The Relaxing Tourist Shop

I know, it's hard to imagine.  But what if you were on vacation and you found a little shop?  You've been walking around with your camera paying for overpriced items left and right.  Then you walk into a store that has souvenirs at reasonable prices.  It has a places to sit and relaxing music in the background.  

The big advantage is that you find a bunch of things that are just helpful for your trip.  It could have very simple activity plans for people with directions to everything for $2.  It could have coupon books for different area attractions that they can purchase for $5, but will save them much more.  I think there are lots of products that it could stock actually if given a bit of thought.

It just might make some money.

Prepackaged School Supplies

What if you could go into a single store, or go online, answer short list of questions about each of your kids, and have school supplies shipped to your house the week before classes?

Would you pay $40-50 per child to know that they had everything they need for chemistry class, art, math, and history and that you wouldn't have to spend your entire Saturday driving around?

You might have to do some serious research on the different schools and teachers, but you could also start with one school.  A single school with 1,000 kids is still profitable.  If  you managed to get 10% of the school to use your service, that's $4,000 gross revenue.  If half of that is profit, you just made $2,000 for packaging school supplies for 100 people. 

I give this idea a 6 out of 10 so far.  It has room to improve still.   It's missing something I think, but it's a start.

Home Grocery Delivery

This business would actively keep track of the best sales on meat, fresh produce, cereal, milk, and all the main essentials.   Then it would send sales people through neighborhoods on a Saturday morning at 9:00.  Essentially the sales person would say, "Hey I'm going to the grocery store, do you need me to pick something up for you?"

They would develop relationships with the neighborhood to gain their trust, and they would deliver the groceries later that afternoon.  Delivery fee would be 5% of the total order.   Pick up $5,000 worth of groceries each week to deliver to 25 people, make $250.  Sales rep gets $200 for a day's work, company keeps $50.

Network of Chefs

This would be a service that provides a personal chef for a special occasion.  This would be in a home for a small group of people

The business side would look like this.  Let's say it costs the client $250 for a personal chef and all of the food for a nice dinner for 8 people.  The food itself only cost $100 so the chef made $100 for a couple hours worth of work, and the business made $50 to set the whole thing up and take the risks.

The client should still be happy because a nice dinner for 8 people could easily cost that much at a restaurant anyway.

A big distinguishing factor is also that this is a service for a small group.  It really shouldn't be any bigger than 8 people to feel small and intimate so that it will be a unique experience.

Vintage T-Shirts

This one has been done for sure, but still may have some profit potential.  

You go to thrift stores to look for T-Shirts that have old dates on them and look "vintage" and cool.  You pay fifty cents for the T-Shirts, and sell them for much more on Ebay.

The trick is getting a steady supply of cool T-Shirts, but the upside is the incredible profit margin you achieve.  I mean, you could mark them up at least eight times what you paid.

Retail Stores (General)

I am afraid of opening a retail store.  Long hours, hiring challenges, turnover, stocking shelves, and the list goes on.  But I've had a positive thought about them and I think it is important to think about.

Retail is simple.  It's so much simpler to sell things from a store than ideas or services that are less tangible.  It's very hard work, but not complex. 

Also, everyone seems to intuitively understand a retail shop.  You buy stuff cheap.  You open the doors to your store.  People come in and look around.  If they see something they want, they pay you the amount you printed on a price tag.   You stock stuff that sells and get rid of stuff that doesn't.  Very straight forward.   

So what am I so scared of?

Thoughts?

Vineyard & Winery In a New Location

These have been around for thousands of years, so if you start a new one, it's got to stand out as different.  I believe that the key in this industry is location. 

I say stay away from Napa Valley.  If you're going to do that, why don't you just go all the way and start one in France?  No, there's just too much competition.  It could be done, but I just don't see this as a huge opportunity for a business.

I propose a vineyard in the middle of the country.  There are tons in Missouri, and they are doing quite well, but they are still very young.  You aren't going to find 100 year old vines in Missouri, and that's why there is opportunity.  Explore new grape varieties, and compete with the young vineyards for a piece of the pie.

Another location idea is something near Birmingham, or another wealthy city in the south.  The environment of a vineyard would be perfect for weddings, so it would provide additional revenue.