What business would you start?

Thought exercise. What business would you start if you had the ability to? I have my side hustle parting out cars and if I could make the same money as my day job, I'd part out cars full time.

What else is out there? With every single service being short staffed or long wait times, seems like there could be huge opportunities for small businesses. 

Of all the trades, I think cabinetry would be the way to go. Great margins, don't have to deal with grey water or electricity. Finished product is small enough to transport in a large van. 

One of my neighbors ran a cabinetry business out of his large shop and he was booked 6 months in advance before the pandemic even started. Granted, I don't have the tools, talent or space to do any of this...

I've recently thought of picking up Lego sets from Walmart when they go on clearance and selling them online at the full retail price.  Not sure if that's a good call or not, but my local store sure puts stuff on clearance quick.  

Actually, the odds are stacked against small business and this is deliberate. 

The first rule of any business is to create impediments for competitors to start up. This can be patents, or first to market or service or regulatory overhead.

That last one is what makes new business start-ups difficult.

Take the example of a guy who parts out cars on the side. Probably an only employee and no real regulatory overhead to maintain. Cashflow is good and hours are not terrible.

The minute you go legit, you have every branch of government that deals with industry putting a hand in your pocket$ . This alone will eat up a lot of your time.  Or your staff's.  Unless you have scale of size working for you, there is no cash flow to be had short term. 

The reality of business is that the first one you start will tell you what you should have known before you started. 

In reply to NOHOME :

I think the "one man band" is the best type of business to have. It's what my Dad did for 20+ years. Heavy equipment mechanic. Was just him and his truck with my mom helping with books. Every time he was about to add employees, he backed out. Just couldn't justify it considering the money he made and the headache of being responsible for someone else. 

I may well start one soon and have the ability to, as much as I'd rather not touch anything that resembles accounting or management with a 30ft pole, it seems like it's the only way to keep yourself from being worked half to death these days.

So I might start a business doing computer repair and tech support, which I'd already dabbled in early in the pandemic. I've also recently learned that there's still some money in drone photography.

With every single service being short staffed or long wait times, seems like there could be huge opportunities for small businesses.

This part I don't see, it feels more like some megacorp or another has a near-stranglehold on everything and a small business would need to be very crafty about gathering the morsels of customer base they haven't locked down yet.

Mobile bartending.  Fix up an old Bronco or Wagoneer, and use it to pull a Scotty camper retrofitted to be a mobile bar.  Good for weddings and other decent sized gatherings.  Stack it full of chairs and lawn games so it becomes a whole 'themed' outdoor event.  

Just need that lottery ticket to come through... 

Mobile welding.  Tig/Mig/Heavy/stainless. 

Have truck, will travel.  

This is what I would do.  You'll always be in demand, and you can be choosy with your jobs. 

I always thought a mobile oil change business would make some decent money.  Go to a few office buildings and put up some notices and take appointments, have a van with a 55 gallon drum of oil, get the filters that you need (hence the need for appointments).

A plant nursery. Currently fruiting plants are my primary fun interest. Im propagating and cloning already. Im not far from having enough to sell. 
 

other and longer term skill/hobby is small motors and electronic systems working with the small motors. So working with technology-phobic mechanics and and high tech folks with no mechanical understanding.

I would like to start a vapor honing side gig. Maybe on a small scale. I have the equipment and do my own parts. Maybe I'll find some success in my circle of car buddies. 

triumph7 said:

I always thought a mobile oil change business would make some decent money.  Go to a few office buildings and put up some notices and take appointments, have a van with a 55 gallon drum of oil, get the filters that you need (hence the need for appointments).

SVrex and I beat this up extensively about ten years ago. Lots of money to make, one mistake away from major litigation.

I've actually been wondering if I posed it as a school if I could loophole my way through some laws to start a BBQ business. Also been considering "smoker for hire" services.

If I had any money whatsoever to start with, laser rust removal. 

I recently procured a cannabis cultivation license for a co-op of organic urban farmers in Baltimore. Revenue is going to be utilized to procure additional land to grow more vegetables and food for citizens within the city, many of whom live in food deserts. Our nano dispensary license will be approved prior to July 1st and we should be getting a consumption lounge license (which is going to be a gallery space with handblown glass items available for purchase, and we'll have a glass blowing workshop on site to host established glass blowers, the space will also be available to rent for bachelor/bachelorette and birthday parties). 

In reply to Captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :

If it wasn't in Baltimore, I'd offer my services cheaper than you'll find any other seasoned senior growers. 

Should be interesting to see when recreational sales and home grows start in July what happens in Maryland. Really hoping PA follows suit and doesn't go with state store recreational sales and no home grow like they've been talking about.

My take on it is that you have to be in the business of making other people money.  Otherwise, you're dealing with the general public which will always be:

A) A hassle - Entitled and uneducated people will always be complaining about something, and comparing your costs to the local megacorp, and you'll spend 98% of your time dealing with 2% of your customers.

2) Thin margins - Joe everyman doesn't have spare cash as the cost of living has not been commiserate with the pay since the 80s.   Always competing against megacorp.  You have to have high volume to make up for lack of margins.

*) Messy/unpleasant - People will only pay for what they don't want to do, which leaves you with cleanup (environmental/gov't agency interactions), or you can wreck your body.  You'll spend 98% of your time dealing with the cleanup/paperwork.

-) Very specialized idea - Not everyone falls into this category (the cabinet maker for high end homes idea, for example), but if you already knew of one of these, you wouldn't be asking.

To be in the business of making other people money you can either focus on making/maintaining/modifying toys for rich peeps (freeing up their time to make more money) which often takes capital investment to get rolling, or you can go business to business (B2B).   Note that there are many consumer-facing projects that are B2B.  Mold mitigation, fire/smoke cleaning & repair, masonry, etc., all are customer facing on the front end but often end up dealing with insurance companies.  Extra fun!

I went B2B and started doing CNC programming.

In reply to RevRico :

The great part about the co-op structure is that local farmer's already own and are farming the land. The license allows them to grow and cultivate cannabis under a single license, as opposed to each having to have their own. 

Once recreational allows for limited cultivation at home, it will create at opportunity for mobile gardening services (think like Rover for pet care, but instead for tending to plants), using an ecowitt (or similar) will take the guess work out of watering and monthly soil samples will make fertilization easy enough for employees to follow regimented prompts. 

I'd start a distillery (possibly distillery/brewery) on a picturesque farm site 20-45 minutes outside of a major metro center.

Set it up as an events/destination space. Focus on weddings, bachelor(ette) parties, graduation celebrations, corporate retreats, etc. Offer tours, barrel picks or special blends for your group, that sort of thing.

I would get a fleet of V6 auto,V8 manual mustangs, Manual Miata and take people with more money than sense on their first track day.  Fully supported my the SCCA as TNiA.  Then their second and third, then just maintain an transport customer cars to events for them.

What do I get out of it?  A fleet of track cars that someone else pays for and I do what I enjoy.  

In reply to Beer Baron :

Custom blending for small groups alone will keep a distillery going. Our tasting room sales have increased by 18% since we started offering them. 

I've been looking into making replacements for a couple bits of older automotive electronics where the parts currently on the market have gone downhill in quality. Or simply aren't available new at any price.

I still think an oil change and specialty lubricants shop, selling race type lubricants, and supplying oil analysis could do well.

It would have to be high end, very nice, and very expensive, with knowledgeable and well spoken employees catering to people who like to spend money. The thirst for  expensive, high end experiences around here is insatiable.

Automotive machine also shops do very well these days.

Captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Beer Baron :

Custom blending for small groups alone will keep a distillery going. Our tasting room sales have increased by 18% since we started offering them. 

Yeah. Fun industry. Focus it all on the highest margin operations instead of fighting it out to get to scale to make money doing wholesale volume.

People throw $$$ at wedding events. Give people an experience no one else can match. Custom bottling of "your" whiskey to send every group home with one bottle and keep a half case for the couple. That's at least 4 cases for a 100 person wedding, plus the bar sales for the event.

You looking for a high skilled brewer/distiller? I'm still looking to move out to VA/MD.

GameboyRMH said:

I've also recently learned that there's still some money in drone photography.

 

Yes, there is. But only if you step well beyond the toy drones like the mavic, beyond the pro-sumer like the Phantom and into enterprise stuff. That $10K price tag acts as an effective barrier to entry for most.  

Pick just about any service business. Be dependable. Show up when you said you would. Do top-quality work. Charge accordingly. You don't want to be down at the bottom chasing nickles with everyone else. You want to be the guy people with money call because they know you are the best person to make their problems go away. 

You will be so busy you can't keep up.

I just told a customer that I would love to fix the 15 doors his fire inspection failed, but I wouldn't be able to get a tech on-site for 10 days. He said no problem, he would be willing to wait because he knew we would fix them right the first time, and when I told him 10 days it would be 10 days and not 11. That's not a bad place to be when it comes to business.