There’s a very young man who sometimes visits what turns out to be his office in the same block our office is located in. It took a while for us to get to know this mysterious bloke nicknamed “The Ghost”, such is his scarcity. Anyway, he pays a whole lot more rent on his office which is more like a penthouse suite right at the top floor of the building, which naturally led my interaction with him into a conversation about what it is he does exactly.

I figured it must be something very lucrative and perhaps related to the summit of the financial sector since he “works” so few hours a month!

It turns out “The Ghost” is into some very lucrative businesses which are hidden in plain sight – businesses nobody readily thinks about getting into.

Off-Shore Storage Facility

Taking full advantage of the rich heritage the Netherlands has in ship-building, The Ghost operates an off-shore storage facility. Basically he renovated an old container carrier ship which doesn’t run anymore, reinforcing its security and installing an access control system. This old ship is now a floating self-storage facility used by many clients who don’t quite have the space for all their goods in their homes.

E-Commerce Drop-Shipping

This is the dream of many of those individuals who refer to themselves as Digital Nomads – operating a profitable e-commerce drop-shipping business. You never have to handle any inventory and basically the orders made through your e-commerce storefront are fulfilled by the suppliers with whom you have this business relationship of “stocking” their inventory.

On-Demand Deliveries

This business is simply operated through the deployment of a range of delivery vehicles based on the on-demand needs of a network of clients. Many of the clients are brand new ones, but they’re usually referred by word-of-mouth and this is another one of those lucrative businesses hidden in plain sight. Usually the items to be delivered are considered confidential, such as certain medications for specific illnesses and even goods such as life-size sex dolls!

On-Demand Rubble Removal

One rubble removal job per year is enough to live on, such is the value of this business. The Ghost has one of these rubble removal businesses in operation, but he doesn’t even own the rubble removal equipment. Rather, he rents it on demand, enjoying the advantage of a network of clients in the construction industry who repeatedly come to him for this service of rubble removal.

Warehousing and Storage

In addition to his off-shore self-storage operation, The Ghost operates an on-shore storage facility. Service charges with this facility are nearly twice as much as those of the off-shore one since space is available at a premium in and around Rotterdam. This makes for the perfect avenue to up-sell or down-sell clients seeking to rent out secure storage space as those who would require less frequent access to the goods they store can use the off-shore facility while those who require more frequent access can use the land-based facility.