Inexpensive Small Business Opportunities for Minorities, Including MBE Certifications
Posted by: Denise Gosnell in Business, tags: Business, minority, salesThere are numerous types of businesses that you can start as a minority. You could start a service-oriented business, or a product-oriented business. We’ll look at some examples of each in further detail.
Service-Oriented Business Ideas
Here are some examples of several service-based businesses you can start with little to no cash: – consulting – typist – graphic designer – freelance web developer – personal assistant
When you are first starting out, you can locate projects by either responding to existing posts that others have placed, or submit your own posting or resume. For example, job postings for typists and virtual assistants are often posted on craigslist.org.
As an example, if you are a web programmer, you may want to check out elance.com for projects. Elance actually has tons of other project types spanning all types of industries, so it is worth checking out regardless. If you are a graphic designer, 99designs.com is a site where people can post graphic design projects and graphic designers can submit their sample work.
An often overlooked type of business is one where you provide services to the government and Corporate America. These deep pockets buy nearly any type of service you can imagine, from janitorial services, to training, to typing, etc. In fact, you can obtain a MBE certification to certify that you are a minority owned business. Such a certification can increase your chances of getting work from these deep pockets due to special mandates.
That should give you a few ideas on the type of service business you could start from home. Now let’s look at some ideas you could consider for starting a product-based business.
Product-Oriented Business Ideas
There are thousands of different products that you could sell as a minority-owned business.
Here are some examples of product-based businesses that take little to no capital to start: – Selling an information product that you create based upon some topic that is in demand (like an ebook, training product, videos, etc.) – Selling products on eBay or other auction sites – Becoming an affiliate and selling products offered by third parties. You can find such products through affiliate programs such as Commission Junction or Clickbank.
As was described above, the government and Corporate America also buy nearly every type of product or service you can even think of. Yes, they buy toilet paper too!
Once you determine what type of product or service to sell with your minority owned business, if it is the type of product or service that the government and large corporations buy, then you should consider an MBE certification. An MBE certification can greatly increase your chances of getting work from the government and large corporations (but would be a waste of time if you are not planning on selling to them).
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