Business At A Glance
Startup Costs: $2,000 – $10,000
Home Based: Can be operated from home.
Part Time: Can be operated part-time.
Online Operation? No
Business Overview
The written word makes the world go round. It’s what businesses,associations and organizations of every description use to educatetheir target audiences, potential clients and existing customers.
Theproblem is that most people view any sort of writing assignment withthe sort of dread reserved for high school civics term papers, and ifthey do manage to crank out written material, their grammar andspelling may be less than perfect. We’ve all been to restaurants wherethere are glaring typos in the menus, or received brochures with myriadspelling mistakes. That’s where you come in. If you’re an all-star atspelling, punctuation and grammar, starting a business as a proofreadercould be the business for you.
You can proof direct-mail pieces, annualreports, product information pamphlets, press released, grantproposals, mail order catalogs, marketing materials, menus and more.The advantages to this business are that you’re always working onsomething different, each project gets wrapped up fairly quickly andthere’s no time for tedium.
The Market
Your clients can come from all walks of life, including businesses andnonprofit organizations.
Solicit projects by networking in professionaland trade organizations’especially in fields where you already haveexperience’and by asking for work and/or references from present orformer colleagues and employers. Establish relationships with graphicdesigners, public relations agencies, and printers who can refer theirclients to you.
Needed Equipment
All that’s really necessary is a computer, a laser printer and a faxmachine. You should also have a good word-processing software, and areference library including a heavy-duty dictionary, thesaurus,encyclopedia and style guides.