Friday, November 15, 2024

Successful Small Business Ideas for Anyone Who Wants to Start A Business

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Not sure what career to pursue? No worries. I know you wish to run your own business and this is enough to help you out!

While learning these small business ideas, you might get tempted to them. But you‡re not to think of just the profit.

The entrepreneurs first look at their passion and the skills they‡ve. So, focus on your skills and the type of things you enjoy doing. This can be an excellent kickoff for you to come up with great business ideas.

Maybe you still have a big list of business ideas to choose from! What to do now?

The below suggestions should shortlist you some best businesses to start:

Best Small Business Ideas

These are the the some of the best small business ideas to consider:

1. Catering services

catering business

If you‡re a professional chef but hate the daily restaurant grind, starting a catering service is a great business idea for you to get into the world of self-employment.

While you‡re starting you‡ll need a commercial kitchen, food serving staff and a few assistant cooks. You‡ll have the choice of picking the projects of your choice. So, you can work less often by choosing fewer but larger events.

However, at the beginning of your business, you‡ll have to make yourself known in the market. The three major markets that you‡d target include, social events, cultural organizations, and corporate clients.

“Most restaurateurs hate catering for the exact reason that I love it: It‡s different every day,” says Ann Crane, owner of Meyerhof‡s Cuisine and Catering in Irvine, California. (Entrepreneur.com)

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2. Hairdressing business

Hairdressing business idea

Hairdressing is one of the most successful small business ideas. If you already have training and experience in the field, you probably will establish your hair salon in a short period of time.

However, if you‡re new and want to become hair stylist, you would need to learn the work first.

You‡ll need attractive décor, talented staff and comfortable seating to kick start your salon. But it takes more to make it successful. A successful hair salon retains its customers by providing the best services and comes up with ideas to bring new customers.

The second approach is to start a mobile hair salon. You won‡t need a fixed location, but a mobile salon shop. You‡ll mainly provide services to senior citizens and other people who are trying to minimize their trips out of the home.

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3. Computer repair service

Electronic repair business

Computer problems happen to everyone. Whether it is a computer in a home or some office, the need for repairing arise at some point. So, if you have a technical background and computer repairing skills, it can be a life turning business idea for you.

While you‡re starting your computer repair business, you‡ll have to buy the tools and equipment. But still, the idea is affordable. You‡re to start small and grow your business gradually with time.

Certainly, you‡ll think beyond targeting the individual computer owners. Small businesses and IT companies can give you regular work and thus, can make a solid foundation of your business.

Once you‡ve strong customer‡s base in computer repair category, you can hire staff to add other related electronic repair services. For example, TV repair, smartphones repair, and home appliance repair.

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4. Food truck idea

Food Business

Food truck business is a profitable small business that works almost everywhere in the world. Not all people have time and money to go to restaurants. Food truck owners are getting enough customers and that‡s why you see different mobile food businesses around you.

Unlike the restaurant business, the food truck business requires little money to get started. It allows you to serve food in different locations and at times of your choice.

It is one of the low-cost food business ideas that can give you a steady income. If you ever dreamt of opening a big restaurant, starting a small food truck business can be your first step to familiarize with people and know their choices.

Do not forget to try busy locations, special events and places near institutions and offices.

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5. Camera rental business

Camera rental business

Who doesn‡t love to make memories with their loved ones, especially on the festivals, events, and parties? Since Cameras are expensive and people don‡t need them very often. That‡s why there is no need to buy if they can get them on rent, right?

If you buy a camera and its accessories, you‡ll open many small business opportunities for yourself. Camera rental service is one of them. The good part is that you just need the basic knowledge of cameras and accessories to get started.

You can start your camera rental business from home and with just one camera. Later, you‡ll increase your inventory to provide customers with a wide range of choices.

Thanks to the internet and social media, you can easily make a strong customer‡s base in a short period of time just by sharing high-quality images.

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6. Dog walking business

Dog Walking

Are you an animal lover? If yes, you would love to have occasional walks with dogs. Won‡t you? It is a simple, straight forward, and low-cost way to enter into the animal business industry.

In big cities across the United States, dog walking is a startup that guarantees a steady income. Many entrepreneurs, however, offer additional services including dog training, feeding, and boarding service.

If you‡re a beginner and thinking to get into this business, make sure you learn the basics. With time, you‡ll be able to hire employees. But to reach that stage you must market your business and build a friendly relationship with dog owners.

One of the easiest ways to market your business is to wear customized clothes with your business logo and phone number.

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7. Cleaning service

Cleaning Business

Do you live in a densely populated area where life is busy? That means people would be a lot busier and won‡t find enough time to do the cleaning by themselves. Not only in homes, but small business offices, companies, apartments, hospitals, and institution all also need cleaners.

That‡s where you can come to help. You can go for any popular niche in cleaning industry, as per your interest. For example, if you‡re interested in big business, you should start a commercial cleaning business.

While if you‡re planning to start a small cleaning business that cost little, you can choose to be a residential house cleaner.

The good thing about cleaning business services is that they don‡t need a lot of advertising. You‡ll receive most of your customers through the word of mouth. And hence, it is important that you provide quality services to build a healthy clientele.

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8. Interior designing

interior designing

Among the thriving and most successful small business ideas is the interior designing business. As an interior decorator, you‡ll have to fulfill the home decoration and furnishing needs of your clients. 

Some clients may just need you to do the arrangement while others would want complete styling and furnishing of their homes.

There is vast scope for interior designers as the demand for decorating and designing homes is more than ever before. The industry adds $10 billion annually to the revenue in the U.S.

Before you get started and think of bringing your business on the road, you‡ll have to learn the work, gain some experience, and come up with clever marketing strategies.

First, know your target market and then, make a marketing plan to attract potential clients. You should try to cover interior designing subsectors including antique furniture refurbishing, basement remodeling, decorating artificial flowers, ceramic tiles, sales and installation, and home furnishing.

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9. Personal trainer

personal trainer

If you‡re a fitness enthusiast, becoming a personal trainer could a satisfying career for you. You‡d do what you love, you‡d work part-time, and you‡ll have a lot of options where you can opt to work. Some people jump into this career to help others achieve their goals.

However, becoming a personal trainer takes more than fitness enthusiasms and helping others. You‡d need a degree, certification and some experience before taking a step to be self-employed as a personal trainer.

When you‡re just starting out your career, you should work for a larger club to get experience. This would be useful in running your own business, which is your ultimate goal.

As you start, you‡ll come to know the type of clients you want to train. Now, you can consider a specialty with the help of which you‡ll have more to offer to your clients and you‡ll charge more for your services than before.

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10. Landscaping business idea

Landscaping business idea

Landscaping is yet another profitable business that needs no degree or formal training. You can learn the work on the job. Some landscaping and lawn care services are basic and anyone can do them. 

For example, mowing lawns, gardening, removing herbs and shrubs, planting, and tidying up the lawn from fallen leaves.

The landscaping work is suitable for active people who have the potential to do work for many hours straight consistently. If you‡re planning to start small, you might not like the seasonal nature of the landscaping business.

A big company that offers landscaping and many other related services in the country can make a good income in this field. It would get customers from different places throughout the year.

According to Entrepreneur.com:

  • The landscaping and lawn care business owners, on average, earn $5,000 to $50,000 in their first year.
  • As soon as they establish and build a customer‡s base, they earn $160,000 to $250,000 annually.
  • The one-time service charge of the most landscaping and gardening businesses is anywhere in the range $20 to $80.

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11. Photographer

Wedding photographer

Do you have a passion and a great eye to capture the special moments? You might want to consider photography as your career. The competition can be stiff depending upon the area you live in.

You should specialize in a specific type of photography, such as wedding photography, portraits, and drone photography to stand out there.

One of the most successful small businesses in the photography industry is wedding photography. The wedding photographers cover special events, festivals, and parties also.

What if you‡re willing to start the photography business on a small scale? Buy the necessary tool and equipment and turn one of your rooms into a photo studio. It‡s easy until this stage. Once you‡re set to receive your first customer, you‡d need to promote your services.

You‡re starting small and from home, but that doesn‡t mean that you‡ve to be there always. So, gird up your loin and set a goal to turn your small business into big and provide people with all types of photography services from a beautiful office in a prime location.

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12. Daycare service

childcare service

The daycare service market is huge. So, if you‡re good with children, you‡re in luck to have this profitable business opportunity. You‡ll have these options once you decide to fill the daycare need in your neighborhood.

  • Starting full-time nanny service.
  • Establishing childcare out of your home.
  • Renting commercial space and starting a professional daycare service.

In any case, do not forget to know the state licensing, insurance, and inspection requirements.

If you‡re planning to start this valuable business, you‡ll have to be professional in your work. It is a matter of kids and definitely, parents would want to leave their children in safe hands.

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13. Resume writing

Resume writing

Resume writing service helps candidates by creating a resume that speaks the candidate‡s skills. If you have the skill to write resumes that catches the attention of potential employers, you can start this business.

Many candidates find this work tough and time consuming and that‡s why they ask for help. You‡ll have to market your business so that the students and job seekers can find you easily.

With the internet, you can help people all over the world. All you need is to start your own resume writing website or make gigs on freelance websites so that people can contact you whenever they want.

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14. Tutoring business

Tutoring business idea

Tutoring is among the most successful home-based business ideas available today. To be a tutor, you need a degree (at least bachelor) in an academic subject.

These are the options you can choose from once you decide to start tutoring:

Tuition center: A small home-based tuition center is a good option for beginners. You‡ll have to teach a couple of hours to the students who are weak and join your tuition center. If you find a good number of students, you can make good money.

Home tuitions: In the case of home tuition, you‡ll visit the students and teach them in their homes. A couple of home tuition can earn you enough.

Tutoring online: Online teaching is among the trending small business ideas that pay well. You‡ll need to teach from home through the internet.

Making a course: If you have a skill and you want to teach it through videos, making a course can be your best option. You can make a website for your course where people can enroll. You can also put your course on popular course sites online. Udemy is one of the most popular course sites.

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15. Welding business

Welding business idea

Unlike many entrepreneurial ideas, welding business is a business that can be successful in every type of area. You can turn it into a success, even if you‡re living in a village or small town.

Every area in the world needs small businesses that help in repairing, making, and installing metal-based items. The better news is that the competition is low and many new entrepreneurs are needed to fill the available space.

You should work on projects that the community needs. Then, they will find you whenever they need you. However, a location-based welding shop is good to attract customers. You won‡t need to advertise at all if you‡re starting a small welding business.

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16. Massage therapist

Massage therapist

Massage therapists are health care workers who help in relaxing body tissues and promote wellness and healing. It is a business suitable for people who enjoy working with people and making them feel better by managing their pain.

As a massage therapist, you‡ll have to do the following things:

  • Asses the client‡s health and deliver massage.
  • Give tips to the clients about their health.
  • Teach stress management and relaxation techniques.
  • Show them what postures to avoid and which postures can help.

That‡s not all if you‡re running a self-employed massage business. You must do marketing, scheduling, cleaning, and billing.

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17. Laundry services

laundry business idea

Many people do not find time to do their laundry. They prefer to send their clothes to laundry services. So, you can be there to help such people.

Depending on how big you want to start your laundry business, you‡ll have to invest money.

A self-served laundry is easy to start and doesn‡t cost much. It is, however, advisable to research the area and find out if there is enough room for you to get into this business.

The location of laundry service matter more than anything else. If you pick a prime location near the hostel, schools, hotels, motels, colleges, and hospital, you‡ll start earning good money soon.

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18. Bed and breakfast

small hospitality business ideas

If you‡re living near a tourist area, then probably one of the most profitable businesses you could go for is bed and breakfast. You can start with one room but more the rooms you have, the better for you.

This business idea will entertain you as well. You‡ll meet different people from different parts of the world. Make sure you know the types of people who usually travel your area and create special packages for them.

You‡ll also need to come up with ways with which you can tell them about your bed & breakfast business.

You can hang banners and signs, hand over cards to people who might need rooms, treat them well and give them your mobile number so that they can get help from you next time or can refer their friends.

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Cons

19. Taxi driving

taxi driving to make money

If you‡re looking for a one-man business idea, taxi driving can be a good choice. Before jumping right in, it‡s better to talk to a few people attached to this business.

Once you come to know that it can a solid business for you, then it‡s is the time to research on an area where you‡ll drive. You can find hundreds of customers in big and populous cities daily.

The next step is to buy a taxi cab or get it on rent. The startup would be small initially but no need to worry. Many entrepreneurs who grew famous had their startup grow from zero, so can you.

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20. Auto repair business idea

auto mechanic

Among the best and most successful small business ideas is auto repair business. If you love working on cars in the garage, why not start car repairing as a business.

Many skilled workers work as employees in companies where they are paid quite less. They have to work for many hours a day. If you‡re one of them, consider starting your own business.

On the other hand, people with an entrepreneurial mindset work as an apprentice in car repair shops but as soon as they learn the skills, they start their own auto repair shop.

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21. Open a gym

If you‡re into exercise and fitness, gym business idea is worth considering. Small gyms make revenue from membership and monthly fees.

While big gyms increase their income streams by offering fitness classes, juice bars, tanning salons, and renting a place to personal trainers. Some people, however, won‡t like this business idea because of inflexible schedules.

Gym business spreads through word of mouth. While if you want to promote it to more people and trainers, you can publish an ad in the local newspaper. Hanging banners and flyers in busy streets can also be effective.

Pros

Cons

22. Car washing service

car washing service

According to Hedges & Company, “there were 276.1 million vehicles registered in the U.S. in 2018. That is 276.1 million vehicles that need to be washed and maintained regularly”

This means the investment in the car wash industry is safe.  Still, before investing in car wash business, conduct research and study the market demands and feasibility.

A small self-served car wash business on average makes $40,000 per year. Choose a good location because it is the major factor that leads to business success.

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Cons

23. Ice Cream Shop

ice cream retailing business

Small ice cream shop is better than many retail businesses. At least, you won‡t have to attend cranky customers. You also won‡t face the problem of collecting money to invest as it cost little.

You don‡t need others to help you in starting and managing an ice cream shop. The good part is that people of every age love ice cream. But they may like different flavors. Hence, you‡re to keep every flavor that your customers may ask for.

The problem is that you can‡t depend on ice shop throughout the year. In winter, the sale would go down.

So, it is better if you start the ice cream business in a place where the summer season remains for 9 months. Otherwise, you‡ll have to start another small business in the winter season.

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24. Sewing and alteration business

sewing business idea

Sewing and alteration business is included in the list of small business ideas with low investment and high profit. People will always need clothes and you could be the person to sew or alter them as per the customer‡s desire.

You do not need any degree, however, you must learn the skill. It is a perfect low-cost small business idea that you can start from home.

If you‡re good at work, you won‡t need to advertise your business to get customers. People will promote your services through the word of mouth.

If you‡re starting a location-based sewing shop, try to find a location in a busy yet non-competitive area. This will increase the chances of your success in this business.

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25. Furniture Making

woodworking business

Furniture is essential in homes, offices, institution, hospitals, banks, and other places that matter. Have a quick look around you! You‡ll find out that we can‡t deny their importance.

The furniture industry can be divided into two major types: Household furniture manufacturing industry and office furniture manufacturing industry. The basic types of furniture you can consider making includes:

  • Children‡s furniture
  • Garden and Outdoor Furniture
  • Kitchen Furniture
  • Office Furniture
  • Bathroom Vanity
  • Luxury Furniture

According to a report by IBISWorld:

In the U.S 45% of the revenue generated in the entire industry is from the sale of household furniture, 5% from institutional furniture sales, 25% from the sale of office furniture, 10% from custom architectural woodwork and millwork and 10% from the sale of other furniture like mattresses, blinds and shades.

Check AlsoBusiness Ideas for Small Towns, Villages & Rural Areas

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26. Clock/Watch Repair

watch repairing

Watch repair businesses fix watches and clocks and sell new watches. If you have experience in repairing small mechanical things, you would find this idea incredibly easy.

Most watchmen work locally. You can find them in shopping malls. Some, watch sellers and repairers are mobile. They cover different areas every day and thus, make most out of their skills.

Nowadays, digital watches and bands are trending and people definitely won‡t buy new and expensive watches because of a small problem. Starting from a small clock and watch repair shop, you can grow it to a successful watch/clock selling and repair business.

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27. Clothing boutique

clothing business idea

Clothing businesses are often successful businesses. The problem is that they require a big capital that you might not be able to arrange. Fortunately, there is a way out but it is gonna take time for you to reach where your goal.

“Ralph Lauren started selling a couple of neckties and ended up building a multi-billion dollar empire” You can do the same. Start small and then grow gradually with time.

The clothing boutique is suitable for people who are fashionable and know the art of selling clothes. They satisfy their customers by suggesting them different designs and build friendly relations with regular customers.

Keeping yourself up to date to the current fashions and styles will also contribute to your boutique‡s success.

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Cons

28. Yoga Classes

yoga training business

Yoga is a popular relaxing exercise. Many attend yoga classes to improve their fitness and reduce stress. People with strong communication and public speaking skills can become good yoga instructors provided that they are passionate about health and wellness.

If you‡re starting yoga classes alone, you‡ll have to handle everything by yourself including scheduling classes, recruiting new students, cleaning mats and marketing your studio.

A yoga studio can be started in both cities and small towns. In some places, you would find more students than others. So, be sure about the potential of your place before jumping into the business.

You‡re starting small but you don‡t have to be there always. Therefore, you must think of ways to grow your studio. 

One day, you‡ll have many instructors in your studio, you‡ll be offering healthy juices and other diets, and you will be able to rent out space to personal trainers in your studio.

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29. Café Shop

cafe business

Café shops are very common in many parts of the world. You can too find a spot in the industry to fill in. What‡s your say?

No problem if you haven‡t run a business before. Remember that “Every expert was once a beginner”. And if you want to learn things and come into the game prepared, you should consider working in a café for a month or two.

It is true that it could be the path to your independence but in the first few months, you‡ll have to prove that your business will stand the test of time.

So, before you plunge in have proper research of the industry and make a proper plan to stand out in the competition.

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30. Used Car Dealership

car resale business

A used Car dealership is a million dollar business. It requires big investments and has risk involved. But the thing is “If you know the art of choosing used cars that can offer you good profit, you‡re all set for this business.”

These are the small niches within the car dealership industry that you can think of specializing in:

  • Bricks and mortars used cars dealership shop
  • Online used cars dealership shop
  • Used luxury cars dealership business
  • Multi-brand and multi – maker car dealers

You can run this business with a car rental business. In the car rental business, you already would have a fleet of cars that you can sell if you see a good opportunity. 

Moreover, it will increase your knowledge and experience in cars. Hence, it will help you to be ready for the car dealership business.

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Faheem Rafique
Faheem Rafiquehttps://bestsmallventure.com/author/faheem/
Faheem Rafique is an entrepreneur and business writer with over ten years of experience in the field of small business ideas, marketing and branding. He has built six-figure businesses.

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