Well, I always wanted to own a little place of my own where people can come in and chat, eat and relax. I just opened up a little place here where i live(warsaw,mo) that i have names Wildcat Oasis. My wife and i spent a lot of time and hard work to get this place ready. we actually made our living room in to a little cafe it's homey and have already recieved compliments from the few people who have visited so far. i wanted to keep it small. we serve hamburgers, hotdogs, shakes, floats, etc. this town needed a better hamburger than mcdonalds or sonics or these other little cafes. i am proud to know mine is the best

we stuck in a mega touch and 3 other video games for the kids who have nothing to do on this side of town and we've already had several come in and try to beat the high scores for a prize we will always be giving away once a month.

it's been tough with money and getting it started but we finally managed. our hours are from about 6am - 2am until i get a feel for when people will usually come in. after i do, the hours will probably change and i want to close up 1 day of the week so my wife and i can do something other than they avery day life of opening and closing. i work from about 12 noon til close. she opens and works until i get up.....whenever that is sometimes i stay up too late and post crap like i am doing now...and i eventually want to start on finishing my exoticspets website.....i can't wait til i can advertise it here and other places. that's the fun part to see the results of your efforts after most of the harder work is done.

well, business has been slow. we opened friday of last week so we've been open exactly 8 days(i need to close here in 10 minutes) but i would rather have it slow at first so my wife and i can get our feet wet until we get used to things here. i do get a kick at the old timers here who just come in for coffee and gossip. we also have a joke of the day board where people can come in and post their joke. if it makes us laugh, they get a free cup of coffee or soda i am looking at it from across the room now and we have about 6 jokes up there. someone came in today and started reading the jokes and i told him i forgot to post up a mirror for him to look at the funniest joke....dunno if that went over well....but he took it like a man haha

my best times here so far is when the kids come in. i love kids and they have nothing to do and when this happens, usually they get in to trouble so i would rather have them here than on the street getting in to trouble because they are bored. had some good conversations with them so far. i want to build some trust with them so eventually i can guide them in the right direction without them feeling i am their parents i get a kick out of them...especially one in particular who comes in every day RIGHT AFTER SCHOOL to check to see if his high score still stands. also the competitiveness between him and his sister.

anyway, sales are almost nil after a week. i mean, today was our busiest day and only made $30 in sales. i figure it will pick up after we advertise(which we haven't yet) and when the local paper here interviews us and posts a blog about us for free as a new business in town.

it's been an experience. i wanted to start a thread about what is going on in my life and decided to start with the most recent thing. i want to eventually update it with other personal areas of my life that will include another offline business i am working with my wife on and the online businesses i plan on building

i also wanted it to be personal if anyone is curious. i am lways curious myself in what others do in their spare time and it helps me to get to know them better.

Well, what you describe sounds like a really great way to have an in home business, and it sounds like you are off to a good start anyway. Maybe it's not a big money maker right now, but since you are operating out of your home, hopefully your expenses aren't real great, like if you had rented another building to operate in. Then there is the peace of mind and the satisfaction you get from doing a job you enjoy. And if you make a good burger........they will come! Believe me, I hate Mickey D's tasteless cardboard burgers. If I ever get up your way, I'll certainly stop and grab a burger.

I'm curious about your exotic pets site, what is it about?

yea, it's definately slow right now. no business at all today due to an ice storm. i took a couple pictures off my porch today and my wife submitted them to our local news station and they aired them i got a kick out of that.

the exotic pets business will be out of our home too. we will be selling birds(mainly parrots) and reptiles(snakes, lizards, etc...) and then we will be breeding dogs eventually. i am going to be working on a website for it soon and have it as an offline and online business. we will be shipping our pets to the loving homes of their new owners. my wife and i have continued our extensive research where to buy these animals where we can turn around and sell them for a profit. right now we only have 5 cockatiels and just plan to slowly expand. i want to get some ball pythons next but this will be a project over the next 3 months to set up. it's hard to budget for everything too but i'm good at that(even though my wife doesn't like that side of me:))

i LOVE animals and they all will recieve the love and attention they deserve until i find good homes for them. so basically, my wife and i are incorporating what we like to do as a business to make extra income right now...although it's very hard to start up these things, it's been rewarding and fun.