Ideas for self employment - mature couple

BigAunty

In 10 years time, my partner and I want to semi retire and work together in a self employed capacity on a part time basis. We will be from ex IT and admin backgrounds.

What kind of things would you suggest as business ideas?

I think we might enjoy something like dog walking & pet sitting but there must be other occupations suited to a mature couple, perhaps child-minding.

What would you suggest?

paddyrg

If you don't plan on using your skills and experience you're looking for pin money, not a living business really.

If you don't mind '...sitting' jobs, house sitting for people on holiday is a good wheeze, in exchange for watching their pets and plants you get a fee holiday home for a week or two and a nifty a day spending money!. It sits more mature couples, homeowners like that.

If you don't want to go completely nuts scrabbling around for unskilled work, why not now sew the seeds of your own it business, or some other business where you provide specialist services to local companies. Maybe you could start a virtual office service where you take calls in the company name, provide a registered address, provide bookkeeping and basic it support?

Or how about you start looking now at what skills you can hone so you can go and do vso for a couple of years? You get paid in line with the local country in exchange for sharing your skills and helping to train locals. It isn't for gap year kids too nail tin sheets to wood and call it a school, it is where older professionals go out for 2 years to wherever too live as locals and be respected elders in the community. Vso give you all the support you need with advice on everything and local contacts and support etc. Some people get hooked, and go from country to country!

UsernameAlreadyExists

BigAunty wrote: »

In 10 years time, my partner and I want to semi retire and work together in a self employed capacity on a part time basis. We will be from ex IT and admin backgrounds.

What kind of things would you suggest as business ideas?

IT and ADMIN in consultancy roles. you know how it works ... so educate others, at your own price. So get the quals you need, and tell it as it is. good luck.

londonTiger

I'm a full time freelancer and have a website which attracts clients which I have to turn down because I don't have the time to take on more work.

First step

1) go on a site like elance.com browse through the ccategories see if you have a specialist skill there that you can fill. Then browse the job sections and see if there are active clients looking for contractors in those fields.

a) check the money is right
b) check the terms are right, some fields like blog content writing is jam packed with overseas contractors that will write a 500 word article for £5. There is no way you can compete in that field. For web based admin work this is generally the case. IT may be different (depends on the market, I'm in sort of IT and I win contracts because business owners need someone with experience in Western markets)

2) sign up as a contractor (will need to pay $10 a month for contractor membership to bid on projects) and learn the art of pitching for jobs. Pitching for jobs in freelancing sites to make a living is a tough way to make a living. When I was depending on it I was spendign 2 hours a day pitching for jobs. But hang in there... it gets better later.

3) After 2-3 months you will have hopefully done 4 or 5 jobs and will have learnt what clients want, what is the best way to pitch for jobs etc. More importantly you would have learnt whether you like working in this manner and if you enjoy doing these type of jobs.

4). So once you;'ve figured out what exactly you want to offer, build a freelancing profile site around that skillset. You'd want to build up case studies, testimonials, record of past work, some content as to what service you offer and why pick you over others (without actually using these words, demonstrating by aptitude).. copywrting is a whole different skill and I won't go into that.

5). After building your website. Now it's time to promote it. Join forums related to your industry, get signature likes to promote your site and participate in the community. Also a good idea is to participate in forums where you are likely to get customers. I do Google Adwords consulting and a lot of my customers are on business forums so I get business directly from forums.

6) over time you should have a good respectable website that has organic traffic from refferal sources and Google. You no longer have to rely on freelancing sites which are undercut heaven. So now you have arguably more job security than a 9-5 job. You have people pleading to help you with whatever and you have more projects thrown at you than you can do so now you can be really picky and pick the jobs the pay the best.

important points:
*building a site around a contracting role is a time consuming process. Building links and citations to your site is an even more of a commitment. So it's important to start om freelancing sites where there is a camptive market for clients seeking contractors and you can play the field and pick something that takes your fancy.

Savvy_Sue

I think you need to think about how much money you want / need to make from this self-employment, and how long you think you might want to do it for. then you combine that with your passions / hobbies / skills / expertise, and see if you can come up with something. Bear in mind there might be a gap between leaving the day job and making money from the self employment.

For example, child minding might indeed suit a mature couple, but it's not for the faint-hearted! It takes a while to get through all the checks and training, and the first piece of equipment you'll need is a filing cabinet, because AIUI you're required to keep detailed records until any child you mind is over 21 - what they ate each day, what you did each day (including nappy changes for babies).

It's also quite different to house-sitting in terms of flexibility: childminders need to work consistently through the year, no deciding you fancy a long weekend in Paris unless you notify parents months in advance. I know once you've accepted a house-sit you need to honour it, but you can turn work down if you've made enough cash for this month.

Are you passionate about children? Pets? If not, look elsewhere, IMO.

Mistral001

londonTiger wrote: »

I'm a full time freelancer and have a website which attracts clients which I have to turn down because I don't have the time to take on more work.

First step

1) go on a site like elance.com browse through the ccategories see if you have a specialist skill there that you can fill. Then browse the job sections and see if there are active clients looking for contractors in those fields.

.

LondonTiger may have had some success with elance.com, but be prepared for low fees there. There seems to be very few fields where you are not competing with people from low-pay economies. Also I suspect a lot of work is being done as "homers" by people who use their employers very expensive software to produce work for extra cash. They can do it for low fees because they have not the software overheads of the established firms.

LondonTiger has mentioned having your own website. In fact most of the people on elance who have a large number of sucessful bids seem to be established firms with their own website etc. So perhaps that is the way to go if you want to be a sucessful freelancer.

BigAunty

I have to say, I liked the sound of teaching English overseas but my partner didn't. I suppose I've got a few years to try and work on this and I suppose I could teach English to foreign students here, though the main tourist area is 50 miles away.

Pennywise

A lot depends on the amount of money which you will have available to set up the business.

If you don't have much, then something "desk" based is ideal, i.e. private tuition, coaching, consulting, etc., as the set up costs are very low - little more than you'll already have in terms of computer, internet, car, etc. But, it can take years to nurture your customers, so if you want it to give you a decent income level, you'd better start sooner rather than later as it can take a few years to get your name out and build up a client base and your reputation. There's also a lot of non-chargeable time, i.e. attending meetings with potential clients, training, admin, etc., so it soon consumes your time if you want to earn a decent amount of money.

Also what kind of work you want to do. If you want inside or desk based work, then again, see my paragraph above, but if you'd be happy with something more active, there are lots of more physical jobs, like running an ice cream or burger van, or buying a concession in a local park for the summer to run their mini train, or trampolines, or crazy golf, or whatever. This kind of work can be a real money spinner, but you do need an upfront investment to buy the van or pay the council for the concession.

I know of a retired couple who run the local park's mini railway - they pay a few thousand to the council each year for the concession, and then get to keep all the fares they charge. They make a decent living working just six months per year from Easter to the Autumn bank holiday - it's closed over winter.

Another guy I know does private tuition for the 11+ exams. He makes a full time equivalent teacher's wage from working weekends and a couple of hours per day for a couple of days per week, having 2/3 days off per week.

Lots of opportunities out there, but you need to get out and open your eyes to what people are doing to earn a living.

BigAunty

I like the sound of tuition, too, as we are graduates with a degrees that span a few disciplines. Thanks for suggesting that.

I understand that tuition can be done on a private basis but also there are national franchises in maths, english, drama, etc, so both sides are worth me looking into in the meantime.

I love yoga and could be experienced enough in the discipline, plus gain the qualification by then. However, the yoga teachers I know do it for love, not money, since custom is really patchy and it's hard to get a decent space - for example, the council charges expensive fees for their facilities, the professional yoga studios where they freelance take a lot of their fees, and community spaces don't tend to be that suitable - scruffy, draughty, noisy, dirty.

tommyknocker

BigAunty wrote: »

In 10 years time, my partner and I want to semi retire and work together in a self employed capacity on a part time basis . . .

What would you suggest?

The world will be a vastly different place in 10 years time. I'd suggest you consider your options a few more years down the line.

Savvy_Sue

BigAunty wrote: »

I have to say, I liked the sound of teaching English overseas but my partner didn't. I suppose I've got a few years to try and work on this and I suppose I could teach English to foreign students here, though the main tourist area is 50 miles away.

I wouldn't say that TEFL was necessarily the kind of thing you'd do in a tourist area: if you have a university nearby then there may be a market (not necessarily for the students but their families), or if there are immigrant communities in your area. But it is something you'd need to work on over an initial period: you need a good solid qualification (not one you can do in a few hours) and experience.