The Esoteric May Be INTERESTING, but Generally Makes for a Poor Business Plan!

Along the way, I have often had to come to terms with the fact that I tend to be interested in unusual things most people either don't care about, or don't even know exist.

Along the way, I have also tended to try to follow an old truism that goes "Do what you love, the money will follow!"

Selling beach glass was on of my more esoteric businesses...

That's actually also the title of a popular self-help book by Marsha Sinetar, published back in 1989, but the saying is older than that.

I didn't really get much from that book back then, but there does seem to be an element of truth to the fact that those who are really passionate about what they are doing tend to enjoy success.

Anyway, one of the things I have discovered is that trying to turn an interest — even if you genuinely LOVE it — into a business doesn't work very well if that "thing" you're so passionate about also is such a deep niche market that you can't realistically hope to make a living from it. Or, at least, it would require an extraordinary amount of work... for relatively modest rewards.

It's one of those song-and-dance routines often pitched by the self-improvement and success industry: You can be anything if you just set your mind to it. Whereas that might be true, in the absolute sense... I am also pretty sure I am not going to have "the money follow" my love of painting little tiny patterns on stones I find on the beach.

Just as an example, that is.

But is that really true? A couple of my ostensible "colleagues" in the world of painting tiny patterns on rocks have in fact created thriving businesses doing just that. That is, two out of very likely about 10,000 or more who are aspiring to do so.

And therein we can also find the reason why many marketing claims are not actually "lies," because to the one person being held forth in an example, they did ducumentably make a million dollars crocheting tea cozies. Problem is, nobody else has a snowball in hell's chance of doing so!

Regardless, it seems to be somewhat "in my nature" to be fascinated by, pursue and become excellent at things others generally do not touch because "conventional wisdom" dictates that the effort-to-rewards relationship is out of balance. I used to think I was "pretty clever" because I would find niche markets that seemed to either not have been pursued or had minimal to no competition.

In time, I learned that the very good reason for that — however appealing something might look — is that few people are interested in investing thousands of hours in a business activity (no matter how much they may LOVE it) for the privilege of earning sub-minimum wage income after 8 years of hard work.

So when you ask yourself a question like "why doesn't someone make lotion warmers you can put on your night stand so the lotion isn't so COLD when you put it on?" (an actual idea a friend was very enthusiastic about) the very good reason is probably that there simply aren't enough people interested in that to create an "industry," and even if you could, very few people would actually be willing to PAY for it.

Which opens the door to an entirely different set of bad business ideas: The things people openly love and think are great ideas, but they would never expect to pay money for them. Simply because people rave on about what a great idea something is does not make it viable.

As a self-employed person generally oriented towards "things" I can great and sell, I have to be very careful about intangibles like that!

Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your week!

How about YOU? Have you ever any any really STRANGE business ideas? Did you succeed in creating a business? How did it go? Are there things you think are GREAT ideas, but you would never actually BUY them? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

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Created at 20210209 14:38 PST
0179/1422