12 Business Ideas for the Taking

People are always asking for business ideas. It’s been said before, but it really is true that ideas aren’t worth squat. It’s the development and implementation of those ideas that matters and ultimately puts money in the bank.

So here are some business ideas I’ve had—you can have ‘em. 

There are so many things to pursue, and I haven’t yet found the time or inclination to pursue these, so by all means, run with any of them if they strike your fancy. Most of you won’t. That’s fine. They’re just ideas, which as we’ve established, aren't worth much.

Some of these are probably more a than others. That’s fine. Maybe one will be a thought starter that leads to something else.

Many of these may/do already exist in some form. That’s fine too. Just because something’s been done before doesn’t mean it can’t be done better. Maybe you can create a better version, market it more successfully, or generally execute better. There are lots of existing, poorly executed businesses out there based on decent ideas. 

These ideas aren't necessarily sexy, complicated or groundbreaking. But they could all potentially solve a big enough problem for enough people to sustain at least a modest business.

Alright, onto the ideas (or at least problems that could potentially be valuable to solve):

1. App to easily place group lunch orders. At my office we will sometimes have delivery people from the same place make multiple trips to deliver individual orders within the same hour. Very inefficient for the business. Jimmy John’s has a group order feature, but that’s just one place (and, at least at my office, people aren’t using it. Why? What would make people actually use such a service?)

2. App to find other professionals to meet for lunch. [These won't all be lunch based, promise.] Lunch in many work places is a lonely affair. Get out of the office and make new connections by meeting new people for lunch.

3. Roommate finder through social network friends/friends of friends. Allow people to mine their 2nd- and 3rd-degree connections to find roommates.

4. Up to date site/app to find the best happy hours deals near you/in your city going on today/right now. Yes Yelp exists, but it’s not a quick reference of what the specific happy hour deals/hours are for every place. Include an upvote/downvote mechanic so the cream rises to the top and I can quickly see what the best place is near me and what HH deals I can expect there.

5. Live music schedule site. Bigger venues keep schedules up to date, but smaller bars/restaurants/coffee shops often don’t. Make this easier/more automatic for the small business owners that regularly/occasionally have live music so they actually do it. And make a central directory so I can see where I can go see some music right now/tonight. Alternatively/additionally: make it easier for places that want musicians to find/book them.

6. AirBnB for home-cooked meals/Uber for personal chefs. Just something I wrote down once. It might be stupid, cuz restaurants. But, hey, maybe it sparks something for someone.

7. Sell ad space—on cars. Pay people a cut of the revenue to let you wrap their cars in the ads. Yes Wrapify is doing this. Other probably are too. And yet, every day I still see millions of shiny, rolling billboards NOT wrapped in ads. Get some of that market.

8. BYOB Comedy Club. Figure out how to make this financially viable, cuz 2 drink minimums are dumb.

9. App to facilitate carpooling with people at your office/offices near you, or even just to help parents coordinate carpooling kids to school. Traffic is nuts. Most commuting cars only have one person in them. Get some of those cars off the road and help people save money on commuting, not to mention the benefits of more social time instead of lonely driving.

10. App/site to calculate the optimal time to sell a used car/buy a newer one. Taking into account depreciation curve, increased maintenance, insurance cost difference, etc. Calculate the buy sell/frequency that minimizes cost per year. 

11. Be a better recruiter/staffing agency for contractors/freelancers. Most of these places mark rates way up and hide that fact from the contractor and the client: they find people willing to work for $20/hr and sell them to the client as $40/hr+ workers. It’s shady. Be better than this. Work smarter, automate more and make up for your reduced markup with the army of workers who would rather you place them so they can keep more of their money.

12. Related: kind of an age old one, but make hiring quicker/easier/more efficient for companies. Filling open positions is time consuming and costly. Minimizing turnover is another huge problem. Figure out how to predict job performance/longevity better (machine learning?) and make a bajillion dollars.

This is just a start. Ideas are a dime a dozen. I may be back at some point with another batch.