Forward Thinking Questions - Business Ideas Abound

[Lex DeVille]

The future is coming fast .. so let's talk about the opportunities.

The purpose of this thread is to inspire creative thought and new ideas by asking questions.

When X happens, what happens to Y or Z or E ..

For instance:

When self-driving cars are commonplace and more people use ride sharing and stop owning cars, what happens to garages?
- Will they be re-purposed? How will we use them?
- What about garage doors? What will we do with them?
- Will we use our garage as a loading dock?
- Will it be our man cave?
- Will it become a tiny business location?
- Who will strategize and design the new layout?
- Who will construct it?
- Who will provide the tools for that?

When clothes are 3D printed at little to no cost, what happens to the old clothes?
- Will we just trash them?
- How can they be recycled?
- What else could the materials be used for?
- What new industries might emerge as a result?
- Who will collect old clothes for people who have a lot to get rid of?
- Instead of selling clothes, will we sell designs?
- Will there need to be a marketplace for people to sell designs?
- What materials will be required for 3D printing?
- Who will supply those?
- Who will supply the printers?
- What role will branding play in this?
- How will patents affect this?

When truck drivers get laid off in droves, what will they do then?
- Will they want to start a business?
- Will they retrain into different industries?
- Will they need help with resumes?
- Will resumes even be a thing?
- Who will provide job training?
- Who will help them find new jobs?
- What else changes as a result of mass layoffs?
- How will truck stops change? Will they still exist?
- What products will they sell and who will they sell to?
- Will trucks have remote, digital drivers?
- Who will start that company?
- Who will train those people?
- What happens to the turkey leg drumstick?

As companies shift from traditional employment to remote employees, what happens as a result?
- When more people work from home, what will their needs be?
- When all those big office buildings are empty, what happens to them?
- Will they be demolished? Who will demolish them?
- Will they be repurposed? Who will repurpose them?
- Can the materials be used in some other way?
- What about parking garages, especially since cars won't need to park there (if they're autonomous)
- What new services will the age of remote workers introduce?
- What new communication tools will businesses need to keep their people together?
- What will businesses need as they adapt more global employees by expanding into freelance?
- Who will help them find the best talent?
- When companies can hire the best of the best, what happens to everyone else?
- Who will help them find work?
- What opportunities could arise for those people?

With people spending more and more time in digital realities, what new opportunities will emerge?
- Will we have customized personal avatars? Who will create that?
- Will we sell digital real-estate? Who will sell it and where does it come from?
- What services will these people need handled while they're inside their mind?
- How will the way they make purchasing decisions shift and change?
- What new advertising methods will exist?
- How will this affect current advertising methods?
- How could Virtual Reality change traditional schooling?
- Will we show up in digital class rooms?
- What would then happen to the huge school buildings?
- Could schools be re-purposed into community living spaces?
- If so, who will create those spaces?
- Who will design them?
- Who will market them?
- What else could they be turned into?

You can answer in a response if you want to, but you don't have to. I just wanted to pose questions to get the gears turning. Feel free to post your own questions with follow-on questions if something pops in your mind.

The questions above are aimed at the next 5-10 years. That might seem far away. But I started my first business idea in 2010 and it seems like yesterday. For anything I do moving forward I'll consider not just the money it makes right now, but how adaptable it will be and the ways I might prepare to adapt for tomorrow.

 

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[Lex DeVille]

What happens to malls when they die?
- What could you do with all of that space?
- Won't the building be fairly inexpensive since nobody wants it?
- Could it be used for a different purpose?
- Could it modified as an indoor go-kart arena?
- Could it be turned into a warehouse for product storage?
- Could it be turned into a whole bunch of indoor storage units for the public?
- What would get people to come back inside?
- Could it become a local Etsy / craft market / flea market?
- Could it become office space for entrepreneurs?
- How could it better promote or advertise businesses?
- Could it become a huge computer lab for freelance workers?
- Could you turn it into a bunch of temporary living spaces like AirBNB?
- Could you turn the parking lot into an RV or trailer camp?
- Could it be modified and rented to police or military for CQB training?
- Could it be modified and turned into a series of escape room games?

 

[Jello]

What happens to malls when they die?
- What could you do with all of that space?
- Won't the building be fairly inexpensive since nobody wants it?
- Could it be used for a different purpose?

- Could it be used for local indoor food production?

Vertical growing of vegetables on hydroponics systems. Daily fresh harvesting directly delivered at the local foodstore in the same building at the center of the town.