I have ideas for new businesses pretty much every day. As you can imagine, I don’t have time to start a business for every idea I have. So, I have a long list of ideas. These are five I really like. Feel free to “steal” them from me. If you start any of these businesses, please let me know; I’ll be your first customer.
Idea #1: An Email Marketing Tool for Chiropractors
There’s one thing that good chiropractors do that the rest don’t: they follow up. Those who remind their patients when it’s time to get a new adjustment make a lot more money than those who adjust your back once and never call you again. We all know that recurring revenue is the single most important thing for a business.
The software I envisioned will come pre-loaded with several follow-up sequences (one for each condition). For example, if you were in a car accident and you need adjustments every three days, the software can do this for you. If you have back pain, or neck pain, different approaches can be taken.
I’d make this a web app so you can offer a monthly subscription and get some recurring revenue yourself. Get a few case studies that show how some chiropractors increased their revenue using your product and then promote your software through chiropractic associations, direct mail and advertising in chiropractic publications.
Idea #2: Babysitter Finder App
You can post a babysitting job by indicating when you need a babysitter and where you’re located. Babysitters can then let you know they’re available and you can choose the one you like the best. Each babysitter can create a video profile to get parents to trust them, and there should be a rating system so other parents can rate how good each babysitter is.
You can charge the babysitters a transaction fee, offer them “featured” accounts or have the transaction take place on the app itself and take a cut of the payment.
Idea #3: Virtual Assistant Software
When I’m at the office, I’m usually doing one of these things: calling someone, emailing someone, delegating a task to one of my employees or adding an event to my calendar. All these tasks could be automated using voice commands. Some examples:

  • “Add a meeting with Paul Smith next Wednesday at 10am”
  • “Delegate task to Rachel: Send report to Mark Williams”
  • “Email Alan. Subject: Good news. Message: We close the account today. Give me a call when your meeting is over.”
  • “Show me my calendar for tomorrow”
  • “Show me a free 2-hour slot next week”
  • “Show me all the tasks delegated to Matt”

If you build an app like this or if you know something remotely similar to this, please let me know.
Idea #4: Smart Grocery Shopping
This is how grocery stores work: you put stuff in your cart, you take it out of your cart for checkout and then you put it back into your cart to take it to your car. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. Plus, standing in line sucks.
This is my idea:

  • You have a scanner in your cart.
  • When you add an item to your cart, you scan it first.
  • Once you have everything you need, you leave the store.
  • You’ll need a username and a password. Your credit card will be stored in your account. When you walk out through the door, the total amount of all your products will be charged on your card.

Idea #5: Social Media Marketing Assistant Software
Social Media Marketing is extremely time-consuming, but a software could help with some of the mundane tasks. These are the features this software should have:

  • It scans the best blogs in your industry and provides you with a list of cool articles and videos you might want to post to Twitter and Facebook.
  • It posts your article to forums, LinkedIn groups and article sites.
  • It posts your videos to YouTube and give you a list of great keywords you want to use for your tags.
  • It scans questions websites like Quora and Yahoo Answers looking for questions you might want to answer.
  • It helps you build a database of bloggers that are looking for guest bloggers and will help you get in touch with them.

Well, that’s all I got for now. Do you know if any of these already exists? Out of the five ideas above, which one is your favorite?