Thinking of starting a side business... (profit, company, benefits, cash)

[SSWM]

Originally Posted by Raggy dee Ann

That might work for some people but there are people that need the human touch and someone next to them to ask questions. I never charged the people I taught as I was just helping out some old regulars from the dog park. But as someone mentioned they can be taught instant messaging (something we take for granted), emailing to keep incontact with family and facebook.

How true, human interaction is so important in learning something technical. I never even thought about IM. I don't use it, so out of sight, out of mind.

[djkkt6]

Originally Posted by maf763

Tricky in a number of ways - if it's a seminar, you need to have a room where everyone can have internet access as well as a smartboard or at least a projector. That likely means paying to rent a site, which cuts bottom line. Then, you have the marketing - how will you reach target audience? Internet marketing is probably of limited use, as people who would access the info online might not see the need for a basic course. That means old-school marketing which could be costly in time or money.

If you are talking one-to-one, you might be able to minimize your costs, but can you charge enough to make it worth your while, figuring in travel time, etc.?

One thought might be to do some kind of a hybrid, where you could develop a free message board, train people how to use it, and have people subscribe to take tutorials.

The key to any of it is finding a market - you might consider libraries, retirement communities, etc.

The location is and has been my biggest dilemma. I do like the idea of doing it in the person's home, on a 1-on-1 method, as someone suggested.

I appreciate everyone's input!

[sterlinggirl]

Originally Posted by djkkt6

The location is and has been my biggest dilemma. I do like the idea of doing it in the person's home, on a 1-on-1 method, as someone suggested.

I appreciate everyone's input!

Doing it at their home really is the best way, because if you train them on Vista, murphy's law will dictate that they have XP on their computer.

I've taught a lot of people how to use Craigslist, which sounds like it would be easy, but they really need to know how to post pictures as well. That means they need to know how to get pictures off their camera, and they need to understand file structure so they can find the pictures to upload them. In a lot of cases, you also have to teach them how to reduce the file size before uploading the pics. It's a lot for them to learn...and giving them a laminated cheat sheet is a great way to keep them from calling you every couple of days with silly questions.

[djkkt6]

I'm leaning more and more towards doing it in a person's home. The obvious downside to that though is that I can only be with one person at a time (read: can only make money from one person at a time). So it's a lot less efficient in terms of use of time, but might be more valuable and I could therefore charge a higher premium.

[TomMoser]

Actually, my son's friend told us that he was interested in starting a similar business. My wife told me she would definately sign up to be a customer. I think that you are on to something. Good Luck!

[TXCountryBoy]

Go for it, Teach them how to use the Tab key, C key for copy and all the easy things in life, My wife drives me crazy when she uses the mouse for every little thing. I take the easy way out. Of course I grow up doing program and other things so you get to that point. I think there is a nitch for this.

Good luck

[djkkt6]

Just wanted to bump this to see if anyone else who might not have seen the thread last month wanted to add anything. Thanks!

[Brian.Pearson]

I've thought of a little business, too, though I've been too busy the last few months to do much about it. My target would be people who already have a computer and know enough basic stuff to get by, but lack the knowledge to protect their computers from malware and the like. I'd prefer a one-on-one for that.

[hartford_renter]

I was just recently thinking of the same thing. After trying to help my mom out with her computer then talking to my roomate, who just bought a laptop it is clear that the average person doesnt know Jack about computers. My roomate for instance just bought software to reformat his computer unaware that their were free versions online, he also bought a usb drive to back up his hard drive - didnt understand that his computer comes with a dvd rewritable drive. The average person is totally clueless.

[Stone28]

I fall into the older blue collar worker catagory somewhat. I just purchased a Apple MacBook Pro and one of the big selling points was that they offer what they call "One on one" training. I can make an appointment and go to any Apple retail store once a week for a one hour class and the cost was $100.00 for the whole year. I have already gone to three class's and I have not even got to the fun stuff like videos and music yet.

I think a reasonable price for private lessons would be around $200.00 for a ten week course of one hour class's.