List of creative and unique small business ideas you can start with little capital in 2020.

Small business ideas abound around us. Are you looking for online or home based business ideas to start in Hindi or India? Perhaps you are in a different region and you are looking for profitable venture to start in USA, UK, Philippines or Nigeria, we have researched various small business ideas you can start with low investment.









So, if you are one of the people who have been asking the question, “what kind of business should I start?” you will find many great small business ideas here. Before you continue reading this article, let me give you a hint that this article is going to be a long one. However, for you to make most of it, you should not just rush the article by scrolling from the top to the bottom. Even if you are looking for a specific business idea to start, you may stumble on other good business ideas that may catch your interest. If a particular business idea does not appeal to you, that does not mean you should not read it. Who knows whether by reading it, something may spark up in you that will lead to the birth of your own new business idea. When looking for business ideas you can start, you need to keep your mind open. Otherwise, certain opportunities may just be passing you by. Therefore, you should be willing to read to digest and not just to have a glance at the list. Or else, it will just be like magical words; “the more you look, the less you see.”

Our Recent Business Ideas Articles

A lot of people usually ask me; “what is the best business to start?” This article may not be able to provide specific answer to this question because ‘the best business to start’ is relative.









What is considered the best business ideas in India may not be the best small business ideas to start in UK. And what is best for someone may just be too bad for another person. However, from the list of small business ideas covered in this article, you should be able to identify the one that will help you start your own small business. Nevertheless, the list of creative and unique small business ideas discussed in this article is broad enough to cover the inquiries we received. You need to be patient enough in order to digest it. For people that may be willing to read in details, I have dedicated a page within this article to guide the readers on how you can come up with small business ideas you can start almost immediately. In summary, below are the categories of small business ideas that you will come across within this article:

Home based small business ideas.

Online business ideas.

Small business ideas with low investment.

Small business ideas you can start with no money.

Small business ideas for men.

Small business ideas for women and moms.

Small business ideas for beginners.

I hope that you will be able to locate a business to start before you get to the end of the article. We will keep updating this article with new business ideas as often as possible. Have a good adventure.

Affiliate Marketing

If you are looking for small business ideas to start with low investment capital, affiliate marketing is probably one of the easy and best small business ideas to start making money online. The reason is that, you don’t have to create any products yourself to start the business. Your task is to link up a buyer and a seller. You will be paid a commission on the sale that has been referred by you. In some cases, you don’t need to sell products to earn a commission. There are different affiliate programs and they use different payment terms. Examples are; Pay per sale, pay per lead and pay per click. If you intend to start this business, you might require a website before you actually make a good money from it. Commission Junction, Clickbank and Shareasale are good examples of companies that offer affiliate opportunities. It is a good home business idea for both men and women. The advantages of affiliate marketing are numerous. Few are listed below:

It is cost effective as you don’t need to bother yourself about production costs.

The market is global

Becoming an affiliate is free

Both storage and shipping are taken care by the seller

The seller handles customer complaints for you

It can be run as a side business

it is a good home based business idea









Animal Feed Production

One of the lucrative small business ideas you can start is animal feeds production. People eat meat, chicken, turkey and eggs every day. But before it gets to that level, there is need for rearing. All these livestock require feeds for them to grow. If you can formulate a diet that combines different feeds that meet the energy and protein requirements of animal, animal feed production can be a good small business idea for you. Animal feed production can be operated as home based business. However, you should ensure that you don’t infringe the zoning rules governing your area. You should also ensure you obtain permits before you start the business. If you are searching for small scale manufacturing business ideas, animal feed production is a small scale business idea that can grow to become a big company. Because of the associated costs involved in production, it will be good if you can get the feed ingredients at good prices. Buying in bulk can make you enjoy discounts. However, this requires money except your suppliers are ready to sell to you on credit. Getting your formula for the mix of ingredient right will result to the production of feeds that are rich in protein, energy and vitamins. These are vital basic nutritional elements a good animal feed is expected to contain. You can sell your products through distributors, wholesalers or retailers. You can even sell directly to local farmers.

Baby siting

If you are good at child caring, babysitting can be among the list of small business ideas you can consider. Why should you consider this as a business idea? It is because of the unique advantages it has over other small business ideas. These include the following:

It is not seasonal

It is recessional-resistant

It is business idea you can start without investment

It is a good home based business

Baby sitting is a good home business idea for women and teen. Nevertheless, it is important that you consider the responsibilities involved and the consequences before you start this business. As a babysitter, you will be responsible for a change of diaper, bathing and the safety of the baby. Therefore, you need to prepare yourself before hand. Also, you need to determine the kind of kids you will be comfortable with. Can you look after newborns or kids with special needs? It is important that you ask necessary questions before you accept a babysitting job. As a beginner, you can secure your first sitting job by telling people within your neighborhood about your new business idea. Kids can be very playful and sometimes annoying. Therefore, you need to be an entertainer. You don’t need to have all the skills required before you start the business, you will learn from parents and other babysitters as you go on.

Baking

If you are good at baking cake, bread or donuts, you will not only gain satisfaction, you can turn it into a money making venture. This is among small business ideas one can start as home based business. There is growing need for baked products. Many people like eating freshly baked food but in actual fact, many of them don’t know how or have time to bake it. Baking is one of the small business ideas you can start with low investment capital. You don’t need extra capital to rent a space. It is flexible enough. However, except you already have the equipment needed for your new business idea, you will need to buy appliances like ovens, refrigerators, pans and other utensils. You can decide to run it as a counter service bakery where individuals can walk in and pick baked products. Alternatively, you can make it a specialty service. In this case, you need to specialize on a particular kind of baked product. If you can establish yourself as a specialty, people and bigger eateries will start contacting you for business. As your baking business begins to grow, you will need to start producing in larger quantity. If you want to sustain the growth, it is advisable that you don’t compromise on quality. Also, getting adequate feedback from your customers will help you ensure that you are meeting their needs. As long as you maintain the quality of your products, people will continue to patronize you. Baking requires a lot of time both in production and marketing. Therefore, you need to know the right time you need to hire a staff to assist you. We classify baking among home based small business ideas for women.

Bead Making

Bead is considered as essential part of dressing for many women nowadays. Beads come in different shapes, styles and colour. It can be worn as casuals. But in most cases, women wear beads on special days or special occasion such as wedding, burial, birthday and other special ceremonies. If you are good at beading, then it can be top of the small business ideas to consider. Even if you don’t know how to make beads, you can easily learn it. The most important thing is your passion for it. If you are very good, the market is there for you. However, marketing is a critical factor when it comes to bead business. You need to explore different media to create awareness about your new business idea. Your first target will be your friends, colleagues and relatives. You can easily reach this people by words of mouth or through your Facebook page. You may need to create a website through which you can showcase your creative works. You can place advert either online or on newspapers and use it to direct people to your website. Setting up booths at arts and crafts fairs is another way of creating awareness about small business. You can also sell your beads on Etsy. Don’t forget that your main targets are women. Women like wearing beads that match their clothes. Every time a woman buys a new dress, she likes to have a bead that goes with it. This means that you can enjoy repeat customers and referrals. Bead making can be operated as a home business. Bead making also falls among home based small business ideas for women. It is a popular start up business in India as bead is part of their dress. If you want to check out what others are doing or you need inspiration about the type of bead to produce, you can visit the websites of your competitors.

Blogging

Are you interested in online business ideas? Are you talented in a particular area? Do you like sharing knowledge with others? Can you write very well? If your answer is yes, you can begin blogging your way to the bank.









Therefore, if you are thinking of lucrative small business ideas, I will suggest you first sit down and think inward because within you may be lying new business ideas that can transform your life. Identify your talent and turn it into a blog. Focus on a particular niche of interest to you and grow to become an expert. It is important that your niche marches your passion, talents and skill. Otherwise, you will soon become bored blogging. You may ask, how then do you make money by blogging? You make money by monetizing the blog. You can sell affiliate products or market your own information resources on your blogs. However, before youn can really make money blogging, you need to have tons of visitors coming to your blog every month. One way you can ensure that visitors to your blog return is by having a signing up banner on your blog. Having a sign up banner does not guarantee that people will be willing to sign up. You may need to offer them freebies or incentives to do this. You can be sending newsletters to people on your list. These people are potential buyers of your products.

Why blogging? Blogging is one of the home business ideas you can start with no or little capital. There are free hosted platforms you can use for your blog. But if you are actually serious about blogging, it is advisable to go for self hosted platform like WordPress. Whether you are in USA, UK, India, Hindi, Philippines or in any African countries looking for online business ideas, you can consider blogging at it cuts across the globe. If you have access to a laptop with internet access, you can blog. Blogging is still among the relatively new business ideas in Africa, But in America, it is one of the most popular and best online business ideas. Some people can testify that blogging is one of the lucrative online small business ideas available on the internet. The truth is that there is no amount that you cannot make with blogging. Some people make just $1,000 while some people earn above $10,000 per month. Some are in the realm of $50,000 per month. Can you see that blogging is actually a big business? The beauty of this business idea is that you can start it as a side business. If you take it seriously, the side income you will be earning from blogging may soon outweigh your regular monthly pay checks. If you want to start your own blog, it is not as difficult as you think.

Bookkeeping Service

There are several small businesses around our locality. If you have bookkeeping and accounting skills, you may not need to seek 9 – 5 pm job. Instead, you can outsource your bookkeeping service to small businesses that possibly cannot afford to hire full bookkeeper. By doing this, you will be able to serve many clients and earn more. You also enjoy flexibility. Before starting seeking for a job that doesn’t exist, I will advise that you think of small business ideas which you can translate into a business. If you are looking for a good business to start, bookkeeping service is one of the best small business ideas you can start with low investment. It can generate high profit margin because the overheads are generally low. You don’t need an office to start bookkeeping business. You can easily run the business from home. Most of the meetings you will have will be in the client’s office. To start bookkeeping service, you need to have accounting knowledge. You need a laptop and printer. You need skilled in Microsoft Excel and Word. If you don’t want to keep a manual accounting system, you will need to buy and install small business accounting software on your laptop. With this, you can easily keep tracks of income and expenses for your clients’ businesses. Also, you will be able to generate different reports for your clients with ease. This start up business idea may require certification in some countries.

You need to be good at networking for you to secure clients. You can meet clients at workshops and symposia. Therefore you need to always arm yourself with your business cards. You will be able to grow your clientele base through referrals.

Business Centre Operation

Many small business opportunities usually abound in any environment where we have clusters of small businesses, young graduates or under-graduates. One of the small business ideas that can thrive in such areas is business centre operation. Services you can render include typing, spiral biding, printing and photocopying. Students will require your service for the typing of their theses and projects.

They will like to make photocopies of their credentials during registration process. As schools commence their sessions, students will start making photocopies of notes and handouts. Business supports services is one of the best business to start in a campus environment. That is not to say that business supports business can only be operated in the campus. There are graduates outside there who are looking for a place where they can type and print their resume. You also have small businesses that may not want to tie down their working capital on the acquisition of machines and equipment. The market is actually huge but you need a good location. Apart from the cost of rent, you need funds for the acquisition of your initial equipment such as photocopy machine, computer, printer, spiral binding machine with other furniture and fittings. Nevertheless, business centre operation is among the list of business ideas you can start with little capital especially if you already have some of the required equipment. If you are looking for a side business to supplement your regular income, business support service is a good business idea. You can hire a trusted person to help you run the business during your regular working hours.

Business Plan Writing

A lot of people have genuine small business ideas but don’t know how to document it in a logical way in form of business plan. In the same vein, as critical as having a good business plan is to the success of any business, greater per cent of small businesses don’t have any for their business. A lot of of people are just obsessed with their new business ideas. The next thing is that they start a business without adequate planning. It does not matter whether you can generate the best business ideas in the world, Without planning, such business ideas will definitely fail. We know that entrepreneurs can hardly finance their start up ideas without having a business plan in place. Many start up ideas have been aborted simply because of lack of funds.

If you are skilled in business plan preparation, you can help such entrepreneurs make their start up ideas a reality by helping them prepare business plan that will appeal to investors. Of course, it will require some efforts on your side to convince the small business owners on their needs for a business plan. Working as a facilitator can be a good way to pass your message to your target market. You can also put up a little advertisement to attract customers.You can operate business plan writing as a home based business. It is among the list of small business ideas you can start with no money if you already have a laptop. What is required most is your expertise.









Buying and Reselling on eBay

You don’t necessarily need to be innovative before you can start a small business. Some small business ideas just require that you are inquisitive. A lot of people make money by buying and selling on Ebay. This type of business model is called drop shipping. Before you can sell on eBay, you need to open an account with them. You will be required to provide a valid credit card, debit card or bank account. You will also need to pay a seller fee. And you will need to indicate the payment methods you will like to accept. This is just the initial setup. Once you have completed the set up, you are set to start your online business. The secret in this online business is that you search for the products with selling at different prices either on eBay or from other leading ecommerce websites. You simply buy at low price and get it listed on eBay. You now sell at higher price. Your margin may not be that much. But you leverage on volume. Good products to choose will be products that are affordable and possibly essential. It should be a product that enjoy repetitive demand and high patronage. So, what do you need to start the business? Buying and selling on eBay is purely an online business idea. You don’t need to have an office before you start selling on eBay. The business requires requires that you have a laptop with internet access. This is a good home based business idea for moms and dads.

Candle Making

To start a candle business, the major costs will include the costs of acquisition of equipment to melt wax, pouring pots, molds, wax, frangrance oil, dye, addictives, wicks, wick tabs, containers and packaging materials. Candle making is a home based business. Nevertheless, you should endeavour to obtain a permit before you start the business.

Apart from the regular household candles which people use to lighten their houses, candles comes in different types and colours and they serve different purposes. Candles can be used for decoration. Also, people use candles for religious purposes. Before starting a candle making business, you need to carry out thorough market research so as to determine the type of candles people need in your environment. For instance, electricity has been a challenge in many parts of our country. Small business ideas that provide solution to this problem will pay off. Therefore, household candle making will be one of the best small business ideas in such locality like ours. For a place like India, people use candles of different colours for decoration and religious matters. Production of assorted candles in such will be a good business idea. However, whatever the type of candle you want to produce, you need to test your products before you take them to the market. One thing with candle making is that, a slight change in the mix of wax, frangrance oil, additive and wick can produce a different scent. You must ensure that the candles you are making burn evenly from start to finish.

Car Wash Service

Are you looking for small scale business ideas? Are you living in a city where there is a lot of vehicle traffics? Or do you live in or close to a suburb with bad roads? Setting up a car wash centre or related services around such area are good small business ideas. So, for people looking for small business ideas in India or Nigeria, this can be a good business opportunity for you. The main success factor for a profitable car wash centre as a start up business is location. If you get your location right, then good customer service is the next thing. What is the ideal location for a cash wash centre?

I want to tell you that having a lot of vehicles on the roads alone is not a good justification for starting a car wash business. The question you need to ask yourself are: Where are these vehicles going or where are they coming from? How often do the owners wash their cars? Who and where do they wash their cars? If you can get answers to these questions, it will guide you on possible good location to site your car wash. Instead of rushing to the main city to locate your car wash, you can do something different. Look for a good and busy road that connects a city to suburbs where roads are bad. People will usually come from the suburbs mostly having their cars dirty. As soon as they are out of the bad roads, they will like to have their cars properly washed. If you target this type of market, every day will be busy for you. The truth is that, those people that stay in the city probably wash their cars once a week. But for people living in surburbs, they need to wash their cars almost everyday.

If you site your car wash in a good location, you may not need to spend money on marketing. You should understand that you cannot handle car wash service alone. You need people who have certain level of technical expertise. Car wash service is not just about making cars clean, it involves some technicalities. Therefore, you need people who understand where they should not allow water to touch in vehicles. The main costs for starting a car wash centre include costs of land, construction, plumbing, water tanks, engine for steam wash and hose. Car wash is considered a small scale business idea.









Carpentry

It is true that everything is tending towards high tech. The attention of the majority of our youths is now on IT. They don’t pay much attention to traditional small business ideas such as carpentry and plumbing. This is creating vacuum in our economy. Since we don’t have many people going into carpentry, it will soon become very hot startup business in the market. If you like to start a carpentry business, you need to acquire capentary skills first. This can be achieved by enrolling in a vocational training centre where they offer capentary as part of their offering. Another option is to sign up as an apprentice with somebody who is well established in this startup business. The duration for the training ranges between two and three years.You may be tempted to leave before the expiration of your training period. You may feel that you are just working for your boss while he takes all the money. Please, don’t leave. This is the sacrifice you need to make. Some people will not show their apprentices certain secrets about the business until they are about completing their training terms. If you are half-baked, it will affect your work in the future.

When you are ready to start your carpentry business, you need basic tools such as hammer, nail puller, saw, measuring tape, square, chalk like, capenter’s pencil, utility knife and wood chisel. It is expected that you must have been buying these tools in bits while working as an apprentice. With this, it will be easier for you to start your own business immediately you complete your training.

The market is there for you. Almost every household will need your service in one time or the other. Therefore, you need to let people know about your carpentry services so that you will be their point of call any time they need your service. I classify carpentry as home based business idea as you don’t need an office to start the business. But in most cases, you will need to work client’s residence.

Carpet Cleaning

Carpet cleaning makes our list of small business ideas. It is a good home based business idea for teens and university graduates. Before starting the business, you need to conduct market research to determine the size of the market. The reason is that many people and offices now prefer tiles. Consequently, people are shifting their focus from carpet cleaning to other small business ideas, On the other hand, this can turn to be a lucrative small business idea to those people that will remain in the business. Whether carpet or tiles, the two still require cleaning. As a start up business, you need to let people within your neighbourhood know about your new business idea. That is the way you can secure your first set of customers. If you establish yourself through good customer service, you will always have customers to call you for cleaning services. They can also enjoy referrals from them. Starting a cleaning service can be a good way for teens and university students to start an entrepreneurial journey.You can start cleaning service with almost zero initial capital. Carpet cleaning is also a home based business idea.

Catering Services

If you are good at cooking, you don’t need to stress yourself looking for side business ideas. Providing catering services will be a good small business idea for you. Nowadays, people are extremely busy and they don’t have time to cook foods for their own events. So, the option is to outsource this service to a caterer. If you can cook delicious dishes, you will be needed to provide catering services for weddings and parties. Most catering services are required on weekends. Therefore, you can start it as a side business. Some of the basic equipment you will need to start the business include, refrigerator, ovens, pans, serving dishes, plates, knives, spoons, forks, serving trays, cutting board, table clothes and cups. One good thing is that you may not need to buy all these equipment. Some of them can be rented. When you start getting business regularly, you can then buy all the needed equipment and other essential items. You will need people who can help you serve foods at the events.

People usually start up catering as a hobby. If you are among this category of people, you need to let your relatives and other people know about your new business idea. Let them understand that you now offer catering services. the fact that they have never contacted you before for catering services does not mean they don’t need your services. Some of them might feel constrained in approaching you since you might not collect money from them. You can work in collaboration with wedding or party planners in order to get more businesses. Having a simple website will make your business to look more professional. Catering can be classified among home based business ideas for moms. Nevertheless, some men have proved to be good in this line of small business.

Chips Making

Plantain chips, yam chips, coconut chips and potatoes chips are all small business ideas with low investment and high returns. I have seen a lot of people started this business, all of a sudden, they are out of market. Start this business idea may be simple, but to remain in the business is very challenging. If you intend going into chip making, this should not discourage you. Chip making is actually a good business idea. You only need to understand what it takes to succeed and then commit yourself to doing it. Before you go into this, you need to conduct a market research to find out the type of chips people will like to buy. For example, people prefer plantain chips in my area. Supposing you want to major in plantain chips, you need to create a niche for yourself. Do you want to sell ripe or unripe plantain chips or both? If you wnat to sell both, then you should have a way of differentiating the two so that customers can easily make their choice without confusing one for the other. This is one of the mistakes people make. There is no consistency. A customer buys unripe chip today and fall in love with it. But tomorrow, he is buying a different thing. How would you expect such a customer to partronize you next time. Also, you need to ensure that you use quality oil. Good refined hydrogenated soya bean oil is good for making plantain chips. Use fresh oil and ensure you maintain a consistent oil temperature and time when frying your chips. Any change in oil, time or temperature will change the taste of the chips.

You have to ensure that you have access to constant supplies of materials needed to produce the chips. You can brand your chips through good packaging. Don’t forget to put the name, address and telephone numbers on the packaging materials. This will serve as a marketing tool. You can sell your chips to supermarkets and stores around you. You can also sell directly to consumers. To succeed in chip making business, you need effective marketing. Chips making is a good home based business idea for anyone who has the passion and skill to do it. It can also be operated as a side business.









Cleaning Services

Apart from carpet cleaning, there are other small business ideas that revolves around cleaning. Opportunities abound for anyone that wants to start a cleaning business. You can choose between residential or corporate cleaning. If you are somebody looking for a home based business idea or a side business to start, residential cleaning services may be a good business idea for you rather than going into corporate cleaning services. For residential cleaning services, you can start the business with almost nothing. If your customers are working executives or working moms, there is tendency that they are already having what you need to carry out the cleaning. What they need may be just your service. However, if you are the one to buy all your cleaning items, you should not forget to factor the costs into your fees. Since some of your customers may not be available during the week due to their work schedules, you will be very busy on weekends. In order for you to have time to serve other customers, you can arrange with them if it will be possible for you to come and collect some of their clothes, so that you can wash them during weekdays. That is if that is part of the services you agreed with them. If they agree to this, it will lighten your workloads on weekends.

For corporate cleaning, you need to register your startup business as some of them will like to deal with company rather than a person. Having your business registered will also increase your credibility. Whether residential or corporate cleaning services, the key success factors are good marketing and good customer service.

Computer Programmer

This requires some technical knowledge and skills. If you have the skill, then it is a good business opportunity. While this startup business idea does not necessarily require a certification, a degree in computer related course will be helpful. However, we have stories of college drop outs who later became successful computer programmer. So, lack of university should not be a barrier to starting a programming business. However, it will be good if you first work in an IT company that specialises in your area of interest. Programming is essentially skill based business idea. To succeed in this stratup business, you need to constantly update your skill. If you want to start a programming business, you may need to specialise in a particular field. For example, gaming and entertainment software enjoy much patronage. You can easily penetrate market in these areas. If you want to go into a specialised software, it may be difficult for you competing with well established brands. The best you can do in this instance is to approach them if certain areas of their businesses can be outsourced to you. You may not need to open office so that you can keep your cost low. You can run the small business as a home based business. It is ‘high profit low investment business’ small business idea. Computer programming is one of the fast growing small business ideas in India. Indians are generally good in software development.

Computer Repairs

Individuals and small businesses including large corporation use computers. Repair of computers, both desktops and laptops, is a good small business idea you can start with little capital. If you want to serve corporate market, you need relevant certification. Though this is not compulsory, not having a computer related will make people look at you as an amateur. So, if you want your startup business to serve companies, you may need to enrol possibly in a part time programme where you can obtain the certification. Another alternative is for you to partner with somebody who has required certification. But I need to tell you that this is not a good option.

On the other hand, you may choose to offer your services to individuals. this option is the best business idea to start for someone with no certification. Individuals are only concerned with quality services. If you can offer solutions to their computer problem, you will remain their service provider. You can combine sales of computer accessories with your computer repair business. You can operate your startup business as a home based business but if you want to combine it with the sales of computer accessories, you may need to open a shop. Opening a shop close to where they sell used computers and laptops will bring you close to your potential customers.









Cooking Gas Sales

If you live in an estate-like environment where there are clusters of residential building in one place, sales of cooking gas is among small business ideas that can bring regular income for you. However, you need to carry out market research of the class of people living there. Sales of cooking gas will only be a good business idea if the the group of people living is such area are middle class. Low income earners may not be able to afford cooking gas. To start a cooking gas business, you can start the business in a small scale by investing in cylinders. You can sell gas-filled cylinders to your customers as well as empty cylinders. Let your customers have options for buying their gas. Some customers will like to drop their empty cylinder and just pick a filled one without having to wait for re-fill. Some may want to ensure that they go back with their own cylinder. Such people will usually come for a re-fill. For people that will like to drop their cylinders, you need to be sure that the cylinders are not leaking before accepting it. You must ensure you have fire extinguisher in place to forestall any fire outbreak. If your service is good, you will enjoy repeat customers. Therefore, sales of cooking gas is a good home based business idea that can guarantee regular flow of income.

Data Entry Service

Information technology provides many small business opportunities that you can do without leaving the comfort of your home. If you are computer literate and can type with relatively high speed, data entry service is among online business ideas you can do to earn extra income.You may need to constantly search the internet for data entry job opportunities. Data entry jobs present good small business ideas for college students, stay at home moms and people looking for side business to start. Good places you can get data entry jobs include Freelancer and Elance. If you are looking for this online job opportunity, you need to beware of scammers. Internet is filled with all sorts of adverts promoting data entry jobs. Some of them will even request that you need to pay initial registration fee. Don’t fall victim. Don’t disclose your sensitive personal information on any website you don’t trust. If any offer is too good for you to believe, this may be a red flag that it is a scam.

Dating/Match Making

There are small business ideas you might not think about some years back. Dating and match making is one of such relatively new small business ideas. There are singles, divorcee, widows and widowers looking for a perfect match. If you can provide a platform for these people to meet or interact and be engaged successfully in a relationship, they will be willing to pay you. This can be done both on-line and off line. To start a dating and matchmaking business, you need to define your target market as you cannot serve everyone. Your target market should be the group you can easily relate with. Once you have determine how you are going to charge your customers. Do you need to charge initial registration fee or you will charge for every successfully established relationship? Whatever your pricing model, the type of platform you will create should be able to support it. It is easier to measure the success rate of one on one appointment than when you organize parties for people to meet. However, if you charge your clients upfront, organizing parties as a platform for people to meet one another will be more effective. The amount you will need to actualize this entrepreneurial business idea depends on whether you want to operate it as off line or online business. If you want to have online dating platform, the cost of constructing the website will be your main initial cost.

Day Care

There is an increasing rate of population growth all around the world. When it comes to the establishment of daycare centre, you may not be concerned with the world population statistics. What concern you is the feasibility of starting a daycare centre within your locality. Before you make final decision to start a daycare business, you must carry out market research. Information that will help you in your decision will include the number of families with children, income of the families, number of existing daycare centres within the environment, housing information and local businesses and their sizes. The outcome of your findings will provide a clue whether you can establish a daycare in the area. If you find a good location for daycare business, it is actually a profitable business idea. That being said, the love for children should be your strong motivation for establishing a daycare. Apart from the monetary aspect of the business, the benefits and rewards of helping children grow and attain their potentials are not quantifiable. Daycare business is highly regulated, therefore you need to obtain license and permits before you can start the business. The major investment will involve the acquisition of a facility where you can use as a daycare centre. Perhaps you have a suitable facility at home, this can be a good home based business idea for you. You need to provide tables and chairs for the children. The atmosphere should be safe and comfortable for the children. Depending on the number of the children, you may also need to hire other hands to work with you. If you have a good reputation within your neighbourhood, you can be sure that it won’t take you much time before families come to to enrol their children.









Care of Senior Citizen

Aged people need care and attention. In most cases, their children must have grown and gotten married. If there is any of the children around, the care of an aged person may rest on the person alone. In order to avoid this situation, the children may decide to engage a care giver. If you have aged people around around you, it is a money making business opportunity. You can approach the families with this class, you may be surprised that some of them will give you a positive answer. As a caregiver, your main responsibilities will be to help in the preparation of meals, reminding the aged person about the time to take her drug, keeping the house clean. You will assist her in running errands. Of course, you are the communication link between the aged person and the family members. This is a good home based business idea for women and teens. You can start the business with no investment. If you want to take this business to next level, you will need to properly register your care-giving business and obtain necessary license and permits.

Decoration

Decoration is among the fast growing small business ideas today. Except you only like to decorate during holidays, decorating business is not seasonal as some people may think. Decoration service is needed in conferences, events, parties and other social gathering. But the demand for decorating services is always on the high side during holidays such as Christmas period. Both individuals and businesses like decorating their homes and offices during Christmas. You can take advantage of the high demand by increase your fee. However, your fees should be flexible enough in such a way that it should be able to accommodate individuals’ budgets. Due to work pressures that may arise during holidays, you can hire extra hands instead of turning down a business opportunity. Decorating business is a perfect and good side business one can do during holidays. You can start the business without necessarily going through business registration process. But I advise everyone to register their startup businesses. You can easily get businesses by forming alliance with wedding and events planners. Having a website where you can upload the pictures of the events you decorated can help you promote your business.

Directory Publisher

Directory can be published on line, as a book or both. If you like going into directory publishing, you need to carry out a market research to determine the number of directories that are existing already and what their listings are. This is necessary so that you will not be competing with as established directory. You need to create a niche for yourself. Your own directory may focus on a particular industry or a geographical location. But you need to be sure that the market for the directory is wide enough. You equally need to determine your revenue earning strategy. You can render free registration to customers. This means that you will only make money from advertisements. Alternatively, you can ask your customers to pay before they can be enlisted. But if others are providing free listings, this approach may be unattractive. The best way to distinguish yourself from other startup businesses in to ensure that your database is updated regularly while every outdated information is flushed out. This will ensure that your customers are provided with useful information.

Distributorship

Some manufacturers do not sell directly to final consumers. They look for individuals or businesses who can be the distributors of their products. Of course, they expect anyone that will act as a distributor to meet particular conditions. This may be the amount of minimum capital to be invested in the business or the size of the distributor’s store. If you are able to secure a distributorship of a good product, this is a very lucrative business idea to start.. Distributorship as a startup business involves buying products from the manufacturers and selling them at profits to customers. Your profits will be determined by your ability to negotiate well with the suppliers in the areas of price and payment terms. The more favourable these are to you, the more profits you can make.









Dog Walking

Do you realise that some dog owners just keep their dogs in cage. To be sincere, dogs do not like to be caged for a long time. Do you love dogs and can take good care of them? Do you have people with dogs around your neighbourhood? If yes, dog walking service is a good home based business idea for you. This may involve taking a female dog to a place where there is a male dog for cross-breeding or reproduction. You will also be helping dog owners take their dogs for medical treatments. You can drop your flyers in the offices of veterinary doctors around your neighbourhood. This is a cheap way of securing new clients. Dog walking falls into the category of small business ideas you can start with no money. You can do it as a side business.

E-Book Publishing

Gone are the days when you have to spend a lot of money to publish a book. Are you good at writing? Do you have information that can benefit others? You can package this in form of e-book. To start ebook publishing, you need to select a particular topic you are good at. Write quality content and preview that will grab the attention of readers. Having a reputable someone whose name sells to write the foreword for you can increase the chance that your ebook will sell. Ebook publishing can be a good source of passive income for you. We rank ebook publishing high among online business ideas with low investment and high returns. You can start it as a side business. You can operate ebook publishing business from home. You can make this a side business.

Electronics Repairs

There are small business ideas that you need to learn before you can embark on them. Repairing of electronics is one of them. If you are patient to learn and understand the business, you can make a lot of money from it. There is no household where they don’t use electronics. Most of the electronics gadgets we have today as not as durable as they used to be. Some of them are very fragile that a little slide can cause them to begin malfunctioning. The use of different generators with unfiltered power voltage is not helping matters either. If you can establish yourself as an expert in electronics repairs, people will patronize you. If you do their jobs very well, they will start having confidence in you. Before you know it, customers will flood your shops with their electronics that need repairs. However, it is important that you don’t disappoint them. Learn how to keep to promise. Electronics repairs as a startup business fits into the list of business ideas with low investment and high returns.

Email Marketing

Many small businesses and large companies usually outsource their email marketing services so that they can focus on their main business. Can you design good email templates? Are you good at creating good content that can persuade customers to make a purchase? Then email marketing can be a good business opportunity for you especially if you are already providing internet or marketing related services to individuals and other startup businesses. Email marketing is becoming more competitive but having robust email lists will give you an edge over your competitors. Of course, you will need bulk email marketing software with multi user license as you will need to build lists for various clients. Email marketing is an online business idea. Therefore, you need internet access to operate the business. You can operate email marketing business from home.

Event Coordinator

I mentioned previously that there are different types of events around us. For every successful event, there is an event coordinator working behind the scene. If you are good at coordinating and supervising people and you pay good attention to details, you can possibly make money working as an event coordinator. This is also one of the small business ideas you can start with no capital investment. If you have the required skills such as planning, budgeting, negotiation, communication, organizational and time management skills, you can do it as a side business. To start event coordinating, you need basic tools such as computer, telephone and printer. You may need a van but you may not need to buy this at a start. You can always hire a van any time there is a need for it. This will reduce your start up business costs.

Exercise Instructor

Both young adults and the aged want to keep fit. But the problem is that most of them don’t know the right exercise they can do to keep them fit. If you have passion in this area, becoming an exercise instructor is a good business idea.To become an exercise instructor, you may need basic certification and the specialty certifications that are reputable and recognizable. A basic certification will provide you with the tools you can use to teach group exercise groups. Once you are certified, you can decide on which path you want to follow. You can either start your own business or you work as an expert to health and fitness clubs, medical fitness facilities, and specialty studios. One of the benefits you can enjoy is a free gym membership.









Eye Splash Fixing

Are you aware of the new fashion trend? A lot of ladies now wear artificial eye splash. If you live in an area where you have a large number of this class of ladies, setting up an eye splash fixing and nail fixed are good home based small business ideas with low investment and high returns. You don’t need any certification to start eye splash or nail fixing business. However, you may need to work with someone who is into this kind of business so that you can master the skills. Before you venture out to fully start the business, you can start by offering free services to your friends and relatives until you you are able to perfect the act. Your first customers will be your friends and relatives. Possibly you started the business as a hobby or you started by rendering free services to friends and relatives. You need to let them know now that your business is no longer a hobby so that they will no longer expect free services from you. You may decide to invest into the printing of business cards. By the time you hand your business card to them, they will know that you actually mean a business. You can start the business from home or you can share a shop with a hair and beauty salon. With this arrangement, you will be able to get more customers.

Fish Farming

Fish is a good source of protein. The demand for fishes has always been high. Our country spends millions of dollars importing fish every year. If you can learn the intricacies involved in rearing fish, fish farming business is very lucrative. You can start fish farming business at any scale. If you have a spare room or a space that is not too exposed to sun light, you have got a good place to start fish farming. If your bathroom is spacious enough, you can start by raising fingerlings. You will need a vat or a container that you can use as vat where you can hatch their eggs. It takes an average of three months for eggs to develop to larva and the grow to fingerlings. After three months, you can decide to sell the fingerlings to fish farmers or you can choose to raise them to table size fishes. If you want to go into fish farming business, you need to have access to water. It is a good money making opportunity. This is a good home business idea for retirees. If you are still working and you want to make this a side business, you will need somebody who can help you take care of the fishes while you are not around. The business requires adequate attention for regular feeding and change of water to avoid pollution.

Florist

Florist business is wider than a lot of people think. It is not limited to providing floral needs at wedding parties. It includes consultation, design, delivery, setting up of floral bouquets. If you can, you can begin from the fundamentals by going into cultivation of flowers. You can either sell to other florists or you arrange them in different bouquets and then sell to the consumers. Florist business requires excellent personal and multi-tasking skills. If you want to be successful in florist business, you should learn how to cope with the pressure of meeting customers’ demands especially during peak periods such as Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Christmas. Getting started in the floral business doesn’t require little investment capital. You can run the business from home. You will need enough space where you can arrange your flowers in different bouquets. Maintaining an online store will boost your market.

Foreign Language Translator

Are you multi-lingual? If you are, I can say you have a lot of money residing in your tongue. With the ever increasing globalisation leading to expansion of companies to the overseas countries, there is no better time to start a language translation business than now. We have many foreigners coming to transact businesses in our country. The challenge is that some of them don’t understand English language not to talk of our local languages. If you understand and can communicate effectively in other languages, you can work as foreign language tutor or translator. Your services will include document translation and translation of website information into languages for use in other countries. Also, you approach books authors for their books to be translated into your local language. Working with a language translation agency before you start your own will equip you with skills and experience. You will need a website to market your translation business. Prospective clients may require that you provide a translation sample before engaging you. By the nature of this startup business, you will have access to some privileged information. Therefore, your clients may insist that you sign nondisclosure agreements with them.

Freelancing

There are lot of freelancing jobs in different fields of endeavour. If you are the type that likes freedom and flexibility, freelancing is a good business opportunity for you. Freelancing jobs abound online on Elance, Freelancer and Craigslist among others. It is both home business and online business. Whether you are in India, Hindi, Philippines or elsewhere, you can successfully do freelance jobs. You only need to choose your craft and master the skills it requires. If you are just starting, you may need to contact many clients before you land your freelance work. You may need to charge very low at the beginning. As you are gathering enough portfolio and you have some references and testimonials, it will become easier for you to secure jobs. You will be able to charge more too. If you want to take your freelancing business to the next level, you can brand yourself by creating a website where you can blog about your expertise. With good branding, something you started as a side business can soon become a lucrative business.

Fruit Selling

Fruits are in high demands in cities. If you have access to good constant supplies of fruits, fruit selling is a good small business idea. You can start the business small to gain experience. Fruit selling business has its own risk as fruits are highly perishable. If you want to reduce this risk, you will need to buy freezer and refrigerator so that you can keep any unsold fruits and vegetable fresh. For this type of startup business, you need a good location especially where there are heavy foot traffic. You will need a stand where you can properly arrange and display your fruits and vegetable. Keep the fruits and vegetable fresh and customers will keep coming to you.









Fumigation

Pests are very destructive. One of the best ways of controlling pests is through fumigation. Fumigation is the ultimate solution when it comes to pest control. You can start fumigation service as a small home business. Begin within your neighbourhood and expand later. Another way of expanding your services is by contacting pest control companies in your area that do not offer fumigation services. Also, there are many small businesses that will like to carry out routine preventive maintenance by fumigating all commodities that are received into their facility. You may consider offer free training to such target small businesses to educate them that fumigation saves time and money by preventing a major infestation from becoming established in their warehouses or plants. When they see the benefits, they will sign up to your fumigation service. Fumigation is one of the top list of small business ideas that require just little capital. It can bring regular income especially when you have small businesses that signed monthly, quarterly or annual pest control agreements with you.

Fund Raising Expert

We have small businesses, organizations, political parties and individuals seeking fund to finance their small business ideas or projects. It is either they don’t have access to the desired funds or they don’t know how to go about raising it. If you are an expert in fund raising, this is a good small business idea. Apart from the money you will make, this type of business idea will give you deep satisfaction knowing that you are helping other people by making their dream a reality. You can start the business small and it will grow to become a lucrative small business. To succeed in this entrepreneur business idea, you must have prior experience, good contact base and good knowledge of the community. Most importantly, you must be known to be a trustworthy person. Your target areas will include business events, capital campaigns, political campaigns, dinners and parties.

Furniture Making

There is no household that does not require furniture. Furniture such as beds, chairs, tables and kitchen fittings are needed. Therefore, furniture making is a good business idea but it requires expertise and physical exertion of power. It is not a requirement that anybody that will start a furniture making business should hold a degree in Furniture Design and Manufacturing. You can learn as an apprentice from someone who is good at designing and manufacturing unique furniture pieces. Furniture business is wide, you cannot effectively serve all customers. Therefore, you need to create a niche for your startup business. You can decide to focus on home furniture or office furniture. If you have just a little free space around your house, you can run furniture making business from home.

Gardening

You might love gardening as a hobby the same way I am. The gardening I started as a hobby is fast turning into a small business. If you have a space you can cultivate, it will not only meet your personal needs. It can turn out to be a lucrative small business for you. You can grow different types of vegetables, tomatoes, maize, pawpaw and plantains. There is always a market for fruits and vegetables. If you focus on the them, you can easily sell them within your neighbourhood. The fact that people can trust the source of the vegetables and fruits they are buying is a good selling point for you. And your customers will be happy that they can get the items they want to buy fresh. As a home business, you can grow vegetables all year round but you need to prepare for constant watering during dry season. For people looking for home business ideas, gardening might not be appropriate for everybody. This home business idea is only good for people that are physically fit as gardening requires weeding and constant pruning. You will need basic equipment such as cutlass, hoe, rake and shovel.

Graphic Designs

Are you good at arts and designs? You can start a graphic design business. Individuals and businesses need the services of graphic designers to design logos, business cards, brochures, letterheads and product packaging. You don’t need a special qualification to work as a graphic designer. You require skills on the use of computer and graphic design software and other relevant software. Your target customers include individuals, advertising agencies, publishers and public relation firms. You can carry out your graphic designs as work from home business. If you are currently working at an advertisement agency, you can start graphic designs as a side business. By the time you have grown the business to the level that it can successfully cover your monthly expenses, you can now make it a full time home business. For people that want to start this small business idea from the scratch, starting with a freelance business may be your best bet. This will help you build your resume. Also, you will gain experience on how to win job and how to manage clients.









Gutter Cleaning

This is one of the small business ideas people may not want to consider. In most cases, home owners don’t like to do this type of job themselves. They will prefer paying someone to do the ‘dirty’ job. If you don’t mind the dirt, you can clean gutters for home owners and your municipals. You may not even need to do it yourself. You can employ young people to do the job. Your own role is to ensure you secure the business. That is the only reason gutter cleaning business idea will not classifies among small business ideas that are strictly for men. Anyone that will be practically involved in gutter cleaning business is expected to be physically fit. People don’t like going into gutter cleaning. This makes it a hot business idea for people that don’t mind getting their hands dirty. Gutter cleaning business is seasonal. Therefore you can make it a side business.

Hair Salon Service

The market for hair salon service is very huge but the competition can be stiff too. To succeed in this type of small business where there are competitions, you need to distinguish yourself especially in the area of customer service. You don’t need to limit your service to haircut, weaving or braiding. You can include other services such as hair colouring, hair and scalp treatments, hair relaxers and perms, hair curling and waving, hair shampoo and conditioning. If you offer variety of services, you will be able to draw many customers to your shop. The amount of capital you need to start a hair salon will depend on the type of services you want to offer. You can start your hair salon business from home. The most important thing is that the location of the hair salon should be easily accessible to your customers. You should ensure that the place is convenient for your customers. With word of mouth, you can easily draw customers to your shop. The quality of your service is what will make them come back. This entrepreneurial business idea is suitable for both men and women.

Home Remodelling

Home remodelling requires expertise. If you have the expertise and you can work as a pro, home remodelling is a good home business idea. You must have heard people complaining about one or two things about their apartments. Possibly, after buying over a property, the new home owners realised that things are not the ways he would have loved if he built the building himself. The new home owner may like to refinish kitchen floors, install hardwood floors, finish basements or lay tiles and other flooring in the bathroom. All these are business opportunities for home remodelling. If you work with a building construction company, you can start this startup business idea as a side business. If you do good work, you will soon get busy that you will consider starting your own home remodelling business. You can contact realtors around you for referrals.

Home Tutoring

Day students need tutors after school hours and during holidays. If you have free time that you can devote to home tutoring service, you can easily make money from this startup business idea. If you have expertise in essential subjects like Mathematics and English Language, you can be sure that you will have enough number of students that will require your service. You can either operate the business from home or you go to the houses of your students. Whatever option you choose, it is still a home based business opportunity and you can start it as a side business. The levels of students you teach will determine how much you charge. As your number of students keep growing, you can extend your courses to cover other subjects. At this point, you may need to look for a suitable location in case your home can no longer accommodate the students. Also, you need to engage other tutors who are specialists in the subjects you offer. You either pay them salary or commission based on the hours or students they teach. You can also engage them as partners. This means that you will both share the risks and rewards of running the business. This entrepreneurial business idea is suitable for a place where we have a lot of school age children.

House Cleaning

Have you ever noticed that some compounds are always dirty? This usually happen in places where we have tenants. No one will be ready to shoulder the responsibility of cleaning. The best solution is for them to hire house cleaner. Therefore, house cleaning is one of the small business ideas that can thrive in such environment. Busy executives and moms with a new baby need someone who can help them mop the floors and clean the windows. Cleaning services can encompass many things such as oven cleaning, refrigerator cleaning, wall washing, packing and unpacking, furniture treatment etc. Therefore, there is need to clearly understand the needs of your customers so that should can charge appropriately. You can develop a simple service agreement template. Signing of service agreements with your customers will eliminate disputes. If the work will include the cleaning of windows which may require the use of ladder to climb, women may better consider other small business ideas or cleaning services that are less stressful. You can market your cleaning services by word of mouth or by visiting your targeted customers to ask if they may need your service. Even though this is a home business, you need to visit your clients to carry out the cleaning. Apart from the climbing of walls, house cleaning is a good small home based business idea for women and teens.

House Painting

New houses need painting while the existing painted houses require repainting. By now, you should start thinking outside the box. Most of the small business ideas that you will come across may not mean that you should should be involved in the operation. You can create a business and give direction to the people you will hire to do the job. House painting is an example of such small business ideas. You can choose to be doing the work yourself or hire employees. You can choose to use sub-contractors. What you need to buy to start the business will depend on whether you hire employees or you use sub-contractors. If you use sub-contractors, you don’t need to buy equipment. But if you want to do the work yourself or hire employees, you need to buy or rent equipment to do the work. If you want to do it yourself, you need to learn the job either from a vocational centre or from a professional painter. House painting falls in the category of small business ideas one can learn and master within a short period. It is also classified among good small business ideas with low investment and high returns.

Ice Cream Production

If you are looking for recession proof small business ideas, ice cream business is one of them. Although the demand for ice cream is seasonal, sales during dry season is always high. You don’t need to start the business in a large scale. You can start producing ice cream using traditional or artisan method. Some people prefer this method as they believe that offers better quality finished ice cream. With this method, you can easily produce small batches. If you locate the business where there are a lot of children such as schools and churches. Ice cream production is a lucrative small business idea and money making venture.









Importation

If you live in any of the developing world, you will observe that these countries are largely import dependent. They import virtually everything. They even take pride in using imported items. Anybody using locally made articles is considered poor. This is what makes importation a hot business idea. Importation business was once restricted to large companies and big corporations. With the advent of online business and more flexible payment system, anybody can start importation business. If you do your research very well and you find right products and the right supplier for the product(s) you want to sell, importation business is among small business ideas with high margin. Nevertheless, importation has its own inherent risk. The commonest one is falling victim of scam. Therefore, if you want to go into importation, it is better to seek guidance from those people who have been doing the business for some times. You can pay your suppliers through bank wire, credit or debit card and PayPal.

Interior Decoration

Decoration is not limited to event decoration; other target customers for decorating business include hotels, corporate offices, restaurants, art galleries, spas and model homes. If you are creative and have passion for interior decoration, I will say that you are half way to succeed in this startup business idea. It is important that you know how to attract customers. Having a website where you can display some of your decoration will be a good way to convince potential customers about your skills. You can operate interior decoration business as home business.

Landscaping

If you know how to add stylish touches to gardens, paths, patios, fire-pits and showers, then you can add landscaping to your list of small business ideas. You may like to obtain a degree in landscape architecture before starting a landscaping business. This will help you in case you want to target corporate bodies and High Net Individuals. You need to hone your skills by working with a landscaping company before you start you own business. One of the important things to learn is how to quote for projects. You may decide to create a niche for yourself by focusing on residential or commercial landscaping. If you choose to go residential, you can easily market your business through the word of mouth. But if you like to focus on commercial landscaping, the likely areas they will need landscaping services include public parks, recreation centres, golf courses, schools and residential yards. You should know how to develop good relationship with the decision makers. There is likelihood that you may need to go through a bidding process before securing a project. Therefore, your pricing should be competitive. Having industry knowledge will help you in a great deal. We group landscaping among small business ideas for men.

Laundry

In cities, it is not unlikely that you will find situations where the husband and wife work in corporate settings. They hardly have time to do any house chores. You will wonder how they handle their laundries. Of course, some people do that for them. This is a business opportunity for someone that have access to clean water. This startup business idea can be started as a small scale business. I know of two or three people that started their laundry business with almost nothing. They started by hand washing clothes for their customers. Before you knew what was happening, they were able to save enough to buy washing machine. But one essential equipment you must have is pressing iron. In most cases, every household has one. Therefore, laundry is one of the small business ideas you can start with no capital. You just need to leverage on your existing facilities. As your business continues to grow, you can then invest in equipment that will make your work faster and more professional.

Magazine Publication

Magazine publication is still relevant despite the fact that things have gone digital. This is even an advantage to magazine publication companies. They can have both print and online versions of their publication. To succeed in magazine publication, you need to create a niche for yourself. The niche should target audience that are large enough that will warrant the publication in economic quantity. You should have a good arrangement in place for the circulation of the magazine. Magazines are usually sold through direct sales and by subscription. The more people you have on your subscription list, the more predictable your income. If your magazine is rich in content coupled with the use of quality print materials, you will make money from this startup business idea. Your income will come from sale of the magazine, sponsorship and advertisement.









Maid Services

I mentioned that some corporate individuals are so busy that they don’t have time to do house chores. Such people need somebody to assist them at home. They are not just looking for someone who will come and go. They are looking for someone who can stay with them so that he or she can be available at all times. But there is a risk involved. There have been incidents where maids cart away the personal effects of their employers. Therefore, people are being careful about hiring a maid. If you are trusted within your community and you can get trusted individuals to hire as maids, you can set up a business that provides maid services. But you need to ensure that you obtain permits and work within the dictates of the laws and regulations.

Make-up Artistry

Make-up artistry is another home based business idea. If you are a good make-up artist, you don’t need to look further for small business ideas that can earn you extra income. In cities, several weddings occur every weekend. Of course, every bride wants to look good on their wedding day. They need professional make-up artist to do this job. This service is not limited to the bride only, it can be extended to the members of the bridal party. If you really wanted to maximize your income potential, you can suggest that the bride book a trial so that she can see how she will look on the wedding day. Most brides will welcome this idea and this will attract additional fee. You don’t need tons of cash to start this startup business ideas. In fact, this is one of the small business ideas you can start with low investment. What you need most is the make-up kit. You can recoup the costs of your make-up kit within the first two weddings. Although you can decide to open a shop but the business can be operated from home. The market is mainly dominated by female gender. Therefore we group this among small business ideas for women. It is really a good side business idea to earn extra income.

Market Research

Experts usually advise that people should carry out market research before they invest in any business or venture.The market research can be primary research or secondary research. The truth is that many people don’t know how to conduct market research. The few that understand the process may not have time to do this. With many people starting small businesses today, the potential for market research business is very high. If you can offer a variety of business intelligence solutions to solve small businesses challenges, this can be a good business idea for you. Small business owners are seeking for individuals who can help them research their industry and competitors. They like to determine the size of their target market and want to know their customers. You may not need to wait for any client before you start this business idea. You can conduct extensive research on a particular industry and then sell the report to interested people such as small business owners and consultants. What you need the most is the skill and experience to conduct the market research. You will need a website for this type of business. Nevertheless, we still categorise this startup business idea among small business ideas one can start with little capital.

Massaging/Spa

There are many things we need and don’t know we need them. This can be due to ignorance or non-availability. Massaging/Spa is such a hidden business opportunity. If you have the expertise and the courage to start, the growth rate of the business can be rapid. Because this is one of the relatively new business ideas around us, one of the best ways to market this startup business is by educating people of the benefits that massaging provides. Massaging does not only reduce stress, it heals people from illnesses and injuries. It also relieves pain and makes body relaxed. Your target market will include individuals like celebrities, professional athletes and senior citizens. You can choose to offer onsite and corporate massage. There will be some organizations who will like to offer massaging as part of health benefits to their staff. You can approach doctors within your area and drop your business cards with them. They can refer patients to you for massaging therapy.

Medical and Diagnostic Services

One of the major challenges facing mankind is sickness and diseases. More than often, people embark on self-medication. This practice can lead to further complications or untimely death. Medical and diagnostic services provide a good alternative for patients who cannot afford to pay hospital bills. However, this small business idea is not open to everyone. Medical and diagnostic services is a specialised service. It requires certification. The main initial costs are the cost of medical diagnostic equipment. You can work from home or maintain a mobile shop. Mobile shop will allow you reach more people. Don’t forget that you need to obtain license and permit before can start this business idea.

Monogramming

Can you turn business card or design into beautiful embroidery? Can you personalize gifts such as Jackets, t-shirts, sweatshirts, caps, blankets for the birth of a child, weddings, anniversaries or that special someone? Then you have already located a good home based small business idea. You need capital for the acquisition of embroidery machine, needles, threads and bobbins. Some people use embroidery software but this may be expensive for a starter. You can work from home or rent a shop. What is important is that you should have enough space where you can store your materials.









Multi-Level-Marketing

If you can locate a good multi-level marketing opportunity and you happen to be among the first people to join, the reward could be surprising. But the main disadvantage of joining a new multi level marketing company is that you don’t know what might become of them. That is why people prefer working with mature multi level marketing companies. My advice is that you only join reliable multi-level marketing with good compensation plan. The type of products you choose to sell matters. People like selling supplements because of the repetitive purchase distributors enjoy from their customers. If you are able to win a customer, the retention rate is high with supplements. You can start this small business idea with low investment capital. The initial capital you need largely depends on the company you join and the products you choose to sell. You need to carry out research to find out which multi marketing company offers something within your budget. To succeed in this startup business, you need good coach or top line manager and good marketing skill. This type of business idea requires a lot of patience. If you are looking for a side business to start, you can easily combine multi-level marketing with your existing job. In fact, your job will help you reach more people.

Nutrition Consulting

Can you prescribe diets that are healthy and beneficial to human body? Do you know some diets that can help in weight control? If your answers are in the affirmative, you can start nutrition consulting business as a home business. A lot of people just eat anything that comes their way. This type of lifestyle usually make people to be overweight or obese. You find this among both young and adults. As a nutritionist, you need to equip yourself on information about good quality food and healthful products you can recommend to your clients. People must see you as an expert before they can seek for your service. You need to carry out aggressive marketing because this is a relatively new business idea. You may need to charge low at the beginning until you have enough customers and testimonials.

Other small business ideas include the following:

Online Store

One can virtually buy almost everything he needs from the internet these days. Internet has become the new marketplace for people to buy and sell. With online store, you can display your products on your e-commerce website. People can visit the website and place order for products. The beauty of online store is that you don’t need to store products physically. You can set up your online store with wholesale drop-shipping distributors. When a customer orders a product from your online store, products will be drop-shipped directly to them with your business name on the box. Therefore, you don’t need to tie down your capital on inventory. As the name implies, this is an online business idea and you can run the business from home. If you are still working, you can conveniently run online store as a side business.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is a good business opportunity for individuals with special skills. Due to economic downturn,many organizations are changing their business model towards outsourcing. They have discovered that there is no economic sense in maintaining certain personnel as full time staff. Perhaps you are among the people that this arrangement affected, no need to worry. Instead of seeking for another job as full time staff in an organization, you can choose to outsource your skills to several small businesses. This will increase your earning power. You can start the business from home. With your mobile phone, your clients can easily get across to you. Your target customers will be small businesses and large organizations that may want to outsource some of their functions.

Overseas Study Consultant

The rate at which people crave for foreign certifications is high and it is still on the increase. If you can provide advice and links between foreign institutions and the students, this will be a good small business idea. Colleges and Universities spend tons of dollars in advertisement for different programmes they offer. Instead of spending huge amount on advertisement, some of these institutions are looking for agents or representatives who can refer students to them. If you consider this a worthwhile business idea, the institutions you promote will pay you commission on each student you refer to them. To start this business, you should have a good knowledge of career counselling. Also, you should be able to advise the students on study visa rules as applicable to different countries. You need to properly register your business before you can work as an overseas educational consultant.









Party Disc Jockey

If you enjoy party and are good at song mixing and selection, you can start a small business as a Disc Jockey. There is hardly an event such as weddings, birthdays and parties where the service of a DJ will not be required. If you have the skill and the right equipment to entertain quests that will make an event enjoyable and memorable, you can develop this hobby into a business. The business can be operated from home and it offers flexibility. Since your services will be required mostly on weekends, you may not need to give up your existing job if you have one. DJ services can be run as a side business.

Payroll Service

Many big corporations outsource their payroll function to other companies for reasons ranging from the need for cost savings to the need for correct interpretation and compliance to wage and payroll laws. If you have the necessary certification and licence, you can start a small business that offers payroll service. Please, you need to be conversant with wage and payroll laws and other regulations relating to human resources. The business requires initial investment for the acquisition of laptop and possibly payroll software. I know some people that started their payroll consulting business from home. Therefore, as a small business idea for beginners, you can start the business as a home business.

Pet Breeding

If you love pets and have enough space to breed them, pet breeding is a good home business. The commonest type is dog breeding. However, if you want to start pet breeding as a home business and not just a hobby, you need to be a professional dog breeder. You need to learn a lot such as different types of breeds and how to source for good breeds. You need both male and female dogs that are healthy in order to reproduce. If you don’t have money to start with two dogs, you can start with just one female dog. This means you need to take your female dog to a male dog so that they can mate. Experts advice that the two dogs should be about the same weight. Both of them should pass a thorough health check before they are allowed to mate. Otherwise, you may not have desired puppies. If you feed your dogs well and give them adequate medical care, dog breeding is a lucrative small business idea.

Phone Repairs

The number of phone users in our country now stands above one hundred million people. Besides, there are people with two or three handsets. These phones can be very fragile. At a slight fall, they develop faults. That is why phone repairs business is one of the growing small business ideas for young people. Phone repairs sounds like a technical job but the fact is that you don’t need to be a technical person to start a phone repair business. You just need to learn how to repair phones before you set out for the business. You can learn it from an experienced repairer. When the GSM phones were first introduced into our market, you hardly saw people that could repair phone for you. Overtime, by trials and errors, some people have developed expertise in the business. Instead of learning on your own, you can shorten your learning curve by learning from other people. If you don’t want to work from home, you can operate very close to where they sell used phones.

Photography

Photography as a small business seems to be dwindling but it still depends on your environment. If you study and research the market and discover there is still enough opportunity for you, then photography business is a good business idea. Despite the fact that people use their smart phones to take pictures, there is still good demand for professional photographers. People like catching exciting moments during weddings, birthdays, anniversaries and at corporate events. Another way this can be a hot business idea is to sell your photos online. You can develop a catalogue of different categories of photos ranging from nature to animals and places etc. Bloggers are constantly looking for good pictures that can match their contents. You need good camera and lenses, gears and memory cards to kick start the business. As times go on, you can have your own studio.

Picture Framing

You can establish a picture framing business as an independent small business. Photography and picture framing are good complementary small business ideas. Any time there is a change in government in our country, picture framing suddenly becomes a hot business. Businesses and various organizations need the official portraits of the new Head of States and Governor in their offices. I believe the same thing applies in other countries but the rules and regulations governing this may differ. You need to find out from your local authority.

Pool Cleaning and Maintenance

After a pool has been constructed, there is need for constant cleaning and maintenance. The cleaning mechanism is totally different from the way you will clean a gutter. If you have pools around you, you can start by sending proposal for cleaning and maintenance to test the market. Your target customers will be hotels and residential houses with such facility. Please note that pool cleaning involved the use of cleaning chemicals. Therefore, if you want to start this business idea, you must know how to protect yourself against health hazards such chemical can cause to your body. Anybody starting this business is expected to be physically fit as it requires some level of energy. To avoid drowning, this startup business idea requires that you should be able to swim. Pool cleaning is among small business ideas with low investment capital. You can also make it a side business.









Pop – Corn Production

Pop Corn production business will thrive where there are heavy foot traffic such as markets, fairs, sport events centre or busy community gathering place. You need to learn the business before you can run it profitably. Pop corn is one of the low cost small business ideas with high profits. Equipment required to start pop corn business include production machine, popcorn kernels, high quality oil, salt/sugar, butter, packaging materials, sealing machine and box/tray to display your gourmet popcorn.

Poultry

If you have space in your yard, you can go into poultry. Rearing of chickens, turkeys and pigs are good small business ideas. You may choose to rear chickens as it has short payback period. You can quickly make your money from the sales of eggs. You can also decide to sell off matured chickens if you want to run out of cash flow. To run a poultry, you have to set adequate amount aside as working capital especially for feeding. One thing you have to take serious is the health of your chickens. If one is infected, it can affect the whole of the other chickens. This can result to a big loss. Even if you have the capital to start in a big scale, it is always advisable to start the business small. We classify poultry business as small scale business. I have just started poultry as a side business. Though I am still experimenting, so far so good, I can say that the business can be rewarding.

Private Library Service

If you have ever visited some of the public libraries or the libraries we have in some of our public institutions, you will feel disappointed. Libraries which suppose to be storehouses of knowledge are more or less becoming like museums because of lack of adequate funding. This makes the provision of private library service a good business idea. You will need to research the information needs of your environment before you embark on this type of project. For instance, locating a private library very close to a higher institution where there is no functional library can be a good investment. Students, lecturers and researchers needs books and journals which some of them may not want to buy on their own. Therefore, private libraries will be their resource centres. The quietness and serenity the private library provides is another side attraction. How do you make your money? You can run the private library based membership subscription. Some people may prefer to pay per visit. Therefore, your charges should be flexible enough to accommodate many people. You also make money by lending books.

Project Management

Project management skill is in high demand but it requires certification. Project management ranges from deployment of IT to provision of strategic coaching, strategic business planning and implementation and leadership development. The scope of project management is very wide. Therefore, you need to identify your area of core competence and ensure you develop yourself in such area. As a project management consultant, you can work for the government, large corporations, small businesses, other professional firms and individuals. However, you need to focus on the group you have resources to support. As a new startup business, you may begin by targeting individuals. As you are growing and gathering experience, you can later extend your services to larger groups. Project management is a business idea with high profits potential. Nevertheless, it is important that you only accept jobs you can executive successfully. If you do your jobs very well, getting customers will not be a problem. You can be sure of enjoying referrals from satisfied clients.

Proofreading and Editing

If you are looking for small business ideas with low capital or little investment, proofreading and editing fall into this category. It is a startup business you can run either as a full time or a part time home business. The service covers proofreading and editing of books, literature, website contents, articles, speeches etc. It is not only publishers that require the services of proofreaders. Your prospective clients include corporate bodies and students alike. Proofreading is becoming more competitive as a result of many freelancers that have flooded the market. For this, you need to be flexible enough in term of pricing. You may not have a fixed rate. Your rate will depend largely on your customer type. For instance, a student may not afford to pay what a corporate client will pay. You need to assess whether a particular job will worth the efforts before accepting the job. As a proofreader, you should have a good command of English. This startup business idea is good for someone looking for a side business.

Proposal writing

For any startup business to survive in this ever competitive market, then such business should be smarter than its competitors. Every business is started to provide a solution. That a business can provide a solution does not guarantee success. Clients will not come knocking at your door. You need to take your service to them. In most cases, a business will be required to submit proposal before it can be considered for a particular job. This is why ability to write good and convincing business proposal comes to play. If you have all the expertise to do a job but you can’t communicate it to clients in a way that will make them to believe you can do the job, you may not get the job. A good idea communicated in a wrong way will not achieve desire results.

If you are good at proposal writing, this is a good business idea for you. You can set up a small business that focuses on proposal writing for small businesses that may not have time or expertise to do it. We understand that it requires a lot of time and efforts to prepare a good business proposal. If you can take this burden off your clients’ shoulder, they will be happy to pay for the service. You can market your service through your business cards. Creating a website where sample proposals can be downloaded will be another good way to market your business. Proposal writing and most of other consulting services are high margin business ideas.









Public Relation Agent

If you are skilled in the areas of media and public relation, verbal communication, journalism, advertisement and marketing, you can work as a public relation agent. Many small businesses are in need of a public relation officer who can help them spread information about their services to their target markets. But not all these small businesses can afford to hire one as a full time employee. You can sell your service by contacting your target companies directly. Your target customers will include restaurants, boutiques, politicians and other small businesses. Having a working experience from a public relation firm before you start your own can fast track your success. You can start this startup business idea from home but you will need a website to project a professional image.

Public Speaking

There are a lot of people who are loaded with knowledge that are be impactful. The only problem they have is that they can’t face public to talk. Do you have such knowledge and are bold to talk to the public with good diction? If yes, this is a good business idea for you. If you want to work as a public speaker, you cannot afford to be a generalist. People should know you for something and you have to be good at it. Develop yourself to the point that you become an authority and a reference point. If you can pay this initial price, there is no limit to where you can reach. You may not need to open any office to actualise this entrepreneurial business idea. Your target market include schools, churches, mosques, clubs, corporate organizations and non-profit organization. You can be a columnist in newspapers. Writing consistently on your chosen field will make people to recognise you an authority. Also, you can maintain a blog on your website. This is a good side business idea that people can conveniently combine with their current job.

Real Estate Agency

This is one of small business ideas that is fast becoming popular. You can start this business at any scale. It is a business idea you can start with zero capital. You can decide to specialize in either residential market or commercial market. Your duty is to act as an intermediary between landlords and tenants or property sellers and property buyers. Then you receive commission on sales made based on the agreed percentage. As a result of the crucial role a real estate agent plays between landlords and tenants, it is important that anybody starting the business should have a good knowledge of landlord and tenancy laws.This startup business can be run as a home business but you need to have space enough to accommodate clients. Because of the extra traffic your startup business may bring to your neighbourhood, you may need to go for public liability insurance. Also, there is need to obtain permits from governing authority.

Recruitment Agency

The recruitment process ranging from advertising for vacancies to shortlisting, interviewing and making the final selection can be long and stressful. If you have human resources background with necessary certification, you can start a recruitment agency. With the growing need for specialization, the same thing goes for recruitment agencies. You should create your own recruitment niche. For example, when I started my own consulting firm, I offered recruitment services as part of our offerings. But it did not take a long time that we encountered a problem. The problem was that, clients especially new startups, wanted us to recruit their entire new staff for them. These may include Admin personnel, accountant, receptionist, marketing officer, technical manager, production manager etc. The challenge was that we don’t have expertise in some of these functional areas. Our success started when we decided to focus on recruitment of accountants and auditors. These are our areas of competence. Therefore, if you are starting a recruitment agency, you can good yourself good by focusing on the area of your strengths. It will be easy for you to hire right candidates for your clients. When they are happy, you will enjoy referrals.

Refurbishment of Antique

You must have heard that you can sell your old stuff to earn extra cash. This is true. Better still, when selling old stuffs, you may not have good value placed on the items. You can take a step further by refurbishing them before you sell. This will enhance the value of the items. By the time you realise how much you make in the process, you can discover that this can be a good business idea for you. You can then take it to next level by buying old antiques and refurbishing them. You can sell these items through auction sale. A good place to sell such items is Craigslist. You don’t need office to start this startup business, you can work operate it as a home business. If you wan