What Are the 7 Worst Business Ideas of 2025? | @thehimanshuagrawal

TL;DR

The seven worst business ideas of 2025, according to @thehimanshuagrawal, are ATM businesses, affiliate marketing, Amazon FBA, retail stores, drop shipping, gyms, and restaurants. Their weaknesses include low margins, intense competition, platform dependency, high costs, and location risk. The assessment reflects the speaker’s own economic approach, not a claim that nobody succeeds, so read on for the specific problems with each model.

Transcript

I get pitched hundreds and thousands of business ideas every single day. And here are the top seven ones I would not even touch. In this video, I'll go deep into their economics, why I would not touch them, and they're the worst business according to me. If you have been following me for a while, you know how our team works. Basically someone joins... Read More

Key Insights

• Diversification is crucial in business to mitigate risks associated with sudden market changes or regulatory impacts.
• Empowering employees through growth opportunities and equity can lead to a high-performance culture and personal development.
• ATM businesses are declining due to the rise of digital payments like UPI, reducing cash transactions and profitability.
• Affiliate marketing offers limited wealth-building potential due to low control over products and reliance on external factors.
• Amazon FBA presents challenges like low entry barriers, platform dependency, and competition from Amazon itself.
• Retail stores face high costs, location dependency, and declining interest, making them risky ventures without significant capital.
• The drop shipping model offers minimal profit margins and high operational headaches, unsuitable for long-term wealth creation.
• Restaurants and gyms require significant investment, have low profitability rates, and are heavily dependent on location and customer loyalty.

Questions & Answers

Q: What are the 7 worst business ideas of 2025 according to @thehimanshuagrawal?

The seven businesses are ATM businesses, affiliate marketing, Amazon FBA, retail stores, drop shipping, gyms, and restaurants. The speaker considers them unattractive under his economic approach, while acknowledging that other people may have made significant money from them.

Q: Why does @thehimanshuagrawal advise against starting an ATM business?

ATM businesses face declining cash usage as digital payment methods such as UPI become more common. Lower transaction volume and small transaction fees can make recovering the initial cost slow.

Q: Why is affiliate marketing weak for long-term wealth building?

Affiliate marketers have limited control over the products they promote and the strategies used to sell them. They receive only a portion of each sale and depend heavily on external businesses, which restricts scalability and control.

Q: What are the main risks of Amazon FBA?

Amazon FBA has low barriers to entry, strong competition, and dependence on Amazon’s platform and policies. Sellers may also face competition from Amazon if it introduces similar products.

Q: Why are retail stores considered risky?

Retail stores carry high operating costs and depend heavily on location and foot traffic. Customer loyalty can take time to build, while declining interest in physical shopping adds further risk.

Q: Why is drop shipping an unattractive business model?

Drop shipping combines thin profit margins with substantial logistics and customer-service problems. Those operational demands make the model difficult to scale and less suitable for building durable wealth.

Q: Why can gyms struggle to become profitable?

Gyms require substantial initial investment and need time to develop a loyal customer base. Profitability depends on location, member retention, operating costs, and the ability to compete effectively.

Q: Why are restaurants considered a poor business choice?

Restaurants face high failure risk, low profitability, intense competition, and strong dependence on location and customer loyalty. Delivery platforms such as Zomato and Swiggy can further squeeze margins.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Definition: The speaker’s worst-business list reflects his personal approach and economics, not a claim that nobody has succeeded in these markets.

• Number: The video identifies seven businesses the speaker would personally avoid starting.

• Definition: ATM businesses suffer when digital payments such as UPI reduce cash transactions and transaction-fee revenue.

• Definition: Affiliate marketing limits control because affiliates depend on external products, marketing decisions, and commissions.

• Definition: Amazon FBA exposes sellers to easy market entry, heavy competition, platform policy changes, and possible competition from Amazon.

• Definition: Retail stores combine high operating costs with dependence on location, foot traffic, capital reserves, and customer loyalty.

• Definition: Drop shipping offers thin margins while creating logistics and customer-service burdens that complicate scaling.

• Definition: Gyms require substantial investment, suitable locations, effective retention, and time to establish a loyal customer base.

• Definition: Restaurants face low profitability, intense competition, location risk, and margin pressure from Zomato and Swiggy.

• Compare: Diversification becomes more important at high capital levels because the speaker favors lower risk after a business grows.

• Number: A hypothetical 30% tax could deplete the profit margins of a fantasy sports business such as Dream 11.

• Number: A hypothetical government certification delay of 8 months could prevent an uncertified coach from running ads.