Are you tired of working for someone else? Are you looking for a way to be your own boss and set your own hours? If so, you may be thinking about starting your own business. But where do you start? How do you know if you have what it takes? And most importantly, how much money will it cost?
Don't worry – we're here to help. In this article, we'll outline 11 different ways that you can start your own business with little or no money upfront. So whether you're a stay-at-home mom looking for a new career, or an entrepreneur with a great idea, read on for some exciting options.
1. Wholesaling
Wholesaling is a great business model for those on a tight budget. It involves finding unique products and selling them to other businesses at low costs, who then sell the items at retail prices. For example, you might find some nice linen skirts that your local thrift store wanted $7 each for – but you know that a vintage clothing shop would pay much more. So you purchase the skirts for $7 and sell them to the vintage shop for $10 – making a nice profit.
Wholesaling is a great business model because it requires little to no money upfront. All you need to get started is time and energy, which you can easily work into your schedule around other responsibilities. Plus, there are no products or inventory to buy – just some research on what sells well, and where the best places are to purchase high-quality goods.
Another idea in the wholesaling department is creating an amazon seller central account and selling products from wholesalers directly on amazon. You can even talk with your wholesale partner to directly ship their products to amazon for you instead of stocking them in your garage.
Amazon seller central is a great way to get acclimated into eCommerce. You can test the waters and see if it's for you before diving too deep into it, while still making some money on the side.
2. Start an on-demand business
Did you know that you could start your own business without investing any money? One of the best ways to do this is through an on-demand business, which requires little to no capital at all. These are digital businesses that you can run from your home or anywhere with internet access.
For example, if you have great organizational skills and are good at solving puzzles, try operating an online mystery shopping service. All you need to do is show clients your skills by completing tasks to their specifications. Once they see your work, you'll be able to get gigs regularly through word-of-mouth referrals.
An on-demand business is a perfect option for stay-at-home moms and anyone else who wants to earn some extra cash without leaving the house or spending much money. And the great thing is that you can get started with very little information or guidance, which means that there's no experience necessary.
You can offer your services on websites like Upwork, fiverr or freelancer.com to get started. Just be sure to clearly outline your services and the process of completing projects, so that you can establish a good reputation early on.
3. Print-on-demand
If you have a sense for creativity you can get into print-on-demand easily. There are hundreds of great resources on the internet how to start a website and sell your stuff there.
One of the best options is TeeSpring, where people can upload their own designs and sell shirts to customers around the world. For every shirt you sell you get $5.99 as a base price and $2 per shirt after than (depending on your design).
Print-on-demand businesses give anyone with some entrepreneurial drive the chance to get started. All you need to do is create a website and upload some of your work, which can be done in less than an hour even if you've never built a site before. You can then start promoting yourself and earning money by making sales through social media and other marketing efforts.
What started as a t-shirt printing service is now a worldwide juggernaut business model. You can literally design anything you want and sell it. T-Shirts, Hoodies, Leggings, Jewelry, Coffee Mugs, Tote Bags, Hats & Beanies or even Kids' Clothing. There are so many opportunities in this field alone that we will do an entire series about this business model alone in the future.
You can start this type of business practically within a few days and without investing hardly any money. All you need is a website that you can easily build with Shopify, WordPress or Click Funnels, some product designs that you can create with Photoshop or Canvas and a good sense of marketing. Order fulfillment can be automated entirely, so once you get an order from a customer, your fulfillment partner can ship it to the customer directly. For example, you can sell a hoodie with your own design and charge a customer $50 for it. After you receive an order, you pay your fulfillment partner $25 to print and ship the hoodie directly to the customer. That leaves you with a nice little profit of $25 for selling just one hoodie. Nobody keeps you from selling 1,000 or 10,000 hoodies each day of the year.
4. Blogging
Any successful online business needs traffic, which is why companies spend millions buying ads to promote their websites. But there's another way to build up a fast base of daily visitors that can be achieved by creating a blog for your website.
Creating a blog allows you to engage with customers on an ongoing basis and create content that attracts search engine traffic. As soon as you build up some content and traffic, you can sell your own products or affiliate products to the people on your website.
A blog allows you to generate more profits without paying for ads and it gives people a reason to return to your website on a regular basis. Even if someone never buys anything from you, they will still visit regularly because they get free information from you.
You can even monetize a blog that doesn't sell any products and that you create around your own hobby, a sport that you love or your pet. Once you get some monthly traffic, you can use Google Adsense or Ezoic to show ads on your blog to your visitors and earn some money. Obviously, the more traffic you have, the more these companies are going to pay you per view or click.
5. Selling on Amazon
FBA- Fulfilled By Amazon is a great opportunity for anyone to sell stuff online without the hassle of creating a website and taking care of hosting, customer service or advertising. It's really that simple. Do some product research and find a product you'd like to sell on amazon. Order this product in bulk from a manufacturer and ship it to Amazon.
Amazon handles the storage, customer service and even order fulfillment for you. You can sell new or used products in your store and charge prices that work for your situation. If you're making a decent profit margin (50% – 300%), you might even want to invest in some professional photography and a logo to make your product look even more appealing.
The best way to get started is by browsing websites like Alibaba for inspiration and to find manufacturers. Once you've decided which type of product you want to sell, ask for more information and get some samples to see the quality. You can sell any type of white-label products or brand them with your own name and logo for a more professional and unique shopping experience.
6. Dropshipping
Dropshipping is another opportunity that doesn't involve creating any inventory or fulfilling customer orders yourself. You can focus on marketing, driving traffic to your website and promoting your products without having to worry about the technical side of selling physical stuff online.
To get started with dropshipping, you need a website that allows you to create an online store to sell your own products. Once you have everything set up, you should start looking for a few brands or manufacturers who want to sell their products through your website.
After you find these suppliers, they will ship the product directly to your customers while you're responsible for marketing and collecting payment. You can even choose not to add any markup and just charge a small fee to cover the costs of running your business.
Most successful dropshippers rely on Facebook and Instagram ads to promote their products and drive traffic to their website. It's a great opportunity for anyone looking to get started with eCommerce without having to worry about inventory and shipping orders themselves.
7. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular ways to get started with eCommerce without the need to create a product or invest too much money. It's great for promoting other people's products, but you can even sell your own affiliate products on another website.
The easiest way to get started is by signing up for an account with Amazon Associates. Once you have an account, you can promote anything in the Amazon catalog. All links to products will be tagged with your affiliate ID that tracks all sales and commissions through your account.
To find what to promote, do some research on Google or Pinterest to find profitable niches for affiliate marketing. You can choose any industry because there are so many different types of affiliate programs available. One of the most well-known programs is ClickBank. ClickBank offers a wide range of digital information products that you can promote with your affiliate link.
You don't even need to run a website on your own. Simply post your affiliate links on forums, social media profiles and other popular websites to start promoting products and earning commissions.
8. Graphic Designing/ Video Creation
There are countless ways to create an income from graphic designing or video creation without having any initial investment required. You don't even need to have a website, but if you do have one, it's going to help you build your brand and get more exposure.
Graphic Design – There are plenty of people looking for quality graphic designs online, but they don't have the time or resources to create them themselves. You can work directly with clients by bidding on jobs posted on sites like Upwork or Fiverr to offer your services at affordable rates.
If you want to take your business one step further, you can create a website with your portfolio and start promoting your services by adding social media buttons that direct clients straight to it.
Video Creation – Websites like VoiceBunny or 99Designs are looking for people who can create great videos for their customers. You don't need any prior experience working in the video creation industry, but you do need to know how to create videos. If you have a smartphone or a simple camera at home, you can make money by creating videos for customers who are looking to promote their business online.
9. Online Courses
We live in an era where knowledge is power and anybody looking to get ahead needs to be learning new skills every day. It's a great opportunity for anyone looking to make money by creating courses online through Udemy or Teachable.
All you need to do is look for products related to your industry, create a course around them and upload it on the website where you want to get paid. You can also offer additional services like tutoring, one-on-one consultations or in-person classes in your area.
10. Create your own info product
Do you have a skill that you know a lot about? If so, creating your own info product is a great way to get started. In most cases though, it's not going to be the quickest way to get started with making money online because it takes time and resources to create a quality product.
But if you have the resources available, you can promote your own product on Amazon or other popular eCommerce websites to sell it online. From your last 2-3 projects, choose the one that provided the biggest value to others and created a course out of it.
Once you have a quality product ready to be sold, start sharing details about it on social media profiles, your website and other popular platforms.
11. Help local businesses build an online presence
The last business opportunity is not directly an online business model. It's a great opportunity to get in contact with your local bakery, car repair, chiropractor, dentist or flower shop and help them to build a strong online presence, acquire more customers and make more money.
Whether you want to offer your service through social media profiles, forums or other popular websites – the important thing is that you get in contact with local businesses and explain how they can improve their online presence. Once they figure out that it's essential for their success, make sure to let them know about all the things you can help them with.
Be sure to offer a fair price for your services and don't be afraid to ask for a little extra if it's going to be a long-term relationship.
Honestly, you won't believe how many local businesses don't have a good website and never got into online marketing. There are tons of opportunities on Google, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Snapchat etc. to show products or services to people in a certain area. We have seen restaurants that invested a little bit of money into an online booking system on their website get incredible results by 300% and even more. This is still a huge untapped gold mine for those who are willing to go the extra mile and talk to local business owners about cooperation.
Final thoughts
In case you know about other great business models that people can start from the comfort of their homes, feel free to mention them in the comments below.
Thank you very much for reading this article. If you find it interesting, please share it with your friends or family who are interested in starting their own online business.
