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I live in an apartment complex that limits how many cats or dogs a person can have, but not aquariums. Sometimes when I'm low on money I think about putting up an ad for helping people design, set up, and/or maintain their tank. While it sounds like fun, I'm not sure how to do it.
If I limited myself to just cleaning people's tanks, I could just charge by the hour or by tank size and that would keep things simple. But I would have to worry about transferring fish diseases from one tank to the next and not spilling water everywhere. I might also be liable if their fish or plants die because I forgot to plug in their filter or something.
Acting as a consultant to design an aquascape (with real or fake plants) or set up a new tank would be trickier. I'm no master scaper, but I'm sure I can do a good enough job to impress a newbie, and with practice I would inevitably get better. But I might end up turning people off the hobby entirely because of sticker shock (most people don't realize a 10g costs $100+ before decor or fish).
Then there's the legal side. I already have a part-time job that covers my bills, this would only be on the side. Would I still have to go through the hassle of registering as a business or would it be okay to just state the additional income on my taxes each year? I checked out a couple library books on starting a business and it seems like way too much effort for something this minor. I mean, my 'investment' would probably take less than $200. But if I did 4 - 10 tanks a week at $10-25 each, that would be $160 - 1000 each month, which is probably enough to get me in trouble if I accidentally break some business law.
I keep coming back to this idea and I really want to know if I could pull it off. My family has a lot of chronic health conditions and the extra money would make things a lot easier on us. But I don't want to waste my time dreaming about something unlikely to work.
If I limited myself to just cleaning people's tanks, I could just charge by the hour or by tank size and that would keep things simple. But I would have to worry about transferring fish diseases from one tank to the next and not spilling water everywhere. I might also be liable if their fish or plants die because I forgot to plug in their filter or something.
Acting as a consultant to design an aquascape (with real or fake plants) or set up a new tank would be trickier. I'm no master scaper, but I'm sure I can do a good enough job to impress a newbie, and with practice I would inevitably get better. But I might end up turning people off the hobby entirely because of sticker shock (most people don't realize a 10g costs $100+ before decor or fish).
Then there's the legal side. I already have a part-time job that covers my bills, this would only be on the side. Would I still have to go through the hassle of registering as a business or would it be okay to just state the additional income on my taxes each year? I checked out a couple library books on starting a business and it seems like way too much effort for something this minor. I mean, my 'investment' would probably take less than $200. But if I did 4 - 10 tanks a week at $10-25 each, that would be $160 - 1000 each month, which is probably enough to get me in trouble if I accidentally break some business law.
I keep coming back to this idea and I really want to know if I could pull it off. My family has a lot of chronic health conditions and the extra money would make things a lot easier on us. But I don't want to waste my time dreaming about something unlikely to work.