START a BUSINESS in 2016

See the link here.  For more business ideas, see this list.  I can tell that me just posting this sentence, link, and idea that I am not serious about starting a business.  I don't have the energy.  Not any more.  People have beat the shit out of me.  Literally.  And then those that have not, are dismissive, rude, losers.  

The question arose, "What are some good businesses to start in 2016?"  (Aren't we a little late for that?  I am being cynical.)  Looks like the guy who created this post was James Comptom.  I don't know who he is.  In his About page, he writes that he's a father of three and he loves travel and freedom.  Okay.  And that is new or helpful how?  His Landing Page has a video where he talks about how to sell drone services with energy companies who will pay lots of money to have their energy plant structures inspected via a drone.  I don't know.  Didn't finish watching all of it.  Maybe.  But he lays out no plan, just an idea.  

Then he offers food delivery service as a business to start.  Why?  He says you can "net" over a $20,000.  Do these guys just make these figures up?  Where does he get this number?  Then he qualifies it, "In the right market" without identifying the right market.  I am beginning to sound like John Spangler from my real estate days.  He does say that he's "personally setup some companies like this and here’s how it all works step-by-step. I’ll do my best to take all the confusion out and answer all questions" offering up his landing page at James-Compton.  

What about proof?  We all need proof, right?  Well here he is offering up his Quora post.  That post was titled "What is the best business to start with the lowest overhead?"  I copied the contents of his post and reprinted them below.  I don't know whether he still subscribes to the points he committed to digits.  He even provides steps.  Here it is:

To be clear, what I’m talking about is a website, that essentially connects all the restaurants in your city, which also dispatches orders to drivers via their mobile phones. Sound too good to be true? You can easily set this up for under $500.

So, wait, create a single website from which residents can order from all restaurants?  That just does not make sense.  At all.  But here is his plan:

Step 1 - Website + Restaurant Menus. You’ll want to drive around to all the restaurants who you want to work with and grab their menus. Next you’ll input these menus into your website. There are several companies offering a turn-key SAAS solution [software as a service] for this starting at $99.00. This includes website and phone apps for both owner and delivery drivers. Next you google the name of the restaurant and locate their logo. Then you’ll upload that logo to the menu.

Step 2 - Delivery company name + domain. You’ll want to find a cool name for your delivery company. For example, if I’m in Chicago, I could name the delivery service “Windy City Delivery”. Next, you’ll search GoDaddy or some other domain service to check name availability. Doing so you’ll see http://windycitydelivery.com is available. So it’s a $2.99 charge and you’ve got (1) your company name, and (2) company domain name.

Step 3 - Your delivery logo. You’ll obviously want a business logo for your delivery company. Get one of these from Fiverr or 99designs.

Step 4 - Form a legal business organization. Simply go to your state website and fill out the required paperwork (LLC, INC, etc). Some states charge as little a $70 for this others charge a couple hundred.

Step 5 - Business pitch for the restaurant. Essentially, you’re going to be bringing them extra customers the restaurant wouldn’t ordinarily have. So you’ll have to agree with splitting a certain percentage of the orders with the restaurant. Sometimes it’s 15%. It all just depends on your negotiating skills.

Step 6 - **Big Bonus Tip** - On your website, you’ll create what’s called a “General Store”. For example, if my delivery service is called “Windy City Delivery” (for Chicago), I’d create a place on the website called “Windy City Delivery”. And this store would provide all kinds of different goods such as Red Bull, toilet paper, Cokes, Water, diapers, gum, etc. You get the drift. This serves to act as a type of Walmart, or Amazon delivery. The more services and goods you offer the better :-)

Step 7 - Marketing. Market your new company like crazy across all social media sites. Visit places like school, hospitals, any big company that employs a lot of people and hand them your business cards telling them about the service you provide.  

Step 8 - Sit back and watch your delivery biz grow.  Note on Markets - the $20,000 net per week figure comes from a population of about 220,000.

Starting something like this offers a lot of benefits, namely: speed of creating and opening it, making big net revenue in a short amount of time < 6 months, and a hook (general store) that keeps people coming back for more (returning customers).

Above all of this, a delivery company offers the ability for the owner to make income all while not really doing much of anything save for making sure the website is up and running and the drivers are doing their job correctly.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Contact me on Facebook Contact me on Twitter