Dan Martell - 8 High Income Businesses to Start in 2026

00:00:00.000 I spent the last 30 days analyzing thousands of businesses

00:00:03.420 and these are the best businesses to start in 2025.

00:00:06.720 As Warren Buffett always says,

00:00:08.360 great businesses have good gross margins.

00:00:11.060 What are gross margins?

00:00:12.260 Well, if I sell a coffee for $5

00:00:14.000 and it costs me a dollar to make it,

00:00:16.140 my gross margin is $4 or 80%.

00:00:19.000 So I'm gonna go through the most profitable businesses

00:00:21.580 with the highest gross margins that you can start today.

00:00:24.400 Starting with idea number one, chat sales agency.

00:00:27.900 Gross margins for this business, around 40 to 50%.

00:00:30.960 Here's the deal, it's the future.

00:00:33.180 2025, chat sales are on the rise.

00:00:36.300 I have clients making over a million dollars over chat.

00:00:39.400 No sales call, no funnel, sales chat only.

00:00:41.940 My top sales guy in commission

00:00:44.040 makes over a million dollars a year selling over chat.

00:00:47.160 Here's how not to mess it up.

00:00:48.580 First thing is you have to find a growing industry.

00:00:51.380 If you haven't heard, roofing, solar, consulting,

00:00:54.640 These are all massively growing and expanding industries.

00:00:58.620 My easiest way to do this is search fastest growing industries

00:01:01.740 on ChatGPT or Google and get into those industries,

00:01:05.440 but there's more to it.

00:01:06.860 Second part is you gotta tap into demand.

00:01:08.940 If you're gonna start finding clients

00:01:10.340 that you can do this for,

00:01:11.580 you have to find people

00:01:12.660 that already have built their audience,

00:01:14.400 not somebody that's starting with zero,

00:01:16.240 existing audiences only.

00:01:17.800 Find people with massive followership.

00:01:19.940 It's crazy, but some people with massive Instagram accounts

00:01:22.920 or massive social media accounts,

00:01:24.440 and never talk to all of their followers

00:01:26.520 because they don't have anybody to do it

00:01:27.900 or know how to do it right.

00:01:29.060 And you can be the person to get money

00:01:30.820 to flow into their pockets.

00:01:32.440 The third is you got to connect to a CRM.

00:01:34.440 The only way you can manage massive volumes of chats

00:01:37.620 is with a CRM tool,

00:01:39.200 some kind of platform that allows you to connect

00:01:41.500 all the social media accounts and manage those chats.

00:01:44.280 Our team uses a product called Revio and it's awesome.

00:01:47.340 Not only does it integrate

00:01:48.340 all the different social channels for us,

00:01:50.020 it even uses AI to summarize the chat.

00:01:52.460 So if one of my reps come back to a chat,

00:01:54.840 they haven't talked to somebody in a while,

00:01:56.020 it lets them know where to start the conversation from

00:01:58.580 based on what they've already said.

00:01:59.920 Which brings us to idea number two, personal brand agency.

00:02:03.740 This business model also has gross margins

00:02:05.980 between 40 and 50%.

00:02:07.640 You've probably heard this said,

00:02:09.060 but attention is the new oil.

00:02:11.040 The future of commerce is built off the backend of trust,

00:02:14.460 of personal brands, of influencers.

00:02:16.860 We've seen this.

00:02:17.460 All the top companies in the world

00:02:18.840 are rushing to become media companies

00:02:20.740 because they know that the real distribution

00:02:22.720 or the real sales channel is the trust

00:02:24.980 that an influencer has with their audience.

00:02:27.160 So being the agency that helps people

00:02:29.480 connect those two dots will make you a lot of money.

00:02:32.180 What's crazy is that I personally know dozens of people

00:02:35.000 that make multiple seven figures

00:02:36.980 helping people expand, define, and grow their personal brands.

00:02:40.920 Now, here's what they focus on

00:02:42.100 to make the most money for their agency.

00:02:43.900 The first one is pay for performance.

00:02:45.840 You wanna get paid for the results

00:02:47.860 that you bring to these people.

00:02:49.200 If you're helping them take their followers

00:02:50.860 from 8,000 to 80,000 or 800,000,

00:02:54.020 you wanna get paid a retainer,

00:02:55.880 plus the upside in that growth,

00:02:58.220 especially if you help them make more money.

00:02:59.880 The second part is you wanna double down on winners.

00:03:02.740 See, the truth is,

00:03:03.580 is that everybody might wanna be a personal brand,

00:03:06.160 but not everybody has it.

00:03:07.380 I've seen so many people try to create content

00:03:09.700 and it falls flat.

00:03:10.980 They don't get the it factor,

00:03:12.460 they're not willing to share their heart,

00:03:13.980 they're not sharing anything new,

00:03:15.520 and if you are building an agency off those people,

00:03:18.000 you're going to have to cut your losses as fast as possible. The third part is you want to ask

00:03:21.600 for referrals. The best agencies are grown off of VWONG, which stands for viral word of mouth.

00:03:28.220 And you want to ask them only after you got them a big win, if there's anybody else that they know

00:03:32.840 and like that you might be able to help them with your agency to help grow their personal brand.

00:03:37.720 Which brings us to idea number three, ghostwriting agency, which has gross margins between 50 and 60%.

00:03:43.840 There's a supply and demand problem with writers right now.

00:03:47.180 Everybody wants to write a book,

00:03:48.800 but no one wants to write it.

00:03:50.160 They need ghostwriters. 0.95

00:03:51.420 Same thing with content.

00:03:52.660 Right now, if you're somebody

00:03:53.940 that can figure out somebody's voice

00:03:55.800 and write in their voice to help them buy back their time,

00:03:58.980 it is a beautiful agency to start.

00:04:01.020 So here's the key things to not mess up

00:04:03.380 if you're doing ghostwriting agency.

00:04:04.820 The first one is to get paid up front.

00:04:06.620 When you start doing this agency,

00:04:08.300 you need to get at least 50% up front.

00:04:10.560 If you've got multiple projects on the go,

00:04:12.460 try to get lump sums of payment up front

00:04:15.160 so that you can fund your growth.

00:04:16.700 The second thing you need to do, right,

00:04:18.100 is you have to get on stages

00:04:19.660 where other people that wanna write books

00:04:21.840 are in those audiences.

00:04:23.660 So if you wanna write entrepreneurial books

00:04:25.640 or other types, you wanna get in rooms of entrepreneurs,

00:04:28.320 you wanna get on podcasts of entrepreneurs,

00:04:29.920 you wanna get in front of these people

00:04:31.420 that have built-in audiences.

00:04:33.160 I call it OPP, other people's platforms.

00:04:35.960 So try to speak in front of large groups of people,

00:04:39.060 explaining your process for ghostwriting

00:04:41.140 so that you can create demand for what you have to sell.

00:04:43.320 So number three is get familiar amongst a niche audience.

00:04:47.200 So you wanna be the go-to person in your agency

00:04:49.580 for let's say marketing entrepreneurs

00:04:51.460 or maybe sales entrepreneurs

00:04:52.880 or maybe operationally focused entrepreneurs.

00:04:55.220 You wanna write the top books in that niche

00:04:57.500 so that everybody that thinks about writing that book,

00:04:59.600 when they go ask who wrote that book,

00:05:01.840 they'll recommend you as a ghostwriting agency.

00:05:03.620 Which brings us to idea number four,

00:05:05.840 virtual assistant placement

00:05:07.260 with gross margins between 50 and 60%.

00:05:10.200 When I wrote my book, Buy Back Your Time,

00:05:12.380 tons of these agencies started popping up.

00:05:14.820 It was almost like my book

00:05:15.880 became their full-time salesperson.

00:05:18.060 And it's been great.

00:05:18.800 I've actually had friends of mine

00:05:20.320 that have started net new companies in the last two years

00:05:22.900 that are already doing eight figures.

00:05:24.560 You starting off and helping people connect

00:05:26.760 their pain of not having enough time

00:05:28.820 with your ability to recruit and deliver

00:05:30.900 on a great virtual assistant service is the key.

00:05:33.640 And the cool part is it's already been done

00:05:35.500 and it's a proven model.

00:05:36.540 So here's how you build that agency and not mess it up.

00:05:39.040 Number one is get paid on delivery.

00:05:41.580 It's way easier to sell if you can say,

00:05:44.680 I will only charge you the moment the person starts

00:05:47.400 and starts creating value for you as a business.

00:05:50.320 Number two, guarantee placement.

00:05:52.560 Most recruiters that help people connect,

00:05:55.020 especially virtual assistant,

00:05:56.200 offer a two-month guarantee minimum.

00:05:58.320 And if the person doesn't work out within that timeframe,

00:06:00.280 you find them somebody else at no extra fee.

00:06:02.560 And that creates a viral word of mouth

00:06:04.340 that you need to grow that agency.

00:06:06.020 Number three, send them a copy of my book,

00:06:08.000 Buy Back Your Time.

00:06:08.780 now i know this is a bit of a plug but let me tell you why all of my friends use my book to promote

00:06:14.060 their agency especially to their marketing funnel so if they have somebody on the fence and they're

00:06:18.540 like yeah i think i should hire somebody but i don't even know what i'd give them they send them

00:06:22.300 my book as a gift to get that person focused on valuing their time and understanding what they

00:06:27.020 would give up to get more time to do the thing that makes them the most money which brings us

00:06:30.700 to idea number five virtual reality training agency which has on average gross margins between

00:06:36.540 60 and 70 percent now some of you guys are going to be like what the heck is that here's what i know

00:06:41.580 i watch my kids play vr every night they play this game called gorilla tag they have their friends

00:06:47.100 it's this virtual community and it is the future they're using it right now for flight training

00:06:51.740 surgery training high stakes environments it's almost pixel perfect experience if you become

00:06:57.100 an expert at this you're at the beginning of a massive wave of retraining people through distant

00:07:02.380 learning using virtual reality what you need to do right is this first off you have to sell

00:07:06.940 enterprise packages you want to sell big things to big companies so you make big profit if you

00:07:12.380 try to sell to smb small medium businesses there's a reason why they're small so try to sell big

00:07:17.340 things so they make big investments in your business number two offer ongoing support this

00:07:22.380 is my favorite thing in any agency model is to figure out how can i offer a subscription service

00:07:28.220 for ongoing revenue in my business.

00:07:30.760 So what are they gonna need long-term?

00:07:32.220 Are they gonna need upgrades to the training,

00:07:34.100 to the modules?

00:07:34.800 Are they gonna need access to have the people

00:07:37.000 that you've trained to answer questions

00:07:38.700 with one of your certified support experts?

00:07:41.120 Whatever it is, offer an ongoing support fee

00:07:43.640 to make it a reoccurring revenue business.

00:07:46.120 Number three is finance the hardware.

00:07:47.820 If you're gonna do virtual reality training,

00:07:50.480 you might as well sell them the headsets.

00:07:51.980 You can buy them wholesale, sell them at retail,

00:07:54.360 or even more because you gotta manage

00:07:56.120 all the configuration and the shipping.

00:07:57.900 And then it becomes another way to monetize, which brings us to idea number six, gamified

00:08:02.800 learning platform with gross margins between 60 and 70%.

00:08:06.540 The internet has taken over.

00:08:08.760 Kids don't learn the same way anymore.

00:08:10.700 Adults too.

00:08:11.580 Everything has to be gamified.

00:08:13.400 Everything has to have some kind of little leveling up and reward so that it really keeps

00:08:18.320 the engagement there.

00:08:19.380 We've seen it with some of these like online meetings and virtual trainings.

00:08:22.760 If there's no way to incentivize somebody to come back and feel like they're winning

00:08:26.880 by learning then they're not going to stick and that is the future so a few things to get this

00:08:31.440 business model right number one sell before you build the fun part is there's existing platforms

00:08:36.560 like membership.io where you can use their platform sell it to somebody else and then

00:08:41.840 essentially white label that solution but you pre-charge before you configure or build or pay

00:08:47.520 for any software so you make sure the customer is excited and ready to go and all the gamification

00:08:52.320 is already built for you you just become the person that configure it for that company number

00:08:56.000 Number two is target enterprises.

00:08:58.000 The key I always think about is

00:08:59.540 who would value this kind of platform?

00:09:01.920 I think of any company that trains their employees

00:09:04.680 that has high turnover,

00:09:06.260 where there's real need for a great experience for learning.

00:09:10.160 So think commission-based sales reps

00:09:11.780 like car dealership, insurance reps,

00:09:13.940 retail, quick serve restaurants,

00:09:16.100 anybody that has a lot of turnover amongst their employees

00:09:18.920 and require training to get them proficient

00:09:21.380 are gonna love this gamified platform.

00:09:23.700 Number three is open to the public.

00:09:25.580 what shifted in the market is the desire to try before you buy this whole freemium concept you're

00:09:31.820 seeing this over and over in all these online learning platforms where they're doing these

00:09:35.360 free communities where people can come in get exposed to a little bit of what you've got and

00:09:40.120 then pay a subscription to get access to the rest of it you've seen companies like udemy do this it

00:09:45.520 is a massive way to get distribution because everybody's going to talk about your free thing

00:09:49.660 that's going to bring you a lot of people that will eventually pay for your membership which

00:09:53.200 Which brings us to idea number seven, AI automation agency with gross margins between 70 and 80%.

00:09:59.280 When I speak on stage at Tony Robbins Business Mastery, I talk about the power of AI and how

00:10:04.780 it's transforming businesses. And everybody wants to ask is who can help me with this change?

00:10:10.240 There is a massive appetite for agencies who are able to help small business owners to make

00:10:15.640 the transition. A lot of people are scared around artificial intelligence. And my philosophy is this,

00:10:20.200 is AI is not going to take your job, but somebody using AI will. In the industry, we call this a

00:10:25.620 co-pilot and every role or function now has AI integrated into it. There was a statistic I saw

00:10:30.620 recently that said 93% of businesses in the US have not yet implemented AI into their business.

00:10:36.620 It is a massive opportunity, but these are the things you have to get right to make it profitable

00:10:42.100 for you. Number one, consult on tools. See, teaching businesses how to use tools before

00:10:47.520 building the automation is actually a massive opportunity. They need to learn how chat GPT

00:10:52.420 works, integrate it into their habits, understanding what AI tools exist for their

00:10:57.600 function. If it's design or finance or operations, then once you teach them that you can get paid

00:11:03.460 for the automation part. Number two is focus on cash. Automate the things that's going to make

00:11:07.960 the business that you serve the most money first. That is the easiest way to not only get a massive

00:11:12.980 win for the owner, but also to keep them coming back to pay you for more. The more money you help

00:11:17.680 them make, the more money they'll reinvest in your agency. Number three is develop partnerships.

00:11:21.960 My favorite way to get new customers is find people that already have a relationship with

00:11:26.100 my perfect fit customer and then offer them advanced training they can offer their community

00:11:31.100 that you deliver for free to get in front of them. Then you might offer them some kind of commission

00:11:36.180 or build an affiliate program to reward them for referring people your way. Which brings us to idea

00:11:41.120 number eight, AI first SaaS business with gross margins between 80 and 90%. This is the one I'm

00:11:48.260 personally going all in on. I've already launched two companies in the last month, and it's

00:11:52.960 essentially focusing on AI first solutions to the world's biggest problems. Why? I actually think

00:11:59.300 SaaS is going to die, which is crazy saying this because you've probably seen me talk about this

00:12:03.960 for over 25 years. SaaS now stands for success as a service, not software as a service, because

00:12:10.440 businesses want a button or an agent or a tool that just creates an outcome. They don't need

00:12:15.800 the software and the workflow and the data entry. They want to be able to say, keep being successful.

00:12:21.300 I don't want to have to manage a customer relationship management software. I just

00:12:24.260 want to be able to ask the question about my customer base and it just answer it. That is

00:12:28.260 the future and it's why I'm investing so heavily there. Here's what I'm doing that you can use to

00:12:32.320 be successful in this model. First off, pick a boring industry. See, most people want to go to

00:12:37.060 marketing technology tools because that's fun and sexy and everybody talks about it i go to boring

00:12:42.100 i go to legal i go to medical i go to building manufacturing and approach it with an ai first

00:12:47.620 solution because it's not competitive number two is i pre-sell the service meaning that before i

00:12:52.900 build anything i can prototype it i can explain how it's going to work i can even show them a

00:12:57.460 virtual demo and get people to buy before i build anything to fund the development number three is

00:13:02.900 build ai agents help your clients solve problems faster by implementing ai agents that monitor and

00:13:09.780 take action on behalf of the customer before they ever ask examples of that are like purchasing

00:13:15.380 agents research agents prospecting agents these ai agents will be able to be specialized focused

00:13:21.860 on doing one thing and you'll have a dispatch agent monitoring and routing the specific things

00:13:26.980 that needs to get done to the different agents that is the future so here's the fun part if you

00:13:31.940 made it to the end, I have no doubt that you'll be wildly successful. The fact that you're here

00:13:36.840 tells me everything I need to know about you and your determination and your willingness to build

00:13:41.240 something meaningful. And honestly, I want to honor you for that. Building a business is never

00:13:45.860 easy, but it is definitely worth it. Now, if you want to learn how I built my business that

00:13:50.320 runs itself, click the video and I'll see you on the other side.

Dan Martell - March 07, 2025

8 High Income Businesses to Start in 2026

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript