to be retirement area business ideas

[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.

 

[JDARNELL]

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.

 

[JDARNELL]

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*]

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]

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...

 

[JDARNELL]

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....