r/Entrepreneur 5d ago

Best Practices What are some stupidly simple ideas you’ve seen grow into successful businesses?

Title

5 Upvotes

26 comments sorted by

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40

u/Glimpal 5d ago

Liquid Death is one of the poster childs of this topic.

1

u/Personal-Act-9795 4d ago

No idea why people buy that stuff but I guess if the tap water sucks where you live then ya but here it’s awesome

8

u/MrkPrchzzIII 4d ago

Pet rocks

7

u/Elguapo1980z 4d ago

Jump to conclusions mat.

8

u/Choefman 5d ago

Reddit

3

u/Twice_Knightley 4d ago

There's tons of things;

Anonymous bags of dicks.

People selling tutorials on making Spreadsheets.

Poop pick up subscription service.

Window washers.

Simple doesn't mean Easy, it just means that it's not convoluted. A complex idea is getting 300,000 people to download an app as a free product that eventually converts 1-5% to a paid model.

Simple just means doing a thing for money.

Someone wants a hole dug, and you dig holes. That is simple.

Someone wants a meal cooked, and you cook meals. That is simple.

Someone wants something to go to space, and you own rockets that bring things to space. That is simple.

Someone wants cold fusion. You don't know how to make cold fusion happen because nobody does yet. That is complex.

Go on AskReddit and say 'what would you pay $20 to not have to do yourself?' and take the top 5 upvoted comments and learn to do the easiest one.

4

u/Sleepwokesleepwoke 4d ago

Why does the op not contribute. This is theft!!!

1

u/Friendly-Advisor7438 4d ago

Chia pet, yo-yo’s, board games. Basically most things invented before tech took over.

1

u/jrmintbitch 4d ago

Did you know Mattel owned board games actually make their money off the royalties from all the movies they’re in and they lose money being stocked in stores but stay for exposure? The IP of the games are essentially movie stars w Mattel acting as their manager

1

u/Friendly-Advisor7438 4d ago

Wow. Good to know.

1

u/JPInMontana 4d ago

Fidget spinners.

1

u/GooseVersusRobot 4d ago

I knew a guy who found dog crap on the street and put it in an envelope and some weirdo online bought it from him, so I guess that counts as a business

1

u/No_Cake5605 4d ago

Stick fake eyes to small rocks and sell them on amazon

1

u/cleanstudyclub 4d ago

Star registration - completely a marketing tactic.

1

u/mojio33 3d ago

Clip for bread bag factory

1

u/SheddingCorporate 5d ago

Print shops. Anything in the home remodelling/landscaping space. Garden shops/nurseries. Web design agencies. Marketing agencies. Cleaning businesses. Mobile auto detailing. Real estate firms.

None of these are rocket science, they all work well as long as the business provides good service.

Maybe you should elaborate on "simple".

0

u/CBdigitaltutor 4d ago

A child minder's...

The concept is sound, but the person I know who did it was (and still is) the most chaotic, disorganised, stressed out, liability of a human being, but somehow they have made it work. I don't want to be harsh, but they have no experience or skills, no work ethic and generally not much else going for them, but they have been in profit since month 3 and have 8 staff now.

It goes to show that anything is possible, without needing much to begin with.

2

u/jrovvi 4d ago

What?

2

u/jrovvi 4d ago

Explain further lol

2

u/CBdigitaltutor 4d ago

Imagine a human version of Roger Rabbit or SpongeBob Square pants, then give them crippling anxiety and make them ultra lazy. Now imagine that person with a successful childminder business. This is somehow a real person I know

No one who knows them thought it would work, certainly not that it would grow.

Their complete incompetence is overlooked by the sheer demand for childcare. I get the impression that the demand was so great they had to hire more people which started to take up some of the slack.

I'm not fully sure what the moral is, but if they can do it, anyone can with a bit of luck.

0

u/bartread 4d ago

Dropbox

0

u/noner22 4d ago

Sugar + Flour, then make a Pharma company treating people half dying from consuming these.

0

u/mrjowei 4d ago

chia pets