Friday, November 19, 2010

Business for Fun and Profit

There are so many options available to someone who wants to start a business. It's almost overwhelming. Almost, hell. It is overwhelming.

For reasons that remain unclear to me, I've been thinking a lot lately about starting another business. Or, I should say, businesses. Here are some of the ideas that have crossed my mind:
  • Create and distribute prepared foods that respond to special diets, e.g., various levels/types of diabetes, low roughage diets, diets geared toward peopel in renal failure, etc., etc.
  • Related to the above, create cookbooks and meal plans, with grocery lists, to address the needs of people who need to stick to special medically-necessary diets.
  • Organize expos that bring together realtors, developers, sellers, and buyers of all kinds of properties so that buyers can learn about options, prices, neighborhoods, etc., etc. before they narrow their selections.
  • Small-scale "general contractor" services for people who don't want to pay for and don't need the expensive services of a general contractor for less involved projects.
  • Related to the one above, homeowner services that respond to a host of homeowner needs in a "one stop shop" way, e.g., lawn service, tree trimming, pest control, house-cleaning/maid services, window-cleaning, landscaping, pre-sale home staging, appliance-repair scheduling and oversight, etc.
  • Event-sponsor hotel liability reduction services (matchmaking services to provide "heads on beds" for event organizers who face attrition penalties for under-subscribed sleeping room blocks).
  • Non-dues revenue program development, roll-out, and marketing for associations.
  • Public relations firm that focuses exclusively on association clients.
  • Group buying services...representing groups of buyers who, collectively, could get lower prices than they can get individually.
  • Related, in a way to group buying, would be a group building discount service, i.e., identifying large numbers of individuals who are planning to build their own homes and working to get them quantity discounts on building materials, builder services, etc.
  • Continuing personal education programs...emulate (and improve on) companies like FunEd, etc.

I have a thousand other ideas. I just want to do something different, something that's intriguing and could generate sufficient revenue to make it worthwhile. I'd love a partner in this (these) endeavors. Anybody game?

2 comments:

YourFireAnt said...

One of those reminds me of a business in Anne Tyler's "Patchwork Planet", called Rent-A-Back, where the guys did odd jobs of all kinds for elderly and disabled people. The story was good too. You might read it.

;-)

Springer Kneeblood said...

I'll do that. I just read a bit about it and I like the premise.