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The Chronic Entrepreneur: Local Businesses: 20 high-margin models you can start in your city this week
Paperback
Series: The Chronic Entrepreneur
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: May 20 2026
Pages: 272
Weight: 0.73
Height: 0.68 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
20 high-margin local business models. Real numbers. Real cases. Start this week.
Most people who want to start a business look for the perfect digital product or the passive income stream that runs while they sleep. This book is for a different kind of person. Someone who wants to build something real in their own city. Something their neighbors can see, touch, and come back to.
The Chronic Entrepreneur: Local Businesses breaks down 20 tested business models across every major local category: service businesses, specialty retail, food, wellness, events, digital marketing, home renovation, childcare, and more. Each model is presented with the same unsparing format: how the money actually works, what the startup costs are line by line, what the margin looks like at month one and month six, and what the most common mistake is that kills the business before it finds its footing.
Every chapter features a real operator in a real city who built this model from scratch. Not a hypothetical. Not a composite. A person with a name, a starting point, and a result that can be verified.
What this book gives you:
- 20 models across the $500 to $15,000 investment range, with the low-cost path presented first in every chapter
- Honest margin data for each model, including what you keep after costs, not just what you bill
- A decision framework for matching the right model to your city, your skills, and your available capital
- Three specific actions at the end of every chapter, each doable in 1 to 7 days
- An Opportunity Comparison Table so you can filter all 20 models by investment, income, and skill requirements at a glance
- A Recommended Tools guide with specific software and platforms for each business type
This book is not for you if:
You believe the only real businesses are digital. You are unwilling to serve customers face to face. You need a business that generates $5,000 per month in the first thirty days.
This book is exactly for you if:
You are between 28 and 50, tired of optimizing remote side hustles, and want to build something that exists in the physical world with real customers who come back. You have $500 to $15,000 to invest and the willingness to work for six months before calling it proven.
The 64% of local businesses in the United States with no effective digital presence are not your competition. They are your advantage. This book shows you how to use it.
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