101 Succesful Small Business Ideas

Frequently Asked Questions

Are you planning to come up with a second eBook with more great ideas for small business?

Yes, definitely. In fact I'm already working on it. According to Wikipedia, Germany, Austria and Switzerland have a combined population of some 98 million people. That means lots of entrepreneurs coming up with lots of ideas – certainly more than 101.

I want to follow up an idea and need a translation of a website.

Sure. I've already been told that "life is too short to learn German". So I'm prepared to read through all the material on the website in question and provide you with a one to two page synopsis in English. The length would depend on how much information the website contained. The cost to you is just AUD$10 per website. To obtain a translation, please submit the form on our Translations page.

Where do you get the ideas from?

That's the easy part. To start with I read piles of newspapers, magazines and other business related material. Then, I've got friends and relatives all over Germany who know that I'm always on the lookout for small business ideas, so whenever they come across something interesting they let me know. Another great resource, not surprisingly, is the internet itself.

If, in English, you Google "small business idea" or "small business ideas" you'll come up with more than 150 million search results. That's a good starting point but there's a lot of time, effort and experience involved in sifting through those results to find the most interesting and relevant ideas.

Can you guarantee that a business concept from Germany will work here?

Every piece of information I come across I ask myself the same sort of questions: Can this idea, with the application of a little commonsense, be adapted to work in another country? Is it an original idea – something unique? Could someone else, at the very least, be inspired by it in their search for a business concept? Only if it scores a big tick on at least one of those criteria do I add it to my list.

Of course I can't guarantee that, if you set up your own business based on one of these ideas, it will succeed. There is certainly a much greater risk of failure when you start up a business from scratch compared with franchising, for instance. Statistics show that a franchise operation, while it is certainly not the cheapest way to get into business, is about six times more likely to be successful than somebody who sets up their own show. Buying into a franchise you are buying into a proven business model.

But, ultimately, it is somebody else's business model and you may find it more difficult to maintain your enthusiasm and commitment to it over time than if you start out with your own idea – one that fires your imagination and fills you with enthusiasm.

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