As Glinda the Good Witch said in The Wizard of Oz, "Start at the beginning and then just follow the yellow brick road.

I’ve been learning about various businesses. It’s important to choose which business is best for your Start-Over Success. 

I am building a business helping boomers achieve encore success with elements including:

  •  Blogging
  • Articles
  •  Affiliate Sales
  • #Shorts to post on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and (maybe) Pinterest
  • Faceless Videos

I want to demonstrate that people really can start a business, often with less than $500, and that it doesn’t take expensive training programs or (expensive anything) to get started.  

A project like SOS can take a year or more to become a money-maker.
So, I’m going to start adding side-hustles for two reasons:

1. I want to demonstrate that hustle can create near-term income, if you plan & work.
2 I want near-term income. 

My Story

Like many others, the pandemic pulled the carpet out from under my business plans.

While I was wondering Now what? I was diagnosed with cancer, went through chemo and radiation, and I am currently in recovery from all that. What recovery has meant for me is a rollercoaster of symptoms and challenges. Most significantly, my energy is greatly diminished, for now, anyway. 

I expect to improve and, in the meantime, I figured I wasn’t the only one who wanted – and needed – to Start Over. With that, I began Start-Over Success. Ultimately, there will be: 

  • Community
  • Coaching
  • Workshops
  • Resources
  • Interviews to Inspire & educate
  • and more…

It's one thing to see the need for change, quite another to make plans & take action. So, now...

I’m going to begin doing some of the businesses I’ve talked about,

I made a new assessment of my current situation:

  • Low energy, decreased strength and stamina.
  • Limited ability to stand (or even sit) for long periods of time. 
  • It’s tough for me to schedule and show up, I may not have the energy for ______.
  • At the same time, I am highly motivated, learning, adapting, and taking action. 
  • I want to build businesses I can sell to someone who can easily take over because I’m constructing operations, technology solutions, and systems.
  • Deal Breakers: Projects that require much capital, physical activity (including speaking in front of a group or the need to show up at a scheduled time), or being counted on at a particular time, anything I can’t sell – those are all out. 
Here are income-producing “businesses” I can see myself actually being able to do.
The Start-Over Success 

Before I begin with what I’m planning, I’ll share this: I’m very intrigued by window washing as a business! It’s the lowest cost to start. With just $50 of equipment and a lot of hustle, you’re in business. I love that. 

I don’t know how I physically can do it, but I’m going to give it a try. Window washing is not the first business I’ll start.  

My Main Business Project is Start-Over Success.com

This includes several skills that could be considered businesses, for me they are ways to monetize and market SOS. 

  • Blogging
  • #Shorts to post on YouTube, Instagram, Tik Tok, and (maybe) Pinterest
  • Affiliate Sales from articles, videos, interviews 
  • Compare Products & Affiliate Sales: software, services
  • Interview Success Stories, Small Business Owners, Service providers
  • Sponsors
  • Digital How-To Products: Business Planning, Criteria for Choosing Business, etc
  • Community
  • Coaching/Consulting
  • Webinars

 

For my Side-Hustles, I've picked three businesses that fit my criteria, to start or at least to try.

I must say a few words about “trying.”

As I described in my last post, I have real, unavoidable (for now) physical limitations. I don’t know what I’m capable of until I give it a try. 

My ability to work on the computer for long stretches of time has been diminished as well. 

Further, my main work is with building Start-Over Success, which means helping 
“Baby Boomers+ develop their Encore Success.” So… I don’t have long hours to devote to my side-hustles. 

Having said that, I will connect my side-hustles to SOS. Why? Because I can use the side-hustles as proof that anyone can do what I’m doing. How? I’ll discuss that in my side-hustles.

ONE – Write Romance Books
There’s a window of opportunity that is open right now and it may close. Soon.

I’m going to write Romance Novels. Why romance? 

  1. The No #1 genre on Amazon’s book sales is…Romance 
  2. I don’t know how, and I want to demonstrate that we can all do things we aren’t comfortable with. Although I’ve never read a romance book (unless you count Fifty Shades of Gray), I’ve watched plenty of Rom Coms, including Hallmark flicks. So, I’m quite certain I can. 
  3. My robot friend at Chatsonic (based on ChatGPT) sounds pretty eager to help. I thought it only did business writing. Nope. 
  4. I want to be able to say, “If I can do this, you can too!” 
  5. This is going to be soooo much fun.
  6. This is work I can do from my computer. It doesn’t matter what my energy levels are in a day, I can write.

Why not business books? There’s a flood of “me too” business books as competition for ranking. There’s not as much profit in business books as there is in my other SOS monetizing plans that I already outlined.

TWO – Dropshipping
I’m going to do dropshipping. Why?

  1. I can research products and sell them online without inventory or fulfillment.
  2. There are free classes in how to do this. 
  3. While there are 3 ways to do dropshipping, I’ll dig deeper and probably choose one.
  4. Not much eBay dropshipping from retailers; it’s against eBay policy. But I may try it just so i can report on my experience.
  5. Easy to get information about dropshipping, but info is often biased, ie Shopify wants you to sell on Shopify. 
  6. I can market  dropshipping products with: 1) comparison and review articles, 2) ideas linked from my Romance Books (ie sheets, candles, etc), 3) and more.

THREE – Window Washing 
I’m determined to find a way to do window washing. (I may have to find a partner who can do physically active tasks.) Why?

  1. It’s a low-cost business to get into: $50 in materials is all it takes.
  2. I’ll also do business cards and a few branded shirts (to look legit).
  3. Knock on doors to get clients
  4. A friend of mine manages a Home Depot; I hope he’ll let me wash windows.
  5. Window Washing seems impossible for me to physically do. That’s why I should do it; to inspire others. If I can do it – Grandma recovering from cancer with limited physical capabilities – then anyone can make money with window washing (or some other business).

Other Businesses I find very interesting, but that I'm not going to take on:

  1. AirBnB Management – Own no property and make short-term rental income? But, it’s a lot of work that I’m just not up for these days. In addition, there’s a slump in AirBnB now…so there’s that. I believe it’s still great in the right circumstances, but not for me.
  2. Buy a Baby Boomer’s “non-sexy” business that can be bought with owner financing. – The best opportunities are with hands-on businesses: auto repair, maid service, vending machines, laundromat, and more. They require more showing up and work than I can do now. So, not for me. 
  3. Microgreens to grow at home and sell locally. I may, at some point do this. What’s more “green” than greens? I don’t have the space for growing. I think I’m best off working at my computer.
  4. Growing & Breeding Fish. Again, I don’t have the space or know how to keep fish thriving, which is key to profits. I could learn. I don’t have the space, although Im toying with the idea of doing ONE tank of angel fish . . . 

Before I start writing a romance book series

I search BookTok for top-selling romance books. 
I went to Amazon for their 100 top-selling romance books. 
I ordered three books for delivery. Two arrive today, one tomorrow.

I'm gathering information about marketing my books, writing how-to's and not-to's, and other info I don't know to ask but is important.

I gather information from YouTube University about 1) Marketing, 2) Writing Romance Books that people will love…and buy, and 3) Using AI without plagiarism.

Now, I’m an action-taker, so I want to just start writing, but I’m holding back. I want to write books that sell, with each story selling the next one, and the next one. 

My near-term goal is to get to $3,000 in sales Net. I need to discover what share of sales I get so I can set a $ Gross goal. 

How To's & Not To's with AI

AI & Plagiarism Checker

The article I checked had an overall score of 10% similar. A score of 15% is acceptable

My text is shown on the left, the source on the right, with “similar” text highlighted in red. 

Google and everyone wants you to use AI as an assist, not as the exclusive content creator. 

I think I want to keep all my book writing in one AI account. Can I do that? I asked Chatsonic

The Romance Book Formula

Earnings examples

What does it take to be profitable with books? To make more from your books, write more books!

She built her sales from $0 to $3k in 3 months, now sales are over $10k a month. How’d she do it? She wrote more books!

Romance character & story arcs.

I can’t use links in my TikTok posts until I have 1,000 subs! 

Post 1 or 2 times a day!!! Time of day doesn’t matter.

 

Romance book stats

Selfpublishingadvice.org

How to get sales with social media

How to Write a Romance Novel

Develop Characters:

– MC we haven’t seen before.
– He/She has goals, (point of the story), and motivation behind it – external & internal.
– Conflict & obstacles – Tension/drama, the arc of the story
– Backstory of MC (flashbacks)
– External characteristics, ie dress

Use KDPspy for info on other book sales.
Check comments: what readers like and want different.

Medium content books: puzzles, mazes, etc

BookBolt.com $9/mo or $19/mo

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