Small Business Ideas That Make You Your Own Boss

If “The Great Resignation” is anything to go by, there are more of us than ever rethinking our place in the world. Covid forced us all to rethink where we are in our careers.

Whether it was due to unfavorable working conditions, stagnating wages, job dissatisfaction, etc., people were leaving their 9-5s in droves and moving on to better things.

Does any of that sound familiar? Does the idea of getting out of that low-paying, disrespectful, or no-room-to-grow job to feel like coming up for air?

Then become your own boss. Benefits include flexible working hours, being able to work as much or as little as you want, taking control of your life and salary, and room for growth.

But maybe you’re not sure where to start? Where would you take all your skills? Where would you take your passion? Well, we don’t have all the answers, but we do have a few ideas that might prompt you into signing that resignation letter. Take a look at our ideas for a small business.

Or keep a hold of the resignation letter and make it a side business? That’s up to you.

Top 3 Lucrative Small Business Ideas To Start This Year:

Overview:

1. Online marketing

We’re starting here because there is an element of marketing, especially online marketing, to just about any endeavor you take on moving forward. You will need to market yourself as a business.

The fact that Gen Z has started using their social media profiles as an online CV should tell you as much. They are making portfolios of work into separate Instagram accounts and happily handing them out to potential employers.

But you’re not looking for an employer. You’re looking to market your business, and that will take a lot of transferable skills. You can brush up on the fun things that the users see, like the photography, filming, set and costume design, concept, editing, performance, etc. but there are also the business skills behind it that you can strengthen.

You can learn to negotiate, network, manage your business, and put it all on your CV for the future. In the meantime, one way to make online marketing itself your business is to start an affiliate blog.

It’s less of the influencer side of things if you don’t fancy taking pictures of yourself every day, and more selling. Showcase products in a blog that you think would appeal to your demographic and earn a commission for how many users you drive to the site of the product.

Related: Small Business SEO: The Importance of SEO in a Digital Marketing Strategy

2. Thrifting

Thrifting is a great way to make a decent profit. If you have a love of bargains and a nose for sniffing out high-value items, you can easily make thrifting your income.

High-value items can be anything from furniture, antiques, collectibles, designer labels, sports labels, sports jerseys, and even vintage clothing items that are back in fashion. Simply wander the charity stores, fix up anything that needs it to look new, and sell the items in your store for a profit.

eCommerce is a massive market and isn’t about to go anywhere. This is a great way to get into that eCommerce door. Charge a surplus to cover post and packaging and ship the items off to the highest bidder. Take a look at these rules for surcharging to make sure you’re on the right track.

You can even get into flipping, such as furniture. Buy items for pennies out of charity shops and sell them on with a lick of paint and a massive profit.

3. Hospitality

Covid didn’t just affect offices, clearly. The hospitality industry took a particularly hard knock, where for a week or two the only restaurants that could open were exclusively take-out businesses. Restaurants needed to adapt, and thus the concept of the ghost kitchen was born.

Now that things have opened up, the ghost kitchen has faded, but not entirely disappeared. It’s too good a concept. Less money is spent on a premise if it doesn’t need a seating area. In fact, it could be done out of your own home if you needed to.

Ghost kitchens are the idea of using a delivery service to send high-quality food anywhere in the local area. There is a kitchen and a door, but no dining area. Considering eating in is quickly becoming the new eating out, for the same reason of quality food to the door, it’s a good market to get into.

If renting a premise doesn’t seem within your reach, there are other options when it comes to food. You can buy a food van for example. It offers the same benefits as a ghost kitchen but with the addition that you can take it anywhere. Drive to parks, schools, festivals, etc. to serve where the crowds are thickest.

As long as you have the right equipment and, of course, the culinary talent, you’ll be able to make a living from food.

Additionals:

• Four Reasons You Should Start A Shipping Business
• How Video SEO Can Be Beneficial For Your Small Business?
• Five Things To Consider For Your Ecommerce Business Launch
• How to Hire Freelancers Online: The Complete Guide for Businesses