Editor’s note: This article was first published in January 2021. Its figures and platform rules are from then, including YouTube’s monetisation threshold of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours (YouTube has since added lower tiers) and Google’s “Adwords” (now Google Ads). Shoes of Prey went into administration in 2019.
Looking for business ideas but don’t know where to start because you have no time or little money? We understand how hard it is to start your own business while working full time. And we understand the worry this 2021. The hours spent at work and the lack of energy at the end of the working day sometimes push the ideas you have in mind down to a secondary priority that can wait.
So there’s no point lying to ourselves. The truth is that if you work full time and want to build profitable businesses alongside your job, or simply earn some extra money to top up your income, you’re going to have to make an extra effort.
Remember that relying on a single source of income can be dangerous in the long run: if that source disappears, we’re left with nothing. That’s why, however rewarding our full-time job may be, finding the right business idea and becoming your own boss, even if only part time at first, is eventually more rewarding and meaningful in the long run.
Once we’ve shaped our idea and it has become a profitable business, all the effort will have been worth it. So let’s look at which profitable business ideas we can start while working full time.
What are these business ideas we can start in 2021 while holding down a job?
Luckily, there are many ways to start a business and earn extra income even if you don’t have much free time. If all goes well, you might even end up with more than 10 different income streams, so that eventually the income you earn by brute force at your job is only a small percentage of your total income. At that point, you could even say goodbye to your job and devote yourself to building small businesses.
See also: Low-investment, high-profit, low-risk businesses
Profitable business ideas to start without quitting your full-time job
1. Start your own blog
This is probably one of the most often repeated business ideas. You may even have heard that opening your own blog isn’t worth it any more because blogs are no longer a valid source of income. That is completely false!
What you can’t do is open a blog to say nothing new and just copy other articles, repeating what others have already said with a couple of sentences changed. Do that and you simply won’t take off in this world.
I won’t lie to you either. Building a successful blog isn’t easy today, because you’re competing against giants, so the most profitable approach is to find a niche you know well and tackle it with your own style and personality. And it should be a niche where advertising pays well, or where advertisers are willing to pay for sponsored posts because they see you as a reference in that particular niche.
It isn’t hard to start earning around 200 or 300 euros a month fairly quickly, from the second month on. And earning more than 1,000 euros a month from a blog through advertising alone is certainly within your reach. It may sound outrageous, but it’s not crazy to think you can make more than 2,000 or 3,000 euros with your own blog.
To put this in context: on our own blog, we turn down more than 1,200 euros a month in sponsored posts alone. We turn it down because we’ve slowed our publishing pace and can’t upset the balance between regular articles and sponsored posts. In other words, we can’t have more sponsored posts than articles.
How do you grow a blog?
There are two ways to grow your own blog. One is slower and takes more patience (especially if you work full time): publish little by little and aim for organic growth by targeting the keywords of your niche.
The other is to invest money to increase your publishing pace and improve your SEO faster. In other words, if you don’t have as much time as you’d like to devote to the blog, you can always hire freelance writers to publish on it, and even invest in some social media advertising to drive traffic to your blog.
Either way, if you’re honest, have principles and values, and know a particular subject well, I can assure you that a blog is still a profitable business.
2. Your own video channel (YouTube)
As with the previous point, you may have heard some YouTubers say that YouTube doesn’t pay as well as it used to, and so on. That isn’t true either. Let’s say that advertisers are now much more selective about a channel’s subject matter and the average age of its audience.
Put simply: one of my videos about the stock market or business with only 5,000 views usually earns the same as, or more than, a video on a more trivial subject with 100,000 views. That’s what’s happening on YouTube.
That’s why, when YouTubers are asked how much they earn, you’d be surprised to learn that some with 75,000 subscribers earn more than others with a million, simply because they have a higher CPM (cost per thousand views).
I’ll also tell you that a YouTube channel takes much more time if you want to treat it as a business. Any old rubbish won’t do any more. Viewers now want quality: good picture, good sound, good editing and so on.
You need to prepare a short script, record, edit, render the video, upload it, add a description and tags… That’s why I always say that if you only make videos to earn money and don’t enjoy the whole process behind them, you’ll be frustrated by the third video.
Can you still make money with a YouTube channel today?
Yes, but not quickly, because the rules have changed. To monetise a channel you need at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time. Still, if you enter a niche that’s trending right now, you can get there with three videos. In my case I got my first 1,000 subscribers in just three days with two videos. Of course, I already had readers from the blog, so I’m not a valid example in that respect.
Even so, earning 100 or 200 euros a month within six months is an achievable goal. From there, it all depends on your dedication and effort.
Needless to say, there are channels that gain hundreds of thousands of subscribers with a couple of videos and are earning more than 5,000 euros a month after three months, but that isn’t the norm.
The number of YouTubers moving to Andorra shows that it can be a profitable business, but I insist: it’s not at all easy, and it certainly won’t be quick.
3. Online courses
This is one of the fashionable business ideas, and selling your skills pays. If you’re an expert in something, or you carefully put together a course that gathers all the information on a specific subject in an organised, easy-to-follow way, there are certainly people willing to pay for it.
There are various platforms where you can sell these online courses. Perhaps the best known is Udemy. Some time ago we published the story of a 25-year-old who made more than 120,000 dollars selling a course on this platform. There are many more cases of people earning extra passive income of more than 15,000 dollars a year from selling their course.
In this article we explained step by step how to create your own online course (info product) and sell it successfully. There are different ways to do it and quite a few platforms with different terms.
4. Sell your own ebook
If there’s one thing we’ve noticed about the ebooks sold on Amazon, it’s that even the worst book you can find has been downloaded. It’s another very profitable way to earn passive income, especially if the material is good. And since we’re talking about business ideas while working full time, in this case it’s a matter of writing a few pages of the book every day, and before you know it you’ll have finished it.
See also: 10 jobs and businesses set to boom in 2020
Bear in mind that it will be easier to sell your ebook if you’ve already built a community through a blog or a YouTube channel. It’s certainly an excellent way to strengthen your personal brand. As you’ll know, these days anyone can self-publish their own book, both as an ebook and in print, without going through a publisher.
This has its good side and its bad side: while anyone can publish a book, the market has also become saturated and full of rubbish, so you’re obliged to write a good book.
5. Instagram marketing
Building an account with thousands or hundreds of thousands of followers takes time, but once you’ve done it you’ll have a real chance of being contacted by brands willing to pay you considerable sums to promote their product or service.
We’ve already covered the case of a couple who charge up to 9,000 euros per Instagram post. That may be an extreme case, but it’s not crazy that, at a certain number of followers, brands will be willing to pay you 200 or 300 euros to promote a product. And it all adds up.
If you have the know-how to help people or companies grow on Instagram, that’s a very profitable market niche right now.
6. Photography as a business
There are many ways to make money from photography, from taking your own photos and selling them on stock image sites to creating and selling photography courses. Another good way to turn photography into a side business alongside your full-time job is to do shoots on your days off, whether models, landscapes, weddings or christenings.
Selling your photos on stock sites is a slower process, and clearly the more photos you have available for download, the more chances you have of selling them. In the end it can become a far from negligible secondary source of income.
7. Your own podcast
Although monetising a podcast may seem more complicated at first, the truth is that you can make money from podcasts both directly and indirectly. Here we explain the ways to make money with a podcast.
Some podcasts have more listeners than traditional radio stations, so there’s a lot of money waiting for you there. The advantage of podcasts is that they don’t need as much editing as a YouTube video. Otherwise, it’s more of the same: create interesting content, offer value or entertainment, and monetise it in the ways we’ve already explained.
8. Freelance writing for others
Can you earn up to 1,000 dollars an hour writing from home? The answer is that some people do. Media outlets need writers. Good writers. Some companies also need creative people who can write an article or a few lines for their posts.
We published the story of a woman who earns up to 950 dollars an hour as a freelance writer. She gave some tips not just for being a freelance writer, but for having your own profitable business writing for others. Definitely a good business idea.
See also: 3 ways to make money online without investing (there are no others)
9. Consulting for small local businesses
If over the years you’ve developed valuable skills or certifications in your industry, consider selling those skills in your spare time by offering consulting services to local business owners. This can be a potentially lucrative business idea.
There may well be more than one small shop owner willing to pay to solve a setback or a small problem. Other small shops want to sell nationwide over the internet, and others are looking for someone to handle their local marketing with online advertising.
If local businesses took advantage of online channels, they could increase their sales considerably.
When we talk about the profitable businesses we can set up in small towns, we shouldn’t forget that the internet can make all the difference to expanding a local business in a remote village. This niche can be very profitable.
10. Commission sales
Here we really are talking about one of the most profitable business ideas you can start part time without leaving your current full-time job. If you have sales skills and/or contacts, this business is for you. And it can be truly lucrative.
Many companies look for independent sales agents to sell their products part time, because they have no intention of putting sales staff on the payroll. Depending on the product and the type of customer it’s aimed at, we can earn more or less money. It’s as simple as putting the buyer in touch with the seller. All we have to do is “hold out our hand” to collect the commission once the sale has closed.
That may not sound very attractive if we’re talking about low commissions on small customers, but if we’re talking about selling a product or service to a large company, the commissions could be very high.
The good thing about becoming an independent salesperson is that practically no company with sales reps on the road will tell you not to sell its product. In most cases, the company will tell you to go ahead and that it will pay you “x” for every product sold.
What other businesses can you start part time without leaving your full-time job?
11. Affiliate programmes
If you already have a website or blog with traffic, getting started with affiliate programmes takes no effort at all. Some people find it hard to understand how affiliate programmes work, but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, one of the most widely used affiliate programmes is Amazon’s.
By placing the links Amazon gives you on your website, you earn a commission on every purchase made through that link, both on the sale of that product and on whatever else that person buys within a certain period. There are other platforms with a wide variety of products to promote and earn a commission on each sale, such as ClickBank.
You can earn anything from a few hundred euros to tens of thousands of euros. It all depends on your ability to drive traffic to your affiliate products and get people to buy. It isn’t easy, but it’s possible. And like many of the business ideas in this article, it can be an excellent way to create another stream of passive income.
12. Remote English or Spanish teacher
Do you think you could earn 10 or 20 euros while having lunch? You can. Thanks to Skype and some people’s interest in learning another language quickly, there’s a big market of people who are very busy with their jobs and willing to pay for a conversation with a speaker of another language, and in many cases they choose to do it over lunch.
This business idea can also be done in person: meeting a client at lunchtime to hold a conversation in your language, correcting and polishing their speech as you go. It’s the equivalent of learning a language directly in another country, and it’s proving more effective than attending a language school. And it’s certainly a very simple business to start, with no investment required.
13. Social media manager
As we know, it’s practically compulsory for companies and professionals to have a strong social media presence, and on the other hand most people spend far too much time on social media. So why not get paid for it and build a side business managing social media for small businesses and professionals?
Many influential people rely on social media managers to answer comments and publish posts. Everyone seems to believe they manage their own accounts, but only someone who actively manages their own social media knows how much time it takes. On the other hand, a person’s fans would be disappointed if they saw the artist ignoring all their messages.
The same goes for companies. They need social media managers or a community manager. This can be an excellent business idea, and we already included it in our article on business ideas for making money while travelling the world. You just need to land a few accounts to manage, and it wouldn’t be crazy to talk about earning between 1,500 and 3,000 euros for managing the social media of three companies.
14. Google Ads and Facebook Ads expert
Managing a company’s advertising campaigns on Google can be a cumbersome task for that company, so more and more of them are turning to firms and professionals who understand both SEO and SEM.
The same goes for sponsored posts on Facebook: some companies still don’t know how to set up the targeting filters to get the most out of their campaign and reach potential customers at low cost.
That’s why this can be an excellent business opportunity to make money without leaving our job. Needless to say, it can be combined with social media management and even with freelance writing for others.
In other words, you can offer a company the full package, and that means more money and more profit for you.
15. Landing page specialist
A good landing page can make the difference between a successful advertising campaign and a fiasco. It can also make the difference between hundreds of thousands of euros in profit and tens of thousands in losses.
Although ready-made landing page templates are widely sold, they’ve become so standardised that users are used to them, and you always seem to end up on the same page. A landing page should be simple and original, and optimised to encourage purchases and to complete the purchase in as few clicks as possible.
That’s why professionals whose main business is specifically landing page design are starting to appear. It may seem like a very small niche, but when you help a company sell up to 50% more than in its previous campaign, your reputation goes before you and your fee goes up. A good business to start today.
16. Brew your own beer
Brewing your own craft beer is relatively simple, and since we’re talking about starting a business while you’re working, your workplace could be your first market of potential customers, as long as you make a good product.
You can pick up a good starter kit from sites like MrBeer and start brewing your own craft beer. The rest depends on your creativity and sales skills.
17. Freelance editing, proofreading and copy-editing
As long as there is writing, there will always be editors. Editing and proofreading pay a good hourly rate. Many publishers outsource this service. And now, with the growth of independent writers, more and more people are needed to review, correct and edit books before they go to publication. That’s why this is an excellent business idea to start alongside your job today.
Rather than a business idea, this is really more of a profession. If you make a name for yourself in this field, self-publishing is at one of its strongest moments, and many new writers still have no experience of self-publishing a book.
18. Buy used electronics and resell them
Once a tech product’s warranty has expired, many people simply throw it away as soon as it stops working, without looking into what went wrong. This happens often with PCs, cameras, camera lenses and smartphones. If you have the knowledge and skills to fix them, consider starting this business idea by buying, repairing and selling these products.
One of the most profitable small businesses to emerge during 2020, and still going in 2021, is precisely the smartphone repair shop. These shops don’t just repair mobile phones; they also take the opportunity to sell other products and offer other services.
19. Carpet cleaning
Carpets can make your home warm and cosy, but over time they also become a breeding ground for dust, dirt, allergens and insects. You can take advantage of this by launching a business idea that has already proven to work: freelance carpet cleaning in your spare time or at weekends.
The only investment you’ll need is the right equipment, such as a vacuum cleaner and carpet brush, plus the cleaning chemicals. You could also consider renting the equipment for the weekend and lining up 8 or 10 customers for that weekend to cover the rental cost. Once you see you have regular customers, you can think about buying your own equipment.
20. Independent real estate agent
This is one of the business ideas that could be considered easy to start, with the potential for big profits. The best way to get into this profitable business is undoubtedly to do it part time until you can devote yourself to it fully. It’s a matter of finding properties for sale and for rent, and on the other side finding potential buyers who might be interested in the catalogue of available homes you build up little by little.
If the business works, you could consider moving from independent property broker to running your own real estate agency.
21. Buy an existing website and build it up
Websites are like shares: they’re bought and sold all the time. And just like shares, some websites are pure rubbish, while others are diamonds in the rough whose owners haven’t known how to make the most of them.
The advantage of buying an existing website is that it already has content and age, so it has already come some way in terms of search engine rankings. What you do need to look at is its current traffic, why it isn’t ranking well, and whether it has any Google penalty.
If everything checks out, it’s sold at a good price and it falls within a niche you know well, you could generate extra money relatively quickly.
Among other business ideas, there’s also buying and selling domain names. For some people who know this field well it can be a very profitable niche, but for anyone without the necessary knowledge it remains a very speculative sector.
22. Private labelling and selling products on Amazon
Amazon is the most valuable tech giant, so it’s a massive global marketplace where anyone with the right business idea can benefit from the growing wave of e-commerce. But this idea does require investment.
Here we’re talking about doing careful research to find generic products from Chinese or Indian manufacturers. These could be watches, key rings, mugs, shirts, T-shirts, tech accessories and so on.
You ask for the price of the product, the minimum quantity you have to order from the factory, work out the final cost including shipping, and calculate what you’d need to sell it for to make a profit. Then you do your own search on Amazon to see what similar products sell for and decide whether the risk is worth it. Remember to run a test before placing your first order, as we explained in our article on the steps to start your own business.
See also: 2019 trends: business ideas in tourism, travel and leisure
With this business idea we’re already talking about setting up a company and devoting time to selling on Amazon under the requirements it sets. But if you’re sure about it and it goes well, we’re also talking about making a lot of money.
23. Voice-over work
If you have a pleasant voice and a neutral accent, many digital publishers, including game developers and producers of training videos, usually pay a decent amount for a good voice that fits what they’re looking for. And the time investment isn’t too high, so you can work as a freelancer in this industry.
You can find voice-over job offers on sites such as Fiverr or Freelancer. Needless to say, it’s a very competitive industry.
Other profitable business ideas you can start in 2021
24. Creative and audiovisual content
It doesn’t matter how big or small your company is, but how professional it looks to users. To produce advertising campaigns and ads, brands need professionals and companies working in this growing sector.
As spending on advertising strategies rises, more money will go to professionals with creative talent and knowledge of online marketing, as well as to audiovisual content experts, since video is proving far more effective at attracting consumers than traditional ads. That’s why we include video editing among the most attractive business ideas from 2021 onwards.
25. Renting out baby items
The money we spend on baby clothes can be a big financial sacrifice for many families, given that children grow very fast at that age and quickly grow out of their clothes.
Some companies already supply babies’ clothes throughout their growth for a monthly or annual fee. The clothes are rented and later passed on to other parents. It’s a matter of working out how to make this business idea profitable.
26. The world of drones
A huge industry has opened up around drones, so it’s a matter of thinking how an entrepreneur can benefit from it. To begin with, two business ideas come to mind:
- Drone flying courses: teaching how a drone works and its basic or advanced concepts can save a user many days of trial and error. I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to find customers for this idea, as long as prices are reasonable and the service is useful.
- Drone parts, repairs and spares: whether in a small physical shop or online, becoming a place where drone users can get parts for any brand and have their drones repaired could be very profitable.
27. Breakfast delivery to homes or businesses
Many companies deliver food to people’s homes, including pizzas and burgers, but very few offer breakfasts under a similar system. And very few indeed deliver breakfasts to businesses.
Think how useful this idea would be if a company is holding a meeting and can have a full breakfast delivered instead of having to leave the building to eat. It’s a question of seeing whether there’s a niche for this business in your city. It’s easier than ever right now, with the arrival of delivery companies such as Glovo or Deliveroo.
28. Clothing subscriptions are a very profitable business
This is one of those business ideas that various entrepreneurs have already applied successfully. One of the pioneers was the founder of HallMadden, who designed a service for executives in which, for an annual fee (or split into monthly payments), subscribers receive three dress shirts every month plus the occasional gift, such as cufflinks or a tie.
The subscription model has also appeared at cosmetics companies, where customers receive their favourite beauty products every month for a monthly fee. In this last case, Birchbox has more than 400,000 subscribers, so it has managed to build a million-dollar business. Where else do you think you could apply a subscription service?
More business ideas that can help people
29. Healthy food business ideas to compete with the big chains
When we think of fast food, McDonald’s and the like quickly come to mind, but the truth is that outlets with a similar system are already opening, with the difference that they serve only healthy food.
See also: 4 business ideas to compete with McDonald’s
We can find a fast-food outlet focused on salads, another serving only vegetarian food, and so on.
30. Bullying
A lot is said about bullying, but few act in line with the dire consequences a child may suffer later in life after experiencing it first-hand. Much can be done to ease this situation, which keeps growing in primary and secondary schools, and if official bodies don’t do it, they leave the way open for entrepreneurs with ideas to provide solutions.
There are solutions, and once again the United States is an example of how profitable businesses can be built around protecting young people who are bullied at school.
31. Hybrid beauty businesses
Hybrid businesses are an excellent idea and a great option. In the beauty sector they’re an even better idea, because in a small space we can offer different services: hairdressing, nails and tattoos. That way, good treatment in one service can lead the customer to use all the services your salon offers. Laser hair removal can also be added to the hybrid business. That said, laser hair removal businesses and franchises on their own are proving to be profitable.
32. Custom women’s shoes
Custom sneakers have proven to be a very profitable business, but we were forgetting about women’s shoes. Some companies, such as Shoes of Prey, let women order exactly the shoe design they want, which makes sure their friend won’t turn up at a party wearing the same shoes.
If you’re looking for more business ideas, we have other articles such as 31 small business ideas for 2021.
See also: Business trends report for 2021
Featured image: Kristoffer Trolle from Copenhagen, Denmark, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
