How about finding a Pharmaceutical product that will be in demand. if well advertised?

naijacutee:

I don't know where in the US you are, but the impression I get is that transportation is an issue, thus most people should own a car.

How about starting up a taxi business? In the current economic climate, I'm sure there are a lot of people who own cars, but who have no jobs. Could you start up a taxi company signing up cabbies ( also checking what the legal requirements are, and helping your potential cabbies fulfill them).

Potential cabbies pay a monthly registration fee to you, and you as an office/company can find them work. They are self-employed, so they sort out their own taxes - no tax headache on your part outside your own income.

Your company fixes prices on destinations and take a percentage of all their income. Your booking office books their journeys for them, so there is no 'ojoro' there.

All you need is a well-lit office near a train station (where you are sure trains run at night) = Customers Galore!

Getting a meddalion is very expensive

@1honeybee
works several ways
most common is money sent to you and you shop usually for the whole family
or they might come on a visit and you do the shopping for them
and sometimes i sell wholesale clothes to traders who come to UK for business
at all times you make your profit

I'm also interested in starting a business.

SOPRANO:

[b][/b]

Business Ideas In U.S:

1) Franchise: (7-11, Mcdonalds, Subway, Panera Bread)- Most banks will loan you the franchise fee if you have a good proposal and location

2) Tow-Truck: Start-up cost is about $10k -$15K (you do not have to drive it, just set-up a lot, hire driver, and dispatch center which can be done from home) easy money and low bond-cost

3) Cleaning business: Low start up cost, look for office contracts-get bonded and hire spanish pple: you just have to monitor their performance and check for tardiness

4) Mentoring and tutoring: Lots of government grants especially if you cater to low-income families and minorities (hire smart high school kids (they preffer it than wrking at mickey D)for tutoring your clients; pay them $1 above minimum wage and they will want to work overtime, 

Note: Day Care is good, but watch out for law-suits, and their bond rate is higher.

Business Idea In Nigeria:

1) Hauling: by far the most profitable with less headaches: start with a truck, GPS or any tracking device to track your driver and u will smile to the bank  [b][/b]

I like all your ideas, But can we discuss about number 2 more? WOuld one need any licensing to do this?

used school buses and use them to charter disabled kids to and from school. I had met another female that does the same thing, from what i hear its very profitable.

The question for the OP will be, what are good at? Or phrased differently, what are you passionate about? The answer you give will determine the best type of business for you.

I know people that made a lot of money from exporting laptops and cars into Nigeria but it seems the market is really saturated. I also know people with subway franchises, airport shuttle, cleaning companies, mechanic shops, convenience store, coffee shops, dollar stores, shipping companies, NGOs, etc.

Then there are people like me who are into technical stuff. I own a few companies but owning a company is the easy part, making profit is substantially more difficult. People like to talk about the companies they own but how many of them are actually turning a profit?

@2Buff
What is the name to your app? I’m also into iPhone apps but have yet to finish the damn thing! All that Objectice C is getting to me; maybe I should just switch to Android but then, I also don’t know Java! Whatever happened to just providing APIs in C/C++?

i know owning an african grocery store is quite profitable e.g a small bottle of alomo bitter that is N200 in 9ja is $20(N3000) in Toronto. Those thinking of exporting cars to 9ja should think twice before venturing into it, am in thesame biz and trust me its not as profitable as it use to be 5yrs ago.

To the person who spoke about banks loaning you money for a franchise, you might as well forget it because the bar is extremely high. You have a better shot of buying someone else’s franchise and then having the person finance the balance.

Subway, you need
Net worth $30k - $90k
Cash liquidity $80k - $310k

Quiznos
Net worth $125k
Cash $60k

McDonald
Cash $500k

buzugee:

taxi business in america is controlled by the jewish and russian mafia. unless of course you have $200,000 to pay for a medallion and thats only for 1 taxi. so if you want to own 10 taxis, you need 2 million dollars for 10 medallions. price of 10 cars. another 100,000 dollars. so you need 2.1 million dollars to start a taxi bidness with 10 cabs

200k in which city is that?!? and as beginner which city/department will sell 10 medallions at once to a rookie?!? I have an uncle that has 2 medallion in NY, he paid 0ver 500k for each medallion and it took him almost 8 yrs to get it,  thanks to some insider. The answer is even if you have the money to purchase a medallion, that doesn't mean they will sell it to you and besides they have a certain number of medallions that can be release to the public each year. and is only on the east coast (NY, MASS,NH,Philly,Baltimore) that you can make it big in the cabbies biz, and maybe LA and Houston, the rest pray to God to make your money back in 20 yrs

deeboiz:


200k in which city is that?!? and as beginner which city/department will sell 10 medallions at once to a rookie?!? I have an uncle that has 2 medallion in NY, he paid 0ver 500k for each medallion and it took him almost 8 yrs to get it, thanks to some insider. The answer is even if you have the money to purchase a medallion, that doesn't mean they will sell it to you and besides they have a certain number of medallions that can be release to the public each year. and is only on the east coast (NY, MASS,NH,Philly,Baltimore) that you can make it big in the cabbies biz, and maybe LA and Houston, the rest pray to God to make your money back in 20 yrs

Thats more realstic. What do you think about towing trucks biz?

deeboiz:


200k in which city is that?!? and as beginner which city/department will sell 10 medallions at once to a rookie?!? I have an uncle that has 2 medallion in NY, he paid 0ver 500k for each medallion and it took him almost 8 yrs to get it,  thanks to some insider. The answer is even if you have the money to purchase a medallion, that doesn't mean they will sell it to you and besides they have a certain number of medallions that can be release to the public each year. and is only on the east coast (NY, MASS,NH,Philly,Baltimore) that you can make it big in the cabbies biz, and maybe LA and Houston, the rest pray to God to make your money back in 20 yrs

in chicago its like 200k. and yes you can buy 10 medallions but not from the city. look for taxi drivers looking to relocate back to their countries. then buy their medallions. there are always people looking to sell

1.
Start a craft store, import clothes from Africa, African arts to sell in the USA. You can start as a Non-Profit/
microfinance

2.
Photographer at African parties

3.
Short video production/ads for small African/Latino/African American churches. In other words you become their media department since they have small budgets but love their projectors lol. They will subscribe to you.
4.
Leadership training for African churches, funny but they need it
5.
Blog or website with informations that people need.

Though i am into COSMETICS/MAKE UP ARTIST.All you need do is join MARY KAY AS A BEAUTY CONSULTANT or any name brand of yr choice,get trained as a make up artiste,go to a local college near you,be creative,get going and i bet u will never look back.You could be hired for dramas[theatres],fashion shows,bridals,birthdays,etc.


It wont be very easy at first,because the industry is veryyyyyyy competitive,all you need do is to be creative,start with yr family members first,and from there,you will get going.And secondly catering,people cant stop celebrating on thing or the other.Goodluck

have a computer,sales and repairs biz and its doingquite good.any biz can survive if u are willing to put in the ground work,am always on the road looking for new customers and unlike most nigerians,put some professionalism into your biz,have seen some biz with super bad reputations here

got a friend who has an African restaurant which is running really good.like i said,it all depends on how you run your biz,like someone said,you need to be mobile in terms of having a car and as long as ur customer relations is good,you are in good hands
and try to limit unnecessary spending on your biz i.e why pay for a website when u can have a free one with almost same or better features

milehigh06:

got a friend who has an African restaurant which is running really good.like i said,it all depends on how you run your biz,like someone said,you need to be mobile in terms of having a car and as long as your customer relations is good,you are in good hands
and try to limit unnecessary spending on your biz i.e why pay for a website when u can have a free one with almost same or better features

i wonder if african resteraunts are truly making money?

aminalib:

i wonder if african resteraunts are truly making money?

The restaurant industry in USA, most of them are barely able to live above their means. Am in an industry that works directly with them however for an African restaurant it all goes back to professionalism, ambiance and unique food features. I believe for such business to work focus on white people who want to explore rather than just Africans/Nigerians. However it requires investments and the banks hardly give loans to African restaurants

kcjazz:

The restaurant industry in USA, most of them are barely able to live above their means. Am in an industry that works directly with them however for an African restaurant it all goes back to professionalism, ambiance and unique food features. I believe for such business to work focus on white people who want to explore rather than just Africans/Nigerians. However it requires investments and the banks hardly give loans to African restaurants

i agree, white people will always want to try exotic foods, and the food has to be good too, ive been to a few african resteraunts and the food was terrible.

Where do people buy clothes/shoes in bulk to sell in Nigeria/Africa that can at least compete with those traders buying from Dubai and China or Asia generally considering the exchange rate

And Also i see a lot of people selling laptops from USA it seems there are discount stores where these items can compete in the nigerian market even with the exchange rate

The UK exchange rate is killing, Nigerian customers would mostly prefer lower price from Asia, getting buyers that can afford higher priced products is not that easy

A LOT OF PLE HERE HAVE TALKED ABOUT QUITE A GOOD NUMBER OF THINGS, AS PROFITABLE AS THY MAY SEEM, THE MARKET COMPETITION IS SO STIFF. IS ANYONE LOOKING INTO THE AREA OF VISUAL ART WORKS WHICH AM SELLS VERY WELL IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES LIKE US, EUROPE etc.

WELL, I WORK AS COMPUTER ADMINISTRATOR BUT AM PRIMARILY AN ARTIST. I KNOW THE KIND OF APPRECIATION I GET FROM MY CUSTOMERS LOCALLY AND DIASPORA ESP. FROM FOREIGNERS. THINK ABOUT THIS, IT MAY SOUND INTERESTING TO YOU. A LOT OF PLE DO BUY FROM HERE TO SELL OVER THERE. YOU CAN REACH ME IF YOU HAVE INTEREST ON pamelerin@gmai.com OR POSSIBLY ON 08059175122.

In UK do either of the below and be ready to attend alot of parties

DJ
Alaga Iduro\MC
Photographer
Make up Artist
Party Entertainer
Event Planner\Decorator
Cake Designer

A useless DJ in UK earns nothing less than £150 - £200 and a good DJ the sky is your limit

kcjazz:

The restaurant industry in USA, most of them are barely able to live above their means. Am in an industry that works directly with them however for an African restaurant it all goes back to professionalism, ambiance and unique food features. I believe for such business to work focus on white people who want to explore rather than just Africans/Nigerians. However it requires investments and the banks hardly give loans to African restaurants

like i said,the way you manage your biz will determine how successfull it is.the restaurant i am talking about is doing pretty good,has a nice spot and is generally clean with always bringing in new inovations
like any biz,your customer relations and biz accumen is very important
further more,in terms odf banks loaning you,well,if u have a good biz plan and not just selling eba and amala they will loan you,my friend got one and it helped him

Go on full scale dry cleaning,it is really a gud way 2 start sum thing doing!, I guesss?

go into drugs, 419 and the like

beauty/hair
massage parlours
african resturant
consultancy services as well like tax, furnishing, construction, architectural, u can even run a research firm.

you need to research where you live and look for gaps in the market- dont do like everyone else and open up what you see
the secret to true business success is starting what was previously non existent

If you are good at organizing then you can do well. I have a friend who makes 6 figures and she basically organizes peoples lives. The other thing is you can also be a virtual assistant. You have to be very organized and dependable. It can be stressful but it is a good business. My main business is in home health and my sister is a virtual assistant. I finally let her handle most of my back office stuff when I realized that I just could not do it all by myself. It was just too much. Most small businesses will benefit from a situation like this. There is just so much with running a business. Payroll, taxes, hiring, benefits etc. The last thing you want to do is run a lucrative business and be too busy to even file your taxes. I have seen it happen over and over again. Many businesses have failed because of this. If I was going to suggest anything to this thread it would be
1. Virtual Assistant
2. Home health care
3. Financial (if money fascinates you)
4.Vocational School (I am also looking at this myself)

These are my top 4 but there are opportunities everywhere and the great thing about here in the US there are regulations. While they can be frustrating sometimes they are also great at helping you run a more efficient business.
It's one thing to be interested in doing a business and it is another to actually take the time to educate yourself and be on top of your game. I love what I do and I know that for the crap that sometimes come with it, I would not do it if I did not love it.

Outstrip-pls my sister is a virtual assistant also do u know anybody in the home health business or any other biz that might need her services-thanks
my email is obodo25@yahoo.com

If you like writing and researching, you can do free lancing for some coys. The pay is good (over £500 for less than 10 hours work in a month). This may not fit into the starting a business thingy this thread is about but just tot to mention.

Thinking about it though, one can start a free lance writing biz too. I know its very lucrative if you can network properly.

whatawhat:

Outstrip-pls my sister is a virtual assistant also do u know anybody in the home health business or any other biz that might need her services-thanks
my email is obodo25@yahoo.com

Sorry dear I don't know anyone who is not using one or something similar in place. Where do you live

How much capital are you using? Well like they have listed, service business is good but there is always a BUT,

if u know what u do in the home, transform it into business, if u can bake, then try baking, if u can do some house chores, try cleaning, if u're a good organizer, u can start organizing for people, assisting them as well. If you can teach, or have that skills or knowledge u like to share, u can organize a class (I have done this a few times), And the list goes on.