Ideas For Self-Employment

In the first of this two part series, two common strategies for finding self employment will be considered. First, we will examine the challenge of creating an entirely new product or service. Next, we will consider the benefits of publicizing an existing product or service more widely.

1. Create something new - Creating an entirely new product or service, and locating or developing a market for it can be an enormous amount of work. However, if you pull it off, you have the advantage of being the first mover in a new field, with a head start on any potential competition. Nevertheless, it is important to protect your advantage with various forms of intellectual property. These can include trade secrets, copyrights, trademarks, and patents, among others. Still, one of the biggest challenges remains bridging the gap between early adopters of something new, and more conventional buyers who need social proof before purchasing. As an example, consider the Segway, a great idea which did not get enough social acceptance to displace existing methods of transportation, such as the automobile.
2. Help publicize a great product or service - Many of the best products and services are undiscovered yet, and paradoxically, the spread of more information through the Internet can make these great items harder to find. This creates opportunity for a shrewd businessperson. For example, when Ray Kroc began his career, he was not the founder of McDonald's. Instead, through selling milkshake machines, he was able to notice that this particular chain needed more than his other customers. Accordingly, he correctly reasoned that the business model being used was superior, so he bought out the McDonald brothers, and was responsible for much of the ensuing worldwide success of the chain. In a similar way, if you can find a great product or service and acquire it or license it relatively inexpensively, then you can make much of the profit if you do a better job of marketing. This has the added benefit of being less difficult than creating a new product or service completely from scratch.

In other words, while creating new products and services, or further publicizing existing products and services can be quite profitable, there are still other strategies which may be easier. These remaining three strategies will be covered in the follow up article, More Ideas For Self Employment.

Copyright 2010, by Marc Mays

Marc Mays is the creator of http://www.myplatinumparachute.com/, which helps first-time small business owners obtain the critical skills needed for their small business success.