Online businesses are easy to scale and cost less to set up, making it the perfect venture for first time entrepreneurs. You’ll find success stories of people with 9-to-5 jobs who have turned their small investment into a successful online brand. This article features unique online business ideas for beginners to help you get started.
Every successful online business begins with a professional website. So make sure your business plan includes choosing a reliable web host to impress your audience. We recommend using Bluehost for reliable web hosting to make sure your website is always online. It also offers domain registration and a business email address, all for just $2.95 per month. Check out Bluehost hosting plans here.
Here are 15 inspiring online business ideas for beginners:
1. Start a Children’s Craft Subscription Box Business
Taylor Mack, Social Media & Marketing Strategist, Small Biz Refined
Subscription boxes are extremely popular, and according to USA Today they’re projected to grow even more in 2019. A niche idea for this would be monthly children’s crafts. For example, a subscription box could include all the materials for a family to make their own fairy garden or puppet show. A strong launch plan would include partnering with social media influencers on Instagram (particularly moms who enjoy crafting with their children). You would also want to grow a following on Pinterest because it’s an extremely popular platform for crafting, DIY, and products. I would also recommend contacting a few influential bloggers (who have children) to ask if they would review your product.
2. Start a Direct-to-Consumer CBD Company
Paul Miller, President, Lokus Nutrition
It’s a product that may truly change lives. There is a lot of curiosity and information in existence. The market is there, people are searching for CBD so you don’t have to create the interest or the market, you can plug into the existing momentum around CBD. White label an existing product from a reputable company that has been in business for five years. Instead of creating a product from scratch, which requires sourcing CBD isolate, it’s more effective to partner with a company that has done all of the formulation and sourcing and may even handle drop shipping for you. This saves you the financial and time costs associated with building the product and allows you to focus on marketing and sales.
3. Become a Professional Home Organizer
Melisa Celikel, Organizational Consultant and CEO, Let’s Get You Organized
Starting a professional organizing business is relatively easy and cheap to get going. Free ads can be placed in local communities, plus social media and apps such as Yelp, Nextdoor, Thumbtack, and Task Rabbit can be used to easily spread the word about a service-based business launch. I recommend setting up a simple website and a small batch of business cards once a business name is identified. Offering services to friends and family can be a great way to drum up word-of-mouth referrals and get you on your way to organizing the homes of downsizing divorcees, scattered shopaholics, busy moms, and frazzled executives. Everyone can use a little more organization in their lives and if you’re naturally gifted at organizing, it’s time to monetize your talents.
4. Offer Inclusion Training Services
Jeff Butler, Workplace Expert and Author, JeffButler
Many companies and industries now are having to hire specific demographics in quota form. Usually when this happens the company looks for someone to help with diversity/inclusion/non-bias training. This should be a hot niche to jump into in 2019.
5. Sell Products Online With Drop Shipping
Maggie Aland, Marketing and Review Editor, Fit Small Business
Selling your products on a website is one of the best ways to earn income online and with the Drop shipping fulfillment method, you can start an online retail store without incurring cost to stock and ship your products. Use Shopify for a quick and easy way to create your very own online store with beautiful, responsive themes. Add the Oberlo plugin to help you find products from manufacturers and add them instantly to your store. Try Shopify for free.
6. Offer Video Production Services Online
Charlotte Ang, Digital Marketing Specialist, M&P International Freights
Video consumption has exploded over the years. Online consumers are having shorter and shorter attention spans, causing videos to be favored more than articles online. For businesses aiming to get their message out on the internet, it is a must for them to produce videos for their products or services. Hence, providing video production services will be a good online business idea since it is highly sought after today. A good tip to help kick-start this business will be to capture the search demand online. Make sure your website is search engine optimized so people looking for video production services can land on your website and ideally engage you.
7. Start an Instagram Management Consultancy
Dustin Amodo, Owner, Island Property Buyers
If you have some talent and skill with Instagram (if your friends love your profile, your pictures are on-point, and you’re creative), there are loads of small businesses in your area that probably need your help maintaining a beautiful Instagram presence that tells their story, highlights their value, and connects them with customers. You can simply find businesses near you (or search for them by industry if there’s a certain niche you’d like to target), and note the accounts that aren’t looking so hot. DM them on Instagram, and tell them that you’d love to help improve their brand, gain more followers, and do a better job of representing the brand online. Mention the growth you think you can help them attain, and the values they’ll get out of it.
8. Start a Homeowner Referral Network
Debra M. Cohen, President, Home Remedies
A great online business for people who want to work from home, earn a great income, and need a flexible schedule is a Homeowner Referral Network (HRN) business. HRNs pre-screen and refer painters, plumbers, carpenters, electricians, and more to local homeowners. The HRN owner earns a commission for any work secured. Homeowners can go online and request a contractor and they are custom matched with a contractor from my network. I started my HRN business 20 years ago on a part-time basis, and it has grown into a cottage industry with more than 300 businesses like mine operating nationwide.
9. Sell Used Clothes Online
Jared Shaner, Chief Revenue Officer, Trellis
This stems from the concept created by folks such as Thredup, which allows consumers to gain some monetary return when they are done with their clothing that in many cases, was quite expensive when first purchased. The ease and convenience of having a prepaid shipping bag sent to your home, which you can stuff and send back to be sold online, is a trend I see catching fire in the next couple of years. I would not be surprised to see a number of other players in this space emerge. It’s a novel alternative to donating a $200 shirt, for instance, when someone might be willing to give you $50 online for it.
10. Design Professional Websites for Clients
Gavin Graham, Editor, Fit Small Business
Even new web designers can begin their career online. You can start small by joining freelancing sites that can match you with prospective clients while you build your portfolio. Website builders like Squarespace can help you keep up with client deadlines without sacrificing the quality of your work. Squarespace allows you to easily create and launch beautiful websites with its elegant, and highly customizable templates. It comes with advanced design tools like Adobe Creative Suite for editing Getty or Unsplash images so you always produce unique, professional websites your clients will love for just $16-46/month. Click here to design your first website with Squarespace.
11. Create an Online Research Service
Toby Balsiger, PR & Communications, WebsiteTigers
Here’s my online business idea: A website where you can enter the name of your online date and the business will research the person for you. So let’s say you find someone on a site like Match.com who you want to set up a date with, but you want to learn more about them first. You can submit the name into this website and the business will research all of the social profiles and anything else they can find online about the potential match for a flat fee. There would also be an option for a background check. The site also has a feature where you can leave a review for the person after you meet them.
12. Create an AirBnB for Boats
Jaclyn Baumgarten, CEO & Co-Founder, Boatsetter
Boat sharing creates a unique, private boating experience for everything from sunset cruises and snorkeling excursions to fishing charters or parties at the sandbar. With an online platform, this venture allows for both boat owners and captains to earn income. Boats can be rented with a captain or without (so no experience is required), and the fleet ranges from yachts to sailboats to pontoon boats.
13. Run a Website Hub for Business Insurance Agencies
Maxime Rieman, Director of Product Marketing, CoverWallet
The reason this is a great online business idea is because, while hundreds of thousands of people start their search for business insurance online, the majority still deal with a brick-and-mortar agent to buy and manage their policy. This takes a lot of time and can be a hassle (in both managing the physical paperwork as well as working around an agent’s schedule).
14. Create an App That Compares Product Prices
Alexander Ruggie, Public Relations Director, 911 Restoration
My online business idea is proximity pricing. It works like a map app, but instead of just showing you the businesses around you, it will show you their products too. So if you want to know where the closest, cheapest Snickers bar is, you can two-finger tap your way there and find it within walking distance for $0.75. But you may be able to find it within 10 miles for $0.25 if you’re willing to drive. This would all be accomplished by a cloud-based barcode/QR code reader stream that coalesces all of this data for the users to tap into through GPS data and preferences, the seller and user ratings, and finally reliability reviews and the like.
15. Create a Team of Outsourced Professionals
Quiana Cordé, Founder/Head of Marketing & Design, Barazzo Bags
Some friends and I are interested in taking the plunge to turn vacation life into everyday life. The group of thing-doers, fun-havers, and goal-crushers are working remotely and thriving entrepreneurs and consultants ready to blog, design, and code from the beach. Remote workers can be travel bloggers, hotel critics, travel curators, or licensee.
Tips for Starting Your Online Business
Online businesses are popular because they’re flexible in time and money you’ll invest as a beginner business owner. However, there’s so much more that goes into launching your first venture than just having your own website. We curated expert tips from blogs and websites to find out what every successful online business has in common.
Here are 10 important tips you should learn from successful businesses online:
1. Identify What Makes You Different From Competitors
With so many online businesses out there, don’t be surprised to find someone who also offers your product or service. Develop a unique selling proposition in order to stand out from your competitors. Aim to offer a product or service that makes your business different from others in your niche. Make an effort to create a strong brand that will get the attention of your target market. Start by answering the question “Why should I pick your product or service over the next brand?”
2. Develop a Business Plan
Don’t rush. Even small online businesses require a solid business plan in order to survive the crucial first year. This helps to solidify your ideas, foresee problems about your venture and create an action plan, get much-needed feedback from experts, and serve as documentation of the tasks you’ve set to complete your vision. There are online tools available and guides that will help you create a detailed plan so take time to do your research and complete this step before you do anything else.
3. Build a Professional Website
You can’t have an online business without a website and it needs a solid foundation in order to support your operations. Make sure you have a list of your function requirements so you don’t spend adding features that you won’t need. At the same time, your website must have room to accommodate the needs of your growing business. And because more people are surfing the internet with their mobile device, it’s important that your website can easily adapt to different screen sizes and formats.
4. Invest in a Reliable Web Hosting Service
An online business’ goal is to attract and build clientele through its website. So as business owners, you’ll need to make sure that your web host is capable of handling high traffic without slowing down or crashing. Make sure your business stays competitive beginning with a reliable web hosting service. We recommend Bluehost for your professional web hosting needs. It offers domain registration and a business email address for just $2.95 per month. Click here for Bluehost hosting plans.
5. Monitor Your Internet Speed
Aside from your web host, a strong internet connection plays an important role in running a successful online business. Remember that your website can only function for as long as it’s easily accessible. This means little to no downtime and fast loading time. Always have a backup plan in case of unscheduled outages and regularly test your website speed.
6. Learn SEO
The online marketplace is highly competitive and your best chance at staying visible is by optimizing your website for searches. If you understand how Search Engine Optimization (SEO) works, you’ll have the ability to create informed decisions for your marketing strategy. Not only does SEO keep you at the top of search engine results, it also helps build your business reputation. Register on platforms that offer a series of classes for students who want to learn new skills like SEO and will let you study at your own pace.
7. Create an Effective Marketing Strategy
Marketing your online business doesn’t have to be expensive. You can start a blog, share your products and services on social media and grow your email list, which you should be doing from day one. You will need to build and maintain your brand’s reputation by making sure you and your team are aware of the best practices for these different online marketing strategies. There are a number of online tools for alerts, collecting traffic data, contact and content management that you can use to build your company’s online reputation almost for free.
8. Protect Your Client Information
Your online business collects and stores customer data and it’s important that you have policies in place to protect their information if you wish to keep your customers’ trust. With hackers continuously attempting to breach website security, you will need to prove to your customers that their information is safe in order to convince them to buy. Do the necessary research to find the best website security providers for your website from the moment you plan to start your design. Have your security tested regularly and don’t forget to display a security badge on your website that will put your website visitors’ minds at ease.
9. Offer Multiple Payment Options
Not all online customers are alike. Most of the time, potential customers of online businesses change their minds because the website does not offer payment options that work for them. So in order to make sure that you close as many sales on your website as possible, provide your visitors with as many secured and reliable payment options as possible. Providing more payment convenience will attract more customers and get you more sales.
10. Provide Excellent Customer Service
Your small business doesn’t have to skimp on customer service. In an economy where customer experience and feedback are key to promoting your brand, it’s important that you take time to provide excellent customer support. Make sure you get an opportunity to collect your customer’s email address. This will allow you to request feedback, offer them discounts on future deals, as well as connect with them on social media. Excellent customer service is the key to your brand’s reputation that can make or break a business.
Bottom Line
Now that you are familiar with some of the best online business ideas for beginners, it’s time to dust off your old creative ideas and make something out of them. Take advantage of the internet tools available to you and turn your passion into a lucrative business venture you can be proud of.
Make sure your website is supported by a professional web host to impress your prospects. We recommend using Bluehost for reliable web hosting service to make sure your website is always online. They also offer domain registration and a business email address, all for just $2.95 per month. Check out Bluehost hosting plans here.
Want to share your best online business ideas? Let us know in the comments.
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