Side Hustles That Always Will Be in Demand (Backed by Data)

How do you know if a business will be successful or not? You follow the data or what's called the linde effect. Basically, the longer a business has been in existence, the more likely it will continue to be in business. So while 20% of businesses fail within the first year, 2/3 fail within 10 years. So we come to New York City to show you these seven businesses that are the longest standing businesses here, so you can copy their homework. We're going to teach you exactly how you could own these same types of businesses. By the way, I own Main Street Holding Company and Contrarian Thinking capital.

We have 24 businesses, so I know a thing or two about this.

Let's start with Moscat. This company founded in 1989. It actually started as a push cart vendor. You know those guys with the little carts with all the wares in them down in the tenement district, which is like not the rich district in New York. This business is fascinating because it's eyewear. So back in the day that used to be a healthcare company. These days it's what I would call a retailer and e commerce company. But the story is pretty sweet and I'll tell you why I think this business has survived this long.

You're always going to have a bunch of people that need to have prescription glasses and they want to be a little cooler the way that they wear them. That is going to continue to evolve. If you want to get a little piece of a market that already exists, eyewear is probably always going to be there because people are going to need to see. Second part of the market is sunglasses, which they have a huge component of it. Same exact thing. For as long as people are out in the sun, there's going to be people that need sunglasses, which is why there are thousands of these brands today.

This is a big business. 215 billion in eyewear in total addressable market by 2025. What's interesting is about 90%, 89.7% to be precise, is located in retail brick and mortar, not online. These guys, I think maybe had some 2020 vision when they were picking their addressable market. So this is like a rags to riches entrepreneurial story, right from the tiny push part to a huge brand where now the hippest of the hip buy these sunglasses. They're pretty expensive and they're kind of iconic, but it might not be for the reasons that you think.

Now what would I do if I was going to do it today? There's really, if I'm going with a, with an eyewear brand, or something that I really consider an accessory, which this is cool factor. The only way that you're going to make real money in this space is if you can charge a premium. The only way you can charge a premium is typically if you have better distribution than everybody else, because you can get more people to buy and more people to think that you are valuable. The fastest way to do that would probably be to partner with somebody who's cool, which is why you see a bunch of celebrities that have sunglass lines or eyewear lines like this. So I would try to figure out who could be your cool factor or what could be your cool factor.

The Algocoin Hotel. This business has existed since 1902. Famous hotel by a guy by the name of Frank Case. Fascinating story.

He basically came up with a bunch.

Of weird ideas about how to make a hotel unique. Like a hotel cat, obviously. Who doesn't want one of those?

He also came up with something called.

The $10,000 martini, which was sort of like, you know, something sexy to get PR and to get people into the hotel. As you can tell. Well, you kind of can't tell because there's a bunch of stuff on here. But this is old, and it's in this area where they've basically torn down a bunch of the rest of the big buildings. But this one's kept up, and it might not be for the reason you think.

How about instead of telling you how I would start this business, why don't I tell you how I did start this business? It's Airbnb. So I think hotels are the 2.0, 3.0 way to start doing hospitality. Airbnbs are 1.0. You start with, like, a cheap Airbnb that everybody has. You make your Airbnb more unique, like my friend Rob built. You can see some of the unique ones he's built. And then eventually you scale that up to multiple properties and then a hotel. I would never start with a hotel. Start with something little and then build your way up until you're really good. Also, this book's amazing, Unreasonable hospitality. If you haven't read it, incredible book, all about the hospitality industry. Let's talk marketing.

So the guy creates this $10,000 martini, which is basically a normal martini with.

A bit of ice in the bottom, which is actually a diamond, only in New York.

But he didn't just do the fancy thing. He actually gave discounts to struggling authors because he wanted to have the cool kids in town located here.

Now, there's a couple problems. Hotels in general, I Don't love because.

They are real estate categorized as a business, which means they're really expensive.

You got to have this big, huge property.

But this one's interesting because they eventually have been bought again and again and again by a bunch of different people, including now they're an autograph collection hotel. Another thing that's fascinating is these franchise hotel brands and can control the fact that a lot of these businesses have tiny margins.

For my Airbnbs, we get pretty fancy. And I want to show you some examples, not of mine in particular, but one of my friends, because it's public on the Internet, basically. Here is a entire movie theater in the backyard. Just by having a screen that you pull down and get to project things on, having little lighting across all of it. Really important, too in Airbnbs and hotels is what's called a magic moment. So what that means is there's somewhere that somebody wants to go. Ah, Instagram photo. So what does that look like? It looks like murals. Rob Bilt's got a disco ball in the middle of a table. That's for a bachelorette party in Austin, Texas. The whole place is pink. He's got a pink pickle ball court in the backyard. These days, people want to stay in Airbnbs, but they want to feel like it's special. There's nothing worse than going to a gross, gnarly, smelly, corporate feeling. Airbnb, you want to feel like you're having an experience, and it's not that expensive to do inside of an Airbnb. So a lot of these businesses have been around for decades because of the necessity their community feels about the services they provide. One thing that may not be on this list, but I think is necessary, therapy definitely needed. I used to think that therapy was only needed during major problems, but now I know that the consistent maintenance of this is so crucial in handling the stresses of business and life. I will always recommend therapy to my loved ones. And since I love y', all, I want to tell you about BetterHelp, the sponsor of today's video. A little insight into the life of an entrepreneur. At some point in your life as an entrepreneur, you are going to have a moment where you sit head and head, your hands in the dark, uncertain of what to do next. And when one of those moments hit, there are very few people who understand it. I think that's when you talk to a therapist. By finding the right therapist, that's not always easy. And that's one of the things I love the most about BetterHelp. You can get matched with a therapist, usually within 48 hours. Because sometimes you need it that quick. And if you think it's not the right fit, you can switch to a new therapist anytime. No charge for switching. All you have to do is go to betterhelp.com codysanche fill out a few questions to get a therapist and a match in 48 hours. Click the link or choose Cody Sanchez. During sign up, you get a special little discount off your first month. Now back to the video. But remember, strong minds equals strong bank accounts.

William Pole is a total staple. It started in 1921. And what's fascinating about this is it's a deli, right?

But for European delicacies, Upper east side of New York, a little bit fancy schmancy. Christine Pohl is the wife of the.

Husband of this aptly named deli. And she actually became sort of famous on the food scene for creating some.

Of their own food and styles they're.

Known for like these little, little delicacies and canapes. Now what's interesting about this is a couple things. One, tiny spot. Two, look, it's all named. So it basically got its own white labeled product line. You've got a bunch of dips here, you've got a bunch of crackers, then over here, what do you have but prepackaged nuts. I imagine sold that at quite a.

Bit of a markup.

But because it's their name on it, it's institutionalized. Really smart move. Tiny location, all pre made food, nothing cooked on site. And as you can see, this place is about 60%. It sells its own stuff, not even third party product, which is probably why they've stayed in business. Also, they have E Commerce. So tiny storefront, big name, big E commerce company.

If I was going to do this business today, how would I think about doing it? I would actually not partner with a celebrity on this business because who's gonna buy ham sent to your house from a celebrity? I don't know, maybe that exists. Instead, I would go try to find a distribution partner. What do I mean by that? I would go and try to find who are the biggest distributors for food products to big grocery stores. Because we still buy our groceries from big grocery stores. So the only way to do this and crush it in my opinion, is to cozy up to your Whole Foods distributor, the person who buys different products for Whole Foods. You can actually do this easier than you might think. You're like, well, Cody, I don't live in Austin like you, where the headquarters of Whole Foods is. You know what I would do instead. There's something called a local buyer for every grocery store. So the local buyer is in charge of making the market feel like it is a local community store. You could probably search them out on LinkedIn, you could probably google them. You find your local buyer from local grocery stores and you partner with them. You might find a third party product that's not even yours. And all your job is is to get it in stores. Get it in stores, get it in stores. This business has survived a long time. It's also a hard business. It's a food business and a perishable good business. So be careful on this one. Even though I imagine they're still always going to be here.

John Gallon and Son construction founded in 1886 by John Gallen. Obviously the construction company is kind of fascinated. It's been in the family for decades. The interesting part about this is what is the business of New York at its very core it's real estate. It's building big, huge businesses. This type of business is never going to not be needed. They started off in masonry and concrete, then they got huge projects. Fascinating is it's gone through seven generations and the younger generations, they got to.

Put in some work.

We're talking about going from laborers and masons and men with their hands actually building things to running the fancy office building. But it all actually starts right here because it's construction. Chris Gallen, one of the sons, had a great quote. He said his father always used to tell them that only two things are always true in construction. Sometimes you're slow, but you're gonna get busy. And sometimes when you're busy, you know that you're eventually gonna get slow. If you can manage change between the two, you can make a lot of money.

What's interesting about these guys is that they've carried it through multiple generations and also focus on the most profitable parts of construction businesses, which are real estate development firms and specialized trades like H Vac, plumbing and electrical and the construction they're in. The other thing that this company's done that's interesting is now they focus on VC startup Headquarter Build Out. I bet that business sucks right now, but that business was awesome since like 2009, 2010 for the whole run up. If I was going to do this business today, what would I do? Truly guys, I would buy this business. There are so many small businesses out there in the construction space that have owners that are 65 plus years old that are getting ready to retire. Likely you're not like a construction guru. A general contractor, you don't know how to lay foundation. So if you're going to start a construction business, unlike some of those other ones with Airbnb's, why wouldn't you just buy all the SOPs, processes, homework people and clients and have a profitable business Day one? Also, if you like that idea, click the link below. Our team tells people how we would think about starting to buy a business. If you're interested, it'll take you through a little one step process and you can see if this might be a fit for you.

So like most of the trades, they got a big issue which is skilled laborers. Kids aren't going into the trades anymore. So they've actually got to fill these construction jobs, which in New York are largely union jobs. But they don't have a bunch of people to fill them with. How do they deal with this? Well, interesting. They have a lot of loyalty to their people. They didn't fire or lay off a single person in 2008. The company kept going, kept paying, even when the rest of the industry was deciding to. This is a big industry. I'm talking $2.12 trillion in assets constructed. When somebody asked Chris Gallen, one of the guys who runs it, what they do for a living, he said, we.

Deliver a good night's sleep. If you think about it, you hope your building's made well. The next thing I would do after I bought a construction company is I would really niche down. Riches are in niches. So instead of saying I'm a construction company for everybody, I would do what these guys did. Pick a niche. Say that you build all the startup VC headquarters located in Phoenix and Arizona. It's way easier to get higher ranking online with niche specialization. Plus your portfolio all looks the same. I would also do one other thing. I would get a signature look. I would use Instagram to have a signature look for all the construction that I did. Frank Lloyd Wright was a really famous architect in Arizona and all of his buildings look the same way. When you do that, people sort of seek after you like they would an artist. That's what I would do if I was going to do it today.

This is the era end started in 1817. This bad boy was actually a prohibition style speakeasy. Back in the day this thing has had a bunch of iterations from a bar to a restaurant to back to a bar again. This is really a two for one cuz see this top area up there.

That has been both a smuggler's den.

A brothel and also boarding house where People could stay if they were doing activities, if they were not doing activities, you know, double the income really. This industry is big. The bar industry is about a 240,000 billion dollar industry and there's a lot of them, 67,000 bars and nightclubs in the U.S. now, the industry doesn't actually.

Grow that much by about 1% a year.

But I have a bunch of friends that own bars and nightclubs. And the whole game is, can you.

Make enough money in the first couple of years?

Because typically these bad boys do not last 100 years like this one has. The ones that do are often kind of the same shakedown. They're so small, so they don't have a huge square footage. They play into the fact that they're old.

So they're not always trying to do the hot new next concept.

They're typically cheaper because people are really.

Just looking for a watering hole with a little bit of a legacy as.

Opposed to the hot new such and such. And the more history, sometimes the better.

How would I do this today if I was going to do it? I would follow what Call her daddy did, which is Alex Cooper. She hosts these popups bars. Now, I heard through the grapevine. I don't know if this is true. Sorry, Alex, if it's not that she made $9 million at the pop up that she did at south by Southwest in Austin, Texas. Fascinating. It looks like a little bit of like a, like a country western bar. People were lining up for hours. She used her platform to do it. She got it sponsored by a liquor company. She hung out for a couple nights with her friends. She wasn't there the whole time. People came in and out of it. They spent a ton of money on alcohol, having a good time. And she just popped in and out of existing bars, gave them a little bit of a face paint. But because it's only lasting for a week, I imagine that she spent basically nothing revamping these, this place. And it was all about a few cool signs here and there and onto the next place. How do I know that works? Well, she did it again at the Kentucky Derby. Now do you have to be rich and famous to do a pop up bar? No, absolutely not. Just come up with a cool theme. How many of you guys are sitting around on a Sunday or a Saturday thinking like where do we want to go? Are we going to go to the sun same place? I don't know, are we going to do it again or are we going to have a one time experience? Love this pop up bar idea.

Co bigalow. This is a pharmacy started in 1838. One of the longest standing pharmacies now apothecary back then. Think about this like you know your local CVS back in the day. You can tell it's old cuz it looks like it is. This company is fascinating because they've always been known for making their own little proprietary blends. So back in the day that was a bunch of herbal remedies. Today that's things like compounds, let's say that they do actually on site. It's also huge margins in that segment of the industry. What's cool here is their ownership, how they've passed it down. This company has actually handed down ownership from employer to employee since the very beginning of this thing existing. So how does a business like this stay in business when you got CVS's all over the place place and that's where people go for their pharmaceutical needs. It's probably this one thing right here which is they stock some weird.

So if you would have asked me a few years ago how to beat competitors like CVS and Walgreens, I would have said don't try. That's a terrible idea. They're huge. But have you been in one of those things lately? They're awful. I think little stores like this are going to have a complete resurgence because we're a little bit tired of the fluorescent lights, all of the terrible things on shelves for you, there's no curation, there's nothing local, there's nothing interesting. Mark my words. Just like we have seen specialty supermarkets pop up, we are going to start seeing specialty corner stores. You know what the cool part about this is? Is that means that you get to charge a premium. You'd want to put this in an area where there's a lot of people who have disposable income cash and you could actually have an outfit there where like me, there's a. There's a store in Austin, Texas called Tiny Grocer. And every time I need a gift last minute I kind of always forget I run to the Tiny Grocer because they've got this cool curated gift segment too. In an era where you can get everything you need long term from CVS and Walgreens and Amazon now almost same day or you can get it instacarted to you. What's going to make you go into a store and do the impulse purchases, which is where actually these stores make all their money. You have to curate cool shit. So actually I think this business model is super interesting on A go for a basis. You have to have some of the necessities like the nyquil, you know, like the soda, like the medicine and the pharmacy in the back. But if you get the impulse purchases right up front, because you've got an eye and a unique curation, I think you can triple how much people spend on average in your store. Which means you can beat CVS and Walgreens, Macy's.

Although I probably wouldn't invest in retail. This bad boy's been around forever, way.

More than 100 years.

You all know this story or do you? I'm going to tell you about it.

You know what's fascinating about Macy's, they're not actually a department store. What are they? They're a marketer. These guys are brilliant. They started out in 1924 as a dry goods company, then switched to clothing once they realized that dry goods are a commodity. They have the Macy's Day Parade, which is on Thanksgiving, which is one of the biggest events still in the United States 100 years later. They also started this Santa Claus sitting on the lap phenomenon. Is that true? That's what they say. I'm asking Christian because he has a history there. They started the Santa Claus sitting on the lap phenomenon in order to get people into the stores to sell a bunch of things. They also started this idea of window shopping. You know how you see all the window stuff and you know, in the decorations and windows all over stores everywhere. That was Macy's because they realized they wanted to entice you into their store. That was their idea. Which is fascinating because this thing started after a buyout and a recession left them in a massive issue. Here's how I would do it today. In fact, she's already doing this. This is Blogilates. I think she has the best retail strategy of anybody I've ever seen. She creates content so viral that is all actually an ad. She actually uses her audience to tell her the clothing that she thinks that she should create. And so she's drawing these images nonstop of different outfits. Then she sends them out to a few people, has them try them on. They create UGC user generated content, push it out for her and by the end she gets to use the entire process of creation as her ad. It's brilliant. She doesn't have to guess what's going to work because her audience tells her and then she posts her L's nonstop like this. This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen.

This is a hiking, fishing, camping, synthetic.

Onesie with a mosquito head cover. In case you need it. A zippable ability for you to go one and two in the wilderness should you need it. And also turns into a tent, which is just ridiculous. And the reason she created this is because she created gardening coveralls and people are like, that's not it. So she went the opposite extreme. This documenting, creating in real time, seeing if the audience want it. And then she pre orders like a crazy person. Meaning before that she creates a product. In the beginning, she often allows for pre orders to see if people would buy it. I would copy blogilates model. Most people focus on what's changed. I instead think you should focus on what's never changed and thus maybe what's not gonna change. That's the difference between the people of businesses that last for decades and even a hundred years like this business. So while everybody else is out there chasing the next shiny object, the next AI, the next get rich quick around here, we do things differently. We do things where we only have to do it once and we get to sell continuously and we get to actually live our lives while we're doing it. That's what we talk about at this channel. So if you like it, subscribe. Maybe you're one of us.