Business ideas for an introvert

[wiz]

Hi Everyone

I started my own business about 4 years ago. It's doing well and I've worked hard to get where I am. It's just me on my own.

There are parts I don't particularly enjoy. I'm quite introverted and like to just get on with stuff without faffing about. Taking calls, booking jobs in and interacting with customers in their homes drains me and makes my days unenjoyable.

I'd be a very happy man if I could get on with my jobs with minimal interaction.

It's just got me thinking what type of businesses you can set up with minimal or no customer interaction? For example, a vending machine business.

Any ideas in this subject?

Cheers

 

[money road]

Any business with physical products or services most likely will need human attention. You either do it yourself or hire someone to do it for you.

Couple ideas, what business fit to introvert:

• If you have eshop, you do not neccessary need to interact live a lot.
• Based on email marketing as an affiliate as well.
• Dropshipping

 

[Mr D]

Online stuff - selling items perhaps. Besides occasional emails / messages you don't need to talk to customers at all.

 

[Socio South West]

The only problem with business is customers... it's a well known fact.

Ask any business owner and they will tell you there are parts of the job they don't enjoy..... but doing those things is the opportunity cost of turning up somewhere every day and being at someone else's behest.

Your idea of vending machines requires human contact to negotiate to placing of machines.... As others suggest, move to a completely online sales model where you have the faceless communication by email.

Although you ask for suggestions not particularly in relation to your current business, why not either employ someone or outsource the client contact parts of your business? This would release you to take on more product related work and do more product development

 

[James Rae]

Maybe I've missed something... are you looking to cease trading existing business because you don't like human interaction and start a new online business with only text/email type comms?

 

[sminter1st]

I transcribe from home and never speak by telephone to the companies I freelance for or customers, which I love as I'm pretty introverted. On the other hand, I also own a restaurant where I'm head front of house, but I only need to do this now at the weekend before retreating to my week-time hidey-hole where I can stay in my dressing gown and make a decent salary! So I can understand your feelings...it's pretty hard to find a situation where you're not interacting with people...

 

[fisicx]

It's just got me thinking what type of businesses you can set up with minimal or no customer interaction? For example, a vending machine business.

Apart from dealing with the wholesalers, suppliers, maintenance, customers and everyone else....

The guy who cleans our wheelie bins never has to talk to anyone. He cleans the bins and put the invoice through the door once a month. Maybe you could do something like this.

 

[Davidincognac]

look at your own skills and then try to apply them

 

[The next Steve Jobs]

Become a you tuber and double up with Patreon



KEY ... you don't need to be part of the content

it's a bit like being a writer / author ... but for the video age

An opportunity for 'your work' to enhance the lives of millions, perhaps billions to come

A million ' must watch / usefull ' channels still await creation.




Hideing behind your work is standard practice in some industries...nom de plume etc

 

[Mr D]

Hideing behind your work is standard practice in some industries...nom de plume etc

Of course it is.
Its better to avoid legal complications developing than have to spend time and money defending yourself.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

I know somebody that is in another country his business is in the UK He does the designing then gets a workshop to build it over here
He only communicates via email
I have a lot of respect for the way he has set things up
He is running his business in the sun while I am puddle splashing in this dump

 

[Gecko001]

You might actually have to go back into full-time employment. E-businesses and jobs like wheelie bin cleaning as mentioned still have to deal with non-payers, accept new customers and deal with complaints.

 

[GTL]

What about operating a private library? customers would have to be so quiet that you could always tell them to shush when they start talking to you. As a new business idea though, I'm not sure of its merits. But you could do a lot of reading; ideal for the introvert.

As would be a:

• Loo seat tester
• Coffin tester

and so on.

 

[Mitch3473]

I always thought that you had to be at the very least slightly extrovert to run any type of business.I dont think that introverts have the cajones to do it, they'd get taken to the cleaners out there.

 

[Gecko001]

I always thought that you had to be at the very least slightly extrovert to run any type of business.I dont think that introverts have the cajones to do it, they'd get taken to the cleaners out there.

That is generally the case, but I think an introvert can make it in business, if they always have cash in the bank and are willing to work harder than the extrovert. The extrovert will come across as more capable to many people that they do business with, while the tongue-tied introvert will come across as less capable until people realise how much clout they have in terms of being able to pay on time and their in-depth knowledge of their business.

 

[Scribe Copywriting]

You've invested 4 years in the business, so it's clearly working for you -- it seems a shame to let go just because you're fed up with interruptions and face-to-face exchanges.

Could you afford to take on a part-time customer service / sales rep? Someone who's naturally outgoing could handle a lot of the interpersonal side of things -- perhaps even produce more sales for you -- and leave you free to focus on the more introverted tasks.

 

[Deleted member 252819]

My two-penneth... as someone with anxiety disorders who has been running a B2B content agency for almost 8 years:

- Start out in your comfort zone
- Don't allow yourself to become overwhelmed by stressful situations early on, because they can easily sap your energy
- Get a call answering service so that you are not interrupted constantly by the phone; if this is a source of anxiety for you, it will only feed your dissatisfaction with the business if you let it continue
- Virtual assistants/ personal assistants can be a great help with the tasks you find difficult
- Push yourself a little bit outside your comfort zone each day, and use it as an opportunity to work on the areas that you find difficult so that you can gradually get used to different ways of communicating.

I started out as a content writer from my own kitchen table. Now we have an office in a large business centre, and I do all of the management, phone calls, admin, and so on. The business has up to 6 people (full-time/ freelance) contributing at any one time, and we now have a lot more site visitors - so we do see clients face-to-face. This has been a slow process of change (8 years).

For introverts, growth doesn't come overnight; sometimes it doesn't even come naturally. And it's perfectly possible to run a business without ever trying to grow it, if you're good at what you do. It will just tick along by itself. If you *do* want it to grow, that's where you need to take a deep breath and push yourself out into the world.

Incidentally, I completely disagree that introverts can't run successful businesses. You don't need to be an extrovert to succeed; you need to be tenacious and assertive, which is a bit different.

 

[Jessica A.]

Business ideas for introverts are usually the online type where there is little to minimal interaction with customers and interactions would be limited to emails, chats or phone support. But then again, you're still conversing with customers. That's what's important in business so you can't really get rid of it.

A vending machine is a great idea. There are lots of it all over the streets in Japan. Vending machines that do not sell the typical fizzy drinks. Some of them range from complete meals like ramen, soups or sushi, fruits, eggs, umbrellas, books, toys to even puppies!

 

[Annoying Donkey]

I always thought that you had to be at the very least slightly extrovert to run any type of business.I dont think that introverts have the cajones to do it, they'd get taken to the cleaners out there.

https://www.inc.com/john-rampton/23-amazingly-successful-introverts-throughout-history.html

 

[Noah]

https://www.inc.com/john-rampton/23-amazingly-successful-introverts-throughout-history.html

This sort of response always amuses me :

. Hi! I have a characteristic which causes me problems. Any help?
. There's lots of people with that characteristic who are really successful!
. Great. Now I'm a failure for a whole different reason.

 

[Annoying Donkey]

This sort of response always amuses me :

. Hi! I have a characteristic which causes me problems. Any help?
. There's lots of people with that characteristic who are really successful!
. Great. Now I'm a failure for a whole different reason.

My response wasn't to the OP, it was to the nonsense that introverts don't belong running a business...

Here's more inspiration for all the introverts out there...
https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts

 

[Niche Products Ste]

Probably not what the poster wants to hear but I think able to operate out of your 'comfort zone' is almost a prerequisite in business. We all have 'wobbles' including myself and I've been doing this successfully for 13 years now.

I'm an online seller and this can definitely be a good place for an introvert. But it depends on where you want to take it. I used to take the phonecalls, pick and pack the orders and everything else. Getting bigger means taking on staff, then the 'fun' really begins..........

But you don't have to advertise that you take calls. Years ago Ebay buyers used to phone their payments through.....now its all automatic by Paypal.

 

[dan19900]

Pretty much anything online will be fine. My E commerce business sells about 500 items per day and only gets 10-15 emails and barely any calls.

 

[wiz]

Thanks for the responses everyone.

The original post was meant as a discussion point more than anything and I appreciated peoples input.

 

[RjMaan]

I think all the IT based ideas are best for introvert peoples because they have to sit on the chair and start working on laptop without interacting with any one. I suggest you to think about any idea on which you can write a lot of quality content then try to publish this content on your site. For this you need an attractive site with user friendly theme and settings. Try to make your domain name attractive and limit it with in two to three words. There is an option of Domain Name Checker as well.

 

[The next Steve Jobs]

Ultimatley success is about your ability to align your self with the wider realities

... and wade thru the inevitable barriers and stepping stones on route to your chosen destination

... ultimately it's about learning to wear the right hat at the right time

Aligning your wardrobe to journeys needs


High levels of success centres around creating flexible and evolving partnerships, creating a team whose members can don the right hat at the right time .... as individuals our ability to morph is limited, some are more limited than others...the available options limited

Consider the ant, study her ways and be wise

The music and film industry is a VISIBLE mix of talented introverts and extroverts

The IT industry is defined by the 'rise of the nerds, evangelists and achitects


Ultimatley if your focus isn't on your customers then thier focus will drift elsewhere ... 90% of small businesses flounder, fail or eternally limp because the owner is focused on thier own needs rather than those of thier current or future customers .... all else being equal

 

[twaen]

In the past I wrote small software tools and submitted them to various software download sites.

They are still selling as of today. It's not much (£100-200 pm) as I don't invest ANY time whatsoever in them, but it's a fully automated revenue. And the base can be grown if you build more software. The good part is, you build it once, you sell it for years.

Couple of them are so simple that I never expected it would sell. One is a computer time update tool where computer time update service is actually built into Windows. I'm always amazed when I sell each piece of that. It was definitely a stretch. But I guess there are some rare cases where this might be useful.

 

[George Owen]

Train an apprentice with an extrovert personality to do your interactive practices. Won't break the bank and they will love interacting with your audience.

 

[Corjr]

I take it you are offering a service?
Try selling products, less hassle or only deal with the larger companies

 

[Corjr]

Noticed a few food vending machine ideas listed on trendhunter.com, could always repackage the idea.

 

[Andrew Watton]

Dropshipping and affiliate marketing strikes me as a reasonable couple of options. Dropshipping will still require quite a bit of customer interaction, but it can all be done by email. Affiliate marketing won't even need much of that, but will take time to build up.