So you're thinking about starting an online business but just don't know where to start, maybe you're looking for the right idea to try.

Well, you're in luck because this article is a collection of a number of small business ideas that are worth a try and are known to have helped people earn a living strictly from home via the comfort of remote work.

starting a business comes with a number of challenges as well as perks that most people find very enticing.

These perks could be having the to opportunity work on what you enjoy while you earn an income, set your own time, etc.

The business ideas below are easy to start, do not require a substantial financial investment upfront, and require very little technical expertise.

So let's dive in.

1. Reselling Items

Reselling is not new, in fact, we witness this several times in our daily lives.

Here's a quick example, in grade school I would purchase snacks in bulk and resell them at school for a small profit.

This allowed me to have additional cash to purchase games or comic books.

Major wholesalers like Walmart and Target do the same, they buy from manufacturers in bulk at a discounted rate and sell them in their stores for a profit. 

The easiest way to get started is by buying items at discount and selling them for profit. It's an age-old business strategy proven to work.

This can be done in many ways, you can flip houses or cars for example. Profits tend to be larger when you focus on selling expensive items.

Look around be vigilant and you may notice that items are less expensive on places like Craigslist, LetGo, and Facebook Marketplace than on eBay, Amazon, etc…

Recommended: 

1. How to Make Recurring Monthly Commissions with Amazon

2. What Can I Sell To Make Money From Home? 30 Ideas!

3. 40+ Things to Sell to Make Money (Sell Stuff for Cash Fast!)

2. Podcast Production

You have probably noticed that podcasts have become popular over the last few years. You can become a podcaster and monetize your podcast but I wanted to share another idea related to podcasting.

The idea is to support the podcasters by freeing up their time by providing them with services as a freelancer so that podcasters can focus on growing their business.

You can offer a service such as a podcast editing service on a site like Upwork, or any other freelancing website job board.

While searching the web I stumbled on an article by David Hooper of BigPodcast.com. In the 4-minute article, he shared that a podcast editor earns up to $175 for up to 45-minutes of raw audio editing.

That is pretty cool if that is a skill you possess, you know that if you set up your podcast editing side gig right, then you can expect to earn up to $200 per hour if not more.

This can furthermore be expanded by hiring a team. As an agency, you can charge a client $1500 a month.

You would need to hire an editor, project manager, marketing manager, and designer.

Assuming that the production of one podcast episode can take up to 8 hours here's a brief plan for establishing your agency:

Assume you pay your contractors $30/hour. (8 x $30 = $240 per episode)

For 4 episodes a month, the cost would be roughly $960.

If your budget per client is $1500, you would be pocketing $540 per month per client with you doing none of the work.

What do you think of this plan? Respond in the comments section below.

Related:

1. A 10-Step Complete Tutorial for Podcast Editing

2. Best Podcast Editing Software

3. 21 Podcast Production Editing Agencies Compared W/Prices

 

 

3. Course Creation Project Manager

Courses have become very popular and very profitable. Small business owners, teachers, and professionals have a skill they want to teach but do not feel comfortable with creating the course.

Over two decades ago I put my skills to the test and ventured online to start a side gig. While it wasn't easy I learned a lot through the process, hired a team, and quickly grew my business.

As a result, I created a course to teach others my process and how it can be leveraged to obtain similar results. 

If you are familiar with structuring a course, you can offer services and produce their courses for them.

You can manage all the different aspects of the project. People will pay a premium price because it is an investment in their business. For that reason, they are willing to pay thousands of dollars.

Course creators naturally grow through word-of-mouth marketing.

Related:

1. How to Become an Online Course Creator

2. The Big List of Free Training for Course Creators

3. The 10 Best Online Course Creators

4. Transcription

Remote jobs have become more popular than ever in part thanks to the sanctions imposed during COVID. If you like to have flexible hours and work on a project basis then you might want to consider trying to offer transcription services.

Transcription is the ability to turn an audio or video piece of content into written text.

Naturally, to accomplish this you need to have the ability to pay attention to details, have stellar listening skills, a great understanding of the language, and great speed at recording or writing down the required content.

The demand for this service is enormous. If you are skilled at this you can earn from $5 up to $60 an hour. Nicole Dow and Ann Thurman wrote a nice instructional article on how to become a Transcriptionist, that I recommend that you check out.

If you are interested you can read more and learn how many other transcriptionists earn per year. Many have ventured into this business and people like Ajay Prasad, founder of GRM Transcriptions services are more than happy to share their journey.

If this is something that interests you, I invite you to check out the interview where Ajay shares how built a $1.2 Million Transcription Business.

5. Sell on Amazon

I'm sure you are aware that you can sell on amazon anything from a physical to a digital product. It can take some time, however.

Here's an alternative. You can sell blank or low-content books with design elements that help with planning. You can create these books by using print-on-demand services.

When people purchase books the cost is subscribed to the cost. For example, if you sell a book for $10 and it costs $3 to print, the service will take its percentage and you will profit the remainder.

Recommended:

1 How to Make 6 Figures Selling Low Content Books On Amazon

2 How to Design and Sell Notebooks on Amazon – Step by Step Guide

3 How to Make Recurring Monthly Commissions with Amazon

6. Become a Writer

A freelance writer or freelance copywriter. Writers are not all starving artists. If you are good at writing or enjoy writing, then there is demand for your services.

Writers can start at $10 an hour but the average rate can go up to $100 per hour.

Many years ago, my side gig led me to create some form of a writing agency. I was creating multiple websites and needed to continue publishing content on those sites.

This need led me to hire up to 4 full-time writers and an administrator and a project manager. It was a fun experience.

You can start by listing your writing services on sites like Upwork or Fiverr for example, and gradually scale from there. 

There are plenty of useful resources online on how to become a freelance writer, so If this is a path that sounds promising to you, I recommend that you take some time to research and find case scenarios of people who have successfully traversed the path of a successful freelance writer.

This will help you learn the different types of freelance writing, and the different platforms to offer your services. 

 

 

7. Become a Pinterest Account Manager

Pinterest is huge in the online marketing and niche world. A lot of businesses that publish written content use Pinterest to drive lots of traffic to their websites.

Pinterest is a simple platform, but it can take time to learn the strategies you need to grow your business, with Pinterest marketing. 

Most of the activities required for Pinterest marketing can be automated, but it is important to be aware of what those activities are.

Here are a few activities/responsibilities that are expected of Pinterest   Managers:

• Optimize a Pinterest Profile and images
• Write Pinterest Friendly and SEO-optimized Pins
• Create Pinterest Boards
• Find related group boards and participate
• Review Pinterest Analytics
• Schedule Pins etc…

The average estimated time to manage a Pinterest account for a client is estimated to be about 4 hours per month once you've established the required automation.

You can earn from $500 to $1000 a month as a Pinterest account manager, if that interests you here's an article on how to start a Pinterest Manager Business, that you may find useful.

8. Become a Course Creator

Online learning is at an all-time high, and I'm sure that you have noticed the creator economy is flourishing.

More and more people are successfully using the internet to create content that they can share or sell to an eager audience.

You can provide content as an online course creator for example. A course creator is an entrepreneur, educator, or someone who shares a special skill via means of virtual teaching.

Just as there are platforms that help people sell items like Shopify, there are also platforms or Learning Management Systems (L.M.S) that help course creators host and share their content with students.

Popular LMS platforms like  Udemy, Skillshare, and teachable allow instructors to deliver training on a special skill, they can monitor the progress of their students and provide awards based on their level of completion.

Recommended:

1. The Big List of Free Training for Course Creators

2. 4 Types of Course Creators: Which one are you?

3. 10 Steps to Creating a Wildly Successful Online Course

9. Become a Drone Videographer

In recent years there has been a surge in the popularity of drone photography for many reasons.

Drones have gotten cheaper over the last few years. A decent drone can be obtained for between $50 to $200.

Drone videography is highly sought after by movie producers, YouTubers, course creators, event planners, and realtors for their real estate listings.

There is an increasingly large demand.

You need to get a license from the Federal Aviation Administration before you can fly a drone, and it is highly recommended that you obtain drone insurance and be aware of FAA regulations before you can thrive in this business. 

The prerequisites required limit the number of people who would be eligible to take this path but it also limits your competition and this is good for you if you want to do something that is fun.

Full-time freelance drone pilots are making six figures a year, for far less time than you would expect.

I've seen behind the scene footage of how drones are used in film and I highly believe that this technology will revolutionize the film industry.

Recommended articles:

1. A step-by-step guide on how to get a drone photography license

2. Why a videographer should get a drone pilot license

The above business ideas were shared by Gillian Perkins. See the:

Are you looking to update your website, create a new website for your small business, or hire a web designer for your new business?

Before you continue your research, here are some website design ideas for your business…

10. Amazon Kindle Publishing

Are you looking for Kindle publishing it is as simple as writing a book and uploading it to Amazon Kindle Publishing.

Once published the book will undergo a review process by the Amazon Publishing Review team.

Upon approval, your book will be available on the Amazon marketplace for readers to review and purchase. Amazon takes a small percentage of every sale and you pocket the rest.

There is a multitude of individuals who use kindle publishing as a form to supplement their passive income. 

11. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is the process by which a vendor awards a commission to a third party for generating a sale while promoting their offer. 

Affiliate marketing is ideal for those who are new and getting started, but it is widely used by many successfully established organizations and marketers. 

Affiliate marketing is almost the same concept as reselling except in this scenario, there is no need for an initial investment or purchase.

You can simply make a recommendation for a tool and if that recommendation is followed and a sale is made, you earn a commission simply for spreading the word.

We have an offer and have enabled the ability for partnership. If you were to promote our offer, each time you refer a visitor to TheDigitalicome.com and they sign up for any paid plans, you earn a commission.

This can be done by joining our affiliate program. There are plenty of platforms available for people to find products to promote in order to earn a commission as an affiliate. Popular platforms that come to mind are Amazon, Clickbank, eBay, Commission Junction etc…

12. Consulting

Chances are that you have a particular knowledge or you're passionate about a specific topic.

It can be anything from filmmaking, teaching math, public speaking, craftmanship, and consulting can be a very lucrative option for you if you're thing to start a business.

I see a consultant as someone who has a particular experience that can make running a business easier.

A consultant can be a technician, a partner an adviser, or usually someone you trust to have a specific business responsibility taken care of.

You can start a consulting business on your own and leverage public platforms to obtain testimonials or deliverables to showcase your work.

13. Translation 

Do you speak more than one language?

If the answer is yes and you have a good affinity for grammar and writing in the different languages you speak, you may want to consider starting a small business where you can monetize your multi-lingual skills.

Platforms like Upwork and Flexjobs allow bilingual entrepreneurs the opportunity to offer translation services.

This article is written by someone who is multi-lingual and guess what, English is not my native tongue.

My mother had a full-time job but also a side gig as a translator. She had the ability to effectively translate documents into French, English, and Spanish.

What was fascinating to me is that she never advertised her services, yet she was booked with translation projects on a weekly basis.

I've seen with my own eyes how a translation business can be run, so I highly recommend that you venture into this route if you possess the skill to speak and write in more than one language. 

14. Email Marketing

for you, if you're thing to start a business. How is your writing? Do you get a sense of enjoyment when you put words together?

Are you able to use words that trigger emotions? If so you may want to consider email marketing.

Email is by far the most lucrative marketing channel and it is used by everyone.

In fact, according to Campaign Monitor, 294 billion emails are predicted to be sent and received each day in 2019.

That's a crazy amount of emails. As an email marketer, you must have specific skills that make you stand out from the rest to ensure your emails get open and read.

If this sounds interesting, you should consider stepping into entrepreneurship so that you can witness and enjoy the perks of writing an email, and seeing how people react to it emotionally and financially.

You can get started online on platforms such as PeoplePerHour and Upwork or by growing your own email list in order to start your email marketing campaigns. 

15. Provide Search Engine Optimization Services

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process used to optimize a website's technical meta descriptions, social popularity, and content relevance in order to improve a webmaster's chance of having their content appear on the top search results of your favorite search engine.

This usually is Google.

SEO was huge back when I first ventured online. In fact, I once had over 50 websites under my belt designed with content written specifically to rank on the first page of google.

The process of making a website SEO-friendly can be quite daunting and as a result, site owners seek SEO experts to improve the results and overall reach of their web pages. 

There are 6 typical steps to becoming an SEO specialist:

1. Learn as much as you can about SEO (Take courses)

2. Create your own website to optimize for keywords and to upskill yourself

3. Work at a marketing agency

4. Take on SEO clients on platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, etc.. 5. Get an online SEO degree 6. Create a website to offer your services as an SEO Service Delivery Provider.

SEO specialists are expected to earn somewhere around the ballpark of $52,894 a year in the US. 

Conclusion

 So there you go a quick list of ideas you can use to start a small business that will help you earn on the side as an entrepreneur. Of course, it is best to focus on one idea.

In a previous (The road to Building a 7 Figure Business by Building a $7k per Month business), I covered the example of how Netflix rose from an unknown company to rivaling blockbuster and now the Hollywood industry.

In this post Clay from LeadPages explains that you have to give your business idea 3 to 6 months of focus before you can add another component.

Thousands of entrepreneurs like you have successfully followed the above-mentioned business ideas to earn income online.

Starting a business and finding success can be challenging but once done can be very rewarding.

So which is your favorite business idea and why? Do share!