There are countless ways in which you can use your latent expertise to start a profitable retirement pursuit. You might have a hobby out of which you could squeeze some additional income – or you could look at what other retirees are doing successfully and determine whether you could emulate their approach or develop it into a money-making idea of your own.

GO ONLINE FOR INITIAL RESEARCH

Literally thousands of amazing ideas are floating around out there in cyberspace just waiting to be tapped for free. Some of them are wacky, others workable as they stand, and some capable of individual development. Use Google.com – the best search engine of them all. Employ keyword phrases such as ‘hobby ideas’, ‘retirement hobby ideas’, ‘business ideas’, ‘retirement business ideas’, ‘profitable retirement business ideas’; then try again by prefixing each of these search terms with the word ‘free’. You will uncover enough leads to keep you occupied for the next fortnight. Be selective though and you will save on time and undue stress. You’ll soon get the hang of it and be able to recognise the more likely opportunities rapidly.

CONVERTING HOBBIES INTO RETIREMENT EARNERS

Hobbies feature prominently on the list of preferred activities for the majority of retirees. But what if you could convert your hobby into an earner? Wouldn’t that add to overall satisfaction? While not every hobby interest has the propensity to generate cash and some are no more than pleasurable pastimes; others have a commercial aspect attached if you dig deep enough to find it, and it is to a sample of these that we will give our attention shortly. This review may help you establish whether your own hobby has income generating possibilities – and if you don’t have any hobbies, maybe you will locate one in your researches.

MAKING MONEY FROM WHAT YOU LOVE DOING

Using a hobby or favourite pastime as your part-time retirement business base has inherent benefits. Why do I say this? Because any venture you decide to become involved in should be something you love doing – something you believe in – something that you would work at no matter what income it would generate. This will give you the stamina to see your venture through dull times in the beginning and happier times later when there the profits start rolling in. We all know the feeling of doing something we hate. We can’t give it 100 per cent enthusiastic effort and so we tend to not see it through. That’s why it is vitally important to dearly love the concept you have chosen to build your profitable retirement pursuit around.

Do you like cooking?

Start a recipe newsletter for others who are interested in the culinary arts and sell your recipes by publishing a simple booklet. You could also produce a digital version and make it available as a download on the internet. (Read Chapter 23 on how to go about that.)

Do you enjoy crafts?

Sell the produce through mail order but be sure to mark up the price to cover shipping and handling charges.

Do you enjoy working on cars?

Print and distribute flyers around the local neighbourhood listing your prices. Offer a discount coupon for customers to use on their first auto repair job.

Do you enjoy computer programming?

Write a program and sell it through shareware groups or online to computer owners.

Just about anything you love doing can be magically transformed into a commercial opportunity. Some products and services may only sell in your own locality while others might do well in mail order or online if they are capable of digital conversion. As with any hobby, it will take time (probably many months) to realise a profit but think of it this way: most people who have a hobby know they have to spend money to participate. It only makes sense to promote your hobby to other like-minded enthusiasts so you can eventually make some of that money back in sales.

TEN POPULAR RETIREMENT HOBBY EARNERS

Artificial Flowers

You could earn some pin money from this hobby because of the ever growing demand from local retailers everywhere who use the produce to add ambience to their outlets. Make them up from special papers, ribbons, fabrics, buttons and beads – even shells – and include a selection of artificial pot plants for exterior display.

Candle Making

Candle making is enjoying a burgeoning popularity as a fine craft and as a retiree hobby. Only a few simple materials and tools are required to make your own handsome candles. Approach gift shops and market traders with samples of your produce but only sell to them on a margin that nets you at least 30 per cent profit.

Collecting and Antiques

Collector Online’s club directory www.CollectorOnline.com is the most complete listing on collectors’ clubs. Using the search facility is easy – just click on the letter you want to search and check the listings for clubs. It was at this website I discovered that a football medal I had acquired in my youth is now a collectable worth several hundred pounds. You might consider using eBay (see Chapter 11) as a sales channel for valuables you locate with this retirement pursuit.

Jewellery Making

This hobby can be confined to a relatively small space and requires no great outlay of money for tools and materials. It is wise, however, to work with a teacher at the beginning since there are tricks to soldering, setting stones and working with metal. Jewellery making is a potentially good income-producer for the enthusiastic retiree. Your marketplace is once again local gift shops and market traders.

Macramé

With a little string, you can make key rings or belts; with a lot, you can make planters or wall hangings. Another retirement hobby you could turn into a money spinner by calling on local retailers to make a presentation of your produce.

Pottery and Ceramics

Creating something from the raw earth, experimenting with shape and colour. This hobby is enormously satisfying: consequently, pottery making is one of the fastest-growing retirement crafts and the produce is a popular line with speciality stores.

Sewing, Knitting, Crocheting and Weaving

As pastimes, these handicrafts have the virtue of being readily started and stopped as time permits. As moneymakers, they are somewhat limited by competition, but if you enquire around you’ll find some local market traders willing to handle your produce.

Winemaking

With experience you can attempt to reproduce the characteristics you find most desirable in fine vintage wines. A good wine-tasting class usually precedes interest in this hobby. You won’t become another Victoria Wines, but you could build up a regular clientele among friends, colleagues, neighbours and wine enthusiasts.

Woodworking

Here’s another choice that has income-producing potential since skilled woodworkers, carpenters, and furniture restorers are much in demand. Set up as a freelancer serving trade and public alike.

Writing

Do you have the urge to write a novel, short stories, poems – or a self-help book? Perhaps you have always wanted to try your hand at journalism. The web is a major source of advice on writing and research resources. Visit the Writers’ Exchange website at www.writersdigest.com for extensive links to other writing sites and a writing community for sharing ideas. Then do as I do: combine offline and online to achieve results for your profitable retirement pursuit.

ROLLING OUT OPPORTUNITIES FROM OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

It isn’t the billions of ideas that pop up in the minds of humans around the globe that make money. Very few of them are worth the time it took to generate. Most ideas are fleeting sparks that go nowhere and are soon forgotten. Of the ideas that are good, very few are followed up and become worthwhile developments in the marketplace. Most people are just not orientated to do anything, while others believe it would take too much of their time and money to follow through to completion. This leaves the marketplace wide open for retirees who learn how to roll out opportunities from other people’s ideas.

There are three major approaches you can use:

• 1.Find something that already exists, the presence of which isn’t common knowledge.
• 2.Invent something. Most inventions are merely new arrangements of things that have already been created.
• 3.Alter or improve in any number of different ways something that already exists.

As you create ideas, write them down. What you dream up can be your key to a profitable retirement pursuit. Keep your mind open as you go through each day. What did you notice in the department store that would reduce costs, save money or increase sales if some simple procedure were added or something changed? Ideas for improvements are among the most valuable things you can contribute to society and at the same time add to your bank account. To create ideas for improvements, consider every possibility and alternative for the thing you want to improve.

Learn to create ideas by evaluating all the different aspects of the product, methodology or concept you are interested in. Put your imagination and subconscious to work and write down your thoughts about each of the things you expect to improve. Use the wealth idea format below as your guide for creating money-making improvements.

IDEA FORMAT: LIST THE THINGS YOU WANT TO IMPROVE

This format will start the ideas sparking and as related notions come to mind write them down in every variation you can think of. Do not judge the good or bad points of the ideas as they materialise, just write them down and judge them afterwards. You will stop the flow of ideas if you are critical of your thoughts before you put them on paper. When you have answered everything you can about the product or concept and know how it fits in with your plans, sit down and evaluate all the details you have written.

After you have found (or created) a good idea, follow it up with questions on what should be your next move in order to do something about it, then act; get it moving. Expose it to the world with sufficient tests to determine the value.

Come up with ideas that are still in the processing stage rather than get stuck on several vague points that can be worked out later as your subconscious goes to work. If your idea fails, it doesn’t matter; you are just that much closer to finalising another one, then another, until a useful more valuable idea is born. Every manufacturing plant, retailer, solicitor, accountant; every business person, large or small, cannot continue to operate in the competitive world of today without someone in the organisation constantly coming up with new and better ideas.

Old ideas drop by the wayside as new ideas take their place. Old companies without new ideas fade away. Those who learn and know how to create ideas and anticipate the changes needed, as the future evolves, have the opportunity to be a great success with big money-making potential – even in retirement ...

Using intuition to find your money-making retirement pursuit

Another tool you can use to help dream up profitable ideas is to spend several minutes each evening, relaxed with your eyes closed. Pick any object that comes to mind and imagine changing it. Change it in every way you can think of to improve it. The following evening pick another subject or object and repeat the process. Soon you will be using 20 per cent of your brain power instead of the 10 per cent normally used by the average person. As your knowledge and brain power increase so will your bank account in retirement.

Just think what you could accomplish if you could get the other 80 per cent of your brain power working. On second thoughts, don’t aim for 100 per cent efficiency – you’ll probably wind up revolutionising the world!

PROTECTING YOUR IDEAS

When you have come up with a really good idea, write a full description of it and make a sketch if necessary. Put the written information, the sketch, and any other pertinent facts or documents in a self-addressed envelope. Have the post office seal the envelope with a date stamp over the flap then send it to back to yourself by registered mail. Keep the envelope, unopened, in the event you need to prove ownership. Of course if your product has a properly registered trade mark, has been copyrighted, or you have a patent, you are already protected from infringement.

SPARKING OFF MORE IDEAS

Another good way to spark off ideas is to go through the classified and wanted advertisements in the local newspaper – also the Yellow Pages. As you read, think of something that would be of value to prospective buyers, or enhance the item you are reading about.

PRACTISE OBSERVING EVERYDAY THINGS AND DETAILS

In summary, learn to develop ideas from observing everyday things and details. Think of what could make something that already exists better. Dwell on things that have a large marketing audience, something that everyone needs or wants. Write your ideas down. Put a pencil and pad at your bedside. When you remember a good dream, don’t just lie there, because by morning you will forget it. Jot it down on the pad. You will be surprised what you can dream up. Maybe an idea for an ultra-profitable retirement pursuit will magically appear on your pad tomorrow morning ...

WACKY IDEAS THAT CONSISTENTLY MAKE MONEY

Some people use far-fetched, off the wall ideas to make money online and a review of these might just help you locate your own wacky but profitable retirement pursuit.

Here are six examples to start you off:

Origami Boulders

Some say www.origamiboulder.com is pure genius. Whatever your opinion, there’s no doubt this is a madcap idea which seems to be making sales. The site is set up like a spoof of sorts. This businessman sells an ‘origami boulder’ which is basically a screwed up piece of paper (the products come in a couple of different guises).

For $3 (approx. £1.60) the owner of this business will crumple up a ‘boulder’, throw it in the rubbish bin and email you with a description. He calls it performance art and an excerpt of the site’s clever copy gives the flavour of this unusual business idea ... ‘You place an order and get origami boulder artwork with a special card to display at your home or workplace – makes an unforgettable gift for friends!’

No sales figures are available, yet people do order his product. A deluxe kit is even available – crumpled-up paper on a bamboo platform. Check it out at www.origamiboulder.com.

Rent-A-Cow

Cheese lovers can rent their very own cheese maker – a brown-and-white cow living on a Swiss mountain. Dairy farmer Paul Wyler offers his cows for rent on the internet, with all the cheese they produce going to the ‘virtual’ owner. Cows cost around $280 (approx. £162) for the summer and Wyler looks after the animals and makes cheese from their milk. Renters can check photographs of the animals at Wyler’s website before they pay up.

He and his wife Helga run a 50-head farm in the Brienz area of the Bernese Oberland. They already rent some of the cows to restaurants and say they came up with their Rent-a-Cow idea because they could not sell as much cheese as they produce every year. See www.kuhleasing.ch.

Filtering Flatulence

A Texas inventor has come to the rescue of those unfortunates afflicted with excessive wind. The ‘Flatulence Filter’ is an attractive chair-cushion air filter that puts an end to the embarrassing moments when nature quietly – or noisily – slips by. Frank Lathrop developed severe problems with intestinal wind as a result of his diabetes several years ago. His wife, family and the women he worked with complained about the odour caused by his problem, and so Lathrop decided to fix their dilemma himself. After almost two years of development the Flatulence Filter Seat Cushion was complete. Now manufactured and marketed by UltraTech Products Inc as the ‘First Air Filter Disguised as a Seat Cushion’, the special pad is 15” × 17” × 1” thick and looks like any normal seat cushion.

The air treatment system employs a carbon air filter that absorbs the flatulence odour. This same filtration technology purified the air breathed by the astronauts in the Space Shuttle programme and was used in the soldiers’ gas masks during the Gulf War. The cushion sells for $39.95 (approx. £22) and is designed to absorb odours for 6-12 months. To date business has been brisk. The company also sells a flatulence filter pad which sufferers wear inside their underwear. Check out www.227unusualbusinessideas.com/weirdldeas.

Act Rich with Phony ATM Receipts

Here’s a truly crazy idea – phony ATM receipts. Would you believe there’s a market for them? Fake ATM receipts can be used for messages written on the reverse or left on coffee tables to impress friends, during negotiations with mortgage companies, or in front of the maître d’ at swish restaurants. The receipts show a fake balance of in excess of $350,000 (approx. £195,000) and can be purchased in packs of four for $3.99 (approx. £2.20) each! Look at www.227unusualbusinessideas.com.

Goggles for Dogs

The inventors of Doggies – sunglasses designed especially for dogs – say they came up with their business brainwave after noticing their dog was squinting in the sunlight. Ken and Roni di Lullo of MidKnight Creations tried their own glasses on their dog’s face but nothing stayed put. After experimenting with sports goggles, the innovative husband and wife team developed a special pair to fit their dog perfectly. Other dog owners approached the couple when they were all out walking, and a business was born. After a story on Doggies featured on CNN, sales quadrupled overnight and these days the di Lullo’s have a $1 million business. Check out www.doggles.com.

Bachelor Buttons

One may look at a thriving laundry, take stock of the machinery, note the number of hired helpers, and come to the conclusion that it took plenty of cash to start this small business. But that is not necessarily the case. A public stenographer couldn’t make ends meet on her miserly earnings. She did some mending and a bit of laundering for her male patrons. The business soon began to grow and another pair of hands had to be employed. The enterprising young lady called her business ‘The Bachelor’s Laundry’ and within 2 years handled over 100,000 bundles yearly, serving over 3,500 patrons. Laundry and mending is for male patrons only. Three trucks deliver the laundry daily. There is no extra charge for repairs.

In their book 227 Unusual Business Ideas Ross Stokes and Kathy Crockett go the whole hog in their search for weird concepts that work-at-home entrepreneurs use to make money consistently. You can purchase it for $25.75 (approx. £14.30) at this website www.227unusualbusinessideas.com. It comes with a free companion volume The Brainstorming Guide to assist in developing your own unusual ideas.

BEFORE YOU START DEVELOPING YOUR OWN UNUSUAL IDEAS

Think about this ...

• The biggest breakthrough for fast-food restaurants came from a bank. The drive-through window is just like a bank teller’s window that opens outside. Perfect for picking up fast-food from your car.
• Slot machines date back to 100BC. They were used for dispensing holy water.
• Kleenex tissues were originally designed as make-up removers, until customers pointed out they were also ideal for nose-blowing.
• Did you know that one of the ‘necessities’ of modern life – the roll-on deodorant – was inspired by ballpoint pens?
• And who would have guessed that the whole science of fibre optics came about because of aerospace research, not because of the telecommunications companies which now use the technology daily.

Ideas are the lifeblood of any business, whether you’re running a small home-based business or a large multi-national. So entrepreneurs are always on the lookout for places they can search for new business ideas.

When you borrow ideas, successful processes and unique selling points from other industries, you’re simply doing what great thinkers have always done. You’re broadening your mind, making yourself more receptive to new ideas and inputs. Looking, listening and thinking about a broad range of industries and businesses opens your mind to new possibilities for your own business opportunity.