Starting your business at a young age has a number of benefits and should definitely be explored if you have the time, dedication, and resources to begin with. You learn better management skills, gain work experience, and put yourself ahead in the race with other people your age. Instead of focusing on bigger ideas that may require a lot of up-front investment, which may not be feasible at this stage, you should look for ways to improvise. Be creative with your business idea and do not worry about making it big too early on.
What matters the most as you start off your business is not to make it a success in the first year or so. You should initially be looking to learn how to deal with people, make links and connections, and gain insight into the very basic processes like logistics, marketing, procuring materials, and more. What most people starting off a business do not understand is that without any experience, you should always go for low-budget ideas that do not require too much of your capital.
The best way to start a business in this day and age is to tap the online market. With online businesses, you need little investment and less manpower. Just make sure you have high-speed internet like Windstream Internet that you can rely on to successfully operate in the digital space. With that said, let’s explore some of the best low-investment online business ideas that you should look into as you set foot in the market.
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1. Sell hand-made jewellery online
Jewellery is never out of fashion. Instead of going for the regular type of jewelry that is available everywhere, you should go for a more ethnic and hand-made one. If you’re talented and want to learn making it yourself that’s best. If not, you can source it from a local jewelry maker and then market and sell it online. All you need to do is make an online store, take aesthetic pictures of the pieces, and upload them along with their prices online.
With platforms like Facebook and Instagram, you can easily create an e-store and use digital marketing tools like advertising and boosting posts for better reach and engagement. Storing and dispatching these would also be a lot easier than renting a physical shop, which would add too much to your cost.
2. Start a thrift store
Just as setting up a jewelry shop, you can do the same with clothes. But instead of designing, sewing, and creating clothes on your own which would cost too much, you can simply sell used clothes that are in good condition. In short, create a thrift store where people can buy and sell used clothes. This is a very low-budget investment business as you barely need any money to get started. Just pick a few of your clothes that are in good condition but you know you won’t ever be wearing them again, because of whatever reason. Take pictures and post them online.
Once your page gets a good number of followers, you can start crowdsourcing your pieces. Create criteria for selecting your clothes so that despite not being the designer, you get to maintain some aesthetic control over your page.
3. Sell home-cooked food
Do you like to cook and happen to be good at it too? Sell your food online! People love a good homecooked meal and many would love to get a regular delivery if it is convenient and of good quality. Set a small menu at first with only the best dishes you can cook and deliver. You can offer a weekly or monthly subscription for a meal plan and partner with a delivery service that offers to deliver your food hot and fresh.
You can create an app or website for ordering, but also keep it simple and just make a social media page in the beginning. If you can make an app, you should make a marketplace for homecooked food. This way other home chefs can also sell their homecooked food through your app and you can earn a commission on every order.
4. Offer a nanny service online
Free at home quite often and don’t mind sitting babies? Just become a nanny. Or better, connect nannies with parents online. Just like you can order an Uber before stepping out, make an app that lets parents book nannies for night outs without the children. If you don’t have the investment to create a website or app for it, worry not. You can create a social media page for it and handle all orders yourself. Only add credible people and create criteria for nannies to fall in to be eligible to join the community.
With ratings and reviews, this service can grow into a big community.
5. Become a freelance makeup artist
Last but not least, offer your makeup services to clients at home. You do not need a huge salon to be a famous makeup artist. Just post your makeup pictures and videos online and offer your at-your-doorstep makeup services to clients in your city.
A lot of people prefer getting ready at their own house. Just make sure to have a good online presence and followers so people can trust you.
Wrapping Up
All in all, running your own business carries an irreplaceable satisfaction. If you’re in college or taking a gap year, it is the best time to focus on a self-employed career as you can make mistakes and face failures, but most of all, learn a great deal. And who knows you might even end up making it big. We hope these trending low-budget business ideas were of help to you. If you have any more ideas, do let us know!
Featured Image Credit: Deposit Photos
