Ask Lemmy

Anything that provides a service rather than sells a product. This would likely take the form of an app or website that people subscribe to or purchase, but could also be services like copy or video editing, voice work or the like.

Why do you want to start a business? Usually, the first thing I'll hear about a business is what it's going to offer, or why someone wants to start a business...not "I don't want to deal with X".

I guess another question would be why you don't want to deal with inventory to the point where that's more important to you than figuring out how you'd actually convince people to give you money! Haha

There are only two jobs in the world: adding value and extracting value.

Do you have skills in making, doing, or otherwise interacting with things that people don't want to do themselves? Do you have access to any type of machinery or tools that most people don't? These are opportunities to add value. Value added jobs include crafting, agriculture, manufacturing, trades, childcare, teaching....

Do you have an insight into an inefficiency in the market? Are you able to exploit a gap between people who add value and the people who consume? Can you connect people to each other, connect people to products, or connect products to people? Value extraction jobs include things like distribution (drop-shipping), advertising (both making advertisement and other products that sell advertising space), management...

Is there anything you can do like this? And more importantly: is there anything you can do like this that you can do better without an employer-employee relationship?

I think for businesses that deal with physical items, rather than offering services, and are not drop shipping, selling something 3D printed has to be one of the lowest inventory options. You need to have the printers, some filament, and maybe some accessories like packaging boxes, but otherwise you can just make your product whenever you get orders (or have a small stock for faster fulfillment).

Why? Do you want to start a business too?

You would want to provide services rather than physical goods. We don’t know what your skill set is, but some possible ideas can relate to writing/editing, programming, creating digital art or photography, graphic design, and giving any kind of lessons/tutorials/coaching.

Design studio. Anything what you create is a digital asset.

Drop shipping is a thing — basically resell stuff at a markup but have it shipped directly from the producer. It's basically the same as being an affiliate marketer except you set your own markup. I've never done it, so I don't know how easy it is or how much folks make. I've seen a few people hawking explainers, which tells me there's likely more money in telling people how than doing it yourself, but maybe it's worth looking into.

Maybe it's easy to set up but low return until you get really good at it.

Dog walking or other skill based teaching/tasks. You might need some small things like poop bags or something else. In the past I did dog walking & that is easy to start. Then I expanded to helping train & other tasks around taking care of dogs. That’s just what I did but you can choose something else you like such as music lessons.

Something you can do instead of something you sell; maybe a mobile cat bather or similar? What skills do you have?

Someone who custom makes stuff