Need a couple grand for a business idea, what do I do?

Flight Service wrote:

SVreX wrote: Commercial drone operation illegal. If you sell pictures taken from a drone (or RC copter, etc), it is a commercial operation, and therefore illegal. Hobbiest uses are legal. Read between those lines like you would the rules for a race. I can come up with a half dozen options.

I am not selling you pictures of your property for $100, I am selling you this 4gb jump drive for $100. It just happens to have photos of your property...

There you go.

That's one I didn't think of.

Har har, you'll be lucky if the cops buy that the first time.

Here is a a report on the curb appeal of your property with recommendations. I have included an electronic copy of the report for your reference.

$100 please.

If you seriously wanted to do this on the black market, you'd want to set up a darknet site where people can pay in bitcoins (edit: or better yet darkcoins for automatic laundering) and you fly the drone to their house from a very long distance, take the pics and email them a download link. The only way you'd get caught is if the cops set up a sting and follow the drone back to you (so you should pay cash for it, have it clean of fingerprints/DNA and be ready to ditch it), trace the radio signal back to you (same solution as above + shut down the transmitter and drive away) or if you leak metadata through the photos.

kinda sorta related:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9KZ3jgbbmI&feature=kp

GameboyRMH wrote: Har har, you'll be lucky if the cops buy that the first time.

You are mistaken, and grossly over thinking this.

The police will not be enforcing FAA regs, and the FAA is not going to waste their time going after a hobbiest with an RC copter who is not breaking the law.

You are spending all your energy trying to think of reasons you can't do this. That's not what successful businesses do. They look for the reasons they CAN do something.

You are obviously more content with the other guy making money than in taking a risk yourself.

I am sitting in a theatre. Children's production of Peter Pan.

The playbill appropriately mentions Disney, and their copyright. Also says it is presented through special arrangement.

They are not charging admission. They are charging for concessions, and will accept donations.

Think there is a reason? Of course there is.

Think it's illegal?? No way.

SVreX wrote: You are obviously more content with the other guy making money than in taking a risk yourself.

If he berkeleys up on this, it means maybe he'll have to hold off buying another pair of designer shades or some hilariously overpriced watch. If I mess up, I'll go bankrupt instantly, have to suspend all my racing efforts and sell one of my cars for starters. So you're hardly making a fair comparison of the consequences here.

Does my thorough risk-assessment process make more sense to you now?

GameboyRMH wrote:

SVreX wrote: You are obviously more content with the other guy making money than in taking a risk yourself.

If he berkeleys up on this, it means maybe he'll have to hold off buying another pair of designer shades or some hilariously overpriced watch. If I mess up, I'll go bankrupt instantly, have to suspend all my racing efforts and sell one of my cars for starters. So you're hardly making a fair comparison of the consequences here. Does my thorough risk-assessment process make more sense to you now?

If you fail and lose everything, you don't have very far to climb back up to get to where you were from what it sounds like.

Not a far climb, but it will be a long climb.

In reply to GameboyRMH:

That's not risk assessment.

That's risk AVERSION.

Risk aversion can be an admirable character trait, but it is completely absent in anyone who is self employed, or aspires to being so.

You are not the kind of person who generally ends up self employed.

I know the buy-in price to exactly what you are discussing, because I've done it. The amount is less than most people could put on their credit cards. If you had pulled the trigger on Nov 13 when you started this thread, your debt would be paid off and you'd be making money on it.

There are at least 5 people IN THIS THREAD who would have loaned you the money.

Your risk aversion stopped this project, not your "thorough risk assessment".

GameboyRMH wrote: Not a far climb, but it will be a long climb.

Honest question here, and not trying to be snarky or anything:

Why don't you move? It seems like a lot of your issues are in some part due to your location and the lack of [good paying] jobs there.

So, now that I've done the Shiny Happy Person thing...

You are a creative, smart, and energetic person. If you learn to accept the character trait of risk aversion you have, you can build on it.

You need to pour your energy into people who can use this trait, or balance it. Don't let it strangle you.

I have no such aversion- to a fault. I know this about myself- I am best when I surround myself with people who bring different skills and strengths than I have.

The WORST thing I could do would be to partner with someone like me. TERRIBLE.

But I do well with people like you.

Datsun1500 wrote: Not trying to bash you, but no, it does not make more sense. Anyone that wants to be self employed will do anything they can to make it happen. They take the risk, regardless of the fallout if it fails, because it is worth it to them. Most successful business people have failed at one point, but they don't stop, because they can't stop. If you really wanted it, you would have already suspended your racing efforts and sold one of your cars to roll the dice. Instead you came here looking for an easy way to get money, and will now spend the next 5 years telling everyone how the other guy took your idea and made it work.

Well fair enough. Being self-employed is not my #1 goal in life, in fact knowing people who do it I don't see it as a hugely positive thing, I know there's an insane amount of work involved, at least at first. If I was making decent money I'd have almost no interest in being self-employed at all. But to paraphrase Alfadriver, you're either the pimp or the ho and I know that unless you're self-employed you have no chance at being the pimp.

I don't think the guy took my idea. Like I said he had the means and the knowledge the whole time and a business empire in related industries, I'm sure he didn't need anyone's help to eventually figure it out on his own.

(Edit: Gonna answer some more posts later, busy as hell at work today)

Ok so maybe I'm risk-averse. I don't take risks I can't afford to if I have any choice, I can admit that.

As for moving...yeah I probably should. The biggest part is saving up enough money, but I could handle that. The tougher part is getting hired. While I have a lot of accomplishments that could prove my skills, on paper I'm only well-qualified for the position of Chief Grocery Bagger. I've done a good bit of long-distance job hunting, and while the long-distance part immediately multiplies the difficulty, it still feels like I'm sending my resumes into a black hole. I've never heard anything back from any of it. I've only applied for a few jobs locally but I've heard back from all but one of them, one company even offered me a position right away without an interview. So there are much better opportunities elsewhere but also much more competition and far more picky employers. I don't have a degree so that's likely to get me circle-filed by the HR worker immediately, if the bot that reads resumes before anyone sees them doesn't do it first.

Depends - I don't have a degree, that rules out some employers but overall, experience still tends to count for a lot these days.

I'd try to apply at places where the application ends up with the hiring manager because they're so small that HR isn't monitoring all incoming resumes.