30+ small business ideas for startups and new-age entrepreneurs

The world is jam-packed with modernizations, and you never know what will be tomorrow’s demand and investible markets. With that, few vivid intellectuals like to spread their knowledge in the people’s welfare by delivering their best. If we look at the civilisation where people started their lives for clothes, food, and shelter, they later upgraded with specific innovations. And from there, new businesses, norms, trade practices, international alliances and thus the startup ecosystems were born. And when we say ‘startups’, it’s a fact that all ideas for startups are well-driven from traditional small business ideas of the 21st century; a clear example is online education which is now shaped into the edtech domain of the startup ecosystem, then online advertising into digital marketing, agtech, martech, and so on.

The inceptions of every new product or service come by the demand of the society, and with that, they evolve with their leisure. Today, with every need, there is a new startup for it. Products and services form the primary foundation of a startup – addressing various demands of the consumers. And the key to growth is consistency and user retention.

Small business ideas for startups

So coming back to the subject, without further ado, I would like to share some of the best new-age small business ideas which you can work on irrespective of the geography you are based in or without the implementation of any deep tech technologies. The best thing is, you can kickstart these small business ideas from home, and these require lesser investment since you’ll be preventing a lot of cash burn across office space, and workforce as all that you need is a computer to build your startup. And when the time is right, you can approach investors, accelerator programs or even banks & NBFCs (Non-Banking Financial Company) for small business loans if you start generating sufficient cash flow from your business operations.

Here’s the list of best business ideas for you, and I won’t say that all of these are very unique business ideas but really worth a hit since you can always turn any of these into a tech startup once your business gets matured. On top of that, these are the best businesses to start with little money.

1. Education Consultant

Education is necessary for ages. It builds a level of understanding of our civilisation and gave birth to businesses. Nowadays, we have people who are known for their level of understanding and mentoring ability, such as consultants. An education consultant or career counsellor is a key to creating ground for the students projecting plans for higher studies and streams. As an education consultant, you can consult students on the following aspects:

Finding a suitable University with a demand country or which is ideal, according to grads
Find an easy gateway country with easy and affordable
Or top Universities according to the course
Visa process
Visa preparation
Paperwork
Costing
Financing

Some companies in our surroundings help students find universities and stay, which will make students work pretty efficiently, and obviously, they charge for too. Amid COVID-19, people witnessed a skyrocketing growth in the digital education delivery mode, as a result, education consultants too are providing guidance to their students and prospective clients via online channels seamlessly.

2. Event Planner

For anybody throwing a party, hosting a business gathering, networking or a community event, what is the most critical aspect they need to address? Event delivery, right? As an event planner, you can take your clients’ burden by building surrounding for their events with your creativity and their requirements, hire a team to work with you and make all the arrangements required to successfully set-up and deliver experiential events.

3. Wedding Planner

With this busy fast world, people plan their weddings, and it is one of the most memorable moments for the involved people and their families. Especially in India, people love attending wedding ceremonies. But to make their job easier, they need an experienced set of people who could suppress their load by doing the needful for them in exchange for a service charge. And that’s where you enter as a wedding planner – defragmenting all the bits by making arrangements such as:

Food and Beverages
Decoration
Bride’s Makeup
Faction’s arrangements
Human power
Band and music with DJ

Before you go out and start pitching your service to the potential customers, you need to create a digital catalogue encompassing various pricing plans listing respective features or services, which help people give a descriptive idea of your services and book your services all at one place.

4. Travel Planner or Agent

A person planning for a trip abroad has to do a lot of research on various airlines, accommodation and price comparison. As a travel planner, you can help them loosen their burden by connecting all the dots in accordance with their budget. As a travel planner or agent, you can guide them with the following counterparts of travelling abroad:

Flights
Hotels
Meals
Nearby destinations
Value-added services like spa and more

To make great experiences for clients, and good relationship building, you can partner with various hotels, airlines and more to offer discounts to your clients while earning success fee from the providers.

5. Web Development & Digital Marketing services

Every business runs on various counterparts including, finance, marketing, product development, client servicing, sales and more. It is not easy for a small business owner to manage and execute everything alone. And when it comes to marketing, it requires a lot of regular and recurring tasks. And that’s where your role comes into play.

If you know web development and digital marketing, you can easily start a digital marketing agency or simply put yourself first as a personal brand – offering services like web development, SEO, Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing and more to SMEs and startups.

6. Product Tester & Reviewer

There are ample, and when we are doing any shopping or want to take any service, we always check which one is good. Some people provide informative details about any product or service to compare and select where we would like to go. Today we also have platforms like Junglee.com and GoBazzar.com that lets users do a price comparison for various items across different e-commerce platforms – making the e-commerce domain even more competitive.

As a product tester and reviewer, you can help small e-commerce stores create or add unique products into their inventory in order to stay competitive in the market.

7. Tax Consultant

If you’ve been a finance student or have opted for any professional course in the domain of finance, it won’t be tough for you to become a tax consultant. Tax consultants or tax advisors nowadays are providing their services online to small businesses and startups which are in desperate need of getting their finances managed, amid the frequently changing taxation norms across various countries, especially India.

8. Resume Writer

If you are looking for a small business idea from home, Resume Writing is your best bet. For any job seeker, resume drafting and finalising is the most critical yet stressful task. A job seeker is always stuck between the right and wrong, weakness and strengths of her resume. If you are good at writing and presenting, you can simply put your skill to service and do the needful for the freshers and beginner profile professionals who are struggling to make their right-first impression in front of potential employers. To be efficient in your service, you can:

Draft resumes for your clients in the recommended ‘reverse-chronological’ format.
Make multiple resume versions aligned with respective company profiles that your client is seeking a job into.

9. Translator

An average person can learn 2 to 3 languages simultaneously; however, there are ample languages around us. In India, we have 1033 languages, which is hard to understand. Few people have complete proficiency, or they are native in so and so language, and they help as a translator to other people in writing or understanding something. These translators mostly use diplomats or people in business who are mainly traveling to different parts for their work to make communication easy for them.

10. Online Photo Selling

One of the most effective digital product ideas that only require a device and your talent. If you are good at taking photos, you can be a professional photographer and make them available on online-selling platforms such as Shutterstock, Depositphotos, Freepik and more. Businesses today need quality stock images to make their impression right across their online properties including, website, social media accounts and more.

11. Meal Planner

As a guide, you should follow one of the approaches many people use for preparing meals for diabetes and various other disorders. Planning meals means helping people choose foods which are good for their health. It also means understanding how much and when specific items can be consumed. There are numerous habits to make your meals and make sure you have the best foods every day, in the right quantities.

It is a new-age business idea and if you are looking for expansion in the near future, you might want to know about Jordan’s Boxeh.

Here are a few things that you need to keep in mind as a meal planner:

Until choosing a strategy

Before settling upon a meal preparation process, there are a few items you can do.

Keep a diary on a diet

It will help keep track of what you’re eating now until you discover a meal preparation strategy that fits you well.

Consider the priorities

Before settling on a meal preparation process, another step is to know what tasks you want to accomplish.

Speaking to the team on health care

To help you get started with meal plans, schedule an appointment with your doctor, nurse, or a dietician.

After you make a decision on a proposal

You can find it beneficial to make an action plan to get started with tiny, positive steps towards a healthy diet after you’ve selected a way to plan meals.

12. E-commerce Startup

Ecommerce, also known as electronic trade or online commerce, refers to the procurement and distribution of internet-based goods or services and the movement of money and data to conduct those transactions. Ecommerce is mainly used to refer to online purchases of physical goods, but any form of commercial marketing that is enabled via the Internet may also be identified. E-business refers explicitly to the transaction of products and services, while e-business refers to all forms of running an online business. The types of e-commerce stores you can create can be:

Retail
Wholesale
Dropshipping
Crowdfunding
Subscription
Physical products
Digital products
Services

13. Trading

There are mostly two business forms, structured and unorganized. The organized market consists of rules and regulations that must be adhered to by every operating entity, usually composed of a regulatory body to supervise such adherence. There are no strict instructions and conventions in a chaotic marketplace, and even if so, commitment is not mandatory. There could be ‘n’ number of trading business ideas that you might already know or research on the web, here are a few which can also consider:

Day Trading
Scalping
Swing Trading
Momentum Trading
Position Trading

14. Babysitting Services

A babysitter temporarily takes care of kids on behalf of their parents or guardians. A babysitter can also be referred to as a “sitter,” and children of all ages who need supervision are customarily taken care of.

Sitters are ordinarily responsible for the children’s arranging events, for example, playing, recreation, arts and crafts, etc. or even supervising playdates. However, with extra resources, individual sitters may take on additional duties (eg, catering, light housekeeping, taking kids to and from scheduled events, and assisting with homework). Overall, though, a babysitter is responsible for the children’s safety and well-being while they are in her care.

15. Online Courses or Tutoring

An online tutorial is an exercise of self-study intended to teach a particular result of learning. They can also be made available on the Internet or on a DVD. There are two fundamental forms of online tutorials, which we refer to as Registered and Interactive. Online tutoring, as geography is no longer a concern, will potentially give students access to better teachers than offline tutoring. A tutorial is a training session offered to one learner or a small group of learners. Teachers lead classes, but teachers are teachers who, usually one-on-one, support students as well. No ratings are provided by tutors: they only attempt to support or mentor pupils. A tutorial can be found in several ways, ranging from job completion instructions to an immersive problem-solving session.

As you grow, you can seek funding from angels, and institutional investors or even join a startup accelerator to turn your ideation and hard work into an edtech startup. And when we mention ‘edtech’, ample inspiring players are already available in the market like Khan Academy, Udemy, Unacademy, Coursera, BYJU’s and many more.

16. Handmade Products

Before a product is given the final touch, a lot of thinking is put in by the artist, and when you gift your loved ones a handmade product, you not only gift them a mere object, you give them the love that comes in handy with these items free of cost. Anything crafted by hand is a beautiful gift because, without computers, homemade presents are made with great care and consideration.

A handmade product is pricier when you purchase a particular piece made by a specialist in the field with the finest creations by hand: time, resources, operating hours, and most importantly, heart-are used to make the product. the Indian startup ecosystem encompasses a good segment of small businesses and new-age startups dealing in handmade items such as homemade chocolates, handicrafts, gifting material, wearables and more.

While handmade products provide that all-important personal touch, small products can work as gifts on a commercial level too. For example, a company like Dynamic Gift provides commercial gifts and products for big businesses to use as freebies, further spreading the brand name. When we create small products, they have a personal touch, but we should also understand the impact of small products that can be delivered en masse.

17. House cleaning Business

They hope to come home and find their home spotless, clean beyond reproach and smelling good when a customer pays for your services. However, for some people, cleaning the homes of other people is simply better and more satisfying because there is no personal investment-just satisfaction in a job well done. You would need to be healthy, prepared for some dirty work, and ready to sell your services through friends, family, and other people to steadily build up your customer base if you are thinking about the possibilities of launching your own house cleaning company.

Just to give some examples, India’s Urban Company (formerly UrbanClap), Kuwait’s JustClean, UAE’s Justmop and many more like them which have got successful with gigantic user base and investor interest.

A few suggestions you might want to consider before you go for a cleaning business:

Make sure this kind of work is right for you before you plan to begin your cleaning business.
Consider your talents at the workplace.
Be a pleasant communicator.
Consider your legal or criminal past in person.
Get the savings back up where possible.
Hire workforce when the time is right and you have sufficient cash or capital in hand.

18. Beauty Salon and Spa

For many reasons, a lot of people frequent salons and spas. It may enhance their appearance, fitness, mood, or simply spend time relaxing and rejuvenating in a friendly environment. However, some individuals do not know the distinction between a spa and a salon. If you’re unaware of the difference as well, carry on reading.

In a motel, where everyone has their own particular collection of issues and concerns, unlike a salon where customer demands usually are somewhat similar, there is an individual approach to any customer. The sorts of services used are another distinction between the two. Often, beauty salons will use non-professional equipment without sacrificing the result’s consistency, but if the same is achieved in a spa, the intended results will be significantly affected.

19. Musician

Being in the music business is not necessarily about finding a job in a studio or at a desk: many people in the music industry are on their own. Here are a couple of common-sense ideas to help you get started if you want to create your own music company. If you take the music production or audio engineering course here at the Recording Connection, chances are high that as a music producer or audio engineer, either as an independent freelancer or by creating your own studio, you have already chosen to be in business for yourself.

You can also create a corporate company for tax purposes, whether you’re a band or solo recording artist. The better work you do for your customers, the more customers you can get. If you are an editor, an attorney, a band manager, or a music promoter, it’s just that easy. Be consistently good with the people you work with and with, and the news about you will spread.

20. T-Shirt Designing & Printing

If you’ve been rational around preliminary your own connected T-shirt company, it’s essential to realize that it’s a competitive e-commerce sector. You’ll need to guarantee that your store stands out from the others if you want to flourish. It’s crucial that you source high-quality products, have your own T-shirt designs, and learn how to brand to ensure this. Make sure to produce a high-quality resolution template that looks fine on your t-shirt at the size you want it to be. While the design might look good on your screen, on a t-shirt, it might not show up well. To produce a high-quality picture, you might consider hiring an artist.

21. Public Speaker

If you ask managers this question, there will be one answer, i.e. excellent communication skills. As a must-have attribute is a creative and outstanding way of thinking, each startup entrepreneur should communicate their ideas to a broader audience. And by practising the craft of public speaking, the only way they can do this is. Finding brilliant ideas means little in this ever-growing market because you do not bring them to the world well. If you do not have strong public speaking talents, your thoughts will not hit the crowd immediately, which will ultimately mean that the startup leads nowhere. The secret to good leadership is public speaking, as it serves to expand your power to the whole company. Public speaking is also one of the best business ideas for women, as it rarely requires any initial capital influx, but only small expenses across building an online presence etc.

Counting and noticing the opinions
Improve your faith in yourself
Link with more individuals
Enhance your social life
Know better yourself

22. Packer & Mover

You will be confident that the goods are in good hands when you employ the experts and that they will not be at risk of cracking, spilling, being lost, etc. Professionals use high-quality packing materials to pack the merchandise and then suitable trucks to efficiently carry the items. You cannot do so with the same perfection if you have on the work yourself, which is why Packers and Movers come out with such precision. And this is indeed one of the best startup business ideas to start with in case you are thinking of starting a logistics startup.

By recruiting the skilled Packers and Movers, you can save time and resources because they can perform the entire duties on your behalf and with maximum security, too. This ensures that you can carry on with your other essential duties during pack and ship your things. This ensures that the damages are entirely compensated due to failure or injury, and you won’t have to suffer them on your own. Your transfer will still be done in the right manner by competent moving firms. Without hassles or issues, there is a way to relocate.

23. Mobile Recharge & Repair Shop

More than its simple application, which links with others, the smartphone has become an entertainment medium. Over the last decade, competition in cell phones and mobile phone brands entering the Indian market has grown gradually. The explanation of why there are limited barriers to entry is that mobile shops have cut-throat competition. But at the identical phase, watching at the specified chronicle and recent previous decorations, if done correctly, the future for this mobile shop sector looks very rewarding and profitable.

Make a list of the commonly sold mobile accessories in your environment.
If you set up such a mobile shop company, markdown those mobile accessories you can manage to buy & sell.
Be vigilant about the consumer group, get an idea of what you’re watching, figure out which price level of the shop sells more.
Not all people are technological professionals, but you need to know all products and handsets as a vendor of smartphone handsets.
Note, on both of your feet, never measure the width of the river. Know and never cross your contribution cap on the Cell Store.

24. Tiffin service

Working-class people are sluggish in their day-to-day eating habits, which build their health issues. Or else they have uneven eating habits, which is not suitable for their daily life. Lunch is one meal that is needed for better health.

Some people have started their social habits to provide lunch box service for people who are too busy in their life. Which makes a significant change in people’s lives and build another business model out of it. They need to make sure to follow a few steps which will boom and help them.

Make it hygienic and healthy
Nothing should be unmatched
Look at the target audience according to your cooking aspects.
Keep it simple and high in taste

You can make your tiffin service online via web and mobile app, a great example of which is Mumbai-based Box8. You can’t deny the growth of the foodtech sector globally, India alone has come up with a long way producing great foodtech startups like Zomato, Swiggy and many more which are now examples for the world. A further extension of foodtech is a new innovative concept called Cloud Kitchen, introduced by ex-Uber CEO, Travis Kalanick, at the end of 2019.

25. Food Truck

Same with lunch box service, food trucks are also a good bet. Why? People who don’t want the lunch box and have a habit of eating outside are looking for affordable and reachable food. So here we come with food trucks, which give them all kinds of freedom. However, they are bound to one type of daily meal, which makes people uneven to them. Although food trucks have one advantage, they make good friends, and every day they have new faces who become their daily faces. And that’s how they increase their business.

26. Mobile Phone Case & Skin business

People can change their cell phone every 6 months as our market is evolving fast. And with cell phone purchases, there comes a need of purchasing phone accessories for device safety and decoration. People also change cell phone cases, covers and skins in sync with trends. And then there are small businesses dealing in manufacturing and trading these mobile accessories – addressing the ever-growing demand. A great example of a mobile skins and cases startup is WrapCart, started with very low investment by a young Indian female entrepreneur, Akanksha Nirbhavane in 2017.

Just a few suggestions before starting a phone case business:

Start with manufacturing phone cases or skins for phones with more value and longer shelf life such as OnePlus, and iPhones.
Make the phone case business online.
Target particular segments by creating products and designs for respective segments

27. Presentation Design Consultant

A presenter helps companies interact better via presentations, media kits, pitch decks and infographics. You will need to advise businesses and new-age entrepreneurs on planning and development, do hands-on analysis to report the right goals, objectives, message platforms, and tactics for interacting right with particular markets and what material to use.

Superficially, your job is to help the company make greater use of patterns and market insights, translate it into information that can be applied internally and externally. You also need to create a pitch deck as a personal brand or a company profile deck in case you are offering your service under your specific brand name. And creating the deck is an art in itself, you need to utilise a structure, UI, visualisations, and drafting content to make it look worthwhile to the prospects.

28. Buy and Sell Domain Names

Buying and selling domain names can be an exceptional job that you can do from home. If you are new to buying and selling domain names on the internet, you should know the best places from where you can purchase domain names. At the same time, there are various portals that allow listing domain names for selling at exceptionally higher prices. To gain success in domain buying and selling business, consider the following tips:

Learn to think of short domain names, legacy domain names like .com, .net, and .org are more searchable, rank-able and hence price-worthy.
Find a place to purchase domain names. GoDaddy pops up with attractive discounts time and again.
If you are using GoDaddy then you don’t need to go elsewhere, you can auction your domain names from your GoDaddy account itself. There are various other platforms such as ResellerClub too.

29. Clothing Alterations and Tailoring

There have been specialist tailors devoted to changing and altering clothes for both the masses and the wealthy for as long as there has been fashion. Although the notion of a local tailor may sound like a throwback to a different age, the alterations and tailoring industry is still alive and well. The opportunity to buy mass-market garments in a wide variety of sizes has, without a doubt, take a bite out of the reforms and tailor trade. Like all other industries, the textile industry has evolved over time and has responded to customers’ demands in the 21st century.

Backing the small business ideas around online clothing and tailoring with affirmative examples – India’s e-commerce and fashion major Myntra that started as an e-shop for clothes, Now also offering alterations on selected apparels and brands via its platform itself. And for online tailoring business, Bengaluru-based Binks is just one of the great examples, and you can take Coloc The Tailor of Singapore (also featured in Contender Asia)

30. Real Estate Sales Consultant

This sounds really traditional, but it’s true that the world doesn’t run without real estate. As a real estate agent or broker, you need to be thoroughly acquainted with the region you would like to set up your real estate company to build and refine your business model. Knowing the cities and nearby places where you’re going to help people buy properties is a vital aspect of running a real estate company, but it can also impact how you’re going to try to sell yourself.

31. Antique Refurbishing

Either for personal use or to be shown, an antique restoration can revive old objects. A renovation firm will conduct the repairs and upkeep that help maintain excellent conditions for several more years to come, from masterpieces to nostalgic things. The right business plan needs to be sought, and now you can take the afterwards stride. There is farther around inaugurating a firm than just filing it with the department. This introductory guide to launching your antique restoration company has been put together by us. These programs will promise that the novel establishment is well scheduled, duly approved, and lawfully obedient.

32. Coworking Business

So, you must now be thinking about WeWork, Innov8 or OYO Workspaces, that’s okay but you don’t need to go that big initially, all of these big real estate or coworking startup business ideas are driven from the one common small business idea i.e. ‘office spaces on rent’. With this reverse engineering approach, your mind will tell you that offering coworking spaces on rent is just one of the best small business ideas that warrant revenues even when your business is small and on the initial stage regardless of the popularity of your business or brand.

Think basic, implement and the success will follow. You see, our surroundings are full of spaces, and to turn them into a business, you don’t even have to purchase or rent a particular property. All you need to do is sign a strategic agreement with the property owner and with a bit of investment, you can turn the same into a coworking space. The coworking space industry lately for at least last couple of years has witnessed a skyrocketing demand – making office renting really cost-effective for young entrepreneurs across the globe. Gone are the days when you had to sign lease agreements with the property owners or buy out commercial space to run your business.

Summing up – small business ideas for startups

Small entrepreneurs and startups take a toll on a person’s finance and physical strength, its success or failure can affect the cognitive psychology of the person. There is no best business idea, but hard work combined with smart work and innovation with a dash of luck will make any startup a big hit. Remember, as a small business owner, you need to start small, but dream big and generate sufficient cash flow to get big. There are a right time and stage for startup expansion that requires capital and workforce. Your early capital requirements can also be suppressed by hiring remote interns on a commission or success fee basis. In the end, I also would like to suggest you take a small business quiz once every week, to ascertain your strengths and weaknesses.

Hope you liked the above small business ideas list. If you have other innovative small business ideas or tech startup ideas, let’s hear it from you in the comments section below. Cheers!