10 Businesses to Start for Less Than $25K

my dad. We model what we see right, right, right. And I often tell people when people say, why the kids in the inner city want to be rap stars, athletes or drug dealers? Right, And there's nothing wrong with being want to be a rap star, just you can't. It's hard to scale. My friends Killer Mike and t I and the jay Z's of the world, and even you know, the R and B stars that I love so much, like my brother Howard Hewitt and all these you know im presarios. You know, there's only one Quincy

Jones in the world. Right, It's hard to scale. You can't reproduce personality like that. They're unique, right, And athletes same thing, right. There's something like five hundred thousand young men trying to go into the believe it's the NBA. See the NBA, of the NFL, and of that, you know, like eighteen thousand of them, make them into college, make it into college sports, and it's like one two percent. I think it's actually this is the NBA. Make it

actually into the pros. I think it's like sixty and so, you know, and of course, nobody should want to be a drug dealer. And you've heard me say this for you know, drug dealers are unethical and it may be an im moral business, but they're not dumb. They understand import, export, finance, marketing, hostsale, retail, customer service, security, territory, logistics. Right, these are not dumb people.

These are really smart guys and unfortunately sometimes ladies with a really crappy business plan and bad role models and bad mentors. And one of the reasons that I do what I do is that you know, it is what we don't know that we don't know this killing us, but we think we know, like no one gave us a shot, no one gave us a plan, no one gave us training, right, no one gave us a proper business plan for our lives. It's my I think it's

my fourth book, the memo. The book that's out now is Financial Literacy for All, which, by the way, thanks everybody for continuing to make it a number one bestseller. It's number one in business finance on Amazon nationwide for the last three months. So if you haven't don't have your copy, get a copy. If you have your own copy already, leave a review please online. And it's coming to black bookstores near you. If it's not there already, I'll do this American Aspiration Tour. I'll be stopping at

black business bookstores. I'm doing a book a couple of book events at Walmart. The CEO Walmart did the forward for the book, Doug Millan, good friend of mine, coach chair of Financial Lucy for All with me and yeah, there's some other surprises coming the end of the year with the book. But you know what was that to do with this podcast episode? Like my shirt today says, my hustle looks different, My hustle looks different. But my mom and dad I understood a had blessings like the

other people didn't have. My mom. Yeah, I grew up in the hood. I grew up in South central incompetent. Yes, all that's true. I was homeless, all that's true, But my mother, I was economical helmless, by the way, which is different than most people's homelessness. And you know, it was almost an intentional situation because I could have gone home and hung out with my mother, but she would

have you know, she was worrying about me. She would have worried about me, and she would have forced me to go get a job at mcdonaldella's aircrab and boying he crample sheet with don Dose Aircraft which is now Boeling Aircraft where she worked. I didn't want to do that. That wasn't my calling of my life. So I was willing to roll the dice on me. I was willing to bet on me. My hustle looks different. Well, my

mother worked a job. She also had a small business part time selling making handicrafts and selling that plus food that she made, she sell it to her coworkers at Mcdonalduglar's Aircraft. She would then the supervisor got mad at her. He would threaten there like I'm gonna expose your side hustle. She's like, well, I'm gonna expose you with being accustomed my side hustle and let me ride around his bicycle on the campus at McDonald Douglas Aircraft and sell it

to all my coworkers and your peers. So when I go down, you going down the zip it. My dad owned his own business right and my grandfather was a sharecropper born in eighteen seventy one RB Smith. So I got it honest, like my mom had a sense of yes, I am, gave that to me. My dad has a sense of yes I can and gave that to me. All right. So my hustle was different, and I want your hustle to be different. If you I want you to have a choice, like I want you to have freedom.

I want you to have freedom of self determination and not just the freedom to go work where you want. That's cool. Most people are going to work for somebody else. That's that's perfectly fine, and we need that, we need to encourage that, we need to build the middle class. But sometimes you want to You may choose to take a higher risk and to get more reward if you succeeded that you go from cashing a check working for somebody else to writing a check hello, working for yourself.

Can I get an a man. I tell you this is this is the church. What's happening now? And what have you done for me lately? This is the pulpit of finance. This is the weekly ministry that pulpit. No disrespect the pastors of the cloth. This is my ministry of finance. Right small and an opportunity again, Money and Wealth, this is This is my Money and Wealth podcast series on the Black Effect Network on iHeartRadio, coming to you every week with something that breaks this down at a

level and in a way that everybody can understand. Again, you're not dumb and you're not stupid. It's what you don't know that you don't know that's gilling you. But you think you know in a blind town or one eyed man's king. If you don't know better, you can't do better or keep people like John? Can you get on with the ten businesses? Right? Let me so in these in these unique times, right. So, I recognize you

have hustle. I recognize that you're nine to five. Your job may financi your five to nine your side hustle beautiful. I know that you want to go from the bottom to the top. I know that your role models may be limited because you model what you see. But we don't see a lot of business people in our neighborhoods. And when I was coming up, you know, I didn't know there were businesses in my neighborhood. I knew there

was a nail salon. I knew there was a you know, a liquor store or whatever, but I didn't equate that to business. I didn't realize those were capitalists, right. I didn't realize that was free enterprise. It took a banker coming into my classroom and breaking that down for me when I was nine years old. In my financial literacy course, which I hope to one day get indoctrinated into every school in America home economic course to financial Literacy for

All legislation, I'll be working on that. You can go for the Campaign if America. By the way, on our website at Operation Help, go to the Campaign for America under the book Financial Literacy for All book page in sign up for the Campaign for America to ultimately build a list that will go to legislators that would encourage them to make financial literacy the legislation of the land. But that's how I got it right. Banker come in my classroom giving me tools and then I and then

my eyes lit up. I saw businesses everywhere, So I wanted to make this easy for you. Here are ten businesses right that you can start. Now. You know some of these I could go for one hundred thousand, but I'm going to do this. I'm going to make this approachable. Right, ten businesses you can start for twenty five thousand dollars a year because these are lean times, right. Folks got too much month at the end of their money. Right now,

these are leaner times. If this was two thousand and one, right after the pandemic hit and all the stimulus money are flowing, I might do a podcast that's one hundred thousand dollars business, but you've got less money day, less resources, right, So I wanted something that's approachable twenty five thousand dollars and you can even finance some of that if you

need to. So, if you have a twenty five thousand dollars budget, and I encourage you to go to Operation Hope, sign up for our scholarship coaching and counseling, financial literacy coaching and counseling, and our one million Black Business Initiative, Our partnership with Shopify. Sign up that's free. Go to the Hope and Hand app online and get yourself undred credits work coaching and counseling. Because most of the credit you're going to access to start with these businesses, it's

going to come off your personal credit score. Because most black businesses, if you're black watching this and listening to this, most black businesses ninety six percent of them don't have an employee. Self employment projects. But most people who start businesses irrespective of race. By the way, you could be Caucasian, let they know, Asian, whatever, listening to this, it's all good.

It's the same tools, right and rules. You're going to be self employed and you're going to be your access to credit is going to rely a lot on your personal credit report. Okay. Business number one I want you to think about is a food truck startup costs well, the purchase of a lease of a truck right and it could be new, it could be previously owned kitchen equipment to go into the food truck, initial inventory licenses

in permits. Don't forget your permits. If you're operating in a city, even though the truck is moving, you still need a business permit. You don't want to get caught slipping and have folks come up and shut you down from the city or the county because you've not provided in some cases the state proper licenses. And if you're gonna deal with food, there's certainly licenses and permits involved.

Licenses and or permits. Now, if you if you come from my neighborhood, and if you happen to have a tan meaning you're black, or you're brown black or hispanic, somebody in your family knows how to cook, right, somebody knows how to burn as they say, right, it might be you, right. And if you have a passion for cooking, I think if you ever want to do that, somebody was you know, one of my relatives came to visit recently and I was like, what do you want to do?

She said, I want to be a lawyer. Why do you want to be a lawyer because they make good money. No, that's the wrong answer, right. I want you to do it because you're passionate, because you love it, because you do it for free, if you could afford to, Because then you'll get up early, stay up late, work harder. You'll put in more energy than anybody else and you

be the best at what you do. But if you're just doing it for the money, it's in late long lunch, leave early, and you won't put the energy in and somebody else is going to clock you, meaning somebody else is going to outwork you, and ultimately that dream will fail. Right, So if you love food, this is a great option for you a food truck. And yes, you can start

a food truck. Again, I encourage you to get a budget and design a balance sheet and an income statement, an income performer, which means you know what is the income you're projecting for the business over the course of the startup year. So you want to start with the startup budget. Was it cost to start then three months? I'd say suggest a three month budget, a six month budget, and a one year budget. And I think you can do that for twenty five thousand dollars. Okay, So purchase

or release a truck kitchen equipment. Now, if you're going to alter the truck, leasing might be a little sketchy. You've got to replace. You got to return that truck the way you you got it. So you might have to buy a truck, but you don't have to buy a new truck. You can buy a previously. I want a friend of mine named Tim Burt who's in my book. I sign him into my book. Whatever his quotes is. You got to decide whether you want to be famous,

you want to be dangerous. I'd rather be dangerous, meaning intelligent. He would. He drove up one day at the house and he's a general contractor with half a truck. He drove up and with the cab of the truck and the back was missing. We're like, man, what's up with that? Was? You know, nice looking truck. Where's the rest of it? He's like, yo, man, I did a job. And the guy he didn't want to pay me, but he said he would barter me for this truck. And the truck was.

I could get this truck for a fraction of its of its value. I checked the I checked the Blue Book value. By the way, this is another business bartering and selling and buying or bartering and selling is can be a former business, but buying and selling and turning around automobiles. But anyway, he said, I can buy this you know, this truck is a you know, this guy's wand sell it to me for a third of what it's worth. He just needs a little work, So he bought.

He accepted the truck in replaced for the work that he had done. A bar, a barter and trade, and he went and found at a junkyard the second part the bed for a couple of thousand dollars, and he had a truck that was dang near new for a fraction of the costs and cost him nothing quite literally, other than his own time. He could turn on and sell that truck for property he wanted to. He just had to paint it the same color. He still has

that truck today. My man is a good capitalist. So you don't have to go buy a brand new truck, and you don't have to go get in debt. You can just find something as reliable. The key on the food truck is what the food can? You cook right? And you can move. The great thing about a food

truck is you can move it to your market. Why it works lower overhead compared to a restaurant and stand a physical restaurant, and the ability to reach different customer bases, action steps, research, local regulations, design a menu and market through social media and local events. Again, my team that operations can help you get deeper into that situation. Number two, I love this one e commerce store startup costs, website development.

Your star costs can include website development, initial inventory, marketing, and shipping and logistics. I love this business because it involves one of our partners, which is Shopify, and that's the one million Black business initial shoppa. High Fire is a great and they put up one hundred and thirty million dollars to Operation after George Floyd's murder over ten years to help us create a million new Black businesses in America. My brother Lance Triggs, who's President of Programs

at Operation, runs that portfolio for me. Runs that and other things. But working with all the fraternities and sororities and HBC used like Clarke, Atlanta University, Houston Versity, and others, five bit of Sigma, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

We have over four hundred thousand black businesses that we've helped to start create, advance nurture support, amongst other things, a Shopify license for three to four months complementary, and if you make your first sale at Shopify, they will finance the second sale, so you don't need to go

get outside financing. They do it for you. They help you with your own website, your own payment, your own domain name, search website, payment systems, delivery systems, lots of support through our partnership with them, a business plan we help you with. Again that Shopify license that's actually worth the Shopify package we have, it's actually worth about twenty five thousand dollars. So in that particular case, the business

costs you nothing. So if you own an existing business right now, listen, now, you want to start an e commerce sister to that business. So if you have a restaurant right now, physical business, you want an e commerce side hustle. You have a barbershop at e commerce side hustle, whatever isn't you have? You want an e commerce system to that business. And it's working when you sleep. What if I told you you make money during the day. Listen now, hello, what are am I about to say?

You build wealth in your sleep compounding and when you're sleeping, people can be online making orders online on your e commerce site. So startup costs, website development, initial inventory, marketing, and shipping logistics. And I just told you if you partner will go through opera show and shop a fib We're going to help you offset a lot of that. Why it works, low overhead and the potential to reach

a global customer base. Hello global. I love that, and I love it also because it involves technology, which is I think in the future. Action steps. Choose a niche. Set up a niche meaning a business that a business section, a sector that you have a special expertise and its something that you know better than anybody else, right, and you're just really passionate about that topic or that area,

and just laser focus on that niche. Set up your an online store, Shopify, Woo Commerce, others, but I suggest Shopify and implement digital marketing strategies. Number three, I gotta go faster to get through the all ten and give you my bonus track. So bear with me here, and I'm so passionate about you getting these answers some kind

of really give you some real good detail here. But I'll get it all in before your run is over, before your walk is over, before you finish dinner, whatever you're doing, or you're commute and you're listening to this podcast. I commit to roll with you and ride with you, but be done before you are. You never want to be the old guy in the club, like before you're ready to kick me out, I'm gonna leave. Number three.

Yes I could have been a comedian. Yes I could have been, maybe not a good one, maybe not one being paid. But I could have been a communian. Okay. Number three Long care and landscaping services startup costs, long hair equipment. I went and bought a beautiful zero zero turn long lawn more for the property that we have, and I remember it was. It was beautiful. You sit on it, it turns around, gorgeous, it looked it was

commercial grade, and it was about five thousand dollars. Uh. And you can finance it if you wanted to so long cair equipment. Vehicle to transport the long longer equipment. Maybe you can get the truck from Tim Burt that that I just told you about it to give you a bargain for it again. But you can buy a truck you know previously own and and you know, well you're well within your budget. Uh. Vehicle marketing initial supplies long equipment. Why it works, Steady demand for residential and

commercial lawn care services grass grows every week. I know it seems obvious, but you know I need to tell you. I mean, I need to tell you the obvious. You got to eat every day. That's why the food truck works three times a day, two times a day, and long grows every week. So you know, people want to always need certain these these businesses in your local community. And uh uh I want you to advertise action steps,

advertise locally. I want you to offer competitive pricing and build a customer base through quality service that gives you repeat customers. The guy who does does my long care black owned business here in Atlanta, Uh he he comes in every week. Uh and he gets a check uh every month. Uh it's now is Jamail uh And uh he does a great, great job. And and I'm sure if he would be willing to mentor you if you want to start this business as m J Lawn and

Maintenance Services, Jamail Thomas here in Atlanta. Look him up, tell him I sent you fitness studio number four. Startup costs is rent, fitness equipment, marketing, and initial staff salaries. And if you you're the staff yourself, well there you go, zero that cost out. This is a fitness studio. So you know, maybe you need a part time receptionist in addition to you because you're going to do this, probably

because you're excited about and you love working out. It's a growing focus on health and wellness in this country. The country right now, we have the largest sorry, the first generation over the age of sixty five. The majority of people in this country will be over the sixty five our generation right now, and they're trying to live longer, they're trying to have wellness, they're trying to eat better

and live a more fulfilling life. And they're a great And then you have all these executives and people working harder, but they know they're not taking care of their bodies. And if you can provide a fitness studio for them in your community and really target again create that niche, you can grow a business clientele, action steps, find a suitable location, offer unique classes or fitness programs, and build

a community through social media. Of a friend here in Atlanta, Maury Russell of the Russell family, the famous real estate family,

her and Russell. This is his granddaughter and Maury has a fitness studio UH and it has been very successful for her as an example, and she started it on a limited budget, and I think she was even she even started it through the Wreussell Center for the Wrestle Center in Atlanta that nurtures entrepreneurs, So she even had a place to sort of domicile the business before she got it. Got rolling number five, and I did this

business before, a mobile car detailing business. Right startup costs, vehicle I even use the car you're driving already, UH detailing equipment. UH literally go down to go down to what I used to call it. I used to go to pet Boys, We go down the auto uh supply store. In these days, you can go to Walmart and Target Tar and get supplies. There. Used to be just when I was coming up, but there was just an literally an auto dealership, an auto parts supply company where you

would get the supplies. You can get them anywhere now. The vehicle detail equipment, cleaning supplies and marketing. Why it works, Convenient, convenience for customers, and relatively low startup costs, action steps, market to local car owners, go to car shows. That's what I would do. I'd hang out this sounds a little sketchy. I'd hang out a car, car washes and say don't you want to do this from home? I would hang out of car washes. I know it sounds funny.

I would say, you just wasted an hour, half an hour, forty five minutes sitting up here. What if I come to you? I mean, you can pick up all kind of customers just literally waiting at the mouth or the entrance of a car dealership. Don't append, don't mess up the car wash business, don't don't get in the way

of the customer. But if you could just have a side conversation with somebody entering or exiting fair changes or robbery, if they if they love they may love coming to car dealership, in which car dealership a car wash, in which case they not your target market, but they love sitting at home and chilling like me. Then they were like, yeah, man, give me your car, you come to me next. And so targeting the area, you know within let's say twenty or thirty minutes from where you live, so you can

you can get customers to them quickly. And that's my ideal suggestion. This is a great business. I did it before. I did a mobile car dealer detailing business. I didn't do it well, but I did it when I was teens, late teens. Forget how old I was around the time I was homeless and no, I didn't wash the car I was sleeping in because I wasn't paying customer. In fact, the folks were looking for the car I was sleeping in.

Number six Tutorio center startup costs, rent, educational materials, marketing, and initial staff salaries. Why it works consistent demand for educational supplies educational support across all age groups. Action steps. Advertise at local schools, create a strong online presence, and offer trial sessions to attract students. This is a great again, a great business, and use AI tools artificial intelligence to boost your uniqueness in this sector and your target markets.

Hanging around. The easiest way to do this is middle class school areas where you have a lot of engagement from parents who are going to pay for the tutorial services. You literally hang out in schools and see parents come and go, or build relationships with schools, and in low income areas build relationships with the school personnel and the school counselors and all that kind of stuff. But this is another great, great business. Literally, it doesn't matter the

socioeconomic groups. Everybody wants to come up. Everybody wants to be successful. In high income areas. You tend to have more family engagement, there's more income, there's more flexibility, there's more time to come show, hang out, and hang up at the school. I know when I was coming up, my mother's were two jobs. She didn't come to school as I got in trouble. But again, this works everywhere. Seven.

A photography business startup costs camera equipment, marketing, website development and studio set up if needed, unless you want to do a mobile photography business. And by the way, I would also rent photographic equipment. All these people doing podcasts hello, like me doing vlogs and all this stuff, they may they may have a need for different kind of equipment or upgrading equipment, or may not have the capital of

buy equipment. Some businesses just literally renting equipment. I mean, what all these folks do in these movies, these movies and video shoots and all that stuff. Do you think it's their equipment? No, it's not right. They rented. One of the huge business in Hollywood and Hollywood South here in Atlanta and in New York is reading equipment. That's a whole other business. Bonus stock. Why this business works. Photography business high demand for professional photography for events, portraits,

commercial use of course, weddings. Action steps, build a portfolio. Love is a business. Build the biggest business in the world. It's not the biggest business world, but it is a self sustainable business. People are always interested in love and whether it's loving another loving themselves. They like photography and they want to capture that moment. Build your action step, build a portfolio, Network and local with local businesses, and

utilized social media for marketing. Number eight coffee shop startup costs rent. And there's a company called the Black Coffee Company here in Atlanta that we Operation Shope invested in our first invent investment from Hope Ventures twenty five thousand dollars. Oddly enough for some money we put in their business.

They're doing extraordinarily well. They have a physical shop. They have great products and I mean some of the best call I've ever seen, and that people come in there all the time and they just want to chill in there, they want to work, they want to socialize. It is all in one and they drink coffee, which has a great profit margin in it. Startup costs rent for the facility, coffee equipment, in initial inventory of the coffee itself, licenses and permits. Why it works study demand for coffee and

a potential for a loyal customer base. You know coffee came from Ethiopia. You know that. I believe n T action steps find a high traffic location created a cozy atmosphere. A place is like a home, but it's in a business where people just love to chill and it's a warm environment. And market through local events and hello again social media. Number nine. Pet grooming services. Startup costs include grooming equipment rent if the business is not mobile, marketing,

and initial supplies. Why it works a growing industry. People love their pets are like shooting in Washington. They say, if you want to you want real relationship, real friend, get a dog. Dogs will love you no matter what. Because washingt DC is rather transactional, some folks may believe their relationships are transactional or or not for them anyway, Dogs pets always work. They love you no matter what. I'm kidding, but I'm serious that it's a big business.

It's a growing pet industry with a consistent demand for grooming services. Somebody comes in grooms Pixie as Jatre's dog. He gets paid. His dog is gorgeous, too. I guess dogs in Akita, Akita, beautiful dog. I always want to snatch the dog. I'm like, no, that's not good, John, you can't do that's groomer's dog action steps advertising local pet stores UH and veterinary clinics. Veterinarian clinics offer that's another solid business. By the way, offer promotions. I've been

I've been veterinary vetting. I've been into emergency veterinary rooms at midnight and two in the morning. Veterinarians, you know, I mean, it's unbelievable, but they charge it two in the morning. And what you willing to pay and offer promotions and provide excellent customer service. Nobody wants to deal with a jerk, so make sure you're providing good customer service. Number ten. Home renovations and repairs, startup costs, tools, vehicles, marketing,

and initial supplies. You don't need a general contractor's license for this, but it would be nice to have it. So if you want to just do hand handyman work, handy woman work, then this and there's always a need for this, then this is a good business. But you want to go step it up a level, then you want to become a contractor general contractor a high demand

for home improvement services. Action stabs market to market to homeowners, offer competitive rates, and build a reputation for quality work. I can't tell you how much business you can get if you just have ethics and integrity in the construction trade, it is. It is sketchy stuff I've seen in the construction state trade. So just be better than everybody else, Like,

just be normal. So I want you to research and plan, conduct thorough market research and create a detailed business plan for each of these businesses that you want to start. I want you to leverage technology you can't do. Me and Sam Autman not good English, Sam Altman and myself Sam Altman, the CEO of Open AI, and I are co chairing the AI Ethics Council. And the more I think, the more I learned about this phenomena of AI, the more I believe it is going to change everything. And

I will be doing a podcast just on AI. But you've got to involve yourself in technology. There's two things you've got to have going into the future, whether you're coming just out of school or you're resetting yourself for your second stage of your life. And you're doing do over. You need technology education and a financial literacy education to compete be competitive in this new world. Leverage technology and become a technologist. Use online tools and platforms to streamline

operations and marketing. Build a network. Network with other business owners. Join local business groups and trade groups. Here in Atlanta there's a Black Chamber Commerce and Black Business Association and all these different groups. But you know, whatever is in your area that you think allows you to network with other business owners. And you guys can trade leads right and participate in community events. Big a big source of

leads and opportunity. And work with your government that all the festivals that the government does, they'll give you space for free. Often it's free marketing. They'll market for you the local city, county government. Focus on quality and customers service. Nobody loves rude, be boat. Stop being rude and ask for my money. Provide excellent customer service and high quality products, and build and help build loyal customer base and generate

positive word of mouth. Be careful managing that budget. If you're outflow, he sees your inflow, then you're overhead. It will be your downfall. Be careful, be careful, be careful. Okay, I have a bonus business idea for you. I'm going to do a separate podcast episode on kids' businesses. By the way, yay, watch out for that one. But here's the bonus business that I want you to think about. And I really for some reason, I just I just

think this is so cool box truck. My brother, Keith Williams, who is a barber a well he's a firefighter for the City of Atlanta, So thanks for their serius service, brother. But he also has a mobile barber shop. It's another business I didn't cover. It's a mobile barbershop, mobile nail salon, mobile nail tech, mobile manicure, and dedicare Yes, Peedicare ladies.

They love those pedicas. Brothers do too. There's all these kind of mobile all these mobile you know, mobile services are well under twenty five thousand dollars for startup costs and operating for the year. These were not just started cost. But you can run these business You can start these businesses and typically run them for a year for twenty five about twenty five thousand dollars of outflow if you really manage it very well. You can't take money out

of the business. But you won't be putting more than twenty five thousand into it if you plan it really well. Now, this business here is over twenty five thousand dollars to do what I'm about to tell you, it's going to be between fifty and ninety thousand dollars. But and you've been to finance some of that, maybe a lot of that. But I just I just think this is a cool little business. Starting a box truck business. That box truck is.

Think about a I have a sprinter van, but it's all you know, so asked up like a portable office. Think about a hollowed out sprinter van. Think about a well, it's a box truck, and so search box truck while we're doing this, right, it's not an eighteen wheeler, is not on these huge trucks. But it's also not a vein, right, So it's a step between. Starting a box truck business can be a viable and lucrative option for young business

people and young entrepreneurs. Now, an entrepreneur a business person, they are different. Business person is using a traditional business model and growing it. Succeeding entrepreneur is taking something, an existing idea, maybe in turning it into a new idea or starting a new idea to begin with. But it can be a very lucrative for a young hustler. Again,

my hustle is different. And who wants to start a business, who wants to be self employed, who doesn't have a lot of capital, who wants to be local, who wants to have a great margin on the business, mean the profit margin. Who wants to have something that is highly sought for, sought after. It offers flexibility this business, relatively low startup costs compared to other business models, and the opportunity to cater to a wide range of industries such

as moving services, delivery services, logistical support. I'm going to get into this. I love you. I love businesses where your clients are huge, you know, and they pay their bills and there's a constant need. All of my my joint ventures, all of my partners, my clients are my partners are bigger than me. I'll get it enjoint ventures in a separate podcast. Again, to be very focused on these different podcasts. Uh. And you're almost at your location, so I have only about ten more minutes with you.

So we're gonna we're gonna end with a bang here Are you enjoying this? Never mind, you're getting it anyway. No, seriously, are you enjoying this? Let me know what you Let me know if you're filling it, and share this with your partners, your friends, your family members, you know, those who are reimagining their life. So again, I love this business for a lot of different reasons. Here's how you start this box truck business. The first thing is research

and planning. Again, my team at Operation Hope can help you with all of this, so you're not by yourself. And it's because of scholarships at Operation Hope that are one thousand dollars scholarships, five thousand dollars scholarships scholarships, and ten thousand dollars coaching scholarships. The services initially are all free. Not initially meaning all the services are no cost to users, not like a baid and switch situation. But these services

based on these categories are no cost to you. And then because we raise money from corporations to sponsored services in scholarships, ship it to you. And then there's the higher echelons of scholarship. Is this twenty five thousand dollars in kind scholarship through the one million Black Business program one MBB, so get it. Why it's there, It's not gonna be there forever. You know, don't assume that these services are going to be around forever. Go to the

US Small Business Administration. We can link you into them if you don't know how to get to them. Market research, identified demand for services in your area. Check out your competition and potential client base. Right, you want to write all this stuff down, Right, you want a written business plan, and I'd start with a mind map. If you don't know what that is, search it. I'd start with the mind map. It gets the idea out of your head, like just Google, you know, just literally writing down or

the software for this mind mapping software. And then I would have a project management software. I use Trello, but you can use what you like. That allows you to break an idea down into, you know, into smaller parts. I'd have a note taking app and of course a financial spreadsheet app and start, you know, creating a budget. And again you don't can't do it, We'll do it with you. This creates a business plan, all these different pieces and marketings that create a detailed business plan outlining

your services, target market, pricing, strategy, and financial projections. Right, you is a different between business and busyness. Right, You want to be in a business, not busyness. If your outflow exceed you inflow, then your overhead or be your downfall. You don't want to get get in business and start leasing fancy cars and you know, spending money and having a business card that says CEO. That's called flossing. You want to get out there and hustle. Right. When I

was coming up in business, I never paid myself. Right, I was the last person to get paid. Financing and financing and budgeting, startup costs, estimate costs for purchasing or leasing a box truck, insurance, maintenance, fuel, marketing, and other operational expenses. Okay, secure funding through your own savings. May not have savings loans in that particular case, poor people.

The version of capital is called a loan, family and friends or a nice place to start and also do go fund me strategy or some kind of a crowdsourcing strategy. Of course, there's also investors. I don't really encourage you to go with investors for a small business like this, but you know, if you have to knock yourself out, sometimes your families are your investors credit cards. I know this is unorthodox, but you know you got to do

what you gotta do. I would not use a credit card to go buy something perishable that's going to decrease in value. But if I thought I was investing in myself and I had no other former credit, another former capital, I would. And I have used credit cards to finance different aspects of my business. And people will tell you that don't do this. Yeah, well, life is perfect. Don't do this. But life is seldom perfect. Never let the perfect become the death of the good. Your number one

asset is your hustle. An entrepreneur works eighteen hours a day to keep from getting a job right again, my hustle is different again. My team that Operation Hope can make sure that you are meeting all your obbligations by helping you develop that business plan and the funding strategy

for equipment and insurance. Box truck purchase or least a reliable box truck suitable for your service really important element when dealing with the fact that your product is the box truck, so you don't want that to break down. Preferably get one with a warranty on it so you're not paying paying a lot of money for maintenance. So I would get a new box truck, I'd finance it. They'll finance typically for four or five to seven years. I would make sure there was a wonderful warranty on it.

I'd get an extended warranty if you could afford it. I'd make sure you had a relationship with the dealership that you bought it from and dealerships in the surrounding area. Get to know the manager, the service manager, all those people. So if you have a need, this is your source of income. If you had that truck goes in, you need it in and out quickly. So you want you want the folks to be ready to take care of you when you come in and say yes, mister Jones,

yes missus Jones, yes we got you. Don't worry about it, so that you get back your back out on the road right. Insurance obtained comprehensive insurance coverage including liability, cargo, hello and vehicle insurance. So you need to have insurance for liability case in case you hit somebody and it's your fault. That's the law. Comprehensive coverage, which in this particular case is cargo coverage in case somebody steals your

stuff in the back. Right. You see all the stuff online people crazy these days, right, so you have to have cargo coverage. But those two things are really important for districular business. Marketing and networking. Branding develop a professional brand, a nice logo, website, and business cards. Marketing strategy. Utilize online marketing, social media, Google Ads, et cetera, local advertising, and partnerships to attract clients. Growing the Box Trucks business.

Expand your services. Diversify your offerings. Consider adding services such as long distance moves, commercial deliveries, or specialized logistical logistics solutions. I even got to the part that makes me really excited about this. Yet. Just hold on customer service and reputation quality service. Focus on providing excellent customer service to build a strong reputation and encourage repeat business. I remember all the delivery people show up to my house. I

can remember the ones most all of them. We are successful that I remember. Are nice because kindness always works and nobody likes a jerk. So always show with a smile and are pleasant, and people will want you to come back, and they will recommend you, and you'll even build rips. Start building relationship with the folks that you

are that you're delivering to. Seasonal opportunities. Take advantage of seasonal demand spikes such as holidays like Christmas in moving season, Hello, so find out what the moving season is in your area. Customer service and reputation. Again, provide great customer service. Nobody likes the jarge. I can't say that enough. I can't guarantee you that being being positive is going to make you a successful I absolutely guarantee you that being negative

it's going to make you fail. In reviews, encourage satisfy customers to leave positive reviews and refer your services to others. Really important these days. When I go to look at any taking, you know, hiring anything, or any service buying something, I look at the reviews, don't you. So you want to make sure that you encourage your people to leave positive reviews. Don't encourage you had a bad customer experience, you want that person to go away, right, but you

want positive reviews. Root optimization use root planning software to optimize delivery roots and reduce fuel costs. And technology technology technology people come up today, young people come today. You've got tools that were never available. Do you guys Remember the map books. Remember those You had them in your trunk and you had to like go to five different sections of the book to tell you what page LS three, section forty nine D. Then turn the page X ninety eight.

Remember all that. Remember the remember the tingtong, the pong pong whatever, the thing was a dashboard that was like the mapping thing. You had to go buy it for ninety nine one hundred, two hundred, three hundred, five hundred dollars. These these these maps would go would sit on your dashboard, these digital maps. You had to plug it in your lighter, right, you know, now that's on your phone. But these things just to be standalone, you know, between one hundred, five

hundred even one thousand dollars. The stuff you guys have available now is unbelievable compared to how folks used to have to roll back in the day. Hey, fleet management, if you expand to multiple trucks, implement fleet management systems to track maintenance again, software and technology, fuel usage, and driver performance. Yes, you want to track all of that, particularly if you're hire additional drivers. Collaborations, Partner with local

businesses such as furniture stores. Yes, furniture stores, well, guess what they sell furniture. They need somebody to deliver stuff for them. Remember you see you see people drive on the street with the matters on there on top of them on the mercedes. That person needs a box truck. They'd be happy to pay for it. By the way, people buy stuff on a whim and have no idea how to get it home. Moving companies, you want to secure regular contracts if you can, so it's not just

transactional one off business. Join industry associations and attend networking events to build relationships and discovering new business opportunities. Uh, scaling the business invested in additional trucks as demand grows. Reinvesting your business. Don't take the money out and go partying, and sure you have the capacity to handle large contracts and multiple clients simultaneously. I'm starting to get the part

where I'm excited about this. Higher reliable drivers. Don't hire pooky in them, a cousin, Jojo, who's a bum who's gonna embarrass you, and go take your truck on a weekend surge orn somewhere and sit up at the lake with their girlfriend when they should be out of delivery. Yes, I know, I've hit a nerve. You can tell this is personal to me. You want to hire people who

you know are gonna do you right? Right and take you want to get some charity, give them some money, don't but don't make it a job where they're not doing and you're paying them for it. Even if you want to distribute money like a socialist. You got a first collected like a capitalist. Can I get an amen? All right? So make sure you hire good people, right? And yeah? That got me all worked up? All right? Uh, you can do this business. Here's the cash part, right.

The cost to run a box truck business for six months to a year can vary based on sero factors such as location, scale of operations, and specific business requirements. But here's a breakdown of some costs. Initial startup costs box truck purchase release to purchase twenty five thousand to fifty thousand dollars Not so bad, huh for a used box truck. Fifty two one hundred thousand dollars for a new one. If you're going to buy a used one,

what did I tell you? Make sure it still has a warranty on it, and if it's got miles on it, I'd suggest you do diesel because diesel cars, diesel truck engines go forever. The least payment's going to be eight hundred to fifteen hundred dollars a month. Number two licenses and permits. Business license fifty to five hundred bucks is typically the range, depending on where you are. Commercial Driver's License CDL, it's going to cost between fifty to two

hundred dollars. Check your local and your state requirements, but you may need a CDL to do this. You typically you will commercial driver's license, US DOT number and motor carrier authority. That's three hundred to five hundred dollars. Insurance. Commercial vehicle insurance three thousand dollars to six thousand dollars per year. I was gonna say per month. Did you about to have a heart attack? You? No? Sixty three, three thousand and six thousand dollars per year. Cargo insurance.

Remember I told you needed that five hundred to one thousand dollars per year. General liability insurance five hundred to fifteen hundred dollars per year. Have you ever written this down? You haven't. If you're trying to write this down, stop, don't drive right right don't drive. Don't drive in texts put off to the side. I want you to get an accident till amw driving the box truck company and write this stuff down. You always go back and listen

to it later. Initial equipment and supplies fuel five hundred to one thousand dollars a month, unless it's an electric truck. Maintenance and repairs two hundred to five dollars per month. But if you have a warranty, you know your maintenance in repairs might be close to zero h depending on how to warranty you get. Offer supply and material and marketing materials five hundred to one thousand dollars a month, and that's money we'll spent branding and marketing. Website development

five hundred to three thousand dollars. But you know, in some cases you can do a website for basically on a template that's out there for you know, one hundred bucks or two. My team can help you with that at Operation Show. Marketing and advertising five hundred to two thousand dollars. Now, I would suggest you do social media ads and target them to your area. Facebook is really good at that. I don't know if Instagram targets into areas I think they do, but just do your own

research LinkedIn et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Ongoing operational costs. So this is six months to a year for this business. Fuel and maintenance. I've already covered that three thousand and six thousand dollars, you know, for that six month to one year period. Maintenance and repairs again, twelve hundred and three thousand dollars, Insurance three thousand and six thousand dollars, cord guard, cargo five hundred and one thousand, general liability,

five hundred and fifteen hundred. Driver salaries for full time driver twenty five hundred to forty five hundred dollars per month unless you are the driver, in which case it's hello zero. You can afford to pay yourself at that point. And so that's totaling about fifteen thousand to twenty seven thousand dollars for six months. Marketing and customer acquisition. Ongoing marketing thousands to three thousand dollars for that period, Office supplies,

administrative costs five hundred to one thousand dollars. Total tolls, parking and other operating costs one thousand, two thousand dollars unless you get a bunch of tickets, which I encourage you not to do at that meter. That meter may that that parking meter is My friend Rob McGrew. Rob McGrew would say that parking meter is a capitalist, like you cannot pay it. It's dollars, two dollars, five dollars.

Whatever it is in that tackle that you would get inside for ten bucks just cost you sixty bucks or eighty bucks because that is coming up on that meter. That parking meter is a capitalist, make no mistake about it. Total estimated costs for this business initial startup costs thirty thousand to sixty five thousand dollars. You can finance at least half of that, is my guess, maybe two thirds of that because most that's going to be tied to

the truck. A lot of it will be ongoing costs for six months twenty five to forty five thousand dollars, ongoing costs for one year fifty to ninety thousand dollars. So so you can start this business and run it for less than one hundred thousand dollars. And here is the kicker about this business that I really really love. You can do business with big ball companies. Contracting with

companies like Amazon. The Amazon Relay Service a program that connects truck owners with freight loads that need to be transported. What's the requirements of VALIDOT number? An active MC number with the FMCSA a box truck that meets Amazon's requirements, typically twenty four to twenty six feet in length, Commercial insurance coverage with specific limits. We already covered that. How to apply well, go to the Amazon Relay website. You

know Amazon Delivery Service Partner. It's as DSP, a program that allows individuals to run their own delivery businesses delivering Amazon packages. Now you see what all the folks are doing, coming to your house and your business. That's what they're doing. The initial requirement is initial investment to start the business, usually more than just owning a single box truck, strong leadership and management skills. How to apply Amazon DSP website.

Contracting with other companies. I love companies like UPS. UPS is one of my partners. They're they're very good well run company. UPS Independent contractor program. Box truck owners can on UPS as an independent contractor to deliver packages, especially during peak seasons. So you want to make more some extra money for the holidays. Here you go how to apply. Contact your local UPS office or visit their website to learn more about this opportunity and tell them John Brian

and Opertion hope sent you. FedEx same thing. FedEx Ground Independent Contractor program similar to UPS. FedEx also works with independent contractors to deliver packages, and you can go to the operation Opertion go to the FedEx Ground Independent Contractor website. DHL. This is mostly international, but DHL is also big here. They have a DHL Independent Contractor Program. DHL contracts with

independent drivers and logistic companies for package delivery. Contact DHL directly or visit their website to find out more about their opportunities. Local businesses and retailers. Many local businesses, furniture stores, retailers use delivery services. They don't want to own that truck, they don't want to own that cost of labor, whatever what else. They want to contract it out on a trend action by transaction basis. So that's going to be more one off's going to then one at a time.

But the golden goose of this business is you've got a natural, ongoing, dependable revenue stream with huge companies and I just mentioned a few of the well known ones, like think about all the logistical companies, logistics companies and delivery companies. Think about the industrial parks that are arranging deliveries and they got long haul drivers, but do they have any short haul drivers, meaning in and around your city?

That this is a really cool business. And then if you decide you're tired of the business, as long as you're not beat up the truck, you can sell the truck and may get your money back. You know, certainly if it is a diesel engine, then you can get your Let me start I owning people just blaming me. You can't get your money back anyway. If you if you do a good job of maintaining the product. Go to my brother Tony Martzoulo a gasmotor cars. He doesn't deal with box trucks, but he can give you. He

was on the past series. He will certainly him and his team will give you some direction of where get how to sell the truck, or go contact Tim Burke and maybe you will just buy the truck, or he'll buy half the truck. My man's a hustler. All right. I hope that you've enjoyed this is John O'Brien, this is Money and Wealth, and this has been a really

cool session. I think of ten businesses you can start for twenty five thousand dollars or less with a bonus track of a business that costs a little bit more, but you get your money back. If you maintain this truck and you're tired of the business, you can get a good more portion of your capital return to you, or at least get out of the liability by selling it. And if you want to keep it, you can grow

it with a customer base. It's pretty dang on dependable in a space that's growing consistently, and still have the independence of doing what you like, when you like however you like it. You can drive local, drive regional. I'm out, John O'Briant, Money and Wealth, the Black Effect Podcast Network. This is the silver rights movement, from civil rights to silver rights. This is the third reconstruction. I want you to look up one MBB, one Me and Black Business Initiative.

I want you to tell your friends to follow this podcast. I want you to pick up my book Financial Literacy for All number one on business finance in the country on Amazon. And I want you to go to Operation Hope and sign up to one of these coaching services, get a scholarship to be coached up to get your credit score up and all that stuff and take your life back. I'm Out Money and Wealth with John O'Brien

is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen your favorite shows.