There is great excitement that comes with starting an online business, however, that excitement might soon die down when you see the list of things you might need to put together before starting. Many people do not believe that it is possible to start an online business with little or nothing.
You don’t need a ton of startup cash to get a successful business off the ground. There are plenty of online business ideas that you can grow simply through bootstrapping. If you’re interested in starting your own business at home but don’t want to put a huge investment in upfront, read on to see how you can do it.
- What are Some Online Business you can Start With Absolutely Nothing?
- How do you Start a Business from Nothing?
- What kind of Online Business is Most Profitable?
- What is the Safest Business to Start?
What are Some Online Business you can Start With Absolutely Nothing?
To help you get started with your online business, it is good to have in mind some ideas that can help you. Some of these online business ideas might require you getting a skill to get started. However, with little knowledge, you can start make money from the online business.
Read Also: What are the Best Courses on Making Money Online?
Without wasting much time, here are some online business ideas you can start with little to nothing.
Freelance writer
It’s hardly a surprise that freelance writer makes the list of online businesses you can start. With the rise of content marketing, online writers have never been more in demand.
To kickstart your career, set up a profile on popular freelance websites like Upwork and Freelancer and start building your portfolio. A website will also be essential as people will want to see your writing collated in one place so they can get a sense of your style, the topics you cover, and of course, your personality.
Beyond being an excellent writer (and a good editor), if you really want to excel as a freelance writer, you will need to be a pretty speedy writer too.
Social media consultant
Do you have a knack for social media? If you’re a strong writer, creative, and love staying on top of the latest social media trends, this might be the perfect opportunity for you.
Many business owners either do not understand the intricacies of using social media to build a brand and cultivate a loyal online following or don’t even know how to use social media at all. By offering your skills as a social media consultant, you can either help businesses craft a social media game plan or take control of their social accounts directly and post updates to various platforms.
Web designer
If you know how to design websites, you have a potentially broad client base, including website developers (many of whom can build websites but not design them) and entrepreneurs themselves.
If you’ve got an eye for design but no formal web design training, you can still break into the industry with a little informal education and a good portfolio. In fact, in this industry, your portfolio is going to be everything—not your degree! That being said, make sure to only showcase your best work.
Graphic designer
In the same vein as a web designer, if you have the skills to design logos, brand packages, social media graphics, brochures, posters, and other materials companies and individuals frequently request, this is a business you may love running. You’ll have to be self-motivated, have an eye for detail, and be clear about setting expectations.
Again, watch Roberto Blake’s videos on becoming a graphic designer; start with this epic playlist. In the early days before you have many clients, you may want to build your portfolio by offering your services on sites like Fiverr and Etsy.
SEO consultant
Search engine optimization, more commonly known as SEO, is the practice of optimizing web pages, advertisements, and other online content so that it is more likely to be picked up (and ideally ranked highly) by Google and related search engines.
If you are data-driven and internet savvy, this is a good potential career opportunity for you. Make sure to have a good handle on Google Analytics, as you will likely be using it time and time again.
Business coach
If you have a knack for helping people achieve success via coaching, you may enjoy this line of work.
Rather than being hired as a consultant to help people problem solve issues in their business, you’ll be helping people find success by focusing on personal development. This might include mastering time management, putting an end to procrastination, improving decision making, and ultimately, getting your clients to take action.
You won’t be giving advice (that’s what a consultant does); instead, you’ll help people figure out how to do it themselves.
App developer
According to SimilarWeb’s State of Mobile Web U.S. 2019 report, approximately 76 percent of consumer traffic to leading U.S. websites is from mobile devices. And, given that apps are now more popular than the mobile web, it makes sense to consider this online business if you have coding skills.
You can either look to creating your own apps as a way to earn money, or offer to create apps for others.
Online retailer
Does the idea of setting up an online shop excite you? If so, you’re not alone. This is an increasingly popular profession, made even easier by the host of websites that will walk you through the process.
If there’s something you’d like to sell, be sure to know how to set up a home-based business, make sure you have a space to store all of your wares, and set up an online account with the post office so that mailing is as easy as possible. You may also want to look into cross-selling on sites like eBay
Otherwise, start looking into platforms that will make selling online easy. You might consider Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, and Weebly, though no doubt there are many others for you to choose from.
Everything said and done, this is also one of the professions that may require you have at least a little startup capital as you will need to purchase inventory.
Virtual assistant
This career opportunity can also fall into the category of home-based businesses, but it’s a great online business to mention too. There are a number of online platforms that make running a VA business easy, including TaskRabbit, Zirtual, Upwork, PeoplePerHour and so on.
If you’re super organized and can quickly and efficiently carry out tasks, you may want to put your skills to use—becoming a virtual assistant is like becoming a personal assistant or task master. Services you might offer include project management, writing, running errands, performing research, and so on. The list is really endless.
Artisan
If you’re creative, crafty, and have the ability to make handmade items in bulk, you may just want to turn your hobby into a business.
People love buying handmade goods, and sites like Etsy break down barriers, making it easy for just about anyone to sell their wares for a very modest fee. If you can knit, sew, design graphics, turn wood, make jewelry, paint, make soap, create paper products, and so on, you may be sitting on a perfect business opportunity.
Patron-backed creator
Ever wondered how musicians, aspiring movie-makers, comedians, and comic book artists make money before they make it big? Well, beyond the local gigs, they now have online opportunities to help them fast track their way to fame and glory—sort of.
Sites like Patreon allow interested patrons to donate either a monthly fee (in exchange for content produced by the artist/entrepreneur) or a fee per creation.
How do you Start a Business from Nothing?
A great thing about an online business is that you get to save a lot of money as compared to the traditional business which requires you to pay office rent, part-time and full-time employees, equipment, insurance, and furniture.
Similar to writers on top essay writing services, like cheap essay service or essay have reviewed, it is possible for you to start your online business with no money if you follow the five steps below.
1. Get to Understand What Your Business Will Be About
What are you interested in? This is the first question you need to answer to discover what you are good at. Are you experienced in marketing? Sales? Software development? Maybe e-commerce? Most successful entrepreneurs earn a living from what they love to do.
Starting a business that deals with something you do not love will just lead to failure. In Tommy’s case, he had over seven years’ experience in marketing and four years’ experience in running his businesses. He loves anything related to marketing and being a successful entrepreneur. And so he created an online educational business for entrepreneurs.
2. Going Niche
After figuring out what you love doing, it is now the ideal time to start thinking about the niche. So, let’s say you love teaching people how to attract and retain more clients.
In your mind, you may be having the thought that every person who is in the business of providing service wants to have more clients and therefore you should be targeting everyone who may be interested in the service you provide such as a lawyer, coach, and teacher right? Absolutely not!
A major mistake that most entrepreneurs make is targeting a very broad market. Do not join the herd! Go for a niche market instead. Just as a writer from AssignmentMasters understands who he or she is writing for, you should understand clearly the small group of people that you will be targeting.
So, instead of teaching everyone how to attract and retain clients, you can be more specific by teaching for example female trainers in New York, how to get and retain more clients.
Since you have a clear idea who your target is, you can now focus your time and energy on discovering where your target is located and how they can grow their businesses exponentially. You can now start creating content that specifically targets this small group of interest. Later, when your business has grown bigger, you can broaden your target audience. But for now, focus on a small group.
3. Choosing Your Products
Any online business falls under two categories namely online services and informative or digital products.
Online Services
An online service simply involves you providing a type of service or doing a job for your clients. It could be providing software development services or social media marketing. In our example, it could be providing a specific service to help fitness coaches attract and retain clients. Many online businesses which offer online services succeed because of the determination of the entrepreneur.
Digital Products
You can think of digital products as things such as e-books, online memberships, videos and online courses. There are those digital products that are quite easy to create such as videos, audio files and e-books and there are those that are more complicated and may require a huge amount of money especially if you do not have an idea on how to code or use WordPress.
So if you are going to teach other people how to attract and retain clients, you can write an e-book about attracting fitness clients or you can teach an online course about it. You can write the whole book in Google Docs or Microsoft Word and then design the cover with Canva.
Starting an online course is quite easier than you think. What you have to do is record videos and prepare a few notes. You also need a good camera and microphone. The camera does not need to be professional. You can start by using your phone camera. You can also watch videos on YouTube on how to prepare and sell your online courses easily.
4. Making People Aware that Your Business Exists
After creating your digital product or defining your service, it is now time to move to another crucial section: Marketing. Your marketing strategies will determine your success or failure. It is important to ensure that every strategy you use has been well thought about and has proven to work in the past. Marketing is very expensive. Have you noticed how big organizations spend a lot of money on marketing?
And just because you have completed your online course or e-book does not automatically mean that people will start buying from you or paying for the services you offer. You need to take some time to make your target market aware that your business exists. You also need to make them trust you.
When it comes to your marketing strategy, the first thing you need to find out is which medium will reach your target market best. Are you going to use a website? YouTube channel? Facebook? Instagram? LinkedIn?
Choose a marketing channel that your target market loves to visit on a regular basis. Do not waste time marketing your business on Instagram if your target market does not exist there. Most entrepreneurs reach their target audiences easily using YouTube because any person can find all the answers he or she wants. Most people also visit YouTube for entertainment.
YouTube is currently the second largest search engine in the world. Why should you not use it to market your business? It is cheap, easily accessible and easy to use.
5. Give Your Target Audience Free Useful Content
After figuring out which medium you will be using to reach your target market, you will need to create free content that your audience can read or watch. There are some people who never give free content to their target market because they are afraid no one will actually buy their products or services. But is this true?
Take a moment and remember the last time you were surfing and you came across something interesting such as a book or an audio recording. You tried to get a summary or something related to the product for you to review but the site only insisted that you buy. No free content. Would you go ahead and buy such a product? Personally, no! Who wants to spend money on something he or she is not really familiar with?
Take another scenario. You are surfing the web and you come across a book that interests you. When you try to get a short summary, you are given a free e-book, a short video for you to watch and the summary you had requested. Would you go ahead and buy the book?
People are curious. They want to get to know you better before investing their time and money on your products or services. If you fail to give them free useful information, your product or service is dead!
You do not need to spend your money on creating content. You can use your phone, so long as its camera is in good working condition, a mic and video or movie software. Most phones have these software nowadays.
You also do not need to spend your money shooting pictures for your Instagram or writing articles on your blog. Other types of free useful content include free e-books, guides, workbooks, email, worksheets, and infographics.
What kind of Online Business is Most Profitable?
Before starting an online business, it is important for you to know the ideas that are most profitable. Although these business ideas will not make you an instant millionaire, they will surely make you money in the long run. Here are some online business ideas that are profitable at the moment.
1. Training
People are quickly realizing that the things they learn in their universities have nothing to do with their life.
They are also realizing that in contrast to the traditional education system that remained unchanged since ages, training in specific domains of their interest helps them make a decent living. Even, the degree for dignity trend is falling.
People are quickly realizing that the life is too short to learn everything on their own. They are willing to shell out huge amount of money on getting training from someone else’s experience.
This is the right time for you to gain expertise in a good niche and start your training career.
In early 2016, Inc reported that the eLearning industry is worth $107 billion and still booming. The domain experts have a great scope when it comes to leveraging online courses and membership sites to take a larger pie off the industry.
You can kickstart your training business on platforms like Teachable to host your training courses. Once you set up your training course, marketing is a challenging task.
Here are some of the tips to effectively market your training courses:
- Create a funnel around your training course that consists of free offers, low-risk offers, webinars, etc to warm up your cold audience
- Get some traffic acquisitions to your funnel by creating free content on places where your target audience hang out. Maybe on YouTube, Quora, FB groups, etc.
- Provide continuous value to your course-buyers by giving them access to your member-only forum, groups, so on.
- Create an affiliate program for rewarding people who promote your training courses.
If you are a beginner and want to easily market your training courses with you focusing only on the creation part, you can join as an instructor on Udemy or Skillshare. These platforms already have hundreds of thousands of highly-motivated learners and marketing your product will be very easy – provided you tap into the right niche using their market insights tools.
2. Selling Digital Products
This is the next profitable business online. You can see it everywhere. People sell eBooks, their songs, informational products, WordPress plugins, themes, and also tools for productivity.
While creating any product first off, the 70% of your success depends upon how you research your market and your competitors. Once you are 100% sure that there’ll be hungry buyers for your product, then start creating a product.
The income you generate out of selling digital products is not all passive income. If you release an eBook or other informational products, then it’ll be more or less a passive income.
If you are good at programming, you may want to develop some Saas apps. But extensive market research is very essential before developing any cloud product. We recommend you to browse through the most voted category on Producthunt, try out some of the products that your intuition finds profitable.
Whereas, in case of softwares or plugins, you need to venture with a developer and outsource the development work. If you are willing to release a great theme and are not willing to market it, you can join some marketplaces like Envato or Shopify Themes.
As Envato is quite saturated with many products, I would prefer you to go for any niche specific theme marketplaces like Shopify Themes.
You can design any Shopify related themes where there is less competition than that of WordPress theme marketplaces. There is a whole lot of opportunities for theme developers in Shopify.
As the technology is rapidly changing day by day, new requirements, and problems are arising. So every day, there’ll be new opportunities for product creation.
Depending upon the product you are selling, this will return you a long term sustainable income.
Here are some marketing strategies you can make use of:
- Hiring a full-time email outreach expert and get your app listed on some of the prominent online blogs.
- Offering a generous free plan for your app with some strategic features available only in paid plans, it opens the entry to your funnel wide.
- Offering a bit longer trial period for your apps – make sure you have a system in place so that users’ won’t abuse the trial.
- Offering a lifetime deal on your minimum viable apps on places like Stacksocial, AppSumo for a limited period of time.
3. Blogging
The best part about blogging is, unlike creating digital products, blogging requires little investment. You just need to get a web hosting account, get a domain and install free WordPress on it. You are good to go.
However, depending upon whether you outsource the content, the investment may differ. In order to succeed in blogging, you also need some skills like SEO, content creation, and promotion. Although you can learn all these skills by your own, this will take years to learn and implement them.
When it comes to blogging, there are three main ways by which you can earn money.
- Promoting your own products
- Affiliate marketing
- Advertising or using AdSense
We recommend you to either stick to Affiliate Marketing or Advertising. Because success is where the focus is.
In order for blogging to give you sustainable income, patience and consistency matters. Finding a perfect niche that’s a sweet spot between your passion and profit is highly essential.
4. Freelance writing and other freelancing
You can be a niche freelance writer. If you are a medical practitioner, yes you can choose only to write medical related articles. The moment you have domain expertise, people will be willing to pay you more money when you ask them.
You can join a good freelancer site like UpWork and Outsourcely, and fill out your profile with portfolio and experiences. As of now, the review writers, digital marketing writers, health care professionals, finance and law writers earn more money in the freelancing industry.
The network with popular bloggers will also be a great way to get a head start to your freelancing career as they’ll be in need of content more often. If you are willing to learn more about freelancing, follow Elna Cain. She is damn good at what she does.
With the content bots evolving, authentic voice in a niche is essential.
Freelancers like virtual assistants, social media managers, SEO freelancers, graphic designers, programmers, and video editors have great future. But the thing is that you need to be exceptional at what you do.
This is where the future is.
Due to fierce competition in the freelancing industry, you need to standout with a unique niche expertise. You need to strive for perfection rather than running towards shiny objects and get-rich-quick schemes.
Niche expertise is the only thing that prevents your job from being robbed by robots in the coming years
5. Amazon FBA
Amazon FBA stands for “fulfilled by Amazon”. In this industry, you need to buy cheap products from wholesale sellers and list those items at a much higher price on Amazon.
You need to sell white labeled products, and ship it to Amazon Fulfilment centers. Those FBA centers handle the shipping, packaging, and support for the products.
If you outsource the inventory management and keep an accountant for maintaining the Amazon seller account and updating it regularly, this is a lucrative passive business idea.
This business is more sustainable than drop shipping. In case of drop shipping, there are certain risks like product damage issues or shipping issues. In the case of FBA, the challenging part of your business is handled by Amazon.
The shipping, inventory, and also returns will be handled by Amazon themselves. With this, you get plenty of time to focus on marketing and creative part of the hustle.
The initial costs include inventory, Amazon account registration, product photography, logos and for UPC codes.
You need to find a niche in Amazon FBA too. For that, you can make use of great tools like the JungleScout Product research tool. After finding a niche, you need to find an overseas private label product suppliers on sites like Alibaba.
What is the Safest Business to Start?
Some businesses are riskier, require more money and labor to get off the ground and thus mean you’ll have more to lose. If you want to ensure the security of your future and the future of your potential business, consider starting one of these seven lower-risk businesses.
1. Consulting
When you’re trying to think of a good business idea, start with what you already know. You can take the skills you already have and use them to advise clients, as a consultant. Plus, you probably already have some industry contacts who could be potential clients. It makes the most sense to start there.
As financial advisor Ramit Sethi wrote on his blog, “When you are coming up with business ideas, silence the inner critic that says you can’t teach something unless you are credentialed or the world’s greatest expert on the subject. All you have to be is good enough to help people achieve their goals.”
Whether your focus is website design, marketing, sales or IT, consulting is an easy business option because you can run it completely out of your own home, with pretty much no startup cost. You can even start your business on the side and continue your full-time job until you earn enough to cover your regular salary.
2. Tutoring
Tutoring is another way to use the skills you already have to help others reach their goals. With tutoring, you’ll guide students in an academic subject you already have knowledge in.
It’s easy to get started by working out of your own home. You can then market your tutoring services online or through a site like Tutor.com to get the word out. As you grow, you might consider bringing others on board to join you.
3. Virtual assistant
Are you sensing a theme here? The lowest-risk business ideas are the ones you can start from your home. And according to SmallBizTrends, 69 percent of U.S. entrepreneurs start their businesses at home. That way, you can save money and grow your business steadily without worrying about the capital you’ve invested.
As a virtual assistant, you can offer basic tasks like putting together reports, managing a schedule and coordinating errands. All you need to get started is a phone, computer and an internet connection. As with tutoring, eventually you can hire more employees to grow your business and take on more work.
As motivational speaker Marie Forleo wrote on Twitter, “Starting small doesn’t mean thinking small.”
4. Direct sales
You’ve probably been to a Tupperware party before, or at least known someone who has. But did you ever consider hosting one yourself? Direct sales companies like Tupperware, Avon and Mary Kay hire sales representatives to sell their merchandise and market their products.
With this model, as a sales representative, you have the potential to earn as much money as you want, depending on how much effort you put in. This type of business offers a lot of flexibility since you can work on your own time; you can even work part-time.
Read Also: How to Make Money With Online Courses
There is also a low cost to get started. According to The Penny Hoarder, Mary Kay costs $100 to start, Tupperware costs $99, and Avon, just $10 to 20. The company will provide the tools you need to get started; you then need to focus just on building your customer base.
5. Drop-shipping
Think you’re a whiz at marketing and sales? You’ll need to be to get your business up and running. Consider starting a drop-shipping business. You’ll market and manage an e-commerce store, while a third party will be responsible for product development and fulfillment.
With a service like Oberlo, starting a drop-shipping business is simple. You don’t have to worry about getting products to your customers. All you have to focus on is spreading the word about your products to your customers.
Summary
We have provided a lot of value in this article, you can now see that you don’t need huge amount of money to start an online business you can start with absolutely nothing. We also mentioned some online business ideas you can start with little to nothing.
So, the ball is now in your court. Make your own research and decided which of the above online businesses you will like to start.
