Starting a business is never easy, no matter who you are and where you come from – it can be daunting, stressful, and it can break you into pieces before you even begin. And when you don’t have a very large budget, to begin with, you might feel tempted to give up on the idea.
Fortunately, though, there are a lot of low-cost business ideas you can embrace – and setting these businesses up is not even that difficult either.
What are the top low-cost business ideas you can start for under $20,000? We have some low-cost startup ideas for you – so read on and find out more.
Open a Small Bakery
You don’t need to open an actual storefront bakery – you can keep your services private and only deliver bakery products for special events, especially if you want to stay in the low-cost business idea range.
This type of business can very easily take off – all it takes are a couple of successful events you would cater cake, cupcakes, pet treats and other baked goods to. Once that happens, people will start asking for your services.
A small bakery operated from your own kitchen will cost under $2,000, provided that you already own the bigger machinery needed in this case (i.e.an oven, for example). Other than that, you will only have to purchase nice serving platters, groceries to create the baked goods, pans (in different shapes) and other tools of the trade.
Start a Writing Service
Are you good with words? If so, you can start your own writing service- and it is one of the best low-cost business ideas you can start for much less than $20.000. Depending on what exactly you want to focus on, you can find a niche in:
- content writing
- copywriting
- resume writing
All of these can be very lucrative businesses, but the last one is better if you live in an area where people aren’t very likely to buy marketing services (because they run smaller businesses and handle these things internally).
It can cost close to nothing to start a business like this – you will just need a decent laptop and, perhaps, a printer (if you decide to go for the resume writing idea, for example).
Become a Music Instructor
If you’re good with music and you can teach someone else how to play an instrument (or how to “play” their own vocal chords, for that matter), becoming a music instructor is a dream job for you.
In general, music instructors earn between $20 per person per hour for group classes and $40 per hour for individual classes – and the investment is minimal (except maybe for the instruments if you choose to teach students at your location and need to provide them with instruments to learn on).
Be a Personal Shopper
This will sound almost surreal for many – but did you know you could make money…shopping?
Obviously, we’re not talking about going crazy on the coupons, but about actually going shopping online or in a store for someone. There is a myriad of reasons someone might want to hire a personal shopper for themselves:
- they don’t have time
- they don’t have patience
- they don’t know where to go and what to look for
If you’re a mall connoisseur and if you know your way around shopping stands at flea markets and other ad-hoc shopping “events”, or you’re really great at navigating the online stores, this job is for you. You only need to invest in marketing your services and showcasing what you can do – but the profits can be quite nice!
Become a Dog Walker or Pet Sitter
When going to work each day, leaving town on vacation, or taking a night out on the town, many pet owners want to make sure their dogs, cats, and other furry and scaly friends are safely taken care of by someone who actually knows what they are doing. And that’s where you come in.
You can either work as a dog walker or pet sitter and do all the assignments yourself, or if you want more flexibility in your life and around the holidays, you can purchase a turnkey pet care franchise for under $20,000 total investment that trains and supports you as you build a staff that you manage who perform all of the assignments. This is the kind of business that makes you feel genuinely useful for your community.
If you only want to pet sit, then you can go ahead and start marketing your services. But if you want to create a business with a better perspective for the future, you might want to hire other pet sitters as well. Students, stay at home parents, people who work from home and retirees tend to be great people to hire for your staff when it comes to this.
How to Find Low-Cost Business Ideas
If you stop to look around yourself for a bit, you will find that people are willing to pay for a lot of things that don’t have anything to do with large, corporate businesses.
They are willing to pay for someone to bake a nice cake for them or come entertain their children at a birthday party. They are willing to pay for homemade arts and crafts – and some will be willing to pay for actual courses in this direction as well.
They are willing to pay for someone to teach them a skill or simply for someone to “lend their skill” to them for a short period of time (such as in the case of personal shopping).
The key to finding a good low-cost startup idea lies in knowing what your community needs. Once you identify the things they are willing to pay for, the rest is a breeze: you simply come forward and offer it to them.
The examples we have offered in this article are there for your inspiration, but they are not even by far the only ones. There are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of low-cost business ideas you can start looking into today.
All you need is a little bit of courage! 🙂