Lady Logician wrote: "Greg - the other thing you can do is train dogs (herding dogs work best at this) to clear golf courses of geese. It is seasonal work but border collies love this kind of work because it involves walking around with their people and chasing birds. Life is good!"
I saw a report on this a few years back on KSTP-TV "On the Road". Not a bad idea but it seems a post retirement form of work. Nothing wrong with that and it could be "fun" zipping around golf courses with a herding dog.
To make the "big" money on something it has to be something hard to duplicate or you have to be one of the first. Eventually golf courses will figure out that a lot of retiree types can an will do this. A good potential supplemental income but to make a full living at it you would need to be the equivalent of a "trick shot" that gave demos and training to golf courses. If I was to do this I would first set up a website with a lot of information on "goose herding" (for lack of a better term). I just checked and "Goosehound.com" is taken, apparently the name of a band. My "show" would consist of going to different areas and having training seminars first for local "goose herders" bringing in a few very adept dogs. Have "exhibitions open to golf club members and ones to the public. Out in the ex-urbs a lot of people take those huge lawns very seriously so seminars on how to "herd geese" could be very popular. (try this at home with Fido").
It could be fun and potentially financially rewarding for a retired couple who likes to travel around in motor home. I say this because it would basically be a two person operation. (Note, this is an example of what I referred to before as "bare bones" proposal writing.)
Not for me, I am basically a "homebody". I could basically be an expert or authority on this. As a potential home based business. No one actually invented "goose herding". I grew up on a lake and as a kid we would often have flocks of ducks in the backyard. This was in the 1960's, which was "pree-geese" but we would have great fun "siccing" the dogs on the ducks in the yard. The KSTP story showed someone making some money off of it but as far as i can tell no one has done a business model. On a lark I checked and http://gooseherder.com was available so I just did a $7 "hedge" and registered it for a year. There is a potential business model to be developed here and I could do it almost exclusively from home. On the speculative angle if I did the basic model and the term "goose Herder" take off (being first counts a lot in these things). I could always sell the domain name and the "franchise". (water cooler test: bounce "Goose herder of people, they probably won't get it because a "herder is a protector" then mention the concept of "herding away" geese. See if they "get" that.
I may wake up tomorrow morning and think that registering gooseherder.com was my dumbest idea ever. If so I'm out $7. In my domian "business" I have over 100 domains (ever wonder who owns "cellphonewoman.com","telephonewoman.com", "cellphonegirl.com", "telephonegirl.com" and "hottoddy.com"? One guess!) I register and sell but at the present time I figure this business is $500 in the red each year. I'd prefer a profit but my long term plan is to make up "business models" for each of the domains (It would help if I didn't post here so much) Take "cellphonewoman.com" It could be a plan for marketing a certain cellphone to women. In advertising you have to "distinguish" your product.
Anyway, to use gooseherder.com as a potential first off, look to see if the field is already "well plowed". These are like the "hot stocks" that are usually "cold" by the time news gets public. In the case of "gooseherder.com" I first did a bit of internet research and found that there was no great "body of knowledge" out there. The other night on CNBC I saw a profile of the guy behind this Autumn "corn mazes" It's an variation of the 19th Century British "shrub maze" He grew one with corn and it became popular where people would pay to walk through it like "rat maze". He is now a millionaire from this. You could build one of your own if you wanted to but he offers consulting and promotion for a few percent of ticket revenue. He took an idea that was out there and developed it. A big part is having the right Internet presence and the right promotion. Corn mazes are "fun" Halloween stories. The point is that this guy took an idea out there and made the right Internet era business model.
As for the multi-level marketing BS it is inherently inefficient. Maybe a decade ago I was reading Consumer Reports and where they tested "hand" dishwashing detergents. The "bargain stuff" was "weak" but major brands did fine. Major brands tended to cost around $2.50 per quart. The Amway band matched the major brands but it was $6 per quart. That's the "nub". Most of the multi-level products are very costly compared to what you can get at a "big box" store or online now.
Multi-level isn't always bad. Some people swear by Tupperware but it's pricey. I cherish Tupperware when I can find it at garage or estate sales but I don't buy it new. To pricey. My former next door neighbor used to do day care and Avon. A lot of "working woman" like to "put on their face" , as they state it, and they like makeup consistency. Avon does that well.
It goes downhill quickly after that. Let's just say "Mary Kay".
Anyway, a lot of opportunities out there. You just have to take the initiative and seek "unplowed ground" to "plow".