I'm going to be honest: My business partner told me not to write this article. My fiancé begged, pleaded, and attempted to dissuade me from divulging these 7-figure secrets. They both held the same scarcity-ingrained belief around spilling these money-makers to the general public: They're too valuable to share, especially if I may one day pursue any of them myself.
And it's partly true: I may one day pursue one (or multiple) of these ventures in the future, and perhaps some people would feel that's reason enough to keep them under lock and key. Unfortunately, the harsh truth about ideas is that without execution, they lack 99% of their value potential. Secondly, I simply don't have the time at this moment, and there's no need to gatekeep these secrets out of selfishness and fear.
Thus, you're welcome in advance for five more reasons you don't have to be a technical genius, come from boatloads of family money, have deep-rooted Silicon Valley connections, nor have social media fame to make millions of dollars — and have fun doing so.
1. The magic of hybrids
Ever heard of the pizza bagel? The cronut? The sushirrito? The duffin? These are just a few examples of the multi-million-dollar magic of hybrid products — especially foods! As entrepreneurs, we always hear the advice to "find proof points" and "see what's already working", rather than invent a brand-new product or service no one's ever asked for, wants, or knows they need.
The problem with those novel never-been-done-before products is that they incur the huge risk of customer education: You have to educate the customer about what the product or service is, demonstrate how they need it (though they never did before), and convince them to want to test out a new widget. Alternatively, the magical hybrid strategy bypasses all that mess and gives customers more of products they've already proven they want.
Do people like pizza? Ask Father Jonathan. What about bagels? Ask a New Yorker or check out the morning lines at Bruegger's. Put them together and what do you get? Apparently, you get one of countless magical hybrid products customers can't wait to salivate over — and possibly stand in lines for hours just to try.
Next time you're short on new business ideas or just wondering how to double a product's target market at no extra cost, consider what popular but distinctly different products (or services) could be combined into one magical hybrid and you just might uncover your next money-maker.
2. Don't scrap these
You've likely heard the phrase "one man's trash is another man's treasure", and it's rarely been more true than with one of the most overlooked dead fish scraps out there. Yep, you guessed it: I'm talking about shrimp heads. Okay, so you probably didn't guess it, but now you're intrigued, so hear me out: Most people are used to eating shrimp in a variety of formats, be it cocktail, ceviche, or the thoroughly breaded honey walnut shrimp from Panda Express, all of which are great and popular options.
What you may or may not be as familiar with is the "raw shrimp" option at select high-end sushi restaurants, sometimes referred to as "ebi" or "sweet shrimp". It's typically about double the price of the other sashimi options, and very much considered a delicacy among sushi aficionados. What makes this raw shrimp extra special — at the best of sushi restaurants — is the fact that it comes with the fried shrimp head as the cherry on top.
Ironically, the first time my fiancé and I ordered it, we didn't know you could (or were supposed to) eat the fried head. As those beady black eyes stared back at us, I began to wonder if the heads were really just for show, so I turned to Google for a crash course in raw shrimp etiquette.
It turns out that not only are you supposed to eat the head, but it's actually quite delicious, almost similar to soft-shell crab, so long as you close your eyes and ignore the fact that you're consuming shellfish brains. I'm not kidding: It quickly became one of our favorite sushi dishes, and now we order it and eat the heads at every restaurant where it's offered. In fact, we get specifically disappointed at the few sushi restaurants that serve the raw shrimp tail and abstain from frying the head…
Anyhow, shrimp head isn't only available in this luxury sushi dish. You can actually buy fried shrimp head by the bag online and at some Asian food and snack stores. How do I know? Obviously when I realized $20 for two shrimp heads at a sushi restaurant wasn't exactly economical for the volume I craved, I had to order them by the bulk load.
That brings me to this brilliant product, which is not just limited to shrimp. Another similar product that I've seen make multiple millionaires in the past few years is salmon skin chips. And chicken skin chips. Pretty much any edible meat that has an edible skin that can be fried and seasoned is great potential for a multi-million-dollar business. Oh, there's fruit rind leather, too — and yes, I do know some fruit rind millionaires with successful products on Whole Foods and Bristol Farms shelves.
In case you haven't caught on to the hack I'm unveiling just yet, it's turning healthy scraps (or scraps in general) into desirable products, hence my analogy of "one man's trash is another man's treasure". For all the shrimp cocktails being sold out there, there are just as many shrimp heads being trashed if not sold to the savvy fried shrimp head chip entrepreneurs.
Why is this "hack" better than selling the main product itself? Simple:
- Lower cost (the scraps are typically much cheaper)
- Less competition (thus much easier to break through and stand out)
- More room for innovation (since it's typically been less commercially explored)
If you don't believe me, check out the companies selling salmon skin chips — and selling out — for over $11 per bag! With average order values north of $75 and notoriously loyal repeat business, they're clearly doing something right turning scraps into addictive snacks, and there's no reason you can't take a page out of their million-dollar book.
3. Fun-size isn't just for candy bars
I was recently at a cupcake shop, and my fiancé pointed to a giant cupcake, next to a miniature, both of which were special order items that required pre-orders with a couple-day lead time. He instantly asked me which size I thought was better, clearly assuming I shared his opinion.
His knee-jerk reaction was to go for the giant cupcake, because of course, who doesn't want more cupcake? My analysis was pretty different: As I looked at the side-by-side opposite-sized pastries, I was assessing things like:
- Quality (did one look softer or harder)
- Ratio (did one have more icing versus more cake)
- Satisfaction (which would be a more satisfying experience to eat)
Through the glass display case, the quality looked pretty comparable, but the ratio was starkly different: The giant cupcake had approximately a 1:4 icing: cake ratio, whereas the mini cupcake had approximately a 1:1 icing: cake ratio. As an icing person who doesn't really like cake or bread-like products, I'd rather maximize the icing ratio, and thus, I'd much prefer the tiny cupcake from that perspective. Furthermore, in terms of satisfaction, I also realized that I'd get far more satisfaction out of eating two, three, or four tiny cupcakes than having one giant (mostly bread-like cake) cupcake and being done. Therefore, my answer was the tinified cupcake all the way.
That entire discussion cemented in my mind what a psychological internet deep dive confirmed: People love playing with sizes, and specifically, they love getting products in unusually large or small sizes.
They're fun, they're cute, they're unexpected, and they make for great social and sharing experiences, gifts, and viral marketing content. How many times have you scrolled a social media app to see someone eating "the world's largest burger" or "the world's tiniest ice cream cone" (or something similar)? Point being, you may be looking at (or biting right into) your next million-dollar product if you just make a few small tweaks to the size, ratio, or placement of ingredients…
4. The ultimate oxymoron (that people love)
Apparently, there's a lie we've been told for decades. Well, maybe we haven't all been told it, but let's just say I was among many blissfully naive customers who believed and assumed that cereal was healthy. Recently, though, there's been a wave of science-based health food influencers dispelling the myths and revealing the unfortunate truths about cereal (and other processed, packaged edible favorites). They're pretty much telling us that cereal isn't — or wasn't — healthy. That is, until innovative (and many soon-to-be-viral) companies started launching high-protein "healthy" taste-good cereals.
It's not just cereal, though. It's protein ice cream, keto icing, bodybuilder brownies, keto bagels, and the list goes on. Simply put, this top-selling oxymoron is to take something popular and common, but notoriously unhealthy, and make it healthy, without healthifying it. In other words, it can't lose the taste, texture, or "fun", but it needs to pack a punch of protein, calcium, fiber, or whatever new macro, ingredient, or health trend is all the rage.
A similar strategy (and another millionaire-maker) is to veganize a meat, which again is the ultimate oxymoron: Make it taste like, look like, and feel like meat, but make it out of anything but meat. And yes, I'm a pescatarian and regular consumer of meat substitute products (and one who knows the guys behind some of those best-selling vegan products), so I'm allowed to spill those beans and admit what works.
5. Rule-breakers and rebels can't get enough of this
I waited with bated breath for the news that, unfortunately, was no longer a surprise. Eight years ago, you could walk into almost any Whole Foods at 9:30, 10:30, sometimes even 11 am and still load up your plate with a heap of steaming eggs, French toast, and chilaquiles. These days — as confirmed by the devastating 9:01 am phone call I had last week — breakfast ends strictly by 9 am, though sometimes it's sold out by 7:45 or 8. How? I'll tell you how: There's some billionaire out there who needn't be named who cares far more about margins than customer happiness — at least today.
If you want to know how to disappoint customers, the answer is easy: Cut short the breakfast window.
Alternatively, if you want to know how to make every customer's day — and gain all the ex-Whole Foods, ex-McDonald's (they stop serving breakfast by 11 am), and ex-iHOP crowd (they stopped hopping 24/7, and the late-night breakfast crowd is still reeling from the shock), just offer all-day breakfast. I swear, it's a recipe for success — and I can tell you why.
I'm not declaring that everyone loves breakfast food or that it's superior to all other meal options, though that may be true. What I am insisting, though, is that people like to be rebels, they love freedom, and they yearn for what they can't always have. Nobody likes to be told they can only have breakfast in the morning or dessert late at night, yet so many restaurants stick to rigid meal rules that might keep their accounting simpler, but repel potential customers.
Thus, one recipe for brilliance (and customer happiness) is to break the rules of time and place, giving customers the option of eating or ordering a product in a taboo time, place, or nature. For example, think breakfast for dinner, nachos at midnight, or "snack burgers" on the go. If you stop putting customers in boxes they never asked for and start thinking outside the boxes we've all been ushered into, you just may stumble upon the next brilliant rule-breaking food phenomenon to grace our taste buds.
The missing ingredient
With the explosion of AI and the ubiquitous rise of technology embedded throughout what feels like every viable, valuable, mega-million-dollar business, it's far too easy for aspiring entrepreneurs today to assume a tech business is their only shot at the big bucks. In reality, diving into what's been widely deemed the "most valuable" industry has a few major drawbacks, namely the steep and ever-increasing competition.
If you're a tech genius, have a strong passion for some AI-enabled product or service, and have discovered a true gap in the market quietly begging for your unique innovation, have at it and best of luck. However, if that isn't your truth, I'd urge you to consider if there may be another opportunity with more room for innovation and a greater chance to stand out.
In recent years, far too many failed (and burnt out) ambitious, intelligent, well-meaning entrepreneurs have been building ventures that made some sense on paper, but lacked a key ingredient: Fun. If the business isn't fun for you to build, nor fun for your customers to use (and share about), then I strongly question whether this really is the best tree for you to bark up. In a world full of oysters, maybe you were meant to be (or sell) a pearl.
