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The Economics of Train Crashes

Written by Ricky Nave in Economics

“There were at least 1,164 train derailments in the U.S. in 2022, but most occurred in rail yards and didn’t involve hazmat spills.”

This photo shows a Norfolk Southern train derailment in Graniteville, South Carolina in 2005.

On January 6, 2005, a malfunctioning railroad switch caused one Norfolk Southern train to smash into another in Graniteville, South Carolina — releasing diesel fuel and 60 tons of toxic chlorine into the water and air from a ruptured hazmat train car. The incident killed 10 people, injured somewhere between 250 and 600 people, and displaced 5,400 residents for nearly two weeks while hazmat teams cleaned up the town. The accident also damaged a textile mill significantly enough to put the company out of business, resulting in 4,000 workers losing their jobs the next year.

Over the next 5 years, the total remediation costs, personal injury claims, property damage claims, civil damages for economic losses suffered by other businesses, regulatory fines, and other direct costs associated with the train crash cost Norfolk Southern $260 million. In the same year as the crash, NS generated $232 million in free cash flow to equity. That means the liability generated from the Graniteville train crash would have wiped out an entire year’s free cash flow to Norfolk Southern stockholders if it hadn’t been for insurance.

Even with insurance, Norfolk Southern had to shell out a $25 million deductible, cover another $58 million in claims that were denied by insurance and insurance arbitrators, and $4 million in regulatory fines. And that doesn’t even include the cost of fronting over a hundred million dollars for claims that were only reimbursed by insurance carriers several years later.

The $87 million of uninsured and non-reimbursed derailment liabilities represent 38% of Norfolk Southern’s free cash flow to stockholders from 2005 — a heavy cost by any measure. Why does Norfolk Southern assume this risk at all? Why agree to transport highly toxic chemicals when they constitute only a small percentage of revenue but a HUGE percentage of total train crash liability?

The answer is that Norfolk Southern (and every common carrier railroad company) is legally required to offer to transport hazardous materials, regardless of the risk. And on February 3, 2023, Norfolk Southern felt the impact of that risk again when 50 train cars, including 11 carrying hazardous chemicals, derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. Several of the derailed train cars caught fire, releasing hundreds of thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals into the soil, water, and air:

  • Butyl acrylate (a skin & respiratory irritant)
  • Ethylene glycol (a respiratory irritant if inhaled, and a liver & heart toxin if ingested)
  • Ethylhexyl acrylate (a suspected carcinogen in humans, and a known carcinogen in animals)
  • Ethylene glycol monobutyl ether (another suspected carcinogen in humans, and known carcinogen in animals)
  • Diesel, oil, and oil combustion byproducts including benzene (a known human carcinogen)

Nobody died in the crash, but after the crash site burned for 3 days, emergency responders were concerned that 5 additional train cars containing vinyl chloride were increasing in temperature and might explode. To avoid this, they preemptively blew holes in the tanker-cars to start a controlled burn that released over a million pounds of vinyl chloride (a human carcinogen), phosgene gas (used as a chemical weapon during World War 1), and hydrochloric acid. The fire created a toxic black cloud that was visible from space and left chemical residue on farms located miles away.

How much will the East Palestine derailment cost Norfolk Southern?

In Norfolk Southern’s 2021 annual report (the latest report available at the time of writing), the company stated that it had third-party liability and property damage insurance on claims between $75-800 million (or $75 million-$1.1 billion for certain scenarios) per occurrence. The company also stated it had first-party property insurance that covers 87% of claims between $75-275 million.

First Party Liability

As of December 31, 2021, the company had 37,228 freight cars with an average age of 25.7 years and about 6.5 years of expected useful life left. The reported net book value of all freight cars at the time was $1.692 billion. That means to replace the 62 destroyed cars (50 derailed plus 12 more were damaged in the subsequent fires) should cost at least $2.82 million. Together with the cost of repairing the tracks where derailment occurred, we can conservatively estimate a cost of at least $3 million. That’s well under Norfolk’s $75 million deductible which means it will come directly out of the company’s free cash flow. However, the much larger cost to the company will come from its third party liability.

Third Party Liability

Despite some environmentalists labeling the East Palestine derailment as a “modern day Chernobyl”, the two events differ in severity by orders of magnitude. The estimated death toll at Chernobyl is about 4,000. The death toll in East Palestine is zero. The number of residents within the immediate vicinity of Chernobyl who received the highest levels of radiation exposure was about 270,000. The number of residents of East Palestine is roughly 4,700. The total environmental and economic costs of Chernobyl have been estimated to be around $250 billion. It’s pretty safe to assume that is an upper limit far above what the total cost of any train crash liability would be.

A somewhat closer comparison is PG&E’s contamination of a city’s groundwater with hexavalent chromium in a case made famous by Erin Brockovich in 1996. After adjusting for inflation, the total money paid out for various lawsuits related to that situation was about $1.1 billion.

Below are the approximate total liabilities from several other industrial-environmental disasters for comparison:

Examples of Catastrophic Industrial LiabilitiesApproximate Total Liability (in 2023 Dollars)
Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement in 1998$379 Billion
BP oil spill in 2010$27 Billion
PG&E groundwater contamination$1.1 Billion
Kingston fossil coal plant dam failure$1-5 Billion (ongoing)
Graniteville train crash in 2005$359 Million
Perry, GA train crash in 2019>$5.1 Million

In the BP oil spill, 11 workers died, 206 million gallons of oil spilled, and 225,000 tons of methane were released. In contrast, the volume of chemicals spilled in East Palestine is over 1,000-fold less, and no one has died yet. That means the total East Palestine crash liability should be much less than BP’s $27 billion.

The Graniteville crash is probably the most similar. The environmental liability from the Graniteville crash is probably less than that of the East Palestine crash (since only 1 hazmat car leaked in Graniteville versus 11 hazmat cars in East Palestine). However, the third-party business liability from Graniteville was probably higher than in East Palestine because the Graniteville crash damaged a textile mill that was necessary to keep a larger business (Avondale Mills) solvent. When Avondale collapsed the next year, Norfolk Southern ended up on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. In the East Palestine crash, most businesses within the affected area are relatively small meaning that even if several do go out of business, the total liability to Norfolk would likely be smaller than it was for Avondale.

I estimate the final liability (including environmental remediation costs, third-party personal injury claims, and civil damages for third party business losses, not all of which will be measured or claimed for several years to come) for the East Palestine crash will be in the range of $50-500 million. That’s an 80% confidence interval based on the statistics I have available.

However, Norfolk Southern is unlikely to pay more than $100 million out of pocket due to insurance. For a company that generated $2.36 billion in free cash flow to stockholders in 2021, that isn’t too big of an expense (especially when spread out over the course of the next several years). If Norfolk Southern hadn’t started out at such a high P/E before the East Palestine crash, the resulting stock dip could have been quite the buying opportunity.

By the way, if you want more articles like this about interesting business topics (researched & written by a guy who worked at two national labs and spent 3 years in Duke’s math PhD program), subscribe to my free weekly newsletter. It’s like hiring me as a research analyst for free.

How much money do railroads invest in maintenance & infrastructure?

From 1980 to 2021, America’s freight railroads spent approximately $760 billion on capex and maintenance related to locomotives, freight cars, train tracks, bridges, tunnels, and other infrastructure and equipment. That’s more than 39 cents of every dollar of freight railroad revenue during that time. In recent years, annual spending has been over $25 billion.

How many people die in train accidents each year?

In 2022, the U.S. railroad industry (excluding Amtrak) caused 817 fatalities which included 10 on-duty employees, 569 trespassers, 2 passengers, and 236 bystanders (most of which were people on railroad crossings).

On a fatalities-per-mile basis, the U.S. railroad industry caused 1.49 deaths per million train-miles. That’s roughly 100-fold higher than the death rate per million car-miles, but a single train can carry substantially more cargo and passengers than a car or semi-truck. Additionally, transporting cargo by freight train is about 75% more carbon-efficient than transporting cargo by truck.

The chart below shows how the railroad fatality rate has changed from 1976 to 2022.

As you can see, safety improvements led to substantial decreases in railroad fatalities from 1976 to 2012, but then fatalities started increasing again. Some union advocates have attributed this to softening regulations & safety standards (e.g. allowing longer & heavier trains with fewer onboard employees), but let’s take a look at some data before we accept that conclusion.

The chart below shows the fatality rate of bystanders by year.

Bystander fatalities did tick up slightly after 2012, but not nearly as much as overall fatalities. If we look at the same chart for employee fatalities, we would see that they have actually decreased since 2012. That shouldn’t be the case if the overall fatality rate uptick were being caused by weaker safety standards. So what’s going on?

The answer is trespassers.

The chart below shows the rate of trespasser deaths at locations other than road-railroad crossings.

The rate of railroad trespasser deaths has more than doubled from 2012 to 2022. Typically, these trespassers are intoxicated males age 20-69 with low socioeconomic status.

Train Accident Prevention Business Ideas

Business Idea #1: Railroad trespasser patrol drones.

Create a system of drones and drone chargers that you can sell to local governments or train operators in urban areas where railroad trespassing is common. The drones would automatically patrol the railroad and whenever a trespasser was detected on or near the tracks, a notice would be sent to the police, train conductor, and/or other railroad personnel.

Alternatively, you can reduce the number of false positives by having any detections of trespassers first sent to a small team of humans working at your company. If the detected trespasser is real, then the human employee of your company can then notify police and/or the train conductor.

Business Idea #2: On-train inspection drone.

Create a drone system that can be mounted on a locomotive. The system would have a charger and at least two drones. Each drone would have an infrared camera that is live-streamed back to the charging hub on the locomotive. The hub would have a computer running image processing AI to detect any dangerous heat buildup along the axles or wheels of the train. While one drone was charging, the other would be going back and forth along the train as it was moving. Then the drones would swap roles. Since freight trains can often travel around 50 mph, you’d need to build drones that could travel around 70-90 mph.

References

[1] U.S. Department of Transportation FRA Safety Data Portal

[2] Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration

[3] Association of American Railroads: Freight Rail Facts & Figures

[4] Union Pacific – Investor Relations

[5] Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC) – Investor Relations

[6] Strategies for Reducing Railroad Trespassing

Appendix: Historical Environmental Incidents

IncidentAmountAmount in 2023 dollarsExplanation
PG&E hexavalent chromium groundwater contamination$648 Million$1.09 BillionFrom 1952-1966, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) dumped ~370 million gallons of chromium 6 tainted water into unlined wastewater ponds near the town of Hinkley, CA about 120 miles form LA.

PG&E settled the first case with over 600 plaintiffs (brought by Erin Brockovitch) in 1996 for $333 million (~$621 million in 2023).

In 2006, PG&E agreed to pay $295 million ($437 million in 2023) to settle cases involving another 1,100 people statewide for hexavalent chromium-related claims.

In 2008, PG&E settled another Hinkley claim for $20 million ($28 million in 2023).
Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement in 1998$206 Billion$379 BillionAs of 2023, this is still the largest lawsuit settlement in history. The case mandated the 4 biggest tobacco companies pay out $206 billion over 25 years to cover medical-related costs due to illnesses linked to smoking tobacco.
Deepwater Horizon BP Oil Spill in 2010$20 Billion$27.4 BillionThe Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig exploded, killing 10 people and causing a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. BP settled a number of charges including manslaughter and various misdemeanors and also covered a compensation fund for the victims and economic losses that were experienced as a result of the oil spill (including future medical expenses).
Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder Cancer Case>$61.5 Billion>$62 BillionJ&J’s baby powder and shower-to-shower powder have been used by millions of women and babies. However, the talc used in the powder has been accused of being contaminated with asbestos, and lawsuits have claimed J&J knew about and hid that fact for years.

J&J attempted to offload the nearly 40,000 talc powder lawsuits initiated so far into a subsidiary that it would fund with $61.5 billion and then put into bankruptcy, indicating that J&J believed the total liability when all was said and done would be at least that much. However, that tactic was blocked by a U.S. court which could mean the final damages are even higher.
Three Mile Island nuclear reactor meltdown>$973 Million>$4.01 BillionOn March 28, 1979, a nuclear power plant located on Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, PA suffered a malfunction and subsequent meltdown that released radioactive material into the environment. According to the World Nuclear Association, the damage took 12 years to clean up and cost $973 million.

That doesn’t include any third-party liability claims.
Kingston Fossil Plant dam failure & coal fly ash slurry spill$2-5 Billion$2-5 BillionIn 2008, a dike ruptured at a coal ash pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)’s Kingston Fossil Plant (a coal plant), releasing 1.1 billion gallons (4.2 million cubic meters) of coal fly ash slurry. It is still the largest industrial spill in U.S. history as of 2023. The volume of coal slurry was roughly 5-times larger than the volume of oil released in the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The spill released the slurry into the the Clinch River, Emory River, its Swan Pond embayment, and the nearby shore, covering up to 300 acres of the surrounding land.

The TVA was found liable and spent over $1 billion to clean up the mess. Additionally, employees at the engineering firm (Jacobs Engineering) hired by TVA to clean up the spill developed illnesses including brain cancer, lung cancer, and leukemia as a result of exposure to the toxic coal ash (which contained radium, heavy metals, and other carcinogens), and within 10 years of the spill, more than 30 had died. A class action case of more than 300 former workers against the TVA and Jacobs is now pending in the Tennessee Supreme Court.

When taken through court, the average mesothelioma case generates a verdict award of $5-11 million. When settled, the amount per case is usually $1-2 million. Using $3 million per individual as an estimate for 300 workers, we estimate a final verdict around $1 billion (although the final result may be anywhere from $300 million on the low end to $3 billion or more on the high end). Possible additional punitive damages and additional cases could increase that number several billion higher.
Graniteville train collission & toxic chemical spill$260 Million$359 MillionIn 2005, two Norfolk Southern trains collided in Graniteville, SC, spilling chlorine and diesel fuel into the waterways. Nine people died in the crash, 1 died later from chlorine exposure, and over 250 people were injured from the cloud of toxic chlorine gas that spread over Graniteville. The accident was caused by a misaligned railroad switch.

The collision released about 60 tons of chlorine gas from one train car.

Norfolk Southern paid approximately $41 million ($63 million in 2023) to clean up the area, evacuate 5,400 residents for nearly 2 weeks while they did so, and pay for miscellaneous property damage and personal injury claims.

Avondale Mills (a textile mill near the site of the derailment) shut down and left over 4,000 workers without a job, siting the derailment as the primary cause. Norfolk Southern eventually settled with Avondale Mills for $215 million in 2008 (equivalent to $290 million in 2023).

In 2010, Norfolk Southern agreed to pay $4 million (~$5.5 million in 2023) to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Water Act and hazardous materials laws for the chlorine spill that happened as part of the Graniteville crash.

What was the most deadly train crash in U.S. history?

The deadliest U.S. train accident was in Brooklyn, New York in 1918 when a passenger train derailed in a curved tunnel, killing 102 people.

How to sabotage your company like the CIA

Written by Ricky Nave in Business tactics, strategy, and management

In 2008, the U.S. declassified a CIA training manual used for decades to instruct operatives how to sabotage organizations from within. The “Simple Sabotage Field Manual” includes 16 tactics that managers can use to “efficiently” cripple an organization and demoralize its employees.

  1. Whenever possible, refer all matters to committees for “further study and consideration.”  Attempt to make the committees as large as possible – never less than five.
  2. Hold meetings when there is more important work to be done.
  3. Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision.
  4. Talk as frequently as possible and at great length.
  5. When you talk, illustrate your points by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences.
  6. Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.
  7. Insist on doing everything through “channels.”  Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.
  8. Advocate “caution”.  Be “reasonable”. Urge your coworkers to be “reasonable” and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.
  9. Apply all regulations to the last letter.
  10. Be worried about the appropriateness of any decision. Raise the question of whether any contemplated action lies within the jurisdiction of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon.
  11. Train new workers with incomplete instructions.
  12. When scheduling work, always schedule the unimportant tasks first.
  13. Multiply the procedures and clearances involved in issuing instructions, pay checks, and so on.  See that three people have to approve everything where one would do.
  14. To lower morale and with it, productivity, be pleasant to inefficient workers;  give them undeserved promotions.  Meanwhile hold your efficient workers to higher and higher standards, complaining about things which you don’t complain about for inefficient workers.
  15. Spread disturbing rumors that sound like inside dope.
  16. Create confusion by giving lengthy and incomprehensible explanations when questioned.

If you wish to sabotage, cripple, and demoralize your company as effectively as a CIA agent, implement those 16 tactics within your business as soon as possible.

How to Make 52% Profit Margins by Renting Chickens

Written by Ricky Nave in Business Models,Franchisor Business

“The standard package includes a 6 month rental of 2 chickens and a chicken coop for $485. After delivery and other expenses, the gross profit margin is 39%. And that’s just for the standard package. For the Deluxe package, the gross margin is over 52%.”

Phil Tompkins left a 20 year career in IT to look for a home-based business idea he could start with his wife, Jenn. The idea he ended up with was renting chickens to rich urban hipsters. Here’s what the standard offering included:

  • 1 copy of the book “Fresh Eggs Daily: Raising Happy, Healthy Chickens Naturally” sent to the customer in advance of chicken delivery
  • 2 hens, a chicken coop with water and food bowls, and 100 pounds of chicken food — all delivered anywhere within 50 miles of Phil and Jenn’s home
  • 6 months of time with the chickens
  • Pickup of the hens and coop at the end of the 6 month rental period

The cost of that “standard package” is $485, and the couple called their new business “Rent-The-Chicken”.

How did Rent-The-Chicken get customers?

Initially, Phil and Jenn struggled to find anyone who would rent chickens from them. However, after persuading one friend to rent a chicken for free as a test, a local newspaper one county over heard about the business and contacted the husband and wife entrepreneurs for an interview.

At the time, the company did not even have a logo, but the newspaper ran the story over a holiday weekend, and it went viral. It was picked up by the Associated Press, and the couple was then invited to do video interviews, radio interviews, podcast interviews, blog interviews, and more newspaper interviews. That was the late summer and fall of 2013, and the wave of media publicity brought in a wave of customer orders.

However, the chicken entrepreneurs soon discovered that their initial idea about who would be their ideal customers (rich urban hipsters) was completely wrong. The people who actually wanted to rent chickens were empty nesters (parents whose children have grown up and left home) and young families with parents who wanted to provide their kids with a fun, educational experience about where their food comes from.

The business now uses organic social (Facebook and Instagram) as its primary marketing strategy. Due to the novel & charming nature of the business, it also continues to get free news coverage periodically in mainstream TV, newspaper, and other media channels. Recent egg price inflation has also spurred a lot mainstream news stories about how you can rent a chicken to get your own eggs at home. Side note: those news stories are pure clickbait since the cost of renting chickens is several times higher than the cost of just buying 6-months worth of eggs at the grocery store, even after inflation.

What are the unit economics of renting out chickens?

Let’s break down the revenue, expenses, and profit margin for a single “standard package” chicken rental.

Below is a table summarizing the business expenses directly attributable to a single rental (excluding the cost of the hens and coops which are re-used).

Expense ItemEstimated Total CostCost Estimate Justification
1 copy of the “Fresh Eggs Daily: Raising Happy, Health Chickens Naturally” book with shipping$15I found a copy of the book for $13.56 + $2.64 shipping ($16.21 total) on AbeBooks.

Since Phil and Jenn are sending a copy of the book with every order they make, they should be able to get books in bulk for a bit cheaper than that.
100 lbs chicken feed$37Tyrone Milling sells a 100 lb bag of chicken feed for $37
100 Mile (round-trip) delivery – vehicle costs$63The IRS posted a standard mileage rate (intended to reflect all costs associated with owning a vehicle, including gas, repairs, oil, insurance, registration, and depreciation) of $0.625/mile for the second half of 2022.
100 Mile (round-trip) delivery – labor costs$45The total loading, driving, and unloading time should be less than 3 hours to deliver to a destination within 50 miles of a farm (less than 100 miles round-trip).

Assuming an hourly worker is hired to drive, the cost per hour should be less than $15 in most markets. That makes 3 hours of time cost $45.
100 Mile (round-trip) pickup – vehicle costs$63
100 Mile (round-trip) pickup – labor costs$45
Unit Expenses (excluding hens & coop)$268n/a

In reality, Phil delivers the chickens himself so there are no labor costs per se. However, if you wanted to start your own chicken rental business, you could easily hire someone to take on that duty which is why I included labor costs for delivery in the list of expenses above.

The capital expenditures (capex) for a single rental set-up are summarized in the next table:

Capex ItemEstimated Total CostCost Estimate Justification
Chicken coop$100I found a reference chicken coop on Amazon selling for $150, and the coops shown in the pictures on the RentTheChicken.com look simpler and cheaper. Even the upgraded “Deluxe coop” offered by Phil and Jenn appears to be something that could easily be made for under $100.
2 hens$40Hens can be purchased in bulk for $20 each
Unit Startup Capex$140n/a

Commercial egg-laying hens are typically kept for 2-3 years because after that, egg and shell quality decline. That means a hen can probably be rented out for about five 6-month stints before being retired. It’s also reasonable to assume that a chicken coup will last for at least as long. That means our total unit expense should include a depreciation expense worth 1/5 the unit startup capex amount. This is summarized in the next table.

Financial MetricAmount
Revenue$485
– Operating Expenses (excluding hens & coop)$268
– Depreciation of hens & coop (assuming each is rented 5 times)$28
Total Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)$296
Gross Profit$189
Gross Profit Margin39.0%

A gross profit margin of 39% is already good, but there are several reasons why the actual gross margin could be even higher:

  1. Not every customer will actually be 50 miles away. Some will be closer. That would reduce delivery and pickup costs which account for $216 of the $296 COGS (73%). If we consider a circle with a 50 mile radius, the average distance to a point in that circle will be 33 miles. That means if customers are uniformly distributed over the service area, the true unit transportation cost might be closer to $144 rather than $216. That would imply a gross profit margin of 53.8%.
  2. Multiple customer deliveries and/or pickups could be scheduled for the same day, cutting down on transportation costs.
  3. A more fuel-efficient, lower-maintenance vehicle could be used for deliveries and pickups, cutting down on transportation costs. Remember, we just used the IRS’s average vehicle number, so there is substantial room for achieving lower transportation costs by choosing the right vehicle.
  4. Manufacturing of coops could be optimized, reducing the cost per coop.
  5. Coops might last longer than the 5 uses anticipated by our model. If they don’t currently last longer, they could be manufactured more durably so that they do.

Additionally, all of this is just for the “standard package”. Rent-The-Chicken also offers a “standard upgrade” package and a “Deluxe” package, both of which have higher margins.

The Deluxe package sells for $685. It comes with 4 hens and 200 pounds of chicken feed, with everything else the same as the standard package. Total COGS (cost of goods sold) is $341 which means gross profit is $344, and the gross profit margin is 50.2%.

Or, if we use our assumption that the average customer is located 33 miles away rather than 50 miles away, then the COGS for the Deluxe package is $269, the gross profit is $416, and the gross profit margin is 60.7% (about the same as Amazon AWS).

Franchising

Rent-The-Chicken has expanded across the U.S. and into Canada through a franchising business model. Franchisees (called “affiliates” on RentTheChicken.com) are small farmers and homesteaders who rent out chickens and coops under the “Rent-The-Chicken” brand in exchange for a 10% royalty on sales. The map below shows the location of all current franchisees.

Intellectual property royalties are essentially 100% gross profit, which makes franchising an amazing business model. In exchange for those royalties, Rent-The-Chicken also handles marketing and customer service. However, given the limited amount of marketing conducted by Rent-The-Chicken (basically just organic social), I estimate the net profit margin of their franchising business (after all expenses except taxes) would still be over 90% even if you replaced Jenn’s marketing and customer support roles with paid employees.

By the way, if you enjoy learning about interesting business models like chicken rentals and chicken rental franchises, subscribe to my free newsletter to get more content like this on a weekly basis.

Appendix A: Growing profits with location-based pricing

Once Rent-The-Chicken was franchised into different markets, the number of package options and the pricing of those options was modified to reflect the different buying power in different markets. For anyone running a business across multiple geographic locations, this type of price optimization is one of the easiest ways to increase your profitability.

The table below shows how Rent-The-Chicken set prices for each U.S. franchisee’s location.

LocationStandard PackageStandard Upgrade PackageDeluxe PackageEglu Go Up PackageOut of Area Package
Phoenix, AZ$825$925$1025——
Tucson, AZ$485$585$685——
Los Angeles, CA (zone 1)—$585$685——
Los Angeles, CA (zone 2)—$615$715——
Los Angeles, CA (zone 3)—$645$745——
Connecticut$485$585$685$885—
Philadelphia, PA$635$735$835——
Athens, GA$485$585$685——
Atlanta, GA$585$685$785——
Chicago, IL$995$1095$1195$1395—
South Bend, IN$495$595$695$895—
Omaha, NE$485$585$685$885—
Sioux City, IA$595$695$845——
Baltimore, MD$485$585$685$885—
Boston, MA—$595$735——
southern New Hampshire—$595$735——
New Jersey—$585$685$885—
Albany, NY$665$765$815$1065—
Syracuse, NY$485$585$685$885—
Finger Lakes Region, NY$585$685$785$945—
Long Island, NY——$1185*——
Rochester, NY$585$685$785$985—
Raleigh, NC$485$585$685$885—
Columbus, OH$485$585$685——
Cleveland, OH$535$635$785——
Harrisburg, PA$485$585$685——
Gettysburg, PA$485$585$685——
Laurel Highlands, PA$485$585$685$885—
Pittsburgh, PA$485$585$685$885—
South Carolina————$1350
Florida————$1350
Middle Tennessee$485$585$685$885—
Austin, TX$735$835$985——
College Station, TX$535$635$785——
Dallas, TX$665$765$915——
Houston, TX$665$765$915——
Burlington, VT—$685$785——
St Johnsbury, VT—$585$685——
Winchester, VA$485$585$685$885—
*The Long Island package includes less food than the typical Deluxe package (only 100 lbs for 4 chickens)

Appendix B: Farmer Brad Chicken Rentals

Rent-The-Chicken is not the only chicken rental business that exists. Another is “Farmer Brad Chicken Rentals”. Farmer Brad’s chicken rental prices are provided in the table below.

Basic Chicken Package (2 hens)Deluxe Chicken Package (4 hens)Bantam Rental
3 month rental$300$450n/a
6 month rental$450$600$200
Buyout$350 (3 month buyout)

$300 (6 month buyout)		$325 (3 month buyout)

$300 (6 month buyout)		$200

Appendix C: Hatch-The-Chicken

Rent-The-Chicken has started growing their business through additional types of animal experiences beyond renting egg-laying chickens. They now also offer a “Hatch-The-Chicken” experience where they rent you a mini incubator for 5 weeks, provide you with 7 fertile eggs to hatch, and then come pick up the hatchlings at the end of the 5-week period. They offer this service for $210 (which is another reason I suspect the unit transportation costs on their main chicken rental business are lower than the $216 estimate I used earlier in this article).

Like the original “Rent-The-Chicken” product, “Hatch-The-Chicken” has many young families as customers. However, Hatch-The-Chicken has also generated significant institutional demand. It is being sold with much success to daycare providers, preschools, private elementary schools, summer camps, and senior living facilities.

Rent-The-Chicken cofounders Phil and Jenn have also mentioned on a podcast that they were planning to launch a “Hatch-The-Duck” product, but do not appear to have actually done so yet. That could be an opportunity for you to launch your own business in that niche.

Appendix D: References

36 Controversial Podcast Questions about Money & Business

Written by Ricky Nave in Media & Content Businesses

1. How much money did you make last year, and how much did you pay in taxes?

Do you use tax planning strategies to minimize your tax bill each year?

2. Did you inherit any money, and if so, how much?

What did you do with the money? Was there any family conflict or drama that arose over who would get what amount of inheritance money?

3. What was your biggest failure in business?

How have your actions since then been different as a result of that failure?

4. What’s the most in-debt you have ever been?

Was it business or personal debt? How did you get to that point?

5. What is your definition of capitalism, and do you believe it adds value to the world?

Do you think American capitalism needs to be reformed either with regulation or by weakening property rights to move us closer to a socialist system? Or alternatively, does American capitalism maybe need to be reformed by removing regulations and actually strengthening property rights?

6. What do you most want to improve in your decision-making process?

Do you wait too long to make decisions and wish you made them faster with less information? Are you conflict-avoidant and wish you made decisions that were better for the long-term even if that meant initiating more conflict in the short-term?

7. Have you ever lied on your tax return?

These could be business or personal tax returns.

8. Have you ever lied to your spouse about money?

Have you ever lied to your spouse about money? Did you hide a bank account, lie about how much you made, not tell them you spent a lot of money on something you were embarrassed about, etc?

9. What’s something you have done that you aren’t proud of?

This could be either in business or more generally in life.

10. Did you ever steal anything as a kid?

Did anyone ever find out?

11. Do you believe unions are good or bad for the economy?

Do they help workers in the short-term but not in the long-term? Should union-formation laws be reformed? Do unions hold back economic growth in states with strong union laws? What happens to the people who don’t get jobs because unions impose a barrier to competition?

12. Did you sign a prenup before getting married?

If so, how was it structured? Give me concrete details and numbers.

13. Is Bitcoin a pyramid scheme?

Or is fiat currency the pyramid scheme while Bitcoin is the only real money?

14. Do you think [Google/Facebook] should be broken up by anti-trust regulators?

Have big tech companies abused their market power? Should Google be broken up for its competitor-squashing practices? Should Facebook and Instagram be separated even though both face somewhat of an existential threat from TikTok?

15. Do you think Elon Musk is a good business man?

What do you admire about him, and what do you dislike about him?

16. Do you think Donald Trump is a good business man?

Would Donald Trump have been a successful business man without his inheritance?

17. In your opinion, what is Donald Trump’s most impressive business accomplishment?

What is the best thing for a business person to learn from him?

18. What is the probability of the U.S. and China going to war within the next 10 years? The next 50 years?

Are asset management firms foolish for investing in Chinese companies? Will those investments come back to bite them?

19. Do you think ESG initiatives hurt investors?

Will ESG initiatives decrease a company’s stock performance over the long term?

20. Do you think diversity, equity & inclusion initiatives help or hurt investors?

What are your thoughts about DE&I initiatives at companies? Do they decrease shareholder returns over the long term? Are they a cost of doing business to avoid being boycotted or cancelled (i.e. a sort of marketing cost)?

21. Do you think minimum wage laws help or hurt the economy?

If the U.S. had never implemented any minimum wage laws, would last year’s GDP have been higher or lower than it was with those laws?

Would the poverty rate be higher or lower than it was with those laws?

22. Do you think the U.S. will reach a point when debt service payments will exceed tax revenue?

If so, how long do you think it will take us to get there?

If not, do you think we will avoid it by decreasing government spending, increasing taxes, increasing GDP growth, or some combination of those things?

23. Should companies buy carbon credits to be carbon neutral?

Why should investors be okay with their money being spent to buy carbon credits instead of being spent to buy machinery and hire people to grow the business?

24. Do you think taxes should be higher on wealthy individuals?

How wealthy is wealthy? People with $1 billion in annual income? People with $1 billion in net worth? People with $1 million in net worth?

25. Do you think defense contractors are necessary, immoral, or both?

Would you ever start, invest in, or work in a defense contractor company?

26. Do you think companies should have racial diversity hiring quotas?

Or should companies focus on just hiring the most qualified people at a given hiring budget level, regardless of race?

27. What is your immediate emotional reaction to the phrase “living wage”?

Why do you feel that way?

28. Do you think college is worth the money?

Does it depend on the prestige of the college you go to and/or the major you pursue? Do you think everyone should go to college?

29. Do you think college should be free?

If so, how do you think the government should pay for it? And how would you keep college tuition inflation under control?

30. How much of a risk does climate change pose to coastal real estate?

Should investors in south Florida, Louisiana, Texas, New York, and other coastal areas be worried about rising sea levels or increased storm severity due to climate change? Is it worth investing in beach towns at all anymore or is the risk too high?

31. Do you think section 230 should be replaced with different legislation to govern social media censorship?

There is a growing dissatisfaction from both conservatives and progressives with how social media tech companies control online conversations. Conservatives think their voices are being suppressed. Progressives dislike that Elon Musk has control of Twitter and want hate speech to be banned. Do you think section 230 (the law that gives internet companies broad immunity from the content they host) should be repealed, replaced, or modified in some way to better meet the needs of society?

32. Should pension funds be allowed to invest the money of retirees in B corporations?

B corporations are companies that have weaker fiduciary duties than conventional C corporations. Executives of a C corporation are duty-bound to put the interest of their shareholders above all else, while a B corporation’s executives have the ability to spend money in a way that might reduce the company’s stock performance if they think there is some larger public benefit to be had.

Should fully managed pension fund managers be allowed to invest retirees’ money into B corporations?

33. Do you think the U.S. should fund universal healthcare?

Can the U.S. government afford this? Where would the money come from? How would we avoid the quality problems seen in places like the U.K.’s NHS?

34. Do you think the U.S. should fund universal daycare?

Is this more or less of a priority than free college?

35. What jobs are likely to be replaced by robots and/or AI within the next 10 years?

And what jobs are least likely to be replaced?

36. Have you or your business ever been sued?

Tell us the story.

Can OnlyFans Creators get SBA loans?

Written by Ricky Nave in Business Fundraising,Media & Content Businesses

In general, neither OnlyFans creators nor OnlyFans agencies are eligible to receive SBA 7(a) or 504 loans for their businesses.

OnlyFans creators were allowed to obtain first-round PPP loans under the CARES Act after courts determined that the language of the CARES Act applied to a broader range of businesses than the Small Business Act which governs eligibility for the SBA 7(a) and 504 loan programs. However, Congress made it clear in the second-round PPP loan authorization legislation that they had not intended for “adult” businesses to be eligible for PPP loans, and such businesses were explicitly excluded from subsequent PPP loan programs.

However, if an OnlyFans creator invests a portion of their OF income into the creation or acquisition of a new, non-adult business, then that new business is generally eligible for SBA 7(a) and 504 loans as long as the business meets all the other eligibility criteria for those programs.

Another financing option for adult business owners is to get loans from private lenders. For example, Blackburne & Sons has financed a number of adult book stores, adult lingerie stores, and even a swinger’s club. Strip Club Financing is another lender that works with adult businesses that have at least $3 million in annual revenue and $1 million in annual EBITDA (pre-tax profit). They offer cash flow, real estate, and asset-based loans of $1-25 million. Many other lenders exist as well, and you’ll want to shop around to make sure you are getting a good interest rate since some lenders will try to take advantage of the fact that most banks won’t do business with you by offering predatory loan terms. If you want help finding a loan or investor to fund your business, email me through the form below and let me know what kind of business you have and how much money you are trying to raise.

References

  • 13 CFR 120.110 — What businesses are ineligible for SBA business loans?
    • “Businesses which present live performances of a prurient sexual nature [are ineligible. Additionally, businesses] which derive directly or indirectly more than a de minimis gross revenue through the sale of products or services, or the presentation of any depictions or displays, of a prurient sexual nature [are ineligible]”
      • The meaning of “de minimis” is interpreted in SBA SOP 50 10 6 as 5% (meaning a business is ineligible if it receives more than 5% of its gross revenue, directly or indirectly, through the sale of products, services, or the presentation of any depictions or displays of a prurient sexual nature).
        • When is revenue “indirectly derived” from the sale of certain products or services? We don’t have a concrete answer, but we can guess based on what 13 CFR 120.110(h) and [SBA SOP 50 10 6] say about indirect revenue from illegal activities:
          • “Applicants that are engaged in illegal activity under federal, state, or local law are not eligible. This includes Applicants who make, sell, service, distribute, or promote products or services used in connection with illegal activity, unless such use can be shown to be completely outside of the Applicant’s intended market.” — Part 2, Sec A, Ch 3, Item 8
          • “…financial transactions involving a marijuana-related business would generally involve funds derived from illegal activity. Therefore, businesses that derive revenue from marijuana-related activities or that support the end-use of marijuana may be ineligible for SBA financial assistance.”
          • “[The following indirect marijuana businesses are ineligible:] a business that derived any of its gross revenue for the previous year (or, if a Start-Up Business, projects to derive any of its gross revenue for the next year) from sales to [direct marijuana businesses such as businesses that sell, grow, or produce marijuana, marijuana products, or derivatives] of products or services that could reasonably be determined to aid in the use, growth, enhancement or other development of marijuana. Examples of Indirect Marijuana Businesses include businesses that provide testing services, or sell or install grow lights, hydroponic or other specialized equipment, to one or more Direct Marijuana Businesses; and businesses that advise or counsel Direct Marijuana Businesses on the specific legal, financial/accounting, policy, regulatory or other issues associated with establishing, promoting, or operating a Direct Marijuana Business. However, for purposes of illustration, SBA does not consider a plumber who fixes a sink for a Direct Marijuana Business or a tech support company that repairs a laptop for such a business to be aiding in the use, growth, enhancement, or other development of marijuana… Indirect Marijuana Businesses also include businesses that sell smoking devices, pipes, bongs, inhalants, or other products if the products are primarily intended or designed for marijuana use or if the business markets the products for such use.”
    • “Private clubs are businesses which limit the number of memberships for reasons other than capacity [are ineligible]. For example, a men’s or women’s only health club is not eligible…[however] certain businesses, like fitness centers that market to one gender, may be eligible if they permit both men and women to join…”
    • “Businesses engaged in any activity that is illegal under Federal, State, or local law [are ineligible]”
    • “Businesses located in a foreign country [are ineligible]”
  • DV Diamond Club of Flint, LLC v. United States Small Business Administration
    • Appeals Court affirms lower court decision that businesses which present “live or recorded performances of a prurient sexual nature” are not automatically ineligible for PPP loans under the CARES Act
  • SBA SOP 50 10 6 — The SBA’s eligibility requirements for lenders and Community Development Companies (CDCs) and the policies and procedures governing the CDC/504 and 7(a) loan programs
    • “SBA has determined that financing lawful activities of a prurient sexual nature is not in the public interest. The SBA Lender must consider whether the nature and extent of the sexual component causes the business activity to be prurient.”
  • Miller v. California (1973) — Obscene materials do not enjoy First Amendment protection
    • 5-to-4 decision
    • The court modified the test for obscenity established in Roth v. United States and Memoirs v. Massachusetts:
      • The basic guidelines for the trier of fact must be: (a) whether ‘the average person, applying contemporary community standards’ would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest… (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”
      • “The jury may measure the essentially factual issues of prurient appeal and patent offensiveness by the standard that prevails in the forum community, and need not employ a ‘national standard.'”
    • Obscene material is not protected by the First Amendment. A work meeting the test above for “obscene material” may be subject to state regulation.

The 82 Best Subreddits for Business Owners, Professionals & Investors

Written by Ricky Nave in Marketing, Sales, and Community

Whether you have questions about how to start or grow a business, are looking for career advice, trying to find customers for your startup, or trying to learn copywriting skills to become a better marketer, Reddit has pre-established communities of people who have self-identified as the groups you need. Below are 29 of the best subreddit communities for different types of business owners, investors, and working professionals.

1. r/SmallBusiness

r/SmallBusiness is a place for questions about starting, owning, and growing a small business.

2. r/EntrepreneurRideAlong

r/EntrepreneurRideAlong is a place for entrepreneurs to ask questions and share tactics on how to validate business ideas, acquire customers, and grow companies.

3. r/SweatyStartup

The r/SweatyStartup subreddit is for hard-working small business entrepreneurs. Unlike r/Entrepreneur, you won’t find many dropshippers, social media marketers, crypto investors, or other “passive income” seekers here.

4. r/Startups

This community is for people building or trying to build fast-growing, Silicon Valley style startups.

5. r/OnlyFansAdvice

If you’ve ever been curious about the business side of running a profitable OnlyFans account, you’ll find the answers in r/OnlyFansAdvice. This subreddit only allows verified OF content creators to post or comment. That means the quality of the posts and comments is very relevant to and focused on business, marketing, finance, and operations questions for OF creator businesses. A similar subreddit that is still high-quality but is open to non-verified creator posts is r/CreatorsAdvice.

6. r/Advertising

This community describes itself as “Ground Zero for ad creators, students, copywriters, affiliates, and anyone else who is finely honing their reverse banner blindness for professional reasons.” Don’t try to advertise directly within the community itself though or you will be banned.

7. r/AskManagers

r/AskManagers is a high-quality subreddit for business managers of all industries to ask questions and give advice about how to deal with management problems and become a better manager.

8. r/Consulting

This subreddit has existed since 2009, has new posts every day, has over 210,000 members, and is focused on questions and discussions relevant to consultants.

9. r/IndieBiz

The r/IndieBiz community is for hustlers and entrepreneurs. Self-promotion is allowed as long as it is useful and relevant to others.

10. r/private_equity

This subreddit is a place to share news and discuss topics relevant to the private equity industry. You are not allowed to sell your services or fundraise in the community, but you can link your own informational blog articles so long as they are high-quality & relevant to private equity professionals.

11. r/Electricians

This community has over 330,000 members and is very active. Members are professional electricians or other people doing electrical work.

12. r/HVAC

r/HVAC is a community for HVAC professionals that currently has 121,000 members.

13. r/Plumbing

r/Plumbing is a place to ask plumbing questions and give plumbing advice. The community’s 181,000 members include many landlords, professional and aspiring plumbers, professional handymen, property managers, and home owners.

14. r/Truckers

r/Truckers is a community of over 150,000 professional truckers. Self-promotion is not allowed.

15. r/Construction

This community describes itself as “a place for professionals to discuss the construction industry. Anybody working in this field is welcome! Carpentry, concrete, steel, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, landscaping, equipment operators, etc.”

16. r/ConstructionFails

This niche subreddit of 22,500 members is for sharing pictures and videos of ‘construction fails’. The content niche means that most members are construction professionals.

17. r/Retail

This subreddit is a place to discuss the inner workings and trends of retail businesses. Members include retail business owners, managers, and employees.

18. r/Nursing

r/Nursing is a community of over 400,000 nurses and care providers.

19. r/LawyerTalk

r/LawyerTalk is “a place for lawyers to talk about lawyer things” including firm culture, amusing anecdotes, and the legal world.

20. r/Bookkeeping

r/Bookkeeping is a place for questions about bookkeeping. There are usually at least a few posts per day, and the posts are very relevant to bookkeeping.

21. r/Accounting

If you are an accounting professional (e.g. a CPA, bookkeeper, auditor, accounting entrepreneur, Big 4 employee, etc) or aspiring accounting professional, then r/Accounting is the subreddit for you.

22. r/CFO

r/CFO is a small community of just over 1000 members who serve as CFOs or other finance industry professionals. Self-promotion is allowed.

23. r/Sales

This community is a place to learn about sales, lead generation, prospecting, and closing. However, it frowns upon self-promotion so be subtle if you try to sell anything to other members or you’ll get yourself permanently banned.

24. r/SalesTechnology

r/SalesTechnology is a place for sales professionals to discuss CRMs, lead gen & lead nurturing tools, calling systems, proposal and presentation systems, sales engagement tracking & optimization software, and other technology to help you sell more.

25. r/SaaS

r/SaaS is a place to discuss and share useful links relevant to SaaS businesses and online business owners.

26. r/RealEstate

r/RealEstate is a discussion forum for real estate investors, landlords, home buyers, mortgage professionals, and other real estate professionals.

27. r/Landlord

The r/Landlord subreddit self-describes as “a community for landlords to come together to discuss anything landlord related. News, ideas, blog posts, websites, resources, etc. which can help a landlord are welcomed.”

28. r/RealEstateInvesting

This subreddit is similar to r/Landlord but with an audience skewed towards less seasoned real estate investors and more people trying to learn about how to start real estate investing.

29. r/Finance

This community is for sharing & discussing links related to finance and economic news as well as financial careers. The community currently has 1.7 million members with many working in finance.

30. r/AdvancedEntrepreneur

This community is supposed to be a place for established entrepreneurs to discuss strategies and tactics to take their businesses to the next level. In reality, there is enough of that to make the community valuable, but there are also plenty of upstarts who are in the early research phase of starting a company.

31. r/Entrepreneur

The r/Entrepreneur subreddit is a general forum for discussing side hustles, small businesses, venture-backed startups, and any other forms of money-making. The subreddit is NOT friendly to self-promotion, however, so you should look elsewhere if you are trying to promote your blog or consulting business.

32. r/DeFi

r/DeFi is a place to discuss, ask questions, and share links (within reason) related to DeFi (decentralized finance on blockchains).

33. r/DataScience

This community of 847,000 members describes itself as “a place for data science practitioners and professionals to discuss and debate data science career questions.”

34. r/MachineLearning

This subreddit is for machine learning engineers, researchers, and power users. The community currently has 2.6 million members.

35. r/Investing

The r/Investing subreddit is a place to discuss investment strategies. However, the moderators do NOT tolerate any self-promotion. You can’t even post a blog article that does a deep dive into a novel investment strategy.

36. r/investing_discussion

This community is more smaller, less policed version of r/Investing.

37. r/Stocks

r/Stocks is a place for discussing stock market investing and stock analyses, but self-promotion is not allowed.

38. r/StockMarket

r/StockMarket is a community of 2.6 million stock traders and investors. This community does not allow any self-promotion.

39. r/Options

r/Options is a community of almost a million members dedicated to discussing options trading fundamentals and strategies.

40. r/ValueInvesting

r/ValueInvesting is a community of almost 200,000 members dedicated to discussing value investing topics and strategies. Self-promotion of blog articles is allowed as long as the articles are highly useful and relevant to value investing.

41. r/Dividends

This community is for dividend portfolio investors. Posts include simple stock and ETF analyses, questions asking about tools and strategies for dividend investing, portfolio reviews, and other topics.

42. r/Portfolios

r/Portfolios is a community of about 25,000 members. The forum sees about 1 post per day with post topics asking about specific securities, investment strategies, 401k plans, and IRAs.

43. r/Bogleheads

r/Bogleheads describes itself as a “passive indexing community for long-term lazy investors.” The subreddit currently has 222,000 members.

44. r/Traders

r/Traders is the opposite of r/Bogleheads. It is a community of 111,000 active traders (some professional and some amateur).

45. r/EducatedInvesting

r/EducatedInvesting is a forum for deep dives on particular stocks.

46. r/TaxPros

This subreddit describes itself as “a community for Redditors who are tax professionals to discuss professional development, firm procedures, news, policy, software, AICPA/IRS changes, news/updates about law relating to any tax – U.S. and International, Federal, State, or local.” The community currently has over 58,000 members. Self-promotion isn’t explicitly banned in the rules, but the members are smart professionals so if you post something that seems promotional rather than useful, it will probably be downvoted and you might also be banned.

47. r/Tax

r/Tax is “Reddit’s home for tax geeks and taxpayers! News, discussion, policy, and law relating to any tax – U.S. and International, Federal, State, or local.” The community has 174,000 members. Self-promotion is not allowed.

48. r/YouTubers

r/YouTubers is a community of over 700k existing and aspiring YouTube creators. Self-promotion is not allowed.

49. r/Blogging

r/Blogging is a community of 117,000 bloggers and aspiring bloggers. Self-promotion is not allowed.

50. r/SEO

This subreddit of over 200,000 members is dedicated to SEO news, tips, and case studies.

51. r/GrowthHacking

r/GrowthHacking is a community of over 30,000 startup founders who are trying to grow their startups.

52. r/WebHosting

r/WebHosting is a community that has existed since 2008 and has over 84,000 members. The community describes itself as “a place to discuss everything related to web and cloud hosting. From shared hosting to bare metal servers, and everything in between. Post reviews of your current and past hosts, post questions to the community regarding your needs, or simply offer help to your fellow redditors.”

53. r/Wordpress

This community of 178,000 members is for discussing WordPress software.

54. r/web_design

r/web_design is a community of over 730,000 professional and amateur website designers.

55. r/WebDev

r/WebDev is a community of 1.5 million web developers discussing web developer things.

56. r/Quant

This niche community of 36,000 people is for discussions, resources, and research related to quantitative finance.

57. r/FinTech

“We are a community of fintech enthusiasts bubbling up new tools, technologies and platforms in various industries, including (but not necessarily limited to) banking, payments, insurance, investing, and lending.”

Self-promotion is allowed as long as the thing you have created is of value to the community and you mention that you created it at the beginning of the Reddit post.

58. r/Banking

This community is for discussing commercial and investment banking. Many members work at banks.

59. r/Excel

This community of over 600,000 members is for discussing excel and spreadsheet questions.

60. r/Marketing

r/Marketing is a subreddit with 465,000 members interested in marketing and advertising. The subreddit description is the following:

“For marketing communications + advertising industry professionals to discuss and ask questions related to marketing strategy, media planning, digital, social, search, campaigns, data science, email, user experience, content, copywriting, segmentation, attribution, data visualization, testing, optimization, and martech. Get advice, ask questions, or discuss any marketing-related topics. Our diverse /r/marketing community includes brands, businesses, agencies, vendors, and students.”

61. r/MarketingAutomation

This subreddit is for open discussion about tools and strategies for marketing automation and email marketing.

62. r/HubSpot

This subreddit is for discussing HubSpot (CRM and marketing automation) software questions.

63. r/Business_Ideas

r/Business_Ideas is a place to share and discuss business ideas.

64. r/BusinessAnalysis

r/BusinessAnalysis is a place to discuss “how to” and career questions of business analyst jobs. The community has over 38,000 members.

65. r/BusinessIntelligence

This community of 123,000 members is dedicated to discussions on business intelligence. That includes processes for utilizing organizational data, technology, analytics, and the knowledge of subject matter experts to create data-driven decisions via dashboards, reports, alerts, and ad-hoc analysis. Do not post here as if this was a generic “business” subreddit unless you want to get banned.

66. r/Visualization

r/Visualization is a place to share and discuss data visualization. Many members of r/BusinessIntelligence are also members of r/Visualization. r/Visualization has over 87,000 members.

67. r/PersonalFinance

This massive subreddit has over 17 million members and is dedicated to discussions of retirement accounts, investments, budgeting, saving, credit, and other personal finance topics.

68. r/LegalAdvice

r/LegalAdvice is a community of 2.3 million members asking simple legal questions and explaining legal concepts.

69. r/HomeImprovement

This subreddit has over 4 million members and is a great place for landlords, property managers, and home owners to ask questions about home improvement projects.

70. r/HomeAutomation

r/HomeAutomation is a subreddit focused on automating your home, housework or household activity (sensors, switches, cameras, locks, etc). It is a great resource for landlords, property managers, Airbnb hosts, and home owners.

71. r/FinancialCareers

This subreddit has over 620,000 members who are financial professionals or are interested in a finance career.

72. r/FinancialIndependence

r/FinancialIndependence is a subreddit dedicated to helping its 1.8 million members achieve financial independence and retire early.

73. r/WallStreetBetsNew

r/WallStreetBetsNew has 819,000 members who left to rebuild a new subreddit after the original Wall Street Bets subreddit was inundated with over 10 million new-to-reddit people during the GME stock squeeze. Like the origianl Wall Street Bets before it became mainstream, this new subreddit is dedicated towards calculated but risky strategies to win in the stock market.

74. r/SysAdmin

This subreddit has 772,000 members, many of whom are professional system administrators.

75. r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk

This is a community of 715,000 members who work or have worked on the front line at hotels, hostels, and other hospitality businesses. The subreddit itself is a place to post and discuss stories (usually funny or infuriating ones) from those hospitality workers.

76. r/TalesFromYourServer

This community of 520,000 members is similar to r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk but it is for restaurant servers rather than hospitality workers. It can be a useful place for restaurant owners and managers to study when they are deciding how to manager and motivate their employees.

77. r/WorkOnline

r/WorkOnline is a “place to talk about making an income online. This includes random jobs, online employers, sites that pay you and ways to monetize websites.” The community currently has 489,000 members.

78. r/Ecommerce

r/Ecommerce is a community of 261,000 entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs interested in ecommerce. Topics include ecommerce marketing, seo, products, checkout, conversions, etc.

79. r/FreelanceWriters

This is a subreddit of 115,000 freelance writers to discuss every facet of freelance writing.

80. r/Copywriting

This subreddit is a community of over 120,000 copywriters and aspiring copywriters. It is a great place to learn how to sell stuff.

81. r/AdPorn

r/AdPorn currently has 467,000 members and gets around 8,000 visits per week. Members share and discuss high-quality advertisements.

82. r/AdspaceMarket

r/AdspaceMarket is a community of 3,200 members interested in buying and selling digital ad space on niche websites.