Editor’s note: This article was first published in May 2013, during the economic crisis. Sophia Amoruso and Nasty Gal are presented as the most recent success story; Nasty Gal later went through bankruptcy in 2016 and was sold, so this example has aged.
As some of you already know, we’ve been collecting for a while the business ideas that are working best in other parts of the world.
After looking at the latest entrepreneurial success stories, we could say that we’re finding the most profitable businesses in 3 specific sectors. The first is technology, which is no surprise, since starting an internet business requires very little investment.
What’s more, technology is booming and there’s still a lot left to invent. We’ve been gathering business ideas that are working on the internet for some time, from new websites offering original services to all sorts of new apps. Hardly a day goes by without us hearing about a new tech success story, often from younger and younger entrepreneurs. Still, I always make a point of reminding readers that, as a rule, we hear about the successes but not about the many failed attempts that also happen.
Of course, thanks to the internet, the clothing sector is opening up a whole new universe of opportunities. The most recent example is Sophia Amoruso, an entrepreneur who built an empire in the clothing business in 6 years thanks to Nasty Gal. She’s not the only one we could mention: not long ago we talked about Jake Nickell and Jacob DeHart, two entrepreneurs who came up with a clothing business where users themselves could design their own garments and earn money from them. In both cases, despite the revenue these two big companies bring in today, the truth is that they were profitable businesses from the very first month.
The good thing about a clothing business is that any entrepreneur can bring their own ideas with a fresh touch of originality, creativity and so on. People either like clothes or they don’t, and when they like them, a brand is born, keeping in mind that you don’t need much money to get started.
The possibilities are endless, as with the 2 brothers who one day decided to quit their jobs to sell brightly colored ties and suits, and later all kinds of garments. In Madrid (Spain) we also have the case of 4 unemployed women who decided to bring back the fashion of the 1920s. The good thing about clothing is that there’s business in vintage too. And let’s not forget that clothing franchises are also a guarantee of success, and some of them can be started with a small investment.
Food businesses would be the next gold mine, and maybe, these days, the food itself matters least. We put together 5 restaurant ideas where the menu is the least of it, because the point is to entertain people, and perhaps in times of crisis that is, in a way, the secret of success in this kind of business. In other cases, what matters is the decor and having something that sets you completely apart, being one of a kind in your city (see: The 9 most original and innovative restaurants).
Even in the food business there’s room to innovate, from making gluten-free sweets and cakes, where the founder of BabyCakes found a big market, to the recent case of Claire Hoyt, the entrepreneur who started out making organic food for babies and children from her own home.
We think that within food, without forgetting fun and entertainment, specialty food can be a very profitable business (vegetarian food, food with…, food without…). We’ll leave it to entrepreneurs’ imagination to develop their own ideas.
So in the end we’ve come to the conclusion that betting on these kinds of businesses, always with a distinctive touch, choosing a good location and getting the word out about our shop, product or service, could be the sectors that help us dodge the crisis. Clearly the biggest universe of opportunities today is the tech sector, but we understand that not everyone has the skills to start a business there. Then again, whether we start a clothing business or a food business, we’ll need to use technology to grow it. There’s no doubt about that.
Further reading
- Safe-haven businesses that work in a crisis
- Profitable and innovative businesses around the world: 5 ideas
- 8 profitable, novel business ideas that are working in other countries
Featured image: Artem Beliaikin, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
