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People commonly hold the stereotype that businesses only think about profit who are willing to do what every they need to for money. However, this is not always the case. In fact, many online businesses and business ideas put people before profits. Check out below for the top 10 successful business ideas that will restore your faith in humanity.
#10: Janji Running wear company
Janji running wear company is a great example of successful business ideas that can help restore your faith in humanity. Mike and Dave, two runners on the Washington University in St. Louis track and field team, founded the company. During a 10k race, on a very hot day, many water stations aided them along the way. On their way back from the competition, due to their experience, they came up with the idea for Janji.[1]Janji – Janji’s Story As runners, they were very aware of water’s importance. I addition, they understood the running community’s generosity.
However, they also understood that the generosity usually begins and ends on the day of the race. They were looking for a way to help more. Therefore, they decided to combine their passions for running and helping people into a successful business idea. The result was Janji. Their company creates running apparel for runners by runners. For each sale of clothing that they make, 10% of that sale goes to help fund clean drinking water projects around the world. They even took it a step farther by designing the clothing to represent the country that the money from its purchase would go to.
#9: Ezylife
The Ezylife successful business idea is a business plan that helps build opportunities for entrepreneurs in the developing world. Their successful business ideas are threefold
- They want to make a local economic impact by giving locals jobs.
- Ezylife wants to make an environmental impact both locally and globally by providing products that help reduce the use of natural resources.
- They want to make a social impact by providing products that help reduce the work for girls and woman in the community.[2]Ezylife – About
The perfect example of these points is their EzyStove. They developed the wood fire rocket stove for the developing world. First, Ezylife ships the stove in parts to the destination country. This gives jobs to local entrepreneurs as well as saves on the entire price of shipping the product. Local entrepreneurs then easily assemble the product. They can then turn around and sell it to local customers for a profit.
It also has a great environmental impact. Many developing countries still use wood fire stove to cook. The design of the rocket stove helps solve this by reducing CO2 emission by up to 70%. Furthermore, in many of these developing countries, such as in Africa, wood is a scarce resource. By increasing the efficiency of cooking, you are able to better preserve this resource.
Finally it helps socially by reducing the amount of time necessary to prepare food. This stove both uses 40% less wood and has a greater thermal efficiency than traditional fire place cooking. This means they take less time in both getting the wood and cooking the food.
#8: Panera Bread’s Pay what you want/can locations
Small businesses aren’t the only ones who can restore your faith in humanity. They do not hold a monopoly on this market. A great example of this is Panera Bread’s pay what you want/can café restaurants. Panera Bread is famous for their soups, breads, and sandwiches.
The store concept is that you can go in and pay what you can afford for any item on the menu. While they have “recommended” prices on the menu, they don’t require you to pay any set price.[3]Time – At Panera’s Pay-What-You-Want Cafes, Customers Usually Pay Full Price Panera doesn’t just believe in giving cheap food to anyone. Rather, they want to help people who are down on their luck, by giving them a chance to get hot, good food without having to worry about not being able to afford it.
#7: Remodeling houses for people with physical disabilities
There are millions of people living with physical human body disabilities. Some people can’t walk and have to use a wheelchair. Others, have limited mobility in their fingers. All of these things can make the most simple of tasks in their home extremely difficult to accomplish. While remodeling houses for people with physical disabilities is a for profit successful business idea, the thought that this job is there to help others really helps restore one’s faith in humanity. A few things that this type of business can do include:
- adding ramps to a house to help people in wheel chairs
- adding large easy grab able handles throughout the house
- installing an elevator or lift in the house.[4]HouseExecutive – Adapting your home – how to get help and advice
#6: A consultant to charities to help with fundraising
Any business that focuses on helping others is one of the great successful business ideas that can help restore your faith in humanity. Charity campaigns can get money to help people in need in things such as cancer, education, and natural disasters. However, the process of getting the money can be quite difficult. There are many steps along the way that can sometimes be difficult for the charity. Even if they have good intentions, they don’t know what to do. Sometimes the best answer comes in the form of a consultant. This successful business idea of being a fundraising consultant entails helping build a business plan for the charities in order to achieve their noble objectives.[5]Philanthropy News Digest – How Can I Become a Nonprofit Fundraising Consultant?
#5: A business that trains in first-aid care
Creating a business that focuses on teaching others on first aid techniques is a successful business idea that can help restore your faith in humanity. Learning first-aid skills in important to everyone from the CEO of a Fortune 500 company to a teacher to a construction worker. Furthermore, this business plan is mobile and allows the owners to travel to their clients sites.[6]First-Aid Training Co-operative – 5 Steps To Starting A First Aid Training Business
#4: Successful business ideas that focuses on getting first-aid kits out to everyone
Helping others through direct first aid is not necessarily for everybody. Maybe you have a desire to help in the medical field, but do not have the ability to do so. For example, many people dream of becoming a doctor. However, they can’t deal with blood.
It is still possible to help by creating a business that makes and distributes first-aid kits. It is even possible for you to customize the first aid kits for various situations.[7]Guide for
Suppliers of First Aid Kits Containing Medicinal Products Supplying Solely to the End-User For example, a policeman might need a very different type of first aid kit than lifeguard.
#3: Auction Service business for charities
If a charity can’t help anyone if it doesn’t have money. This is where one of the great successful business ideas for a charity auction service comes into place. This type of business focuses on working to get donations from local businesses for the charity for auction.[8]Elite Auctions & Fundraising Services – About The Fundraising Auction & Consulting Business By doing this, they can raise the capital needed to help whatever charity that they are working with.
#2: Clubs or locations that provide a space that is alcohol free
Alcohol has become many people’s personal hell. It might be where they go to forget their problems. For some they are so dependent on it and cannot function in society. Many lose family and friends along the way.
As such, the successful business ideas of creating a club or hang out that is an alcohol free space really helps restore your faith in humanity. These clubs allow people who might be alcoholics to still go out and not feel left out if they are not drinking alcohol. While this might sound counter intuitive, by not allowing people to go out and reintegrate into society, it can actually make it worse. In most cases they just serve soda.[9]Club Soda – DO A SOBER SPRINT, DRINK MINDFULLY, OR GO ALCOHOL-FREE
#1: Removing Graffiti
Go down a street in many urban neighborhoods and you see graffiti all over the place. In many cases it lowers the value of the buildings and also makes people afraid. A graffiti removal business is one of the great successful business ideas that really helps restore your faith in humanity. In many cases, you don’t even need a lot of previous experience as you can learn everything you need while doing the job. Furthermore, you just need a small portable sand blaster or portable power washer in order to do it.[10]Entrepreneur – Graffiti Removal
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