A playbook for Generating Business Ideas

16 Small Business Ideas
Small business ideas can be defined as ideas that are not “scalable.” They don’t
have the potential to grow at rapid speed and may not ever be larger than a few
million dollar per year business. If they were ever to grow to be much larger than
a few million dollars per year, it would likely take several years, and profit
margins would not increase over time because they are dependent on human
labor. Most of these small business ideas may be even smaller than a few million
dollars per year.
Small businesses are great for people who want freedom from a job, are
passionate about the work that the small business entails, take pride in being
self-sufficient, and/or don’t have the skills or capital to start something larger.
Some of these can be started and maintained while still working another job or
with another business.
Below is a list of small business ideas.
1. Store Front
You could buy some retail space and open a store. You could sell products you
make yourself or products you purchase from other manufacturers. You could
also possibly buy an existing store and operate it yourself. Store fronts include
grocery stores, delis, coffee shops, laundromats, dry cleaners, barbers, massage
parlors, pizza shops, salons, plant stores, antique stores, convenience stores,
electronics stores, record stores, Internet cafes, and more.
Stores provide a valuable service to local populations by supplying them with
goods they need. In addition, most store fronts require outside employees.
Creating jobs is an honorable contribution to a local economy.
Many stores have high costs because of the physical space and physical goods.
One benefit of store fronts is that little or no advanced (difficult to find) skill sets
are required to manage them. Therefore, you could hire people to do just about
everything that needs to be done at the store, freeing yourself to enjoy the profit
and your time as you please.

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2. Bar and/or Restaurant
Bars and restaurants fall into the “meet known needs” category. We know that
people like to eat and drink because they have been doing so for a very long
time, and because there are many bars and restaurants that are making a profit.
One great benefit of owning a bar or restaurant is that your work environment
would be quite fun. If you enjoy spending time in bars or restaurants you might
be more likely to enjoy owning one.
To start a bar or restaurant you will need the real estate, restaurant equipment
and furnishings, some staff, and, in most places, a liquor license if you plan to
serve alcohol.
3. Business Consulting
In order to have a consulting business, you will need an in-demand skill set.
Most potential clients will want you to have some relevant credentials or
accomplishments if they are going to hire you.
You could consult for entrepreneurs, startups, small businesses, medium-sized
businesses, or large companies. You could consult on marketing, product
management, sales, recruiting, human resources, strategy, finance, or just about
any other business function.
One of the biggest challenges that many business consultants face is finding
clients. To find clients you will likely need to have a strong professional
network, a good marketing or sales strategy, and/or a good plan for expanding
your professional network. Check out my book,
How
to
Build
an
Awesome
Professional
Network
, for actionable advice on meeting new people, building
relationships, and getting more referrals through the people you know.
4. Wholesaling
Wholesaling is when you buy a good in large quantities and sell it in smaller

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quantities. This can be a profitable business as when you buy in wholesale you
typically get a lower price than you get when buying a small quantity. For
example, if you buy a 24-pack of beer it is usually cheaper on a per-beer basis
than buying one beer or a six pack.
Therefore, you could start a wholesaling business by buying a 24-pack of beer
for, say, $24 (or $1 per beer), and then selling each beer for $2 or four packs of 6
for $10 each. If you sold each beer for $2, your total revenue for selling 24 beers
would be $48. You bought the 24-pack for $24, so you would have earned a
profit of $24.
Some of the first businesses I started were wholesaling businesses. For example,
I bought large quantities of vending machine items and then sold them in smaller
quantities on ebay.
Wholesaling businesses require some startup costs. You will probably need
money for buying the large quantity. However, it’s possible that you could take
payment from retailer purchases before making the wholesale purchase.
5. Physical Labor
Physical labor businesses include carpentry, locksmithing, landscaping,
plumbing, painting, roof and gutter cleaning, snow blowing, leaf raking, and
more.
I started a lawn mowing business one summer. I just printed out a bunch of
flyers offering to mow people’s lawns with my phone number, and then put them
in mailboxes all over my neighborhood. People started calling me asking to pay
me to mow their lawns.
To start a physical labor business, you need the equipment required for each
service (for example, a lawn mowing business would require a lawn mower),
and some customers. You could hire people to do the labor for or with you, or
you could do it yourself.
Physical labor businesses would probably be great for someone who likes to be
outside, likes to be active, doesn’t have enough money or desire to get a formal

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education, or doesn’t want to work in an office.
6. Business Services
There are many processes that businesses commonly outsource to third-party
companies or freelancers instead of hiring someone full-time. Examples of
services that businesses commonly outsource are accounting and legal. You
could start a business that provides the services that businesses want to
outsource. A business services company would be appealing because it’s an
opportunity to help entrepreneurs. It could also provide a flexible schedule
because you could take on clients as you please. You could end all your client
engagements, go on a long vacation, and then come back and take on new clients
or resume the old ones.
7. Life Coach
According to Wikipedia, “Life coaching draws upon a variety of tools and
techniques from other disciplines aimed at self-development such as sociology,
behavioral science, psychology, and organizational theory with an aim towards
supporting people to develop self-awareness of habits and identify and achieve
personal goals.
“Coaches do not deal in psychological counseling, hypnosis, dream analysis,
psychic phenomenon (intuitives, tarot, psychic readings), or other avenues of
providing guidance. Coaches are not 'guides' who reveal how one should live
their life, but rather professionals trained to facilitate methods of personal
development (i.e., partner with a client to uncover limiting habits of thinking and
acting, clarify what is meaningful, frame goals, and design action steps) in the
creation of a meaningful life.”
If you have expertise and relevant experience, people may trust you to give them
advice on their life. You could charge by the hour and meet people in person or
via phone or Skype. If you only work with clients via Skype, you could run your
business from anywhere in the world.
8. Wedding Planner

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Planning a wedding takes a lot of time and effort. Many people don’t have that
time. Planning a wedding also requires some design and style. Many people
don’t have good taste in design and style.
A wedding planning business would fit into the “meet known needs”
methodology because it helps people save time, and the “do what’s working”
category because there are many existing wedding planning providers that
people pay for.
To start a wedding planning business you would probably need skills in project
management, communication, and design, as well as the ability to acquire
clients.
9. Travel Agent
Similar to planning a wedding, planning a vacation requires a lot of time
researching and coordinating. Some people don’t have the time to research and
coordinate or find it difficult or annoying to coordinate and research.
To solve the time and difficulty problem for travelers, you could start a travel
agency. You would help people plan their vacations. If you are passionate about
traveling, this might be a fun business to run.
10. Personal Trainer
Personal trainers help people get in shape.
It’s an honorable job because you’re helping people get healthier and be happier.
Personal trainers solve the known needs of looking good, being happy, and even
finding dates.
11. Financial Planner
Many people work as financial planners for big banks like Goldman Sachs. They
could start their own financial planning business, providing nearly the same

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services. Working for a company, you earn less than you would if you were on
your own because the company takes a percentage of the revenue.
Financial planners help people manage their money. Many people don’t
understand personal finance or investment, and don’t have the time and/or skills
to learn, so they need help.
12. Tutoring
In my opinion, one of the best ways to learn something is to get personalized,
one on one, in-person instruction. Young students who are struggling in a given
class will often hire a tutor to help them work through their challenges. I’ve
heard of a couple online marketplaces that connect tutors and people looking for
a tutors, which would make it easier for you to get clients if you started a
tutoring business. You could also get tutoring clients by posting on Craigslist,
posting flyers on school campuses, and getting referrals through your
professional network.
13. Executive Recruiting
Executive recruiting businesses connect companies that are hiring to candidates.
For companies that are hiring, finding qualified candidates is challenging and
time-consuming. Executive recruiting companies almost always get paid by the
company that is hiring. The recruiting company can charge the client a monthly
retainer or a finder’s fee if they hire an employee that the recruiter referred. The
finder’s fee can potentially be really large, especially if it is based on the hire’s
salary and that salary is very high.
Executive recruiting would be a fun business to start if you enjoy
communication and a fast-paced work environment. To be effective at recruiting,
you will probably want strong interpersonal skills, sales skills, and a strong
professional network that can refer you to clients and candidates.
One challenge of the recruiting business is that it can take a long time to actually
connect a client to a candidate and have them get hired. It’s actually pretty hard
to do in practice. So you could potentially go a long time without closing a deal.

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One benefit of recruiting is that your compensation is based on the amount of
hours you work. So you could potentially close a lot of deals in a short period of
time and then take time off for a while. Or you could close a deal every once in a
while without working a ton of hours.
I’ve thought about starting an executive recruiting business that I would operate
passively. I wouldn’t spend too much time chasing new clients or candidates, I
would mostly just sign with companies I already know and refer candidates I
already know. It’s something I already do for free, so I would just have to get a
contract made and start charging for it.
14. Agent, Connector, Broker
An agent makes money by connecting two parties, usually so that they can
engage in some kind of monetary transaction. They usually get paid a percentage
of the transaction value from one party.
Examples of transactions that one could broker include connecting a real estate
buyer or renter to a real estate owner, connecting a company looking for
acquisitions to a company they can acquire, or connecting a company raising
money to an investor.
Some people are hard to find. It requires a strong network (knowing a lot of
people), and/or being able to do a lot of research.
15. Artist
An artist makes money by creating a piece of art and selling it. Types of art
include sculptures, pottery, paintings, and more.
16. Nutritionist
Similar to personal trainers, nutritionists help people get and stay healthy.
Instead of helping with exercise the way personal trainers do, they help with
nutrition. Nutritionists advise their clients on what to eat, given their health and

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fitness goals. To start a business as a nutritionist, you would need expertise in
nutrition and the ability to acquire clients.

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