Anyone doing anything interesting offline?

D

dsiomtw

New member
Mar 12, 2007
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End of the rainbow
I'm getting sick of the Internet, and as an extremely active person and competitive athlete I really, REALLY hate sitting in front of the computer as much as I do and the way it wrecks your body.

I'd love to get involved with some kind of offline business, and while I'm just starting to look around, I haven't come across anything interesting yet. Maybe I just need more time to get my mind around the capital requirements and the (compared to what I'm used to) risk/reward imbalances...

Is anyone involved in any great "offline" businesses?

Aside from the Internet stuff, which I've been doing since '98, the only other thing I've ever really done is dabbled in some real estate here and there. (Have done flips, rehabs and rentals)
 


Bro, go lift.

I see these things everywhere.

New-Mexico-solar-power-project-1-cropped.jpg


And I've worked in renewable energy so I know the market a little bit. You basically bid into the grid every day with what your estimated to generate based on weather and equipment conditions. Then you get paid, plus you get these green certificate things, I don't remember much more about... Although, I worked in wind energy so it was a bit different. It makes me curious about it at least, I know that the government is making the ISO's (Utilities) take a certain amount of clean energy into the grid per year.

inb4 tree hugger boy
 
I feel the same way in respect sitting on my ass so much. I do crossfit 3-4 times per week, and play in 2 softball leagues, but I still spend the majority of my time sitting on my ass.

I was recently thinking about starting up a lawn service just a couple days a week to get outside and move around. I used to own a lawn service with about 45 accounts, but I lost interest when I started making a full time income online. Figured I could get myself around 10-20 accounts, and just work on Thursdays and Friday. Start up is pretty minimal and it wouldn't be hard to get the accounts.
 
Buy a shit house do it up sell for profit. I know almost nothing about flipping houses or home renovation, but I do watch homes under the hammer every morning so if you have any queries on whether you should remove that chimney breast hit a nigga up.
 
I don't know why anyone that can make money online would want to start an offline business. The margins & potential market reach are (mostly) incomparable.. I know all too many "online" people who have tried to make a jump to offline stuff and got their asses handed to them.

Just delegate more of your online work and free up more of your own time to do the out doors / active stuff you enjoy doing.
 
mituozo said:
I don't know why anyone that can make money online would want to start an offline business. The margins & potential market reach are (mostly) incomparable..
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I can think of lots of reasons. I'm sure you could too if you tried. Margins and market reach aren't the only things that are important in a business, and they certainly didn't stop any of the millions of people that made millions and billions offline before the Internet.

I know all too many "online" people who have tried to make a jump to offline stuff and got their asses handed to them.
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No doubt. I know some too. It can happen to almost anyone regardless of where they first find success though. Success tends to lead to confidence, sometimes overconfidence, and worse, arrogance.

Just delegate more of your online work and free up more of your own time to do the out doors / active stuff you enjoy doing.
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I've already done all that, and spend more time playing than I do working. The problem is I still spend 20-25 hours a week in front of a computer, which I don't really enjoy any more.

If I'm being honest, I don't think I ever really did.

I've realized I don't really even like "marketing". I like creating and building cool stuff, but the rest not so much. It's always just been about the money, which is no longer as motivating of a factor as it used to be.
 
im getting into flipping tractors and cars, no joke.

you can find this shit cheap as fuck everywhere and it only takes a little bit to do them up right and put them up for sale.

going to move into homes soon myself
 
jstover77 said:
I feel the same way in respect sitting on my ass so much. I do crossfit 3-4 times per week, and play in 2 softball leagues, but I still spend the majority of my time sitting on my ass.

I was recently thinking about starting up a lawn service just a couple days a week to get outside and move around. I used to own a lawn service with about 45 accounts, but I lost interest when I started making a full time income online. Figured I could get myself around 10-20 accounts, and just work on Thursdays and Friday. Start up is pretty minimal and it wouldn't be hard to get the accounts.
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Feel exactly the same way - am helping friend start a moving business so I can help X days a week whenever the feel arises. But lawn care sounds interesting too.
 
Andrew Scherer said:
OK, I heard about cars, but tractors? How do you find them for sale, craigslist? I can't imagine theres a ton of people offloading tractors.
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medicalhumor said:
In Manhattan, probably not, but Kentucky, I'm sure there are plenty.
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This, all over the south and midwest.

Take a look in CL for one of these states like Kentucky in the Louisville section, always tractors for sale. They are also avail up north too, but you got to be in non city sections of CL ( like rural NY state ). I am just going to see what I can grab within 60 miles of my house for both cars and tractors and see what I can get into. Im only looking to do the older, simpler things ( like 50-70's autos or later years exports, older tractors where parts are easy to get, etc )


jstover77 said:
I feel the same way in respect sitting on my ass so much. I do crossfit 3-4 times per week, and play in 2 softball leagues, but I still spend the majority of my time sitting on my ass.

I was recently thinking about starting up a lawn service just a couple days a week to get outside and move around. I used to own a lawn service with about 45 accounts, but I lost interest when I started making a full time income online. Figured I could get myself around 10-20 accounts, and just work on Thursdays and Friday. Start up is pretty minimal and it wouldn't be hard to get the accounts.
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This is actually how I got into thinking about flipping tractors, by thinking I might do lawn service locally with like 10-15 commercial accounts in my area on the weekends since now that my kids are getting older I want to show them how to "make money" not work for someone else "working for money". I figured lawn service would be awesome for them and I could get into flipping tractors as well.
 
Also, not just farm tractors, but garden and lawn.

Some people spend big money in pulling these ( people with a $20k habit ).

GardenPull.jpg


Garden_Tractor_Pull_2_by_CrazyDelmar.jpg
 
and there are a ton of collectors for old Cub Cadets, John Deere, IH's, and more willing to pay top dollar for them.

Kinda like old mustang and nova guys in the auto world. These guys in tractors are untapped.
 
I'm staying online. I've found a nice way to get money.

it goes as follows.

work with a programmer who has stolen someone else's scripts and lists then make a BST out of it.

win win to be fair. The down side is that most people who have a brain will think I'm a cunt.
 
We had a yard sale today. I cleaned up. Like a boss.

Offline is tough because it limits your mobility. The barriers are also high. It's usually much further behind tech, which is not a good place to be in a world that is moving increasingly faster.

You've also usually got to deal with a lot more people face to face, either employees, suppliers and customers. Depending on how you feel about human beings, this can be a big negative.

That said, there are probably 10s of thousands of awesome offline opportunities. Not every opportunity is equal, on or offline.
 
Yeah a friend of a friend I met recently does the car thing. His "niche" is high-end and exotics though - the big BMWs, Benzs, Porsches, Ferraris, etc.

He lives in a decent sized city and said there is always someone out there with one who needs to sell and come up with fast cash for one reason or another. He basically tracks all the high-end for sale listings in his area, and offers every single one of them around 20-25k less than it's worth and says he can be there with the cash in 2 hours or less.

Said he did 12 cars last year part-time. Exactly one a month. Expects to do more this year.

Maybe not the most scalable or valuable business in the world, but it sounds like a fun lifestyle business assuming he's not full of shit. Especially if you like cars.

Don't see why it couldn't be done by anyone in a decent sized city.
 
^^ yeah, thats the thing. If this is something part time or something you enjoy doing on the side, its fun and profitable too.
 
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