If You Had Money To Start a Business
 

What would you do/recommend?

Say $1M minimum.

I'd say a business where if you had to have employees, they'd not be in a position to handle the money.
A service business, for example.
.
An old friend had a body shop, then another, then one more. He eventually sold two of them and kept the first one.
Too many headaches w/three.
His body shop was one of the most respected in the S.F. Bay Area (Peninsula).
His ex g/f told me that he could net well over $50,000/mo. with that one shop.

Buy rental properties. At that level, buy a 4-6 unit apartment building. Everyone I know that has big rental properties sits at homes and makes money day in and day out will doing almost nothing, while those that own businesses make money sometimes, lose money sometimes, and put effort in all the time.

Good idea.
And buy annual home warranties for those rentals...have someone else do the repairs.

I'd go a step further and say commercial rental properties. After seeing what my co-worker is currently going through with the guy renting her condo, I will NEVER EVER own a residential rental. going on 3+ months of this obvious professional con man squatting in her place and it has cost her $3000+ so far and could be lots more. Any profit she made from the place in the past 3-4 years is long gone now.

Will this business be my only source of income?

I already have a rather large industrial building. It's good income. I want to diversify and not be relying on real estate values when I need to unload them.

This will investment would replace my 9-5 job. So if it needs 'time' I can do that.

What do you like to do?

And no, I'm not suggesting some blind "pursue your passion" mantra; rather, framing the art of money making ventures around something you want to do.

For me, I have spent considerable time and energy in the unmanned vehicle marketplace, both military and civilian applications. I can't imagine doing anything else, frankly, because it encompasses a lot of what makes me jump out of bed in the morning.

I think I'd start an RV storage area. I'd put up solar panels and use them as covers for the RV's. Offer a place to dump waste, wash the RV and maybe even have a laundry so people could clean up their RV for the next use.
Put it in an area that isn't subject to a lot of restrictions, make it secure so people wouldn't have to worry about their RV being broken into or damaged. Located in the right place I could see people leaving their RV's and just driving in to use it instead of paying for all the gas it'd take to get the RV there each time.
Solar panels would not only provide some green power but offer some protection from the elements for the RV's too.

I generally agree, but with a slightly larger number of units. At 4-6 units, one vacancy cuts your monthly gross by 16-25%. That can be a tough hit for a small rental operation.

I think I'd take the $1M and buy a 12 unit building - even if I had to finance a portion of the purchase.

I'd lean towards commercial rental too... go with what you know.

Although a large, newer residential rental could work well too. I just saw a 5 year old 15 unit sell for 1.3M locally, it was hard to beat the math on that one.

For a service business, a small nursing/assisted living home can be very profitable. Hard to argue with the demographics

self storage units.

the urge to store things is strong with people..little labor cost..no regular landlord issues..

^^This. Friends had a apartment property, too many headaches they said, so they sold it and bought a commercial property in a small beach town across the street from the beach. There's a two bedroom apartment above the stores below they stay in on weekends. Me, I partnered with family in buying a vineyard. Luckily, we've got it leased out on a 30-year lease. Wish I'd followed what my friends did, but we'd probably fight about who got to stay in the apartment. :eek:

From a pure "money" perspective, if it replaces my 9-5 job, it should generate at least as much as my current income. That is unless I am willing to sacrifice a bit, maybe go with low cost health insurance for a year or two, make some lifestyle adjustments, in order to grow the business. And on top of that, the business must grow at least 20% a year to make it sustainable over the long term.

Storage.

Cannabis.

A strip club? :eek:

Escort Service. I've always wanted to own one.

I own some empty lots, but they are surrounded by storage units. That market is saturated in my area.

I like to make money. :)

This isn't about me, it's generic and I intend to pass it on to my kids, presuming it's profitable.