Business not for everyone, but it’s for you if you despise your job, and you’ve loathed every job you had before that. It’s hard, and it’s stressful, but it’s worth it to be able to live on your own time and not have to call another man your boss.

If you’re like me, working a job for the rest of your life is just not an option, and therefore owning a business is essential. Unfortunately 90% of businesses fail, the most common cause being cash flow. I want you to avoid that fate, that’s why I recommend starting a service business.

In a service business, you have way less upfront costs, and way less monthly expenses. But you have to work hard, learn how to sell, and put the numbers in. You won’t make six figures doing 10 calls a day, you’re going to need to do 100 calls/emails a day in the first year, plus what you can get from your inbound marketing.

All these jobs pay when you can sell and you put in the numbers, by numbers I mean at least 100 cold calls or emails a day for your first year, plus advertising and marketing if you have the money. Service biz, highest success rates, lowest upfront/no upfront costs.

31 Six Figure Service Businesses

Blue Collar 

Blue collar businesses aren’t sexy, but they pay, because no one wants to do them. Just keep in mind that a blue collar business will usually have higher expenses than the other businesses on this list because of equipment and supply costs.You also might need some school or training and might need employees to get to six figures.

Of all the options, a blue collar business is my least favorite, but it beats the hell out of working a job.

• Electrician
• Plumber
• Ashphalt Paver
• Contractor
• Landscaping (I worked for a sole proprietor doing this in high school)
• Carpentry
• Repairman
• Roofing
• Flooring
• Pool cleaning
• Plumbing
• Electrical

Sales 

A sales business has some of the highest earning potential on the list. I knew a guy in Toronto making 500k a year selling real estate. You’re also looking at no or very little upfront costs or monthly expenses. For most sales businesses though, you’ll have to get certified and you’ll probably have to work for someone for 2-3 years to learn the business before you can start out on your own. With that said, that’s not the worst thing, because you end up learning the business on someone else’s dime.

• Recruiting/Headhunting
• Car brokerage (my friend my 40k in his first year using only inbound adwords campaign)
• Insurance
• Real Estate
• Event planning

White Collar

• Accounting
• Tax planning (big niche for digital expats/nomads)
• Ethical Financial services (andrew henderson, flag theory guy examples)
• Legal

Online

• Programmer
• IT/Tech Support
• Web Design
• Video Production/Editing (tons of money in corporate video
• Marketing/advertising services
• Social media management
• Sales Copywriting
• Graphic design
• Corporate document writer
• Coaching/Training Business (life/business/fitness etc. – can do offline as well