FIT4MOM is one of the fastest growing home-based businesses in the United States. The fitness programme, aimed at young mothers wanting to get back in shape, is run and organised by local operators who pay a minimum of $1,750 to tap into the companies system and then run their own programmes.

It seems to me that the ‘young mum’s’ demographic could be a very lucrative niche in the fitness market, and something like this could work equally well in the UK.   There are opportunities here for people to run similar businesses to those operating in the US,  throughout the UK and a large opportunity to create a UK based franchise like  FIT4MOM.

Franchises are a good place to look for money making opportunities – but not necessarily in the way you might think. You see, it may be possible to ‘steal’ the idea without paying the franchise fee and ongoing costs. There are many interesting franchise ideas that fall into that category, and over the next few days, we’ll be looking at some of the best.

To start us off, Just Between Friends is a seasonal sales event where communities come together to buy and sell used children’s and maternity items at big savings on new. These events are locally owned and operated and held two to three times a year. This is an American franchise with a minimum investment of $14,950. You could surely offer something  like this in your area without the franchise company backing, making money by taking a percentage of all sales made.

Many business opportunities arise out of a personal problem or adversity. When Kate Arian was hospitalised in New York  due to needing a double lung transplant, one of the surprising things that bothered her was the inability to get her regular beauty treatments done. It was at that point that she came up with the idea of  Manicare, a Manhattan based mobile nail service  that caters to people who are either hospitalised of housebound. A year after launch, the service is generating $5,000 a month in sales.

If this can work in Manhattan, there’s no reason why it can’t work in other urban areas. Thinking more widely, what other service could you bring to the hospitalised or housebound?

The desire to learn something new is a strong one, and there are thousands of people out there with the knowledge and ability to teach new skills. That’s the premise behind Dabble.com a site that allows users to either find or teach a class. Venue owners can also sign up to promote their shop, café, restaurant, hotel or function room as a suitable venue for classes.

The site handles bookings, payments and promotion of the class leaving the teacher free to focus on planning and delivering their class. No teaching qualifications are needed to get involved, and the revenue is split down the middle between company and tutor.

At the moment this is confined to the US, but two things to take from it:

1. Could a similar site be successful in the UK? I think it could.
2. Do you have knowledge or skills you could pass on through a class?