The 15-minute city and its niche biz ideas
Nicheletters are meant to make you think about building your business in your niche. Thank you for sharing your time with me.
The 15-minute city
The 15-minute city is one in which daily Urban necessities are within 15 minutes reach on foot or by a bike (or other light modes of transportation). It includes not just our home, the place we work from and the shopping (urban multifunctional pick-up places). But also healthcare, education and relaxing activities.
Buildings
They will be multipurpose. Work or education during the day and entertainment during the evenings and weekends. Multipurpose furniture, lights, catering, etc. Schools are a great example of buildings rarely used in the evening or on weekends.
Transportation
The 15-minute city won't need recent forms of basic public transport like buses and tube unless the weather is too cold. We will use light, electric forms of transport like bicycles, scooters, some kind of hop in-hop off vehicles or vans replacing the buses.
Streets
They will change as we will not need that much space for big last-mile ways of transport like cars and buses. More space for parks and plenty of new space for local businesses and their customers (restaurants, cafes, etc). One way streets for shared vehicles, no parking spaces along the roads. Long stretches of green parks, tiny rivers, outdoor activities and space for work using your laptop.
Time saved on transport
People will have an extra hour (depending on the size of the city) a day "needed" to be filed with some kind of activity. It could be meeting with friends and family, learning new skills, starting new businesses, volunteering, etc.
Shops as open manufactures
Shops fulfilling their orders mostly online + delivery could turn into little factories where customers can come to see how their T-shirts are made. We saw a trend of open kitchens in restaurants in the past. We could apply the same to small biz. A great way how to engage with your customers in addition to your social media.
Electricity
We will see 15-minute cities producing their own electricity using renewable sources. We will know much more about how our 15-minute city works when it comes to the environment, waste disposal, energy production and consumption.
5G + IoT
As we will spend more time in our 15-minute cities, we will use IoT and 5G much more. Plenty of yet non-existing opportunities to use this relatively new technology for your local business.
Work
Small co-working spaces between the grocery store and pharmacy. 15-20 people capacity. 1 coffee machine. Card operated doors. Superfast internet. Open 24/7. You'll have a small space for your laptop and your cup of coffee. Also, you can book a phone booth if you need to make some video calls.
Data collection
There will be a new kind of competition between 15-minute cities to attract talent, residents and businesses. The only way to improve is to measure. There will be a huge demand for a wide range of data and its interpretation into a useful form.
Previous nicheletter:
Getting back to the roots of entrepreneurship
Thank you for sharing your time with me. As a huge fan of niches, I am building a niche startup studio. If you would like to talk, let’s have a virtual cup of coffe 💻☕ I might be able to help you with your niche biz idea or I might know somebody who can.