It is 2022, and in the past few years, Covid-19 has negatively affected most businesses.
Still, it isn’t a bad idea to start a small business on the side for rainy days.
In this article, we’ll discuss ten of the most profitable small business ideas and how to start them:
1. E-commerce
E-commerce is primarily the sale and purchase of products on the internet.
It is a great way to start a business in 2022, regardless of the scale.
Amidst the pandemic, many people are isolating themselves and aren’t going outside. Hence why the e-commerce market is on the rise.
Getting started with e-commerce
Find a Niche
Before starting your business, you have to find a niche that piques your interest.
Thoroughly research and learn everything about the niche products that you want to sell.
Base your decisions on the popularity of the products and how profitable they can be.
Build Your Online Store
Once you’ve decided on your niche, it’s time to build an e-commerce store.
Your e-commerce store will be the home of your brand. There are different options on the internet to choose from for an e-commerce platform.
You can either create a store on online marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, etc.
Or list your products on free classified sites like Craigslist for P2P (peer-to-peer) selling.
Plus, there is always an option of creating your own e-commerce website.
Market your store
After building your online store and setting up your products, you’ll need to attract your target audience. This is achieved through marketing.
There are different types of marketing strategies out there.
You can do outbound marketing, personalized marketing, email marketing, telemarketing, etc.
But the most important part should be to optimize your website so that you can get organic traffic as well.
Once your business starts growing, you’ll get a better idea about which marketing tactics work for you and which don’t.
Income and Advantage
The income of your e-commerce business depends entirely on the number of sales you get. And if you deal with it the right way, you can make good money through your e-commerce business.
E-commerce entrepreneurs in the US make from $44,190 to $187,200 a year on average with a median income of $101,000.
E-commerce offers innumerable benefits to both buyers and sellers. For example, it has no geographical limitations, which means sellers can reach buyers from anywhere in the world.
It is easier to shop and find products online for buyers. Plus, e-commerce stores don’t have to pay crazy rents or hire a lot of employees, which results in lesser costs.
These are just some of the reasons why it is one of the biggest industries in the world.
2. Graphic Design
The graphic design business is more in-demand now than ever.
As more and more brands emerge, the competition between them increases.
Many brands are in the same niche and sell products similar to each other. These brands give it their all so that the customers trust and choose them over their competitors.
To achieve this, businesses hire graphic designers to produce more sleek and professional-looking designs.
Getting Started With Graphic Design
You don’t need to have a degree in graphic design to pursue a career. One can learn graphic design from the comfort of their home.
Completing graphic design courses online is a great way to get yourself started in this field. You may find these courses on sites like Udemy and Coursera.
You can even learn graphic design through the thousands of tutorials that are available on Youtube for free.
How to Thrive In Graphic Design
Find clients, earn great reviews, and gain experience at the start.
However, finding customers is not an easy task. Here’s what you can do:
Make an Account on Freelance Sites
We recommend that you list your skills on a platform.
For starters, sign up on a freelance site to find new clients. These freelancing websites let you contact customers who require graphic designers.
Most designers usually freelance on sites like Fiverr and Upwork.
Market Your Way to Success
You can hire someone to perform SEO on your site. This will help you show up in search rankings when people search for a specific graphic designer.
You can also run ads on social media to target individuals and businesses that require graphic designers.
Income and Advantage
According to the Bureau of La`bour Statistics, the average yearly salary of a graphic designer ranges from $52,000 – $54,000 per year and they charge around $25/hour on average.
In recent years, the demand for graphic design has increased. 99 designs report that 1 in 5 designers picked up more freelance projects than normal during the pandemic.
Plus, being a graphic designer doesn’t just tie you to a single industry. You can work with all types of companies.
3. Social Media Management
Social media management refers to the responsibility of managing the social media handles of a business.
This business is in-demand as brands build relationships with their social media followers to turn them into customers.
Getting Started with Social Media Management
A social media management business requires little to no money to start. All you need is an internet connection and a device to access social media.
Know Your Platforms
Before starting your management company, it is important to learn about the various social media platforms.
Not every approach accommodates all platforms.
For example, Twitter is a different platform than Instagram.
On Instagram, you can only post pictures and videos with captions. Whereas on Twitter, you can do both and write tweets as well.
Tiktok has also become a popular platform these days. Many businesses have already started making creative short videos to promote their products on there as well.
Interact With Your Audience
Businesses primarily use social to build trust and loyalty with their followers.
Make it a habit to help your audience and solve their problems. Set your goals to get more engagements rather than selling.
One of your basic practices should be to try and reflect the tone of your brand and customers. If your audience prefers quirky humor, your posts should be able to reflect that as well.
Income and Advantage
According to Glassdoor, the average yearly income of a social media manager is $55,000.
In 2020, Statista reported that there are 3.6 billion social media users worldwide. And by 2025, that number will go up to 4.41 billion. But Kepios’s report shows that in January 2022, there are already more than 4.62 billion social media users across the world.
Clearly, the number of social media users is skyrocketing and isn’t slowing down any time soon. There’s a lot of money to be made and a lot of opportunities to be explored.
4. Photography
Photography is a hobby for many people but they can turn it into a lucrative business as well.
Nowadays, photography equipment has become more affordable and consumer-friendly, making it easier than ever to get into his career.
Getting Started With Photography
Photography is a big industry and easily one of the most competitive businesses out there.
Fancy and expensive equipment won’t necessarily help you get noticed as a lot of people now have a good camera via smartphones.
To stand out, we recommend working under a professional to gain some experience and get to know how things work.
Cover Events
Wedding and event photography is a good way to get into the business and get some experience.
Product photography for other businesses is a profitable idea too.
You can also upload your photos on big stock image websites like Shutter Stock.
Contract photography can be very lucrative as well. Businesses pay you to cover their events or tours with all expenses paid.
In the end, there are many options to choose from. You should be open to any opportunities that come your way.
Income & Advantage
According to BLS, the average annual wage of photographers is about $42,000.
This entirely depends on the type of work you do. For example, retail photo studios grossed an average of $240,000 while home-based studios grossed about $130,000 annually.
Photography is a straightforward business. People can see and appreciate your work, making it easy to land loyal clients.
5. Content Writing
With the online business industry growing more rapidly than ever, more and more businesses are beginning to see the importance of marketing.
Due to this, the demand for content writing has gone up quite a bit and it has now become a very lucrative profession.
According to Hubspot, 82% of marketers report actively using content marketing in 2021.
Getting Started With Content Writing
Many online enterprises hire freelance content writers to write for them and boost their content marketing campaigns. This is how most writers start their careers.
Freelancing doesn’t require money to start but writers have to work hard to achieve success.
There is a lot of competition in this field. Only superior writing skills will set you apart from others.
Identify Your Niche
Content writing is a broad field with lots of options. You can write research blog posts, ad copies, product descriptions, guides, technical articles, and much more.
We recommend reading all sorts of content and consuming as much information as you can.
Choose the type of content that interests you and just start writing on it.
Afterward, connect with the influential figures in your writing niche and ask them to review your content.
And just like that, you’ll be on your way to building a successful writing career.
Income and Advantage
On average a content writer makes about $51,000 in the United States (Glassdoor). And the hourly wage averages about $19 – $20.
One of the best parts of content writing is the research. You’ll increase your general knowledge as you’ll be absorbing a lot of information from different industries.
6. Web Design
Web design is a very popular business as more and more companies are realizing the importance of a clean, fast, and well-designed website.
Starting a web design business is one of the best decisions you can make in 2022.
In the past few years, many small businesses have shifted their focus online.
But most of these businesses neither possess the skills nor the experience required to run their website successfully.
Thus they hire people who can do it for them.
Getting Started With Web Design
You don’t necessarily need a bachelor’s degree to start web designing.
You can learn almost everything from online courses and YouTube tutorials.
Build Your Website
After learning the fundamentals of web design, try to build your website and design it yourself. This website should be promising and reflect the professionalism of your work.
This way, when clients visit your website, they’ll be impressed by your work.
Be Clear About Your Services
Your services should be clear-cut so that the client knows what they are paying for.
You may offer services like complete web design, site rebuilds, redesigns, etc.
Cold Outreach
Your primary plan should be to target small businesses and help them grow.
In this case, cold emailing is a great way to reach clients. Inform them about their website’s errors and suggest how you can improve them.
Give them a reason to choose you over other people. It could be money, quality, or something else. Your goal should be to send at least 2-3 emails daily.
Income and Advantage
According to Payscale, web designers on average make around $38,000 – $77,000 a year. However, a freelancer on Upwork earns about $15 – $30 per hour.
Web designers have a lot going for them. They command large salaries, get to work with different types of companies, and are in high demand.
7. T-Shirt Printing
T-shirt printing businesses can be extremely lucrative in 2022.
Grand View Research estimates that the global custom T-shirt printing industry was worth 3.64 billion USD in 2020. It is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 9.7% from 2021 to 2028.
Getting Started With a T-Shirt Printing Business
T-shirt printing is profitable, popular, and easy to start. However, it requires investment.
If you’re a designer, t-shirt printing is the perfect business. You may start a clothing line with your designs or print shirts based on customers’ orders.
All you need is a store to sell. It can be either offline or online.
Print On Demand
Post your shirt designs on your social media or websites.
If they get a good response then you can go ahead with your designs.
Income
Income in this business depends on the number of your sales.
By printing a lot of t-shirts, you can make good money. For example, a basketball shirt costs $11($8 shirt, $3 printing) to make and it can sell for $25 – $30. We are looking at more than double the profit here.
8. Podcasting
A lot of people these days like to entertain themselves and be updated on what’s going on in the world through podcasts.
Edison Research’s study shows that around 49% of listeners tune in from home, 22% while driving, 11% at work, and 8% while they are working out.
Podcasts are also the go-to for people with busy schedules. Many people listen to podcasts while going about their everyday lives. Podcasts can be accessed easily on apps like iTunes and Spotify.
Getting Started With a Podcast
Starting a podcast doesn’t require a lot of money. But it does require some steps to take if you want to start one.
Identify Your Subject
Before you start your podcast, think of a subject that you’re interested in and wouldn’t mind talking about for hours.
It could be interviews, news, informational, etc. From the countless topics to talk about, talk about the ones that you have the most sharable insights on.
Equipment & Software
You don’t have to buy expensive equipment when starting as you can even record a podcast on your phone.
Smartphones nowadays come with noise-canceling microphones which filter out the background noise from your recording.
Mobile apps like Anchor give you a lot of options when it comes to recording podcasts.
And for PC you can use audio editing software like Adobe Audition and Audacity.
Podcast Hosting and Platform
Podcast hosting is different from posting your podcast on a streaming platform.
Podcast hosting sites store large audio files which can be used for distribution. You can sign up on podcast hosting sites like Buzzsprout and Podbean.
After that, it is time to list your podcast on a platform.
The most popular ones are Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Soundcloud, and Youtube.
Making Money Through Podcasts
Podcasts make money mainly through advertisements, brand deals, and ad revenue.
Although it may take time to build an audience, spreading the word on social media and posting short entertaining clips from your podcast can help reach your potential audience.
Income and Advantage
The average income of a podcast host in the US is $87,000 yearly and $42 hourly.
There are 80 million Americans who listen to podcasts weekly. To put that in perspective, there are 75 million total Netflix users in the US.
Some benefits of running your own podcast include:
- Establishing yourself as a recognized presence in your niche
- Gaining the trust of your audience
- Promoting products and services, whether your own or someone else’s
- Attracting new leads and turning them into customers who pay
9. Online Teaching
With a lot of people staying at home due to Covid-19, you can teach people online and charge money for your services.
Getting Started With Teaching Online
You can teach just about anything online. There are maths, history, music classes, and even swimming lessons online.
To easily find online clients, use platforms like Tutorme and Preply.
Sell Online Courses
If you don’t want to teach every day, you can record a full teaching course and sell it online.
This is a great way to make money as you’ll only have to teach once. After that, just market it and sell it to clients.
Sign up on platforms like Udemy and Skillshare to connect with people that are willing to buy your courses.
Income and Advantage
Online tutors earn about $14 – $23 per hour, so their income usually depends on the amount of time they can put into their job.
However, you can make a lot of money by selling courses as well.
In fact, reported by a prominent market player in the online edtech industry that 32% of tutors on average make $25,000 – $75,000 a year selling courses online. And 28% of the tutors make more than $75,000 a year.
