141–150 of 744 posts
I licensed my house as a winery, and run a hard cider company with my girlfriend. We sell to some stores in our area, and do our local Farmer's Market during the summer. It's been very satisfying making and selling a physical product. The profitability part isn't quite there yet. But we're working on that.
I make lots of jellies once the berries in the garden are ripe; I bought a house in a rural area a few years ago and it came with loads of berries. Might as well put them to use.
It is all done manually (in part because it is meant to be a diversion from my engineering job) - red- and blackcurrant and gooseberries mostly. Last year the harvest was some 1200 4oz glasses of jelly - some 1150 more than my family consumes. Sells by word of mouth.
Also, as my mother is quite into weaving tapestry and it was hard to find the exact hues she wanted for her yarns, I started dyeing for her, using traditional colouring. Turned out there was a (veee-eeery small!) market for that kind of thing, and I now make small batches for some 30-35 weavers. Again, fully manual as the idea is to do something completely different from my full-time job.
Built a site where you can custom-tailor a writing pad to your handwriting/style... https://www.blankslatepaper.com/ So far it's been slow; like @memset, I've got the product done but struggle with driving traffic/sales.
I did a coffee kiosk once. It went well, but required a large amount of energy and focus. We did a little twist on the business model. Starbucks sells nice places to sit down. We sold drugs. The model, from logo design to promotions, was designed to create a habit loop where people would get their morning coffee from us. It was so profitable that I seriously considered making it my full time career, expanding cafes a…
> We sold drugs. Drugs? As in prescription drugs?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Had a Breville expresso machine I repaired multiple times for my wife. The pump was decent, but the electronics were complete garbage for a $500 machine. The main problem were unsealed switches in a humid environment.
If you are someone that drinks no more than 1-3 cups a day, then I see no pointing getting an electric grinder over a higher-quality manual grinder, like the Comandante C40.
I buy cars, repair them and recondition them to my level of satisfaction, and send them back out the door, typically targeting 55-65 year olds. I focus mostly on entry level luxury crossovers around 7 to 10 years old, though starting to also do hybrids since there’s more profit in it since everyone is seemingly allergic to batteries and pack replacement/rebuilds. Parts are cheap, I listen to music or a podcast, I do…
For the past few years I've been buying, renovating, and selling small-ish houses. My dad was a contractor growing up so I picked up most of the necessary skills helping him out during middle and high school. I mostly work on weekends and holidays which makes it a bit slow going, but I've made a reasonable amount of money. Even if the money was worse I would still probably do it, I really enjoy both the physical aspe…
How many weekends does it typically take before you're ready to sell?
This sounds like something I'd do even if it just barely covered costs (including a reasonable per-hour time cost).
I'm a lawyer who doesn't do much (any) marketing. But when someone gets referred and calls or sends an email asking for help with setting up an LLC, helping wind-down or sell their business, or even something small like reviewing an NDA, I can jump in. I'm solo, so I don't have any overhead and I can charge far less than anyone else. This is also entirely a side gig, so volume is so low that I can be responsive, help…
How do you keep your constant costs (e.g. mistakes and omissions insurance) down?
If I'm not handling very many matters, I might affiliate with a firm that has insurance to keep costs down or forego insurance. If I forego insurance, I take care to disclose that fact to the client before beginning the engagement.
Started a CNC machining side business. Always had an interest and found a broke down CNC mill for cheap. Fixed it up and have been doing quick prototype and small runs for locals by referal only. Its fun and more than offsets the cost of the machine.
Makerpad.co - I teach people how to build projects without code. I’m collaborating with companies now to help provide educational content on how to use the tools for a non-technical project or business. Last 4 weeks revenue is around 30k (from memberships and companies paying to be listed and create the content which isn’t released yet). It’s pretty much all profit too as I do it solo with little overhead. There’s a…
Came across this recently and love it! Excellent job picking a nice. I see a lot of potential here.