iPhone/Android Apps
Computer Apps, without the nationwide aspect.
Kind of late for the passive e-commerce webpage, but maybe.
Liquor - boutique distillery, micro brew beer or wine.
Candy
Cookies
Door knobs
Kitchen knobs
Lamps
Christmas decorations
In general, manufacturing something that has enough value and profit margin to allow it to be sent UPS should work. Notice, none of these things are the standard, Southern Illinois style, cheapest thing in the price category. Higher value items, with less numbers of sales and more profit per item hold more promise.
What kinds of businesses could be successful in Southern Illinois?
3 comments:
One of the more recent relatively successful startups in the Bloomington area has been a new local Homebrew Supply store. Definitely requires a person with fairly specialized knowledge who is also personable, but also fits into your category of a potential for more expensive/ sale, and higher profit margins, since your clientele tend to be stable middle class folks, with expendable income. They haven't been open too long, so i'm interested to see where it goes.
Although the regional tourism and specifically ag-tourism and silent sport tourism are small revenue generators compared to the entire regional economy, those are areas that are unique and can compete regional with other states for tourism dollars.. Your a cyclist, we have low traffic roads across SI that make perfect places for casual rides.. The Tour de Shawnee in lonely Alexander County can draw 340 riders from across the Midwest for one day that tells you something.. We are the crossroads of many national bicycle trails, The State of Illinois is given Fed tax dollars that must be spent on things like bike trails, that most of Southern Illinois overlooks.. No promotion of the Tunnel Hill Trail, no Bicycle Hostels, and other soft businesses.. There is something to consider.. The regional tourism groups are fair at their very best. Same with ag tourism and the production of local products.. No promotion, SI area produces shrimp, rice, caviar among countless other food products.. What to help that cause, help start a kitchen incubator, plenty of empty restaurants in the region that can be converted to such. Google the Illinois, Local Food Act and you see opps there with the region.. Help finance start up of the Alexander/Cairo Port District, the most under developed yet strategic location of the inland waterways in the country..
There are simple equations for tourism, you are going to get a certain amount of dollars, based on population. The further the big city and suburbs are, the less people you get. Tourism jobs are not of high quality, they are almost always seasonal, poorly paid and without benefits. I'll pass.
Ag tourism? Good grief. Is there a single place that Ag tourism works? Viewing the tomatoes in the Central Valley of California? You must be talking wine trail, because we don't really have Ag around here.
Restaurants are just service, and a waste of time. There will be more then enough of them soon enough, if one is empty, the money goes down the street. No skin off my nose.
Helping Cairo or East St Louis? What a waste of my time. The people who live there had better do that. If I can't drive there inside an hour, I'm not playing.
Everything you suggest here is a stupid idea, and will do the region little good. What we need is 100 more jobs that build something, that is exported out of the region, then 1000 more. SIU growing would be helpful, but it isn't going to diversify anything.
Thanks for playing, but you are off base.
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