Small Business Idea: Home-Based Child Care

Child care is a major issue for working parents everywhere. Whether you own a business or work for someone else, if you have children, one of the biggest questions you need to answer is: Who will care for my children when I'm working?

The Pros

Here are some of the benefits of starting a home-based child care business:

• You can take care of your own children as part of your business.
• You can positively impact the growth and development of the children in your care.
• Your schedule will likely be standard business hours, and you won't have to accommodate weekend or holiday hours.
• Startup costs can be minimal.
• Word-of-mouth marketing and referrals can be an effective way to grow your business.

The Cons

Some of the potential challenges you may face if you start a home-based child care business include:

• You need to research what regulations and licenses are required by your state.
• You will need comprehensive insurance to protect yourself and the children in your care.
• You home may need modifications to provide a safe and age-appropriate environment for children.
• There may be local laws and regulations that prevent you from providing childcare services from your home.
• You are limited in the number of children you can care for, capping your potential income.
• In-home child care can be a stressful and chaotic environment.

Bitcoin mining, exchanging

Mining is the process of adding transaction records to Bitcoin's public ledger of past transactions. 

One of the basic ideas behind Bitcoin is that it exists outside the control of any centralized power.

One of the biggest problems I ran into when I was looking to start mining Bitcoin for investment and profit was most of the sites were written for the advanced user. I am not a professional coder, I have no experience with Ubuntu, Linux and minimal experience with Mac. So, this is for the individual or group that wants to get started the easy way.

 

Mining rigg

First thing you need to do is get a “Bitcoin Wallet”. Because Bitcoin is an internet based currency, you need a place to keep your Bitcoins. Got to http://www.bitcoin.org and download the Bitcoin client for your Operating System. Install it the client will begin to download the blockchain. Downloading the blockchain can take a long time and will be over 6GB of data. If you have data caps, I would recommend ordering a copy of the blockchain on DVD to keep from going over as it is growing exponentially.

Now that you have a wallet and the client, you are probably roaring to go, but if you actually want to make Bitcoin (money), you probably need to join a pool. A pool is a group that combines their computing power to make more Bitcoins. The reason you shouldn’t go it alone is that Bitcoins are awarded in blocks, usually 50 at a time, and unless you get extremely lucky, you will not be getting any of those coins. In a pool, you are given smaller and easier algorithms to solve and all of your combined work will make you more likely to solve the bigger algorithm and earn Bitcoins that are spread out throughout the pool based on your contribution. Basically, you will make a more consistent amount of Bitcoins and will be more likely to receive a good return on your investment.

Most of the mining programs out there are pretty complicated to setup and will frustrate your average user. Recently a great program has come out to get the most basic of users started. The program is called GUIMiner. Click the link and download the program (Be careful, some of the ads are set upto look like the file download). Install and run the program and add in your information from Slush’s Pool. Remember that the user name is actually the worker name. The worker name will be your user name, dot, worker ID (username.worker ID) and the password from that worker ID.

 

Titanbit.net - Titanbit Limited Company

But you still need to sell or exchange Bitcoins for money.

Titanbit.net is an exchange with a difference. Its stated aim is to provide a safe environment for users to trade crypto-currencies with other users in an efficient and easy to use manner.

Small Business Idea: eBay Consulting

eBay is one of the most popular marketplaces to sell goods and services online. While millions of people use eBay, not everyone knows how to use eBay tools effectively so they can reach the level of success they desire.

The Pros

Some of the benefits of starting a eBay consulting business include:

• Your business can be entirely home-based.
• You can work flexible hours, and as much as you want.
• You can target other small businesses and individuals.
• Startup costs are minimal.
• There is extensive training, online courses and books available to help you fine-tune your skills.
• The earning potential can be high.
• You can teach others how to use eBay or physically set up stores for your clients.

The Cons

Potential challenges of starting an eBay consulting business include:

• You must be willing to dedicate time to become familiar with the ins and outs of the eBay terminology, policies and procedures.
• You must stay up-to-date with eBay's ever changing policies and fee structures.
• If you choose to become an eBay Certified Consultant, you must take and pass the online exam.
• You may need other skills such as excellent communication skills, and strong writing and editing skills.
• There is little opportunity for repeat business from existing clients.