transcribe

7 Businesses That ALMOST Never Fail (Backed By Data)

Codie Sanchez · 32m · transcribed 1h ago
More from Codie Sanchez Business
𝕏 Share ▶ YouTube 📥 PDF 🤖 .md

Section Insights

# 0:00

Introduction to Low-Risk Business Opportunities

What are the least risky businesses to start?

The video discusses the least risky businesses to start, focusing on those with low startup costs, minimal regulatory barriers, and fragmented markets. It emphasizes that over 50% of people want to start a business, but less than 10% do due to uncertainty about what to pursue.

  • Over 50% of people desire to start a business, but only a small fraction actually do.
  • Low-risk businesses have low startup costs and minimal barriers to entry.
  • The analysis is based on data from 30,000 businesses to identify viable options.
# 6:29

Starting a Bookstore: Costs and Considerations

What are the startup costs and challenges of opening a bookstore?

Starting a bookstore involves costs for bookshelves, signage, and utilities, with operational flexibility being a key benefit. However, profitability can be challenging due to slim margins, requiring strategic selection of inventory.

  • Startup costs for a bookstore can range from $3,000 to $10,000.
  • Operational flexibility allows small bookstores to run with minimal staff.
  • Profit margins are slim, necessitating careful inventory management.
# 12:58

Ice Cream Business Success Story

How can a low-cost ice cream business thrive?

Catherine's ice cream business, started with an $8,500 investment, has generated over $1.6 million by catering events and leveraging flexible sales strategies. Despite initial challenges, she adapted her business model to focus on catering.

  • Starting an ice cream business can be done with low initial investment.
  • Catering events can provide lucrative opportunities and upfront payments.
  • Flexibility in business operations can lead to greater success.
# 19:27

Bootstrapping a Flower Delivery Business

What are the advantages of starting a flower delivery business without external funding?

Christina's flower delivery business thrives without external funding, competing against larger companies. The unique appeal of boutique flowers allows her to carve out a niche in a fragmented market.

  • Bootstrapping allows for greater control and independence in business.
  • Niche markets can be profitable even against larger competitors.
  • The flower delivery market is fragmented, providing opportunities for new entrants.
# 25:56

Opportunities in Bed and Breakfast Management

What are the potential benefits of starting a bed and breakfast?

Starting a bed and breakfast can be a low-cost venture, especially if leveraging existing properties. The market is fragmented, allowing new entrants to find niches without competing against large chains.

  • Bed and breakfasts can achieve profitability quickly with minimal startup costs.
  • Location is crucial for success in the hospitality industry.
  • Managing existing properties can reduce upfront investment significantly.

Transcript

0:00 data says over 50% of you want to start your own business but less than 10% of you ever will why because you don't know what business to start in this video we're changing that by breaking down the least risky businesses that anyone could start or in other words the businesses that are easiest to start because they have low startup costs little regulatory technical barriers low concentration otherwise known as fragmented markets so by the end of this video you'll have

0:26 enough data and stories to go out and start one of these businesses yourself but how do we know we analyzed institutional data of 30,000 businesses to find specifically the businesses with the lowest barrier to entry by the way we used this database which cost me 30k a year but before we get into it make sure and hit that subscribe button so that you can learn all the rest all right we're going to start with one of

0:48 the worst but one of the best that might surprise you which is a chiropractic practice now I wasn't even going to include this one because it does mean that you're going to have to get licens you're going to have to go through some certifications but the reason I did is because if you think about medical profession taking the better part of a decade and being really expensive to go to Chiropractic is way down here maybe 3

1:09 to four years on average so you could start at a lower level and scale your way up as opposed to having to be the doctor that your parents always wanted you to be let's start with the barriers to entry startup costs how much is this bad boy going to cost you the startup costs for a chiropractic practice are one of the lowest in the healthc care businesses which is actually fascinating so let's say from a just a supply

1:29 perspective you could be in for less than 10K we'd have an adjusting table which would be 1,500 to 5,000 diagnostic tools maybe 500 like reflex hammers you guys ever seen those therapeutic equipment maybe another $1,000 for items like electrotherapy devices maybe for items where you can get them to massage different parts of your body support tools 300 to 1,000 for things like pillows cushions and other accessories now education requirements are more

1:59 chiropra s need to complete a doctor of Chiropractic program the educational barriers are way lower compared to becoming a medical doctor obviously these could take 3 to four years to complete after undergraduate studies one of the bigger things that you have to think about with chiropractors is Insurance shouldn't be that expensive but we got to make sure we protect you from if you're new to the game and anybody gets hurt the Chiropractic industry is highly fragmented with

2:25 independent chiropractors operating solo practices all over the country and those people represent half of the industry things to consider flexible practice models so chiropractors have the flexibility to start small practices mobile services which basically requires little to no cash upfront in fact the way that I got to my most recent physical therapist and chiropractor is from a gym located here in Austin Texas this case study in particular is interesting my friend Andrew who set up in his gym the gym that I happen to be a

2:55 part of and created an atmosphere for him to be a physical therapist first he started doing massage because that was easier to get into then he continued with physical therapy and he is also actually licensed as a chiropractor what's interesting is he has a few best practices that I thought would be useful for those of you who want to work with your hands but don't want to go through the whole doctoral practice first he said he transitioned from

3:17 insurance-based clinics to a cash-based practice at a gym here in Austin my gym and the reason why that's interesting is with insurance one you have to chase the payments you can't set your own prices cuz insurance sets those prices for you and it often means that you have a different type of clientele a type of clientele that might not have enough money for them to pay direct now the tough part is with a cash base practice

3:41 if he doesn't get customers he doesn't get paid but he built up a strong rapport with the gym trainers and basically had lead flow right so he told him you send your clients to me I'll send them back to you so he developed a full case load of recurring patients based on people who are coming in to train go work out come to me afterwards go work out come to me afterwards and vice versa in this cash based setting

4:04 it's crucial to Target sort of healthc conscious active clients who actually value preventative care encouraging them to do things before they need it and then he could even give them a little tip a little extra cash for referrals bookstores this one surprised me too originally I thought why would bookstores be so low risk and not have much that you need to start but then we started digging into it a little bit more and this is what we found really

4:31 low barrier to entry so no regulation or prior education needed unlike most Industries Nothing is Stopping You starting a book store tomorrow certainly low concentration yes while no doubt online bookstores are everywhere physical bookstores still offer a unique shopping experience and a lot of times they're partnered with things like a pop-up Cafe you know a little store with additional Goods in them and they encourage you to browse and discover an inviting atmosphere that an online retailer couldn't actually have and the

4:58 proof is in the data despite a slight decline in 2023 print book sales were still up 10% higher than in 2019 the last pre-pandemic year and I don't think this is a huge business you could grow to massive levels two I think this is an interesting business you could do as a popup so you could have popup bookstores you could also have book resellers where people can come in you can get books for basically free from people because

5:21 people people feel like bad throwing away a book and then you can resell those books it's not something that you're going to have a huge amount of volume you'd probably have to mark up the price on those retailers and having researched exactly how much it takes it looks like an initial investment you'll need somewhere in the realm of let's say if you're going to do a popup store maybe you'd need donated books plus 1,000 bucks for rent plus another

5:44 thousand books plus another th000 bucks for additional books and some other acutron to make the site look nice but if you're going to do a real store you're going to need more like 10,000 or maybe 25,000 as a bare minimum what's interesting though about Book Sales is if you are in in-person store often times you can get books without paying for them upfront and so a lot of the book stores that you have have an on

6:08 sale basis so you get paid for the book author when we sell the book which is interesting that means they float your money for you now rent could be all over the place but could range anywhere from $1,000 to if your Barnes a knowable this is going to be 100,000 plus obviously if you're going to do it our way you're going to want to make your rent really really cheap I'd probably stick with popups too I wouldn't keep this business

6:30 model as a for sure until you trialed it on a very small basis and probably piggybacked on somebody else's traffic so something like a coffee shop of course as a bookstore you're going to need bookshelves to display store and Market your available book titles the number of bookshelves you'll need is going to depend on your opening inventory for the bookstore but I would budget let's call it anywhere from $3 to $10,000 on bookshelves we also know this

6:53 because you could do bookshelves on the cheap and we've seen this lots of different ways in the Halloween superstore models we looked at they pop up a 30,000 square foot store and they use less than $25,000 to build the shelves so for your little bookstore we can do it cheap signage obviously you need this inside and outside of your bookstore to Market your store this is where prices could really vary but you can show your promotions show your book

7:17 prices and designate the different sections throughout the store this is going to add a couple thousand utilities estimated utility costs for the first month to keep the building functional 475 to let's call it 2K things to consider consider here great operational flexibility small independent bookstores can operate with minimal staff huge benefit but bookstores they operate on pretty slim profit margins so making profitability a challenge which means that you have to be super strategic on which books you choose but I think

7:45 there's plenty of ways to do this in an interesting Market let's use one case study from Ryan holiday so Ryan holiday's book shop is called The Painted porch and he's got this huge following online and Ryan's recognized the sort of having this unique appeal of physical book stores that you can never get online the store focuses on a curated selection of books that he personally recommends and he aims to provide sort of a lovely funky shopping

8:09 experience that prioritizes amazing titles rather than a bunch of Trends and then he adopted a community centered approach so people come and engage with the literature and each other the other part that I really like about this model is if you live in a small town like Ryan holiday does the lease is really low the main street that he's has great foot traffic lots of times people go to these tiny towns and in these tiny towns

8:35 there's not a lot to do so they might want to go to a little local bookstore have a cup of coffee and peruse a book this is why you'll often find a bookstore located on main streets in like second third fourth fifth tier cities I think it's a really interesting way for you to become a community Hub they're not going to your bookstore because they have a book need like I need this book that's Amazon baby

8:57 they're coming to your bookstore because they want want to have an environment and a field they want to support local authors they want to be able to actually be there for an author signing you could have local upand cominging activities for potential authors this is really a community play and that's why I think it's really an interesting fun business model I kind of want to open a bookstore but why is looking to own a business important anyway well I think one of the

9:19 biggest differences between everyday humans and the average millionaire is that they have multiple income streams and I'm willing to Guess that most of you don't I certainly didn't in fact the average American has just one income stream usually their job but how do you go from one to seven income streams and my suggestion you go and start seven new businesses no if you can't buy a business outright then maybe you do real estate but maybe you can't buy real

9:44 estate outright so you use something like the fundrise flagship fund which allows you to invest in real estate for 10 or 100 bucks I actually started investing in fundrise when they started years ago typically I don't allow investment platforms onto the things that we do but I think in this environment today with real estate down with small amounts of risk allowing more people to get income streams as part of the mission Financial Freedom doesn't come from some get-rich quick passive

10:09 income it comes from thoughtfully investing over time and allowing it to compound if you guys are interested in investing fundrise is a great platform to do it thank you for sponsoring this video fundrise click the link in the description below and you can get more information on fundrise so next one Mobile Food Services you guys know what I'm talking about this is the food truck this is the popsicle cart this is an ice cream truck these are all around us

10:34 they've become part of Everyday Life I even saw one the other day that was a mobile coffee shop that was set up outside of another coffee shop because that line was too long you also see these outside of really big restaurants during rush hour they just pull in and because it's lunchtime there's going to be tons of people in there wanting quick and easy food you have a food track as an alternative so the barriers to entry

10:56 here are well way lower startup costs compared to traditional restaurants for sure while opening a brick and mortar restaurant can cost upwards of $200,000 to a million or more food trucks are a tiny fraction of that you might not even have to pay at all and we can talk about that here in a second so some support initiatives initiatives like on Theo La provide affordable food truck rentals and Operational Support to allow people to enter the market with minimal upfront

11:23 investment that means a lot of times for these type of Endeavors there's some sort of government grant there are food truck vending locations where they might even help you get your own food truck in order to fill their lease so there's lots of ways to get access to food trucks without spending a ton food truck industry highly fragmented there is literally no single operator controlling more than 5% of the market which is wild but this means a lot of people are

11:48 opening food trucks the number of food trucks in the US has increased from about 4,000 in 2010 to over 36,000 by 2023 so some things to consider you got to get in the right places this is the location location location of real estate you have to make sure that you have traffic already and probably quite a bit of traffic because you're going to have no SEO not great signage and the thing's mobile so you got to figure out

12:12 how are you going to get to where the people are two ways to build a business you can either pull people to you or you can push them to you you're in a food truck that's located outside of a big huge football game in which there's a bunch of hungry people that don't want to pay 3x and inside the stadium so profit margins for this industry are actually slightly higher than restaurants so let's say that restaurants typically operate somewhere

12:40 between a three to a 10% margins food trucks can operate somewhere from 6 to 20% margin let's do a case study here Katherine O'Brien also known as the ice cream lady is somebody that we've talked to at contrarian thinking what's interesting is watching the launch that Catherine did she sells ice cream out of a bike look at this thing in front I don't know what this is this is like a basket it's like a cooler it's like a

13:06 bike cooler business it's called cream Cruiser in 2015 after she was kind of inspired by the crazy crowds at Baltimore's Inner Harbor during her commute and she realized that she could start a business with really low startup costs sell to a bunch of people that are already located there and then build on top of it so she launched the business with an investment of around 8,500 bucks which covered the bike trailer event supplies permits and obviously her ice

13:35 cream what's interesting is over the years Katherine has catered more than 700 events and sold over 160,000 ice cream sandwiches meaning that she's done sales of more than $1.6 million what I thought was interesting about this too is that she was really clever and that she didn't just have a static location she said well people will pay a premium to have one of these bad boys at a wedding and so because of that she could have her Saturdays and Sundays which

14:00 maybe would be great for ice creams during the day but in the evening who's buying ice cream in the middle of the night on Friday well if you're at a wedding you've already gotten a down payment from it plus you get paid upfront when you do something like a wedding or an event and then you get to fulfill later on whereas otherwise if she's going to go sell just on the street she's going to have to buy all

14:18 the stuff hope people sell it so this allows her to be a little bit more flexible now it's not all Sunshine let's talk about some challenges faced so despite the initial success she had a lot of challenges with a failed Wholesale Venture that led to a lot of money lost which meant that she refocused on catering which improved profit margins Catherine now earns a minimum of 25k per month and has expanded her business model to include

14:42 bike Business University which is interesting and online course teaching others how to start similar Ventures it's kind of like how people decide once they have a really great painting franchise located in Austin Texas like we do with that one painter wait a second I could I could grow all of Texas myself and have lots of painting Ventures or I could franchise it and I could allow other people to copy my model and she's allowed other people to

15:05 copy her model so now she has multiple revenue streams oh by the way if you liked hearing about Katherine's story link in the description for our newsletter we write about stories like this all the time we have a deep dive on Catherine too if you want to see more of her numbers and check our facts all right let's talk about the next one florist I'm obsessed with this idea I think when I retire I want to be a

15:25 florist and apparently have a bookstore and that's it then no more internet will shut this all down you'll never hear from me again but the Flores businesses are interesting for lots of different reasons one you can scale this quite easily you can scale this from a tiny little wagon that you sell some bouquet out of to a big Enterprise where you do weddings and events and thus have a big front end filled with flowers but also a

15:51 big backend where you fulfill $100,000 plus orders let's get into barriers to entry so no formal education is typically required to become a florist I don't think there's a PhD that anybody's requiring at least not yet at least not until the government gets a hands on it licensing requirements also are really not a requirement so Most states in the US don't require specific licensing or certification to work as florist which is great and you can start as many ways

16:18 as you can think of and you can fit it around your current life the other thing is you can do freelance work so some florists begin their careers by offering freelance services for small scale events events right I love the idea of homebased businesses this is how business started now whenever I tell somebody you could start a business in your home they go oh no what about the risk what about the insurance what about the requirements you guys have you been

16:43 to Etsy lately do you think that they have a headquarters for the dollies that they put on a table that the grandma knits of course not homebased businesses is where we started it is our right as humans to be able to start a business in our home as long as you don't transact stale at your house that is usually the difference between the two so if I was at my house right now we not we're at my office but if I was at

17:04 my house and we had customers coming in and out that is a stor front in which case the government tries to get their piece but otherwise with the rise of e-commerce many florists start by operating from home just like we all did so you can really reduce some of those overhead costs but to scale up from there I sort of see it as a stair stat so you start at home then you might have a popup location where you go oh yeah

17:28 this kind of worked then the next level would be having a popup stand then you could have an actual brick in mortar store Etc a Florest could be started with as little as 1,000 bucks you need tools and supplies let's call it 200 300 bucks initial flower inventory 300 to 500 Business registration and licenses I don't know 50 to 200 bucks marketing materials could be expensive but you probably don't need anything to start except the right location maybe 100 two

17:53 200 bucks will allocate to that a website or online presence you probably just need Instagram these days and a and a cheap website so you can get Google reviews the other thing that's interesting is that it's pretty low competition so 38,46 florist businesses are are operating right now in the UN United States as of 2024 so that means there's a lot of them but if you think about the fact that we have a population of 300

18:18 plus million I don't think that's as many as we think here are some things to consider maybe it's a great time to enter to the industry the Flores industry in the US is growing like crazy Revenue increasing at a compound annual growth rate of 4.1% over the past 5 years so that means the industry is like I don't know 8.6 billion in total market cap the profit margins on the B business are interesting too they reach about

18:45 let's call it five or 6% of Industry Revenue in 2024 so that's pretty healthy so let's talk about a case study this company's founded by Christina stemble in 2010 I actually met her back in the day she actually started it from her one-bedroom apartment in in San Francisco she launched the company when she had only 50k in savings nothing else she didn't have any external investors what's interesting is farmgirl flowers is now an e-commerce Flower company that

19:10 ships bouquet VES and Arrangements across the US the company started with just one daily bouquet and has grown to offer up to 40 Arrangements at a time I mean I'm not sponsored by her or anything but I use her bouquets every time I send what I love about this business is you know how a lot of times you get a bouquet and they're in like a big ugly commercial box and they got this like plastic wrapping on top of

19:32 them they're kind of cheap looking flowers They're just bright red roses you men are like I don't know what you're talking about but for women there's a real difference between a corporate looking bouquet of roses and between like a boutique hipster bouquet of roses and that's what Christina's is but what's fascinating is this business remains completely bootstrapped no external funding which is fascinating in many ways because her competitors are multi multi multi mul multi-million doll businesses with lots of funding also

20:02 this she is the only national flower delivery company owned by a woman which is wild because I think women are the ones that like flowers but I guess you dudes are the ones that buy them all right next one pet care services this could mean lots of different things it could be grooming them so washing trimming cutting the nails Etc it could mean walking them it could mean babysitting them like those little pet hotels lots of different ways

20:26 to service man's furry friend what's interesting is the market is quite fragmented there are some big companies in this industry but that's not really the majority of them most Pet Service industries that aren't the few VC backed ones you can think of are done locally and I think a lot more money can be made by specializing in what types of animals what types of grooming or training I have a friend who has a training company that does seven figures a year and it is

20:55 all about training your Belgian Malinois in how to be a protector her name is Ashley Herer if you want to check it out it's an incredible business that basically takes people who are obsessed with this one type of dog breed and turns their dogs into absolute protection animals there's also services like this for people who come into your house like this guy low startup costs you can literally start for less than $100 dog walking for example a leash you might not even need

21:26 one they probably have one print a few flyers and you're good to go in fact a woman did that in my neighborhood and now walks a bunch of my neighbor's dogs and for some reason because her flyer is there it's like her face you tear it off at the bottom remember that she says she's located locally I felt more comfortable with that than actually going to an online site and the best part not only are these very loyal

21:46 customers they'll tell their friends if you're any good and their friends have Geographic concentration they're next to each other so my tip get to know other Pet Care Services like grooming and send each other your customers regulation does vary so you should make sure you check for the particular service but on the whole vertical IQ ranks it as much lower than most comparable Industries I don't think you need a certification to know how to walk somebody's dog

22:10 similarly the skill set requirements varies from service to service so you might not be able to start for instance a b Belgian malenoir training company or I have another friend who has something called bite Camp which he teaches like these badass service dos how to like bite and attack somebody if you yell at them so you probably can't do that if you haven't been properly trained but I'm pretty sure just about anybody could walk a dog just about anybody could

22:32 learn to wash a dog all right things to consider here Pros big target market so 82 million us households own a pet and we spend a lot of money on them and it's growing the global petare market was valued at 226 billion in 2023 and projected to grow 340 billion by 2029 so that is a fast growing Market the other part that's nice is this can be mobile or location based so it's a old school industry where there's a lot of

23:00 opportunity in modernizing these Services by leveraging the internet to better serve pet owners in search of quality providers I also think you really can't speak too much about the effect of localization people are very attached to their pets they want to know that it's not some big commercial service taking care of them they'd like to know the person that's why for instance you know you used to go to pet Cod to wash and groom your dog now I

23:24 would never drop my dog off there I want it to go to like the local groomer in instead so we actually saw the market start to protect these really big guys and then consumers say no I kind of want the local guys instead for instance when it comes to me I don't have somebody random watch my dogs I have Samuel do it okay some cons to this animals can be difficult they're not human in fact they're largely better than humans in

23:46 many ways but also you could have people get bit by animals if dear Lord help you if you hurt somebody's animal so this could be more unpredictable in varying different ways also we have an entire video in a weird way that you could make money with dogs and or dog services if you want to go back and look at this video let's get into a case study so actually members of our contrarian Community where we teach people to buy

24:08 and sell businesses bought a pet grooming business this is James and Katie Fleming they actually transition from law enforcement and business Consulting to entrepreneurship in owning a dog grooming business they wanted more family time and freedom they also loved dogs so they bought a business their business acquisition Journey was really interesting so they did the thing all of us kind of do after exploring real estate investing they discovered the potential of acquiring existing businesses probably my fault and then

24:36 decided to enter the dog rooming and boarding industry what was interesting is they acquired the phto spa if you guys are in Dallas go check it out for 340k with an 80k down payment they used seller financing for the rest of the remaining amount post acquisition they improved the business by implementing very simple things you guys consistent pricing having better customer service which allowed James to leave his law enforcement job and work fewer hours and get to hang out with dogs all day which

25:07 I love now they run a successful profitable business and I think they're starting to open their second location and they haven't even done so many fun things I would do with an old business like this like I would redo The Branding and logos I would have a better and cooler looking storefront I would probably have activities and Community hours bring your dogs around let's all hang out everybody gets their nails clipped while we all have have coffee

25:28 something like that the next one is bed and breakfast which we could also say was Airbnb and Property Management so we kind of lumped these all together again thinking of the stairstep method so what's fascinating is you used to have well you could start a hotel which would be millions and millions or you could start a bed in breakfast which might be a couple hundred, or a million the difference between the two is basically that a bed in breakfast is a smaller

25:52 sized more personal hotel with less amenities then we could take a step down from that which would be an Airbnb and then even below that you could have a property management of airbnbs or bed and breakfast so you can see the stair set model now this is a fragmented Market which is interesting let's just focus on the bed and breakfast for a second there is no single company holding a significant market share probably because inherently bed and

26:14 breakfasts aren't meant that way so this means lots of new entrance can kind of get in there carve out their Niche without having to compete with the large chains startup costs now of course you could go big but since this is for you beginner businesses if you already own a property initial costs can be minimal so that's for sure but if you're renting maybe you do rental Arbitrage which can significantly reduce The Upfront costs if you wanted to start small let's think

26:40 about it this way the average annual revenue for a bed and breakfast property is around 221,000 you guys can see where we get all these numbers to figure out what you think about our averages down in the show notes so that means that even smaller establishments can achieve profitability really quickly you don't actually need one that does $2 or $3 million in order for this to work you can start small and scale up and if you

27:02 don't want to start with your own bed and breakfast why don't you just ask to manage somebody else's that would cost you nothing to start so things to consider here where you're based let's just get to some math here coastal areas have a higher occupancy rate so 6% higher than the rest the truth of the matter is this is all about location location location and using something like air DNA to determine which areas have the best for bed and breakfasts for

27:26 airbnbs it could also mean that if you want to do the property management side that doesn't matter as much you just find where you can get your supply for instance I own both an Airbnb and part of a property management business for the Airbnb business that I have I have all different sizes but we have one tiny one located here in Austin that we bought for like $350,000 something like that me and my brother back in the day when he lived

27:50 here that Airbnb is profitable every single month since we've had it on average now we don't make a much we might make 500 bucks to a th000 bucks a month on that Airbnb it's located downtown in Austin but on a $350,000 investment that's actually pretty good especially since we did a mortgage the only bummer is that we have to pay 20% of that to our property management company so because I saw that I was like can we own part of one of those

28:15 companies because I'd like to not have to pay for the huge upfront cost for the Airbnb but also get part of that property management fee so we did this was ranked as the lowest barrier to entry business Landscaping which kind of surprised me but I guess I understand it because I actually have three landscapers that work on my house we have Oscar who comes and has done our landscape architecture then we have Ramon the guy who comes on

28:43 a weekly basis Clips everything makes sure nothing's dying and does day-to-day Landscaping and Lawn cutting although at this house we don't have much of a lawn and then we have the third one whose name is Lisa and she's the one who came in and redid the entire backyard she only does really big projects and I think we paid I don't know $100,000 to totally redo the Landscaping of the backyard so again you can scale up between the three now the barriers to

29:06 entry the Landscaping industry highly fragmented you're going to see a common theme Here Right 600,000 companies operating North America no single company holding more than 5% market share so what that might tell you is that it's actually kind of hard to scale these bad boys so if you want a $50 or $100 million business may be hard but to start one maybe not because the startup costs are pretty low new Landscaping businesses can begin with minimal

29:31 equipment lawn mower string trimmer basic gardening tools collectively cost you I don't know 2 to 8K little regulatory requirements here in Texas you don't have to have licenses to operate a landscaping company unless you're going to actually do construction Now That Could That Could differ if you're in California a license is needed for breathing but here you probably only need them for specialized licenses so check whichever ones are required for basic landscaping services for versus more complex This is highly in contrast

30:01 to Industries like construction which have tons of Licensing and Regulatory requirements things to consider here this is perfect for those of you guys who don't want a ton of employees so most of us landscape contractors have no more than five employees highlighting that the majority of small businesses are in fact small operations let's do a little case study though on if you wanted to scale one up to make millions a year this is my friend Nolan Gore who

30:28 owns Top Choice Lawn Care here in Austin you should check him out again if you need your lawn to be trimmed let's look at his business so he scaled from 1.6 million to 7.5 million in Revenue which is interesting because Nolan's experience was the military and financial and he kind of used that to acquire and grow this landscaping business on the back of a family business he purchased Top Choice lawn care when it was not profitable that I

30:53 don't recommend for your first thing that makes it really hard but he was kind of motivated by the fact that his confidence and background in landscaping meant he could add on an unprofitable asset Nolan's father was the founder of another landscaping business and then he added this business onto it and basically did it at a price equivalent to its debt meaning that yeah he did have to take on some risk in order to do this investment opportunity that said

31:20 Nolan talks about a lot of the things he did wrong and Lessons Learned and how having practical management experience over theoretical knowledge is crucial in business in general but certainly in this one so Landscaping businesses all the way to florist all the way to bookstores now you can't say you don't know what business to start but if you want to Kickstart that you might want to think about MSM book.com which is where I have my book located about how to buy

31:48 Main Street businesses so that you can start from third base as opposed to square one so choose one that gets you fired up and get to work and let me know in the comments which one you end up picking and if it works out for you and what questions you have we'll try to answer every single one of them thanks for watching guys if you haven't make sure to subscribe to the channel we just did this crazy analytics where we saw

32:09 the percentage that's subscribed versus the people who keep coming back spoiler a bunch of you guys are missing out so make sure you hit that subscribe button and you guys can actually get a bunch of numbers and math to help make you money instead of a bunch of nonsense and news

Summary

The video discusses low-risk business opportunities that anyone can start, emphasizing those with minimal startup costs, low regulatory barriers, and fragmented markets. By analyzing data from 30,000 businesses, the presenter identifies several viable options, including chiropractic practices, bookstores, mobile food services, florists, and pet care services.

- Over 50% of people want to start a business, but less than 10% do due to uncertainty about what to pursue.
- Chiropractic practices have low startup costs (under $10K) and shorter educational requirements compared to traditional medicine.
- Bookstores can be started with minimal investment and offer a unique shopping experience, despite competition from online retailers.
- Mobile food services, like food trucks, have lower startup costs than traditional restaurants and benefit from high market fragmentation.
- Florist businesses can be started from home with minimal investment and have a growing market, with a focus on community engagement.
- Pet care services, including grooming and dog walking, have low barriers to entry and cater to a large, loyal customer base.
- Bed and breakfasts and property management offer flexible entry points with potential for profitability, especially in high-demand locations.
- Landscaping businesses can be initiated with minimal equipment and have a fragmented market, allowing for growth without significant regulatory hurdles.

Questions Answered

What are the least risky businesses to start?

The video discusses the least risky businesses to start, focusing on those with low startup costs, minimal regulatory barriers, and fragmented markets. It emphasizes that over 50% of people want to start a business, but less than 10% do due to uncertainty about what to pursue.

What are the startup costs and challenges of opening a bookstore?

Starting a bookstore involves costs for bookshelves, signage, and utilities, with operational flexibility being a key benefit. However, profitability can be challenging due to slim margins, requiring strategic selection of inventory.

How can a low-cost ice cream business thrive?

Catherine's ice cream business, started with an $8,500 investment, has generated over $1.6 million by catering events and leveraging flexible sales strategies. Despite initial challenges, she adapted her business model to focus on catering.

What are the advantages of starting a flower delivery business without external funding?

Christina's flower delivery business thrives without external funding, competing against larger companies. The unique appeal of boutique flowers allows her to carve out a niche in a fragmented market.

What are the potential benefits of starting a bed and breakfast?

Starting a bed and breakfast can be a low-cost venture, especially if leveraging existing properties. The market is fragmented, allowing new entrants to find niches without competing against large chains.

© transcribe · For agents Built with care and craft by Gokul Rajaram