IDEAS for Business to START
Source: Pixabay, CC0 Public Domain
I'm fortunate to have a successful career coaching practice. But if I needed to start a business, here are some I'd consider that might appeal to Psychology Today readers. Perhaps one might interest you or trigger an idea of your own.
MentorMatch. Many people wish they had a mentor. Others wish they could mentor someone. Enter MentorMatch, an online service like match.com that pairs mentors with protégés. It would include a one-minute video of each person. Mentors and protégés should have to complete a brief online course on how to be a good mentor and a good protégé.
Although many kids and teens would benefit from a mentor, liability issues might require the service to be limited to adults.
A variation on the theme: ShrinkMatch in which prospective patients are matched with psychotherapists and counselors.
A chain of flower carts near busy train and bus stations. I like cart businesses because start-up costs are minimal. For example, with diligence, you can get a great location while paying little or no rent.
I particularly like the flower cart business because there’s no trend risk of flowers going out of style. Also, you needn’t carry large amounts of inventory—just the day’s worth. You avoid the often massive regulations associated with the most common type of cart: a food cart. Plus, flowers are a happy product.
It's unlikely that a single cart will yield sufficient income, so I'd make my goal to have a few but no so many that I lose quality control.
To avoid theft in this heavily cash business, after running the first cart myself to learn the business, I’d hire trusted friends and relatives to run carts and pay and treat them well to avoid theft and simply to be a mensch.
ProcrastNoMore: an app for procrastinators. ProcrastNoMore would, of course, contain timed reminders and a way to use your social media connections to make you accountable. ProcrastNoMore would also contain a ProcrastoLog option. Every 15 minutes a chime would ring and the user would give him or herself a letter grade for the previous 15 minutes. For grades less than a B, s/he'd be asked which of the top causes of procrastination were operative and if s/he marked one, would be given a few text and/or audio solutions.
