Dan Martell - September 05, 2025


I Ranked the Best Businesses to Start Before 2026

Hosted by
Dan Martell
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Length

13 minutes

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218.29

Word count

3,055

Sentence count

228

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7

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Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, I rank the best and worst businesses you could start before 2026. Some of these will make you rich, and others are a massive waste of your f***ing time. I've built 7 multimillion dollar companies and I coach hundreds of business owners. So I'm gonna use everything I've learned over the years to rank these 15 businesses with the following criteria in mind: 1) How quickly can you get your first dollar? 2) How hard is it to learn? 3) How profitable is it in the long run? 4) Is it a business people would buy in the future? And these are the tiers we ll be placing them in: S tier, no-brainer, start now, high profits, fast cash, and here to stay.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
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Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
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00:00:00.000 I'm gonna rank the best and worst businesses
00:00:02.400 you could start before 2026.
00:00:04.640 Some of these will make you rich 0.59
00:00:06.100 and others are a massive waste of your f***ing time. 0.85
00:00:08.920 I've built seven multimillion dollar companies 0.93
00:00:10.960 and I coach hundreds of business owners.
00:00:13.000 So I'm gonna use everything I've learned over the years
00:00:15.620 to rank these 15 businesses
00:00:17.300 with the following criteria in mind.
00:00:18.820 Number one, how quickly can you get your first dollar?
00:00:21.360 Two, how hard is it to learn?
00:00:23.500 Three, how profitable is it in the long run?
00:00:26.120 And four, is it a business people would buy in the future?
00:00:29.260 And these are the tiers we'll be placing them in.
00:00:31.440 S tier, no-brainer, start now.
00:00:34.000 High profits, fast cash, and here to stay.
00:00:36.820 A tier, worth it, but you gotta know business first.
00:00:40.300 B tier, decent, but not for everyone.
00:00:43.420 C tier, you could, but should you?
00:00:45.480 And F tier, straight up scammy.
00:00:47.920 Let's get into it.
00:00:48.780 First one, real estate.
00:00:50.140 What do I think of real estate?
00:00:51.260 Most millionaires, the majority of wealth created
00:00:54.420 in the US was made on the back end of real estate.
00:00:57.480 So I'm putting this in the top.
00:00:59.000 it's a no brainer. Most people do this. They have the main business that makes cash and then they
00:01:03.420 take the cash and they put into real estate. One, you make cashflow every month. Two, you have the
00:01:08.200 tax advantage. Three, you have the asset increasing. Four, you have high leverage on capital. I mean,
00:01:13.280 it is incredibly profitable once it gets going. Next is NFTs and crypto projects. Here's the
00:01:19.960 problem. One, easy to make your first dollar. Used to, not today. Everybody's dealing with
00:01:25.700 the fact that they essentially sold unregulated securities and people lost their money. I'm not
00:01:32.220 going to give it a high score on that one. Two, easy to learn. Not that easy to learn, man. Three,
00:01:37.340 how profitable is in the long run? Not very profitable right now. So not a high score there.
00:01:42.000 And would somebody buy your portfolio of NFT projects? It's going in the scam category because
00:01:48.420 if you look at a thousand NFT projects, more than 500 are pure scams. They were f***ing 0.96
00:01:54.400 literally money grabs. So I'm putting it in the scam category. Paid ads agency. Ooh, 0.72
00:02:00.520 this one's a good one. Helping people get customers is a beautiful thing to do because
00:02:05.200 you're essentially selling dollars. How quick is it to make your first dollar? Really quick.
00:02:09.580 If you can learn to sell, you can pick up the phone, you can send a text message, you can sell.
00:02:13.160 How hard is it to learn? It's probably the thing that you can go on YouTube and learn the fastest.
00:02:18.820 How profitable is in the long run? It's very profitable. I know young people that are 22
00:02:22.980 making 6 million bucks a year with this agency.
00:02:25.700 Is it gonna be relevant past 2026?
00:02:28.080 Because that's a real big question.
00:02:29.580 I don't know.
00:02:30.660 Meta and Facebook has talked about
00:02:32.580 they're gonna build the tooling
00:02:34.320 that they've built their platform
00:02:35.800 where you essentially say,
00:02:36.980 I'm willing to pay X amount of money
00:02:38.220 for this type of customer
00:02:39.140 and it will just generate you leads.
00:02:40.640 So more and more ad agencies done by AI
00:02:43.940 or the platforms themselves.
00:02:45.420 So it may not be that competitive long-term.
00:02:47.140 And then last, would somebody buy it?
00:02:48.800 The challenge is that if your relationship
00:02:50.760 with the customer is monthly
00:02:52.260 and there's no reoccurring and there's no contracts
00:02:54.620 and you're the expert that's doing all the ad stuff,
00:02:57.080 like it's not valuable long-term.
00:02:58.780 I'm gonna give it a decent,
00:03:00.360 but I'm concerned that it may not be relevant long-term.
00:03:02.800 Next up, we've got coaching and online courses.
00:03:05.480 Is it quick to make your first dollar?
00:03:07.620 Very fast.
00:03:08.500 If you can get a result for any other person,
00:03:10.520 you can sell that know-how, right?
00:03:12.300 It's a checklist, it's a know-how,
00:03:13.740 it's a blueprint, you can sell that.
00:03:15.100 Is it easy to learn?
00:03:16.060 Heck yeah, you can get it going really quick
00:03:17.900 and it's super easy to learn.
00:03:19.200 Most people overcomplicate it.
00:03:20.480 how profitable it is. Two of my favorite business models in the world. One is software and the other
00:03:25.180 one is information. Why? Because they have 97% profit. If you're selling courses, then every
00:03:30.980 course you sell costs you nothing essentially. It's so profitable. So it's not very sellable
00:03:35.820 long-term. I'm going to put this in the worth it category. If you get good at this, it's a
00:03:41.680 meta skill that can compound other areas of your entrepreneurial life. Next up, we've got the AI
00:03:45.840 automation agency. First off, speed to first dollar, the speediest. It is the most searched
00:03:51.080 term right now, AI automation, AI automation. It is a hot topic, which means there's a lot of
00:03:55.220 demand for it. The ability to learn it, super easy to learn. How profitable? Right now,
00:03:59.920 incredibly profitable. There is a risk that the AI will get better at automating than you will
00:04:06.440 using AI. But that's true for all businesses because you're in the game of AI and being in
00:04:10.560 the game of AI is the most important thing. And then would somebody buy it from you in the future?
00:04:14.340 It's hard to build something that somebody would wanna buy
00:04:16.880 or that you could sell.
00:04:18.120 I'm gonna say worth it.
00:04:19.260 And if I put it in regards to online coaching
00:04:21.120 versus AI automation, I'm gonna put AI in front of it
00:04:25.260 because it's a better skill to develop than online training,
00:04:29.340 which is wild, but that's my answer.
00:04:31.220 Next up, YouTube channel.
00:04:32.840 YouTube is really freaking hard.
00:04:34.240 How hard is it to learn?
00:04:35.200 It's not hard to learn, it's hard to be good at it.
00:04:37.300 You gotta get to a point where you're entertaining
00:04:38.700 and try to add some value by having a unique perspective.
00:04:41.860 If you can't do that because you're boring,
00:04:43.360 you're not gonna succeed. 0.93
00:04:44.340 Speed to first dollar, really f***ing slow.
00:04:46.580 You might publish 100 videos
00:04:48.220 without ever making a dollar online.
00:04:50.140 In regards to, is it a long-term thing?
00:04:53.120 Yes.
00:04:53.820 Content and learning how to communicate
00:04:55.840 through a video format is an incredible skill.
00:04:58.440 It's always gonna be in demand.
00:04:59.720 Is it something you could sell?
00:05:01.000 Yeah.
00:05:01.640 He's like, what do you think the number one channel
00:05:03.400 on YouTube's worth?
00:05:04.200 Billion bucks.
00:05:05.140 So yeah, you can make a lot of money
00:05:06.500 doing a YouTube channel.
00:05:07.580 If you can get it to scale,
00:05:08.960 that would be valuable for somebody else to buy.
00:05:10.280 So I put it in the decent,
00:05:13.020 but after paid ads, okay?
00:05:16.040 Paid ads is better than a YouTube channel.
00:05:17.900 Next up, SMMA, social media marketing agency.
00:05:21.780 There's value in doing this.
00:05:23.500 It's just not as good as some of the other options, okay?
00:05:26.440 So one, can you get to your first dollar fast?
00:05:28.300 Yes.
00:05:28.740 Is it easy to learn?
00:05:30.000 Yeah, there's a lot of content on how to do this.
00:05:31.940 Third, is it profitable in the long run?
00:05:33.840 Yeah, you can have good margins,
00:05:35.200 especially if you're doing most of the work.
00:05:36.480 And fourth, is it something that somebody else will buy?
00:05:39.440 Yes, in the essence of a service business,
00:05:41.640 but not unless you build a productized service.
00:05:43.820 So I'm putting SMMA in front of paid ads
00:05:46.240 because social media advertising
00:05:48.560 from a content point of view,
00:05:50.140 organic content is gonna be more interesting
00:05:52.600 and more defensible than trying to just be traffic buyer
00:05:56.400 for a paid ads agency.
00:05:58.160 All right, next we got drop shipping.
00:05:59.800 Most of the drop shippers out there 1.00
00:06:01.780 are selling courses on drop shipping.
00:06:04.460 Is it fast to make your first dollar?
00:06:06.460 No, you have to find a concept, pre-buy inventory.
00:06:09.820 Can you learn it easily?
00:06:11.060 I don't think so.
00:06:12.080 You're in the sea of sameness of everybody else
00:06:13.720 and you're never gonna make any money.
00:06:14.900 Is it profitable?
00:06:16.260 I think there's good margins
00:06:18.000 if you can find a product that's a winner.
00:06:19.960 And would somebody buy it?
00:06:21.300 Yeah, it's a little gimmicky
00:06:22.940 and you're gonna end up having to reinvent yourself
00:06:24.840 all the time.
00:06:25.600 To me, I'm putting this in the should you.
00:06:27.300 Out of all the things you could focus on,
00:06:29.400 drop shipping in regards to a business model,
00:06:32.260 to me is in the bottom of the other ones
00:06:34.080 that are listed there.
00:06:34.700 Next up, ghostwriting.
00:06:36.060 Most people don't know that like 70%
00:06:37.740 of all New York Times bestselling books
00:06:39.200 were written with a ghostwriter.
00:06:40.360 With ChatGPT and AI coming out,
00:06:43.060 it's obviously gonna create some pressure on that space.
00:06:46.700 Can you make your first dollar really quick?
00:06:48.200 Yeah, you just need to find somebody to pay you.
00:06:50.120 Can you learn how to do it?
00:06:51.660 It's a little harder because if you're not a good writer,
00:06:53.760 then just because you can write
00:06:55.020 doesn't mean you're a good ghostwriter.
00:06:56.340 Is it profitable?
00:06:57.520 Not really, because you're just selling your time.
00:06:59.620 And is somebody gonna buy that from you?
00:07:01.340 I've never heard of a ghostwriter selling their business.
00:07:04.320 So I'm gonna put it in the should you category
00:07:06.580 behind dropshipping.
00:07:08.360 It's not a scam.
00:07:09.520 Ghostwriting is not a scam.
00:07:10.900 Like saying that sentence makes me giggle
00:07:13.760 because ghostwriters are so kind and genuine.
00:07:18.060 They're just artists that the idea
00:07:19.940 that they would scam anybody to me is like laughable.
00:07:22.360 I've never met a ghostwriter
00:07:23.320 that wants to take advantage of anybody.
00:07:25.340 If anything, they should charge more for their services.
00:07:27.460 All right, day trading and stocks.
00:07:29.840 Can you make your first dollar quick?
00:07:31.680 Yeah, like ASAP, like right now, like today.
00:07:33.940 Can you lose a lot of money?
00:07:35.000 Oh yeah.
00:07:35.540 Is it easy to learn?
00:07:36.820 Not really.
00:07:37.760 It's not a side hustle.
00:07:38.600 You need to be in it.
00:07:39.700 You need to focus.
00:07:40.520 You need to check.
00:07:41.260 Do most people lose their money?
00:07:43.380 Yes.
00:07:43.960 Here's the deal.
00:07:44.860 If you can beat the market, the S&P 500,
00:07:48.360 then you could probably raise a ton of money.
00:07:49.920 And all of a sudden you're not, you know,
00:07:50.960 day trading and stock trading.
00:07:51.980 You have a hedge fund.
00:07:52.660 And that you can make a lot of money
00:07:53.680 because a lot of the money in the hedge funds
00:07:55.260 is making it off the fees of getting paid,
00:07:57.600 regardless if you make money for anybody or not.
00:07:59.320 So would somebody buy that business?
00:08:01.020 Not as a day trading, stock trading,
00:08:02.900 because it requires your brain to do it.
00:08:05.280 So if there's no long-term value,
00:08:07.040 So very unsellable. Yeah, I'm going to put it in the should you and on the right side of ghost
00:08:13.800 writing. That feels about right. Virtual assistant agency, VAs. Is it a fast way to make some money?
00:08:20.120 Very fast because you're essentially a middleman. You're finding people that want to do VA. You're
00:08:24.140 finding somebody that needs a VA and you just, you know, you help them out and you connect them. So
00:08:27.860 is it profitable? Not that profitable. The margins in it are not that high. Is it easy to learn?
00:08:33.880 Yeah, I mean, I think so.
00:08:35.520 The problem is, is that every client that you get
00:08:38.100 is so finicky. 0.99
00:08:39.420 Like, just so you know, most CEOs are crazy.
00:08:42.100 It's a tough business to make work 0.93
00:08:43.940 and the margins aren't there.
00:08:45.540 And would somebody buy it?
00:08:46.960 I used to own one and I got rid of it.
00:08:49.840 So that should tell you something.
00:08:51.420 Profitability in the long run,
00:08:52.520 I just think all of the VA stuff is gonna be,
00:08:54.980 you know, overtaken by AI.
00:08:56.580 So yeah, I would say should you.
00:08:58.460 It's in the should you
00:08:59.500 and it's on the upper end of should you.
00:09:02.260 Do you really want to be in that space? Because you could be in AI automation and that's such a
00:09:06.860 better business to be in because it's similar. Next up, we got web design agency. Is it easy
00:09:11.360 to make your first dollar? Yes. Is it easy to learn? Yeah, you can learn the tools of web design.
00:09:17.220 There's a bunch of existing platforms and templates and all that stuff and use some of
00:09:20.920 these no-code AI platforms. Is it profitable long-term? I think AI is going to take a lot
00:09:26.160 of this work off the plate of individuals and the business owners are just going to order it up.
00:09:31.260 The AI is going to do it for them.
00:09:32.480 And then will somebody buy a web design agency?
00:09:34.780 Not really, because it's in the service space.
00:09:36.940 I'm going to put it right behind paid ads agency.
00:09:39.960 Next up, print on demand.
00:09:42.000 Can you make your first dollar really quick?
00:09:43.420 Yeah, you just need to find a customer
00:09:44.360 who's willing to buy a t-shirt with a word on it.
00:09:46.180 Is it easy to learn?
00:09:47.380 Very easy.
00:09:48.240 Three, is it profitable long-term?
00:09:50.280 Not really, because you don't own the infrastructure.
00:09:52.740 And then is it worth something to somebody else?
00:09:54.740 Is it sellable?
00:09:55.620 Is it valuable?
00:09:56.780 Not really, it's just print on demand.
00:09:58.560 So I'm going to say it's in the should you,
00:10:01.600 and I'm going to put it on the other side of day trading,
00:10:03.880 which makes it not very good.
00:10:05.520 Vending machine business.
00:10:07.120 Can you make your first dollar quick?
00:10:08.580 You got to buy the vending machine.
00:10:09.640 You got to negotiate putting it somewhere.
00:10:11.060 Somebody has to buy it, so you got to stock it.
00:10:12.720 I don't think it's very quick to make your first dollar.
00:10:15.060 Easy to learn.
00:10:15.840 I mean, it's kind of a no-brainer,
00:10:17.700 but it's not as easy as a lot of these other business models.
00:10:21.440 Profitable long-term?
00:10:22.420 Yeah.
00:10:22.840 If you get it in the right location, profitable somewhere else.
00:10:25.100 And will somebody buy it?
00:10:26.060 Heck yeah.
00:10:26.420 it's like real estate and people will buy it. I'm going to put it in the worth it category,
00:10:30.420 but on the right side of the coaching and online. And then we've got affiliate marketing. All right,
00:10:35.340 quick to make your first dollar. Yes. Easy to learn. Incredibly easy to learn. Okay. It's
00:10:40.340 literally audience traffic, sell something that somebody else has built. Is it profitable long
00:10:45.360 term? It's one of those things that will always be around. If there's businesses, there's people
00:10:50.020 that can represent those businesses and sell on their behalf. That's what affiliate marketing is.
00:10:53.680 Will somebody buy it long-term? Not likely. So it has a low, low rating. If I'm looking through
00:10:58.900 the lens of 2026 and onward, making money, easy to learn, get you the skillset that's like a
00:11:04.420 meta skill for other stuff, I'm going to put it in the worth it on the right side of the vending
00:11:08.220 machine ahead of social media marketing agency, which is wild. So one that wasn't on this list,
00:11:14.260 which is where I spend 98% of my time is software. And the reason why is one, you can literally use
00:11:20.880 AI to build the software today. These literally no-code platforms like Lovable or Replit. You
00:11:25.600 can just talk to it and they'll write code. Two, it creates subscription revenue or reoccurring
00:11:29.440 revenue, which is an incredible business model. The margins on it, like I said earlier, 97%.
00:11:33.980 What people are willing to pay, like the multiple, like of profit, how many times more of profit will
00:11:40.000 they pay for that business is one of the highest in the world. So personally, it's not there and
00:11:44.860 it should have been in the no-brainer category. And like one that's not on this list, that's for
00:11:48.760 sure in the scam, again, thousand businesses, half of them are scammy is probably some level
00:11:54.060 of network marketing. Like most people will use network marketing properly for distribution.
00:12:00.120 Awesome. Not properly to essentially sell people on business opportunities. And the way they make
00:12:05.600 money is selling the next person on the next thing, on the next thing, on the next thing.
00:12:09.440 There are a ton of legal cases going after network marketing. And unfortunately there's
00:12:13.920 more bad actors than good. And it creates a bad taste in the market. There's nothing wrong with
00:12:18.500 the ones that are like compliant and legal and not selling just to try to train people. But yeah,
00:12:23.720 it's not on the list. And I would have put that in the scam category. The other one that's not
00:12:27.240 in there that I have a problem with is franchise. This is a controversial one, because most people
00:12:33.220 think that owning a franchise is owning a business. Here's my definition. If you don't control the
00:12:38.400 product development, then it's not really a business. You're essentially a reseller. You're
00:12:42.300 just reselling somebody else's business model. So you're essentially a glorified salesperson,
00:12:46.360 which you can make a ton of money in franchises,
00:12:49.020 but is it something I would run to start
00:12:50.900 if you're trying to make money in 2026
00:12:53.000 and onward for a long period of time?
00:12:54.680 Being the person that sells franchises, yes.
00:12:56.860 Being a person that buys franchises, not so much.
00:12:59.480 Now that you have the list,
00:13:00.460 understand the way I thought through the business models.
00:13:02.800 One, is it something I can get to revenue quickly?
00:13:06.300 That's good.
00:13:07.040 Two, can I learn it quickly
00:13:08.480 so that I can get and build this business?
00:13:10.500 And will I learn a lot?
00:13:11.560 The other thing I said that hopefully you caught
00:13:13.340 was the idea of meta skills, right?
00:13:16.360 copywriting, paid ads, AI. These are meta skills that even if the business you start doesn't work,
00:13:22.960 they're skills that you can stack into the future to be even more successful. So being in that
00:13:28.000 business, if it doesn't work out, will set you up for success into the future. And then finally,
00:13:33.340 which most entrepreneurs never learn, is are you building something that becomes an asset that
00:13:37.700 somebody else will want to buy? Or are you just building a really low paying job at first,
00:13:42.160 if you're working 100 hours a week making 50 grand a year or high paying job making a million
00:13:46.700 bucks a year, but still having to be stuck in the business. If you need to show up for the
00:13:51.240 business to make you money, you didn't build something valuable that somebody else would
00:13:54.120 want to buy. Now, if you want to learn the only skill you absolutely need to make your first
00:13:57.880 million, click here and I'll see you on the other side.