Breaking the Mold
As a contrarian entrepreneur, I live to challenge the accepted way of doing things. While others follow the herd, I purposely take the road less traveled. Questioning norms and defying conventions is in my DNA.
Finding Diamonds in the Rough
The mainstream ideas that get all the hype and attention? Those aren't for me. I seek out the unglamorous, overlooked opportunities that everyone else stupidly dismisses as boring or unviable. That's where I find my diamonds in the rough.
Trusting My Instincts
I think for myself, from the ground up. Popular opinion means nothing to me. When my instincts and analysis tell me there's an unconventional path worth pursuing, I trust them over the naysayers and doubters every single time. Conformity is a prison for the mind.
Unstoppable Determination
Sure, the start is always an uphill battle when a contrarian. The skeptics will mock, investors will scoff, and failures will mount. But I'm stubbornly determined to the point of obsession. I will grind through the setbacks and keep pushing until I prove my crazy idea is brilliant.
Eternal Optimism
At my core, I'm a rational optimist. Despite all the negativity and opposition, I face for my contrarian ways, I'm eternally confident that bucking the trends and defying conventions is the path to creating something remarkable and valuable. The doubters only motivate me more.
That's the contrarian mindset that drives me as an entrepreneur. I see the world through a different lens, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
As a contrarian entrepreneur focused on "unsexy" businesses, here are some examples I would highlight of unglamorous but successful ventures:
Waste Management
The garbage and waste disposal industry is about as unsexy as it gets. But companies like Waste Management have built multi-billion-dollar empires by providing an essential service that everyone needs. Dealing with society's literal trash is far from glamorous, but it's a massively profitable and recession-proof business when executed well.
Plumbing Services
There's nothing sexy about unclogging drains or fixing leaky pipes. Yet plumbing is a $110 billion industry in the U.S. alone. Smart contrarian entrepreneurs have built very lucrative plumbing businesses by innovating in areas like customer service, scheduling software, and pricing models for this decidedly unglamorous trade.
Industrial Parts Manufacturing
Making specialized electronic controls or components for niche industrial applications is the definition of an "unsexy" business. However, by finding an underserved market need and becoming the go-to supplier, I could build a highly profitable manufacturing company without any flashy branding or mass appeal.
Funeral Services
Death care is about as somber and unglamorous an industry as exists. But funeral homes are also an indispensable service that every community requires. By running an efficient, well-respected funeral business, I could build a lucrative company providing this necessary but emotionally difficult offering.
Landscaping
Mowing lawns and maintaining yards and gardens is dirty, physical work - the opposite of a glamorous business. Yet by delivering consistent quality and innovating with employee compensation models, I could build a remarkably successful landscaping operation capitalizing on this very unglamorous but universal need.
The common thread across these examples is finding an unglamorous but essential service that people need and executing it exceptionally well through smart operations and customer-centric innovations. That's the contrarian path to success in "unsexy" industries.
Here are some innovative strategies that successful "unsexy" businesses have used:
Leveraging Technology and Software
Many unsexy businesses have disrupted their industries by applying technology and developing custom software solutions to solve common customer pain points.
- Netflix used technology to eliminate the need for physical video rental stores, disrupting the movie rental industry.
- One company spent two years developing software to improve service scheduling and meet customer needs in their unsexy business.
- Advocacy System, an unsexy legal services business, grew 400% by developing internal software and processes to streamline operations across clients instead of reinventing each one.
Focusing on Customer Experience
Unsexy businesses have innovated by enhancing the customer experience in unique ways that differentiate them from competitors.
- One cleaning business allowed customers to rate satisfaction and directly tied employee compensation to those ratings, leading to exponential growth.
- Copywriters and marketers can leverage their "unique DNA" of experiences to craft compelling marketing for unsexy businesses that resonate with customers.
Solving Mundane Problems Creatively
Even small creative changes to solve mundane problems in an industry can be innovative and drive success for an unsexy business.
- Pepsodent reinvented toothpaste in the 1900s by adding citric acid and mint oil to create a tingling sensation that made teeth feel cleaner, capitalizing on consumer perception.
Operational Efficiency and Consistency
Developing standardized efficient operations and processes across locations or clients is an innovative strategy for scaling unsexy businesses consistently.
- Advocacy Systems grew rapidly by creating internal processes that could be replicated across all clients instead of reinventing each one.
The key innovative strategies seem to revolve aroundapplying technology creatively, enhancing the customer experience in uniqueways, solving mundane industry problems differently, and developingoperationally efficient standardized processes to scale. By thinking innovatively, even the most unsexy businesses can disrupt their industries.
July 19, 2024
Photo by Javier Allegue Barros on Unsplash