15 Business Ideas to Start with on a Small-Scale
With so many business ideas in popping up recently, it can be hard to figure out which are worth pursuing. You’ll want to create a business that’s not only profitable today but also great for the long-term and it has to be a business idea that you can start with on a Small-Scale.
You may notice that a lot of the business ideas on this list have been growing in popularity recently. While jumping on a new trend can sometimes be risky – it can also be highly rewarding.
However, all the examples below will help make you money:
1. Day Care Business
Experience, training or licensing may be needed for this type of business idea.
Perhaps you love children. Perhaps you have children of your own and the idea of taking care of a few more for part of the day appeals to you. Childcare needs continue to soar in the United States.
Many people prefer the option of their child being cared for in a home environment while they are at work, as opposed to a more institutional-like setting. These things mean that a home-based childcare business can get off and running immediately.
2. Photo Printer
Experience, training or licensing may be needed for the successful operation of this business idea.
Making money as a photographer can be done in a number of different ways. You can specialize in one area, the most common being weddings.
There are niches you can explore for photography: portraits of people and their pets, families, and homes; photographs of holiday events, birthday parties or Christmas cards; the possibilities are endless.
3. Voice Translator
As time goes on, the world becomes wider. Business ideas around translation will be a huge market to go after. Even Google Translate gets 277 million monthly searches proving that people need all the help translating they can get.
If you’re a business owner, selling to an international audience with text in different languages will help you reach more people. If you’re a traveler, you’ll be able to communicate your needs and wants with the help of a translator tool.
Fortunately, you can sell products like voice translators which can translate several languages on the fly.
Promoting business ideas like this one require focus on job titles. If you’re targeting people on Facebook, you can target people with roles that require a lot of travel like CEOs, entrepreneurs, flight attendants, pilots, and digital nomads.
They’ll likely find the device helpful in their communications with business partners or those involved in everyday interactions.
4. Art Gallery
I see two routes to success in this business:
1) Focus on artists with well- established followings that you are comfortable that you can sell or
2) Take on less well-known artists on a consignment basis, meaning you don’t actually buy the painting from the artist until the day you sell it.
This can be a finicky business–people’s tastes can change and a gallery that is successful one year can find itself struggling enough. So, keep your overhead manageable and watch for changing trends.
5. Boat Tours as a Business
You don’t need to own a big boat to take people on evening boat tours! You can lease the boat, market the tours and build a business without the overhead.
To make it more fun, you can buy a few small drive-it-yourself speed boats and lead your customers around the local harbor. What could be more fun than that!
6. Cake Making as a Business
People will pay good money for a really awesome cake for special occasions.
Get some great cake pictures up on your website, promote your skills to event planners and build your clientele!
7. Clothing Boutique
My kids did an upscale sneaker and related goods boutique. This can be a lot of fun but it may be harder than you think to make money.
First make absolutely sure your location has great foot traffic stand there and count heads before you sign a lease!
Then develop a distinctive plan for merchandising, and don’t be afraid to mark down what isn’t moving.
8. Clothing Line
Yes, you can start your own clothing line with just a few items, be successful and have a lot of fun along the way!
Look at Ralph Lauren who started by selling a couple neck ties and then built that into a multi-billion-dollar empire.
Contract out the manufacturing which is the really hard part of the work. Then focus on developing eye-stopping designs and talking it up with potential re-sellers, or sell the items yourself online!
9. Business Plan Writer
I believe that every business, even a lemonade stand, should have a business plan. But many people either hesitate to create a plan or don’t know how to do it. That’s where you come in.
But remember your big value added is to help your clients learn how to develop a framework for making critical strategic decisions for their business, not just to create a nice-looking document.
10. Cosmetic Sales
I’m thinking here of selling cosmetics to co-workers, friends and neighbors. Maybe have a party-sales event. Give it a shot and see if you can develop traction!
11. Yoga Classes as a Business
Good fun! Meet interesting people! And stay in shape! You can set up a room in your house for yoga classes, sublet a studio for a few hours, or lease or buy your own studio.
12. Leaflet Distributing
I suppose I can say I did this business once too! Or more specifically my father paid me to deliver promotional flyers for his candidacy for town meeting member. The flyers worked and he won!
The cool thing about leaflets is you can truly pinpoint marketing for your clients not just in a particular town, but to houses in a particular neighborhood, or on cars in a particular parking lot!
13. Mobile Auto Washing
It’s expensive to build a car wash service. But it’s not so expensive to buy a bucket, some soap, some old rags and then ride your bicycle to your client’s home or office to wash their car!
14. Bridal Show Promotions
Bridal shows can be an important marketing venue for the purveyors of wedding goods and services.
You could start in this business by helping vendors prepare their display spaces at various shows, and then at some point you may want to organize your own bridal shows.
15. Café Business
I view a café as positioned somewhere between a sandwich shop and full service gourmet restaurant. You will be cooking a lot of items but not everything, and your dining space will be simpler than a fancy dinner spot.
So, you save money on build out both in the kitchen, the equipment and the dining space. And you won’t need as expensive a chef as you would for a full-service restaurant.
Furthermore, if you choose your location well you could have a good lunch business, as well as a dinner time business, and you could do fine in the late afternoon time slot too.
Then of course you could offer breakfast as well and really fill in your day!
Read Also: Top 10 Amazing Business Ideas to Start
