Originally Posted by kane

About three years ago a friend of mine had what he thought was a brilliant business idea. He had helped his grandma get online and had built her a custom starting page for her browser with links to all her favorite sites and info like email etc.It worked for her, but she still called him with some questions. So he decided a good business would be helping elderly people get online and to teach them how to use the internet.

He built a basic site, went around and pitched his idea to a few local retirement homes and senior centers. He got some response, a few clients then got a senior center to agree to let him do a big pitch. Out of the 30 or so people that showed up he got 10 new clients. He set them up, helped them get running, and thought he was on his way to riches.

Then the calls started coming in. Everyday, multiple times per day they would call. He would get home from work (he had a regular job at the time) and have 20 pr 30 voicemails just from the 15 or 18 clients he had. He decided he needed to charge for support and that just pissed them off. They assumed they could pay him to set it up and they would get life long support for free.

After about a month, once he factored in all the time he had spent on support, plus driving, and teaching he realized he could make twice as much working at McDonald's.

The funniest part is that he closed the business down and since then has moved and has a new phone number yet he still occasionally gets calls from those seniors that had hired him. They track him down and need help with their gmail. LOL.