How to choose which business is right for you. Do you start an online business or a brick and mortar business? Maybe neither is right for you and you want to buy real estate and fix it up? Or maybe you want to purchase and install vending machines?
Every business has its advantages and disadvantages, and every business can be successful, it's just a matter of what type of business suits your personality.
Now that we’ve established that there are many varied businesses available for a relatively inexpensive startup cost (except maybe buying real estate to fix up and sell), let's go over the various advantages/disadvantages and hurdles in each type.
Remember, the "Obstacle is the Way" as Ryan Holliday puts it in his book on Stoicism (a blog post for another day), which basically means that if you encounter obstacles, treat them as challenges (good things) and basically tell yourself to "bring them on, it will feel great to overcome them" (obviously his book goes into it in more detail, but you get the point).
So, let's begin by figuring out what type of business is the right one for you.
Luckily, (for you), I have gone through this exact process, before launching the "Barstool Millionaire" platform, so this analysis is giving you an edge, since I've already experienced it, now you can have the benefit of that experience.
Business #1 - Brick and Mortar Type
This type of business includes anything where you need a physical place ti operate, usually a building unit. It can include a warehouse, physical storefront, restaurant, or even a computer business if you need space for employees to work writing software or other tech development. Also, construction businesses where parts and equipment need to be stored such as a heating and cooling business, a lawncare business, a plumbing or electrical business, a warehouse to store merchandise, well, you get the idea.
Pros:
Doing physical work with tools, shipping merchandise (if that is your passion)
Building can appreciate it value
Equipment and Tools have value
Can be lucrative as competition is limited to other business with that expertise
Has scalability as customer base grows in numbers and geographically
Cons:
Expensive start-up costs for equipment, premises
Requires expertise in particular skilled trade (except for store or warehouse business)
Dependent on the economy during boom and bust times
Initial cost and time to build customer lists and reputation
Scalability is limited by geographical distance (probably limited to your city and a few surrounding areas)
Risk: Medium
Return: Medium
Business #2 - Skilled Freelancer
This is similar the brick and mortar business, except you are not building the business "from the ground up", you are simply contracting yourself out as a freelancer. This could include hard skills like an electrician or deck builder or just a handyman, or it could include soft skills such as a programmer (coder), website designer, or graphics designer.
There are various sites where you can get more work than you can handle, choose your own schedule, work when you want to and pick your projects. Some sites where this work is listed is on UpWork.com, Freelancer.com, taskrabbit.com, Angi.com, and countless others.
Pros:
Start a business freelancing in 10 minutes
Be your own boss
No overhead costs
Use the site to get customers, no customer acquisition (advertising) costs for yourself
Choose your work, jobs, work whenever you want to or need to earn money
Cons:
Not scalable beyond what you can do yourself (unless you hire other workers)
Requires expertise in some particular skilled trades (except for some jobs like moving boxes or lawn cutting)
Depending on the job, you may need to be insured
Business only earns money when you work
Many jobs are 1-time tasks, few repeat customers (once a deck is built, it doesn't have to be built again...but...maybe the neighbor will want one too?)
Risk: Negligible
Return: Medium
"A reputation is built one customer at a time, and so is a business" - Successful Freelancer
Business #3 - Real Estate
This business is not for the faint of heart. However, some people love it. It obviously requires quite a bit of patience to find a property to purchase, probably being comfortable with debt to finance the purchase (not a good thing in general), and many skills to fix it up and resell the property for a profit.
Whether you're buying a fixer-upper, or a fancy house to flip as the market goes up (who knows when that occurs), this type of business can be very adventurous.
As well, if you want to be a landlord, that is also an option within this real estate type of work.
Personally, I would stay away from this type of business unless you have experience in both purchasing undervalued properties and restoring them. That said, there are others making fortunes from this type of venture.
Pros:
Fun to own a property and fix it up the way you see fit
Be your own boss
"Potential" for large profits after selling the property
Satisfying to see the progress of building and restoration
Scalable to many properties in many geographical locations
Cons:
Requires large capital investment (probably a loan from the bank)
Real Estate market can fluctuate wildly
Carrying costs can be high if not sold relatively quickly after finished
Materials and labor can be expensive
Many building regulations and permits needed
Risk: Very High
Return: High
"A house is the only investment you can live in as it appreciates in value - House Builder
Business #4 - Online Business
I have saved the best for last (in my opinion as I build my own online business platform). This category includes everything from a simple newsletter that earns income through advertising or affiliate advertising, to an online store (on Amazon.com or Shopify.com or simply creating a store through a website host like Wix.com), which sells physical or digital products.
Some ways to start a digital business and earn an income (by monetizing the content) are through creating a Youtube channel, writing a blog (a great blogging site is Wix.com), creating digital templates (to sell on sites like Etsy), selling products through an online store and drop-shipping them (more on this in a future blog), monetizing a podcast on sites like substack and buzzsprout), or creating a digital platform where the users can add the content for you (think of digital sites for teacher created products or sites where people can list their used items for sale).
A popular online method to combine physical products with online monetization is to create an online store. This allows you to purchase products to sell (buy wholesale and sell retail), or create products of your own to list and sell. There are also many products that you can sell on-demand, like t-shirts and mugs and countless other products that have sayings, designs or custom printing. You can design these items, but only get them made and shipped after somebody makes a purchase! What a great online business! You can see a great example of this from a site called printful.com.
The key to these businesses are to start out small. Take your interest or hobby and develop a youtube video about it (there are videos with millions of views which are simply talking about someone's hobby like baseball cards or fishing), and these channels can also build up hundreds of thousands of subscribers (which leads to monetization of the channel).
Of course, none of this is easy (but getting started is simple), but you must provide the audience with valuable content. Everybody has an interest or skill that they can dive into and create useful content for others. This takes time and effort but will be worth it in the long run.
Pros:
Virtually anybody can start an online business for under $50
Generate income while you sleep
Scalability is limitless and therefore income is too
Can work from anywhere
Market is open to all geographical areas
Cons:
Requires self discipline
Must have a high standard when producing content
Can be lonely as most of the creation is done by yourself
Requires learning of key software and platforms
Must be patient as the monetization of you r business grows slowly at the beginning
Risk: None
Return: High (if dedicated)
"You miss 100% of the shots you never take - Wayne Gretzky
Conclusion - Best Business
There is no one "best business for everyone", but there is an ideal business for every person. Don't pick the one which you think will earn the most money, pick the business you will be best at building (then that will be the one that earns the most money for you!)
And remember, to guide you through your business and financial life with a structured framework, follow the tips and advice we give you at the Barstool Millionaire, and you'll be just fine!
Good luck in whatever career we guide you through. You will succeed!
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