4.1 Stealth aid

Description: Stealth drone aid delivery (flour, grains, water). Today in crisis situations, aid is delivered to people of need by not always the best distribution systems. Trucks and trains that get robbed, intercepted by criminals, the truly poor get little in terms of aid or have to buy it from warlords, local thugs etc. Those aid workers often have to bribe local officials to get the aid to the needed area, supporting some problematic groups. Those that live in far off areas get less stuff, they’re harder to get to and have to travel more distance to get the goods. This travel time/distance can leave them more vulnerable to robbery.

Use stealth tactics and/or drones to drop the aid materials (food, medicine, water) in the places that need them. Makes it unannounced, at night preferably. Smuggling with trucks and boats can be used as well but these are more likely to be intercepted.

Helicopters could work for bigger payloads quickly. They aren’t usually quiet though.

Pros This delivery of aid is more effective, making it an easier sell by politicians in aid giving nations. The aid money is guaranteed by contract with governments.

Cons idea could simply be copied by governments, militaries. They could do this themselves without us, which, as long as aid is delivered effectively, not a bad thing. This might be being done already. If local criminals infiltrate, they could intercept, or steal food soon after the drop. This could become a cat and mouse game with local criminals, becoming expensive.

4.2 grist mill

Description: A small shop or mobile unit that processes foodstuffs for DIY small farmers. Services such as grains grinding/milling, Corn shucking, chickpea grinding in hummus, coffee grinding, rice separating, seed separating, nut butter grinding and filtering. Anything annoying or labour intensive that is better done by machines.

Need a small place near where there are lots of organic farms, or a grinder on wheels, comes to your farm when needed and grinds large amounts. Make it a truck that runs on electricity or used veggie oil.

Pros small farm movement is growing but likely the supplementary has been underserved. Avoids them from having to buy equipment for sporadic use

Cons market may be small and margins small

4.3 Sweet tooth

Description: A store that specializes in sugar and sugar substitutes. Online store is possibly best for this. Sell wide variety of honeys, tree syrups etc and compare nutritional data and price online. Bulk buying direct from manufacturer is brokered through the store. A part of the employees time is to answer inquiries so customer service happens at a quality level.

Provide a physical price list and phone call service for elderly customers

Pros captures and serves an underserved market, diets are becoming more specialized, creating niches.

Cons margins may be small, market may be served already but other distributors.

4.4 Swap a costume

Description: Halloween costume swapping website. Sell or swap your used Halloween costumes. Has to be cheaper than online sellers or simply more unique costumes than the mass-produced ones. Pop-up stores as well around Halloween to facilitate a delivery load near this holiday.

The sizing has to be accurate and the pictures with and without a model. Need to employ delivery drivers for this in October only. They make more cash for a month. Customer pays more for long distance delivery.

Pros more variety of costumes than average cheap stuff, encourages recycling of costumes that would be likely thrown out.

Cons margins may be small, adoption not worth it as costumes are cheap when new. People may not want to wear another person’s costume. People are often last minute on this, how do you ship quickly especially at one time of year?

4.5 sleeper transit

Description: app or tech that wakes you up a set distance from destination or transfer points. It links up to your transit route planner. Uses a combination of GPS and average speed of vehicle to set alarm. GPS alone doesn’t get this right, something else in tandem with it. Average bus speed? Average time between stops? What does maps use already to do this? Why doesn’t it work better? Current phone plans, data plans and cell service couldn’t do this accurately in many cities.

Pros big tech may buy this company if it works

Cons does this exist already as an option on a map app? It be copied if it doesn’t already exist. The potential customers for this may be small, students and overworked transit riders.

4.6 Ghetto convenience

Description: convenience store in bad neighborhoods where the stores are being used to facilitate crime. Examples are selling crack pipes, other hard drug use equipment. Staff would have to be assertive and unlikely to be corrupted (ex-military, certain religious folk, social workers, strong willed locals, police officers). They would have to be watched by camera to ensure they aren’t dealing drugs or abusing people.

Role would be diffusing conflict, reducing crime. They would sell food that is healthy but can be eaten easily without preparation or utensils. Cured meats, bread, cheese. Fruits, veggies with dip. Household items in single serve amounts like TP, toothpaste. The entrance would be a counter (like a take-away) with a list of products on the walls. They would also do cheque cashing, cash advance for cheaper than existing payday loan places. A one stop shop only located in the roughest neighborhoods.

Pros providing a much needed service and community beacon to hurting places, healthy food to the poor. Helps the employees learn about the poor and their local situation. Better service could mean better profits, expansion. People could buy stock in this, help grow better convenience store chains.

Cons still could get robbed, locals may not buy into the idea. Hiring corrupt people could ruin it. Other bad convenience stores could ruin it by undercutting.

4.7 free land businesses

Description: Some small towns in Canada (possibly other western countries) are giving away land, usually with the hope of attracting business. What micro business could use this? Online based businesses, rehab centers, refugee integration centers, halfway house, Foster homes, homes for the disabled, storage of dangerous materials, general long term storage, graveyards, garbage dumps, processing, recycling.

Pros low startup and operating costs. Help would be given from the local government, save some money on marketing.

Cons land is free for a reason, the reasons may hinder business growth.

4.8 Advanced Tradesman Techniques

Description: make professional, short as needed videos of how-to do certain trades specific skills. Focus on odd tricks to do specialized work, not the basics. Examples are building serpentine walls (bricklaying), boarding drywall on a curve (drywall), finishing concrete in -40 C (concrete finishing). Skills that only career tradespeople would know and career tradespeople or apprentices would need to know.

Do this on site or in a set to show various techniques. Bring in older retired tradespeople to expand catalogue, pay them for their time. Like a video based bag of tricks, likely would gain advertising dollars. Make good use of the colourful characters that work in trades. Could use skill share to make this profitable. If your videos are property of skillshare, facebook or Instagram you don’t own a business, they do.

Can you post on multiple places without breaking terms of service? Own website coupled with web platforms.

Pros cheap to start, cheap to run. This doesn’t exist in a organized fashion online. Most videos are the basics for DIY people, the advanced trade techniques is an underserved niche

Cons may take time to build momentum, there may not be money in this.

4.9 Custom insurance

Description: Variable insurance for convertibles, show cars, motorcycles, winter beaters, work trucks. Go online and get insurance for a day at a time or a few hours. Is this being done already? App based so you can turn it on whenever, you only pay for the time you drive.

Pros attractive, gives people flexibility on vehicle usage, you could sell the proprietary tech to a big insurance agent.

Cons proving that insurance was/wasn’t activated just before an accident/crash. Big insurance company could just copy this idea. A risk can be ”forgetting” to turn the insurance on and taking a full loss or in the case of app failure causing lost coverage. Another issue is your vehicle getting hit while parked on your property.