One of the best ways to generate more income is to stop selling your expertise by the hour. Your expertise -- knowledge, skills, methods -- are your most valuable assets. By taking your expertise and packaging it in various forms, you can sell your expertise 24/7/365.

So if your knowledge, skills and methods are your most valuable assets, why in the world would I suggest that you give it away as a marketing strategy?? Because giving away your expertise lays the foundation for multiple streams of income. Why this works:

Access to lots of free information is already available and potential customers expect to find it. Making your expertise available enables your *ideal* customers to find you -- among all the free information available, they need to hear it the way *you* say it. Having information that tells them what they need to do isn't the problem for most customers -- implementation is where they need help.

Once potential customers have found your free information, make it easy and enticing to sign up for your email list. Now you've laid the foundation to build a trust relationship, and can start offering them the help with implementation they so desperately need -- and will pay for.

Giving it away effectively and profitably

Use multiple channels and formats. For instance, give away information on your blog, in articles posted on other sites, in free giveaway ebooks, in audio teleclasses and excerpts. Get something in return when possible. Encourage blog visitors to sign up for blog updates via email. Put a subscription box to your newsletter on every page of your website (particularly where you post your newsletters, etc.) For bigger "chunks" of information like ebooks and audios, require that they sign up for your newsletter to get these freebies. In ebooks, make a link to your website prominent at the bottom of each page. Make the give-away process hands-free. Use an autoresponder to handle signups and instant download delivery for your giveaways. Once it's set up, it costs you no more to give away a thousand than it does the first ten.

Plus, potential customers get instant gratification. Leverage from one format to others. Write a blog post. Add more details and turn it into an article (to post on your site, use in your newsletter, and submit to other sites). Take a series of articles and turn them into an ebook. Engage someone to interview you about the content of your ebook and record it. Get help where possible and practical. You can hire a ghostwriter to write articles for you. Your VA can take existing articles and put them into an ebook format and set up the autoresponder and download capabilities. Recordings of classes and interviews don't need to be professionally done when given away for free; many bridge services offer recording capability.

Terri Zwierzynski is a self-employed business strategist and marketing consultant to solo entrepreneurs, and a grassroots promoter of the solo entrepreneur lifestyle. She runs Solo-E.com, the resource website for the self-employed which attracts thousands of solo home business owners monthly from over 100 countries on six continents (and was recently named a finalist for “Website of the Year” in the 4th Annual Stevie® Awards for Women in Business). Terri is also the co-author of 136 Ways To Market Your Small or Solo Business.

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Not long ago I took a trip to Tuscany and spent a week in a cooking class. Before the trip I spent time researching my options. I wanted to know who would be teaching the class, what courses and dishes would be covered, how hand-on the class was, if wine-pairings with the dishes would be addressed and if the class included trips to the local farmer’s markets to select fresh produce. Finding just the right cooking school was important to me because I would be spending a significant amount of money traveling to Italy and I wanted my experience to be well worth my time and effort.

For a woman interested in buying a franchise, evaluating the training a franchise business offers should involve even greater research – after all, this is about your future – not a vacation.

As part of your due diligence when researching a franchise opportunity, find out everything about the training a franchise system provides. A good training program should cover not only the product or service but also setting up the business, marketing, employee management, business procedures, reporting, etc.

The best way to find out about the scope of the training program is to ask existing franchisees. Find out what stood out about the training they received and what they feel could have been covered more completely. Ask them how prepared they felt when they opened their business and what ongoing training they have been provided.

Keep in mind that the franchisees you talk with may have been through various versions of the training program. Problems that existed at one time may have been fixed. Or, you may find that a training program that was fine in a company’s early days is now out-of-date. Be sure to include in your research franchisees who have had the same training you will receive to get an accurate assessment of its value.

Ask current franchisee if they received a training manual and if the information is updated periodically. Also ask if the franchisor offers other training resources such as conference calls, webinars or intranet sites. Ongoing training is important for many companies who adjust their business with changes in the marketplace. If this applies to the business you are reviewing, find out what they do to keep each franchisee up to speed.

An addition source of training may come from periodic conferences held by the franchisor. Besides providing additional education about the product or service, conferences offer franchisees an excellent opportunity to connect and network with other franchisees in the system. A network of peers is one of franchising’s invaluable resources so be sure to ask if this is an opportunity the franchisor provides.

Although this is less of a problem today than in the past, some industries may have an “old boy’s club” mentality among franchisees. You will be able to tell by reading the UFOC if there are other woman franchisees. Include some women in your due diligence calls so you can get an idea of the business culture and the prevailing attitude towards woman franchisees.

Many franchisors will have field support personnel who are available to be at your site during your grand opening and at periodic intervals during your first year in business or longer. Having someone right there to answer your questions may help calm your first-day jitters so find out if this a serviced provided by the franchisor.

If, after your franchise investigation process is completed, you don’t feel the offered training will adequately prepare you to run your new business, it’s time to step back and look at other opportunities. As reported in the August 2006 Franchising World magazine, a recent study by FRANdata found nearly 2500 franchise concepts in 18 different industries and almost 900 of these concepts were started over the past three years. You don’t have to compromise – if one company does not have the training you are looking for, there are sure to be many other companies who can meet your needs.

I’m happy to report that the cooking school in Tuscany exceeded my expectations and I left there able to prepare a number of authentic and delicious Italian dishes. Had I not researched the available schools so thoroughly, I might have been very disappointed with my choice.

To get full value for your investment in a franchise business, the training should answer all your questions and set you up as a confident and successful owner.

Franchisee training should include:

• Everything you need to know about the product or service
• Everything about using/protecting the brand
• How to find your business location
• How to negotiate a lease
• How you complete the permits and buildout
• How to find, hire and manage employees
• How to market your product or service
• How to keep books and records for the business
• The reporting requirements and processes
• Where to get the equipment needed for the business
• How or where to buy supplies and inventory
• How to get help when you have a problem

Kimberley Ellis is the President of Bison.com, a leading online resource for franchise and business opportunities. She has been quoted as an industry expert in USA Today, Wall Street Journal and a variety of local and regional publications regarding trends in business and franchising. Kim combines her entrepreneurial spirit with a diverse background in marketing and operation to help others succeed in franchising.

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If you are considering a franchise as your next career move, you probably already understand a number of the benefits to being a part of a franchise system. However, as each franchisor will offer different levels of assistance, it can be confusing to someone trying to evaluate a potential franchise purchase.

Since the value of a franchise is that the system has been developed to have replicable results, you will want any system you evaluate to score high in those areas that are important to the success of your unit.

Location – Location – Location
If your franchise is going to be site-dependent, the franchisor should, at a minimum, provide guidelines for selection of a site and the general terms of a lease agreement applicable to this type of location. Some franchisors will provide company personnel who will help you search for and select a site while some even work with national real estate brokers to find the best properties. If your franchisor provides help in site selection and lease negotiation, you are working with a good company.

Build-out Assistance
A typical franchise will provide each franchisee with instructions for the design and lay-out of the store along with details of where to purchase the components. As group buying power an important benefit of being part of a franchise company, you should expect to pay less for these components as a franchisee than if you purchased them as a sole proprietor.

At the high end of franchisor build-out assistance are those companies with design groups who help the franchise design the store, sometimes with such high-tech devices as CAD (computer-aided design) systems. Also, some franchisors will even hire a construction team to do the build-out and then deliver the components right to the new business.

Initial Training
The majority of franchised businesses do not require a new franchisee to have previous industry experience, primarily because they believe they can train a person with good business acuity to run the business successfully. A good training program is therefore essential. Most franchise companies will bring the franchisee to corporate headquarters for classroom training and some will allow time for hands-on training at a nearby franchise unit or corporate store.

This initial training should cover all aspects of the operations of the business, including book-keeping, record-keeping, operations, recruiting and retaining employees, and finding customers. The franchisee should receive an operations manual and get answers to any remaining questions she may have so that she feels confident she will be able to get her business up and running.

Some franchisors will provide corporate or field personnel to work side-by-side with the franchisee during grand opening and during the first week of operations, ensuring the franchisee has mastered the training and achieves a comfort level with the business. Franchisors that are willing to train a franchisee’s manager along with a franchisee are providing a value-added service.

On-going Training and Assistance
A good franchise business will continue to improve and evolve with time and the addition of new units and on-going training is often a necessity. Similarly, a good franchisor will offer continuing educational opportunities to franchisees as well as providing on-going assistance as needed. Many franchisors provide a help-line for issues that come up in the field and some will make regular visits to the franchisee’s location. A company that provides conferences or other opportunities for a franchisee to connect with fellow owners has the best interests of their franchisees in mind as these opportunities allow for creative problem-solving, the sharing of best practices and can reenergize the business focus.

Marketing Expertise
Your franchisor should provide you with a complete marketing plan for your new business that covers grand opening through at least the first 3-6 months. Since the franchisor has every reason to want you to succeed, a savvy franchisor will do much more. Many will provide you with the actual marketing materials, professionally produced. These may include pieces such as posters, banners, direct mail postcards, newspaper ads, and maybe TV and radio spots, all of which can be customized for your location.

Permits, Compliances and Other Legal Issues
Depending on the type of business, you may also need assistance in dealing with local governmental agencies for various permits. If your franchise involves food or beverage, there are numerous health-code compliance issues you will need to handle. Your franchisor should provide help in these areas so that your opening is not held up waiting for permits to come through.

There are several ways to find out how the franchisor handles these support items. The first, of course, is that you will want to ask questions about each as part of your investigation into the business. The second step is to talk to existing franchisees about the support they received and how well prepared they were to open and run the business.

Be sure to ask these franchisees if they felt there was anything missing from the training and support they received and if there is anything they wish had been more complete or done differently. If the company you are investigating scores well with these franchisees, you can be confident you will be happy with the support they will provide to you.

Kimberley Ellis is the President of Bison.com, a leading online resource for franchise and business opportunities. She has been quoted as an industry expert in USA Today, Wall Street Journal and a variety of local and regional publications regarding trends in business and franchising. Kim combines her entrepreneurial spirit with a diverse background in marketing and operation to help others succeed in franchising.

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Recently Brett Favre, the quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, broke the all-time NFL touchdown record. As a fan of football and Green Bay (I grew up in Wisconsin) I've had the opportunity to watch Favre over the years, and I also realized how his career provides some valuable business-building lessons.

How? Because success is success, whether you've built a multi-billion dollar company, written a dozen best-selling novels or are a famous quarterback. Many of the same mindset and principles are the same no matter how the success manifests itself. What's nice about sports is first, it's public (the games are televised and the players are forever being interviewed so you can get to know them a little) and second, you can see things unfold in a short amount of a time. An entire game is completed in 3 hours, compared to business where you don't always see success or failure that fast (although sometimes it feels like it!)

That said, this is the second of a 2-part article where I'll share a total of 6 principles (both good and bad) you can learn from Favre to become a more successful business owner.

1. Favre is a great leader.

Right now, the Packers are the youngest team in the NFL and they have a 7-1 record. To further put this feat into perspective, they have no running game to speak of. If you don't follow football, let me explain. There are 2 ways for an offense to move a football down the field -- you run and you pass. If you don't have anyone who can run the football, you pass. And you end up being lopsided because all you do is pass, and defenders KNOW all you're going to do is pass, and it's harder to fool them. Despite that, Favre is successfully throwing the ball down the field and the receivers are successfully catching it.

How can this be? Because Favre is busy coaching and leading those young receivers. His experience is making up for the lack of experience surrounding him. And it's working.

As an entrepreneur and business owner, you need to be a leader as well. In fact, when you start building a team, that's what your team is going to expect from you. A vendor once told me she had left her previous position because the owner had lost his vision. Your team wants you to have that vision, that's what draws them to you. They want to be a part of something bigger. So give them that.

2. Favre is still passionate about the game.

Favre is 38 years old, which is about 207 in NFL years, and still plays like a kid. It's clear how much he loves to play. Sadly, because he's surrounded by guys playing for fame and money, it truly makes him stand out. (When he was one touchdown pass away from breaking the record, he told an interviewer "it's not going to make any difference if I break the record and we don't win the game." And after he broke it, and did his celebration, he was back on the sidelines looking at photos and getting ready to get back on the field. That's true passion.)

You need to be passionate about what you do. When you are, it's obvious. People are drawn to you and want to work with you based on that passion. Plus, when you are passionate, you're having fun. (The Packers are probably having the most fun of any NFL team right now.) And, in the end, isn't having fun what's it all about?

3. Favre does what needs to be done to win.

It doesn't happen too often anymore (now that Favre almost needs a walker to get on the field) but Favre used to block. Yes, the quarterback would occasionally get out there and throw a good block to get the running game going. This is pretty much unheard of, quarterbacks blocking, because it increases the odds they can get hurt. Yet Favre would do it. And, when it worked, he'd be the first one jumping up and congratulating the runner.

He does what needs to be done to win. He doesn't worry about his record or his ego or what else is going on, just as long as the Packers are winning.

As a business owner, this is especially poignant. One of the biggest differences between successful people and unsuccessful people is successful people do what needs to be done to be successful. Not just the fun stuff. Not just what they feel like doing. They do the things unsuccessful people don't or won't do. And ultimately, that makes them more successful.

Michele PW (Michele Pariza Wacek) is your Ka-Ching! marketing strategist and owns Creative Concepts and Copywriting LLC, a copywriting and marketing agency. She helps entrepreneurs become more successful at attracting more clients, selling more products and services and boosting their business. To find out how she can help you take your business to the next level, visit her site at http://www.MichelePW.com.

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Recently Brett Favre, the quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, broke the all-time NFL touchdown record. As a fan of football and Green Bay (I grew up in Wisconsin) I've had the opportunity to watch Favre over the years, and I also realized how his career provides some valuable business-building lessons.

How? Because success is success, whether you've built a multi-billion dollar company, written a dozen best-selling novels or are a famous quarterback. Many of the same mindset and principles are the same no matter how the success manifests itself. What's nice about sports is first, it's public (the games are televised and the players are forever being interviewed so you can get to know them a little) and second, you can see things unfold in a short amount of a time. An entire game is completed in 3 hours, compared to business where you don't always see success or failure that fast (although sometimes it feels like it!)

That said, this is where I'll share the first 3 of a total of 6 principles (both good and bad) you can learn from Favre to become a more successful business owner.

1. Favre is willing to take chances.

Watch Favre any given Sunday and you'll see him throw into double coverage, triple coverage, or just in the general direction of a player wearing green and gold. And, more times then it should, it works. The receiver makes this spectacular catch and the rest of us all wonder how on earth he pulled it off.

That's what successful people do. They take chances. They see an opportunity and they seize it. And they do it fast. They make a decision and it's done. They see an opening between the defenders and they whip the ball in there for an amazing play.

2. Favre's greatest strength is also his greatest weakness.

As a Green Bay fan, you end up holding your breath as you watch Favre throw. Because it's a toss up whether you'll be cheering a spectacular throw or groaning because he just threw an interception.

It's really no surprise that 2 weeks after he broke the touchdown record, he also broke the record for most NFL interceptions. And, I'm sure he's not done piling up either the touchdown throws or the interceptions. (In fact, his very first throw in the NFL was an interception that was run back for a touchdown.)

Why does he throw so many interceptions? Because of that willingness to take chances. He makes throws he has no business making, and sometimes it bites him.

Now, there are two lessons here to learn. One is, keep an eye on your greatest strengths because if you overuse them, they're also your greatest weaknesses. I'm not saying don't capitalize on your strengths, I'm saying keep your eyes open and be willing to admit when your strength has led you down the wrong path (and be willing to do something about it.)

The other lesson is of perseverance. Would Favre had broken the NFL record for touchdown passes if he allowed all those interceptions to get him down? No. And not only that, it never even stopped him from taking chances. He'll throw an interception, get right back into the game and take the same chance.

Not all the chances or opportunities you take in your business are going to work out. You'll have losses and set backs and heartaches and everything else. And what you have to learn to do is not allow it to stop you. Sure, maybe the chance you seized yesterday was a total disaster, but that doesn't mean the chance you seize tomorrow will be the best thing that ever happened in your business. And if you let yesterday's failure prevent you from tomorrow's success, you'll never break that touchdown record.

3. Favre plays to win, not to not lose.

Favre wants to win. Period. That's why he takes chances. That's why he makes throws he has no business making. Because he's out there to win. He's not out there to not lose the game.

This may sound like a subtle difference, but it's actually huge. When you play to not lose, what happens? You suddenly get very conservative on the chances you take, the opportunities you go after, and even all the choices you make. If you're playing to win, now it's a whole different ball game. Even just saying it, playing to win, has a whole different energy level. It feels more alive, more passionate. Now you're making entirely different choices because you want to win -- not to not lose.

Michele PW (Michele Pariza Wacek) is your Ka-Ching! marketing strategist and owns Creative Concepts and Copywriting LLC, a copywriting and marketing agency. She helps entrepreneurs become more successful at attracting more clients, selling more products and services and boosting their business. To find out how she can help you take your business to the next level, visit her site at http://www.MichelePW.com.

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We see and hear about a large number of franchises and Multi-level Marketing (MLM) businesses and I am often asked if these are good for the retired person. So let us take a look at them one at a time.

Franchises are frequently larger companies having numerous employees, a fixed retail location with the high overhead associated with this, require high up front fees, normally require a full marketing plan and budget as part of the commitment and most are year around full time businesses. That is in direct opposition to everything I have tried to warn seniors of in my book “Baby Boomers’ Official Guide to Retirement Income”. While franchises may make good sense as a business, it is not normally a good idea for a part-time or seasonal business for a retiree. But I spend time each week looking over the business models of any new franchise that I can find on the Internet.

Franchises are mostly very successful business and new franchises are in sectors that are growing. These companies do their screening well. Looking at their information, will provide you with typical startup costs of the business and will help you budget your business if you decide to enter the business sector even if you make a number of changes to the business plan. The franchises sometimes provide you the demographic information to locate the business but this is information that you will need to help identify your customers. You can use much of their information to analyze and plan your business.

MLM businesses have gotten a bad name since many of these businesses use high-pressure tactics to make their “members” buy and sell more products. These businesses get their name since a member will get a large commission from product they sell, a smaller commission from products sold by newer members that they have brought into the organization under them and an even smaller commission from sales the people the newer members they have brought in under them and so on. Many even have minimum monthly purchases even when the members are not selling that much in product. So dangerous inventory buildups leave unsuccessful member with a basement full of product. I have seen statistics that suggest that well over 90% of the participants do not make significant money from these ventures. But they do work for the aggressive sales people. The large earners in these systems are ones that bring in people in the organization under them. The large commissions are made by developing a large network organization below you and not by selling the product yourself.

When talking with someone from a MLM organization you will normally hear 2 phrases. The first is that they will deny that they are a MLM organization. They may have some slight change in their organization, such as having customers buy product on-line and they just get a referral fee and fees from their network organization, so they deny they are a MLM organization. Many times they do not provide clear information about the total costs of their products and try to get you to accept that they are “competitive” or below the store price.

So MLM organizations are not all bad but most are bad. So do your research carefully before becoming involved.

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This new weekly column, 101 New Business Ideas for Retirees, is compiled specially for GetEntrepreneurial.com readers by Stan Spector. View all articles in this column by Stan Spector.

Stan Spector is the author of “Baby Boomers’ Official Guide to Retirement Income - Over 100 Part-time or Seasonal Businesses for the New Retiree”. The book's website can be found at StanSpector.com.

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Most seniors are worried about being an entrepreneur and want to avoid making a big mistake that might deplete their retirement savings. The businesses mentioned in my book are just to that point. You can’t make a tragic financial mistake if you have only invested a few thousand dollars. Look for businesses that are service oriented, which frequently require a lot of your time as the main investment but not a lot of your money. You may lose 1000 hours of your time but only a little of your money.

Many businesses go astray when the market for their product and the price they feel they need to sell it for doesn’t materialize. If you have already signed a multi-year, store lease for your sales, you could be stuck with thousands of dollars in rent, utility bills and other fixed costs. If you have a product you want to sell, find a temporary venue such as a public market or a summer festival that you can try selling it at. You may have to pay $200 to $300 for a day or weekend space but you can set up a table to sell your product. If your sales are not overwhelming, you should reconsider making that product into a business. When you sell at the booth, you will get a lot of honest feedback on what customers think of the product and the price. Listen to them; it may save you from a big mistake.

Can you rent some of the equipment needed to operate your business with no long-term commitment. You may have to pay too much to rent the equipment to make much profit, but it will help you gauge your market size and will allow you to determine if you really want to do this for a significant portion of your retirement time.

Go work with someone who is already in the business you want to start. You may have to go a distance away from the location you envision for your business but you can learn a lot from a little on-the-job experience.

Start a hobby business. I’m a rock hound and I envision collecting valuable minerals (gold, rubies, sapphires, emeralds) and fossils and selling them for my retirement business. If my business is not successful, I will probably continue spending my time collecting valuable minerals and fossils and keeping them in my private collection. So in trying a hobby business, I will be doing what I would otherwise do for fun. I might even get some tax breaks for trying it as a business.

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This new weekly column, 101 New Business Ideas for Retirees, is compiled specially for GetEntrepreneurial.com readers by Stan Spector. View all articles in this column by Stan Spector.

Stan Spector is the author of “Baby Boomers’ Official Guide to Retirement Income - Over 100 Part-time or Seasonal Businesses for the New Retiree”. The book's website can be found at StanSpector.com.

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We’ve all heard people saying this but do you realize this is an opportunity for a business? Serving a busy customer could be just the thing needed to make your business a success.

Most two-earner families, after taking the children to soccer practice and music lessons just don’t have the time or energy to do many of the things that they think would be nice to do. But many times the do have the disposable income to have the services done by someone they know and trust.

Whether it’s making fruit cakes with their personal label on it, doing their landscaping, cooking specialty dinners for some family member with special dietary restrictions, or cleaning up on the inside or outside of their houses, they may let a trusted neighbor perform a service for them even if they wouldn’t feel right about letting a professional company do this work for them. A friend or neighbor makes the decision to hire someone easier. These people are the easiest groups to market to because they are your family, friends and neighbors. They already know you or will recognize your picture from the neighborhood. Distribute those magnetic business cards with your picture on it listing all of your services to your potential clients to hang on the refrigerator.

But don’t forget about that busy small business owner. He is in the same rut wishing he had a department to do all of those business services that are not essential to day-to-day operations but are robbing him of some of his profits. These entrepreneurs all wish they had the time to bid out some of the services and products that they buy or use but they really don’t have the time to do it. Send out a letter opener, stapler or other desk item with your business card on it calling out what types of services you provide so it will be right in front of them each day. It may be putting together a marketing campaign for them, searching for the lowest cost utility or phone suppliers for their need or checking around to alternative wholesalers for the goods that they sell. All these could make a good part-time business for you and after you develop some specialized knowledge in your areas, you will find ways of saving them more money and doing it quicker for them.

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This new weekly column, 101 New Business Ideas for Retirees, is compiled specially for GetEntrepreneurial.com readers by Stan Spector. View all articles in this column by Stan Spector.

Stan Spector is the author of “Baby Boomers’ Official Guide to Retirement Income - Over 100 Part-time or Seasonal Businesses for the New Retiree”. The book's website can be found at StanSpector.com.

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Mass produced services are only economical at a fixed location where installed equipment can be used to save time in the service. The other end of the spectrum is customized service at a location where the customer wants it to be performed.

Simple services like automotive repairs are almost always done at a garage or repair center since some of the services require lifts and special equipment. But providing some of the basic car repair services can be done with equipment in your truck and this service can be performed at a health club or a large company’s parking lot while you customer is exercising, working or at their home. Most customers will only hire this type of service if the price is about the same as what they will pay at a fixed location or slightly more. It is easy to meet this condition with certain services since your business will have no rent or utilities to pay. The market for this service may not be huge but it may be large enough to support a loan practitioner.

Computer services become difficult for the customer at a fixed location and certain system problems must be solved in place. So we are seeing a rise in the number of single person computer repair businesses.

As you go through your days and months, look for of what kind of service people or businesses hate going to a fixed location to get the service and then try to start a business around providing that service at the customer’s location. This concept is not new. I remember when I was a child, there was a person who had an old school bus and drove around neighborhoods selling groceries for people who didn’t want to run out. This may no longer be a good business but back then families only had one car and the home keeper needed this since they couldn’t run up to the neighborhood store to prepare dinner. I still have that response mechanism going for the daily ringing of the ice cream man’s bell when he drives through our neighborhood during the summer.

Oil changes and lubrication for cars, computer repair, dry cleaning and laundry delivery services to health clubs or office buildings, personal training at home, lawn mower and snow blower repair in your garage and computer printer inks refills in a truck outside large office buildings on a fixed weekly schedule are all lucrative areas to explore. But don’t let this small list limit your ideas. Think of other ideas. There are hundreds. If you think of a good one, go to the forum on my web site and let me know your ideas so I can spread the word around.

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This new weekly column, 101 New Business Ideas for Retirees, is compiled specially for GetEntrepreneurial.com readers by Stan Spector. View all articles in this column by Stan Spector.

Stan Spector is the author of “Baby Boomers’ Official Guide to Retirement Income - Over 100 Part-time or Seasonal Businesses for the New Retiree”. The book's website can be found at StanSpector.com.

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You can’t read any magazine without seeing some reference to the effects of the coming retirement of the baby boom generation. That is just the type of opportunity that entrepreneurs are looking for to create a new business around.

Think of all of the services these people will need. Some of them will need to have more of the work around the house or apartment done for them and they will pay a fair price if you make it convenient for them. This group of clients will also be loyal to businesses that provide good service to them and can be trusted for being on time and sending reliable people to do the work. They also favor the same person coming each time to help them and do not care much for services that have a high turnover in personnel. This is ideal for the sole practitioner. This group will also refer you to their friends if they like your service.

Routine services such as laundry, house cleaning, shopping and driving these people to their medial appointments, are all highly desired. Non-routine services are also needed for when these seniors move to a new location requiring sorting, packing, furniture layouts, running garage sales to sell off the excess materials. But servicing this client base requires additional care to receive their satisfaction. Even the Real Estate industry has training courses devoted to teaching agents how to work with the senior population and achieve high customer satisfaction.

This group is also easy to reach with your advertisement. There are a number of publications in each city for this group of people. There are also community events directed to this group where advertising can be directed. Bulletin boards can be used for your business card with a message at many of the living situations where these people live.

But before entering any of these businesses check into licensing requirements in your city and state to determine if licensing, bonding or special insurance is required for the service you are going to provide.

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This new weekly column, 101 New Business Ideas for Retirees, is compiled specially for GetEntrepreneurial.com readers by Stan Spector. View all articles in this column by Stan Spector.

Stan Spector is the author of “Baby Boomers’ Official Guide to Retirement Income - Over 100 Part-time or Seasonal Businesses for the New Retiree”. The book's website can be found at StanSpector.com.

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Local public access TV stations may be the best kept secret in America. Where else can you get free access to training, equipment, support and the local airwaves all in one location? For small businesses, local access TV is an opportunity to produce your own TV show, become known in the community and build your reputation as an expert in your field. Local access or community media, is also known as “PEG” access, as in:

1. Public – Stations open to the community for local programming
2. Educational – Stations dedicated to educational or school-related programming
3. Government – Government access channels for town meetings and city business

It’s the "public" channel that offers the most potential, and here’s how to maximize it:

Check your local listings

Not every town has all three “PEG” outlets, but with over 3,000 community media centers across the country, chances are there’s one near you. Check your town’s Web site or contact your town hall. Another misconception: You do not necessarily have to live in the town to utilize their community access station. Most access centers are eager for new producers and new programs. FYI: The Alliance for Community Media is a national, non-profit organization that promotes and supports public access TV. They maintain an extensive database and links to local access centers. Look for your town there.

Get free training

Most community media access centers provide frequent producer orientations, equipment training and studio instruction. The focus is typically on getting you up and running in one or two sessions. Volunteers and producers are the life blood of public access, so you’ll find plenty of accommodating help.

Go make TV!

As long as you’re armed with an idea, you’re ready to produce a show. If you’re not quite ready for your close up, start by assisting with another show, or by being a guest on another’s producer’s program. There’s no shortage of opportunities in front or behind the camera, so just dive in. The Alliance for Community Media’s online bookstore also features books and videos for additional training or inspiration.

Fix it in post

You can produce your program “live to tape,” if you’re doing a talk show or just want to do your show “on the fly.” In most cases, you’re probably going to want to edit your tape. Post production is where you can make your program look more professional by editing mistakes, inserting graphics or adding music. Most home computers now include basic editing or movie-making software, and those starter programs are relatively easy to master. iMovie is ideal if you’re on a Mac; Windows Movie Maker is adequate if you’re on a PC platform. When you’re ready for more professional editing, bump up to Final Cut Pro for the Mac or Adobe Premiere for the PC.

Promote and distribute

Once your show is complete, find out from your public access station when it’s going to air so you can promote your premiere! You may find that they run it several time per week. In addition to the local airing, you should definitely consider expanding your distribution. One way to extend your reach is to ask your channel to “bicycle,” or share your show with other access centers. A more direct approach is to upload your show to free video hosting sites such as YouTube or VideoEgg.com. Most video sites restrict uploads by file size (100MB) or length. Yo go beyond the obvious sites like YouTube and Google Video, and upload your video (or shorter clips) to Blip.tv and Veoh.com. These are very-user friendly, free video hosting sites with lots of great features.

Here are a few more suggestions to keep in mind:

• Public Access TV need not be cheesy. The technology and equipment have come a long way – so take advantage of the resources available.

• Expand your video from local public access to the Internet. Web users are downloading 7 billion videos per month!

• Be sure to save your video as an electronic file for the web, such as a Quicktime movie (.mov), or a Windows movie (.wmv). After you upload your video, many video sites will provide the HTML code so you can embed your video on your own website.

• A study by the Wharton School of Business reports that video can be 600% more effective in communicating a message than print. Tap into that power!

Lou Bortone is an award-winning writer and video producer with over 20 years experience in marketing, branding and promotion. As an online video expert, Lou helps entrepreneurs create video for the web at www.TheOnlineVideoGuy.com. In addition, Lou works as a freelance writer and professional ghostwriter, with a ghostwriting site at www.GhostwriteForYou.com and a blog at www.GhostwriteGuru.com.

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There are a lot of businesses out there that are competing for the customers. You are looking for a way to attract a loyal few customers for your small retirement business. You are also trying to attract them with some unique feature of your business instead of doing a large amount of advertising and the billing that comes from advertising. This approach of specializing will keep your business small, which is one of our goals, but will differentiate you from the pack.

An example is auto repairs. There are hundreds of shops in your area that will work on almost any type of car. They stock some frequently used parts and work with auto parts dealers to get immediate delivery of common parts for commonly owned vehicles. But it is not so easy if you have a 1960’s Porsche or Corvette. People taking these cars in for repairs may have to wait a long while to get some parts shipped in and some of the young mechanics may have never seen the insides of these vehicles.

Specialize in repairs of one of these vehicles and you can gain a loyal clientele if you perform good work, have many of the common parts that they use on hand or at lease on overnight delivery from a specialty auto parts dealer, and you have experience in problems with these older cars. You may also have an inexpensive advertising media in a fan club for one of these vehicles since you will only be paying for exposure to people who own the vehicles. Each of these specialty cars has web sites devoted to them where you can do advertising.

Think of your hobby. Look on-line or in catalogues for tools of that hobby. Everyone is carrying the low cost, mass produced tools. But there is always some specialty hand made tools that are available if you know where to look for them. You can specialize in selling these or produce your own like of tools that are more specific to your hobby.

The secret is specializing your business to keep it small and to grow your business through word-of-mouth advertising.

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This new weekly column, 101 New Business Ideas for Retirees, is compiled specially for GetEntrepreneurial.com readers by Stan Spector. View all articles in this column by Stan Spector.

Stan Spector is the author of “Baby Boomers’ Official Guide to Retirement Income - Over 100 Part-time or Seasonal Businesses for the New Retiree”. The book's website can be found at StanSpector.com.

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Most people think that working at your hobby would make the best retirement business that they can think about. While I concur with this thinking there are a few warnings that come with this option.

Think about your hobby. Are there supplies that you regularly have to buy? Are these supplies easy to find locally? Can they be cheaply shipped by parcel, which would allow you to sell the items on line and not require you to open a storefront with the associated rents, utilities and staff? This will also allow you to run your business during different time of day at your convenience. If you need storage space, you could rent inexpensive storage areas. If there is a lot of competition for selling supplies, look at carrying specialty items that local stores do not carry. Are there customer made products available for you to sell. The large chain hobby shops, do not like to carry a lot of these specialty items. They go after the mass produced items and the items that sell the most.

Is the product you make from your hobby a sellable product? Everyone thinks they are but I recommend that you buy a booth at a festival and try to sell some of your product. This will give you a change to meet and talk with some of your potential customers. You’d be surprised on how frank they can be to you about your quality, pricing and design. If you are able to sell large amounts at a festival, you have a chance of having a good supplemental business. But don’t go too far until you have proven you can sell enough to make a business from this.

Now for the warnings.

The market frequently is not prepared to spend the cost of your product if there is a (lower quality but functional) product made in a low cost production company that is less than half of the price of yours. If the market is there they will probably demand the highest level of quality and may not consider your work of that level. Remember you are competing against others who have probably been doing this full time for many years.

Don’t even think of renting large amounts of space with all the costs involved, unless you know you will have the sales. This is the quickest way to taking a very big risk with your money.

Don’t think that your hobby equipment will hold up under high demand put on it by you using it for a business. It is probably fine to test the market with it but you will have to buy heavy duty commercial equipment for it to last long and to turn out the highest quality work.

And remember that you have started a business. You are no longer doing this for just fun.

But good luck, this can be the happiest way to make supplemental income during your retirement.

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This new weekly column, 101 New Business Ideas for Retirees, is compiled specially for GetEntrepreneurial.com readers by Stan Spector. View all articles in this column by Stan Spector.

Stan Spector is the author of “Baby Boomers’ Official Guide to Retirement Income - Over 100 Part-time or Seasonal Businesses for the New Retiree”. The book's website can be found at StanSpector.com.

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During the summer months, every large city in America is filled with hundreds of festivals. If you are an entrepreneur looking to get into a retail business, these festivals can be an inexpensive way to test out your products to see if it will really attract a large enough customer base to warrant a year around business. But remember when you are writing your business plan; you have avoided a lot of the costs of a permanent location by having a festival business.

You pay a small fee to the festival and have not encountered rent and utilities, which are some of the high expenses for a fixed location. You have also not had to do much in the way of advertising. The festival had done advertising and has a client base that will show up. You only need to have an attractive booth to entice the customers over to your location. Make sure your signage looks professional and is viewable from major traffic centers for the festival.

But many people get into festival sales as their business instead of a trial for their business. With a number of calls you will find a listing of the festivals in a newspaper calendar or an on-line calendar of the festivals for the year. You will see that you can find festivals going 30 weeks in some of the northern climates up to every week of the year in some of the moderate climates. You can work as much or as little as you want or whatever season you want to work by starting a festival business.

There is a lot of work in these businesses that everyone should consider. With a store, you just open the door each morning. But with a festival business, you will have to unload and set up your merchandise every morning and put it away every night. Make sure all of your display methods are bought with this in mind. Items on wheel that you can move along a rough terrain are great. Make sure you have an adequate vehicle to carry all of you set up and merchandise and that you have an easy way of loading and unloading it.

Unsure if you want to get into this business? Go to a festival in your area. During some of the slack time, ask some of the booth owners a lot of questions about their business. Also you may fine one that is willing to hire your for a nominal fee or as a volunteer to help them with the next weekend’s festival. Work a few festivals unloading and setting up each morning with the owner to make sure your really want to do that many weekends during the year.

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This new weekly column, 101 New Business Ideas for Retirees, is compiled specially for GetEntrepreneurial.com readers by Stan Spector. View all articles in this column by Stan Spector.

Stan Spector is the author of “Baby Boomers’ Official Guide to Retirement Income - Over 100 Part-time or Seasonal Businesses for the New Retiree”. The book's website can be found at StanSpector.com.

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“Caller tune Advertisement” is all about publishing advertisements as caller tunes on user’s mobile phones, so that the callers will listen to the advertisement until the user picks up the phone. In a nutshell, this idea is all about the mobile users trading their ringtone airtime for monetary benefits, which can be used to publish advertisement.

This concept is all about publishing advertisement as a replacement for caller tunes or in-conjunction with caller tunes in user’s mobile phones. In return, users will get monetary benefits like free recharge coupons, discounts in bills, partial reimbursement of bills, free talk minutes, free value adds like free SMS, etc. These kinds of freebies will attract users to allow users to give up their ring tone airtime to place advertisement. Gaining publisher base will be a challenge. A good publisher base means a huge market potential. The success of this advertisement medium will be determined by the publisher base.

This new business idea is patent-pending and its owner, TarryOnline is looking for interested investors.

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If you have good writing skills why don’t you capitalize on this skill for your retirement business? But there is a catch to these types of businesses. Don’t think your main business will be doing the writing. You main business will be selling. You’ll see as I go along what this means.

You could write a book and try to find a publisher to publish your book. It’s a low probability situation that a well known publisher will pick up your first book. You could take your book and have a “self-publishing” company put it together and make it available at all of the on-line book stores and any book store can order it for a customer. But you are the “Chief Marketing Officer” and the hardest part of the job is generating the sales.

If you have an expertise in some industry along with your writing skills, you could produce a newsletter for that industry. Most industries have national and statewide magazines. Focus on a citywide newsletter for that industry. Let companies buy advertisement to sell their spare capacity-time, spare raw material inventory, job openings or their unique expertise. You will have to add a number of industry interest articles each month, much of which you can get from the Internet, with proper approval from the author. You can also write articles about local industry leaders. Much of the work will be maintaining the mailing or e-mailing lists to send the newsletter to and getting it out. You will see that much of your time will be in the advertisement sales and newsletter distribution tasks.

You can also select a small “interest” or “geographic” area and develop a newspaper for that area. College campuses, ethnic groups, noted neighborhoods and hobbyists are some areas you can consider. The hard part of setting up a successful newspaper is finding a sector that businesses will be willing to buy advertisement to reach that audience. Once you have a large enough critical mass of advertisers, it is easy to tailor the articles and reports to be of interest to these groups.

Writers get your quills out and try one of these ideas. It is a low initial investment to get these businesses going. You will put in a lot of your time to get them started but it won’t take too much up front money. Small publications frequently do not provide enough profit for a full time job, but we are looking for businesses that will only supplement your income. More details of each of these ideas can be found in my book.

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This new weekly column, 101 New Business Ideas for Retirees, is compiled specially for GetEntrepreneurial.com readers by Stan Spector. View all articles in this column by Stan Spector.

Stan Spector is the author of “Baby Boomers’ Official Guide to Retirement Income - Over 100 Part-time or Seasonal Businesses for the New Retiree”. The book's website can be found at StanSpector.com.

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New retirees are looking for a different type of small business than the general public. If they are on Social Security, they may be penalized if they make over $12,600. Some private retirement policies will also penalize you if you earn money in your retirement years.

Many retirees dream of taking extended vacations or wintering in Florida. They want their new business to work around their life. Many insist that they do not want to have employees since having employees complicates the business and necessitates payroll services, accountants, and workman’s compensation insurance that quickly eat into their profits. They want a business that they can run, possibly with the aid of their spouse, and any outside labor would be hired through an independent contractor. Some of the retirees are looking for a hobby business, making some money while enjoying their hobby and traveling around to locations and conventions for their hobby.

Business brokers try to sell mid-sized businesses costing $100,000 to $1 Million. If the business would fail, this would put a big dent into anyone’s retirement savings. Brokers wouldn’t make much money if they got a 10% commission selling a $3,000 business so they push the larger sized businesses. Likewise, franchises require large up front franchise fees and most of them are centered on businesses that have high start up costs. But retirees should look for businesses that cost under $5,000 to start and try to fund these businesses out of their own pocket. Most of the low investment businesses would fall into the service sector where you are really selling your specialized skilled labor time.

And all of these goals are really possible. The following criteria will be used for businesses in this column.

• They are mini-businesses run by the owner and the spouse with no one on the payroll.
• They should be able to start up the business for $3,000 to $5,000. Many of the people who start these businesses may decide to grow the business with more investment after they have proven their business can produce good cash flow to them.
• No long term lease commitments (space or equipment)
• They are seasonal or part-time businesses. They will not require the 60 to 80 hours a week to start them that most start-up businesses require.
• The cash flow may be small but on an hourly basis it should be worth the owner’s time. Some may provide a real benefit in tax savings by utilizing portions of you house or apartment, allow you to travel to hobby conventions as a business expense or renting property you own to the business.

I will try in future columns to provide you with some new ideas for your business start-up that meet these criteria.

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This new weekly column, 101 New Business Ideas for Retirees, is compiled specially for GetEntrepreneurial.com readers by Stan Spector.

Stan Spector is the author of “Baby Boomers’ Official Guide to Retirement Income - Over 100 Part-time or Seasonal Businesses for the New Retiree”. The book's website can be found at StanSpector.com.

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Business Advice Pro: Entrepreneurs spend days, weeks, months in order to come up with new products which, very often, might not even sell. But what if you could see its selling power before you create the product?

This would mean you don’t spend the time nor money to create products or services that won’t sell. In a very broad view, it might look like I’m suggesting you to become a scam artist, but just think about it. You are not selling air. You are actually selling a product which you don’t have yet. But if you see the product would actually sell, you make it happen, you create the product.

When selling something that does not exist, you test the waters. You see if people have any interest towards it. If you get a lot of people to sign up for free, you already have a knowledge that this product actually has the power to sell. And if that’s so, you will start working on it, if needed 24/7 for two weeks in a row. You now know it is going to sell like crazy (if you won’t make any fatal mistakes during the actual selling process that is). You already have a certain number of people who are interested in buying your product. You know it because they have subscribed via your free subscription form. Just to be notified when the product gets ready.

Selling something that doesn’t exist (yet) [Business Advice Pro]

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WSJ.com: Sick of cleaning sticky floors after bouts of beer pong, a popular campus drinking game, recent Northwestern University graduates Andy Wright and Mike Johnson put their engineering degrees to use. They devised a triangular rubber mat that helps keep plastic cups of beer from toppling over.

Then they started marketing the mats through their online company, Bottle Cap Technologies, for $9.99. They say they have sold more than 100 since April and are negotiating to sell 1,000 in one swoop to an online store called drinkingstuff.com. "Now, you don't have to clean up the mess and you don't waste beer," says Mr. Johnson.

These guys aren't exactly Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. But Messrs. Wright and Johnson, both 22 years old, are part of a new wave of young people trying to make money tapping into their peers' devotion to beer pong, a cross between ping-pong and beer chugging. As beer-pong season hits a peak with the start of the school year, these beer-pong entrepreneurs are running tournaments and peddling customized beer-pong tables, balls and apparel.

Thwock, Gulp, Kaching! Beer Pong Inspires Inventors [WSJ.com]

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Businesspundit: If you want to be an entrepreneur but need a business idea, consider renting ducks. It's apparently doing very well in Germany.

Germans are lining up to rent farm animals to help with the gardening as part of a new green scheme. Werner Kiwitt, who runs an ecological park in Schleswig-Holstein, is offering sheep to cut the grass and ducks to eat the slugs.

He said: "You get free fertiliser provided by the animals as well, so it's not a bad deal."

Who would have thought you could turn sheep and duck doo into a selling point? Now that's a good entrepreneur.

Weird Business Ideas: Rent a Duck [Businesspundit]

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WhatIThinkAbout.com: 1. Since the point of a business is to trade things, we should start by thinking about what other people need. This is easily done by just thinking about the things you think “sucks”. Do you wish you can get from point A to point B without having to drive? Do you wish that it was easier to clean your bathroom? Are the current solutions for these problems really horrible in your opinion? There are just tons of things throughout the day that you wish were better. Make a long list of all of these things.

2. Go down your list of things. Is there anything in there that you are particularly interested in? For example, let’s say one of the things on your list if that you think people need to be hugged more and you happen to like hugging people. This would be a perfect business opportunity to consider because you understand why people want to be hugged and you already know how to solve that problem (by hugging them). Circle all of these opportunities that you are interested in and have some expertise in (or would like to spend the time and acquire that expertis