The 5 Business Ideas That Make The Most Money

About this video

Dan Martell ranks five business models he would pursue now, judged by low startup cost, high gross margin and a straightforward route to customers. First, online courses: package knowledge you already have, deliver it without your ongoing involvement, and sell through communities or partners; he cites a former teacher he met who makes $900,000 a year from teacher-prep lesson plans, and puts course margins at 90% plus. Second, direct-to-consumer products/e-commerce: build a brand around a physical product you care about, use social media as distribution and white-label supply to start; he gives Pila, a compostable flax-based phone-case company he invested in, and his friend Derek at Tuxy as examples, noting roughly five thousand dollars to get a first batch going. Third, software/SaaS, for its recurring revenue and, in his figure, 89% gross margins, built cheaply with contract developers and often by solving a narrow pain such as resizing images for social platforms. Fourth, leveraged (group) coaching, which he says carries software-like economics at about 85-89% margin because groups add accountability, community and competition; he cites a $100,000-a-year group for Fortune 500 CTOs. Fifth, niche enterprise consulting: specialise in one platform or problem for big companies that are used to paying premium rates. He recounts his father, who worked at Siemens, telling a 21-year-old Dan to quote $150 an hour instead of $30; the client settled at $125, and that consulting later funded his company Sphere.

Key takeaways

• Online courses turn existing knowledge into a product with near-zero production cost and, per Martell, 90%+ gross margins
• Direct-to-consumer brands can start from a white-labelled product, with social media as distribution and brand/story as the differentiator
• Software/SaaS is prized for predictable recurring revenue and high margins, and small tools solving one narrow pain can be viable products
• Leveraged group coaching scales expertise beyond one-to-one work while adding peer accountability, community and competition
• Niche enterprise consulting commands premium rates because large companies are used to paying them; specialising in one platform or problem is the lever

Episode details: published March 16, 2020 · 16:04 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dan Martell’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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