If you had $50k to start a business, what would it be?

[old woman]

I have the money but don't really want to start a business, it is like work.
I have considered a fishing tackle/bait shop with rod and reel repair maybe motor repair. I wouldn't need a big profit 10K a year would be enough but I would only do it if my boyfriend wanted to repair things, I don't want to repair things.
I would like to talk to the fishermen and sell them lures. It would be more of a social outlet so I wasn't sitting home all day after retirement.
Maybe a shop on a lake with some boat rentals only open 6 months a year and a few RV spaces and a little store.
If I wanted profits I would open a CPA firm or something with accounting, I have been a CPA and I could renew my license with 40 hours continuing education and under $100. It would be easy to start and I could keep it small but I don't want to think when I am retired.
Maybe just buy my land in the country and put about 6 mobile home pads on the front edge and rent them out to people who want to live in 5th wheels or RV's or single wide mobiles. Then I would know people and collect rent and they could come eat the fruit from my fruit trees or extra zucchini from my garden. They could keep an eye on the place when I am on vacation.

[HobbyDave]

Heck, now that the thread is active again..

I think for anyone technically oriented, a web based business is an extremely cheap way to start up a business. The key is to be able to do the work yourself

Since I am a technically aware person, it would be hard for me to justify starting any business not web based. With maybe $15 per site and no risk (other than my time), I could theoretically start piles of businesses and see which pan out. Blog advertising based, drop shipping, selling something, etc.

The main problem with all of this is that I'm busy with my normal job, which pays me far in excess of what I could expect to earn from a startup business (unless I really hit the jackpot). I often try to encourage myself to start a business, but after a long day, I just don't have the motivation.

[Razor]

A friend of mine quit his job and started a limosine business. I would not recommend it unless you really like working weekends and washing cars. After 8 months he sold his cars and lost his butt.

[VaCollector]

I voted service industry as it seems harder and harder to find people who will perform their alloted service for an average market price, show up on time and WHEN they say they will......if you can do reasonable work at a reasonable price ON TIME ~ then you'll have more work than you can handle!!

[happy2bretired]

As a widow as well as not being a spring chic any longer, I sure would appreciate a business that caters to some sort of handyman service. Just for odd little things that I either don't know how to do or have no desire to do. Even moving furniture or changing lightbulbs or batteries in smoke detectors in 12 foot ceilings is something I can't do very easily without breaking my neck.

[citrine]

thefed:

That is great that you are doing well. If people never took risks, then there wouldn't be so many self-made millionaires. I would not be able to borrow money to put down for a business....if I wanted to start a business....I would have to allot a certain amount that I would not mind losing to go ahead and take a chance.
BTW....thanks Goat55 for that link for the CareGiver site....definitely a great thing to look into to do part-time.
I am doing a few things on the side to generate extra income as the huge layoffs at my megacorp looms above us.....I am selling my paintings, baby-sitting ($15/hr!!!), and I am thinking of becoming a recreational coordinator for some of these Adult Active communities...or an art instructor!

[thefed]

Well, here's an in-depth update 3 years later.

YEAR ONE: 86 jobs, 39k gross

YEAR TWO: 117 jobs, 57k gross

YEAR THREE (10 of 12 months completed so far) 155 jobs (worked 500 hrs), 70k gross


I am tickled every time I read this thread. THIS thread is where my random ideas coupled with a burning desire for change, independence, and profits resulted in my CAREER. I do own another business, but this is my bread and butter for now. I sure hope I can keep up this growth, but even plateauing where I am right now is acceptable.

For anyone out there with an idea that gets shot down for one reason or another...this thread PROVES beyond a reasonable doubt that you CAN do it. I could've taken the criticism differently...but instead I gleaned the good stuff from it all and made it work!!! Still, the best advice in the thread was from BREWER re: business plan. THAT is what really set it in motion....

Just thought I'd update y'all!

[old woman]

Quote:

Even moving furniture or changing lightbulbs or batteries in smoke detectors in 12 foot ceilings is something I can't do very easily without breaking my neck.

I agree some us can't or don't want to do things like that and would be happy to pay a reasonable amount for a few minutes work. I have a boyfriend to do little things for me and he takes hits pretty good but somethings I don't want to ask him.

I think a service with a name like rent a spouse where you can have an average man or women come do something a spouse would do for you would be great. How many men would live to have a wife or mother to give the home a homey touch or women would want a man to climb on the roof to hang Christmas lights or other things she doesn't want to do.
You could send them to your elderly parents when your mom is afraid to have her husband on the roof or needs help turning a mattress.
Next week we are having mom moved from a company named Friends and Family. My youngest brother is 59 and has a bad back even a couple of years ago we would have done it ourselves. For $93 an hour we get two men and a truck, better than us older folks trying to move the heavy stuff.

[Hal3]

Nudist resort. No doubt.

[Hal3]

Seriously.

Do you want a business doing something that you enjoy doing every day or do you want to start a business doing SOMETHING in hopes of selling it and then doing what you enjoy doing every day?

If the former it depends entirely on what you enjoy doing.

If I were looking for a low tech business I think I would start a coffee / hang out / internet place.

There a few in Austin, Texas that are very pleasant. Sort of like *bucks but without the corporate glitz. One is just a`collection of old couches and garage sale sofa chairs and furniture in a funky old house. (Weak zoning laws in Austin) One even roasts their own coffee and sells fabulous bakery goods, ice cream, and chocolate deserts. People go there during the day to hang out and surf. People also go there at night after leaving a restaurant to have desert and visit without the check sitting on the table and the waiter constantly asking if you want anything else. You can subcontract the bakery and desert stuff. Ice cream is easy to serve. Professional coffee equipment is sold used on the internet like everything else. Of course, I love drinking coffee and eating desert.

Just a suggestion

[TromboneAl]

Boy, that was confusing. I didn't note the date, started reading at the top and thought "TheFed is starting ANOTHER business?"

Thanks for the update. Wouldn't your profit be more illuminating than your gross? I had a good gross one year, but my profit was -20K.

[Hal3]

Austin Attraction- Spider House Coffee : Austin Real Estate Blog

[Hal3]

Ooops.

I missed the part where you actually started the business and succeeded.

Congratulations!

[Hal3]

Here's a link anyway for when you are ready to start your next business. I love this place.

Mozart's Coffee Roasters, specialty coffee, Austin, Texas.

[Razor]

If you had $50k to start a business, what would it be?

A "One Hour Walk-in Breast Examination Center"

[thefed]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl Boy, that was confusing. I didn't note the date, started reading at the top and thought "TheFed is starting ANOTHER business?" Thanks for the update. Wouldn't your profit be more illuminating than your gross? I had a good gross one year, but my profit was -20K.

NET

2006: 20,500 (startup expenses included!)


2007: 35k



2008 to date: 50k, projecting about 56k

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thefed NET 2006: 20,500 (startup expenses included!) 2007: 35k 2008 to date: 50k, projecting about 56k

WOW!! You are doing wonderfully, especially considering that small businesses usually take a few years to get on their feet. I am very impressed.

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thefed What ideas do you guys have? I'm sure there's more than I put int he poll.

Quote:

Originally Posted by thefed guess you've never had a real entreprenuerial spirit burnign inside of you. if you did, you'd understand where im coming from. ive crunched number and toyed with ideas for maybe 30 businesses of the last few years. im in no hurry, but i know running my own business is my calling. i've built up, run, and sold 2 companies so far...but neither was as successful as i wished (one was painting bus,one was a website) I'm just lookign for ideas, plain and simple.

Well, your perspective has changed over the last few years, and so has mine.

At this point you might benefit from some sort of business school. I don't mean the sit-in-a-classroom-and-do-homework kind, nor even an MBA program. But at this point you could benefit from honing your knowledge in accounting, finance, estimation, and project management. You already have the experience, but you might benefit from learning more vocabulary & techniques. You'd learn other people's experience at what worked or what didn't, and why. You'd gain more skill at using cashflow & financing to grow the business.

I've sat through a few dozen business-plan presentations. The ones who immediately shut down their audience project an attitude of "I'm a successful entrepreneur and I know how to do this." (Well, one presenter actually said that, which brought a whole roomful of entrepreneurs to laughter, so I guess they didn't shut down their audience. But that was an exception.) The ones who get money are the ones who lay out their concept and then spend the next 20 minutes with pessimistic spreadsheets and risk analysis picking it apart to show how they're going to avoid disaster. They get the audience to skip over the "Why invest" and go straight to "when" and "how much". The entrepreneurs are practically begging you not to give them money, but if you happened to shove it into their pockets then this is what they'd do this next.

Here's another idea, not intended as criticism (you already have the credibility) and not intended to offend. Your posts have a tendency to highlight conflict & controversy between you and... others. You might benefit from mentored training in public speaking and negotiations. Sort of a Dale Carnegie/Toastmasters version of "Getting to Yes" or Marshall Goldsmith's "What Got You Here Won't Get You There". And if this paragraph is raising your hackles... well... that reaction is exactly why this type of assisted education/training would benefit you. I speak from my own credible experience.

Or you could just ride your current system until you reach your ER number, at which point you won't really need those skills anymore. Unless you're raising a family.

[thefed]

Nords - Thanks for the input. I'll have to look into those types of things to see what's available around here.

[BunsGettingFirm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tryan Was surprised real estate is not on the list. 50k leverage (20% down) could launch you into a muti-family or commercial-residential mix. No business plan needed. Handy-man skills a plus.

Really? Tryan, you and I must talk more often. I thought I saw a good 3 family here in MA for $290k, but it turned that the in-law apartment was not legal, and the division of the house was done very poorly.