[paninaro]

I see people on here a lot looking for business ideas. I come up with a new business idea just about every week, but I don't start these because my current business is where I want to be.

So I thought I'd start a thread to pass on business ideas to anyone who wants them.

Here's two I thought of this week:

1. Google Analytics consulting. Google has made the reports you get in Analytics more and more complicated. Set up a service where the customer pays you $200, and they give you read-only access to their Analytics data on Google. Then, you actually go over it and provide a 1-page report of hte key takeways (like executive summary). It could be stuff like "X search term generates 5x as much incoming traffic as all others" or "X% of your visitors are on a mobile device" or "Y% of your traffic comes from Europe". People who don't have time to mess with or learn Analytics would find it cheaper just to pay to get an executive summary of what they really need to know.

2. Home caretaking service. There are companies like AHS that offer a home warranty service where you pay $500/year or something like that and they will come and fix your broken furnace, sink, etc. What I'm thinking would work is a level above that, kind of like what the superintendent of a building does. So the company would charge a fixed monthly fee to the homeowner, and then be reponsible for overseeing all maintenance. They'd come by on request or monthly, and see what is in need of repair, and then do it if it's easy or find trusted vendors to do it (with the customer paying for the vendor's fees).

Any other business ideas people want to share?

[tiggaling]

Look after the administration of airbandb tenancy for the landlords. Would need to be a city or area where airbandb and similiar sites are big.

[jtbabycarrots]

(02-09-2014 01:19 AM)paninaro Wrote:  

1. Google Analytics consulting. Google has made the reports you get in Analytics more and more complicated. Set up a service where the customer pays you $200, and they give you read-only access to their Analytics data on Google. Then, you actually go over it and provide a 1-page report of hte key takeways (like executive summary). It could be stuff like "X search term generates 5x as much incoming traffic as all others" or "X% of your visitors are on a mobile device" or "Y% of your traffic comes from Europe". People who don't have time to mess with or learn Analytics would find it cheaper just to pay to get an executive summary of what they really need to know.

I really like this concept. Would only work with small businesses, but still a good concept. Do you know any advanced stuff in this area?

[RexImperator]

A fast food restaurant run completely by robots. Kind of like the 1950s automat but updated for the 21st century

I've never been to Japan but I imagine this would be the kind of thing that will work there first, and then come to the US.

It will happen sooner the more minimum wage is increased.

[paninaro]

(02-17-2014 11:36 AM)RexImperator Wrote:  

A fast food restaurant run completely by robots. Kind of like the 1950s automat but updated for the 21st century

I've never been to Japan but I imagine this would be the kind of thing that will work there first, and then come to the US.

It will happen sooner the more minimum wage is increased.

Good idea. It's already starting. At many McDonald's drive-thru's, the person taking your order is not actually in that McD's location -- they're in basically a call center a few hundred miles away.

There's also a fast-casual burrito chain (Boloco) where you order on your own. There are a bunch of kiosks with touch-screens, and you place your order there and slide your card (for cash, there is one manned register). Then take a seat and they call your number when the meal is ready.

[Atlantic]

Moving classic/rare cars.

My brother and my dad have made a nice bit of money doing this as a side hustle for years.


Places like Malta pay good money for classics that are easily available in places like California.
Back in the day The UK were paying huge money for luxury 4x4s available for much cheaper in New Zealand.

It is always changing and profit margins can dry up over a year or two. (The NZ example would not work anymore).

You need the contacts and knowhow but its a relatively easy way to turn 15k into 20k+.

I think in the NZ example he nearly doubled his money. It required him owning them for either 6 months or a year before he shipped them though.

[Hispanic_Reasoning]

If anybody can find a way to profit from trolling colleges in making online books FAR cheaper through sharing software or something like the terminology is called, I know so many people who would pay money for that. College books are big business and need to be trolled to make that crap cheaper. That's one idea that I can think of straight out of my head.

[fortysix]

(02-19-2014 01:06 AM)Hispanic_Reasoning Wrote:  

If anybody can find a way to profit from trolling colleges in making online books FAR cheaper through sharing software or something like the terminology is called, I know so many people who would pay money for that. College books are big business and need to be trolled to make that crap cheaper. That's one idea that I can think of straight out of my head.

What about renting textbooks on a kindle device?

[Hispanic_Reasoning]

Well, the software sometimes includes labs that have to be done on a laptop or desktop and from what I know, can't be done on a kindle. But renting books on a kindle or smartphone would be a good thing to do. I just haven't been able to do sadly.

[SwayMe]

Is it possible to add ideas on how to market it properly when ppl don't have that much cash for advertising.

[paninaro]

(02-19-2014 01:06 AM)Hispanic_Reasoning Wrote:  

If anybody can find a way to profit from trolling colleges in making online books FAR cheaper through sharing software or something like the terminology is called, I know so many people who would pay money for that. College books are big business and need to be trolled to make that crap cheaper. That's one idea that I can think of straight out of my head.

Textbooks are indeed big business, but also complicated because there are new editions, special publisher relationships, etc.

There was a court case last year (I think it went up to the Supreme Court actually) where a Thai guy in the US was importing the international edition of the textbook and selling them in the US. The reason this worked is that the US version may cost $100 because the market will bear it, while the international version, which basically the same text, will cost $20 in Thailand (again, market pricing). The int'l version may be in black & white instead of color, and be printed on cheaper paper, but who cares. He was making millions per year on what is basically just arbitrage.

There are some upstarts doing open source textbooks and soon, but ultimately what textbook is used is at the decision of the professor, and they get kickbacks from the publishers to use a specific book. The kickback is usually in the form of a free reference copy, and a "test bank" of questions for each chapter that they can use so they don't have to write their own quizzes.

There's also a long tail type of distribution. In many fields (economics is one), there are only a handful of different books used in the main courses. For example, if you're taking intro to econ (micro), it's probably a book by a guy named Mankiw. For psychology, it's by a guy named Myers.

At the same time, textbook publishers are extremely slow to adapt, so there is some opportunity there for fast-movers.

[paninaro]

New one: operating airline crisis teams.

Asiana Airlines just got fined $500k because they hadn't set up a website and hotline and crisis management team when their airplane crashed.

The business idea is to have a crack team ready to respond to an airline's crisis at a moment's notice. Phone numbers, website, etc already in place, and a trained team of call center people, crisis managers, etc on call and ready for action.

It's basically an insurance policy to all but the largest of airlines (which already have this in-house I'm guessing), since these incidents don't occur that often, but they do happen a few times a year. A couple weeks ago, an Ethiopian Airlines plane was hijacked by the co-pilot for example.

[C-Note]

Couple of ideas I heard about through the grapevine:

1. Any town, county, or state that's about to legalize marijuana, invest in a food delivery business, especially pizza

2. Any town, county, or state that's about to outlaw indoor smoking in restaurants and bars, invest in an existing cigar bar that will likely receive a grandfather exemption from the ban.