I was recently asked for guidance from an aspiring teen micro business owner looking to provide a service for senior citizens:
“Hello, I was thinking about starting a small business by helping senior citizens. My plan is to give out cards at a senior citizen home and be paid for cleaning their apartments, taking out trash, any type of little things around the house so they wouldn’t have to clean so much.” – Dexter
Dexter, thank you for contacting me. I love your idea of helping out senior citizens! Here’s some tips:
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Offer to do a small job for free and get a nice testimonial from one or two people. Something like, “Dexter was so responsible, helpful, etc…” Get your picture taken with the elderly client and print up a flyer with his or her picture and testimony. Your biggest battle will be getting people to trust you, so a picture and testimonial will help.
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Hand out flyers once a month for several months. It takes several tries to get people to remember you, trust you, and hire you.
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Consider a magnetized business card that they can put on their refrigerators. They will see it more often than a business card.
Good luck!
Carol Topp, CPA
