Business ideas No.9 ; 110 Unique Business ideas

110 Unique Business ideas:

Business ideas No.9

9. The Peruvian Connection

Annie developed a love for Peru when as a Yale sophomore she volunteered for an archaeological dig on the Peruvian coast. During her graduate studies she returned to Peru to do research on “market women”—women who sell goods in marketplaces of remote Andean villages. On her return trip to Tonganoxie, Kansas, her hometown, she brought her mother a Peruvian sweater: made from the soft and silky lightweight wool of the alpaca, a llama-like animal native to the Andes and known to have been the royal of the Incas.

It wasn't long before her mother’s friends were telling her that she ought to import the sweaters. When her mother obtained their first order from Hall’s, a Kansas City, Missouri, department store, the mother-daughter team went into business.

In the beginning, business at the Peruvian Connection Ltd. Was slow. Annie would spend her time after school visiting boutiques around the country to sell the alpaca fashions. The main problem was that she disliked wholesaling. A Break came for Annie and her mother when the New York Times interviewed Annie at a New York fashion trade show where she was able to get a space. The article brought in about 3000 queries regarding the sweaters. Annie and her mother turned these queries into a mailing list.

With a $50,000 Small Business Administration guaranteed loan, they put out a color catalog in 1980. Their sales figures now are several hundred thousand dollars a year. Annie’s mother handles the bookkeeping and Annie spends a lot of her time correlating with a New York designer to come up with original patterns for the sweaters as well as hats, ponchos, scarves, capes, and skirts. She also does a lot more travelling to Peru to work with her suppliers.

Annie, though she has had to postpone her doctorate work, doesn't mind the commitment. It i a commitment though. According to Annie, “You have to invest everything that you have-emotionally, physically, financially, and intellectually. To be able to do that and feel rewarded for it, you’d better pick something that you really love.”

The lesson here is to count the cost of starting your own business. How much time will it require? Is it worth my total investment of time, money, and energy?

Analysis:

Type: light manufacturing

Marketing Approach: Mail order

Unique Appeal: Peruvian Wool

Skills: None

Financial Overview:

Initial Investment: $50,000

Potential Income: $2000, 000