Best Small Businesses for Beginners
Starting a small business is a huge commitment. It can seem so intimidating that it’s often difficult to decide where to begin or even what kind of business to open. The first step is to explore your passions.
If there is anything you throw your heart and soul into, that’s where your business might be, though you might want to think twice about having your favorite activities become a professional endeavor. If you know you want to become an entrepreneur, but you’re not sure what kind, here are a few of the best small businesses for beginners:
Sell your stuff online. First-time business owners should consider the Internet to start a businesses because it has low overhead. Maintaining a website is significantly cheaper than renting retail space, and the Internet is the fastest-growing marketplace. You can sell almost anything, from albums and jewelry to vintage clothes. If you want to start even smaller than your own website, you can open up a store on wider platforms like eBay and Amazon.com, or Etsy, which specializes in handmade and vintage goods.
Start a clean-up crew. Luckily, cleaning up is a skill that will never require a business degree. You can start your own home-cleaning service, taking on as few or as many clients as you would like. Cleaning services are also relatively low-cost businesses to start, and the time commitment is generally flexible. There may already be a lot of competition for cleaners in your neighborhood. If that’s the case, you could still squeeze yourself into the market by offering specialized services such as construction cleanup.
Open a child care center. If you love kids, running a child care center may be the business for you. Parents usually form strong networks, which means your business could grow rapidly by word of mouth. While starting a child care center usually costs less than other enterprises, there are a number of hidden costs like insurance fees, licenses, and the price of child-proofing your home or rented space.
Become a words wizard. You can start offering freelance copy writing, editing or proofreading services with very little costs involved. More specialized paths include medical transcription, translation or transcribing services. While most of this work does not require formal training, often times some form of certification can give you a leg up on the competition. If you are detail oriented, willing to research and love words, this could be the perfect fit.
Act as a computer consultant. Tinkering with your home computer can turn into a lucrative career. For experts, there are a number of business paths available, including computer repair, software training and data entry. Since technology is everywhere, you have many potential clients. You can offer your services to home users, other small businesses or even larger organizations. A computer consulting business also means you can control your own hours.
Take care of pets. Tending to pets is arguably the cutest small business you could start. Pet-owners are willing to pay top dollar for their pets. You can provide a variety of pet-related services, such as dog training and walking, grooming or pet sitting. Experience with animals is usually a prerequisite for starting these businesses, especially when it comes to dog training and grooming. If you don’t know how to cut a dog’s nails, you probably don’t want to try.