Idea #10: 24 Hour Businesses
More businesses should be open 24 hours. Why? Definitely a contrarian idea. Nobody thinks having a business open all the time is a good idea because everyone’s asleep, right? However, this creates a market opportunity with almost no competition. There are a lot of people who are up at weird hours doing all kinds of things. There are whole cities like Las Vegas which are built on the notion. What if you could come up with a concept which fit that late night crowd, that wasn’t being served, and you took it to sleepy America. You could create a sensation sweeping the nation. 
Local Austin businesses like Epoch, Bennu, Magnolia Cafe, and Kerbey Lane are capitalizing on this idea. Based upon my experience in the late night hours at the coffee shops, I’d say they are doing quite well serving this underserved market (namely, students who need to study with regular caffeine injections and snacks).
Known Implementations:
- convenience stores
- coffeehouses
- diners
Are there others? Are there underserved constituencies that have a different sleep schedule than most people? How large is the population of people with alternative schedules?
I like the idea a lot. The ideal business would not be labor intensive. The cost of labor is why many businesses close at night. Also insurance gets more expensive for 24 hour businesses.
RedBox machines come to mind. Labor-free, aside from the restocking.