1 niche + 1 problem + 1 service = $100K?

Updated: February 13th, 2022

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1 niche + 1 problem + 1 service = $100K business

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We first interviewed Chase on Starter Story a while ago when he shared how he started a $55K/mo email marketing agency focused on ecommerce, and we followed up a few years later to find out how he grew the business 300% in that time.

At Starter Story we are firm believers that - even if making your target market smaller might seem counterintuitive - going niche is a great way to start building a lucrative business.

Learn from these entrepreneurs who succeeded by following this strategy:


Starting a $24M/year business with just $10K

What kind of business can achieve this, you may be wondering? Discount mattresses.

Do you know the saying “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”? Well, this is really the case. By contacting factories, they landed contracts to purchase factory-blemished samples, R&D products, and warranty returns that they would sell with huge discounts.

Can you think of another space where this could be replicated? You may have a huge opportunity in front of you.

Also, David is a genius. His trick to steal web traffic from competitors is brilliant, don’t miss it!

The truth is that most businesses in the homeware space tend to have high tickets, which usually means high margins. That’s why we have so many examples of highly profitable businesses in our database:


45 businesses you can start while keeping your day job

Some of the most successful businesses started as side projects. Apple, Instagram, Twitter and Craiglist all started as side projects!

If you are interested in starting a business but you still have a full-time job, you must pick an idea that can work with your busy work schedule, preferably something you can work during nights and weekends.

We’ve put together 45 business ideas for people with a full-time job - all of these ideas come from real-world examples of entrepreneurs starting while they had a job.


7 strategies to build a $1.8M/year business

Jeff is one of the three co-founders of Tiny Away - a network of tiny houses for people looking for a different experience.

He shares the company’s journey with an incredible level of detail. Including the 7 strategies that they’ve used to grow their business (i.e.: leveraging platforms, user-generated content). It is truly an amazing breakdown.

If you’re looking for ways to grow your business, don’t forget to check our growth database with 200 marketing tactics.


Can one app generate $50M of extra revenue?

While building apps for Shopify, Artyom realized he had to concentrate on his flagship product – an application to automate upselling and cross-selling. Instead of developing new apps, they focused on growing the one that showed traction.

Their biggest win besides having a killer product? They found an acquisition channel that brings over 50% of their traffic.

Shopify is a platform that keeps growing and growing, with almost 2M merchants (using 6 apps on average), Shopify app developers earned more than $230 million last year; which means that the opportunities to make money in that space are also growing. These are some examples of successful case studies that we’ve published:

Want to start a Shopify-related business idea but not quite sure what to start? Check out these 40 business ideas (with real-life successful examples) that you can start today.


  1. Reaching $450K/month and getting acquired
  2. How we grew revenue to $10.6M in 2020
  3. I started doing SEO at 13, now I make over $4M/year with it
  4. On starting the Amazon of business documents
  5. From making extra income with affiliate websites to building a $360k/year business
  6. Making $1M/year with CBD treats that calm anxious dogs
  7. We turned our passion for sustainability into a $2.4M/year hair & body care brand
  8. Tired of bad hosting services, we decided to start our own [now a $3.6M/year business]
  9. We developed a $12M/year property management SaaS for landlords
  10. In 15 minutes I coded a $360k/year TikTok & Instagram automation tool

Thanks for reading!

meet the author
Pat Walls