Go To Money Making Ideas Part 2.
 

500 Money Making Ideas: Taken from 1000 Money Making Ideas by Mason Ramm / Money Makers Australia and Edited by Frank Parker.  You might find a few more ideas here!

Part 1: 1 TO 100 / Part 2: 101 TO 200 / Part 3: 201 TO 300 / Part 4: 301 TO 400 / Part 5: 401 TO 500.

Part 1: 1 - 100:

1.  Produce Christmas cards which are printed on the front with, for example, "Happy Christmas from the Smith Family". Or, instead of the name ''Smith'', pick one of the dozens of other popular surnames. Sell packs of these cards by direct mail to people listed in telephone directories.

2.  Bring out a selection of posters which are packed with biblical quotes. Sell these through religious bookshops and by post to schools and practising Christians.

3.  Learn the art of calligraphy. When you become a skilled calligrapher earn money from teaching others in your own home or at evening class.

4.  Establish a directory of products no longer made. This directory might include sections on toys, novelties and household goods. Design the directory for business people and inventors who want to know both what has been made before and what ideas might be revived and/or modified.

5.  Make cotton gloves especially designed for coin collectors. The gloves prevent the grease and moisture from fingers getting onto coins. Package the gloves and sell them from ads in coin collecting magazines or distribute to shops which sell collectible coins.

6.  Begin a business which rents out large and expensive astronomical telescopes to householders who want to develop their interest in astronomy. Publicise your service at the local astronomy society and use local advertising to attract clients.

7.  Paint attractive art on rocks to make souvenir paperweights and doorstops. The art might take the form of abstract pattern, traditional pictures or tourist scenery. Call your rocks "designer rocks". Add a rubber base to paperweights and a rubber edge to doorstops.

8.  Manufacture marbles draughts sets. Instead of a checkerboard there is a wooden board with 64 round holes. The holes become the squares of the draughtboard and the marbles sit in them. Each side has marbles of a different colour and some extra colours to use as 'kings'.

9.  Paint on wood stylistic house numbers and names. These painted numbers and names will be an attractive alternative to the traditional names burned into sliced logs. Get your work stocked at shops which sell garden products or household goods.

10.  Start a venture which promotes the art and hobby of window painting. On coloured acetate paper have outlines printed for painting pictures by numbers. These acetate sheets are stuck to one side of a window and anyone can paint a picture on the other side of the glass.

11.  Select one sea-shell which would be suitable for an ashtray, another for a pip tray and another for a paper clip tray. Put these shells into a single packet and sell as a set of useful sea-shell-trays. Sell from souvenir and novelty gift shops.

12.  Start a manufacturing business which is devoted to making doorstops. These doorstops might range from the humble wooden wedge to the more exotic and unusual. Package them in polythene bags, staple on a printed card and get them stocked at gift shops.

13.  Decorate everyday objects with pressed flowers. Add an inlaid design of pressed flowers to trays, coasters, jewellery boxes, paperweights, picture frames, wall-hangings, desk sets and table tops.

14.  Make wooden noughts and crosses games. Drill nine holes in a small square block and paint on a grid. Next make ten pegs and pint on each peg an ''O'' or an ''X''. Place the grid and pegs into a clear bag and staple on a product card.

15.  Make a selection of children's prayer plaques: Wooden wall plates which feature popular prayers. The prayers might be painted onto or burned into the wood.

16.  Start a crafts business which uses interesting foreign coins to make jewellery. Incorporate coins into pendant bracelet, brooches, necklaces and earrings. Alternatively, make jewellery which features reproduction coins from the ancient world.

17.  Use small sea-shells strung together to make necklaces. Find a trade source of small sea-shells and either set up your own production line or employ home workers.

18.  Create a folder of sample sales letters for all occasions. The letters might sell: advice, maintenance, products, a service which gives free quotes, etc. Sell these folders by direct mail to small businesses.

19.  Earn money by selling gold chain by the inch at public events such as fairs, markets and exhibitions.

20.  Use fabrics to make soft cases for pencils, spectacles, scissors, bibles, money and other small items which are either potentially dangerous or need protection. At first, make a diversity of products until you discover which are the most popular and profitable, then specialise.

21.  Buy old bibles and hymn books from churches and education authorities. Have the pages shredded and use as stuffing material for 'bible' or 'hymn' pillows, teddy bear and other soft products. Also do 'bible' confetti and stuff bottles to make bottled bibles.

22.  Cut out prints and illustrations from old books. Frame them and sell to a wide range of shops and from a stall at a market fairs and car boot sales.

23.  Make leather and wooden souvenir luggage tags. These tags might feature the name of a holiday town and a popular scene. Get your tags stocked at shops visited by tourists.

24.  Prepare a mixture of dried herbs for adding to bathwater. Invent a brand name for your product like "(your surname) Original Bath Herbs". Package each mixture of herbs and get them stocked at various retailers.

25.  Start an enterprise which reproduces classic poems on postcards and posters. Also do framed prints of classic poems. Sell these from a stall in an antiques or crafts market or get them stocked at souvenir or gift shops.

26.  Help people to get jobs by starting a C.V. design service. Conduct your own research into what information in a C.V. impresses employers. Basically, a good C.V. is professionally printed and presents the most important facts about a persons career history in a simple, clear way.

27.  Start a newspaper and magazine roadside stand. Ask established newspaper vendors how they got started.

28.  Begin a business which deals in old and new American and British comics. This business might: 1) Sell comics by post from a catalogue. 2) Operate a comics of the month club for specialised collectors and 3) Run a comics stall at fairs and markets.

29.  Write to overseas publishers of English language newsletters and offer to act as the distributor for their newsletter in this country. In your letter to the publishers outline the benefits they will gain if they let you distribute their newsletter.

30.  Start a service which cleans wire baskets and supermarket trolleys. Baskets and trolleys often spend most of the day on a dusty floor or outside, open to the elements.

31.  Use wooden jigsaw pieces to make earrings and necklaces. Add a hand painted design to the side of the jigsaw piece not covered by a part of the picture. Call your goods jigsaw puzzle jewellery. Sell from a stall at fairs, car boot sales or get it stocked at trendy shops.

32.  Take metal rods and tubes of different diameters and cut into slices. Arrange the slices to make pictures and patterns. Mount these pictures and sell as craftwork. Or produce kits for making pictures with slices of rods and tubes. Use mail order to sell these kits to craft workers.

33.  Design and produce lapel stickers for wearing at parties. Each sticker is printed with a statement which is designed to make it easier for guests to talk to each other, for example, ''smile if you like me''. ''Can I sip your drink?'', ''You have great legs'' and ''I know a secret''.

34.  Publish a "Which?" newsletter about newsletters. As the number of newsletters and subscribers is ever increasing, there is a gap in the market for a newsletter which comments on and judges the value of the others.

35.  Begin an enterprise which makes model paper products for dolls and dolls' houses. These might include: Newspapers, money, stationery, napkins, paper hats, Christmas cards, etc. Sell these products by mail order to doll makers and collectors.

36.  Write a non-fiction book which may, for example, be about a hobby. Enlist a book printer to produce copies of the book. Sell these to the market that would be interested in the contents. You might, for example, place ads in hobby magazines.

37.  Begin a crafts enterprise which turns out wire craft ornaments. These ornaments are free-standing, 3-D objects which consist entirely of wire: the wire makes the outlines. The ornaments might be in the shape of: aeroplanes, helicopters, people, animals, boats or bicycles.

38.  Start a mail order business which promotes the craft of making ornaments and models from shaping wire. Design and make up a complete kit for beginners. Include this kit in your catalogue, as well as tools, design ideas and raw materials for wire craft workers.

39.  Make football rosettes and get them stocked at newsagents and sports shops. Each one might be placed in a cellophane packet or polythene bag.

40.  If you can play a musical instrument, earn money by providing background music at: Restaurants, pubs, wine bars, tea-rooms, hotel breakfasts, amusement arcades, or ice skating rinks. Also play during the interval at theatres and/or cinemas.

41.  Buy and sell second-hand compact disks. Buy collections of disks by post and use local ads to find sellers in your area. The disks you acquire can be sold: by post, from a market stall, or get them stocked at local shops.

42.  Have a stall which sells fashionable clothes. Your stall might be a full-time business, working at street markets or it may be part-time and appear at craft and antique fairs.

43.  Put together a mail order catalogue of children's educational audio cassettes. These might cover subjects such as spelling, reading and grammar rules, geography, history, etc. Produce some of the cassettes yourself and buy others from audio publishers.

44.  Do your own research to discover the secrets of conjuring. Write a manuscript about your findings and publish it yourself. The novel and sensational nature of this book will ensure that it sells well from ads in newspapers and magazines.

45.  Write and record personalised songs. Produce songs for all occasions, such as engagements, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, births, homecomings and congratulations. Use classified ads in the personal columns to attract orders.

46.  Start a crafts business which produces gift tags decorated with pressed flowers. Also do similar products like pressed flowers bookmarks. To make a bookmarker tape take two strips of clear 35mm film, place pressed flowers between the strips and tie the sprocket holes together with cotton.

47.  Devise and produce an audio cassette course about how to play the drums. Use ads in the music press to sell this course. And/or get the course stocked at music shops.

48.  Produce kits for schoolgirls to make bead necklaces. Package each kit in a small polythene bag and staple on a printed card. Mount these kits on a rack and get them displayed at newsagents.

49.  Design your own brand of baby sling. Buy one of each of the baby slings currently on sale. Study them and develop one which is a composite of the best features. Manufacture and package them. Find appropriate retailers and wholesalers to stock them.

50.  Make charming and attractive quilts for babies and children. Make the kind of quilts you would like a baby or child to have. Give your imagination free reign to see what ideas and designs you come up with. When you have finalised a design, go into business for yourself.

51.  Turn out knitwear garments for children. Sell the garments from your own stall or through retailers.

52.  Embroider attractive designs on ladies gloves and scarves. Call on up-market retailers to persuade them to stock your products.

53.  Bring out your own range of shawls. Increase the value of your shawls by giving each design a catchy name. Sell the shawls by mail order or get them stocked at retailers.

54.  Make charming soft toy ladybirds and other insects/animals which can be attached to curtains for decoration.

55.  Bring out a selection of souvenir ties. The ties might feature the name or emblem of a holiday resort. Mount the ties on racks and get them displayed in shops which sell souvenirs.

56.  Start a mail order business which sells books, booklets and audio cassettes about how to deal with nasty experiences. Topics covered might include: Violence in the home, break up of a marriage, death of a partner, being sacked or failing exams.

57.  Use ribbon to make souvenir pictures, for example: yellow ribbon can be used as the beach, blue as the sea, brown and green for palm trees, etc. Or design and produce kits for hobbyists. Sell by mail order or through craft shops.

58.  Produce a series of videos which have titles such as: ''How to give up smoking'', ''How to relax'', ''How to lose weight'' and ''How to sleep soundly''. Sell these by direct mail to business people. Or try to get a leading chain store to distribute them on a national basis.

59.  Have your own fabrics market stall and sell ordinary fabrics, rolls of discontinued lines and remnants.

60.  Do alterations and repairs for dry cleaning services, menswear shops, factories and offices. Visit these places and inform them of your services. Offer, for example, to collect the goods once or twice a week.

61.  Produce cardboard, sightseeing periscopes and sell them at public events. Make them yourself. Arrange for the card to be printed and shaped. Assemble the periscopes and add two small mirrors. Recruit sales people to sell these periscopes along the route of the event.

62.  Start a knitting patterns of the month club. Each month, members of your club automatically receive a selection of the latest knitting patterns. Members select the patterns they want and return the rest. Or compile a top 30 of patterns and send new entries to club members.

63.  Set up a business which promotes the making of lampshades. Lampshade making can be sold as either an interesting hobby or a business opportunity. Produce a mail order catalogue of lampshade making equipment and supplies. Advertise your catalogue in crafts magazines.

64.  Rent computers to private business users. The computers you rent might be new and/or second hand. Also rent out peripherals such as printers, stands and sheet feeders. Use local media to inform potential customers about your service.

65.  Buy original computer games programs from home computer enthusiasts. Find these programs by advertising in computing magazines. Produce a compilation of the programs on a master floppy disk. Have copies of this disk made and sell from ads in home computing magazines.

66.  Produce a series of low cost audio cassettes which help school pupils revise for public examinations. You might give these cassettes a brand name like ''Personal School Revision Cassettes". Get them stocked at newsagents and bookshops.

67.  Set up a firm which publishes a monthly computer diskette/CD ROM program for home computer enthusiasts who want to improve their programme writing skills. Each cassette might give ideas, examples and tips about how to become a better computer programmer.

68.  Design and publish diaries for each star sign. The special feature of these diaries is that a star reading is given for each day of the coming year. Have these diaries mounted in a special display rack. Get a wide range of shops to accept your racks.

69.  Use luminous paint of the kind used on watches and alarm clocks to highlight figures on natural ornaments such as starfish, coral, colourful rocks, pine cones, etc. Place these in a sheltered display case to illustrate their luminosity. Have display cases on show at gift shops.

70.  Bring out a selection of lucky charms which are for hanging from windscreens of cars, vans and lorries. They might be mini horse shoes, wooden or plastic number sevens, four-leaf clovers, etc. Package your lucky charms to distribute to a wide range of retailers.

71.  Manufacture kits for making mosaics. Each kit will have a pre-designed mosaic and people will have to complete it like a jigsaw puzzle. Use ads in craft magazines to sell kits by mail order.

72.  If you have a spare room, take in a lodger or start a small-scale bed and breakfast business. If you choose the latter, either place a sign outside your house which reads 'Bed and Breakfast' or advertise in the windows of newsagents and in the classified ad columns of newspapers.

73.  Earn money from anatomical charts. Use the charts to : 1) Make stylish framed prints. 2) Make unusual designs for T-shirts. 3) Decorate household products such as wastepaper bins and lampshades. 4) Make decorative or educational posters. or 5) Make a collection of educational slides.

74.  Make decorations for wine bottles. Each decoration is slipped over the neck of a bottle. These decorations are either wood carved or metal engraved with the name of a restaurant or family. Or, make floral decorations, the scent of the flowers complimenting the bouquet of the wine.

75.  Start a crafts business which makes unusual table lamps. Each lamp might feature a stand made of a conch shell, for example, or a Victorian bottle. If you hit upon a design which is popular, and their are no problems for obtaining raw materials, this can become a full-time business.

76.  Take up the craft of jewellery making and as soon as you acquire a basic skill, start selling what you make. Begin by sending for a catalogue issued by a mail order jewellery making supplier.

77.  Produce souvenir children's height charts which feature postcard-type views of local scenery. Or do souvenir suntan charts. These suntan charts have a complete range of skin shades. A holiday-maker buys a suntan chart to make a before and after comparison.

78.  Compile a postal course which teaches people how to cut silhouettes. The course might include instruction on how to cut all kinds of silhouettes such as landscapes, animals and people. These silhouettes can be framed or mounted to make attractive wall-hangings.

79.  Begin a crafts business which makes either souvenir or normal tea cosies. Find suitable retail outlets to stock your cosies. You might, for example, make souvenir tea cosies for tearooms and cafes to sell to their customers.

80.  Learn how to make soft toys with the long term objective of being able to earn money from teaching others. Eventually, teach solo students, classes or use diagrams to teach people by post. Also begin a postal course which teaches people how to design their own soft toys.

81.  If you have the artistic ability to sketch or do ink drawings of private houses there is certainly money to be made here. get work by calling on households in the nicer looking parts of town and showing potential customers samples of your work. Also offer a framing service.

82.  Become a portrait artist and work in a thoroughfare of a shopping or tourist area.

83.  Earn from illustrating personal names in the style of Dickens' illustrator George Cruickshank. Do work at: tourist sites, shopping thoroughfares, fairs, exhibitions, etc. Also do illustrations by post and offer a service which reproduces your work on personal stationery.

84.  Begin a mail order firm which promotes the collecting of wine bottle labels. Assemble a wide selection of labels and compile a catalogue. In your catalogue also include, starter packs, albums, framed labels, etc. Collect the labels from used wine bottles from wine bars and hotels.

85. Operate a children's lucky dip at markets and crafts fairs. This would consist of a box of wood shavings mixed with small toys in wrapping paper. A child or their parent pays a standard charge, for example, one pound and the child takes out a wrapped toy.

86.  Open a school for disk jockeys. Offer potential students different courses for radio, night-clubs, mobile discos, hospital radio and pirate radio. Give students tuition: in classes, on a one-to-one basis, or correspondence courses and through audio cassettes.

87.  Become a photographers agent. Sell the work of amateur photographers for a commission. As an agent, your knowledge of the best place to sell photographs at home and abroad could lead to some amateurs becoming published photographers.

88.  Begin a mail order business which sells folk crafts. Pick a national group such as the Scots, Welsh or Irish. Put together hampers and folk craft products which capture the essence of your chosen group. Have a catalogue printed and advertise it around the world.

89.  Make a toffee of your own design and add a stick to make a toffee lollipop. Get them stocked at newsagents and confectioners or sell from a stall at markets, fairs and exhibitions.

90.  Design and make leather stamp wallets for philatelists. These would be for keeping duplicates and stamps for sale. The wallets might vary in size from the pocket to the desktop. Sell through stamp shops and adverts in stamp magazines.

91.  Start a mail order business which sells fund-raising accessories. For example: booklets about fund-raising ideas, bingo calling machines, scratch cards and many, many others. Produce a catalogue about your goods and send it to clubs, societies, associations and schools.

92.  Put together a correspondence course about how to become an amateur magician. The aim would be teach people who to do numerous basic tricks. It would be a foundation course for amateur magicians. Also sell the products that magicians tricks require.

93.  Package selections of empty matchboxes. Distribute these to newsagents to sell to children who collect empty matchboxes. Or get them stocked at specialists collectors outlets such as stamp and modelling shops.

94.  Set up a business which produces a selection of novelty packets of seeds for garden weeds. These seeds might have the same as stink bombs. Sell through gift or joke shops.

95.  Start an enterprise which delivers table flowers on a regular basis to : restaurants, hair salons, dental surgeries, offices, etc. Call on these places to sell your services.

96.  Start a craft business which makes a selection of cactus products. These products, such as paperweights, book ends, desk sets, etc. have live cactuses growing out of them.

97.  Make concrete mini-models of cows. Each model is painted to look like a real cow. These cows are for gardeners to put on lawns to evoke the atmosphere of the countryside. Get them stocked at as many garden centres as possible.

98.  Buy ordinary plastic model kits of aircraft and boats. Construct the kits and hand paint them in their original colours. Sell the finished models from a stall at fairs and markets.

99.  Bring out kits for making relief pictures with wood. For example, a kit for making a rural scene might include wooden pieces cut in the shape of: trees, animals, clouds, buildings, etc. Sell either by mail order to craft workers or through shops which sell craft products.

100.  Sell novelty trays of British soil to expatriates. This can be applied to any other nationals. Stick a tiny national flag in the soil of each tray.