An Idea for a Small Business You Can Start

Start-up costs range $50 to $500,000+, earnings $5,000 to $2,000,000++, skills from knowing nothing to running an airline. Bon appetit!

POETRY-ON-DEMAND —
CUSTOM RHYMES FOR EVERY TIME

Start-up cost: $1,000 - $3,000

Potential earnings: $5,000 - $75,000 a year -- more if you attend craft fairs and sell your mounted poems.

Advertising: Classified ads in local publications, referrals from satisfied customers and audiences, press releases for an unusual business, radio ads. Volunteer to write poems for occasions of family members and friends; start a poetry group at your local library.

Equipment needed: Home office: computer with desktop publishing design, lettering, and word processing software; color inkjet or laser printer; answering system and phone; assorted prebordered, colored paper and assorted frames.

WHAT YOU DO
In addition to having a poem published by newsletter, magazine, or book publishers, you can also try some creative and fun entrepreneurial ventures with your poetry.

Consider Esther Fox, for example. She writes custom-designed poems for special occasions: wedding anniversaries, high school graduation, birthdays, retirement celebrations, and other special occasions. Customers contact Esther with details about the occasion and person(s) for whom the poem(s) are to be written. Then she writes a draft of the poem(s). Esther will ask her customers to proofread for accuracy and any changes they wish her to make. She will make final copies printed from her computer on prebordered paper chosen by her customers. Framing adds to Esther's fees.

Excerpted with permission from "More 101 Best Home-Based Businesses for Women" by Priscilla Y. Huff. Published by Prima Publishing. For more on this and 100 other great businesses you can start, Buy the book now or ask for it at your favorite bookstore. You can also call (800) 632-8676 www.primapublishing.com

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