At Cormode & Dickson, we aren’t just contractors, but are involved in your business every step of the way, on both the design and the build side. You can think of us as your full service business partner, mentors, consultants, and contractors down the hall, who brings to the table 50+ years of expertise to your project.

While there’s some signs that our economy is on the way up, choosing a business that has the greatest chance of weathering an economic storm and producing a consistent profit—in both a down and up economy—will be step 1 to running a successful business in Alberta.

But what are some of the most profitable businesses currently out there in Alberta? We’ve pinpointed 5 businesses that, with our help, are sure-fire ways to turn a profit.

Here they are:

1. Franchise Restaurants

if you’re a first time buyer, franchises make good investments for a number of reasons. First, you’re given a brand name, which eliminates the leg work of establishing your brand, getting the word out, and having people know the quality of your product. Second, while you should never assume financing will be easy, financing a franchise restaurant is much easier than another business, because banks generally know what they’re getting into, easing the lending process. Third, while every franchise is different, a good franchise will offer training and support that your staff will need. As with anything, do your research, or let us do your research for you!

Here’s some franchise restaurants we’ve helped build.

Ricky’s All Day Grill

McDonalds

Boston Pizza

2. Gas Stations

With its long travel distances, wide open fields, large cities, and prevalence of gas-guzzling vehicles, gas stations are integral to the lifestyle of the average Albertan, making it a solid investment in both good and bad economic times. However, the margins on gas, which are around 7-10 cents per litre, are the same across most gas stations, which is why having an expert in the industry is vital to the success or failure or your future business.

Here are some businesses we helped design / build.

3. Self-Storage

We’ve done an entire blog on the reason people will always need a self-storage facility. You can read that here. But here are the cliff notes of why people, in both up and down economies, need self-storage: Everyone moves, people are travelling now more than ever, we have an aging population that will retire and down size, people down size in bad economies, seasonal sports equipment, time between children, protecting their valuable items, divorce, and long-term home renovations.

Here’s some of our self-storage builds.

4. Affordable Housing
Because of the nature of affordable housing, whether you’re looking to build a work camp, senior’s facility, or a supportive housing project, they’re always a high demand project.

The key to a successful affordable housing project is having a business plan that has cost certainity and a target cost analysis of how to get there. That is why you need an expert, like Cormode and Dickson, that will offer you innovative options, knows the competitive landscape, and brings with it over 50 years of knowledge.

5. Car Wash

For the Walter White inside of you, the car wash industry is an attractive option for the budding entrepreneur. With an annual revenue that exceeds $24 billion, trends are showing an increasing consumer interest in professional car washing services, with those cleaning their cars at home being rare in number than they were 10 years ago.

Cormode & Dickson can help you from a feasibility study, to the business strategy and plan, to the site selection, all the way to financing considerations.

Learn more about our car wash construction.