
The Best Industries For Starting a Business Right Now - rpledge
http://www.inc.com/ss/best-industries-starting-business-right-now
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luckystrike
Printer (& Human) Friendly Version: <http://www.inc.com/print/579>

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patio11
Somebody I know of -- and memory escapes whether I have permission to mention
the specifics, so I won't -- runs a rather successful software business based
on solving one "technically undemanding but financially pressing" problem for
one of these industries.

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zach
That kind of company is a recurring theme in entrepreneurial pep talks of
Waterloo econ professor Larry Smith.

He spins very intriguing tales of recent graduates creating companies in
extremely tiny niches (single or double digits of possible worldwide
customers) that, while not very exciting, solve problems that companies will
gladly pay "big bucks" for. These are business problems where companies are
desperately throwing many times more money at less efficient solutions or know
they are leaving huge amounts of money on the table by not having a better
solution.

He has a few talks where he talks about some success stories that he happens
to know about because he's advised them as former students. Nobody knows how
many "under the radar" companies like this there are, but I would bet it's far
easier to make a fortune from a company that fits this profile than a Google
acquisition.

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brc
I would disagree with (1). For a start, the industry, at the moment, heavily
relies on government subsidies to stay in business. Those subsidies are either
in the form of rebates for purchases, rebates in the form of artificially high
electricity buyback prices, or more favourable tax treatment or other perks
(electric cars & city parking, for example)

While the political winds are blowing in your favour it might be plain
sailing, but any business that does not have a fundamental basis in return on
investment without subsidy is highly risky. With the endless talk of reining
in government spending in countries all around the world, any industry relying
on government subsidies to keep it afloat has a large risk factor of cuts to
those subsidies resulting from a switch in government.

Exceptions to this are probably in personalised, high end sales and consulting
to wealthy businesses and individuals who want the technology for the wow
factor. Because a self-sustaining office or house will continue to be
something that people desire when cost is no longer a factor. This trend will
change slowly and be well-signalled by the next 'shiny new thing' that these
people want.

Politicians are the worst kind of business partner. Keen to take the credit
and revenues, and then run like the wind when it's no longer a vote winner and
leave you with the leftovers.

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run4yourlives
The cost of traditional energy (gas, electric, etc) is only going in one
direction. In fact, the level of subsidies in those traditional sectors dwarfs
those you mention.

That said, to your warning regarding politicians and "government run "
industries, I couldn't agree more.

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brc
I've never seen any credible evidence to support the theory that major power
generation is subsidised to even a fraction of what wind/solar is.

Certainly, where I live, all electricity is generated by coal powered
generation. The state government is a net winner on this because they receive
royalties for the coal dug up. There's certainly no subsidy. The only upward
pressure on the price of electricity is, again, political. There's enough coal
in the ground to provide cheap power for centuries, the only thing that is
going to change that is laws made by politicians to either restrict the
building of new power stations, or to lump the power stations with extra
costs. Again, both of these changes would be politically led, rather than
anything occuring naturally in the marketplace. As a perfect competitor for
alternative energy, political changes in towards coal powered electricity
would be just as devastating as political changes away from alternative
energy. I'm not commenting on the 'correctness' of either change, just saying
that both are equally as likely, thus making the sector the last thing I would
get involved in.

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jasonlbaptiste
Most of this list is from anything research.com. This list fascinates me more:

[http://www.anythingresearch.com/Top-Industries/Market-
Fragme...](http://www.anythingresearch.com/Top-Industries/Market-
Fragmentation.htm)

~~~
anigbrowl
What they all have in common is a requirement for individualized service and a
strong emotional quality-of-life component. If you have the skills to do well
in any of these spheres then you probably enjoy a _lot_ of repeat business.
Successfully franchising that is difficult because it's not obvious where the
economies of scale are, plus the typical franchisee is looking to leverage a
brand rather than obsessing-to-excel.

One area where it does work, which you might find surprising, is bars -
particularly Irish bars (or pubs, as we like to call them). Over in the UK and
Ireland, the vast majority of pubs are owned by retail groups rather than
being individual businesses. If you google 'Irish pub franchise' not only will
you find an opportunity to open up your own 'authentic' Irish pub, you'll find
a large number of companies offering similar franchises. In my San Francisco
neighborhood, there are two actual Irish pubs (which have both good and bad
aspects; more fun but much worse hangovers), and two fake ones.

They look superficially similar: lots of dark wood, lots of old Irish signs
and historical photographs hanging on the walls, plenty of Irish booze and
loud-ish music several nights a week (real pubs have a jukebox or karaoke;
fake ones buy a piano and hire performers). I sometimes go to the nearest fake
one because they have decent food. While waiting for the restroom one evening
I was passing the time by looking at the many 'historical' photos on the wall,
only to notice that on close inspection you can see jpeg artifacts on all of
them! My folks in Ireland tell me there's a thriving light industry in making
authentic-looking but completely fake old agricultural/domestic tools, like
grass scythes and mangles (for washing clothes), all destined for export to
the US where they are used to decorate 'traditional' Irish pubs.

Edit: on rereading, this sounds as if I spend all my free time at the other
pubs, but in fact I'm getting too old for that :)

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tjmaxal
How many people at YC have proposed starting a ferry company I wonder?

~~~
GFischer
I've often thought about starting a business that's outside of my
skills/competencies, but I suspect that, much like a non-programmer doing a
software business, there's much I don't know, which would lead me to failure.

OTOH us developer types do know how to learn :) so maybe my fears are
misplaced.

I never gave serious thought about a ferry, but I have sometimes wondered
about it (when stuck in traffic :) ).

There is a potential ferry route over here (Bay of Montevideo) from the
wealthier residential neighbourhoods to downtown that should be faster than
the land route during peak hours, as it avoids congestion.

However, I don't know if the potential customers would tolerate sea-sickness
or bad weather, or if the time savings would be enough, or even if it could be
made profitable when competing against subsidized public transportation...
(quite a few unknown variables).

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fizzfur
wow that site thoroughly broke my back button

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kadavy
1) Environmental Consulting, 2) Translation and Interpretation Services, 3)
Home Health Care, _4) Mobile App Design_ , 5) Ferryboats and Inland Water
Transportation, 6) Tea and Healthy Beverages, 7) Fun, Games, and Hobbies, 8)
Exam Preparation and Tutoring, 9) Bakeries and Baked Goods, 10) Self-Storage
Leasing, 11) Handmade and Vintage Goods Online, 12) Medicinal Marijuana
Retailing, 13) Self-Published Video Games, 14) Blood, Plasma, and Sperm Banks,
15) Water Supply and Irrigation Systems, 15) Safety and Quality Testing

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jackfoxy
I was surprised to see Bakeries and Baked Goods (9). I know someone selling an
established commercial bakery in a major metro area. I don't think the margins
or growth are all that great. (But I could be wrong.)

As an aside, I have it from a principal in a private equity fund that he's
seeing a big up-tick in the number of businesses for sale.

~~~
brc
Given the appallingly low quality of most baked goods in the USA, I think
there is a lot of headroom for growth in fresh bakery stores. Done well, it's
got every chance of becoming the next 'starbucks'. Who would have said 20
years ago that premium priced coffee would be a growth industry?

In European countries, even the smallest two-horse town supports a local
bakery, and most small french towns will have several. It's part of the
lifestyle to buy bread fresh each day and eating processed factory produced
bread is just not done. Anyone who has eaten a fresh baguette from a french
bakery will know what I'm talking about.

You could say the same about coffee in the USA today - who will pass up a
freshly brewed cup over some processed instant coffee, even though the price
is 20 times higher for that latte? The cupcake craze might be the first leg in
a takeup of small bakeries offering freshly baked goods which become woven
into people's daily lives.

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steveklabnik
One of the most interesting trends that I don't see a lot of people talking
about is Mass Customization. Part of this is because people haven't fully
figured out the answer, but that just means there's a lot of money to be made.

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Jun8
"Medicinal marijuana retailing"? Now, there's a business!

~~~
dhyasama
A friend of mine did that in california for a few years. He was completely
legit, rented a warehouse, payroll, taxes, etc. It's a bit too counter-
cultural for me (although I don't have a problem with it) but he was good at
it.

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percept
Did your friend quit to do something else? [He sounds like a good Reddit IamA
candidate.]

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zeynel1
"This industry is well suited to independent contractors with the skills to
install environmental gear such as wind turbines. . ."

This doesn't sound right. Installing wind turbines is in the domain of huge
energy corporations, as far as I know.

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jdietrich
I don't know about the US, but here in Europe there are huge numbers of small
wind and solar installations going up on residential and commercial property.
Architects and energy experts are calling it "eco-bling" - largely useless,
but a highly visible and expensive way of signalling how much you care for the
environment. I've lost count of the number of solar panels I've seen fitted on
the north side of a building so as to face the main entrance rather than the
sun.

~~~
tjmaxal
The same sort of thing is happening here in the US as well.

~~~
eande
There is a difference. The solar panels in Europe go up everywhere nothing
compared to US you see. Some countries in Europe have a highly subsidized
government programs where you get paid 50c per KWh for so many years. That
spurred a rush to install a panel on the roof top and with it came many small
solar installers/companies.

