Hi WSO,
I summon your collective minds to brainstorm on this idea!!
If you have $50,000 and you can start any business what business would you start and why?
-$500 monthly stipend for food/gas/cell phone
-couch is free (parents/gf/friends)
Present your business case and I will shower you with SB's like I shower supermodels with Cristal
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a way to instantly download a pizza I can eat.
R&D cost would run in millions but thanks for the input!
dude, a 3d printing oven would be pretty f'ing sweet
Sorry, someone has already invented that. (Sorta)
http://www.youtube.com/embed/B4_C1BmT-R8
Really evil: offer a subscription to a weight loss program along with that pizza machine.
You can franchise a carpet cleaning business for that much, and as long as you have a good personality and can hire cheap labor it would be a pretty easy to make some money.
50k really isnt enough to start business. You could also buy some foreclosed properties in the ghetto and flip them/rent them, but most people don't have the thick skin for the job.
A friend of mine did that and it works pretty well. Methodology is: 1 - Go to a ghetto city/neighborhood (hint: harlem is not what you're looking for... Soothie? Philly?) 2 - Befriend one of these guys who buy foreclosed units by the dozen. No way you can directly compete with him, so buy a unit from him. Make sure it's in a poor neighborhood where people can't quite afford to move away and definitely can't buy. Pay say $30k. 3 - Never set foot in the actual property 4 - Hire a house renovator, fix what has to be fixed, clean the place. Spend 5 to 10k 5 - Have the property appraised. Value appraised? ~$60k, no joke 6 - Rent it with a broker who'll also be in charge of collecting rents. Don't shoot too high, but $800 is doable. The trick? Those people likely receive some kind of federal pension/benefits and you can grab them if they stop paying. 7 - Borrow $50k from a bank, bringing your first, appraised and wonderful, property as collateral. Repeat.
Does work but yeah, you've got to have a thick skin for that. Payback periods are incredibly shorts (most likely because it's your only way to actually recover your principal)...
i have never fucking heard of a home that cheap, even if the ghetto. what teh fuck
Thanks for the imput. Carpet cleaning, painting businesses are good I know some people who own them in Canada. I wouldn't want to leave my $60k job for that though
I can think of more fun ways of wasting $50,000. I know you are looking for ideas but a few more details of what you are looking to get out of it would be helpful.
Lol I can think of some ways too...buying AAPL June 13 calls, getting escorts, balling to vegas for the weekend to drown in pussy etc. But this is my hard earned money. I saved it and didnt buy the rolex, bimmer my friends were buying. Im stuck in a $60k job and after paying $33k in taxes...i feel poor. I am introverted and even though I am good at sales I don't prefer it as it saps away my energy. Thanks for the input sir!!
I know a guy who bought a street sweeping business and has generated enough cash from that to move onto looking for another small business. His goal (after starting with ~$40k) is to own a few businesses that he doesn't have to manage that will bring in a few hundred thousand a year. In 15 years, he'll probably sell some/all of them and retire.
I know another guy who started with a roofing business and now has his own little conglomerate or service and real estate businesses. I'm sure it was a ton of work, but now he's living well.
If you find something truly legit and pretty safe, I could be convinced to throw another $50k in if it didn't require me to leave my day job or travel. $100k cash plus some debt can get you a decent business at times.
The advice I've heard over and over again is don't rush and don't buy a restaurant or bar. There will be good deals due to retirement, health of the owner, economy, etc... But you'll have to work to find them.
Re-read his question. What business would you start for $50,000...period. There are no other details necessary. If you don't know the answer, don't respond.
This is how I would do it: - Do I want to do something local (1) or global(2)? (1) If it is local, I'd wonder what is missing in my town/area? A tutoring company/website to link students who are offering their services and kids/parents who are looking for a private tutor? (2) Can I sell something on the internet that has demand or that would be successful?
Website costs + a little marketing wouldn't cost much.
Of course, there's many more things you could do or start with but honestly, I don't have any ideas right at the moment (and if I did, I'd probably do it myself).
My 0.02$
Friends started tutoring business in school. It was a pain in ass, student flaked on appointments etc.
As someone that worked frequently as a tutor, a pre-payment system needs to be put in place to avoid these kinds of things. To make money off a tutoring business is tough. I have started a nonprofit but its too difficult getting it off the ground
thanks to your opinion. how much would you have to invest for website + marketing? and how long would it take to reach breakeven point?
So basically no SB's for anyone :(
In all seriousness, probably invest in some start-ups.
Waiting for Congress to pass the JOBS act later this year or early next year. Then I can invest into companies I think have potential. Right now you have to be a HNWI to invest in start ups.
Also waiting...would like to invest in some start ups but also give the opportunity for some WSO members to have an interest in WSO.
You looking for ideas to start a business?
Rent a food truck and serve English muffin pizzas. Cheap, delicious, and you will have flexible hours and locations.
We started Jet Cigs with a $50K investment. I think you'd be crazy to start an ecig company at this stage of the game but just fyi that you can start a real business for ~$50K. Obviously we've seen more investment since then but that was to fund growth.
There's a ton of OEM in China that you could buy stuff from, put a logo on it, and sell it here for a nice markup. Alibaba can make you rich.
Thanks thats a really cool idea!!! If you don't mind can you PM me your overheard costs, ROR, competition etc? I would assume you are doing this FT?
Import/Export to/from Mexico.
I'd start a low-cost 3D printing foundry immediately adjacent to one of the major engineering/startup schools. Think Kinkos for product prototypes (or just for basic goods) that Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, etc. students have easy and affordable access to. Franchise that shit, build up the number of stores, then sell it to a MM PE firm before in-home 3D printers become ubiquitous. BOOM.
Edit: This could also work well (perhaps better?) with Art School students.
that actually sounds like a good idea. y u no do dis?
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Well to be most profitable it would have to be something with low capex, low working capital, and low labor requirements, so that eliminates most things. So you're basically left with some sort of tech company that either involves some software or some sort of technological service. Of course lots of people are going down this route so not going to be easy coming up with an original idea, though simple is better here and then all about execution. Think of a problem you have and then come up with a technological solution, then hire some programmers in India/China/Russia to build it for cheap. For example, what about a program that scours through millions of twitter posts and aggregates an up-to-date news/event summary based on twitter feeds, possibly confined to a given region or topic. Or what about a simple program that somehow integrates all your dozens of online passwords together so you only enter one password and it just works. Maybe those already exist or don't make sense, I don't really know, that's why I'm a chump and not an entrepreneur.
They both exist, in many formats
I would start Rickshaw. I did start Rickshaw :-) A mobile app enabling a community market for transport.
Quit dreaming and go for it!
I realize this posting is a bit older, sounds like you had Uber's idea before it went big :)
Steps to become an "independent trader"... similar to operating your own business
(of course this is all sarcasm)
Pure gold. Definitely doing this at some point. +1
This was actually already done. Its called the EconApp you can find it here: www.econapp.com Here is the creators website: www.pentrellis.com
Step 3 is the biggest issue. If both accounts have a good mix of bad and good trades - then neither are really marketable. with that being said - I really wanna try it hahah :)
Commissions will eat you.
Open a pizza shop in the Midwest but not in Chicago that actually has good pizza.
Some kind of recruiting on campus system in the Netherlands I think.
I would start a porn studio. Specializing in white guy on asian girl.
Repackage public information into presentable, organized reports. Sell them via adWords and email marketing. Keep the overhead low and just write a script to scrape data from Census, Fed etc. Realistically I could do this for $5-10k.
Good stuff, Heister.
Not that you asked me OP, but from time to time I get web-based business ideas that I'm not in the position to start right now. For me, I'd use 50k to take a skill I already have (7+ yrs accounting) and start my own CPA firm. It's not sexy but it's very doable and could give me the ability down the road to pursue other things.
Patrick - when The SEC gets off its ass you should have equity crowd funding for WSO, would love to see what some of these guys come up with.
Build an application where you can open/close/split tabs with your phone (Tabbedout copy) connected to Subledata API which integrates your software with most major POS systems except Aloha. Go to big college campuses and sell your software to popular bars. Give free stuff to fraternities and hire unpaid college ambassadors. Keep growing across college bars. Once you have usage and your app is working well..approach VCs. Then move on to bigger cities and sell to "college/intern" bars. You got buzz in the city, partner with POS sellers.
http://www.cringely.com/2009/03/14/parrot-secrets
Would cost way less than 50k but you will fail a bunch of times which will burn through the money. It's borderline equivalent to being a blogger but more legit because you have a book
Hey, wait a minute...
Second the food truck idea. Pick your favorite food or homemade dish your mom/grandma used to make when you were young. Learn how to make it... good. Buy used equipment. Go sell food! That's what I would do.
two kis of blow
Great ideas everyone, thanks for spending time and commenting. I am going to write a post shortly for budding entrepreneurs!!!!
I would open up a modern designed marijuana coffee shop in Denver. I noticed most coffee shops are ghetto. I will have the shop designed with Scandinavian interiors and have some open space smoke down session area separated by glass walls just like coffee shops in Korea (so the non smokers dont have to complain). The coffee shops will also sell various strains of weed with deserts like cakes/scones/and shit. and of course high quality coffee.
So as I read this feeding hit me that no one here knows what most businesses start with. So just so we can clear the air 50K would get you a great business. most start with as little as 5k mine I did with 15K. But the most important thing to starting a business is you must find what you are good at and what you love. Because any one can buy a franchise but to start a business is hard and takes lots of work. For me it easy I love to create and after that I keep on moving. This is my 3rd business and that's what I do start business and keep moving. So to answer your question of what business to start with 50K. It don't matter any of them could be your from Amazon to Apple. But what ever it is you must love what you do and believe in it or others will not. But if I was going open a new business I would create a food brand. Can you do it with 50K yeah but it's a hard business but as anything everything is hard it's life
The best option is to develop a cashback or coupon e-commerce website. With right promotion you can get a huge profit. One of the media examples is Ebates - they were bought by Japanese investors for $1 billion a few years ago. But I am sure that biggest companies in this industry earn the same.
Anyway, this industry is quite empty yet and you can earn tens or even hundreds thousands dollars in a few years. All you need to do is to build a website and develop browser extension for desktop users and mobile apps for mobile users. You even don't need a full custom website in this case - only a lending page for search engines with links to mobile and extension stores. And the best thing is that you don't need to have your own goods or build a new marketplace. You just need to use affiliate networks - using them you will earn on commission. I worked in such company and helped on development side so I know the figures and how the business works. Very simple. You don't need to be a geek - it is not harder than online shop.
Promotion can be started through social networks to gather audience from people you know and other subscribers. Also, it is good to geolocate your service to a certain place in order to target audience that still doesn't use such services.
Everybody will use cashback and coupons in a few years later. And this niche is still open.
Also it might be very wise to start such business in other countries, because this services are not such popular yet as in US or UK.
Foodtrucks are $50K
Hi, just curious what business did you end up doing?
I'm going to start saying this from now on
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