Ideas I've had that I haven't got time/resources/interest/knowledge to execute.

[LifeTransformer]

Thought I'd post up some potentially fastlane ideas that I either haven't got the time, resources, interest or knowledge to execute.

I tend to have too many of these throughout the year, so hopefully unloading a few into the ether of the web will one day pay off for someone else.

I know you can do this on the INSIDERS, but since I'm not a member (yet) they're getting posted here, hopefully nobody has any trouble with that.

If you've had any of these ideas; I can guarantee I haven't copied them directly from you, but great minds do think alike. ;-) Some of these may exist already, perhaps in locales I haven't visited, who knows? I'm sadly not omnipresent.

Here's the first one:

Mexican Fast-food restaurant styled in the form of subway.

I love Mexican food, but you'll never see me in a place like taco-bell, why? Because they insist on covering what should be good, tasty seasoned meat (debatable in that place anyway perhaps) with fake cheese, and various other condiments I have no interest in ingesting.

The solution is simple; have Taco, Fajita and Chillies etc that can be made into fresh wraps, salads etc with fresh vegetables, condiments and whatever else you want to add.

Potential road-map? Perhaps start small with a food-truck if needed, or 1 flagship location, then scale it up to a franchise.

This doesn't (AFAIK) exist already.

More to follow...

 

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[Scot]

Thought I'd post up some potentially fastlane ideas that I either haven't got the time, resources, interest or knowledge to execute.

I tend to have too many of these throughout the year, so hopefully unloading a few into the ether of the web will one day pay off for someone else.

I know you can do this on the INSIDERS, but since I'm not a member (yet) they're getting posted here, hopefully nobody has any trouble with that.

If you've had any of these ideas; I can guarantee I haven't copied them directly from you, but great minds do think alike. ;-) Some of these may exist already, perhaps in locales I haven't visited, who knows? I'm sadly not omnipresent.

Here's the first one:

Mexican Fast-food restaurant styled in the form of subway.

I love Mexican food, but you'll never see me in a place like taco-bell, why? Because they insist on covering what should be good, tasty seasoned meat (debatable in that place anyway perhaps) with fake cheese, and various other condiments I have no interest in ingesting.

The solution is simple; have Taco, Fajita and Chillies etc that can be made into fresh wraps, salads etc with fresh vegetables, condiments and whatever else you want to add.

Potential road-map? Perhaps start small with a food-truck if needed, or 1 flagship location, then scale it up to a franchise.

This doesn't (AFAIK) exist already.

More to follow...

Chipotle, Moes and in the southeast Tijuana Flats all do this

 

[LifeTransformer]

Chipotle, Moes and in the southeast Tijuana Flats all do this

Cool! I'll look them up. There's nothing like this in my neck of the woods.

Hopefully the next idea posted is more original then.

 

[MidwestLandlord]

https://www.qdoba.com

Restaurant Styles:

1) Fast Food
2) Quick Service
3) Full Service

Speed of service goes down as you go down the list, price goes up.

Most food truck service falls into the "fast food" category.

Subway is in the realm of "Quick Service" and Doctor's Associates, Inc. were the one's that invented the category on a mass scale. My example of Qdoba is quick service.

@Scot 's examples are quick service.

What you are proposing is also in the realm of "Quick Service", which is slower than fast food, quicker than full service, and typically a middle ground in terms of quality of food and retail price.

 

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[GatsbyMag]

@LifeTransformer I hope you don't mind me adding this idea, let me know if I should edit it out!

An idea I overheard in a conversation on the train this morning is implementing drones as a service to farmers. I think the concept is that you could use drones to fly over and monitor the farm to detect things like crop problems. So if you can afford drones then you could probably try that out or find new ways of using drones in old and established industries.

 

[Vigilante]

What you will find around here is nearly everyone has ideas. My 70 year old mother calls me up all the time with the ideas she has. It's within the execution of the ideas that magic happens.

There's a part of the forum where you can take an idea and actually SELL IT, but it would have to be more refined than an idea (like your OP) that is already in existence.

Everyone has ideas. I have a half dozen I haven't gotten to yet. It's all in ACTION after CONCEPT where stuff stops being bullshit and starts paying real world bills.

 

[G-Man]

This idea does make me wanna execute the hell outta some fajitas, though.

 

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[LifeTransformer]

https://www.qdoba.com

Restaurant Styles:

1) Fast Food
2) Quick Service
3) Full Service

Speed of service goes down as you go down the list, price goes up.

Most food truck service falls into the "fast food" category.

Subway is in the realm of "Quick Service" and Doctor's Associates, Inc. were the one's that invented the category on a mass scale. My example of Qdoba is quick service.

@Scot 's examples are quick service.

What you are proposing is also in the realm of "Quick Service", which is slower than fast food, quicker than full service, and typically a middle ground in terms of quality of food and retail price.

Thanks for posting more details on where this idea would fit in. I know little about the restaurant game, so this is one of those ideas where I'd say I personally wouldn't have the knowledge.

Seems this is something that is quite popular, but doesn't exist where I am, so perhaps there is a market for it. There seems to be a sudden burst of fast-food/quick service places cropping up round here too, but none of them Mexican/Tex-Mex.

 

[LifeTransformer]

@LifeTransformer I hope you don't mind me adding this idea, let me know if I should edit it out!

An idea I overheard in a conversation on the train this morning is implementing drones as a service to farmers. I think the concept is that you could use drones to fly over and monitor the farm to detect things like crop problems. So if you can afford drones then you could probably try that out or find new ways of using drones in old and established industries.

I think I've heard of using some drones for crop dusting/pest control, but not monitoring. That could be very interesting.

 

[LifeTransformer]

What you will find around here is nearly everyone has ideas. My 70 year old mother calls me up all the time with the ideas she has. It's within the execution of the ideas that magic happens.

There's a part of the forum where you can take an idea and actually SELL IT, but it would have to be more refined than an idea (like your OP) that is already in existence.

Everyone has ideas. I have a half dozen I haven't gotten to yet. It's all in ACTION after CONCEPT where stuff stops being bullshit and starts paying real world bills.

Agree wholeheartedly with this. This isn't meant to be a "look at the ideas I've got" kinda thread, Just a bit of a brain dump.

Hopefully someone will find some value in it. I'm sure it will fall off page 1 quickly if they don't .

 

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[MidwestLandlord]

Restaurants are one of only two industries I would actively discourage anyone from entering.

Take all your money, borrow a bunch of additional money from a bank...then light it all on fire. Easier than being in the restaurant biz, and the result is the same.

Franchises have a strangle hold on the market.

The best you could hope for is buying yourself a full-time job.

Hate to be discouraging, but it's the truth.

 

[G-Man]

Restaurants are one of only two industries I would actively discourage anyone from entering.

Take all your money, borrow a bunch of additional money from a bank...then light it all on fire. Easier than being in the restaurant biz, and the result is the same.

Franchises have a strangle hold on the market.

The best you could hope for is buying yourself a full-time job.

Hate to be discouraging, but it's the truth.

Agreed. 2 years ago I watched a guy that is way smarter, more experienced, and better funded than me lose about 500k on a restaurant. He's still using the profits from his other business to try to dig his way out of that dumpster fire.

 

[MidwestLandlord]

Agreed. 2 years ago I watched a guy that is way smarter, more experienced, and better funded than me lose about 500k on a restaurant. He's still using the profits from his other business to try to dig his way out of that dumpster fire.

Mom & Pop bagel shop in my hometown. Open for 30+ years. I buy coffee there every morning.

An Einstein Bros Bagel shop franchise just opened directly across the street. The mom & pop lost 80% of their business according to the owner, and all of their very attractive barista's to the new competition.

I give them a month until they close. The owner will have to go take a job elsewhere, because he's only ever pulled a middle-class wage out of the business.

 

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[LifeTransformer]

Since we're on the subject, and to avoid anyone thinking this thread is trying to be something it's not, I'll try to quickly add something to @Vigilante's point with a little story from another idea I had:

After attending an event that was far too loud for my eardrums, it dawned on me; "why isn't there something like a "reverse" hearing aid?"
Sure, you can get ear protection, but it's mostly just used to block out certain decibel levels. I'm thinking at this point: "You can't get anything on the market that is selective, and if you could, it wasn't mass-marketed/easily obtainable."

If you're in a nightclub and the music is too loud and you can't hear people talk, wouldn't it be nice to be able to insert a small device in your ear that can change that? Selective hearing could be a real thing, not just an excuse to ignore your missus.

So the idea is sounding great at this point right?

After doing some digging, it turned out they already existed!

This article mentions a device for musicians specifically: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-04/hear-buds

And, there was also an article (which I can no longer find, typical!) that said one of the big tech companies was/is working on that very device I thought I had just come up with.

I forgot who said it, but there was a great quote in regards to ideas that went something like: "If you think you've got a great idea, someone else has already had it". Like I said, this isn't what this thread is about, hopefully it will provide some value and who knows? Maybe there will be an original/executable idea dropped in here somewhere along the way.

 

[Ika]

After doing some digging, it turned out they already existed!

Depending on how hard and long you had to dig, you might have found an unsolved need.
Yes, the idea exists. But if it is hard to find and buy, there is room for improvement in execution.
Sell better than the other guy.
If he sells them to musicians only, there is a lot of people to target left. Make the device stupidly easy to use and sell it on the mass market, to everyone attending a party or a concert. Give it a new "image" and go where your potential customers are.

Further Reading: Those Blankets with arms (Snuggies?) in TMF


Thank you for posting your ideas though!

 

[LifeTransformer]

Depending on how hard and long you had to dig, you might have found an unsolved need.
Yes, the idea exists. But if it is hard to find and buy, there is room for improvement in execution.
Sell better than the other guy.
If he sells them to musicians only, there is a lot of people to target left. Make the device stupidly easy to use and sell it on the mass market, to everyone attending a party or a concert. Give it a new "image" and go where your potential customers are.

Further Reading: Those Blankets with arms (Snuggies?) in TMF


Thank you for posting your ideas though!

Yes that's a great point!

I think with that particular idea, the fact that at least 1 big player (already in that field) is/was working on it rules it out for me. It would probably be like trying to take on Apple and Google with a new smartphone. I haven't digged into that idea for a while though, I ruled it out a while ago.

Perhaps this thread will also bring up some ideas about how to pick one to go with too.

EDIT: Speaking of taking on Apple and Google with a new smartphone. WileyFox is trying to do something in that field. I wouldn't say they're taking them on because they are using Android for their devices, so not building an OS on their tech, but an interesting company I saw a couple news items about.

 

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[happybhoy]

The baby boxes given out to newborns in Finland are spreading around Europe rapidly.
There is also commercial versions which I think could have potential as a biz in the USA.

 

[Ryan Wolf]

Restaurants are one of only two industries I would actively discourage anyone from entering.

Take all your money, borrow a bunch of additional money from a bank...then light it all on fire. Easier than being in the restaurant biz, and the result is the same.

Franchises have a strangle hold on the market.

The best you could hope for is buying yourself a full-time job.

Hate to be discouraging, but it's the truth.

I agree with this, because I own food/QSR businesses. What's ironic is that I have one food biz that generates a lot of income, and all of that income is used to subsidize the losses on food biz number two. Not a winning equation.

I'm working on franchising food biz number one, though, considering that my one independent shop has ran two popular local franchises out of town.

Food is a shit load of work. Being in this space each day, I don't encourage people to get into it, and the reason for that has nothing to do with me not wanting competition.

 

[LifeTransformer]

The baby boxes given out to newborns in Finland are spreading around Europe rapidly.
There is also commercial versions which I think could have potential as a biz in the USA.

This sounds pretty interesting. Is it a sample box type thing, or more of a subscription box model?

I agree with this, because I own food/QSR businesses. What's ironic is that I have one food biz that generates a lot of income, and all of that income is used to subsidize the losses on food biz number two. Not a winning equation.

I'm working on franchising food biz number one, though, considering that my one independent shop has ran two popular local franchises out of town.

Food is a shit load of work. Being in this space each day, I don't encourage people to get into it, and the reason for that has nothing to do with me not wanting competition.

This is one big thing this thread has already delivered in terms of value back to me. You guys have convinced me I want nothing to do with a restaurant!

I've read a couple books that mentioned restaurant failures this year too (Scott Adams' How To Fail for 1 example).

If I were to go into the food business at all, I think I'd go more towards a packaged product, and probably something niche, it would also help that I know a bit about that side of the food biz. Compared to my zero knowledge of running a restaurant (aside from pouring a good pint ).

 

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[juan917]

Mom & Pop bagel shop in my hometown. Open for 30+ years. I buy coffee there every morning.

An Einstein Bros Bagel shop franchise just opened directly across the street. The mom & pop lost 80% of their business according to the owner, and all of their very attractive barista's to the new competition.

I give them a month until they close. The owner will have to go take a job elsewhere, because he's only ever pulled a middle-class wage out of the business.

How about owning REAL ESTATE that leases to restaurants. Still a bad idea?

 

[jon.a]

How about owning REAL ESTATE that leases to restaurants. Still a bad idea?

Yup.

A landlord wants his tenant to succeed.

 

[MidwestLandlord]

How about owning REAL ESTATE that leases to restaurants. Still a bad idea?

Sort of a vague question lol.

So many factors...

How long is the lease? Is it a corporate store or franchisee? Mom & pop? Single net, net-net, triple net, modified net? Can they survive the escalation on a long-term lease? If only short-term, why? Do they expect to fail? Is the building compliant with expensive health code requirements like grease traps or do I have to break concrete and install that?

Not to mention the local market you are operating in brings a whole list of other factors.

I've got a commercial site in Wyoming with a car lot on it. Pays on time, been there for years.

I had a site in South Dakota that once had a Mexican grocery store on it. A mom and pop thing. He failed fast. I kept the same tenant and he reopened as a liquor store. He paid on time for awhile, then I sold it to him on a contract for deed. He put half down, so seemed like a good bet.

I have no idea how to answer your question, sorry.

Edit:

Would I rent to a corporate restaurant, ran by the head office with a history of success and a huge advertising budget? Yes.

Would I rent to that same brand, but through a single store franchisee? Probably not.

 

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[JCS]

Restaurants are one of only two industries I would actively discourage anyone from entering.

Take all your money, borrow a bunch of additional money from a bank...then light it all on fire. Easier than being in the restaurant biz, and the result is the same.

Franchises have a strangle hold on the market.

The best you could hope for is buying yourself a full-time job.

Hate to be discouraging, but it's the truth.

Whats the other industry? Just curious

 

[Niptuck MD]

If you wanted to eradicate much overhead I would start catering from a venue (if you own a home with a shop or something) a buddy of mine (he is of mexican descent) started doing this and actually marketed himself and his mamas enchiliadas, tacos, tamales and barbacoa rapidly through the local food festivals, flea markets and job sites; (he eventually migrated his stationary catering business into a food truck and by food truck he used his own pickup truck and bought a smoker and a camper bed and just converted the bed of his truck into a portable heater/cooker)

he would then go to anything public and always had good hot food ready in the truck and just had a few colorized banners;

the most important thing for this is the quality of the food, the chef, and the marketing/locations in which you cater to your audience.

 

[LifeTransformer]

Idea 2 is kind of whacky (perhaps) but I'll put it out there anyway.

The Barber Bot

I don't know about you, but I hate barbershop visits and Conair's "even cut" is apparently crap (potential product there also). So, what about a robotic/automated machine that could give a barbershop quality haircut?

I haven't put much thought into it past that point. I'm thinking it looks like a photobooth you can go sit in, the machine scans your head, and you select your desired cut (we're talking simple cuts here remember). The machine then gets to work, sucking up any clippings/trimmings with a kind of vacuum.

Potential benefits: No appointment (don't always need this anyway, but still), faster than a regular barber, perhaps more precise, and! No crap small talk about the weather or what you had for lunch (YMMV). There may be more...

 

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[MidwestLandlord]

Whats the other industry? Just curious

The one I'm currently in haha

 

[RMarques]

@LifeTransformer I hope you don't mind me adding this idea, let me know if I should edit it out!

An idea I overheard in a conversation on the train this morning is implementing drones as a service to farmers. I think the concept is that you could use drones to fly over and monitor the farm to detect things like crop problems. So if you can afford drones then you could probably try that out or find new ways of using drones in old and established industries.

I see growth in this for sure. Challenges are that there are less small farmers and more corporate large farms. But definitely opportunity.
My sister has been working on opening a mexican restaurant in a growing community.. Personally - the title of restaurant owner is probably the last thing I'd want on my business card.