182: Our Most Open Interview Yet 😱… A Tantalizing Entrepreneurial & Life Journey with… Doug Smith of Hawthorne Funds

182: Our Most Open Interview Yet 😱… A Tantalizing Entrepreneurial & Life Journey with… Doug Smith of Hawthorne Funds

Background on Doug Smith of Hawthorne Funds:

Doug Smith started Hawthorne Funds to build and protect his own wealth. That goal remains the same today and he is proud to be the company’s largest investor. Doug is the founder and CEO of Hawthorne Funds. Previously a software developer for ExxonMobil, he has gone on to buy and sell over 100 houses. More recently, he has bought and sold over 2,500 acres of rural Texas land from within Hawthorne Funds and his other business entities.

Apart from his real estate investments, he serves as the founder and partner of REI Network, which owns and operates MyHouseDeals.com. This company regularly lands on the lists of Inc. 5,000 Fastest Growing Companies and HBJ Best Places to Work. It currently employs 22 people with the website receiving over 3 million visitors per year.

Doug was recently named to the HBJ 40 Under 40 list and became bilingual after spending a year living in Spain and Chile. To give back, he invests in veteran-owned businesses, mentors local entrepreneurs and grants scholarships to graduating high school seniors. Doug graduated with a B.B.A. in M.I.S. from the Honors College at Texas Tech University, finishing with a 4.0 GPA and as the top graduate out of 570 students.

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

[4:32] Doug is an avid listener of Millionaire Interviews podcast and he recommends people to listen to some of his favorite episodes.
[5:36] At age 22, Doug realized that making money is very important because he knows that most people working in the office are always miserable.
[6:21] After college, Doug worked at ExxonMobil but he resigned after 1 year and went to the house flipping business, which also did not turn out well.
[11:05] House flipping in the early days was very challenging for Doug.
[15:59] At age 29, Doug experienced his first business failure.
[18:24] Doug explains what his MyHouseDeals.com is all about.
[22:34] His business was making $100 thousand per month, which took them about a year and a half to achieve.
[23:54] During the recession, he lost a lot of money, laid off most of his employees, moved out of his house, and he thought that his future was very bleak.
[31:59] Doug worked out a deal with his top employee to have him run MyHouseDeals as the President and get part ownership.
[34:54] After giving part ownership of MyHouseDeals to Alex, he moved to Spain for a year. He spent most of his time learning Spanish during that time.
[40:58] Doug was buying land in Texas and selling it again to certain individuals.
[45:06] He explains how Hawthorne Funds make money out of their land deals.
[52:53] Get in the game – Doug’s first valuable tip to everyone. He enumerates several business tips that can be very useful for new entrepreneurs.
[55:54] Creating a daily to-do-list is highly recommended by Doug.
[1:01:40] Another of Doug’s tip – There are things that you would have to give up when pursuing financial independence.
[1:06:45] Doug shares another valuable tip regarding selling your business.

This Episode Sponsored By:

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👇👇👇 Wait! There's More… 👇👇👇

Doug Smith's – Tips for Success:

1A. Get in the game. At first, that might involve joining groups that pertain to what you're interested in or meeting certain people.
1B. Business is all about learning, creating a plan, executing it, and then repeating these steps over and over.
1C. We can't accomplish big goals. They’re too overwhelming. What we can do is take small steps towards them each day. And that will eventually result in us accomplishing them.
1D. Work from a prioritized daily to do list. Otherwise you’ll get distracted and won’t make much progress toward reaching your goals.
1E. If you're scared of something, it's probably what you need to be doing. Get comfortable with discomfort.
1F. Always be honest, ethical and do what you say you're going to do. It makes you feel good about yourself. It also leads to you having a good reputation, and a good reputation eventually allows you to make the big money.
1G. It’s likely that you’ll need to certain activities from your life to become more successful, at least in the short run. Early on in real estate, I gave up TV, exercise, sleep, vacations, leisure time and time with friends. How much you give up depends on how quickly you want to become financially independent.
1H. Always “sharpen your saw” by listening to podcasts like this one and audiobooks while you’re driving, exercising or getting ready in the bathroom.
1I. Take care of your health over the long term. That involves diet and exercise. It’s better to be moderately successful and healthy than wildly successful and unhealthy.
1J. Growing and selling your business is the ideal outcome for most entrepreneurs. If your business grosses $10+ MM per year and nets $2+ MM net, you can probably sell it for around 12 times earnings in the current marketplace. If it makes less than that, you’re looking at just 3-4 times earnings. One option is to acquire other companies to reach this point, often at only 3-4 times earnings.
1K. Having good employees is key. Pay more to get them if needed. And you'll be able to pay less someday if you build a good work environment and start winning awards like Best Places to Work. When hiring, you need to receive and filter through dozens or hundreds of applicants to find a good one. Don’t just rely on referrals. Test top applicants to make sure they meet your standards.
1L. Your employees are watching you to know what they should do. So if you show up late, they will. If you’re lazy, they’ll be lazy. And so on. So be the best version of yourself you can, and that will permeate throughout the company.
1M. It helps tremendously if you know how to do the jobs of your employees. That way you can properly manage them and know when their excuses, for example, are or are not valid.
1N. If you run a web business, split test almost everything. That way, you know if they change you made was for the better or worse and by what percentage.
1O. Ideas are a dime a dozen. I’ll gladly give you my list if you’re looking for one. The important thing is execution.
1P. Objects in motion tend to stay in motion. Get started with a strategy or business and redirect as needed. You may end up in a different/better business that may be somewhat related to what you first tried. That happened to me and may of the other entrepreneurs I know.
1Q. Never give up, and you’ll be unstoppable.

👇👇👇 Wait, AGAIN! There's EVEN More… 👇👇👇

177 Business Ideas from Mr. Doug Smith:

A huge indoor fun zone for kids and adults where participants wear virtual reality headsets and jump, swing, run and crawl around. The whole place is super padded so that no one gets hurt, but people think they’re jumping over a canyon, riding a bike downhill through the mountains, running away from alligators, etc. I know this is something I would love. Even make it to where there can be teams. Some brainstorming is required. There can be 4D stuff like actual water, fans blowing wind, etc.
An 8-12 oz cup that measures how much water you drink out of it each day and communicates that information to an app on your phone so that you can track your water intake each day and over time. It alerts you if you’re behind schedule for the day, too. It accepts repeated refills and is aware of how much water was added and subsequently drank.
Website and app that allows you to connect and video chat with people in different careers. You can ask them all about what they do and whether they like it. This would be extremely helpful for people in high school and college who are trying to decide on a major and career path. We could even strike deals with high schools and colleges to offer this as a free service to their students. They would pay us directly instead of the students. Add on services: Shadowing for a fee. Half day, full-day, a week, etc. Apprenticeships for a fee. This would be awesome.
A website that connects bands with people who are willing to pay to be in those bands on mute. It’s someone’s chance to be a rock star for a night. Pricing will be market-based, but it could be $10,000 for big events and $200 for small local gigs.
Self-loading electric toothbrush. The toothpaste is attached to the back of the brush's handle (the battery part) and goes up the back to the toothbrush head. You press a button, and the toothpaste comes out and onto the brush. When you run out of toothpaste, you know it's time to change the head. Saves time from manually putting the toothpaste on the brush. Could be it's own product or something you just snap onto your existing Sonicare toothbrush.
Let’s say you have speakers throughout your house that play music. And let’s say you wear an Apple watch. When you walk from room to room, the music should follow you. Speakers will turn on and off depending on your location, and the volume will go up and down.
General restaurant app. It knows which restaurant you’re in. It pulls up their menu. You order from your phone, and it goes straight to the kitchen.
iPhone GPS app that speaks in fun voices: super country, ebonics, sassy gay, Valley Girl, Australian, etc. And it does fun stuff like congratulate you when you make a good turn.
Rich people pay a high monthly fee for the ability to always be driving a different classic car. They can swap them out up to three or four times a month. Even the swapping is made easy with someone going to their house to do it.
There should be a website where you can rent cowboy boots, hats and belt buckles, just like you rent DVDs from NetFlix. You pay $97 per month, and you get an unlimited number of super high-end cowboy boots mailed to you. You can have only one pair of boots at a time. If you want two at a time, you pay $147 per month. Add-on subscriptions include the belt buckles and cowboy hats. This would be so cool. You could always be wearing super expensive boots for not much money. To subscribe, you'd either make a large deposit or undergo a credit check or both.
A gym that has workout booths/rooms with a TV, some basic equipment and videos of P90X, Insanity, Billy Blanks, Zumba, Yoga, etc.
A Pandora for independent songs. Anyone can upload. This could be how little-known artists break through. They get a lot of “thumbs ups” until their song becomes a hit.
A website that allows you to more easily track credit card mileage offers and apply for them. It keeps all of your personal data on file and you just hit a button to apply. And then it reminds you when to call and get a refund of your annual fee, when to cancel the card, etc. Currently, it's too much work to do all of this.
Buy out Bro Bible and have someone run it. They have a captive audience that hates their posts, all of which bash men.
Bullet proof backpacks for students whose parents are scared of mass shootings.
Frying pan that allows you to easily flip food to cook it on the other side. It’s a hassle with a regular pan.
Each person has an app on their phone. When they meet someone for the first time, the app pops up on each person’s screen with info on all the things they have in common. That way there can be a starting point for conversations. It's currently awkward because you don't know where to start. Examples: Both have lived in this city. Both like these 5 artists. Both like these 4 hobbies. Both are of this political affiliation. Etc.
Circular-shaped absorbent paper that fits around well drinks and cocktails. To be used instead of a napkin.
App that tells you where all the unisex family bathrooms are for disabled people. My aunt and uncle hardly travel because they never know where they’ll be able to find a bathroom.
According to my friend, lots of restaurants have a word that you can say to get a discount or something for free. There could be an app that notices when you’re at a certain restaurant and alerts you to what word you should say to take advantage of that.
Belt that blind people wear. Connects to ear piece that tells them when obstacles are coming up. Senses their surroundings like self-driving cars.
Humans of Craig’s List Gigs. A Facebook page and, eventually, a book. Post ads for strange stuff to be done “like removing a rat from under a house.” When they arrive, don’t make them do that and still pay them. Interview them and publish their story. These people off Craig’s List gigs are willing to do the craziest things, so they probably have crazy stories, too.
The whole house could fog up when the house alarm goes off so that the burglars can’t see the stuff they’d probably want to steal. This is similar to the fog machines they use at some dance clubs. It also warns them that the gas will put them to sleep (but it doesn’t). Or maybe it actually does put them to sleep. Or maybe it causes them to cough and sneeze. Plus, we disorient their other senses… flashing strobe lights on both interior (disorient them) and exterior (signals to neighbors), plus sulfur or something else that smells awful is released. Loud dog barking sounds. In addition to this, the usual calls, texts and alarms go off. More… sensors detect where they are in the house and drop a net on them. I saw an awesome net gun online… Google “Japanese Net Launcher Gun.”
Spanish flash card app for mobile devices. Other languages, too. Counts how long it took you to say the word correctly. If too long, it keeps showing you that word at certain intervals.
Sensor on car windows. When you get broken into or your car alarm goes off, it alerts your phone big time so that you can do something about it.
A business that sells margaritas “to go” in some other city, just like they have in Houston.
A mace/knife combo. That way, you can spray an attacker before stabbing them.
Gun case that calls/alerts 911 when you open it. That way, when you hear an intruder, you can go for your gun right away and know that backup is on its way.
A lazy river for adults in a wooded area outside of town. Float on inner tubes, drink alcohol. That way, you don’t have to travel 3 hours to float a river. (Theme parks don’t allow alcohol on the river.)
Sunscreen and mosquito repellent combination in one spray bottle. One exists on Amazon.com, but its main flaw is that it dissolves every object it touches. The best way to market this type of product would be in big box retailers like Wal-Mart.
Coffee maker for offices and homes that allows you to press buttons to select coffee type and add things like sugar, creamer, honey, etc. The Keurig is nice but still takes work.
App or website where you can post that you’ll pay someone to tag along or that you’re looking to tag along. A sample posting might be about someone who always wanted to attend a party in a barn in the country. They’ll pay you $200 if you know of such a party and will have them as your guest. Or it could be a college house party with a keg and/or beer pong. Or maybe someone is going to the lake with friends and posts that you can tag along for $200. People who want to tag along are vetted.
Peer to peer car rentals. Like VRBO but with cars. Some of these exist, but maybe there’s a way to do it better.
An Uber-like app that allows you to request a massage from a nearby masseuse. They’re listed in the order of how long it’ll take them to get to you. They arrive at your location with a massage table. You enter into the app your massage preferences. Example: Neck and lower back.
Make sign-language interpreters unnecessary: Sensor rings that deaf people put around their fingers. When they sign, a spoken language is emitted from a speaker around their neck. And when someone speaks to them, they’re able to look at their device (like an iPad) where a virtual person is signing to them… or the English words are appearing for them to read.
AirBnB/VRBO-type website for renting boats, airplanes, RVs, etc.
Convey my thorough hiring process to someone who wants to go around the country speaking on hiring. They’ll work with a ghost writer to get an extremely high-quality book out there that could become popular. That will launch their speaking career. I’ll provide them the content and some money in return for a percentage of their speaking fees and book sales.
When a person’s home security system goes off or the sensors they’ve placed on certain items go past their door frame, the cops are alerted and so is an off-duty cop that is closest to their location. If the off-duty cop makes it there first, the charge is $X + $X per minute. Could be an app, too. When a person presses the Alert button on their phone, the same process is carried out.
A flat keyboard pad that you lay down in front of your monitor and use as a keyboard. It has the keys printed on there, but you don’t have to hit them exactly for it to know what you meant to type. It looks at the finger position of the intended stroke in comparison to where all of your other fingers are resting.
An app that prompts you to delete phone contacts of people you haven't talked to in X years.
A central marketplace for secondary transactions of LP interests. Could do very well by making brokering fees, and buyers would get interests at a big discount. Sellers would do great financially, but they’d be ok with it because they want out of their illiquid asset.
A huge therapy clinic in the Bahamas or another nearby location where some of the US’s top therapists oversee therapy sessions using psychedelics. Psychedelics seem to be the next huge breakthrough in mental healthcare.
App. United We Stand. For getting protestors together when just one person doing it would have serious consequences (possibly for their career with their employer). Have to deposit like $100. And if you don’t show up you lose your money. It goes to the opposition. Like with stickk. Anonymous. You get a number. And when you show up, you get your number scanned.
A mall with like 200+ little stores so anyone can go into business.
We arrange audiences for you to teach to each month. Or bi monthly. What you’ve leaned. You create a learning and teaching plan.
Home and office vents that open and close with an app. It could even be automatic. Would save some people a lot on their electric bill.
Life coaching that’s modeled after what Tim Ferriss, Ray Kurzweil and Naval Ravikant are doing.
Website and app. You can pay people to ship your stuff from one country to another on the airplane with their luggage. Have your stuff shipped in 1 day instead of 5. There would be a vetting system to show that the package owner and the airline passenger are credible. Like a background check.
An app that people use to take, share and view pictures of food at each restaurant. With each picture, they have to say which item it is on the menu. This way, a restaurant patron can mostly order based on the pictures instead of the text in the menu. It’ll know which restaurant you’re in based on your geolocation.
A small space that can be either a bathtub or shower with the push of a button. The tub part would come up from the ground or drop down from the ceiling or fold down from the wall. Some engineers would need to get on this. This would solve the common problem of having to choose between the two.
An Apple watch app or some other device that enables a woman to quickly alert everyone nearby that's she's in danger. This could be a combo of texts, a loud alarm, a 911 call, etc.
Patent this, lobby to make it law, and sell it to auto manufacturers: The body paint on each car should have a unique DNA so that when its driver does a hit and run, the police can swab the paint from the victim’s car, bicycle, body, etc. Then, they can track down the car’s owner and solve the crime.
Ultra high-end boots. Cost $3,000+. Compete with Tony Lama. The name would be Tombstone or Wyatt Earp. Team up with that town or Earp heirs.
This would definitely involve the government, but there should be a pool in Galveston that's carved into the ocean. White sand should be imported for the beach and the sand under the water. Filters should filter the water that comes into the area. So the water will be clear, and the beaches will be white. Start small. Maybe 100 yards long and 50 yards into the ocean. Charge a cover fee of maybe $20 to get in. Expand it over time. This would encourage so many more people to visit Galveston.
Investment club for accredited investors to sit around and talk about (or present on) how they're investing their money. And people can invest with each other too. Not necessarily a business idea but probably a good idea nonetheless.
Thin paper covers that wrap around plates and bowls for when you microwave stuff. Has an elastic band, kind of like a hair net.
Haircut place where you lie mostly flat and sleep or relax while your hair is being cut.
Massage place where you select how many minutes in each area before the interview and press buttons during the massage for harder or softer.
An app that allows you to take a picture of a sports card, and it pulls up the following… list of ebay recent solds, median of ebay recent solds, PSA value, a summary of info on the card, info on the set, player wikipedia info.
A warehouse full of furniture that we get off Craig's List. Then people can come and buy a bunch of used furniture, all from one place. Advertise this place on Craigslist in the same section where we bought it from.
App idea: Set a goal. It can be a “do this” or “don't do this” goal. Add email addresses of friends. They get daily or weekly updates about whether you're meeting your goal. This creates accountability. You hit a button at the end of each day saying whether or not you complied with your goal.
A website that allows you to pay to be in movies. For example, you could pay $2,000 to be a prominent extra with no lines in an upcoming movie. We'd have to somehow get around the Screen Actors Guild, which would probably try to prevent this.
Homemade ice cream dessert place. Located in a strip center. Inside is like a home. Sit in kitchen, dining room or living room. Served on Skillets. Also cobblers and other desserts. And coke floats.
High-end moving company that handles everything including pictures, computers, TV/DVD/Roku/Speakers, and utilities and post office change form. They set things up in your new place just like they were in your old one. As it stands, moving is a pain. It shouldn't have to be.
Chips in footballs so we know if it crossed the goal line… or even hit the ground during a catch. *Austin has seen in the Premier League for Futbol Goals*
iPhone app that reads the news aloud to you. Different newspapers. Listen to the USA Today or Chronicle while you drive to work, for example.
iPhone app that lets you see what different hair styles would look like on you. And it includes instructions for the stylist if needed.
A local brewery in Lubbock. I know there’s Already Triple J Chophouse and Brewery (formerly Hub City Brewery), so maybe it’s kinda being done. It just seems that this would work because it works so well in Houston with 8th Wonder Brewery, Karbauch, St. Arnold’s and many others.
Gym where you're put to sleep and electrodes stimulate your muscles to work out and then they wake you up. This technology already exists, and NASA plans to use it when sending astronauts to Mars.
When a NASCAR car is driving at high speeds in a race and the car gets sideways (according to sensors or GPS), metal protectors fly out from doors to further protect the driver from an impact… the cushioning of impact can start further out. Another idea for their safety is walls that spring back to absorb their impact.
This could totally up-end the Realtor world. Sellers list their house with an app. Upload pics. Negotiate price. Contracts. Background checks for buyers. Buyers get $2000 cash back when they buy a house. Not on the MLS. Buyers’ phones open the doors for showings. Gets sent to a nationwide title company. We own the title company. Whole thing is an app. Sellers press a button to pay a realtor $25 to $100 for a consultation about a CMA or negotiation advice. Or buyers pay a similar fee to realtors. Start in San Fran to take over that real estate market. Then expand. Encourage sellers to sell for less since they're saving 6% Realtor Fees. List it for 3% less, for example.
App like Uber for home health care. You request it when you need assistance. You're billed for how much time they're at your house.
App/website where you go step by step identifying your symptoms and then it comes up with a couple things that you might have.
Smoke sensors throughout heavily wooded areas and forests that alert the fire department to a fire's exact location in the earliest stage. They could be solar powered. Or satellites could detect smoke early on and relay the coordinates. Something like that.
Website that allows you to search and book flights. But it shows you the prices in airline miles instead of dollars. Like Kayak. It's so difficult to do a search by miles on all these different sites!
Technology on the handles of guns and/or assault rifles. It checks your hand print and only allows you to shoot the gun if it's registered to you.
Website that lists pastors for weddings. Lets you sift and sort through them. Show ratings. You pay for them through the site. And you're refunded $25 after you leave a review. Also for wedding photographers.
Poles that automatically shoot out from your car once it starts to flip. This would prevent it from flipping. Special care should be taken so that the poles don’t accidentally eject or eject into another car or person.
iPhone app for road trips that show you how far away you are from the cleanest restrooms based on customer ratings. Girls would like this since guys don't usually care much about that.
Website where people can share pics of the crazy stuff they caught on their “trail cameras.” Those are the cameras that hunters use. When the camera senses activity, it snaps a picture. Lots of odd stuff comes up.
An automatic pill-splitting machine. You just dump all of your pills into it and it cuts them into 1/2 or 1/4. That would be awesome! I don't see that type of thing out there.
Website. Search for a property address, and it will tell you which company did the survey… or we'll find the survey for you for a fee of maybe $50 instead of them having to pay to have the survey done all over again.
Fold-up guitar that you can travel with — carry on.
Mybigcatch.com and Mytrophykill.com where people can post pics of the big fish the caught and the date and the lake and the conditions or the deer they killed and the ranch, etc.
Website that provides an up-to-date listing of apartments inside of Loop 610 in Houston. Employees drive up and down the streets every 3 or 4 days to call landlords and make sure their properties are still for sale. This solves the problem of there not being a good way to find all of the apartments for lease in a certain area. Make money through advertising or providing an apartment locator service as an option.
Semi-truck that pulls into a parking lot in an area where a lot of people work. There are pods inside of the truck that you can rent for $9 per hour. People can take naps there.
Website where past employees can go to speak their minds about their previous employer. That way, someone who is looking to work at a certain place can check to see what the prior employees are saying… kindof like a background check. (Glassdoor later did this.)
Stylists have a really rough time being on their feet all day. This would fix that… a chair for hair stylists that's on rails and goes around the client in a semi-circle. You hit a button for it to lift up or go down. a table on each end for them to set their things.
iPhone app for two people playing a game against each other (like with the current word or scrabble games). The game is for people to guess the age of the person on the screen. I guess the age of 5 people and a total is calculated by how far off I am. Then they guess the age of 5 people. Whoever gets to 10 wins. (So that's 50 guess per person.) This would be lots of fun. GuessMyAge.com.
Website that displays the pollution levels by zip code for Houston and LA and then more polluted cities in the future.
iPhone app for people letting each other know when they see a cop on the highway. It alerts nearby cars.
Chip that you can voluntarily put in your car to track your driving over time so that when you go to resell it, potential buyers can read a report that says how gentle or rough you've been on your car. Could really help the resale value if you've been gentle.
Website where people can post screen shots of funny text conversations. Make $$ through Adsense.
Restaurant where they serve American food in dim sum format … people pushing around carts and each item is like $3. Items might be mac and cheese, green beans, a small slice of catfish, etc.
Website that provides real-time celebrity popularity info based on Like/Don't Like buttons. Provides trends and graphs too. Gossip reporters would always reference it.
There’s not a good foreclosure listing service in Houston. Create a new one that competes with the existing ones. Also offer lists of “behind on taxes,” “tax sales,” etc.
Krave cupcakes in a mid-sized city. Would be a huge hit.
Food trucks all over a mid-sized city on Thurs, Fri, Sat, and Sun nights. They make a ton of money in Houston catering to the party scene. Kimchi fries are really popular.
Sell towels to gyms like 24 Hour Fitness that have barcodes embedded in them. They would beep if they go through the doors. Far too many people accidentally take towels home with them. (like me!) This is actually a fairly easy business idea to implement. Note: This idea came to fruition many years later. I saw it in an LA Fitness in Chicago.
Website for employers and interns to connect. Like internships.com. I didn't know that site existed when I had the biz idea.
A website for subleasing office space.
Aggregate all of the daily deals websites into one. There are too many to keep up.
A site like HoustonFoodTrucks.com but provide a map of where the food trucks are. It can be called HoustonFoodTruckMap.com or something like that.
Iknowacelebrity.com – People who have met or know/knew a celebrity or athlete can share their experiences with them. Make money through advertising.
A home security system that acts a little differently … if motion is detected on the property (triggered by lasers at certain spots), or loud banging is heard on the windows or the doorbell rings, lights come on one at a time as if someone is going through the house to find out what the commotion is all about. Maybe the TV comes on too. Burglars will think that someone is home.
Huge water slide that shoots people high up into the air. Search for “Waco water slide” on YouTube to see an example. This could be combined with a zip line. I saw a huge zip line on Real World and it seemed to be really popular. This would be a fun side business.
A website that provides a listing of all the area auctions for free. There are a bunch, and they’re hard to keep track of.
Car rental company with the cheapest prices by having really low overhead. No advertising, cars are 5 to 10 years old, get all business thru Orbitz, Priceline, and others.
Property management company that rents houses out on a nightly basis. We do everything from getting the furniture to turning on utilities to advertising it on VRBO and HomeAway to screening guests to turning it over for the next guest. Fee would be 25-33% compared to the usual 10% for most management companies, but landlords will most likely make a lot more $$.
Website for bands looking for band mates.
Website to buy and sell used yachts (boats). A guy at the Underground Seminar in Washington DC told me about it. He said that it would be a huge website in Florida in particular.
Warming pads for fingers and toes. Current pads are too big and/or shaped incorrectly for that.
Shower that stores your desired temperature and water pressure. When you get into the shower, you just hit a button to get going. Water comes out of the tub spout until it's warm enough, and then the shower.
Knee board for knee boarding on the snow. We already have tubing, skiing, and snowboarding.
Sticks that attach to the top of a snowboard so that you can get them out and use them when you're stuck. It’s a pain in the butt to push yourself along on a snowboard when the terrain is flat.
Website where people can collaborate to create songs. Some people write, some add background music, and some sing.
App where you sing songs, and it replaces your voice with that of a famous singer of your choice using sophisticated technology.
A course on about 5 acres whereby regular people can participate in a Wipeout game like the one that's become so popular on TV.
You pay a monthly fee and someone comes to your house and checks on the food in your pantry and fridge to see if you're buying healthy stuff. Could also include assisted trips to the grocery store.
Pads on trees at ski resorts to prevent deaths from crashing into them. Pads can be colored brown to blend with trees.
Partner with allergy doctors. We put allergy shot meds in our van in the AM. Drive around during the daytime giving shots to those people. Allergy doc gets his usual profit plus we tack on a fee to the customer. Would service maybe 10% of their wealthiest/busiest clients.
Football helmets that have an extra layer of foam on the exterior, which prevents concussions from helmet-to-helmet contact.
Bike racks that prevent your bike from getting stolen.
Financial advisory firm that manages the finances for only lottery winners.
Nice porta potties. Look at FirstClassRentals.net. *Austin's Approval*
Website that sells all the stuff to deal with Accutane side effects. *Austin used in High School*
An online tool that allows you to draw shapes around certain parts of town on a map and export the mailing addresses of everyone in that area.
Buy NuClean and blow it up! NuClean is patented by one of our vendors. He and his daughter go around cleaning walls. Often eliminates the need to re-paint homes.
A Houston-based company that only does high-end property tax protesting. Take only 30% of the savings with possibly a cap at $1,500. Advertise with flyers in high-end neighborhoods. The homeowners actually get to talk to the person representing them as opposed to the low-end assistants at O’Connor and Associates. *Austin's Approval*
Success channel on satellite radio. Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, and dozens of others.
iPhone app that finds people you can carpool with based on the approximate time you leave your house every day, where you work, and when you come home. it uses GPS to track your commute.
Trash can that takes itself out. It automatically goes through the exterior wall of the house and into the trash can. For high end homes – over $1 million. Probably costs $5,000+.
Stick pads to put on the bottom of your most valued possessions so that if someone breaks into your house and steals one of them, you can track it (and the rest of your possessions) down.
Create a modern-day version of How to Win Friends and Influence People. Great book. Just needs modern-day stories.
Documentary about carnival workers. It's a messed up world!
Buy a boring business like garments, rope, etc. and SEO the crap out of it to get it to #1 in google and then re-sell it with much higher revenues. This is what a guy I met did with a garment shop. I can also find a way to set it up on recurring billing. I can get a list of businesses from a business broker. *Austin wonders what is the Website?*
Get a listing of businesses for sale from a biz broker and find out which ones I could really ramp up with recurring billing or SEO, ramp it up over a 3-year period, and sell it.
TakeMeDrunkImHome – you call a service and they come get you and your car. Guaranteed to be at your location within just a few minutes. Either provide the service or create a site that allows you to connect with people willing to come get you and your car.
A website like Prosper.com but for owner finance notes. The main problem with prosper.com is that the loans are unsecured. We let multiple people (probably 3 at the max) pool their funds to buy notes. We do appraisals on the notes and provide info on the borrower. We should likely focus on getting our clients an 8% return, and we get anything over that. So we're basically part owners of the notes too. We service the loans and cut checks to the lenders each month. This could really blow up. It's a way for the average person to lend on owner finance notes, which is one of the best deals in town. This could start in Houston (or Texas) first since I probably have a much greater access to notes here and I'd only be dealing with the laws of this state. They could also sell their portion of the notes back to other members (like a secondary market). The domain could be SafeReturns.com. Domain is for sale for just $2995.
Website or app to go to find out which bars/clubs are hot on which nights. Especially useful when you’re in a different city.
Docreviews.com – patients review doctors.
Luxury hospitals for high end patients.
Fast food chain with healthy food.
High-end organic restaurant.
Device in heart that remotely monitors it.
Create a “best of business” publication and charge people to order the book.
A grocery store where you walk in, speak into a microphone or something (maybe click on some pictures on a computer screen), tell it what you want, and then all of the items slide down a ramp or something, and are delivered right into your basket. You swipe your card and then move on.
Cluster care – retirement houses close to each other. Nurses go between houses.
A padded bathtub for older people.
More luxurious doggie day care centers. *Austin Approves – he suggested his Dog Daycare install Live Video & they could charge $20+ a month*
Entrepreneurial channel on TV.
Website to upload and view independent films.
AI machine that pets your dog.
A website where individuals can buy discounted car notes. Actually, it could be a marketplace for people to buy and sell notes of any kind … car notes, real estate notes, business notes, structured settlement annuities, etc.
A website that connects tow truck drivers (wreckers) with body shops. Body shops say how much they're willing to give the tow trucks in kickbacks for each car they bring in. This goes on, but it's not connected. Car shops pay per month to be on the site. We advertise the site to tow truck drivers. Could be in every city.
Workoutforfree.com – People can tell each other where in each city to work out for free – certain apartment complexes, hotels, gyms, etc. make money off of advertising … from gyms and supplements.
Twitter or other site that gives updates on how long the lines are at the airport terminals. Sell advertising or something of that sort.
Travel company for people who want to spend 1 month learning about a foreign language, art, music, wine, food, and more. Part of the trip can be in one location and part in another. Very high end trips. Maybe mostly for retired people. Activeseniors.com. There could be moderately priced and high end trips.
Some B2B business – like selling them an ESP (email service provider) or CRM tool.
John Smith Restaurant. John Smiths eat for free and pics of John Smiths all over the walls. Or Twins Restaurant with the same setup.
Carpet cleaning company. Put clients on recurring billing.
Businesses pay us $2,000 per person in the Philippines that we hire for them. If the employee quits or gets fired within 2 months, they $1,500 back.
Remote controlled and battery-operated toys for dogs. My dog loves playing with the mouse and the helicopter.
Toilet paper with a hated person or sports team on it. *Austin has seen on Amazon.com*
Clay pigeons with a hated person or sports team on them. I can just imagine all of the rednecks out there getting a big kick out of shooting up Hilary Clinton or UT (with the horns down).
A site that gets you multiple quotes from realtors, prescription drugs, car insurance, cars, health insurance, doctor visits, contractors, or something else.
Combine reviews from multiple sites like ePinions, ripoffreport.com and Google reviews.
A website where hair salons can take appointments. Like opentable.com.
Shopping site with alerts – main page lets you select different designers or retailers. Get notified when a store has a certain size (if they're currently out of it). Get notified when a certain item goes on sale, get notified when the new shipment comes in or when a “red sweater” comes in. Or just get notified anytime one of your selected stores announces a sale.
Site where women can create custom clothes and accessories. Select the size, color, style, collar, buttons, design, etc. and it's custom made and shipped to you. Also with purses, bracelets, etc.
Classifieds ads site like oodle <– classified ads search engine with notifications via email and text. It could be open source for software developers to help develop.
Private database where attorneys make comments on non-paying clients. That way, other attorneys can beware.
Build up a group of 20 business owners who are willing to pay $10,000 each to attend four 2-day sessions where they mastermind with other business owners in the same niche. Categories include: custom software developers, clearance sale businesses, bankruptcy attorneys, discount retailers, real estate investors, winery owners, ice cream shop owners, funeral homes, plumbers, property management companies, CPAs, auto parts dealers, used car dealerships, auto repair shops, gun dealers, pawnshop owners, security systems dealers, credit repair companies, dentists, chiropractors, doctors, dermatologists, etc.
An app that you can pull up once you enter a grocery store. It tells you where the items you’re looking for are located. Isle, location, etc. That way, you don’t have to spend a bunch of time hunting them down.
Self-dumping rain gauge with ability to check rain levels and graph them over time. Thousands of farmers across the world could use this. weatherbug.com may do something similar, but it's not clear.
System like P90X but instead of being from a navy seal, it's from a UFC fighter. It's the UFC fighter workout. Kind of like Billy Blanks did.
Wheel chairs that have a button or lever that allow you to raise up to eye level with the person you're talking to. You can hit the button again to go back down.

Fabulous 4 Questions:

📖 📚 Favorite Book(s)? Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
🙌😎 Favorite Amazon.com purchase? Too many to list….
🌱💸 Favorite Tool that's GROWN your Business? Canva and Buffer
💭💡 BIGGEST Challenge keeping your Business from GROWING? Outside sales, getting distributors

Key Point from the Interview:

“The most important thing really, if you want to be an entrepreneur and you’re not, the most important thing really at this point is just to get in the game.”

Resources Mentioned:

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