I am Chris. I currently live on SSDI, but would like to supplement my income with a small business. The way this works is for every $1.00 over $85.00 the social security will take away $0.50 from my SSDI check. Along with that reduction in my SSDI check, I also would pay a 30% estimated tax to the IRS. This reduces the burden on SSA, and pays in more tax money. A catch to this, is I cannot earn more than $1160 per month, and have to work less than 80 hours per month. Current rules for 2026. It would add only little bit more to my money each month, but it would still be more than I have now.

This is just fine for me, as I live with Schizophrenia and Bipolar. What I want to do is something for a home based business to earn extra money to go with the SSDI.

A startup capital for my flute trade business. The business plan is buy flutes that need serviced, fix them, then resell them back for small profit. The profit per flute would be $25-$50 each flute. It would work as a small service fee for fixing the flute. My idea is to have 10 or 20 flute projects in circulation at the same time. If I sell a flute I take money from it and reinvest into another flute, plus the parts. Some of the money is put into savings for future business expansion, and cover losses. The profit is then used for living expenses.

Right now I have 1 flute project in circulation. To get each flute costs from $40-$120 each. Then I have to buy parts and supplies for them. Each flute would sell from $130-$200 each. This is what the competition is already selling for. I believe that with 1 flute project in circulation, it could take me a year or more to expand the business. I expect each flute to take 1 week to 2 months to sell.

In comparison to buying a flute then having it serviced. I priced around and it would cost $450 or more to service the flute. When I worked on my 1 project, it took more more than half the day to fix it. New cork and new pads. Not counting any polishing.

My current plan is to invest into the most popular student flutes, such as Yamaha. The flutes would be listed on eBay. I would not be making direct sells because of tax reasons. eBay or Reverb exclusive.

The flute would be recycled item. The original seller would be able to get money from their broken flute. After I fix the flute I post it back for sale for small markup + enough to cover the seller fees. In both transactions the government would collect taxes. 

Some of the donation money would be used to pay off existing debt from failed violin business, unless I don't get enough donation. At which point 100% will go to new flute projects.

Talking about violin business. I failed with the violin business, and have turned away from it. I then turned my attention to flutes, where the make and model is known for each instrument. When dealing this way, the value is known. With the violin trade business, the value is unknown, and I got burned really bad many times. I lost thousands on it last year.