Millions of self-employed people call home their place of business. Want to join them? Below is a list of online business opportunities you can take advantage of from the comfort of home.
1. Dropshipping
Dropshipping is one of the best at-home business opportunities there is. Dropshipping is a fulfilment model that lets you buy products directly from a supplier or manufacturer and ship them to your customers.
Compared to other ecommerce business opportunities, dropshipping has a low barrier to entry. You don’t have to worry about carrying inventory or buying products in bulk. You don’t even have to worry about shipping products, because your supplier handles that for you.
Since you don’t have to buy the items you sell, you can offer a variety of different products, such as beauty, keto, fashion, home, ice cream, wholesale, and more—dropshipping business opportunities are near endless. If a supplier stocks a product, you can list it on your online store with no additional cost.
2. Print on demand
Whether you’re an artist, designer, or ecommerce brand, print on demand is a great potential business opportunity for online clothing retailers.
Printing on demand involves working with a supplier to customize white-label products, such as tote bags or t-shirts, with your own designs.
The best part? You don’t have to pay for the product until after you sell it. Similar to dropshipping, you don’t hold any inventory or buy in bulk.
3. Sell handmade products
If you always enjoyed making and building stuff as a kid, selling handmade products is a great business opportunity to monetize your creativity.
Even if you have the will to create something new but lack experience, there’s a way to make it happen.
Take Josh Pigford, founder of Baremetrics (a SaaS company) and Cedar + Sail (a handmade homewares online shop), for example.
What started as a side project quickly became a profitable online business opportunity to stimulate his creative side and sell products he makes by hand.
“I’m a sucker for little things that go on side tables and desks, so I started playing around with some ideas for concrete planters—the kind of thing that can hold succulents and air plants.
I pretty quickly figured out the process to produce the silicon molds I’d need to pour the concrete in, and I was set. A month or so after I had the idea to make these little planters, Cedar + Sail was born!”
If you’re not sure what to sell, start by looking around your own house. What’s missing that you wish you had? Is it a concrete pot? Colorful artisan bed covers?
Then do some online research to see what’s selling. Are big stores like Target or West Elm selling similar items?
Once you’ve decided what things to make and sell and what seems to be trending, start creating!
4. Sell digital products
E-learning is exploding as an industry. Recent studies show that the industry will be worth around $331 billion by 2025, making digital products one of the best online business opportunities for creators and educators alike.
Music, videos, ebooks, and online courses are a few examples. They can be held or touched, but are popular amongst consumers because they can download them and consume on their own time.
Digital products also make for great business opportunities because they’re inexpensive to create and distribute. You can make it once and sell it repeatedly to different people without restocking inventory or talking with suppliers.
If you consider yourself an expert on a particular topic, you can package that information up and sell it in the form of a one-time fee or subscription.
5. Sell photography
Business opportunities like selling photography are common. You can sell photos on endless stock sites—such as Getty Images, Shutterstock, iStock, 500px, and Stocksy—or wherever the demand for your type of photography exists.
To succeed in selling photos online, make sure to cover three important things:
a.Find your niche. Whether it’s flowers, travel, buildings, landscapes, or fashion, choose one and stick to it.
b.Build an audience. Selling photos isn’t a passive business opportunity. It’s a good idea to promote your photos on social media and build a following to sell more.
c.Create multiple revenue streams. Don’t just sell on one site. Sell on as many as you can manage to create various streams of income.
Whether you’re a hobby photographer or it’s your full-time job, selling photos is one of those free online business opportunities that can help you earn cash if you put the time into it.
6. Play video games
Video games have come a long way from earning you only bragging rights. Today, you can earn degrees, get sponsorships, and even become an esports professional gamer.
With an industry valued at $1.7 billion and growing, video games can be one of the most profitable business opportunities, if you play your cards right.
Revenue doesn’t come only from playing professionally, either. You can earn money live streaming on a platform like Twitch.tv, start a YouTube channel, or even sell game-inspired merch.
7. Become a self-published author
Do you love to write? Have you ever thought about publishing your own book? Well, good news. Becoming a self-published author is one of the best small business opportunities for you.
Self-publishing just means that you don’t work with an established publisher to manage the editing, design, and production processes of making a book.
Instead, you do it on your own. With no real shortage of readers on the internet, there’s plenty of space for you to make and sell an ebook or audiobook and turn a profit.
