# What Business Would You Start?



## tygrus (Mar 13, 2012)

If you could choose any business to start and successfully run what would it be.

I am mostly referring to something that is a fun to run, not something tie you down every hour of the day with worry and something without a lot of customer problems.


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## Xoron (Jun 22, 2010)

Brothel?

I kid, I kid


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## wendi1 (Oct 2, 2013)

Okay, not a brothel - how about a jazz club? Or a rock-an-roll club or whatever kind of music you like...

A comedy club? 

OOO - a financial advisor company....

Actually, tygrus, I'm pretty sure if you are going to do well at anything, you are going to have to worry about it.

And have customers with problems...


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

Dickie Dee operator? I don't think they exist any more, but when I was a kid they were the best! And having that as a business, you'd get to ride your bike cart all around the city and eat ice cream at cost.


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## Video_Frank (Aug 2, 2013)

Sports photography - hockey preferably.


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## Homerhomer (Oct 18, 2010)

Video_Frank said:


> Sports photography - hockey preferably.


Thinking along the same lines but organizing nature and wildlife trips for photographers: Africa, Arizona, Arctic........, and that's just for places starting with A ;-) would never run out of places to see ;-)


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## dubmac (Jan 9, 2011)

A ceramics studio. Or an antique shop, making neat stuff. while wearing a sarong all day.


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## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

Dicky Dee does still exist, but has changed to Richard D's ice cream.


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## Taraz (Nov 24, 2013)

There are people who run professional glamping trips. (e.g. glamourous camping) If you're doing that though, your job is to make sure that the customer never has a problem (because you solve it before they notice).


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## donald (Apr 18, 2011)

These guys are still around,not really sure if i agree with it being a dream business though,lol
I think if you find yourself riding the ice cream truck after about age 18(owner or not)something might of went ''wrong''
Every dicky dee guy i have ever seen mildly scares me.....(lol).
don't think it is a hard bar to jump to do it.
i cant tell if this is serious or not lol


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## donald (Apr 18, 2011)

Whatever business the dos equis guy is in on is the business i want to own!


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

donald said:


> These guys are still around,not really sure if i agree with it being a dream business though,lol
> I think if you find yourself riding the ice cream truck after about age 18(owner or not)something might of went ''wrong''
> Every dicky dee guy i have ever seen mildly scares me.....(lol).
> don't think it is a hard bar to jump to do it.
> i cant tell if this is serious or not lol


LOL, not. I mean, if one was financially independent and just wanted to pick up a few extra bucks, it could be a fun way to do it. I sure wouldn't want it as a full-time gig, though.


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## donald (Apr 18, 2011)

I thought so spudd!lol

If i can make FI in 10 yrs and still run my construction company(just oversee it)and have a 7 figure portf that would be the dream.
have a vacation property(in winter) and just have a large dividend stream with a quarter of the port for trading(golfing during the day ect).
I somewhat consider self directed investing a ''business'' even though traditionally most people don't think of it that way(they think retirement).
if your running a portf you are in business....guess that is why i am here!it is eventually to be able to do that.
so that is the business i select!best part,no customers!no employees!


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## Video_Frank (Aug 2, 2013)

Homerhomer said:


> Thinking along the same lines but organizing nature and wildlife trips for photographers: Africa, Arizona, Arctic........, and that's just for places starting with A ;-) would never run out of places to see ;-)


That sounds like a great idea. I've done a bit of Arizona and it was spectacular.


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

An exotic/classic car rental company..........or a casino.


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## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

tygrus said:


> If you could choose any business to start and successfully run what would it be.
> 
> I am mostly referring to something that is a fun to run, not something tie you down every hour of the day with worry and something without a lot of customer problems.


There is no such business.

I know one guy who thinks he has such a business. You know those trucks that go around spraying asphalt driveways in the summer? He sells them the tar and equipment.

That isn't the good part. The good part is he is a drunk who spends most of his time going around to auction sales and buying junk, and drinking with his buddies. His wife and a couple of employees run the business. I doubt he spends more than 4 hours a week "on the job".

He thinks he is a big businessman and has lots of fun while other people do the work. I don't know anyone else who runs his own business and isn't tied down with problems, customers, employees etc.


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## steve41 (Apr 18, 2009)

I chose to be a software author in my mid-50s. I only wish I had started earlier.... s/w development is not a young man's sport, especially when you are having to continually keep up to date.


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## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

Chef Michael Smith once went to a place in Washington, where they ran a type of soup kitchen. The kitchen got most of the food donated from other restaurants in the area, so they never really knew what they'd have to cook (could be fresh lobster, could be beans). They trained youth at risk to be the cooks, and all the food was delivered to seniors, homeless and low income people.

http://www.dccentralkitchen.org


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## Pvo (Jul 4, 2013)

Would love to own a restaurant/lounge.


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

My choice would be a phone sex business. All you need is to recruit willing participants with sexy voices to man the lines, and hire some babes to do the ads. My wife took over on office from one such successful operation because they were expanding yet again. It is legal but you cannot brag to people at the club about it.

We have an entrepreneur here in PV who has a high end restaurant and is the CFO for the SPCA. She has such a business in San Francisco.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

dubmac said:


> an antique shop, making neat stuff. while wearing a sarong all day.


we are making brand-new antiques these days? 
i like the sarong part though

ps i do believe kcowan is serious about the phone sez biz each:


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

Just a Guy said:


> Chef Michael Smith once went to a place in Washington, where they ran a type of soup kitchen. The kitchen got most of the food donated from other restaurants in the area, so they never really knew what they'd have to cook (could be fresh lobster, could be beans). They trained youth at risk to be the cooks, and all the food was delivered to seniors, homeless and low income people.



there's a restaurant in montreal called The People's Potato that's an urban legend. 

they collect unsold produce & other items from grocery stores. Cooks are volunteers. The best part is that meals are free. Customers arrive, dine & depart. There's a biblical overtone. May the loaves & fishes multiply.

i've never been. It's the opposite idea from this thread. Running a project like the People's Potato would be the hardest work one could ever find. Just driving around town collecting the donations is a huge chore.


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## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

It's not a chore if you enjoy it...doing the same thing every day is a chore...government jobs are a chore...besides, I didn't say I'd be the one driving...maybe I'd run the kitchen. Open the fridge see what we've got to work with and create magic.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

there was a famous resto in east montreal that catered to homeless, low income, mentally ill people, not just in the neighbourhood, but reportedly far & wide.

the customers paid a tiny amount, but the 4-course dinner was a bargain. Everything cooked by hand from scratch.

the detail that really touched my heart was the manager - a saint-like women - saying she made a special effort to present every plate & dish just so. As beautiful as possible. So the clients would feel honoured & cherished.

she even managed to have linen place mats. There were napkins, although i'm not sure if they were linen or paper. But all her instincts were so fabulously in the right place.

PS i was just going to submit this when a light bulb went on. Maybe a People's Potato community resto for needy people by day, with early dinner hours, say dinner 5-6 pm; then a phone sex biz late at night (not the same personnel though).

you could feed a lot of needy people with a dual operation like that ...


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## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

The one could fund the other...


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## Nemo2 (Mar 1, 2012)

kcowan said:


> My choice would be a phone sex business. All you need is to recruit willing participants with sexy voices to man the lines


Anecdote from the 1970s, Toronto......guy I worked with had once been employed in a hotel where one of the switchboard operators, (from his description something like a morbidly obese female version of Edward G. Robinson), had the most mellifluous telephone voice.........he said it was entertaining to watch hotel patrons, who had only spoken to her over the phone and had obviously asked her out to lunch based on that contact, waiting outside the office from time to time. Caveat Emptor.


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## Nemo2 (Mar 1, 2012)

With all the Warmists seeking atonement for the perceived sins of mankind, I'd like to operate a store that sold whips to Flagellants.............profitable and entertaining.


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## richard (Jun 20, 2013)

humble_pie said:


> they collect unsold produce & other items from grocery stores. Cooks are volunteers. The best part is that meals are free. Customers arrive, dine & depart. There's a biblical overtone. May the loaves & fishes multiply.


Is the weight of the food they serve really more than the donations they bring in? Cause I would be really really cautious about dining there in that case.


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## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

"All we need is a product that costs ten cents to make, sells for a dollar, and is habit forming"
- Gomez Addams


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## Addy (Mar 12, 2010)

A coffee shop, one that is reasonably priced, good, with great food, live music in the evenings, maybe a family board games night. Lots of socializing taking place.


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## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

Bitcoin Casino


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

Nemo2 said:


> had the most mellifluous telephone voice.........he said it was entertaining to watch hotel patrons, who had only spoken to her over the phone and had obviously asked her out to lunch based on that contact, waiting outside the office from time to time. Caveat Emptor.


All of the phone sex operators share that attribute. It is a great way for them to make big money. For them and especially the owner...:encouragement:


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## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

Nemo2 said:


> With all the Warmists seeking atonement for the perceived sins of mankind, I'd like to operate a store that sold whips to Flagellants.............profitable and entertaining.


Sorry the Global Warming scam is over and you missed out. I knew it was dead a year ago when Goldman Sachs and Al Gore shut down the Carbon Credit exchange they invented just before Gore made Inconvenient Truth.

Now they call it Climate Change, perfect name, it can never be discredited because it doesn't mean anything. The climate is always changing and they can ring the alarm bells for anything.

If you can invent something to make over educated airheads feel more smug about themselves you can make a fortune just like Gore, Suzuki and the rest. It doesn't have to cost anything, the product can be wholly imaginary like carbon credits.


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## alingva (Aug 17, 2013)

tygrus said:


> If you could choose any business to start and successfully run what would it be.
> 
> I am mostly referring to something that is a fun to run, not something tie you down every hour of the day with worry and something without a lot of customer problems.


Do you want online business? Do you want passive income? 
It is like to ask where should I shop

BTW Every business is to solve customers' problems. Otherwise it is called a hobby


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