Flipping Products Instead of Houses

In the latest Carnival of Bootstrapping Entrepreneurs, there is an interesting article called "Flip This Product".

It talks about taking the idea from house flipping, and apply it to products. So, instead of a house, you want to buy generic products cheaply, spruce them up, and resell them for a profit.

The advantage over house flipping is that, while each home is unique with different costs, the product can be sourced at a stable price over and over again.

Related to this, the article also has links to two articles on the general idea of starting your business by taking generic commodity products, and customizing it for a niche market.

When you think of this - it is a powerful idea.

There is the example of the company that took generic whiteboards, but then customized the display with charts and boxes for nursing applications. Then, they don't have to compete with the big boys who dominate blank whiteboards.

This can be done for websites too. Maybe find a website concept that is good, but then maybe you can see where it can be modified to make it more useful to a particular niche.