If you've got some cash lying around and are willing to invest, you might want to consider a franchise. So what is a Franchise? It's a ready made established and tested business provided by a franchisor, including name, training and support. You buy the rights to clone the whole business package from the franchisor in a specific territory for a specific period backed by full training and support.

What do you have to do? Invest capital, time, effort and any relevant past experience. There are many types of franchises ranging from a retail franchise to sales/distribution.

Time: You'll need to live and breathe the business certainly at first to get things moving and commit to learning new avenues.

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The good: You don't have to do any of the legwork in terms of marketing and PR etc. It's a ready-made business.

The downside: You have to invest money and might not get a return for a while.

Start up costs: Vary depending on the size of the franchise, some can be from £1500 up to many thousands.