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.
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.
I have a friend who is an engineer at a wind turbine startup here in the US and he has told me that most of their prototypes are bought by big names in Hollywood for "eco-bling" as well.
"Installing wind turbines is in the domain of huge energy corporations..."
The large corps. contract a lot of the work out to smaller companies - An old highschool friend of mine works along Hwy.58 (Techachapi/Mojave) corridor in CA working exclusively on wind turbine maintenance. Rather lucrative work.
Not all of them go on the grid to power entire cities. There are many wind turbines that only power a school or a hospital, or a section of a small town. IIRC, here in MN there are State grants available for people who want to start renewable energy businesses. I think (it was a while ago I heard about it) that their focus is on the smaller end; e.g., a laid off electrician who wants to start a business installing wind turbines.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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 :)
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.
I heard somewhere that bakeries have one of the highest failure rates of all businesses. Unfortunately I can't find the source now. I suspect the industry attracts a lot of dabblers, folks who know how enough to bake a decent cookie but don't necessarily have enough of a background in retail to attract enough customers per day to keep afloat.
There's also the current cupcake-shop boom going on, but I don't see that as a good long-term opportunity.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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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[ 5.3 ms ] story [ 69.3 ms ] threadThis doesn't sound right. Installing wind turbines is in the domain of huge energy corporations, as far as I know.
The large corps. contract a lot of the work out to smaller companies - An old highschool friend of mine works along Hwy.58 (Techachapi/Mojave) corridor in CA working exclusively on wind turbine maintenance. Rather lucrative work.
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).
Even if it were possible for a guy in a basement to buy a ferry, I'm not sure that I'd want to ride it =P.
That said, it is interesting to remember how blinkered we can be by thinking only in terms of tech-friendly businesses.
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.
http://www.anythingresearch.com/Top-Industries/Market-Fragme...
It's a mashup of fastest growing industries with highly fragmented ones
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 :)
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.
There's also the current cupcake-shop boom going on, but I don't see that as a good long-term opportunity.
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.
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.
That said, to your warning regarding politicians and "government run " industries, I couldn't agree more.
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.