Ok I admit my IT skills are rusty and I am no longer qualified to do things I used to do. The only IT skills I have been practicing on are tech support and troubleshooting skills for Windows machines for the past few years that I have bee n out of work, plus some VB and ASP debugging for friends and their relatives that are going to college and taking IT courses.

The Plan:

Finish college and earn that BA in business management first, so I know what I am doing.

Phase 1:
Make consumer items and sell them at flea markets and fairs. I am researching DIY web pages on how to make:
Jewlery, Candles, Soap, and Clay items (I used to be great at ceramics, and I found that some clay can be baked in an oven! Useful to make jewlery beads, candle holders, and other stuff.)
Also sell Popcorn and/or Kettle Corn at these places. (My popcorn dream, in a way.)
Sell deli sandwhiches and cans of soda kept fresh in a cooler.
Out of my home, offer tech support and troubleshooting services for home and small business clients.
Earn enough to get at least $20,000USD to open up a small store front, estimate $2000USD for rent and ultities a month. $2400USD for the salary of two employees at $6USD/hr. $4400USD a month, enough for 4 months of no-profit. Hope we get a profit to keep the store open. Employees will get a profit sharing plan, so if they help earn a profit, they get to keep a small part of it. Which should make up for the low salary and pay them based on their success. Maybe I should earn $5000USD to $10000USD more for marketing and advertising? Ok $30000USD needs to be earned. $20KUSD for the store, and $10KUSD for marketing and advertising.

If we get a profit, move on to phase 2:
Hire some more employees, have longer hours, and offer more things for sale. Have a Deli-Fast Food place and have $1USD and $0.50USD item menus with smaller protions that many food places are moving towards as a trend. Food and Consumer items and some computer tech support options and a web site to sell the non-perisable consumer items from.

If we earn $100,000USD move on to phase 3:
Computer workshop, tech support, troubleshooting, hardware and software sales, buy a new store that can house the computer workshop. Yes feed the beast, support Windows, but also sell Linux products and services.

If we earn $1MUSD, move on to phase 4:
Start up a computer software development business and IT consulting company. Develop Windows and Linux software for niche markets, if we make enough from those markets try to cover others like Mac OSX, OS/2, etc. Offer both open source and commercial software.

When business is slow I can have one of the people that I helped debug VB and ASP programs with help me develop some programs that the business will use in VB and ASP. Then when we can afford it, purchase Real BASIC to convert the VB apps to Linux and Mac OSX and then convert ASP to PHP. Work with what we know how to use and learn the others to convert to later. Convert SQL Server databases to MySQL, Postgres, Firebird, Oracle, and Sybase, make code that can work with all these databases and have built in SQL statements to create the databases for the client if they do not know how to do it. Convert Access databases to MySQL and use OpenOffice.org's data features to make Access like programs for Linux, etc. Once we hire other programmers we can figure out what language to use to develop on multi-platforms. Be it C++, Java, Perl, Python, SmallTalk, whatever, I will gather the requirements and provide the vision as the developers write the code.

that used to manage and run Restaurants and Delis. He knows how to use inventory, check for bad food, meet health department standards, etc. He is going for his Microsoft Certification, but he is also a Master Chef with a degree in his field. The food part is his idea. More profitable than making trinkets and selling beads and candles and soap.

Last business I had with him we did pretty good until he had a heart attack and our clients were not paying us. His health has improved and like me he lost a lot of weight. It will be more than a two person operation this time.

It's actually hard to make any significant money doing that, but it's a good way to make some side/starting money if you enjoy doing it. I wouldn't try to mix food with anything else, health regulations are can be very complex.

I had the idea of making ceramic figures and then using them for a mold to make pewter figures. Like for role playing games. Make figures for AD&D, Battlemech, Traveller, Civil War, etc. I could also make chess sets and charge more for a complete set. Maybe sell them at a booth at a gaming convention?

Not a bad idea, but you really have to plan on making no money for a longer period of time. I've read books on opening your own buisness, and they say to plan on 2 years before making a profit.

Also, you need to plan on more then $24,000 if you want two employees. I would say that if you plan to pay them $6/hr then you should plan your expenses for having them at $9/hr. Remember you have to pay salary taxes on top of what you pay them.

If you really want to head that way, hit a book store and buy some books on opening a buisness. My personal recomendation would be to get your out of the house buisness going and see how much of client base you can build.

Ok I did not get to the part about finaces for the business and what to use to support employees. Right now we are getting into research and statistics. Which is why I said I wanted to wait until I graduate. :) This is a rough draft of a plan, not set in stone, it can be changed.

The idea was to start it out of my house and have others work out of their house and make the things we need. Then rent a table at a craft fair, flea market, or gaming convetion to sell them at. Maybe start up an E-Business web site to sell the stuff from. After making our goal of start-up money, we can open up a store.