No Shortage of Ideas: Business Ideas That Have Come and Gone

Business Ideas I Have Had Over the Years

Over the years, I have had several business ideas.  They literally come to me every day of the week.  It can be while I am awake, or sleeping.  It really doesn’t matter at all.  I have thought of everything from whittling toothpicks (I was 8. Cut me some slack.) to building snowboards (Ahead of my time, I can assure you.) to launching a new brand (KC Life and KC Coffee Co.).  I had so many ideas that, at one point, I even thought I would give them away.  To do this, I launched a website called DressedInOveralls.com (Do not visit. Google has it listed as a site that has been infected with malware.).  The site got to be too much, especially since I was in the middle of launching Go Local Interactive.

Each of my ideas and business concepts had an aspect that could work.  Some were unique, while others were a twist on an existing concept.  Still others were simply an opportunity for me to learn a concept, skill, or get exposure to something I felt would be valuable in some way.  Realizing this list is not great, and that this is a soul-baring exercise, I share it with you and hope it lands softly.  Feel free to run with something you see.  Laugh at whatever you need.  Talk to me about something you want to start.  Without further ado…

A List of Business Ideas and Concepts (Reminder: 95 – 99% of them are not good)

1. Authoring and illustrating books – This was one of my first ideas for making money.  It was something I worked on in my dad’s office as a kid.  Shockingly, it never took off.  Not so shockingly, I still have that writing bug.
2. Whittling toothpicks – I was 8(ish), but quickly realized the scale and pricing eliminated this one from contention.
3. Mowing yards – I did this one successfully for years.  It helped me pay my way through high school and college.
4. Building snowboards – This came up in my woods classes back between 1994 and 1995.  It was more intentionally investigated while at college between 1995 and 1999.
5. Building websites – I still do this today.  It will be hard to miss those ideas in the list below.
6. TheLoot.com – This was my first website and it was sold to a company out of the U.K.  They tried to strong arm me, but I was penniless and unwilling to budge.  The concept was for the site to be a free classified listing website.  It was Craigslist in the late 1990s.
7. Scout Technology – This website served as a blog before there were blogs.  It was my follow-up to TheLoot.com.  It was also my holding company back in the day.  There was a point where it was also going to be the name of a fantasy football software system.  The system was awesome and ahead of its time.  I can only take partial credit for the system’s brains.  The rest go to a good friend of mine.  He was the real genius behind it.
8. TrackShipment.info – This was a .info domain purchase way back in the day. I built a website where you could literally track shipments with any carrier.  There was one box (like Google) where you entered your tracking number.  Then you selected the carrier and the website took it from there.  I was even able to detect some of the carriers based on the tracking number.  It was cool, but I realized most ecommerce sites were rolling the tracking into their customer experience, so my technology didn’t have legs.
9. Buying items and reselling them on eBay
10. Creating and selling informational items
11. Lead generation websites
    1. Insurance leads – DirectCarInsurance.com and ChildInsure.com
    2. Payday loan leads – I apologize to those I hurt.  I literally had hundreds of websites at one point in time.  Again, I am sorry.
    3. Mortgage leads
    4. Attorney leads
    5. Lawns and mowing – Several local variations here
    6. Roofs
    7. General contractors
    8. Auto body repair
    9. Electric contractors
    10. Rug cleaners
    11. Event planning
    12. Doctors
    13. Dentists
    14. Self-storage
    15. Others are called out specifically in the list below.
12. Cash domains
    1. LasVegasCash.com
    2. KansasCityCash.com
    3. MinneapolisCash.com
    4. NewOrleansCash.com
    5. PortlandCash.com
    6. RhodeIslandCash.com
    7. SaintLouisCash.com – Wish I had StLouisCash.com.
    8. SaintPaulCash.com – Wish I had StPaulCash.com.
13. City domains – I stayed focused on local cities.  These were intended to be filled city news, weather, stories, etc.
    1. Leawood.co and iLeawood.com
    2. Lenexa.co and iLenexa.com
    3. iShawnee.com
    4. Eventually went with KC.Life (see below)
14. State domains – I was aware of a Kansas City company called Kansas Sampler.  They have been trying to rebrand as Rally House.  I thought I would snap up some reasonable domains and try to create online marketplaces for state products like college apparel, home decor, state gifts, etc.  Here is a sample of domains I own in this category.
    1. SimplyKansas.com – Where I live.
    2. SimplyMissouri.com – Our neighbor.
    3. SimplyIllinois.com – There’s a big city up there with a lot of people in it.
15. BestOfCity.com – Websites to track the best restaurants, venues, and other items of interest for a city.  Goes back to my interest in local.
    1. BestOfLeawood.com
    2. BestOfLenexa.com
    3. BestOfOp.com – Overland Park
    4. BestOfTopeka.com – I grew up in Topeka.  My family is in Topeka.  The domain was available.
16. Fall Farm – My family owns a farm. I think it can be turned into a destination place for fall activities like a corn maze, cider, tractor rides, pumpkin patch, etc.
17. Christmas Farm – Like the Fall Farm concept above, this would be focused on Christmas (Christmas trees, wreaths, etc.)
18. AirplaneCeilingFans.com – Came up during a keyword search.  Nobody owned the exact match domain. I bought it.
19. HuntingLicense.com – This was a wildly exciting purchase for me back when it happened. I also had fishing variations.  The first concept was to sell hunting licenses online.  The second was to make it a social network for hunters.  There is a site there right now that you are welcome to see.  It’s just a shell waiting to be filled.
20. DogAndHunter.com – A website for hunters, especially those with hunting dogs.
21. FootballPads.com – Several concepts were considered here.  The two primary concepts were to literally sell football pads.  The second was to build a social network specifically geared towards football.
22. Jorbs.com – This was going to be the Uber of miscellaneous job requests.
23. Baby Grease – I had to develop a greasy baby lotion for a son of mine with really dry skin.  It also had to be chemically soft for sensitive skin.  In my typical fashion, I decided to create a name and start selling it.
24. HogShirts.com – A website selling t-shirts to motorcycle enthusiasts.
25. eEstateSale.com – A listing website for upcoming estate sales.
26. ChristianMarriageCounseling.com – A directory of Christian marriage counselors online.
27. BlackJeep.com – A community for Jeep owners.  This could also be a website for selling Jeeps and Jeep accessories.
28. BoldGiving.org – A non-profit organization where people would be given an opportunity to list their needs and others would be able to give.  The “bold” aspect is there for the person requesting the help and the people who are willing to give it.
29. Apartmenthood.com – Lead generation for apartments. Social network for apartment dwellers.
30. AndroidGames.com – Listing site for game apps on Android devices. I had the chance to buy the domain, but passed.
31. Lawn.com and SuburbanLawnService.com – Lead generation for lawn care.  Also considered literally starting a lawn care company.  That is not completely off of the table.
32. Find Lawn Care – This is actually findlawncare.com and is a site that is currently up and running.
33. HoneyTrader.com – Selling honey online.  The concept was to add depth to the honey buying experience.  There are so many varietals of honey and most people miss that.  I wanted honey to be like coffee or tea or wine.
34. OutdoorBaby.com – This was going to be an ecommerce site focused on selling products for babies to use outdoors.  The other option was to make it a photo sharing site, with a focus on pictures of babies outdoors.  Remember, I have five boys.  I went through a phase.  Those particular years are very cute.
35. JustBaseballHats.com – This one seems easy to understand.  It goes back to my desire to sell a product.  I love baseball hats.  I thought I would design my own.  It has run aground for now.
36. BarrettGeneral.com – An online general store.
37. BarrettCollection.com – A place to show off and possibly sell photographs and prints.
38. Kansas City SEO – This was an actual company for quite some time.  It was an SEO shop that serviced Kansas City and the surrounding areas.  It was also my springboard into online marketing and what really gave me my start.  I, of course, own several variations.  By now you are probably seeing a pattern.  The list is below.
    1. KCSEO.com
    2. LeawoodSEO.com
    3. LenexaSEO.com
    4. OlatheSEO.com
    5. ShawneeSEO.com
    6. TopekaSEO.com
39. KC Life
    1. First concept was a t-shirt design to cash-in on the Kansas City hysteria brought about by the Kansas City Royals and their back-to-back runs at the World Series.
    2. Second concept was to build a city-focused website that was, again, focused on the Kansas City hype.
    3. One note: This was a departure from the typical .com domain extensions, as this was literally a .life domain.
40. KC Coffee Co.
    1. I have always wanted to own a brand and sell products.  There is something about retail that attracts me.  Coffee seemed like a good idea.  Starbucks cafes were everywhere.  Coffee is the #2 traded commodity in the world.  Why not?
    2. The second thing I liked about this was getting to learn about coffee.  I dove in to buying beans, sourcing from different parts of the world, understanding the nuances, roasting, grinding, and even the coffee preparation.  It was, and still is, fascinating.
    3. The third piece of this was the local tie.  Again, Kansas City was a no-brainer since that is where I live and that is where I would be launching the business.
    4. Note: I also own kc.coffee.  Like kc.life above, this is a new domain extension that I wanted to try.
41. KCDad.com – Thought I might start a daddy blog.  Seemed like I could have something to say since I have five boys.
42. Other Kansas City domains (Not an exhaustive list, but it gives you an idea.)
    1. KCCookieCompany.com
    2. KCDonutCompany.com
    3. KCDonuts.com
    4. TinyKC.com – To capitalize on the tiny house craze.
43. Dvrcd – This is a blog to cover the topic of divorce.  I have been divorced and it is on my heart to help other people who are faced with the same situation. The site is there right now, but could use more frequent updating.
44. Possible blog sites
    1. SmokinSevens.com – I still love this name.
    2. TechnologicalMarketing.com – My focus has always been at the intersection of technology and marketing, thus the name.

What Else?

Did I miss anything?  Most definitely.  These are only the ideas I took at least some action on over the years.  Like I said, and like I am sure you can see, the ideas come to me all the time.  Again like I said, they are not always the best, but I love them just the same.

Do you have any crazy like this that you can share?  I would love to hear about it.