This is an exhaustive list of small business ideas, and you can look for more avenues to inspire yourself.
Foraying into a small business is an excellent option to start your path towards financial freedom. Some business ideas don’t need you to abandon your day job. While some businesses after growing need hiring for some roles and you may have to give full attention to it.
The beginning can be perplexing, especially if you haven’t yet fixated on what sort of small business idea to pursue. In this article, we discuss some lucrative small business ideas for you to consider. Perform due diligence and consult with your professional advisor if you’re not sure about executing these ideas.
Whatever business you choose, an online presence is irreplaceable. And, these days you don’t need coding/programming skills to set up a website. Services like Wix let you go online with your site within minutes. Or, you can use WordPress for better customization via a managed WordPress service. For website security, do not forget to install an SSL certificate so that it builds trust with the site visitors. Many types of SSL certificates are available in the market. Just go with the one that fits your bills and satisfies requirements.
In the following discussed business ideas, if you don’t find a relevant idea to you, don’t be discouraged. This is an exhaustive list, and you can look for more avenues to inspire yourself.
Blogging
Well, you have heard many times about blogging. It’s okay if you have a faint heart about it. Like any other business niche, blogging requires constant efforts: learning from failures and refining through what is working and not working. Just putting average efforts will not make you a success with blogging.
Your blog should be niche specific, at least in the beginning, so that it becomes manageable to attract a sizable audience. Blogging is all about generating traffic and building a loyal audience. Once you have done this groundwork, you can monetize your blog via various means: affiliate links, custom advertising, selling via email lists, launching a book, and so on.
The opportunities are endless. But first, you need to generate good traffic to plan for monetization. You can test the waters by blogging in your free time. If it picks up traction, you can go all in. Some of the well-known bloggers make a six-figure income. So, the blogging opportunity is wide-open — it’s up to you to execute and succeed.
Marketing Agency
Marketing is a vital business aspect. Digital-first businesses need to do effective marketing to grow their revenue and establish a brand reputation. But not every business can maintain or afford a full-fledged, in-house marketing team. Whenever required, they hire marketing agencies on a project basis or for long-term engagement.
Executing effective marketing campaigns that bring sustainable results is an art in and of itself. If you have in-demand marketing skills, you should consider starting your agency. Or, you can learn and start your own agency one day.
However, marketing agencies should have a multitude of skills. Marketing is a big niche, and client demands can be exhausting on you if you aren’t skilled and resourceful enough, so plan on what you can execute and what you can’t.
Social Media Management
Yesterday, it was Facebook, and today it’s Instagram. For B2B businesses, it’s LinkedIn. People are spending more and more time on social media. And, brands want to be familiar with their audience by engaging them constantly. According to Statista, internet users, on average, spend 144 minutes daily on social media.
Social media presents this immense opportunity for brands to stay in touch with their customers and target audience. Like any other marketing skill, social media management requires persistent efforts and good work. If you have social media skills and can bring in results that matter businesses, you can demand top-dollar for your services.
Content Creation
Creating relevant, well-researched, and high-quality content is the backbone of content marketing — a marketing technique used for building a highly loyal audience and repeat customers, in general. According to a report by Technavio, the global content marketing market will grow to USD 269.24 billion by 2024.
Content creation includes anything from writing simple articles, eBooks, whitepapers, to create infographics and charts. If you are already a writer or someone with editorial experience, you can start creating content that can gain attraction for brands and businesses.
Web Development
Software is eating the world, said Marc Andreessen — a renowned venture capitalist. What he said still holds even today with the evolution of cloud computing. Software is moving to the Cloud and integrating cloud computing, and the model is called Software as a Service (SaaS).
Most SaaS products deliver their services via a web browser, and its development requires web programmers. According to Research and Markets, the global SaaS market will be worth USD 220.21 billion by 2022, up from USD 134.44 billion in 2018. This presents an excellent opportunity for top quality web developers and agencies.
In Conclusion
You can start the business ideas mentioned above and manage your venture online completely, from setting up, finding your first client, and delivering value to your customers. Of course, without having or building niche skills, you can’t be successful. But if you can establish in the market that you can deliver value consistently, you will be in demand. And, at the point, growing your business will be much more opportunistic.
Remember to set up your business website so that you can start building awareness and winning more clients. Also, make sure to secure it with an SSL certificate. Doing so makes your website traffic safe, and you make site visitors feel confident about your services and build an excellent first-hand reputation.
Read through this list of startup ideas for instant inspiration for applicable business lessons from some of the most unconventional (yet successful) startup ideas.
Coming up with brilliant startup ideas may feel tricky to aspiring entrepreneurs, especially when it may seem that everyone’s already swooped up every good idea for a business. Once you’re reaping the lifestyle benefits of being your own boss and hustling your way into making significantly more money with your business ideas than you ever could at your day job, the hard work will have all been worth it.
The cost of setting up a new business has never been so low. Especially for online-based businesses. Technology has made starting your own business easy, affordable and possible. Obviously, some of these small startup ideas have more earning potential than others, but what they all share in common are relatively low barriers to entry and the flexibility to work at them for a limited amount of time per week.
Read through this list of startup ideas for instant inspiration for applicable business lessons from some of the most unconventional (yet successful) startup ideas. Some of these business ideas you can start right now, while you’re still working full-time.
Here is a list of the 21 best business ideas for Indians to start in 2020:
1. Start a Blog
Think blogging is no longer a viable source of income? Think again. Recent blogging statistics show that tens of thousands of bloggers are creating profitable content on topics as diverse as scrapbooking, home cooking, travel, film, lifestyle, business, personal finance and more.
You can grow your blog into a successful business, thanks email subscribers, affiliate marketing, blog sponsorships, and other revenue streams.
2. Organize Specialty Travel Tours
Make a specialized travel tour company to cater to individual lifestyle preferences. A tour startup made for solo travelers, a food-based tour geared towards certain diet preferences, or even an age-based tour company could gain traction across various demographics.
3. Make Local Guides
Whether or not you consider yourself a local expert, creating local guides can get you familiar with your surroundings and help tourists enjoy off-the-beaten path experiences in your area. Make themed guides, highlight attractions, and partner with local businesses for advertising opportunities.
4. Create a Food Waste Solution
Creating a startup focused on reducing food waste could not only earn you some serious funding but also positively change the food system and help save grocery stores and restaurants money.
5. Start Ghostwriting
Create content for busy professionals that don’t have the time or the skill to write themselves. If you don’t mind not attaching your name to your writing, ghostwriting is a great way to earn money with little to no startup costs attached.
6. Create Online Courses
Obscure hobbies can lead to lucrative business ideas if you make them easy for others to learn. If you’d like to teach others but aren’t interested in the coaching route, creating an online course could lead to reliable passive income.
7. Social Impact Investment Funds
Social impact is becoming a priority in India as consumers are intelligent and know what they consume influences them and the earth. This business idea involves fundraising money from various groups of investors to create a fund that will invest socially responsible and positive earth-impacting ventures.
There is a lot of demand in India for social impact, instead of just creating a business that makes money, due to the sophistication of people being quite high.
8. Cheap Home Solar Energy Setup Company
There is a large opportunity for residents in India to generate their own power and save money. For this idea, you would buy and setup solar equipment for people to install on their roofs or balconies, since apartment living is popular.
The solar could feed into the main battery for the individual or building to provide additional power. To execute, you could start by finding 10 people interested in this service that will pay you before the work is done, and then you have the money to buy to solar panels, creating a low initial investment for this business idea.
9. India Culture E-Commerce Niche Store
E-Commerce is growing at a substantial pace. This is mainly due to the access to cheap labor and goods, as well as the ability to ship internationally at a fraction of the cost it used to years ago. This business idea specifically relates to selling cultural items from India.
Given that many people around the world appreciate the culture in India, many would like to have authentic pieces of art in their homes. By setting up an e-commerce store to fulfill this, you can solve that problem. The company would be low-cost to start, and you could begin by partnering with your favourite street vendors.
10. Last-Mile Delivery Solution Company
In India, many shipping companies are facing the problem of having extreme difficulties providing delivery services to some rural areas. This is because the road infrastructure is not developed enough, or it is just very far from everything else. With this idea, you can provide the last mile delivery solutions by setting up a warehouse on the edge of the city limits.
Then, once the other shipping company gets there, you handle the final miles of the trip. This may involve buying a fleet of scooters or shipping trucks to deliver the shipments for the last couple miles. Places where regular shipping companies are not willing to do.
This company would need some investment to fund the warehouse at the outside city limits, as well as vehicles or drones for the last-mile delivery service.
11. Disaster Relief Location Finder Mobile App
The rise in mobile phone use also creates a lot of opportunities to help people in times of need. The Disaster Relief Location Finder would use sensors all over the highest buildings, along with ones along tectonic plates, and areas prone to hurricanes. This way, when signs of a disaster start to appear, the sensors would detect it and send messages to the users to take appropriate action.
Secondly, it would send out a location signal to everyone in your family so they know where you are in case disaster strikes. The app itself would not need that much investment to create, however, the setup of the sensors would be the costly part. To make money, you could charge a subscription service, as it provides piece of mind for people in disasters.
12. Graphic Designing
Companies are always on a lookout for graphic designers for branding purposes.
From designing marketing collaterals, including banners, posters, and logos to creating stunning designs of landing pages, the opportunities here are immense.
You can pitch your design skills to small business owners or individuals to start your gig. Graphic designers can also join freelance websites to find relevant work.
If you have prior knowledge of this field, then getting clients would be helpful. However, learning the basics of graphic design from scratch is pretty easy, with a vast number of online courses.
You can leverage graphic design software like Adobe InDesign to learn the foundation of graphic design. Alternatively, you can use other user-friendly tools like Visme and Stencil to hone your graphic design skills further.
13. Affiliate Marketing
It’s been a buzzword in the marketing arena for quite some time.
When someone asks how to make passive money online, a lot of people automatically envision affiliate marketing.
According to one blog income report study, bloggers making between $7500 — $25k per month make 38% of their income from affiliate marketing.
In simple terms, Affiliate marketing is a business model where bloggers and influencers recommend services or products they like or find useful, something that will be genuinely helpful for their followers, and earn a percentage of profit for each sale that follows.
14. Virtual Assistant
You can use your excellent organizational skills to create an extra stream of income. Virtual assistants are in high demand by corporations, freelancers, and every kind of business.
It is also an excellent opportunity to know successful and influential people from different fields of work to build a vast professional network. At the same time, it also provides you the opportunity to work from anywhere in the world while developing your professional skills.
People are always looking for efficient Virtual Assistants on freelance job websites.
15. Social Media Manager
Billions of people are on social media, and businesses are spending millions to reach their target audience through various social media platforms. If you are glued to social channels and understand how the eco-systems work, then you can put your knowledge to good use and start your own social media marketing business.
Small businesses, start-ups, and influencers with massive social media presence are always looking for capable social media managers to help them grow their social media presence. You can pitch for social media account management and help businesses run paid ad campaigns on Facebook, Twitter, and other channels.
Create pages on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp to promote your business and connect with people who want to leverage great deals. When you develop a solid follower base, you can also collaborate with travel agencies to cut exclusive deals for your customers.
16. Wedding photography
Wedding photography has become grander and fetches handsome pay per project. Professional wedding photographers can charge anything between $2500 – $10,000 and even more for each photoshoot.
At the start, you can build your clientele by searching online and registering on aggregators to find the business. You can also reach out to potential clients through Facebook and Instagram.
To hone your skills, you can either take online wedding photography classes or learn by reading this detailed guide. Here is the list of wedding photography gear you would need to start your wedding photography business.
17. Child Care
Singe parents and nuclear families are always short of time to take care of their children. Hence, there is always a demand for compassionate childcare professionals. It is a lucrative career option if you love being around kids.
But before taking the plunge, be sure about the age-group of the kids you are willing to look after. As you gain experience, you can also open your own day-care center to look after the kids and expand your business.
To increase your chances of finding success in this arena, you might want to earn formal certification in childcare.
18. Handmade Jewelry
Hand-made jewelry is the new fad. Teenage entrepreneurs have raked in vast amounts by selling handmade jewelry.
There are huge opportunities in the industry, with its growth projected at 5 to 6 percent per annum. With no big players in the field, the entry to this segment is also easy.
You can start selling online to earn a name, and if you end up becoming a household name, you can even open up a brick and mortar storefront.
Take a diploma or opt for online courses to understand the nuances of jewelry design and its making.
19. Wedding Planner
Weddings have become more opulent, organized, and resource-intensive. To manage all aspects of the wedding efficiently, couples these days look for credible wedding planners.
You can jump into the wedding planning business right away if you have contacts with professionals like good caterers, florists, performers, travel agents, photographer DJs, and more.
The process is time-intensive and capital intensive but can bring abundant rewards. An average wedding planner earns a good amount per hour for their services. You can also do a diploma in wedding planning to take your skills to the next level and prove your credibility in the industry.
20. Contract Customer Service (CSR)
Many organizations cut down their costs by outsourcing customer service to freelancers. If you are good at communicating and have sufficient management skills, then you can easily take customer service jobs.
Freelancing websites, including UpWork and Fiverr, offer a lot of contract-based customer service. If you already have the relevant experience, then you can also build a virtual team and start your own customer service agency.
21. Business Incubator
The job of a business incubator is to help new companies and startups plan and launch successfully. A typical business incubator will provide clients with management training, office space, high-speed internet connectivity, gym, food catering, and other necessities.
You don’t have to think too big – a small, local incubator can the perfect place where to start.
Not every revolutionary idea always meets with all praises; some have to face the wrath and be persistent in order to succeed.
Not every revolutionary idea always meets with all praises; some have to face the wrath and be persistent in order to succeed. A lot of entrepreneurs were told that their ideas were stupid and incapable of succeeding in the real world. However, because the entrepreneurs chose to hang on, they could make it big.
Here are a few successful ideas which were called stupid:
1. Thomas Edison’s teachers deemed that he was “too stupid to learn anything” and was fired from jobs for being unproductive. His initial attempts at making the light bulb were also criticized and called an impossible one. However, even after failing 1000 times, he chose to not give up and made his idea work and how!
2. When Pinterest raised money for their idea, it had to face immense amount of backlash from people who claimed that the idea was lame and it was just a system of bookmarking. Some people on Quora also expressed surprise as to how such a stupid concept could raise so much money.
3. Alexander Graham Bell had to face a fair share of struggles to make his unique and difficult idea work. A company on hearing his idea commented “What use could this company make of an electrical toy?” With grit and belief in his idea, he chose to not give up until he made the telephone on which our lives almost depend today.
4. Kevin Systrom, the founder of Instagram, was an ex-Google employee whose idea was heavily criticized by an article in TechCrunch in 2010. From the article, it can be inferred that this app was called useless as it didn’t have a real business model and nobody would pay for an app with mindless filters. Currently, Instagram is the most popular photo sharing app.
5. The idea of Uber was criticized to such an extent by TechCrunch that the idea was called a fraud and complete crap and also explained how their Monopoly wasn’t going to work. Uber is currently the leading taxi aggregator globally and a true success story as just seven months after this headline bashing the idea was released, TechCrunch released another article which spoke about how Uber raised money from investors for their idea.
