It seems these days that entrepreneurs-in-training all want to work on the next big thing – some revolutionary technology that is going to change the world all from the convenience of a mobile app. One of the first things you’ll truly learn as you venture into your journey as an entrepreneur is how to size up your competitors and find markets where you can win. Quickly you’ll realize that it makes a lot of sense to get away from all the noise, and one place that has been particularly quiet in recent years is the old-school labor-intensive service industry.

If you have the burning flame to start your old business now is as good of a time as ever to take a look at some of the business models that have been generating familial wealth for decades. Take a look around, a lot of these service businesses are operating as if it’s 30 or 40 years in the past. The good news is, the barrier to entry for a lot of these businesses is quite low, making them perfectly enticing for bootstrapping entrepreneurs. Why not use your knack for technology and systemization to disrupt one of these industries and take it by storm?

Hardwood Floor Polishing

You’ll need yourself a floor buffer and a bit of practical experience, but once you’re off and running you can charge a pretty penny for hardwood floor polishing, leaving you plenty of margin to hire someone to do the actual work for you. The best part? Odds are they’ll be much better at actually polishing the floors than you are. This means you can focus on what entrepreneurs do best – building systems and getting customers to buy into their company’s services.

Electric Dog Fence Installation

Dogs as pets aren’t going out of style any time soon, and electric dog fences are one of the pillars of effective canine training. This is a business model that can work even with unskilled labor. All you need is a shovel to get started, so your bootstrapping costs might, in fact, be zilch. Nobody wants to do the installation for these systems on their own, but the one downside might be that there is some potential for seasonal interference depending on your location.

Driveway Crack Repair

Nearly every house in suburbia has a driveway, and any experienced homeowner will tell you that replacing their driveway is an expense they are hoping to avoid for years to come. Repairing cracks in a driveway can increase its lifespan dramatically for a fraction of the cost, and that’s where you can come in. Find clever ways to market and fill up your clientele list so that your business can repair driveways in bulk.

These three business examples are simply off-the-cuff markets, and there are certainly countless others that are just as suitable for today’s ambitious entrepreneur looking for direction on their next business endeavor. The beauty of these businesses is that your competition already exists. Take a look at their website, vet their quotation process, get an idea of how they run their operation. All you have to do is reverse engineer their systems and make them remarkably better.

It may not be the most appealing of directions to take, but it is likely a smarter and safer undertaking than the next untested moon shot. The businesses themselves have been proven to work, the question is whether or not you can make them work for you.