60 Business Ideas ($50K+) in Urban Areas

Franchise Swim School (Built Facility)

Build or lease a commercial space and install a custom pool to run a dedicated swim school franchise such as Big Blue or…

$80000-$300000/month

$50K-$150K/year gross revenue

Brewery Tour Bus Service

Run monthly brewery tour routes in craft beer cities like San Diego. Use a unique vehicle (converted bus or trailer bus)…

Modern Branded Laundromat

Open a modern, clean, branded laundromat near existing run-down zombie mats to capture their customer base. Tyler Purcel…

$25000/month

Laundromat Acquisition and Renovation

Buy existing run-down laundromats at a discount, renovate them with modern equipment, rebrand, and dramatically increase…

$20000/month

Commercial Dumpster Cleaning Service

Cleaning commercial dumpsters and compactors for restaurants, gas stations, and other businesses. Charges are significan…

$5000-$15000/month

Urban Vertical Horticulture (Food Desert Solution)

A vertical farming or vertical horticulture business located in urban food deserts -- areas without easy access to super…

$3000-$15000/month

Mobile Seasonal Snow Experience

Portable snow machines mounted on tractor trailers that set up in mall parking lots or similar high-traffic venues durin…

$20000-$50000/month

Rube Goldberg Mini Golf Course

A putt-putt golf course where every hole features elaborate chain-reaction mechanisms triggered by the golf ball, incorp…

$50000-$150000/month

Late-Night Cookie Delivery near College Campuses

Open a cookie shop near a college campus offering fresh-baked cookies with delivery until 4 AM, modeled after Insomnia C…

$15000-$40000/month

Frozen Yogurt Store

Self-serve frozen yogurt shop where customers fill their own cups and pay by weight. Matthew mentioned starting one righ…

$15000-$40000/month

CrossFit Gym

Open a CrossFit affiliate gym with group fitness classes built around high-intensity functional training. Matthew co-fou…

$10000-$30000/month

Machine shop pivoting to enterprise aerospace customers

Own or acquire a small FAA-certified machine shop serving hobbyists and small businesses, then land a large publicly-tra…

$80000+/month

Events business acquisition in a growing market

Acquire an events business that seems bigger than you can afford by building rapport with the seller, being transparent …

$50000+/month

Surgical and medical AR visualization systems

A company called Mediview builds AR systems for surgeons that overlay CT/MRI scans on top of the patient's body during s…

$50000-$200000/month

Print shop rollup via customer list acquisition

Acquire retiring print shops at low multiples (2-2.5x) by only buying their customer lists and recurring accounts, not t…

$50000+/month

Dumpster rental business

Start a dumpster rental company targeting homeowners and small contractors. Purchase dumpsters (~$5,500 each) and a truc…

$10000-$30000/month

Mobile fuel delivery for small business fleets

Provide on-site fuel delivery to small business fleets (construction companies, landscapers, delivery services) that hav…

$35000+/month

Mobile EV charging service

Offer mobile electric vehicle charging by mounting a generator on a truck and driving to customers' locations to charge …

$15000+/month

Modern laundromat in underserved areas

Build brand-new laundromats from scratch in areas with clusters of old 'zombie' laundromats that haven't been updated in…

$65000/month

Airbnb house-hacking duplex

Purchase a duplex, live in one unit while renting the other on Airbnb as a short-term rental. The Airbnb income covers m…

$2000+/month

Scaled Turo fleet business with data-driven market research

Scale a Turo car rental side hustle into a serious business with 5-100 vehicles by doing systematic market research. Run…

$20000+/month

Experiential sandbox coffee shop

Open a coffee shop with a large sandbox in the middle featuring RC excavators and remote control toys where kids (and ad…

$20000-50000/month

Pet cremation business

Start a pet cremation business serving pet owners who want dignified end-of-life services for their animals. The creator…

$10000-30000/month

High-end restaurant chain

Build a chain of high-end restaurants across a regional market like Florida. The creator interviewed a gentleman who suc…

$50000-500000/month

Commercial Parking Garage Pressure Washing

High-ticket sub-niche of pressure washing focused on large commercial parking garages. Jobs can run $50-60K per garage, …

$20000-$50000+/month

Commercial Kitchen Appliance Repair

Acquire or start a commercial kitchen appliance repair company in a growing market. This is an unsexy, service-based bus…

$20000+/month

Acai Bowl Franchise in High-Traffic Mall

Buying a Playa Bowls franchise (acai/pitaya bowl restaurant) and placing it in a high-traffic mall like American Dream i…

$12000+/month

E-Commerce Food Fulfillment and Logistics

Send Eats was a logistics and fulfillment company for e-commerce food brands that grew very fast during COVID. They oper…

$300000+/month

Buying Existing Vending or ATM Routes

Instead of cold calling to build locations from scratch, buy existing vending machine or ATM routes from retiring operat…

Toasted Tours - Shipping Container Wine/Beer Tours

A mobile tour business that takes groups of 40 people on wine or beer sipping tours in a converted shipping container on…

$30000+/month

High-End Gambling Addiction Rehab Facility

Open a high-end, Passages-style rehab facility specifically for sports betting and gambling addiction. With sports betti…

$100000+/month

E-commerce Fulfillment Service for Food Brands

Operate a warehouse and fulfillment service where e-commerce companies that sell food products send their inventory to y…

$200000+/month

Indoor FlowRider Surf Simulator Venue

Open an indoor FlowRider surf simulator entertainment venue. Inflatable machines can be sourced from Chinese manufacture…

$30000+/month

Pizza Bakery with Multi-Truck Fleet

Open a brick-and-mortar bakery that serves as a commissary kitchen and dough production hub to supply multiple pizza foo…

$30000+/month

Luxury Sprinter Van Rental Service

Buy and outfit Mercedes Sprinter vans (~$174K each) with luxury interiors and rent them out at $150-175/hour with CDL dr…

Convention Shuttle Transportation Service

Provide shuttle and greeter services for conventions and corporate groups arriving at hotels. Build relationships with h…

$10000+/month

Luxury Personal Shopper and Chauffeur Service

Combine a luxury sprinter van chauffeur service with a personal shopping concierge. A driver/host accompanies clients to…

Black Car Service in Underserved Cities

Launch a black car or luxury sedan service in cities like Dallas, Baltimore, or Minneapolis where airport-to-hotel dista…

$300K+ net profit per location per year

Modern Laundromat

Open a modern, clean, branded laundromat near existing run-down 'zombie mat' competitors. Offer superior customer servic…

$250,000-$1,000,000/year revenue with 30-40% profit margins

Concrete Leveling Business (Owner-Operator Model)

Buy your own concrete leveling trailer and equipment to perform foam jacking jobs directly. A full trailer setup costs ~…

Party Bus / Transportation Company

Start a party bus company serving weddings and events. One company mentioned grew to 30 buses in 1.5 years, doing 30 eve…

$200K-$1M+/year

Chef-Driven Coffee House

A hybrid restaurant and coffee shop concept combining a sustainable chef-driven food menu with high-quality direct-trade…

$190000+/month

Niche Supply Chain Marketplace for Independent Shops

Build a marketplace and software platform connecting independent local shops with specialty producers and growers, like …

$100000+/month

Moderate to high - rental income plus appreciation

Rental Property Investing

Buying affordable single-family homes and renting them out as a landlord. Started with a $90K home and expanded to multi…

$500K-$2M+ in equity creation within 2-3 years. Monthly cash flow

Apartment Complex Value-Add Investment with Partial Seller Carryback

Buy an undervalued apartment complex using a combination of bank financing and a partial seller carryback (seller note).…

AdvancedOnline$50K+

Hourly Novelty Vehicle Rental Platform

Build a technology platform like Turo but specifically for hourly and half-hour rentals of unique, Instagrammable vehicl…

Millions in annual GMV with 15-25% platform take rate at scale

$20,000,000/year for a mid-size city contract

City Municipal Trash Collection Contract

Win exclusive or non-exclusive contracts with cities and municipalities to handle all residential trash collection. Exam…

$300K-$1M+/year with multiple contracts

Street Sweeping Business

Acquire or start a commercial street sweeping business servicing HOAs, construction sites, and government/county contrac…

Flight Simulator Experience Business

Purchase decommissioned flight simulators (e.g., Blackhawk helicopter simulators) at auction for a fraction of original …

$20,000-$100,000/month

$720K+/year revenue, 8-12% net margins initially, improving over

Street Sweeping Company

Purchase and operate a street sweeping business serving residential HOAs, commercial properties, and construction compan…

$500K-$1M+/year at scale; single large jobs can equal a full mont

Commercial Parking Garage Pressure Washing

Specialize in pressure washing large commercial parking garages, a high-ticket niche within the pressure washing industr…

$7-8M/year top line possible after scaling over several years; sm

Commercial Pressure Washing (General)

Start or acquire a commercial pressure washing business handling parking lots, fleet washing, sandblasting, and stencil …

Varies by location; can generate passive income once staffed and

Laundromat Ownership as Semi-Passive Business

Buy a laundromat as a semi-passive income business where you hire attendants at $20-25/hour to manage day-to-day operati…

$1M-$10M/year revenue, 4-5% net margins

E-commerce Fulfillment / 3PL Business

Third-party logistics business where you store, pick, pack, and ship products for e-commerce brands. Revenue from markin…

Gym / Fitness Center

Open a gym in a market with weak competition. Compete against outdated or poorly managed existing gyms by offering a mod…

$200K-$1M+/year

Laundromat

Open a modern laundromat near existing rundown competitors to capture market share. Low-labor business model with recurr…

$100K-$500K/year

IntermediateHybrid$50K+

Costco Liquidation Pallet Reselling

Buy Costco liquidation auction truckloads at deep discounts, repalletize the products, and sell individual pallets to sm…

$5000-$20000/month

$500K-$10M+/year plus 50% R&D cost recovery via sellable tax cred

R&D Tech Startup in Puerto Rico

Launch a research and development-heavy tech startup (software, hardware, agriculture tech) in Puerto Rico. Get 50% of a…