I have read that the most important things to become a successful entrepreneur are knowledge, skills, connections, resources and a good reputation. For knowledge and skills areas I have chosen these five ideas, as I feel I have experience and worked in these industries in various staged of my life. While this doe not mean I know and have all the skills needed, I this will help me rather than going from scratch in a new area.
Compliance Training: I have experience with healthcare and teaching so am qualified to deliver compliance based training for companies, clubs and individuals.
Private Tutor: As a previous teacher on a couple of main stream subjects, I could teach individuals online or face to face in smalls group or one to one.
Making and Selling Resources: I love making resources, for school subjects or for fun activities for the children in my life so I could sell these resources.
Selling Handmade Craft: I love making craft items to either use for myself or give as gifts. I could create an online store or sell these at markets.
Community Workshops: I could use my ability for making craft items and teaching first aid to deliver workshops to community groups or individuals.
While these are independent ideas I could also link them together to make a brand. Though I do not have a name yet, it could be ‘(Company Name) Training’ for compliance training and tutoring, then change the ending to ‘Workshops’ for the resource making and community workshops and ‘Accessories’ for the craft items. However, completing all five ideas at once will ensure failure in everything so I will work out what is best to start with and then grow from there.
To help me in skills, knowledge, resources, and connections, I have enrolled in a Masters in Entrepreneurship and Business Management Degree. I think a good reputation needs to be earned right from the beginning and continuously throughout the journey so I am to keep, quality, compliance, and safety in the forefront of what I do. I also hope to keep what I say, and deliver what and when I say I will.
For all of these ideas, I will need the same basic things: branded items, a logo, marketing, a computer, storage, transport, and space to work. While it is not necessary for all situations, registering with the DBS Update Service would help people feel safer if I am working with the public, under 18s, or vulnerable groups.
Compliance training Private tutor
Things needed: 1) Qualifications Teacher and subject specific or instructor qualification 2) Subject related equipment for delivering training 3) Resources such as IT equipment, games and presentations 4) Public and professional liability insurance 5) Registration with an awarding body for certification 6) Room hire for ‘open’ courses
Things needed: 1) Qualifications Teacher and subject specific qualification 2) Subject related equipment for delivering training 3) Resources such as IT equipment, games and presentations 4) Public and professional liability insurance 5) Room hire for group sessions if needed
Making and selling resources Selling handmade crafts
Things needed: 1) IT programmes to make resources pretty 2) Lots of stationary resources like card and lamination pouches 3) Online platforms to sell the finished products
Things needed: 1) Craft tools 2) Consumable products to make the items 3) Online platforms to sell the finished products 4) Product and public liability insurance 5) Packaging 6) Market equipment to set up and sell products including taking card payments
Community workshops
Things needed: 1) Multiple craft tools 2) Consumable products to make the items 3) Online platforms to sell places for the courses 4) Product and public liability insurance, ? Professional liability insurance 5) Qualifications Teacher and subject specific or instructor qualification 6) Resources such as IT equipment, games and presentations 7) Registration with an awarding body for certification 8) Room hire for ‘open’ courses
Although it is hard to chose which ones will potentially be more successful I have ordered them into what I am going to try first to last. I feel online tutoring would cut into small bits of my day such as 1 hour after school or Saturday morning so it would be hard to work around this. I also feel the other ideas are more appealing to me and so I will try this one last if needed. I like the idea of selling resources and craft items but think they would be small income. I think that my resources would be better once I leaned how to make a variety of crafts and the community workshops would be better once I learned my training, crafts, and resources. I think the compliance training would be the biggest money earner so this is what I will start with.
1) Compliance Training 2) Selling Handmade Crafts 3) Making and Selling Resources 4) Community Workshops 5) Private Tutor
Wish me Luck D.