I have often thought about starting my own business. Within five minutes, though, I am so overwhelmed with the thought of dealing with bureaucracy that my dreams are forever smashed. Besides, I would need another person to deal with the actual business side, the part with the numbers, quarterly sales meetings, deals, and so on, because I'm more of an idea/big picture person. My creativity is more for the product itself, not it's marketing.
Before I start listing ideas, I think it is important to define the state of the world and what it needs at the moment. Anyone can conceive of a coffee house, but do we really need more overpriced drinks and brownies so large they look like they devoured other brownies? We must avoid "bubble companies," places like cupcakeries and Pop-Tart delicatessens which piggy-back on economic bubbles, for once the bubble has popped, so will the company. It is also important to note that the world is not America. Much of it is still only developing or lower, so what might seem run of the mill here could be a real innovation elsewhere. This means that while competition here and in Europe is dog-eat-dog, one might fit in quite easily elsewhere and quickly become prosperous. Meanwhile, what isn't developing or lower is currently hurting. The future is so dark at the moment for many first-world nations that we can barely see anything past a year, and what we do see is frightening. This is another reason to avoid frivolous things like coffee houses (unless it assured that it could work in your place; I would say, avoid New York City); people will need businesses that provides them essentials (and cheaply). They will also need, however, diversion from all the bleakness. YouTube became wildly successful for providing both, as evidenced by at one moment watching tutorials on using Microsoft Office to cat massaging. This brings me to another point: technology. Who knew we would need iPads? Steve Jobs. Facebook has become one of the most fabulously successful companies around, and in only a decade (its creation was even the basis of a good movie). Google continues its path to gobble up everything (ex. YouTube). Therefore, technology and the internet are great places to work in, if you can (here is where I would definitely be an idea man; I don't know code or how to put together a computer). Also, see if you can provide something for very little or free. The above companies do such, but they make money from other means, such as advertisement. That covers a good deal, and though I could probably point out more concerns, I will just move on to the list.
- Self-publishing: This covers everything from creating the physical book to getting it on shelves (physical or electronic). It is relatively easy to do this these days, without the need of going to some publishing company and praying that some lower level employee won't just stow it away. Companies have arisen that don't care what your book is, but they will create the physical copies for you. Or you could make them yourself. There are now machines one can purchase at a relatively low price and, with a little extra space, one can be a micro-publisher. Then there are e-books, which eliminates the need for any publishing. Get Adobe Acrobat, and you can put finely crafted books online for people to purchase. As a composer, I myself would focus on making sheet music available. Caveat emptor: avoid pricey and ridiculous copyright schemes. Instead, get a Creative Commons license.
- Website of websites: There are so many websites I go to at the moment, and it can be hard to keep track of them all. Something like a blog feed would be nice. However, these sites involve constantly updated information, like new job postings, or the status of an application, or emails, and it would be nice if I had one place to go for it all. I would log on to my account on this meta-website and see all sorts of updated info for job sites, emails from various email accounts, perhaps bills that I pay online. Whatever it is that keep track of online, it could be compiled into one place for me. The problem here is security: that is a lot of information to have available at once, so maybe instead of immediate access, one could log in to each site from this one place. The meta-website can then suggest related websites that might interest the user, enhanced by being connected to one's social website (Facebook, etc.). This could go many ways
- Social networking: It seems like Facebook has the market cornered here, but many people have begun complaining about the many changes it keeps making. Then Google devised Google+, and people have switched over. I do not use Google+, because I have no desire to at the moment and Facebook works just fine for me. However, I bet either site could still be improved upon. Facebook, after all, did completely out do that other site, MySpace, or whatever it's called (does anyone still use that?).
- Jack-of-all-trades: Let's face it, hard times are coming, and the less you have to pay to have something done, the better. So if you can have one person do most of the tasks, then that consolidates your payment. Start a business where you hire people who can do anything and everything, from lawn care to home care, driving someone around, personal care, organizer, planner, and so on. The problem here is that much of this may require state licensing, so unless one can deal with the headaches therein involved, this may not be the best route.
- Personal software developer: Perhaps Hector has a great idea for a computer game, and he can lay out all story lines and characters and such, but has no idea how to go about actually creating it. He's in luck, because your company will work with him to do such. Payment can be before-hand or after the fact, or both, depending on what Hector wants to do with it.
- Generating business ideas: There are two sides here: a.) someone wants to start a company, and maybe has a vague idea of what they want, which you and your team flesh out this person and make a reality; or b.) someone already has a company, but is looking for a way to add more, to branch out, or simply refresh it, so you and your team look at what's going and formulate solutions. Perhaps something like this already exists--I don't know, and I don't really care at the moment. These are just ideas.
