We survivalist spend a lot of time worrying about a national or worldwide collapse scenario, giving little thought to collapse on an individual level. The fact is many things can happen sending your life into turmoil creating a personal collapse.
You can be laid off from your job or fired. Your employer could move or company close. You could become sick or injured, no longer able to work at your present capacity or industry.
You should consider starting a home business. With a home business you have a hedge against unemployment and become an asset to your neighbours.
No doubt many of you have thought of starting your own business but lack the willpower to actually get it going.
Every home business started with an idea followed by action. You have to put your ideas to work, if not you’re guaranteed to fail.
Starting a home business need not be expensive or time-consuming. Many can be started part-time with little resources or cash outlay. A good book that has been a great resource for me is Small Time Operator by Bernard B. Kamoroff.
Ideas to consider:
- Mail order or Internet Sales
- Craft Sales (can be combined with above)
- Freelance Writing
- Gunsmithing
- Locksmithing
- Reloading
- Auto Repair
- Computer Repair
- Knife Making
- Greenhouse / Produce Sales
- Firewood Sales
- Odd Jobs / Handyman
- Welding
- Childcare
I’m sure you have many other home business ideas and I can’t wait to read about them in the comments below. Just remember ideas should have low start-up costs that the operator can run from home.
Now the bad news. Even a home business can falter. According to this article - 50% of home businesses fail within the first year. This may sound discouraging but one thing is guaranteed – if you never start you will never be included in the 50% that make it.
Steps To Success
- Consider your Skills
- Make a plan
- Avoid entering a saturated market
- Don’t go into debt
- Set a work schedule and stick to it
- Consider customer needs
- Look for a “recession proof” business
- Prepare to work long hours for little pay
- Don’t quit your current job (if you have one) until you’re established
Having a home business is just another step toward survival and self-reliance. Think about it; how can you be self-sufficient if you depend on others for your livelihood?
Do you run a home business? What is it? What advice would you give others starting out?
{ 33 comments }
Great post. As I stated in a comment recently, a home business is a necessity in today’s world. I’ve sold things on Ebay, was a book seller on Amazon for several years, and now have a vending company that in 3 years has more than doubled my full-time, white-collar income in the advertising industry.
I highly recommend Robert Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad, Poor Dad to learn about passive income and how to create it in any business you start. Also, most who start businesses never get going because they have a “paralysis of analysis” instead of getting out there and making things happen. JUST DO IT and you’ll figure things out as you go along. I didn’t know a thing about vending gumballs, toys, and temporary tattoos 3 years ago and now I’m in the top 1% in the industry.
In fact, I’m about ready to sit down with family for dinner and there are people putting quarters in my vending machines all over the state!
Regular Patriot,
Sounds like a sweet operation and thank you for the book recomendation, I’ll have to look into getting a copy.
Just don’t sign up for the seminars ‘based’ on the book. They’re mostly a scam to push you into paying for more seminars.
I second that, the books are fine but his seminars are a con. I went to one a few years ago before the housing bubble burst. They have a free seminar that gives you little to no information and encourages you to pay for the real seminar. When you pay for the second seminar, you spend a weekend learning about how great the next seminar is that costs thousands of dollars. We actually had “homework” during our lunch break to call all of our credit cards and request credit increases so we could afford to pay for the next class. Like anything else, just be careful who you listen to.
+1 on Robert Kiyosaki, I’ve read his books and enjoy them.
Greenhouse/produce sales almost force you to be on a high traffic road, which may be detrimental in a Shtf scenario. It’s a business that really relies on impulse buying and citiots thinking you’re quaint and old fashioned.
Dash,
Remember; the post was about a personal shtf situation such as job loss and not a wide spread catastrophe. Read the first few paragraphs again.
I have to disagree with your contention that buying food (produce) relies on impulse buying (what?). Everyone needs to eat and food will always be in demand. Filling such a basic human need as nutrition is hardly impulsive buying.
As for needing to be near a high traffic area, that would depend on your marketing plan. You can live out in the boonies and still set-up a stand in a well traveled area and selling through a local vender is another idea.
when my family used to run a garden stand we had a some regular customers, but most people were one offs that were just passing through. Selling through a vendor or seting up a stand away from your actual residence, can (depending on your area) cost you more. Rules vary for farmgate sales versus other sales.
How about on top of traditional vegetables, learn how to grow some harder to find herbs, etc and not only sell at a roadside stand, but to restaurants and grocery stores?
The nearby religious orphanage does exactly this.
They have a large farm near downtown and sell produce & meat to local restaurants.
Begin learning a new skill before things go south. Use it as a hobby income. Locksmithing, welding, small engine repair. Needlework and home-hand skills may appeal to the ladies (or the men, who knows.) Woodworking appeals to young boys. A neighbor’s boy makes a lot of money with his wonderful polished bunnies, cats, deer and wolves made of layered woods. The other boys seem delighted to help him.
Well, if you have a tiller, you can charge folks to till their land for them. A bulky piece of equipment that sits about most of the year, might as well earn a living for you and it. Could even be towed behind a bicycle if you have a small trailer made for it. Let the homeowner pay you for the gas as well, or maybe make it a bargaining point.
Me’s suggestions above sound particularly constructive. Make one of your favorite hobbies your job and the day really flys by – if you can find someone who needs it.
Great post M.D.
JR,
Do it! Prove to us all that it’s a viable business.
M.D. looks like this post was a dud because non of your readers are self employed.
Another great posting. In years that my garden has produced well I have made upwards of $1200 extra dollars a year selling my excesses produce at local farmers markets. Believe me buying produce at a farmer’s market is not an impuse buy. Many people come to these markets specifically to buy the locally grown fruits and vegatables. Also about 8 years ago I began raising meat & egg chickens and turkeys. Now I can’t keep up with the demand for my birds or my eggs.
I am sure that if I suffered a job loss or a wage reduction that with a little more time and effort I could at least survive until my situation improved.
Hmm. Home based business. Well my last online businesses went down in flames.
The ones that did produce a nice little income for me were:
Lawn care
General Labor
Trading Stock Options (optionetics program)
Computer Repair
I could probably earn a stable income in the natural health field if I started charging new clients for consultations and actively pursued it.
For TEOTWAWKI trades, I still like Ice Production and meat processing/curing. Tilling gardens would work as long as I have gas for it. I guess if you were skilled enough you could become a TEOTWAWKI consultant, people would feel more comfortable with a professional opinion rather than just figuring it out on their own if TSHTF.
I guess the main thing is to be a jack of all trades and be flexible. Go above and beyond for your customers and they’ll tell their friends. Screw up and they’ll tell even more friends.
The key to any business is pure HARD WORK and a willingness to get out and promote, promote, promote. In my years in the advertising industry, it amazes me how many folks spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to open a business and then just expect folks to show up. You gotta shake alot of hands and promote, promote, promote! Think out of the box and get out of your comfort zone.
MD, I’d setup a challenge of some sort for your readers on this one. Too many people with some neat ideas, but these ideas need to be converted into action.
One home business that used to be widespread in the past was blade sharpening. Lawn mower blades, tractor blades, scissors, knives, and agricultural tools of the past all need to be sharpened and, while the economy stays the way it is now, more people are opting to have these things sharpened rather than buy new ones. Notice the renewed increase in the popularity of the old, push reel mowers at the local home supply store. All these need to be sharpened. There is definitely an increased need for this service right now. One good feature of this home business is there is little overhead expense.
Mr Creekmore I have a couple questions for you first off what is your home business and second how does it feel to be a “survival guru?
His home business is this blog and the book that he’s been writing.
Josey Wales,
Patriot is correct this blog is my home business. As for being a survival guru I don’t consider myself as such.
I am the owner of one business and am in the process of opening another. The key is having Multiple Streams of Income. Assume one will go bad on you.
Another thing to consider: If you’re doing this job “on the side” and you are married, have the business in the name of the spouse that earns the LEAST amount of income, regardless of who actually works the business.
Why? If you get laid off, you will not be eligible for unemployment insurance payments if you have another source of income in your name (this is the law in California, at least).
I agree on the multiple streams of income, but disagree on the unemployment. We should all have enough pride in ourselves to never take a government handout like unemployment. A work ethic, our families, our communities, and our churches should be our support system and not the government.
Regular Patriot – All employees are required to pay into un-employment, it’s insurance, not a government handout. Would it be better for some/most if they didn’t have to pay into it? Yes, but if you pay for insurance, you have the right to collect. Are you also going to turn down social security & medicare, and tell your family to not collect on your life insurance? You’re paying for it, you should collect it.
My goal is to not need any of these socialist programs. My life and family are my responsibility and no one else’s. The programs mentioned are the reason Europe’s economies are about to explode with ours right behind them. My life insurance is completely different, but all of these others are government handouts funded by our tax dollars. Unemployment “insurance” is just a tax with a different name than income tax, sales tax, etc.
The above are all Ponzi schemes created by politicians to buy votes and all their “promises” cannot be kept because the numbers don’t add up. Bernie Madoff is a choir boy compared to many of the progressive politicians of the last century beginning with Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Obama, etc.
Regular – You are forced to pay for unemployment insurance. You’re not forced to take the benefits if you so choose. I cannot think of a good reason to not collect on a policy for which you’ve paid, but if your personal convictions are that strong, don’t take it if you’re ever unemployed.
No one wants to need any of these policies, but that’s kind of the idea. It is protection against unlikely, but possible, disasters or emergencies.
Cobbler/Leather Worker! Someone who can fix/repair/customize leather gear and shoes would be a Godsend! My neighborhood cobbler was the LAST shoe repair place in the COUNTY when he passed away last year. And its indoor work that’s good for pre-and-post TEOWAWKI! What are you going to do with that cow hide after you butcher it, eh? First to the tanners, then to the cobbler, then the boots/belts/shoes/harness comes back to you (after you pay the people, of course). See the survival picture? Hope this helps, Bubblehead Les.
For those disparaging comments about none of us being self employed, where did you get that idea? Much of America is small business income. My father cut and delivered firewood and sharpened commercial and small industrial tools after he retired from the military. My Brothers have run an artistic leather works business for nearly 40 years, making and selling just about anything that can be made from leather. This includes hand-tooled tack and saddles, hats, boots, etc. My sister is a self-employed home care Registered Nurse. My husband is a locksmith/ safe repair. I am a published author/ freelance writer.
Most of my family has never, or rarely, worked “for” someone else. A lot of Americans are self-employed.
Another thought – catfish farming might work in the right region. Not far from us are areas where people do not access to easy recreational fishing, and a ‘pay by the pound’ catfish farm might have some possibilities if you have several acres for the ponds. Oil field workers often have big paychecks, but no where to spend it and maybe this could work here. Another location might be a rural but heavily used route between two cities, your customers city dwellers looking for some fun and meat at the same time.
Some local restaurants may like your fish for their menus as well, but no idea what regulations are for that.
I think oil removal might be a good business to get into these days.
I have an antique sock knitting machine that I knit wool and cotton socks on. I sell the socks at the local Farmers Market, a few fairs, online and use them for barter. They can be pricey to buy but I bartered for mine. A bit of a steep learning curve but everybody needs socks! Pretty good side income. I weave rag rugs on a floor loom, most of what I weave with costs little or nothing, the warp thread is the biggest expense. I don’t get rich but every bit helps.
I am now starting to raise oyster mushrooms in my basement to sell at the Farmers Market and local restaurants. I’m growing them on discarded newspaper and used coffee grounds from a local coffee shop (no cost to me!), what I can’t sell fresh I will dry. I already have a commitment from a local restaurant to buy what I grow. My initial goal is about 100# a month, the used mushroom compost goes on the garden, maybe into worm beds.
The one thing these all have in common is a willingness to hustle, and to promote yourself and your product.
My wife was an Insurance agent. She was laid off and started doing PPure Romance parties. She is making more now doing them than she was working. She only does parties on the weekends so now we do not have to pay for child care.
Provided an area’s current market is not already saturated with other sellers and although getting customers can be a bit tricky now that the internet has taken over and newspapers are pretty much a thing of the past there are ways to overcome this:
worm farmer: worm castings for gardens, worms for fishing and feeding fish, worms for selling in other states for people to start their compost bins decomposting
egg seller: to passing traffic, in farmers markets, or used as an incentive when selling other things to customers (6 eggs free when this or that is purchased-just an idea)
medicinal herb seller: fresh and dried herbs
seed seller: from herbs, medicinally or otherwise
willow seller: plant it and it grows, used for making baskets, crafts, coracles (bouyant little, round boats)
coracle maker teacher: hold a $20 or $30 per person class and provide the willow sticks they need (you grow it and cut it your self), they provide the canvas, sheet or other cover and water proofing material and twine to tie it
cheap ($) teacher for a skill: such as actual outdoor survival, teen outdoor or shtf survival, etc.
cheaper than the market potato, carrot, cherry tomato, etc. seller via roadside with the old pickup truck, stand, farmer’s market, county fair, etc.
create a new sort of firework, build a better axe, design a better (?)
start a $.99 cent store
speaking with people that have rundown homes and that you can give their place a coat of paint for a smaller fee than the overcharging companies out there charge is a possibility, just one job can bring in a bit of food or other money
if you have the skills, offer organizing and cleaning services to property owners where they have not done much to keep their premises mowed, rotting wood free, etc. (you can offer to put the wood in a pile and burn it for them if you know how to do that sort of thing, you can offer to run a mower over their foot-high grass, you can offer to repair things if you know how to do that, too) for a low price
One thing I know is that sometimes it takes a business having several things available and advertised through the internet, magazines, roadside, and so on.
One lady I know started a free paper a few years ago and the way she makes money is through advertising. Advertisers are key to the success of a paper. You know, when people get tired of the same old thing, the newness has worn off, they look for new, different and/or exciting things.
People love sales. They love things cheap and they want to get their money’s worth. Everyone loves getting something free when they buy something.
Just remember the woman who sold loofa sponges from her own back yard and how that grew into a multi-billion dollar industry in the specialty basket market. That is over now but if twenty years were to go by it could, just like all the other things out there, be revived and done all over again.
Persistence is the key. Once you get started, keep going, keep advertising, keep your eyes on the future.
Comments on this entry are closed.