Workforce Efficiency Consulting

There are many approaches to developing human resources for your company. Companies with good hiring practices usually do a lot of the same things (background tests, strength tests, etc.). But many companies don't have these practices. Many companies need help.

Have you ever seen those people who choose a career, or quit a job based on what they THINK they are good at? Of course this may not have anything to do with what they are actually good at.

This business would come in to do a one week analysis (I don't like drawn out consulting projects), finding out which employees are operating in their strengths. Everyone in the office takes the same "Strength Finders" test, and then the business analyzes results and does some follow up questions.

Let's say that this process takes 1-week, and might save the company thousands of dollars per year in inefficiencies. The business can charge $1,500 for up to 20 employees (or something like that) and probably do 2-3 per week.

Lending Tree for... Landscaping

The idea is simple. A homeowner goes to the website and enters into a list of options of exactly what they want done to their yard. The website could also be developed to recommend things based on a certain combination of things chosen. It would also encourage the user to upload pictures of their yard to give the landscaping companies an idea of what lies ahead.

You link the local landscapers that are then able to contact this person with ideas/quotes on the work.

I guess this idea came about when I volunteered to work in my buddy'syard and I realized that it is a painstaking process to call each landscaper and do the work to figure out if they are good or not. Plus, landscapers seem to have some of the worst websites around. When I google landscapers for Colorado Springs I get a hodgepodge list of results and none of these sites seem professionally done. It makes sense though, they are landscapers not web designers.

I think the best part of the idea would be to also have a rating system, so the more the landscaper uses the site and gets clients and the better work they do the more clients they get. Simple.

I think it would have to start out local and then you could expand it to be where you enter a zip code. I was also thinking that it would be easy to upload the picture content so the landscapers could have a portfolio page for customers to look through after they received a bid.

Google AdSense

I have been doing some research lately with Google Adsense and it seems like if you put some work in on the front end you could have a website that would generate revenue without a lot of maintenance. I think it would take a lot of research on the front end and a little bit of website design know how (Check! I have a friend that is great with Flash and HTML).

It appears that the key is finding your niche website and getting it to the top of the Google search through optimization and internet marketing. I think this is kind of similar to what you were thinking the other day Phil, but in this case you are not really delving out tasks to sell and supply a product. It is just content generation. Hopefully extremely relevant content that you can manage and have a passion for, like new business ideas for example.

For me, I have created a (www.virginiatechsports.blogspot.com) blog and am going to look into ways that I can market it... for free ideally. I think I will eventually make my own website for this blog, but in the mean time I will go the free route and develop from there. Thoughts? I think your new business ideas could do very well with this if done right. It would be kind of ironic if your new business idea blog was your business idea. The best part about your blog is it could be relevant to people 12 months later as opposed to mine which would need more daily updates and stories.

House Buying Spree

The basic idea is to buy houses and sell them in 2 or 3 years.  Here's what it would look like.

1. Borrow $3 million.
   
2. Buy 20 houses at $150,000 each (this would vary based on the city you live in).
   
3. Rent 20 houses at $1,000 a month.
   
4. Survive until you can start selling the houses off (this may be 6 months or 5 years).
   

If the business gets a loan at 6% interest or less (Barrack might have to help), monthly profit would be $5,000 over the loan payment.  It seems conceivable that you could survive on that for a couple of years, or until the market turns around completely.  

It also fills a huge need.  Banks need someone to take away the headache of these houses that they are repossessing.  

Let's say the market goes up and you can sell your houses for 20% profit on average.  That's $600,000 in profit (before taxes).