Editor’s note: This article was first published in November 2017; the cycling boom, the surge in phone repair shops and property management for Airbnb hosts are described as trends current at that time.
For those who want to start a business but can’t quite find ideas for making money with a company, large or small, I hope some of the ones below will help.
We’ve written countless articles along these lines, gathering all kinds of ideas: from ways to make money from home and starting a small business from the comfort of your own home to the businesses expected to see growing demand in the future.
So let’s consider this article a new “potpourri” of businesses you could consider, and even innovate within. In the end, the entrepreneur’s execution and creativity are everything.
1. Selling and repairing bicycles
Bicycles are in fashion, perhaps because cycling is one of the ways people most often choose to keep fit. In fact, it’s a product people are spending exorbitant amounts of money on. There are many ways to get into this market.
- We can look for bicycle manufacturers abroad and create our own brand at a good price. It’s the same old story: find manufacturers in China and sell the bikes in Spain, or wherever you plan to start this business, both in a physical shop and online. You can even sell them through dropshipping.
- Find a manufacturer and create an exclusive, distinctive brand that doesn’t compete on price. This route is much more complex, but it can also be more profitable if it works.
- Bicycle repair. Bicycles also need tuning up, and they suffer damage and breakdowns too, so this service, which was missing for a long time, has started to make a strong comeback.
2. Gear for cycling enthusiasts
Riding the boom in passion for this activity: cyclists don’t just need bicycles but also the right gear, from clothing and footwear to lights for riding at night. We even see new products appearing practically every day, from a helmet with indicators that show drivers which way you’re turning to solar-powered clothing that charges your phone.
And of course: how can I sell all these products when a company has already invented them? I imagine you’re asking yourself this question. Well, you can become an exclusive distributor of these products or, as we’ve been discussing so much lately as a low-risk way to start a business, find manufacturers who have made something similar (they don’t usually take long to do so), reach an agreement with them, buy cheap and sell at a higher price.
This will take a lot of legwork, lots of phone calls and probably a small investment to request product samples from manufacturers until you find exactly the product you were looking for in terms of quality and price.
See also: 31 business ideas to start in 2018
3. Cleaning services
This business can be taken in many directions: private clients or businesses, an hourly rate or a monthly fee for a set number of days and hours. That could let us hire staff by the hour or on the payroll as our number of clients grows.
Perhaps you could focus your cleaning company on a sector that isn’t catered for much yet, at least in Spain. I mean offering your cleaning services to bars, cafés and restaurants. It’s a matter of selling the idea well to hospitality businesses, showing them the advantages of outsourcing this service.
Bear in mind that many restaurants, in particular, end up making their staff work longer hours than they should. Some of these restaurants pay their staff overtime, while others don’t even do that, and so burn their staff out.
If you also offer out-of-hours cleaning, you can target offices. In short, you can give free rein to your creativity to innovate within this sector and even offer services never offered before.
The good thing about this business is that spending on advertising can be minimal. To start with, you find clients out on the street, and word of mouth usually works very well. And as if that weren’t enough, these days you can promote your services on social media. Again, both to private clients and to businesses.
4. Repairing mobile phones, computers and electronic devices
All of them together, or specialising in repairing just one type of device. You choose which direction to take this business in.
With today’s smartphone prices, the number of shops opening to repair these devices has soared. Honestly, though, I don’t think the profitability of this business lies in the repairs (although they help too), but in everything they can sell you in the shop afterwards, including phones and accessories. At least in the shops I’ve seen, the ones with the most people queuing had them there because of what they sold rather than what they repaired.
Since this business is ideally run from a physical shop, we can also sell certain products through an online store, which will also help advertise our shop.
And if we also take on repairing computers and other electronic devices, large or small, we’d have more customers and more money, as well as the chance to sell all kinds of products.
5. Teaching people to use software
If you’re good at using a program, for video, audio or photo editing, etc… I promise you, personally I wouldn’t have minded paying a reasonable amount to learn these kinds of things much faster and save myself the hours of learning. In other words, I’d have welcomed a shortcut. And that’s how you sell this kind of product: you offer your knowledge of something you’re good at, which can undoubtedly be a great help to others who want to learn.
You can teach individuals and charge by the hour, or teach groups, bringing a number of people together and charging a weekly or monthly fee.
So… which program do you use brilliantly that many people today are taking longer to learn, and that you could help them learn more easily?
6. Home energy adviser
These days, saying “energy adviser”, at least in Spain, can cause confusion and make people think of the young people who knock on our door asking to see our utility bill and trying to get us to switch suppliers.
A real energy adviser, who usually has expertise in this area, impartially assesses the home’s energy situation, reviews the supply you have at home and where you could save money over the year. Of course, this adviser can go further and offer to install certain services or even sell some appliances. And why not? Offer you a heating or air-conditioning system and earn a commission for it by working with companies in that business.
But above all, this professional will aim to work for the client and help them save money on electricity and other utilities.
7. Import/export expert
As you’ll have noticed, we mention the idea of importing a product to sell in our own country more and more often. On the other hand, many companies are eager to sell their products all over the world, or in certain countries. If you have experience importing and exporting products and you think you could advise companies on the steps needed to do it, there’s demand: these days, companies that are starting out run into lots of doubts, legal obstacles or simple lack of knowledge. So you could find a very attractive niche in this market.
8. Low-cost interior decorator
The truth is that these days we can decorate a house in Hollywood style for very little money, because there are very attractive and at the same time very cheap materials. What you need is good taste to do this job.
If design and decoration are your thing, you can offer your services both to private clients and to building contractors.
Of course, we can also aim this business at clients with more purchasing power. It’s a profession with a lot of scope and possibilities, where you can give free rein to all your creativity and flair.
9. Jewellery making
There are many types of materials you can work with in this sector, and many ways to get into this business. Metal will probably require the most tools to work.
However, jewellery made from glass, plastic or wood is booming today. Needless to say, if we do a good job and make something original and distinctive, it shouldn’t be too hard to sell it online, where social media will take care of promoting your work if it’s good.
10. Teaching technology to older people
If you can turn technical knowledge into something simple to use, older people could benefit greatly from new technologies and, at the same time, keep their brains active by learning something new.
I think if some older people discovered how to use Tinder or similar apps, they’d be even more entertained 🙂
The point is that technology is making life complicated for many older people, and trying to make it easier for them by sharing our knowledge could be a good idea.
11. Errand company
We could approach this business idea as an employee or as a company offering these services to residential communities. In fact, it’s already catching on.
The idea is to offer your services to residents’ associations or housing developments and be at the disposal of each client in the community: picking up a suit from the dry cleaner’s for the neighbour in 5A, watering the plants for the neighbour in 3B who won’t be back for 3 days, collecting a parcel for another neighbour, and so on.
On top of all this, as I always say, you can add your own added value. You won’t be a concierge as such, or you could be that too. Thinking bigger, a company offering this service to residential communities could catch on if the idea is pitched well.
12. Property management
This idea can be attractive today, given the rise of the ways some property owners make money through services like Airbnb.
That said, we could focus on rental properties or blocks of rented flats, where we make sure everything is in order and, if the alarm goes off in an empty flat, you’re the contact person they call.
In this business you could also be in charge of preparing and cleaning a home whenever it becomes vacant.
Consider this possibility. If a client lives in Andalusia and has an empty flat in Madrid, and wants to make money renting it out to Airbnb users, you could be in charge of managing the comings and goings of guests, making sure the flat is ready for the next one.
13. Upholstery
If you’re good at sewing, upholstery repair could be an ideal business for you. If you don’t have much experience, learning to upholster shouldn’t be too difficult. One of the best ways to learn is to get hold of some discarded upholstered furniture and start practising on it.
You can also learn for free on YouTube, from videos that explain how to upholster.
Often, many pieces of furniture that need reupholstering also need repairs, so we can offer both services and even subcontract specialists in one or the other.
14. Gift basket service
This idea can be approached in many ways. It can even help us sell products we make ourselves, such as scented candles or homemade soaps. Ideally, focus on a niche: baskets for sports lovers, for animal lovers or for people who like to look after their appearance.
Ask yourself what you’d want to receive as a gift if you were a lover of… and put together that basket with the products you’d like to find in it. Christmas is a good time to start this business.
See also: 18 ideas for making money at Christmas
15. At-home styling (hairstylist)
This figure, which in the United States is called a hairstylist, has become a very popular business, especially among the upper middle class. In short, it’s a beauty professional who comes to your home, whether for beauty treatments, haircuts or face masks in the privacy of the client’s home.
Many people would rather spend an hour with a green or purple face at home, where they can do other productive things in the meantime.
This business is undoubtedly better suited to someone who already has years of experience working in beauty salons or hairdressers, mainly because building up a client base for this service would be much easier. Although, again, if your service is good and your professionalism comes first, you won’t find it hard to make yourself known online.
See also: 41 businesses that can be very profitable in 2018
Featured image: Tim Frost from Braintree, England, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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