In my wanderings on Reddit I recently found a radical methodology not because it was innovative but because it was boring and rather risk-averse. Is about The Sweaty Startup, which does not become a formal philosophy to undertake but rather a set of resources to start a business under a plot line that in 2020 is quite transgressive: that your idea does not have to be the newest or innovative, but simply be good enough to bring a stable income to your coffers in your area.
The most extreme version of this movement is what its creator defines as the type of business with the highest profit margin and the one that requires the least skill: install floors. Yes, install floors.
Why?
- The training and tool require minimal investment.
- Anyone with time can do it
- A lot of people don't want to do it and prefer to pay
- Allows good profit margin
- It is not something as specialized as preparing liquids to be fumigated nor does it ask you to spend in machines on something so specific to polish floors.
The movement and way of undertaking was created by Nick Huber, an American who in 2018 was encouraged to buy a domain and start a mailing list to spread his way of seeing business:
- He claims that all the rich and successful people he knows didn't make it by being disruptive in the world. garage while developing apps or hunting venture capitalists but with hard work and (hence the name) sweaty.
- Sure, there comes a point where someone else sweats, but that doesn't mean that their role models remain extremely boring but solid businesses.
- Huber thinks that the culture promoted by sites like TechCrunch or Shark Tank-style shows, always looking for something scalable and never seen before, is killing the entrepreneurial spirit for those who want to work hard but with little risk.
He says "I am the spitting image that you don't need a new idea, much less change the world, working from 9 to 5". His first business, started before he was 30 years old, was something - we insist - of extreme laziness: a service to collect and store student items (because in the United States they go on summer vacations with their parents, and leave their campus-cities). His idea today has a presence in 34 universities and 9 states, serving more than 10,000 people.
Yes, a very boring service of collecting and storing furniture.
The days of helping to load are behind Nick, who manages the regional managers remotely with his partner, since the investment of his early years was used to optimize costs by investing in his own warehouses. And no, Nick is never going to try, he says, to sell you a course or session.
In fact, for Nick there is a business list that he would never undertake and rather hates. The more innovative, the worse it is for Nick. For example, competing with Chinese manufacturing is a no-no.
Sell software? Never in America, since countries in the Middle East or even Latin America will always offer cheaper (and even better) options. Blockchain? Don't mention it.
Although their vision is extreme, some have taken the parts that best suit them of the framework from Sweaty Startup to undertake the famous side deals to increase income along with daily work.
I give you an example that has been in my head for a long time: A home barber service is not something new, but few offer it and it could succeed in a pandemic. One way to apply Nick's theory and complicate it would be to offer a lot of other things (like distributing products), set up a store (it costs money, it returns you like everyone else) or become too specialized (it becomes expensive and you lose the idea of being practical working hard).
The summary: It promotes something common at a good price and well enough, "the competition is weak, the risk is minimal."
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