I had a thought yesterday evening whilst watching the latest episode of Dragons Den - would there be an interest in a weekly write-up of each episode?

I find the show helps get the idea juices flowing and, let’s be honest, there are often great ideas on there that are just poorly executed which means opportunity for us.

Let me know by replying to this email, if there’s enough interest I’ll give it a go.

In today’s email:

• The Big Idea - remote team building events.

• Steal This Idea - routines.club

• The Side Hustle - local freelance marketplaces.

THE BIG IDEA

Remote Team Building

Remote working was already growing, then the pandemic came along and turbo charged it. Businesses were forced to change in ways they never thought they would.

Whilst some businesses are returning to a balance of hybrid working many are staying remote. 

Added to this is the changing demands of employees with workplace benefits around mental health and regular team events no longer just a nice-to-have. 

But with employees all over the country (or even world) these events become costly to do in person and a logistical headache if done remotely.

Put all of this together and you have an opportunity. 

Remote team events.

Take away the logistical planning and awkward hosting by John from HR by providing an all-in solution.

There’s a wide range of options here in terms of planning and involvement - from the basic level of hosting team quizzes to craft making and all the logistics that come with making sure participants have everything they need to take part.

There’s no shortage of options here in terms of events - murder mysteries, virtual escape rooms, wine tasting, book clubs. Almost anything can be adapted for remote delivery given enough thought and ingenuity.

My personal take on this?

One of the hardest parts of managing a remote team is ensuring mental wellness so I’d niche down into events that support this.

Think mindfulness, craft making workshops, and team virtual exercise classes.

If any of you build this let me know, I went through a phase of learning macrame and happy to help out!

STEAL THIS IDEA

Routines.club

The idea is astonishingly simple - a website listing the morning routines of interesting people like Andrew Huberman and James Clear monetised with affiliate deals.

Check out the stats:

With roughly 40,000 unique visitors per month it’s fair to say it is doing pretty well!

Now, I know this may seem a little different to my normal ideas to steal segment - generally they’re businesses doing well elsewhere that can be replicated in the UK.

But, I do think there’s opportunity here to do that and more.

A lot of the morning routines are US focused and reference many products only available in the US. There’s definite money to be made in a UK version - either sourcing the closest UK alternative products for routines or focusing on the morning routines of those UK based.

But the reason I say this is slightly different is there is worldwide opportunity in the concept of this site.

The core reason this is doing so well is we naturally look to those achieving the kind of success we’d like and want to unlock their secrets.

And this kind of approach can be replicated across all manner of perceived ‘secrets’ - workout routines, investment strategies, productivity hacks, diet and nutrition.

THE SIDE HUSTLE

Local Freelance Marketplace

I’m a big fan of side hustles that are locally based. There’s so much opportunity in local models that is often overlooked or underestimated.

It’s no secret that freelance work is on the rise. People are starting to realise the benefits and flexibility that come with it.

Whilst remote work is great a lot of business owners want to at least meet the people working for them, and many freelance roles would be much more effective this way - social media for example.

However, if I owned a local cafe and wanted to find someone who lives nearby to help with my social media I’ve got limited options.

The solution - a two-sided local freelance marketplace.

Eventually you’ll want to automate this. Building it is fairly easy with the multiple no-code tools out there now, I’d recommend grabbing a template like this one.

But as with most side hustles, I’d keep this to a bare-bones MVP to prove the concept in your area.

First, find yourself local freelancers. Post in Facebook groups, trawl Google, ask around - don’t just look for existing freelancers but be open to those who want to expand outside of their 9-5 too.

Once you have a list of possible freelancers speak to them, find out their experience, the type of jobs they want, how much they charge and, most importantly, what they’d pay you for leads.

Then it’s time to really hustle - get out there visiting local businesses and speaking to them to find those leads.

Once you’ve proven this ‘manually’ then it’s time to look to take it online and automate the processes.

Whilst I’ve listed this as a side hustle I think there’s massive opportunity to expand this to other areas whether by yourself or using a franchise model.

I know there are countless marketplaces out there for freelancers but there’s nothing that focuses solely on keeping it local.

Maybe that’s your tagline - keep it local.

And that’s a wrap for today!

As always hit reply with any feedback or just to chat - I’m building a new landing page so if you’re enjoying Adam’s Ideas I’d really appreciate a few sentences to use as a testimonial.