If you think about starting a business, it might seem like a mission impossible and it might feel much scarier than reality. The amount of money, time, and risk depend on what business idea you choose. In general, there are hundreds of ways to start a business. Some of them require huge investments and risky moves, other ones – little or no capital at all, letting us almost not to risk. It doesn’t mean that you have to make less effort – you do still have to build a brand, create a marketing plan, and work hard on a product or service you are going to sell. In this article, you will find 5 online business ideas that require little to no capital.
. Start a dropshipping store
Starting an e-Commerce store can require pretty much upfront investment and a massive undertaking. You have to pay for the website’s hosting, domain, and buy, store, and ship the products you sell. But dropshipping stores are different because you don’t have to stock your inventory or ship the products yourself a third-party wholesaler will take care of it. One of the dropshipping business ideas is to design and sell print on demand goods.
For example, if you use to print on demand platform – Printify, you can customize your products with your own designs to create something exceptional. T-shirts, hoodies, shoes, skirts & dresses, bags, jewelry, and many more to express your creativity on. Also, you can sell shirts online without inventory and make money. Still, for new online start-ups, this inventory method also allows for more flexibility with cash flow with less risk of acquiring dead stock. Dropship stores help you to save money, time, and resources, which allows you to set up an online dropship store just in a few days and sell the best dropshipping products.
. Become a freelancer
For a long time, the word ‘freelancer’ referred to a person who didn’t have a day job and couldn’t make a good income. But in 2018, 35% of Americans had freelance jobs and this number grew by 7% in just five years, while the non-freelance workforce grew only by 2%. This freelancing tendency is sure to grow even more rapidly as the technologies create more opportunities to work from home. The list of freelance jobs is quite long and if you are skilled at copywriting, web design, video editing, or programming, you start away your freelance career with hundreds of jobs to choose from.
Websites like Freelancer, Upwork, or Fiverr help you to find a job all around the world. These jobs can range from on-time paid gigs, short or long-term projects, to consistent work. Though freelance jobs have many benefits, one of them is that you get to choose how many hours per week you want to work and you can adjust it to your studies or a full-time job.
. Sell homemade and handcrafted goods
If you like handcrafting and homemade products, you can start selling products you made yourself online. DIY candles, pottery, organic cosmetics, knitted wear, everything made by your hands can be sold in your very own online store. You still have to think about inventory managing and shipping, but you don’t have to start with a large batch and you can add up a symbolic price for shipping per product until you start getting consistent orders. Just be original, believe in your product, and don’t stop till you make your dreams come true.
. Create digital products or courses
You can set up the digital products store and sell courses, templates, apps, etc. Unlike physical products, these don’t require to be stocked or shipped. Still, you have to think about what product is really useful for people, how you will advertise it, how you will reach your audience and convince them to purchase it. If you think you are skilled enough to create a digital product, start developing your idea and plan on how you will accomplish it.
. Online book publishing
An online book is one of the digital products you can sell. If you are creative, your minds just flow and you have the skill to write – start writing your own online book. You can choose among a wide range of genres, including comics, cookbooks, poetry, fiction, etc. You can publish your book on your own site or use an on-demand service such as CreateSpace and start generating orders with the help of digital marketing.
Conclusions
Technologies nowadays make our lives much easier in many aspects, including business. Third-party suppliers, the ability to establish e-Commerce stores, and to quickly test ideas online, makes it easier than ever to build a business. Running an online business creates much safer conditions to run a profitable business, without thinking about rent or how to manage inventory.
If the reason why you didn’t start a business before is the thoughts about premises rent, storing, and shipping inventory, you can begin with little or no inventory and low-investment businesses like these 5 online business ideas that require little to no capital or any others.
