Ironing Service
A Third Age Small Business Opportunities feature
by our Small Business Editor

We know of one elderly Surrey lady who provides an Ironing Service for local families where both parents are in full time employment and the couple simply don’t have the time to do the ironing.

To call this lady elderly seems somewhat unfair. She’s actually more active than most youngsters we know. But she is 77 so we’re sure she won’t mind!

However, local couples who know of the service this lady provides drop off their washed laundry at a pre-arranged time, and when the ironing is finished, the lady telephones them to say it is ready for collection and arranges a convenient time for them to pick it up.

Now this service is never going to make this lady a fortune. It was never designed for that. But it does serve a local need, gives an active lady a purpose in life, and also gives her a few pounds extra a week to supplement her meagre state pension. She’s even been able to put by sufficient money to enable her to invest in a little ironing press to make the job a little easier and quicker and enable her to take on yet more work!

We’re sure this service would work almost anywhere, and we’re equally certain it could be expanded upon to include minor tailoring work such as repairs and basic lengthening and shortening of clothes.

Importantly, it shows that where there is a need, there is a way for those of us in our Third Age to supplement our incomes and perhaps even make a viable small business out of it.