Business Ventures
Here is an archive of several of the businesses we have either considered or started. None have really been failures, but either did not seem to have enough of a market or we could not put the energy and money into making them work.
Homsher Homes
My original concept for our construction business. We were intending to create artistically pleasing homes with classic styling and appointments focusing on the arts and crafts style. Unfortunately, no one is willing to pay for quality any more.
Homsher Building Systems
The previous business morphed into a SIPs business We also planned to move into insulated concrete forms.
Our dealer, R-Control, decided that they needn't uphold their end of the distributor agreement when we finally sold our first home. Technically, our agreement had lapsed, however, they were still dealing with us and helping us sell. When we closed a deal, they quickly took over the project without our knowledge and informed us that they would not be doing business with us only after they helped us close the deal and after they jumped in and completed the project without our knowledge. I would rather have had them be upfront with us. The way they did business seemed rather underhanded to us. Obviously, we are no longer selling or recommending their products.
In fact, we are a little disenchanted with SIPs in general. They seem to be quite overpriced for foam and OSB. Our experience with several SIPs companies have led us to believe that SIPs tend to be sold by two types of companies: 1) timberframing companies that use them to sell their timber frames. 2) foam manufacturers looking for more ways to sell foam (R-Control is owned by a foam manufacturer).
For the price you pay, SIPs are overhyped. I heartily recommend Insulated Concrete Forms, however. Our experience has been very positive. Reward Wall is the product we are familiar with and have used with great success.
Digital Pool
The precursor to Open Source Software Architects. This is only the opening web page promo and logo. It never got too far, but was going to be a loose collaboration of IT contracting professionals. I do believe that this would work well if set up right, but time and money was a big issue.
Open Source Software Architects
I still occasionally do information technology consulting as well. I specialize in free/libre software and do web application programming as well as Linux workstations and server administration. This used to be located at ossarchitects.com when I was consulting full-time. I've mostly been doing web work and FileMaker Pro work for our scented paper company, Silpon Designs, Ltd.
WanderPost.com
A mail-handling business for full-time travellers. We considered doing this business when we were preparing to travel full time. The unique thing about this service was the online aspect. A the time, no one was offering a scanning service to save on postage. Another company rolled out pretty much the same thing about 9 months after we decided not to proceed. It was for the better.