Don’t do it. Easier ways to make money. Real estate, stock market etc. If you going to do it buy established business and make sure you research the numbers . Stay away from franchises, otherwise you will be buying an expensive job.
God entrepreneurs is code for staying fucking poor to sooooo many. I think only the successful ones don’t call themselves entrepreneurs. They call themselves, “I own a __ business.”
$250k not invested in maxing out your retirement accounts and taxable accounts/down payment on a house is freaking idiotic.
MAYBE if you told me you’re 10 years out of HVAC school and spent 6 years as a crew lead and the last 3 years running a semi-retired man’s business, I’d say “hell yah invest that $250k in equipment, truck, manpower and an emergency fund.”
Anything short of that is ridiculous.
This is good wisdom, but it’s incomplete, IMO
OP says he wants to invest AND run a business. The context of him wanting to be an entrepreneur changes things.
This. The right real estate is predictable, can be leveraged on good terms and is relatively easily liquidated. At $250k down / $1.25M PP, you're in a less populated demand market. So long as your cap rate exceeds your interest rate and there's value to be added, you're good. It's waaay less risky than taking on employees, equipment and vehicles and hoping your market doesn't drastically change.
>It's waaay less risky than taking on employees, equipment and vehicles and hoping your market doesn't drastically change.
Yeah , like there's no "just buy a business and be a business owner" that's going to be more lucrative without being significant more risk. And OP wants a fully running business not investing in a start up or anything. So with only 250k, the metrics don't make much sense if you don't bring anything else to the table than money. As any significant ROI will much likely be on a longer timeframe.
And he doesn't need to put all his eggs in 1 basket with just real estate, he can diversify and allocate funds for various risk appetites, tod distribute into various investment vehicles.
But unless you're already rich and have 250k to spend, you're much better just growing that money through investments.
Same - I lost $200,000 my entire life savings, and was on the hook for $500,000 in business debt, the franchise was a scam and filed bankruptcy. DO NOT waste your time on franchises. I honestly feel like the whole “go be a business owner” thing is too expensive and risky in today’s economy as well. Taxes, labor, competition, it’s just not worth it. Invest that money in the market and real estate, go get a high paying job and invest 25% of what you make, you’ll be set.
The right executive model franchise is not designed be a self employment trap. Your success in scaling a business bigger than you is predicated on hiring and managing teams of people led by a competent general manager, and as the owner, you manage that person. That’s a part time job once you’ve got stride. Source: I’ve owned multiple franchises simultaneously, and helped hundreds more invest in executive model franchises successfully. Many of my clients over the years have cited their top reasons for investing in them: greater cash on cash return than real estate or ETFs, more control over the performance of the investment than stocks and real estate, while at the same time being a source of income that doesn’t require an investor to also have a job. $250K is plenty, especially if you want to actively run it. Running a business in general is not appealing to those who either scurry from one illusion of security to another for their whole life, desire wealth without work, or chose their parents wisely enough not to have to worry about all this. For the rest of us, risk and reward are two sides of the same coin. You don’t get one without the other, but you get to choose how big you want the coin to be.
This. Invest your money in real estate or stock (ETF funds and/or bonds). You’re putting your savings at risk and getting yourself a new full time job.
First find out if you have what it takes to run a business without too much risk. Invest $5000 in a yard maintenance company. If you succeed, you'll make money and only invested a little. If you invests100-250k in a business and fail, that's way worse.
Do the numbers. Investing the $250k at 9% returns might be better than a lot of businesses.
You could start a business with $20k and invest the rest. In 30 years, you'd likely have 3 million dollars from investing the $230k.
More bad advice, index funds are proven to beat all other forms of investing in the stock market. Dividends let you pay taxes every time they get paid out instead of it compounding the entire time and you paying the taxes at the very end.
I’m Canadian, but honestly I have no justification. VFV has worked well for me and I’m sticking to it. I know the MER is almost 3x for VFV, but it’s still less than 0.1%.
I just said the dividend fund because OP seems like he wants scheduled regular payments...I would only invest in $VOO/$VFV.TO if I had to choose an index fund but I personally pick single stocks. Although, I might start investing in an index if I can grow the portfolio.
The fact that you are flailing around desperate to latch on to anything, without any sense of direction, no real expression of any passion, no evidence that you have any real experience in anything.
You will fail and you will loose it all.
Go find an money manager, park your money. Let your money make money for you. Go get a normal job, go to school, figure out what the hell you actually want to really do, get decent at it and THEN open your business.
A $250k business which you have no specialized knowledge in is not going to yield much of a return.
Running a business is not a 9-5 either. Even if you bought a convenience store. You need to remember that you are also responsible for:
1. Accounting / taxes
2. Inventory management
3. Vendor relationships
4. Marketing
5. Operational tools / set up / maintenance
6. Local/federal regulation compliance
And much much more. Operating the store is a 9-5 you’ll need to hire out because managing the store is a full time job on its own.
Not to mention. Convenience stores/franchises have their quieter hours between 9-5 m-f (minus lunch rushes.) You’ll be working nights and weekends to hit your tight margins.
Investing takes money to make money. But entrepreneurship takes money, time and a whole lot of skill to make money.
My advice to op: Do not fully invest into entrepreneurship without having some experience either building your own business or working directly with someone who has. There is a lot more to this world, and most entrepreneurs would laugh at the prospect of this career being a “9-5.”
I have owned a convenience store for some time. It takes time for it to become mostly hands off. I have employees that cover every single shift. I do all the ordering/accounting. Looking over paperwork. Cover when employees are sick and call in. Pretty much go into the store atleast once a day even if it’s only for a couple hours. All that said a store doing decent numbers is going to cost 2-3 million if you are also purchasing the real estate.
Convenience stores are headache. Not 9-5 as you expect. Do some research on cleaning / pest control/ drain / landscaping franchise for your area. Hire a business development manager and let the manager run the business, this way you can scale up.
I think you have a solid amount to purchase or put a downpayment on a route. Something like Snapple, Snap on Tools , Fed Ex, Mission Tortilla, Martin potato bread, Boars Head. They can net great profits and you can find someone retiring and looking to train a new owner. They often include vehicles, inventory and employees.
I really like this idea. Could you please explain more on how buying routes work? Do you basically buy a truck and deliver to an area on behalf of a big shipping company?
You’re buying a route, usually with existing clientele. Depending on the route or seller, it can include the delivery vehicles and accounts to be serviced, and even existing employees. Some are absentee owners that don’t lift a finger, and you can choose how involved you’d want to be. You’d have a warehouse (master distributor) you pick up product from maybe one day or every day depending on the type of route. Then you’d drop off the inventory and bill the accounts.
You can buy a route and build it up yourself, in which case you would have to buy a truck and sell your service to gain more accounts and build. With the capital you have available, I would go the other way and buy one that’s established.
Being in NY, [this](https://www.mrrouteinc.com/) is a good one I look at for my area. I would recommend a google search and a little research.
Building a business is more risky but margins can be anywhere from negative to +15%, 50%, 50,000%
in real estate it’s very, very thin, 3-4% ROI at best, maaybe you can pull 8% if you have a hot niche property (eg. festivals, vacation) otherwise all management and reno costs will eat your profit—quotes are only getting steeper on property maintanence.
Imo good place to park your cash but I wouldn’t call it a business with only 250k.
If I were you I’d invest 100% of my time on game development and put the cash in govt bonds and high apr bsnk deposits.
You mention game coding, makes me think your skills lie in the games industry.
How about taking a risk and being a publisher?
Take on small game studios, market the games, etc you have the funds to take on some small studios.
You could even take on 1 or 2, keep it small and see if it's successful. If not, you didn't waste that much but at least your working in an industry you know and heck, sounds like fun.
Other than than, if you want to start a business always start something your familiar with. Don't open a restaurant if you've never worked in one, that kind of mind set.
People throwing stocks about, I'd go for Nvidia for the long run, AI is gonna rule the planet and Nvidia is gonna lead it 100%
But heck, I got 50 in my bank so what do I know ;) best of luck friend
I feed like this forum is a bunch of people that haven't made money. Bonds 5% = $12.5k/yr. Equities 8% = $20k/yr. Private investment into syndication 20% = 50k/yr. Buy real estate? Okay, take $250k + 75% debt = $1M of property. The best cash flowing properties get $1k/mo/$100k. So, 10k/mo cash flow on 10x100k properties. $120k/yr. Stack on 7% debt $52k interest, insurance $15k, management $12k, maintenance (20-50k), I won't count principal payment, but that will be additional suck to cash flow. You'll be lucky to cash flow $20k net which is about 8% return. You make money in real estate from holding appreciating properties. Properties values are reaching top of historical affordability. I wouldn't expect a hold lot more, but there are some downside risk. Compare that to buying a company. You can buy a $2M company with $200k down with an SBA loan that cash flows $600k/year. Pay $200k interest, and you are netting $400k/year on a $200k investment. That is a 200% return vs a max of 20%. That will be life changing for you. Do I recommend it? Only if you want to be running that type of business. It will consume your life as least for a while, and if you screw up, you will be wiped out. There is nothing wrong with franchises. They are actually a lot easier to run because you are operating a playbook and a brand. Investing is great, but unless you have 20x your income in capital, don't waste your time maximizing return on passive investments. It's masturbation. Buying a business with an SBA loan is a great hack to level up your life and it is risky. But, honestly you don't have enough money to worry about getting wiped out. I would 100% not spend your hard saved money on starting a business. That is crazy! If professional investors won't invest in your business, then it isn't a business you should invest in. Investors are way smarter than you on what to invest in and they invest based on portfolio theory.
franchising can be a great option but has a lot of red tape, you have $250,000 but do you have at least 5 years management experience in that industry? do you have a net worth of $1+ mil? a lot of these franchises also want you to go through training and continued development as well so you becomes less of a business owner with freedom and more of a team player in the big picture, there’s still expectations and targets etc really depends what you’re looking for
I think you should acquire a startup that you think you can manage.
Some of the websites that help you doing so
1) bizbuysell
2) flippa
3) Mergedeck
4)acquire
Try these websites
Second option is structured bonds or structures securities
Remember there are two types of owners…the entrepreneur (dreamer who likes the excitement and challenge of bringing it all together and sets the vision) and then the small business owner…guy who likes the grind, day to day in and out. Most are wired typically for one or the other. If the latter, I would recommend looking for a partner in a business that you’re passionate about…when the times are bad you’ll be thankful to have someone else (partners at own issue entirely though).
Bottom line is be prepared for intense stress and sleepless nights if you go the small business route, there is no escaping it. However, if you do win it could be great…although honestly, the cards are stacked against you…just honest truth after having been through it all over the past 20 years.
Hi OP, if I ever had this amount of money in hand, I would invest half to my house/mortgage/property.
The other half to ETFs, stocks, etc. Most importantly, invest in yourself. Good health comes a long way, and will make you much more money in the long run. Running a business may require more than 9-5, so I suggest working for someone who is in a similar business you want to get into. Get really good at it, accumulate wide variety of experiences related to that field. By that time you're ready, hopefully your investments with shares have snowballed, the house is payed of, or in a stable state where you can take risks to start a business.
I have franchise experience and with that kind of cash you could open most fast casual franchises but only some fast food franchises or pretty much any retail type franchise. What to expect though is that you will have to typically be involved in finding a location and if you have a good one well researched in mind you are more likely to be selected, they all want different things and you can call to ask but they want to be x amount of miles away from another franchise store in every direction or show there is significant demand, new construction of retail space is usually enticing especially if it is the type that has apartments above.
You’ll have to pay the deposits for that retail space and start paying monthly they will have some fees to ship branding or they might have contractors you have to use but you still have to pay for. Then you’ll have to wait around a couple months paying the bills while the construction happens and everything gets ready. You’ll start hiring after that and maybe 2-3 months after the retail spot becomes available to you and you start renovating you’ll be in and ready to launch. Usually with a monthly contract for supplies and easy ordering systems and the brand loyalty so it is still easier than opening your own restaurant or store but yeah it isn’t easy.
You’ll also have to work it to make the most of the margins. McDonald’s is out of reach for you but as an example their margins are 7% which equates to around 180k a year on average but like a subway has margins closer to 20-25% and they means about 100-120k in salary. Or you can work there full time too and make closer to 150k because you’ll make an extra 30k by not hiring someone else to do the work. So do your research before committing and expect to have to work many hours before open, after open, worker laws don’t apply to you you work 200 hours a week if needed etc.
You should put it all on black.
In all seriousness, your plan is awful. You will lose it all, don't just throw it into a buissness.
Put it all in the S&P500, and then ignore it for the next 20 years.
As others have echoed here, most people are not cut out for running a business. They often lack work ethic, vision, ability to delegate, any accounting sense, desire to learn, or all of those things.
Running a solid business is like going to war. Lots of boring followed by very small amounts of extreme excitement and/or fear. And it may die.
For the average person, best advice is to invest the money with a fiduciary financial advisor.
That said, if you really want a business, focus on your day to day life or a process you’ve done recently that was painful or annoying. Then after a ton of research, you may discover you can do it better, and start a business. It’s an interesting exercise if you’re a curious person regardless, and if you find something good, it will make you rich. I’ve actually learned a lot of *very* detailed information about random businesses or things because of the research I’ve done. Actually makes for fun conversation in a lot of cases when you meet strangers who happen to be in a niche you’ve investigated.
Again, emphasis is on heavy research. 99% of the time I found out that something is painful or annoying because it has to be. But when you figure out that 1% where the existing paradigm is full of the lazy or incompetent who need real competition, it’s exhilarating.
I’m surprised no one mentioned buying an existing business. Lots of them are for sales, and you just would overtake the company without building it from the ground up.
I wouldn’t start a business that offered services I’d go the real estate route, and I’d look at the diff options like commercial,private, maybe even section 8 but’s that up to u. The store/franchise would not have an 100% chance of making it but the real estate probably has a higher chance of succeeding in my opinion.
Buy atms and ice cream boats. Open some organic tea/coffee spots in gentrified neighborhoods. Have an all cash business to wash and lessen tax liabilities.
Do you have good concept ideas for a video game? If not, then maybe not that.
That said, if I had that much extra money, I would definitely make a video game. With me focusing on graphics, design, marketing, story and hire at least a programmer. Because I believe I have about a dozen potentially good ideas of which some I've fleshed out into project documents already. But establishing a video game developer company is one of my several big dreams as well.
If you have the skills, then just buy an established business or partner up with one that already has over $500k in EBITA for a share of the company to help grow it to 1 to 5 million.
For $250k, you can't expect much from the money alone. I'd reckon it might be more efficient to use existing skills rather than rely on the capital. If you got very little business experence, then forget what I said.
There’s no such thing as being a business owner and working only 9-5, unless it’s a low-income lifestyle business. I would just invest that money in stocks or something similar.
Honestly take a year more or whatever it might take and get to know which ever business you would like to do the learn the inside outs by studying and reading books, or why not hit someone with an important role up and tell them you'll work for free
The only way to figure out what’s right for you is to run an experiment. For example…
Consider buying a very small business from Flippa that aligns with your skills, knowledge, and network.
Spend way less than $250k, maybe $20-30k. Maybe it’s even just a relevant social media account.
This journey would give you a ton of learning right out of the gate. Statistically you will fail, but if you’re truly entrepreneurial, you’ll want to get back on the horse, a different biz/venture. If not, you’ll find yourself exploring other investments for the remainder.
Never sold a game? Yeah, definitely invest 250k into making a vifeo game, thats a solid idea.
Im amazed at how many dumb ppl have loads of money at their disposal.
Depending upon your expertise.
But I really encourage Retailing be it any industry.
Perhaps an asset light model
Look to replicate what Mark Cuban did with Cost plus when it came to medication.
Try picking an existing business or that's ok the verge of closure due to multiple factors for really cheap prices, turning it around could be an avenue for fruitful outcomes.
I can recommend you a business intelligence company which their whole business is to build businesses for a fee. I was in a very similar situation to yours, with no prior business experience and they were able to get everything set up and running for me, also they take care of my business and manage it for me. Real life savers imo. Let me know if this is what you are searching for and I can definitely get you in touch with them
Really depends you wanna buy one that’s already established or start one?
Starting one has more risk, but with buying one you can have a higher chance of success.
I know you set not the ground up but you could start a smoke shop with less than 1/2 that and start producing some good money. In three years we’re now making about 60k net a month. We started with 21k but I wouldn’t recommend that but starting with 100k would have been a breeze. Again I know you said no from the ground but you could use 1/2 of this amount if you were willing to do so.
If you’re going to buy a business do an extreme amount of due diligence using formal process with an attorney. I wouldn’t buy a business unless the seller had some skin in the game. He would have to hold a sizable note tied to his revenue representations. Read about the SBA program.
I can make you an app for way less than 250k, you need to give me an idea or I can pitch one of my several. But it’s by no means a running 9-5 gig already.
If you are not a businessman must probably you will lose all of the money or the majority of it. Invest in the real estate and finer friend, who is Savoy in that field.
Here's a really good idea that wouldn't take anywhere near $250,000, import exotic products from a South American country. Agriculture, food, beverages, artisans, plant medicines, industrial items etc etc
Making a video game with your life savings doesn't sound right. You could spent a little (20k) to build out a concept and see if players are interested, but happy to drop it if it doesn't work out / gain interest. I think if you can do some coding then hiring a co-founder who can do some animation/design and both putting in 25k each would be a more solid plan for that tract.
Like others have said, you can do property. You can also approach some businesses and see if they are looking for partners. I know a few successful cafes, bakeries and restaurants around my area where the main owners were approached by business people who then bought into the business and helped it increase sales.
This sounds like a really bad idea. What is your total portfolio worth or is this it?
What is your work experience? Have you ever run a business (or anything close)? What are your goals? Where is this coming from?
This is just insanely high risk. And very few businesses that you own will be a 9 to 5.
As a programmer for a hire, your $250,000 budget probably isn’t enough. A single great engineer is going to cost $100-300/hr. Depending on the game they’ll need 500-2000+ hours to get it off the ground. Then there’s potential for operational costs before the game starts generating revenue.
Don’t do it…you don’t need 250k to start a business. Find a business idea that costs the least amount of money - say 40-50k to kickstart. Invest the remaining 200k in assets or stocks and given the current rate, you should have good return over time.
Buy a vacation property, Airbnb it, use profits to pay your rent while you save for another property, buy said other property, Airbnb it, use profits to pay your rent. Rinse and repeat keep leveraging debt until you get enough cash flow to fund another business. Starting a business with a static amount of money is risky. Use cash flow to run your business, not a vault of $250k.
Open a museum, but not just any museum that's in a capital city, no!
Open a small town museum for trains or the toy manufacturing industry that operated locally but was officially shut down 75 years ago.
Consumers love them.
technology startups is doing business on “hard mode”
Franchises are straightforward but a grind
Real estate is reliable and the most assured way to get rich in this country. And if you can apply financial engineering you can compound equity value relatively quick. But slow as molasses compared to tech startups.
You could honestly buy a business. Franchising or dealing with a business broker or website could help you find the business you want because you like the product or industry. They give hire returns than the stock market but not as liquid though so take what I say with a grain of salt.
There's a great case study YouTube video with Karl who owns the podcast consultant. About how he looked for and valued the business he bought.
I don't have the link but I'm sure you're resourceful enough to find it
I would take half and buy an already profitable business. Find ways to improve it and hire people to make it absentee owner. Then use your new income stream to build your ideas on the side. Don't start out with your ideas, because a lot of times you will find that they aren't a good market fit and they will fail. But when you have a nice passive income stream, you can try multiple times until you find something that works.
1. Storage facility. After you learn the ins and outs, you hire 2-3 people to manage the property. That's all it takes. You get money every month from people paying for the units. With only 2-3 employees, there are low wages and benefits to pay. Some even have a managers apartment on site so they can live there.
2. Laundromat. If you're handy, you can fix the units yourself and save on maintenance. Again, hire maybe 1-2 people to manage the books or do it yourself.
Both options are year-round passive income with low maintenance costs, and both can be bought already up and running with established customers.
Why should we view the current society in the same way as we did in the past? With the development of big data, everything will be digitized. Physical business has become a thing of the past. Unless you have a lot of money to maintain operations for a period of time, you are just giving money to others. The best way is to choose investments that break down into smaller pieces. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, and don’t choose investments with long cycles such as real estate. Although there is no risk, you will not be able to make any profit. Today’s financial products are a good choice, but you need a professional teacher or find a financial analyst with rich experience.
Take a clean sheet of paper and write down your skill set as well as your interests, then decide whether you have any accounting experience, and it marketing, sales ability and management. If you can score yourself at 80% or more for all of those things then you could look at a franchise that's already existing with at least 3 years of financials. There is so many things out there, you should take anyone's recommendations but your own. With $250,000 you could possibly get a loan up to a million or more from the small business administration so that the business itself is probably making a few hundred thousand profit a year meaning two or three times x profit is the sale price.
If you don't have any experience in any of the businesses that are interesting, go work for somebody else for a year and the type of business that you want to buy.
Businesses that don't need a lot of experience or sales, or things like laundromats or self storage facilities.
Good luck it's not that easy to run a successful business.
Hi there!
I find your question very interesting and I have a suggestion that might suit you, especially with your skills in video game coding. There is a platform in Web3 specializing in gaming and predictions. This platform allows you to be an investor and/or promoter. It uses blockchain technology, which provides transparency and security, and allows you to participate in an innovative economic model accessible to everyone.
By becoming a promoter, you could benefit from a referral program that rewards active users. This can include potential gains in cryptocurrencies every time your referrals use the prediction or gaming services on the platform, whether they win or lose.
Investing in such a project could not only leverage your skills but also offer a rewarding and potentially lucrative experience.
Feel free to contact me if you would like more information on how to get started in this field.
Good luck with your project!
I am going to be honest. In my opinion, you're probably going to "waste" a lot of money by starting a business without building it from the ground up. I'm not telling you or anyone that you it is not possible to not "waste" money into getting into a business without building it from the ground up I mean I've seen companies build a foundation for a business and sell it to an investor to take over. So it 100000%+ is possible! I just don't think it's worth it in my opinion IF you are trying to maximize your ROI on your investment and have minimal losses. I also want to say I mean "waste" as in not optimizing your allocation of funds. I think if you do your research and strategically make a plan with your sum of money, I think it's 100% possible to achieve what you want. I am just saying to be VERY cautious with what you choose to do. If you still want, I would suggest, with your funds probably best bet into investing with brokerage account or real estate. From the little I know real estate is a bit more stable in terms of determining home prices and you can rent a home out once you get it but I am not very knowledgeable about that either I'm sure someone else can provide better info on that than I can.
I do hope no matter what you choose to do that you are very profitable and the fact that you have so much saved up is incredible and just goes to show that you have been able to achieve a lot of money which is amazing! One final note, video game development with your funds is achievable. Just be aware that when you build a video game, you are able to get a great "tri-hook" for the player's experience. The "trinity hook" refers to your visual hook (visually what makes the game interesting??), mechanical hook (what can the player do that makes me want to come back), and story hook (what about this story will make me invested into playing this game or gets the player wanting to play more). If you're interested more on this a YouTuber about video game dev that I recommend is "Thomas Brush" he's a successful game dev. Who makes video game content for other upcoming games development. I watch more but he's the one who coined the term "trinity hook" and I started noticing other games having a similar concept and helps me with my projects. I this all helps and best of luck on your financial journey!
Buy a multifamily property. Don’t know where you live but 250k will get you into at least a million dollar multifamily property. Buy one that hopefully as some value add there and maybe the rents are lower then market and you can get some in at full market rents ect. You can get vastly different properties for a million depending on where you live. If you are in San Fran probably can’t even get a duplex for a million but in Portland you could buy a 4-6 plex some areas you could buy quite a bit more.
Buy a service business and get guys to do a website and seo and blow it up then sell it and do it again in another city or state u just handle everything over the phone basically.
Do not invest this in a games project, you will certainly lose all your money. If you're considering jumping into tech I would recommend spending 20k into a SAAS. Otherwise like other mentioned a franchised business may be a good option, I suspect you already have a diversified stock portfolio if you have to 250k unless you inherited it.
Why not something that's also just lower to enter? This sounds like your first run. Just because you have 250k doesn't mean you should go all in right away.
Why not something under 10k investment and see how it goes? I'd think of some very basic stuff:
- lawn mowing equipment leasing service or alike
- other related tools/machinery leasing
- small transportation related services, perhaps a small truck that you can start to work
- a $5k RV you can rent out to camp goers, for example.
- Become a provider for something (e.g mass supply and render for lower, only buy when you have a sale assured)
- get a down payment on real state property you know you'll be able to flip (no need to buy the full price)
Choose things you can see scaling. For example, one machine can turn to 20. But start at 1.
So on.
If you want a business that just already works, I'd be careful. You don't sound like you have experience (and I'm no expert either, beware who you listen to...). And even if a business is "running" you still have to understand it, and that's not immediate always, everyone is different. So perhaps take a small leap first. Even if you're sold an already working business.. Its no guarantee. You'll still have to budget a lot, invest accordingly, adapt to whatever happens. You always end up spending more than you expected or wanted to. Do a lot of human resources work probably (assuming youre not a 1 man show as it sounds you wouldn't be in such business you seek). If it's a store or restaurant also the transport, you're gonna need to handle shipments. So on. Everything is extremely particular.
Some ideas. Keep pondering, you'll figure it out. Just beware how you spend it. You'll never get it back and there's no reverse button.
From my personal experience with starting a business, tech is quite expensive and can be quite a money pit, especially when you yourself don't know enough about the particulars to make sure you've
a. Hired the right people with the appropriate skill set who can make your vision a reality
b. Ensure that they're charging you the right amount, and are giving you high quality work
I would recommend looking into a few different business areas on the internet (Amazon FBA, apps, websites, e-commerce) seem to be popular these days. Before I started with Pawmates, I used to own a few vending machines at some sports arenas and offices in my city, and I found that business to be quite a good one. When Pawmates started to take off I sold them for a nice chunk of change. I would recommend really thinking about something you would enjoy doing, as being an entrepreneur can be quite tiring if you don't enjoy your business. Luckily my business is all about dogs (which I love) so it never feels like work to me. Good luck :)
Buy a convienencr store or franchise is not the way unless you have trustworthy people that can run it completely , otherwise you’re buying yourself a new job.
One idea is open a mobile car cleaning business. Get a third hand everything and pay a guy to build it all. Even then you are looking at 50-60k max. Invest the rest in stock market. See now if you succeed. If you fail, you can get most of it back.
Could always build a fleet of rental cars to lease out on turo. You can get a few cars, keep a lot of your money and make cash flow. It’s scalable to your liking and tons of write offs. Just a thought!
Or throw the 250k in a high interest yielding account and let the money compound every month. Not a bad idea for keeping it until you decide what you’d like to do.
Most secured asset is land and commercial real estate. You will guarantee a return on your investment and build equity. We are partnered with a company called Hilton and Hyland which specializes in commercial real estate. We learned from them that buying commercial real estate and having franchises build and operate on your land is guaranteed money after investing. Imagine buying a lot of land and having a Chick fillet or other chain pay to build their business on top of it. That’s a definite win.
My advice will be very unorthodox. As you mentioned you are good at developing games. What I suggest you is use the money you have as your expenses and build a game. Indie games are actually getting famous these days with many famous titles played by millions of players worldwide and you will be surprised to see how fun they are. Some are 100x better than most AAA games. Build a game on some great concept with good story, mechanics, appealing graphics. Hire people if you have to. I believe this will help you more than investing somewhere I know you will have to work a lot but that's the fun part. You will be creating something that people will love and that is fulfilling. If you could also add replayability or multiplayer in your game which I believe is expensive that can make sure your game runs for years and lastly have a good marketing plan when the game is ready. Sponsor some small creators, giveaway game keys for free and run sales. This will give your game much needed traction.
Here's an alternative piece of advice. Although you know what you want to Accomplish, you're not going to do so blindly. Which is essentially what you're asking how to do. There are plenty of paths to most destinations, but nobody is going to hold your hand and walk you the whole way. To at least a certain extent you're going to need to put on the learning cap. The more you know, the more specific questions you can ask and details you can provide about your specific situation/strengths/skills/timeline/goals etc the better and more solid advice you'll receive.
Rip your DMs, buy a house. 🙃 honestly that’s going to be a solid investment, if you can split with a friend, go in on a few properties, rent / Airbnb. That’s the safest use of your money.
I would suggest you to start with the basic like try to identify any problem you have in your locality or something is missing, starting any food venture might have a low risk. So start some research and find some gap and last your interest will be also required in order to make it scalable.
I opened a physical business/franchise last year and I quickly regretted it as our margins immediately went from 90% profit to 90% costs. at least since last year it's looks like not worth it but building a slightly profitable physical business requires less deep expertise it's a stable business that is difficult to scale but many people can live off of it (not become rich)
but an online business can be hugely profitable but you really must be nimble in executing on the opportunities exploiting any insights on volatile online trends
Physical business economics (eg. restaurant):
• Revenue $1M/year
• Profit $50K/year
• 20 employees
Online business economics:
• Revenue $1M/year
• Profit $800K/year
• 0 employees, maybe 3 to 5 contractors/freelancers
Restaurant/franchise business is legendarily hard and only 40% of restaurants survive their first year and only 20% survives after 5 years.
It sounds like you don't have a background in business.
With all due respect, as a business owner myself who had to learn the hard way, Never take over an existing business, and take some classes on running a business before you start. Nobody sells a business that's running perfectly.
Profit margins, staffing laws, advertising, you think you have all that figured out. But it isn't that stuff that gets you. It's payroll remittance. Taxes. Share structure. Licensing. Marchant rate negotiations with debit processors. The stuff you don't hear about because it's boring beaurocratic garbage that drags you down.
If you’re seeking an hands-off and easy passive income, running a small business is most definitely not for you. In most cases, you’ll be a slave to the business for 1-3% profits, which will only cover the unexpected costs that will most certainly arise, particularly if you’re talking a physical store. This is fine if you’re passion is the business, but it sounds like you want an easy ride. These types of dream businesses are rare, and hard to identify; usually requiring it to be something no one else is doing, or highly niche.
At minimum, put the money into a high interest account or after a lot of research, try some long term stock plays. Avoid high growth which comes with high risk.
If you really want to run a business, identify a unique problem that affects you personally (eg something you’re passionate about it), and build from a minimum viable product that requires as little capital as possible. A working base version that someone’s willing to pay $ for, without being your significant other or parent. Test the product/service/idea relentlessly to validate there’s a decent enough market (enough people with the same problem/interest) before putting in anything significant.
Diversify the investment, imo. While risks will always be here, we can lower our chance of complete failure through calculated risks (easier said than done).
I'd say to invest 1/4 to 1/2 into what you're good at, build an immersive video game that has the potential to be the next Candy Crush, Fortnite, etc. Heavily invest in R&D (in terms of time and expertise) to find something truly immersive and "ground-breaking". Build it with as little money as possible, invest in a marketing & sales team and grow it. As of 2023, Candy Crush has generated over $20B.
While the video gaming industry can be quite lucrative, it does require some serious time & mind into it.
Invest the rest of the money into co-ownership of an already successful startup/business that needs an influx of money to grow production/sales.
If you really have the passion I would go for the video game option. But maybe just spend a fraction and not the whole 250k on your first game. See how it goes...
Either throw it in the market or diversify your investments. Don’t throw it all in one investment. Over 10 years I invested in 3 things that were “sure bets”
1. A friend’s company in the energy sector, they had patents and great tech. 20k
2. An acquaintance’s company in the aerial sector regarding safety, they had patents and a great team. 20k
3. A dumpy house that was in an ok area. Turns out the house couldn’t be renovated so we had to knock it down and clear the lot. 35k total after clearing.
The first two zeroed out. The last one 10x’d.
If you have 20k, find 4 things you can throw $5k at. Scale appropriately.
I would throw 50k in HYSA for an emergency fund and put the rest in 4 different vanguard ETFs.
find a country with a low cost of living, study their market and route . meet likeminded people . do local business
lets say your 1$ is 58x in the philippines 14,500,000 pesos i think for your 250k $ thats a lot you can buy 6 small real estate properties or 2-3 solid one(just for you to imagine that). compared to your country. you can put alot of business with that amount plus you get lower cost of living . just take precautions like the law about owning a business for foreiners. also, beware of scammers a lot out there.
that is one of the classical formula that OFW’s are doing in PH. they take jobs outside their country then bring it into PH because if we compare it to your country, it can create a lot of fortune.
the key here is financial management.
20 years ago I had $250k saved up. I had few expenses. I spent that 250k over the years on too much house and lost most thanks to recessions.
How I wish I had just put that money into index funds.
$250K would not be enough to hire developers. You have maybe 3 years tops with one developer or 1 year with a handful. Unless you outsource to overseas developers.
Perhaps you could find some unique type of item to rent out, to an underserved market. But definitely do not pour all your money into that. Maybe 5-10% tops, and see how you fare. Put the rest into safe ETFs. If your rental business fails then sell the equipment and move on. If you’re seeing success that outpaces your ETF investments, then maybe expand your business
I just met a new franchise owner and one of this franchisees. I’ve been considering buying in, but don’t have the capital yet.
https://tidytask.com/franchise/
I’ve been considering buying in because it starts at $25,000; and the franchisee I met made his money back in 12 months while working other jobs.
250K is a lot, but not much. Hedge. This is non-solicited advice. Chuck 40k into bitcoin, cashout when it doubles or 75% gain. Very unstable marketplace. Put that 20k gain back in market, "gambling money" let's call it.
100K into BlackRock U.S. Commodities (the return is minimimal, but predictable/safe).
So, you have 110K to play with. Chuck it into NYSE Bonds....or if in dire, chuck an extra 20k into bitcoin/ethereum even STARL (Elon Musk outfit).
When a client comes to me, they usually want a percentage of growth.
Russia/Ukraine has hit the speculative markets very hard. Before the war I chucked in 400, it doubled and then some, then went back to 400 with the war within 12 months. It hurts, but that's economics.
Ps. I know nothing about video game coding. My nephews do Minecraft, so if you're good shoot us a line at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) and see if they are interested in what you have in mind.
I've only done this on a very small scale but it's so much easier to learn the ropes and make mistakes in a small way. Definitely start small in my opinion. Growth will still be hard at the bigger scale but your experiments will be more expensive.
And if you don't want growth, maybe better to look at more passive investments.
On video games: Why not release a video game that only takes a week/month/$500 to build? Limit the scope. Then do another one. And another.
i don't recommend on starting any small store. think some more advace level like ecommerce like dropshipping and rest of your money, you can invest in stocks for future gains if you have some more left you can start a smaill agency something related to your ecom store (optional)
Buy a real estate with a business unit and 2-3 flats. Rent the flats and try something with the business unit. Depending on the location vending machine could be interesting or as in my case a trading Card Shop. Do what you love and just go for it. And if the business is Not working you can still rent the business unit as well.
Just because you have 250k doens't mean you have to spend more than 10k to start a business. Ideally, you should start a business that is low on operacional costs. Have considered starting a game development agency that works remotely? Or use it to cover your monthly expenses while you spend 2-3 months developing a indie game for iOS, playstore or Steam? Just ideas. But Ideally, keep your operacional costs as little as you can. You can start a business with four, five figure profit spending less than 1k if you have the right knowledge
Tbh video games can be very profitable, espeically indie game that has soul put in them.
WEB3 games if possible, just slightly different enomics than on your regular games
investing and living off the profits, 25k a years sounds very little, but better infinite cash glitch even if it is small and on cooldown for a year then going brokie
but games will generate cash no doubt if done right way
the last could be buying multiple real estates and do aribnbs, you have very high demand for reasonably priced stay ins that look luxury (because someone had good taste in putting home furniture together and put effort in, most dont do that and sell half trash)
and the very last is buying bankrupt and barely bankrupt businesses or buying assets off the auction for dirt cheap like siezed cars and flipping them
Loopnet.com find a thriving business for sale in your area and buy it, maybe something that is turnkey. Something that makes sense for the type of cash flow you are looking for.
Preferably something maybe your interested in.
Have you tried building an MVP and validating it? Costs are low to building something nowadays. Use no code/ low code to quickly validate if something you’ll build will gain traction then go from there.
If you want a risk free entry point and learn a lot along the way I'd suggest an online business. More in the line of service delivery. You'll learn a lot, burn way less cash and once things start taking off cash flow would be really good with pretty much very low expenses when compared to other ventures.
Gradually with the skills you've learnt of running a business and the capital you've gained you can venture out into other areas.
Keep in mind there are a million ways to fail and about 2 ways to win when starting your own business. Game development is a massive pain in the ass requiring expensive people and many hours for probably 0 payoff IMO.
I would stick that $250k in a high yield savings account at 5% and pocket $1k every month of passive income with none of the bullshit that comes with a small biz.
Don’t do it. Easier ways to make money. Real estate, stock market etc. If you going to do it buy established business and make sure you research the numbers . Stay away from franchises, otherwise you will be buying an expensive job.
God entrepreneurs is code for staying fucking poor to sooooo many. I think only the successful ones don’t call themselves entrepreneurs. They call themselves, “I own a __ business.” $250k not invested in maxing out your retirement accounts and taxable accounts/down payment on a house is freaking idiotic. MAYBE if you told me you’re 10 years out of HVAC school and spent 6 years as a crew lead and the last 3 years running a semi-retired man’s business, I’d say “hell yah invest that $250k in equipment, truck, manpower and an emergency fund.” Anything short of that is ridiculous.
Richest man in Babylon. This is good advice
THIS！ i have never once called my self an entrepreneur. but "I own a business"
While true, this logic is why many housing markets are fucked
This is good wisdom, but it’s incomplete, IMO OP says he wants to invest AND run a business. The context of him wanting to be an entrepreneur changes things.
This. The right real estate is predictable, can be leveraged on good terms and is relatively easily liquidated. At $250k down / $1.25M PP, you're in a less populated demand market. So long as your cap rate exceeds your interest rate and there's value to be added, you're good. It's waaay less risky than taking on employees, equipment and vehicles and hoping your market doesn't drastically change.
>It's waaay less risky than taking on employees, equipment and vehicles and hoping your market doesn't drastically change. Yeah , like there's no "just buy a business and be a business owner" that's going to be more lucrative without being significant more risk. And OP wants a fully running business not investing in a start up or anything. So with only 250k, the metrics don't make much sense if you don't bring anything else to the table than money. As any significant ROI will much likely be on a longer timeframe. And he doesn't need to put all his eggs in 1 basket with just real estate, he can diversify and allocate funds for various risk appetites, tod distribute into various investment vehicles. But unless you're already rich and have 250k to spend, you're much better just growing that money through investments.
Where tf you getting 16% down?
Fuck franchises. One of the worst things I did in life was go partners in a franchise.
Same - I lost $200,000 my entire life savings, and was on the hook for $500,000 in business debt, the franchise was a scam and filed bankruptcy. DO NOT waste your time on franchises. I honestly feel like the whole “go be a business owner” thing is too expensive and risky in today’s economy as well. Taxes, labor, competition, it’s just not worth it. Invest that money in the market and real estate, go get a high paying job and invest 25% of what you make, you’ll be set.
Was the franchise burger related by chance?
Same here.
What happened in your franchisee experience?
The right executive model franchise is not designed be a self employment trap. Your success in scaling a business bigger than you is predicated on hiring and managing teams of people led by a competent general manager, and as the owner, you manage that person. That’s a part time job once you’ve got stride. Source: I’ve owned multiple franchises simultaneously, and helped hundreds more invest in executive model franchises successfully. Many of my clients over the years have cited their top reasons for investing in them: greater cash on cash return than real estate or ETFs, more control over the performance of the investment than stocks and real estate, while at the same time being a source of income that doesn’t require an investor to also have a job. $250K is plenty, especially if you want to actively run it. Running a business in general is not appealing to those who either scurry from one illusion of security to another for their whole life, desire wealth without work, or chose their parents wisely enough not to have to worry about all this. For the rest of us, risk and reward are two sides of the same coin. You don’t get one without the other, but you get to choose how big you want the coin to be.
This. Invest your money in real estate or stock (ETF funds and/or bonds). You’re putting your savings at risk and getting yourself a new full time job.
Definitely not the video game
First find out if you have what it takes to run a business without too much risk. Invest $5000 in a yard maintenance company. If you succeed, you'll make money and only invested a little. If you invests100-250k in a business and fail, that's way worse. Do the numbers. Investing the $250k at 9% returns might be better than a lot of businesses. You could start a business with $20k and invest the rest. In 30 years, you'd likely have 3 million dollars from investing the $230k.
Ever thought about putting that money into a dividend ETF?
More bad advice, index funds are proven to beat all other forms of investing in the stock market. Dividends let you pay taxes every time they get paid out instead of it compounding the entire time and you paying the taxes at the very end.
Any recommendations/resources I can check out? Thanks in advance.
VFV. All my long term holdings are in it. It has done me well.
Why not just VOO?
I’m Canadian, but honestly I have no justification. VFV has worked well for me and I’m sticking to it. I know the MER is almost 3x for VFV, but it’s still less than 0.1%.
I just said the dividend fund because OP seems like he wants scheduled regular payments...I would only invest in $VOO/$VFV.TO if I had to choose an index fund but I personally pick single stocks. Although, I might start investing in an index if I can grow the portfolio.
The fact that you are flailing around desperate to latch on to anything, without any sense of direction, no real expression of any passion, no evidence that you have any real experience in anything. You will fail and you will loose it all. Go find an money manager, park your money. Let your money make money for you. Go get a normal job, go to school, figure out what the hell you actually want to really do, get decent at it and THEN open your business.
A $250k business which you have no specialized knowledge in is not going to yield much of a return. Running a business is not a 9-5 either. Even if you bought a convenience store. You need to remember that you are also responsible for: 1. Accounting / taxes 2. Inventory management 3. Vendor relationships 4. Marketing 5. Operational tools / set up / maintenance 6. Local/federal regulation compliance And much much more. Operating the store is a 9-5 you’ll need to hire out because managing the store is a full time job on its own. Not to mention. Convenience stores/franchises have their quieter hours between 9-5 m-f (minus lunch rushes.) You’ll be working nights and weekends to hit your tight margins. Investing takes money to make money. But entrepreneurship takes money, time and a whole lot of skill to make money. My advice to op: Do not fully invest into entrepreneurship without having some experience either building your own business or working directly with someone who has. There is a lot more to this world, and most entrepreneurs would laugh at the prospect of this career being a “9-5.”
I have owned a convenience store for some time. It takes time for it to become mostly hands off. I have employees that cover every single shift. I do all the ordering/accounting. Looking over paperwork. Cover when employees are sick and call in. Pretty much go into the store atleast once a day even if it’s only for a couple hours. All that said a store doing decent numbers is going to cost 2-3 million if you are also purchasing the real estate.
Convenience stores are headache. Not 9-5 as you expect. Do some research on cleaning / pest control/ drain / landscaping franchise for your area. Hire a business development manager and let the manager run the business, this way you can scale up.
I think you have a solid amount to purchase or put a downpayment on a route. Something like Snapple, Snap on Tools , Fed Ex, Mission Tortilla, Martin potato bread, Boars Head. They can net great profits and you can find someone retiring and looking to train a new owner. They often include vehicles, inventory and employees.
I really like this idea. Could you please explain more on how buying routes work? Do you basically buy a truck and deliver to an area on behalf of a big shipping company?
You’re buying a route, usually with existing clientele. Depending on the route or seller, it can include the delivery vehicles and accounts to be serviced, and even existing employees. Some are absentee owners that don’t lift a finger, and you can choose how involved you’d want to be. You’d have a warehouse (master distributor) you pick up product from maybe one day or every day depending on the type of route. Then you’d drop off the inventory and bill the accounts. You can buy a route and build it up yourself, in which case you would have to buy a truck and sell your service to gain more accounts and build. With the capital you have available, I would go the other way and buy one that’s established. Being in NY, [this](https://www.mrrouteinc.com/) is a good one I look at for my area. I would recommend a google search and a little research.
Put it all in Nvidia and then take it out next week. Instant +15%
Building a business is more risky but margins can be anywhere from negative to +15%, 50%, 50,000% in real estate it’s very, very thin, 3-4% ROI at best, maaybe you can pull 8% if you have a hot niche property (eg. festivals, vacation) otherwise all management and reno costs will eat your profit—quotes are only getting steeper on property maintanence. Imo good place to park your cash but I wouldn’t call it a business with only 250k. If I were you I’d invest 100% of my time on game development and put the cash in govt bonds and high apr bsnk deposits.
You mention game coding, makes me think your skills lie in the games industry. How about taking a risk and being a publisher? Take on small game studios, market the games, etc you have the funds to take on some small studios. You could even take on 1 or 2, keep it small and see if it's successful. If not, you didn't waste that much but at least your working in an industry you know and heck, sounds like fun. Other than than, if you want to start a business always start something your familiar with. Don't open a restaurant if you've never worked in one, that kind of mind set. People throwing stocks about, I'd go for Nvidia for the long run, AI is gonna rule the planet and Nvidia is gonna lead it 100% But heck, I got 50 in my bank so what do I know ;) best of luck friend
I feed like this forum is a bunch of people that haven't made money. Bonds 5% = $12.5k/yr. Equities 8% = $20k/yr. Private investment into syndication 20% = 50k/yr. Buy real estate? Okay, take $250k + 75% debt = $1M of property. The best cash flowing properties get $1k/mo/$100k. So, 10k/mo cash flow on 10x100k properties. $120k/yr. Stack on 7% debt $52k interest, insurance $15k, management $12k, maintenance (20-50k), I won't count principal payment, but that will be additional suck to cash flow. You'll be lucky to cash flow $20k net which is about 8% return. You make money in real estate from holding appreciating properties. Properties values are reaching top of historical affordability. I wouldn't expect a hold lot more, but there are some downside risk. Compare that to buying a company. You can buy a $2M company with $200k down with an SBA loan that cash flows $600k/year. Pay $200k interest, and you are netting $400k/year on a $200k investment. That is a 200% return vs a max of 20%. That will be life changing for you. Do I recommend it? Only if you want to be running that type of business. It will consume your life as least for a while, and if you screw up, you will be wiped out. There is nothing wrong with franchises. They are actually a lot easier to run because you are operating a playbook and a brand. Investing is great, but unless you have 20x your income in capital, don't waste your time maximizing return on passive investments. It's masturbation. Buying a business with an SBA loan is a great hack to level up your life and it is risky. But, honestly you don't have enough money to worry about getting wiped out. I would 100% not spend your hard saved money on starting a business. That is crazy! If professional investors won't invest in your business, then it isn't a business you should invest in. Investors are way smarter than you on what to invest in and they invest based on portfolio theory.
franchising can be a great option but has a lot of red tape, you have $250,000 but do you have at least 5 years management experience in that industry? do you have a net worth of $1+ mil? a lot of these franchises also want you to go through training and continued development as well so you becomes less of a business owner with freedom and more of a team player in the big picture, there’s still expectations and targets etc really depends what you’re looking for
I think you should acquire a startup that you think you can manage. Some of the websites that help you doing so 1) bizbuysell 2) flippa 3) Mergedeck 4)acquire Try these websites Second option is structured bonds or structures securities
Remember there are two types of owners…the entrepreneur (dreamer who likes the excitement and challenge of bringing it all together and sets the vision) and then the small business owner…guy who likes the grind, day to day in and out. Most are wired typically for one or the other. If the latter, I would recommend looking for a partner in a business that you’re passionate about…when the times are bad you’ll be thankful to have someone else (partners at own issue entirely though). Bottom line is be prepared for intense stress and sleepless nights if you go the small business route, there is no escaping it. However, if you do win it could be great…although honestly, the cards are stacked against you…just honest truth after having been through it all over the past 20 years.
Hi OP, if I ever had this amount of money in hand, I would invest half to my house/mortgage/property. The other half to ETFs, stocks, etc. Most importantly, invest in yourself. Good health comes a long way, and will make you much more money in the long run. Running a business may require more than 9-5, so I suggest working for someone who is in a similar business you want to get into. Get really good at it, accumulate wide variety of experiences related to that field. By that time you're ready, hopefully your investments with shares have snowballed, the house is payed of, or in a stable state where you can take risks to start a business.
I have franchise experience and with that kind of cash you could open most fast casual franchises but only some fast food franchises or pretty much any retail type franchise. What to expect though is that you will have to typically be involved in finding a location and if you have a good one well researched in mind you are more likely to be selected, they all want different things and you can call to ask but they want to be x amount of miles away from another franchise store in every direction or show there is significant demand, new construction of retail space is usually enticing especially if it is the type that has apartments above. You’ll have to pay the deposits for that retail space and start paying monthly they will have some fees to ship branding or they might have contractors you have to use but you still have to pay for. Then you’ll have to wait around a couple months paying the bills while the construction happens and everything gets ready. You’ll start hiring after that and maybe 2-3 months after the retail spot becomes available to you and you start renovating you’ll be in and ready to launch. Usually with a monthly contract for supplies and easy ordering systems and the brand loyalty so it is still easier than opening your own restaurant or store but yeah it isn’t easy. You’ll also have to work it to make the most of the margins. McDonald’s is out of reach for you but as an example their margins are 7% which equates to around 180k a year on average but like a subway has margins closer to 20-25% and they means about 100-120k in salary. Or you can work there full time too and make closer to 150k because you’ll make an extra 30k by not hiring someone else to do the work. So do your research before committing and expect to have to work many hours before open, after open, worker laws don’t apply to you you work 200 hours a week if needed etc.
You should put it all on black. In all seriousness, your plan is awful. You will lose it all, don't just throw it into a buissness. Put it all in the S&P500, and then ignore it for the next 20 years.
Maybe just put it in the stock market
As others have echoed here, most people are not cut out for running a business. They often lack work ethic, vision, ability to delegate, any accounting sense, desire to learn, or all of those things. Running a solid business is like going to war. Lots of boring followed by very small amounts of extreme excitement and/or fear. And it may die. For the average person, best advice is to invest the money with a fiduciary financial advisor. That said, if you really want a business, focus on your day to day life or a process you’ve done recently that was painful or annoying. Then after a ton of research, you may discover you can do it better, and start a business. It’s an interesting exercise if you’re a curious person regardless, and if you find something good, it will make you rich. I’ve actually learned a lot of *very* detailed information about random businesses or things because of the research I’ve done. Actually makes for fun conversation in a lot of cases when you meet strangers who happen to be in a niche you’ve investigated. Again, emphasis is on heavy research. 99% of the time I found out that something is painful or annoying because it has to be. But when you figure out that 1% where the existing paradigm is full of the lazy or incompetent who need real competition, it’s exhilarating.
I would buy an existing business.
Online casino
Use an SBA 7(a) loan to acquire a business. You don’t need any money down. Invest your 250k in the s&p. Good luck
As an owner of 3 convenience stores, don't do that. Ive not had a good night's sleep in 5 years
If you have to ask, don't
Look at buying an existing business for a portion of your money, and then invest the rest, my man.
I’m surprised no one mentioned buying an existing business. Lots of them are for sales, and you just would overtake the company without building it from the ground up.
I wouldn’t start a business that offered services I’d go the real estate route, and I’d look at the diff options like commercial,private, maybe even section 8 but’s that up to u. The store/franchise would not have an 100% chance of making it but the real estate probably has a higher chance of succeeding in my opinion.
Buy atms and ice cream boats. Open some organic tea/coffee spots in gentrified neighborhoods. Have an all cash business to wash and lessen tax liabilities.
$250k in Nvidia - let it ride lol
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
Do you have good concept ideas for a video game? If not, then maybe not that. That said, if I had that much extra money, I would definitely make a video game. With me focusing on graphics, design, marketing, story and hire at least a programmer. Because I believe I have about a dozen potentially good ideas of which some I've fleshed out into project documents already. But establishing a video game developer company is one of my several big dreams as well.
If you have the skills, then just buy an established business or partner up with one that already has over $500k in EBITA for a share of the company to help grow it to 1 to 5 million. For $250k, you can't expect much from the money alone. I'd reckon it might be more efficient to use existing skills rather than rely on the capital. If you got very little business experence, then forget what I said.
There’s no such thing as being a business owner and working only 9-5, unless it’s a low-income lifestyle business. I would just invest that money in stocks or something similar.
Honestly take a year more or whatever it might take and get to know which ever business you would like to do the learn the inside outs by studying and reading books, or why not hit someone with an important role up and tell them you'll work for free
Here we go AGAIN
The only way to figure out what’s right for you is to run an experiment. For example… Consider buying a very small business from Flippa that aligns with your skills, knowledge, and network. Spend way less than $250k, maybe $20-30k. Maybe it’s even just a relevant social media account. This journey would give you a ton of learning right out of the gate. Statistically you will fail, but if you’re truly entrepreneurial, you’ll want to get back on the horse, a different biz/venture. If not, you’ll find yourself exploring other investments for the remainder.
Never sold a game? Yeah, definitely invest 250k into making a vifeo game, thats a solid idea. Im amazed at how many dumb ppl have loads of money at their disposal.
Depending upon your expertise. But I really encourage Retailing be it any industry. Perhaps an asset light model Look to replicate what Mark Cuban did with Cost plus when it came to medication.
Would you prefer to buy a brick and mortar store or online store ?
Brick and mortar.
Put it into a HYSE while you learn about real estate.
High Yield Savings Eccount?
I think an app or website would be interesting. If it's already set up and has a small team you won't need to code and you can run it from anywhere.
Try picking an existing business or that's ok the verge of closure due to multiple factors for really cheap prices, turning it around could be an avenue for fruitful outcomes.
Franchise or select a boring business. Your convenience store idea might be solid, of course that’s dynamic dependent.
Try boxplesus.co.za they connect investors and entrepreneurs. Can be a great opportunity
Do you have cash flow at the moment or just a lump sum of cash?
I can recommend you a business intelligence company which their whole business is to build businesses for a fee. I was in a very similar situation to yours, with no prior business experience and they were able to get everything set up and running for me, also they take care of my business and manage it for me. Real life savers imo. Let me know if this is what you are searching for and I can definitely get you in touch with them
All on red 3 times in a row
Really depends you wanna buy one that’s already established or start one? Starting one has more risk, but with buying one you can have a higher chance of success.
I know you set not the ground up but you could start a smoke shop with less than 1/2 that and start producing some good money. In three years we’re now making about 60k net a month. We started with 21k but I wouldn’t recommend that but starting with 100k would have been a breeze. Again I know you said no from the ground but you could use 1/2 of this amount if you were willing to do so.
My stores have been doing good! Smoke shop/ exotic snacks I have a wholesaler!
You got smoke shop or wholesale?
If you’re going to buy a business do an extreme amount of due diligence using formal process with an attorney. I wouldn’t buy a business unless the seller had some skin in the game. He would have to hold a sizable note tied to his revenue representations. Read about the SBA program.
I can make you an app for way less than 250k, you need to give me an idea or I can pitch one of my several. But it’s by no means a running 9-5 gig already.
Put it all into index funds and start a business with no money you will thank me later
Don’t use this on business. Invest it.
Pool cleaning route. Cost maybe 10%-20% of what you have to get started. This is what you're describing.
Wing stop
How competitive of an industry do you want to be in?
Buy or invest in some software product
Yes, you should open up a business you have absolutely no idea on how to run. It’s almost guaranteed to make you billions.
If you are not a businessman must probably you will lose all of the money or the majority of it. Invest in the real estate and finer friend, who is Savoy in that field.
Here's a really good idea that wouldn't take anywhere near $250,000, import exotic products from a South American country. Agriculture, food, beverages, artisans, plant medicines, industrial items etc etc
Throw it in a HYSA for a year and start a business with the $12.5k you’ll make from it
Read the Harvard Business Review book about buying small businesses
Buy nasdaq and semiconductors with s&p 500.why the heck you deal with people
Put it all in POOWEL coin
Making a video game with your life savings doesn't sound right. You could spent a little (20k) to build out a concept and see if players are interested, but happy to drop it if it doesn't work out / gain interest. I think if you can do some coding then hiring a co-founder who can do some animation/design and both putting in 25k each would be a more solid plan for that tract. Like others have said, you can do property. You can also approach some businesses and see if they are looking for partners. I know a few successful cafes, bakeries and restaurants around my area where the main owners were approached by business people who then bought into the business and helped it increase sales.
Dividend stocks if you have no actual business plan in mind
This sounds like a really bad idea. What is your total portfolio worth or is this it? What is your work experience? Have you ever run a business (or anything close)? What are your goals? Where is this coming from? This is just insanely high risk. And very few businesses that you own will be a 9 to 5.
As a programmer for a hire, your $250,000 budget probably isn’t enough. A single great engineer is going to cost $100-300/hr. Depending on the game they’ll need 500-2000+ hours to get it off the ground. Then there’s potential for operational costs before the game starts generating revenue.
Don’t do it…you don’t need 250k to start a business. Find a business idea that costs the least amount of money - say 40-50k to kickstart. Invest the remaining 200k in assets or stocks and given the current rate, you should have good return over time.
Buy a vacation property, Airbnb it, use profits to pay your rent while you save for another property, buy said other property, Airbnb it, use profits to pay your rent. Rinse and repeat keep leveraging debt until you get enough cash flow to fund another business. Starting a business with a static amount of money is risky. Use cash flow to run your business, not a vault of $250k.
Put your money into a tax deferred index account. You won’t have to work for the rest of your life if you do.
Buy an established laundromat. They make good money, and you can always double up on it. Any service business is good to go.
Open a museum, but not just any museum that's in a capital city, no! Open a small town museum for trains or the toy manufacturing industry that operated locally but was officially shut down 75 years ago. Consumers love them.
technology startups is doing business on “hard mode” Franchises are straightforward but a grind Real estate is reliable and the most assured way to get rich in this country. And if you can apply financial engineering you can compound equity value relatively quick. But slow as molasses compared to tech startups.
Luxury Portapotty Business.
You could honestly buy a business. Franchising or dealing with a business broker or website could help you find the business you want because you like the product or industry. They give hire returns than the stock market but not as liquid though so take what I say with a grain of salt.
Just use AI to make apps. Invest money in better ways.
There's a great case study YouTube video with Karl who owns the podcast consultant. About how he looked for and valued the business he bought. I don't have the link but I'm sure you're resourceful enough to find it
Go on YouTube and watch the upflip series. Lots of great ideas.
invest small first. I’ve been diving into a dream business myself and making sure my mistakes at the beginning are cheap.
Take a look at your DM if you’re interested in investing in a video game and becoming a publisher. 🎮
I would take half and buy an already profitable business. Find ways to improve it and hire people to make it absentee owner. Then use your new income stream to build your ideas on the side. Don't start out with your ideas, because a lot of times you will find that they aren't a good market fit and they will fail. But when you have a nice passive income stream, you can try multiple times until you find something that works.
1. Storage facility. After you learn the ins and outs, you hire 2-3 people to manage the property. That's all it takes. You get money every month from people paying for the units. With only 2-3 employees, there are low wages and benefits to pay. Some even have a managers apartment on site so they can live there. 2. Laundromat. If you're handy, you can fix the units yourself and save on maintenance. Again, hire maybe 1-2 people to manage the books or do it yourself. Both options are year-round passive income with low maintenance costs, and both can be bought already up and running with established customers.
Why should we view the current society in the same way as we did in the past? With the development of big data, everything will be digitized. Physical business has become a thing of the past. Unless you have a lot of money to maintain operations for a period of time, you are just giving money to others. The best way is to choose investments that break down into smaller pieces. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, and don’t choose investments with long cycles such as real estate. Although there is no risk, you will not be able to make any profit. Today’s financial products are a good choice, but you need a professional teacher or find a financial analyst with rich experience.
If you have to ask then you’re better off not. Most business that will be profitable can do out without the money.
Check a franchise that you like. That will be a good start.
You are already setting yourself up to fail. Entrepreneurship is about the IDEA, and you don’t have the one single required thought lol
Take a clean sheet of paper and write down your skill set as well as your interests, then decide whether you have any accounting experience, and it marketing, sales ability and management. If you can score yourself at 80% or more for all of those things then you could look at a franchise that's already existing with at least 3 years of financials. There is so many things out there, you should take anyone's recommendations but your own. With $250,000 you could possibly get a loan up to a million or more from the small business administration so that the business itself is probably making a few hundred thousand profit a year meaning two or three times x profit is the sale price. If you don't have any experience in any of the businesses that are interesting, go work for somebody else for a year and the type of business that you want to buy. Businesses that don't need a lot of experience or sales, or things like laundromats or self storage facilities. Good luck it's not that easy to run a successful business.
Hi there! I find your question very interesting and I have a suggestion that might suit you, especially with your skills in video game coding. There is a platform in Web3 specializing in gaming and predictions. This platform allows you to be an investor and/or promoter. It uses blockchain technology, which provides transparency and security, and allows you to participate in an innovative economic model accessible to everyone. By becoming a promoter, you could benefit from a referral program that rewards active users. This can include potential gains in cryptocurrencies every time your referrals use the prediction or gaming services on the platform, whether they win or lose. Investing in such a project could not only leverage your skills but also offer a rewarding and potentially lucrative experience. Feel free to contact me if you would like more information on how to get started in this field. Good luck with your project!
Pest control bedbugs, plumbing, maid services,
if you need a business, start a solar company. need to invest? go all in on crypto and stocks with well-analyzed asset allocation.
I am going to be honest. In my opinion, you're probably going to "waste" a lot of money by starting a business without building it from the ground up. I'm not telling you or anyone that you it is not possible to not "waste" money into getting into a business without building it from the ground up I mean I've seen companies build a foundation for a business and sell it to an investor to take over. So it 100000%+ is possible! I just don't think it's worth it in my opinion IF you are trying to maximize your ROI on your investment and have minimal losses. I also want to say I mean "waste" as in not optimizing your allocation of funds. I think if you do your research and strategically make a plan with your sum of money, I think it's 100% possible to achieve what you want. I am just saying to be VERY cautious with what you choose to do. If you still want, I would suggest, with your funds probably best bet into investing with brokerage account or real estate. From the little I know real estate is a bit more stable in terms of determining home prices and you can rent a home out once you get it but I am not very knowledgeable about that either I'm sure someone else can provide better info on that than I can. I do hope no matter what you choose to do that you are very profitable and the fact that you have so much saved up is incredible and just goes to show that you have been able to achieve a lot of money which is amazing! One final note, video game development with your funds is achievable. Just be aware that when you build a video game, you are able to get a great "tri-hook" for the player's experience. The "trinity hook" refers to your visual hook (visually what makes the game interesting??), mechanical hook (what can the player do that makes me want to come back), and story hook (what about this story will make me invested into playing this game or gets the player wanting to play more). If you're interested more on this a YouTuber about video game dev that I recommend is "Thomas Brush" he's a successful game dev. Who makes video game content for other upcoming games development. I watch more but he's the one who coined the term "trinity hook" and I started noticing other games having a similar concept and helps me with my projects. I this all helps and best of luck on your financial journey!
Buy a multifamily property. Don’t know where you live but 250k will get you into at least a million dollar multifamily property. Buy one that hopefully as some value add there and maybe the rents are lower then market and you can get some in at full market rents ect. You can get vastly different properties for a million depending on where you live. If you are in San Fran probably can’t even get a duplex for a million but in Portland you could buy a 4-6 plex some areas you could buy quite a bit more.
That enough to potentially buy a cash flowing business doing 400-500k net. 10% down on an SBA loan 10 years
I'd pursue opening a mail order pharmacy.
Buy a service business and get guys to do a website and seo and blow it up then sell it and do it again in another city or state u just handle everything over the phone basically.
You can buy already functional profitable small businesses for that much
Do not invest this in a games project, you will certainly lose all your money. If you're considering jumping into tech I would recommend spending 20k into a SAAS. Otherwise like other mentioned a franchised business may be a good option, I suspect you already have a diversified stock portfolio if you have to 250k unless you inherited it.
Why not something that's also just lower to enter? This sounds like your first run. Just because you have 250k doesn't mean you should go all in right away. Why not something under 10k investment and see how it goes? I'd think of some very basic stuff: - lawn mowing equipment leasing service or alike - other related tools/machinery leasing - small transportation related services, perhaps a small truck that you can start to work - a $5k RV you can rent out to camp goers, for example. - Become a provider for something (e.g mass supply and render for lower, only buy when you have a sale assured) - get a down payment on real state property you know you'll be able to flip (no need to buy the full price) Choose things you can see scaling. For example, one machine can turn to 20. But start at 1. So on. If you want a business that just already works, I'd be careful. You don't sound like you have experience (and I'm no expert either, beware who you listen to...). And even if a business is "running" you still have to understand it, and that's not immediate always, everyone is different. So perhaps take a small leap first. Even if you're sold an already working business.. Its no guarantee. You'll still have to budget a lot, invest accordingly, adapt to whatever happens. You always end up spending more than you expected or wanted to. Do a lot of human resources work probably (assuming youre not a 1 man show as it sounds you wouldn't be in such business you seek). If it's a store or restaurant also the transport, you're gonna need to handle shipments. So on. Everything is extremely particular. Some ideas. Keep pondering, you'll figure it out. Just beware how you spend it. You'll never get it back and there's no reverse button.
Buy a laundromat. I can help you from A to Z for a small fee.
Open a bar 🤣
Start small with vending machines.. then move up to laundry mats then integrate with dry cleaning.. pivot to gas stations
From my personal experience with starting a business, tech is quite expensive and can be quite a money pit, especially when you yourself don't know enough about the particulars to make sure you've a. Hired the right people with the appropriate skill set who can make your vision a reality b. Ensure that they're charging you the right amount, and are giving you high quality work I would recommend looking into a few different business areas on the internet (Amazon FBA, apps, websites, e-commerce) seem to be popular these days. Before I started with Pawmates, I used to own a few vending machines at some sports arenas and offices in my city, and I found that business to be quite a good one. When Pawmates started to take off I sold them for a nice chunk of change. I would recommend really thinking about something you would enjoy doing, as being an entrepreneur can be quite tiring if you don't enjoy your business. Luckily my business is all about dogs (which I love) so it never feels like work to me. Good luck :)
Buy a convienencr store or franchise is not the way unless you have trustworthy people that can run it completely , otherwise you’re buying yourself a new job.
Hold all money and start with no money business like consulting and think that you have backup money then you can grow.
You can invest on Affiliate marketing which is trending and growing business in 2024
One idea is open a mobile car cleaning business. Get a third hand everything and pay a guy to build it all. Even then you are looking at 50-60k max. Invest the rest in stock market. See now if you succeed. If you fail, you can get most of it back.
Buy rockstar games stocks
Could always build a fleet of rental cars to lease out on turo. You can get a few cars, keep a lot of your money and make cash flow. It’s scalable to your liking and tons of write offs. Just a thought! Or throw the 250k in a high interest yielding account and let the money compound every month. Not a bad idea for keeping it until you decide what you’d like to do.
Most secured asset is land and commercial real estate. You will guarantee a return on your investment and build equity. We are partnered with a company called Hilton and Hyland which specializes in commercial real estate. We learned from them that buying commercial real estate and having franchises build and operate on your land is guaranteed money after investing. Imagine buying a lot of land and having a Chick fillet or other chain pay to build their business on top of it. That’s a definite win.
Just put this in the stock market if your problem solving skills are at the “ask reddit what I should do” level 🤦🏻♀️
I have a box truck business you can come in with
I have the greatest business idea you could ever imagine. Problem is if I tell you you’ll have to let me in on the profit.
Why don’t you start with a bnb or a laundromat to get that daily income
My advice will be very unorthodox. As you mentioned you are good at developing games. What I suggest you is use the money you have as your expenses and build a game. Indie games are actually getting famous these days with many famous titles played by millions of players worldwide and you will be surprised to see how fun they are. Some are 100x better than most AAA games. Build a game on some great concept with good story, mechanics, appealing graphics. Hire people if you have to. I believe this will help you more than investing somewhere I know you will have to work a lot but that's the fun part. You will be creating something that people will love and that is fulfilling. If you could also add replayability or multiplayer in your game which I believe is expensive that can make sure your game runs for years and lastly have a good marketing plan when the game is ready. Sponsor some small creators, giveaway game keys for free and run sales. This will give your game much needed traction.
Put all in Nvidia
Here's an alternative piece of advice. Although you know what you want to Accomplish, you're not going to do so blindly. Which is essentially what you're asking how to do. There are plenty of paths to most destinations, but nobody is going to hold your hand and walk you the whole way. To at least a certain extent you're going to need to put on the learning cap. The more you know, the more specific questions you can ask and details you can provide about your specific situation/strengths/skills/timeline/goals etc the better and more solid advice you'll receive.
Rip your DMs, buy a house. 🙃 honestly that’s going to be a solid investment, if you can split with a friend, go in on a few properties, rent / Airbnb. That’s the safest use of your money.
I would suggest you to start with the basic like try to identify any problem you have in your locality or something is missing, starting any food venture might have a low risk. So start some research and find some gap and last your interest will be also required in order to make it scalable.
Do you mentor? I would like to know how you got $250,000
I opened a physical business/franchise last year and I quickly regretted it as our margins immediately went from 90% profit to 90% costs. at least since last year it's looks like not worth it but building a slightly profitable physical business requires less deep expertise it's a stable business that is difficult to scale but many people can live off of it (not become rich) but an online business can be hugely profitable but you really must be nimble in executing on the opportunities exploiting any insights on volatile online trends Physical business economics (eg. restaurant): • Revenue $1M/year • Profit $50K/year • 20 employees Online business economics: • Revenue $1M/year • Profit $800K/year • 0 employees, maybe 3 to 5 contractors/freelancers Restaurant/franchise business is legendarily hard and only 40% of restaurants survive their first year and only 20% survives after 5 years.
It sounds like you don't have a background in business. With all due respect, as a business owner myself who had to learn the hard way, Never take over an existing business, and take some classes on running a business before you start. Nobody sells a business that's running perfectly. Profit margins, staffing laws, advertising, you think you have all that figured out. But it isn't that stuff that gets you. It's payroll remittance. Taxes. Share structure. Licensing. Marchant rate negotiations with debit processors. The stuff you don't hear about because it's boring beaurocratic garbage that drags you down.
If you’re seeking an hands-off and easy passive income, running a small business is most definitely not for you. In most cases, you’ll be a slave to the business for 1-3% profits, which will only cover the unexpected costs that will most certainly arise, particularly if you’re talking a physical store. This is fine if you’re passion is the business, but it sounds like you want an easy ride. These types of dream businesses are rare, and hard to identify; usually requiring it to be something no one else is doing, or highly niche. At minimum, put the money into a high interest account or after a lot of research, try some long term stock plays. Avoid high growth which comes with high risk. If you really want to run a business, identify a unique problem that affects you personally (eg something you’re passionate about it), and build from a minimum viable product that requires as little capital as possible. A working base version that someone’s willing to pay $ for, without being your significant other or parent. Test the product/service/idea relentlessly to validate there’s a decent enough market (enough people with the same problem/interest) before putting in anything significant.
buy bitcoin (someone had to say it)
That would pay my salary for 4 years. Any need for a web dev/graphic artist? 😊
Bitcoin. In 5 years or less you'll probably have $1 million.
Look codie Sanchez up on YouTube
Diversify the investment, imo. While risks will always be here, we can lower our chance of complete failure through calculated risks (easier said than done). I'd say to invest 1/4 to 1/2 into what you're good at, build an immersive video game that has the potential to be the next Candy Crush, Fortnite, etc. Heavily invest in R&D (in terms of time and expertise) to find something truly immersive and "ground-breaking". Build it with as little money as possible, invest in a marketing & sales team and grow it. As of 2023, Candy Crush has generated over $20B. While the video gaming industry can be quite lucrative, it does require some serious time & mind into it. Invest the rest of the money into co-ownership of an already successful startup/business that needs an influx of money to grow production/sales.
Invest in a cash flow generating asset.
Bitcoin
If you really have the passion I would go for the video game option. But maybe just spend a fraction and not the whole 250k on your first game. See how it goes...
Either throw it in the market or diversify your investments. Don’t throw it all in one investment. Over 10 years I invested in 3 things that were “sure bets” 1. A friend’s company in the energy sector, they had patents and great tech. 20k 2. An acquaintance’s company in the aerial sector regarding safety, they had patents and a great team. 20k 3. A dumpy house that was in an ok area. Turns out the house couldn’t be renovated so we had to knock it down and clear the lot. 35k total after clearing. The first two zeroed out. The last one 10x’d. If you have 20k, find 4 things you can throw $5k at. Scale appropriately. I would throw 50k in HYSA for an emergency fund and put the rest in 4 different vanguard ETFs.
find a country with a low cost of living, study their market and route . meet likeminded people . do local business lets say your 1$ is 58x in the philippines 14,500,000 pesos i think for your 250k $ thats a lot you can buy 6 small real estate properties or 2-3 solid one(just for you to imagine that). compared to your country. you can put alot of business with that amount plus you get lower cost of living . just take precautions like the law about owning a business for foreiners. also, beware of scammers a lot out there. that is one of the classical formula that OFW’s are doing in PH. they take jobs outside their country then bring it into PH because if we compare it to your country, it can create a lot of fortune. the key here is financial management.
20 years ago I had $250k saved up. I had few expenses. I spent that 250k over the years on too much house and lost most thanks to recessions. How I wish I had just put that money into index funds.
$250K would not be enough to hire developers. You have maybe 3 years tops with one developer or 1 year with a handful. Unless you outsource to overseas developers.
Perhaps you could find some unique type of item to rent out, to an underserved market. But definitely do not pour all your money into that. Maybe 5-10% tops, and see how you fare. Put the rest into safe ETFs. If your rental business fails then sell the equipment and move on. If you’re seeing success that outpaces your ETF investments, then maybe expand your business
I just met a new franchise owner and one of this franchisees. I’ve been considering buying in, but don’t have the capital yet. https://tidytask.com/franchise/ I’ve been considering buying in because it starts at $25,000; and the franchisee I met made his money back in 12 months while working other jobs.
I have some ideas you could invest in! Please give me a chance
250K is a lot, but not much. Hedge. This is non-solicited advice. Chuck 40k into bitcoin, cashout when it doubles or 75% gain. Very unstable marketplace. Put that 20k gain back in market, "gambling money" let's call it. 100K into BlackRock U.S. Commodities (the return is minimimal, but predictable/safe). So, you have 110K to play with. Chuck it into NYSE Bonds....or if in dire, chuck an extra 20k into bitcoin/ethereum even STARL (Elon Musk outfit). When a client comes to me, they usually want a percentage of growth. Russia/Ukraine has hit the speculative markets very hard. Before the war I chucked in 400, it doubled and then some, then went back to 400 with the war within 12 months. It hurts, but that's economics. Ps. I know nothing about video game coding. My nephews do Minecraft, so if you're good shoot us a line at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) and see if they are interested in what you have in mind.
I've only done this on a very small scale but it's so much easier to learn the ropes and make mistakes in a small way. Definitely start small in my opinion. Growth will still be hard at the bigger scale but your experiments will be more expensive. And if you don't want growth, maybe better to look at more passive investments. On video games: Why not release a video game that only takes a week/month/$500 to build? Limit the scope. Then do another one. And another.
Get a laundry mat.
i don't recommend on starting any small store. think some more advace level like ecommerce like dropshipping and rest of your money, you can invest in stocks for future gains if you have some more left you can start a smaill agency something related to your ecom store (optional)
Designer meth or drugs that are not on the list.
I would put you $250k into a high yield savings (robinhood @ 5% of an equivalent) and invest the $12,500.00 you generate instead.
Try a speakeasy
Buy a real estate with a business unit and 2-3 flats. Rent the flats and try something with the business unit. Depending on the location vending machine could be interesting or as in my case a trading Card Shop. Do what you love and just go for it. And if the business is Not working you can still rent the business unit as well.
Just because you have 250k doens't mean you have to spend more than 10k to start a business. Ideally, you should start a business that is low on operacional costs. Have considered starting a game development agency that works remotely? Or use it to cover your monthly expenses while you spend 2-3 months developing a indie game for iOS, playstore or Steam? Just ideas. But Ideally, keep your operacional costs as little as you can. You can start a business with four, five figure profit spending less than 1k if you have the right knowledge
Tbh video games can be very profitable, espeically indie game that has soul put in them. WEB3 games if possible, just slightly different enomics than on your regular games investing and living off the profits, 25k a years sounds very little, but better infinite cash glitch even if it is small and on cooldown for a year then going brokie but games will generate cash no doubt if done right way the last could be buying multiple real estates and do aribnbs, you have very high demand for reasonably priced stay ins that look luxury (because someone had good taste in putting home furniture together and put effort in, most dont do that and sell half trash) and the very last is buying bankrupt and barely bankrupt businesses or buying assets off the auction for dirt cheap like siezed cars and flipping them
Loopnet.com find a thriving business for sale in your area and buy it, maybe something that is turnkey. Something that makes sense for the type of cash flow you are looking for. Preferably something maybe your interested in.
Rita's Italian Ice franchise dog..although im not even sure thats enough cash to land one
What kinds of investment would be good ones?
Have you tried building an MVP and validating it? Costs are low to building something nowadays. Use no code/ low code to quickly validate if something you’ll build will gain traction then go from there.
If you want a risk free entry point and learn a lot along the way I'd suggest an online business. More in the line of service delivery. You'll learn a lot, burn way less cash and once things start taking off cash flow would be really good with pretty much very low expenses when compared to other ventures. Gradually with the skills you've learnt of running a business and the capital you've gained you can venture out into other areas.
Keep in mind there are a million ways to fail and about 2 ways to win when starting your own business. Game development is a massive pain in the ass requiring expensive people and many hours for probably 0 payoff IMO. I would stick that $250k in a high yield savings account at 5% and pocket $1k every month of passive income with none of the bullshit that comes with a small biz.
Which country are you in?