Ideas for Mum

[Hazo]

I'm looking to set my Mum up as she comes closer to reirement. I think she is turning 58 this month. Usual story - worked hard whole life and now works for GE Money and hates it. Needs more money to retire.

So I want to get her to work for me, but at the same time I'm looking for a home business for her to start.

She really only has basic computer and admin skills, but would be able to figure out WP.

She is in to stuff like Yoga and healthy eating. Anyone have idea on what I could set up for her?

Also, in terms of hiring. Do you think this is a good/bad idea? I'm sure I could get her to do admin type stuff and maybe content editing if I taught her, but that's hardly a full time gig. Not sure how well she would go at link building...

Any ideas most welcome.

[Tim]

I’ve employed my dad for the past couple of years. His role is limited to dispatch, stock control, and answering customer emails. I pay him a small fixed amount each month. He’s retired (he’ll be 74 this year) and I know he gets a lot of pleasure from the work – even though it’s mainly boring admin stuff.

I couldn’t imagine him setting up an online business on his own from scratch, nor me teaching him how to. He’s certainly intelligent enough, but his computer skills are somewhat lacking and I wouldn’t have the patience.

As for ideas – it should definitely be based on your mum’s interests. I can’t think of a way to make decent money from yoga and healthy eating, but maybe you should just start her off with a simple blog or maybe create an eBook on the subjects. If an income is the main priority (rather than just something to do) then you might have to see if she has any other interests that might prove more lucrative.

[pokeraussie]

Depends on her goals really. If she wants to make a good go of it, I'd make her start blogging and eventually creating her own product when there is enough traffic, etc. Definitely something which involves more then just working for you, as that's not creating a business. And I am sure there is a lot about online marketing you can teach her so she has got a good head start.

[nirva]

Working on your online projects probably isn't a great idea, especially longterm.

How is her writing? Another +1 for a blog here, it would have a chance of earning some noticable Adsense income plus there are an abundance of affiliate offers. You could setup a nice template, plugins, adsense etc. so all she has to do is login and type.

[Catfish]

Common sense would be to set something up for here which
a) speaks to her age group
b) she has interest in and knowledge about
c) something that would involve stuff that can be bought online.

Since you mentioned health food, why not an informative site about health food, focusing on people of a certain age. Like, how typical health issues that come with age can be improved/avoided by changing eating habits.
Or, a site about all kinds of age-related issues?
Anyway, there must be a ton of products out there that can be bought online and which you can promote? And then there's still Adsense, as mentioned before.

Oh boy, considering the fact that I'll turn 57 this year, maybe I should diversify in that area myself...

[Haynesey]

How about an ebay business Nick?