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).

The American Single Malt

This idea comes from a few things I've been reading up on that I think add up to a good business idea.  Consider these facts:

1. Single Malt Scotch is still considered to be the best whiskey in the world by many. 
2. Single Malt Scotch is made from barley, whereas American whiskeys are made from mostly corn, and some rye and wheat.  
3. Single Malt Scotch is made from used oak barrels, but American whiskeys are made from mostly new oak barrels.

So here's the idea.  Make single malt whiskey here in the US.  It wouldn't be considered "Scotch"  because it is made here, but it could still be marketed as The American Single Malt.

Step 1: Buy cheap, used, oak barrels from bourbon makers in the US.  

Step 2: Use 100% malted barley instead of corn.  

Step 3: Sell it at a premium price point, but still come in under the imports.  

One thing I have to note is that there are some companies who are trying to do this, but I am confident that nobody has done it properly.  There is not an American Single Malt brand that people categorize with Scotch.

Mail Scanning Service

 What if you never had to open your physical mail?  What if you could just open your email box and find scanned versions of everything that was mailed to you?  

Banks already auto-process mail for large organizations, depositing checks and scanning documents for them.  This would be the same service at your house.  It would filter the junk mail for you, and send you scans of the rest of the mail.  

The challenging element of this is that certain types of mail (letters from your grandmother, magazines, etc.) would still need to arrive at your house.  

Here's how I think it would have to work.  The company gets your consent to forward all of your mail to it address instead of your house.  Then they process all of the mail and send you scans each day.   Every other day or so, the company sends you personal cards, magazines and packages.  

Even better, what if the post office started to offer this service?   Then no forwarding would be necessary.

I can see how this might be worth $10-20 a month.  

Value Priced Massages

My theory is that the pricing structure for massages is incorrect.  In terms of supply and demand, I think that the place where supply meets demand is at a lower price.   

First let's talk about the demand.  Raise your hand if you don't want a back massage right now. Enough said.  Demand is really high.  Obviously you'd have to pay for it and that's a different question, but I'll get to that in a minute.

Supply is the tricky part of this equation, and the key to this business idea. We'd have to find a way to get cheaper labor.  Licensed massage therapists would want to make as much money as possible, and are getting no lower than $40-60 an hour currently.  If they lower prices, they'd have to work harder to make the same amount of money.  I think they are missing it big time, so we'd have to find other therapists.

With unemployment rising, a job at $12 -$15 an hour could attract some applications.  Think about the person between jobs, or a high school student or college student.  They would love to have a job that would pay that kind of wage for a few hours at a time.

Certification might be an issue with this cheaper labor, but if we could skip the official certification and train them in a 2-day training session, I think it could work.

Then we get back to the question, "Would you pay for it?"  Would you pay $20-25 and hour for an unlicensed massage?  What about $10 for 20 minutes?

Can I handle the risk? (General)

I wonder sometimes if I am willing to risk it.  I see all of these ideas and think to myself, "Somebody will make a killing doing this."  But would I take out a loan for $200,000 to execute it?    Would I quit my job?  That's a different question.

I've had the privilege of working with several entrepreneurs with multi million dollar businesses.  Here's what I've noticed about entrepreneurs.  

1. They only take one idea out of one hundred.
2. They minimize the risk by bouncing the idea off of everyone they know before they jump in to the risk fully.
3. Ultimately, they do take the risk.  They take the loan, and do whatever it takes.  They act