Thoughts and Ideas

You are on the right track. I do special events and with that services are thrown in.

If you want to start the business you need to get a tax id with the state of Texas. You may want to consider being bonded when working with peoples money. If you are a CPA that would also help cause lots of elderly need help with lots of different types of taxes, insurance and medical forms.

Make sure if you are driving them around that your auto insurance will cover this you must tell them this is a business, cause it does affect your policy.

Take a home health aid class so that you will know how to assist them in and out of your car. Assist them into and out of wheelchairs and know how to administer CPR. These are all things that I have needed in the past.

I have found most of my clients where through word of mouth. It started with family and then their friends and now I am given references from these people.

This has lead to lots of interesting other services that are needed.

I am not trying to rain on your parade but many of the services you want to offer for a fee are offered on a volunteer basis through family members or church members. I just don't want you to be surprised if you hit bumps along the way or find yourself slow to start.

Having said that. You might want to advertise to those family members and church groups. The reason being, it may pay for them to have someone payed, who is qualified and dedicated to the task than several people trying to squeeze the task into their already busy day.

How you market your business may end up being your best asset. You need to think of how these people accomplish these tasks without your aid and advertise to that market.

I agree with setting a specific time limit for your days, hoever; keep in mind if you plan on offering to take people to their appointments, these are often times at the convenience of the doctor and not your children's school schedule. Many times you will find yourself with requests from regular client's for rides to appointments between the hours of 3:00pm and 6:00pm.

Good Luck!!!! ;-)

I also have 3 boys and found out I could not be a SAHM without going a bit crazy. LOL

It sounds like Laurie has had experience with similar services and has some good advice.

My thoughts about this business idea is about trying to keep the business to the 8am to 3pm kind of hours, basically school hours. For me, this helps with drawing the line between work and kids time. Now that is not to say that I never cross that line :) It is more of a guideline and helps me focus better.

Other thought: give yourself a reflection time. Say, six months into your business, ask yourself if the benefits (personal satisfaction, income, etc) outweigh the costs (is there too much time away from family, is insurance coverage too high, etc).

You will probably find that the State of Texas Comptroller's office expects a Use Tax (like a Sales Tax) to be applied to your fees. Take a look at http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxes/ for more information.

I wish you lots of luck!

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I personally love to sees moms in business. I have a business and I must tell you it is a lot more work than I thought it would ever be. I am now changing my business plan to make it so that I can do what I really want to do as well as have more time with my family.

First of all, get a good business plan together. Pull together good market research so yu have an idea of when your business will be profitable. Don't expect to make money right away. It normally takes a few years and with the economy the way it is, it might take even longer. If you work out of your home, you can keep your overhead relatively low.

If you are serious about this, the Small Business Devolpement Center at the UTSA campus will help yu pull it all together. They were a great help to me. It took me about 8 months to get everything together before I opened, but it is a big accomplishment and one that you will be very proud of.

Good Luck. Just make suer you take your time and do things the right way and you will succeed. Rushing into a business without a good business plan is a guaranteed failure.

Jen