In this post you’ll find a few easy business ideas that you can implement without much capital upfront.
Good ideas are what fuel the business world. When implemented in the form of products/services, they tend to improve not only the life of the ones who created them, but also the ones who buy them.
The ease with which one starts a business can determine whether he/she will remain in the business world in the long run. The reason for this is that if you start a business with a high barrier to entry, and for some reason it doesn’t go well, you’d have lost both financial and mental resources. Which can make it more unlikely that you’ll start any other business venture. Complicated businesses that require lots of capital and resources to start result in heavy losses if the business is not successful. So,for beginners the best businesses are the ones they can start with their savings and not the ones which require investors’ capital.
Easy business ideas
Below are a few ideas you can start implementing today in terms of the time it might take for you to start and the capital.
1. Shipping/importing clothes and other objects to other parts of the world
Shipping or importing clothes is one of those businesses that has been around for a while and can also be a good source of income. If you’re exporting, the first thing you need to do is to find a contact on the country you’re planning export the goods to. Good ways to find such people are in stores that sell clothes and other objects for cheap and in bulk, since these are the places were most people who do that kind of businesses do their shopping.
1.2 Finding a cheap delivery service
The next step following your contact is to find a way to ship the products to the country you’re planning to export your products to. Notice that for example, if the country you’re at is known for producing a certain kind of product, let’s say, spices, you can use them as your first product. There are many shipment services these days that offer both the security that your products will arrive to their destination, and affordable prices.
1.3 Find out more about your market
IF you’re planning to export products to other countries in a small scale, you need to also know about your market in the country of destination. This is the kind of information you can get from either people who are already in the business or form your contact. Sometimes even with the contact, the shipment service and the product available, the potential for profit on the other side is low.
So, if you find that after all expenses from buying the product and shipment, that you still make a good profit, then this might be an opportunity, that if you take advantage of can open the doors for a larger scale exporting business. Start with small amounts to test the waters, and slowly, you can grow yourself into a bigger and more profitable business.
1.4 Find the best stores to shop at
For this kind of business price and quality are even more important than they usually are to the average buyer. The cheaper the price and the higher quality of the product, the greater will be your profits and the odds of future orders. This means looking for the stores that sell what you’re looking for, for cheap prices while keeping at the same time, some degree of quality.
Importing
When it comes to importing you also have to think about the prices, but in a deeper level so. You have to take into account that many businesses also import products from abroad, and if you’re not able to at the very least match their prices your dream of possibly becoming a large scale importer will be reduced to nothing.
Instead of looking for products that the big retailers are importing, you should target the ones that have some demand that you think you can at fill at least partially, but there is not enough supply coming from other businesses. Just like exporting, it would help if you had a contact on the other side, or you were somehow able to go to the country you’re importing from in person.
Notice that for both exporting/importing it doesn’t have to be overseas. You can do perfectly well by buying and selling products from/to neighboring countries.
2. Buying products on auctions and reselling them for a profit
Auctions are not only for the wealthy to shop for art pieces. They are also for everybody else.
The amazing thing about auctions is that you can find pretty much anything at any price. With some luck you get to buy products that you can sell for 2 or 3 times more than you bought it for. Just like for tip # 1, you have a greater sensitivity to both the price and the quality of the product you’re bidding for, since both have a big influence on your final profit.
Just like any other kind of business the auction business also evolved. Today you can start bidding in the comfort of your home through popular apps/websites such as eBay, Listia and TopHatter.
3. Start an online store
Today the technology has evolved to such a degree that one doesn’t need lots of money or programming knowledge to be able to open an online store. With tools such as amazon, ebay or shopify, you can easily set up your own online store in less than an hour. As mentioned on the post How to set up an online store, with the technology available today, the one thing you should worry about is the porduct itself and the pricing, since most of, if not all the heavy-lifting of programing was already done for you.
4. Being an affiliate
There are many businesses out there looking for people to promote their products. The best thing about being an affiliate is that more often than not you can start with literally no money. Instead of building a business from scratch with your own products, you can build a business through another businesses’ products. In short, you’d be on the business of promoting other businesses and with each sale you earn a commission.
To learn more about affiliate marketing read: What is an affiliate marketing program?
Summary
The ideas above might require some capital to start, but for that aspect, they are nothing compared to other business ideas. The time is also an important factor, and as you learned, they can be started in a fairly small time. The third and last aspect to notice is that although they are easy to start, they also have a great potential for growth. Give them a try to see what you can make of them 🙂 .