The many top 10 profitable business ideas for beginners who are looking at being labelled as employers of some sort in the growing financial world are just too interesting to ignore. As the world is gradually economically fluctuating and wheels of fortune are vigorous spinning to gratify those who are only interested in running a trade or business, this article is set to hep teach you on the steps to take to starting some very lucrative businesses.
Steps to Starting a Business
Here is what you need to do to get a business afloat:
- Research your small business idea. Articles like this are a good start. Also make sure to research wider economic conditions and outlook and the general health and makeup of businesses in your area.
- Start planning your business. Download a business plan and start filling it out. Be as detailed as possible, and if you run into anything you don’t know the answer to, take the time to research it thoroughly. The more concrete your business plan, the stronger foundation you have to start your small business.
- Secure funding. Using your business plan, start approaching sources of funding, like banks and investors.
- Make sure the legal parts are covered. What certificates do you need? What permits? What laws should you be aware of? Start putting these in motion.
- Secure a location. If you’re opening a small business with a brick and mortar presence, you’ll need a location. You should have scouted some while making your business plan, so now that you have your funding, sign a lease.
- Get your business management software. If you’re opening up a retail store or charging for services, you’ll need a point of sale system. If you have employees, you’ll need payroll management. No matter what type of business you’re starting, you’ll need accounting software.
- Acquire inventory. Find wholesalers for small businesses from which to source your products and start contacting them. Expos and online supplier directors are great places to start.
- Build a team. If you’re just starting out, you may be able to run your business by on your own. But as things progress, you’ll nee to bring in in part-time or full-time employees. Make sure you research average wages in your area.
- Build your website. Having an online presence is crucial, even if you’re not planning to sell anything over ecommerce. Build a site and open your social accounts.
Top 10 Profitable Business Ideas for Beginners
In 2023, you’ll need to be prepared to adapt to shifting customer expectations, global conditions and economic realities. If you’re thinking about starting a business this year, here are some of the top 10 profitable business ideas for beginners that desire to fill up the current small business landscape and the opportunities available.
1. Printing and Design Business
Another very reliable one of the top 10 profitable business ideas for beginners is the printing and design business, print on demand puts inventory, shipping, and fulfillment in the hands of a third-party supplier. Unlike the dropshipping business idea, the focus here is on customizing products with your own designs to create something original.
T-shirts, hats, phone cases, hoodies, skirts, tote bags, and more become canvases for your creativity. You can think up witty slogans for developers or references that resonate with cat owners—if there’s passion and pride within a community, there’s a potential t-shirt business you can start.
Even if you’re not a designer, you can find one to work with using freelance sites like Fiverr, Upwork, Dribbble, or 99Designs.
With many print-on-demand services, you’re paying per product, so the base price per unit will be more expensive than if you were to order in bulk. But the advantage is that if a certain t-shirt design doesn’t sell, you haven’t actually paid for the item yet (only the design, if you outsourced it).
You can even use t-shirt mockup templates so you don’t need to spend extra money on a full photoshoot for every new design. There are a variety of print-on-demand platforms you can work with, many of which can be integrated with your Shopify store for seamless order fulfillment. However, be sure to always order a sample of your product (often offered at a discount) to make sure your custom products look good.
2. Book Selling Business
A book is just another type of product when you think about it. As such, you can create one to serve a particular demand in the market. Cookbooks, picture books, comic books, poetry books, photo books, coffee table books, and novels—if you’ve got the knowledge or creativity, there are a variety of original books you can bring to the market. The options are endless—that’s why it’s one of the best small business ideas to start.
Print-on-demand is a relatively safe way to test the waters and get started with self-publishing. It also gives you control over the quality and look of your book. Lulu xPress and Blurb are popular platforms to create, order, and distribute your own books as physical and digital products. You could also sell it on third-party marketplaces like Amazon or Powell’s.
While you can order one book at a time, costs naturally go down when you buy in bulk. Consider pre-selling or crowdfunding your book idea to ensure there’s demand and guarantee a certain number of sales so you can feel confident making a bulk order. Launching your own book can be a great way to monetize a blog if you have or are looking to start one.
3. Home Improvement Services
In 2020, the real estate market saw its highest pace of growth since 2005. While the housing market has since slowed down, all those new homeowners still want to fix up their homes, which creates a demand for home improvement services. New homeowners may not have the skillset or expertise to make their renovations a reality, and look to hire a professional to help get the job done.
Home improvement services could include anything from interior design, carpentry, contracting, plumbing or landscaping. Most of these areas require training and access to equipment or materials, so the startup costs are not the cheapest. This type of business also may be more popular in certain geographic areas than others (i.e. wherever people are buying homes most readily).
4. Dropshipping Business
Dropshipping is a business model you can use to run an online business without holding inventory. After you make a sale, your suppliers will ship the order from their warehouse to the customer. You don’t need to worry about storing, packaging, or shipping products.
Buy stock, store it, pick it, pack it, ship it. Managing inventory is a big commitment when you’re running a business. Dropshipping is an easy, low cost, business idea to start and the first of our good business ideas. Dropshipping is a fulfillment model where a third-party supplier stores and ships inventory to customers on your behalf. It’s one of the best businesses to start because it’s low overhead, hands-off, and scalable.
You don’t need to handle any products yourself—you just need to make the sales and pass orders on to your supplier. In fact, it’s one of the quickest and cheapest businesses to start. You can curate products from one or more suppliers into your own online store under a theme that focuses on a specific niche, like gear for yoga enthusiasts or water bowls for dog owners. When a customer buys a product from you, the order is sent to your supplier, who fulfills it on your behalf. However, you are still responsible for your own marketing and customer service.
There are both local and overseas suppliers you can work with, as long as you can establish a relationship with them built on trust—an unreliable supplier will reflect poorly on your brand.
Dropshipping is a great way to test product-market fit and launch a business before you invest in your own original products. Just be sure to always order a sample for yourself to make sure your supplier is reliable and that the quality of the products is fit for selling to your customers.
5. Humanitarian Business
Starting a non-profit organization isn’t the only path you can take to help fund a better world. Having a mission to go along with a business and setting aside some profit for a cause gives social entrepreneurs a unique way to position their company in the market while addressing the issues they care about most.
While many social enterprises offer their own original products, you can also take any of the low-cost small-business ideas above and partner with a non-profit or execute that social good with your own hands, as long as you’re transparent about how it works. As part of your marketing, you can share the impact that your customers are having by supporting your business, such as a blog post covering your work in the community or a real-time impact calculator on your website.
The Give & Grow Shopify app makes it easy to partner with charitable organizations and incorporate your mission into your business. You can set it up to donate a specific amount or a percentage of sales, or ask your customers to add a donation at checkout.
6. Online or Digital Business
Digital products like music, courses, podcasts, and templates are unique on this list of low-investment small-business ideas. Unlike the others, they’re not tangible. There aren’t recurring manufacturing or shipping costs to worry about, so your margins can remain high, making it another no-brainer for being one of the best businesses to start.
The trick is figuring out what makes for a good digital product or digital business. The answers range from original instrumental beats to stock photos that can be licensed to other creators to information products and templates that help people level up their skill sets in a particular field.
If you’ve got a talent that can be turned into a digital product, think about packaging it into a new stream of income. Shopify has a free Digital Downloads app that lets you offer digital products in your store as easily as physical products. Sell print-on-demand posters, greeting cards, and prints
If you’re artistically inclined or know your way around a camera, you can dropship using a print-on-demand business model to let others physically own a piece of your work. Just be sure you have the rights to the content you want to print or are using public domain assets you can freely monetize. If you’ve already got an engaged online following—say you’re a cartoonist or an urban photographer—you’re in an especially good position to give this small business idea a try.
Depending on the printer you work with, you can turn your work into products such as posters or framed wall art, even greeting cards. There are plenty of low-cost digital templates and mockup generators like Placeit you can use to showcase your products without having to print out each item and conduct your own photo shoots.
7. Cleaning Service Business
Cleaning services offer essential opportunities to both residential and commercial properties, helping to manage tasks many people do not enjoy or do not have time to complete. These services can function as home-based support one or more times per week, or as a daily resource for commercial operations. With average rates of $18 to $35 per hour, cleaners bring in substantial revenue for simple, yet necessary services.
Due to the nature of a cleaning service—no physical office is required, equipment costs are low and can be billed back to the client and hours of operation are flexible—enterprising entrepreneurs can see significant success in building a company in this industry.
8. Tutoring Business
School is always in session, and remote education has created unique challenges for students of all ages. Starting a tutoring service is a great way to help those struggling with core concepts or gain further mastery in a specific area. Here’s a sample list of the subject areas that your tutoring business could specialize in:
- SAT/ACT prep
- College essay prep
- English
- Sciences (biology, chemistry, physics)
- Foreign languages
- Mathematics
- History
- Computer science
Thanks to video software, there’s no need to hold lessons in person—all you need is a phone, tablet or computer, making the startup costs for this type of business very low. Depending on your location and level of education, your tutoring service could charge anywhere from $25 to $56 an hour.
9. Digital Marketing Business
With more businesses setting up shop online, there’s a growing need for digital marketing services. To help small businesses build their brand and digital presence online, you can create your own digital marketing agency. A digital marketing agency typically offers one or more of the following services:
- Copywriting
- SEO writing
- Help with paid social media advertising
- Web design
- Web development
- Brand/creative consulting
- Content creation
- Organic social media management
Anyone can start a digital agency business, regardless of their educational background. Running an agency is easy to do from a home office, so there are very little startup costs for starting this type of business. You can run an agency as a solopreneur, or hire people that have expertise in the areas you’re less solid in.
10. App Building Business
Businesses are looking to go digital, and some may even seek to build their own apps to reach customers. App developers can help businesses make their visions a reality by building a custom iPhone or Android app.
App development doesn’t require a formal degree, but prior training and experience building apps are important to have if you’re planning to break into the field. There are coding bootcamps and free online courses that can help you learn the fundamentals and get started.
