Small businesses

Does anyone here have a non-technology or non-web design related small business that you operate in addition to your regular day jobs? I'm kind of curious to see what everybody else does. I'm getting burned out working on computers all day and I've got a few ideas for small businesses I might try doing on evenings and weekends and see if that takes off. If anything it will kind of mix things up a little bit and give me a little bit of new variety.

I don't, but if I did, I think that I might give a go at making some extra money with photography. I.E. turn a fun hobby into profit.

My sister has a photography business. She sells photos and does weddings too. However, she does also uses the internet to help sell those photos so I guess it still involves technology. I think many businesses these days do though to some degree. Her site:

HQ Photography

It works out great for her because she loves photography so she has lots of fun at the same time.

Having a website for your business is almost a necessity these days. Without it you are very limited to who your potential customers might be.

One of the ideas I've had is making wooden canoe paddles. I love canoeing, and I like wood working, so I could combine the two into something productive. The problem though is that you have to find customers to buy your product. I've got quite a few retailers within less than 100 miles who might be able to sell my product, but the internet is still going to be a key tool in the success of whatever business I choose to go with.

Sorry to go off topic here, but Brian did your sister take your wedding photos?

I ask because i was asked to do the photographs for my brothers wedding a couple of years ago and thought i would also enjoy the day at the same time. Unfortunately it wasn't as good a day for me as i had hoped because i obviously wanted to get the best photographs i could for my brother and his wife.

My sister did not do our wedding photography. The place we were married I don't think allowed 3rd party photographers, we were forced to use theirs. They tried to cross-sell us all sorts of stuff, the photography was one of them.

I'm wondering if you'd have a better chance creating and testing prototype paddle designs to sell to paddle manufacturers to be mass-produced.

I could probably do that, but paddles are pretty simple machines so coming up with something new isn't easy. I'm thinking I could do customized paddles though, a customer would special order an exact length that is perfect for their body and paddling style, and could customize it with which ever kinds of woods they want and stuff like that.

Do people lose paddles often enough for a built-in GPS transmitter to be viable ? Even if not, custom stuff is never cheap, something to ease a users mind about being able to recover their paddle if they're somehow left up the creek without it could be cool.

I've never lost one, but 2 summers ago on the Dismal River in Nebraska by dad bent the aluminum shaft on a kayak paddle right in the center and when we tried to straighten it out it broke and we had to lash it back together with sticks and string and duct tape. A paddle with a GPS transmitter or even just a little radio beacon that doesn't use GPS would be something a guy could sell in ThinkGeek.

I sold Carhartt Red Wings and Danners for a while in a local surplus store.
It really was interesting to meet people in construction, plumbing, the Amish, etc. A job where you could show up, learn a few things about what each boot does, look through the carhartt catalog, and help someone find what they want.

I wouldn't recommend it though, set hours, price changes, etc.


As a business I would replace this towns disgusting DQ with a Quiznos/Panera Bread/DQ cafe that has wifi and such. No quiznos/panera within an hour from here, and that DQ has to go. I think it would be win/win!

I was in Iowa and ate at a Taco Bell - KFC.
That was elite in itself, kfc biscuits and taco bell gordita, mmm. The first one I seen like that.

But hey the restaraunt business needs brick and sunk costs, and most don't succeed.

I have a Sherwin Williams a block away from me, Home Depot down the street, tile and coatings factory two turns and about 30 minutes down the road, a day labor place across the street from me that's closed on the weekends, and I've seen a bunch of tile roofs that could use a paint job during my bike rides through the area.

I originally moved where I am a few years ago to be closer to work as a painter. I know there's work here.

My problem is I don't like selling and all of the people I know who are good at it smoke crack.

I think I could do anything physical where I'm not just sitting at a desk for 8+ hours a day. Like last Friday I helped my uncle cut down a bunch of trees on his property, then we winched them out to his log landing and today a truck is going to come and pick them up. His average that he gets from the mill for a truck load of logs is $900, then $300 of that goes to the truck driver. I had fun doing the work, got free food from my aunt, and I'll make a little bit of cash out of that.

I hear "log landing" and I think of the show "Axe Men" on either Discovery or History channel.

The place at my uncle's isn't quite as dramatic or as dangerous as the ones on tv. His is just kind of a clear spot along a road with a couple piles of firewood and cedar trees cut for fence beams (which he also sells) and some longer "dimension wood", or wood that will go to the mill and be cut into lumber that you'll buy at the lumber yard. He use to sell trees to be made into pulp for paper, but the pulp mill in Missoula closed last year.