Small Business Ideas

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Niche Digital Restaurant

Restaurants are notoriously difficult and expensive businesses to start. High risk.

Fortunately, the modern consumer is comfortable ordering food online for pickup or delivery. This means there is scope for you to start a digital/online restaurant that doesn't have to invest capital in space for seating.

Niche online only digital restaurant

Focus your niche to one, maybe two meals to lower overheads and build a reputation for being the best.

With good quality food and a compelling online presence/menu, a digital restaurant reduces startup costs and risks and can grow extremely quickly using the myriad existing delivery services to get food to the customer's door.

AI Teacher

An AI could understand precisely what capabilities, strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes a child has and design tailored classes.

AI teachers could provide customized learning for every child on the planet

AI teachers could provide one on one learning for every child on the planet

It would not only know how to reach a child and help them perform to their full potential much faster, it could also provide a far more sophisticated and meaningful assessment of that child's abilities (as opposed to a broad-stroke testing system like exams).

Personal Shopper AI

Create an app, backed by an AI, that monitors and learns what people like, what's in fashion, who's style they like, who they listen to and are influenced by and then make perfectly tailored buying suggestions based on that data.

Create an AI driven 'personal shopper' app

Shoppers will be delighted by their own "personal shopper" that seems to know just what they want when they want it. Your AI could also do a bit of bargain hunting in the background to save money on purchases.

Make money by earning commissions on sales your app generates using an affiliate arrangement with the stores your AI uses to source product suggestions.

Smart LockBox for Deliveries (with App)

With more and more people becoming involved in order fulfillment here's going to be a need to ensure that deliveries are completely safe and untouched (i.e. being guaranteed no-one has touched sensitive legal or banking documents, or sneezed on your food).

Design and market a smart lockbox that will only open with a code given to the customer upon purchase (and comes with an app linking order numbers to codes). When your package arrives, tap or scan in the code to unlock.

Scan a code to open the smart lockbox

This ensures that even if a delivery gets misplaced no-one has access to it until it arrives at your door.

Holiday Travel Plan App

Making holiday travel plans can be hard - especially if you don't know the country, their facilities, where the best places are, or how to get around.

Create an app that allows tourists to choose the places they want to visit, specify how long they're staying, the ambience (i.e. romantic, adventure, etc), and what their budget is. Use that data to help them book and plan their entire trip from one place.

Holiday plans app. Pic by Chris Ford

Offer this time and money saving app for free. Make money off affiliate relationships with hotels, airlines, tour operators, and everyone else who will want to advertise on your platform.

Hyper-Niche Price Comparison Site

A lot of price comparison sites are automated systems that don't offer much in the way of real, human insight. Instead, focus on a small niche. Create genuine price histories and comparison charts (like this one showing a comparison of the top gaming laptops)

Price history comparison chart

Using price histories as part of your comparison, it is possible to show shoppers whether or not the 30% discount they are being offered right now is better or worse than yesterday - and whether or not they should wait for a better deal, or look at another product.

Second-Hand Equipment Rental Store

We all have stuff we don't really need all the time, or use anymore. Often it simply piles up in the garage. Wouldn't it be great to be able to generate a bit of passive income from it instead?

Set up a rental store that takes people's old equipment (i.e. tools, furniture, electronics, etc) and turns it into revenue for them by renting it out very cheaply.

Equipment by Martin Cathrae

People who need equipment benefit because they don't have to buy. You startup cheaply because you don't have to purchase any stock. Suppliers benefit by making money from their old, unused stuff. Make extra money on delivering and picking up equipment, insuring items, and offering extra services that go with the equipment.

Uber EATS Drone/Driverless Delivery Service

Drones, delivery robots and driver-less vehicles are going to be commonplace within a few years. There's definitely scope to get in front of the curve and establish yourself as a player that leverages these new technologies right now.

Delivery robot

Signing up to leverage a platform like Uber EATS can bring in a significant amount customers almost instantly and means that you'll have a strong source of sustainable revenue from day one.

This will allow you to build a formidable last mile delivery business that can undercut competitors by either flying above traffic, or avoiding human labour costs (i.e. drivers) altogether.

Daily Commute Uber Driver-Partner

Side-hustles are popular these days. New tech opens up new opportunities to make extra money and Uber is a great example of this.

Register as an Uber driver-partner and pick up or drop off people in line with the trips you would normally do each day - i.e. your daily commute from home to work (probably shared by stacks of people willing to pay for it).

After a while, you can purchase additional vehicles and hire new drivers - or possibly strike out on your own as a daily commute service.

Cold Water Saving Showers

Currently, the majority of water saving devices in the U.S. allow cold water to escape and shut off when the hot water arrives - preventing the loss of water heat energy, but not water itself. It's incredibly wasteful - especially in areas like California that are water stressed.

Design & sell a device that redirects (or saves) cold water until the hot water arrives. Saved cold water can then be used to cool the hot shower water.

An Australian product called Cullector already does this - perhaps they need a distributor in your region?

Cullector saves cold shower water

Odd Job Uber-Like App

How many times have you wished someone could come and clean up the kitchen, or do the laundry? We all have odd jobs we hate to do - which means there's a big demand. A big gap in the market for an app that can get these jobs done quickly.

Odd jobs Uber like app. Pic by Hernán Piñera

Create an app that allows users to specify what odd jobs needs doing (i.e. laundry, ironing, etc). Once a job is posted, workers nearby can respond to take care of it.

Like Uber, the app should allow employers to rate workers (and vice versa) on the job they did - building up a solid ratings system that can control quality, with payments handled via the app (based on set hourly rates).

Sell Edible Biodegradable Plastics

Why on Earth would you want to eat a plastic grocery bag? The answer is, you wouldn't.

But wildlife on both land and sea don't know this and get killed ingesting plastic.

Sell edible plastic grocery bags

What we need are bags that degrade very quickly and can be safely eaten.

Create a cheap, environmentally friendly plastic grocery bag from natural oils and resins - like EnviGreen in India:

Consumers are more environmentally conscious; so start inventing and selling edible plastics today.

Affiliate Fundraiser App for Non-Profits

Online affiliate programs allow publishers to add links to their content that drive traffic to a merchant who shares a percent of any profits generated by that traffic. It doesn't cost the buyer a thing either.

Create an app that grabs affiliate commission from users' traffic and goes to a charity or organisation of their choice.

Support charities with affiliate comissions

Donors would create an account, specify which charities they would like to support and then shop normally. Your app would automatically grab affiliate commissions and disburse them to the charity.

Your company would take a small commission for promoting the charities and managing their payments.

Ride sharing marketplace app

Design an app that tracks users' trips each day (ostensibly to and from work). Then, once it has matched a person's trips with people who do much the same trip each day it allows them to request lifts from each other.

Ride sharing marketplace app

The app charges people half the petrol for the distance of the trip so you get a free trip if you drive two people, and make money for more people.

Payments are made via the app. It simply transfers funds to your account from theirs (and vice versa) - depending on who's driving. Top-up funds by in-app purchases of credit or request a payment if you've earned cash.

It's like Uber for ride sharing!

Save on bills service

We all hate paying bills, right? Electricity, water, rates, cable, and a host of other bills keep coming in every month. Companies and individuals would love to save money where they can, and that's where you come in.

Offer a free service that negotiates better deals from providers. Analyze clients' usage and payment plans to see where and how they can save money, like billcutterz.

Start a save money on bills service

Grow quickly by offering to only take commission if you manage to save money for your clients - so that there is no risk to them.

Pop-up ad agency using bikes

Get billboards and other ads into hard to reach places using a team of cyclists. Find advertisers who want to reach out to consumers at beach parties, parks and other places that would otherwise be difficult for traditional advertisers.

In particular, local advertisers might relish the chance to have a bike drawn billboard ridden around town. Public service messages may also play a big role in your business.

Buy a few bikes. Hitch them to billboard trailers. Start selling ad space.

Pokemon Go levelled up characters

Heard about Pokemon Go? It's an augmented reality game that hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people are playing. With that much interest, there is plenty of opportunity to offer paid services or free, advertising supported information.

Make money selling Pokemon go services & information

Niantic, the game's developers, have reported generating over $200 million in micro payments for in-game items so far. But, for players, earning these items can be time-consuming.

Create, buy and sell beginner accounts that give people the option of buying a levelled up character who comes with valuable items, such as lucky eggs & lure modules to save them time.

Niche online marketplace

Certain niches are well suited to the online world. Dating sites & freelancing are two examples of common online marketplaces, but there are plenty more that haven't been saturated.

We recently covered a university startup called Ag for Hire that connects skilled, seasonal labourers with the farmers who need them - it helps workers find jobs and helps farmers eliminate unharvested crops.

Search for other undiscovered niche demand/supply relationships and start one for free. Charge for premium services and advertising once it is established.

Sugar free mixers

We all have a fairly high sugar intake. Most products we eat or drink have huge amounts of sugar that we don't get to see... but it's there. Many mixers, like tonic water, appear to be quite plain whereas they can actually contain up to four teaspoons of sugar in a small can.

Create and market sugar free mixers. Pic by Robert S. Donovan

Consumers are starting to catch on to this and are looking for low or sugar free alternatives (that taste natural).

Create and market a line of mixer drinks for pubs and bars to sell to patrons who want to add something extra to their drinks and cocktails - without it going straight to their hips and waistlines. A healthy alternative to "party the night away".

'How to save money' app or website

More and more people are looking for ways to save money - either at home or in their business. In fact, it's easy to see just how many people are interested by looking at Google's search volumes for terms like 'how to save money':

Competition for money saving services is low

These are fairly big markets with relatively low competition - because the majority of searchers are trying to find ways to save money, not spend it.

But, if you can create an app or website that offers a mix of real-world money saving advice along with lists of the biggest discounts and savings, you'll have a loyal following, low advertising costs and plenty of potentially profitable affiliate partnerships.

Paintball tick and flea bath

Many herd animals are susceptible to diseases spread by ticks, flies and fleas, so being able to provide them with some protection without having to tranquilize them would be of fantastic use to many farmers and wildlife agencies.

Use paint balls filled with tick and flea bath and douse the animals to give them long lasting protection from a range of diseases - sell both equipment and a paintballing service.

Considering that tranquillizing wild animals in order to check their health can often end up killing them - gruesomely; paintball is actually far more humane and less stressful on the animals.

Sales data driven product comparison reviews

Being able to show that one product actually sold more than its competitor is a fairly powerful piece of data to share with potential buyers - and it's easy to do.

Here's a sales graph comparing three best-selling books using data from RT500:

Product sales comparison graph for best selling books

By tracking lots of different products you could build up a brilliant site full of interesting comparison reviews, including the extra dimension of added sales graphs and analytics, to help readers choose which product to buy.

It would be easy to make money with Amazon affiliate links to the reviewed products.

Combined gym and dating app

Combine a common activity, like going to the gym, with a dating app so that people can take small personal training classes together and meet interesting new people at the same time.

Create an app that combines gym classes with dating. Pic by Jeffrey

The app could let you specify the type of class you're interested in, along with the type of person, to match both at the same time. The next time you go to gym class it could be with the love of your life.

What's nice is that the "date" is low stress because you are both doing exercise, so if you don't hit it off at least you can still get fit.

Train drug and disease sniffing rats

Becoming a rat trainer is probably not something that every little girl or boy dreams of. But, if you're good with animals then rats might just be your ticket to the big time.

Rats can be trained to detect disease

Rats are extremely intelligent and have an incredible sense of smell. This means that, like dogs, they can be trained to detect signs of disease, drugs, explosives, and other toxins and chemicals. But, they require far less investment per trained animal compared to dogs, meaning that there is opportunity.

Train your rats to detect TB (and possibly cancer) and lease them to hospitals. Train 'em to smell drugs and lease them to port and air authorities.

Upcycle cardboard into 'cats love boxes' toy

Cats love boxes. We all know this. Almost any cat lover will tell you that the expensive scratching posts they bought for their cats were duly ignored in favor of sitting in the packaging it came in.

Packaging contributes a huge amount of waste material from landfills, so why not put together a hamper of different cardboard box sizes and sell this as a cat toy.

Not only will you save tonnes of waste each year, but you'll provide a cheap, hilarious toy for cats and their owners to enjoy together. Not to mention all the funny YouTube videos you could use as marketing for your products.

Inflatable hammocks

There's an awesome new design out of the Netherlands that lets you quickly fill up a bag with air, tie it at one end and, hey presto, you have a comfy place to lie around and hang out with friends.

This is so convenient and user friendly that people are going to want it for everything from concerts, to hanging around at varsity, to trips to the beach.

While LamZak has pioneered it, there's no reason you can't get your own start locally and capture a bit of market share. Sell your products online as it folds up into a compact, lightweight bag that is cheap to ship.

Cancel unwanted subscriptions app

How many of us have joined a gym, eventually stopped going, but continued to pay the subscription fee for months, if not years?

I've done it, and there are millions of people out there who are wasting money on unwanted subscriptions every day. That's a big market for a clever little app that scans your bank bills, finds monthly subscriptions or direct debits, and cancels them (if they prove to be unwanted).

Unfortunately, you've already got competition in the form of Truebill:

App that cancels unwanted subscription bills

But, there's room for more than one fish in this sea. Pity I only found this now. It would have saved me a packet on gym, cable, and other bills that went unnoticed for way too long.

Rapid response, prison yard protection drones

Prison inmates are using their contacts on the outside to drop drugs and weapons into prison yards, making it almost impossible for guards to stem the flow of illicit goods.

Prison drones delivery

One way to handle this is to fight fire with fire. Create solar powered induction panels that allow rapid response drones to perch on top of guard towers. These can respond quickly to take down drones that fly into prison airspace.

How do they do a takedown?

I would attach fine, strong filaments to the bottom of the defence drones. They fly over the target drone and the filaments get pulled out and twisted into its rotors , bringing it down.

Automatic LED walking/hiking shoes for night-time

Walking or hiking at night can be fraught with peril - especially when camping in the wilderness. Kids can often be scared to move around at night too. Wouldn't it be easier to have shoes that lit up when you put them on, and switch off when you remove 'em?

Slippers for kids have been done (like these unicorns):

Kids slippers that light up in the dark

and adults too:

But what about hiking boots or trail runners? Incorporate existing lighting technology into these and market to serious campers and night time joggers/walkers.

Anti-monster spray bottles for kids

Parents of young kids might really value a "magic spray" that rids their kids' bedrooms of ghouls, ghosts, and monsters. It's a nice little present that could also make bedtime a lot more easy to handle.

Design and sell monster spray for kids

Design funny and entertaining stickers for your spray bottles and make those available directly to parents who want to make their own home-made monster spray without having to buy the whole bottle.

Do a creative enough job and you could even create a range of "must have monsters" that you can spray for.

Smart, touch-screen mirrors

Wouldn't it be great to be able to keep track of the time while straightening your hair? Or, catch the latest news and sports headlines while in the shower?

The technology to make touch-screen mirrors already exists, but no-one has jumped on that bandwagon. Although, one inventive guy made his own smart mirror prototype using a two-way mirror, display panel, controller and a few other bits and bobs.

Smart mirror with display

While that particular mirror can't be controlled with touch, there's no reason your 2.0 version shouldn't be.

Up-cycle light fixtures

It's amazing how many used products and packaging can be turned into awesome, creatively designed light fixtures. Everything from wine bottles to old bowls can be cut, painted, glued and repurposed into chandeliers, lamp shades and even candle holders.

What's more, these types of light fightings go very well with many types of interior decor - especially industrial and modern looks.

Empty wine bottles repurposed

Source old products, like wine bottles, for free from places that would otherwise have to spend time and energy taking them to the dump. Find creative ways to convert them into beautiful, high quality fittings and sell them online via your own store, or other platforms like Amazon and Etsy.

Custom big game drinks coasters

There are big games almost every day - from super bowl to Ryder cup golf, tennis, rugby, soccer, athletics, you name it. Big sporting events are big bucks for pubs and bars, so why not help them make the most of it?

Design custom drinks coasters that use the big game to get patrons involved. You could have coasters that enforce a drink penalty if a certain player fumbles, and allows a drink nomination if they score. Something like this (but on coasters):

Drinking game coasters for sporting events

Build relationships with bars and pubs and they'll be ordering stacks of custom coasters before each big game because they know it makes for great entertainment - and bigger profits.

Sell floating house plants and bonsai

How awesome would it be to have a bonsai slowly rotating as it floats gracefully above it's bowl? Sounds like science fiction? It's actually super easy to do and looks very striking:

Design some tasteful magnetic bonsai bowls. Wrap the root mass of the tree in a metallic cover and make sure you get the weights and balance right (this is the tricky part), so you get something like this:

Design and sell floating plants & bonsai

Once you have some floating plants, start up a website and sell 'em online, or locally.

Treasure hunt adventure holiday tour operator

There is a growing global demand for adventures out of the ordinary. Set up a tour operator business that takes tourists around all the best attractions in your region, or country. You could offer several holiday packages ranging from backpacker style to five stars - all doing the same epic adventure.

adventure holiday tour operator

To market your new holiday concept, offer a great prize or prizes for the holidaymakers that collect all the clues or solve the puzzle.

Get the local hospitality industry and tourism board to buy into the idea too. Think along the lines of a famous pub putting up a clue (they'd love the extra foot traffic this would bring).

Hidden sculpture candles

The humble candle has been around for quite a long time in its standard form. Sure, there are scented candles and plenty of different shapes, colors and sizes, but the time is right for an update to candle 2.0.

Create boutique candles that reveal a sculpture as they burn down. There's a great example of a dinosaur egg candle that burns down to reveal a baby dinosaur sitting in its egg:

Firebox's dinosaur egg candle

Come up with your own ideas. Be creative. Come in at under $45 per unit cost. Then market and sell 'em via your local stores, and online. This is something that would do great on a platform like Etsy.

Professional skills investor for startups

Across the world there are entrepreneurs with great ideas who don't know how to get to market and build a profitable business. There is a huge demand in the startup space for people with time and the right skills. It could be Web design skills. Marketing skills. Business planning. Operational support. Whatever people need.

Attend local entrepreneur mixers and events and negotiate deals to work with startups to help bring them to market. Unless they're funded, it's unlikely you'll get much of a salary, but you should get an equity share, which will have value if the company succeeds.

Your success will be determined by how well you can identify and back winners.

Online drone repair and maintenance service

Something like 45 000 drones were registered within two days of the Federal Drone Registration site going live. Potentially, another 400 000 more drones would have been sold over the holiday season, 2015 - 2016.

That is a lot of drones that are going to be flown into trees, buildings, power lines, people, and even other drones.

Set up a professional online repair service for drones. Customers can mail their drones to you, have them repaired, and sent back in the post (or potentially delivered back to them via drone - Amazon style).

Solar powered parking lots for city commuters

No one enjoys sitting in traffic jams. What if you could park your car in a secure, shaded lot on the outskirts of town and catch electric shuttles (that run continuously) into work?

Buy a patch of land near a main highway. Set up a solar farm with panels that act as parking lot shade. Use the energy to power a fleet of electric shuttles.

Shopping malls & offices are already using solar parking on a smaller scale:

Companies are powering themselves with solar panels in their car parks

The beauty is that people will spend less on fuel and city parking, and traffic congestion will ease up significantly. Plus, you'll probably get tax and other benefits for reducing emissions and taking cars off the roads.

Sell solar powered air purifiers

Consider the problem of smog:

Cities are now commonly engulfed in smog

Luckily, all you need in order to take a lot of harmful stuff out of air is to suck it through water. This could be powered by wind or solar (on the roof), before being fed into the building's air system. It would also be a great way to combat pollution in cities.

People in countries like China are already prepared to pay $20 for a bottle of fresh Canadian air, so there is a "clean air" market:

Vitality Air is selling bottled fresh air to China

Loading icons ad agency

Advertisers are hungry for decent exposure and there is something we look at every single day that is just begging for a paid ad makeover - the loading bar.

Regardless of whether you are waiting for a game to load, or a piece of software to install, it is possible to animate that loading bar, to show something more interesting. Imagine a frosty cold glass of your favourite beverage filling up, instead of a blue line:

Make deals with brands to 'sponsor' games/software developers in return for loading bar animation ads that show each time it loads. Take a percentage commission for putting deals together.

Robotic sports coaches & trainers

Robots are getting better and better at doing human tasks. In fact, there is already a robot that will beat you at rock-paper-scissors 100% of the time:

But, that's not all they can do.

They can now play sports, and they're getting pretty good at it. We're nearly at the point where we could use existing technologies to provide some serious training partners for professional sports people.

Table tennis (ping pong) is a great example:

Robotic ping pong players could train tomorrows atheletes

Hip, stylish accessories for shoes

People spend a lot of money pimping out their rides. Why should shoes be any different? After all, shoes are a big part of any fashion statement.

Design and sell a range of hip accessories that can change the look and feel of a single pair of shoes. This will mean people can dress up or down but only spend big bucks on a single pair of nice shoes.

You can do everything from clip in flowers, to lace in wings, to stick on decals, to outrageous bling:

Pom pom accessories on shoes. Pic by cleob.com

There's lots of money to be made by starting the newest fashion craze. Have fun. Be creative.

Caffeinated snacks

Everyone loves a good cup of coffee to wake them up in the morning (generally before having to speak to anyone at the office). But why should coffee be the sole provider of pep?

Think about other common, household food and snacks that might benefit from a bit of extra zing. There's a company called Steem doing caffeinted peanut butter, for example:

Steem makes caffeinated peanut butter

Start an online store and sell a range of foodstuffs that come with a bit of added caffeine, so that people's lunchtime sandwich can also be their lunchtime pick-me-up.

New life skills app for kids

Kids are super comfortable with mobile devices, which makes tablets and smartphones a great medium to impart valuable skills.

Since most apps focus on education related topics like learning to read and write, why not make an app that offers fun eLearning content to teach kids valuable life skills? It could be anything, from learning to tie their shoe laces, to understanding weather, looking both ways before crossing a street, or knowing about dangerous or poisonous wildlife.

Teaching kids important life lessons might help them avoid potentially serious situations. Or hilarious ones, like this:

'Twisted' store for millenials

People, in particular younger generations, are looking for something different and unique that speaks to their particular lifestyles and sense of humour.

There are stacks and stacks of traditional products that could be "twisted" to appeal to a quirky new generation. Don't believe me? Check out this Zombie apocalypse garden gnome:

A good way to find or create new products would be to follow trends on sites like 9gag. Get it right and you could enjoy thousands of these:

Popular culture for great products - 'Shut up and take my money'

Kidpreneur classes

Start afternoon or early evening classes in your neighborhood that caters to kids/teens and teaches them about running their own business. Offer them a fun and useful learning experience and parents will love it (not least because you are taking the kids off their hands for a while).

Many leading entrepreneurs think we should be doing this in schools, but you can get ahead of the curve by starting after-school classes now. Cameron Herold gave a TED talk on this very topic:

Appified pub quiz masters

Lots of local pubs and bars in your area may want to organize quiz nights to keep the locals entertained and coming back for more. But quizzes only work with interesting questions and great organization.

Fortunately, that's quick and easy to do these days because there are some fantastic apps available to manage quiz evenings - like the one shown in this video:

Get a couple of friends together. Practice your quizmaster skills, and then drive around town organizing quiz evenings. Patrons can pay a small entry fee that goes to you, and bar owners get the benefit of more paying customers.

Corporate Santa

Companies are always looking for great things to do at their end of year functions. Each year there is a swelling demand for fun activities and events to both entertain and build morale.

Train up a bunch of awesome Santa's, complete with elves, and get them to hand out free presents to staff. But it doesn't have to stop there...

Get other companies to sponsor free gifts. This could act as marketing for them (i.e. stationary companies could give free pens and pencils). Offer a range of gift packages that companies can choose from to give to their staff.

Then expand into other events. Birthday parties. Bachelor and hen parties. Valentine's days. Pretty soon you'll be operating every day of the year.

Sheepdog drone

Check out how this farmer uses Shep, the world's first drone sheepdog:

But are sheepdog's the only thing drones could be used for? Absolutely not.

How great would it be to have a drone scarecrow. Instead of being stationary, silent and ineffective your drone could periodically leap into action and make a noise and flash some lights before settling down onto it's induction charging platform. What about scaring birds off runways using drones that look like eagles or other predators?

Use your imagination to come up with cool new uses, buy some drones, give them the functionality they need and go market 'em.

Foodie facilitator

There's a strong trend towards healthier eating and living these days, with consumers becoming more concious about ensuring their food is healthy.

But, it's hard to exert any control over what goes on 'behind the scenes' before the food arrives at your local grocery store.

That's a gap you can exploit.

Set up a website that acts as a marketplace to buy fresh produce direct from the farmers who supply your city. Cut out the middle man and get townies to explore and choose their favourite farms (I know I'd buy at a farm like this):

Townies direct to the farm. Pic by Michael Patterson

Plus, farmers will love it because it gives them an exciting new channel to sell their produce.

Online media networking pro

Small businesses are beginning to feel squeezed out of free organic search traffic, as Google funnels conversions away for its own profit.

Because organic search revenue is declining, many entrepreneurs have started migrating back to more traditional outreach methods - nurturing relationships with influencers and the media.

Now is a great time to ride a growing wave of demand for contacts and connections in online media and publishing. Set up an online media relations agency that helps small businesses build relationships with the journalists and bloggers who can help build their brand and get valuable exposure.

You'll be far more popular than the marketing automation tools that offer cool features, but often fail to build meaningful human to human relationships.

Lifestyle technology consultant

Do you love gadgets, science and technology? Do you spend hours looking at the latest tech innovations and how they can improve our lives? If the answer is yes, then you might have what it takes to help people choose the best devices to suit their lifestyles.

Help people modernize their homes with connected devices, go off-grid with solar and wind power, recharge their devices by converting high frequency radio waves that are all around us, and much more.

Combine your love of technology with a profitable consulting practice and make a cut on the gadgets and technology you sell direct to your clients.

Twitter direct seller

Do you have a following on Twitter? Do you have access to cool, unique, cheap, or interesting products? If you have something to sell, then you'll be pleased to know that it is now possible to include 'Buy now' buttons directly into tweets.

The great thing is that it is super easy to do with Shopify eCommerce website builder. Any product listed on your store, that you tweet about, will automatically come with a Buy now button that makes it easy for followers to purchase directly from Twitter.

So, if the exciting world of eCommerce is calling, then lead the pack by becoming one of the world's first Twitter direct sellers.

Coffee recycling

I love a good cup of coffee as much as the next person. Most of us do. And that's why there is so much used coffee available as a reusable material. It's cheap, widely available and plentiful - in fact, some coffee shops will pay you to come and pick it up.

Now, you won't be the first person to recycle coffee into different things. Here' a great idea that's already out there:

Don't like mushrooms? How about using coffee based 3D printing materials?

Real time Twitter deals

It can be difficult to find great specials in a mall without visiting each and every store to see what they have.

Imagine if each of the stores could tweet real time specials to a single account, like @localmall, offering huge deals for a limited time. Customers watching their smartphones could be the first to reach a blowout sale.

Now imagine being the entrepreneur who goes to all the stores and explains how this works. Stores could sign up for free, and tweet to the mall's real-time deals account (which you provide), but subscribe for premier accounts that allow for images, more tweets, promoted tweets, etc.

All you have to do is set up the tweet management system and promote the concept (and give us 5% when you sell for millions ;).

Mobile corporate coffee barista

There are seven of us working in the office here and we go through a lot of coffee. A lot of coffee indeed. We worked out it would be cheaper to hire a barista to serve coffee than to continue buying two or three cups each per day from the nearby cafe.

We've since bought a machine, but really, coffee made by a decent barista is much nicer. Set up shop as a mobile coffee barista, perhaps like this:

You could get office workers to put in their orders ahead of time via an app, and fulfil those orders when you arrive. Then, on to the next office. Come back in the afternoon to give everyone a much needed boost.

Automatic electric car battery refill station

We all know one of the biggest hurdles that electric vehicles have to overcome is the availability of recharge stations, and the time it takes to fully recharge a battery.

Well, that's just stupid. A gas station for electric vehicles should simply swop out an empty battery for a charged one. This would mean car designers have to redesign their vehicles to allow batteries to be plug-n-play.

The battery station could run an automated inspection of the drained battery to ensure it is not damaged before allowing "the transaction". Customers would then essentially rent their car battery and only pay for charge they use.

The batteries would simply be swopped out, charged at the station, and swopped back into another vehicle when needed.

Public device (drone) charging stations

Mobile devices are already here. Unmanned drones are coming. All these devices need to be charged - especially drones - and this can be automated with magnetic induction charging stations.

Why not setup "charging stations" around the city that can charge any type of device in return for an automated payment?

Customers could pay credit into their account and register their devices online. Then, when the drone lands for a recharge (at any point around the city where you placed induction charging platforms), it can be tracked and payment deducted from the customer's balance.

Municipal drone services

Drones are getting a lot of press these days as new and innovative uses come to light. Why not get ahead of the trend by offering drone oriented services to your municipality? Think along the lines of monitoring traffic congestion and other types of transport related research that might otherwise be time-consuming and expensive.

what about crowd control at rallies, concerts and other events? Drones could be fitted with cameras and loudspeakers to help organizers monitor their events and improve crowd safety.

Every day drones are becoming more sophisticated and cheaper, so now is the time find a good supplier, learn how to use and operate the devices, and start marketing.

Baby boomer tech advisor

There are a lot of baby boomers, and many of them are making the leap to utilize new technologies - with varying degrees of success.

But, this is an important demographic with relatively high levels of disposable income who have a problem that you can solve. They need help learning about their new gadgets, the cloud, apps, and all the other trappings of the modern world.

Offer a service that specifically helps this group leverage the latest technology to improve their lives. You might even consider some sort of subscription service that offers on-demand answers to common tech issues.

Appify hard to reach data

Building mobile apps is all the rage, and yes, there is lots and lots of competition in that field - precisely because it is so quick and easy to develop apps these days.

But, you can make difference by creating an app that takes existing data that is either not easy to access, or not widely known, and put it into an app that can really help people. If you can get your hands on useful info, then your app could be a huge success.

Think along the lines of an app that tells people where traffic is congested, or where the surf is great, or where weather conditions are right for [insert activity] - or whatever you can imagine.

"Good idea" retailer

The Internet is stuffed full of great or innovative ideas from people all around the world. The problem is that most of these ideas never get turned into a great product and sold for profit.

Take a look at how to crack a nut with a spring:

It's cool idea and would make for a nice little gift. Lots of people would buy one, given the chance.

Trawl the Internet for cool product ideas that aren't necessarily widespread, and start selling online via your own store, eBay, online classifieds, or even a physical shop or craft market stall.

Green business consultant

More and more people are waking up to the fact that they can make a positive difference to our environment by making conscientious decisions about which household and office products and services they buy.

Become an advisor to people who want to choose products that have less of an environmental impact - like Web hosting that is powered by renewable energy sources.

Market yourself with plenty of great articles about how green technology is reducing costs and becoming cheaper to use every day.

Boutique event organizer

Organize a semi-regular up-scale event showcasing local foods, wines and scenic places to people who want a unique experience. Think along the lines of setting up a huge banquet table under the shade of a tree on a local farm and providing a fantastic outdoor wine & dinner event for up to, say, 100 people at a time.

A great example is Outlandish kitchen:

Boutique culinary events in Cape Town

Change each event to offer something new and build relationships with the people who attend so that it becomes an occasion they look forward to. Do a good job and you'll quickly grow a loyal following who are prepared to pay a premium for the experience you offer.

International 'feel at home' store

Most western countries have fairly diverse and cosmopolitan cities that attract workers and visitors from all over the world.

Many of these highly skilled, highly paid professionals long for things (mainly comfort foods) from their home countries.

A good example is the large South African community living in London (most of whom work in finance and accounting - highly lucrative positions) who love biltong (a type of jerky):

Start an online store and market 'feel at home' products directly to foreign citizens living in your town, region or state.

Affiliate based service provider

Almost every modern business, no matter what industry it is in, has a specific set of requirements that can be met using a variety of online technologies - in particular, online and cloud based services.

If you have experience in accounting/book-keeping, for example, you might set up a service that helps other businesses integrate their accounts with one of the leading cloud based accounting solutions, like Quickbooks online.

There are many different types of services you could offer, depending on your experience. All you need do is find a good affiliate marketer in your niche.

And, instead of charging high fees for the work you do, undercut competitors by taking commission on affiliate relations instead.

Out of hours online outsourcing

You're probably accustomed to interacting with outsourced support and other call centre type services based in India, right?

But the world is evolving rapidly, and there is a very good chance that (no matter where you live), there is a company somewhere else that needs to employ someone like you.

Many foreign companies desperately need skills and expertise (like English) that are fairly commonplace in the West. Turn this to your advantage by helping them meet the needs of their business while they sleep (during office hours, your time).

The hardest part about this is approaching new companies and convincing them to take you on. But, as soon as you have a few contracts, there's plenty of room to grow by employing a few people to work with you.

Local events app

Create an app that allows people to find out what dining, entertainment and fun events are on in their city or town.

For this to work you would need to build relationships with local nightclubs, restaurants, theatres, and any other local hospitality based businesses.

Once there are enough people using your app, you can start charging companies for exposure on your platform, and use franchise agreements to spread to other towns and cities. Be careful, apps like Gravy are already growing fast in this niche:

Gravy is a local events app

Hot towel shave barbershop

For most men, getting a haircut is a grudge purchase - a regular imposition that we are all subjected to in order to stay looking professional (or stylishly ungroomed, whatever).

The point is that there is a definite gap in the market for a haircut combined with a relaxing, old time hot towel shave.

Incorporating a hot towel shave turns an inconvenience into a relaxing experience. I know, I recently tried one and am an immediate convert.

Here's your chance to offer a great service that keeps men coming back every 4 - 6 weeks.

"Free pets" pet store

I got a tiny djungarian hamster as a present from my girlfriend. She got it for me because the pet store owner gave it to her for free, because he had too many.

But she had to pay for the cage, complete with slide, see-saw and en-suite running ball, plus food and a few other things.

It cost next to nothing to have plenty of pets for sale because small fluffy animals tend to breed very quickly, and eat super cheap seed.

So market yourself as a "free pet store" that gives pets away for free, but make money selling customers other necessary items, like cute little cages, feed, nesting material, etc.

Extreme weather support specialist

In general, the weather is becoming more violent and more unpredictable as global warming changes things.

The U.S. is currently experiencing mind-numbing cold, while Australia burns up.

There is going to be an ever increasing demand for advice and support for people suffering as a result of climatic changes.

Start a consultancy offering advice and support for companies looking to maintain productivity during periods of bad weather, and/or start a blog offering advice and tips on how to deal with extreme hot/cold or dry/wet weather conditions.

New meme promoter

New memes pop onto the scene from time to time as they grab the attention of the big social networks and go viral. A good example is Grumpy cat:

Often, there is a substantial amount of money to be made by capitalizing on the popularity of these memes. And, the people responsible for setting new memes in motion aren't necessarily equipped to generate revenue from their new-found online popularity.

Identify and promote new memes, helping them to go viral and generate profits - taking a performance based cut for your efforts.

Arts & crafts seller

Are you good at making stuff? Are you super creative?

If you have the hankering to make stuff and earn cash selling it, then making and selling homemade arts and crafts could be the right business for you.

The good thing about selling online is that you don't have to be a pro to setup an eCommerce site. In fact, you can startup for free in a few minutes using on the top eCommerce site builders.

And, what's more, you have plenty of online retail channels that help to cast a wide net and reach a big enough audience to make decent profits. Simply integrate your store with online marketplaces like eBay, Etsy, and Amazon.

Holiday blogger

Imagine your job was to go on holiday, take plenty of pics and clips, and write about all the great experiences you have... and get paid to do it.

Being a professional holidaymaker is not as far-fetched as it might sound. The travel and tourism industry is huge, and there is plenty of room for top-notch bloggers to write about their travels.

Johnny Ward earns millions while travelling:

Take plenty of photos and video clips to share socially, and build up your followers. Make money by promoting the tips, travel packages, and other tourism related products and services you encounter along the way.

Online wedding services

The wedding industry is huge, and many younger couples use the Internet to locate and choose wedding related products and services.

There are in excess of 1.2 million monthly searches for wedding dresses, with 663 000 coming from the United States alone.

If you're not into fashion, what about Web development? You could offer quick and easy websites for engaged couples to manage their wedding, post photos, and share their special day with the world.

Maybe Web design is not your thing. How about designing wedding invites instead? There are over 246 000 monthly searches for wedding invitations in the U.S alone.

Fiverr Gig master

You've heard of Fiverr, right? It's an online community of people who offer to do stuff for $5.

Now, it might seem like there is very little money to be made from doing things for $5, and most of what's on offer there probably isn't worth even that.

But, Fiverr is an excellent place to market yourself for free! Especially if you can set up a situation in which you get people using something that is going to make you more money down the line.

For example, you could offer your expert advice on something for $5, and use this opportunity to market your professional services at the normal rate.

One meal specialty kitchen

Is there one meal that you make better than anyone else in the whole world - a meal so tasty that long lost relatives come to visit just for a taste?

Open up a kitchen that only serves that one meal so that people with a hankering for that signature dish:

This idea already works in my home town with a local restaurant that only serves steak and chips (with a selection of drinks, of course). The thing is, it's the best in town; so it's always full.

Start gently by selling your meal at local markets, and work your way up to a restaurant. Create a website that allows people to order your food online too.

Pay per performance online marketer

There isn't a company created that doesn't want new customers, higher conversion rates, or higher profits per conversion at one point or another.

In the online world, many people miss out on lots of revenue because they aren't necessarily familiar with the various strategies to monetize Website traffic.

Start a consultancy company that identifies promising sites that are generating traffic but clearly not montetizing it correctly.

Offer to use your expertise to start earning them more money in return for a share of the profits. Be careful though. Blogs and sites that are generating plenty of traffic may be very upset if you inadvertently cause a Google penalty that leads to a drop in Web traffic.

Make sure you know what you're doing!

Small business operations support

There are lots of startups & SMEs in your city or town, right?

Many of them are working inefficiently, or being distracted by administrative or operational chores that are preventing them focusing on growth.

Set up a company that helps other people streamline their operations by using the best and latest technologies. Provide consulting and advice, and go onto their premises to show staff how to use new tools, products and services.

Potentially, there are multiple revenue streams because you could take a cut on product and services sales, earn consulting revenue, or even offer administrative support services on a subscription basis.

Online translation service

If you are bilingual (or even a polyglot), then you can offer online translation services for businesses that need to translate their content into multiple languages.

In particular, Google has said that for SEO purposes translations should not be automated because they do not produce content of the same quality a native human speaker could.

This means that there will be a strengthening demand for good translators to be able to accurately translate content between languages in a human readable manner.

Build up a regular client base to ensure on-going work.

Christian singles community

There is a large demand for Christian singles services online - especially in the U.S.

Help people of similar beliefs and faith find each other through an online community website that encourages interaction through Christian oriented activities.

Like all community based websites, this one will take a bit of time to find its target audience. Be prepared to market and promote aggressively, and be flexible and open to change as you go.

Make money through advertising, paid events, and premium community memberships/services.

Monthly beauty and cosmetics gift box

Ladies love trying out the latest beauty products, from mascara and eyeliner to shampoos, conditioners and fragrances - so why not deliver them direct?

Set up a monthly subscription service that delivers an exciting new selection of beauty and cosmetics products each month at low cost.

Arrange discounts on beauty products with leading brands (who are generally happy for the marketing), so that the cost of your gift box remains low.

Sign up lots of people online (and to your email marketing list) and make money advertising new products, and up-selling.

Local adventure tour guide

What great activities and facilities are available in and around your home town? Is there hiking, kayaking, white water rafting, zorbing, roller coasters, snow boarding, etc?

Research and identify all the fun, healthy and active adventure type activities that are available in your region and secure deals and discounts to pass on to your customers.

Market yourself online with plenty of great content - blog posts, photos, video clips.

Be aware that it is likely you will need some sort of tour guide qualification, licencing, and permits.

Healthy meals on wheels

With many people unable to devote as much time to cooking healthy, delicious meals as they would like, there is a gap in the market for a home-cooked, healthy, family food delivery service.

Create weekly menus for customers looking to eat healthy, balanced dinners (and possibly lunches, if there's a market).

Market yourself online with delicious recipes and dietary tips, but be sure to target a local market to ensure that plenty of potential customers find your site, and start ordering meals.

Get it right, and there is real potential to grow through franchising.

Mobile personal trainer

If you're knowledgeable about training, physical fitness, health and wellness, then you can make money by training people at their homes or places of work.

Carry your workout equipment in the trunk of your car, and sell "personalized training plans from the comfort of your own home". Here are some insane pushups you can share with hardcore clients:

In order to make this idea profitable, you are going to have to charge higher rates than local gyms. But, if you can sell your service on better quality training, privacy, and convenience, you will build up a loyal client base.

Comprehensive "Act of dog" family pet consultant

Ok, so Act of Dog is just a cool name for this type of business - a comprehensive consultant and service provider for families with dogs, or wanting to buy dogs.

Get in on the ground floor by advising people on the right breed for their properties and family life. Then sell them all the products they need to care for their pet (i.e. dog food, dog bed, bowls, supplements, etc).

Provide a lodging service so that they can go away on holiday happy in the knowledge that their pet is well looked after - so this doesn't happen:

Help people enjoy a beloved family pet from start to finish!

Local event cleanup service

Does your town or city host a lot of events? Are there convention centers, parks, playgrounds, fairgrounds, and other public spaces that need to be tidied up after concerts and conventions?

Start a cleanup service that comes in after an event and restores everything back to its original glory.

Market yourself by making connections with local event organizers and management of venues.

You will need a vehicle, and potentially come specialized cleaning equipment.

Online antiques dealer

If you enjoy spending Sunday afternoons driving around hunting for antique bargains, then you can turn that hobby into a thriving online business.

By identifying potentially valuable antiques and picking them up for cheap, you stand to make a tidy profit by selling them online.

Fill out your product pages with interesting background stories and facts about your items. Use your passion for antiques to turn your site into the go-to place for really interesting stuff - and make a tidy markup in the process.

Run local errands

Many people find it difficult to get their daily chores done around demanding work schedules.

Offer an errand running service for locals, that allows them to pass on tasks via a website so that your team can do them on behalf of the customer.

Simple concept, and easy to set up, but you will need one or more vehicles.

Sell "rescue packages" for new parents

New parents often feel overwhelmed by the addition of a baby to the family, and as the baby grows, so the requirements placed on the household changes.

Offer a service that simplifies the job of parents, by offering great products, delivered each week, to coincide with the changing requirements of the newborn, as it grows.

This is somewhere between an eCommerce and subscriptions based business because parents would sign up for a period (say, 6 months), and have products delivered each week.

Put together a weekly delivery package based on your "growing baby" research, and sell subscriptions online.

Online teacher/trainer

If you are a teacher or trainer in real life, why not take your business online? It's easy to offer real-time online classes using something like Google+ hangouts.

In addition to getting paid for private classes and lessons, you could record and sell the best ones from your website or blog - and of course, YouTube offers a fantastic channel to reach new people.

Here are a bunch of tips from established online learning pros to get you started:

Local pickup and dump service

Many people, especially in big cities, have to pay a lot of money to have their old furniture hauled away and disposed of in the assigned municipal dumps.

But, instead of having this "junk" thrown away, much of it can be sold off as second hand furniture.

The sneaky part is that you haul it away for free or a price lower than they would pay (so the owners are happy because they are saving money), decide what you can sell, and dispose of the rest.

You might not get much for second hand furniture sales, but 100% of it is profit because you were paid to pick it up. Obviously, you will need at least one vehicle to start with.

"Jump the queue" local grocery shopping delivery service

How many people do you know love fighting for parking, paying for parking, trudging round the mall, waiting in queues, and generally wasting time doing their shopping (in between hectic work schedules)?

So why do we all do it?

Offer a local service that allows people to give you their grocery shopping list in the morning and specify a time for it to be ready. They can then pick it up from outside the mall as they drive past.

All you need is an online store to take payments in advance each month to act as credit against their grocery bills. But beware, there will soon be significant robotic competition:

Sell eLearning products online

eLearning is a growing industry. More and more people are looking for online training and courses, and more and more established education organizations are offering their courses online.

Now is the time to get on board and capture some of the eLearning market share as trust and demand in this industry is growing. Already there are startups like codecademy that are doing great things:

In particular, if you can create high quality eLearning content in an industry or niche that does not yet have a lot of competition, you stand a good chance of getting established quickly.

Professional webinar host

Many companies, as a strategy to increase competitiveness, invest in seminars and training to help their employees learn new skills or work more efficiently.

If you have a profession, or a skill, offer online webinars and events to help train people online.

Thanks to technology, setting up online webinars no longer requires much, if any, technical skills, so you are free to concentrate on promoting and running webinars using a blog, traditional and social media marketing.

Niche product dropshipper

If you think you've got what it takes to market and sell products online, but don't have a product to sell, then an online store that uses drop-shipping is perfect.

There are a number of drop-shipping services that allow you to pick out products from their inventory list.

It's easy to build an online store using hosted shopping cart software, and the drop shipper handles fulfillment of your online orders. Simple!

Learn more about drop shipping at how to start a drop-shipping eCommerce store.

Web hosting services affiliate marketer

A lot of individuals, startups, and other organizations need a good Web hosting service that meets their requirements in a cost effective way.

The problem is that there are so many services out there all claiming to be the best, that is can be difficult to make a choice.

There are other considerations too - cloud hosting, green hosting, hosted website builders, and so on.

Offer very simple (for dummies) advice that helps people choose the right service, and make money with affiliate relationships. There is a lot of competition in this niche, but SME Pals manages to dominate search results with the article entitled the best Web hosting services.

Online talkshow host

Becoming the star of your very own talkshow is really easy - from a technical point of view. You don't need any technical skills to record and post clips to your blog and YouTube channel.

The hard part is finding something that is entertaining, and presenting it in a way that attracts and engages people.

If you have a knack for verbal and visual communications, then there is a lot of money to be made with a blog + YouTube channel. PewDiePie has racked up more than 10 billion views:

Current affairs satirist or commentator

Current affairs are always on everybody's minds. Whether it is a new political blunder, a celebrity meltdown, an environmental disaster, or something else noteworthy, you can share a humorous or insightful opinion.

If you have a unique perspective on the world, or can write with humor, you will be able to grow a loyal following of readers, like John Oliver:

While there is a lot of competition with news, blogs and other media, there is also a really large audience, and provided you are able to be unique in some way, you will eventually capture enough traffic to make money selling ads.

Advice columnist for a niche audience

One of the best ways to build up a loyal community of readers, fans, and followers, is to give them the advice and information they need to solve problems.

If you have expertise and training in virtually any given field (it could be anything from psychiatry to plumbing), you can start an online community focused around solving problems in that niche.

Build up plenty of great content to start attracting new readers and community members with organic search traffic, and then monetize with professional consulting or premium memberships.

Sell personalized gifts online

The market for personalized gifts is growing strongly. More and more people are looking for gifts that are meaningful in the context of their relationship.

Corporate gifts are an excellent segment to try and capture in this niche, because companies that give gifts may want them personalized and branded.

Offering personalized gifts is also a good way to distinguish your online store from the large, established eCommerce sites like Amazon.

Sell homemade food stuffs

Did your grandmother pass down a family recipe for jam? Did your dinner experiments at university result in one fantastic food concoction that everyone loves?

If you can make a preserve or other food stuff with a reasonable shelf-life, start selling it online using an eCommerce store. Here's a great recipe for making hot sauce to get you started:

Start off local, and promote yourself by attending local markets and fairs. Online orders will start as a trickle and grow to a flood.

Cloud technology review site

Businesses, big and small, or moving over to the cloud. Many top software solutions providers now offer their software as an online cloud based service.

There is a growing demand for high quality information and advice on cloud technology, and a growing industry that is marketing aggressively.

Capitalize on the rising demand for information about the cloud by blogging about applications for business, and use affiliate relationships to monetize your content.

Hyper local food delivery service

Lots of people who work in the city, or in large office blocks, might feel like getting their meal delivered to their place of work - or possibly, right to their desk.

Set up an online store that allows people to order their lunch online in the morning and specific a delivery time.

Keep your service focused on a small area so that your delivery team can get all the orders out on time.

It might be a good idea to specify certain "pick up" points that people can take a short walk from their office to pick up their lunch.

Sell men's socks online

Men hate being dragged around shopping malls by their wife or girlfriend. In fact, buying clothing is often a grudge purchase for guys.

In particular, things like socks, which no-one really gets to see anyway, are particularly annoying to make a trip to the store for. So, make it super easy for guys to get the socks (and possibly other undergarments) they need without having to make a special trip.

Having a hyper-niche online store selling only one type of product is also an advantage when it comes to SEO and driving valuable organic search traffic because you can focus your content nicely.

Local restaurant review blog

If you love eating out and trying new places, then why not turn it into a small business while you're at it? Becoming a well known review blog of local restaurants puts you in a strong position to generate revenue from restaurants in your area.

Make sure you take plenty of great pics of your food and the establishments you visit so that your blog gives a good sense of what people can expect.

Be patient too. It will take a bit of time before you are an established authority in this niche. A good example is Atlanta Eats. Here's a review of one of their local pizza places (looks delicious):

"Avoid traffic jams" lifestyle services

Offer a range of after-work classes, courses and entertainment for people working in the city. This gives them the opportunity to do something fun, or learn something useful instead of sitting in a traffic jam, trying to get home.

Once class is over, so is the worst of the evening traffic, and customers can get home quickly - saving on petrol, and saving the environment.

Your local municipality will probably love to get on board with this idea as it would alleviate congestion on the roads during peak traffic hours.