Mobile Dance Academy

What a great idea and a great teenage micro business!

Amiya Alexander was only 10 years old when she started a dance studio in a pink school bus!

The Amiya Mobile Dance Academy’s (AMDA) mission is to further the art of dance in an extended cultural community which will provide dance training and community programs for all youth.

Watch her story:

Watch CBS News Videos Online

http://www.amiyasdancebus.com/newsandevents.htm

If she can do this, you could so something like it too! Offer dance lessons from your house or go to a neighbors house and teach what you know!

My book Starting an Micro Business will get you started!

Chess into $$

Turn a hobby or passion into a money making micro business.

I heard about Jonathan Hilton at a graduation party where I met his mother.  She told me how Jonathan made money from chess. “Do you mean prize money?” I asked. “No,” she explained, “by writing magazine articles and books.”

Jonathan is selling his knowledge about chess and people are willing to pay for what he knows!

The 19-year-old college freshman holds the title of National Master from the United States Chess Federation.

He writes articles relating to his experiences at playing chess abroad and has co-authored  “Wojo’s Weapons: Winning With White,” with International Master Dean Ippolito.

For those who might be interested in learning about chess but fear it just isn’t “cool,” Hilton has these thoughts: “Chess is something that transcends all ages and cultures. I’ve been in situations where I didn’t speak the same language as the other player, but yet I was still on such good terms with them because we could play, we could analyze and we could learn some things. Chess unites people because you have a common experience and a common passion.” http://www.uc.edu/spotlight/student/jonathan_hilton.html

You may not hold a national title, but you may know something about some thing, right? Start writing it down!  Start a blog, write some articles and see if magazines are interested in paying you for your knowledge and perspective on life. Maybe even consider writing a book. Other teenagers have done it, why not you?

Idea: Virtual Assistant

One great micro business idea is to be a virtual assistant (VA)-someone that helps a business with bookkeeping, administrative tasks (scheduling, responding to e-mail,etc.) or creative tasks (editing, graphic design, etc) all from a remote location.

Here’s a book that could help you get started.

http://entrepreneurialfreedom.com/

Be warned in Chapter One, that you can read online, the author states that you’ll need $3,000 to get started. Ouch!

She doesn’t know about micro businesses!

A micro business can be started with no debt! Use what you already have like a computer, what’s between your ears (i.e. your brain) and your personal experience.

To learn how to be a VA, you might consider Rhea Perry’s class 8-Week Administrative Virtual Assistant Course

http://rheaperry.com/entrepreneurial-education/?page_id=723

It’s an 8 week online class that teaches you how to be a Virtual Assistant.

Check it out!

How to Make Money on Craigslist

Here is a  great site to help teenagers use Craigslist to start a micro business.

How teens can make money on Craig’s List

Find “Services” and put an add under “Small Biz” or “Household services” and you can soon be another teen making money thanks to Craig at Craigslist.

For example…You could put an ad for “carpet cleaning” on Craigslist, get people emailing or calling you about carpet cleaning, go to the “rental center” nearest you and rent a carpet cleaning machine, do the job and get paid right away. (Be sure to know what the rental and supplies costs before you place the ad so you cover your expenses!)

You can also check the section on “Gigs” for fast jobs.

But please beware not to give out personal information online.

Young women especially need to be cautious in answering ads for potential marketing and promotion ads seeking attractive girls.

Respond with a friend and cell phone. Let your parents know exactly where you’re going. Drive by where you’re supposed to meet your “employers” and if the least suspicious, drive off! Better safe than sorry!

I logged onto Craigslist for my local city and discovered that my local public school needs tutors to work with students for 2-9 hours a week.  The ad says “great pay and flexible schedule.”  They want a resume and a background check.

Try Craigslist for your city, but be sure to follow the guidelines above and on Craigslist to avoid scammers.  Keep your parents informed about what you are doing. They can see suspicious activity that you may not see. Let them help you!

Micro Business Idea: Sign Spinning

Here’s a unique idea for a micro businesses: Sign Spinning.

Have you ever seen a group of kids advertise their youth group’s car wash by holding up a sign on a street corner? It’s a pretty good way to get attention.  Two teenagers, Max Durovic and Michael Kenny, were hired to be teenage sign holders.  But they got bored and came up with stunts where they spin and throw their signs like batons, strum them like guitars, paddle them like canoes and ride them like horses.  Sound like fun?  Maybe, if you are part clown, athlete and actor! It’s like earning money doing an extreme sport.

“Sign spinning is a lot like ballroom dancing, except your partner has no life of its own,” Brown says. “Giving the sign its life and personality is a spinner’s true task.”

Read the Entrepreneur magazine article about  the business these teenagers started here.

You have got to see the videos of the guys spinning signs!  AArow Advertising.com

There’s also several videos on You Tube

It’s no longer a micro business. They have 18 franchises (copies of the business in several cities) and have 500 employees!

I think that you could find a local restaurant or store that needs some more customers. See if they will hire you to be a sign spinner for an hour or two and you are in business!

Business Ideas from College Humor

Need some business ideas for your micro business?

Do not get these guys to help you-they’re pitiful!  But at least they’re funny.  I hope you enjoy a couple of good laughs at their lame ideas.

Hardly Working from College Humor A series of million dollar eBusiness ideas. Write these down if you’re looking to become really rich.

What is on-line paper?  You can do better than Jake & Amir, right?

To get some micro business ideas, sign up for my newsletter and I’ll send you an article “New Biz on the Block,” that has 16 ideas for a micro business a teenager can start right in their neighborhood.

Carol Topp, CPA

Teen T-Shirt Entrepreneur Wins $10,000

I love this story of a teenage micro business owner took a simple idea, screen printing T shirts, and made himself unique by putting catchy sayings on the T-shirts.

The T-shirt reads “Caution: Educated African American Male.” Kalief Rollins thinks it will be his next best-seller.

The 17-year-old from Carson, Calif., near Los Angeles, took home a $10,000 grand prize from the National Youth Entrepreneurship Competition this week for his business selling custom T-shirts with inspirational designs. Rollins competed against 27 finalists and 24,000 initial high school entrants for the award, given by the nonprofit Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. (read the rest…)

There are a couple of things that micro business owner, Kalief Rollins, said that I think are worth noting:

Kalief has a business plan. He started small and manageable and is now expanding his business one step at a time:

In the next year, he says, “we plan to get our shirts into events like fairs, swap meets and farmers markets. … We want to get our shirts into different stores

He didn’t go into debt to upgrade his business. He waited until the money came in-in this case, $10,000 from an entrepreneur  contest!

With the $10,000, Rollins says he plans to make some business upgrades, including stepping up from a heat press to a silk-screen machine to improve the shirts’ quality.

He got professional help from his mother, an accountant. Smart guy!

“I hired my mom as my CFO,” Rollins says. “She worked as an accountant, so she’s good in that field of work.

Picking a Micro Business Idea

Picking a micro business idea is not difficult if you follow a guided plan. Begin by brainstorming what you already know and then check those ideas with a mentor or adviser. Finally test your idea by doing a simple market survey.

Do What You Know

1. List all your former jobs, hobbies, volunteer efforts, experiences, passions, interests and classes you have taken. This is a brainstorming session, so put everything on the list. You can evaluate the merits of each item on the list in the next steps.

2. Mark those areas with potential money-making ability and a market for your knowledge.

3. Cross off those that you do not have a passion for doing. If you cannot see yourself spending 10-20 hours a week on the task, cross it off.

Mentor Check

Take you idea list to several trusted advisers or mentors who know you well. Ask at least three people who will be helpful to you. Ask for honest feedback. You might ask an accountant, a current business owner or a business instructor.

Market Check

After your brainstorming and mentor check, find a your market and ask several people their opinion on your business idea. Ask a potential customer,

• Would you buy this product or service?

• How much would you pay?

Meet a Need

Another approach: Some micro business got their start because someone saw a need and decided to fill it. Consider Dream Dinners, the first meal assembly franchise, that was started by two busy working moms that needed an alternative to take-out food and restaurant dining. Jeff Campbell, founder of Speed Cleaning, took a mundane chore and build a business teaching people how to clean a house quickly and get on with enjoying life. Your idea doesn’t have to be revolutionary; it can just be a new way to do the same old jobs like cooking and cleaning.

Carol Topp, CPA

20 Easy Micro Business Ideas

Micro businesses are small, one-person operations frequently started on a part time basis from home. Here are 20 business ideas that work great for a micro business.

1. Tutoring

2. Childcare

3. Music lessons

4. Editing papers

5. Web design

6. Bookkeeping

7. Event planner

8. Virtual assistant

9. Writer/Author

10. Cook/Baker

11. Cake decorating

12. Life coach

13. Blogging

14. Crafts (knitting, card making, soap, etc.)

15. Counseling

16. Photography

17. Fine arts (painting, sculpture, etc.)

18. Sewing/Dressmaker

19. Translation

20. Art lessons

Most of these businesses require some special skills or experience. Get some training, read a book and your micro business will be very successful.

Carol Topp, CPA

How to pick an idea

I once listened to a lecture by a Harvard MBA about the 50 things you need to consider when evaluating a business idea. 50! It made my head swim. Micro business should not need 50 evaluation criteria, but perhaps you should consider 5 things when picking an idea for a micro businesses.

1. Do you like the product or service? You need to be enthusiastic about what you are selling in order for people to buy from you. Hopefully you have used the product yourself and can tell customers how great it is from personal experience.

2. Can you make a profit? Do a simple cost-benefit analysis (find one in the Business Plan chapter in my upcoming book, Micro Business for Teens) to calculate how profitable your business could be.

3. Is there a market? You can’t sell ice to Eskimos-there’s no market, but you can sell ice in Florida! Evaluate if there is market for your product or service carefully. Try doing some surveys of potential customers or test your product on a few customers first.

4. Are start up cost low? Micro business should not need a lot of start up money. If your idea takes a lot of money just to start, it is too risky for a micro business. Think about launching another, simpler micro business first to raise the start up money for your second venture.

5. Is it manageable for you? You may have a great idea, but it might consume all your free time. Save that idea for when you have more time and launch a simpler micro now to learn the ropes.

That’s enough to determine if your idea would make a good micro business. Now get brainstorming!

Carol Topp, CPA