Start your own Small Businesses for Supplemental Income

Starting a business that is designed to provide you with 100% of your income stream can be a daunting task. It takes a lot of effort, work and financial investment to get a new venture up and running. For many people, this may be near impossible. Between the your current job that provides a steady income and other life responsibilities there may be too little time or too much risk to throw yourself completely into an idea. However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t start your own venture that provides some supplemental income. Supplemental income is an amazing thing. It may be the extra cash that you need to save for a vacation, make a fun purchase or pay off some bills. What do I do? I like online business and marketing and love the flexibility and freedom that come with being able to run a business wherever you have Internet access. I love to move around and travel and wanted to be able to support myself while doing so. My first website, Bomb Footbags, sells hacky sacks in retail and wholesale quantities. We do custom wholesale orders for various companies and businesses and have a really solid product. My second website, Daily Lacrosse Deal, sells discount lacrosse gear. While we sell gear on the site, it is essentially a marketing intermediary that drives sales for other lacrosse businesses and helps them gain exposure. The two businesses I run do not make 100K a year, but I love running them and they don’t take too much time. I’m not living large and lavish, I still work other jobs, but these businesses are steps in the right direction, they will continue to grow year after year and could lead to new opportunities. I have gained tons of knowledge about website development, online marketing and running a business. Both of these ideas took minimal investment and were started in a few months. What should you do? Hopefully your idea is something you’re excited about. If you don’t already have an idea, but know you want to do something, try to have your new small business involve something you enjoy. Maybe you love classic cars and sell parts out of your garage. Maybe you are a sculptor and sell your art. Maybe you love design and start a t-shirt company. The ideas are endless. Starting Small Many new businesses are never more than a brainstorming idea. Brainstorming is a wonderful thing and is an amazing way to generate ideas, but to be an entrepreneur you need to take the next step and actually go for it! This is key. I know a lot people who talk up their next great idea, but they fail to ever follow through. You shouldn’t force a bad idea, but when you are confident in your business plan and can make the time and financial investment, take it to the next level. Get Rolling Once you have committed to an idea, stay committed. Know that your idea is going to work and make it happen. No idea will work if you quit after 1 week, so stay after it. Set doable weekly goals and keep taking steps in the right direction. Don’t let minor setbacks get in your way, find a way around them and push on. Ready, Go! When you get an opportunity to provide your services or start your business, do it. A lot of answers will work themselves out and you’ll quickly figure out how to do what you’re doing better by reacting to real clients. This is another great reason for starting small; you can learn from your mistakes and victories and continually do things better as you grow. Keep Growing If down the road your small idea really clicks, maybe it can become a more significant portion of your income! In the meantime, however, stick with what works and constantly strive to do what you’re doing better. As long as you run a good business it will naturally get bigger over time. You’ll have more visibility, more repeat customers and more word of mouth to help you grow. The Moral of the Story Start small and grow from there. This will help you get your entrepreneurial spirit moving in the right direction with a smaller time and financial investment. It is less daunting and will lead to other things. Supplemental income is awesome! Even if your idea only makes 5K a year, if it doesn’t take too much time or is something you enjoy doing, it’s all good!