Your first micro business: five ideas, a fair price and the first ad

Almost everyone starts the same way: one enormous idea, a month of excitement, zero customers. The first business that actually works is usually the opposite, something small and unglamorous that someone on your street needs today: maths practice with a younger kid, dog walking, flat pack assembly, product photos for the corner shop, your illustrations printed and sold. The idea is not the interesting part. What you learn the first time you charge for something is.

Five ideas, ranked by effort

I am [YOUR AGE], I live in [TOWN OR TYPE OF AREA: village, suburb, big city] and I have [HOURS PER WEEK] to spend on this. I am good at [WHAT YOU ARE GOOD AT] and I already own [MATERIALS OR TOOLS YOU HAVE]. Suggest five realistic micro business ideas for someone my age in my area, ranked from lowest to highest start-up effort. For each one tell me: what I need to begin, how long it should take to land the first customer, what can go wrong and exactly who it is for. Be realistic, do not hype me up: I want to reject four and keep one.

Once the idea is set, comes the part almost nobody does and that decides whether this lasts: the price. Giving your time away does not win customers, it wins customers who do not value your time. Count materials, count travel and count every hour, including the invisible preparation.

I want to offer [SERVICE OR PRODUCT] to [WHO THE CUSTOMER IS] in [TOWN OR AREA]. Help me set an honest price: list my costs (materials, travel, preparation time, the time of the work itself) and propose three prices, one low, one middle, one high, explaining what message each one sends. Then write me a short ad for the noticeboard or the neighbourhood group: what I offer, who it is for, the price and how to reach me. Normal tone, no exaggeration and no promises I cannot keep.

• Start with one customer, not ten. The first one shows you what was pointless in your plan.
• Write down what is included and what is not before you start. Half of all arguments begin with the words I thought that was included.
• When you finish, ask for one sentence of recommendation. Two lines from real neighbours beat any ad.
• Log what you earn and what you spend in a note. Without it, in a month you will not know whether this was worth doing.

Plan for the no as well. When parents say no, they almost never mean the business, they mean the risk they see: hours, travel, who you would be with, how much time it takes from school. Turn up with those points already answered, in writing, and the conversation changes tone. An idea with hours, a price and limits sounds like a plan. A loose idea sounds like a whim.