Re: Chronic pain sufferers (mainly ones stuck at home now) - get together for virtual businesses?

On Aug 13, 1:28 am, Sean C <redh...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In article <1186690127.737047.302...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,

<searchbuf...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I do computer programming, and luckily have worked at home for a long
time at a home based business. If I'd have had a job, I'm almost
certain I'd have had to quit it at least 4-5 years ago because of the
pain. Even at home, I used to work so much [and really enjoy it, it
wasn't 'work' per se].

I have an idea that is very well suited to people who are comfortable
with computers and are willing to learn the basics of a page layout
program like Quark.

My idea is to produce real estate guides of the type you often see
distributed at supermarkets and other public places. What I have is a
magazine-quality publication on glossy paper with a circulation of
around 10,000. Similar publications in my area charge around $300 for a
full page black and white ad, and someone with decent Quark skills
could produce that ad in less than an hour with a template and if the
client supplies digital images, three at tops if working from scratch
and you have to scan the photos. These guides are expensive to print
when you only have a few pages, but once you get 25 pages or more the
price drops down to less than $100.00 a page to print, and probably
less than $25.00 a page to distribute (or if you have a kid with a
strong back, have him do it). Since printing and distributing are your
main costs, you make about $175 or more for a page (a page full of 1/4
page and 1/2 page ads would sell for more than $300.00.

A guide in my area has about 100 pages on average, meaning you will net
at least $17,500 a month before taxes: a nice piece of change. The only
equipment you need is a computer (preferably a Mac but not absolutely
needed), a decent scanner (any Epson under $200 is fine), cheap laser
printer for proofs and Quark and Photoshop and maybe Illustrator in a
pinch.

The advantage of real estate guides is that they are very easy to
print, and take no real graphic design talent to produce, as you are
basically just sticking photos in picture boxes and text in text boxes.
An introductory course to Quark at a community college or adult ed
center will give you all you need to know. You can design a template
for each realtor you deal with and basically just plug in new pics and
photos every month. Many different people working at different
locations can produce the pages, and one person can assemble them
together to bring to a local printer.

My main weakness is also going around and doing sales, as I just can't
stand and sit in uncomfortablle chairs for very long due to my pain.
But I can do most of the page layout and design work for such a
publication, I am just limited in the number of pages I can do. I
certainly couldn't do a hundred by myself. I also have a real problem
with my drug of choice, quinine, being pulled off the market, as I am
basically useless without it.

Another idea is restaurant placemat advertising. This does require some
graphic design ability as you often have to design ads from scratch,
but more often than not I am simply copying the client's business card,
sometimes just scanning it whole if it's good quality. If someone can
do the sales, I can do the ads, no problem. Anybody who is interested I
can send them copies of the Quark templates I have designed, which
maximize the ad space on the placemats better than any other design I
have seen, to where I can get 19 near bsuiness card -sized ads on a
single tabloid -sized placemat.

I am willing to offer technical advice and support to anyone with a
disability or pain who wants to go it on their own.

--Sean C

Ive used mac quark since its first year, 1988 if im remembering
correctly. I have direct company training from Adobe in Photoshop
since version 3. I currently Have quark 6, and adobe creative suite 2.
I have other ancillary softeware, font management and the like, and
the entire Adobe font library circa 1997. Before moving to Minnesota
to be Art Director at Mayo Clinic I was voted by one publication to be
in the top 5 print designers in the kc area. now i just live in a
hovel in kansas, but i do have 4 macs networked old to new - an 8500
loaded to the teeth, a g3, a g4 loaded to the teeth and a g5 mini dual
core 1.66Ghz intel also loaded to the teeth....let me know.

Deus Vobiscum,
-dave

p.s. though i deplore it, just to give you an idea...i was using
pagemaker, when it was owned by Aldus...it was a mistake even then.

.

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