Do you find yourself always brainstorming new business ideas?
I do, and I’m sure I piss my family and friends off in the process, annoying them with everything I come up with. I thought I would list the number of ideas I’ve had over the past few years.
2003 to 2008
– Decorating and personalising phone cases with Swarovski crystals
Do you remember when it was cool to have a mobile phone covered in tiny sparkly crystals?
I thought this would be a great thing to do in my spare time. No one at the time was offering this service in Australia. After purchasing my supplies from America and China, I spent weeks attaching the crystals to the phone cases. These cases later sold on Ebay.
This wasn’t a scalable business. I was happy to recoup the money I spent on the initial materials purchased. It was this idea that prompted me to open my first Ebay store in 2003 which I still use today!
– Freelance Graphic Designer
I was always on the look out for ways to make extra money while I was studying at University. I was confident people would pay me to design things for them so I posted my first ad on Gumtree. I advertised myself as a Freelance Graphic Designer and landed some pretty cool jobs designing business logos and cards, invitation, posters etc.
– Emilia Rossi – Art and Design
While I was making money freelancing as a junior graphic designer I was also painting. Painting is a passion of mine and to date I have sold close to 50 paintings.
Below are some photos of my oil paintings:
– BPA free items
I discovered that Australians were buying BPA free products from US and Canada. After researching to see who was selling BPA items online in Australia I found out there was little competition. So my idea was to resell BPA items in Australia via an online store.
With little to no web design skills I felt this idea was out of my league. Knowing what I know today though, I would’ve tested this idea by reselling BPA items on Ebay and Gumtree to see if there was demand; if there was I would’ve invest in developing an online store.
2013 to Now
– Fashion stylist for retirees
My mother is an active retiree who enjoys travelling, cycling and dragon boating.
She has older friends who feel frustrated at the lack of services available to them. Services such as a personal shopper or helper who would help them out with their fashion, beauty and lifestyle needs.
My mother suggested that I offer a service that would provide taking them on shopping trips and suggest places to visit to get quality and well price treatments.
I thought this was a great idea but my concern is, how could I scale this? I’m working towards a lifestyle that will allow me to work where ever I want whenever I want. So a business that is reliant on me is restricting. I enjoy helping people but feel this concept would be overly demanding; I want time to work on other things.
– Pets classifieds
It’s hard to find quality products that are not overpriced and made in China. I adore my Pomeranian Goochie and it’s only natural that I want the very best products for him. My idea was to have a place online offering quality products and accessories for small sized dogs.
