From the desk of Mark Ford:
Other Side Businesses to Consider
1. Nurse-placement agency
Because of the growing need for nurses and the shrinking supply, Taipan, a newsletter for forward thinking investors, recommends Cross Country, a business that places nurses with over 2,500 hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and other health-care providers in the United States.
I’ve been interested in this business since 1991, when my neighbor sold half of his nurse placement business to Grace & Co. for $25 million. It was a business that he and his wife and another couple put together on their own and grew pretty much on the basis of instant demand.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that, by 2020, the nationwide registered-nurse work force will be nearly 20% below anticipated requirements.
The current nurse pool is getting older and retiring, while the baby boomers are fast moving toward the age at which they will need nurses. At the same time, enrollment in nursing education programs in America is decreasing.
This spells opportunity for someone who can find a fresh supply of nurses. I’m thinking Third World. There’s got to be a way to meet this rising demand.
2. Internet-expert employment agency
Some of the fastest fortunes of the past 50 years have gone to people who have developed specialized employment agencies. Like the couple I just told you about who were partners in a placement agency for nurses that was sold for $50 million (after less than five years). Similar stories exist in the marketing business, the sciences, the computer industry, and even in the field of entertainment.
The Internet industry is in its infancy — but the demand for talented people is already skyrocketing. This business takes very little start-up capital. Just a lot of energy and the willingness to make many, many phone calls.
3. Internet job-referral service
There are literally thousands of Internet job-placement services on the Web. Maybe tens of thousands. One new twist involves reward systems. Recommend someone for a job and if/when the deal is made, you get paid. This has long been a policy among large companies, but now it’s a fledgling Internet industry.
One such upstart is Refer.com. On this site, companies post job openings free of charge, offering compensation of at least $1,000 (through Refer.com) to anyone who helps them fill an empty position and paying a matching fee to Refer.com. Individuals sign on as members, peruse the listings, and refer friends and colleagues who look like good fits. Members who apply for jobs themselves get the referral reward in the form of a signing bonus.
4. Auto-purchase consulting
This is a very easy business. You get a call. You spend 15 minutes on the Internet. You send out a report. And, you collect $50 to $500.
All the information you need is available on the Internet. Prices. Costs. Technical specifications. Do some local advertising. Pass out a lot of cards. Award referral bonuses and your business will grow.
5. Yacht-cleaning service
Yacht cleaning works like auto cleaning and detailing, but you can charge a lot more money — and the perks are unbelievable! All you need is some basic cleaning supplies, a book on how to maintain boats, and a list of good local trades people. You will enjoy working in beautiful surroundings and get to meet some very wealthy people.
Be nice, smile a lot, and sooner or later, you will become best buddies with a Donald Trump or a Jack Nicholson.
6. Local computer service
Why aren’t there any local businesses that can take care of any problem you might have on a computer? Hardware. Software. Internet. Whatever. Techies are becoming easy to hire. You could pay them $15 each per hour and charge (at least) $60. This is a good opportunity if you would like to build a nice, clean service business.
Suggestion: Hire someone smart over someone with a lot of specific information. A smart guy will always be able to find out how to get an answer he doesn’t have. A highly informed person will sometimes be stymied by problems he doesn’t know the solution to.
7. Broker for car billboards
People get paid $200 to $400 a month to put vinyl ads on their cars. The amount they earn for being a mobile billboard depends on how much driving they do. The business opportunity is to broker the ads. One company reported in the Highlander Club newsletter has 200 ad cars driving around with another 2,000 on the waiting list.
8. Temp service for project management
All businesses have occasions when they need a project done but don’t have anyone to do it.
In such cases, what they should do is ask the busiest manager in the company — but many CEOs don’t have the understanding or nerve to do this.
Solution: a temporary service that employs specialists who want to work on limited duration projects in their areas of expertise.
Say you’re a VP of marketing and you want to try a new promotion but you can’t get your marketing people to talk to you. You call the agency and explain the project. The agency posts your description on its website, which is read by thousands of qualified people looking for parttime, temporary work.
Everybody is a winner. And you have a growing business.
9. Rent-a-tank
Buy an old tank. Figure out how to make it street-legal. Rent it out as a novel birthday gift for aging baby boomers.
If this works, think of something else you can rent out — something equally weird. Pretty soon, you’ll have a business.
10. Dog-sitting theme park
Instead of being cooped up in a cage for days on end, dogs are treated to fun and freedom in a wonderland of doggie delights, including a large, open, play area where they can frolic with other captive canines; an obstacle course for fitness training; a grooming centre; a training facility; and more.
Troublesome dogs are segregated and given “special attention.” Bathing, grooming, housebreaking, and other services are provided at extra cost.
Aging yuppies who feel guilty about putting Fido in a cage while they sip Cabernet in Napa Valley are going bonkers over these guiltless dog jails where so much more is provided at very competitive rates.
The secret to the program is that it ends up costing less than a conventional facility to house the dogs in groups — yet, because of the seeming benefits of all that freedom and mobility, you can actually charge a little more.
The typical rate for overnight lodging is $20 plus extras; half that for a daytime stay. If you can get 100 dogs at an average of $15 a day each, you’ll have revenues of $45,000 a month. Rent on an 8,000-square-foot facility might be $4,000. Three full-time employees might set you back another $7,000 or $8,000. Food, insurance, utilities, and extras would come to maybe $5,000. And advertising — that’s always the big “if.”
Ultimately, it’s a real-estate play (as so many retail businesses are). If you can get a good location — preferably near a major highway or airport — at a good price (think warehouse space pricing), it’s just a matter of making your warehouse look like doggie heaven with cheap props and cement floors and some good hoses. Sublet the pet shop, bathing, and grooming services. Keep an attendant working 24 hours a day to keep the mutts from killing one another. That’s it. (I say this with the confidence of an outsider.)
11. Making money from teenyboppers
The size of the U.S. teenage market has doubled in the last 10 years (according to Michael Wood of Teenage Research Unlimited). The current market is approximately $150 billion big.
And it’s getting bigger. Ten years from now, there will be 35 million American teens.
What I like about the teen market is that they are naturally rebellious. This means they favour what is new and have an aversion to name brands. Good news for the entrepreneur.
If you think you might want to get in on this market, you’ll be interested to know that teens spend a third of their income on clothing, about 20% on entertainment, and 15% on food.
12. Catering to the echo boomers: the new market
There are about 32 million people aged 12 to 19 in the United States alone. This is about 11% of the population. They are the children of the baby boomers. As our children, they are perhaps a bit easier to understand than earlier teenagers were. That’s because they’ve been forced to learn our culture as they were developing one of their own. Always self-centred, we baby boomers have seen to it that our children are as fluent about Simon and Garfunkel as they are about Nine Inch Nails. And that presents a business opportunity for anyone interested in catering to that market.
Get in now — and as they age and start making money, you’ll do better and better. Maybe you can fund your own kid’s emerging entrepreneurial interests.
Keep an eye out for tomorrow’s email with the subject line: “Why This Is the Best Time Ever to Build Wealth.”
To your wealth,
- Mark Ford
P.S. You don’t need a genius idea to start a profitable business—just a smart one. Mark’s list shows that real wealth often begins with surprisingly simple side hustles.
Inside the DIYwealth Club, we break down how to turn ideas like these into lasting income streams… with clarity, structure, and step-by-step guidance.
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