Transcripts
1. Welcome to Class: Are five small businesses. Anyone can start today with no money and no special skills. Hi, I'm TessOGamba
and my mission is to help you make money and
live the life you deserve. If you're looking for
a fresh start or just want some extra
income, I got you. These are small business ideas anyone can take up no
matter where you live. I'll even tell you how
to scale each one of these small business
ideas I'll share here into something much bigger.
2. Class Project: The project for this
class is very simple. There's a checklist
I have put in the projects and
resources section. It's called the Small
Business launch checklist. You should download
that and fill it out while you're
taking this class. You can also choose to fill it out after you're done
with the lessons. Either way, by the
end of this class, you have a simple business plan to get your business started. Now this checklist not only helps you choose
a business idea, but it also helps
you come up with a charge sheet like how much
you charge your clients, how you'll market your business, and even how to learn
your first client. The project is designed
to get your business off the ground in the
simplest way possible. Who said you need a complicated 30 page business plan
to start a business? Now, once you've completed
all the lessons, finalize your checklist and upload it to the
project section. Uploading your project not only shows commitment and dedication, but you also get to share your journey with other students taking the class and even
get feedback from them.
3. Cooking and Delivering Homemade Meals: Did you know that you
can make 50 to $200 a day cooking simple meals from home and delivering
them to busy people? You see, many people
don't have time to cook but still crave
a homemade meal. Now, this is where you come in. What you do is cook
delicious meals, a new kitchen from home, and deliver them to your
clients workplaces or homes. It's like running your own
mini restaurant without the need for a big setup
and 1 million employees. Here's an estimate
of how much you can make doing this
small business. Now, if you charge
ten to $15 per meal, and you serve about
ten to 15 meals a day, that's about 100 to $200 daily. Now, if you sell ten to 15 meals a day for five days trit, that's about $500 to $100 a week or $2,000 to
$4,000 a month. Now, it goes without saying
that the more meals you sell the more money you make,
how much you earn is also determined by how much
you charge per male. And if you want to
know the exact amount to charge as a beginner, you have to research how
much people are willing to pay or how much they pay
for a male in your area. You see how much you charge
will depend on where you are, what your target market is, and the kind of males
you're selling. Now, let's say you are
selling to office workers, they might be able
to pay $10 to $15. Meal. If you also
do special diets, you might be able to charge
a bit more for this, like $20 a meal. Now, if you're
delivering these meals, you also have to
consider delivery fees. So you have to add that to
how much you charge per meal. So you see how much
you charge will be dependent on so many factors, but it's best to do
your research so as not to undercharge or
overcharge your clients. Now, how do you find clients
for this small business? Use social media. I mean, I know you've seen this. It's not new. People take beautiful pictures
of delicious meals. They cook and post them on TikTok on Instagram on Facebook. In fact, they are even
recording the process. Let's make this and they
record themselves doing it. That's a beautiful
way to show people that you are good
at what you do. You make delicious meals. Seeing you doing it on video builds credibility and makes potential clients
trust you more. And if you deliver to a few clients and
they like that food, trust me, they will
be back to tell other people what they
think of your food. And if the reviews are positive, that means you get more clients. So start with social
media, Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook, whichever platform you feel free and confident to post do that. Now,
remember that you can also tell people on
your contact list. Use Wasp status, for instance, post those pictures
there as well. Send information about
your delivery services, the kind of meals you cook on Facebook groups in your area
related to food, of course. Word of mouth actually
goes a long way here. So if your meals are good, those people you
serve to will tell other people about them and
you'll get more clients. I just remembered a
lady who used to bring us food to our office
when I was employed. I think in 2018, her food was delicious, but it was not cheap. And although it wasn't cheap, we still managed to
get a plate every day. We used to have her
food for lunch. So she'd come around lunchtime
and serve each one of us. And obviously, everybody has
to pay for their own food, and we were about 20 people. Won't say exactly how
much we used to pay, but I think she had
considered stuff like where she was delivering
these meals because it was sort of an affluent area. Who she was delivering it to, you know, office workers. So there are factors
to consider. Even as you're
looking for clients. Ask yourself, who do
I want to sell to? Where are they located? How much can they afford? Do they have disposable
income to buy a plate of food for $15 every now, this small business is very easy to scale once
you get the hang of it. To make this business bigger, you don't want to bring
in more people to help you make delicious meals. You don't have to
hire a kitchen, but if you can get
a different place to have a bigger kitchen and
just get in more people, an extra pair of hands or two
extra pairs of hands will make it very easy
for you to serve more customers and
make more money. Now, remember to also
get more people to deliver these meals
to your clients, which means you're
able to deliver to more clients at a
certain period of time. Meaning you make more money. You can also sell meal plans. Now there are people who want to meal prep or they want
to plan their meals, either to reduce set or
just whatever it is they're trying to achieve
and they don't have the time or the
knowledge to do it. You can do the meal planning
for them and sell that. Now you can also introduce subscriptions or
include subscriptions in your service offering. Let's say somebody
will be ordering food every lunchtime
for five days a week. Have them pay monthly or weekly so that you
know every day of the week I'm delivering $15 plate to this
person in this office. They don't have to
pay you every day. They can just pay monthly. This makes it easier for them so that you just pay
once and forget, and it builds or creates
consistent income for you so that you can reduce the risk of not making money next
week or next month. You can also include special recipes that
people pay more for. So the more specialized and
advanced your meals are the more you charge, obviously dependent on who
you're selling to, who your target customer
is, and all that. I'm just giving you ideas. Now, as you do this business, you can also take advantage
of platforms or sign up on platforms like
Globo like OEs, like Dodge, like Grab Hub
to reach more customers. Now, although these
platforms take a small fee, they help you connect with
people who are already looking meals to order in. Think about the many times
you've ordered from ObaEts. You are a customer. And so if someone is
offering these services, when they sign up on Oba Eats, they make themselves available and visible to these customers. You see some customers on these platforms like
Globe and ObEIds, they are willing to
pay $25 per meal, which means your earnings
could grow potentially.
4. Helping People Care for Their Plants: You don't know you can
make 20 to $100 per visit just by helping people keep their plants healthy
and beautiful. You see, many plant
owners love their plants, but not all of them
have the time or knowledge to take care of them
and make sure they thrive. Now, you can come in and offer
to water them, to prune, to fertilize, and even
report the plants, to make sure they thrive. This might sound like
a very simple service, but it's growing in demand, especially in
cities where having a plant has become very trendy. Body is a plant parent nowadays. Everybody wants to
buy gazilon plants, and trust me, there
are people who do not want artificial plants. They prefer real plants. You can also plant seeds. Like you see, when
plant owners travel, they need somebody to take
care of their plants. You can also offer that
as an added service. Let's look at how much you can potentially make estimates. Remember, if you work
with, let's say, five clients a week and
you charge $50 per visit, that's about $250 weekly
or $1,000 a month. It's a good start for a
beginner plant carer. Now, if you offer specialized
services like pest control or rescuing dying plants or just designing
plant arrangements, you can charge more
because the more specialized and a bit
advanced a service is, the more you can justify
earning more for it. Now, how much you charge per
visit or per service will be determined by many things one you location
because you see, we live in different
countries and each country has
different economies. A service might be expensive
in let's say in the US, but in Kenya, it's
not as expensive. So you have to be cognizant
of that your location, who you're targeting?
Where do they live? You see, if somebody
is living in some sort of an affluent area where the rich are known to
live in, you charge more. But if you're just
targeting people in the middle class or people who don't have a lot of
disposable income, you might find yourself
charging a bit yes. So you have to know
who's your customer, how heavy are their pockets. How much do they
need the service? And where do you live and
how is the economy there? Now, to give you a starting point or something
to think about, you can start charging
about $20 to $50 per visit for plant care. That would be for
basic plant care. Now, for larger tasks like
rescuing dying plants, designing plant arrangements and other specialized
skills or services, you can charge more like $100. You can actually even offer
packages for regular clients, they can pay you weekly
so that they can get a number of visits per
week or buy weekly. Now, how do you get people to pay you to take care
of their plants? One, use social media. If you have plants of
your own, ideally, this is a business
you'd thrive in if you are passionate
about plants yourself. So if you have
plants of your own, sure to record yourself, taking care of them, watering them, pruning,
fertilizing, reporting. Take pictures of the
plants and post them. People need to see
thriving plants. They need to see the process. If you can take advantage
of social media platforms, whichever you want to use. Like TikTok is brilliant
and is easy to grow on, and people actually watch when other businesspeople advertise or promote their businesses. If you can take advantage
of such platforms, it would be very easy
for you to learn your first clients and build
a consistent customer base. Now, do not limit yourself
to just one platform. Use as many as you can
because ideally you don't know which one your
clients will come from. Now, the second way to
get clients is to partner with local plant shops where these people
buy these plants. If you could just
talk to owners of the plant shops in your area and tell them that I
offer this service, and if any of your clients
is interested in them, please give them my
number or his my card. You see, some people
go back to the shops, talk about how their
plants are drying. They might even
mention needing help, and if these plant shop owners don't have anyone
to refer them to, you've lost a customer. The more plant shop
owners you know, the more visible
you make yourself by just dropping
your contacts to the shops and building that relationship
with the owners or the people manning the shops, the more clients you
are likely to get. Now, remember to post pictures of your plants and
videos on Pinterest. You can also register on
platforms like Nextdoor, if it's available
in your country. This platform connects you to people who are looking
for the service. There's also thumbtag
and Task Crabit. If this is available
in your country, sure to register on them because it's easy
to get people who are looking for the
service, particularly. If these are not available
in your area and you want to create visibility
in mob platforms, list your services on FVR or create a simple website
to showcase your
5. Running a Mobile Car Wash Service: You can actually
earn 200 to $500 a day just by washing cars without owning
a car wash business. Mobile car wash services are in high demand nowadays
because people love the convenience of having
their cars cleaned right at their homes or offices. Ideally, a mobile car wash
service involves offering, you know, car cleaning and
detailing services on the go. You take your tools and
cleaning supplies directly to the customer instead of the
customer coming to you. This is a very
convenient service for both car owners,
that is clients. You the service provider
because you save the car owner or the
client time and hassle, they don't have to drive
all the way to the caosh and you don't have to
rent out a space to, like, create a physical carosh. Now, I find this
small business to be quite easy and quite
accessible to anyone. I mean, who's never washed
a car in their life. If you've never trust me, it's not rocket science. It's quite literally
the easiest thing you can even a child
can wash your car well. If you've ever washed a car before or you can wash your car, you are in business. Let's talk about the
financial potential. How much can you actually earn? I mean, I don't know
exactly how much you'll earn because like I've mentioned
in the previous ideas, it depends on a lot, but here is an estimate. You can charge about
$25 to $70 per car depending on the type of wash and detailing requested. If you manage to wash about
five to ten cars a day, that's about $125 to $700
a your weekly earnings can actually go even
beyond $1,000 if you work consistently and you have
a steady flow of clients. In fact, if you offer specialized services like
specialized detailing, you can earn even more. Now, how do you get clients
for this small business? One, social media, that is the go for businesses
individuals and brands alike. Nowadays, businesses
thrive on social media. You could post pictures of cars you've washed
before and after. Let's say a car
was muddy as hell. You cleaned it up and
it's now shining. It's great. You take a picture before you start
washing and then take a picture after and you
post the before and after on your Instagram
or TikTok or Facebook. And then you add that, Look how I transformed this daty cow, just say
something like that, and remind people or tell
people that you actually can offer them these
services if they need them and tell
them how to reach you? Is it a phone number?
Is it an email? Just make sure you have a
way for them to contact you. So use all platforms at your disposal from Instagram
to Facebook to Tik Tok. You can even just record
yourself cleaning cars and post the
videos on YouTube. I mean, you must do
all you can to make sure you're getting as
many clients as possible. The second method to get clients is to register
on Google My Business. If by any chance, you've
registered your company, then you can create a
Google My Business page. I think they've
changed the name, but the idea is the same. Once you register on
Google My Business, every time somebody
is looking for a mobile car wash in your area, your business will show up, which means more visibility
and more potential clients. Three, you can actually
also collaborate with apartment
complexes and offices. So you can be offering
regular cleaning for their employees
or residents cars. Now, imagine in your area, the five apartment complexes, and you walk to
each complex tell whoever is manning the place
that you are actually, that you actually offer
mobile car cleaning services. If somebody needs
these services, all they have to
do is either give the resident who's interested
your card or your number. If you partner with five
apartment complexes, and each complex has
about 100 residents, how many clients do you think
you can get? From that. Now, if you partner
with offices, obviously there are
people who like to get their cars cleaned before
they go home or they didn't have time
to clean them over the weekend and
it's Monday and now they are in the office with a dirty and now they
came to the office, but their car is dirty. You can't actually
just tell the people around or whoever is concerned that this is
a service you offer. If anyone needs you, all they have to do is call you. You will come with your supplies
and your cleaning tools, clean their car, and when
they leave the office, they're living with a
clean car. How convenient. You can also use community
apps that are available in your country like
Craiglist and Nextdoor to connect with customers
who need these services. But don't worry if you
don't have access to these platforms like
Craiglist and Nextdoor, because most of them
are location specific, but that doesn't mean that
now you cannot get clients. Just use what's your disposal. Use Five, create
a Facebook page. Do all you have to do to make
sure you come out on top. How do you scale
such a business? Number one, hire helpers. So first, you have to invest in more cleaning tools and
supplies, of course, and then get more
people on board, more cleaners, so that you can
take care of more clients. I mean, I alone, you can
only clean five cars a day. Imagine if you had two
extra pair of hands. That means 15 cars a day. That means more money. Offer subscriptions. I mean, if somebody
needs their cars cleaned every day or every week, how about you tell them you can pay me this amount
of money per month, and I'll be cleaning your car every Wednesday, like clockwork. This build some sort of
consistent income for you, like I mentioned in other ideas
I've talked about before, and it takes the stress
out of the client, they don't have to
think, Oh my God, I need to pay this guy, every. They pay you once
in a month and they forget and focus
on other things. Now, to specialize and
expand even further, you can invest in pressure washers or eco
friendly cleaning kits. This can increase efficiency
and help you complete a job faster and is very attractive to
ecocscious clients. Now, in terms of
pricing strategy, when you're beginning, how much do you need to
charge your clients? This will depend again on your location on the
clients you're targeting, where they live, how much they
can afford, and all that. But just give you
sort of an idea. You can charge a basic
fee for a standard oh and offer add ons
for extras like waxing. Vacuuming or deep
cleaning interiors. For example, you can charge about 25 to $30 for
a standard wash, 50 to $70 for, you know, detailing package, and you can charge
about 20 to $50 extra for waxing and polishing. Feel free to play around with these numbers and
different services. But at the beginning, just start with a standard car wash and educate yourself more about cleaning cars and the different
services you can offer. So in a year or two
or less than that, you'd be offering more services. You'll have more
knowledge and you'll be worth more than you
are as a beginner. Remember that reviews go a long way in these
types of businesses. If you can build a
profile on Let's see Yep so that your clients
customers can leave reviews, that would be amazing
for your business. You see, by running
a mobile cosh, you're offering people
convenience while building a profitable
online business.
6. Cleaning and Organizing People’s Homes: Now, do you want
to earn about $100 per session by helping
people de clatter, clean or organize their
spaces and homes? This is another beautiful
small business idea. You see, many people
struggle to maintain a clean and organized
home because they either have busy schedules or they don't have
the motivation. This is your opportunity to
make their lives easier. And and from it. This small business is
actually self explanatory. You're offering cleaning
and organizing services. Ideally, you're turning
messy spaces into clean, beautiful functional spaces, whether you're cleaning
a home or an office. You can offer services
like dusting, vacuuming, organizing closets, or even helping the
client de clutter, how much you charge
your clients will be determined by quite
a number of factors, including your location,
but you can earn about $25 to $75 per
session for basic cleaning. If somebody is interested in full cleaning and organizing, you can charge more for
this, like $100 to $300. The exact amount
will be determined by the size of the
spatial cleaning, how cluttered or dirty it
is and many other factors. With just three to
five clients a week, you could earn about
$1,200 to $3,000 monthly. How much you charge
for each service obviously will be dependent
on what you find out when you research how
much people charge in your area and who you're
targeting, you have to know. Let me tell you when
you start a business, the first thing you do is to identify your potential client. Where do they live? Do they
have disposable income? How willing are they to
pay for this service? Do they actually need it? I mean, you cannot
target a stay at home mom because they have all the time to
clean their space. So you have to be
very intentional when it comes to targeting. Let's work out a basic or sort of a standard
pricing structure for the purpose of this
video and also give you an idea of how you can
price your services. You can charge about 50 to $75 per session for basic cleaning. And then for deep cleaning, you charge $100 to $150. For full home organizing
and decluttering, you can charge more
like $200 $300. Now, to get your first clients, especially as a beginner, you will need to make use of the platforms
available to you. First of all, it's important to document the
kind of work you do by taking before and after pictures before you've
cleaned a space, the clattered
organized a closet, ask for permission
to capture that. Once you've cleaned it and
you have the final outlook, then take a picture
of that as well. Feel free to record
videos of you cleaning your client spaces if you don't have clients yet. Do that for yourself, clean your space, organize it, declater, organize,
close it, record, all that, take pictures and
use them to kind of promote yourself and your services on Instagram and
TikTok on Facebook. Make sure you're using
all the platforms available to you so
that you can reach as many people as possible and increase your potential
of getting clients. Offer your services to busy
professionals, parents, or elderly individuals because these people need your
services so much. Advertise your services
on Facebook Marketplace, next door or join community groups and
share your services there register on platforms
where you're likely to find these clients
like care.com, register on Thumb tag, register on Task Crabit. These platforms might not be
available to your location if you live outside the
area in which they operate. But if you have access to them, take advantage of them. If you don't have
access to them, create a Facebook page, make use of what is available. Now to scale this kind
of business, number one, you'd need to try and get more
work done by hiring help. You can't clean 50 houses or de clatter 50 houses or
50 offices by yourself. You need help, get assistance to partner
with real estate agents, property managers, landlords,
so that you can offer, move in and move out services. When a tenant moves out, they call you to kind
of clean the place. When they finish constructing a building an apartment complex, you can equip yourself to clean those spaces the more
spaces you clean, the more contracts or the
more relationships you build with these kinds of people who
have access to these jobs, the more gigs you get,
the more money you make. Now consider building a website. You can use simple beginner
friendly website builders, like Quix WordPress to just
build something simple, where people where people can not only see the
kind services you offer, but try and streamline the scheduling and paying so that once somebody
needs the service, all they need to do is
go to your website, book a service, and then you
go and provide the service. I make the process as
easier as possible. Can also offer premium services like eco friendly cleaning, professional closet organization or moving related cleaning. Before somebody moves into a new place like here
in Kenya, ideally, you have to clean for
yourself before you can move in or
after you move in, before you organize the space. Imagine if you could
offer that as a service. But then package it well. I know people already offer
this on a small scale. But packaging is very
important in this space. That determines
who you attacked, how much they are
willing to pay you, and how much you're able to
make and whether you build a profitable online business or you'll be just
another cleaning lady. So think about your positioning
very intentionally.
7. Fixing and Adjusting Clothes: Imagine turning ill
fitting clothes into perfectly tailored
outfits and getting paid $20 to $100
per item for it. Now, you see many people
have many clothes in the wardrobes that don't fit quite well or need adjustment. But the problem is
they either don't have the time or the
skills to fix them. You can offer services like hemming, taking in waistlines, shortening sleeves or repairing tiars to make clothes
look and fit better. Can even offer to
rework the whole thing, like I saw a certain Kenyan lady do on TikTok the other day. What she does is she takes basic weird looking or
normal looking pieces like t shirt and
stuff like that, and creates turning outfits from that and then sells them. I mean, I was amazed. She actually records her process and the before and after. And every time I see her posts, I'm just mind blown. It's actually a practical
service with growing demand, especially if you offer to do home to home
visit or delivery. If people can just send
the staff to them or if you can come pick them up
and then deliver them, that would make the
service more convenient and you'd be more
attractive to clients. Now, if you charge 20
to $50 per piece for basic alterations and manage to work on about
ten items a week, that is ten clothes
pieces a week, you can earn about
$200 to $500 weekly. For more complex tailoring, like resizing dresses or suits, you can charge about
$75 to $100 per piece, increasing your earning
potential significantly. Now, please note that these
are basically averages. How much you will earn
depend obviously on your location and the value
place on that service. It also depends on
who you target. I will keep saying that
your target customer is what determines how much you earn from a
service you're offering. Remember, you won't be the first person offering the service. So your packaging,
your marketing, and your unique selling
point really matter. Now to start this business
and get your first clients, you could do what that lady is actually doing as you speak. Make use of TikTok or any platform that you're
comfortable with. Take an item from your
closet and rework it or fix it or take
in the waistline, show people that process, show them the before
and the after. People trust what
they see nowadays. You say, you know, I'm very
good at sewing things, it won't really take
you for your word. But if you show
them, they trust you more and they are more likely to trust you with their clothes. So use Instagram and TikTok
to showcase your skills, advertise or self promote on
relevant Facebook groups. Create a Facebook page
for your business, partner with local dry
cleaners, boutiques, or even thrift stores in
your area to get referrals. I mean, when their customers express a need for the
service or come to them with problems
that you can solve and you've left a form
of contact for them, they might just refer
that client to you. The more toes you partner
with, the more Boutiques, the more dry cleaners
you partner with, the more clients you
might actually get. Now, word of mouth
works like magic here. Ask your previous clients, your family and
friends to recommend you to their other
family and friends. Ask people to recommend
you to their colleagues, to people they know that
might need your services. I mean, feel free to make a
few pieces for free or do some fixing and tailoring just for free to
showcase your work. What could your pricing
structure look like? I mean, this will depend
on a lot of things, but let's do something for
the sake of this video. Now, for basic alterations, that is hemming pants, adjusting waistlines,
you could charge about $20 to $50 per item. Now, for complex tailoring, that is resizing dresses and
suits and different pieces, you could charge $75 to $100. You could even offer bulk
discounts for multiple items, if somebody has
more than one piece of cloth that they'd like you to work on you could offer them some sort of a bundled discount. Now, how do you scale
such a business? First, invest in high
quality sewing machines or tools in order to handle
more jobs effectively. You could also offer
additional services like custom designs, embroidery or repairing
shoes and bags. I mean, the more services you can offer, the better for you. You can also create a
website to showcase your work and sort of create
an easy booking system. When I said that the better
you're packaging as a brand, as our business, the more likely you are to
attract clients. You see nowadays,
people like aesthetics. They like easy, they
like convenient. They like quality. So if you could just take
advantage of what they like and package yourself
in a way that is attractive to your
potential customers, you will win big. Now, you could also create an additional income stream
from this by one teaching people how to sew correctly or tailoring or fixing
stuff through workshops. You could also do live
online classes or even create online courses
that will make you money on autopilot. There are many ways you
could monitize this. But I'd tell you the
biggest challenge when it comes to
business is starting. So first take your first step. Take that first step,
get the hang of it, see how it feels, understand the ins and out of running a small
online business, and then keep growing
step by step. I mean, in fact, growth comes sometimes that you
even realizing it. So all you have to do is start leverage the
different platforms available to you in your area to find local
clients if you can. If Tam tak or Task Crabit is available
in your area, then use it. If you can list your services
on Etsy, then do that. You can even use fiber
and work to offer remote consulting and teach tailoring through
these platforms. Org offer tailoring tips. I mean, you never
know where you'll get your next client or where
your business will come from. I'd say just try as many
platforms as you can. You see, with this business, you'll be helping people fall in love with the wardrobes again while earning consistent income and working at your own time.
8. Final Thoughts: Small business ideas
are easy to start. They are highly flexible. They require zero to little
investment and are in demand, making them great options for immediate and
long term income. Congratulations. You've
completed the class. You are now on your way to becoming a successful
entrepreneur. Remember that action is
the rule of the game. So don't just sit
on these ideas. The next thing you should
do now is finalize and upload the small
business launch checklist. And start your business. Now, if you enjoyed this
class, please leave a review. It really helps most
students to find it and honestly motivates
me to create more. Plus, I love your feedback. I want to know whether the class met your expectations or not, so I can improve
my next classes. And if you have any questions, drop them in the
discussion section. I usually check that section
regularly and respond. If you want more
ways to make money online or grow your
online business, check out my other
skil sure classes and follow me for more. That is all I'm about. I will
see you in my next class.
Tess Ogamba, Growth Strategist
