Can anyone help me think of a good small business idea? I am fed up of corporate life!

[WideWebWitch]

That's it really. Dh and I are both working full time (well, I was, contract ended so not atm), and would rather work for ourselves but haven't got beyond idly contemplating it and sighing over 'Women doing it for themselves' articles in Eve magazine. So the criteria are:

Low start up costs
Low overheads
Potential

The skills we have between us are:

photography/artistic/IT skills/website design (DH)
Business acumen, finance/acctg/project management skills (Me)
We're both tenacious and reasonably persuasive (so I reckon I could sell an idea to a bank/other backer if it was a good one)
hard working when we have to be

We would like something
ethical
with potential to be sold eventually
Web based maybe?

So, I do realise this is the holy grail of wannabe small business owners everywhere! but hey, I thought it was worth asking you lot for any ideas anyway. Everytime I see some woman who's making a living with a classy caravan site/selling olives/making Grobags I wish I'd done it. I am out of work atm and could spend some time on research etc if I could come up with a decent idea. All thoughts and comments welcome!

no ideas but I'll do your copywriting for you at a reduced fee

remember if you want to sell stuff that fulfillment and logistics let 99% of mail order companies down

are you pining for the M1 www?

book-keeping. I'm a beanie so it's easier for me but if you're that way minded, a simple book-keeping course is quick and easy to train for and in demand.

if you're good you make a good little package and you can build it up easily as long as you land enough business.

but alas, it's boring.

Not book keeping, no, no! I don't want to, but thanks! Thanks enif, I will bear that in mind if you promise not to write Boden type stuff, ha ha. Iota, I am not missing the M1 one tiny bit!

we never didi have that coffee - I'm just too busy sitting on my fat SAHM ar$e and staring into space [chewing the cud]

I can only write boden type stuff

it is ingrained into memory

Write a book on how to bring up a baby?

Message withdrawn

Yeah Tinks, it would go 'pay people to do all the boring bits while you sit on your fat arse on mumsnet like Iota '

I'd love to do a green baby type thing but here, not in France. Or what does anyone think of this idea: a fairygodmother type service where you can click on treats to send to a friend. So Lemsip and magazines to send to someone ill; an M&S ready meal and a bottle of wine to someone who's knackered and pissed off; a chick lit novel and a bottle of Chardonnay for newly dumped girlfriend? Bad idea or good? Votes please!

well I'm heaving said fat ar$e off to the temple of rampant consumerism now....or I could do a internet shop ...won't be posting my groceries on here though

PS Did you eat all £200 of food WWW?

and how many toilet rolls did you need

Iota, we did! Brought a few tins back and 2 packs of mushrooms went in the bin but yep, we did it! Be impressed!

great idea

BUT you' be clobbered by guaranteed delivery and insurance I would have though

also dont set miniumum spend too low

Loo rolls were provided, I needn't have taken any! Ha ha

Well, I don't know about Brisle, but in the City of London there is a desperate need for a same-day delivery-to-desk (and/or retail) outlet stocking:

• Organic formula and baby/toddler/children's foods
• Selection of baby and children's clothes and accessories, including underwear and uniform separates
• Nappies, pull-ups and dry nites for all sizes, not just newborns (FFS)
• carefully chosen toys and books for children of all ages and not just catering to the assumption that all shoppers in the City are Bling Deluxe

My lottery fantasy business was this until recently, but it has been supplanted by running a wool shop in the southern burbs with Motherpeculiar now www.
I er, don't think either of mine will suit you!
But lots of luck with brainstorming your ideas. Live the dream for all of us...

Delivery you'd use tnt or someone and min spend would HAVE to be £25? Do you reckon? Wouldn't be worth insurance surely, cost of goods would be

aha

all you'd have to do is go and get the stuff when the orders come in

honestly www this is where nearly all web-based businesses fall down- the fullfilment

if you get 40 orders in one day and you don't fulfil them you will have lost those customers

also where will you source stuff cheaply enough to make a profit?

must make provision for that

the hardest part of web mail order (or any) is marketing and getting people to buy, there is so much competition and if there isn't then there is a possibility that the demand simply doesn't exist..

I think your idea would be very upmarket and niche..but yset up would be quite simple, it's the marketing that would suck money

you would have to have stock or yuou would be running round in circles

disagree

marketing is the emperors new clothes

easy to get press releases out and pay extra for google placement

it is the bones of the operation that let these businesses down

Margin is important enid, I agree. Hmm, fulfillment if 40 orders? Well, I guess you'd HAVE to just get on and do it, so me and dh on the floor, packing them. Maybe you'd start locally and then you could easily hand deliver to some addresses? I agree, it would be a niche, fairly expensive product. And the pricing point's a hard ish one: at what point would people NOT buy because the margin was too high? i.e. M&S ready meal = cost price of £5.99 but fairygodmother.com charges £12.00, would £15 be the breaking point? Or lower? I don't know, I guess. Maybe food is too complicated because of H&S, maybe only chocolate and non refridgerated stuff would be better. Yes, you're right about marketing, we have no money to spend on it!

well that proves my marketing ability is crap then..so scrub that out www

fulfilling 40 orders will be a doddle, provided you have stock control and now off the shelf packages provide that integrated with the back office or alternatively you just need to be on the ball

and communicate clearly and efficiently with customers ..if anything does go wrong offer them swift recompense and take a loss

two people will easily manage 40 orders

I am hot on customer service, I could make fulfillement work, I'm not that worried about that part. I reckon I should just make dh do the site and see what we think. Enid, could take you up on copywriting but on profit share? As dh said, we have nothing to lose because we have nothing! Cheerful soul!

Be a buyers' agent -- US site here

Instead of charging commission, have a set fee schedule. You'd have to do some initial advertising and it'd be good to set up a website, but that's about it.