50 Business Ideas to Inspire You

Are you sick of working for someone else? Ready to be your own boss? Starting your own business isn’t for the faint of heart. Entrepreneurship is hard work. But, unlike working for someone else, there are no limits to how much you can make, how you build the culture and teams you work with, or what your role looks like.

Finding business ideas that can succeed is now easier than ever, thanks to the ease with which eCommerce stores can be developed and the virality of social media platforms. Starting a business no longer requires tens of thousands of dollars, the right connections, and a ton of time. There are businesses that can be started with as little as $1,000. There’s an opportunity out there for all of us to become successful business owners. Here are 50 business ideas to get you started.

Dropshipping

Imagine being able to open a hardware store with hundreds of items in inventory that you didn’t have to pay for ahead of time or worry about any shipping or logistics. Or what about a clothing store with the same setup? Sell first, pay later. This business model is called dropshipping and can work within many different industries. Here are some dropshipping/e-commerce ideas we think you should research.

1. Hardware tools
2. Home fitness equipment
3. Podcast equipment
4. Cooking accessories
5. Pet products
6. Disinfecting tools
7. Yoga accessories
8. Home office equipment
9. Gaming equipment & accessories
10. Home decor

Airbnb Cleaner

It’s no secret that Airbnb owns a large share of the short-term rental market. Airbnb owners often need someone to clean their properties between bookings. A cleaning business that focuses specifically on Airbnb could prove to be lucrative and, considering that the average stay is 4.3 nights, could provide consistent, reliable work.

Plant Sitter

After more than two years of COVID-related restrictions, traveling is now at an all-time high. With all this traveling, a lot of plant parents will be leaving their precious plant babies behind without someone to take care of them. Starting a plant sitting service is an idea you could consider if you’re a plant lover.

Same Day Courier Service

Courier services aren’t new; however, they’re still good businesses to start if you’re on a budget. All you need is a vehicle and commercial insurance. Consider investing in branding and marketing your business well, so you stand out from the competition. This business also scales well as you don’t need any full-time employees. You can pay your drivers per delivery, so you only spend money when you make money. No office space (other than some space where you already live) is required as you and your drivers will pick up documents and packages from clients and drop them off the same day.

Book Club Organizer

Are you a bookworm? This business could be the perfect side hustle for you. Even with the rise of technologies like the Kindle, book clubs are not going anywhere. Recommending, purchasing, organizing, and shipping books on behalf of friends and work groups for book clubs could be a lucrative side hustle. With book clubs now embracing the remote trend, ensuring everyone can find the same books can be difficult with members living all over the world.

B2B Sales Broker

Being a sales broker is similar to drop shipping as it doesn’t require much capital to start. As a broker, you’re selling the services or products of another business that you received a discounted price on and will now sell those same services or products for a profit. This is most common in B2B business. Some of the businesses you can start are:

1. Printing broker
2. Marketing agency
3. Managed service provider
4. Real estate firm
5. Business broker (selling other businesses)
6. Signage business

Marketing Agencies

Marketing agencies are a sector that can spin off into dozens of businesses. For example, you can start an agency that focuses on:

1. Tik Tok & Snapchat ads
2. Pet businesses
3. SEO
4. Legal firms
5. Facebook & Instagram ads
6. E-Commerce
7. Google ads
8. Social media
9. Hospitality businesses
10. Wellness businesses

The above is just to give you an example of how niche you can go with the services you offer in your marketing agency. What you offer should match the skill set of you and your team.

Virtual Assistant

With a lot of businesses going remote/virtual, so has the role of being an assistant. If you consider yourself to be an organized person, this is a business that may be a good fit for you. Busy entrepreneurs and digital nomads are now needing virtual assistants to keep their days organized.

Podcast Editors

In 2020, there were 700,000 podcasts. 150,000 of those were started that same year. Podcasts have taken off with no signs of slowing down. All these podcasts need editing and will likely want to outsource that task. If you’re a skilled video and audio editor, this business may be a good one for you.

Customer Service Support

Many businesses now use home-based customer service representatives. Customers can reach out to you via email, online chat, or phone, and you can help them resolve issues they may be having with your client’s service or product. You can operate this business fully remote and work with reps worldwide.

Mobile Vehicle Detailing

Just like mobile oil change businesses, mobile detailing businesses allow customers to have a service brought to them instead of taking hours out of their day to get done. Customers will often pay a premium for the convenience of this service.

Furniture Assembler

Most of us are now buying our furniture from places like IKEA, which is known for having easy-to-ship furniture but not necessarily easy to assemble. Starting a business where you and your employees go to a customer’s house and assemble their new furniture could be one to look into if you’re handy and like putting things together.

YouTube Content Creator

YouTube content can be a great business for passive income. If you’re willing to put some work into it, you can film and edit a video once, post it on YouTube, and get paid for it on an ongoing basis. If you don’t have the skillset to produce whatever is needed for the video, you can outsource the work, which can be done through freelance platforms like Fiverr and Upwork. Some of the categories you should consider starting a business and creating content for are:

1. Baby sleep music
2. Learning videos for infants
3. Relaxing soundscapes (Rainstorms, windy nights, fireplace, etc)
4. Cooking tutorials
5. Product reviews
6. Video game tips & tricks
7. Cosmetics reviews & tutorials
8. Fashion advice
9. Sports insights
10. Music news & reviews
11. Investments (cryptocurrency, NFT, stock market)

Paid Newsletter

Sam Parr, Founder and CEO of The Hustle, created a paid newsletter with over 2 million subscribers that he recently sold to HubSpot for a reported 17 million dollars. Your newsletter doesn’t have to be as big or sell for 17 million dollars for it to be a good business. Newsletters, just like YouTube content and dropshipping stores, can be broad or niche. If you’re looking for more resources on how you can get this done, check out websites like Substack, Convert Kit, and Kajabi.

The content of your newsletter depends on your knowledge and the knowledge of your team. Some niches that you should consider are:

1. Marketing Newsletter: highlight cool marketing trends, tips, or tricks. Marketers are always looking for new hacks and strategies in an ever-changing environment.
2. Investment Newsletter: investing is no longer limited to a specific demographic. There are teenagers who consider themselves to be investors and have the portfolio to show for it. A weekly newsletter that discusses new crypto, NFT or Metaverse projects could be received well. Who wouldn’t pay a few bucks per month for access to tons of ways they can potentially make more money?
3. Weekly Recipes Newsletter: what to make for dinner can leave most of us more stumped than we’d like to admit. A weekly or monthly newsletter filled with tasty recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner could be appealing to a large audience.

Coming up with business ideas that can succeed no longer has to be a long, drawn-out process. We live in a time where you can truly follow your passion and make a living doing it. Do you love cooking? Maybe start a dropshipping e-commerce business selling cookware? Or start a YouTube channel doing cooking tutorials where you can then sell ad space through YouTube to other cooking brands? This is just to get the ideas flowing.

If you have a business idea you think has what it takes to succeed, building a business plan should be your next step. You can use our free Interactive Business Plan Builder for step-by-step guidance, tips, and examples, and then have it reviewed by one of our small business strategists. Regardless of how unfamiliar your business idea may be, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team to discuss how we can help to get your business going.