Honest question, when selling to someone, don't you think most people will say "Why don't I just call to talk/remind them? Why am I paying a service to do this?"
Mow my lawn? Why don't I just mow my own lawn? Handle my taxes? Why don't I just do my own taxes? You're selling me a service? Why don't I just perform this service myself?
Ask anyone who works in the elderly-care field - many elderly people are more or less fogotten by family members. OP's idea is a great one!
I used to be an activities aide at a retirement home before I decided to change careers - seeing this (among others problems with elderly care) sucked a lot of my soul out of me...
Of course they are forgotten but when faced with a service that costs money most people will say "I'm not paying money for that, I'll just do it myself."
It’s a good question! I have excellent communication and customer service skills. Of course the family members should call them (hopefully they do!) but I feel making a new genuine connection with someone could really improve the quality of life.
I think it's a great idea but a hard sell. As I also just posted when trying to sell to the son/daughter their initial defensive reaction will be why would I spend money on that when I will do it myself. Many won't, but it's something they're going to think they will when approached with your service. Think about that.
Alright, I'm here to give a critical point of view.
If I read about this service, I would be leery of putting my vulnerable family members in your care if I did not know ALOT about you. Old people are vulnerable to predators. What is your training? What is your experience?
What is the extent of your services -- are you just planning to call them to remind them to take their pills? (If an elderly person is forgetting to take their pills, wouldn't that be a sign of bigger problems that your service likely can't handle -- e.g., dementia?)
Is it going to be you personally providing the service, or are you going to hire the work out? If you hire other people, what type of training and qualifications do they have? The last thing I'd want to do is place my family member's mental wellbeing into the hands of untrained, unqualified people.
That’s great critical analysis really. I have worked as an in-home care taker for a few different clients. The longest being an older gentleman with Alzheimer’s. My job consisted of assisting him with day to day activities and simply keeping him company.
I’d like my services to lean more towards simply providing social interaction from someone who truly cares and means well (me) I would definitely have to clearly define who I am and my intentions to my customers.
you will have a website at some point if you decide to go ahead with this business so please make sure you add this bit in your "About Us" page and talk specifically about your passion to improve the lives of the elderly. If both sets of my grandparents were with me still and you pitched me this idea, I would have been sold!
Good luck and all the best! I rarely root for someone with just an "idea" but I am keeping my fingers cross that you get this over the line. You have heck of a mountain to climb if you ain't technical but having said that, I can imagine someone technical will be fine dealing the backend while you do all the customer serving side (i.e. the elderly).
p/s: feel free to PM me if you need someone to talk to about anything, particularly on the technical side. I have a technical background but am now mostly on the business side so I know what its like to be on either end.
Never been to an elderly care house but I remember from Sopranos what it looked like. Perhaps half of all the care-requiring old people either dont have the money for it or they/their family simply hate the idea. HERE comes your solution -maybe- :
You sell your service to retirement homes, not to the individuals. Above posters mentioned really good negatives about this kinda job. First of them being, simply, "who are you?" If you were a company that the retirement homes would Outsource, booom, there is your credentials. You basically help retirement home businesses to expand to the outside world beyond their actual Homes, and you profit from that by being the service supplier. In short, you supply service to retirement homes for those who wanna live outside but still want some sort of professional
Help for their old. Not bad. Doable.
I think you got my idea. Maybe it will light up some bulbs hehe. Cheers.
Yea they wont question your credit but the Home's. You need a solid plan/system for the Home to take you serious tho.
HOWEVER, a big HOWEVER, if you create the system once, you can sell it anywhere. You wont be doing calls anyways, you just gonna manage it up to a certain point. So if you get a good grip of the system, you can sell it to many. You Need a working, almost failproof system. Ponder for two months, write the plan. Go to those Home's and just annoy the shit out of them to get most info. Act like you have a grandmother you are about to bring in.
DO it.
Begin by concepting this out, write down your idea and how it would work. How much you think it would cost to make an MVP (minimum viable product) in order to test this service out. Contact an attorney or go to legal zoom to learn about the legalities of starting a small business and visit the Small Business Administration website to get a better step by step process of starting a business from the ground up.
You could you test the concept with some people you know in this situation (people with elderly parents) and you take on the job of courtesy calling them.
This will give you a chance to prove out your idea, get their feedback and determine next steps before you go too far down the line with investment in time/money to build out an app or web solution.
Good luck!
Wonderful idea. What I would recommend you do is connect with your local business community and find someone to mentor you with this. There are a lot of opportunities here around funding and potentially setting up as a charity or similar, and as a first timer you are not going to easily find these things. What you're talking about will be a major project and you'll get it up and running a lot more easily and quickly with help.
A few other people have said this but literally go out and find people who would be your clients and offer your services to them. See what they would pay by asking lots of questions. Maybe start with a few clients for cheap and see if they like it. I think your idea could work and is actually a really good idea! I'd even love to be apart of it but right now I think you can handle it yourself haha.
Just start, all you need is a phone. Interview some elderly folks to determine what sort of interactions they’d need. Sign ppl up for a pilot program and go from there.
Make the product for your loved one and start from there. Don't worry about forming and entity, making a website, etc. If you really believe in your idea you will be doing it for free or paying to do it for your interest/passion in it alone. Maybe you already call grandma once a week... then start doing it for 5 other grandmas and see how they like it. 2 minutes for each grandma phone call would be a 10 minute investment per week. Start from there and see how that works out and then just fake it till you make it. Read some books on entrepreneurship, learn income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements and always trust your gut. Good luck!
Start a business plan. Liveplan can help. Figure out your startup costs and potential revenue model.
Build a team. Find someone who gets the idea and can help you build software, prototypes, designs, etc. Upwork can help.
Find clients. Get LOI’s from people who would be willing to use it. Find large contracts that would help sustain you. Get intents to purchase.
Present that to banks for loans, or apply for grants in your area. Do lots of digging, there’s lots of startup money out there to help. If you have collateral you’ll be able to get a bank loan, but caution with that. You could be on the hook for lots of money.
The best thing you can do is just start. It’s like going to the gym. You could keep putting it off but once you’re there you’ve started. Then a week goes by, a month, a year and you won’t even notice. Doors will open and close and before you know it you might have pivoted far from where you started. But that’s totally normal.
Also, don’t overlook a good lawyer.
Good luck!
To learn if your business idea is a gold ticket or a landmine, you need to do some proper market research, and that is hard to do if you don't know how. Luckily, I recently had the chance to ask a speaker (who has started over 20 different businesses) what books he'd recommend to a starting entrepreneur and he gave me some great suggestions. Here's what he told me:
Read the book "The Mom Test" and apply what you learn in it. It will help you gain an understanding of the market needs and desires, what the priorities are and how to actually use your time. Great book for everyone on this subreddit.
When you feel confident about moving forward, read "The lean startup" and "Nail it then scale it", and then other books which will teach you the skills you need to master to properly meet the market needs and create your minimum viable product.
That ought to be a good start.
Disclaimer: I'm also in the starting pits; not some experienced business guru. Pinch of salt advised.
Start with a proof of concept. Talk to you target market, the elderly and their children to find out more specific things that would make this idea of interest to them and a price range they would be comfortable with. Try to do a few test cases to see how much work would be involved vs how much you could potentially earn. The idea might be good but the amount of money you make has to make the amount of work you do feasible.
Note them down on a piece of paper in a bullet points way. Then get the things done 1 by one and it will lead you to the next steps on its own. Trust me, writing it down and then fulfilling it helps a lot.
Thank you everyone for your receptiveness, advice and criticism! I have decided to take the first step today. I created the name, Happily There. Designed a logo and currently finishing up a flyer with an in-depth about me and mission statement, etc. Going to hand out flyers today at local nursing homes and shopping centers. At the bottom is going to be an e-mail address and a coupon code. They email back with a short bio of the loved one, a time it is convenient to talk, any questions they have, and the coupon code. The coupon is good for 2 free 15 minute phone calls - so they can get to know me. I’d like to offer recorded conversations for an added layer of security and ease the minds for all parties involved.
This sounds like a great concept with a lot of potential. The best way to begin is to just start. From what it sounds like you don’t need anything but a phone number to kick this off.
You can go on LegalZoom and incorporate an LLC and file for a Trademark if you have a name in mind. More important than anything right now though is to go out and validate it.
Go sign up a couple clients and see how much they would pay for the service, keep in depth track of the things they’re asking for (and the frequency). Once you have an idea of how badly people want this, what you can charge and what the initial offerings should be you can start approaching family and friends for some funding to start expanding out. The most important thing right now is to start, learn and repeat. You don’t need to build complex technology, lawyers or investors before you prove this is a need that people will pay for.
I can see this working but I also see a lot of issues with it. Who are you for one. Also what will you talk about, don't be general and say anything they want, you have to have a list of things that are worth talking about and will keep both parties engaged. If you just listen to useless stuff then you will feel disconnected and that will not do you well. I think part of your plan down the road should include profiling and interest based conversions. IE when you hire, get someone who knows say car, and someone who is a history buff ect. The people you will need to hire also need to be able to speak proper English not a foreign language as a primary then crappy English. That could be something to think about too, offer your service in different languages with different topics.
Do you plan to have the same person talk to them weekly or do you plan on having it change?
Another thing would be, what is your marketing plan, do you want to rely on word of mouth or do you have an idea of where you would advertise?
You want to know whether you are solving a real problem (or exactly what that problem is) or whatever people are using right now is satisfying them (or even somewhat ok). The cheapest, easiest way before even setting up a company would be to go talk to potential customers (customers with grandparents who live alone) and run a couple of tests on customers' grandparents (if possible) too. You need to figure out why you would be making the call - the medication stuff starts to go under HIPAA issues and as someone else wrote liability issues. Are you making calls for loneliness or for reminding someone to put out the trash etc.? Which ones resonant best with both the buyers (customers) and the end users (the grandparents)? What's the value proposition for either party? There's so much stuff to do before you do all the legal work. I do this for tons of startups and my advice is to always talk to customers firsts - you might find there's an entirely different business opp out there that works for you all. Good luck
Very good advice, thank you! You’re right, this very well could evolve into something entirely different. I definitely plan on starting small. Maybe making some flyers to pass out. I really just want to make someone’s day better. That’s what I hope my services can provide. Like, I want my customers to be excited about their 5:30 phone call they will get on Friday. I want them to know I find them important and interesting. Everyone has a story to tell. We are social creatures - even at 80+ years!
I'm a bot, *bleep*, *bloop*. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit:
- [/r/machinethatmakesmoney] [I have an idea! I just don’t know what to do next!](https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineThatMakesMoney/comments/98s0x5/i_have_an_idea_i_just_dont_know_what_to_do_next/)
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I like your idea, and the comments here just made it better, turning your idea to business wont be hard, the hard part will only start when you have to run it..creating a website that accept payments should not be an obstacle at all..
Great idea but I don't know if people will be willing to pay per hour or call what it would cost to keep the business profitable after paying employees and such. What are your thoughts on pricing for the customer?
It be a good idea to market/provide them with jitterbug cell phones. I know as my Grandma got older, it became harder for her (mobility issues) to get up to answer her (landline) phone. Not to mention the great increase in scam/robo calls to landline phones over the years..
Oh Wow, I was reading a blog post with the exact title. Here it is - [I have a Business Idea. Now What Shall I Do?](https://iinnovatemag.com/blog/startup/i-have-a-business-idea-now-what-shall-i-do-next/)
I figured out from the post is that the next thing you need to do is to validate your idea. You think that your idea with work. But, it doesn't mean that it will actually work. No offense.
Google what elderly people actually talk about. You'll see a stark difference in their likings based on their age. The best thing you can do is to talk to some elder people and check whether they're willing to pay for your product. If the answer is "yes", you're good to.
**So, the steps are Idea > Validation > Create Prototype > Get Customer > Funding > Keep on Improving the product**
There are few things that you need to learn. As you said that you don't know legalities, creating a website, etc. So, the options left to you is either learn them or outsource them.
As I believe, you need to plan how you want to approach the target audiences and what platform you want to start with.
For example, if you want to start with local audience then, you might feel the right approach to be of offline marketing; along with the online presence of the your business. You could create website, then run some ads.
But again all this needs to be planned beforehand, so you know how much you are about to invest and not waste anything.
Creating a website can help you a great a deal, then creating a Google business account for local business.
There are tons of ways to bootstrap it, but you need to make your execution plan.
No clue tbh, no personal experience in this industry. I imagine you'd be considered a marketing agency. There's a service that runs ads on TV, [aplaceformom.com](https://aplaceformom.com) , they link people to nursing homes and assited living centers. What you're marketing is a service that is purchased by the people who "put" their relatives in these centers or are in their own homes and may live far away.
I Imagine your cost will mainly be man power and technology. You'd need secure databases that will hold people's sensitive information. You'd need automation technology that will take care of the reminders and things of the sort. You'd need man power to input all the data and act ask a customer service and sales force. You'd need insurance and legal paperwork and approvals. You'd need office space and you absolutely would need to include marketing costs to get the word out.
Something like this won't be cheap. For the first year alone you can assume the following:
\- Rent ($ 2-4 K/mth - assuming you can find something decent and cheap)
\- Employees 14K / mth (assuming 4 employees to start thats at least 3.K for each of them per month )
\- Technology (this can be either really low or as high as 10 -20 K one time fee plus mantenaince costs )
\- Insurance ($500 - 2000 a month )
\- Payroll Fees
\- Taxes
\- Internet / Phones & Phone Lines
\- Website Costs (100- 500 a year )
\- Marketing (variable costs )
\- Legal Aid Retainer fees
\- Misc costs
But it absolutely CAN be done, especially if you get a tech company behind you to do all the technology work and if they already have any office, BAM.
But again, **I absolutely have no experience in this industry and don't know what the F i'm talking about when it comes to this specific project**, but cheers.
This is an excellent life changing idea that could add value to a lot of people’s lives. Fund this pls. I see potential.
Thank you! I am that person that lays awake at night worrying about my grandparents. I want to help the lonely elderly.
Honest question, when selling to someone, don't you think most people will say "Why don't I just call to talk/remind them? Why am I paying a service to do this?"
Mow my lawn? Why don't I just mow my own lawn? Handle my taxes? Why don't I just do my own taxes? You're selling me a service? Why don't I just perform this service myself?
I see your point but we're talking about human interaction with loved ones, not (though it still can be) tedious tasks.
Ask anyone who works in the elderly-care field - many elderly people are more or less fogotten by family members. OP's idea is a great one! I used to be an activities aide at a retirement home before I decided to change careers - seeing this (among others problems with elderly care) sucked a lot of my soul out of me...
Of course they are forgotten but when faced with a service that costs money most people will say "I'm not paying money for that, I'll just do it myself."
It’s a good question! I have excellent communication and customer service skills. Of course the family members should call them (hopefully they do!) but I feel making a new genuine connection with someone could really improve the quality of life.
I think it's a great idea but a hard sell. As I also just posted when trying to sell to the son/daughter their initial defensive reaction will be why would I spend money on that when I will do it myself. Many won't, but it's something they're going to think they will when approached with your service. Think about that.
Oh yeah! You’re definitely right.
Agree; I’d think there’d be a big market for it. Good luck, OP!
Alright, I'm here to give a critical point of view. If I read about this service, I would be leery of putting my vulnerable family members in your care if I did not know ALOT about you. Old people are vulnerable to predators. What is your training? What is your experience? What is the extent of your services -- are you just planning to call them to remind them to take their pills? (If an elderly person is forgetting to take their pills, wouldn't that be a sign of bigger problems that your service likely can't handle -- e.g., dementia?) Is it going to be you personally providing the service, or are you going to hire the work out? If you hire other people, what type of training and qualifications do they have? The last thing I'd want to do is place my family member's mental wellbeing into the hands of untrained, unqualified people.
That’s great critical analysis really. I have worked as an in-home care taker for a few different clients. The longest being an older gentleman with Alzheimer’s. My job consisted of assisting him with day to day activities and simply keeping him company. I’d like my services to lean more towards simply providing social interaction from someone who truly cares and means well (me) I would definitely have to clearly define who I am and my intentions to my customers.
you will have a website at some point if you decide to go ahead with this business so please make sure you add this bit in your "About Us" page and talk specifically about your passion to improve the lives of the elderly. If both sets of my grandparents were with me still and you pitched me this idea, I would have been sold! Good luck and all the best! I rarely root for someone with just an "idea" but I am keeping my fingers cross that you get this over the line. You have heck of a mountain to climb if you ain't technical but having said that, I can imagine someone technical will be fine dealing the backend while you do all the customer serving side (i.e. the elderly). p/s: feel free to PM me if you need someone to talk to about anything, particularly on the technical side. I have a technical background but am now mostly on the business side so I know what its like to be on either end.
Thank you so much! This community has been very receptive of my idea and really boosted my confidence!
Never been to an elderly care house but I remember from Sopranos what it looked like. Perhaps half of all the care-requiring old people either dont have the money for it or they/their family simply hate the idea. HERE comes your solution -maybe- : You sell your service to retirement homes, not to the individuals. Above posters mentioned really good negatives about this kinda job. First of them being, simply, "who are you?" If you were a company that the retirement homes would Outsource, booom, there is your credentials. You basically help retirement home businesses to expand to the outside world beyond their actual Homes, and you profit from that by being the service supplier. In short, you supply service to retirement homes for those who wanna live outside but still want some sort of professional Help for their old. Not bad. Doable. I think you got my idea. Maybe it will light up some bulbs hehe. Cheers.
That’s a great idea. My credentials and legitimacy would come from a reputable nursing home!
Yea they wont question your credit but the Home's. You need a solid plan/system for the Home to take you serious tho. HOWEVER, a big HOWEVER, if you create the system once, you can sell it anywhere. You wont be doing calls anyways, you just gonna manage it up to a certain point. So if you get a good grip of the system, you can sell it to many. You Need a working, almost failproof system. Ponder for two months, write the plan. Go to those Home's and just annoy the shit out of them to get most info. Act like you have a grandmother you are about to bring in. DO it.
Begin by concepting this out, write down your idea and how it would work. How much you think it would cost to make an MVP (minimum viable product) in order to test this service out. Contact an attorney or go to legal zoom to learn about the legalities of starting a small business and visit the Small Business Administration website to get a better step by step process of starting a business from the ground up.
You could you test the concept with some people you know in this situation (people with elderly parents) and you take on the job of courtesy calling them. This will give you a chance to prove out your idea, get their feedback and determine next steps before you go too far down the line with investment in time/money to build out an app or web solution. Good luck!
Wonderful idea. What I would recommend you do is connect with your local business community and find someone to mentor you with this. There are a lot of opportunities here around funding and potentially setting up as a charity or similar, and as a first timer you are not going to easily find these things. What you're talking about will be a major project and you'll get it up and running a lot more easily and quickly with help.
A few other people have said this but literally go out and find people who would be your clients and offer your services to them. See what they would pay by asking lots of questions. Maybe start with a few clients for cheap and see if they like it. I think your idea could work and is actually a really good idea! I'd even love to be apart of it but right now I think you can handle it yourself haha.
Just start, all you need is a phone. Interview some elderly folks to determine what sort of interactions they’d need. Sign ppl up for a pilot program and go from there.
Make the product for your loved one and start from there. Don't worry about forming and entity, making a website, etc. If you really believe in your idea you will be doing it for free or paying to do it for your interest/passion in it alone. Maybe you already call grandma once a week... then start doing it for 5 other grandmas and see how they like it. 2 minutes for each grandma phone call would be a 10 minute investment per week. Start from there and see how that works out and then just fake it till you make it. Read some books on entrepreneurship, learn income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements and always trust your gut. Good luck!
Start a business plan. Liveplan can help. Figure out your startup costs and potential revenue model. Build a team. Find someone who gets the idea and can help you build software, prototypes, designs, etc. Upwork can help. Find clients. Get LOI’s from people who would be willing to use it. Find large contracts that would help sustain you. Get intents to purchase. Present that to banks for loans, or apply for grants in your area. Do lots of digging, there’s lots of startup money out there to help. If you have collateral you’ll be able to get a bank loan, but caution with that. You could be on the hook for lots of money. The best thing you can do is just start. It’s like going to the gym. You could keep putting it off but once you’re there you’ve started. Then a week goes by, a month, a year and you won’t even notice. Doors will open and close and before you know it you might have pivoted far from where you started. But that’s totally normal. Also, don’t overlook a good lawyer. Good luck!
To learn if your business idea is a gold ticket or a landmine, you need to do some proper market research, and that is hard to do if you don't know how. Luckily, I recently had the chance to ask a speaker (who has started over 20 different businesses) what books he'd recommend to a starting entrepreneur and he gave me some great suggestions. Here's what he told me: Read the book "The Mom Test" and apply what you learn in it. It will help you gain an understanding of the market needs and desires, what the priorities are and how to actually use your time. Great book for everyone on this subreddit. When you feel confident about moving forward, read "The lean startup" and "Nail it then scale it", and then other books which will teach you the skills you need to master to properly meet the market needs and create your minimum viable product. That ought to be a good start. Disclaimer: I'm also in the starting pits; not some experienced business guru. Pinch of salt advised.
Start with a proof of concept. Talk to you target market, the elderly and their children to find out more specific things that would make this idea of interest to them and a price range they would be comfortable with. Try to do a few test cases to see how much work would be involved vs how much you could potentially earn. The idea might be good but the amount of money you make has to make the amount of work you do feasible.
Note them down on a piece of paper in a bullet points way. Then get the things done 1 by one and it will lead you to the next steps on its own. Trust me, writing it down and then fulfilling it helps a lot.
Thank you everyone for your receptiveness, advice and criticism! I have decided to take the first step today. I created the name, Happily There. Designed a logo and currently finishing up a flyer with an in-depth about me and mission statement, etc. Going to hand out flyers today at local nursing homes and shopping centers. At the bottom is going to be an e-mail address and a coupon code. They email back with a short bio of the loved one, a time it is convenient to talk, any questions they have, and the coupon code. The coupon is good for 2 free 15 minute phone calls - so they can get to know me. I’d like to offer recorded conversations for an added layer of security and ease the minds for all parties involved.
This sounds like a great concept with a lot of potential. The best way to begin is to just start. From what it sounds like you don’t need anything but a phone number to kick this off. You can go on LegalZoom and incorporate an LLC and file for a Trademark if you have a name in mind. More important than anything right now though is to go out and validate it. Go sign up a couple clients and see how much they would pay for the service, keep in depth track of the things they’re asking for (and the frequency). Once you have an idea of how badly people want this, what you can charge and what the initial offerings should be you can start approaching family and friends for some funding to start expanding out. The most important thing right now is to start, learn and repeat. You don’t need to build complex technology, lawyers or investors before you prove this is a need that people will pay for.
Thank you! Great advice.
If Gramps dies for not taking his medication, why aren't you responsible?
After some consideration I am now leaning away from providing medication reminders.
That's a great point.
I can see this working but I also see a lot of issues with it. Who are you for one. Also what will you talk about, don't be general and say anything they want, you have to have a list of things that are worth talking about and will keep both parties engaged. If you just listen to useless stuff then you will feel disconnected and that will not do you well. I think part of your plan down the road should include profiling and interest based conversions. IE when you hire, get someone who knows say car, and someone who is a history buff ect. The people you will need to hire also need to be able to speak proper English not a foreign language as a primary then crappy English. That could be something to think about too, offer your service in different languages with different topics. Do you plan to have the same person talk to them weekly or do you plan on having it change? Another thing would be, what is your marketing plan, do you want to rely on word of mouth or do you have an idea of where you would advertise?
You want to know whether you are solving a real problem (or exactly what that problem is) or whatever people are using right now is satisfying them (or even somewhat ok). The cheapest, easiest way before even setting up a company would be to go talk to potential customers (customers with grandparents who live alone) and run a couple of tests on customers' grandparents (if possible) too. You need to figure out why you would be making the call - the medication stuff starts to go under HIPAA issues and as someone else wrote liability issues. Are you making calls for loneliness or for reminding someone to put out the trash etc.? Which ones resonant best with both the buyers (customers) and the end users (the grandparents)? What's the value proposition for either party? There's so much stuff to do before you do all the legal work. I do this for tons of startups and my advice is to always talk to customers firsts - you might find there's an entirely different business opp out there that works for you all. Good luck
Very good advice, thank you! You’re right, this very well could evolve into something entirely different. I definitely plan on starting small. Maybe making some flyers to pass out. I really just want to make someone’s day better. That’s what I hope my services can provide. Like, I want my customers to be excited about their 5:30 phone call they will get on Friday. I want them to know I find them important and interesting. Everyone has a story to tell. We are social creatures - even at 80+ years!
I'm a bot, *bleep*, *bloop*. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit: - [/r/machinethatmakesmoney] [I have an idea! I just don’t know what to do next!](https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineThatMakesMoney/comments/98s0x5/i_have_an_idea_i_just_dont_know_what_to_do_next/) *^(If you follow any of the above links, please respect the rules of reddit and don't vote in the other threads.) ^\([Info](/r/TotesMessenger) ^/ ^[Contact](/message/compose?to=/r/TotesMessenger))*
OP, you are awesome
I like your idea, and the comments here just made it better, turning your idea to business wont be hard, the hard part will only start when you have to run it..creating a website that accept payments should not be an obstacle at all..
Great idea but I don't know if people will be willing to pay per hour or call what it would cost to keep the business profitable after paying employees and such. What are your thoughts on pricing for the customer?
It be a good idea to market/provide them with jitterbug cell phones. I know as my Grandma got older, it became harder for her (mobility issues) to get up to answer her (landline) phone. Not to mention the great increase in scam/robo calls to landline phones over the years..
Oh Wow, I was reading a blog post with the exact title. Here it is - [I have a Business Idea. Now What Shall I Do?](https://iinnovatemag.com/blog/startup/i-have-a-business-idea-now-what-shall-i-do-next/) I figured out from the post is that the next thing you need to do is to validate your idea. You think that your idea with work. But, it doesn't mean that it will actually work. No offense. Google what elderly people actually talk about. You'll see a stark difference in their likings based on their age. The best thing you can do is to talk to some elder people and check whether they're willing to pay for your product. If the answer is "yes", you're good to. **So, the steps are Idea > Validation > Create Prototype > Get Customer > Funding > Keep on Improving the product** There are few things that you need to learn. As you said that you don't know legalities, creating a website, etc. So, the options left to you is either learn them or outsource them.
This sounds like something that you should crowd fund. People will invest in your company and they'll be benefits of the service when finished.
That’s a good idea! Do you know what kinda money this would take to get this idea off the ground?
As I believe, you need to plan how you want to approach the target audiences and what platform you want to start with. For example, if you want to start with local audience then, you might feel the right approach to be of offline marketing; along with the online presence of the your business. You could create website, then run some ads. But again all this needs to be planned beforehand, so you know how much you are about to invest and not waste anything. Creating a website can help you a great a deal, then creating a Google business account for local business. There are tons of ways to bootstrap it, but you need to make your execution plan.
For inspiration, listen to "How I built this", the episode on Angie's List. https://www.npr.org/2016/11/28/502898690/angies-list-angie-hicks
I've been having to drive a lot lately, I'm going to d/l a bunch of these, thanks. Do you have any more related podcasts?
No clue tbh, no personal experience in this industry. I imagine you'd be considered a marketing agency. There's a service that runs ads on TV, [aplaceformom.com](https://aplaceformom.com) , they link people to nursing homes and assited living centers. What you're marketing is a service that is purchased by the people who "put" their relatives in these centers or are in their own homes and may live far away. I Imagine your cost will mainly be man power and technology. You'd need secure databases that will hold people's sensitive information. You'd need automation technology that will take care of the reminders and things of the sort. You'd need man power to input all the data and act ask a customer service and sales force. You'd need insurance and legal paperwork and approvals. You'd need office space and you absolutely would need to include marketing costs to get the word out. Something like this won't be cheap. For the first year alone you can assume the following: \- Rent ($ 2-4 K/mth - assuming you can find something decent and cheap) \- Employees 14K / mth (assuming 4 employees to start thats at least 3.K for each of them per month ) \- Technology (this can be either really low or as high as 10 -20 K one time fee plus mantenaince costs ) \- Insurance ($500 - 2000 a month ) \- Payroll Fees \- Taxes \- Internet / Phones & Phone Lines \- Website Costs (100- 500 a year ) \- Marketing (variable costs ) \- Legal Aid Retainer fees \- Misc costs But it absolutely CAN be done, especially if you get a tech company behind you to do all the technology work and if they already have any office, BAM. But again, **I absolutely have no experience in this industry and don't know what the F i'm talking about when it comes to this specific project**, but cheers.
^^
PM me if you’re looking for some advice.
Great help!