Quickest Business Idea, Easiest Business Idea, Best Business Idea
Let’s rewind the clock back to this post, where I basically threw out the idea that you can have a business that’s quick to set up, easy to run and immensely profitable.
Sorry if I killed some dreams there.
The problem with that post is that I didn’t really go into the details; where should you start, what should you do and most importantly how do you end up on a beach sipping martinis while beautiful girls tend to your every whim.
In this quick post, I’ll address that.
The Quickest Way To Get Started In Business
The quickest way to start making money is in arbitrage.
Being the middle man is denigrated, shamed and ridiculed the world over. Here’s the crazy thing though; for all middle-aged guys will moan about “con men” who dare to take a cut of the profit on an item in exchange for supplying it, those middle-aged guys will lap it up and buy from the middle men all day.
If you want to quickly make money, then find something that you can buy cheaply and sell expensively. People aren’t motivated creatures for the most part, and so if something saves them effort (which is what you do as a middle man) they’ll give you business.
Now, the reason this business model is looked down upon is because there are middle men out there who don’t add any value.
Arguably, putting the product in front of someone who wants it is a great value add, but consumers who want everything as cheaply as possible via the magic-marketing-tree don’t agree.
So, the way to be a good middleman is to:
- Find cheap
- Sell it high
- Add some value in between
- Don’t take the piss
That’s the quickest way to make money and if you do it right, you can make money starting with selling whatever is in your house that you don’t use.
Let’s move on.
Easiest Business Idea
The easiest business to run is a services business where you sell a skill.
The above is probably a controversial statement, but I don’t really care.
If you provide a freelance service, then you don’t have the middleman stigma (unless you’re one of those evil marketing guys – god forbid) because you provide direct value in the form of the service.
You also don’t have to worry about providing a product, dealing with a supply chain or anything similar to that. Trust me, those things are a major headache.
If you want to get started with selling a freelance service, you can do that via various platforms or just sending out proposals to companies and people interested in your service.
Now, there are pitfalls and limits: there’s a time=money connection, a ceiling to earnings and you’ll have to deal with other human beings. However, all told, provided you’re a professional and you do a good job, services are the easiest businesses to create and manage.
The Best Business Idea
Without a doubt the best form of business to get into long term is to supply products. This is really true if you create the products yourself.
Digital products versus physical products versus magical products that somehow aren’t either is a topic for another day.
The fact is once you create products and treat them like any other company treats products (so, don’t think of them as priceless works of art and instead something that sits on a shelf and gets sold) you then decouple yourself from the process.
This means that time no longer equals money. It means you can scale and make lots of money.
Now, there are obviously pitfalls here because there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Product businesses:
- High costs to start (compared to the two above which have little to no expenses)
- You have to actually produce stuff (you can be a reseller but that comes with problems)
- You have to deal with logistics in all its grizzly forms
- There are also customers to deal with
- You need a long term plan
- It takes time, effort and money
Still though, the benefits are obvious and the potential is there to make a ton of money.
Final Thoughts
The above is just my opinion and this is a bit of a throwaway post, but it serves as a reasonable guideline for what you can do and how.
In short, if you have no budget and no time, don’t try and start a product business. If you have both, then you’ll want to consider it.
If you’re looking for quick money, don’t try and sell a product. If you want to make money without worrying about sourcing products, then try freelancing.
Mix and match and form based on your own experiences, and you’ll learn more than I can teach you.