Business ideas have never really been my forte; I try to mainly see what's already been done and improve upon it, so coming up with at least three was a challenge. But I think in the end some of these have potential.
(1) Shut Eye.
Many people are concerned with privacy, and some are concerned about what their phones or webcams can pick up. For laptops, some use convoluted methods to turn the cams off and on, while others go old-school and cover them with a sticky note. I'd like to market a better way: an inexpensive clip that easily goes on and off the camera. While this product wouldn't likely appeal universally, a good number would probably think it's worth a dollar to feel a sense of security. Manufacturing costs would be minimal since it would be molded plastic, though it might be slightly more complicated than just a clip to make it sure it can fit over various webcam sizes and models. A simple prototype could even be made here in the FabLab. The major cost would be advertising and getting it into actual stores or online tech outlets.
(2) TV app to search through catalogs (yet to be named).
Streaming on-demand services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon are changing the viewing habits across the nation: almost half of the US subscribes to at least one of these services. They tend to be much lower priced than traditional cable or satellite subscriptions, however this lower price sometimes comes at a different cost -- shows are not immediately available as they would be on broadcast tv, or specific shows are not included in the subscription and need to be paid for separately. Which shows fall into this category depend upon the servicer's contract. It might be $1.99 on Amazon and $4.99 on Netflix, or Hulu may have it a day behind Amazon, but for free.
This app would store a user's passwords for all their subscription services and then search though them by show name. The incentive of using this app is convenience to the customer. The ability to easily find whether or not a show is streamable in itself is alluring, but if they have multiple streaming subscriptions that can be accessed from the click of a button at the end of a search they'll start to use the app itself rather the websites. It could make money by charging a small fee to providers other than the big three: repeatedly seeing that shows are available on Sling or Vudu for free rather than paying a subscription to Netflix might drive new customers there instead. Or like most sites and apps -- by simply having ads.
(3) Affordable student housing.
UW-T's student housing for a studio for one person is ~$1,000/mo. While many of UW-T's students are commuters, not all of us are. One idea is to bring in domes and rent them out for a smaller monthly fee. The benefit is that they are small enough to fit into spaces that might otherwise lie dormant. They are low maintenance and low cost to build ($30,000 each + land). Investors would see a good and quick return rate, and the profit margin should be high after the first five years. This is the riskiest idea and hardest to implement; finding cheap land in Tacoma or close to it might stop it dead in its tracks. Students might also feel it's worth it to simply pay the larger rent so they don't have to live in this weird dome thing.
(4) Games database.
One last idea I've been working on independently for awhile is a website for keeping track of games in a similar fashion to IMDb. There is, as far as I know, no mainstream or well-known site that both keeps tracks of each video game released and any actors, directors,c composers, etc. involved with it and allow users to keep a personal catalog of which games they've owned or played. This is a site that I know people have questioned the lack of existence of, and capitalizing on that void quickly is the most important factor in this becoming successful. Other people have had this idea, but no one's done it. This is the idea that I think has the most potential for long-term profit, and it's also the most simple.
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