Starting an online business on the side can be a great way to earn extra income, pursue your passion, and even transition to full-time entrepreneurship. With the rise of e-commerce and the internet, there are numerous online business ideas that you can start on the side without the need for significant investment or specialized skills.
In this blog post, we will explore some of the most promising online business ideas that you can start on the side. From e-commerce stores to digital products and services, there are plenty of options to choose from. Whether you’re a stay-at-home parent, a full-time employee looking for a side hustle, or an aspiring entrepreneur, there is an online business idea that can fit your interests, skills, and lifestyle.
Start an online business with these 10 ideas
- Launch your clothing line.
You can start a clothing business if you have some ideas for designs and a little bit of spare time. If you currently own a Shopify store, you can set up your dress line using Oberlo, Printify, Printful, or a comparable item-obtaining application. Each connects your store to clothing manufacturers and apparel printers automatically. They also take care of every part of the retail fulfillment process for you, allowing you to design and ship a wide variety of items right away.
Why start a clothing line?
- Making products that people will use every day is the ultimate source of fulfillment.
- You will be able to begin selling as soon as you build your Shopify store. The process of designing and delivering your custom-made clothing has been streamlined and simplified by apps like Printify and Printful.
- By turning your creative ideas into something that works and makes money, you’ll love seeing your designs come to life.
- Set up a dropshipping store.
To run your own business, you don’t need a warehouse full of inventory. Dropshipping is a cost-effective method for starting an online business. You can stir things up around town by obtaining a previous item from a provider and having them deal with things like bundling and satisfaction.
You can get around a lot of potential roadblocks to starting your own business by following this procedure. Importantly, after placing a significant order with a manufacturer or supplier, a dropshipping company eliminates the possibility of discovering that there is no market for your product.
Why choose dropshipping?
- Products need not be stored in a physical location, so your cash flow won’t be impacted by inventory. There is less cash risk upfront.
- You place an order with a third party whenever you make a purchase, and they take care of the rest of the process on your behalf. Dropshipping eliminates a lot of potential problems for budding entrepreneurs because you don’t have to worry about tracking inventory or mailing packages.
- You can run your business from anywhere because there is no warehouse. You decide where you want to work, whether in your living room or at the nearby café.
- Sell your artwork online.
With a well-designed ecommerce website, you can start an online store and turn your latest work of art into a source of income, regardless of whether you are a musician, photographer, or painter.
Using Printify or Printful, you can sell your paintings or photographs as prints, canvases, or framed posters. This is a fabulous method for transforming your specialty into something substantial that individuals can bring back home and incorporate into their space. Is music your thing? Beats, songs, samples, and other content can be sold as digital downloads.
Take a look at The Drum Broker, the world’s largest online retailer of drum samples. With the help of apps like ShipStation and FetchApp, it developed a model for an online business that is both profitable and long-lasting.
Why sell your art online?
- By putting your work in headphones and the homes of customers, you will become a part of their lives.
- Setting up an online store will give you a place to show off your work.
- Making art is more than just a pastime for an artist; it’s a way of life. This is your chance to earn money from your passion and possibly make a living doing what you love.
- Become a freelance writer, designer, or developer.
Based on their skills, graphic designers, programmers, and writers can start their own businesses. You can use your skills to help people all over the world with their projects as a freelancer and, of course, make some money for yourself.
Outsourcing doesn’t mean focusing on extended projects that consume all your leisure time. It’s a great idea for an online business because you can quickly pick up tasks in manageable chunks that fit your schedule.
Why start freelancing?
- When you work for yourself, you choose which projects you want to work on and decide when and where you work.
- Whether you want to start your own business or just need some extra cash on the weekends, it’s satisfying to be paid to do something you enjoy.
- Freelancing is a great way to build your portfolio and gain real experience in a variety of industries if you’re new to writing, designing, or developing. You never know what you might be good at or how passionate you are about it.
- Teach an online course.
A low-risk online business idea for passive income generation is teaching online courses. The only thing you need to do is create a video walkthrough that explains a topic that you are familiar with, and then publish it on your own website.
If you are able to design a popular, high-value video tutorial series, you will make money on an ongoing basis as students continue to enroll in your course, despite the initial effort required.
Pick a subject you are knowledgeable enough about to teach someone how to do it from scratch before beginning your first online course. Anything goes here, from web development to social media marketing to music production.
Then, you’ll need to get a screencasting application, such as ScreenFlow, to record your screen and voice while you walk your understudies through your instructional exercise. You can shoot and edit videos on the same platform with ScreenFlow’s built-in video editing suite.
Why teach an online course?
- You can put an online course on autopilot. An online course can be built in a few days or weeks, depending on the level of complexity you want to achieve, and you could enjoy its benefits for weeks.
- You are aware; It only requires sharing. Whether it’s building iOS apps, creating monthly budgets, or running Facebook ad campaigns, focus on teaching something you’re already an expert at. The rest will come naturally.
- The reward of teaching someone a new skill is itself rewarding. Teaching online courses is profitable, but helping other people is always satisfying in and of itself.
- Flip your thrift store finds.
Selling your secondhand treasures is one of the best online business ideas if you enjoy shopping at thrift stores and finding great deals.
Your potential clients want to buy cool things, but they don’t want to search through tattered soccer shirts and braided belts for that one amazing find. Take advantage of this by establishing yourself as a dependable curator who can search for outstanding vintage items on behalf of others.
Why sell your thrift store finds?
- Let’s face facts: You’d be looking through racks at thrift stores anyway, so you might as well use your shopping aversion to make some money while you’re at it.
- There are huge margins. That ball cap from Radio Shack that cost two dollars? The next one might be a vintage vaporwave strapback that costs $40.
- You’re selling a one-of-a-kind item. The vintage collections you create will not be available anywhere else on the internet.
- Publish your book.
Admitting it is acceptable: You’ve considered writing your book one day. Although it might appear to be a fantasy to see your name on a list of bestsellers, it is not that far off.
It doesn’t matter if the book is a marketing manual, a science fiction novel, or a picture book for kids; there are presently a lot of choices to effectively independently publish your work. With the Digital Downloads app, you can make your writing available to on-demand printing services like Blurb and CreateSpace as an ebook.
A great idea for an online business is to sell ebooks. Installing the Digital Downloads app will enable you to instantly stock digital files as products, allowing you to sell ebooks through your online store. Customers who have purchased your ebooks will receive them via email or a direct download link.
Assuming that you decide to sell actual duplicates of your book, you’ll simply have to submit a request with Snippet or CreateSpace at whatever point your work is bought. They’ll print your book specifically for you and take care of everything from storage to fulfillment.
Why publish a book?
- If no one is around to read what you write, what’s the point? The quickest way to get your book into the hands of potential readers is through self-publishing.
- Services like Blurb and CreateSpace take care of printing, storing, and shipping.
- You deserve to make money doing something you love because creative writing is your passion.
- Start a blog.
Since its inception, blogging has made significant progress. Originally a virtual journal, it is now a tool for marketing and even making money.
A blog is a great idea for an online business because you can make money from selling your products, hosting ads from third parties, or publishing sponsored posts.
To start a successful blog, you must cultivate a committed and engaged audience. You will build a community that trusts you if you begin with a focus on the audience. Also, when you can procure trust, you can begin to generate income.
Why start a blog?
- Blogs can grow in any direction. You can expand into e-commerce, courses, affiliate marketing, and any other online business idea. To generate revenue, some blogs even employ a paid subscription model.
- A blog is an ongoing endeavor. Although you won’t see results right away, they are likely to be more long-lasting. A blog remains online indefinitely, or at least until deleted.
- It allows you to rehearse your composition — a fundamental ability to have in business and correspondence. To improve your writing, make use of tools like Hemmingway or Grammarly.
- Become a virtual assistant.
Are you extremely organized and enjoy working in the shadows? If this is the case, you might be the ideal person to start a business as a virtual assistant (VA).
A virtual assistant helps executives, entrepreneurs, and businesses organize their personal and professional lives. There’s an expansive range of obligations, going from arrangement planning to fundamental showcasing of the board and in the middle between. Furthermore, everything is done online.
Why become a VA?
- Work with the ideal customer. Regardless of whether you know toward the beginning, over the long run, you’ll figure out who you love working with and how you love to help them. Your idea for an online business can change to meet those preferences.
- Meet individuals from all over the world. You only need an internet connection to work, and you can collaborate with professionals and clients from around the world.
- Develop your idea for an online business into a VA network. You can hire and train virtual assistants to work under you and increase profits if you become too busy or have growth goals.
- Try your hand at being an influencer.
Even though consumers are becoming savvier, there are still plenty of opportunities in influencer marketing.
There has been a shift toward micro-influencers, or profiles with smaller but more engaged followings, as influencers have come under fire for dishonest practices. Good news: On Instagram, you don’t need millions of followers to make money.
Why be an influencer?
- It’s a chance to learn about marketing, which is especially helpful if you want to make it your career or start your own business.
- You’ll learn about intriguing new brands. You could find items and organizations you love that you couldn’t have ever found had they not requested your administration.
- It’s so natural that a monkey can make it happen. Well, not literally, but if you’re afraid of the camera, you can make your pet the star.
Conclusion
If you’ve been considering ways to start a business online, now is the time to get out there and start a business that makes money online in your spare time. You don’t have to commit fully. With a side job, start small and grow from there. or limit yourself. The freedom to run your own online business is one of its many benefits.