Ask HN: What kind of profitable business you can create with only $10K USD? - designium
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auslegung
Lawn care business or cleaning business are the first ones that come to mind.
Both have a relatively low barrier of entry. I was able to create a lawn care
business for under $10k in upfront investment, and that means absolutely
everything: marketing, website, pickup truck, covered trailer, mower, all misc
tools. I did everything myself. Cleaning business has far less upfront cost
and doesn't require as much hot outdoors work.

I've heard Dave Ramsey refer to coin car wash lots as a license to print
money, but he also said he doesn't own any b/c it's not what he wants to get
into. I never did research that claim, and I don't know how much money it
would require but I'm guessing more than 10k.

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cjbenedikt
Coin laundromats def are

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auslegung
Tell me more. I kinda tried to research this years ago and didn't get very
far, but also didn't try very hard. Can you point me to any resources
outlining typical ROIs?

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nataz
Check out investment joy on YouTube. He is very transparent on costs and
revenue. It's not a huge profit center, but with tax incentives, write offs,
vending machines and a quarter pusher he makes a profit.

He is upfront on how he makes a lot more money via the YouTube channel talking
about running a coin laundry them from the laundry business itself.

If you go through his videos, he talks about the risks he is taking, other
business ventures he has in real estate, it's interesting. This guy is running
Landry mats and trailer parks in the midwest. Its not the normal Instagram get
rich quick lifestyle blog.

[https://youtu.be/Wzrn9tvPI14](https://youtu.be/Wzrn9tvPI14)

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muzani
One trick with this is to try to do it with as close to $0 as possible. Many
apps fall into this category. Use the money for experiments, or to speed up
things like data entry. Maybe for marketing or setting up a domain name.

And by trying to stick to $0, you tend to spot clever low cost marketing
strategies that might actually be far more effective than putting $1000 on a
Facebook ad. And you end up focusing on trying to get users right now rather
than think in terms of runway, assets, and bloated features.

For example, we'd print out recipes and put them on some banners downtown,
with link to our app for more.

Or we'd set up a fake blog and subscribe a domain name, with a single article
that said "If You Are (target market), Here Are 5 Reasons You Must Download
This App." It's shady but it brought in 3000 active users, who stuck around
and shared it to their friends. The cost for that was around $100, including
hiring a copywriter.

If you don't like apps, there's always something like dropshipping - be a
middle man for two parties and make money off the arbitrage (which ironically
scales well into an app). Some friends make a good sum collecting money for
babysitters. One friend did a car rental business, but he got the cash up
front first, then bought the car. Try to make it cost $0 where possible.

~~~
designium
Thanks for the advice! I think the "free" marketing is where I'm struggling
the most.

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akg_67
First, I will suggest reading $100 startup.

What skills do you have? Based on your skills, find low hanging fruits and go
for them. No need to think too much or do any validation etc. Take a shotgun
approach. Launch bunch of small projects and see what sticks.

Can you do WordPress? Can you learn quickly? Join affiliate programs and
launch bunch of sites in obscure topics you know and/or interested in.
Outsource writing to Fiverr, Upwork etc freelance sites.

~~~
designium
I"m going to read that book. I didn't know it.

I have a full time job as a PM in a Fintech startup. It's not bad but I really
want to have my own thing and be job independent. I can also program in Ruby
on Rails and do a lot of automation scripts.

The issue is that I have too many ideas and that's more of a distraction than
anything else. I think creating is not an issue but marketing what I want and
to whom is the bigger issue.

~~~
akg_67
Too many ideas are a good kind of problem. If you can’t decide, throw a dart
and pick one. Low hanging fruits picked at low cost is the key.

If you like creating, just create. Don’t worry about marketing. Overtime, you
will figure out.

If you start with certain Return expectations, and then don’t get close to
those expectations you will be disappointed. Just don’t have any expectations.
Just create. Do for the fun of creating.

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itronitron
a tiling business, assuming you like working with your hands and care about
doing things well

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fiftyacorn
Sell coronavirus masks

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krrishd
sneaker reselling

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seattle_spring
I would personally feel bad ripping off kids who almost certainly couldn't
actually afford the things they were buying from me. If you could overlook the
ethical part of this suggestion then I guess it's easy money.

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krrishd
the key here is that in the internet market it's usually their parents doing
the affording, but yeah you're mostly right.

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giantg2
Prostitution? Drugs?

Oh, I'm guessing you mean legally. Didn't see that in the requirement specs
though.

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giantg2
I guess I should have added /sarcasm to avoid the downvote.

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designium
I didn't downvote you. I think those are some of the thoughts I had as a joke;
like running a onlyfans site, etc. but I'm not sure if that's sustainable or
it can scale. Nor if I have the "talent".

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giantg2
I wish I was talented at anything.

