Starting your own business - Button making - low start up costs, great margin. November 23 2011
If you walked into the offices of one of those Wall Street bankers, you know the ones, fancy suit, insincere smile and the habit of licking his lips each time your hand goes anywhere near your wallet. Yep you know the guy, that crook that the Occupy movement is talking about...... Anyway you walk in and say I have a business where you invest 530, lets say million, in capital equipment including an 80 million investment in stock. Sales in the first quarter will be 2000 million or two billion and you then have the choice to sell off the equipment as an asset for a further say 300 million or you invest back 81 million of the handsome profit and this time reap the full benefit of the additional 2 billion sales without the capital expense. The Wall Street Banker would say it's not possible. There is no such easy investment - but there is - the scenario I have described is that of someone starting their own button making business.
Ok the millions and billions are exaggerated but do the math:
Button Maker, Circle Cutter and all the pieces for 1000 buttons. $530
Sale of Buttons: 1000 @ $2 = $2000
Resale value of a used button maker after 1000 buttons = Easily $300, probably more!
Better still: Cost of buying a further 1000 complete button parts = $81
Total revenue on 2000 buttons @ $2 each = $4000 Cost = $611 It's profitable, It's fun and unlike the bankers job, it's honest!
There are few pieces of equipment with such low start up cost that give this kind of return even if I have not included a few photocopies or your own home computer and printer that you may well already own.
So where do you sell your buttons...... ideas!
- Schools, Universities, Colleges. Take the button maker and make buttons on the spot!
- Setup a table at conferences. Make buttons related to the conference.
- Flea Market - Photo buttons or just make your own!
- Sports clubs, team buttons, football / hockey / soccer buttons.
- Fundraising and awareness for non-profits
- Advertising and promotional buttons - almost every local business is a potential client
- Festivals, Trade Shows and exhibitions.
- Music and band buttons - every school band is a potential client and so is U2!
- Weddings, birthdays, funeral memorials and parties.
- And speaking of parties and birthdays: Yes Kids birthday parties are huge and lucrative.
And what else can you do with buttons...... more ideas!
Remember you can do more than design buttons using graphics programs like Photoshop, Illustrator or Corel Draw. What about:
- Fabric Buttons
- Artists buttons - Draw your own.
- Collector buttons from comic strips and cartoons
- Modern Art buttons using contemporary magazines
- Collage buttons from newspapers and printed materials
- Photo buttons we already mentioned and they are very popular
- And last but not least paper, markers, crayons and a bunch of kids.
Whether you are thinking part-time or full-time button making is a great addition to a small business or a good platform to start a business. It's good for people who like people. It's fun, artistic, lucrative and low investment.
If you want to discuss opening your own button making business you need to talk to The Button Guy!
Read about button making workshops for school kids and daycare