Editor’s note: This article was first published in August 2010, when Spanish banks were turning down loans to entrepreneurs; the financing problem it describes as current refers to that period.
The most profitable business is one in which we act as the middleman, at least to begin with. You sell a product that isn’t yours and take a commission, and you buy it with your client’s money and take another commission.
It is the perfect business idea, profitable whichever way you look at it. And the business idea we’re talking about has a sector that is crying out for this service right now.
A middleman between entrepreneurs and investors
Let’s start with the problem that exists today. There are entrepreneurs with a good business idea who go to a bank to look for financing and run into a wall of refusals at the branch.
On the other hand, there are investors looking for projects to invest in, businesses that offer high returns, or simply people with good business ideas.
This is where your business lies, in the case of investors and entrepreneurs. Your job will be to put them in touch, just as a broker or estate agent puts the seller of a property in touch with a buyer and takes a commission for it.
At first you may only land a few small “deals” that bring in low commissions, but over time, as you become known in certain circles, whenever someone wants to set up a business they will come to you, as if you were a bank, to find them an investor, and vice versa.
Along the way, this business would also improve your circle of friends and clients. Remember, as we said in a previous article, that success is closely tied to the quality of the people you surround yourself with. This way you would be at the centre of two big worlds: investors and business owners.
Of the people who started out as free agents in this business of brokering between entrepreneurs and investors, most have ended up becoming successful investors and businesspeople, partners themselves in a variety of businesses.
The best thing about this business idea is that you never have to put in money from your own pocket, and it gets you into a circle that is hard to break into on your own. What’s more, you can start little by little without leaving your job at first.
This business requires at least some basic knowledge of investing and basic maths, as well as an excellent appearance and admirable honesty and professionalism. You should also learn as much as you can about business projects and business plans, so that before offering a business to an investor you already know whether it is viable. Even so, there will be many things you learn along the way in this motivating career.
You should start by building up a broad portfolio of investors, so that when an entrepreneur comes along you can go to the one you already know likes investing in that type of business.
As we mentioned before, you can also work as a free agent on commission for new bars and nightclubs, newly opened shops, factories making any kind of product, and so on.
You only need two things to get this business idea off the ground: companies that want to sell and people or companies that want to buy, investors and entrepreneurs. So you have everything you need to get started. The rest is up to you.
More business ideas
- Business ideas around services for companies
- Business ideas around home services
- Business ideas in leisure and tourism
- Business ideas related to love
- How to lose your fear of starting a business
Featured image: Lisa Yarost, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
