucky enough to have my start-up business deemed a High Potential one by EI last year I can second everything Specky has said.

My business idea was accepted for the GMIT Enterprise Platform Program last year and must say that it has been a great help from both the support and 'education' points of view.

However the business I'm speaking of was not something I dreamed up overnight. It was the culmination of about 4 years hobby work on a website targetted toward a niche sport and the industry based around it.

Therefore I have a natural bias towards advising budding €irePreneurs to concentrate on targetting niche market and to go after it with passion. In other words it helps if you are genuinely passionate about that niche. It helps if it's your hobby and developing the business is more of a vocation than a chore.

A very recent article by Douglass Rushkoff hits the nail on the head as regards what works and doesn't work on the internet. As he says, it's all about contact not content. But, to be more precise, as one of the comments appended to his article points out, the content is an important catalyst for the contact. What's he on about?

Take this very website for example - boards.ie. According to a recent article by Karlin Lillington in the Irish Times boards.ie has about 6,000 active members and 2.5 million page views. All the content is user generated, some of it of very high quality (like Specky's post above), some of it so so, and lots of it .... well I won't say

The points is, regardless of the quality of content the attraction of this site is as much the contact as it is the content. Message boards systems have that great synergy. So no prizes for guessing that's what my own business is based around - a niche message board system. Only, unlike boards.ie, I (rather 'we') charge new members a yearly subscription fee. We can do this because we have a UNIQUE knowledgebase of over 170,000 posts, providing information that just isn't available elsewhere on the internet. But we can also do it because of the critical mass of members we've built up over the years, because they've gotten to know each other, because their Digital IDs are unique to our site, and becuase it fulfills the need for social interation, for CONTACT aswell as content.

I don't mean to labour the point but I'm trying to convey the key to what, in my opinion, works on the internet.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-€eirePreneur
http://eirepreneur.blogs.com

Specky

I would have to say that Specky's post above is probably the best I've ever read on these forums

I am truly both humbled and flattered (in equal amounts) by your very kind words....particularly given the number of typos and spelling mistakes in my original post!

...it must have been the passion with which I typed that impressed you

Mercury_Tilt

This post has been deleted.

DEmeant0r

you could open a new bowling alleyif you're in Galway, been waiting on a cheap bowling place in Galway for ages, still waiting, feckin' Leisureworld is £á7/game feckin' expensive.

Trumpman

Hmmmm thought provoking stuff there,

Thanks to Specky for your post. It was very refreshing for someone to point out the realities of entreprenurial life. And difficult and all as it is to admit i probably have existed in a very sheltered business environment for too long, but that will change.

I do have ideas, the problem is that i'm trying to don the financials on the bplan and dont really know how to forecast sales volumes until i do some proper market research...You sound like you are living the ups and downs of business life.

In the meantime (Specky) what type of job do you think would best prepare someone to running their own business venture

Specky

Forecasts are always soimething of a "finger in the air" exercise but really you need to look at them sort of back to front.

First thing you decide is what salary do you want to earn. No point in saying the same one you earn as an employee. If you want to earn that salary then go get a job, it's easier. So say you want to earn €60,000 per year for instance.

Divide that by 52, then by 5. That's how much gross profit you have to make every single working day just to pay you that salary.

Work out what you want to sell and what it costs you to buy it.

How much do you think people are willing to pay for each of the "things" you want to sell? Subtract cost price from sell price (gives you the margin), then divide your daily salary requirements by the unit margin. That's how many units you HAVE TO sell every day to pay your salary (ok this doesn't take into acount overheads, it's a sanity check more than anything). If you don't believe there's a market for the quantity you need to sell, go get a job or think of something else to sell.

The majority of business plans include fantastical fantasies about projected volumes. They're a pile of crap and everyone knows it. The days of speculative fanciful forecasting are gone. Good pragmatic forecasts start by showing what you NEED to do. After that you do market research to prove that you CAN achieve your requirements. Being truthful with yourself about your chances is the most important thing. That's where it all starts. If you can prove there's a chance to yourself (honestly) then there's a good chance it can work (as long as you have the balls to make it work....another very important requirement).

What is a good job to prepare you for running a business??

Well there's a question!

Any job really...it's the person that's important. If you do a job that gives you a skill that is marketable you are on the right tracks, but THE MOST ESSENTIAL part of business (cannot be emphasised enough) is that business IS selling. You sell yourself, you sell your product/service you sell everything. If you have a problem with sales and marketing and you want to be in business then you'd better either give up or employ someone else who doesn't have a problem with it.

So if anything I'd say a job that at least teaches you some of the skills of selling would be very valuable. People skills are very important. You'll learn more selling on a market stall than you will on a lot of sales courses.

Don't forget, there are lots of companies out there selling complete crap....but they are selling it, and they are making money. There are also a lot of people with failed businesses who had fantastic ideas and products but couldn't get anyone to buy them. Moral of the story = sales is what is important.

At least a passing familiarity with accounts doesn't hurt either!! We all have to get involved with them even if you employ an accountant and it doesn't hurt to be able to understand what your accountant is telling you either....there are plenty of them who will try to baffle you with bull and give you a huge bill for nothing.

Specky

Hmmm....looks like I made an error in an earlier post.

Should have read "repeat until age 75"...

Trumpman

For all of you convinced that there is a solution to hte anti-smoking ban to be introduced, and it will as nervous bertie said. I am not advocating this type of product but here is an example of how one guy overcame the smoking ban in his pub......i'd say it rotten, but it's interesting none the less....p.s. due to my background i know for a fact that this would be an illegal product

Check it out at

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/entertainment/barsandclubs/sfl-linicotini30jul30,0,1955010.story?coll=sfla-entertainment-nightlife

This is getting interesting

Trump

pps for those of you who saw the entrepreneur of the year last week i was stunned that the two lads from hostelworld.com did'nt win it. Such a brilliant and highly profitable win-win business model. i thought they should have won

Trumpman

Specky,

You truly are the mentor I have been seeking. Thanks for your advice.....i have done sales before but i think it's time to do it again.

thanks again

T

Specky

Mentor...hmmm...always pictured myself as that bloke with the dodgy eyes in Kung Fu but occassionally wake up screaming from a dream in which Mark Hamil is saying to me "these chips, they're too dry" and I reply "the sauce Luke, use the sauce"

Tazz T

Regarding the new smoking laws, here's an idea. There's a real problem with all the fag butts outside pubs in the states. I suspect that the government won't allow that there. Install special ashtrays outside pubs and lease them for advertising space to ad agys.

Just an idea...

trap4

Just throwing this idea up for discussion to be criticised, analysed and generally scoffed at

By the way, I hope it meets with the standards required of these forums but seeing as it's not yet a business of any kind I'm sure it does?

Right, I'm sure if you haven't yet bought one you're at least considering upgrading to one of those fancy schmancy camera phones which facilitate the new version of text messaging (or SMS) called multimedia messaging (or MMS). MMS allows for transmission of photos, video and audio in addtion to text.

Other countries have already seen new series based on MMS where subscribers are sent a new episode each day of an MMS soap. I think there is one in The Netherlands (saw it on www.springwise.com - great website!).

Anyway, how about throwing that idea into a pot with "You're a Star" and "Cabin Fever" and mixing maniacally to produce - SoapStars! IMHO it's best to aim it at a targetted group such as students so here's how I would view it working -


€10,000 worth of prizes to the overall winner!

1) Week 1 - thrown open to all students in all 3rd level colleges in Ireland. Each entrant submits a synopsis of their soap, the characters, the plot, etc.

2) The best entry from each college is selected to go forth.

3) Week 5 - each entrant starts posting a daily entry to SoapStar.ie (or other) via MMS using a cameraphone (eg. Nokia 3650), with photo, dialogue and even atmospheric audio possibly. The storyline can be reality based - ie. photos and dialog from interesting situations in the student's real life encapsulating the drama of a student's academic and social life. Or it can be totally fictional whereby the student get's their friends to come together and pose for fictional situations.

4) At the end of each week there's an SMS vote, open to all, where people vote for their favourite soap. The least favourite is eliminated.

5) And so on until all other soaps are eliminated and the last soap standing is the winner.


6) All copyrights are left with the soap writer


Ok, scoff away :horned:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-Jim.
http://eirepreneur.blogs.com

ur mentor

Thats probably the fastest business lesson around.
Having started my own some 5 years ago now- there is a lot of good stuff in this thread.
Luckily Ireland is perhaps one of the easier countries in which to set up new business.
Sales are critical- the only thing that matters to any business is customers. It is easy to get distracted by all the other paperwork that come around when you end up answering questions and doing htings that are required but not revenue enhancing.
If you are leaving an existing job- are here an services you can provide to people you know as customers?
What specific skills do you have? Be honest and make sure they are not of dime a dozen nature.
Ther is always (nearly) work for those that want to work, and who will deliver on their promises
Delivering to customers is tough but the cheque is very satisfying.
there is a revenue seed capital refund scheme available for those setting up on their own. This gives back some of the tax you paid over last years.
Passion is vital- perhaps being broke is the best passion generator there is. (not passion as in romance:D )
do something in service especially if u have a special knowledge area. If not go back to school and get one or work part time in bar etc and learn new skill. do it for people who have money
the best customers are those that earn more per hour than u charge.

ur mentor

Originally posted by trap4
Just throwing this idea up for discussion to be criticised, analysed and generally scoffed at
not bad-
work better if u could do it for existing soap
how about (this makes me gag) Coronation Street?

pork99

I can only sympathise with Trumpman because I was made redundant myself about 6-7 months ago from the small company I worked for. The company hit the skids in part due to the incompetence of one of the directors who was a useless f-wit for whom running a startup company was just an ego-trip (he was eerily similiar to the guy in the attached jpg - the one on the left)

I'm not one to wallow in resentment - my philosophy is to learn the lessons & move on, you have to refuse to be beaten. I now believe I had a lucky escape from a dead-end job - getting the same money now I'm self-employed would be nice though.

I have had a few business ideas but I notice that any that I think have "got legs" get done by somebody else.

Specky

I have had a few business ideas but I notice that any that I think have "got legs" get done by somebody else.

Putting my controvercial hat on for a moment :horned: I suspect people who use your reason for not starting their own businesses are really just using it as an excuse.

If everyone who wanted to start a business didn't bother because somebody else was already in the same sector nobody would ever start a new business!

Every business.....I'll say that again for emphasis...EVERY BUSINESS has competition.

Even if you think you've come up with the most unique "thing" ever, I can guarantee you, you have competition.

For a start, new ideas are rarer than rocking horse droppings and generally less valuable. Even if you think you've come up with something REALLY unique....chances are someone else, somewhere is already doing something very very similar or the same. Maybe not in Ireland, maybe not even in Europe but whatever it is, it's probably out there or has been tried and failed (that doesn't mean it cannot be tried again and it will succeed by the way).

My second point about rocking horse droppings is that a brand new idea isn't really such a good thing for a start up anyway. The Irish market is both conservative and price conscious. As such, people are looking for the lowest price but are unlikely to take it from a new kid on the block that they (or someone they trust) has dealt with before. Believe me, I know from long bitter experience how hard it is to introduce new products onto the Irish market. Even if they're widely used outside Ireland it's very difficult to convince customers here to take the leap of faith required to get them buying from you if they don't know you.

It's better to start with products and services the customer base knows and understands, competitively priced and readily available. Once you have a client base established you can start to introduce them to new ideas...they still won't buy if it's more expensive than the old idea but at least you're talking.

Competition is actually about choice. The buyer has to make choices:

1. Do I want to buy?
2. What should I buy?
3. From whom should I buy?

Never under-estimate the significance of the first question. I've heard an awful lot of people describe fabulous business propositions to me over the years that have failed because they made the assumption that other people would believe the product was as invaluable as they seemed to think it was, but when it came down to it buyers simply decided they didn't need the product.

You need to understand your market. Even when people begin to buy from you, never stop trying to gain a more complete understanding of your market.

trap4

Anone heard of LimoLiner before? It's a luxury business coach travelling between New York and Boston for $69 each way.

I think there may be an opportunity to operate a luxury business shuttle like this betweeen Cork and Dublin (and maybe Limerick and Dublin), with no stops in every town along the way! What do you think? I've read numerous rave reviews about it, one of the most concise being this (from I-Sales Digest) -


"I'm writing this from the back of a bus. Literally. I'm on my way back from NYC to Boston. I'm sitting in cushy, leatherbound seats. I have two power outlets beside me (just as every seat does), and an ethernet port -- though I am linked to the internet via a wireless network built in to this bus. The pull down table in front of me is specially designed so my laptop won't go sliding back and forth when the bus turns or whatever. The cell phone connection is flawless all the way between here and Boston, so no spotty coverage. They provide me with a free lunch and soft drinks whenever I want. It beats all the shuttle flights and trains I've been on by a mile."

~~~~~~~~~~~~
-Jim.
http://eirepreneur.blogs.com