The Repass Dream

Life of the Party

therepassdream — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 02:20:16 +0000

Here’s an age-old business idea – become a party/event entertainer. If you have some sort of talent be it music, choral, magic tricks, or acting, this could be a viable business for you. You don’t have to limit yourself to birthday parties either. Using your musical or singing talents, you could form a band or go solo at anniversary parties, weddings, graduation parties, and more. Magic tricks could get you into birthday parties, graduation parties for smaller children, bar mitzvahs, and the like. Use acting skills mixed with costumes such as Spider-Man, Batman, and others to break into events for children. If you’ve got the guts, you could also mix acting with costumes and magic tricks to break into bachelor/bachelorete parties (i.e. – Bambi or Bruno the sexy clown).

Look into the initial start-up costs for this business. If you are going to be a singer, musician, or actor, costs might be high for equipment and/or costumes. Don’t know any magic tricks? There are thousands of books on them. With some practice you will be a pro. You might also want to look into getting a van to lug your things around from party to party. Market this business depending upon who your target audience is. For children, leave flyers in party stores and toy stores. For weddings and the like advertise around tuxedo shops and bridal gown stores. If something more risqué is your plan, try advertising around adult product stores.

You could expand this business in many ways, including: your own CD (for musicians and singers) or DVD (for magicians or actors), your own web show broadcast yourself and supported by ad sales, or (here’s one that’s so far unthought of) a party entertainer agency.

Hybrid Electronics

therepassdream — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 03:55:18 +0000

This one will require some invention, engineering, money, and testing. But if you have the access to these items, it is well worth looking into. How many times have you been talking on your cell phone or listening to your iPod only to have the battery die? Trust me when I say you are not the only one. So why not make solar powered electronics (beyond calculators that is).

You will want to research how to build whatever electronic you want to make solar (unless you already know how). You might also find a way to hack solar panels into the battery hookup on the electronic you are trying to turn into a hybrid. With advanced electronics skills, you might want to look into a way to have solar panels charge a bettery backup for when there is no light available to power your device. Once you have your device built make sure to get it patented. Then market it to companies such as LG, Nokia, or Apple.

Expansion ideas include starting your own solar electronics manufacturing company. You might also look into creating solar powered toys.

Yet another idea comes your way tomorrow.

Lawn Love

therepassdream — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 02:02:09 +0000

Like working outside with machinery and plants? Then a business in lawn care and landscaping could be just the business for you. Now, I know what you’re thinking. That’s seasonal work, right? Come winter business is going to die down and I’ll be left without any money. Well, that is actually up to you. Don’t limit yourself to cutting grass and trimming hedges. Include services such as gardening, lawn decoration, and snow removal and you could have yourself a year round business.

Look into getting reliable and economic machinery for your lawn care business and where you can get cheap, but festive lawn decorations for holidays. Research what other companies are charging for the same services and undercut them slightly. Set up a website displaying some of the gardens you’ve created, some of the holiday lawn décor you’ve set up, and the great job you do at cutting the grass and removing the snow. Place flyers around the neighborhoods that would most likely be able to use your services and run some ads in local newspapers.

Expansion ideas include everything from your own line of lawn décor, a local cable show about lawn care and decorating, a lawn care newsletter, or even your own nursery. You could also expand into indoor gardens, laying cobblestone driveways, or setting up outdoor kitchens/entertainment areas. Fence installation is yet another route you could expand into.

Not your idea of a good time? Visit us tomorrow for another innovative idea.

Poet for Hire

therepassdream — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 00:26:05 +0000

Are you good with words? Have a liking for poetry? Why not become a poet for hire. Using your writing skills and your passion for poetry, people will hire you to express what they either cannot or don’t have the time for. This could include their love for someone else, their sentiments over loosing a loved one, their gratitude for a favor, and more. Meet with your clients and conduct an interview with them to figure out what it is they are trying to express. Then charge them for each draft of the poem you do (with a three draft minimum).

For this business you are going to want to be well versed in poetry, reading the classics and contemporaries alike. Make sure your writing skills are kept up to date by attending writing conferences and workshops. Look into the various tax write-offs involved with being a professional writer as well. Market your business with cards placed in wedding planner offices, gift shops, florist shops, and other such places.

Expansion for this business could come in the form of your own greeting card business featuring your poetry or you could expand into other forms of writing (personalized stories for children, speeches, etc). If you get good enough at writing poetry, you might look into writing your own anthology or even holding your own poetry workshops. As you keep up on poetry, you may find that you have a deep love for it and would like to become a poetry editor/agent.

Not for you? Another idea comes your way tomorrow.

Work Finding Work

therepassdream — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 02:31:03 +0000

If you’ve ever searched for a job you know how hard it can be. I bet you even wished someone else could do it for you. Well, what makes you think other people aren’t thinking the same thing? Why not step up and fulfill this need? Providing a full service experience, you will conduct interviews with your clients to gather information on the type of work they are looking for and in order to create a rè sumè for them. Then, using the information you’ve gathered, you will gather, fill out, and submit applications for your clients. Make your money by charging a retainer at the initial interview (covering the interview, the résumé , and the first few applications) and for each additional application you submit once your client gets a job.

You will want to keep a running list of companies in your area that are hiring. Also, bone up on your interview and writing skills as they will better your shots at landing jobs for your clients. With the Hispanic population on the rise, it would be wise to take up Spanish.

You will want to market this business to the unemployed and those seeking better careers. Get some business cards and hand them off to everyone. Post flyers, especially around temp services and unemployment offices. Create a website that includes contact information, a description of what you do, and some testimonials from past clients.

There are a variety of ways to expand in this business. Obviously, you can break the services down and offer a ré sumé writing service or an application completion and submission service. Going another route, you could offer business/calling card design services to accompany the ré sumé s. You could also partner with local businesses, finding people qualified to fill certain positions and charging them a finders fee.

Join me tomorrow for yet another great business idea.

Become A Blogger

therepassdream — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 00:04:08 +0000

I start my posts of business ideas with the very one you are looking at – a blog. Starting a blog is easy and cheap. You can host your blog through various companies, including Blogger, WordPress, or Typepad for free. Likewise, you can either use a free domain name (yoursite.wordpress.com) or pay as little as $15 or less for a personal domain name (yoursite.com). When posting, it is as simple as typing a title and your article into boxes neatly labeled for each one. Want to ad an image? There is a little icon that you can click to ad on at the top of the toolbar where you write your article. Find a subject that you are passionate about and start writing. You will make money through the sale of advertising space on the blog.

Look into writing html code so you can add some design elements to your blog. Find out what you can about plug-ins for your WordPress account, different advertising networks, affiliate/associate programs, and how to sell ads privately. Some resources for you to look into are John Chow dot Com, Problogger, and Dosh Dosh. How do you get people to your blog? Through social marketing: visit other blogs related to yours and comment on the posts and join social networks such as Facebook or MySpace and start befriending people with interests that match your blog. Through PR: send press releases to various media producers who cover your particular topic, write articles and submit them for publication to print media, and (of course) make sure that your articles provide your readers with information they will talk to their friends and family about. Also look into placing ads in related print media, buying Google AdWords, exchanging banners with other sites, or even launching a publicity stunt. If your blog happens to take off, why stop with one. If you have another passion, start a blog about it. You might even be able to start a blog about a specific topic covered generally by your first blog. For instance, if your blog is about model train collecting, you might be able to start a blog about building scenery and model train displays. Or, going another route, you might even start a website selling model trains and model train scenery.

What You Might Want To Research:

Marketing:

Expansion:

Not interested in this idea? Visit us tomorrow for another business idea.

New Formatting

therepassdream — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 02:14:04 +0000

After some consideration, I’ve decided to change the information format of this blog. Starting tomorrow, The Repass Dream will be offering daily ideas for businesses that you can start. Of course, I will still be keeping you updated on the success of my businesses and offering advice on bettering yourselves and pursuing your dreams. However, I feel that by offering you a multitude of business ideas that you may not have thought of, I cen better serve you.

I am not going to stop with just listing ideas though. Each business idea post will contain information on exactly what the business entails, items that you might want to research, ideas for expansion, and more. Should you have a business idea you would like to share on the blog and with fellow entrepreneurial spirits, please e-mail, or if you want me to come up with business ideas based on your interests, e-mail them to me at repassenterprises@gmail.com.

Thinking that there can’t possibly be enough business ideas out there to create a sustainable amount of information for a blog? Think again. The ideas are virtually limitless. Luckily, I spend most of my time thinking and daydreaming (even when I’m doing other things). Catch you all tomorrow then with the first idea.

My Experiment in “Free” Enterprise

therepassdream — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:59:05 +0000

In my last post, I informed you that I had a business idea that I would expand on later. Well, I can’t yet afford to launch the idea so I won’t go into details. However, part of it revolves around a blog. Anxious to get my own business up, I decided to run a little experiment to answer this question: Can someone start a business and make money without spending anything other than time? I am hoping that the old axiom, “Nothing is Impossible,” holds to be true.

Taking my concept for a blog revolving around the things I am passionate about (comic books, movies, games, collectibles, etc.), I have started a blog on a free domain and started placing ads from various affiliate programs (which I joined for free). As time progresses and more people start visiting the site, I will join an assortment of advertising networks and have pay-per-click ads placed on the site. If everything goes according to plan, the site will provide me with a nice supplement to my regular income.

Check back here every month for updates on how the site is making out. I’ll post them at the end of every month starting in August.

Choose Your Business Part 3

therepassdream — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:44:21 +0000

The Process At Work

As mentioned, I have used this method to choose my own business. Here is a look at how the process worked out for me. Listing my ideas, I came up with a list that included everything from comic books and movies to business and self betterment. Narrowing down the list, I came up with a list that was still fairly large list. Rather than narrow the list further though, I decided to combine items into two different categories. Self betterment and entertainment.

Moving onto the next step, I started listing business ideas for these two categories. Again, rather than choose just one, I decided to combine a couple of them into one and did the same thing for the other. Having started with this blog, which sells advertising space to third party companies. The other, which I will be starting soon, will be a conglomerate offering a variety of products and services (more on this once it is launched).

The process took me only a few days, including time to make my lists and research my business ideas. In the end, I was confident that I had found business ideas that I would be happy working at for the rest of my life.

Choose Your Business Pt. 2

therepassdream — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:11:00 +0000

Making A List And Checking It Twice

You’ve taken the time to make a list of all the things you find interesting and narrowed it down to a few items that you are passionate about and you are ready to move on to the next step in choosing right business to start. This step consists of making a few more lists. Pull out one sheet of paper for each of your passions from the first list and title each paper at the top with one of those passions. Now its time to put your imagination to work. Start listing businesses revolving around each passion on their respective sheets of paper. Again, this was a long list for me and you will want it to be long.

Once finished, go over the list and ask yourself a series of questions for each business idea. You should ask yourself, first and foremost, whether you can see yourself slaving over this idea happily. If the answer is yes, ask yourself how much you know about this type of business. Are you willing to spend the time and effort to learn if you don’t know much about it? Place a check next to each idea that you answered yes to both questions for. Then move into the research phase.

During the research phase of choosing your business you need to look into each business idea you have a check next to. Find out things like: is there a demand for this business, how much will it cost to start this business, can I afford to start this business, and is their room for expansion and growth in this business? The information gathered during this step will help you determine the right business for you to start. If nothing appeals to you, go back and add more business ideas to your list and research each one. Heck, I’ll even do part of the work for you. Send me one of your passions and I’ll come up with a list of business ideas for it and post it on this blog. Want to see the business I chose? Come back tomorrow for my experience using this method of choosing a business.