The internet has totally pervaded our modern lifestyle and has become a major influence in the daily running of our lives. This is increasingly apparent when it comes to online commerce, with the internet contributing to over $2.2 trillion in annual retail sales alone. With such a powerful tool at your disposal, you’d expect that making money online should be a walk in the park; there’s nothing further from the truth. Unlike what the get rich schemes you find online want you to believe, finding and implementing an authentic business idea is not easy. So many people are trying to avoid the dreaded office set-up by finding work online so you’re guaranteed to have enormous competition. Additionally, navigating and finding reputable sources of adequate income without falling prey to pyramid schemes and other marketing scams is no mean feat.
What’s a small business idea?
A small business idea requires relatively little in the way of capital to get started and therefore much easier to implement.
However, as with all good things, you need to work for it. While it’s possible to make adequate quick cash in the short term, most small business ideas need requires a lot of effort and building a strong reputation over time for success. Here are some ideas that could work for you.
- Sell private label products online
Private labelling is one of the most lucrative small business ideas you can invest in. A private labelled product is a product that you can acquire by a contract or a third-party manufacturer then resell under your own brand. Here’s how it works, you get a product from a manufacturer then alter it according to your own specifications to create your own brand. It’s a great time to get into the private labelling arena as more and more people are opening up to the idea of using such products. The fact that more than 80% of customers believe that private label products are equally as good or even better that their national brand counterparts.
You can sell products that are actually of the same quality as leading national brands, without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. To start off, check out the five steps about how to sell private labels that customer will want to buy by Patrick Foster. Once you have a product idea in mind, find suitable private label manufacturers to make your product after which you can apply any necessary tweaks and labelling to create your final brand. There are various online commerce platforms you can use to sell your product but Amazon definitely stands out due to its FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) program. As long as you do it right, private labelling is guaranteed to rake in a lot of money.
- Create a blog.
Practically everyone has thought about writing a blog to make money. Those who’ve actually tried know it’s not as easy as some popular bloggers make it seem. Even though blogging requires little or no capital, building a successful blog needs persistence, discipline and patience. It isn’t a quick fix, you could literally write every day for months before seeing any sort of returns.
First, focus on getting a lot of web traffic by consistently posting high quality content. Once you have enough traffic on your blog, you can start to monetize it in a number of ways. You could sign up with a company like Google Adsense and start advertising on your blog. Alternatively, you could publish sponsored posts about products or services on behalf of a company. Other ways include setting up membership and subscription fees or working with an affiliate network. You’ll find that blogging is a small business idea that’s difficult to start out but will effortlessly earn you money once it gains momentum.
- Sell your professional services online
Another small business idea you could consider is providing services such as freelance writing, programming or graphic design, for a price. If you are particularly gifted at a certain field, don’t hesitate to sell your services through sites like Upwork, Fiverr, Listverse and many more. Small business ideas such as this require practically no capital, unfortunately, starting out can be pretty difficult and time consuming. These platforms are all highly competitive so finding clients won’t be easy till you get a good track record and accumulate numerous positive reviews. You could have a successful freelancer show you the ropes and help you figure out what to do to succeed faster. Alternatively, you could try to find the most successful people in your particular kind of work and see how they do things, from their online profile to their approach. Doing this can give you much needed inspiration.
- Create an app
The number of people using smartphones is simply staggering. In fact, according to Techcrunch, there will be a whopping 6.1 billion smartphone users globally by 2020. With that many users, the demand for new and innovative smartphone apps is ever on the rise, making apps a business opportunity ripe for the picking. However, unlike many other small business ideas, creating an app requires a fair bit of technical knowhow to accomplish. Lacking such skills isn’t an excuse to give up; you can always hire someone else to do it for you as long as you have a good idea for an app. The good thing about creating apps is that you don’t really need a huge capital base while starting out and unlike physical goods, you don’t have to worry about storage or transportation costs. Take your time and do proper market research and analytics to find an app that will sell then you can sit back and watch your app earn you loads of money.
- Become a virtual assistant
Virtual assistant perform the jobs that any assistant or secretary would do for small businesses that are reluctant to hire an in-house employee. Such duties include making travel arrangements, paying bills, making appointments and many more. As a virtual assistant, you have the benefit of working from the comfort of your home and only interacting with your clients online. How much you are paid depends on your overall expertise and experience as well as the number of clients you can comfortably handle.
Author Bio
Sarah Kaiser is a digital marketing manager at a French retailer’s sourcing division, which specializes in private labeling, Asian supplier audit and customized product sourcing. She’s a fan of water sports and has studied business management in France. Her works have been published on dozens of websites and blogs. If you are interested in starting your private label business, you can contact her at info@godirek.com or follow @Godirek on twitter.
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