This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Keep the creative ideas coming. One of the things I love about hosting this podcast is hearing lots of interesting business ideas, including some that I've never considered before. That's what you're going to hear about here today. But I was thinking about yesterday's episode as well. We had a caller who describes his business idea as being truly up in the air. His business model,
at least his idea, is to help executives earn airline elite status, including some airline statuses that are very difficult to earn, ones that usually require you to pay $50,000 a year or more. So he's found some way to hack that. Today, I don't even know how to describe this. It's essentially an idea about arbitrage. Buying low, selling high. When we talk about arbitrage,
we're not usually talking about agricultural products. But this listener is. They're talking about actual agricultural products. I'm usually thinking about how can I buy textbooks and resell them. How can I buy clothes? How can I buy video games, electronics equipment, stuff like that.
They want to buy almonds in California. I'll make sure I get this right here. Almonds in California and oranges in Florida, maybe some other items, products, and then selling each one in the opposite state. So I think it's like you go where the supply is higher and then you take it to where the demand is higher, but the supply is lower. It sounds fun, but as you can imagine, it also sounds like a lot of work. So let's hear their question. Let's see what I can do about it. I'm
not sure I have a great deal of insight to offer, but let's see what we can do. Buy almonds in one state, sell oranges in another. That's the question coming up after this quick sponsor message. Hello, Chris. This is Kelsey, and I've been listening to the show for a while. I've always
been interested in the concept of arbitrage, especially when you buy something and immediately resell it at a higher price without holding onto any inventory. These days, there are lots of opportunities for digital arbitrage with cryptocurrency and NFTs, but those seem risky to me. I'd like to do it with old school agriculture products, as in actual commodities like almonds from California or oranges from Florida. Instead of just trading commodities on a stock exchange, I want to actually buy the almonds or whatever. It might sound difficult, but I've heard of people making tens of thousands of dollars doing this with Christmas trees, so I figure there have to be other markets. What are the risks and opportunities here, and how can I learn more? Thanks for any
advice you can provide. Kelsey, guess what? I really don't have a great answer to this question. I thought about it for a long time. I will try to add some value here, but just as for the specific question, buying the almonds, the oranges, the actual agricultural products, and reselling them places, even as a longtime fan of reselling arbitrage, buying things in one location, selling them elsewhere, I'm usually thinking about different online platforms or maybe even selling in your hometown or something. I really don't know how it would work in terms of all the
people who are making lots of money with that. That's great, but I would say unless you have some insider knowledge, if you do have some insider knowledge of this, which I haven't really heard of, maybe another idea would be better. That's where I want to take this question. There are so many different business ideas that you can have. If you listen to this podcast, if you develop your own independent skill of generating ideas and looking for markets and just paying attention, expressing your curiosity. I've written a lot about this in my books,
or as I said, you can just absorb it. You're going to have no shortage of ideas. When you have a bunch of ideas, if one of them seems particularly difficult, unless it is your life mission, then I tend to think, "Why not look at one of the other ideas? Why this one? Why not one of so many others?" I was thinking about this statement we heard recently from a Failure Friday episode. It was episode 1847 with this guy who started a business of transporting bicycles to
adventure sport locations in Central America. That was just about a week ago or so. He had this great quote that I really liked. The quote was, "If I could go back and do it over again, I wouldn't." I was like, "Wow, there's so much we could learn from this." He's like, "It wasn't a bad idea. It's just I could have had other ideas. Of all the different things I could
have done, something else might have been easier." I think, maybe take that to heart, unless it is your life mission, Kelsey, and if it is, that's fine. If it's not, you don't want to be in that situation a long time from now where you're like, "If I could go back and do it over, maybe I would have chosen something a little bit simpler." I'll just leave you with that. Of course, let us know how it goes. Listeners, if you've got a question, something you're trying to figure out, www.sidehustleschool.com/questions, I will always be honest with you. If I don't know something about a particular topic, I'll just say that. As I said, I will also try to add some value. We'll continue
to feature them throughout the year, along with updates from listeners as they launch their projects, perhaps even including agricultural product resale. I have no idea, but we'll find out. You'll know as soon as I do. Thanks for tuning in today. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
From the Onward Project.
