Wheeling and Dealing

This business buys discounted items from large companies like costco and SAMs, and sells them online. It could buy discounted clothes, electronics, gift cards, anything.

The key here is not having inventory. The business can list the product and pick it up after it sells.

The employees of this business spend all their time looking for things they can sell online.

Another key is to constantly change inventory, and try to make money whenever Internet stores have a higher price than a local superstore.


- Posted using my iPhone

Cereal Restaurant

This is a restaurant with every type of breakfast cereal on the market... And nothing else. That's right. Customers come for a bowl of cereal with milk, any time of the day. Open until 10:00pm for late night snacks.

Really this would exist for the cool factor more than practical reasons. Environment is WAY more important than the product.

- Posted using my iPhone

2009 Top New Business Ideas

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this blog in 2009! We came up with 36 business ideas in 2009. I consider that a huge success, and am really looking forward to some more breakthrough ideas in 2010.

In no particular order, here are the top 10 ideas for businesses in 2009.

1. Self Powered Gym
2. Nanny Day Care
3. Solar Panel Leasing
4. Photography Archiving
5. Concession Trailer
6. Twitter Consulting
7. American Single Malt Distillery
8. Lending Tree for Landscaping
9. Home Food Inventory
10. The Man Store

2010 here we come.

Reader Input- Top 10 Ideas of 2009

If you have an opinion about what the top 10 business ideas of 2009 are from this blog, let me know. I'm going to work on putting that together this week.

Also, if you have any new ideas for 2010, let's get those ideas in text so we can share them.

Merry Christmas!

Flash Business Audits

Consultants are expensive, and necessary. First, if a business needs to grow, and doesn't know what to do differently, it needs a consultant. Second, if a business has great ideas, but not the staff to implement it, it needs a consultant. Because there are 2 different reasons to use a consultant, things can get complicated with the relationship.

That's where this business idea takes a competitive advantage. Audits typically take months to complete. This is a company that sells business audits that will be delivered in less than a week. It is a single moment snapshot of the company, without any nonsense. So it caters to the business that has a good execution team, but needs some outside suggestions, fast.

A team of highly qualified business experts do a snapshot analyzation of the company. There's a finance expert, a marketing expert, a human resources expert, and a technology expert all talking about a company for a day. All the important information is obtained before they meet so that the time is at maximum productivity.

The deliverable is a presentation, and document of the findings.

Charge for something like this should be in the neighborhood of $5,000 per audit. To justify this cost, there is a promise that there will be practical suggestions that will increase the business profit and cut costs by $5,000 or more in the next year.

Twitter, Facebook, Blog Consulting

There is a giant new demand in the marketplace right now. The curiosity for online marketing through Facebook, Twitter, and many others has skyrocketed in the last 6 months. Everyone believes in online marketing, but few know how to do it.

The business is simple. Explain Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to businesses and charge them for it. The tricky part is confidently making the sale to a business. Even that isn't very tricky.

I really don't want to over complicate this idea. It really is simple.

Approach a business owner (most likely someone who is a bit older and is new to Facebook in the last year). Say, "For $1,000 I will set your business up to connect with customers through these specific websites. I will explain to you how to:

1. Use your phone or a video camera to upload videos to your blog.
2. Show you how to check for messages and postings on facebook so that you don't miss any communications with customers.
3. Set up a Twitter account that will also update your status on Facebook.
4. Teach you the secret of using these resources to increase profits and customer loyalty."

The last point is key to making the sale, but actually simple. These tools are a way to give special offers to loyal customers, and to respond quickly to their needs. That is all. If a company focuses on these two strategies, they will find success.

I don't know how big the window is for this. It may be 1 year, it may be 5 years. For one length of time or another, money will be made doing this.

How-To Video Site

I noticed that there are lots of how-to videos on you tube, but most of them are not worth paying for. Asking someone to pay for a video implies that the seller believes it is worth paying for. It means they put more effort into it than Joe Schmo with his cheap video camera.

How can the seller get the buyer to believe the same? This is the business challenge, the critical success factor.

1. Sell the video host as an expert in their field (give a free lecture a local college, read the top selling books on the topic, emphasize that this material really does work).
2. Get some testimonials from people who have watched the video.
3. Start buying some google ad words related to your how-to video

To further the concept, here's my video idea: How to Get the Best Interest Rate on Your Mortgage

Here's my pitch. I've bought a house, and refinanced twice. Realtors can't be trusted completely, and lenders can't be trusted completely.

This video will help people lower their monthly payments by $50-$100 a month. It will cost $49 and would come with several related free items (How to Find the Best Interest Rate for Your Bank Account).

Thoughts?