I was talking with someone at work today who had brought in 4 lunches, and she explained to me she does a little homebased business at work. She is a diabetic with cardiac problems, loves to cook and makes stuff low fat, low sodium, low carbo & tasty. She charges $20 for a weeks worth of lunches. Her "subscribers" get the same lunch she fixes for herself. Today it was turkey meatballs in a gravy with a small amount of noodles, salad with homemade dressing, and lowfat no sugar peach pie. She uses the Gladware disposables to bring the portions and people return them to her work station after She said she would take a maximum of 6 subscribers a week. Now lots of my coworkers send out daily, and a nice salad or sub delivered to the office usually runs $7 plus tip. I myself bring leftovers or bean suop most days, but I was really intrigued by this woman's story and thought it was worth sharing-maybe some of us still working for the old 9 to 5 could seize an idea like this and turn it into a sideline...it of course is not "professional" so no licensing fees, and probably not declarable income because somewhere, somehow, those ingrediants sell for so much you COULD show an auditir you were only breaking even...

-- Mitzi Giles (Egiles2@prodigy.net), January 09, 2002

Answers

Yes what a wonderful idea. And what about doing this for dinners too. You could do it like Once a Month cooking and deliver five of these dinners each week that could be frozen and reheated later in the week. I think alot of older people and health conscious people would be interested!

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), January 09, 2002.

Now Im thinking--how about doing someone's grocery shopping/dry cleaning/getting their car washed and vacuumed over your lunch hour. That would be well worth it for someone with little time--and they would like to give their car, for instance to someone they knew.

The problem with your first example is that you could really get in trouble by not being inspected or using an "official kitchen." Could work among friends though.

I know of a group of sisters who did use a commercial kitchen to cook hams and turkeys through the week. On the weekend they had a stand at an upscale farmer's market in the city where they sold ham/turkey dinner/sandwiches with potato salad and what not. Made a killing. It worked because they each shared the work and they all had other jobs. If they couldn't sell it all--well they used it for their families or often brought in stuff for the office (which just advertised how good they were). How hard is it to roast a turkey?

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), January 09, 2002.

Lots of people do this in the big cities, they'll even custom shop and put in freezer containers so you have a week's worth of different meals. Usually they are real (cordon bleu-type) experienced chefs. I'm surprised someone hasn't talked to your boss about this--most jobs make soliciting for anything (even charity) a big no-no. Your boss could even be sued if he knew it was going on, and someone in your office got food poisoning.

The biggest issue is the commercial kitchen thing. What most of the pros do is cook in the kitchen of each client, that way they do it on site, and they do all the washing up, and they can use the clients dishes, and so forth. Of course, you wouldn't want anyone on your property if they didn't have proper insurance, not if you're paying them....casual bartering is a tad different.

I don't know how well you know this person, but she is probably clearing a pretty good income. Taxes are a two-way thing--yes, she'd have to declare and pay, but then she can also deduct her expenses, which she can't do right now. And it only takes one person reporting it to the local authorities and she could be hit with some hefty fines from the health department, and perhaps back taxes, licensing fees, and so forth. Don't mean to sound negative, but it happens. She might want to look into renting a church kitchen, they are usually pretty inexpensive, and not use the gladware, they aren't meant for commercial (which is what she's doing, licensed or not) use.

You can also find errand-running services in any big city. They usually charge both by the hour and by the mile. You still have to cover the cost of the chores. You can even chauffeur other people's kids to soccer and other activities.

You have to decide if there is a customer base that will support you. A lot of the type of people who use these services (except for the chauffeuring) are DINKS (and let's be honest, lazy rather than truly busy or handicapped) in fairly well-off areas. If they lose their jobs (which even happened in Silicon Valley), they can't afford these services anymore. And honestly, I don't see too many homesteading types (mentality) being customers.

I always thought it would be nice if charitable groups were allowed to set up at a business (maybe be "adopted") and wash the cars on site every other week or so. A working fundraiser, where the kids (for example, in band) would learn about hard work firsthand, instead of doing that really tacky selling of useless junk, which is what most fundraising has become.

Ann has the right idea, it really is no different from once-a-month cooking.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 09, 2002.

Along someone elses lines: Two ideas that I have personally witnessed in action: Installing windshields on vehicle while owner is at work right on the parking lot. Oil changes, lubes, basic maintenince while owner is at work on the work parking lot- I guess you have to clear that one with each business, but a vacume and other ammenidities could be installed directly in a van and you could do it on the clients time while he/ she is at work. Tire changes ccould easily be done, also. Customer just pre orders the size and stlye, have a balancer and a air compressor and a mounter on a trailer- not much capitol invested (under 5k) either. I like the food idea- why couldnt someone have done that at one of the places I worked!?

-- Kevin in NC (Vantravlrs@aol.com), January 09, 2002.

I did that in my first singles apartment ! I was the only guy in our building whose mommy taught him how to shop with coupons, budget and take care of home first. As the newbies burned their funds in the first 2 months, they gravitated to my house looking for handouts because I had a spare bedroom used as a pantry, made wine and always kept a couple 1.75 liter jugs of discount bourbon in my cabinet and a couple cases of meister brau in the fridge. I got a copy of my daddies institutional recipe book from the military and started feeding 22 guys in our building an institutional breakfast and supper in styro go boxes for $15 to cover the work week, $20 if they wanted a brown bag and we had community cookouts on the weekend. I did well enough to keep us all fed well enough we all were in the exercise room, I paid all my expenses so my real paycheck went into savings and we always had a shot and a beer to share. And after I got the system set and offered the guys a discount contribution for doing "k.p." one at time when their funds got tight, it took only an extra three hours a day for mess duty. I actually had a few parents thank me for being a mama hen so that the kids didn't call home for funds.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), January 10, 2002.

Forgot to add in the above post. My mess hall approach and cookbook earned me the handle "Sgt. Grub" from the other residents.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), January 10, 2002.

You might want to check with your local heatlh department to see if you can legally do this. Your basicly running a deli at this point and would need to meet various heath code reqiremnents.

-- Gary (gws@columbus.rr.com), January 10, 2002.

I'd like to be a customer. ;o)

-- Gary in Indiana (gk6854@aol.com), January 10, 2002.