75 Small Business Ideas for Anyone Who Wants to Run Their Own Business
A good business idea may seem hard to come by, but with some planning and preparation, you can easily launch a small business to supplement your income — or become your own full-time boss.
Maybe you already have an idea of the business you’d like to start. But while you might feel ready for a new venture and passionate about your idea, you might be looking for some direction.
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To help get you started, here's a list of small business ideas separated into a few sections:
- Online Business Ideas
- Best Small Business Ideas
- Profitable Business Ideas
- Side Business Ideas
- Best Businesses to Start with Little Money
- Home Business Ideas
- Easy Businesses to Start
- Business Ideas for Students
- Small Town Business Ideas
- How to Start a Small Business at Home
The first step to becoming a successful entrepreneur is finding a business idea that works for you. In this article, you’ll find dozens of small business ideas you can start from home and scale up as your clientele grows. Let’s get started.
What makes a good small business idea?
Not all small business ideas are made equal: Some require more effort and funding than others, while some can be launched with few resources — or resources you already have. As a potential small business owner, you’ll want to save as much money as possible on training, rent, supplies, and other necessities.
Let’s go over what makes a good business idea:
- Requires little to no training. A good small business idea will ideally leverage your existing field of expertise and require little to no training. That will not only shorten your time-to-launch, but also lessen your expenses, since training courses can cost a significant amount of money. Plus, you’ll be more confident offering services that you feel prepared to deliver.
- Requires low setup costs. Your business should be cheap to start. Maybe you only need to purchase a website domain or buy a desk for your garage.
- Requires little hands-on inventory or supply management. A great business idea needs few supplies and little inventory management. If you want to sell physical goods, you can either try drop-shipping and manually make goods in small batches.
- Is based online. The best small business ideas are based online and can be carried out from your personal computer. This will automatically lower your commuting costs and give you greater flexibility over your personal and work life.
- Can sustainably be managed by few people. As a small business owner, you won’t have the funds to hire other people to help you run your business — at least not at first. A good business idea should give you the ability to run your business on your own.
Online Business Ideas
If you want a business idea that you can run entirely online, check out the ones below. These ideas are ideal for those looking for a passive income stream. In other words, you shouldn’t need to do too much manual work to launch these businesses from your home or preferred business location.
1. Become an online reseller.
To become an online reseller, all you need is some business savvy and some funds to invest in product stock from manufacturers — or, of course,the willingness to sell your own used items. Generally, this is a low-touch but high-performance way of creating a passive income online business.
Online resellers usually use a platform, such as Facebook Marketplace or Amazon Sellers, to sell either their own or manufacturers’ stock. The benefit of using Facebook Marketplace is that you can begin today with your own Facebook account, and simply list items that you already own.
Interested buyers typically drive directly to your home for pick-up — but if you’re not interested in human interaction, you can leave it outside and have the buyer pay via an online platform.
Amazon Sellers requires a little more up-front investment, but the yield is usually higher and you can turn your Amazon reselling business into a more passive income stream. Amazon allows you to buy stock from various manufacturers, which they then keep in their warehouses. When an Amazon user buys from you, Amazon will fulfill that order and then give you a substantial cut.
Income Potential
$10K - $200K+
Required Skills
Market research, marketing, SEO, customer service, administration, inventory management, photography
Required Certifications
None
Required Tools
Reseller software, professional camera, feedback software
2. Try affiliate marketing.
An affiliate marketing business is a great fit if you already own a website or a blog you wish to monetize. We’ve already shared how blogging is a great business to start — if you’ve already bought a domain name and begun writing content, then using it to start your affiliate marketing business is a great option.
Affiliate marketers create blog posts and content that contain affiliate links. When a user clicks on that link, a cookie is added to their browser that tracks their activity for a specified period of time. If they make a purchase at the affiliate website, then you get a commission — usually recurring, if you’re selling subscription products.
There are countless affiliate marketing programs for you to start your online business. These programs come with many benefits, such as pre-made advertisements and lazy copy for you to use.
To create a viable affiliate marketing online business, you should choose the right blog niche, such as technology, household decor and organization, or fitness, and then find affiliate marketing programs that offer products your readership would be genuinely interested in.
Income Potential
$1K - $150K+
Required Skills
Blogging, writing, marketing, SEO, market research
Required Certifications
None
Required Tools
Affiliate marketing software, web design software, SEO software, word processor
3. Become a content creator or influencer.
Instagrammers, YouTubers, podcasters, and TikTokkers with more than ten thousand followers can eventually turn their accounts into a small online business that generates passive income.
As a content creator or influencer on social media, you can not only earn money from sponsored partnerships, but you can monetize your audience in other ways, such as creating Subscriptions on Instagram, allowing companies to advertise on your YouTube channel, or creating a paid-only newsletter.
Becoming an influencer or content creator takes hard work, but it can be a fun way to create a small online business, assuming you’re posting content that you enjoy creating. First, you should choose a niche, such as thrifted fashion, work-from-home hacks, or even industry tips. Then, you should learn how to become a social media influencer and digital creator, then create a social media content calendar.
Most importantly, have fun with this online business idea as you give it a try. The good news is that it has little overhead — all you need is a willingness to spend time on social media content creation.
Income Potential
$1K - $50K+
Required Skills
Social media marketing, content creation, copywriting, videography
Required Certifications
None, but we recommend taking a social media marketing course.
Required Tools
Social media apps, social media marketing software, camera or phone
4. Open a dropshipping store.
We’ve mentioned dropshipping a few times already, but this is such a great online business idea that it’s absolutely worth mentioning again. Dropshipping businesses don’t manufacture what they sell, or even buy stock from manufacturers in advance. Instead, wholesalers fulfill the order directly after a buyer places an order through your website.
Opening an ecommerce store can be forbidding for those who don’t want to deal with inventory management or supply chain logistics. Dropshipping is the best alternative.
The only thing you need is the willingness to invest in an ecommerce website builder and the ability to manage relationships with local or international manufacturers. From there, you need to only publish your site and advertise your brand via ecommerce marketing.
Learn how to start a dropshipping business here, with examples.
Income Potential
$10K - $40K+
Required Skills
Market research, marketing, SEO, customer service, administration, inventory management
Required Certifications
None
Required Tools
Dropshipping software, web design software, SEO software, customer feedback software
5. Sell print-on-demand products.
Print-on-demand (POD) is another way to start a dropshipping business, except it’s a little more frictionless because most POD services allow you to create a storefront right on their website, instead of you needing to look for a separate ecommerce site builder.
With a POD online business, you design unique artwork. The print-on-demand provider will allow you to place that design on t-shirts, hats, tote bags, phone cases, and more. You do not keep any inventory; instead, the POD provider will print it only after a buyer makes an order, then ships it directly to them.
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