Side Business Ideas?

[yoyoma51]

For several years, my wife and I had a DJ business. After about five years, we got sick of it and sold it to one of our younger "helpers".

Now I'm looking for another side business to start, out of our home. Not a MLM scam or Am*ay or insurance/investments.

Our greater metropolitan area has about 175,000 people.

One thing I figured out with the DJ business is that anything you do that has low startup equipment costs (about $10k for our DJ business) and high labor costs (about $150/hr = $600 per wedding) works out the best for profit. The equipment was paid off in one year and we made about $10k/year profit thereafter just doing about 20 gigs per year.

Thought about going back into DJ'ing, but getting a little to old to put up with the late nights, smoke and loud music...

Thought about carpet cleaning?

Any other ideas for something fun and profitable to do 10-20/hrs per week?

[lrprn]

Any other ideas for something fun and profitable to do 10-20/hrs per week?

If you love photography and can take a good photo, you can make a nice side amount shooting professional photos for business events, kids and adult sports teams, at local animal shows, etc.

The start-up costs are less than $10K for the minimum digital cameras and lighting equipment plus a website for viewing and purchases along with a good graphics computer and photo editing software.

Start by shooting some "low-cost deals" to get the word out quickly in your local area. If you do a good job, your business could build nicely in a fairly short time (but don't count on many weekends off - that's when most of these kinds of photo shoots happen )

[robivi3]

You know the carpet cleaning deal could bring in a few bucks as long as you don't try to get to fancy with deals right off. just straight, simple cleaning for apartments and landlords. Nothing with heavy liability.

[scaredneko]

can install radiant barriers. radiant paint is pretty easy to install if you can handle walking in peoples attics in the summer not much start up other than a spray machine which you can rent pretty cheaply to start off.

its not to horrible of an expense for homeowners for the energy savings. and if your doing the labor the profits can be pretty large per job.

[Dirk Squarejaw]

A friend of the family and former neighbor while I was growing up does carpet cleaning. He is getting ready to move back to his hometown and my brother may be getting all the contacts from him to pick up where our friend left off. From what I gather, the equipment cost is fairly reasonable and the chemicals used for the actual cleaning are somewhat expensive per gallon, but last quite awhile. I used to help our neighbor out back in the early-mid '90s and its not a bad gig. However, if you decide to take on businesses, many places prefer 'afterhour' cleanings so you may have late nights just like DJ'ing.