Dan Martell - The 5 Business Ideas That Make The Most Money

00:00:00.120 Hey there, Dan Martell here,

00:00:01.240 serial entrepreneur, investor, and creator of SaaS Academy.

00:00:03.440 In this episode, I'm gonna share with you

00:00:05.080 the five best business ideas to grow

00:00:09.200 and most profitable this year,

00:00:11.760 where I'm gonna show you guys how to identify the ones

00:00:14.200 that have the lowest cost to start,

00:00:16.200 the highest gross margin, or what's called low COGS,

00:00:19.200 cost of goods sold,

00:00:20.200 with a relatively straightforward

00:00:22.400 go-to-market channel strategy for you.

00:00:25.920 Be sure to stay at the end,

00:00:26.760 where I'm gonna tell you how to get access

00:00:27.840 to my free mini course.

00:00:29.400 There's no cost, I'm not selling anything.

00:00:31.680 It is my idea to exit program where I teach you how to,

00:00:35.400 if you wanna build software,

00:00:36.640 develop no cost product development,

00:00:38.880 help you fund your team

00:00:40.080 and also build a marketing growth engine.

00:00:42.320 So let's get started.

00:00:43.720 so i get asked all the time from different entrepreneurs entrepreneurs people starting

00:01:01.320 off in the comments below what business should i start i want to start a business i'm entrepreneurial

00:01:06.840 i know that you know whatever path is not for me i gotta quit my job i need to not go to university

00:01:11.560 I need to just start, I get asked all the time

00:01:14.120 and I'm always thinking,

00:01:15.680 and some of them just wanna know like,

00:01:16.740 how do I make money fast?

00:01:17.640 So here's the deal, I'm gonna share with you

00:01:19.140 what I would do if I was in your spot.

00:01:21.680 I'm gonna give you five of the most profitable,

00:01:23.860 as it is this year, okay?

00:01:25.620 This strategy works right now.

00:01:27.360 Five of the best ideas for you to invest in.

00:01:30.580 So if you don't know, my background is yes, in software.

00:01:33.700 I've built five technology companies,

00:01:35.280 I've exited the last three.

00:01:37.000 I've invested in 40 plus other software companies,

00:01:40.160 But I've also invested in real estate, e-commerce, local services, consulting businesses, you name it, I have experience in it.

00:01:49.140 I've looked at the business models, the P&L, I've helped scale the management teams.

00:01:52.900 I've built out marketing strategies and sales teams for those different industries and verticals.

00:01:57.960 And it is something I absolutely love.

00:02:01.400 And as I've gone through this, there's always this question of what business is the least riskiest, the highest profitability, etc.

00:02:07.640 And I'm gonna give you my answer, okay?

00:02:11.060 Of 20 years of building and growing,

00:02:13.820 becoming a multimillionaire,

00:02:15.140 investing millions of dollars in other companies

00:02:18.060 and growing my own companies,

00:02:19.580 I'm gonna take it all back

00:02:21.660 and I'm gonna share with you exactly what I think

00:02:25.260 are the five biggest opportunities for you

00:02:27.800 to take advantage of right now in the market.

00:02:31.060 Number one, online courses.

00:02:32.960 Now, I know if you watch other people's videos,

00:02:35.400 look, I'm not that guy.

00:02:36.820 I'm not gonna peddle an online course.

00:02:39.140 I'm not like, there's all these fake gurus out there.

00:02:41.980 I'm not saying do any of that, okay?

00:02:44.060 I'm talking about legitimately taking your knowledge,

00:02:47.100 something you know how to do, and package it up

00:02:50.060 so somebody else can buy that from you

00:02:52.780 and you're not involved in delivering it, okay?

00:02:54.980 And there's some incredibly, very ethical people out there

00:02:58.460 like Ramit Sethi from I Will Teach You To Be Rich,

00:03:00.640 even though we both agree, he's a good friend of mine,

00:03:02.860 that that is probably one of the most scheming

00:03:04.600 internet names and book titles ever.

00:03:07.160 That and for our work week definitely,

00:03:09.400 you know, Tim Ferriss are butting heads

00:03:11.640 against which one is the most scheming.

00:03:13.440 But here's the deal, is Marie Forleo, 1.00

00:03:16.420 Amy Porterfield, Brendan Bouchard,

00:03:19.240 there's so many people that have truly

00:03:22.920 mastered the craft of creating online courses.

00:03:25.880 Here's why it's incredible.

00:03:27.440 You already know how to do something

00:03:29.100 that you take for granted that somebody else

00:03:30.960 would actually love to learn how to do for themselves.

00:03:33.280 It doesn't matter if it's taking photos,

00:03:35.100 if it's installing a cement driveway,

00:03:39.000 you name it, the niches exist.

00:03:41.260 I have friends that do teach jewelry makers

00:03:43.700 how to build jewelry businesses,

00:03:45.300 to dance studio owners,

00:03:47.140 be more efficient in their business,

00:03:48.420 productivity, lifestyle, relationship, whatever it is.

00:03:52.000 Here's why I think it's powerful,

00:03:54.300 is that A, the cost to produce those trainings today

00:03:58.960 is almost zero.

00:04:00.520 Like literally, if you have a laptop

00:04:02.580 and basic software, you can do it for free.

00:04:04.680 The hosting of those for many of them

00:04:06.300 are freemium solutions.

00:04:07.600 The payment gateway to take a credit card, et cetera,

00:04:10.580 they're free.

00:04:11.420 Engaging in a community to get customers to buy it is free.

00:04:14.160 You can partner with other people that have an audience.

00:04:16.600 And the gross margins are as good as software, okay?

00:04:19.720 90 plus percent gross margin in a business is amazing

00:04:24.220 and that's what's available to you.

00:04:25.620 So don't discount what you know and say,

00:04:28.140 well, nobody would pay me for this.

00:04:30.240 Go get the books, go read, go educate yourself,

00:04:33.440 but there's an opportunity for you this year

00:04:36.060 to launch an online course and start selling it.

00:04:38.700 And it sounds like a crazy idea,

00:04:40.840 and it sounds like what all these internet gurus

00:04:42.600 are trying to sell to, but I'm telling you,

00:04:44.240 I have friends that, I have a woman

00:04:46.440 I met the other day for lunch,

00:04:47.640 she does online teacher prep courses, okay?

00:04:51.220 She's a teacher, she left teaching full-time five years ago

00:04:54.460 and now makes $900,000 a year

00:04:57.800 creating lessons plans for other teachers.

00:05:00.620 This is available to you.

00:05:02.080 If you're watching this video, you're hungry,

00:05:04.160 you're motivated, there's a reason why you're here,

00:05:06.080 I'm telling you that this is an opportunity.

00:05:08.460 So online courses to me is one of the first ones

00:05:11.240 that's approachable, anybody can do if you have any skill

00:05:13.540 from learning how to play guitar to be more productive.

00:05:17.300 Number two, direct to consumer products, okay?

00:05:20.840 Or e-commerce, some people call it drop shifting.

00:05:23.160 I actually don't know anything about this industry

00:05:25.520 other than the fact that I'm an investor

00:05:27.440 in a company called Pila, pilacase.com, go check them out.

00:05:30.400 They make a biopolymer.

00:05:32.420 It's actually this right here.

00:05:33.940 So this phone case cover is made not out of plastic.

00:05:37.740 This thing, if you put it in the ground,

00:05:39.440 it will actually decompose in 24, sorry, 14 days, two weeks.

00:05:44.320 This will decompose, it's made out of flaxseed.

00:05:47.200 So I'm an investor in this company

00:05:48.340 because the team was amazing.

00:05:49.380 It's a little outside of my wheelhouse

00:05:50.800 for usually what I invest in, because I'm a tech guy.

00:05:53.840 But I'll tell you why I invested,

00:05:55.240 because A, their growth is crazy.

00:05:58.340 Their margins are crazy

00:06:00.240 because they know how to do proper supply chain. 0.80

00:06:02.120 But guess what?

00:06:03.180 As I dug in under the hood

00:06:05.400 in direct-to-consumer e-commerce,

00:06:06.940 I realized that it's not just them

00:06:08.960 that are making an incredible business

00:06:12.000 or creating an incredible business around that.

00:06:14.100 It is just part of the new trend to go direct-to-consumer,

00:06:17.760 to build something that you're passionate about,

00:06:19.460 that you wanna see exist in the world,

00:06:21.020 and sell it directly.

00:06:22.280 And the social media is your distribution, okay?

00:06:25.240 And you can literally, today,

00:06:27.620 buy somebody else's white label version of your product,

00:06:30.440 create a brand that you believe in,

00:06:32.520 and tell that story and sell it direct to consumer, okay?

00:06:36.440 It's never been easier.

00:06:38.600 The margins are there.

00:06:40.280 Is there some startup costs?

00:06:41.580 Yeah, I think most people that are in this space

00:06:43.340 say it costs about five grand or whatever to get going

00:06:45.380 to get your first batch ordered to start selling,

00:06:47.760 but then you plow that back in.

00:06:49.300 Another friend of mine, Derek at Tuxi,

00:06:51.620 he does the world's best onesie.

00:06:53.460 He lives in my hometown.

00:06:54.300 He's an amazing dude.

00:06:55.560 Same thing.

00:06:56.400 He went on Shark Tank, which is, or sorry, Dragon's Den,

00:06:59.080 which is the Canadian equivalent of Shark Tank.

00:07:01.380 And he ended up raising a bunch of money.

00:07:03.300 So like direct-to-consumer products and e-commerce

00:07:06.340 is, I think, for those that are more artsy and crafty

00:07:09.580 and you want a physical thing,

00:07:10.820 an incredible opportunity for you

00:07:12.200 to make a lot of money this year.

00:07:14.160 Number three, software.

00:07:16.060 Yes, it is my world.

00:07:17.580 It is my passion.

00:07:18.400 It is everything that I believe in.

00:07:20.200 The reason why, I'll tell you real simple,

00:07:21.760 is I grew up in a very chaotic environment.

00:07:25.180 I don't know if you guys had any struggles in your life,

00:07:27.380 but for me, it was really challenging.

00:07:28.980 And when I discovered programming and software at 17,

00:07:32.940 what I loved the most about it, it was predictable.

00:07:35.780 When I wrote the, it sounds crazy,

00:07:37.180 but when I wrote the code, it always behaved that way.

00:07:40.480 And when I started getting

00:07:41.420 into subscription revenue businesses,

00:07:43.540 I just, there was something that I loved

00:07:45.760 about the predictability aspect of every month.

00:07:48.860 I got the same amount of revenue.

00:07:50.200 If I kept delivering the value,

00:07:51.360 that I promise to my customers.

00:07:52.440 So for you, software, there are so many opportunities

00:07:56.300 to build browser extensions or, you know,

00:08:00.760 and check out my stuff, the Google software, my name,

00:08:04.080 you will find a ton of stuff on me talking about

00:08:06.360 how to start a software business.

00:08:08.340 And I just think that with the world of like an upwork.com

00:08:11.460 and there's so many other sites now

00:08:12.900 where you can hire a contract developer, okay,

00:08:15.160 in another part of the world and pay him, you know,

00:08:16.840 20, 25 bucks an hour to build something,

00:08:19.420 ideally for yourself, and I talk about that

00:08:21.280 kind of where to find the right idea.

00:08:23.000 And then sell it to other people just like you

00:08:25.860 that have that pain or that frustration.

00:08:27.640 It can be as simple as like connecting two systems

00:08:29.660 and saying that's 10 bucks a month.

00:08:31.280 It could be as simple as building a tool like,

00:08:34.480 you know, I had a guy build a tool back in the day

00:08:37.140 that just took images and resized it

00:08:38.920 for all the different social media sites, right?

00:08:40.800 So it's like the, you uploaded an image

00:08:42.660 and it would resize it for Facebook and Instagram

00:08:44.620 and Twitter, et cetera,

00:08:45.580 based on the different dimensions of those platforms.

00:08:48.960 There's so many opportunities to use software.

00:08:51.860 Software is literally eating the world, okay?

00:08:54.080 That's a Marc Andreessen quote.

00:08:55.780 Software is eating the world.

00:08:56.940 It's going to continue.

00:08:58.140 The market's growing by 30% year over year.

00:09:00.620 And the most beautiful part that I love

00:09:03.320 is the reoccurring revenue and the 89% gross margins.

00:09:06.980 Those are great businesses, okay?

00:09:09.460 So if you're software curious and you're interested,

00:09:11.980 be sure to check that one out

00:09:13.360 because it's something that's been core to my whole life.

00:09:16.140 My whole foundation, my whole wealth

00:09:17.640 has been built on top of technology

00:09:19.480 and building software companies,

00:09:20.500 investing in software companies.

00:09:21.700 And I still think to this day, more than ever,

00:09:24.840 it's an opportunity for you.

00:09:26.220 Number four, leverage coaching.

00:09:28.240 So if you're kind of curious on the training software,

00:09:32.220 online training world,

00:09:34.160 this is a different approach to the same problem.

00:09:36.460 It's taking you and your expertise

00:09:39.420 and coaching other people to get those results, okay?

00:09:43.060 So the way I think about it is the market has a problem

00:09:45.400 and you make a promise.

00:09:46.700 And in the middle, there's a process

00:09:48.340 and that's what you're helping people do as a coach.

00:09:51.380 Leverage coaching means doing it as a group, okay?

00:09:54.260 Some of you guys will be like, well, I don't understand it.

00:09:55.880 Like, why would you do as a group?

00:09:57.480 Here's what I know.

00:09:58.680 The fitness world is going to group classes.

00:10:00.920 The Berry Boot Camps, the CrossFits, 0.80

00:10:02.820 the Fit Body Boot Camps, et cetera.

00:10:05.000 People want groups because there's a level

00:10:07.040 of accountability, there's a level of community,

00:10:08.740 there's a level of competition.

00:10:10.040 They're all important aspects

00:10:12.380 of getting results and performance.

00:10:15.300 and it's happening in the coaching world as well.

00:10:18.080 So I actually know a woman, she is not a CTO

00:10:21.440 and she runs a leverage coaching program

00:10:23.740 for the top Fortune 500 CTOs in New York City.

00:10:27.080 It's $100,000 to be a part of the membership of that group.

00:10:31.820 Why would people pay that?

00:10:33.160 One, if you're the CTO of Facebook, Netflix, et cetera,

00:10:36.880 a hundred grand is a rounding error.

00:10:38.100 It's not that expensive in the grand scheme of things.

00:10:42.980 Why?

00:10:43.820 you get to be part of a group of peers that are facing similar challenges as you. And when you're

00:10:50.120 running, let's say a 50, a hundred million dollar P and L profit and loss statement for your area

00:10:55.900 of the business, getting, investing a hundred grand or what, $8,000 a month to somebody to be

00:11:02.760 around other people that can save you that times a hundred every month by, oh, we switched over to

00:11:08.080 this provider, or you need to meet this person, or even helping somebody hire a key executive

00:11:13.480 on their team is worth that investment.

00:11:16.000 So that's an extreme,

00:11:17.720 but for your specific area of passion or your industry,

00:11:22.240 there is an incredible opportunity

00:11:23.740 for you to facilitate solving problems,

00:11:27.460 getting them an outcome, following a process

00:11:29.540 and doing it in a group format so there's more leverage.

00:11:32.080 That's why it's called a leverage coaching program.

00:11:33.880 More people get access to this.

00:11:35.780 I have friends that are multi-millionaires

00:11:37.820 because of their leverage coaching program.

00:11:40.220 And what I love about it is it uses the same

00:11:43.200 It has the same economics as software.

00:11:45.980 If you set it up right,

00:11:47.060 it's got reoccurring revenue built into it.

00:11:49.180 And it's also got the same margin structures,

00:11:51.440 about 89, 85% gross margin for a leverage coaching business.

00:11:55.400 So great opportunity if that, the first one,

00:11:58.500 if you want to do online course,

00:11:59.560 you're more of an introvert,

00:12:00.120 you just want to like teach it,

00:12:00.920 have people buy it and not talk to anybody.

00:12:02.100 That's cool.

00:12:02.500 If you're more an extrovert,

00:12:03.620 check out the leverage coaching program.

00:12:05.620 Number five, niche enterprise consulting.

00:12:08.260 So here's how this one works

00:12:10.260 is you might have heard of consulting.

00:12:11.920 maybe you have a skill, maybe you don't.

00:12:13.980 You can develop it.

00:12:14.860 The beauty is there is YouTube and lynda.com

00:12:18.780 and all these different,

00:12:19.620 you can't even teach yourself how to code

00:12:20.800 joining a coding bootcamp.

00:12:21.900 But regardless, here's what I'm gonna say.

00:12:23.740 Niche enterprise consulting is finding some kind of skill

00:12:28.460 or development thing that you know how to do

00:12:29.880 and focusing on a niche, but focusing on enterprise.

00:12:33.040 Why enterprise?

00:12:33.880 You may not know this, my dad taught it to me.

00:12:36.520 When I was 21, I had a company reach out

00:12:39.020 to hire me as a consultant.

00:12:40.840 And when they asked me what my hourly rate was,

00:12:42.760 I was gonna tell them $30 an hour.

00:12:45.100 And before I told them anything, my brain said, 0.96

00:12:47.660 shut up, Dan, don't say anything.

00:12:50.120 And I called my dad who worked at Siemens, 0.98

00:12:52.260 a big multinational billion dollar company.

00:12:54.680 And I said, dad, they're asking me what my rate is.

00:12:56.620 And he said, 150 an hour.

00:12:58.320 And my brain, I'm 21, okay?

00:13:01.000 Yes, I taught myself how to code and all these things.

00:13:04.700 I built a few companies that were failed at that point.

00:13:07.020 But I just didn't understand it.

00:13:09.060 He goes, Dan, here's what I know.

00:13:10.780 I paid $250 an hour for consultants

00:13:14.500 that aren't even as talented, driven,

00:13:16.920 or motivated as you are, just so you know.

00:13:19.940 And I was like, whoa.

00:13:22.200 So they were expecting that higher amount of money.

00:13:25.160 And I remember I got on the call

00:13:26.640 with the person the next day, I said 150.

00:13:29.280 They came back and said, could you do 125?

00:13:31.820 I almost bit my tongue off.

00:13:34.160 I didn't wanna act too excited.

00:13:35.860 And I said, yeah, yeah, that should work.

00:13:39.100 And I wanted to hang up the phone as fast as possible.

00:13:41.500 Cause I was like, if anything I've learned in sales

00:13:44.700 is you can absolutely sell yourself out of a deal.

00:13:47.160 I just was like, I gotta get off the phone.

00:13:48.500 I gotta hang out the phone.

00:13:49.340 I hung up and I freaked out.

00:13:50.480 I remember the freaking moment, the place, the room

00:13:53.380 the details, everything.

00:13:54.820 And I called my dad and I said, they took it.

00:13:56.860 I think my dad was more excited than I was for myself.

00:14:00.400 And it was an enterprise consulting.

00:14:02.220 I did portal software, very niche, very specific.

00:14:05.140 So a lot of you guys that may be already doing consulting

00:14:07.480 or development,

00:14:08.440 The reason why you're not able to ask for a premium

00:14:11.420 is because you're not focused on a niche,

00:14:13.160 in a niche problem or a niche enterprise.

00:14:14.700 So the bigger the business, the more money they got to spend,

00:14:17.120 the more they're used to spending,

00:14:19.000 and the more niche you go onto

00:14:20.700 a specific technology platform.

00:14:22.620 So let's say you focus on just Salesforce,

00:14:24.640 just WebSphere, just NetSuite, whatever it is,

00:14:27.400 you figure it out for yourself,

00:14:28.580 but a niche enterprise consulting is an incredible way

00:14:31.580 to get similar margins, literally no cost

00:14:34.340 other than a decision,

00:14:35.540 and really build a business that what I did

00:14:40.000 is I took that consultant, that became Spheric.

00:14:42.580 I essentially funded Spheric with that money that I made

00:14:45.600 and then rolled it in and built a company of people

00:14:48.000 like me and some technology.

00:14:49.560 So it can be the beginning of something much larger,

00:14:52.080 but that is a big idea for you to explore.

00:14:54.980 So quick recap, the five most profitable business ideas

00:14:58.320 of the year for you to take forward is one,

00:15:00.340 online courses, two, direct to consumer products

00:15:03.480 slash e-commerce, three, software, SaaS,

00:15:07.040 software as a service, four, leverage coaching,

00:15:09.900 and five, niche enterprise consulting.

00:15:12.940 As I mentioned at the beginning of this episode,

00:15:14.920 I wanna share with you my idea to exit a mini course.

00:15:17.740 It's absolutely free.

00:15:18.580 You can click the link below to get access to that.

00:15:20.820 In it, I talk about no cost product development.

00:15:23.420 I'm gonna teach you how to build product

00:15:24.960 without spending any money.

00:15:26.120 It's super cool.

00:15:26.960 It's called Clickable Prototypes.

00:15:27.980 Click the link to check it out.

00:15:29.200 Also talk to you about how to build

00:15:30.700 a marketing growth engine that keeps feeding itself.

00:15:33.920 And then third, I dive into how to properly fund your team.

00:15:38.780 All available for free.

00:15:39.820 You don't have to wait for this.

00:15:40.740 It's a three-part video series,

00:15:41.940 but you can watch the first, second, and third.

00:15:43.500 Just click the link below to get access to that.

00:15:45.980 And if you like this video,

00:15:47.220 or you think there's somebody else that it could serve,

00:15:49.060 please feel free to share with them.

00:15:50.260 Smash that like button, subscribe to my channel.

00:15:53.540 And as per usual, I wanna challenge you

00:15:55.620 to live a bigger life and a bigger business,

00:15:57.540 and I'll see you next Monday.

00:15:58.780 Hey there, I'm Dan, Serial Entrepreneur.

00:16:00.740 What did I say?

00:16:01.500 Hi, Dan.

00:16:02.420 Oh.

Dan Martell - March 16, 2020

The 5 Business Ideas That Make The Most Money

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