What kind of small business?

[SNCBOOM]

I don't have any money currently to start a business. This really is hypothetical. Just curious to see what people would do.

Oh...well in that case. I can tell you what my Father and I do. He's been with the railroad since 18...so, 31 years. He started out as a laborer building track etc. Now he's in the office or on the phone day in day/out. But the majority of Saturdays and some Sundays he operates his "Track Repair" company. It's built largely on his knowledge and ability to do it fast and cheap. He owns a fair amount of equipment but he buys cheap. We inspect the track, lubricate switches, gauge the track [to test the width so it's not too wide or "tight"]. Those are the easy 2 hour days where I get paid $200 and god knows what he makes per year off those. We have larger endeavors where we replace entire sections of track, per crosstie, or rail, frogs, etc. But he charges generally a set amount per cross tie replaced and we generally take 100 or so out and put 100 in on any day unless it's scorching hot and productivity reduces a bit to allow for extra breaks. He does pretty well as we only do this for one company in two locations and he nets around 70k'ish a year on top of his salary. Plus it's it's about 75% of Saturdays and maybe 15% of Sundays.

 

[LSUstang05]

If I had enough money, I'd open a bar in a college town.

Honestly, too many headaches. Got to deal with all the kids that want to drink under 21. If you get caught selling to minors or even have minors in your bar that are drinking and the ATF comes around, you get slapped with a huge fine for supplying/selling to minors.

 

[Yellow98SVT]

Think real hard before you go in and buy a restaurant. I owned a resturant franchise for 6 years...it was a soul draining experience. The money ws nice, but, it can be a ball buster. Now, I manage a bar within a full service concept while finishing grduate school. I make 1/3 the money I did as an owner and I like my life better then when I had access to the money. All the money in the world doesn't mean shit if you have NO life. If you have access to that kinda money and that kind of personal drive, drop it in education. A professional degree or a PhD will both make you 6 figures and you can hand pick what you do for a living. I've seen what it takes to get rich off owning restaurants and anyone who thinks you can buy a franchise, have someone run it and get rich is deluding themselves. It takes the same thing that it takes to get rich doing anything...a serious commitment and long, long hours of very hard, very stressful work. The people who are rich restaurant owners are the ones who have been busting their asses for 10-15+ years to get that way.

 

[97formulaws6]

Liquor store.

 

[baginoman]

Think real hard before you go in and buy a restaurant. I owned a resturant franchise for 6 years...it was a soul draining experience. The money ws nice, but, it can be a ball buster. Now, I manage a bar within a full service concept while finishing grduate school. I make 1/3 the money I did as an owner and I like my life better then when I had access to the money. All the money in the world doesn't mean shit if you have NO life. If you have access to that kinda money and that kind of personal drive, drop it in education. A professional degree or a PhD will both make you 6 figures and you can hand pick what you do for a living. I've seen what it takes to get rich off owning restaurants and anyone who thinks you can buy a franchise, have someone run it and get rich is deluding themselves. It takes the same thing that it takes to get rich doing anything...a serious commitment and long, long hours of very hard, very stressful work. The people who are rich restaurant owners are the ones who have been busting their asses for 10-15+ years to get that way.

+1 couldnt agree with you more

 

[01tahoe]

Liquor store.

That actually sounds pretty decent. I looked up existing liquor stores for sale and there are some that are pretty cheap with good cash flow.