This advice was taken from the Financial Times small business columnist Mike Southon.
His examples speak for themselves and inspired us.
A typical example was a lady I spoke to who had been a beautician but could no longer do this work after an accident. Someone gave her £30 to clean their oven and she discovered that not only did she actually enjoy it, but that there were many others in her local area who might also be willing to pay for this service.
Rather than offering encouragement, her local Business Link had rather put her off. They told her she needed first to research her target market, write a business plan, buy a van with specialist cleaning equipment and go on a course in health and safety.
My advice was rather more straightforward: to clean more friends’ ovens, then once she had a few pounds in her pocket, print up some fliers and look into how to become officially self-employed. In the meantime, if she wanted to earn some immediate money at little personal risk, she could offer her services to an already established cleaning company.
Another lady said she had been to her local Job Centre with her idea for importing elegant, Fairtrade jewellery from Uganda, but had been told that they could not help her. Fortunately she was not discouraged, and has already imported several examples that she plans to sell in Camden Market.
Mike’s own site
http://www.mikesouthon.com/
