Start-ups are receiving much recognition these days due to their innovations. They bring new energy to the business market and enhance the entire business ecosystem.
Many multi-national companies which started as start-ups are earning billions today. When Google started in a garage many mocked their idea. Today Google is one of the most sought-after web browsers in the world. In the initial stages, start-ups may face high risks such as low investment from potential investors, lack of trust, rejections, and failures.
Once the start-ups get through the risky stages, they can flourish in their venture. There are people who want to do a start-up business but lack proper funds.
We have a list of the 50 best start-up ideas that can give us a high return on our investment (ROI). This list is a mix of both conventional and trendy business ideas.
Some business ideas don’t require any initial funds at all. These businesses can be done both online and offline. You can choose the one based on your passion and capital amount.
1. Start a Food Truck Business
Food trucks are getting popular among people these days because food is less expensive in food trucks. You can also give good service, because of your low-cost investment.
There are many food varieties you can choose from, you could start a food truck that specializes in Italian, Mexican, or Indian food.
The investment for the food truck business is low, if you are going for a new truck then you need to have investment capital of at least $70,000. On the other hand, if you are going for a used truck then you can start the business with a minimum of $40,000.
If you can give good service with quality food, you can start earning a decent income with your food truck. You also have an option to sell through online mode.
Minimum Investment: $40,000
2. Start a Wedding Planning Agency
Marriage is a special occasion, but it is also a great business opportunity. People love to get married in a place that is beautifully decorated and well planned out for entire occasion.
Being a wedding planner, you get to design and decorate places, travel a lot, explore new things, and interact with a lot of people. If you think you can organize everything perfectly, and work for long hours, this job could be ideal for you. You need some initial investment to start this business because you need to employ a few people.
Minimum Investment: $2000
3. Photographer
This is the most popular start-up business idea in 2022. All you need is a good camera and sharp photographic skills. You could travel all over the world, take pictures of anything that attracts your eye.
All you have to do is capture the essence of your surroundings through your lens. Once done you could edit the pictures and publish them on different platforms.
Nature photographers, wedding photographers, creative photographers are so in demand these days. You could do all that, or specialize in one thing that you are best at.
Minimum Investment: Not much, only for your preferred camera.
4. Urban Farming
Urban farming has become an excellent way to cultivate, process, and distribute food products that are grown in urban areas. This can be done in two ways: one is in your backyard or you could do horizontal and vertical farming in buildings.
Microgreens farming is also another popular method that comes under urban farming. Microgreens are used by most chefs for salad making and to decorate the plate.
Since they are short-lived, bringing those greens from a long distance would be unprofitable. You could easily cultivate microgreens and distribute them to your nearby restaurants.
Many choose urban farming to grow their food and distribute it in their locality.
Minimum Investment: Can even start with $100
5. Event Planner
As an event planner, you can organize events for communities, corporates, individuals, and government organizations.
Within the budget allotted, you have to plan the event, arrange for food and transportation, and ensure the smooth completion of the process.
This business can never be monotonous as your responsibilities would vary with each event. This job is highly flexible. You could arrange the whole thing in person or you could plan the entire event online and share it with the concerned local team to execute it.
Minimum Investment: Can start with $100
6.Web Developer
Every business needs an online presence to reach out to a potential audience. In order to do that, they need to have a user-friendly website that communicates everything about their business.
So, both large-scale and small-scale companies are on the lookout for web developers. If you are a tech geek and good at a programming language, you could start this as a business. In addition to being a web developer, if you are also a web designer, you could earn a lot.
Minimum Investment: No investment required can start this business if you have the required skills.
7. Digital marketing
Once the business has gone online, the business needs to keep up with the latest trends to prove that they are a step ahead of their competitors.
Digital marketing includes online videos, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), display ads, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), E-mail marketing, and social media management.
Both small-scale and large-scale businesses need someone who is good at promoting their business online. So, digital marketers have become the need of the hour. If you have any prior experience in digital marketing, you could establish your business with less or no investment at all. The best thing about digital marketing work is that you can work from anywhere.
Minimum Investment: Not required, only skills required.
8.Online Teaching/Tutoring
The global pandemic period has opened new doors for online start-ups. There are many online course apps such as Udemy, Coursera, EDx, and FutureLearn that offer a variety of courses that can be accessed and studied anywhere.
Many teaching professionals provide well-developed courses for each stage of learners. So, you could start online courses and teach or tutor your students through various platforms such as Zoom, Skype, Google meets, and Teams.
If not, starting a YouTube channel and reaching even more students would be an ideal option. Creating a YouTube channel for a specific course, sharing tips and tricks, conducting online quizzes, giveaways are welcomed by a huge population.
Minimum Investment: Only networking costs, can start this business with just skills.
9.Course Developer
Every educational course needs proper planning to make it easy for students to understand and learn. This is where the course developers are required by big institutions.
Course developers should specialize in researching the given topic, analyze and should create the course materials. They should also develop it according to the difficulty level of the target audience.
There are many online tutors and teachers who need course developers on regular basis to design their curricula. Starting a business to facilitate educators is a great idea that you could do in the comfort of your home.
Minimum Investment: Not much, only skills required.
10. Podcast Services
If you are a subject matter expert or have in-depth knowledge about something, you could start your own podcast.
Podcast has less competition than blogging. Almost anybody who’s good at writing can start their blog – which is why there are over 600 million blogs recorded so far. With just 2 million podcasts in existence as of February 2022, you can easily start a podcast on your own or with someone you know.
Minimum Investment: Around $500 for podcast set up.
11. Online writer
Freelancer writers make much money just by blogging, ghostwriting, content writing, copywriting, and editing.
If you are good at blogging you can start your own blog site. Ghostwriting is where you offer writing services to other people but you won’t get credits for it. Copywriting focuses on writing copies for advertising the goods and services offered by companies or an individual.
Content writing involves writing long-form content for various products and services. You can choose the apt one and start earning on a weekly basis for the projects you complete.
Minimum Investment: Not much required, only skills necessary.
12. Fashion Designer
Ordinary clothing has become outdated and people are looking for new and trendy costumes, accessories, and footwear. As a fashion designer, you have to sketch costumes, select fabric, color, and pattern for the costume, and provide necessary instructions to complete the costume.
This is an interesting venture idea because you get to work at your own pace and be more creative. Your success totally depends on your level of creativity, innovation, and dedication.
Minimum Investment: Not much required, only skills necessary.
13. Cloth Store
Not only branding clothing stores, but even new stores with good collections are also preferred by many customers. All customers look for in a clothing store are variety, affordability, and quality.
Ensure that your clothing store covers all those three points so that you can convert customers into loyal customers. This job is also highly flexible as you can sell the clothes online too.
Minimum Investment: Depending on the location and stock quantity, an investment of at least $25,000 would be required.
14. Making Accessories
Jewelry, footwear, handbags, and other handcrafted products are seeing a rise in production. You could start a small-scale industry that focuses on the production of these accessories.
The accessories can be machine-made or handcrafted. Usually, handcrafted products are sold for a better price. If you want to be environmentally conscious, you can also make accessories out of waste products.
There is also a huge fan base for products that are environment-friendly.
Minimum Investment: Can be started with less than $500.
15. Dog Walker/Sitter
Dog walking apps like Rover and Wag! offer many services such as dog walk, dog sitting, drop-in, training, pet boarding, doggy daycare, etc.
You can sign up for these applications and can start your business. You can also locally advertise your business and can get clients.
There are different charges for services you provide. Dog sitting and overnight stay usually fetch higher rates. Pick the area that is in more demand of these services.
Minimum Investment: Advertisement costs may be required, other than that no other investment is required.
16. Vegan Food Products
Day by day there are many people becoming vegans, where they ignore all animal-based food products and eat only plant-based food products.
Many do it to stop cruelty against animals while some follow veganism to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Whatever the purpose may be, vegans are on the lookout for vegan butter, milk, cheese, cake, chocolates, and many other vegan products.
You can start a company that produces these in-demand vegan food products. Frozen readymade vegan meal production business can also be a good idea to help busy vegans.
Minimum Investment: at least $1000 is required to start this venture.
17. Organic Beauty Care Products
Many beauty care products contain harmful chemicals such as Sodium Lauryl Sulphate
(SLS), synthetic fragrances, tetrasodium EDTA, formaldehyde, parabens, etc. People are aware of the presence of these chemicals in their beauty care products. Prolonged use of such chemicals could lead to led poisoning, cancer, skin and hair problems.
So, the better alternative is organic beauty care products that don’t use harmful chemicals. You could start a small-scale production unit or make homemade organic beauty care products.
Minimum Investment: At least $5,000
18. Healthy Meal Preparation
The meal prep business has been taking over the food industry in recent times. This is not a typical food-making business. The meal prep business focuses more on preparing healthy and nutritious meals for individuals who don’t have time to prepare healthy meals.
Many people follow different diet methods such as keto, paleo, gluten-free, vegan, low carb, etc. Once you get your own customer base, you can customize your meal preparation for each customer and deliver it to their doorstep. This is the most effective way of earning if you are passionate about food and cooking.
Minimum Investment: Not much required, can be started with less than $200.
19. Mobile Care Services
Almost everybody uses smartphones and android phones. The mobile phone accessories such as phone case, temper glass, and mobile pouch can be custom-made for each customer.
You can also repair those phones as repairing costs are high when given at the mobile company’s mobile store.
This mobile accessories market is not a new idea and there are already many competitors offering the same services. But you can certainly excel in this if your accessories are unique and creative.
Minimum Investment: can be started with $1000.
20. Baby’s Day Care Centers
Daycare centers may sound like a traditional business idea. But many busy parents are still seeking these services.
Baby’s daycare centers are a bit advanced these days. Besides taking care of the children, daycare center staffs are also responsible for providing a fun-filled learning environment for their educational and emotional growth.
You need a special qualification and approval from the government to run this business. Once established you can earn good money, depending on the area you live in.
Minimum Investment: To start a daycare center with all amenities, we require at least $50,000 as an initial investment.
21. Scented Candles
Scented candles and different shaped candles are used at spas, restaurants, houses, and churches. You don’t have to start a separate production unit for making candles.
You can make customized scented candles in the comfort of your home. This job doesn’t require a lot of manpower. All you need is a perfect skill to bring a flawless finalized product. You could sell the products online or open a small store that sells candles.
Minimum Investment: can be started with $500
22. Baking Cakes
Most of the baking businesses are start-ups. Women or men who specialize in baking cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and other dessert items can easily gather customers through proper online/offline marketing.
Custom cakes are usually needed in weddings, baby showers, and birthday functions. A highly layered cake can help you earn good money. If you think you are good at baking, this is can be a good career for you.
Minimum Investment: Can be started with $500
23. Travel Planner
Traveling to new places can be adventurous but sometimes it can become a headache if the person traveling doesn’t speak the local language or understand the customs and traditions of the local community.
Travel planners specialize in providing hassle-free trips for travelers. They have to plan out every aspect of the trip, starting from booking tickets to reaching back home safely.
If it is travel within the country, the plans can be customized for each individual. Individuals who have traveled extensively and have lots of contacts can start this business with proper approval from legal bodies.
Minimum Investment: None required, only skills necessary.
24. Interior Designing
If you are someone with good design skills and creativity. You can start this business with absolutely no investment.
A moderate home can be completely renovated into a well-furbished cozy home by an interior designer. Before undertaking any projects, you have to survey everything about the house and complete the design work within the established budget.
You can even do this work remotely and share your ideas with the house owners to take it further.
Minimum Investment: None required, only skills necessary.
25. Elderly Citizen Care
About 1.5 million senior citizens live in nursing homes. There is still a huge demand for elderly nursing homes, more than the money, the satisfaction you get from this work is huge. As a private-owned nursing home, you should offer excellent care to senior citizens.
Starting such one may cost you a lot but it can be beneficial in the long run. As a business, starting elderly care can give good returns on your investment.
26. Packing Services
Most of the time people who shift to new locations, require someone to pack and organize their belongings. Also, small-scale e-commerce companies look for packing and delivery companies to deliver their products to the customers.
With demand for packing services growing everywhere, starting that business could help you earn a lot. Unlike other businesses, packing services need some upfront capital to get started. If you get a contract to pack things for shifting to a new house, you can charge good rates depending on the location.
Minimum Investment: Require at least $50,000 as an initial investment.
27. Self-Driving car/bike Rentals
Cab services are available everywhere yet people don’t prefer to use them always. Self-driving car/bike rentals are gaining popularity these days because they are far more flexible than cab services.
The rents are usually charged on an hourly basis and people find it more affordable. The initial investment is required to purchase the vehicles. You can earn a good amount of money in the long term, as the business grows.
Minimum Investment: Require at least $10,000.
28. Call Center
Customer care services are required for almost any kind of business. Small scale businesses and large scale businesses, need extra help to handle customer relationships.
Many businesses outsource this job to handle both inbound and outbound calls. Starting a call center may not be a new idea. But, it still holds value in today’s market as there are many new businesses growing every day.
There is a lot of room for growth and one can earn a good income through this venture.
Minimum Investment: At least $50,000
29. Language Translator
There are many apps that offer translating services but, most of the time these applications are not reliable, as they miss out on the nuances in languages.
If you have good language skills, you can work for people all around the world in translating live speeches, books, or documents.
You can also employ more polyglots and expand your business. This can also be done as remote work.
Minimum Investment: None required, only skills necessary.
30. E-commerce Store
Amazon, eBay, and Craigslist are some of the most sought out e-commerce websites. Amazon tops it all as it has 2.7 billion visitors every month.
Buying and selling goods and services over the internet has become an integral part of business development. You could start an e-commerce store to sell locally sourced products and you can ship them to different locations.
There is a great number of opportunities in this space.
Minimum Investment: can start with $2000.
31. Niche Blog
The term “niche” refers to a smaller part of a larger market. As a niche website owner, you will be focusing on the interests of a narrow group rather than the larger group.
There are many blogs that answer the questions of the larger group. The narrow group is looking for specific answers. So, there is a huge demand for blogs that target specific niches.
In order to answer their questions, you have to use specific keywords that are used by this group. By increasing their traffic to your niche blog, you can earn money online.
It is a difficult task because you have to stay ahead of your competitors. Nevertheless, if you know your targets well enough, you can increase organic traffic.
Minimum Investment: can start with $200.
32. Security Services
Security services can be broadly divided into three different categories. One is providing online security services for transferring important data and information from one company to another company.
Secondly, installing surveillance cameras, intruder alarm systems, money safeguarding devices, etc. Thirdly, it includes appointing security officers for companies.
You could start a business that offers all three of these security services or you can just focus on any one of the above services. With theft and cybercrimes increasing everywhere this business can be highly profitable.
Minimum Investment: can start with $5000.
33. Business Consultants
Business consultants help companies or clients to grow, develop, or increase their business efficiency. Their service could cover broader aspects of a business or specialize in providing suitable solutions for one area of the business.
As a business consultant, you can provide innovative ideas, clear existing problems, analyze the growth, hire new staff, implement new projects, etc. There are many opportunities within business consultancy, you can choose the one you are good at.
Minimum Investment: Can start with $10,000
34. Make-up Artists
There are so many self-made make-up artists who own popular beauty brands. Many make-up artists have YouTube channels and teach about different make-up techniques for people with different skin tones and skin types.
You could either be an online make-up artist or a freelance offline make-up artist. This has become one of the high-paying start-up businesses in recent years.
Minimum Investment: can start with $1000
35. Mobile App Developer
Businesses are growing everywhere, so are the apps that help businesses to reach a lot of consumers.
There are around 2.1 million apps on Google Play store and 2 million apps on Apple Play store. Every mobile user looks for a mobile-friendly app that is easy to use.
If you are well versed in writing code, you can start your business without any upfront capital.
Minimum Investment: None required
36. 3D Printing
Global 3D printing technology is believed to reach $41 billion by 2026. 3D printing service is used in making dental products, prosthetics, architectures, industrial and consumer products, movie props, and ancient artifacts.
3D printing uses an additive process and slicing methods to produce 3-dimensional objects. This is an excellent start-up idea as it helps in manufacturing prototypes, that can help someone improve their methods further.
Minimum Investment: can start with $5,000
37. Career Coach
Career coaches specialize in providing guidance and essential coaching to aspiring candidates. There is a whole range of careers available.
For example, digital marketing is the most demanded career these days. If you have had a career as a digital marketer, you could become both an online/offline career coach and share the necessary trips and tricks with the learners to succeed in their careers.
Minimum Investment: Not much required, only skills are necessary
38. Virtual Assistants
Virtual assistants are independent contractors, and they can work from anywhere. They provide a wide range of services such as making appointments, providing technical solutions, attending calls, bookkeeping, accounting, creating presentations, making travel plans, etc.
This business doesn’t require high educational qualifications but a proper degree or prior experience in multitasking and handling different clients would be necessary.
Minimum Investment: Not much required, can start with just skills.
39. Cab Services
Call taxis are used by many people in urbanized areas. Uber, Lyft, and Gett taxi apps offer services that are user-friendly.
Similarly, you can develop an app and start your own cab service around your place. You can also start cab service without apps where you can directly pick your customers.
Minimum Investment: at least $15,000 is required to buy the vehicle.
40. Personal Trainer
Personal trainers play a crucial role in defining fitness goals for individuals. People who want to get fit very often don’t know where to start.
Personal trainers analyze their body type and help them achieve their fitness goals. In order to be a personal trainer, you need to be properly certified.
An additional certificate as a nutritionist is an advantage. You could start your own gym or become a personal trainer for different individuals.
Minimum Investment: Not much required, only skills are necessary.
41. Garden/Swimming Pool Renovator / Backyard Designer
Backyard designers are responsible for designing the backyard and making it suitable for gardening or building swimming pools, depending on the interests of the customers.
Many wish to renovate their existing backyard while others want to design their backyard from the scratch. If you can plan out a well-designed backyard or own equipment essential for backyard renovation, you could start this business and can earn a good income.
Minimum Investment: can start with $5000
42. Sustainable Landscaping
Unlike normal gardening, sustainable landscaping focuses on building gardens that are climate-friendly. Planting trees or plants that don’t match the region’s rainfall pattern or local temperature is not recommended. It can involve high maintenance costs and also prevents plant growth.
As a sustainable landscaper you can work on larger or smaller areas, and plant trees or saplings that grow naturally without using chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Garden enthusiasts who want to have eco-friendly gardens employ sustainable landscapers.
Minimum Investment: Can start with $200.
43. Selling Recyclable Products
Many eco-friendly, reusable products such as cloth bags, bamboo toothbrushes, and plastic-free wrappings are promoted by both large and small scale business.
This approach has received a huge appreciation from climate conscious consumers. You could sell zero waste products of your choice and make decent income out of it.
Minimum Investment: can start with $2000
44. Video Editing
There are millions of videos surfacing online. This has led to a huge demand for high-quality video editors. If you have good video editing skills, you can establish your business by working for various clients.
Video editors with creative and innovative skills are in demand to make ordinary videos more interesting.
Minimum Investment: can start with zero capital.
45. Stock Market Services
Many money-earning apps and websites help generation z and millennials to invest their money in the stock market. While stock market investment is gaining attention amongst youngsters, many are not aware of how it works.
As a stock market service provider, you could act as a broker or a mutual fund advisor to help investors invest in the right company at the right time. You can also provide all the other services that are associated with the stock market.
Minimum Investment: None required, stock market experience and communication skills necessary.
46. Real Estate Agency
This idea may sound outdated because real estate agencies have been in existence for a long time now. Nevertheless, they are sought out for collecting details about properties, buying and selling properties, and working with clients to accelerate sales.
You can receive a brokerage or commission for completing the sale. Although an unstable market, many are still choosing their careers as real estate agents.
Minimum Investment: Not much required, only advertising and traveling costs required.
47. Accountant
Every business needs an accountant to manage the income and expenses on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis.
If you have worked in an accounting firm and can deal with extensive tax laws, balance sheets, income statements, etc. You can start your own accounting firm or start helping individuals with accounting needs.
Minimum Investment: Not much required, only skills necessary.
48. Florist
It was estimated that on average Americans spent $3 billion dollars a year to cut flowers. Flowers are special and are used on different occasions.
You can grow flowers in your home garden and can sell them for a profit. You can also open a separate shop to sell your flowers, this can get you more sales.
Minimum Investment: Can start with $1000
49. Online Journalism
Local news channels or websites are welcomed by people in a particular area as it covers the details of an event more accurately.
Online journalism covers more of the local news that is not covered by regional news channels. Online journalists also focus on sensational national and international news to target a wide range of audiences.
If you are from a journalism background, starting online journalism can make you earn money from the comfort of your home.
Minimum Investment: Not much required, can start with $100
50. Music Instructor
Experienced musicians offer music classes both online and offline. Children, youngsters, and even adults are interested in acquiring a music skill.
If you are good with music, you can consider this as a full-time or a part-time profession.
Investment: None required, only skills necessary
Conclusion
Venturing into a new business may sound scary in the beginning. But with dedication, hard work, self-confidence, and passion you can excel and earn much more from your start-up business.
We hope that our exhaustive list of business ideas would have given you some idea to kick start your career as an entrepreneur.