"Boring Business": 5 Reasons to Love It
We glorify startups. Their speed, their funding rounds, their dream-inspiring pitches. In the collective imagination, the "model" entrepreneur is one who grows at breakneck speed, burns cash, and aims for the moon. But reality is different: the majority of these startups disappear, lacking profitability, discipline, and continuity.
On the opposite end, there exists what is commonly called a "boring business." These seemingly "dull" companies — dry cleaners, cleaning services, transporters, repair shops, service SMEs — have nothing spectacular about them. They don't raise funds, don't make headlines, and their founders don't have three-slide pitches. But they have a formidable quality: they create real value. Here are 5 reasons to love them.
1. Discreet but solid wealth
Boring businesses are invisible in the media landscape, but essential in daily life. You find them in industrial zones, neighborhoods, or villages. These companies don't depend on fads or ephemeral trends: they respond to real and permanent needs. Their revenues are regular and their stability inspires confidence. While others seek funding, they accumulate profits. And it's this constancy, often ignored, that makes their true strength and makes them transferable.
2. Customers rather than investors
A startup that seduces investors but not customers is doomed in the long run. Boring businesses, on the contrary, build their solidity on customer satisfaction. No need to convince a venture capital fund: just convince customers to pay for a well-rendered service, again and again. This changes everything. "Sexy" companies live under investor pressure, with unrealistic objectives and forced growth. Boring businesses move at their customers' pace.
3. Unexpected competitive advantages
One of the great assets of boring businesses is that they position themselves in trades that few people want to pursue. Who dreams of managing a cleaning company or an emergency plumbing service? Result: competition is weaker there. At the same time, needs never disappear. A leaking roof, a blocked pipe, or a broken machine always call for a solution. These services are essential, recurring, and incompressible. For a well-managed company, this guarantees stable revenues and loyal clientele.
4. Transferable value
These companies also distinguish themselves by their value during a sale. Because they are profitable, concrete, and predictable, they sell well. A buyer knows they're taking over a proven economic model, loyal clientele, and established processes. Unlike some startups whose value collapses without the founder, a boring business can function independently of its creator. Documented, structured, and organized, it inspires confidence and offers real prospects for continuity. It's this solidity that makes it a sought-after asset in the transfer market.
5. The strength of rigor
Behind a successful boring business, there's daily discipline. Mastering costs, finding a clear niche and sticking to it, placing the right people in the right places, repeating what works: these are the ingredients. It's not spectacular, but it's what attracts customers, reassures buyers, and ensures sustainability. Rigor isn't a brake on growth, it's its foundation. Those who cultivate it build solid, transferable, and profitable companies, far from fads and media noise.
True success is less noisy than we think
A company's value doesn't lie in buzz or spotlights. It's built through regularity, rigor, and profitability. Startups make us dream for a moment, but boring businesses build lasting legacies.
Because deep down, what seems mundane today is what creates tomorrow's real wealth.
