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Carrie Bledsoe started her own concierge business. She runs errands for her clients including buying groceries, shopping for gifts, arranging parties, making vacation plans, seeing their pets are taken care of while clients are on vacation, etc. She started doing this for friends while she was in between jobs and has turned it into a full-time job. She told us she has even hired reliable people to help her during the holidays as this is her busiest season.
Bill Franks, a retired engineer, spent a great deal of time designing landscaping for his own house and wrote us that he was successful in starting a small landscaping business..
Betty Pohler has two dogs that she walks regularly and said in her email "I thought why can't I take care of some other people's dogs and get paid to do so?" Now she employs 3 other neighborhood "dog people" to assist her growing dog walking business and she even has been given keys to the houses of some of her clients so she can feed and check on their dogs while they are on vacation.
Peter Minter said he was always handy around his house and now has a growing business painting and doing small repairs in the neighborhood and said he has even been contacted because of a referral to work in a town 30 miles away.
Marge Blankenship has her grandsons helping her to cut grass in the summer and remove snow in winter. Her small enterprise has grown to the point where she now utilizes neighborhood kids to help keep her customer's properties looking well maintained. She told us "its easy, why didn't I think of this before.".
Morrie Cravits wrote to tell us he was always a good organizer and thought "why can't I put this skill to use" and as a result he has built a business cleaning out and organizing garages. "You wouldn't believe how much junk piles up in people's garages," he told us and "almost everyone I spoke with were real glad to have me pitch in to clean and organize." He urged us to tell others to try this as a source of income.
Corey and Sally Bridgewater started selling their handicrafts at a small craft market 2 years ago and now they travel to many craft shows and flea markets where they not only sell what they make, but sell all kinds of goods they get on consignment and even purchase items to sell "if we can buy them right" said Sally in her email to us.
Francine Taylor was always a good organizer and put her talents to work as a Move Manager. She assists people coordinate their move including separating what is to be moved from what needs to be sold, given to family or charity and thrown out. She helps with some of the packing and labeling even in the deciding of what items go to which rooms in the new home. Most of her clients are seniors but some are busy younger workers who do not have the time.
Mary Francis Milligan always loved to cook. Now that her 5 kids are out of the house she put her cooking skills to use by helping busy friends and neighbors plan, pick up and cook the food they serve at parties. This led to her being asked to do so for others she did not know. She charges for her time and works within the budget her customers provide. She told us that she has handled a party as big as 50 but had to hire some help to serve and clean up. She has even put together some meals for special occasions for just a couple who wanted to celebrate in their own home.
Katy Walters always considered herself a great shopper. She knew just where to find bargains as well as those special gifts that no one else thought of. Now she uses this ability to shop for others. She works with both men and women who are either to busy to shop for gifts or things they need for their home or just don't like shopping. She receives a percent of the total cost of what she buys but has a minimum charge for her time. She also returns and exchanges things for her customers but cautions she does not provide this service by itself.
These kinds of business require very little capital and can provide needed extra income. In some cases what starts out as a small business can grow into a highly satisfactory source of extra money.
Going into business with your parent or child.
The Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article November 15 on several businesses where a parent and child successfully started a small business together. In each case there were both advantages and challenges but both contributed and a good deal of revenue was created.
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