Thread: Four possibilities, your feedback welcomed

Advice appreciated: Which of the following four paths do you believe has the most potential?

Background: I spent a decade sidetracked in consulting. No regrets, but it was a hamster wheel. I now have a Corporate 9-5, but it is not my work-exit strategy.

After many years of ideas and no execution, I have narrowed my plan to 4 possible directions. I will pick one and go all in (while keeping my day job).

1.) Write and self-publish fiction.
With e-publishing there's never been a more opportune time to build a following. I realize this path is a bit like saying "I want to be a rock star," but I have written, have a degree in English, and have a decent shot at catagory fiction.

2.) Innovative products.
(2b. or just the designs).
I have notebooks of product inventions, but real market need is based soley on my assumptions at this point. Each idea needs a prototype, market test, possibly patent, and mfg capability (even it means making small runs in my garage). 2b. Now If I could simply sketch, patent, and sell my ideas that would be perfect. Pardon my ignorance but is there a real market for selling untested "product designs" on paper? Searches on it bring up what appears to be hype.

3.) Platform for delivering required industry-specific courses (e.g., CPA yearly education course requirements).
The platform will be similiar to training-classes dot com, but will be more than just links to courses. My platform will be like amazon for Continuing Ed courses. Traffic will be driven by the free resource of detailed education/renewal requirements for all industries for each state (a lengthy project to pull all that together and put it in plain English). Money will be made by either taking a percentage of each course or charging course providers for advanced features such as premium placement, email campaigns to last year's customers, and content conversion/enhancement tools.

4.) In the same industry as #3, but be a course creator / provider.
I can author and get courses industry approved (not easy, but I know the ropes), then direct market them to customers who are gauranteed to need them. Problem is there is a sea of competition in this space. I can make money sure, maybe even build it to a six-figure yearly business within a decade, and maybe this is good enough, but I hesitate because I can't clearly answer why my course offerings would be so overwhelmingly better than what exists. I do know that I can beat the competition on useability, clarity, and possibly university-partnerships, budoes that enough given that these required courses have become a commodity product?

1. It seems to me that it's more difficult to make it as a Fiction author than as an Entrepreneur... Why don't you come up with a story, spend a weekend writing a dozen pages or so describing it, and see what kind of feedback you get?

2. Read "The Inventor's Bible: How to Market & License Your Brilliant Ideas".

3. It seems to me that the professional organizations provide this platform themselves. I'm a member of the a few that require annual education credits, but they give us the opportunities themselves. See below.

4. It's not like anybody can create information and sell it for professional credit. It has to be approved by, and I assume pay a fee, to the professional organization. I don't see a way for you to break into this (or #3) business - it's monopolized.

Thanks for the book recommendation! Ordered it just now.