Business Ideas that require capital but little effort

mwa423 said:   You forgot about marketing for Bizatch Crane, book keeping, insurance and permitting, crane maintenance, etc. You can buy the crane, hire an operator/manager, secretary/book keeper and show up, collect the cash and write the checks but you will probably have lower returns and higher risk.

This For most businesses, so much resources go toward licenses, taxes, renting storage space, business phone lines, signage, dealing with tire kickers asking questions, training employees who end up leaving or getting fired within a month, seeking employees or paying agencies for referrals, office utility bills, credit card processing fees, shrinkage (employee and customer theft), security system, etc.

SUCKISSTAPLES said:   Snowcone stand in Vegas sounds like a winner to me. Push credit cards to reduce employee theft of cash .

Set up in that walgreen/fatburger parking lot on the strip, where there is insane foot traffic

How much to bribe the police, city inspectors and pay walgreen/fatburger?

Food truck in a blue-collar zone, paired with a woman food slinger with a propensity for smiling and short shorts?

loan shark, hire some thugs for the deadbeats that dont pay and good luck tough guy

these options would depend on local competition I suppose, but I hear opening a Subway restaurant ($50k franchise fee last I heard) is like opening a printing press, same with a Little Caesars. Buy a franchise, work a bit to get it off the ground, then hire people and do almost nothing to keep it running. A mini-storage place is also very profitable... cheap to build, cheap to run - gotta be in an area with reasonable demand tho.

I also heard once that a Hooters franchise fee was like $500k, but that they almost never take more than 6 months to pay off by the owners (which sounds crazy and I can't verify).

skarydrunkguy said:   these options would depend on local competition I suppose, but I hear opening a Subway restaurant ($50k franchise fee last I heard) is like opening a printing press, same with a Little Caesars. Buy a franchise, work a bit to get it off the ground, then hire people and do almost nothing to keep it running. A mini-storage place is also very profitable... cheap to build, cheap to run - gotta be in an area with reasonable demand tho.

I also heard once that a Hooters franchise fee was like $500k, but that they almost never take more than 6 months to pay off by the owners (which sounds crazy and I can't verify).
Do you realize how much time and effort a successful franchisee puts into their business?

A new thread coming up, "neighbors calling the police on my giant crane in the backyard."

Logan71 said:   Food truck in a blue-collar zone, paired with a woman food slinger with a propensity for smiling and short shorts?

You need a string of plants in a row to turn a profit. Roach Coach territory is sacred - you need to get in on a plant that is just opening up, and there aren't many being built in the US. Good luck trying to get in on the San Diego shipyard market in National City.

skarydrunkguy said:   these options would depend on local competition I suppose, but I hear opening a Subway restaurant ($50k franchise fee last I heard) is like opening a printing press, same with a Little Caesars.

By any chance was the person who told you this trying to sell you his franchise?

elektronic said:   Logan71 said:   Food truck in a blue-collar zone, paired with a woman food slinger with a propensity for smiling and short shorts?You need a string of plants in a row to turn a profit. Roach Coach territory is sacred - you need to get in on a plant that is just opening up, and there aren't many being built in the US. Good luck trying to get in on the San Diego shipyard market in National City.True, but nowadays there is a big difference between a "food truck" and a "roach Coach". And with gas being expensive, zooming around in a roach Coach isn't as profitable. Whereas finding a nice parking spot in a downtown with an upscale food truck has all the people coming to you. Heck, I even follow a couple trucks on twitter to see which are going to be close to me on a given day.

I am looking to buy a liquor store, anyone here owns a liquor store? I am looking for some insight/suggestions on profitability and effort needed.

WhatTheWho said:   I am looking to buy a liquor store, anyone here owns a liquor store? I am looking for some insight/suggestions on profitability and effort needed.

Your question is pointless without more details. What state? In Ohio, everything is basically set by the state (prices, what can be sold, hours you can be open, etc.) and so that is much different than Kentucky where you have everything from tiny huts that sell bumwine to WalMart sized liquor stores with $50 million in inventory.

I'm guessing your profit will look something like:

Revenue
-Costs
=Profit

isobro said:   From franchise experience, it is no where near as easy as you guys make it out to seem.

Yeah the people I know who run franchises (McDonalds, subway, etc- even some hotels) do NOT have it easy. How reliable do you think your $5/hour pimple faced kid is? Sure you can always be overstaffed and have a manager running things for you, but this cost a lot of $$, their job is never as good as what you would do, and can you trust them? The McDonalds owner I know did well, but he was ALWAYS dealing with some crap.

I think your best bet is to talk to a upper level financial manager- they can often help you buy relatively safe preferred bonds/etc which will have a better return than putting your money in a bank cd. That requires little effort.

only thing i can think of that gives that much in return is a drug dealer LOL... or a loan shark...

Use your 100k as a down payment on a loan for 23 million. Buy 23 million worth of merchandise from Nordstroms using FatCash. Wait until the FatCash clears, return the merchandise.

How about a screen repair place for iDevices? You need a tech or to learn how to do it yourself. You can charge just above $100. Parts are in the $30s if you buy in bulk.

I see these places popping up everywhere. A kiosk in a mall that has an Apple Store would be ideal.

Bizatch said:   I have money in the bank that is earning 2% or less. I want to invest it somewhere to make more money. Real estate in my area, as a general rule, will only earn about 5% on a yearly basis. That's better than 2%, but in a few years won't be as attractive.

So, are their any business ideas that might require $100k+ to get started, but can earn a couple hundred dollars a day with little effort. Perhaps something like buying a crane for $100k and renting it out for $500/day. Little effort, just show up with the crane.

Ideas?

I'm a real estate investor with multiple properties already in California (where I live) and I'm looking for capital. If you're interested in discussing a potential relationship let me know. Since this is online, most likely won't work, but if you live near California where we could meet, might be a possible fit.

jcb193 said:   skarydrunkguy said:   but I hear opening a Subway restaurant ($50k franchise fee last I heard) is like opening a printing press, same with a Little Caesars. Buy a franchise, work a bit to get it off the ground, then hire people and do almost nothing to keep it running. A mini-storage place is also very profitable... cheap to build, cheap to run - gotta be in an area with reasonable demand tho.

No offense to the poster, but this might be the biggest use of misinformation I have ever seen on fatwallet. Opening a subway is NOTHING like a printing press. If you don't believe me, walk into ANY subway, and show me one that doesn't have the owner (and usually his family) in there almost every day- all day.

That was the way its been presented to me, so I apologize if mistaken. There are 3 Subway "restaurants" within 1 mile of my work and they are all always crowded (at least when I'm there -- not during lunch hours) and I've met the owners of each in passing. They all have very similar stories about pulling ~1 shift per week for paperwork and whatnot but otherwise they're living it up... or so they say. I do tend to take people at their word a little too often perhaps. I do personally know a LC franchise operator with 6 stores and he visits each one about once per month and spends the rest of the time chillin' at home. That one I can verify. His quote, "lots of work for the first year and a heavy initial investment, but the $5 hot and readys are a gold mine!" He opens a new store every 2 years because they're profitable. I'm sure there's more to it than that, but I know that if I could muster the initial cash, I'd ditch my 9-5 for turning $.65 worth of ingredients into $5 a few hundred times a day in a heartbeat!

Be the host of the Dave Ramsey Show

skarydrunkguy said:   jcb193 said:   skarydrunkguy said:   but I hear opening a Subway restaurant ($50k franchise fee last I heard) is like opening a printing press, same with a Little Caesars. Buy a franchise, work a bit to get it off the ground, then hire people and do almost nothing to keep it running. A mini-storage place is also very profitable... cheap to build, cheap to run - gotta be in an area with reasonable demand tho.

No offense to the poster, but this might be the biggest use of misinformation I have ever seen on fatwallet. Opening a subway is NOTHING like a printing press. If you don't believe me, walk into ANY subway, and show me one that doesn't have the owner (and usually his family) in there almost every day- all day.

That was the way its been presented to me, so I apologize if mistaken. There are 3 Subway "restaurants" within 1 mile of my work and they are all always crowded (at least when I'm there -- not during lunch hours) and I've met the owners of each in passing. They all have very similar stories about pulling ~1 shift per week for paperwork and whatnot but otherwise they're living it up... or so they say. I do tend to take people at their word a little too often perhaps. I do personally know a LC franchise operator with 6 stores and he visits each one about once per month and spends the rest of the time chillin' at home. That one I can verify. His quote, "lots of work for the first year and a heavy initial investment, but the $5 hot and readys are a gold mine!" He opens a new store every 2 years because they're profitable. I'm sure there's more to it than that, but I know that if I could muster the initial cash, I'd ditch my 9-5 for turning $.65 worth of ingredients into $5 a few hundred times a day in a heartbeat!

I would tend to side with the people saying that it's much harder than it looks...but I have a good friend from high school who owns 4 stores and he said (recently) that he works 4 hours a week - one in each store. I questioned him closely about all the headaches, etc, and he just said "I'm VERY good at this - the headaches are minimal." I gathered that he netted about $70k annually per store. Granted he has worked at subway since he started college, then took over a subway in the town that he went to college, and went from there.