In business, you will hear the term “niche” over and over again. Finding a niche, or your own little corner of the business world can be really difficult…but for some savvy people, opportunities that are too good to pass up present themselves. Make sure you keep your eyes and ears open while you search for your perfect business.

Many successful business owners will tell you that their business is a labor of love. They had a passion for something and turned their experiences, their knowledge into a money-making adventure. Providing a service or product that people truly want and need is one of the most rewarding experiences you can have.

Seventeen-year old Kimberly Rose did just that when she started Safesittings.com – a website devoted to connecting families of diabetic children with babysitters who have first-hand experience. She got the brainstorm when she overheard a couple complain that they could never go out because they didn’t have a babysitter they could trust to monitor and test their daughter’s blood sugar, and inject insulin if needed. A diabetic herself, Kimberly realized that she could help! She founded her business in order to help form a network of families and babysitters in the same situation. Congrats to Kimberly for her brilliant idea – and forming a service that is so desperately needed.

Do you have a niche? Is there something you know more about than most people your age do?

Some kids learn about business by starting a charity fundraiser. It’s a great way for kids to learn about business and care for others at the same time.

Check out Alice Seba’s six-year old son’s fundraising page Jump Rope for Heart where he has already raised $680 towards his $1000 goal! The site is fun and informative! To sweeten the pot, Alice is offering her Internet Marketing Sweetie course for free! Check it out and help support a great cause!

Seven-year old Landry decided to join his mom on her Relay for Life team to honor a treasured neighbor who recently succumbed to cancer. Landry was very fond of Mrs. Nancy (as everyone was). He looked forward to going to her house after school on the days that I was at the office. She loved spoiling him.

Landry’s mom formed the ‘Nancy’s Neighbors’ team and participated in the 2007 Relay for Life at a local high school. Landry had a blast at Relay. Even though he wasn’t an ‘official’ team member last year, he still stayed up until 3:00 in the morning walking.

When she started organizing the team for this year, Landry asked if he could join and become an ‘official’ team member. Of course she said yes, but told him he had to raise at least the $100 minimum himself.

So he decided he would have a LEMONADE STAND to raise some money.

Landry is very much aware of what cancer is. He loved Mrs. Nancy and also knew several family members who battled cancer themselves.

Landry’s goal is to find a CURE!

Landry set up his lemonade stand in front their house last Saturday. He made a whopping $108 selling lemonade. He also sent out an email to friends and family who he knew couldn’t make it to his lemonade stand and asked if they would like to buy a glass of “virtual” lemonade. He made $320 selling the virtual stuff.

In total, he’s up to $428! You should see the grin on his face!

Check out Landry’s videos!

This one is for the virtual lemonade.

This one is for the real lemonade.

Well done, boys! And my compliments to your amazing moms who are helping make it happen!

Simple Face Painting Designs

Without formal training, it is still possible to create simple face painting designs that are also eye-catching and beautiful. Cheek art is the best way to accomplish simple face painting.

One of the biggest benefits of developing simple face painting designs (or cheek art) is saving time. In a fraction of the time, you can paint a small design or character on a child’s cheek or arm and generate the same kind of “wow” that you would if you spent ten minutes painting an elaborate full face design.

Versatility is a big advantage with simple face painting. These small designs can be adapted and painted on the face/cheek, neck, shoulder, legs and arms. A simple snake looks fantastic slithering up the arm. A rose or other flower looks beautiful on the shoulder.

Here are some things you can do to create simple face painting designs for your kids or kids at heart.

1. If you’re at a loss as to what designs to start painting, look no further than the television or movie theatre. What is the hottest kids’ movie playing right now? What about the funniest animated show? Classic children’s television programming is also a great place to start. Particularly for preschoolers, the characters are very simple in nature and therefore fairly easy to replicate.

2. A clown face is a very simple face painting design. And since clowns can be happy, sad, silly or goofy, this one simple design with a few adjustments around the mouth is a great face painting design to have in your arsenal. A bright red nose, a larger than life red mouth (paint around the outside of the lips), large white area surrounding the red mouth, oversized eyebrows and some eye lines that extend from the outside of the eye toward the temples altogether make a simple clown face painting design that will get rave reviews.

3. Turning a little girl into a fairy princess is as simple as a few feathery lines around the eyes, starbursts at the end of each line and a bit of glitter.

4. Painting a pretend bracelet or necklace is a simple design yet very unique. Start by painting pearl sized dots around the wrist or neck and “dangle” a painted heart, peace sign or other “charm” from the painted “jewelry.”

5. Try a simple rainbow face painting…a classic, but always popular. Paint red, yellow, green and blue ‘horseshoe’ shapes and add two little white puffs for clouds at the end of each side of the rainbow. Voila! A happy kid!
The possibilities for simple face painting designs are endless. Don’t get caught up with the elaborate work that professional face painters do. For a single birthday party, volunteer event or just having fun with your kids, simple face painting designs can be just the thing to put a smile on a kids’ face.

Easy Face Painting is the guide that over 1,000 first-time face painters have used to guide them through their very first face painting event. Whether it’s a birthday party, charity fundraiser, school festival or community picnic, Face Painting is a popular activity with kids of all ages and Easy Face Painting makes it, well, Easy!

“I am 13 and pretty busy at school and live in the country areas. I love: beauty products [hair stuff, shower stuff etc.], stationery, pink things, designing and I am a night owl. What should I do and where should I start? I’ve tried making chocolates for neighbours but I don’t have many and don’t know how to advertise! I live in N. Ireland…HELP!”

The good news is that you have taken a good look at what you like to do! That’s a great start. Congrats! Being in a very rural area can make it difficult to find people to sell to, but luckily internet marketing has changed that. I know, because we live in a very small town. Don’t forget about school friends and people you meet through after school activities. Those people you know the best can often be your best customers.

You can also ask a parent to team up with you and help you join a direct sales business or even start your own website or blog. If you love designing, I highly suggest you learn the software needed to customize blogs and websites. There are many of us online who need help with this and would gladly pay!

If you have a green light from your parents, why not start a blog? It’s easy to start and you can begin for fun, writing about products and things you enjoy. A pretty pink site would be a great place to begin! Please remember not to use your real name and address and ALWAYS use good sense online. Here’s a great article on teen blogging safety: teen blogging. Once you feel comfortable with your blog, you can add product recommendations and begin monetizing your site.

Since you are in Ireland, check out iamawahm.com. Although it’s geared at work-at-home-mums, it will have some good information for you to check out.

Stock Photos

Looking for the perfect photo for your webpage? Listed below is a great collection of stock photo resources. ALWAYS read terms and conditions! Remember that royalty-free doesn’t mean copyright-free. While there are plenty of free or cheap stock photos, there is nothing like hiring a photographer to get your own unique image.

Try these photo links.

Pixel Perfect Digital Photography News, Free Stock Photos, and Useful Resources

istockphoto Royalty free images where there are no subscription fees or extra costs.

http://www.bciusa.com 1.5 million traditional and digital color stock photographs of the Natural World and its inhabitants – and Man’s impact upon it.

http://www.visipix.com Visipix is the biggest art museum in the world. All pictures manually enhanced and indexed. Unconditional free copyrights.
* World art museum, all cultures 33.600 exhibits
* Photo gallery, all themes except news 66.300 exhibits

Stock.XHCNG huge free gallery containing over 200.000 quality stock photos by more than 15.000 photographers!

http://www.corbis.com
http://www.indexstock.com
http://www.photo.net

http://www.webshots.com

http://www.gograph.com

http://www.freestockphotos.com

http://www.states-of-art.com/
http://www.freefoto.com is the largest collection of free photographs for private non-commercial use on the Internet.

http://www.imagebank.com

http://www.bigstockphoto.com

http://www.imageafter.com

http://www.pixelperfectdigital.com

http://www.texturewarehouse.com

http://www.freephotosbank.com

http://www.microsoft.com/clipart/default.aspx?lc=en-us

Access over a million royalty free clip art pictures via Frontpage/ INSERT TAB/ PICTURE and then click on CLIP ART. Perform a search for whatever keyword you need and enjoy!

Icons

http://www.glyfz.com
http://www.iconkits.com
http://www.iconexperience.com

http://www.iconfish.com

icongalore.com

http://www.iconfactory.com
istockphoto

Need a camera? We highly recommend using B&H Photo. You can find cheaper, but with cameras there are a lot of untrustworthy sites. Be careful!

We got this question today:

What if I can’t do a dog walking business alone, and I had to have a partner. There is a girl that lives across the street and we are good friends, but lately shes been kind of snooty and different. If I choose someone else she’ll get REALLY upset. What should I do?

Finding a partner that you can get along with all of the time is a really difficult thing, even for adults. It sounds like you’re learning one of the hardest lessons in business at an early age. I know it isn’t fun. Somehow one partner always seems to do more of the work or has more energy for the business. Sometimes just being friends can be tough, never mind working together!

Perhaps you can have a “business meeting.” Tell her that you’d like to get ready for summer or spring break and iron out a few things ahead of time. Agree to discuss all aspects of the business – what you’d like to charge, hours you’d like to work, how many clients you’d like to have, how you plan to get the word out, etc. Dog-walking can be a lot of fun but is also a huge responsibility. Suggest that you enlist another friend or two to help out – either as partners or as subs. Don’t forget to hear her side – does she have any questions or concerns? Ideas on how to make the business better?

What happens if you have a dog-walking appointment and one of you gets invited to the beach, the mall or a sleepover this summer? Do you have a back-up plan? Remember that you should always have an emergency back-up, even if it’s your mom or dad.

I suspect this really isn’t all about business. Sounds like she might be afraid of losing you or what you two have together. Is there anything that you can do to calm her worries? We have plenty of room in our hearts for lots of friends. It doesn’t have to be either/or.

Only you can decide whether you should continue the partnership. I always find that talking about it helps and I often get a piece of paper and write out a list of pros and cons. Sometimes putting it down on paper can really help.

Best of luck!

Treece

For just a few minutes at a time, you can start learning the technical side of building a website. Although there are many WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) type web-builders out there, having the ability to use code is going to be a huge asset to anyone involved in an internet business. This site is broken into short lessons that are easy to understand.

Whether you’ve had a site for a while or are brand new to being online, this site full of web-building tutorials is a don’t miss. At W3Schools you’ll find all the Web-building tutorials you need, from basic HTML and XHTML to advanced XML, SQL, Database, Multimedia and WAP. At W3schools you will find thousands of cut-and-paste examples. They even have an on-line HTML editor you can edit the examples and experiment with the code on-line.

If you like to learn something new every day, this would be a perfect place to enhance your technical skills in short time clips. Start with the HTML examples – this is the primary language for building web pages.

Enjoy being a geek! There’s something highly satisfying about doing something technical yourself!

Marie Ynami of Mom Soapbox recently shared this story on her
blog. If you need to raise money for a trip or are just looking for
some extra cash, don’t be afraid to be creative. You may surprise
yourself with the results!

Marie’s daughter is part of an all girl’s choir group in their high school and this year, they are going on a road trip to San Francisco to attend a festival. She needs to raise a little bit over $600 to pay for the trip – which includes the bus, hotel accommodations and some meals.

She has raised most of the money herself by selling homemade chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies and brownies. Three nights a week, she bakes several batches of cookies and brownies, packages them in little bags and sells them in school for $1 a bag – she cleverly labeled them as “Cookies for a Cause”. She has turned into an awesome business person.

When her mom asked her if she is interested in getting a part time job to save money for the trip she says “Selling my own homemade cookies in school is way better than getting a job!” She shares that she loves being her own boss – she can be late and not worry, she doesn’t have to commute, she makes all the business decisions – what can beat that?

Congrats to her for being so creative and so motivated! She truly is an inspiration. I’m sure she has a lot of happy, repeat customers!

I know, I know…school is out and you long for the days that you can sleep in and lounge around without worrying about anything! Starting your own business doesn’t have to take up all of your time. Think of it as a labor of love! If you put a few hours a day or even a few hours a week, you can be on your way to earning money doing something you love to do!

Summer is the perfect time to explore your entrepreneurial options. Check out the library or your local book store on topics that interest you. If you have required summer reading, perhaps you can include a business book. Although there are many books out there on kids in business, don’t limit yourself there. If you love to take pictures, grab a book on photography. Love sports? Read an inspirational book on a favorite athlete or coach – many of these people are truly motivational. Like computers? Why not choose your favorite software program and really master it? Or choose a new one! Love kids? Then really show it by taking a CPR course. Summer is also a great time to volunteer your time. Offer your services to a local small business in exchange for some experience.

Here are some words of wisdom. If you want to make a lot of money – you need to have valuable skills that people will pay for. It’s really that simple. As a kid, you’re probably thinking that you are too young or that’s what college is for. Wrong! People don’t pay you for your degree – they pay you for what you can do. For what you have to offer.

Summer is a great time to start a blog. Learn to build a website. Take an online Photoshop course. Write articles for website owners. If you want to work, you must let people know you are available and interested! Want to pet sit, dog walk, babysit, mow lawns, type, or write? Make up flyers or business cards and take a walk around your neighborhood and hand them out. No one is going to find you unless you let them know you exist!

What are you doing this summer?

Do you love animals? Dog walking may be the perfect business for you. Plenty of fresh, clean air, exercise with “man’s best friend”, and cash to boot!

Dog walking is a big business in large cities. Dog walkers are a fixture in the parks of New York City. People these days are too busy to walk their own dogs so they hire someone who has the time to do just that. You don’t have to live in a city – many pet owners are thrilled to have someone check in on their pets while they have long business days or plan to be out of the house for longer than normal. (If you’re staying home on Thanksgiving or Christmas, these are great days to offer some holiday service. Many families appreciate not having to rush home early to let a dog out.)

If you are interested in a dog walking business, you need do some homework. In our neighborhood, that’s easy to see who has a dog by just walking around the block.

Neighbors may not want to pay you just to walk their dog. Offering other services along with dog walking could boost the number of clients willing to take a chance on the service. Additional services you can offer include: pet grooming, pet feeding, and pet sitting.

Once you both have done the legwork, now it’s time to map out your business plan. Develop a price list. Still offer dog walking by itself, but also list prices if one of the additional services is added. Instead of writing down a set price, say something like, “We also offer dog grooming services with prices starting at $15.” Using a range gives you room to negotiate prices with different customers. If one customer has a bigger dog, the price will be higher than the starting rate. Drawing up a contract with the customer for the agreed upon prices is not a bad idea.

Once you have the price list, design a flyer. Go door to door again and hand them out. Include your name as owner of the business, the family telephone number, and address. Be prepared to have references available in case people want to find out if you are a reponsible kid.

Next, head to the store for supplies. With any business there is an initial outlay of money to get started. You will need to purchase grooming supplies, pooper scooper, extra leashes, and doggie treats. Start with the basics and add more items as your business grows. Most animal owners will supply everything you need, but having an extra leash is a great idea.

This summer, my daughter pet sat for two families for less than two weeks and earned enough to buy a Wii! They visited the pets so often that a neighbor reported to our vacationing customers how responsible and caring they were! The extra TLC earned them a nice bonus and I’m sure they’ll be called back the next time a vacation rolls around. Another added bonus – these same customers now call my girls for babysitting, too!

Edited to add – the day we posted this, the same two families called for both babysitting and dog-sitting for April vacation!