Looking for a few ideas to help you start your own business this year?
Here are 10 that I just came up with. Feel free to send me a “thank you” check if one of them helps you start an epic business in the coming months!
1. Boot Camp Business
Boot camps are super popular right now. Starting one couldn’t be any easier either. People want a place they can go and escape from their life while getting tortured to death physically for an hour or three. Consider the current CrossFit movement and how many studios are out there offering boot camps for people looking to get in shape. Just giving people a place to go and have someone tell them what to do and push them to their limits can offer you a great income, potentially a franchising opportunity if you run your business the right way.
2. Sport’s Equipment Cleaning
There are tons of golf courses in my area, and I’m sure yours too. I have a friend who advertises his business in classifieds and also has agreements with local golf courses for cleaning golf clubs, balls, bags, and other stuff that serious golfers use. In most cases, your demographic here will be people with a reasonable amount of disposable income who don’t want to deal with the hassle of cleaning their stuff. Also consider looking into cleaning and maintenance of equipment used in hockey, football, soccer, and others. Much of the equipment used, such as protective pads, aren’t easy to clean for someone with nothing more than a washing machine in their home.
3. MMA Club
You don’t necessarily need experience in MMA to start a club where people can join, learn, and train. If you have a few bucks for a facility and money to spend on essential MMA equipment, almost anyone can make this idea work. This is a really great idea for small towners looking for a profitable business idea.
4. Guided Fitness Nature Tours
People love to get out in nature, learn, and have fun while getting in some much needed exercise. There are so many things to consider here. For instance, there’s a business in my area that offers people instruction in climbing (rather large) trees safely. What a great workout climbing trees would be for anyone, right? There are plenty of other things to consider, like hiking, guided mountain bike, and mountain climbing — just to name a few.
5. Health Consultant for Businesses
It’s necessary for businesses of all kinds to work to reduce sick days and reduce their overall healthcare related costs. If you have any experience whatsoever in health and wellness issues of any kind, businesses big and small will hire your services to assess, educate, and help get their employees in shape. The only tough part here is putting yourself out there and propositioning potential clients to gain their business. Learn more here about starting a consulting business of your own.
6. One-on-One Personal Training
You don’t need to get hired by a gym in your area to become a personal trainer. ACE are considered tops for online certifications, but you’ll find many cheaper options in your local area and they usually only take two days. Offer specialized strength training or high intensity fat loss exercise routines to your clients. Or, specialize if you have experience with things like the Ironman competition or Tough Mudder — offer to get newbies who’re interested in shape for these and other competitions.
7. Sport Photography
You will need to know a thing or two about taking pictures with a real camera to do this. Believe it or not, serious athletes, sports organizations, and parents don’t see the value in capturing their most poignant sport’s memories with a straight shot 8 – 16 megapixel camera mounted on the back of an iPhone. If you have the gear and the desire, put out ads in your local classifieds and get started.
8. Themed Playground/Babysitting Service for Children
Parents don’t want to pay money for their children to sit around and watch television. Give them a cool playground-type place to take their kids for an hour or two, or start a babysitting service where they can escape into a different world while getting lots of sugar-burning exercise at the same time. If you have a home and follow local laws, this doesn’t have to cost a fortune to start. Think bouncy gyms, interactive mazes, etc.
9. Sport’s Apparel Company
This is by no means a strength of mine, but there’s lots of knowledge out there for those of you who’re interested. Start local with some amateur teams, then take is as far as you can. There’s lots of information out there that needs to be absorbed first, as clothing in general is very tenuous to break into and maintain, but if the passion’s there — go for it!
Read these if you’re interested:
Start a Sport Clothing Business
7 Steps to Success for Clothing Industry Startups
10. (Unique) Fitness Trend Instruction
Are you, or is someone you know, interested in a current trend shaping to explode in the coming months? Acroyoga is a great example of a trend that’s been taking YouTube and the world by storm in the last decade and, with guys like Tim Ferriss promoting its practise to his 4-hour following, there’s never been a better time to become certified and open your own studio or mobile instruction service. I’m not recommending Acroyoga specifically, just trying to illustrate that there are turn-key solutions for people wanting to start a business by capitalizing on current trends.
Have any great and unique sport (or other) related business ideas to share?
Feel free to leave a comment, if you dare to share them!
Main Image Credit: Apps for Europe/Flickr