Quote: (02-26-2015 11:41 PM)Brodiaga Wrote:
Can you or somebody else give me some examples of bootstrappable, scalable and location independent businesses? I'm not looking to steal anybody's ideas, just some food for thought so that I can come up with my own. Doesn't have to be your own business either.
Bootstrap: to start with relatively little invested in the business, start making money, and keep reinvesting profits in the business to make more money. This is opposed to seeking out financing from a bank or other investors. Though you don't start out with a lot of cash, you get to keep more of the company and reap the profits if it becomes successful.
Example: There was a thread on here a while back about buying like 24 e-cig hookahs for $10 a pop and selling them for $30 a pop (not sure about the numbers, but it'll work for our purposes). From that first box of hookahs, you'd make 24 (#) x $20 (profit) = $480. Let's say you use that money to buy 2 more boxes and sell them each for $480 profit--you have $960. Let's say that you figure you can sell them more quickly if you have a sales team, so you buy three boxes and hire a couple of guys to sell them for $5 a piece.
Eventually, you get to a level where you can branch out into other product lines or becoming a wholesaler/distributor.
Scalable: So I like to think of scalability as honing a process enough and having a big enough potential market where you've essentially created a money machine; pour some cash in, more cash comes out. Essentially the ability to grow as a business and handle that growth for the foreseeable future.
It does kind of relate to bootstrapping insomuch as a bootstrapped business almost by definition has to scale, as well, in order to keep pumping money into the business.
Example: Think of something like Tough Mudder. It started out as a single "extreme" race in a single city somewhere in America. They honed the concept for a while, cutting fat, charging more, promoting it, etc. Eventually, they figured they had enough of a cash machine going that they could expand to a second city...then a 3rd...etc. Each new location should, in theory, pump another amount similar to that first race into the company. That's one example of scaling, but scaling doesn't have to be geographic scaling--it can be different product lines, tapping new markets--essentially growth that you're relatively certain will continue, since that's what investors are ultimately looking for (stock price/ROI to keep going up).
Location-Independent: This one is pretty self-explanatory: a job you can do from anywhere. Usually it can be done via a computer and the internet somehow.
There are plenty of jobs that
could be location-independent, and I think more and more will become so in the future. For now, though, there are still a lot of jobs that are location-independent out there.
Examples: Copywriter
, freelance web designer, freelance article writer, consultant (this is a big one), teacher/educator (via webcasts), customer service rep, internet marketer, motivational speaker, kindle writer, personal coach, editor, blogger, IT consultant, app developer, software developer, dropshipper, PUA "guru," translator, transcriber--like I said, pretty much anything that can be done with a computer.
I'd recommend copywriting (or IT/web design, if you have some skills there) to start out with, then potentially transitioning into full-on internet marketing when you have the chance. I'm trying to do so now, and while there have been a few bumps along the way, I'm starting to see a potentially big payday.
I think this speaks to Jefe's point about entrepreneurship generally: Has it been easy getting here? No. I've spent almost 4 years trying a bunch of different stuff, from article writing, to a failed startup, to copywriting, to marketing, and a lot of little side projects in-between. As painful as the failures have been along the way, each project has led to a bunch of new lessons, and ultimately given me valuable experience for the next project. In a weird way, one thing has led to another, which led to another, which led me to here.
The important things to remember, especially in your case, are:
1) Keep going
2) Offer something that's valuable to a group of people that CRAVE it, and
3) Learn how to find those people and sell to them.
Sounds simple, but it takes time to learn all of this stuff. Good luck, man.
Vigo