Do You Want a New Cash Cow? Go for a Legislated Niche that Nobody Wants to Tip it

This is a swift conclusion from several businesses nobody knows why they exist, but everyone need to use or comply in order to avoid being sued or charged by the government or parallel/similar institutions.

I could be making a huge list which could vary from country to country or even in different states or cities. But you can almost smell it when you find one on your path.

A common ground on every single of them is that you don’t want to mess around or make noise about it to avoid being in the spotlight. There’s a lobby that lives from these little (or are they) businesses or organizations. The image that comes to mind is one of those National Geographic shoots where a shark swims through the ocean with small fishes surrounding them to catch every single waist they drop when feeding. Maybe it’s not a great analogy since these fish are actually useful since they make use of the waist. These companies are more like giant leeches who feed from your hard work.

But why this rant? Because it just came to my mind when I read this article at Bloomberg. There’s several companies providing in-company training or online courses to influence how your work environment can improve and avoid sexual harassment or violence against women at work. The problem is that almost everybody agree that this doesn’t actually work or at least they can’t measure if it is. However, companies invest millions of dollars into these courses just to use this argument if someone sues them on this.

It’s a big, big problem and this should be solved ASAP. No question about it. However, what companies are more concerned about is to avoid being sued than with genuine care for their employees. First they need to cover their asses, then if they can do something to help in some way, the better.

This quote from the article says it all:

“I kind of don’t have any answers,” says Phyllis Hartman, an HR consultant who’s been working on anti-harassment training for 25 years. “You just sort of do it and hope it’ll be better.”

So, the point is: if you find a niche that every business needs to implement or hire to cover their asses even though you don’t need to provide actual results, then you have found a Cash Cow with a steady income.

These businesses are like giant oil tankers. They take a while to get in cruise speed, but after they get there, it’s very hard to stop them.