Indianapolis Small Business

Consider growing hyper-local. Small businesses like your own are in need of quality products and services. Take a look around your own community. Is there a niche yet unmet? Is there some sector yet unserved? Take some time and list local problems that consumers have in your area. Perhaps there are some unsafe railroad crossings and you’re in the printing business. Make up some signs to help gain support to get those brought up to a higher standard. Invest in your local community (hey, they made your business what it is, right?). Support local artistry and athletics. Create promotions that appeal to your local community. You have something the global players don’t have in your community: Total and utter authenticity. Take advantage of this and you’ll be reaping the benefits for months to come.

If becoming ultra-local seems strenuous, perhaps you can put to good use your experience and skills. Put together a travel guide that local restaurants can offer to their patrons. Maybe you could buy up damaged goods at local auctions or sales, add a little elbow grease, and resell them online or in the local flea market. Make a trip to the nearest big city or go online to retailers and get some wholesale goods that aren’t available in your community and sell them to your local audience. Are you an artist? What about a mobile billboard company? Get some brushes and paints and offer to paint up your minivan with information about a local Indianapolis business or event. Or take that skill to the business itself and paint up their windows. It won’t be long before your experience really pays off.

What other small businesses are there in your community? Call up the local Chamber of Commerce and get a copy of their directory. Just by checking out what else is thriving in your community might help stir up that needed inspiration for you to launch your own idea. Or, maybe there’s something that’s missing. Is there a car wash in your town or do people have to drag their bug-ridden Lexus to the nearest wash 75 miles away? Maybe there’s a bevy of car insurance agents. How can even local consumers know who to choose? Convince them to buy into a program delivering warm leads and you’ve got yourself a local crowdsourcing model. Most small business owners are starving for a good networking platform. Make yourself the expert on it for your zip code and you’ll find yourself the center of a lot of attention (and the maker of a ton of profit.)

Even if these ideas don’t seem to click with you, consider making a business based on information available to you through the web. Universities publish papers every day that contain useful information that is licensable. Some of that research has even entered the public domain. There is a push these days for open, transparent access to information for all. Scientific research is no longer earmarked for scientists. Auto mechanics can search the open information about how rocket engines work. Another great place to stir up a business idea is by searching the US patent office. A lot of patents expire after their initial 20-year term. Remember that cultic toy from your childhood? Maybe the patent is released into public domain and you can bring it back to life for a retro-loving group of consumers.

Your small business doesn’t have to stay small just because of the town. Think big and make your own bailout.