Looking to start a business... Need some advice

Thanks for your input.

 

I'd say landscaping

 

Escort Service . . . .

 

I 2nd that...

 

would you like to be the first clients?

 

are you willing to work for less than minimum wage? I doubt you could compete with the cheap workforce of the border states.

My neighbor runs a airplane cleaning service called "jet clean". He cleans and details small and private aircraft in north Texas. Maybe look for something that not everyone is already doing and established.

 

Best of luck!

I'm currently in the process of starting my own side business (In addition to my 9-5). I'm starting a Pedicab (rickshaw, bicycle taxi) leasing service. Buy a couple of pedicabs and rent them to kids willing to drive around and earn money shuttling people around the Inner Harbor area in Baltimore. In addition to leasing/rental income there's the potential for ad income on the backs of the pedicabs.

I think it's going to do really well. I know I can make it happen. I get so excited when I talk to people about it, that's the main reason I'm confident it will do well. I have the "passion"

 

I started my plumbing company 11 years ago and I work from home.. Good luck if you have any ?s let me know

 

Flip houses. Or buy a rental property.

 

Flipping houses is a money maker in the States right now ?

 

It is if you do it right. Many foreclosures can be had for $15,000 or less if you have 25% for down payment. And if you can do a lot of work yourself, you can make a pretty penny. Houses are still selling, just not the high dollar ones. You would do very well buying a house that would be worth about $150,000 after remodel because people in $300,000 houses are looking to downgrade.

 

Just out of curiosity, why did you get an accounting degree if it's not something you wanted to do anyway? Or did you want to at the time?

I have an accounting degree and I couldn't see doing that if I had no desire to have that sort of job, even though I'm not longer working in accounting.

 

How are your general handyman skills? I do appliance repair as my regular full time job. It's not physically easy work, but certainly less demanding than detailing cars or doing landscaping would be. You can learn the basics taking community college classes or just doing a lot of reading. You do need liability insurance, but other than that it's pretty low overhead. A friend recently went out on his own with a couple hundred bucks worth of basic truck stock parts. I probably have 1,000 bucks in hand tools and a few specialty items that I have collected over the last ten years, but I didn't have all that when I started out. It takes a little time to get fast at diagnosing things but after awhile it's the same problems over and over. The company I work for does really well with repeat business and referrals simply because we show up on time and do what we say we are going to do when we say we are going to do it. Most people are so shocked that we even show up on time. There are a lot of people in our trade doing things the wrong way and it's not hard to set yourself apart from them. Most folks will put up with someone who is a little bit slow with diagnostics as long as they communicate well and don't try and scam them.

 

Wow man that actually sounds like a really good business to start. I live in socal so there's many places where I could get something like that set up.

 

PM sent

 

Its kind of funny story. When I was looking to transfer from CC to a University I had to declare a major. I knew I needed something challenging or I might loose interest, and I wanted something I could fall back on, a plan B of sorts. Accounting fit the bill perfectly and as it turns out I'm a natural.

 

Thanks man, I'm actually really good with my hand and I could even say I'm mechanically inclined. I would love to do repairs but how do you get started? Is this something I need to become specialized at, for example fridge repair? Or is it best for me to offer a variety of services?

 

My 2 cents.

With an accounting degree and an interest in law enforcement you are a prime candidate for federal law enforcement.

 

LOL, a friend of mine just started doing something very similar. He's encountered one big issue though, and that is liability. Some idiots overloaded a trailer that he custom built for them and as a result the axle cracked at highway speeds which caused the trailer to flip and they lost a lot of valuable cargo, thing is they swore they were well within the limits on the sticker and tried holding my buddy liable for the damages. They took him to civil court and everything, the judge ended ruling in their favor and awarded them 5700 for damages. So if you decide to go forward with this make sure you CYA, he has an attorney drawing up an liability waiver now. He makes good money off the trailers though, especially since they are custom built.

 

I second the federal law enforcement idea. Have you thought about trying to get into the financial crime division somewhere? Actually doing something that you would like to do? With all the increased regulation, there will be plenty of opportunity to get into some kind of program, I would think.