Religious Artefacts
I am risking shock, and possibly retribution with this idea but hope you will bear with me. There is to the best of my knowledge nothing in the major religious texts which forbids trade, or the provision of goods for a fair profit. Neither is there anything that forbids the accumulation of money, although you may want to think about spending on good causes if you decide to enter this particular business.
The idea itself is simple and surprisingly obvious. Every religion has artefacts that are manufactured and sold at a price whether that be Bibles, Yarmulkes, Prayer Mats or Crosses. The blindingly obvious truth is that someone is making money out of these items, even where they are provided by charitable organisations the charities themselves are rarely in the business of manufacturing.
The idea is to source items cheaply and provide them at a fair (competitive) price to individuals and organisations that want or need them for their religious activities.
There are a surprising number or ways of marketing what appears to be a niche product range. You have a target segment that is easy to identify and offer your product range to, which means that response should be favourable and the smaller "niche" market will not be an issue. Some possibilities are as follows: -
Approach your Religious leader ˇV ask for help approaching others
Approach religious outlets in your town
Party planning ˇV prayer groups
EBAY
Online Selling
Approach non-religious outlets such as book shops, bridal shops etc.
This assumes that you are a member of a religious group be that Church, Mosque,
Temple or some other form of gathering. If you are it should be relatively
straight forward to go to your leader and ask whether t would be useful to
source items for the group in bulk orders in order to save money. If this is
acceptable then adding additional items over time should not be difficult.
Once you have the support of your leader it should be relatively straight forward to reach out to other related groups in your city, or district. Ask your leader again for help if you need introductions.
Party planning is explained in some detail in our web pages on finding customers, but in this instance you will need to be careful that this is seen as an appropriate activity. BY providing a range of products that people can touch, peruse, try out and generally handle you stand more chance of taking orders, however you need to make sure that the setting is appropriate, and that people know why they are there. It could be easy to cause offence particularly when asking for others to host your "party". My suggestion would be offering to pay for the refreshments as opposed to offering a cash incentive.
EBAY already carries religious artefacts both in bulk and as individual items. A very simple way to start might be to buy in bulk and break up the orders for individual sales. Remember to allow enough mark-up to cover shipping or make it clear that shipping will cost extra.
Opening an online store and then promoting the store may be the easiest way to get into this business without causing any offence. It is fairly simple to tell friends, relatives and peers that you have a website and hand them a business card with the web address on it. By talking enthusiastically about your products and playing down the business element you should be able to drive sufficient traffic to keep your turn over up. Attending religious festivals, get-togethers etc. will allow you to meet yet more people who may be interested in your products and will be happy to take your contact details.
Many non-religious outlets have religious connotations, for example dress and suit hire shops, florists, funeral parlours are all non denominational but may either carry certain products already that you can supply cheaper, or may be interested in starting to carry some religious books and other artefacts as a discrete add on to their existing businesses. This will take a bit of confidence when approaching the first few, and you shouldnˇ¦t be disheartened if you get a few rejections on the trot. The advantage of this approach is that similar to the Web based approach it is less personal and may alleviate some embarrassment at making money from your own religion.
It is a little harder to find this type of stock than many other items that we list. I searched on www.Alibaba.com and found 1 supplier of Yarmulke, and one Bible supplier. This obviously is not sufficient to allow for comparisons of products, prices and services. I should note that there were lots of digital copies of both the Bible and Qur'an available.
Some further research tells me that bulk purchasing of paper bibles is possible on www.EBAY.com with a case of 20 KJV bibles costing $144 for example. Using www.google.com I can find suppliers of Yarmulke in Israel who do discounts for bulk buying and I was able to find Qurˇ¦an and other Muslim book supplies at www.dmoz.org/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Islam/Commerce/Shopping/Booksellers/
This is a very small sample of goods that may interest you. For example Christians may also want to source candles, crosses, cassocks etc. Your knowledge or research of the religion to aim to work with will help you decide what the appropriate product range will encompass.
I can not claim to be a religious man and am sure that those interested in this business will either know, or be willing to research the kinds of materials and artefacts that will appeal to their niche group. The internet is a powerful means of sourcing these items and will enable you to provide both a source of cheaper materials to your peers and a steady stream of income for yourself.
Many religious items are bought as gifts for others, or are impulse purchases. Gear your marketing efforts accordingly.
This is a sensitive topic and you should address it with care. It is probably best suited to those who practice in the relevant religion or at the very least those who are willing to spend the time to understand the sensitivities and work with them.
It is not wrong to make money from your religion, your peers may not understand but as long as you enable them to save money and/or access materials that would not otherwise have been available you are providing a service that has material value.
How you use the money you make is up to you. I have a feeling that the more religious amongst you will see this as a way to do good, and not primarily a means to get rich. Either way you will learn valuable skills that you can apply to other businesses in future.