Unusual Ways To Make Money

Random And Unusual Business Ideas

Unusual Ways Newsletter
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Those who don't care as much for the philosophical perspective on money will be glad to see that I get back to the basics of the newsletter this week. Specifically, I have another small collection of unusual business ideas.

To start with, I have to tell you about the taxi we took while on a recent trip to South America. It was a bicycle, converted so a "carriage" in back could carry as many as three people. It was only a dollar to take it a mile from where we got off a bus to the ferry dock. For a few dollars we later took a half-hour tour of the city, with the "driver" acting as tour guide despite being somewhat out of breath from peddling.

A dollar? The good news is that you could easily charge many times more for this service in the states. A friend in a resort town in Michigan bought a bicycle online that was set up for this (not sure if he ever got any further with the business). He planned to charge a minimum of $5 for short rides, and at least $25 per hour for tours.

Magic Show Business

There is a magician who performs on Friday nights at a popular pizza parlor where we live. He goes from table-to-table doing a few amazing tricks, and making tips. I'm not sure if he is paid by the restaurant, and the tips probably aren't great, but that's not the point.

The idea of performing at places like this is to generate business. He regularly has people asking him how much he charges for a birthday or office party, and he always has a business card ready for that moment. Doing magic tricks for money is a fairly low-investment business to start. Of course, the time invested to become good at it is substantial.

Newsletter Businesses

I pay $49 for an alternative health newsletter. It consists of a few pages mailed to me each month. People pay a lot for good information that they can't find elsewhere. There are newsletters out there on everything from raising dogs to scrap booking. If you sell advertising in them, you can lower the subscription price, but that complicates the business.

Photocopied onto two pieces of paper, folded in half and stapled, your newsletter would be eight small pages of content. To sell it, you need a mailing list of prospective buyers. You can check the Standard Rate and Data Mailing List Directory for mailing lists targeting people interested in all sorts of subjects. Their website is www.srds.com, but the directory is expensive to buy. You may find a copy at your local library.

Ticket Scalper

"Scalping" concert and other tickets (buying at retail and selling them for more) is illegal in many places, (although it can be very lucrative). However, there is another way to do something similar. Some small bands play at bars for a small fee that includes all of the door receipts. If you can recognize a group which is growing more popular, you might arrange to buy tickets to their shows and then resell them.

The idea here is that they never know if they are going to make much, but you can guarantee them a certain amount by buying a certain number of tickets cheap. and then taking the risk of selling them. For example, if the bar is going to charge $10 to get in, and the band gets to keep that cover charge, you might buy 100 passes to get in for $4 each. This way, they know from the start that they will make at least $400 (plus anything else the bar pays).

You may or may not be able to sell enough tickets to make a profit, and if the cover is $10 at the door, you will have to sell them at a discount. But if you sell them for $8 each, you only need to sell half to break even. After that the rest are pure profit. Ideally, you want a band that is getting popular, and will give you some kind of agreement. For example, with that first purchase, they might agree to give you the option to buy the first 100 tickets for any show, at 40% of retail. The bar and the band may like this arrangement, since you are now motivated to promote them both.

Car Buying Consultant

I recently read about a man who helps people buy cars. He does this for busy executives, those with handicaps, and others. First he talks to the client to determine what he or she needs. From a database of hundreds of models, he narrows the options down to a few which are most appropriate.

At this point he hunts down the best deals at the various dealerships and either brings the cars to the client for a test drive (if the dealership allows this), or takes the client to the lot. He then negotiates the best price he can for his customer. This part, due to his experience, can save them much more than the $200 fee he is paid.

Apparently he has as many as 40 clients per month (generating $8,000 in fees), but you would have to lower that target for a smaller town.

Note: This is part of the "Unusual Ways" Newsletter.
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Unusual Ways To Make Money | Random And Unusual Business Ideas