Business Opportunities are Everywhere!

When I was younger, I used to think that a lot of the business opportunities out there weren’t for me.  Maybe they weren’t worth the effort or they would take too much money to start.

As I’ve gotten older (and a little smarter), I’ve realized that’s not the case.  It’s simply a matter of just opening your eyes and then plucking out those opportunities.

A number of years ago, I started playing FreeCell on my phone when I get a few minutes of time here and there.  Since most games take me under 5 minutes, it’s a perfect filler for me.  I found an awesome solitaire suite years ago and have carried my stats with me from phone to phone.

I’ve played over 1,300 games on my phones… but let’s try not to focus on the idea that I’ve wasted over 4½ full days of my life on this.  My point is that I used to just play the game – win or lose.

But then, one day I read that, theoretically, every game is winnable.

That may or may not be true, but it completely changed how I play the game.  Since that day, I’ve now won every single game since.  In fact, as of today, I’ve won the last 978 games in a row… weird, right?

So why should you care about FreeCell?

You shouldn’t.  However, you should understand that similar to me simply changing my mindset in FreeCell to be successful, you should open your eyes to see that there are business opportunities available everywhere for the taking.

Here are just a few ideas…

 

Real estate

This is always going to be at the top of my list.  With the huge advantages that real estate can bring you, everyone with a solid foundation should at least consider if it makes sense for it to be part of their investment portfolio.

Personally, I like the idea of owning rental properties, but there are so many other avenues that you can go after as well.  Here are just some of the niches available in the real estate investing realm:

• Raw land
• Single family homes
• Multi-family homes (my favorite!)
• Apartments
• Mobile homes
• Commercial property

That doesn’t even include investing in notes or tax liens.  And, if the idea of real estate scares you, there is always the option of investing in a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT).

A REIT is a way to buy into real estate through the stock market without the worry of getting your hands dirty.  You miss out on some of the benefits of owning property (leverage, tax breaks, decision-making, etc.), but it does get you in the game.

As a side note, I wish I had thought of doing house hacking in my bachelor days to get started in real estate.  That’s where you buy a property and live in part of it while you rent out the rest.  It’s usually done with multi-family homes, but many have done it successfully with separating off part of a single family home as well.  Let someone else pay some or all of the mortgage for you while you live there for free!

 

Sell/Resell stuff

How much crap do you have laying around your house or apartment that you don’t really use?  I’m guessing tons.

Why not sell it?  Put it on eBay or Craigslist or wherever and get rid of it and make a few bucks in the meantime.

And, if you get the hang of it and enjoy the process, that might become one of those business opportunities that’s right up your alley!

I know a guy who buys old “junk” from garage sales and then sells it at flea markets.  He does so well doing it that he was able to quit his regular ol’ 9-5 to focus solely on this.  Pretty awesome, right?!

There are also tons of people that do something similar on a bigger scale and buy merchandise (clothes and other goods) and then resell it on a storefront on Amazon or eBay.  Moreover, they make this their job – working for themselves!

 

Start a blog

Anyone who tells you that you can start a blog and make good money is only giving you a small part of the story.

You can absolutely make good money with it.  In fact, some bloggers make six figures or more per year doing it.  However, these bloggers are few and far between.  Most bloggers can expect just to make a little side income with it.

It’s also important to know that it doesn’t happen overnight.  I’ve talked about how much work blogging actually is and how it might take a couple years before you start seeing anything happen with it.  In fact, most bloggers only last a few months before they start posting less and less and then eventually just abandon their site.

However, if you know what you’re getting into, enjoy the whole process, and stick with it, it can be rewarding.  The cost to get a blog started is next to nothing, but it’s one of those business opportunities that anyone can do.

Eventually, it can be a nice stream of supplemental income.  I’ve finally started to see the monetization of this blog pay off.  It’s not huge, but I wasn’t expecting it to be… yet.

The Route to Retire site was built not only as a way for me to document my journey to FIRE and help share what I’ve learned, but also as a side hustle to help provide some additional income when I do retire.

In other words, I started this early because I know it can take years for it to start to pay off.  And that’s Ok – I’m not in any hurry, I enjoy writing, and hope you enjoy the content I provide.

 

Build a business

Hey, maybe the ideas I’ve mentioned might not suit you, but I bet most of us have thought at one time or another, “Hey, I could probably create my own business doing [fill in the blank].”

So why don’t most people end up becoming entrepreneurs?

Fear.  Most of us have a tough time moving past the “security” of being an employee.

The problem is that it’s that idea of security that’s holding you back from doing something great.

But why not build your business on the side?  Yes, it’ll take away from your free time, but suck it, buttercup!  If you prove to be successful with your business over time, you can eventually call it quits from your 9-5.  You’ll gain the freedom of being your own boss and will probably make a lot more money than you would as an employee.

 

Mrs. R2R opening up to the idea of business opportunities

Mrs. R2R works at a non-profit organization.  Recently, though, they decided to eliminate the position as part-time and replace it with a full-time position.

They offered her the position as full-time, but with our daughter, part-time seems to work just perfect… so she declined.  They hate for her to go, but they gave her several months of notice and she’s going to receive a generous severance.

We’re now getting close to her last day there and the other jobs she’s looked at or interviewed for didn’t fit what she was after… so now what?

This kick-in-the-pants has provided her a great opportunity.  We live in a nice development of over a thousand homes (a bunch of yuppies if you ask me!).  Regardless, they have money and love to spend it.

Mrs. R2R decided that she’s going to try being a personal assistant of sorts for the neighborhood.  This might be doing their grocery shopping, watching kids for a couple hours, dog-walking, small household chores, or other odds and ends.

About 75-80% of our community is on Nextdoor, which is a social network for neighborhoods.  She’s going to put a post on the site what she wants to do and I imagine she’ll get a nice response back from it.

How cool is that?  In today’s day and age, she can leverage technology and the Internet to market to the specific demographic and location she wants for a total cost of $0!

 

And that, my friend, is the whole point of this post.  There are tons of great business opportunities out there now for the taking.  And the cost of entry for a lot of these great ideas is next to nothing!

All you need to do is open your eyes and see what’s out there.  Then jump on it!  If you’re not finding a good side hustle or freelancing job that could possibly replace your regular job, you’re missing out!

Are you seeing and taking advantage of the business opportunities all around you or are you still going day-to-day with your blinders on?

Thanks for reading!!

— Jim