mtn wrote: I've thought about a laundromat before--I figure that if you do it right, you have it right next door to a bar in a college town. It also probably wouldn't be that labor intensive, likely about 2 hours a day of cleaning plus 15 hours a month of fixing stuff.
Interconnected to the bar.
Store-n-lock seems to be a pretty happening thing around here. Then again, as long as it isn't tillable farmland, the price is pretty cheap for ground.
Whorehouse...
Failing that, what Iggy said.
A guy I used to work for had a saying. "If enough people walk in here looking for a pile of dog E36 M3, we'll start stocking it." Start with that attitude.
Personally, I wouldn't try to turn a hobby into a business. I would look at your community and see what they need, that either no one is supplying or that you can supply better.
I'm own an automatic door company. It's not something that I ever imagined I'd be doing for a living. I ended up here because the big international companies, including the one I worked for, SUCK at providing good service. I'd bust my butt attracting the business just to have the office chase them off, so I took them out of the loop, now I am the office. In the local market we kick their butts. We aren't the cheapest, but we are damn good at what we do and people don't mind paying for quality work. Read the above quote again. I've had three phone calls in the last week about repairing and installing automatic gates. Looks like I might be in the automatic gate business before long as well.
When I started this, I worked a LOT of hours. For 5 years I was on call 24/7. No vacations, many weekends, sometimes it sucked. Not to mention not really drawing a paycheck for the first 8-10 months. Now that it's off the ground, vacations and long weekends aren't usually a problem and on a slow week I'm usually home by 2:00. There are also some long weeks. I've worked close to 70 hours a week for the last three weeks.
Everyone says partners is a big no, no. I say that it depends. Having a business partner is a lot like getting married. As long as you realize that on the front end, it's doable. I have a business partner. He's a sales guy, I'm a technical guy. Our talents compliment each other and we work together very well. We are coming up on 8 years without any problems.
I will say this, I'll never willingly go back to working for the man.
I wish I knew.....I've pondered the question on and off for years. I'll check back in on this thread and see if the right idea is posted.
I would like to either do custom machining or rapid prototyping, but I don't really know too much about either and there are already companies that do these.
If I didn't have to worry about making money, I would love to own and run a bike shop.
Took 5 years- but we're almost setup to take an action plan of our own. Wife picked up a degree in Behavioral something (I forget what it is, but she's a berkeleying rocket scientist with autistic kids). I sat in a claims office for 7 years learning the ins and outs of it, what the billing looks like, ETC, all while using the cash to put her through school, buy toys, etc. She's out of school, and I'm currently running her schedule so she can do things with her current employer most are unable to. I'm good like that. In the end, she may end up opening shop as an autism therapy center (Autism is MASSIVE business around here) and I get to sit in my boxers, sip a booze, and make the books look good. In the mean time, I sit in my boxers, sip a booze, and contemplate what the hell i'm going to do with myself when my kid goes to school.
The_Jed wrote:JohnInKansas wrote: In my personal dream world, its a small-town, back-road speed shop. Carry some basic go-fast parts, be able to have stuff shipped in overnight if it isn't on the shelf. Do some basic mechanic work for the local little old ladies, and build the odd hot rod in the down time for resale and/or publicity. Provide the kind of environment that the automotively minded youth could come hang out after school and learn something about cars/racing/life. Maybe even have a short paved road course for test and tunes. Break even if I'm lucky and play my cards right. I'm weird though.Are you hiring?
This is pretty close to what I did. Opened a local traditional speed shop. The last couple that were in the area closed up during '08-09. There was a hole in the region for one, and I knew a bunch of local car guys missed having one in the area. So I took a chance. I love it. For me, even the bad days are better than the good ones in a corporate cube.
We've been open full time now for almost a year and a half. This week has been all 11+ hour days. Sometimes seven days a week, even though we are closed Sunday.
Not all the hours are billable hours. A whole lot of it is just what it takes. There's always administrative things, promotional things, developing accounts with vendors and warehouse distributors, etc. Sometimes it's just pricing stuff out for customers not knowing if they will buy or not.
Some of the people I talked to at shows last Summer have started to call this Spring. That is a good feeling. Especially when one of those folks calls on a day where the phone has been quiet the whole time.
Maybe in a few years, when I can afford to have some employees (not yet Jed 
), I can afford to take a vacation. It's not in the cards anytime in the near future, but it will happen.
Years ago if you told me I'd have my own speed shop I would have said yea right, nice dream. Today I have ads running the back of GRM & CM, a 4' high x 16' wide sign at a nationally known drag strip (& Dave McClellan is recording the sponsor announcements that play during track events!), and the shop has been featured in a local automotive magazine.
You'll have to excuse me now, I need to go catch up on the Hotlinks thread.
Not to hijack... I was thinkin' what to do for a retirement type of job, not FT tho. Something I could work outta my garage.
Small aluminum and bronze foundry. Make molds on a 3D router. Custom stuff like car club license plates, repro car parts, wall and desk plaques, insignias etc.
Vehicle detailing. I'd wanna move a little slower so maybe one/ day. Gonna need a post lift for that.
What kinda equipment could I fit in my garage that would pay off? Water jet, EDM, powder coat, metal fab, moonshine still...
Already started one. Tennis/racquetball/squash stringing out of my home. Just need to build a bigger customer base.
The other thing to do is any business that puts a small monthly bill in someone's mailbox. Think like a storage place or a gym. Just keep the payments so low that people can " forget" about it and put the payments on automatic. The gym I go to does that. They are $10 a month but with 2 year contracts. As people spend more than $10 a month on Starbucks it is never a bill you will race to cancel and most sign up but never cancel. By law in ct you must send a certified letter to cancel the contract so the gym winds up with tons of people who don't show up but pay. Managing the staff in a gym would suck though.
Quote I wrote down: "If you find something that pisses people off, you've found a business opportunity in making them happy instead."
Three ideas I've come up with.
1) Doggie Daycare: lots of these around already, and they all seem to be making money. Worst part is finding a location, which is also critical to success. People in love with their pooches aren't afraid to spend money on them. I know this because we send ours. 
Weekends off, but 10-12 hour days.
2) Teen driving instructor. I'm not sure how to implement this, and it may only be do-able as a part time venture. In my state, kids have to complete so many hours of behind the wheel on their permit before going for the license. Parents are busy, and tremendously ill-equipped to teach anything about driving, since they don't know how to drive themselves (but think they do). LOTS of parents I talk to ares simply too stressed out riding with their little sunflower to be effective. It may not make me rich, but it would be a do-good job that I would enjoy.
3) If I won the lottery, I'd create an Overhaulin' style restoration shop. The problem with most body shops is restorations are put on the back burner and take too long. I think if it was broken down into a more efficient assembly line process with more than one person working on it at a time, it could be done faster and more effectively. I see a big need for 'shell repair'; instead of doing the entire car, have the rolling shell dropped off detrimmed and do just the body and paint work. Rolling shell goes back to the hobbiest for completion. Downsides: you need a fully equipped shop and at least 6-8 people on the payroll to make it work, plus a clientele with up front money to spend.
Hot rod shop. Hands down. It wouldn't be my primary income though. I've worked for too many shops trying to make money and its a massive stress. The difference between massive debt and making profit are way too close to each other. I watched my shop owners darn near have heart attacks on a weekly basis.
I'm going back to get my Master's in Counseling. Ideally, I would have an office in the shop where I could see clients to make the real money, then have a shop with one or two handshake projects - just enough to be fun and do what I love, but not so much that I have to declare it as a real business.
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned yet is are you the type of person that can leave your work at work? Some people are going to put in lots of hours, and always have work in mind regardless. These people are already paying some of the costs of working for yourself, but not getting the benefits, so being a business owner makes some sense.
After 12 years of work, I have finally found a job that
1. I am very good at (not that I necessarily am passionate about it, but I am good)
2. I can leave work at the office
3. Doesn’t demand much extra time past 40 hours a week
4. Is valued by a company so they pay me pretty well.
I personally can’t imagine going into business for myself. I can’t think of anything where I can get the holy trinity of passion, competence, and pay to all line up.
Two years ago this was a different story.
Toyman01 wrote: We aren't the cheapest, but we are damn good at what we do and people don't mind paying for quality work.
THIS is so true!! We have a short list of vendors we use for work in our office building. None of them are the cheapest around, but every one of them does good work. Half of them we don't even bother getting estimates from when having something done, we just have them start. They know we will pay the bill, we know they will do good work. So don't focus on being the cheapest, focus on doing good work at a reasonable price and treating your customer right.
So many people claim that isn't how business is run these days, but I don't see them with a long history or future. Those are the people that start a business, get it profitable, and sell it. They leave a wake of destruction behind. I would rather sleep at night.
Fueled by Caffeine wrote: Naa man. No employees. Fully automated. Stand alone, no cash credit card only 24/7
There's a self-serve, automated car wash near me. It's out-of-order about 50% of the time.
The self-serve manual washing stalls usually have one or two occupied.
There's a vacant goodyear garage here in town. Nice big lobby/waiting area attached to a couple of huge bays with new roll up doors.
It gets a fella to thinkin'...
Sadly, brick and mortar speed shops seem to be going the way of the dodo.
The_Jed wrote: There's a vacant goodyear garage here in town. Nice big lobby/waiting area attached to a couple of huge bays with new roll up doors. It gets a fella to thinkin'...
Last fall on my way out to look at the back half of an El Camino I was interested in I drove by an old, one-bay and and office service place (likely at some point had a pump or two but no longer did) that was listed as being for sale. Gave WAY more thought at looking into picking it up, initially just as a place where I could store and work on my projects, but also as a potential real shop...
Step 1: steal underwear
Step 2: Profit!
Dangit! I can't even get that right!
gamby wrote: Already started one. Tennis/racquetball/squash stringing out of my home. Just need to build a bigger customer base.
Put the machine in the back of your van.
Go to local tennis center on league night
????
Profit.
Seriously. This is an awesome idea. I bet it'd be easy to find a list of local tournaments/league nights/etc. Back when i was playing racquetball I would have LOVED to have had on-site stringing at big events.
jg
As to the original question, though. It's tough. My answer certainly wouldn't be "start a car magazine" because next to a restaurant that's about the most volatile market there is.
I do believe the following, though:
You will always (okay, usually) make more profit providing a service than you will selling or manufacturing a product. Whatever you can build, the Chinese can build cheaper and in greater numbers. My camera dollies are clever, but they're really nothing special. I still have a complete, step-by-step video posted of instructions on how to build one yourself. But not everyone has a chop saw or skill with tools. So I position myself as providing the service of assembling and delivering a high-quality DIY implement.
The gun biz is temping in the short term, but it's also a flooded market. Anyone can take an online course and become a "gunsmith," and every town has a dozen of them. The only way I would go into the gun biz is if I could cater to a niche competition market with high-end products and services. I'd know who to advertise to, and the market is pretty much exactly like the racing market. I'd also be terrified of all the paperwork. Whatever happens politically, there will always be a large component of the US government whose job it is to oversee firearm transactions. I imagine that could get quite daunting at times.
The trend to legal weed would also seem a tempting growth industry, but the truth is there are folks who are so far ahead of you on that it ain't funny.
jg
JG Pasterjak wrote:gamby wrote: Already started one. Tennis/racquetball/squash stringing out of my home. Just need to build a bigger customer base.1. Put the machine in the back of your van. 2. Go to local tennis center on league night 3. ???? 4. Profit. Seriously. This is an awesome idea. I bet it'd be easy to find a list of local tournaments/league nights/etc. Back when i was playing racquetball I would have LOVED to have had on-site stringing at big events. jg
Works for tire monkeys at track days, I don't see why this would be any less successful.
poopshovel wrote: As to the "No debt" thing, I do know a few filthy rich people. I don't know any filthy rich people who've never had debt. I won't say "borrow as much as you can." I will say that having a few bucks in the bank affords you to gamble with the bank's money instead of yours. If your business plan is worth a E36 M3, waiting for 20 years to save the money to get it rolling is downright retarded, IMO.
Just because you don't know anyone that started a successfull business without lots of debt doesn't mean they're not out there.
Personally, "filthy rich" is not on my agenda. 'Twould be nice, though. I'm also am not talking "save for 20 years" but rather "start small and cheap and grow from there" (lean mentality).
Point taken, none the less.
Regarding "downright retarded":
"Nah, scroh...there's lots of 'tards out there living really kick-ass lives. My ex wife was a 'tard...she's a pilot now." [Justin Long as a Dr. in "Idiocracy."]
Back during the real estate crash, when big box stores were abandoning property left and right, I fantasized about developing a strip mall greenhouse with a tiny storefront growing high-value tropical fruit crops that are too perishable to be shipped or flown from south/central America. With a suburban location, produce could be trucked to adjacent cities with ethnic markets and high-end markets the same day as harvest.
Some days I think about my career choice......
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