100 Unsexy Business Ideas: Name as many as you can!

[Lyinx]

I know plywood is expensive these days but damn it'd be a lot cheaper than these

if it's heavy enough, yeah

Those aren't even the right type of mats. These are:

View attachment 44742

Giant slab of wood for driving giant vehicles on - simple to build, rents for big bucks.

Have a friend who makes these (or similar) I haven't seen them but he talked about it.
If you need a company to make them for you, most lumber mills can potentially do them, just need to take one to them to copy. Look for the back woods guys who don't have a lot of overhead and/or fancy trucks.
His model is bolted together with metal bolts, so I'm thinking even heavier than the first two photos, more like the 3rd photo

 

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[Stephan Fradette]

In my area, This company is completely dominating the self-storage game.They own close to 75% of the market, if not more. They're currently expanding and on their way to become a billion dollar company. They''ve MASTERED the customer experience:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTu7u5Ju5bA&t=27s

This is an old thread from you but would you remember the company's name or website since the video is no-longer available? Thanks

 

[Stephan Fradette]

Sounds like it's something that would be impossible to get into as a side hustle. I already struggle enough dealing with my 50+ hour a week job to find time to do anything else.

I guess you'll have to chose at one point if you want to invest your time on your job or on yourself. Maybe switching the extra 10 hours you do on your job to your business as your first step

 

[Stephan Fradette]

Here in the Philippines, one of the Business Ideas here is operating a fleet of Jeepneys where it is one of the ways to commute in cities and rural towns as well as delivering cargo.

Also, it can be used as an rental service given that some groups rented this vehicle for their occasions like: vacations, wedding events, long-distance travel etc. and it can be used to transport goods from Point A to Point B at affordable cost.

The cost of these vehicles here range from $9962.64 (about ₱500,000) to $47820.67 (about ₱2,400,000).

One of the franchise owners here in Legazpi built a large home becuase of this business idea while operating within the City area.

This is the image for those who don't know about the jeepney.

View attachment 38835
Last 2018, the government mandated operators to modernize their Jeepneys where the specifications should be the following:

• had a Euro 4 engine
• Electric
• More Comfort for the Passenger
• Safer
• and more

I hope that it makes sense.

Aside from it, any car that had more than 5 seats (including driver) can be franchised like these below:

• Bus
• Taxi
• Tricycle (only in the Philippines)
• UV (Utility Van) Express (Also exclusive)
• Tourist Van

Edit 1: Added more features.
Edit 2: Fixed grammar
Edit 3: Added another image.
Edit 4: Added the price range in USD and PHP
Edit 5: Added more cars

Thanks for sharing, I have learned something new today!

 

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[Stephan Fradette]

Like in the movie, It's a Good Life, I'm my community's, George Bailey. I did NOT want to be here. I did NOT want to build this business. I pined for my old life in Los Angeles for years. I did it so I could care for my mother after she had multiple strokes. And then after I moved here, giving up everything to care for her, she died. So, I pulled up my socks and put my shoulder into it. I've built a productocity which Is very successful. I'm one busy girl running everything. I'm trying to transition to more passive income and less hands-on stuff.

Have you figured out how you can transition to more passive income and less hands-on stuff? Curious to hear about your plan

 

[Lyinx]

Were you able to find the videos? Did he rent the equipment every time he had a job? Or did he outright purchase it before he even began?

septic guy, maybe this guy? https://www.youtube.com/c/JamesButlerWellAndSepticLife

 

[mikecarlooch]

I can also suggest looking at government as a customer. The government is literally swallowing up 40 percent of our GDP annually. Where does all that money go? Some obviously to wages of government workers, but the rest (and then some) to businesses and contractors that serve the government.

As you drive around, as you go through life today, I encourage you guys to look at everything you see in common public areas that the government, local, state or federal probably pays for. Roads, grass, lawn services, street lights, government buildings, sewers, water, signs, cop car equipment, police body cams(saw one yesterday when he wrote me a speeding ticket), fire station equipment... that was just me spit balling. You hopefully get the picture. The government is literally the worlds biggest customer, and while everyone from here to China has been fighting over the eyeballs of Amazon customers, very few fight for the business of the government.

Think it sounds harder? My question is: Harder than what? Effectively adjusting strategy every 6 weeks to stay relevant to search, kissing customers asses on social media and managing inevitable bad reviews that can put you out of business isn’t easy. Quite frankly, if you’re looking for easy, keep your day job.

I know literally nothing about selling to the government so these are hardcore noob questions and these may make no sense but..

by local do you mean that you can start by selling to your town and expand to more town governments?

Does the product need to be some kind of completely new thing to sell to governments? because from the outside looking in they must have a supplier for everything already?

 

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[MattR82]

Air conditioner and vent/ducting cleaning business.

 

[Kak]

I know literally nothing about selling to the government so these are hardcore noob questions and these may make no sense but..

by local do you mean that you can start by selling to your town and expand to more town governments?

Does the product need to be some kind of completely new thing to sell to governments? because from the outside looking in they must have a supplier for everything already?

Every county, city, municipal body, or whatever they decide to call themselves within whatever geography you happen to be working with will have a different bids process. Each and every one of them are different customers.

Example, just in my zip code we have 5 different police departments. State troopers, constables, sheriffs department, city police, and school district cops. Every damn one of them will have a different process. But as you can see the value is in the fact that someone with a product or service these departments might want has virtually unlimited potential customers to contact.
I tried to sell them stuff they didn’t already have, lol, that was hard.

Yes they get stuff from somewhere, and they aren’t going to actively look elsewhere because they’re almost universally lazy, they will hear you out if you have a better offer.

 

[adl75]

Not entirely sure if this has been mentioned or not (I haven't skimmed the entire thread), but after doing some research, turns out maintaining certain insect colonies is huge profit and start-up costs (depending on the insect, specific species, etc.) are relatively low.

The idea spawned into my head after considering growing a personal meal worm colony for my monitor. Having said this, I discovered this is a massive industry (not just meal worms), and the insects are being put to good use across multiple industries (pets, food, farming, agriculture, zoos, etc.). Your biggest selling point here (again, I've done limited research) is the quality of insects/colonies you produce. Think "GMO free chicken" but for your insects.

Enjoy!

P.S. I'll even give you a jumping point: it's said crickets are hard af to breed correctly (the entire process requires 4 different staging processes/areas), hence why crickets tend to have one of the highest profit yields. I did a Google search, found a handful of poorly executed/explained guides, and exactly one website dedicated to properly breeding/maintaining cricket colonies. I didn't research into what they were charging for their "updated/easy/simple" process, but they claim their system doesn't require you constantly move your crickets into these 4 staging areas as they mature (turns out crickets are hella cannibalistic).

I'm learning about this area... and think have a big possibility.. as ecologic way..!

 

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[Dufresne85]

Niche Job boards.

Unsexy AF and take a long time to gain traction (easier when its in your industry). But when they do...very high profit margin.

 

[Antifragile]

Unsexy idea for a Wednesday:

Organize cooks who can go from home to home and prepare healthy meals.

Provide fresh food, based on preselected desired meals. Charge for shopping, cooking and cleaning. 3x per week. Serve wealthy neighbourhoods.

 

[Jbrow327]

I don't get it, aren't these all just jobs, not fastlane?

 

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[Oso]

I don't get it, aren't these all just jobs, not fastlane?

Sherwin-Williams more or less invented the painting industry. Their first store was a "job." Both men filled "employee roles." You typically work for your business as an employee until you can hire/train people to replace you. From there, you focus on growing your business, not working for your business.

If Henry Sherwin and Edward Williams were alive today, after 150+ years in business and more money than I can comprehend, do you believe they'd still have "jobs," or would they be on a beach somewhere?

 

[Jbrow327]

Sherwin-Williams more or less invented the painting industry. Their first store was a "job." Both men filled "employee roles." You typically work for your business as an employee until you can hire/train people to replace you. From there, you focus on growing your business, not working for your business.

If Henry Sherwin and Edward Williams were alive today, after 150+ years in business and more money than I can comprehend, do you believe they'd still have "jobs," or would they be on a beach somewhere?

I see thanks

 

[WJK]

I don't get it, aren't these all just jobs, not fastlane?

Define "fastlane" for me... Maybe we understand it differently.

Every business that I have started, and know of, started with a small idea that the founder worked on, proved, and then scaled. You're right. I don't know if his idea will scale into a big business. I know it will be a big "job" and a lot of work to get it up and running. As a business owner, I work longer and harder than any of the employees around me.

 

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[WJK]

Sherwin-Williams more or less invented the painting industry. Their first store was a "job." Both men filled "employee roles." You typically work for your business as an employee until you can hire/train people to replace you. From there, you focus on growing your business, not working for your business.

If Henry Sherwin and Edward Williams were alive today, after 150+ years in business and more money than I can comprehend, do you believe they'd still have "jobs," or would they be on a beach somewhere?

Totally agree.

 

[Genia]

Why not a waffle stand ?

Take a stand in a busy place in a city with loads of people walking by, make it smell very good and sell your waffles all day long. If I manage to sell with the waffles expensive things like chocolate and drinks, it can make loads of money pretty fast. Of course, I will take the best quality to offer to my clients.

After the sales help to pay for the stand, I can hire and train someone and go do another stand at another place, and so on and so on, until I have my own thing that basically run by itself with the good people in it.

 

[Veloman]

I've been thinking about a dog poop collection business. Quite a few of them have popped up around here since my days when I was mowing lawns and added on the poop pickup for a few customers.
I see the job postings looking to hire people to do this work. I kind of enjoy cleaning my backyard (3 dogs). It's like a treasure hunt. My dogs think I'm funny for wanting to collect it. That's what my wife says they say.

 

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[WJK]

I've been thinking about a dog poop collection business. Quite a few of them have popped up around here since my days when I was mowing lawns and added on the poop pickup for a few customers.
I see the job postings looking to hire people to do this work. I kind of enjoy cleaning my backyard (3 dogs). It's like a treasure hunt. My dogs think I'm funny for wanting to collect it. That's what my wife says they say.You

You might start it as a side gig and see how it goes. I always have some side gigs. It's my dribble money that adds up over time while I see how those businesses work out.

 

[Veloman]

I think there is one important thing being left of this discussion. You need to work in an industry for someone else before you can think about running your own business in it. There are some exceptions where the business can be learned as you go or has a super low barrier to entry.

How many of you are willing to be an employee on the bottom rung in these industries? And then spend 5 or 10 years working up, learning the business before you know enough to run it on your own. I'd bet you that nearly every business owner did not just open up shop one day with little or no experience.

The hard part I'm finding is that it's even difficult to get in as an employee in many cases.

 

[Yanezez]

I think there is one important thing being left of this discussion. You need to work in an industry for someone else before you can think about running your own business in it. There are some exceptions where the business can be learned as you go or has a super low barrier to entry.

How many of you are willing to be an employee on the bottom rung in these industries? And then spend 5 or 10 years working up, learning the business before you know enough to run it on your own. I'd bet you that nearly every business owner did not just open up shop one day with little or no experience.

The hard part I'm finding is that it's even difficult to get in as an employee in many cases.

I don't think that's necessary although I agree it would help. In Unscripted (and many stories) there are examples of this not being the case. Of course it depends in the industry, for some it is easier to 'learn'.

 

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[WJK]

I don't think that's necessary although I agree it would help. In Unscripted (and many stories) there are examples of this not being the case. Of course it depends in the industry, for some it is easier to 'learn'.

I know of a lot of people who have failed because they didn't know the business that they tried to build. The only way I know of to get around that issue is to hire someone who does know. And that can cost a boatload of money. Every business has its quirks and inside secrets. Book learning is a jumping-off point to really learn the hands-on day-to-day operation of the business.