Wasn't sure of the best place to post this, so here goes... I'm 34, and looking to change professions. Long story as to why, but the health and fitness industry I have worked with over the past 15 years is completely dead due to the economy. It is only a small part of why I'm changing professions, but nonetheless, has been a contributing factor.
So anyway, I'm headed back to school, and trying to figure out something I can do part-time which will be flexible hours that I can revolve around a primary focus on college.
Since I have worked with computers since the Commodore 64 existed, I thought I might create a computer repair website and try to do that locally. However, I'm not really sure how competitive the industry is and whether or not it would be worth my time.
Since I moved recently, I had to start from scratch again in my industry. I spent countless hours putting together a website for freelance personal training, and after about 6 weeks, I've managed to get it to the first page of local searches. However, it has still not pulled me in anything because of how bad the economy impacted us (and how competitive the industry is now because of it). I just don't want to waste any more time on it.
But anyway, I was wondering for those who opened a personal business in their areas, how competitive is it? How hard was it to get yourself to the top of the local searches? Is it something where you can develop a good website and draw people in, or is it like personal training, where you have to constantly aggressively market and sell to pull in any business? Any info you guys could give me would be greatly appreciated, because I really don't want to develop another web page and spend weeks upon weeks all for no return again.