$40,000 To start a new business, what would you do?

[paperfist]

duct cleaning business, or a mobile carwash like the ones dealers use

or a brick and mortar carwash. the self service kind. you cant touch the automatic ones for 40K

Wish I got in on the B&M carwash laser stations, a cash operation of epic proportions with low service and maintenance needs. You string a few of those together and hello island resort vacations!

 

[OutHouse]

I'd say start a parking lot but that's more about location than anything. If you've ever been near downtown LA they're just patches of concrete with some dude sitting on a plastic chair and some paint on the ground. Still charge you an assload for parking though and since it sucks there you gotta pay (for the most part).

this is what i would do. there is a lot of money in parking lots and hardly no overhead. problem is parking lots in premo areas go for much more than 40K

 

[OutHouse]

Wish I got in on the B&M carwash laser stations, a cash operation of epic proportions with low service and maintenance needs. You string a few of those together and hello island resort vacations!

a friend of mine has one a 3 bay self service which is cash only and a automatic bay which takes credit cards. he has made a lot of money in quarters. ive tried to get him to sell it to me for years but he is making to much money to give it up right now.

cash only is nice when it comes time for taxes. wink wink.

a laundromat is another business i have wantd to get into. i think Spidey has one we need to ask him.

 

[chusteczka]

Businesses are typically started according to a person's interests and skillset. Not by realizing a sizable amount of money is available for throwing away.

All the suggestions so far show more about the person and their interests than the amount of money they had available to start up with.

My suggestion is to invest that money into a mutual fund for purchasing an asset to satisfy a future realized need.

Dont even entertain the idea of starting a business without a business plan and years in said industry. ...

Your use of "said" is incorrect since you did not previously introduce the term "industry" in your statement.

 

[paperfist]

a friend of mine has one a 3 bay self service which is cash only and a automatic bay which takes credit cards. he has made a lot of money in quarters. ive tried to get him to sell it to me for years but he is making to much money to give it up right now.

cash only is nice when it comes time for taxes. wink wink.

a laundromat is another business i have wantd to get into. i think Spidey has one we need to ask him.

That's a big up when getting into business, go the cash route if you can and not hire employees if you don't have to. Both are not only paper filing nightmares, but the obvious wink wink.

It didn't take your friend long to turn a profit? I was figuring 3-5 years to make your costs back, but it doesn't sound like it.

My friend owns a laundromat and it is pretty nice. If you do it right it can be fully automated, but you'll still need a couple of employees. He also contracts out with the local colleges and picks up kids clothing, launders them and then delivers them. So he's doubly in the profit.

 

[lxskllr]

Snuff manufacture

 

[amish]

pizza place. we americans can't get enough of it.

 

[Kroze]

Some guy once bought a $2500 used limo, went to the airport with a sign that read "$30, any place within the city." A couple of years later, he now have a fleet of limo :O

 

[Cuda1447]

he wants to make money not run a YMCA charity. dude have you looked at the failure rate of private gyms? its worse than restaurants.

do you really think think that a gym running adult bb leauges or a soccer/football field will make enough money to pay its basic operations cost and turn a profit?

grass fields are $$$$$$$ to maintain and except for weekends during the summer they are empty.

Appreciate the input, but I'm not talking about running a private gym. I'm talking about offering a service. Well run, organized adult athletics. They are EXTREMELY popular year round, in Florida at least. I've done the math. The profits are huge and the costs to run are VERY cheap.

I don't even need to own the fields. I can rent them from the county at public parks (which I have done) and turn a really nice profit. The problem is I don't have the money to put into advertising to get it going, which is necessary. You really need 6 teams minimum to run a league, so its not something that can start slow. You gotta get enough people interested right away, which requires an advertising investment up front.

 

[Kroze]

I was also told that real estate rental is nice because even if you break even in monthly income after paying mortgage/taxes. You still have a nice tax shelter and a physical asset on hand. I don't know how true this is though.

 

[slayernine]

Hks & Blw Inc.

....
......ahh I know a car wash and a laundry with a secret meth lab. That is exactly what you should invest in.

 

[amdhunter]

Start a Cancer/Kids/WTC or whatever charity Charity.
Within weeks, I'd be a millionaire.

 

[ViviTheMage]

dump it into my current business of course

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Some guy once bought a $2500 used limo, went to the airport with a sign that read "$30, any place within the city." A couple of years later, he now have a fleet of limo :O

Lol

 

[Rage187]

some IOS app.

 

[yllus]

Some guy once bought a $2500 used limo, went to the airport with a sign that read "$30, any place within the city." A couple of years later, he now have a fleet of limo :O

Most decent-sized cities have laws against this sort of thing.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

You could back an indie game.

http://indie-fund.com/2012/02/dear-esther-has-reached-profitability-it-took-5-hours-30-minutes/

 

[bobdole369]

I would start a wireless ISP, buy tower space, incorporate, run a ds-3 or a couple bonded t-1s up to it, a RADIUS and some other distros on a redundant VM dedicated somewhere - And sell wifi access to the masses. At least the masses that are in range of the tower.

 

[bobdole369]

The other problem with the food trucks, at least down here (purple mushroom tip of america's wang) - is that you need to be licensed for every "event" or its very expensive for a general catering license. You can't really roam that far either - you cannot take it out "on the road" - every night you have to log your visit to the commissary, which is so you can restock and hose down the truck.

 

[Lifted]

Shine box.

 

[SaDiZTiKStyLeZ]

Dope game.

 

[Kroze]

I would start a wireless ISP, buy tower space, incorporate, run a ds-3 or a couple bonded t-1s up to it, a RADIUS and some other distros on a redundant VM dedicated somewhere - And sell wifi access to the masses. At least the masses that are in range of the tower.

When most of the wifi are free (mcdonald, burger king, starbucks, etc...), i don't think you'll be successful.

 

[RKS]

laser tattoo removal?

I have my own law office and while startup isn't too bad, advertising to build up a client base is expensive.

 

[highland145]

laser tattoo removal?

I have my own law office and while startup isn't too bad, advertising to build up a client base is expensive.

Next door to your tattoo parlor. Would imagine start up costs wouldn't be too high. Find an experienced artist that wants his own shop but is $$ poor. Split the profits. $40K should be way more that enough to start.

 

[Joseph F]

Mercenary firm/PMC.