I Ranked the Most Profitable Businesses to Start Before 2026

I'm going to rank the best and worst businesses you could start before 2026.

Some of these will make you rich, and others are a massive waste of your time.

I've built seven multi-million dollar companies and I coach hundreds of business owners.

So I'm going to use everything I've learned over the years to rank these 15 businesses with the following criteria in mind.

Number one, how quickly can you get your first dollar?

Two, how hard is it to learn?

Three, how profitable is it in the long run?

And four, is it a business people would buy in the future?

And these are the tiers we'll be placing them in.

S tier, no-brainer, start now.

High profits, fast cash, and here to stay.

A tier, worth it, but you gotta know business first.

B tier, decent, but not for everyone.

C tier, you could, but should you.

And F tier, straight up, scammy.

Let's get into it.

Welcome to the Martel Method.

I went from rehab at 17 to building a $100 million empire and being a Wall Street Journal best-selling author.

In this podcast, I'll show you exactly how to build a life and business you don't grow to hate.

And make sure you don't miss anything by subscribing to my newsletter at martelmethod.com.

First one, real estate.

What do I think of real estate?

Most millionaires, the majority of wealth created in the U.S.

was made on the back end of real estate.

So I'm putting this in a top.

It's a no-brainer.

Most people do this.

They have the main business that makes cash and then they take the cash and they put it into real estate.

One, you make cash flow every month.

Two, you have the tax advantage.

Three, you have the asset increasing.

Four, you have high leverage on capital.

I mean, it is incredibly profitable once it gets going.

Next is NFTs and crypto projects.

Here's the problem.

One, easy to make your first dollar.

Used to, not today.

Everybody's dealing with the fact that they essentially sold unregulated securities and people lost their money.

I'm not going to give it a high score on that one.

Two, easy to learn?

Not that easy to learn, man.

Three, how profitable is in the long run?

Not very profitable right now.

So not a high score there.

And would somebody buy your portfolio of NFT projects?

It's going in the scam category because if you look at a thousand NFT projects, more than 500 are pure scams.

They were literally money grabs.

So I'm putting it in the scam.

category paid ads agency oh this one's a good one helping people get customers is a beautiful thing to do because you're essentially selling dollars how quick is it make your first dollar really quick if you can learn to sell you can pick up the phone you can send a text message you can can sell.

How hard is it to learn?

It's probably the thing that you can go on YouTube and learn the fastest.

How profitable is it in the long run?

It's very profitable.

I know young people that are 22 making 6 million bucks a year with this agency.

Is it going to be relevant past 2026?

Because that's the real big question.

I don't know.

Meta and Facebook has talked about they're going to build the tooling that they've built their platform where you essentially say, I'm willing to pay X amount of money for this type of customer and it will just generate you leads.

So more and more ad agencies done by AI or the platforms themselves.

So it may not be that competitive long term.

And then last, would somebody buy it?

The challenge is that if your relationship with the customer is monthly and there's no reoccurring and there's no contracts and you're the expert that's doing all the ad stuff, like it's not valuable long term.

I'm going to give it a decent, but I'm concerned that it may not be relevant long term.

Next up, we've got coaching and online courses.

Is it quick?

to make your first dollar very fast.

If you can get a result for any other person, you can sell that know-how, right?

It's a checklist.

It's a know-how.

It's a blueprint.

You can sell that.

Is it easy to learn?

Heck yeah.

You can get it going really quick and it's super easy to learn.

Most people overcomplicate it.

How profitable it is?

Two of my favorite business models in the world.

One is software and the other one is information.

Why?

Because they have 97%.

profit.

If you're selling courses, then every course you sell costs you nothing, essentially.

It's so profitable.

So it's not very sellable long term.

I'm going to put this in the worth it category.

If you get good at this, it's a meta skill that can compound other areas of your entrepreneurial life.

Next up, we've got the AI automation agency.

First off, speed to first dollar, the speediest.

It is the most searched term right now, AI automation, AI automation.

It is a hot topic, which means there's a lot of demand for it.

The ability to learn it, super easy to learn.

Right now, incredibly profitable.

There is a risk.

that the AI will get better at automating than you will using AI.

But that's true for all businesses because you're in the game of AI and being in the game of AI is the most important thing.

And then then would somebody buy it from you in the future?

It's hard to build something that somebody would want to buy or that you could sell.

I'm going to say worth it.

And if I put it in regards to online coaching versus AI automation, I'm going to put AI in front of it because it's a better skill to develop than online training, which is wild.

But that's my answer.

Next up, YouTube channel.

YouTube's really freaking hard.

How hard is it to learn?

It's not hard to learn.

It's hard to be good at it.

You got to get to a point where you're entertaining and try to add some value by having a unique perspective.

If you can't do that, because you're boring, you're not going to succeed.

Speed first dollar, really slow.

You might publish 100 videos without ever making a dollar online.

In regards to, is it a long-term thing?

Yes.

Content and learning how to communicate through a video format is an incredible skill.

It's always going to be in demand.

Is it something you could sell?

Yeah.

He's like, what do you think the number one channel on YouTube's worth?

Billion bucks.

So yeah, you can make a lot of money doing a YouTube channel.

If you can get it to scale, that would be valuable for somebody else to buy.

So I put it in the decent decent, but after

paid ads, okay?

Paid ads is better than a YouTube channel.

Before we get back to the episode, if you want to jumpstart your week with my top stories and tactics, be sure to subscribe to the Martel Method newsletter.

It's where you'll elevate your mindset, fitness, and business in less than five minutes a week.

Find it at martelmethod.com.

Next up, SMMA, social media marketing agency.

There's value in doing this.

It's just not as good as some of the other options.

Okay.

So one, can you get to your first dollar fast?

Yes.

Is it easy to learn?

Yeah, there's a lot of content on how to do this.

Third, is it profitable in the long run?

Yeah, you can have good margins, especially if you're doing most of the work.

And fourth, is it something that somebody else will buy?

Yes, in the essence of a service business, but not unless you build a productized service.

So I'm putting SMMA in front of paid ads because social media.

advertising from a content point of view, organic content is going to be more interesting and more defensible than trying to just be traffic buyer for a paid ads agency.

All right, next, we got drop shipping.

Most of the dropshippers out there are selling courses on drop shipping.

Is it fast to make your first dollar?

No.

You have to find a concept, pre-buy inventory.

Can you learn it easily?

I don't think so.

You're in the sea of sameness of everybody else and you're never going to make any money.

Is it profitable?

I think there's good margins if you can find a product that's a winner.

And would somebody buy it?

Yeah.

It's a little gimmicky and you're going to end up having to reinvent yourself all the time.

To me, I'm putting this in the should you.

Out of all the things you could focus on drop shipping in regards to a business model, to me is in the bottom of the other ones that are listed there.

Next up, ghostwriting.

Most people don't know that like 70% of all New York Time best-selling books were written with a ghostwriter.

With Chat GPT and AI coming out, it's obviously going to create some pressure on that space.

Can you make your first dollar really quick?

Yeah, you just need to find somebody to pay you.

Can you learn how to do it?

It's a little harder because if you're not a good writer, then just because you can write doesn't mean you're a good ghostwriter.

Is it profitable?

Not really, because you're just selling your time.

And is somebody going to buy that from you?

I've never heard of a ghostwriter selling their business.

So I'm going to put it in the should you category behind drop shipping.

It's not a scam.

Ghostwriting is not a scam.

Like saying that sentence makes me giggle because...

Ghostwriters are so kind and genuine.

They're just artists that the idea that they would scam anybody to me is like laughable.

I've never met a ghostwriter that wants to take advantage of anybody.

If anything, they should charge more for their services.

All All right, day trading and stocks.

Can you make your first dollar quick?

Yeah.

Like ASAP, like right now, like today.

Can you lose a lot of money?

Oh, yeah.

Is it easy to learn?

Not really.

It's not a side hustle.

You need to be in it.

You need to focus.

You need to check.

Do most people lose their money?

Yes.

Here's the deal.

If you can beat the market, the S ⁇ P 500, then you could probably raise a ton of money.

And all of a sudden, you're not, you know, day trading and stock trading.

You have a hedge fund.

And that you can make a lot of money because a lot of the money in the hedge funds is making it off the fees of getting paid regardless if you make money for anybody or not.

So would somebody buy that business?

Not as a day trading, stock trading, because it requires your brain to do it.

So there's no long-term value.

So very unsellable.

Yeah, I'm going to put it in the should you and on the right side of ghostwriting.

That feels about right.

Virtual assistant agency, VAs.

Is it a fast way to make some money?

Very fast because you're essentially a middleman.

You're finding people that want to do VA.

You're finding somebody that needs a VA and you just, you know, you help them out and you connect them.

So is it profitable?

Not that profitable.

The margins in it are not that high.

Is it easy to learn?

Yeah.

I mean, I think so.

The problem is, is that every client that you get is so finicky.

Like, just so you know, most CEOs are crazy.

It's a tough business to make work and the margins aren't there.

And would somebody buy it?

I used to own one and I got rid of it.

So that should tell you something.

Profitability in the long run.

I just think all of the VA stuff is going to be, you know, overtaken by AI.

So yeah, I would say should you.

It's in the should you and it's on the upper end of should you.

Like, do you really want to be in that space?

Because you could be in AI automation and that's such a better business to be in because it's similar.

Next up, we got web design agency.

Is it easy to make a first dollar?

Yes.

Is it easy to learn?

Yeah, you can learn the tools of web design.

There's a bunch of existing platforms and templates and all that stuff and use some of these no-code AI platforms.

Is it profitable long term?

I think AI is going to take a lot of this work off the plate of individuals and the business owners are just going to like order it up.

The AI is going to do it for them.

And then will somebody buy a web design agency?

Not really because it's in the service space.

I'm going to put it right behind paid ads agency.

Next up, print on demand.

Can you make your first dollar really quick?

Yeah, you just need to find a customer that's willing to buy a t-shirt with a word on it.

Is it easy to learn?

Very easy.

Three, is it profitable long term?

Not really because you don't own the infrastructure.

And then is it worth something to somebody else?

Like is it sellable?

Is it valuable?

Not really.

It's just just print on demand.

So I'm going to say it's in the should you and I'm going to put it on the other side of day trading, which makes it not very good.

Before we get back to this episode, if you prefer to watch your content, then go find me on YouTube.

I have this episode on YouTube.

I'm Dan Martell on YouTube.

Just subscribe to the channel.

Turn on the notification bell because then you'll get notified in real time.

It'll tell YouTube to tell you we got a new episode, so you'll never miss anything.

Now let's get back to the episode.

Vending machine business.

Can you make your first dollar quick you got to buy the vending machine you got to negotiate putting it somewhere somebody has to buy it so you got to stock it i don't think it's very quick to make your first dollar easy to learn i mean it's kind of a no-brainer but it's not as easy as a lot of these other you know business models profitable long term yeah if you get it in the right location profitable somewhere else and will somebody buy it heck yeah it's like real estate and people will buy it i'm going to put it in the worth it category but on the right side of the coaching and online and then we've got affiliate marketing all right quick to make your first dollar yes easy to learn.

Incredibly easy to learn.

Okay.

It's literally audience traffic, sell something that somebody else has built.

Is it profitable long term?

It's one of those things that will always be around.

If there's businesses, there's people that can represent those businesses and sell on their behalf.

That's what affiliate marketing is.

Will somebody buy it long term?

Not likely.

So it has a low, low rating.

If I'm looking through the lens of 2026 and onward, making money, easy to learn, get you the skill set that's like a meta skill for other stuff.

I'm going to put it in the worth it on the right side of the the vending machine ahead of social media marketing agency, which is wild.

So one that wasn't on this list, which is where I spend 98% of my time is software.

And the reason why is one, you can literally use AI to build the software today.

These literally no code platforms like Lovable or Replit, you can just talk to it and it'll write code.

Two, it creates subscription revenue or recurring revenue, which is an incredible business model.

The margins on it, like I said earlier, 97%.

What people are willing to pay, like the multiple like of profit, how many times more of profit will they pay for that business is one of the highest in the world.

So personally, it's not there and it should have been in the no-brainer category.

And like one that's not on this list, that's for sure in the scam, again, thousand businesses, half of them are scammy is probably some level of network marketing.

Like most people will use network marketing properly for distribution.

Awesome.

Not properly to essentially sell people on business opportunities and the way they make money is selling the next person on the next thing, on the next thing, on the next thing.

There are a ton of legal cases going after network marketing.

And unfortunately, there's more bad actors than good and it creates a bad taste in the market.

There's nothing wrong with the ones that are like compliant and legal and not selling shit to try to train people.

But yeah, it's not on the list and I would have put that in the scam category.

The other one that's not in there that I have a problem with is franchises.

This is a controversial one because Most people think that owning a franchise is owning a business.

Here's my definition.

If you don't control the product development, then it's not really a business.

You're essentially a reseller.

You're just reselling somebody else's business model.

So you're essentially a glorified salesperson, which you can make a ton of money in franchises, but is it something I would run to start if you're trying to make money in 2026 and onward for a long period of time?

Being the person that sells franchises, yes.

Being a person that buys franchises, not so much.

Now that you have the list, understand the way I thought through the business models.

One, is it something I can get to revenue quickly?

That's good.

Two, can I learn it quickly so that I can get and build this business?

And will I learn a lot?

The other thing I said that hopefully you caught was the idea of meta skills, right?

Copywriting, paid ads, AI.

These are meta skills that even if the business you start doesn't work, they're skills that you can stack into the future to be even more successful.

So being in that business, if it doesn't work out, will set you up for success into the future.

And then finally, which most entrepreneurs never learn, is are you building something that becomes an asset that somebody else will want to buy?

Or are you just building a really low paying job at first if you're working 100 hours a week, making 50 grand a year or high paying job making a million bucks a year, but still having to be stuck in the business?

If you need to show up for the business to make you money, you didn't build something valuable that somebody else would want to buy.

Now, if you want to learn the only skill you absolutely need to make your first million, click here and I'll see you on the other side.

Thanks for listening to the Martel Method.

If you like this episode, could you do me a huge favor and go leave a review?

This helps us get the podcast more ears and helps more people get unstuck, reclaim their freedom, and build their empire.