Home Based Businesses

[cabinetman]

A friend of mine is disabled in his early 60's and is interested in some kind of home based or internet business. Those infomercials touting thousands can be made daily seem a bit far fetched. Anyone here try a home based business? Suggestions?
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[Uncle Cracker]

Mine is a home-based business, but only because I don't want the expense and duplicity of having an office elsewhere.

The people claiming you can become a millionaire on the internet are mostly becoming millionaires themselves by telling you (for a price) how you can do it.

Beware the value-added resale hype. Most of them are pyramid scams.

Your friend's possibilities have a lot to do with what he knows. Being a consultant is possible. I have a friend who teaches psychology courses on the net. I have another who works as an editor for a publishing company. A third is a technical writer for a multinational engineering firm. Your friend might be able to catch on to a job maintaining databases or mailing lists, transcribing medical records, court documents, or real estate transactions.

Whatever he does, he should avoid any situation that requires a monetary investment on his part (registration fee, placement fee, administrative fee, etc.). He should be paid for his time, not the other way around.

[Kristofor]

There was a study that came out a few months ago that said something like 3 out of 800 work-at-home opportunities investigated in the previous month were legit. Here's a FTC webage that addresses some of the issues with these schemes http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsite...pps/index.html

Rather than look for an online business he could do, perhaps go the other way. If your friend has any real-world skills look to see if there is a way to utilize those online/remotely (it's hard to change oil remotely, relatively easy to code, draft, write, etc.). If he has expertise in a given area/field often that would be marketable to a greater or lesser extent based on demand for the skill/knowledge.

[Photojosh]

The tough thing for your friend is that most legit ways to work from home involve either being a consultant in a field in which you previously had a career (usually a successful one). Or they involve internet/computer/programming skills that, I have to be honest, many older people do not know.

If he had a line on some good wholesale deals, he could look into selling stuff on ebay. But even that isn't as great as it used to be with ebay/paypal fees and higher shipping costs these days. If he's got woodworking skills, he might be able to find some sort of niche selling on etsy.com. But again, both of those sites take some amount of computer knowledge to get things photographed and listed properly.

Anything that is advertised as "work at home" is probably a scam these days.

[Bruce Cohen]

Grow grass in your bsmt and sell it to only people you know (for medicinal needs only)

Bruce

[alpha]

I agree that his best bet is to try something about which he has skills and knowledge. Sometimes that is difficult to identify. Thousands of people people work at home successfully. It is a matter of identifying the proper fit and working hard to make a success of it. The suggestion of being very suspecious of anything requiring up front money is very good; however, purchasing a franchise can be rewarding. Before parting with any money make sure to do due diligence. Here is a site that might be helpful:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/

[cabinetman]

Grow grass in your bsmt and sell it to only people you know (for medicinal needs only)

Bruce

He tried that already, but shut down before the power company caught on. His background is mostly automotive. Worked as manager of a tire store, and transmission shops. He is computer literate, and he did say he tried a fling with charting rental car geographical statistics. He said it didn't pay much and it was difficult to get paid.
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[Mr__Bill]

Here is another article on the subject from Consumer Reports. No registration required.



Bill,

[dkerfoot]

He tried that already, but shut down before the power company caught on. His background is mostly automotive. Worked as manager of a tire store, and transmission shops. He is computer literate, and he did say he tried a fling with charting rental car geographical statistics. He said it didn't pay much and it was difficult to get paid.
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I have been self-employed and working from home for over 6 years. I'd dump any thoughts of "job I can do from home" and instead think "Business I can start from home." Then never, ever look at any of the advertisements...

Just how disabled he is will obvious have an effect on what he can do. If he is able to drive himself around town, etc he will have many more options than if he is wheelchair and home bound.

People make a living on eBay, but it is much, much harder than just a few years before. Too many people out there who think they can make a fine living by earning $1 per transaction after all the fees, etc... Buying and reselling commodity items is a path to starvation. But, if there is something he knows a lot about - say vintage Camaro or Mustang or Corsair (etc) parts, then he might do OK.

There actually is a good opportunity in the woodworking realm: Buy up Shopsmith MK5s and part them out on eBay. As someone who bought a Shopsmith on CL for $250, then spent much more than that buying the missing pieces I didn't know about, I can tell you they are worth much more parted out than as a whole.

If there is an automotive junk yard in the area that is not already hooked into one of the national networks, that might be an opportunity.