$5,000 to invest - what would you do?

I don't know about the UK but here in the states vape shops are opening up like crazy. Insanely high growth potential, growing market, easy to get started. Inventory, juice, etc. should be relatively cheap to get started. I'm actually on the verge of getting into that industry over here as well.

Very low start up costs... biggest cost would be retail location, and since commercial real estate is down (at least here) there are great deals to be had.

Does the U.K. have and alternative to the USPS's Every Door Direct Mail?

If so... Bob Ross!

You could do a search but there was a guy here for a little while that was flipping washing machines and dryers and claimed to make good money. I'm pretty sure that's a legitimate option. They aren't that complex and from your everyday homeowner to apartment communities people have need for them. When they break people often just get rid of them and get new, but there is always a need for cheap machines in the lower income market.

Maybe they could pick up discarded furniture, refinish and repair it, and flip that as well. There are lots of opportunities like that.

My wife and I clean houses and I've gotten into mobile auto detailing and carpet cleaning over the years, but that is fairly physical work. We are self-employed and have been for 14 years doing this, but many do take it and make actual businesses with employees out of it and swap doing the actual labor for managing the labor and running the business side only. We just don't want the headaches of employees and choose to stay just the two of us.

Why not use that $5k to get some sort of professional license? Insurance adjuster or something?

Contact companies and ask them to buy their old cell phones for 1/3rd of their retail value.

Take care of everything, shipping,etc. Sell for profit on kijiji,craigslist and ebay or other resellers.

A solo operator can make a decent income with just a computer and a phone doing that but you have to be organized.

one thing they can do is look for properties to buy which has low down payment and then they can rent it out.The rent money will pay the mortgage and give them a profit that will be a start. Or they can look for properties and look for buyers so they can get a commission on each sale.

Helping them without knowing them would be short of impossible. If you search this forum there are dozens of I have X amount of cash what should I do with it.
The anwer is always the same. We don't know what do you think YOU could do with it with your skills etc.. when you decide let us know and we can help.

Also the $5,000 amount means nothing so you can remove it from the equation. Good ideas can always raise money.

If they were my friends I would ask myself these questions.

How long can he be without income before it causes serious financial issues?
If the answer is less than a year he needs to get a job, any job yesterday.

How long can he be without income before it causes him depression or puts significant strain on his relationship since his wife is already stressed etc... I bet its already causing stress. At that age heart attacks just happen, if ANY job relieves that its worth doing.

Your heart is in the right place but do you think it will matter what you find or suggest?

The profile here is 50+ worker bees that are nice people but not into searching. Not even owning a computer suggests that new ideas etc.. is not big on their list. They are now hitting the ages where their life decisions will come home to roost. I have dozens of friends like this. Very few have made major life changes like owning a business. The very few that did were insanely hungry for change and took the initiative themselves and only needed very little support after getting started.

I near drove myself nuts suggesting what I believed were obvious life changes for friends but then figured out they are only obvious and workable for me due to my specific risk tolerances, personality etc...

When he shows up at your door with a new laptop under his arm and says show me how to use this damn thing help him.

When he shows up and says I started this business I need your help writing my flyers help him.

Until then he needs to drive the initial idea, then you can get behind him.
Further to that based on what you know of their finances and the other issues I mentioned above the best thing you might be able to do for him is tell him to get a job. If he is so motivated to change just you telling him to get a job will push him further to owning a business.

As you may appreciate, it's not a matter of having $5,000 to work with. It's about being the right people. I hear about bad backs, age and computer illiteracy, but I don't care about their weaknesses as much as I care knowing what their strengths are. "Hard working" is good, it's necessary... but exactly in what areas do they excel?

Thanks everyone and great answers.

I know without knowing them and what their abilities are its almost impossible to give concise ideas.

I guess you would call them unskilled blue collar workers.

And certainly they have escaped from the wonders of technology (i.e. no computer).

But they are hard working, reliable, ethical and willing to try something new.

They have such pleasant personas - you can't help but like them.

They aren't "salespeople" as such but with a bit of coaching they probably could "sell" something.


Steve

1. Start a new business implies Learning new things and skills.
2. Direct selling could be a good approach. I suggest silver jewelry direct selling
3. Can you get involved and help them in some way ex. Taking charge of the tech side of business?
4. A real estate license could be a good start. People tend to trust to older sellers (again learning is key)
5. They should split and try two ideas, this way they do not put all their eggs in one basket. One could try a venture while the other should go looking for a nine to five job maybe.
6. Maybe dog breeding could be a good option think of expensive Chihuahas, with one single website they will be in business!

If you need more ideas let me know! I will be glad to help

All the Best!

I'm more aligned with Plessard here. Some are meant to be self-employed
and some are not. They don't sound like they have drive. $5,000 to live on and/or
start a business is nada, zip, zed.

However:

Since they are not techie, buy merchandise low and sell high
at flea markets or perhaps a mall or street kiosk. Nice looking costume jewelry
comes to mind. It's been a while, but the numbers are probably roughly
the same: earrings for $2, sell for $18. If flea markets, they have to research
and sell something that everybody else is not selling.

Or, maybe they could sell your flyer/copy services?

Lorel Langmeyer (sp?) is a "millionaire maker" - self titled I think. Fluke or
not, I will agree with her suggesting that people start their first business in
an area they know about because the learning curve in starting and running
a business is steep.

What do they know about?

What interests or hobbies do they have that can be monetized?

Any skills - such as woodworking, sewing, knitting - that you don't know they
have that can be monetized?

Maybe a home or office cleaning service?

Any services needed by their employers, or former employers?
(I used to work at Coors brewery and every so often they need to clean
the conveyor lines that the empty cans ride on to the filler. An ex-employee now
provides that service. The process involves shooting pellets of dry ice.)

My 2c.

Dan

HE CAN START HIS BUSINESS BY BUYING FROM WALMART AND SELLING IT ON EBAY

Buy from Walmart Sell on eBay: 8 Best Seller Categories - How2Dollar | Online Money Making

i would invest in educating my mind about investing. In the short run, the ROI is low. In the long run the ROI is infinite.

Might want to consider going into the mobile marketing space, they don't have to be tech savvy to understand the idea of a business texting their customer base new promotions and updates to drive business.

This space is also growing exponentially so they're in a market where the growth is already there.

Definitely give a chance to your very own offline marketing campaign and see how it goes!

This thread is almost a year old! I wonder if the OP did anything at all?

However I will have something the next week that will change your life and make big bank!

Would definitely create own product and market the hell out of it with that fund

I realize this is an old thread but for anyone that reads this - if you find yourself without a job suddenly (laid off, fired, etc) and all you have is $5000, go get another job. Use the $5000 to pay your mortgage or rent and use it to feed ur family.

Don't go chasing a pipe dream when you are under the gun. That would be dumb.

I would go for high ticket sales, find a partner who can create the course and back up the project with your fund, you will do really well if you know how to do traffic part..

Check out the Market demand, and Supply products accordingly. Start with small scale and gradually increase.

With those resources, I would seriously talk to people to get into the arbitrage business, buying and selling digital goods and services.

You’d be surprised as to how many contest websites pay for $5 designs found on Fiverr.

This cuts across the board.

We’re not just talking about logos here.

Even banners can fetch quite a pretty penny if you pitch it in front of the right eyeballs.

Arbitrage is big.

There are all sorts of services, there’s all sorts of digital products that you can buy low at certain places on the internet and sell high at other places.

You really just need to know where to look.

Also, you need to build trust with the right vendors and set up the right relationships.

A great place to start as far as developing a network of buyers that would pay top dollar is LinkedIn.

You might want to consider LinkedIn groups and others.

In fact, a lot of my e-book writing services are sold through resellers.

People do arbitrage with my writing services.

I don’t really mind because as long as they pay my basic rate, I’m happy.

But I’ve been told that people have flipped my services up to four times their value.

So, with your $5000 in investment, you might want to look into building websites that do digital arbitrage and devote a lot of the funds to building a solid online brand.

That’s just one idea but never underestimate the power of arbitrage whether you’re dealing with fixed digital products or online services.

LOL>>>> I love it when we drag up an old thread...but there is always the air of mystery

what happened? Did Ma and Pa take the $5k and find a fabulous biz and are now working a few hours a day and living in Ibbiza?

Or did they lose the 5k and have to take a drudgy job ?

Did they ever get a computer? Inquiring minds want to know

I don't know whether this would be good enough for them but how about food business. A good food and catering service will never go out of business. It is not as complicated as it sounds like and is something that they can easily learn. Since they are hard working individuals and are willing to learn, this would fit them really well. I also believe that $5,000 might be enough to start a simple home based food business. They just need someone to give them a nudge and support them while they are just starting and you might be the perfect guy for that spot.

You can start a Book Shop and it does not involve too much activity.

Unless I missed the point - there is a lot of business tech talk. I thought this guy was tech illiterate.
Steve's copy writing skill's should then be enough to set his mate up. No worries about internet....with copy writing skills he could phone or go into almost any small business and offer a copy writing sales makeover for their current advertising campaigns.
I'm sure their would be plenty of businesses in their area in need this type of help - even if he had to start offering a small free service to get his foot in the door.

Thanks everyone.

I did pass on many of the suggestions.

If I could I would tell what happened.

But…I can't get hold of them to find out.

I'm hoping they are doing well.


Steve