So my goal right now is to help her create some kind of a lifestyle business where she could work from home.
Right now I could only think of helping her to set up some kind of blog/e-magazine about travels and hopefully make money from hotel lead generation / affiliation. Though that would require to have some critical mass. I also thought about ebay, but I don't have any experience on the seller side so it's hard to see what's possible.
Any HNer set up a business lifestyle for his mom before ?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks !
A few possibilities there:
1. a business that organizes all these business nomads out there. Does all the necessary research, finds out all the services that are needed etc. Instead of 1 person moving at a time, it'd be a group of 200. Instead of arriving and knowing noone in the area, you arrive with 200 people you know. Instead of getting the first available apartment, you have one rented by the time you arrive. etc etc.
2. a business that does something as above, but for big 3 month long vacations aimed at those who want to see the world.
3. concierge vacationer for rich folks, figures out exotic destinations etc.
4. just answer for travel questions
5. unbiased travel destinations reviews for $10/yr
For independents, pre-screen living situations with fast internet, find the best language courses, identify meetups and other groups that they might want to connect with while they're gone, plus all the usual travel stuff.
Maybe for folks working for other folks, provide info on visas/work permits and possible employers.
EDIT: You could do it by region. I've known people wanting to tackle China, or S.America or Europe in big chunks. 3 weeks isn't enough for these places and 3 months seems just right.
I would like to know, however, if your exposure as a tourist agency to litigation risks increases as the trips become more complex and lengthier.
She knows the industry, group buying is hot and it could be easily run by a single person.
simply tell them that you can and are more than willing to help, but if they want your help, they'll have to figure out what they want you to do on their own.
I've found when travelling that there are a lot of destinations that are underserved by travel guides. I've noticed some small self-published stuff popping up for Kindle -- if she has expertise in different places, maybe she could start publishing niche guides?
I have a friend who has made a living arranging & supplying tours for cyclists: arranging the route, supplying the bicycles, booking the hotels, printing maps etc.
What other specialist knowledge is there to call upon in family and friends?: her hobbies, your hobbies etc. Is there any two things you could combine?
Obviously you would know your local area better than a foreigner and the web is wonderfully accessible to travellers.
There are many interesting possibilities for automated web services, online mapping software, GPS etc, but it is more important to present a human touch. I would sooner get a hand-drawn map that imparted real expert human knowledge than a Google map.
I think that Square opens up all sorts of interesting possibilities for small businesses and sole traders, too.
Read (and let her read) Tim Ferriss' "4 hour work week". While the goals discussed in that book are different, it has lots of useful advice about how to set up businesses that run themselves, which is probably what your Mom needs.
See e.g. http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2010/12/11/engineering-... for examples. Of course, these are the successful case studies and there are failures - but there is a lot of good info and interesting ideas in that book.
We love the shows "Best Thing I Ever Ate" and "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" on Food Network. There are tons of foodies out there (like my friend and me) who would love to go on a tour of the restaurants from those shows. She could organize tours of a certain area of the country and the people on the tour could eat at two or three of the restaurants featured on those shows.
If your mom knows where the demand was inside that agency then she should draw from that when creating her own company. Perhaps business trips were the main thing they booked? Or young adult tour style trips? If she could focus on what was still selling maybe that is a way to go forward.
Does she still want to be a travel agent or is she looking to do something completely different?
My ex-wife orders cute buttons for clothes from japan/korea, repackages them individually, and sells them on Etsy. It works pretty well and makes her some nice extra money...
If your mom does it, make sure she pushes through to the christmas holiday... sales are practically guaranteed then, and even though its gross rev, the sales can be very motivating!
Good luck!
I think they pay in US$ too. Not sure if this'll meet her budget req though.
How about an on-line travel agency?
Of course, she'll be competing with the other online travel agencies, so she might need to zig where they zag.
For example, they invest heavily in adsense/adwords. I wonder if she could find enough customers by being a participant in on-line conversations. (Yes, they also run blogs, and they probably will ban her from their blogs, but there are lots of other conversations.)
As a travel agent I'm guessing she liked interacting with people and she probably can contact those same people she serviced as a travel agent for her home-based Avon business.
My wife has been with Avon for years. It does take some time to build up a clientèle and team but you can make okay money at it. It depends how extensive of a network you have and how much time and effort you're willing to put into it.
Cheers
Whatever she does, she should definitely do something she enjoys.
