"I'm not looking for a job, but..."

[Nords]

I am happy to hear someone can hold their own with Intuit, way to go Nords

Another thread inspired this thought, in the best tradition of Scott Adam's former "Lazy Entrepreneur" website.

Here's an idea for you semi-retired ERs looking for self-employment... if people can hire personal services & even personal shoppers, then there has to be a niche market for personal phone service. VOIP even lets us access a national market!

You could "network" with your client, gather all the documentation & details, make the call, and as soon as you get through to the customer service rep you could announce "I'm faxing over a power of attorney and I'm earning $20/hour from my client so I'm in no hurry to wrap this up. Hopefully you've had a recent bathroom break and a fresh cup of coffee. I'd like to discuss your company's customer service response in the following situation... why, yes, I'd be happy to hold!"

 

[BunsGettingFirm]

The problem is that you may have to spend up to 10 minutes navigating the automatic help menus before you can deliver your rousing speech , but other than that, you have a viable idea. I believe this is how most Jet Blue agents work. Jet Blue gives them high-speed internet connections and VOIP accounts.

 

[SteveR]

The problem is that you may have to spend up to 10 minutes navigating the automatic help menus before you can deliver your rousing speech , but other than that, you have a viable idea. I believe this is how most Jet Blue agents work. Jet Blue gives them a high-speed internet  connection at home and a VOIP account.

But Nords has a really good point. If you are ER then you have TIME. They don't. Most service fucntions have a quota system to measure the number of calls taken per hour per rep. If you stay on the phone with them for a long time it eats into their "Quality" metrics so they want to rush you along so they meet their goals for call volume.

 

[BunsGettingFirm]

I suppose that Drucker would classify Nord's idea as solving a process need while simultaneously taking advantage of a demographic shift. It's amazing how no-tech ideas can be very viable entrepreneurial ventures. I just heard on the radio that some business in New England is offering to take cars off seniors' hands in exchange for chauffeuring them. It's like a reverse mortgage on the car. Great idea! Too bad most of my "business partners" are engineers. If something isn't complicated or involves inventing some gizmo, they don't consider it entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, all these opportunities are staring them right in the face, yet they pooh-pooh the ideas simply because there is no "tech."