With the world moving towards gig-based economies, there has never been a better time to start a small business online! There are plenty of ways to earn money from the comfort of your home without a massive initial investment.
Check out our list of small business ideas that you can start this year with a small budget.
Start a Blog
Your only starting investment for a blog is your time and a small budget for your hosting. There are plenty of very affordable options and packages you can get to. For example, you can visit the Hostinger website to check for web hosting prices, or check out Cloudflare’s site to grab a free SSL certificate.
Once you get a blog established, you can further branch out and monetize it through affiliate marketing, or simply sell some of your own products or services.
To be successful, you need to be consistent with posting relevant and valuable content to your blog. This is for SEO purposes. Being well-versed with SEO helps as that can help create more awareness for your brand.
Also, focus on a niche. As much as possible, narrow it down to attract a specific group of audience that will buy your product or service.
Remember to also monetize your blog to earn more income. Don’t forget to market your blog site. Maximize social media for this.
Dropshipping
With Dropshipping, you will use 3rd party sites for selling products and services. Some sites you can use include eBay or AliExpress. Alternatively, you can find a supplier or manufacturer and work directly with them.
The good thing about this model is you do not need to have an inventory of the product or service that you are selling as they will come directly from the supplier.
The latter also takes care of the shipping and handling of the product.
Source: oberlo.com
At the most basic level, you are selling a product from a 3rd party supplier and you will earn a certain percentage of the market price.
To dropship, you will post an advertisement for the product or service to your website. The customer places an order and then pays you for it. You will have to forward the order to the supplier and the latter ships the product to the customer.
Creating Online Courses
These are on-demand now as most people are staying at home.
If you are an expert at something or are passionate about something – why not create an online course and sell it?
Pick a topic or subject you really enjoy. Being an expert at something is even better. It may be better to have at least 3 of them so you have options.
The next step would be to research the market and find out whether your course would actually sell. You need to know if there are people interested in that subject. Find out who your competitors are too. Then look for ways to stand out from the competition.
Do make sure that your course is highly informative and engaging. Then invest in really good equipment for recording and editing.
If you have a website or blog, then you have a platform for selling this digital product. You can also use sites like Udemy.
Content Marketer/ Digital Marketer
Most of the brick and mortar shops have closed because of the pandemic. This means that almost everyone is getting online now as there is nothing else to do at home.
The competition will be tough for businesses. They will need all the help they can get promoting their business.
If you know SEO, contact clients, and offer your services. A good portfolio will help you close more sales.
Content marketers will also be high in demand. With everyone online, the content will be more important than ever.
Get started advertising your services on your website, blog, or other platforms such as Upwork or Freelancer.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing is a good passive income especially if you know what products and services to recommend.
With Affiliate Marketing, you will get a percentage of the profit from each product or service that you sell to your followers.
You will need to have a website or blog to get started with Affiliate Marketing. To be successful, narrow your niche. Do not just recommend any product or service to your followers. As much as possible, focus on a niche.
Clickbank and SkimLinks are affiliate marketing websites you can try.
Social Media Manager
This will be in demand for the foreseeable future with businesses moving to digital marketing. Most businesses will need help advertising their products and services on their social media platforms.
If you are good with words and you know how this works, use platforms like PeoplePerHour and Upwork to advertise your services. You may also directly contact clients and offer your services to them.
Target those businesses who are looking to grow their business. Provide details as to how you can help them reach out to their target audience and make more sales.
Create a YouTube Channel
YouTube has millions of followers and more people are making money with Vlogging.
You can talk about your skills, passion, reviews, food, or anything of interest.
Try to review YouTube’s guidelines on how to create, upload, and monetize your videos to maximize your profit.
Also, do make sure that you invest in good equipment especially a video camera and a microphone.
Sell Ebooks
These days, people are watching movies, playing music, reading books or ebooks, cooking, and just catching up on their hobbies.
Take advantage of this by publishing an ebook.
You will be self-publishing this and distribute it through Amazon and other sites that sell ebooks. Also, do not forget to keep promoting this book to maximize sales.
If you are an established author or have a really good book, you may also go with a traditional publisher. Some of them will not pay in advance but will give you a good percentage for the royalties.
Conclusion
There has never been a better time to start an online business than right now. The investment you need is minuscule while the potential profits are limitless, depending on how much time you invest in your project. I hope this article will help you branch out and join the many freelancers making money online from the comfort of their own home.
