Good $25k business?

July 7, 2005 6:06 AM

What are some good ideas for a business that could be started with $25,000 in capital and run by a talented person a less-than-full-time basis? (Obviously, this person could be assisted by employee(s) if the cash flow supported them, so it doesn't have to be a less-than-full-time business.)

Assume that the person in question can draw a good salary working full time, and thus the effective investment, against which to measure returns, would be the $25,000 in one-time capital cash plus $50,000 a year in foregone take-home pay and benefits.

posted by MattD to Work & Money (10 answers total)

My friend's wife runs a FAX advertising business out of her house. Not sure what the initial investment was in hardware/software. She has 10 analog phone lines and employs a telemarketer to call businesses in the local area to get the needed approval to receive one FAX a day after 6 PM Mon-Fri. I think she has about 6000 businesses at this time that receive faxes. The actual amount of work she puts in is about 8 Hrs a week with talking to clients and designing and queuing up the faxes. She averages about $1k a week profit. Not a bad return for the time invested. Keep in mind that her husband is an uber techie and wrote an application that the telemarketer puts the approved numbers into and automatically starts faxing the daily fax to those numbers after 6.
posted by white_devil at 6:36 AM on July 7, 2005

Espresso cart. Relatively low start-up and operation costs with a high profit margin. Plus, it's relatively easy to train people, so it's an ideal part-time venture.
posted by jeffmshaw at 7:34 AM on July 7, 2005

Hot dog stand.
posted by spilon at 9:22 AM on July 7, 2005

Frozen Bananna Stand.
posted by zerolives at 10:33 AM on July 7, 2005

Also: spellcheck is for losers.
posted by zerolives at 10:34 AM on July 7, 2005

Laundromat?
posted by o2b at 11:50 AM on July 7, 2005

Think about what you love/know the most about, and consider becoming a part-time consultant/instructor in that field.

Then, use the $25k to:

• get more training
• get the necessary certifications (if there are any)
• buy necessary equipment
• upgrade your home office/computer
• advertise

Other ideas:

1. Private tour guide business for your city (if you live somewhere cool).
2. Become a collector/buyer/seller of something you enjoy, like art, furniture, memorabilia.
3. Open an art gallery (fun, little profit to be made).
4. Pick the small business you admire most in your area and become an investor/part owner. Perhaps use the money to expand said business in an area that you would staff or manage.
5. If you live near water, buy a really great boat and rent it out with or without a crew, depending. Or, buy many small boats (canoes?) and rent them out.
6. Do the same thing, but with bicycles.
7. Use the money as a downpayment on a sweet property and then become a landlord.
8. Make a downpayment on an even sweeter property and turn it into a bed & breakfast.
9. Self-serve carwash.
10. Event promotions.
11. Import/Export something you love from a region you want to spend more time in.
12. Become a winemaker or a beer brewer.

posted by cior at 1:21 PM on July 7, 2005

Also: spellcheck is for losers.

No, it's for loosers.
posted by kindall at 2:01 PM on July 7, 2005

...and run by a talented person a less-than-full-time basis?... Assume that the person in question can draw a good salary working full time, and thus the effective investment, against which to measure returns, would be the $25,000 in one-time capital cash plus $50,000 a year in foregone take-home pay and benefits.

Clarify please. On the one hand it sounds like said person would stay otherwise employed. On the other it sounds like that person would be forgoing a salary, ie, not working otherwise. Or is the point to not have to work full-time?

I ask because it seems pointless to reccomend something that will be very time-intensive if the point is to slow down or something that requires specific work hours if you have to be in another job.

I'd strongly reccomend you have another revenue stream while trying to do whatever this is. Under-capitalization is one of the biggest problems new businesses have and you have to make a lot of less than optimum decisions if your immediate need is putting food in your belly rather than long-term growth.
posted by phearlez at 2:25 PM on July 7, 2005

Assume that the entrepreneur would PREFER to be an 30 hour a week entrepreneur rathern than an employee on any schedule, but nevertheless wishes to make the most money possible in the long run, i.e., cannot freely disregard the implicit investment of foregone salary.

Assume further that the person in question has a standby source of capital and plenty of other family income on which to rely.
posted by MattD at 9:22 PM on July 7, 2005