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What Is the Online Equivalent of a "Boring But Stable" Offline Business?

WJK

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Maybe courses? I don’t have a ton of online experience so I’m subbing to the thread, but I’d imagine repeatable offerings for teaching things like math and science or technical courses would be great.

A mandatory licensing course would be a good example, but many here would have an ethical problem with it lol!
Maybe you make a “forklift operator” training course and businesses pay you a subscription for it so they can show their new hires.
I'm taking an online course for another State license. When I get the license, I must take a continuing ed course every year to maintain it. That's job security for the company that provides that education.
 
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Guest-5ty5s4

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Something like selling pillows and sheets to hotel chains. Or salt and pepper shakers to restaurants. You can launch any e-commerce business and target large chains
I've thought a lot about selling niche products to businesses that resemble the one I've worked for all these years.
Trouble is, I know a lot about that business, but nill about ecommerce! Lol
I'm taking an online course for another State license. When I get the license, I must take a continuing ed course every year to maintain it. That's job security for the company that provides that education.
same. I decided to take the real estate licensing course even though I’m busy with other ventures - good learning and opportunities for my side investing
 

WJK

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I've thought a lot about selling niche products to businesses that resemble the one I've worked for all these years.
Trouble is, I know a lot about that business, but nill about ecommerce! Lol

same. I decided to take the real estate licensing course even though I’m busy with other ventures - good learning and opportunities for my side investing
When I was appraising RE, I used online, privately owned, databases every day. Now, I am still a member of the State-wide online MLS data service. I pay a fee for that service every month. Different industries have different needs for databases that must be constantly updated and maintained.
 

Kevin88660

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Theoretically, yes. In reality, in many countries with less popular languages few people buy digital stuff online. Also, you won't benefit from geoarbitrage (getting paid in USD, spending in a currency of a cheaper country).

But yeah, for German and French it could probably work as they're both international languages with some wealthy countries where they're spoken.
Yes. I was thinking of the bigger markets. French, German, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Russian have global large markets.
 
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MTF

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I think that in the end the best equivalent may be simply online education. It's not going away, good teachers are always needed, and education is an investment so it's always easier to sell than a lot of other stuff. The only thing that could probably be better (but more competitive) would be general B2B services.
 

Andy Black

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I think that in the end the best equivalent may be simply online education. It's not going away, good teachers are always needed, and education is an investment so it's always easier to sell than a lot of other stuff. The only thing that could probably be better (but more competitive) would be general B2B services.
Dammit. So you’re saying both my courses and services win the boringness prize?
 
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Itizn

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Can you elaborate further?
While the majority of people are under the impression that you have to "be online" in order to run a successful and profitable businesses, that is simply not true.

Some of the people I work with have no website, or true social media presence, yet run businesses with cash-flow and notable profit margins. And I found these people & companies through the aforementioned platforms.

There are also forums (which could be it's entirely own suggestion) that act as a directory of sorts and ultimately fall under the same category of a database for lead generation.
 
G

Guest-5ty5s4

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While the majority of people are under the impression that you have to "be online" in order to run a successful and profitable businesses, that is simply not true.

Some of the people I work with have no website, or true social media presence, yet run businesses with cash-flow and notable profit margins. And I found these people & companies through the aforementioned platforms.

There are also forums (which could be it's entirely own suggestion) that act as a directory of sorts and ultimately fall under the same category of a database for lead generation.
Sometimes websites and social media hurt a company more than they help. Like for a B2B company, having a Google listing where random people can leave reviews? Not good, because all of the reviews are nonsense.

And sometimes you’ll see photos posted by employees under the business, showing stuff from inside.

Just a headache. B2B customer marketing can be very different from consumer marketing, varying widely by industry, too.
 
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Koen_88

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I think folks find Google Ads boring. It’s pretty stable too when dialled in.

I’ve been running Google Ads for appliance repairs since 2009. 12 years later people still search “oven repairs dublin”…

I’m delighted everyone’s doing sexy marketing such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
curious about hearing you about Google Ads on Fox's Platform!
 

Andy Black

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curious about hearing you about Google Ads on Fox's Platform!
Yeah, @Fox added a 44 min Google Ads tutorial into his web school. I have courses and lots of articles in the forum too (see my signature).
 

Koen_88

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Yeah, @Fox added a 44 min Google Ads tutorial into his web school. I have courses and lots of articles in the forum too (see my signature).
A bit much for now, but I'll definitely check them out in the future!
 
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Andy Black

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MTF

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Any sort of local services business. Lawn car, teaching an instrument, after school children clubs.

They can all be very lucrative with the right model in place.

I think that these are purely offline businesses. I meant businesses you can run from anywhere that are purely online.
 
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Andy Black

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I think that these are purely offline businesses. I meant businesses you can run from anywhere that are purely online.
Maybe "boring" online businesses could be online courses, communities, newsletters, info products, etc for "boring" offline businesses?
 

Andy Black

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MTF

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Maybe "boring" online businesses could be online courses, communities, newsletters, info products, etc for "boring" offline businesses?

That's a very good idea. I wonder if it would be possible to do any of that while not having experience running this specific type of an offline business. After all, how would people trust you to deliver, say, a good guide on how to run a cleaning business if you've never owned such a business?
 

Andy Black

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That's a very good idea. I wonder if it would be possible to do any of that while not having experience running this specific type of an offline business. After all, how would people trust you to deliver, say, a good guide on how to run a cleaning business if you've never owned such a business?
Maybe setup the infrastructure, marketing etc for businesses that deliver those courses?

Or be the business owner and hire experts?
 

BizyDad

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After all, how would people trust you to deliver, say, a good guide on how to run a cleaning business if you've never owned such a business?
They would trust you by putting together a great guide on how to run a cleaning business.

If you do that, someone will take a chance on it, and if they have a positive experience, they'll tell somebody else, and on and on it goes.

Some of the best coaches in sports never played the sport. Some of the best players in sports, made terrible coaches.

I'm sure having the experience of running a cleaning business would help you with creating the content for the course, but I don't think it's absolutely necessary. There's many paths to success when educating others.
 
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Guest-5ty5s4

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They would trust you by putting together a great guide on how to run a cleaning business.

If you do that, someone will take a chance on it, and if they have a positive experience, they'll tell somebody else, and on and on it goes.

Some of the best coaches in sports never played the sport. Some of the best players in sports, made terrible coaches.

I'm sure having the experience of running a cleaning business would help you with creating the content for the course, but I don't think it's absolutely necessary. There's many paths to success when educating others.
This is how I feel about a book I read on flipping houses. I followed the advice, as well as mathematical formula, from a book I read and it worked. Pretty crazy.

Most books just talk in platitudes. I love to find those "how to" guides that really get into the nitty gritty.
 

BizyDad

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This is how I feel about a book I read on flipping houses. I followed the advice, as well as mathematical formula, from a book I read and it worked. Pretty crazy.

Most books just talk in platitudes. I love to find those "how to" guides that really get into the nitty gritty.
Hey, you're flipping houses now? That's awesome. Congrats.

Don't keep us in suspense, what's the book? :rofl:
 
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Guest-5ty5s4

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Hey, you're flipping houses now? That's awesome. Congrats.

Don't keep us in suspense, what's the book? :rofl:
Oh, this was a long time ago. I've talked about it in the forum before. It was actually J Scott's book, the Book on Flipping Houses.

Mark Ferguson has one too that teaches you the same thing.

I already flipped one when I was 23 (sold at 24). My second one I'm currently living in. The project is done.

Both were live-in flips, and the first was a townhome.

Real estate information is everywhere, I swear. It's the one industry where the resources and education are totally saturated - you can find just about anything to learn. Lots of other untapped industries for education.
 
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MTF

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They would trust you by putting together a great guide on how to run a cleaning business.

If you do that, someone will take a chance on it, and if they have a positive experience, they'll tell somebody else, and on and on it goes.

Some of the best coaches in sports never played the sport. Some of the best players in sports, made terrible coaches.

I'm sure having the experience of running a cleaning business would help you with creating the content for the course, but I don't think it's absolutely necessary. There's many paths to success when educating others.

I remember this approach of interviewing 20-30 top players in your chosen niche and creating a free guide out of that to send to everyone else in the niche. That positions you as the expert even though you've merely compiled best practices from the industry.
 

Charnell

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Job boards.

Not sexy at all and there's room for more. If anyone's done any hiring using the big boys like Indeed, Monster, etc, you know that you have to sift through a lot of dog shit to find people to interview. People with 10 years of dishwashing experience applying to be a project manager for a healthcare architecture firm.

You create the source for healthcare architects, that only healthcare architects know about, you're in there like swimwear. Perkins + Will, HDR, HKS posting 10 roles a month each, the smaller firms posting because they see the big three there. Hyper niche so $300, $400, $500 per job post is hardly a dent in the hiring budget.

BTW, just a quick Google search showed healthcare architecture is a $1.5bn industry in the US. -> Healthcare Architecture Market Size, Share & Forecast 2025
 

MTF

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Job boards.

Not sexy at all and there's room for more. If anyone's done any hiring using the big boys like Indeed, Monster, etc, you know that you have to sift through a lot of dog shit to find people to interview. People with 10 years of dishwashing experience applying to be a project manager for a healthcare architecture firm.

You create the source for healthcare architects, that only healthcare architects know about, you're in there like swimwear. Perkins + Will, HDR, HKS posting 10 roles a month each, the smaller firms posting because they see the big three there. Hyper niche so $300, $400, $500 per job post is hardly a dent in the hiring budget.

BTW, just a quick Google search showed healthcare architecture is a $1.5bn industry in the US. -> Healthcare Architecture Market Size, Share & Forecast 2025

Local job boards for specific roles may work, too. For example, VAs from the Balkans or coding jobs for Eastern Europe.
 
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Andy Black

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Job boards.

Not sexy at all and there's room for more. If anyone's done any hiring using the big boys like Indeed, Monster, etc, you know that you have to sift through a lot of dog shit to find people to interview. People with 10 years of dishwashing experience applying to be a project manager for a healthcare architecture firm.

You create the source for healthcare architects, that only healthcare architects know about, you're in there like swimwear. Perkins + Will, HDR, HKS posting 10 roles a month each, the smaller firms posting because they see the big three there. Hyper niche so $300, $400, $500 per job post is hardly a dent in the hiring budget.

BTW, just a quick Google search showed healthcare architecture is a $1.5bn industry in the US. -> Healthcare Architecture Market Size, Share & Forecast 2025
Ooo. I love this.

On Google there are sooo many people searching for jobs. The volumes are high, intent is high, and CPCs low.
 

Charnell

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Local job boards for specific roles may work, too. For example, VAs from the Balkans or coding jobs for Eastern Europe.
I agree that it can be done but wouldn't consider it. To put an arbitrary limit to it, I wouldn't do any location or role that isn't a typical salaried position. $500 for a listing is nothing compared to the $70k paid to the person. $100 a listing for someone you want to pay $1k for a quick project is hard to come to terms with.

Of course, that's coming from my perspective of American's looking to hire from an arbitrage position.
Ooo. I love this.

On Google there are sooo many people searching for jobs. The volumes are high, intent is high, and CPCs low.
With your skills doing ads and email, you have the entire sales and marketing set. Draw them in with ads, once they post, send an automated email 30 days, 90 days, 180 days, 365 days, etc if they haven't posted again. Boom, not recurring in the traditional sense, but enough to keep them coming back!
 

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