Ask HN: I want to leave tech: what do I do?

I think the problem is the "dream ones" part. Yes, everyone would love to make tons of money with very little work. But that almost guarantees high risks or very high capital exposure. There are countless small business opportunities that you could operate from home with almost no risk or exposure if you have a car and can afford some basic tools. But you won't get rich - or at least you'll have to work your ass off for a while.

Some examples?

Plumber

Plumber, carpenter, welder, electrician etc. In the countryside where I live, I do all of these when I feel like it for myself, friends and sometimes strangers in trouble (pipe burst, no power). It pays well; I could live of that and save very comfortably here if I did it half of the time, but I only do it the odd few hours while people begging for welding jobs, wooden doors, etc. It can be a nice little business, especially if you can find employees and move on to house building or renovations, but it will never be bigger than that was of course, you would be in the countryside.

My dream job was a specialty retail store - not low effort or tons of money, but hopefully something that could grow into a lifestyle business. Imagine something like a bicycle shop. Trust me when I say I have worked my ass off.

The only small businesses I know that are succeeding in my area are basically services - restaurants, cafes, etc. They rely on exploiting a bunch of underpaid workers in a way I wouldn't ever want to.

In your other comment it sounds like you're just kind of doing "handyman" stuff in a low CoL area. It's great if you can handle your own plumbing, electrical, etc. but there's definitely a ceiling on how much work you can get as a single, unlicensed person with a van driving around. Maybe that's enough to live on but it doesn't feel like a sustainable plan for 30 years.

You seem to have confused the comments. I'm an employee living in one of the highest CoL areas in the world. But I know quite a few who run small businesses here and make use of that fact to the fullest extent. They can charge insane amounts of money for minimum quality work that wouldn't even put enough food on the table, let alone afford any luxury at home elsewhere. In the countryside I imagine you'd actually need to bring some talent or do quality work as well and not just make use of unsaturated business markets in overeducated areas.