Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: what lifestyle business could I help to create for my mom?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 51 posts

Re: Ask HN: what lifestyle business could I help to create for my mom?

#11

Post by smountcastle »

almost wrote: post #9
beilabs wrote: post #7

Why not get her to set up a niche Deal of the Day website specializing in adventure tourism in your area? She knows the industry, group buying is hot and it could be easily run by a single person.

That's kind of an awesome idea, I'd love to get a groupon style email every day offering some great deal on some kind of travel/adventure type thing. You could make the terms kind of restrictive (it's got to be on this day, you only fly from this set of airports etc) and I'd still probably read it each day to see if I could do it.

Urban Escapes (now owned by Living Social) http://escapes.livingsocial.com/deals does this. JetSetter http://www.jetsetter.com/ is also similar.

Re: Ask HN: what lifestyle business could I help to create for my mom?

#13

Post by stcredzero »

almost wrote: post #10
iqster wrote: post #6

So .. consider forigners who come to your country ... they face barriers of language, customs, etc. If your mom is multi-lingual (or can work with a translator), she could build a speciality service where she helps people of a specific set of foreign countries visit your country. Basically, help with hotels, local customs, etc. This isn't necessarily just an Internet-based business but can likely be done from home (u…

I like the idea of a virtual local guide, someone you can call while in a foreign country to help with language, directions, booking stuff. Just someone with reasonable local knowledge, both languages and the internet.

This could be a great job for wheelchair-bound people in the particular visited country. (Though it wouldn't be limited to such persons.) I could imagine a service that uses smartphones and communications apps like Facetime as a sort of "poor man's telepresence" to enable on-demand translation and protocol/culture navigation service. (It would involve much more than language translation and would leverage a person's commonsense knowledge.) This could be monetized through monthly and weekly availability charges, and be subject to "throttling" the most frequent users by progressively lowering their queue priority.

Re: Ask HN: what lifestyle business could I help to create for my mom?

#14

Post by rezrovs »

What were the most popular services that the existing business was providing? Is it possible to provide these services outside of an agency?

If your mom knows where the demand was inside that agency then she should draw from that when creating her own company. Perhaps business trips were the main thing they booked? Or young adult tour style trips? If she could focus on what was still selling maybe that is a way to go forward.

Does she still want to be a travel agent or is she looking to do something completely different?

Re: Ask HN: what lifestyle business could I help to create for my mom?

#15

Post by hencq »

PonyGumbo wrote: post #12

Just make sure she's as excited about and committed to the idea as you clearly are.

Indeed, not everybody necessarily wants to be an entrepreneur. For example, one of the reasons my mom works is because she enjoys working with other people. Running her own business from home wouldn't work for her in that sense. I'm not saying that's the case here, but PonyGumbo is right that you have to be careful not to project your own ideas and ideals too much.

Re: Ask HN: what lifestyle business could I help to create for my mom?

#16

Post by noodle »

geekfactor wrote: post #5
vaksel wrote: post #2

She should just stick with what she knows, since she has some expertise in that. A few possibilities there: 1. a business that organizes all these business nomads out there. Does all the necessary research, finds out all the services that are needed etc. Instead of 1 person moving at a time, it'd be a group of 200. Instead of arriving and knowing noone in the area, you arrive with 200 people you know. Instead of gett…

I really like idea #2. Call it something like WorkTheWorld.com. Work out all the details for folks who just want to live and work someplace else for a while. It's something I think a lot of people want to do but it seems too hard for most. This service could make it easier. For independents, pre-screen living situations with fast internet, find the best language courses, identify meetups and other groups that they mi…

doing #1 and #2 at the same time would be easy.

Re: Ask HN: what lifestyle business could I help to create for my mom?

#17

Post by kirpekar »

almost wrote: post #9
beilabs wrote: post #7

Why not get her to set up a niche Deal of the Day website specializing in adventure tourism in your area? She knows the industry, group buying is hot and it could be easily run by a single person.

That's kind of an awesome idea, I'd love to get a groupon style email every day offering some great deal on some kind of travel/adventure type thing. You could make the terms kind of restrictive (it's got to be on this day, you only fly from this set of airports etc) and I'd still probably read it each day to see if I could do it.

OP wants Mom to make some money
Post reply on HN