Travelling on the frugal path to Freedom

We had plans for me to go to University. With the pending move, that will be post poned a year or two.

But at the same time, I'm looking around and thinking ....uh-oh. My younger girls school is laying off. That doesn't bode well for the teaching profession. Do we want to invest 4 years tuition plus the childcare costs, to find out I won't get a job?

Also, I took a personal day a couple weeks ago, I wasn't feeling 100%. And I SO enjoyed doing my own thing. SO much got done, errands and cleaning, and it was very relaxed. I really loved it. I could have a spotless house, I LIKED cleaning when I wasn't juggling 4 kids, 4 sets of parents and toddlers. It was relaxing and got accomplished so easily.

I have played with an idea lately, well a couple years. For less than a semester tuition, I could start a business that has a lot of potential. There are only 2 places in this area(of about 3 million) that do it. And one is so unprofessional it's not even funny. Not to mention the condition of their product is sub standard, imo.

I'm doing some research into launching a business, it would be home based, but it would bring me out of the house some, but allow me a lot of free time to be at my kids schools, sports, etc.. I have a name picked out. And with some careful thinking, and marketing I will be able to get my share of the market very easily. To earn what I'm working 50 hour/week now. I would need 7 sales a week. Those 7 sales would be an average of 1.5 hours each. So 10.5 hours a week, plus marketing time, which is easily done around a daily schedule.

If I were to invest $2000, I would be able to earn it all back within 1-3 months depending on my timing, which would include trade fairs, welcome wagon, internet, donations to some silent auctions. And then grow from there.

Yes there is a recession going on. But I have called both businesses, and both are very busy. Everyone in the industry has said they haven't really been that affected. In fact a couple gals started their businesses DURING the recession and are still having problems keeping up despite the down turn.

Is it a guarantee? No. Nothing is. Is their risk? Yes there is, but from my research it is quite low.

But it is something I would love to do, it could provide income to my family. It *could* employ my children through their college years, it *could* be something that supplements our income for our retirement.

So I really need to find the information to put together a business plan and do the leg work to see if it's something we want. Then decide how much we want to invest into it. And go from there.