Make Money Listening To Your Neighbors Complain
Woody Maxim has proposed a business idea contest. I believe this is a great business opportunity that can be implemented anywhere with limited knowledge or funding to get off the ground.
Have you ever met or know people that you get sick and tired of listening to? You know, the kind of people you hate to ask “how you doing” because you know they are going to give you an ear-full of all their troubles, aches, and woes for the next hour or so.
You are going to love those people by the time you finish reading this… when you learn they can fatten your bank account.
First, let’s look at a couple of facts. You know what a psychiatrist is what what one does, right? They are medical professionals who deal with the mental, emotional, or the behavioral disorders of people.
As you probably already know, psychiatrists get paid very well… to the tune of a three figure income for each one hour session. However, the one thing you will not hear a psychiatrist admit, over half the people they see do not need psychiatric care or treatment.
Surprisingly, most people that pay psychiatrists just need someone to talk to, pay them some attention, be interested, and care about what they have to say… or at the very least, show interest and care.
More often than not, people become stressed, and feel that the stressors are so overbearing that they fear they will lose their minds. Psychiatrists, for the most part, show people how to cope with their stress or how to look at things in a more positive manner.
Simply put, it boils down to listening and helping people find a solution to their troubles. How many times have you heard someone say that something or someone was driving them crazy? How many times have you offered simply common sense suggestions, or showed someone how to have a more positive outlook on something that was troubling them?
Has anyone ever thanked you for listening to them talk, and offering a friendly suggestion or solution to their stress? Sure, it has happened to most of us. You saved someone a lot of money that they would have shoved into the pocket of a psychiatrist.
On just about each and every one of those occasions, you could have gotten paid! I’m serious. Unknown to most people, there is a small group of people that as a profession get paid to listen to people complain, however they are not psychiatrists, nor do they even have a medial degree.
They are called conversationalists. The large five figure incomes generated by many part-timers is a conservative figure judging from the reports of those engaged in this little known business. I don’t know if you can even call it a business because it seems more like fun, to the right kind of individual for this business.
However, with the baby boomers getting older, the need for this service has been increasing every year and is expected to grow even faster. It is being successfully operated in large cities and small rural areas alike.
It can be started and operated from home for less than fifty bucks or with a moderate investment if one would like to operate from an office. You can start and operate the business on your own, however it is more profitable if you hire others to do the work.
When hiring others to do the work, you don’t have to worry about paying salaries because those you hire work on a commission basis. Given the fact that the work is so pleasant, easy, and well paying you should have no problems quickly building a staff of conversationalists.
You can get an idea how successful such a business can be when you look at the many dance studios and singles social clubs that have branches nationwide. However, most people do not want to go to a dance studio or a social club when they need someone to talk to and someone who knows how to listen to them. You’d also be surprised at the number of people who do not want to go to a psychiatrist, even when they can afford one.
Most clients for this service business are professional people, business men, housewives, and those who need intelligent conversation with someone who is capable of listening to them for an hour or so. It’s definitely a lot cheaper than going to an impersonal psychiatrist and it is more respectable and convenient for most people because a conversationalist can visit a client at their location and convenience.
Many of your clients will be elderly people whose only bright moment in their day will be looking forward to the hourly visit by the conversationalist. You will be providing a badly needed service to your neighbors and community.
You can easily command rates of thirty dollars an hour, which is only a fraction of the rates charged by a psychiatrist or analyst. When you have others doing the work for you, you can easily pay them twenty bucks an hour, and you pocket the rest. Multiply that by 5 or 10 hired conversationalists, and you’ll be pocketing $50 - $100 an hour.
Not to sound discriminating, but people are more open to talking with attractive males and females. So this is something to keep in mind when hiring for your conversationalist staff. Another very important point to remember is that unless you or your staff are licensed professionals… do not render legal or medical advice, opinions, or suggestions.
There you have it. Make money listening to your neighbors complain. Now get out there and have some fun using your ears as your niches to riches!