Mobile-Based Businesses You Could Be Running Right Now

Well, we've all been hanging this year on the global financial news, and boy, is it discouraging! The market is imploding over in the United States, the United Kingdom doesn't seem to be far behind, and in every country the world over, the economic flu spreads and claims another business every day. In case some of you get the dreaded lay-off from your current job, or for those looking to start a second income, here's a bright offering of hope. These are small businesses you can run yourself, with almost no start-up cost.

Blogging

Equipment required: Laptop or notebook.

Skills required: Good language, basic technology skills.

What with the explosion in the blogging market, it's hard to get noticed. But there's careers to be had out there. Technorati just published its State of the Blogosphere report, which tells us a lot about where the blogging industry is going. When your traffic gets to six figures, you could make $75,000 USD per year, which doesn't sound like much until you mention that you can do this in your spare time from home. Top earners make $100,000 USD or more. Though there's dozens out there that barely make anything at all. The way to win this one is to be productive as all get out, and to hang in there.

Graphic Design

Equipment required: Laptop or tablet PC, graphics tablet.

Skills required: Graphic design school, design talent.

Graphic design is the classic outsourced job. Web designers, product packagers, software developers, media publishers... all of these professions need an artist on the side to take care of the drawing work. There's a market for everything: icons, web page banners, book covers, CD cases, video game graphics, and much more. The pay scale is substantial but not spectacular; average around $30,000 to $60,000 USD per year. Freelancing is even less. The other thing is, you will need a huge set of tools, and you'll have to be very good with them. Don't worry so much about being a master artist; you'll be doing good just to get your technique down.

Courier

Equipment required: Smartphone and GPS, perhaps a PDA.

Skills required: Good public and communication skills, a vehicle.

We're talking here about small deliveries - for florists, take-out food, groceries, business documents, and industrial needs. This is a small niche market in densely populated urban areas. In many parts of the world, a small fleet of bicycle messengers are actually an important part of the infrastructure. The pay is very low; in the UK, where motorcycle couriers are a popular job, count around £600 GBP per week. Now consider that you have to budget for petrol and mechanic bills out of that. Still, it's one job that doesn't require a brain surgeon, and a gadget-savvy geek would be good at using mobile devices to increase their efficiency.

Consultant

Equipment required: PDA or UMPC, smartphone

Skills required: People skills, expertise in some field, usually a degree.

Now we're talking! Consultants can make an average of $100,000 USD, and the sky's the limit for the top consultant in every field - some of them make 2 million annually! Holders of a degree, or those with 20 years experience or so in the field they consult for, will command the best salary. But don't get too discouraged if you don't have that. One thing we've learned from an information economy is that everybody is an expert in something. You can be a life-coach, a counselor, or a family adviser in the private sector. With only a little training, you can advise business clients on everything from how to set up their retail store to how to arrange the best traffic to their website.

Analyst

Equipment required: smartphone, PDA, or notebook.

Skills required: Office and communication skills, good with a database.

Are you a detail-oriented person who likes to keep records and sort data? Have you always been drawn to activities like collecting anything, or recording long lists of facts and deriving conclusions from them? If so, you might make a good analyst. Analysts' fields range from computer systems to financial to business research. Depending on the industry, you can get somewhere around $50,000 per year, but some make a bit more. On the plus side, it's steady work, which many people find to be tedious and boring but a few people find absolutely fascinating.

Surveying

Equipment required: GPS, PDA, camera, maybe a laptop.

Skills required: Navigational skills, a vehicle. Upper end requires degrees.

Area survey is one field that's seen an increase in demand thanks to the Internet mapping phenomenon and the rise of GPS devices and GIS (geographic information systems). You see, all of these mapping companies need somebody to go drive out and find all that stuff, and double-check to verify that their data is correct. If you live in a major city where Google's street-view camera has driven around, that's a similar concept. Surveyors at that level make around $60,000 USD annually, but the work doesn't require much schooling. The upper end of surveying is careers like construction site surveying, geodesists, and cartography, which is the drawing of maps. These pay much better - some of them six figures - but now we're requiring engineering degrees and possible required education in anything from physics to law, depending on the purpose.

Filed Under: Mobile Internet • The Internetz