Internet Tools to start a small business on the cheap?

[deadlyapp]

I've been wanting to start a side business and would consider making it my primary, but don't really have a product or idea. It's the toughest thing trying to come up with a plan, unless you've got a healthy amount of cash to invest in a restaurant or B&M business. I feel like everyone these days are just doing online drop shippers and other similar spinoffs. It's even worse that all these foreign entities are getting in on it and they often aren't delivering. It's just driving more money to Amazon at the end of the day as people are less willing to do business with online storefronts they don't know.

For my wife and I, we had decided that we really wanted to open a gym and it was her exit strategy to get out of non-profit work. We have a handful of friends who all own or operate gyms, so we had a good feel for what it would take, but didn't have the funding at the time. We had shopped around a few banks to look into funding, but out of the blue ended up having an offer to purchase assets of a gym that was closing, and they were willing to self finance and pay for the assets in installment payments. We took a 401k loan to fund the startup and haven't looked back since. We're finally free cash flow (after about 18 months and COVID) and have expanded and reinvested in the business to grow. We're not getting a paycheck out of it yet, but we didn't really anticipate to do so until about 2 years in, and certainly not in the middle of a pandemic.

I honestly don't believe side businesses are really that great of an idea for most people, unless you a) are a good designer (eg can be inventive, new products, services, etc) or b) are a DIY person (you can make, prototype, add value by service). Running a business is extremely challenging and I'll tell you from my experience, takes a lot from what might be your full time "pays the bills" job. If you're looking to grow your money and be a part of a process, then perhaps simply investing in someone else is the best option.

Personally, I'm hoping at some point in the future I can back off from a full time career and just do handyman style tasks, build things, refinish homes, etc.

 

[Scarpozzi]

For my wife and I, we had decided that we really wanted to open a gym and it was her exit strategy to get out of non-profit work. We have a handful of friends who all own or operate gyms, so we had a good feel for what it would take, but didn't have the funding at the time. We had shopped around a few banks to look into funding, but out of the blue ended up having an offer to purchase assets of a gym that was closing, and they were willing to self finance and pay for the assets in installment payments. We took a 401k loan to fund the startup and haven't looked back since. We're finally free cash flow (after about 18 months and COVID) and have expanded and reinvested in the business to grow. We're not getting a paycheck out of it yet, but we didn't really anticipate to do so until about 2 years in, and certainly not in the middle of a pandemic.

I honestly don't believe side businesses are really that great of an idea for most people, unless you a) are a good designer (eg can be inventive, new products, services, etc) or b) are a DIY person (you can make, prototype, add value by service). Running a business is extremely challenging and I'll tell you from my experience, takes a lot from what might be your full time "pays the bills" job. If you're looking to grow your money and be a part of a process, then perhaps simply investing in someone else is the best option.

Personally, I'm hoping at some point in the future I can back off from a full time career and just do handyman style tasks, build things, refinish homes, etc.

A gym would be a nice concept here, except we have 3 decent sized options for a smallish sized town. One covers the low-cost side and the others are more full-featured with lots of classes and activities. It'd be a tough space to compete in without putting a lot of money into it. There aren't any other gyms to purchase. In my old city, it was large enough that you could essentially put a gym near the suburbs and there would have been more opportunity for customers.

I've always worked in service type jobs (IT) where I don't generate money for the business. I only support the business or provide data to make it work better, identify customer acquisition costs, etc. I'm actually doing a lot of indirect marketing work these days even though it's not my core job. I just know how to write SQL code and process the data to connect the dots.

The concept of switching to internet sales sounds fun to me because I can either go the commission route and get a few cents per sale or make the money selling the retail markup from wholesale items. I just don't know what it takes to run those kinds of businesses and not get stuck holding inventory for too long. At the end of the day, I'd like to find a hybrid business that allows me to sell items locally AND online to a more broad customer base. I'm still thinking about what type of goods I could sell locally without getting totally undercut by Walmart/Amazon/Target, etc...

 

[deadlyapp]

A lot of people seem to be doing the dropship route, where you list items on Amazon as a third party seller and then basically fulfill them out of drop ship or other sources. This still requires knowing the wholesale side in order to actually skim a profit. Some people are successful, but it seems like a lot of work.

Another good hobby business could be real estate, although if you're in a small town that may be challenging. Usually relatively easy to get a license and then it's a lot of selling yourself and connecting well with people.