One of our favorite sites, Trendwatching.com, features an article on the rise of “minipreneurs,” defined as “a vast army of consumers turning entrepreneurs; including small and micro businesses, freelancers, side businesses, weekend entrepreneurs, Web-driven entrepreneurs, part-timers, free agents, cottage businesses, seniorpreneurs, co-creators, mompreneurs, pro-ams, solopreneurs, eBay traders, advertising-sponsored bloggers and so on.”
According to stats culled by the Web site, more than two million people derive all or some of their income from eBay and 25 percent of all small business is conducted by the “Web-driven entrepreneur.” The opportunities for entrepreneurs are not just in creating an e-business, but rather in providing products and services to those who do—in other words, selling shovels to gold miners.
PayPal is the obvious example of such a feeder business. But the article points out the existence of a wide range of other successful outfits, such as Cafepress.com, which turns your artwork or ideas into T-shirts and switch plates; eMachinehop.com, which provides machined parts you design yourself; and Zopa, which turns cash-positive consumers into their own lending institution.
How can you make money on minipreneurs? According to Trendwatching, “Ask yourself how you can help them to make money by facilitating their admin, their production, their advertising, their insurance, their travel, their networking, their selling, their tech needs, their learning, their payments, their suggestions, their hosting, and their new business ideas. Don't ask them to consume; help them to create, to produce. Or help them to become journalists, banks, human billboards or headhunters!”