What are some simple ways to start a business?

But you can start working for yourself without leaving your usual workplace. Perhaps in the future, this will allow you to quit your main job and become “your own boss,” or perhaps you will simply get a good and stable increase in your salary.

Unfortunately, there is no simple life hack that will allow you to dramatically change your life. But I have collected a few ways to start a business, and at the end of this answer, you will find tips for starting your own business.

Get started drop shipping.

The easiest way to start a business with little or no investment is with dropshipping. To do this, you do not need to purchase equipment and rent a warehouse, just choose the niche of goods you are interested in, find suppliers (the best platform for this is AliExpress), launch an online store, and place goods on it with a markup of about 50%. When a buyer has placed an order, buy the related item on AliExpress and provide the customer’s shipping address. The supplier will take care of the rest.

What is the advantage of such an activity?

• You risk practically nothing, except for the time and costs for marketing and advertising.
• If it suddenly turns out that the products you have chosen are not in demand, you can simply replace them with others.
• You can do business anywhere: at home, in a cafe, at your main job during a break.

Start your own clothing line

If you have the makings of a designer and some free time, you can launch your own clothing line. At the same time, it is not necessary to be able to sew yourself or open a sewing workshop, you can cooperate with services, which will manufacture the goods and send them to the client for you, you just have to create a design, launch an online store, link it to the selected service and receive a commission from each order. T-shirts are especially popular, but you can experiment with other items of clothing and accessories made by your chosen service.

What is the advantage of such an activity?

• You can start selling clothes right after the store opens. At the same time, the production of goods begins only after ordering, so if your design turns out to be unsuccessful, you will not lose anything.
• It’s fun to create products that people will use every day.
• You will be able to channel your creativity in a profitable direction.
• Seeing how your ideas come to life is priceless.

Make money with your creativity

Another way to channel your creativity on a profitable track is to sell your work online.

If you are an artist or photographer, you can sell postcards and posters of your work, print them on T-shirts, mugs, and more.

If you already have a sufficient number of subscribers, you can take orders. Don’t be shy and don’t put low prices. Check prices from already earning artists or photographers of your level and be guided by them.

If you are a musician, you can give downloads for your beats, songs, samples, and other stuff for money, or sell your music on stock services.

What is the advantage of such an activity?

• You can become a part of someone’s life, and your work can penetrate the homes and headphones of your clients.
• For some people, creativity is not just a hobby, but a lifestyle. And so you get a chance to make money on what you like.

Become a freelancer

There is always a demand for talented writers, designers, and developers. As a freelancer, you can apply your skills and help people from all over the world with their projects (while earning money, of course). It is not necessary to take large-scale and long-term projects that will gobble up all your free time. Choose shorter and simpler tasks that fit into your schedule.

The most popular freelance exchanges are Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer.

It’s worth noting that Fiverr is a bit different from traditional exchanges. All prices for work there are multiples of $ 5. To earn more, customize your offerings so that you can easily sell additional services to your customers.

What is the advantage of such an activity?

• Freelancing allows you to choose projects you like and work on a schedule that suits you and in a place that suits you.
• It’s nice to do what you do well and get paid for it.
• If you’re a beginner, freelancing is a great way to gain experience in various fields and build your portfolio.
• Perhaps you will discover talents in you that you did not even know about.

Record a series of training videos

This will allow you to generate passive income from your knowledge. Record a video explaining a topic that you are well versed in and post it on your personal page. Of course, recording instructional videos will take effort, but if you manage to create a popular and valuable course, you will receive regular passive income from the students who enroll in the course.

To write your first online course, think about a topic you know well and study it well enough to be able to explain it to the perfect teapot. The topic can be anything – web development, music writing, social media marketing, etc.

When you have decided on the topic and have prepared all the necessary materials, download an application that can record your actions on the screen and your voice explaining what is happening to the students.

Even if you have never done video recording and editing before, you can find instructions on YouTube or simply on the Internet. Who knows, maybe as a result you will master these programs so much that later you yourself will record training videos on their use.

What is the advantage of such an activity?

• You just need to spend a few days (or weeks, depending on how complex the topic is and how much you want to explain it) to record a series of videos and post them on the right resources, and then relax and reap the benefits of your labors.
• You already have the knowledge, you just have to share it. Focus on teaching what you already know very well and everything else will come naturally to you. It doesn’t matter what it is: developing applications for Android, creating accounting reports, or using ads.
• Helping people is always nice, and if you get paid for it, it’s doubly pleasant.

Become a tutor

You can also make money on your knowledge in an active way. If you know a thing or two who are comfortable with people, try tutoring. You can find students in your city in the old-fashioned way and either go to them (as a rule, then the lesson is more expensive), or receive them at home (then the price should be set lower). If you decide to host students at home, equip a separate place for this, where nothing will distract you or your students. Ideally, allocate a separate room, or at least a balcony.

Or you can teach online via Skype or another program that supports video calls. Here you only need a computer, Internet access, a webcam, and a headset, but it is better to take care of what is visible behind your back so that the students are not distracted and embarrassed by the mess in your room or household members scurrying back and forth.

Tutors are sought not only in school subjects and foreign languages but also in programming, painting, music and many other subjects.

Decide on the topic you want to teach and the age of the students. Programs for children are usually easier, but you will often have to find an approach to the child and/or his parents. Adult students are more attentive and interested in learning, but they may not have time to complete their homework due to busyness.

What is the advantage of such an activity?

• You create your own schedule and curriculum.
• Most of the students are motivated enough, and you do not have to hammer knowledge into their heads forcibly, as regular teachers have to do.
• If your students are making progress because of you, then it is always a pleasure.
• Thanks to tutoring, you will be able to learn a lot of new things for yourself and become much better at understanding the subject.

The options presented above are some of the easiest ways to start making money for yourself. They do not require any special investment, and even if something goes wrong or you realize that it is not for you, you will lose practically nothing, except for time and some expenses for marketing and advertising. Unless, of course, you don’t quit your job with a scandal, having received the first order.

Perhaps you have other ideas on how to start your own business. In any case, if you want to start and grow a business, you need to go through the following five steps to get started:

Research the market

Even if you have a great idea for a startup, it is not a fact that this startup will bring you profit, your product may simply be unclaimed. Before investing time and money in the business, first, do your research and determine if it will be of interest to potential buyers.

You can order marketing research from a specialist or agency.

Start production of goods or product development

If you have determined that there is a demand for your future goods or services, it is time to start translating them into reality. If you decide to sell goods, then you need to find a manufacturer, if you decide to launch an application, you need to find a developer, and if you decide to provide some services, then register on the relevant exchanges and place your service packages there.

If you decide to go into dropshipping, then the phase with the production of goods can be skipped. Just select the products that you are interested in, or for which there will be demand.

Take care of the legal component

Of course, not everyone works officially these days. For example, few tutors issue an individual entrepreneur and report to the tax authorities. But if you want to work legally and not be afraid of possible questions from the tax authorities, then you should do everything according to the law: register as a legal entity, open a special bank account and submit all the necessary reports to the regulatory authorities. If you have never done something like this and are afraid to make a mistake, it is best to consult a lawyer.

Find suppliers

It is important for an online store to find good and reliable suppliers. If you choose a service that prints images with your design on T-shirts and other items of clothing, try ordering something for yourself first and check if you are satisfied with the quality and delivery time. If you have decided to get into dropshipping, take the time to find reliable suppliers on AliExpress. If you notice that the goods of a certain supplier are ordered most often, you can enter into a business relationship with him and as a result get a discount, the possibility of placing your logo on the product or packaging, or something else.

That’s all. We hope you find this answer useful. If you have been thinking about starting your own business for a long time or just want to earn extra money, then it’s time to take the first step.