r/Business_Ideas

ok so this is a weird one but bear with me

i have a pet blog. i don't own a pet. never have. probably never will as i travel too much. and yet every month amazon sends me enough to cover rent because people on the internet are buying stuff for their dogs and cats through my site.

bought my pet blog a few months ago from a marketplace called NicheBlogZone for $199. came already built, articles already up, amazon links already in there. i spent one afternoon doing interlinking basically just connecting related posts to each other so search engines understand the site structure and then closed my laptop and genuinely forgot about it for weeks.

here's what that's looked like:

• march: $710
• april: $995
• may: $1,461
• june: $1,647
• july: $1,461
• august so far: $1,545 (amazon pays 2 months delayed so this is june's money landing now)

march scared me. went from nearly $1k in february down to $710 and i was convinced something had broken. checked everything, found nothing wrong, did nothing. it just came back the next month on its own.

pet people spend insane amounts on their animals btw. like i knew this intellectually but seeing the commission data is something else. dog food subscriptions, orthopedic beds, grooming kits, vet supplements. and because of the 24 hour cookie i get a cut of everything in their cart not just whatever article they landed on.

i do literally nothing to maintain this. no new posts, no ads, no instagram for pets i don't have. i just own the thing and amazon does its thing.

my landlord has been getting paid every month and has no idea a pet blog is behind it. honestly sometimes i forget too until the deposit shows up.

anyone else running a niche they have zero personal connection to? curious if the detachment makes it easier or harder to care about growing it

I'm in Budapest. Been sketching out an idea for a dating app that, instead of just showing you an endless list of strangers, also tells you if you've probably crossed paths with someone in real life (no exact location shown, just mutual invitation both sides have to opt in.
The idea came from noticing how many people have a "we kept seeing each other and never talked" story.

Target customer: students, young professionals in dense urban areas, people who move through the same places repeatedly (campus, cafés,...) but don't currently have a way to reconnect with someone they noticed but didn't approach.

Curious if this could actually grow, or if it's a problem people don't actually need a solution for.

Hi.
I'm 19 years old, have about €1,000 to invest, and little experience as an entrepreneur.

Over the last two years, I've tried several businesses, but I realized I was choosing ideas based on their financial potential, not because I was truly passionate about them. When a project captivates me, I can dedicate hours to it without getting tired; when it doesn't, I end up abandoning it.

My greatest strength has always been creativity: generating ideas, designing concepts, telling stories, and thinking outside the box. It's what I've excelled at since childhood. My dream is to work in film, but I want to keep that separate from business for now.

What I'm looking for isn't to make money quickly, but to build a company that solves a real problem and that, over time, can become something big and redefine its category.

I'm not looking for typical ideas like dropshipping, or creative agencies. I'm looking for a problem or an industry with the potential to dedicate the next 5-10 years to.

If you were in my situation, what niche or problem would you target and why?

I had this idea for a DaaS platform (drones as a service); basically, not everyone is going to want to own and manage their own drones, so they just get them on the platform on an as needed basis. Could be anyone, content creators, local law enforcement, parents… whoever needs a drone and a live camera feed. Anyway, just spit balling here, lmk if it’s feasible.

How much would it influence opening and owning your own business? Or is it worth getting a skilled degree and opening a business out of that.

for example a town with 30.000 residents and then another 10-15k from surrounding areas and you put a fast food franchise there,like a mcdonald’s.

taking into account that there isn’t any other business in a 30km radius with the same yield as a company like mcdonald’s

sorry if this seems stupid

I have a business related question and I’d really appreciate answers from people who have actually worked in these industries.

If someone is starting a business completely from scratch, what would be the better option: building a software company, such as a subscription based product/SaaS, or starting a hardware/physical product company?

I personally have not worked in either sector, so I’m trying to understand this from people who have actual technical and business experience.

From what I’ve heard, hardware can have lower margins and much higher operating costs . Software seems like it could have better margins and recurring revenue through subscriptions, but I’m sure there are also major challenges that someone without experience might not understand.

So for people who have worked in software, hardware, or ideally both:

What are the biggest pros and cons of each when starting from scratch?

Which one generally requires more capital and has more operational complexity?

Which one is easier to scale?

How different are the margins and cash flow?

which one would you choose and why?

I’m not looking for a simple “software is better” or “hardware is better” answer. I’m trying to understand the actual tradeoffs from people who have experience in these industries.

I’d especially appreciate answers from people

I have often wondered how it feels to buy an existing business rather than create something from scratch. What other factors besides income and profits would you consider when deciding on a business’s value?

Currently, I have been overthinking about my dream business. I've had these ideas for a while, but I just decided to come on here and get some other people's perspectives.

I have a few ideas:

-A cute handmade jewelry store where me and my girls craft personalized bracelets for our local communities in need, if I go with this business, I think I may call it 'Tasha's Trinkets'.
-My own little coffee shop, that's like super chic and modern, but rustic and aesthetically pleasing, I may name it 'Tasha's Brew'
-A flower company where we make bouquets and other flower arrangements for special events, the names I've been thinking about are 'Tasha's Bloom Bar' or 'Natasha's Petals'/'Natasha's Petals for Parties'

Your available capital: $200,000 without loans

Your skills and experience: Bachelors Degree in Entrepreneurship. Want to get masters later. Experience, worked in marketing for a bit

Preferred Industry(s): Retail Goods and Services.

Preference for Online or Brick and Mortar: Obviously Brick and Mortar, Boutique is my thing!!!

Have you run a business: No, that's why I'm asking, lol.

I don't know which one would be like most fitting for me, or how to even begin, or what type of business entity to use?

Any help would be amazing! Love!

This might sound a bit weird, asking strangers on Reddit for business ideas, but I’m honestly a bit tired and stuck at the moment.
I’m a CFO with a finance/business background, and I really want to build something on the side.
I’m not looking for the next million-dollar idea. Even making my first €10/month from something I built would make me happy and give me some momentum.
SaaS, small online business, boring business, automation, niche service… I’m open to anything.
So yeah, I’m asking for a little help.
If you’ve seen a problem that needs solving, or have an idea you’ve always thought someone should build, I’d genuinely love to hear it.

Looking for opinions please.

I’m considering starting a small business where I help people sell their cars privately.

In the UK, when selling your car you have 2 typical options.
1 - trading the car into a dealership or car buying shop (and they bid you really low offers with the convenience of not having any hassle)
2 - selling the car privately and that involves cleaning, hoovering it, listing it online, dealing with all of the messers on the likes of Facebook etc. then you load it up to autotrader and have to deal with all the communication and then the list goes on.

If I could take the hassle out of selling your car privately, is this something you’d consider using?

I would look to take all pictures of the car, manage all of the listings and logistical work to the point the car gets sold for a flat fee.

This way the seller gets considerably more than they would from selling their car into the dealership and doesn’t have the hassle of selling the car either.

My initial thought is I wouldn’t clean the cars, due to time, but maybe that’s something I could price into it?

What are your thoughts please.

I just finished high school. Not going to college for a good year. I have no school to sell the food, and I don't know where to go to sell my stuff yk?

I own a 6-cent (roughly 2,600 sq. ft.) plot of land in Kochi that has been sitting unused for around 5–10 years. The property is inside a residential colony, so it’s not directly on the main road and is slightly tucked away from the main access road.

I’m considering doing something with the land instead of letting it remain vacant, ideally something that can generate passive or semi-passive income.

A few constraints:
The land is not on a main road
It is inside a residential colony
I’d prefer something that doesn’t require a huge initial investment
Ideally, it should require relatively low day-to-day involvement
I’m open to unconventional ideas, not just traditional construction/rental options
The goal is to make productive use of the land rather than simply holding it vacant

I’m curious what people in Kochi/Kerala think would actually work in this kind of location.

What would you do with a 6-cent plot like this if you wanted to generate some additional income with a relatively low investment?

I’m particularly interested in ideas that people have actually seen work, rather than theoretical business ideas.

Would appreciate suggestions, experiences, or even ideas that might initially sound unconventional.

P.S. I used ChatGPT to help articulate this post

Like creating a phone charger but it will not pass electricity. Create an illusion of a real device which will not work. Maybe create not only small things but also something bigger like a car, but just a model - no engine and simple construction without accordance with safety standards and other car structure standards to make it cheap.

Concerns about unauthorized copying can appear, which can be disappointing. Maybe no branding must be put. Also might create problems with determining whether something is really a device, or a souvenir.

Is there any business that can be done without much investment like 100$ using social media. I do have experience but don’t know the trend now

I'm in a rural area and have some land/space. Over the years I've thought several times about starting a dealership for something I was looking at myself. At one point it was Chinese ATVs, at another point it was robot mowers, then trailers at another.

Anyway, I'm starting to think about it more seriously. Trailers (when I looked into them) seemed to have terrible margins and there's enough competition around that I'd just end up sitting on stock forever, I believe. I have decided against anything Chinese because of parts supply being a total wildcard.

I have been thinking about hydroseeders. The downside is that the equipment sales are probably low volume. But on the plus side, I could sell the seed, mulch, dye, and tackifier products as a supplier. That's probably a decent revenue stream on consumables. BUT, I need a dry place to store those, and my only barn is on the full side at the moment. Not a total deal breaker, but I feel like I'd have to rent a warehouse or something. Could be done.

A conversation with AI suggested a few interesting ideas - one being mosquito misters, and equine misting systems. That's an interesting one - the margins look pretty decent and I'd supply the consumables as well so it's decent recurring revenue.

I'm fine with online and/or walk in sales (or realistically it would be by appointment, most likely, but I think I could support walk in, in the future). I'm going to have to advertise or sell a product that has good advertising support from the manufacturer because I'm on a dead end road - it's not like a sign out front will bring people in. I've got maybe 100k to play with. I do have experience running a home service business and I'm great at dealing with people, as well as handling the growth side of the business. I'm technical and hands on - I can provide service for what I sell, but I don't really want to end up running a full time repair shop either - so something like mowers is probably out.

My background is mixed between mechanical and tech/software. I'm currently operating a land clearing business and have run a small tech consulting company in the past. My interests are mechanized toys, equipment, music, and the great outdoors (hiking, camping, kayaking type stuff), and I play hockey several times a week so that's my biggest single hobby/interest and my biggest network of people. Although I'm not sure there's anything in the hockey market I can/am interested in selling - I don't want to open a retail store and I don't want to install backyard rinks for a whopping one week a year lol.

Anyway - I'm curious if anyone has ideas or suggestions about products that would be a good fit for me as a dealer or I guess even more of a distributor. Happy to answer more questions if I've left gaps. Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone,

I’ve been putting in the work — cold calls, emails, walking into businesses — but it hasn’t clicked the way I hoped.

I’d really appreciate any advice, guidance, or mentorship from people who’ve grown a small service business. Even a few pointers would mean a lot.

For context: I help local shops, salons, cafés, offices and home workers with PC setup, WiFi fixes, printers, POS systems, and general workspace optimisation.

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to share some wisdom.

I have my regular 9-5 but there is so much down time where there is nothing to do and it gets boring. There is only so much scrolling I can do.

I figured I could not be the only person dealing with this.

I thought wouldn’t a community where people that are board on the clock could chat with each other.

Would making this into an app be a good idea or a waste of time?

Appreciate any feedback

I’m going to make this post simple for less friction but basically here’s the idea. A Linux phone that is us-based, supported by all carriers, open source, and de googled. It’s marketed to the masses as a new way to keep one’s data safe with privacy features specifically made to block tracking.

It will most likely be fedora based with a touchscreen window manager

Right now I believe that there should be 3 tiers of this phone, like most brands so that it doesn’t become niche and confusing; a normal version, a pro version, and a pro xl version .

The normal version will be more budget friendly but missing the features that you’d expect to be missing from a lower budget phone.

The pro and the pro xl will both have good processors like the snapdragon 8 elite along with all the rest of the features of pro phones like the 120 hz screen.

Eventually I will want to expand the tiers.

Although android is Linux, it’s stuck with all the Google play services clogging it up, slowing it down, and bloating it for targeted advertising.

So the big question is, what are the benefits that come with a Linux phone?

Because I have not started any company yet I’m going to list both the benefits and the downsides to creating a Linux phone

Benefits:

Linux phones could most likely run full desktop applications
Away from android tracking and clogging
Full customization with root acess
As secure as you want it to be
A third choice beyond Google and Apple
Great for developers
Runs quicker
Full phone gaming
Appeals to the Linux market/community
A way to remove the caveats of using android or iOS

Downsides
Long prototyping time
A lot of possible bugs
Pricey to produce in low production

Please be brutally honest in what should be improved in this idea and whether it should be totally scrapped, I think that it has the market and the possibility. I will respond with possible solutions for any problems that come up.

Situation: best friends dad retired, wants to invest in a business with best friend (32M) and me (32M). He writes the checks, we put in the work

Capital: $1.5 million dollars

Experience: one has 10+ years audit/insurance/risk management the other has 10 years of general management/finance (healthcare 6, bar/restaurant 4)

Ideas so far: buy existing business or start new? Industries in debate are property management, insurance agency, landscape/lawn care, manufacturing and car wash.

Location: southeast United States

Commitment: Full Time

The idea would be something we can run the finance/management side of but don’t necessarily feel like we need to specialize in the business.

All options are on the table. Online, brick and mortar, large scale, niche. We feel like we can learn any industry but trying to find what makes sense.

If you were 32 with this experience, what would you be thinking of doing?