Starting a business, a big risk but it is also rewarding if your idea takes off. While having, the entrepreneurial desires is only half the hassle, you can achieve whatever you can imagine as long as you have determination and passion to see it through. The key to starting a business is having an idea that satisfies market demand, is practical, and stands out from the crowd. Here are amazing start-up ideas to get you started.
App Development
Developing your apps is one of the easiest and less expensive ways to start a business. However, the competition in the app market makes it difficult to create an app that makes money. If you have a good idea to build your app around, you stand better chances to make real money. One of the best niches to target is kids’ apps. According to publication by Common Sense Media, about 75% of kids can access mobile devices, so anyone who can design innovative apps for kids has a higher chance of making money. Moreover, kids are your future customers, so building relationship at that early stage is a sure way of keeping them as you customers for a long haul.
Become an Online Retailer
You do not have to be an established retailer to start an e-commerce business. All you need is the right e-commerce software, e-commerce concept, and web platform to sell directly to your customers or use drop-shipping service. You can take help of E-commerce website builders and utilize widely available free stock image sites to make your website look great to attract customers.
This model allows you to sell your own products or partner with suppliers to offer the products or services. However, you should be cautious when selecting suppliers to work with. Just like a bad customer, bad suppliers are also a nightmare. Generally, e-commerce businesses are rewarding but they can also be risky, so diligence in financial management is vital.
Besides selling physical products, you can also specialize in digital products such as e-books, apps, music, software, templates, and videos. The fact that these kind of e-commerce stores require low starting capital and operating cost means it has good returns. A major percentage of the operational expenditure is taken up by website maintenance and promotion. However, you will need patience and marketing talent to get customers. The main advantage of owning a digital store is the ease of management since there is no physical inventory. Most of the things run on autopilot i.e. a customer comes to your site, select the items, and pay for them then he or she is directed to a download page or receive an email containing download details.
Start Consulting or Freelance Business
There is nothing simple as starting a business on an area you know or good at. The most important thing to consider when starting a consultant-based business is skills more than money. It is even possible to start this kind of business while still in your full-time job. One of the areas that have been gaining momentum in the recent past is freelance work. An increasing number of companies are looking for skilled freelance workers or independent contractors to complement internal staff. This means it is possible to build a business that provides freelance services to gather for this growing market.
The best thing is you have unrestricted in terms of scope, geographical location, and earning potential. For instance, you can start a virtual assistant business, which offers several services such as secretarial, bookkeeping, web research, and marketing among others. In most cases, assignments pay on an hourly basis while others are project based. You might have to charge slightly lower when starting then increase as you gain more customers and experience.
If you are good in data analytics, economics, or marketing you can put these skills to better use. Many organizations are looking for someone to process, analyze, and dig for insights from the data. For instance, you can help organizations such as labs, hospitals, therapist offices to become more efficient and save money using the information they already have.
Technology Business
If you are tech savvy individual, then there are many opportunities which you can profit from. The rate at which technology change means that you have an opportunity to help other companies to take advantages of the changes. One of the areas with the greatest opportunity is cyber security. Even though cyber security has been around for many years, the demand for the service has not decreased. There is demand for new and effective technology to curb new threats from cyber criminals. Data being the most valuable asset for many organizations, you can earn plenty of money if you can provide solutions that will protect this asset.
In addition to the above, IT support, repair, and maintenance is also a lucrative business idea. Many small businesses outsource their IT support services because it is expensive to hire full-time IT professionals when available work is insufficient to justify the pay. You can start a business to serve this group of clients. Your services will depend on clients need but will most likely involve data backup and recovery, desktop clean-ups, network setup, software installation, and maintenance.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence has huge growth and funding potential, so it is lucrative if you have relevant skills, otherwise, you will have to hire a team with high-level technical skills. However, it still has a long way to bridging the gap between machine and human beings. With this in mind, there are other solutions, which have elements of artificial intelligence, which improve human and machine interaction. One of such innovations that companies are using for their customer service is chatbots. Basically, chatbots facilitate conversations with people through a chat interface. This is an idea you can start a successful business with. According to Gartner, over 85% of customer services by 2020 will not involve human.
Conclusion
Starting a business is a big step that needs a good idea, thoughtful consideration, and proper planning. The best strategy is having some cash to cover your bills while the business stabilizes. At times, it is important to seek professional advice before taking the plunge. As you start your business, please consider one or two of the above ideas because they have immense commercial and growth potential.
