Every year, the business sector is filled with more and more young entrepreneurs. Each of them wants to realize their potential and gain financial freedom, and maybe even become the next Steve Jobs or Donald Trump.
Before plunging into this world, it is worth remembering that a small business has its advantages and disadvantages. Advantages: a good income, the ability to develop, independence from the stupideness of superiors, personal control over the affairs and finances of the company, the status and development of your own brand.
But as a little boy once said about a roller coaster, “I like the ups, not the downs!” Prepare to feel the pain of the “downs” when building your own business, as they are inevitable.
If the obstacles don’t scare you and you’re determined to try your hand at business, go for it. But remember that a successful business begins with a good idea. While you are thinking over the unique niche for commercial activity, we offer you to look at 32 win-win small business ideas, which have already repeatedly proved their effectiveness and brought budding entrepreneurs an exponentially growing income.
1. Animator
An entertainment service is a great way to start small and grow gradually. The main advantage of this type of business is a steady income, since the activity is directly related to holidays and celebrations, and such events occur every day. In addition to official, calendar dates (New Year, Halloween, Children’s Day, etc.), there are also weddings, birthdays, corporate parties – and everywhere you need creative, cheerful actors who know how to warm up the audience.
2. Room rental
An uninterrupted source of passive income for those who have extra square meters of residential (or commercial) real estate. The rental market is developing very actively, and finding tenants will not be too difficult. Think through the details of your future business: for example, whether to rent apartment for a long term or daily (the first option is more reliable, the second – more profitable), what items to write in the contract (on the repair, animals, etc.). If you do not have your own apartment, you can sublet it, informing the landlord about your intentions beforehand.
3. Costume rental
Remember how, before the next New Year’s Eve or Fall holiday in kindergarten, exhausted parents stand in line at costume rental centers trying to reserve a Snowflake dress, a Peter Pan costume, or a pumpkin hat for their child. During kindergarten and junior high school, this business can simply make a fortune. Summer is usually the expected decline in orders, but birthdays and corporate parties, performances at summer sites in parks and store openings are held all year round. Therefore, high-quality, bright, interesting costumes of not only children’s but also adult sizes, as well as rose dolls of popular characters will be in demand all the time.
4. DJ
Not a single party, not a single festive event passes without this person, because they can provide musical accompaniment to any celebration: set up microphones and adjust the sound, create a fun background for competitions and, of course, organize a rousing and unforgettable disco. To make money as a DJ, you need to have a good taste in music and be versed in this subject (for example, be able to distinguish jazz from disco, be aware of the musical preferences of people who have paid to work at your event, know the song that guests order by description). In addition, it is necessary to have professional equipment, although at the beginning of his DJ activity it can be rented.
5. Fireworks
Fireworks have become so commonplace in our lives that it is very easy and simple to order colorful fireworks for birthdays, anniversaries or weddings. Choosing the right location for the store with maximum traffic, it is not difficult to run a profitable business selling pyrotechnics, especially when planning its launch for the pre-New Year’s period. However, several nuances should be taken into account: the mandatory official registration of the business and obtaining the appropriate certificates for trading in these products, as well as the seller’s maximum awareness of the types and safe use of goods, to provide the customer with comprehensive information on the selection of a suitable type of pyrotechnics.
6. Photographer
It is a very popular type of entrepreneurial start-up, because all you need to start such a business is a good camera and a love of photography. Very often girls on maternity leave become photographers: they have a lot of free time and a lot of models (it is easy to find friends or playground acquaintances who want to capture the elusive childhood of their baby). Obtaining the consent of the mothers, you can share the results of such activities on a personal page in the social network. If the photos will be high quality and interesting, the first customers will not have to wait long.
7. T-shirt print
There are two ways in which you can go, making a unique print for clothes for sale: the first – drawing a picture by hand with art materials (this requires a minimum of investment, the maximum possession of the technique of drawing at a decent level), the second – technical printing on special equipment (it will have to buy, rent or arrange for a loan). Once the way of applying the image on the fabric will be found, you should think about the copyright. Do not forget that any picture you liked on the Internet to put on a T-shirt for sale will not work, because it may violate the copyright of the artist. The best way to mass-produce such products is to sign a contract with a designer, who will draw unique images or striking slogans and receive a fee for his work.
8. Genealogical tree
In childhood and adolescence, few of us are interested in the history of our family, many are not even interested in the origin and meaning of their own surname. But with age, the desire to learn as much as possible about their roots and ancestors manifests itself more and more persistently. The problem is that genealogical research takes a lot of time and carries a lot of problems, which are associated with numerous requests to archives, registries, libraries, and courts. Many of those who have just embarked on the path of studying their genealogy soon realize that they are not able to cope with such a task on their own, so they are happy to pay for this work to a person who helps untangle the tangle of intertwined genealogical threads.
9. Dogsitter
For animal lovers, this type of work is not just an opportunity to make a good living, but also the prospect of having a good time. Often the problem of pet owners (especially in today’s dynamic world, where every minute is required to generate income) is the total lack of time to devote to their furry pets. Even if you’re home, work doesn’t wait, and a faithful friend is so eager to take a walk or play. Therefore, a dog sitter who enjoys communicating with animals and can take care of them while walking is a welcome friend for all owners of our little brothers. In addition to love for animals and a passion for walking, for this type of income is important to have high-quality shoes, and walks are better organized in places legalized walks, where many owners usually gather with their pets. In such places you can additionally advertize your activity.
10. Image consultant
Did you know that a huge number of people with a decent income can’t create their own image properly, especially if they suddenly changed their occupation, got a promotion or became the face of the company or firm? In that case, a professional image consultant comes to the rescue. They determine the best ways for the client to present himself in a way that benefits his personal and professional qualities. Image enhancement assistance can include closet changes, social etiquette, public speaking skills, branding, etc. This type of business would be ideal for a communicative person who understands style, can persuade and is burning with the desire to help others gain confidence in their own irresistibility.
11. Furniture repair and reupholstering
More and more people around the world are turning to the services of furniture repairmen. There are several reasons for this: saving money, reluctance to part with a favorite piece of furniture, the ability to “fit” the old sofa in an updated design, etc. In addition, the repair of furniture is very fond of people who promote a lifestyle of “zero waste”, which is becoming increasingly popular today. So, what is needed for those who decided to start providing services in this area: first, a basic knowledge of carpentry and experience, which will be reflected in a portfolio or on your own website; tools (portable to start, later you can open a workshop and equip it with more expensive power tools); learn the prices for the materials that will be needed in the repair and restoration process, to quickly calculate the cost of work.
12. Logo design
A web designer is one of the most in-demand professions on the labor market. A person who is fluent in the design software package will not find it difficult at all to find clients both online and offline. Logo design is one of the easy types of such activities for aspiring designers. Logos are the hallmark of not only large companies, but also small institutions and firms. Moreover, the logo is ordered even by groups in social networks or bloggers, because it will stand out among thousands and perhaps even become a unique “chip” of the company, like the apple at Apple or the letter M at McDonald’s. You can offer your services on freelance exchanges, thematic forums, in social networks or on the page of your business card site.
13. Showroom
Opening a showroom is not really an independent kind of business, but rather an addition to an existing one, the next step for those who are firmly established in the world of online sales and want to expand their activities a little, to go to another level. Showroom means “showroom” in English, and in essence it is a small room where the seller/designer/modeler presents his goods. What distinguishes a showroom from a usual store is a cozy, almost home-like atmosphere and attentive, almost friendly communication between the visitor and the owner of the showroom. For example, if you successfully established yourself in Internet commerce, and customers are increasingly turning to you with a request to try on clothes or pick up the whole set, offer them to visit your showroom. Here the customer can sit comfortably in a cozy chair, take a closer look at the assortment, and choose the model that suits him or her best.
14. Massage
A skillful masseur is nowadays a master by weight of gold. His contacts are exchanged only with close friends, not wanting to share such a valuable find with anyone else. Services of this professional, of course, are worth a lot, but no money is not sorry for the health and a half-hour relaxation. If you have already gained experience working in a massage parlor, if you have professional knowledge, confirmed by a certificate, loyal customers who will follow you though on the edge of the world – it is time to think about opening your own massage parlor. Location for the future of the massage room is better to choose near potential places with a target audience: fitness clubs, medical centers, beauty salons, etc.
15. Personal blog
If you have something to share with the world, such as valuable knowledge, experience, advice, findings, etc. – start your own blog! There are several ways to do it: on a popular social network (Instagram, TikTok, Telegram) or video platform (YouTube), or by spending time and resources to create your own unique website. It’s important to remember that a blog should be interesting and include content that will attract and retain visitors. Both a page on a social network and a personal website can bring quite a decent income if you think through the strategy of its promotion: advertising campaigns, contests, SEO optimization, etc.
16. Babysitter
Do you love children and have a pedagogical or medical background? Then working as a nanny will certainly appeal to you. To provide such a service, you will need to provide clients (i.e. parents) with a medical book and, preferably, letters of recommendation. An added bonus will be knowledge of a foreign language, modern parenting techniques, or having a driver’s license – of course, all of this will greatly increase your pay. Speaking of pay. Babysitters are not always present in the life of the family around the clock, they often help when parents are busy, at work or on a family trip, so they usually pay by the hour. But if the babysitter lives with the family permanently, she gets a fixed payment for her work.
17. Nail service
Are you passionate about manicure and love to take care of your hands, follow the trends in this direction, not bad at drawing and during the quarantine girlfriends lined up for you as a professional master? Perhaps it’s time to take your hobby to the next level and turn it into a permanent source of income? You can rent a place in any barbershop or beauty salon. There will also be easy to build up a customer base.
Take care of the safety and comfort of your visitors: providing exceptional quality service can guarantee you uninterrupted revenue and popularity as a high class master. In your small salon, you can also sell related thematic products that visitors will be interested in (hand care products, nail polish, manicure kits, etc.).
18. Computer training
The main target audience for this type of business is, of course, the older generation. Internet banking, utility payments via virtual cash registers, communication with relatives via messengers – often the elderly simply have no one to turn to for help in mastering all the new technical knowledge.
Therefore, a professional who can easily tell you what is Vyber and Whatsapp, how to pay for electricity without standing in kilometer-long lines at the cash register or how to make an appointment with the doctor over the Internet – will be a second favorite person for these people (after the letter carrier, of course).
19. Mobile app development
If you have sufficient knowledge in the field of IT-development, consider that you have drawn a lucky lottery ticket. After all, it is very easy to find a job for a good specialist in this field, and it is also not difficult to find like-minded people and organize with them a small project, which is then easy to sell, while earning a solid income. For example, Markus Persson (the developer of the super-popular game Minecraft) sold his brainchild to Microsoft for 2.5 billion dollars. Inspiring, isn’t it?
If you have very little experience in game and application development, but have a great desire to realize your potential in this area, start small – learn, read, practice, become a part of a team that works on similar projects. Armed with the acquired knowledge and valuable ideas you can safely start developing your own potentially profitable software.
20. Smartphone repair
If you have a problem with your beloved phone, it can only be repaired free of charge at the manufacturer’s service center for a certain period of time. Then you either have to buy a new device or have it repaired at your own expense. The desire to save money and prolong the life of your mobile friend often leads potential customers to a phone repairman.
To become such a master, you need to have experience and knowledge in this area, as well as connections with suppliers of spare parts of different firms. Investments will require a minimum, mainly for the equipment for repair. Rent of space can wait until better times, as well as the changemaker. If the business is in its starting position, for the time being you can work from home, using “word of mouth”, ads on forums and message boards as advertising.
21. Tutor
Today, when the education system is in search of alternative teaching methods that can be applied in case of another pandemic or other life cataclysms, people with degrees in education can easily find employment. During the forced quarantine, when children were at home and parents had to earn money and act as teachers at the same time, tutors, armed with video cameras, like valiant knights, provided all the help they could to prevent children from falling into the abyss of educational collapse.
Do not forget: to become a tutor, teacher education alone is not enough, it is important to love to enjoy working with children, have patience and skills of intelligible explanation.
22. Resume builder
How to write a competent resume, so that among the hundreds of applicants the employer invited you for an interview? How to emphasize your strengths and disguise weaknesses? What information is necessary to include in the questionnaire, and which will be obviously unnecessary? A competent specialist will help you compose a resume that will be virtually impossible to hear a rejection from the employer (of course, if the resume is accompanied by the appropriate knowledge). If you have experience in human resources or HR – consider providing a service to competently compose and design a resume for money.
23. Selling balloons
No holiday passes without colorful balloons – whether it’s a children’s birthday party or the opening of a new pharmacy. This business is one of the most popular, and despite the huge number of competitors, more and more entrepreneurs are mastering this niche. For a successful start as a seller of balloons you need: to purchase goods (provide a wide range of products), equipment (such as balloons with helium), acquire knowledge of aerodecor (for example, in the relevant courses). Since the competition in this field is very high, you should take care about good advertising, the quality of goods and originality of the service (think of a “chip” that only you have).
24. Clothing repair
Have you ever gone to a clothing repair shop with a request, for example, to shorten the length of your pants or to sew a new zipper into your favorite skirt? After reading the prices for these services, it is easy to guess that this – a very profitable business. So if you have a steadily working sewing machine, and you – tireless dressmaker who loves to transform things, this kind of business is sure to bring a steady income. By the way, over time, you can expand the workshop to a small atelier and already not just repair things, but also to realize the fantasy of customers, making clothes to order.
25. Locksmith Services
Did you know that 50% of all lost items are keys? This is usually followed by the replacement of the lock or its core. Imagine how difficult it is to find the right handyman with such a busy schedule. Add to this, the replacement of locks planned, without first losing the keys, for example, when moving into a new home or when buying a front door. It turns out that the profession of a locksmith – a very popular and quite profitable occupation, and to organize a small business, providing such services, it is easy, because in the arsenal should be only a luggage of knowledge and suitcase with tools.
26. Surprise box
This idea came to us from abroad, where surprise boxes have long been in great demand. Various companies regularly form such boxes, filling them with a variety of products (cosmetics, body care products, samples of creams or perfumes), and put them on sale in their online store. The lucky buyer pays for the box, but what exactly the manufacturer put in it is a surprise.
Such an entertaining idea was immediately picked up by the sellers of popular handmade goods stores, because it is a great idea for real creative people who love creativity and original approach to the choice of gifts. When filling a gift box, the main thing is to take into account all the data of the person for whom it is intended, and choose the contents with this information.
27. Baking cakes
The distinguishing feature of a made-to-order cake from a store-made one is the individual design, in which the confectioner often reflects the hobbies, the occupation of the birthday child or the theme of the event for which the cake was ordered. Homemade pastries are in great demand, and the price varies depending on the type of product, quantity and cost of the products that served as the main ingredients for the dessert. If you are a fan of cooking and the owner of an exuberant imagination, you have a medical book and the conditions for this kind of occupation – try to realize as a creative cook. Perhaps very soon grateful customers will be admiringly sharing photos of your original culinary masterpieces on the Internet.
28. Fitness coach
Do you look great? Help someone else! That should be the life credo of people who are fans of sports. Your figure causes admiration of other people, and acquaintances constantly wonder about the secret of acquiring such strong abs or chic muscles? Why keep valuable knowledge inside? You can safely share it with anyone who wants for a solid fee. A fitness trainer is not just a casual acquaintance, it’s a friend to whom people turn for help, a person to whom they trust the most important thing: their appearance and health. Therefore, this type of employment should be approached responsibly: be sure to have knowledge of anatomy and medicine, as well as to treat their clients with respect and care.
29. Cleaning
НDo you take cleaning as a serious business? Embarrassed, humiliated, or just lacking in determination? Read for inspiration the 2019 New York Times bestseller “The Cleaner. The Story of a Single Mother Pulled Out of Poverty” by Stephanie Land. In this book you’ll find not only the ins and outs of this type of work (in some places it’s just a guide to action), but also a great story about a woman who, through this type of work, was able not only to escape poverty, but also… Although, let’s dispense with spoilers. If you want to get better acquainted with cleaning as a potential area for earning, just read the work of an American writer.
30. Vending
Тe people involved in commerce know that vending and online shopping are the future that awaits us all very soon. The English word “vend” means to trade. More specifically, vending is vending through vending machines. This kind of business is an excellent source of uninterrupted passive income. If you are interested in this niche, first of all, think about the place where you want to install the machine. The correctly chosen location is very important, it should provide a constant flow of customers. Vending machines with food can be installed in the premises of educational institutions (colleges or universities), and with shoe covers – in clinics or laboratories.
31. Virtual assistant
If you are a competent, responsible, communicative person, and perhaps you have experience as a secretary, personal assistant or administrator, you can easily cope with the duties of a virtual assistant. Offer their services to entrepreneurs who do not have enough time to organize meetings, managers of large companies, who can entrust you with planning their schedules, businessmen, whom you will help organize a list of suppliers or competently organize logistics. The advantage of such a business is that you can work from home and collaborate with several clients at the same time.
32. Web writer
A web writer is not just a person who fills a site with content, but also a generalist. A humanist who is good at literacy and phrasing will find use of his talents in many different spheres! The specialist is a freelance journalist and writer, author of electronic books, copywriter, creator of sales texts, etc. Why is it a business, you may ask, because it’s just a part-time job and not always a steady income? It all depends on the level of income. After all, there are writers who have long jumped over the pay barrier, like their novice colleagues from freelance exchanges, and even earned their first million with the word and pen.