A law office. I did that a little over a year ago. It’s harder than it looks. By several orders of magnitude. That said, I’ve been in business over a year, the business remains open, and I’m not bankrupt or in jail. Yay me.
I like working with leather, I think I’m fairly good at it (mostly medieval/costuming stuff). It’d be cool to do that for a living. Sadly, I do not live anywhere near a Renn Faire, and I wouldn’t want to be just an internet store.
I have often entertained the idea of making Book Trailers. But I don’t think it’s a very lucrative business idea, as authors and publishers have very little money to spare, and I don’t think it increases sales very much if at all.
But if I could, and thought it was worth a try, that’s what I would do.
I think that right now it’s, more than ever, the kind of business where in order to last you need to actually be good at it. Perhaps you could offer your services to businesses: there are way too many corporate travel agents who need to have their hand held and who are completely unable to handle things such as “team of five people traveling to location A from locations B, C and D, should arrive as close as possible and get the same package in the same hotel”.
I’m a self-employed business-IT consultant, but most of my “marketing” is done via agents, so it isn’t quite the same as when you do the selling yourself. Agents will buy anything so long as the client does, most of them don’t even understand half the lingo they spout.
Driving a tour van.
travel and meet people. What’s not to like?
Dry cleaning or laundromat, but I don’t have the capital to start one of those.
I could do tutoring. Technically I am already an independent contractor through a tutoring company. Haven’t had a client in a looong time since my offshore job makes it difficult, though.
If you live near a cobbler/shoe repair store you might want to inquire if they can use your services on an occasional basis. I work at such a place and we are always getting leather items in for repair. So far, I’ve been called upon to repair or make any number of knife sheaths, gun holsters, belts, horse tack, wallets, and in one case repair a harness for a prosthetic arm.
Think you could do it as a side-hustle? I bet you could connect with consulting firms and subcontract with them, and pick up gigs at your leisure. ArcGIS is a fantastic tool that no one knows how to use, but tons of organizations could benefit from. Build the sustainability into a maintenance plan - “I recommend cleaning up and updating your data at least once a year, which I can do for $500/$1000 (depending on the size of the job)”.
A doggy day care with long-term boarding facilities. Maybe add in a grooming section later.
There is a market for it. Many pet owners look for a place they can drop off a pet for the day while they work, or for a few days when they go on vacation or must be hospitalized.
Additionally, several of the animal rescue groups around here need a place to stash an animal that has been found abandoned or tied to a pole (to name a couple of recent cases) until they can line up a foster home or find a permanent placement. Right now, these animals are often kept at veterinary hospitals, which are often very expensive. A boarding facility could do it so much cheaper, but still be profitable.
I have a close friend whose son-in-law is an aspiring novelist. I have read some of his writing and it is good. My friend comments: “Being a novelist is hard to make a living at, but there is some chance of making a killing.” There are other things like that (professional athlete for one).
I guess I could have started a tutoring business. I also could sell chocolate truffles. The ingredients cost (me, at retail) about 20 cents and they typically sell for $1.50 a piece. Maybe bake bread, which I do regularly. But I am not the entrepreneurial type.
Yes and no. Used equipment isn’t that expensive, and there are a lot of opportunities to be creative (many small breweries here in Wisconsin start out using old dairy tanks).
I worked at a regional craft brewery for 6 years and worked in every single department over that time, so I know where corners can be cut and where they can’t.
I also have an idea about leasing out the restaurant space to a known commodity, such as a local caterer or something similar. That would provide some income while farming out the risk of starting a restaurant.
Naah, I like making new stuff, not repair. And it’s especially the carving and moulding I like doing, not the stitching.
My standard answer to this is Gaming Bar.
But my latest idea, come up with just last night: the UFO (UnFinished Object) Finishing Service. I’ve noticed that my fiancé and many of her friends like to start craft projects, but after a few days put them down and never come back to them. What if there were a service where you could send in your unfinished craft projects, they would complete them for you, and send them back?
Pet park and pet daycare
The kind where I don’t need a shop or office. Like software consulting, or freelance writing. That way I could take my laptop on trips around the world and still work and get paid.
Although having a “home base” office that I don’t need to be at all the time might be great. Like Sam Spade.
This is one of mine - not driving the van, but giving tours. Maybe in someplace like France, where I speak the language, but could give english language tours to visiting english speakers. I have no idea if its financially plausible, though.
I like agriculture. If I could go back and do it all again, I’d run an organic CSA.
That’s not going to happen at this point in my life, so I’m going smaller and starting an organic lawn and garden company-- fertilizers, soil amendments, consultation and training, lawn care, garden prep, hydro-seeding, core aeration, etc. We’ve been raising compost worms in our garage for years, using the vermicompost in our garden and selling the surplus to local organic gardeners. We’re now up to 100,000 worms that produce five tons of the stuff a year, and plan to incorporate that into the service side of our business. We had seven lawn/garden service customers last year when we did a soft launch with no marketing beyond our website, and we’ve volunteered our services for local community urban gardens as well. Last year’s customers are all returning in 2014, which will hopefully see many more jobs.
Years ago I started my own dog walking pet / sitting business.
There is almost no start up capital needed.
Other services I offered along with it was shopping, taking care of dry cleaning, going to the post office, and other small errands. I’d even mow the lawn, shovel snow, and do laundry - for a price. Quite often I’d be ask to sit and wait for deliveries or repair men.
Now I’d rather have a doggie day care/boarding resort and let people come to me instead of me going to them.
I don’t have the money I need or I would be doing this already. So am I still allowed to post? You don’t want pipe dreams, you want feasible, actionable, do-able business ideas, right? Well, right now, it’s just a pipe dream. I don’t have any idea where or how to get funding.
What I would like to do – and I think there is a market for this in my town – is start up a rehearsal space co-op. I go find a building to buy or rent and then build it out to accommodate several different uses. Then I rent space out to performing artists, fitness classes, martial arts groups and so forth. You get to use your space for whatever.
This is because the pole fitness studio in my town just closed their doors. And there is no place to practice aerial silks. Bands need rehearsal space. Dance groups often need rehearsal space outside their regular studios (because that space is booked but the group wants extra practice for a performance). Martial arts instructors are always moving around, looking for affordable space. If you teach Zumba or yoga or whatever, you can charge your students whatever you want to make up your rent and you just pay me monthly for the space. I’ve seen a lot of fitness instructors bouncing around from gym to gym, always taking their following with them. Many, I’m sure, would like to settle in one spot to build up their clientele. Or you can just pay the rent and use your space for rehearsal/practice. We have a circus group in town – some of the performers may need practice space during the off-season or when the school is not in session (it’s a collegiate circus program – all aerial and acrobatics arts). There are lots of bands and musicians around – bands always need rehearsal space. I would have at least one soundproof room for them. Also theater groups may also be looking for practice space to get in extra practice outside of their usual venue. Let’s say your theater is closed on Sundays but you and a co-star want to run through your scenes again before final dress rehearsal. You just rent space from me and come and go as you please.
The two major expenses will be 1. the acquisition and build out and probably buying some equipment (poles, silks rigging, a lyra [big circus hoop] or three, a couple trapezes, floor mats, weights, yoga mats & blocks and those big pilates balls), and 2. liability insurance. The premiums for coverage on such a space must be astronomical.
But I’ve never started up or completely run a business by myself in my life, nor do I have any clue how to acquire investors for such a venture. That’s why I thought a co-op would be cool because the major participants buy in, thus giving some seed money for the build out & insurance. Then, if there’s any profit at all, the co-op members get a fair share of that too.
There’s not a single used bookstore in my area (practically the whole county as far as I can tell) that isn’t classified as a “Rare & Antique Book Reading Room” (and of those there’s two). So even with the shitty state of used books as a commodity I still feel like there’s some sort of market there. I also love tea and can envision a place where I have books and a tea room.
Anyway, when my husband was out of work we plonked the whole $200 down necessary to start an online used book business. Yeah, it’s that cheap. Honestly, it hasn’t taken off, but on the other hand, we haven’t tried very hard either. It did net him an office job due to his entrepreneurship so it was worth the money. We keep it open because why not - after the initial inventory you simply sit back and wait for someone to buy. While online is a super-cheap startup, it’s also glutted with people. I feel like if we could somehow scrape together the money for a physical store it would do better as the physical market here, like I said, doesn’t exist.
'course, there may be a reason WHY it doesn’t exist…
I also have small dreams of adding in letterpress stationery that I print myself. Or just being a small-scale personal print shop.