Editor’s note: This article was first published in February 2011, although the text was later updated to speak of a tough year 2013, and the title follows that update. Its market references are from 2011 to 2013, including mobile apps displacing the PC, the post-crisis job market, the Match.com-OkCupid and AOL blog acquisitions and the franchise list.
Here is a new roundup of the most profitable business ideas for this tough year, 2013. Once again we stress the need for innovation and originality, plus the use of new technologies as a way to spread your business idea around the world.
As we discussed in our article “the businesses with the most future“, the market tends to serve specific needs such as human longevity, health and beauty, and new technologies. Right now, any business idea related to these topics or needs is a recipe for success.
Technology business ideas
A new business opportunity is opening up in selling apps for the invention that is developing fastest of all: the mobile phone. If your computer and programming skills allow you to create clever apps, you can take part in one of the businesses with the most future. As we have discussed in other articles, the future is not the computer but the mobile phone, which will eventually displace the PC, and until then plenty of new projects are needed. There are also countless ways to make money online, and some of those ways of making money are rather unusual.
Business ideas with social networks
Social networks are a market that can still be exploited, perhaps on a smaller scale than Facebook (though you never know). Social networks for specific, well-defined groups are great ideas, and many of them are already doing well. For some ideas on this topic, see the article 9 social networks focused on professionals and specific markets.
Websites and blogs
We recently talked about the success of dating websites, and saw how an online dating giant, Match.com, acquired OkCupid for 50 million dollars. We also reported that AOL acquired a blog for 315 million dollars. So websites and blogs are a very profitable business, and anyone with minimal know-how can have that opportunity.
Tourism and leisure business ideas
Stepping away from new technologies, we come back to tourism as a business that remains profitable and where, in a fairly saturated market, the key is to innovate. Some business ideas in this area can still be exploited in Spanish-speaking countries.
One of them is business tourism, which works perfectly in the United States, and I’m sure many entrepreneurs are waiting for this business idea to arrive in their country. We firmly believe it would be in high demand. See Business tourism: a profitable business idea.
Another idea in the tourism sector is tourism for groups such as gays and lesbians, a business that has already proven successful.
And here is an article where you will find several business ideas related to leisure and tourism.
Business ideas in services for companies and homes
The oldest businesses also have a chance to be reborn in this 2013 full of change and technology, so you will find a range of ideas among businesses offering home services and services for companies.
Love and sex are profitable businesses
Sex is big business and a basic need. As times have changed, many taboos have disappeared, so we offer a list of business ideas related to the sex market (all completely legal).
And since love is a human need, beyond online dating sites it opens up other possibilities for innovative businesses, some of them very profitable: business ideas related to love.
The franchise business
Although I’m not a fan of franchises, this business model has come through the crisis successfully. Among the most profitable options in the franchise sector, you should mainly choose those focused on health and beauty, which have grown the most. These franchises don’t require a large investment and promise a quick payback of the capital invested. See profitable low-investment franchises for 2011.
Profitable businesses with little or no investment
By taking advantage of new technologies, we can turn our knowledge and training into a very profitable business, as the idea of online private tutoring has shown. It is still a largely untapped idea in Spanish-speaking markets, so it can be innovative, and the advantages for both the client and the business are countless. You can also set up an agency or a virtual assistance company serving other businesses, a business that would grow gradually as profits grow.
There are also another 10 business ideas with no investment, which won’t make you rich but will help you get by in specific situations.
In short, we want you to set your fears aside this 2013 and start a business, because, as you have seen, the job market has not improved and will take a long time to do so. So I’ll leave you with the following two articles, which I hope will motivate you to overcome the fears that come up before you take the plunge.
And if your fear is more about failure: if you have never failed, you have never lived.
Throughout the life of this blog, we have not only shared the business ideas we consider most profitable, but also the essential knowledge to help you develop your idea and start your business successfully, trying to spare you some of the mistakes entrepreneurs tend to make when starting out. Other mistakes you will have to make yourself, in order to learn from them.
We wish you the best of luck with your projects. And remember: we provide the business ideas and the advice; you have to bring the motivation and energy needed to see them through.
Featured image: Startup Stock Photos, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
