The internet opens up a wealth of opportunities for entrepreneurial-minded people all over the world. So it's hardly surprising that thousands of new small businesses are registered each year. With dedication, research, and passion, anyone can turn their small business ideas into a reality.
So, if you’re stuck in the nine-to-five grind, your daydream of becoming self-employed is only a few short decision away. Do you long to choose your own schedule, work from anywhere, and/or a career based on your passions?
If so, good news. This fantasy doesn’t have to remain in your head. Even if you don’t have much in starting funds, there are tons of online small business ideas you can launch to transform that dream into a reality.
So, to provide you with some inspiration, we’ve listed the best businesses to start, with little money.
Why Start a Small Business?
Starting a small business offers numerous advantages and opportunities, whether you're looking to turn a passion into a profitable venture or seeking more flexibility and control over your career. Here are some compelling reasons to consider when you decide to start a business.
1. Flexibility and Independence: Starting a small business allows you to set your own hours and work according to your lifestyle needs. Whether you're a night owl or an early riser, running your own business gives you the freedom to work when you are most effective.
2. Financial Opportunities: While starting any type of business involves risk, a successful business can lead to significant financial rewards. The potential to scale and grow your business means there is no cap on your earnings, unlike a traditional salaried position.
3. Personal Fulfillment: Running your own business is incredibly rewarding. Turning your passion, whether it's graphic design, life coaching, or any other online business ideas, into a full-time career can significantly increase your job satisfaction.
4. Learning and Growth: Starting a small business is a continuous learning process. You will acquire new skills ranging from content creation to financial management, making you more versatile and knowledgeable.
5. Control Over Your Future: As a business owner, you make the crucial decisions that affect your operation and growth. This control over your destiny is often more appealing than working for someone else.
6. Building a Community: One of the most gratifying aspects of starting a small business is the ability to build a customer base that trusts and supports you. Engaging directly with your customers can forge lasting relationships and loyalty.
7. Marketing Creativity: When you start a business, especially in competitive fields like affiliate marketing or digital services, you have the freedom to experiment with your marketing strategies. This includes content creation, social media engagement, and innovative advertising campaigns.
8. Establish Your Brand: Create a website and develop a brand that reflects your values and vision. A strong online presence helps you connect with a broader audience and provides a platform to showcase your products or services.
9. Strategic Partnerships: Owning a business opens up opportunities for strategic partnerships with other businesses, which can lead to mutual growth and success, particularly in realms like affiliate marketing and supplier agreements.
10. Detailed Planning: Developing a business plan is a critical step in ensuring the success of your venture. It helps you outline your business goals, strategies, and financial projections, providing a clear roadmap to success.
Top 25 Small Business Ideas
1. Dropshipping
eCommerce is a booming market that might seem impossible to crack. After all, don’t you need warehouses and manufacturers to create and sell products?
Not anymore!
You can run an online store or Online Market Place without ever touching inventory. And with the right dropshipping platform, without having to screen for suppliers. This is where dropshipping comes in.
What is Dropshipping?
Dropshipping is a three-step business model in which; your customer makes an order, and the order is sent directly to the dropshipping supplier, who then ships it to your customer.
The dropshipping supplier uses their own warehouse, and you simply worry about marketing and getting the sale. The dropshipping supplier manages the rest. Take a look at the diagram below on how dropshipping streamlines the eCommerce process.
Of course, the success of any dropshipping business hinges on the quality of your products and suppliers. That's why using a service like Spocket is imperative.
They vet all their dropshipping suppliers, so you can rest easy knowing you're doing business with reliable suppliers. Best of all, you have access to Dropshipping suppliers from the USA and globally to find unique products with fast shipping.
So, dow do you start a dropshipping business? You'll need an online store and your own domain name. If you're new to web design and online selling, we recommend using an online store builder to save time. These may be more costly, but it saves you time and effort so you can focus on your eCommerce business. To further enhance your online business and secure a strong customer retention rate, consider integrating applications for loyalty programs, customer reviews, and upselling opportunities.
2. Start a Blog
Kickstarting a blog is a low-cost and easy business to start out there. You can start anytime, anywhere, and it is a fantastic platform for exploring your passion and voice.
First off, decide on a niche to center your blog content around. Make sure its something you’re passionate about and have initial experience with. Once you have a solid idea, you just need a website builder (one that supports a blog), and a domain name. We recommend Wordpress.com. You can test their service for free, and with their Premium plan, you can run your whole website for only $8 a month. Beyond this, you'll need to purchase a domain name. But don’t fret - .com domains are available around $10-$15 a year. If you don't already have a domain name, GoDaddy is a great place to find one.
How do you monetize a blog?
There are a few ways you can make money blogging. But one of the more popular methods is affiliate marketing. This is where you advertise and link to another business's product or service in your posts and receive a commission each time you make a sale via your affiliate link.
Take a look at this lifestyle blog example below, with relevant content on something you care about, you can grow your blog into a successful small business, or use it to create a platform or following for your small business idea as well.
3. Create and Sell an Online Course
Are you an expert in a topic that excites you? If so, why not make this passion profitable by teaching what you love?
Many professionals branch into creating online courses at some point in their careers. Not only is this a fun project to undertake, but it's also a cheap business model with the potential to be incredibly lucrative.
Once you've created a class, you can sell it over and over. You don’t have to actively teach the course more than once.
There's a growing demand for eLearning, across a variety of topics. A few of the more notable categories include:
- Design, art, and photography
- IT and software or game development
- Business skills
- Digital marketing
- Writing
- Music
- Professional skills
You can use platforms like skillshare to sell courses on something you’re particularly good at. IF you think you’re not good at anything, think again. You can even brush up your own skills and add your own flair to the courses you create. Take a look at these watercolor courses:
You can even create a course on tidying up, and being more crafty and sustainable:
So, how do you start selling courses online?
You can publish your content via a marketplace like Udemy or use an online school builder like Thinkific to write and host your content as well, depending on which platform you see fit. Both avenues have their advantages and disadvantages.
eLearning marketplaces enable you to get started for next to nothing, as, usually, you don’t need to invest any money upfront. However, they often take a cut of your profits.
Whereas, course builders like Thinkific or Teachable allow you to create courses and sell them through your own website. As such, you can keep all the revenue. Typically, online course builders charge a monthly or yearly subscription fee, which usually starts from around $30 a month (depending on your chosen platform).
Some also offer free programs that enable you to test their core features and/or sell a small number of courses hosted on one of their subdomains.
4. Sell Your Graphic Design Services Online
If you're skilled in graphic design or drawing in general, start pitching your skills to small business owners. After all, branding and design services are often needed when a startup first enters the market.
To establish a professional online presence, you should publish an online portfolio. So, as with starting a blog, your initial costs will center on purchasing a domain name, web hosting, and a website builder. A small cost for starting a small business idea.
Interestingly, some website builders are better than others for creating portfolio websites. Some of them include Squarespace, Weebly, and Wix. Each of these offers affordable payment plans for beginners and handle web hosting for you.
Once you have your graphic design services and offers figured out, you can pitch to businesses directly. So, a good sense of marketing and networking is necessary to succeed in this line of work.
Also, keep in mind, if you don't already have the software you need to create professional-looking graphics, you'll have to purchase that too. For instance, you may wish to subscribe to Adobe's Creative Suite, InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop. These are just a few examples of programs that may come in handy.
But, you can use free and affordable tools like Canva to do this on a smaller scale as well.
5. Freelance Illustration
Offering illustration services isn't too different from becoming a freelance graphic designer, as you'll need to make similar investments to get going. I.e., your website and software.
However, as a freelance illustrator, of course, your work focuses on a different field.
On top of working with clients to create illustrations, logos or mascots, you can also sell your work via art community platforms like Deviantart or Society6.
Or if you're feeling really creative, try selling prints of your illustrations, greeting cards, stencils, etc., on artsy online marketplaces like Etsy.
If you’re so bold, you can take your unique, one of a kind illustrations and put them on a T-shirt. This way you can sell them as a dropshipping business. The possibilities are endless!
6. Start a Podcast
It is estimated that in 2024, over 504.9 million people in the world will listen to podcasts. This versatile audio experience has become a popular backdrop while people work, drive, complete household chores - or whatever else!
There's no shortage of podcast genres out there, so you can use this medium to delve into near-on any passion or interest.
If you want to pursue this business venture, you'll need to sign up for podcast hosting. This service stores your audio files and distributes them to all the major podcasting networks- iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, etc. Podcast hosting costs, on average, $10-$15 per month.
Of course, to produce excellent quality podcasts, you'll also need to invest in some equipment (if you haven’t already). This should include a good quality headset microphone, which you can get for around $50.
How do you make money podcasting? You can try to attract sponsorship, i.e., companies that pay you to advertise their products/services on your podcast. Or, like blogging, you can sell affiliate products and earn a commission. Alternatively, if you have your own products/services to sell, you can go ahead a promote them on your podcast.
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