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Easy, Boring Business Ideas to Start in 2026 - Answering your Questions

2025-09-26 · Q&A video · Ali · recording, 30:20 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Business and entrepreneurship (also: Money and investing, Work and career) · mode: Answering questions · tags: AI, His own numbers, Family, His medical past, Sponsor segment present, His own products discussed

In a Freedom Fridays episode answering viewers' comments, Ali says making money starts with skills that solve painful problems for people with money, ideally businesses; validate an idea by talking to customers, choose with Taki Moore's like/can-help/will-pay test, date the idea for three months, and know that a non-compete rarely forbids a side business.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Teaser and intro: answering the most common questions from Freedom Fridays comments

  • ★★ Ali's team went through the comments on the last few Freedom Fridays episodes, and this episode answers the most commonly asked questions. — 00:00:00

00:00:51 — How do I begin with no skills and no roadmap: earning potential, person-problem-solution, help someone else make money

  • ★★ You become financially free by earning more than you spend and investing the rest in passive income assets such as stocks, Ali says; since saving has a limit, focus on raising earning potential. — 00:01:06 · passive income
  • ★★ If you have a job, Ali says, you already have skills: your employer pays you because you make it more money than you cost, and he calls these professional skills. — 00:02:15
  • ★★ Someone on a high-earning career path, such as an employee holding stock options in a tech startup expected to do well, probably shouldn't start their own business, Ali says. (hedged) — 00:02:42
  • ★★ Otherwise, Ali advises asking what problems you could solve that people would pay for, such as more expensive or more painful problems for your employer or similar employers. — 00:02:42
  • ★★★ Ali defines a business as three things, person, problem and solution: a person with money has a painful problem, and the business offers a solution. — 00:03:11 · person, problem, solution
  • ★★ Feeling you have no skills is untrue, Ali says: you could mow lawns, clean or drive for Uber; those skills just carry a certain hourly rate. — 00:03:11
  • ★★ Ali advises looking for skills you have or can learn with a higher market rate than mowing lawns, cleaning or driving for Uber; almost anything can now be learned on YouTube. — 00:03:48 · YouTube

  • ★★★ Ali's hack: the easiest way to make money is to help someone else make money; if you made him an extra 100 grand, he would pay you at least 80 grand. — 00:04:18

    “the easiest way to make money is to help someone else make money”

  • ★★ Ali suggests learning AI automation: many businesses waste time without AI, and an AI consultancy or agency for local or online businesses rides a massive rise in that market. — 00:04:44

  • ★★ Another learnable skill, Ali says, is conversion rate optimisation: copywriting, A/B testing and data analytics that help a website get customers at a higher rate. — 00:04:44
  • ★★ Ali says his Part-Time YouTuber Academy course makes between 1 and 2 million US dollars a year in revenue, so doubling its conversion rate would add a million dollars a year. — 00:05:25 · Part-Time YouTuber Academy
  • ★★ Copywriting, data analytics, Google Analytics and A/B testing can be learned by anyone with an internet connection, Ali says, free on YouTube or by asking ChatGPT. — 00:05:54 · ChatGPT, YouTube
  • ★★★ Ali's mindset shift: stop asking what business to start and ask what problem you can help people solve, ideally people who have money. — 00:05:54
  • ★★ If the people you help are businesses, Ali says, it is far easier to access their money; people also pay to solve problems in their health and their relationships. — 00:06:19
  • ★★★ Looking for a business in a box, someone to tell you what to do, is thinking like an employee or a student rather than an entrepreneur, Ali says; no copy-paste plan exists. — 00:06:48
  • ★★ The closest things to a business in a box, Ali says, are an AI automation agency, a social media marketing agency, video editing or an ads agency, though even these need many skills. — 00:06:48

00:07:38 — Sponsor read for Trading 212

00:08:36 — How do I find my first customer: the rule of 30, asking Claude, local businesses, Taimur's two years of customer conversations

  • ★★★ Ali's rule of 30: to validate a business idea, speak to 30 customers or potential customers. — 00:08:36
  • ★★ If you don't know who would pay for your skill, ask ChatGPT, Ali says: with Claude and ChatGPT you really don't need a business coach, though one still helps; he personally likes Claude. — 00:09:41 · ChatGPT
  • ★★ A phone-only videographer offering to film and edit a POV-style video of his next birthday party for $300 would get a yes from Ali; it needs nothing but a phone. (hypothetical) — 00:10:59
  • ★★ To start a social media management business, Ali suggests offering the local coffee shop free social media content in return for a testimonial, to build a portfolio. — 00:11:58
  • ★★★ Ali thinks an underrated way to find first customers is to start in the real world in your local area, with people you can meet face to face. — 00:12:20
  • ★ Everyone likes the idea of being a life coach, Ali says, but an online life-design course is a really hard business to get off the ground. (overstated) — 00:12:20
  • ★★ Ali's brother Taimur sold his startup a few months ago for tens of millions of dollars after five years; for the first two years they built no product and only talked to potential customers. — 00:12:57 · Taimur Abdaal
  • ★ Taimur and his co-founder messaged finance people at small and medium-sized businesses on LinkedIn and by email, offering lunch, coffee or a walk to hear their problems. — 00:13:28 · Taimur Abdaal, LinkedIn
  • ★★ Ali suggests recording customer conversations with permission, for example on VoicePal, the app he and his wife built, and asking ChatGPT or Claude for business ideas from them. — 00:13:58 · VoicePal, Izzy Sealey, ChatGPT
  • ★★ It is laughably straightforward these days to come up with a business idea and find your first customers, Ali says, provided you are willing to talk to people. — 00:13:58
  • ★★ Ali failed at making businesses for about six years, from the age of 13, because he didn't talk to customers and sat in his bedroom hoping to make money online. — 00:14:27

00:14:50 — Easy, boring businesses: the wrong question; people with money, marketing and sales, the first client

  • ★★ An easy, boring business differs from person to person, Ali says: as a Cambridge medical student, starting a business helping people into medical school was easy for him, but not for others. — 00:15:19 · University of Cambridge
  • ★★★ Instead of a copy-paste business, Ali advises asking which people with money you would enjoy serving, which painful problems you would enjoy solving, and which skills you have or would enjoy learning. — 00:15:44 · ChatGPT
  • ★★ Ali suggests walking down your local high street and talking to the manager of every restaurant, coffee shop and accounting firm to ask what problems they have. — 00:16:18
  • ★★ Businesses in marketing and sales are easier to start than ones in customer service, Ali says, because they translate directly into revenue. — 00:16:18
  • ★★ Ali wants a business idea to get as close as possible to telling a client: pay me and your business will magically make more money without you doing anything. — 00:17:31
  • ★★ Ali suggests offering a business social media work with no upfront fee, taking 20% for every new customer attributable to its Instagram or LinkedIn, so it pays only for results. — 00:17:31 · Instagram, LinkedIn
  • ★★ If you serve individuals, Ali advises choosing ones with money: being a fitness trainer for CEOs is much easier than for students, who are not willing to pay. — 00:18:12
  • ★★ In a service business the first client opens the door to every other, Ali says: do an amazing job, ideally free for a testimonial and referrals, since CEOs know other CEOs. — 00:19:08

  • ★★★ Ali names the myth of the perfect choice: school teaches there is one right answer, but in business there are none; you try an experiment, gather market data and iterate. — 00:19:34

    “the myth of the perfect choice”

00:19:45 — How to choose a business: the myth of the perfect choice, who/what/how, Taki Moore's three questions, three months

  • ★★ To choose, Ali advises listing every business idea as who, what and how, such as wedding videography for Indian weddings in Hong Kong. — 00:21:30 · person, problem, solution, Hong Kong
  • ★★★ Ali ticks or crosses each idea against three questions from his mentor Taki Moore: do I like helping these people, can I actually help them, and will they be happy to pay? — 00:21:30
  • ★ If torn between two or three business ideas, Ali says, just go with your gut and pick the one that seems most exciting to start with. — 00:22:25

  • ★★★ Ali advises committing to a chosen business idea for three months with the goal of at least one paying customer in 90 days: dating the idea, not marrying it. — 00:22:25

    “You're thinking of it as dating your business idea for the next three months.”

00:23:09 — Aren't investments the way to build wealth: index funds take time, earning more is within your control

  • ★★ Ali recommends a broad stock market index fund such as VTSAX or the S&P 500, letting wealth compound over time; he prefers stocks and shares to real estate. — 00:23:09 · S&P 500
  • ★★ Saving 20 grand a year into the S&P 500, Ali says, it will grow at seven percent and make you rich in about 30 years. — 00:23:38 · S&P 500
  • ★★★ To reach financial freedom sooner than 30 years, Ali says, the problem is not investing in the S&P 500 but having only 20 grand a year to invest: earn more. — 00:23:38 · S&P 500
  • ★★★ One of Ali's most life-changing realisations: with an internet-connected device, your ability to earn money is almost entirely within your control, whatever your starting point. — 00:24:23
  • ★★ Ali calls a six-figure business fairly mediocre in entrepreneurship and says people from pretty much any background can build a multi-six-figure lifestyle business. — 00:25:19 · lifestyle business
  • ★★ In a job your earning potential is not under your control, Ali says, because of salary bands and whether your manager gives you a raise, and even less so in a very big corporation. — 00:25:45
  • ★★ Ali is very bullish on starting your own business, though no one has to: then your earning potential is 100% within your control. — 00:26:22

00:27:02 — Waitlist for Lifestyle Business Academy

00:27:24 — My HR and legal won't allow a business: non-competes, the GMC myth, thinking creatively; sign-off

  • ★★★ Non-competes generally only bar a business in the same industry, Ali says; put your employment contract into ChatGPT and ask which businesses it allows you to start. — 00:27:24 · ChatGPT
  • ★★ Ali thinks HR and legal probably wouldn't object to weekend babysitting, or to a romance novel written in your spare time and published on Amazon that happens to make money. (hedged) — 00:27:24 · Amazon
  • ★★ Feeling you are not allowed is thinking like a student and asking permission, Ali says: employment contracts, HR systems and laws are made up and matter only insofar as they are enforced. — 00:28:28
  • ★★ Many doctors think the General Medical Council will come after them for starting a business, Ali says, but that is a myth unless the business brings medicine into disrepute. — 00:29:08
  • ★★ If a sense of not being allowed holds you back, Ali suggests asking who is not allowing you, what the consequences are and what exactly is forbidden, and spending half an hour thinking creatively. — 00:29:34

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Freedom Fridays · person, problem, solution

Also: People: Izzy Sealey · Jeff Bezos · Peter McKinnon · Taimur Abdaal · Taki Moore

Projects: Part-Time YouTuber Academy

Organizations: Amazon · Causal · General Medical Council · Instagram · LinkedIn · Uber · University of Cambridge · YouTube

Concepts: index fund · lifestyle business · myth of the perfect choice · passive income · rule of 30 · social media management

Places: Hong Kong

Products: CapCut · ChatGPT · Claude · S&P 500 · VoicePal · VTSAX

Also centred on Freedom Fridays: I’m Starting a New Series About Financial & Time Freedom · Financial Freedom is Easy, After You Learn This

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