Are you in search of a good business idea that you can run from your home to make some cash? If yes, then you’re at the right post. In this post, I’ll share 42 best small business ideas that you can start today from the comfort of your home with very less or no money at all. So, let’s get started.
This list consists of both online and offline business ideas so, choose the one that suits you the best.
Please Note: This post contains affiliate links to products I use, trust, and recommend. If you choose to purchase a product using these links, I may receive a small commission for referring you – at no extra cost to you. These funds help me keep this blog up and running.
1. Start a Blog
If you’re good at a particular topic and would love to share it with others, then you can start a blog. You can share your knowledge through written content with a blog. You can get full year of hosting and a domain name for less than $50. So, what are you waiting for? It’s the right time to start your blogging journey.
2. Create and Sell Printables
If you love designing, then you can create and sell printables. Printables are digital items that needs to be printed out in the real world to be used. There are different types of printables you can create and sell. You can create planners, coloring pages, calendars, journals, etc. and sell them. You can use Etsy to sell printables.
If you’d like to learn more about creating and selling printables, then check out this free workshop by my friends from Gold City Ventures. They have made thousands of dollars creating and selling printables. And now, they are teaching others how to do the same.
3. Start an E-commerce Store
You can start an e-commerce store and sell products online. You can sell either digital products or physical products or both if you want. You can sell anything from ebooks to physical books, clothes, gadgets, and so much more through your e-commerce store. Shopify is a great platform to start an e-commerce store.
4. Create Graphics
If you’re good at any graphic design software, then you can create graphics and sell them. You can create graphics for others as a freelancer or create graphics and sell them as art. A good example can be wallpapers for mobile phones. You can even grow your own social media handles by posting your graphics and make money. The possibility is endless. As a freelance graphic designer, you can create social media posts, banners, logos, etc.
5. Sell Old Clothes Online
Selling your old clothes can be a great way to make money especially if you’re a fashion geek. If you buy new clothes a lot, then this is the perfect business idea for you. You can make money as well as make room for new clothes in your cupboard. You can sell your old clothes through eBay or Poshmark.
6. Become a Canva Creator
If you are a good at designing vectors or creating templates or if you can click good photos, then you can become a Canva Creator and make money. As a Canva Creator, you need to post your designs and photos on Canva. And whenever someone uses your stuff in their design, you earn royalties. You can join Canva Creator Program as either a template contributor or as a element contributor. As a template contributor, you can create and post templates whereas as a element creator, you can post vectors and photographs. As a Canva Creator, you can earn royalties for lifetime whenever your designs get used.
7. Design Websites
You can learn to design websites for free from YouTube and make money creating websites for others. You don’t need to code to build a website. Nowadays, you can build websites just by drag and dropping objects. You can learn a tool called Elementor to design professional looking websites on WordPress without coding. You can learn to design websites from scratch within weeks and make hefty amount of money designing websites for businesses.
8. Start a YouTube Channel
By starting a YouTube channel, you can turn your passion into profit. You can start a YouTube channel about any topic you want. That can be cooking, gardening, fashion, marketing, tutorials, lifestyle, etc.
To start a YouTube channel, choose a topic you’re interested and most passionate about. Doing so will never let you lack motivation and you’ll never run out of content ideas. You can create either long form videos or short form video (YouTube shorts) to post on YouTube. Nowadays, short videos works the best and gets high amount of views and engagements.
9. Write and Sell Ebooks
If you’re passionate about writing, then you can create ebooks about different topics and sell them. Ebooks are books that you can access online. You can create an ebook about any topic that interests you. You can write ebooks about stories, tips & tricks, marketing, etc. These sells the best. You can write your ebook on google docs and save it as pdf. To sell it, you can use platforms like Etsy, Gumroad or Amazon.
My friend Ana from TheSheApproach has an amazing course on creating and selling an ebook to make passive income online. So, if you’re interested in starting an ebook business, then make sure to check that out.
10. Become a Virtual Assistant
If you’re good at organizing and managing tasks, then you can be a virtual assistant. As the name suggests, virtual assistant means you are someone’s assistant in the virtual world. As a virtual assistant, you can offer administrative services to your clients. That includes appointment scheduling, making phone calls, travel arrangement, handling emails, etc. Many business owners and high profile individuals are always in search of a virtual assistant to help them with their tasks. So, that can be a good opportunity for you to land a virtual assistance job and make money.
11. Open a Home Bakery
If you’re passionate about baking, then you can start your own bakery from home. Through your bakery, you can sell different type of breads and cakes. If you have the skill it takes, then you can make custom cakes and sell them for a higher price. There is a huge demand for custom made cakes in the market, especially for marriage ceremonies and business functions. At the beginning, you can sell your products within your neighborhood and your friend circle. This can help you to get initial sales and boost your confidence.
12. Become a Stock Photo/Videographer
If you have a good camera and love taking photos, then you can be a stock photographer. As a stock photographer, you can take photos and videos of anything and everything from nature to products and day to day life activities. There is a huge demand of good quality photos in the market. You can sell your stock photos and videos on sites like Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Vecteezy, etc. After you list your photos and videos for sell, you make money everytime someone purchases them.
13. Freelance Content Writing
If you’re a creative person and love writing content, then you can be a freelance content writer. As a freelance content writer, you can write blog posts, emails, essays, video scripts, and much more for clients. In exchange, they pay you money. If you can learn copywriting skill, then you can double your income just by writing content for other people. As a copywriter, you can write landing pages and website content. And you can charge more money from your clients as a copywriter. So, even if you’re already a content writer, consider learning copywriting to increase your skills as well as income.
14. Become a Social Media Manager
If you’re good at social media marketing or if you have some digital marketing skills, then you can be a social media manager. As a social media manager, you can manage social media accounts of other people and businesses. It can be Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, or any other social media. The thing is, you need to have the right skill set to become a good social media manager and land clients. Even if you don’t have any idea about social media marketing, then you can learn it on YouTube and start making money selling your skills. Responsibility of a social media marketer is to create marketing plan for the social media account, posting content, generating content ideas, analyzing analytics and making future plans accordingly.
15. Become a Personal Trainer/Yoga Coach
If you’re a fitness enthusiast and have idea about different workouts and nutrition, then you can be a personal trainer. As a personal trainer, your job is to train others. You need to prepare a proper meal plan and workout routine for your clients. People mostly hire a personal trainer when they want to lose their weight and maintain their body.
If you’re good at yoga, then you can teach it to others and make money. You can conduct daily yoga sessions through video call and teach yoga to your students. This can be a great way to stay healthy as well as make money.
16. Carpet Cleaning Business
You can start a carpet cleaning business and make money. All you need to start this business are some basic tools and cleaning detergents. That’s it! You can start by cleaning carpets within your neighborhood. Later on, you can reach out to businesses to offer your services. It doesn’t require much skill to clean carpets but takes time.
17. Grow and Sell Herbs
If you have a garden, doesn’t matter if it’s big or small, you can grow herbs and sell them for a good amount of money. Growing herbs doesn’t require big space so, you can grow herbs even if you have a small garden. After harvesting the herbs, you can process and pack them nicely to sell them for a higher price point. By processing, it can be drying the herbs, grinding, etc. There is a huge demand of herbs in the market so, selling your final product won’t be a problem.
18. Start a Flower Business
If you love flowers, then this might be the best business idea for you. You can source flowers from farmers and sell them to events, ceremonies, etc. happening in your area. You can sell flowers to marriage ceremonies, business events, community events and more. You can even provide flower decoration services in such events to increase your income. You can find and contact flower farms near you to source flowers. Different type of events need different type of flowers so, make sure that you can source any type of flower anytime needed. For this, you might have to keep in touch with multiple flower farms.
19. Become a Local Tour Guide
If you know your place really well, then you can be a local tour guide and make money. You can help tourists to explore your locality, culture, tradition, history, monuments, etc. as a local tour guide. If you live in a place that is full of touristic attractions, then that can be a gold mine for you. You can be a good tour guide if you can communicate well. And learning new languages can help you to earn more as a tour guide.
20. Buy and Sell Domains
Buying and selling domains is called domain flipping. You can make good amount of money flipping domains. Everyday new and new brands are emerging. And to establish their online presence, they need a website which means they need a domain name. In domain flipping, you buy a new domain and keep it until someone comes to buy it. Then, you can sell that domain for a higher price than what you bought it for. Once you buy a particular domain name, it gets reserved and no one else can buy that exact same domain name. Elon Musk paid $11M to buy the domain tesla.com. So, if you can find a right domain, then it can even make you a millionaire. But that’s quite rare. Domain flipping is all about luck and patience.
21. Become a Voiceover Actor
If you can speak fluently and have a good voice, then you can be a voiceover actor. As a voiceover actor, you can narrate videos, audiobooks, stories, advertisements, and more. To become a voiceover actor, you need a good microphone and a quiet place to record the voiceovers. Learning audio editing skills can help you to land more jobs as a voiceover actor.
22. Start a Print on Demand Business
If you’re good at designing, then you can start a print on demand business as well. In print on demand business model, you create designs to be printed on mugs, hoodies, t-shirts, caps, etc. and your print on demand supplier will print it and ship it to your customers whenever an order comes in. You can make millions of dollars if you can create catchy & unique designs. In this business, you don’t need to worry about producing, packaging, shipping or returns. Your supplier handles these all. You can sell your products on Etsy, Redbubble or through your own website.
23. Create and Sell Candles
If you know how to create candles, then you can turn your skill into income. You can source wax from a bee farm nearby to make candles. Candles that are colorful and have unique design sells the best. You can create candles for different occasions as well. It can be for religious events, birthdays, romantic moments, etc. You can even add fragrance in your candles to make it smell better when it burns. That can increase your sales a lot. Etsy is a great place to sell candles.
24. Become a Proofreader
As a proofreader, you can turn your passion for reading into money. To be a proofreader, you need to be good in grammar. As a proofreader, you get paid to read, find and correct spelling errors and grammatical mistakes in writings such as essays, blog posts, scripts, etc. If english is your first language, then proofreading would be a piece of cake for you.
25. Start a Newsletter
Starting a newsletter can be a great way to build your own community. With a newsletter, you can share your knowledge and make money. Newsletter can also be a great way to build long term relationship with people. You can grow your newsletter subscribers with the help of paid ads, blog or by promoting it on social media platforms. To monetize your newsletter, you can use brand partnerships, ads, affiliate marketing and more. Beehiiv is a great platform to start your newsletter business for free.
26. Start an Internet Cafe
If you love meeting new people and have a high speed internet connection, then you can start an internet cafe. If you don’t have sufficient space at your place, then you can rent a small apartment and start your business. To succeed in this business, uninterrupted high speed internet is a must. You can decorate your space to make it much more cozy and comfortable. It can help you to attract more customers.
27. Flip Products Online
The easiest business you can start today is flipping products online. You can buy products for a cheaper price and sell them back for a higher price. You can find cheap products to flip on eBay, Facebook marketplace, Craigslist or in a sale in shops near you. This can be a little tiring because sometimes you can make pennies selling an item but you need to pack and deliver the product to your customer. To make good amount of money flipping items, you need to find an expensive item for cheap price and flip it for a big chunk of money. As a product flipper, your job is to find products that has high potential to sell, pack it and deliver it to the customer.
28. Become a Video Editor
If you love creating videos and know how to edit them, then you can make loads of money editing videos. You can either be a freelance video editor and work with clients or you can start your own social media accounts and start posting your videos. As a freelance video editor, you can edit YouTube videos, Tiktoks, short movies, advertisements, etc. To land high paying clients, you need to be good at video effects, coloring, fonts, sound design, etc. Using a software like Adobe Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve can help you to craft better videos and improve your editing skills. Nearly every professional video editor uses one of these software to edit videos. Even movies are edited using these softwares. Learning an additional software like Adobe After Effects which helps to create motion graphics and animations can 10X your customers and revenue.
29. Start a Rental Business
You can start a rental business and rent out bicycles, costumes, cameras, and a lot more. The demand of rental costumes is increasing day by day so, this can be a great opportunity to get into this business and make money. You can store the rental objects in your own home. So, there is no need of renting out space to store those things. You can promote your rental business through social media and share about it on community gatherings.
30. Become a Tutor
If you’re good at any topic and you can explain it to others in a simple way, then you can become a tutor and make money. You don’t necessarily need to teach those regular subjects like, math and science to become a tutor. There are several topics you can teach as a tutor like, art, music, singing, handwriting, etc. People are ready to pay thousands of dollars to learn different topics from experts in those fields. So, finding a topic that you yourself are passionate about can make you a really great tutor to teach that topic.
31. Start a Pet Care Business
If you love animals, then this is the best business idea for you. You can start a pet care business and make money. It can be pet grooming, pet walking or pet sitting. Out of these three, you can find the one that you like the most and start your business. To start a pet grooming business, you might need a small space but for pet walking and sitting, you don’t even need a space to start the business. You can get more customers if you have your own pet. Having your own pet can help other pet owners to ensure that you know a lot about pets and you can be trusted with their furry babies.
32. Create and Sell Handmade Goods
If you have any skills like knitting, sewing, weaving, pottery, or any other, then you can craft different handmade items and sell them. You can make a lot of money selling unique and qualitative goods. Nowadays, people are giving more priority to locally made products compared to others so, this can be a great way to make money by utilizing your time and skills. You can add designs to the goods you make to sell them for a higher price and increase their chances to sell more. Etsy is the best platform to sell handmade goods.
33. Start a Home Restaurant
If you love cooking and have magic in your hands, then you can cook for others and make money. You can start a cooking business from your own kitchen. You can cook meals for nearby offices and businesses. You can even sell your home cooked food in your neighborhood. You can reach out to businesses near you and offer them a free sample of your cooking to get customers for your cooking business.
34. Start an Instagram Page
Are you the one who scrolls through Instagram a lot? If yes, then this might be the best business idea for you. You can make money by spending time on Instagram. You can start an Instagram page and start posting content. Instagram page is an account that posts content about a specific topic like motivation, money, tech, etc. mostly without showing their face. When your account start growing and gaining followers, you can monetize it through brand collabs, Instagram bonuses, affiliate marketing and more. You can start an Instagram page in niches like, motivation, money, fashion, travel, tech, etc.
If you’d like to learn more about Instagram page business, then check out Instagram University 4.0. In this course, you can learn everything about Instagram page business from scratch. From finding a good niche to get into to growing and monetizing your page, everything is covered in this course. You can join this course for just $6.95. So, make sure to give it a try.
35. Create an Online Course
Creating an online course can be a great way to share your knowledge and make money passively. You can create an online course about a topic that you’re good at or a topic that you have proper knowledge about. It can be a course about creating a website, starting a blog, starting a YouTube channel, programming, graphic design, knitting, cooking, etc. Generally, courses are in video form which is a lot easier to understand compared to other forms like writing, audio, etc. So, people are willing to pay higher price to purchase a course. You can create and sell your course through GetResponse or Payhip for free.
36. Become a Travel Planner
If you’re a travel geek and have travelled to a lot of places around the world, then you can be a travel planner and make money. As a travel planner, you can help others to make their travel plans so that their travel becomes more enjoyable and worthy of their money. You can help your clients to book plane tickets, hotels, trips, safaris, and more. You can recommend them good places like, restaurants, monuments, museums, etc. to visit when they are in a particular place. You can even help them to find a guide if needed as a travel planner.
37. Become a Digital Marketer
In this digital world, you can make good money as a digital marketer. As the name says, digital marketer means marketer in the digital world or the Internet. Even if you don’t know anything about digital marketing, you can learn it for free from YouTube and the Internet. As a digital marketer, you can grow social media accounts for others, run paid ads, create content, design ecommerce websites, SEO and more. There is no limit on how much money you can make as a digital marketer. There are several sub-fields of digital marketing you can get into. For example, social media marketing, SEO, paid ads, web design, sales funnel, content marketing, etc. You can get into any one of these to start your digital marketing career.
38. Become a Tailor
If you’re passionate about tailoring, then you can become a tailor. As a tailor, you can make money by sewing clothes. You can sew new piece of clothing from a raw piece of cloth, sew torn clothes, create new clothes and designs from old clothes and you can sew custom work dresses for small businesses and shops. To start this business, all you need is a sewing machine and sewing skill.
39. Start a Vending Machine Business
By investing a little amount of money, you can start your own vending machine business. You can buy a used vending machine for a cheaper price to start off your business. Through vending machine, you can sell snacks, chocolates, drinks, and so much more. The key to succeed in vending machine business is location. You should try to put your vending machine in such a place that has high flow of people passing by, every single day.
40. Become an Affiliate Marketer
As an affiliate marketer, you can make money by promoting others products. You don’t need to create, package, deliver or store the product yourself. As an affiliate marketer, you work as a middle man between buyer and seller. Seller gives you an unique link to promote their product. Your work is to promote that link and make people purchase through it. When someone purchases the product using your link, you are given certain percentage of the sale amount or a fixed price as mentioned in the affiliate terms. You can join platforms like ShareASale and Impact to find good affiliate products to promote and make money.
If you’d like to learn more about affiliate marketing, then check out this From Zero to Superhero Affiliate Marketing Training Bundle. In this bundle, you will get access to training videos, ebook on making your first affiliate sale, list of 900+ handpicked affiliate programs, and affiliate marketing case studies.
41. Start a Food Truck
If you’re good at cooking, then you can not only open a home restaurant but a food truck too. To start a food truck business, you need a truck with place to prepare food inside it. Through a food truck, you can sell anything you want. Selling unique and delicious dishes can make your food truck really really successful. Food trucks have limited space so, try to keep your list of dishes less but filled with taste and deliciousness.
42. Become a Freelancer
You can become a freelancer and make money by selling your skills and time online. The world of freelancing is pretty huge. Nearly every businesses out there hires freelancer at some point to help them with their work. You don’t always need high techy skills like programming or 3d animations to make money with freelancing. There are several freelancing gigs that require basically no skills to complete the job. For example, removing background from images, content writing, etc. And there are several skills that you can learn with few days and start working as a freelancer. For example, whiteboard animation, graphic design, data scrapping, etc. As a freelancer, either you get paid on hourly basis or on per project basis.
Tips to Succeed in Your Small Business
1. Utilize the Power of Social Media. Nowadays, everyone is on social media. So, use social media to market your business and gain customers.
2. Start Small. Every large company starts small. In the beginning, you might have to charge less than what you deserve for your work. But with time and experience, you can gradually increase your price and charge what you actually deserve. Sometimes, you might even have to work for free to showcase your skills prove you’re the right fit.
So, these were 42 best small business ideas that you can start from your home to make money. If you have any other good small business ideas, then tell me in the comments below. And let me know, which business would you start from these 42 small business ideas if you had to start one?
