Starting a Business (Making a hobby into something more) Advice Please!

[mrs.b]

Have you thought about doing a virtual storefront instead of a real in-person shop? It may be a way to expand a bit beyond what you're doing without investing all the front-end resources to see if it's something you want to get deeper into. And if there is more market to tap, it could provide that edge so your transition from working for others into working for yourself will not be such a big leap of faith. The cost of starting up a website, particularly if one or both of you are tech-savvy enough to develop your own website, is minimal, whereas the cost of opening a physical shop can be significant, especially since one or both of you will need to quit your day jobs so you can staff the place for walk-in clients. It could provide enough steady increase in work to get both him through his CPA exam and you through your busy season and remaining classes until business is booming enough to justify jumping into a physical store.

Edit: If you already have a website, marketing that you'll do home repair evenings and weekends - i.e., travel to someone's home to pick up or repair on-site - could be the next biggest step. (If someone has mobile devices and needs them fixed, they will likely look around online for the location so just pushing the online marketing angle could generate the larger customer base that will help with the transition.

Whatever you do, go for it - now or later - because any opportunity to do what you love and make a living at it is too good to pass up!