This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, what's up? I'm excited to dig into a new episode with you here today. Today's caller is interested in selling services to people caring for elderly parents. Now this is clearly a big market with lots of pressing needs, both logistical and emotional. In fact, we're gonna separate those a little bit in my answer because if you're a caregiver, you wanna know your parents have all that they need and you probably also want it to not take over your whole life as well.
So what kind of business could our caller design? He's gonna share more in his question. I'll attempt to provide an answer. And if you are new here, by the way, my name is Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. We have a new episode every day, all designed around the idea of creating more personal freedom.
And that's through the form of a money-making project, some kind of side hustle you can start without quitting your day job. All right, stay tuned to question how to sell services to people caring for older parents and my answer is coming right up. [Music]
Hi Chris, this is David and I recently found your show on Spotify. Enjoying the stories and helpful content, my parents retired to Florida and they live in a large facility that houses hundreds of other retirees. Every time I visit, I'm always impressed at how the whole community revolves around the needs of the residents.
Having them down there has also reminded me that I worry about them sometimes. And of course, a lot of other people have elderly parents that they worry about. As I consider different business ideas, I think I'd like to do something in this field, not for the elderly in particular, but for adult children of the elderly who worry about them. Am I on the right track and getting more specific about a target market? Thanks.
[Music]
Hey Dan, thanks so much for the question. Thanks for being out there. Way to go on getting specific about your target market. I think you could actually get a little bit more specific. So I like how it's focused not around retirees or the elderly, but people who are caring for elderly parents, right?
And so, as I said, we can get more specific there, but let's think about the emotional needs first and then consider what might be some practical solutions. Okay, so emotional needs, I think, first and foremost, safety and security, like a sense of wellbeing. You wanna know that your elderly parents or grandparents or anybody you're looking after is well cared for. And in case something happens, they've got somebody there who can look after them. I know that when my grandparents were in their final years, my parents felt somewhat constrained just in terms of their own ability to travel or to hand over responsibility to anyone else.
In fact, because they were so concerned about my grandparents, it created some limitations in their lives. So that's why I feel like there are these emotional needs that connect to the logistical needs, right? So what are the practical answers? I mean, it could be a lot of different things. It could be reviews of services, reviews of different facilities or service providers.
It could be anything that creates connections, anything that facilitates communication between grandparents and grandkids, for example. Anything that helps to save memories and stories. We had a story on the podcast recently about a guy who's done very, very well. I think it was several hundred thousand dollars last year in Kindle books, just like books that he had created and put up on Amazon's Kindle platform that were all designed to kind of collect stories from people in an older generation so that younger generations would have access to them. So things like that can be very powerful.
And those are just the first things that come to mind. I think when you start with that, when you start with those emotional needs, and when you begin to get more specific about the target market, from there, you are on the right track. So work on that. Let us know how it goes. Listeners, if you've got a question or if you've got some ideas for Dan or any other comments, sidehustleschool.com/questions.
We'll be featuring them throughout the year. I always look forward to updates and knowing what you're up to. And I know our whole community appreciates the updates as well. That's all for today. Do come back tomorrow.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
