I always bootstrap business ideas without spending any or little money to start. Making a small thing on github that says “managed service, please contact for pricing” channel that through a virtual assistant to weed out the time wasters. If you get a lot of demand, then you scale up and flesh out complete automation.

You could always outsource and automate the basic troubleshooting aspects. Running updates accross multiple customers would be a breeze. I beleive I’ve seen one managed services company that will set up an instance and manage it for around $20/mo.

I guess I wasn’t thinking about how much work it would actually be in order to enforce it. I doubt I could afford the cost. Maybe if it was coupled with a managed services type of deal and you had enough subsrcibers it could be enough to hire another staff member? It seems like adding “premium” features could alieanate the userbase unless it’s just cosmetic changes. I put my foot in my mouth bringing it up, sorry.

Beans

Indeed it is a big ask, however, It would be something I’d be willing to pay for. Many foss projects make money from paying customers as well as donations. I also mention and explain what lemmy is and encourage people to check it out in the getting started area of the site.

More customization for site owners. I have an independent instance and there’s a lot of things on there that are confusing for people unfamiliar with the fefiverse or lemmy. It would also be nice to remove the donation beg at the top. I know Lemmy needs funding, but it makes it look like I’m asking for donations.

You can always use it as goodwill for your business. Take a selfie with the cops and make a facebook post like “Another stolen phone recovered thanks to the local pd!” People eat that shit up and it gives you some legitimacy and clout, maybe even a piece in the newspaper about how you just like helping the community.

It’s not a lot, but it’s another revenue stream to consider.

https://www.scrapmonster.com/scrap-yard/price/electronics-scrap/4

You can also tell people you’ll recycle it for them and actually just fix it yourself if they’re not going fix it anyway.

I sell a lot of vintage electronics like vcr’s, tape decks even a laser disc player for $300 one time. I have a whole package of random belts for the tape decks, which are easy to replace. I also do a lot of car parts as well as other random items. If you have a source for those hotel lock parts that are getting thrown away anyway then look uo how much they sell for. (Search ebay and filter by sold)

There’s places you can mail just the valuable boards and take scrap steel and copper to the metal recycler. Don’t take tv’s or smoke detectors. Sell good parts on ebay.

Offer to buy or recycle #3.

#2 parts like control boards and power supplies are worth money on ebay.

#1 maybe crimestoppers money. See if you can get the serial number and check with the device manufacturer or the cops.

Just start fixing devices yourself. Make a professional looking ad and do it at home. Advertise on your local facebook groups. Just be upfront about not having a shop yet. Buy broken devices and fix/resell them. Offer electronics recycling and get stuff for free that you can resell/scrap for money. If you need help with ebay I can write up a guide. I’ve been selling for 20 years.

I mean, I’m just going to do it as a dad joke, like set their background as my face so they learn to lock their device.

I’ve been thinking of starting an ev retrofit company for very common cars/platforms. Drop out the drivetrain/fuel system. Install all the necessary replacement bits, and addons for a/c, heat, etc. Piggyback some kind of system so traction control doesn’t have an aneurism and make the gauges work right. I would need to find a reliable source for batteries and motors.

Yeah right. I’m going to try every spy trick in the book so they learn some goddamn common sense.

I assumed this is why dems are acting so weak.

Chemical regulations

☠️ I hear there’s another good way to access information without paying.

No it’s not if it’s public information. I saw you at the grocery store yesterday and I told joe. Is that stalking? No.

Republicans srarted the abortion bogeyman as a way to get religious people to vote for them. Before that, nobody really gave much thought to it.

There’s also a good chance that one or both is a troll online.