Since I have started visiting HN, I have seen many great reasons/examples for web startups.<p>However, I have come across some interesting examples of really cheap businesses to start that have very high returns by comparison.<p>Case in point, a business that I heard about while working an on-site job. One of the technicians cousins had started a business affectionately named, "Scoopy Doo." The cousin paid some workers around $10 an hour to go around the local area and pickup dog excrement from customers yards. He worked approximatively two weeks a year, filling in for when people couldn't work. He has no marketing campaign, very little overhead, and stores the waste on his farm (does not use additional products).<p>His business nets him $100,000 a year (confirmed), and his market is only a series of small towns in Northern Michigan.<p>It seems that while there is great value in making a startup on the internet, old fashion entrepreneurship can be more hands on but is still amazing profitable.<p>Web based companies can grow fast, have huge markets and can be started for very little.<p>If you truly put your mind to it, you could make a business with very little overhead, very little startup cost and very little micro-management outside of the web.<p>At the end of the day it is about the percentage return on investment, correct?<p>So I ask HN, why do we focus on web startups? Why not pay attention on all types of startups?<p>What about the gray areas in between? For example, creating your own hardware but selling different software for it online.