As some of you know over the last 12-24 months I have been slowly winding down my main line of work in specialized db admin and general web stack development.
Long story short is I set my business up doing this straight out of A-levels and have been doing it for 16 years.
While very well paying, the work has over the last few years been completely unrewarding and borderline depressing to work on, there has been no personal growth or fulfillment and as such ive been passing on that work to others as of late, and only taking on jobs which give me much more personal enjoyment and reward, such as working on the forums here at ocuk.
At the start of this year I had truly had enough, and sold on the support contracts I no longer wished to be involved in and kept the ones of interest to me.
However, I am looking to start a new business idea/venture that can offer that personal development and enjoyment again. The issue is the ideas I have either require huge capital investment (into the millions), technology which is not yet ready for adoption or are too philanthropic in nature to be a viable business model at this point in time.
So, im reaching out to the hive mind of ocuk, throw some ideas at me. I am honestly just looking for something that sparks my interest and has large potential.
On a whole I dont want to end up back into coding/programming type work. Though would be happy to do so to interface for whatever the business model may be.
Some such ideas:
1) I have designed a prototype immersion cooling setup suitable for home use. - A potentially hugely rewarding project, but also one that at this stage would be massively expensive for the average consumer, it would be extremely limited in scope given the general downturn in the PC market / cost of living issues right now.
2) Locally generated renewable power using emerging tech that can then be used to offset peoples bills in the area where it gets built. Potentially start off as a start up utility company. - An area I have zero expertise in however.
3) Car storage. Silly as it sounds but a lot of people need reliable secure storage for their high end vehicles. Or even things like secure parking from airports, just look at how many horror stories you hear of - Downside needs a big secure, ideally indoors, storage facility, very expensive ongoing costs to rent such a unit until a substantial client base is built up.
4) Buy to lets. Something I am already involved in, but due to the huge capital outlay is a longer term project as it would not take long to drain my own funds too quickly. Possibly look at doing a management service instead or similar where people can crowdfund into BTL shareholding.
5) Become an MP, I know my local MP is not standing next election and this is basically a guaranteed seat if I wanted to represent the tories in Bromsgrove. However I just dont think I could do any good off the back of it. Id be too constrained by party politics and not have enough influence in the local area to actually make positive changes. Plus, traveling to London and back on a regular basis, no thanks
6) An art project idea I had, involving carbon fibre and cnc. No idea if it would appeal to people, limited scope / expense? This would probably be a side-hustle for fun if anything.
7) ??? Something else.
So over to you ocuk, what crazy ideas do you have?
Long story short is I set my business up doing this straight out of A-levels and have been doing it for 16 years.
While very well paying, the work has over the last few years been completely unrewarding and borderline depressing to work on, there has been no personal growth or fulfillment and as such ive been passing on that work to others as of late, and only taking on jobs which give me much more personal enjoyment and reward, such as working on the forums here at ocuk.
At the start of this year I had truly had enough, and sold on the support contracts I no longer wished to be involved in and kept the ones of interest to me.
However, I am looking to start a new business idea/venture that can offer that personal development and enjoyment again. The issue is the ideas I have either require huge capital investment (into the millions), technology which is not yet ready for adoption or are too philanthropic in nature to be a viable business model at this point in time.
So, im reaching out to the hive mind of ocuk, throw some ideas at me. I am honestly just looking for something that sparks my interest and has large potential.
On a whole I dont want to end up back into coding/programming type work. Though would be happy to do so to interface for whatever the business model may be.
Some such ideas:
1) I have designed a prototype immersion cooling setup suitable for home use. - A potentially hugely rewarding project, but also one that at this stage would be massively expensive for the average consumer, it would be extremely limited in scope given the general downturn in the PC market / cost of living issues right now.
2) Locally generated renewable power using emerging tech that can then be used to offset peoples bills in the area where it gets built. Potentially start off as a start up utility company. - An area I have zero expertise in however.
3) Car storage. Silly as it sounds but a lot of people need reliable secure storage for their high end vehicles. Or even things like secure parking from airports, just look at how many horror stories you hear of - Downside needs a big secure, ideally indoors, storage facility, very expensive ongoing costs to rent such a unit until a substantial client base is built up.
4) Buy to lets. Something I am already involved in, but due to the huge capital outlay is a longer term project as it would not take long to drain my own funds too quickly. Possibly look at doing a management service instead or similar where people can crowdfund into BTL shareholding.
5) Become an MP, I know my local MP is not standing next election and this is basically a guaranteed seat if I wanted to represent the tories in Bromsgrove. However I just dont think I could do any good off the back of it. Id be too constrained by party politics and not have enough influence in the local area to actually make positive changes. Plus, traveling to London and back on a regular basis, no thanks
6) An art project idea I had, involving carbon fibre and cnc. No idea if it would appeal to people, limited scope / expense? This would probably be a side-hustle for fun if anything.
7) ??? Something else.
So over to you ocuk, what crazy ideas do you have?
Last edited: