17 New Business Ideas
Are you tired of seeing generic businesses like pet-sitting or blogging when you want to read about new and unique business ideas? Then you're in luck. In this post, I'll share my original business ideas with you.
Some of these are service-based ideas that I consider small businesses, while others are startup ideas that require building software and raising money to grow fast. But all of them are ideas that I wish existed in the world.
1. Not last-minute wealth transfer software
Baby boomers are set to transfer more than $68 trillion to their children, the largest wealth transfer ever. But, families lose 70% of their wealth by the first transfer and 90% by the second transfer, according to the Williams Group wealth consultancy. Something needs to be clearly fixed in the U.S. regarding how wealth is transferred from generation to generation.
I'm excited for someone to create a wealth transfer software that captures customers in their early adulthood, which I'm currently coining, not a last-minute wealth transfer. This software not only helps you with the execution of transferring wealth but also helps you save money by shielding your estate from things like estate taxes. Unfortunately, the existing software tools in the market today are all positioned as last-minute wealth transfer solutions that don't help you save money.
This is important because you can lose 5-10% of your estate (i.e., $100K if you pass $1 million down to your children) simply from taxes or mismanagement if you don't prepare for wealth transfer in advance. Also, all the advice I've seen from wealth managers is that you should have a will and estate plan drafted early in your life, such as when you're in your 20s and 30s, instead of when most people set this up in their 70s and 80s.
The business model that would work for this business is a one-time fee for a customer to set up their estate plan and will, then, a recurring subscription model to charge them for managing their wealth transfer plan to optimize for financial savings. The bet is that the customers paying you to manage their estate save thousands or even hundreds of thousands.
One challenge I see with this business is that people don't want to think about death when they are young. You'll need to figure out how to convince young people to plan for their end-of-life plans in their 20s and 30s instead of waiting until they are in their 70s and 80s. You need to change consumer behavior.
Another challenge with this business is that there will be a lot of legal costs to get it to the point where you can take customers. If you are already a lawyer, you'll have a unique advantage in starting this business because you save money on some of these costs by drafting documents and researching yourself. If not, you'll need to work with a good law firm to build your own will and estate templates for each state. Also, the rules around wealth transfer change every couple of years, so you'll need to retain that law firm to update your forms.
Another challenge with this business is that high-net-worth people may use a lawyer they already have a relationship with instead of filling out information using your software. One way to get around this is by incorporating legal experts into your process or company as partners or full-time employees.
2. Enjoy dating again
Online dating is the number one way to meet someone in the United States. Still, in a recent report from the Pew Research Center, 46% of people admitted their dating site or app experience has been very or somewhat negative overall. This sad statistic makes me believe how we date will change.
One pain point I noticed with online dating is that it's a lot of work. The average person spends 10+ hours per week using dating apps and sites; it's becoming a part-time job.
I'm excited for someone to build a business that outsources all the work that comes with dating apps, such as swiping, scheduling, and more, to cheap international virtual assistants.
The business model that would work for this idea is relatively straightforward. You would charge customers a specific rate, then outsource the work to virtual assistants who work for a cheaper rate and earn the difference between the two. Why would the customer agree to that? The customer is paying you to recruit, train, manage, and educate your virtual assistant to help them remove all the overhead of dating.
One reason why I'm excited about this idea is that people are already doing this. For example, Tim Ferris, author of the 4-hour workweek, tried outsourcing his dating life, and I know of multiple founders of tech companies who already use their work assistants to take care of some of the logistics for their personal dating life.
One challenge with this business is that it is still taboo to pay for dating services. For this to work, you must be very savvy with your branding and marketing. Do not pick a business name with "dating" in it.
The target customer for this business is someone who has a lot of money but only has a little time. So, for example, think Fortune 500 CEOs, professional athletes, venture-backed startup founders, prominent tech engineers, and more.
Another problem with online dating is that it starts relationships off in a very inorganic, transactional way. New research shows that nearly 70 percent of romantic relationships begin as friendships, with the average length of the friendship lasting 22 months.
If online dating is broken and old-school ways to date, like speed-dating, are not cool anymore, then something has to change. I'm interested to see new businesses create their own take on dating, particularly solutions that start people off as friends first.
3. Nature walks and gardening for older people
Did you know that U.S. doctors now prescribe nature in more than 35 states? So you can start a for-profit business that helps older people go for walks or hikes in nature, where they pay nothing for the service. Wait, how? Since doctors are prescribing nature, you may be able to convince healthcare plans to pay you for this service instead of older people paying you out of pocket.
Companies like Papa use this business model to charge healthcare plans instead of older people for Papa Pals to help them with everyday activities like picking up groceries, laundry, or something as simple as a conversation.
So while healthcare plans may pay for something like this, you'll still need to build an incredible service that convinces them to pay for this over something else. This is the challenging part of this business model. You need to collect outstanding data to convince healthcare plans that they'll save money in the long run by paying for the older people on their plans to use your nature service. This data should show that you improve health outcomes for the patients and boost customer satisfaction and retention for the healthcare insurance plan.
I love this business idea because it is socially good. People are more lonely than ever, and marginalized groups, like older people, have it worse off than young people. Nature walks for older people will help them get in nature, meeting their doctor's wishes, but also help them make a new group of friends, exercise, and have fun.
Another exciting aspect of this new idea is that you can build additional business lines. Nature walks are not the only unique thing that doctors prescribe. Another interesting finding was that some doctors prescribe gardening to help older people relieve stress, boost mood, and retain basic movement. You could partner with local gardening clubs to help you facilitate this service.
4. Roll-up profitable marketplaces
There are thousands of micro-businesses for sale on Acquire and other sites. Many of these businesses generate millions in revenue and are profitable. However, one trend I noticed with the marketplace businesses listed on Acquire is that the owners all suggest that growth funnel optimization and SEO are two of the most significant factors to focus on to grow the business.
I see a business opportunity to rank the marketplace businesses listed for sale on these public sites by upside and acquire ones of a similar size and tech stack. First, you need to create a model and system to identify which ones could generate more revenue or become more profitable based on the business you want to build. The good thing is that on websites like Acquire, you can easily find data points to incorporate into your models, such as date founded, number of customers, gross revenue, net profit, and more.
You would hire a team across the board on these marketplaces to optimize their growth funnels and SEO to increase revenues and maximize profit margins. The business model for this idea could be the standard 20% take rate that most marketplaces charge.
One challenge with this business is that the tech stacks will need to evolve as the marketplaces grow. Most of these businesses use no-code marketplace builders like Bubble, Sharetribe, and Webflow. You'll need to figure out how and when to transition these marketplace businesses to your code stack in a streamlined way.
Another challenge with this business is that I'd recommend negotiating some involvement from the previous owner to ensure the company continues running smoothly under your new oversight. This could be one monthly phone call to ask them questions and gather context about specific problems. This is commonplace for the sale of established businesses where the owners and former team often stay on to work at the new company for as many as two years before they are allowed to leave without any financial repercussions. This way, the new company has a team to ensure a smooth transition.
5. Activate stay-at-home moms
There are more than 11 million stay-at-home parents in the United States, with over 90% of this group being moms. Stay-at-home moms are one of the most untapped labor pools in the United States, but also one of the most capable groups to produce quality work.
There are many business opportunities around trying to activate stay-at-home moms. For example, you could build a localized marketplace that allows stay-at-home moms to earn income while also contributing to their community by performing flexible tasks like picking up someone's kid from school or babysitting them for a night so their parents can go on a date.
One key consideration is that most stay-at-home moms don't need money. They are in a financial situation that allows them to be at home. It's important to align the work you are recommending with things that they care about, such as giving back to their community, helping their kid's school district, or something of that nature.
Based on my example, this is a marketplace business where you can charge the standard 20% take rate for every transaction that happens on your platform.
I'm excited about this idea because if you capture enough momentum with this customer group, stay-at-home moms, then you could build other services for their specific needs.
For example, one specific issue that stay-at-home moms face is trying to re-enter the workforce when their children are old enough to look after themselves. You could build a business that helps refresh their skills and place them in industries, such as nursing, that fit the skills they have developed from being the primary caregiver for their children. With this business, you could partner with companies and charge them a placement fee to help them recruit new talent to their organization.
One challenge with trying to activate stay-at-home moms is that they are hard to identify in a community. Most moms don't keep an up-to-date LinkedIn like our generation. If you don't have existing relationships in the community, it might be hard to get in front of the group you want to activate. One workaround to this challenge could be to hang out at local spots in the community during working hours to see who you see. For example, find out who's playing tennis on a weekday at noon.
6. Outsource parents' to-do lists
Sticking in the parents' theme, have you ever seen a parent's to-do list? It seems to never-end and gets longer by the day. It's difficult for parents, especially working parents, to find time to spend with their families. That includes their children and even their partner.
One new idea is that you could start a service-based business that helps parents outsource their to-do lists. Some parents will pay for help with things like planning a date night, hiring a photographer for school pictures, researching childcare options, and more. Stemming from my other business ideas, you could activate stay-at-home moms or outsource these tasks to international virtual assistants.
The business model that would work for this is to charge parents a price for each task depending on the difficulty and time required. You would then make the difference between that price and the rate you pay someone to complete it.
One challenge with this business is that most parents don't even think about outsourcing things like this. Instead, they feel like these things are just part of the responsibility that they signed up for when they became a parent. I would start by creating good content around the power of delegation and showing them how much time they could save each week by outsourcing certain things on their to-do lists. The good thing is that once you get a few parents on board, the business should spread like wildfire in the community because parents are always talking and texting with other parents.
If you can align the task with someone who has expertise or experience rather than just any random person, then you can charge more for your services. For example, if I were a parent, I would pay more for a stay-at-home mom in my community to help me research childcare options than a random person. This is because the stay-at-home mom already did this for her kid, and she's probably talked with other parents in the community who have used other childcare options. As a result, she has the expertise that I'm looking for. In contrast, the person who isn't involved in the community or hasn't used a child care service themselves will aggregate information from the Internet, which will be a worse solution.
7. Barry's Bootcamp, but for basketball
In 2019, Barry's Bootcamp, the famous group fitness studio known for incorporating dumbbell weight lifting with treadmills for their workouts, was reportedly valued at over $700 million. They are one of the most recognizable brands in the group fitness space, a fast-growing segment in the more significant fitness industry. In the last couple of years, business owners have applied Barry's Bootcamp model to cycling, pilates, yoga, boxing, dance-inspired classes, and more.
Could you apply this model to basketball? Having played basketball my entire life, I know there are a bunch of great basketball drills that anyone can do that also would make for an excellent workout. For example, a transition layup drill would be fun for beginners and great for their cardio and endurance. A defensive slide drill would be suitable for their core and lower body. The list goes on.
I think the business model for this idea would be similar to any fitness studio or gym – a membership model, one-time, monthly, yearly, and integrated with services like ClassPass to get more distribution.
One important thing to consider with this business is that the instructor makes or breaks a fitness class. They don't have to be a pro basketball player or even someone who has played a ton, but you need someone very friendly, inviting, and who will help people have fun during the workout.
One challenge with this business is that you'll need to ensure your marketing appeals to everyone, not just basketball players. Someone who has never played basketball in their life should feel confident enough to walk in and attend one of your workout classes. I would look at other verticals, such as group fitness classes for boxing, to see how they market and position themselves.
9. Second opinions for contractors
Published research shows that between 10% and 25% of project costs are lost through avoidable errors. This amounts to billions every year. I noticed this problem when my parents remodeled their house. The first contractor we used went $100K+ over budget and still needed to finish the job, so we had to hire another contractor.
I would love to see a business that systematizes getting second opinions on home construction projects. For example, if I spend $100K fixing a bedroom, I would love for another contractor to independently give me a cost estimate and project overview that they can share with my actual contractor. This way, I know that two people said it would cost this much rather than relying on my contractor, pulling a number out of thin air. Remember, standard agreements between homeowners and contractors incentivize them to charge you more than they should because they take a percentage of the project's total cost rather than a flat fee. The contractor giving a second opinion on the project might identify different materials or ways to complete the project in a shorter timeline.
When considering how to build this, I would steal from the process that buying a real-estate asset like a home follows. When your bid gets accepted for a home, you have a contractor come out for a full inspection. They'll check the roofing, the foundation, and more. After the entire review, they'll share the written report with you, and you can then use that report to negotiate the sale price with the sellers. I want this full inspection report to be standard for home construction projects.
This could be a marketplace business where consumers could easily find contractors to provide second opinions, or inspections, on a project. Then, you could get them to sign an agreement so that your main contractor doesn't have to worry about losing the job if the contractor giving the second opinion quotes a lower price for the project or notices things about the main contractors. That way, it also removes the incentive for the second contractor to try to price the bid lower to win the job away from the main contractor.
Contractors would be into this because you create a new income source. Most contractors will have 2-3 main monthly jobs via referral. But if they need to make extra money because business is slow or they have some spare time, they can do second opinion inspections to earn more.
The business model for this could be the standard 20% take rate that most marketplaces charge.
One challenge with this business is that contractors will only join a platform if the job is ready. So to onboard contractors, you need to find the jobs first, then get contractors to sign up and accept the jobs.
10. AI founder-market fit business generator
Some business generators are on the market today, but none are good. They usually are just lists of small business ideas, like pet-sitting or car detailing, that people put behind a paywall on a website. The main issue with the current solutions in the market today is that they need to pay attention to who you are. They need to learn about your skill set, your interests, etc.
I would love to see someone build an AI tool that understands who you are – from online data points such as your LinkedIn, your search history, etc. – before suggesting business ideas that you can execute, which might excite you. Starting a business is hard if you don't have founder-market fit because it's often an investment of multiple years of your life.
The business model for this could be a pay-per-idea model where you charge customers a fee for every new idea you share.
One challenge with this business is that AI is not creative. This can help you find founder-market fit for businesses that already exist today, such as a lawn care company, but you need help finding new business opportunities like the ones in this post. Trust me, I've tried to use different prompts on ChatGPT3, and it still gives me some generic gibberish. How long will it take for the AI to get to that point? Regardless, I think there's still a business to be built here.
11. Content-led supplement business
The way people buy supplements needs to be updated. You visit a GNC or The Vitamin Shoppe, you look around the store, you pick up a product and read a label that makes no sense, you might ask the retail associate who doesn't know any better than you, then you guess which supplement is best for you and buy it.
I wish there were a content-led supplement business that showed me more in-depth information and research to help me decide. For example, I want to know which supplements I should take based on my diet, sleep and exercise, and more.
You would onboard supplement companies onto the platform, then create a content arm that reviews the products and provides all the information a user would want to make an informed purchase.
The business model for this could be the standard 20% marketplace take rate for every transaction.
One challenge with this business is the saturated fitness industry. Even with excellent content, it will take some time before you can rank on search engines and break through the noise to get sustainable distribution. However, early on, you could work with up-and-coming influencers with audiences that are most likely in the market to purchase supplements and the type of people who would want to know more information instead of making a blind purchase, like someone who is just getting into fitness.
12. Jobs marketplace for older and partly retired people
A study by CNBC highlighted that 41% of Americans think it'll take a miracle to have enough money to retire. Unfortunately, the problem of not having enough money for retirement is starting to set in for most Americans. These people will have to work until they are much older than previous generations, and some may even have to maintain part-time jobs into the years when they should be happily retired.
One new business idea from this is a solution that helps older people find easy part-time jobs for these years. If you look on an open marketplace like Indeed, finding a job description tailored to an older person is very hard. I would need to figure out where to start.
An example of a perfect job for this demographic could be a Costco greeter. The older person could stand at the entrance and say hello to everyone walking in. It's the type of job they would be capable of performing at a high level. Another job that an older person could be good at is a receptionist. Again, you don't have to be on your feet, and it's similar to a greeter, where you need to be friendly and attentive.
One challenge with this business is that older people are not good with technology. If you build a website, it might be hard to get them onboarded. You might have to create instruction guides or host live sessions where you help people create profiles and learn how to use the platform. Another challenge with this business is that you'll need to convince companies that hiring older people is good for their bottom line. For specific jobs, it is.
13. Social club for older people
On a similar note, at-home health is a significant trend that is top of mind for everyone in the healthcare industry. The focus in recent years is how we shift the point of care from hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes to the patient's home or location. One issue arising from this shift in healthcare is that receiving care at home instead of something like a nursing home makes the patient more socially isolated. The people receiving at-home care will no longer have access to the built-in community that comes with places like nursing homes.
I would love to see someone create a business to solve this problem, such as a social club for older people who receive at-home care that they could subscribe to. The social club could arrange transportation to pick up members from their homes in vehicles that meet the safety requirements and take them to the social club so they can meet other people. They could participate in things such as watching movies, playing games, walking around the premises, and enjoying conversations with each other.
The business model that would work for this would be a monthly membership model, and then you could also charge for additional one-off events such as a wine and paint night or a trip to the local museum.
One challenge with this business is that there would be high startup costs. Not only do you have to secure a location, but you also have to retrofit the location to meet the safety standards required for older people.
14. Safe back channeling for hiring decisions
As someone who has been a hiring manager for the companies I worked at and talked with a bunch of hiring managers to learn best practices, I know that references don't provide much help to help you decide whether you should hire someone for your team and if they are going to perform well. This is because the candidate you are interviewing hand-selects the references they provide. By that, I mean they will tell you everything you want to hear and not be critical of the candidate. Almost anyone, even if they are average or below average employees, can find 2-3 people throughout their career who can vouch for them during a reference check.
One practice that people have started to use to counteract no-signal reference checks is back channeling. This is commonplace in the tech industry now, where the hiring manager or someone at the company will try to find people in their networks to give off-the-record feedback about the person who is interviewing. Besides the fact that back channeling is questionable from a legal standpoint, they also should be frowned upon since they could potentially "out" the employee before they have sent in a formal two-week notice. This could cause the interviewing candidate to lose their current job or, at the very least, create an awkward situation.
I wish a business figured out how to help hiring managers get more signal regarding the interviewing candidate's work performance by safely getting backchannel references. You would need to figure out how to convince companies that it is suitable for all their employees to participate in a data-sharing agreement that external companies can access when making a hiring decision on you in the future. You could line up this review at the same time as a formal performance review, or you take specific data points from the performance review itself and make it public to future companies. I'm unsure of the solution, but I hope someone figures it out.
Companies lose millions of dollars each year making lousy hiring decisions, so if you can increase their chances by providing high-signal references, you could build a business around this.
15. Extension to make healthcare costs transparent
Have you ever gone to a new doctor or dentist, provided your insurance, received the treatment, and then been told afterward that you owe hundreds of dollars? It happened to me one time, and I was annoyed. Why is it so hard and complicated to figure out how much you need to pay out-of-pocket versus how much your insurance will cover?
I would love an extension for your web browser that I could use every time I was on a healthcare website. It would tell me how much specific treatments would cost based on my healthcare insurance plan and break down the costs, so I know how much I will have to pay out of pocket to receive that service from that provider.
One challenge I see with this business is that I'm unsure of the complexities required to make an extension like this and integrate it into different healthcare websites, but I would 100% use it. It would save people a lot of money, time, and frustration.
16. Auto-cancel and subscribe to new services when you move
Moving is a painful process. Of course, the move is already a lot of work, but you must then cancel all your bills and find new providers to serve you at your new location. This includes the Internet, trash, electricity, water, and more.
Have you ever tried to call an Internet provider like Comcast? I had one of the worst customer experiences of my life when they put me on hold for several hours. These companies try to make it as hard as possible to cancel.
I would love it if there were a business that reviewed all of my bills, and when I set it to move to a new location, it would auto-cancel accounts specific to that location and subscribe me to providers in the new area. This would eliminate the hassle, back and forth, and frustration of having to call all of these service providers with poor customer service.
A business model for this could be a free app with a one-time payment for each service canceled or subscribed to.
One beautiful thing about this new business idea is that identifying your customer is pretty straightforward. For example, you can find property records to see the houses sold in a particular area and reach out to those who are getting ready to move to a new location. Another thing you could do is partner with moving companies and other services that help people spread awareness and get in front of your target customer.
17. Compete with cash offers for real estate
In every hot real estate market, you'll compete with all-cash offers made on the property. Sellers typically prefer these cash offers for several good reasons. First, cash offers provide a higher level of certainty and speed for the transaction since the buyer can rely on something other than a mortgage lender's approval, which can be time-consuming and may fall through due to financing issues. Additionally, cash buyers often waive contingencies that are common in regular offers, such as home inspections or financing contingencies.
Is there a way to compete with all-cash offers for real estate? For example, suppose you can find a way to give traditional mortgage lender buyers the leverage to contend with cash offers. In that case, people will pay a lot of money for that because it'll increase the chances that they can make the purchase instead of losing out again.
I would start by doing customer research with sellers who turned down all cash offers in favor of an offer contingent on a mortgage lender's approval. You'd probably find some interesting information there then I would talk with experts in the real estate industry to see if there have been any unique solutions people have come up with to make their offers more attractive.
That's all for now. I plan to keep adding to this list as I develop new business ideas every week. So subscribe to my email list and check back on the Boring Business Nerd website. Thanks for reading!
