I said I would offer up some business concepts and ideas for those who seem to feel there is nothing out there. There is. Let's see, I offered the Micro Power Backup, Brokering and Yard Policing.. Now the fourth.
I spoke today with a man I know who at 40 years old 8 years ago was flat broke, his family and him were happy when the AFDC money came every year. Living on nothing, underwater. Huge Credit Card bills. Behind on the rent.
Then he took a risk. Decided that he might make a little money fixing household appliances. He did. He apprenticed under a guy who knew how. He was paid minimum wage while the was training. In two years had learned enough to decide to go out on his own. He began by charging half what the market was on this kind of work. He worked out of the back seat of his car. When he was working, his wife had nothing to drive. He had tools he picked up here and there. Nothing new.
He developed business by talking to sales people at Lowes, Sears, Home Depot, Menards and Best Buy for getting leads from people who just wanted their unit fixed.
He never ever solicited even ONE of this former boss's customers. Now years later his former boss refers customers to HIM.
They called his monthly pay cell phone. He worked and worked until he had a guy who wanted to work along side of him. Now he is 48 years old. He made $80,000 last year after paying his guy $40,000 and all expenses. He started out charging $40 per hour and now charges $90. All of the stores he first started contacting informally (just the sales people asking for referrals) now contract with him and his guy to do all the work of installation and repair for appliances.
They didn't have to go to school. They didn't need a license. They didn't need certification. They just needed to know how to fix things, follow instructions from a sheet and do it well enough to get people to pay them to do it. One important thing, they have the highest level of integrity. Never sloppy. Never messy. Show up on time and work on budget. They develop deep trust. Repeat business is now the base that keeps earnings up. They do credit cards with a square thing on their cell phones. His wife keeps the books. They have no office but each one has a good used van now to drive. They have upgraded their tools a bit. All in all it is a low expense high return venture.
This has no barriers to entry other than the capacity to learn, diligence, hard work and perseverance at the beginning. Anyone can do this. There is high demand. YET.. most won't. It's just too hard to take the plunge, to say, I am going to try to change my life. I'm sick of living on nothing. SURE he worked very long days. Some nights. But today all his bills are paid, he has more than enough, he has a family of 4 + a wife well provided for.
I'm not saying this is all there is, but you don't need a college education to do this, just diligence and a little ingenuity. There is plenty of work out there.
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