Fertigator does.

Oh...I so agree...almost like someone for the "honey-do list"

Also we rent out our place certain months and you can't ask the cleaning service to do some of these small jobs..ie:replace a toilet seat, change light bulbs...things that are just at that threshold of a handyman man. You can't ignore these little things, not fair to renter, but you don't want to keep jumping onto a plane either.
Boy...this person could make a killing.

I second talking to SCORE. (Used to be Senior Core Of Retired Executives, but I think they don't have to be retired anymore.) It's a volunteer arm of the SBA who will provide him with a mentor who will advise him of all he should be thinking about when deciding to start a small business. And it's free.

In my son's place of business he does allot of fancy light detail to vehicles...I always tell him he should go to TV and work on jazzing up golf carts. Gosh, he can make the lights go to the music.

Not inside the villages themselves but things for young people to do. Possibly Wildwood or Lady Lake.
Trampoline indoor park with different levels, Incredible Pizza type place with indoor rides, video games, laser tag.
That way the kids at the local schools plus grandkid visitors can enjoy.

Dog grooming

Why not an ice cream truck? I would buy every time they come by. Also great around the squares and neighborhood parties.

Tropical vibes
 

Look into getting a Tropical Vibes franchise. It would go over very well here. That's what I would do if I were younger...

The upscale restaurant seems like a good idea - but i dont think the economics works.

The full timers just won’t support them 12 months a year - maybe a few times a year, a little more often when snow bird friends are down.
Snowbirds may eat out more often and want more upscale, but that’s a 3 ot 4 month business model.

Boston Market.
 

The villages could use a Boston Market

Now that's funny and witty!

There is undoubtedly a need for many different types of services, I am sure a food truck would do very well here, a good reliable lawn care service etc. etc., but, I have lived here a long time and watched people open restaurants and service businesses and seen them go under.

The average Village residents do not seem to want to pay for excellence, either in restaurants or services.

The food truck is a great idea, but where would you be able to set it up without getting permission from the Developer who owns everything here. You could maybe get permission to have it outside TV and there would be no business. I don't believe you would get permission to put any kind of eatery on the streets of either of any of the Squares and that is where the customer is.

Then think about the licenses you would need from the State and the list goes on.

This has to be the very worst place to try to start a business unless it is something you can run from your home.

Another big drawback is the weather in the summer, it is very difficult for people to do manual labor in our heat. My own lawn service was excellent for several months, then one of the young men involved got an inside job and the young owner cannot find anyone to do the job as he does.

Day trade - it's what I did after retiring early in 2014.

A woodworking store or franchise. There are a lot of woodworkers here and no source of tools, equipment or wood.

We pay $35.00/month for our rental villa, 2 men, small mowers, edge, trim, and clean-up. They do an excellent job and not getting rich doing it. I honestly don't know how they make any money driving all around town, and keeping their truck, trailer, and equipment in working order

Have you ever waited in line to get a sub at Jersey Mikes in front of Lowes, if there was one of those south of 44 it would make a killing. If I was 10 years younger that is the franchise I would be after. The southern villages is a great place to start a new business, thousands of homes, thousands of workers, and lots and lots of privately owned commercial space along Warm Springs and 501. If it's good enough to open a McDonalds down here it will surely support many other convenience food businesses.

Tons of pages of suggestions so far, so you probably won't see this, but just in case, I've been told physical therapy assistants is needed around TV. Lots of people who have had surgeries need motivation/helpers to get through their therapy/exercising.

There are a lot of venues in the area that invite food trucks. The Cousins Maine Lobster truck used to come regularly to Ednas on the Green and the Woofgang Bakery in Palm Ridge plaza and there were long lines waiting before they even showed up. They just got tired of doing it and wanted to try something else.

seamless gutters. There would be some startup costs with the trailer, roll former, supplies, etc. but there is a lot of money in it.

How about an ice cream parlor of some sort down at Sawgrass Grove. It' the new meeting place closest to the Village of St. Catherine's. It's the next big up and coming area of the Villages, like a Town Square, but not on the same scale as Sumter or Brownwood, and I'm pretty sure people have been asking about an ice cream business for Sawgrass Grove. Worth looking into.

Love the roundabout practice idea!!

A "hire-a-wife" service sounds great, someone else suggested it but didn't use that term. Basically - someone who will cook once a week a dinner with enough leftovers to provide portioned lunches for 3 days. Who will straighten out your piles of stuff on the table, take in your mail, take out the trash, clean the litter box, get you to your appointments, help make your appointments, make sure you get your bills all paid on time with in-person reminders, update your relatives that you're still alive and well and could use a greeting card once in awhile, nag you to clean your dentures and change your hearing aid batteries, etc. You wouldn't be authorized to pay any bills for your client, but you would help them keep track of what bills need to be paid and when.

A hot dog cart also sounds glorious. I've heard there used to be one, once, but it's disappeared.

Yeah. A good restaurant. Most here are just OK.

A golf shoe “hut” where shoes are cleaned and new spikes put on shoes. It’s great for us with arthritic hands
The only one I have seen was in Myrtle Beach and I used it often.

Here are a few businesses I have been thinking of for myself. (Obviously, I have skilled in these areas.) 1. Life coach, 2. Public intellectual, 3. Influencer, 4 ethicist, 5. gigolo.

Seriously: we could use a really good cajun restaurant.

Missed Brooklyn Bagels?
 

You must be missing Brooklyn Bagels on 441. Boiled and baked just like NY. With the ‘flavoring’ on both top and bottom! Our NY friends say they’re even better.

Have you missed both superbly well-equipped Villages Woodshops? One on Rolling Acres Road, the brand new bigger one across the street from Eisenhower Rec Center.

concierge service -
One stop shop for everything from arranging transportation to house painting

$100 an hour? We have an average sized home in TV with 3 irrigation zones and pay $65 a month. They do my yard 3-4 times a month and usually they have 3 people who are in and out of here in about 10 minutes. If they cut grass 3 times a month their man hours would be 1.2 hours. $65 is cheap as they have other expenses, such as WC, fuel, insurance, administration and equipment(their mowers cost as much as our golf carts).

What is the current wait time to get a membership to the woodshop?

Most people WAY underestimate the fixed operating costs of many businesses.

While I 100% agree that there is a dearth of independent non-franchise restaurants in this area, restaurants have one of the highest failure rates of all new businesses. Rent in a good location would likely be super-expensive, and finding reliable employees a huge on-going hassle. But oh how I wish there were more good ethnic restaurants in the area!

I'd also wish there was a good "dive bar" with decent food & drink prices, darts & pool tables, with a dance floor that had good live music on the weekends.

And/or a cool restaurant / bar bistro that hosted national/regional touring bands during the weekends, maybe some cool jazz nights during the week, live comedy a few times a week. I'm probably in the minority here, but the music @ the Squares with local bands that play nothing but covers of songs we've all heard a million times before bores me to tears.

OP's friend wouldn't get rich without expanding and taking on multiple crews / employees, but small businesses with high potential for success that one could open for less than $40,000:

Pool maintenance service
Lawn care business
Irrigation system installation & maintenance
Gutter installation / cleaning & maintenance
Pressure washer / window washer / screen replacement
Mobile golf cart repair
Small engine repair
General Handyman service
Interior / exterior painting service
On-site computer repair & training
Mobile car detailing & window tinting
House cleaning service
Property management for absentee homeowners
Small furniture moving and assembling

Nothing new under the sun, many of the above ideas have already been mentioned.

Turns out there are places like that. You just have to go outside the bubble. There's the Gator Bay Bar and Grille in Leesburg, on the way to Mt. Dora. They have live music, reasonable prices, fried gator and po boys as their specialty foods, karaoke night, burgers and fries, hotdogs and fries, $2.25 domestic drafts, a glass of cola is $1.25, etc. etc.

I've been there & like it! But it's 40 minutes away from me, too far to drive on any kind of regular basis.

Seemingly there's a large enough year-round population here to support more food / entertainment options, but evidently not.

Hobby Garage Condo's
 

This one's so obvious. I'm tempted to risk my retirement savings and go after it myself.

The only bad thing about moving here last March was that half our stuff wound up in storage, with our hobbies mothballed. My wife's a quilter with a 12' quilting machine, and I'm a tool guy who likes to build things -- furniture, cars, motorcycles, and even an airplane once. We bought a big house (for the Villages) with a big garage (we thought) and tried to downsize. It wasn't enough.

I can't believe the Developer hasn't already thought of this. There must be thousands of car guys alone in the Villages with the same problem.

You would buy an acre and build a big metal building on it. Divide it up and sell it off, 600 sqft at a time. Collect maintenance fees. Build another one and keep raking in the dough.

There ya go! You're welcome! Just remember, I GET THE FIRST ONE!

Business idea
 

Italian ice and Boardwalk Fries stand would be a great business.

How about a fast food fish joint like, long John silvers, capt. Ds

Well Steve17.............did the villagers give you ideas??? Did you summarize for your "friend"?? I think you should provide feedback.

:popcorn:

You can rent exactly that right outside of Fenney, I believe they are 500 sq. ft, maybe some larger with a little office, air conditioning, restroom, etc. There are also a lot of them on C. Thomas drive in Wildwood just behind Lazy Days RV. A lot of car guys rent them as well as some small businesses, one guy is running a baseball card business out of his unit.

This almost identical post was posted over 10 years ago.

I wish somebody would open a restaurant with a good quality Sunday Brunch buffet with all-you-can-drink Bloody Mary's & Mimosas!