to be retirement area business ideas

[retire@40]

Originally Posted by nnkrealtor

Iam 24 years old and am looking to make as much money as I can while Iam* young so I can enjoy it later.

Enjoy some of it now too. Sometimes later never comes. But good thinking.

[Nords]

Originally Posted by th

And all ya need is a leaf blower...

Funny you should mention that... I remember your other leaf blower story. And did you write in to the June 05 edition of Family Handyman (on newstands now)?

I don't think it's on the Internet yet and I don't know if you have a paper copy handy so I'll type it verbatim for you. It's from the "Great Goofs" feature on p. 148:
"He Blew It, All Right"
Not long ago, our (GE?) refrigerator was cooling poorly, so I loosened the grille cover on the bottom of the fridge. Sure enough, I'd neglected that cleaning job way too long. The cooling coils were packed with dust. After failed attempts to rig up small tubing to the shop vacuum to clean between the coils, I went to the garage to find a better solution. The leaf blower caught my eye, so I brought it inside, plugged it in, aimed it at the coils, and turned it on. Before I could switch to the low speed, a huge cloud of dust had billowed out from behind the fridge and covered the entire kitchen. Luckily my wife wasn't home at the time. I got out the vacuum and spent more than an hour frantically cleaning. Later that day, she opened the cupboard above the fridge and asked me why there was a layer of dust and soot covering everything inside. I now use the leaf blower for outside work only.

-- "Steve Collum" (or whatever you're calling yourself!)

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Huh...I use the blower to clean out the garage and get the GE fridge out there with it, not that cleaning the coils will help. Never get much. Probably because I do it a little more often than that.

Besides, any fool knows they should pull out the fridge in the kitchen and sweep/wipe up the floor and lower walls before engaging the leaf blower.

And yes, that 'other' thing I did with the leaf blower was priceless for getting me out of having to do any dusting ever again.

[sgeeeee]

Kevorkian Suicide Assistance Centers?

[MooreBonds]

How about some sort of technical computer service company that upgrades/maintains/sets up peoples computers?

Many of the baby boomers have at least a working knowledge of the net - yet aren't highly proficient enough to keep their computer up and running 100%, keep it free from viruses, etc.

You could even offer some sort of 'annual retainer'-type setup, where you visit peoples' homes once a quarter to keep their computer in-shape, give them recommendations on when it's time to upgrade, buy computer supplies for them, etc.

My parents retired to SW Florida, and they had a local guy who does something like that come over to work on their computer.

Scary thing is - me (being the self-taught techie simpleton that I am ) actually seemed to know a few more things than he did when I talked to him on the phone!

[laurence]

Ugh, I was convinced to go into that very business with a coworker. People want to pay you too little to do way too much, they surf porn and download games filled with spyware and scream at you when their data is lost, like it's your fault. You upgrade them and one icon is missing for some useless crap and they are all ticked off. Never again. In a big corp. you impose the rules and have a standard hardware baseline. Home support is just too much of a nightmare. Too many variables and more often than not you are treated rather poorly.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Given the limited experience (unpaid) I have doing home IT support for family members, I concur with that one. My BIL's kids download all manners of viri and spyware and simply wont stop doing it. The computer (with norton av and microsoft spyware loaded) lasts about a week before I have to reinstall XP and run a half dozen virus/spyware cleaners on it to bring it halfway back to life.

Of course the kids deny downloading anything at all and tell mom and dad its something I did to the computer. Until I point out the three virus laden 'free music downloaders', 'custom cursors' and the dog calendar software they installed "Ohh...that...we didnt think that was bad stuff...besides everyone in school has that!"

When they cost $3000 and you could charge $300-400 for the trouble, maybe. Now that they cost $300-400 for a whole fresh new one...

[Whakamole]

Also, you're expected to be on the hook for any future technical problems. If six months down the line, their machine acts "funny", they'll expect you to come over and fix it.

[Tomcat98]

What about performing some seasonal tasks?*

In the Spring signs go up in the hood for lawn aeration.* $35 a pop, plus $15-20 more for fertiziling.* This year a company tried to corner the market and sub the work out to some less than honest people. There were several stories on the news about the company with the BBB.* I know for me I would much rather give my business to the little guy that will take the time to do it right.

In the fall signs go up for blowing out sprinklers $25 for 2 zones and $5 for each additional zone.*

And of course there is the man that is teaching his grandson about working by spray painting your house #s on the at the end of the driveway so the EMS folks can find your house easier.* They have a little wagon they pull around with all the supplies and the grandson helps negotiate the transaction, set up the numbers, and hold the unbrella if it is to hot for his grandpa.* What a valuable lesson for this kid plus the memories they are making.* They* get $12 a pop and gives a $2 coupon off the price to give to a friend.* *

All of these tasks are quick.* My guess is you could do easily 10 a day and be home drinking lemonade in the parlor before the hot of the day.* It's word of mouth and a #s game in these working family neighborhoods.* Everyone works and doesn't have time to take care of these things.* Its easier to write the check to have someone aerate your yard by the time I have to go to the rental place, pick up the machine, and pay the 2 hr min.*

JDW

[maddythebeagle]

"And of course there is the man that is teaching his grandson about working by spray painting your house #s on the at the end of the driveway so the EMS folks can find your house easier. They have a little wagon they pull around with all the supplies and the grandson helps negotiate the transaction, set up the numbers, and hold the unbrella if it is to hot for his grandpa. What a valuable lesson for this kid plus the memories they are making. They get $12 a pop and gives a $2 coupon off the price to give to a friend. "

Nothing says "I love you grandson" like a day's worth of spray paint fumes.

[Tomcat98]

Originally Posted by maddythebeagle

Nothing says "I love you grandson" like a day's worth of spray paint fumes.

Now that's funny.* They did seen pretty happy.

[Jarhead*]

Originally Posted by retire@40

Don't kid yourself.* The rent-a-wife outfits would do much better than the rent-a-husband outfits in these old age communities.* Not in the sense you might first think.* Most of the time these old folks are so lonely, they just want to talk and talk and talk about stuff that nobody really cares about.* Just talking to someone that's willing to listen makes them happy.

Sounds like me on this board. Not the lonely part, because I'm not that, but wanting to talk about stuff that nobody cares about seems pretty close to home.

[Nords]

Originally Posted by ex-Jarhead

Sounds like me on this board.* Not the lonely part, because I'm not that, but wanting to talk about stuff that nobody cares about seems pretty close to home.

Hey, Jarhead, maybe someday the Naval Institute will track us down for our "oral history" contribution to the archives...

[Tomcat98]

Here is another idea.* The real estate company my wife works for pays some guy a flat $20 per sign to put them in the yards and take them out once the transaction is over.* So say there is 20 agents in an office and they average 3 listings/sales a month, this turns into real money real quick.* It's my guess he does this for more than one company.*

JDW

[Sheryl]

A slightly different take on the computer tech business idea - teaching computer classes. Lots of older folks are not nearly as computer savy as the ones on this board. My dad just retired and he wants to take computer classes. He's at the level of "how to download an attachment." You could make a six-week course out of using a digital camera, downloading and printing photos.

If you're so inclined.

[maddythebeagle]

I like the computer stuff. I know that I spent some time on my winter project using adobe photoshop to scan, touch-up and archive our family pictures. Hey, another business....