Micro businesses

I think we are at a tipping point, where a lot of contextual factors tip the scales in favour of Micro Businesses.

You will get this if you have read Seth Godin's Small is the New Big.

So what am I talking about? I believe the future is in micro niches, dominated by micro businesses, run by 1 or maybe 2/3 people.

It fits in with a few other trends I have noticed:

- Desire of Gen Y to 'do what you want', pursuing passion & life style over the hunt for the might dollar.
- Bootstrapping startups
- Lower technology costs, meaning you can start a business for nothing and take it global using the internet as a platform
- Handys Doughnut Organisation discussions (shift to project work)
- Current financial crisis forcing all businesses to remain agile
- Slashies trend, instead of having multiple careers over a lifetime, holding parallel careers where people hold many roles: teacher by day, DJ at night

- 12 Hour Startup (great way to stimulate innovation)

The idea of micro businesses;

- Small businesses designed to be agile
- Garner enough income to live off but big upside potential
- People will typically have at least 1, but be involved in 3-4.
- Start with little or zero capital
- Using the internet as a platform to go global on

Take JohnChow of JohnChow.com.  He started a blog about making money online, the hook? he shared how much money he made each month. Using the internet as his stage he has taken his business global and nets over $40,000 usd/month. Just him. Neat huh?

Or Fred Figglehorn.  Fred was a typical 15 year old who wanted to become an actor in Hollywood so he decided to create a youtube series about a dysfunctional 6 y/o with anger management issues. Within 4 months he gained over 159 million views, a $100,000 sponsorship and has merchandise on the way!

Of Sharon Maguire of DogBreedInfo.com who built a website around information on dog breeds, reportedly she turns over $237,000 usd/year by herself simply by using Google Adsense.

This is the trend which may become Web 3.0 but buzzwords aside, I think all the contextual factors are in place for this to really take off.

Think about it, how many people do you know have multiple projects on the go, or have a full time job and a venture on the side growing.

The time is now.

What business ideas do you have that you know would make money and have virtually zero setup costs? What's stopping you? How can you take your passion and monetise it?

Go out, start them, learn, build and most of all have fun.

 - Ben Young