Home Business

So I'm trying to think of a better way for my mother to make money. She quit her office job that she had for 15 years due to some shady circumstances with the suspected mobster boss and people dying from work. I started school and don't have any transportation and the train is about a half hour walk so I need rides. And I have a little brother so between us she can't go get another regular job or anything for about 2 years.

She started doing a 'pet sitting' business where she watches peoples pets here or goes to their house. In the beginning it was good, but now alll of these lazy fucking housewives have been starting to do it and have been succesful in taking away a single mother's only income. She only makes $1000 on a good month. Between my schooling, Bills and all that shit we don't have any money. She's been using her retirement fund and money in my bank accounts to help with the bills and taxes.

I told her that I'm starting a photo restoration business and that it should be fairly successful. She told me that people won't pay to have old pictures fixed and all this shit. I don't think she really understands that people waste money on the dumbest shit, and I already have people that do it from other area's that I know from school that make about 7 grand a month doing it on the side. I told her that if my shit starts blowing up I could teach her and she could get down with it too, but she wasn't feeling it.

So anyways, I'm looking for ideas that I could suggest she do to make more money than with the current business. I'm looking for something at-home and that doesn't require much start up money. Anything that makes more than 1 grand a month will be better. Please suggest something.

everything i think of for home business always involves selling something, capital investment, etc. i don't think i will provide a fixed income to begin with. what does she like? not knowing her whatsoever makes it tough. what is your market? every town has profitable cottage industries that remain unexploited. fill a gap. what options does she have to work outside the home, and can she make a good casserole? holla.

What does she like? Uhhm..wine, Bon Jovi, art (shes a really good fucking artist but she never thought she was good enough), books.

She has a lot of experience in office work, and real estate.

real estate agent

flower shop

Originally posted by DangerousArabian@Dec 7 2004, 11:17 AM

real estate agent

flower shop

Quoted post

i like the art angle. maybe gimmick art even. my mom sort of does shit like that, she doesn't make much money on it though, but she doesn't try too hard. i think maybe stay away from collaborative efforts unless you both have nothing to do. you really have to think about the marketing aspect, maybe ebay it for her. i don't really know how well they do at those little art markets, to bad it wasn't a while ago, i would say get a mall kiosk, they cost alot but you get mad business this time of year, and, for some reason, at the mall cheesy is good. man sirius alternative retro radio sucks ass right now.

^hypothetically real estate sounds good considering the ammount of commition you can earn on selling someone elses house, but i work in an office that has real estate as their main clients and honestly there as SO many out there just in my little city all just waiting for someone to be interested in maybe considering about thinking they might sell their house....and thats just in my small city.

Honestly though gucci, as a business student i have done my fair share of analysis and to do good in business you need to be the best or be the first. no matter how many business plans people write, or how much thinking about it you do its all hit and miss. did you know 70% of businesses fail in the first 6 months? so unless you guys come up with a really well thought out and great idea i would suggest your mother get another job to make ends meet and save a little here and there until she has the resources to get into something better.

Its a jungle out there.

my mom retired and now she helps out people with 'landscaping'.

She's not out there like the highschool kids on summer break

moving lawns and shit, but she is planning and helping to maintain

some seriously big gardens. Some of which are award winning gardens.

Now that's something that you have to leave the house for, but

the hours are usually flexible. That's the key.... flexibility.

whoa... BIG brainstorm here.....

a friend of a friend who's lke 28 and teaches grade school just

got big into 'scrapbooking'. She meets with old people (and

believe that the number of old people is only going up) and she

shows them how to set up a scrap book. I know it seems dumb,

but a lot of people dont know the basics of layout and composition

(which your mom would know from her art background). Plus the

old people are usually just interested in having someone tell them

that their life story is worth recording and passing down. Really it's just

like helping them organize their old family photos, making some basic

text layouts for titles and notes, and aranging a scheme for the look.

for real man....YOU CAN HELP with the photo side of it and her

contacts will go to you and yours will go to her. Get that!!!!

for real man..... I think this is a winner. The girl I know just does it

on a small scale but she probably makes a few hundred bucks for helping

to put together a 30 page album.

link

link

link

^ plus the expense of set up is very small.

It's really all about people skills and being able to

deal with older people and the way they work.

Afternoon tea at grandmas house might be hell for you,

but for your mom.... she might love it!

I was just talking to her, she said she is probably going to goto school for something in the future. She had mentioned optometry and radiology. She'll be cool in about a year, year and a half when I move out and my brother is older. She just needs something now to hold us off and pay these bills. She applied for some clerical work the guy just called her back I think its something like 13/hour for about 4 hours a day.

On the business tip Fatbastard, is it worth going to school to learn about business, or do you think most of the information can be researched? I know that one day I want to own a business because it's one of the steps in my 'get filthy rich' plan that I am dedicating my life to. I was thinking about taking some business courses after I'm done with my web design degree next year. My boy is going to go and learn the same shit at about the time I graduate because we want to be business partners so I'll have like 2 years to start checking shit out while he is in school.

Thats a good suggestion Key, I'll bring it up with her. The thing with her is that I would have to prove to her that it would be successful. She tends to lump many things in the 'people wouldn't pay for that shit' category.

give her this piece of advice.....

what do old people have a lot of? money

what do old people have very little of? time

They would trade all of their money for more time,

and putting their history down in a scrapbook is one

of the very few ways they feel that they could 'leave their legacy'.

Plus old people know next to nothing about technology so the

ideas of printing simple pages and doing basic photo restoration

will totally impress them. She never has to let them know that

it's easy eough for the average 10 year old to do, because that's not what it's about.

tell her to work 5th / trinity...

work with dangerous animals

tell her to get a federal firearms liscence, then she can sell guns over the internet

maybe you should go finish school and pay for everything for her...

Originally posted by onesecondple@Dec 8 2004, 03:03 AM

maybe you should go finish school and pay for everything for her...

Quoted post

maybe you should shut the fuck up with your worthless comments you waste of breathe mother fucker.

I'm not trying to be a dick, but maybe you could get a job and pay for your schooling yourself - it would help take some of the pressure off your mom. Worst case scenario, you could take out a student loan, and pay it back slowly. It's not the best idea, but if it's all you've got, then you can't be picky.

I mean, I go to school full time and I still manage to work and pay my own tuition (debt free!), so it takes that $6500 or so every year off my parents' chequebook.

And as for your question regarding the validity of going to school for business - yes, it's worth it. You might think once you're in the program that you could've learned a lot of the shit on your own, and that's probably true, but it's the credentials and the qualifications that you're paying for. Anyone can say they know everything about running a business or managing a business, but not everyone has the qualifications to back it up.

Please believe that you ain't goin nowhere without some post-secondary edumacation.

As for yer old lady - If things are as desperate as they seem, then she'll probably take whatever she can get. If she's got a bit of an artsy background, there's something to be said for teaching art classes to younger kids, like at a community centre or something. She could even take her work to craft sales and shit - especially around this time of year. My mom's been a potter for years, and she only recently quit her job to persue pottery full time. She's fucking wicked at it, but even when she's working at it full time, it's still taken a while to get a business set up and running full steam.

Originally posted by T=E=A=S=E+Dec 7 2004, 10:17 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (T=E=A=S=E - Dec 7 2004, 10:17 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-onesecondple@Dec 8 2004, 03:03 AM

maybe you should go finish school and pay for everything for her...

Quoted post

maybe you should shut the fuck up with your worthless comments you waste of breathe mother fucker.

[/b]

jealous of the red suit...

Originally posted by onesecondple+Dec 8 2004, 03:22 AM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (onesecondple - Dec 8 2004, 03:22 AM)</div><div class='quotemain'>

Originally posted by T=E=A=S=E@Dec 7 2004, 10:17 PM

<!--QuoteBegin-onesecondple@Dec 8 2004, 03:03 AM

maybe you should go finish school and pay for everything for her...

Quoted post

 

maybe you should shut the fuck up with your worthless comments you waste of breathe mother fucker.

Quoted post

jealous of the red suit...

[/b]

you sure are hyping up that red suit of yours.

publicity stunt?

:lol:

Uhhm my schooling is completely free due to Federal and State grants. Its just that me going to school and needing rides at random times with no transportation close by and nobody I know able to give me a ride, holds her back from having a full time job.

Once I get my photo restoration rolling I plan to start giving her money.

hey condom-

hope it works out for ya man, that sucks to be in that situation duder.

you should tell her to go to school for like a year or two and become a registered nurse... those chicks make mad loot.