$20,000!

[flywise]

Look on CL under property for sale and see if there are any options there.
Also, there is a guy in Waco I believe on CL selling a lot
Of commercial lawn equipment for 10k. I work with a guy who started a lawn service 7 years ago and is doing 200k gross now.

[Curtis32]

With only that much I would say you may be better off to invest it into an education to get a better paying job in return. You can get a Web Design and Development degree for less than $20k at TSTC. Just a suggestion. With that you can be your own boss and there is such a variety in Web Development to focus on and you can do a lot of it from home. It's highly competitive but it can be very profitable. I was in the same situation and that is the path that I choose late last year. So far I have learned a lot and I have some clients right now that I'm building websites for.

[Nova]

Yep, I'll bet you could build a small lawn care service for that much. Would be lots of hard work. I think an overlooked cash cow in that business is chemical application. Mowing the yards is just the foot in the door. Then up sell them the fertilizer, oh yeah the rose bushes have this or that, is that aphids in your flower garden,I see XYZ invading in your fancy grass, want me to take care of that for you?...

[Shane]

I would try to find a business that I thought I could start for $8-10K. It always costs at least two to three times as much as you think it will cost to get one going.

[metalmangeorge]

I'll sell you everything you need to start a Hydrographics business for about half of that.

And train you for the other half.

[Raypo]

20g's on black

[Timemachine]

now paintball sounds fun. You would definitely have a paying customer here...love that stuff! The biggest cost there would be the land I'm guessing. and maybe the part time help (and the headache that comes with the pains of dealing with that kind of staff)...but I like the idea.

You would be renting an empty field. You could work a rental agree ment tah is based on a very little base price + a percentage of revenues. Most commercial retail property is lease this way. A couple acres that somebody is having trouble seiiing would se the spot. You need electricity but they use Porta pottys at thw ranges so water is not critical unless there are regulations prohiting operating a business without proper unitlities.

[muzzlebrake]

Buy a trailer and a bunch of lawn mowers and weed eaters and leaf blowers. A couple of magnetic signs. Hire a few immigrants with green cards and become a lawn care tycoon.

[metalmangeorge]

I know this is going to sound Crazy but.

Start a paintball Battle field. Paintball is one of the fasting growing weekend recreation business. It can be anything from a wooded lot to an open filed. structures are scrap plywood, barrel, old tires etc. Weekend after weekend families pour into the plces. last Sunday cars were strung down the highway once the parking lot filled. Last weekend we went to another one. Boys, girls, mom's Dad' , birthday parties.....money was flowing like wine.

cgny27 is excatly right about the money not going far so it is critical that get income from day one. Paint ball will let you take in money with out selling a product.

You will need to rent a property, build some structures, by up an inventory of rental guns and mask, stock up on paintballs and get your insurance.

As you can see, I've given this lots of thought. At 61 I'm ready to retire and open a business. Let me know if you need additional info on this topic.

Best of Luck...live the American Dream my friend!

I would check the insurance out first, I bet it will be very high. And remember you can have people sign all the releases you want but they can and will sue you if they get hurt at your place of business.

[rbsears]

I know 20 Gs wont do it, but, an ice house or carwash have my votes.

[Codie]

down payment on a couple of rental properties - Keep your job

[curtintex]

Whatever you decide to do, limit your start up costs to half of what you have available. You'll want and need the other half for operating expenses early on.

[twobittxn]

If this drought keeps up or gets worse, a car wash is going to be a very bad place to be. One stage (yes, it's a later stage) of water restrictions shuts down car washes.

[TWOHunter]

One piece of advice... If you think you know what you might want to do then go find someone else that is doing it very successfully and ask them if you can attach yourself to them for no less than a month to learn the good, the bad, and the ugly. You may have to go far from your area to get someone to allow you to do that, but it will be a very cheap way for you to learn a bunch of stuff that you don't even know that you don't know yet. If you can't do that then don't move foward... IMO.

[bowhunterhelm]

Rent a warehouse and put a bunch of inflatable bouncy houses inside. The last few times I've taken my daughter to them you couldn't move there so many kids in there.