Entrepreneurial Shills

Has anyone here every attempted to start their own business, and if so - do you have any stories of success or failure? I know now probably isn't the best financial climate in which to attempt to draw money from the economy - but there's got to be some sort of niche market I can take advantage of to get a little side income.

I already thought about starting a some sort of cash for prayers thing, whereby I start a community of people that join to have strangers pray for them, and are rewarded based on whether or not the persons' prayer(s) were answered. This person will then be in higher demand and more people will pay this guy/girl to get their prayers from them. Of course I get a cut. This isn't too much different than what has been done before. Or what about selling some pendant that almost miraculously (OMFG) makes the lords prayer appear before your eyes in genuine Austrian crystal for only $34.95 - (Damn, they beat me to it)

But seriously - there's got to be a simple way to make money on the side, but for some reason, I think the only feasible way to make it consistently is in a market that I'd cringe to do it; by exploiting religious, octogenarian grannies. I suppose I could quiet that nasty voice of cognitive dissonance in the back of my mind by telling myself that they feel they're doing God's will anyway.

I think I'm going to start a new fad in the world of Christianity. (I hate myself for not coming up with the clever W.W.J.D. arm bands - I'm sure a killing was made.) My new trend will be this - get Baptists to stop wearing the crucifix around their neck and instead, wear the rock from the tomb that was rolled away. This will focus on the fact that JESUS HAS RISEN!

UPDATE: Fuck, the Easter Tomb Pendant is already patented. What the fuck, man. All the ideas I've thought of to make money from religion has all been done before. I suppose that says something about human nature, and I wish I had been privy to it much sooner. $$$

I suppose I should mention I'm doing some graphic designing on the side - but mind you, I have no prior professional experience at all. I was bored one day and started fucking around with Photoshop so I figured I'd attempt to make a little something from it and created a standard site (pretty cheesy - just started on it yesterday) from which I'll solicit those seeking simple design solutions for their personal blog. I'm not naïvely assuming I'm going to make bank on this. I expect to actually lose money from this (paying for domain, etc) - but I don't think it hurts much to do it, plus I actually kind of enjoy it. Imagine that.

Anyway - if anyone of my e-boos wants a hook-up, let me know and I'll work on something for you free of charge. And don't feel bad if you don't use it - I change my layout more than anyone I know.