TOP 10 HOME BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

By Susan Ward

Are you one of the many people searching for a hot home business opportunity? Then this list of the best home business opportunities based on current and future trends may be just what you're looking for.

I say " may be" because these home business opportunities are not suitable for people who are looking for " a money-making machine" or who " want to make money in their sleep" or any of those other phony promises.

Nor are these home business opportunities for people who expect to just make an initial investment and then just watch the money roll in. Successful home businesses are real businesses. To turn a home business opportunity into a success, you need to be prepared to work at it and have the appropriate knowledge and skills that you need to run any business.

But those caveats aside, here are what I think are the best home business opportunities - best because of their potential right now and because there's going to be a even greater demand for these products and/or services over the next few years.

1) Home Renovation Services. Home renovation services are hot, hot, hot - and there's no sign of this trend slowing down. On the contrary, as the population ages, even more people are going to want to make their homes more livable by investing in the home renovations they need to stay where there are. The best home renovation to focus on for the long-term? Bathroom renovations.

2) Pet-Based Products. Is there anything that indulgent pet owners won't buy for their pets? If you can come up with a product for dogs or cats that you can produce in your home, you'll have a real winner of a home business opportunity on your hands. From designer collars to " organic" pet foods, the sky's the limit.

3) Catering Services. Think dinner for eight. Not just delivered, but served. Catering services aren't just for big parties any more. Career couples are having almost every social occasion catered, and busy families who are tired of living on take-out are spending more on having food brought in. If you have a knack for planning and preparing nourishing, appealing food and can deliver it hot, this is the home business opportunity for you.

4) Cleaning Services. Along the same lines, there's currently a heavy demand for cleaning services, and the demand for domestic cleaning services will only increase. If you're good at organizing and comfortable with the thought of running a crew, this home business opportunity has the potential of turning into something big.

5) Fall Prevention Products. Did you know that falls are the leading cause of fatal injury among elderly American and Canadians? And did you know that the death rates from falls among older men and women have risen sharply over the past decade? Now what if you developed or distributed a product related to helping seniors prevent falls? Think of the growing size of the potential market!

6) Wedding Consultant/Planner Services. People are still getting married. In 2009, 6.8 people per 1, 000 married in the United States, meaning there were 2, 080, 000 marriages. And these numbers refer only to the traditional kind of marriage; there's also a growing demand for gay marriages, providing even more opportunities for wedding-related businesses of all kinds. If you are good at planning and have a mind for details, becoming a wedding planner could be the home-based business opportunity you've been looking for.

7) E-commerce. E-commerce sales rose 14.8% in 2010, totaling $165.4 billion. That alone says that more people than ever are shopping online. And ecommerce is an ideal home business opportunity. One of the main barriers to operating a successful e-commerce business is finding the right product or products to sell; the other is providing the kind of online environment that will make people want to buy from you rather than competitors.

8) In-Home Beauty Services. This home-based business opportunity combines two trends; the insatiable demand for services that make people look and feel younger and better and the growing desire to have those services delivered. And why not? Having someone come to your home and cleanse and tone your skin and do your makeup is the height of luxury. And caring for and making up the face are only two beauty services you could offer to provide; manicures, pedicures, massages and acupuncture could also be provided to people in their homes – or in yours.

9) Sewing and Alteration Services. Sewing is on the way to becoming a lost art as more and more people find they have less and less time. But as not everyone is the regulation size, the demand for other people to provide these services will only increase. If you're really skilled, tailoring is another good home-based business opportunity.

10) Life/Business Coaching Services. Coaching has been hot for a while now, but I think this new industry will continue to grow. Remember when everyone had or wanted a personal fitness trainer? Now everyone has or wants a personal coach. If you have the skills and training necessary, this is a great home-based business opportunity because it can be done remotely as well as in person.

And a last tip - Most of the home-based business opportunities on this list call for specialized training or skills. If you don't have the specialized training or skills needed for a particular home-based business opportunity, you can still " be a part of it". Find a person with the appropriate training or skills and invest in his or her business. Being an angel investor can be rewarding in so many ways.

http: //sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/homebusiness/a/homebizopp.htm

IV. PRODUCTS AND BRANDS

Products

I. Study word combinations and examples with ‘product’ and find their Russian equivalents.

product	catalogue (BrE) catalog (AmE) mix portfolio	a company's products, as a group
line range	a company's products of a particular type
lifecycle	the stages in the life of a product, and the number of people who buy it at each stage
positioning	how a company would like a product to be seen in relation to its other products, or to competing products
placement	when a company pays for its products to be seen in films and TV programmes

II. Match the sentence beginnings (1-7) with the correct endings (a-g). The sentences all contain expressions exercise I.

1. Banks are adding new types of accounts	a) product life cycles are so short that product launches are very frequent.
2. Apple is going to simplify its product line	b) its product positioning in relation to Psion's existing hardware products.
3. Consumers have mixed feelings about supermarkets	c) it changed its product range towards more expensive cars.
4. When BMW bought Rover,	d) of cigarettes in movies.
5. The new law will ban product placement	e) extending their product portfolio into financial services.
6. Following the launch of the Series 5 laptop, consumers were slow to understand	f) and deliver fewer but more competitive models.
7. With this type of equipment in the US,	g) to their product mix.

Goods

Goods can refer to the materials and components used to make products, or the products that are made.

Here are some examples of these different types of goods:

Consumer goods that last a long time, such as cars and washing machines, are consumer durables.

Consumer goods such as food products that sell quickly are fastmoving consumer goods, or FMCG.

Which of the words from the passage about goods applies to each of these products?

1. microwave ovens

2. cotton

3. cars

4. hamburgers

5. soap powder

Brands and branding

A brand is a name a company gives to its products so they can be easily recognized.

This may be the name of the company itself: the make of the product. For products like cars, you refer to the make and model, the particular type of car, for example, the Ford (make) Ka (model).

Brand awareness or brand recognition is how much people recognize a brand. The ideas people have about a brand is its brand image. Many companies have a brand manager.

Branding is creating brands and keeping them in customer's minds through advertising, packaging, etc. A brand should have a clear brand identity so that people think of it in a particular way in relation to other brands.

A product with the retailer's own name on it is an own-brand product (BrE) or own-label product (AmE).

Products that are not branded, those that do not have a brand name, are generic products or generics.

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