Small businesses are abundant, but profits aren't always guaranteed. Here are some small business ideas with big earning potential.
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by LegalZoom staff
Updated on: September 1, 2024 · 20 min read
Are you ready to be your own boss and set your own schedule? Have you been daydreaming about pursuing a passion or using your experience to strike out on your own?
If you have, you may want to consider opening a small business. There are endless options, but some of the most profitable small business ideas may surprise you.
Below, you'll find some of the best business ideas in tech, consulting, home improvement, health care, hospitality, and other industries.
Methodology: All salary data was provided by Salary.com and Payscale, and information about states with the highest-paying salaries is based on data from Zippia. Note that these numbers may vary by state and level of experience.
If you're tech-savvy or an expert on an in-demand subject, share your knowledge by consulting with other business owners. This is a great option to earn money since you often won't even have to work on any projects—people are just paying for advice and insights.
It should be no surprise that tech is one of the fastest-growing industries.
The outlook for software developers looks promising, with jobs expected to grow 25% by 2032, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. App development is another niche that continues to grow.
If you don't have a background in programming, consider taking online courses to build your skill set and learn the most popular coding languages. You can become a consultant or a freelance developer for corporate clients.
If you're a numbers whiz, have an impressive portfolio of work, and have a proven track record, you could have a promising future as an accountant with your own firm or financial consultant.
Many business owners prefer to spend their days working on their craft and engaging with clients—not sitting at a desk crunching numbers and creating budgets. This means you stand to make a lot of money by providing bookkeeping and advising services to small and midsize businesses.
Work with business owners to help them meet their goals.
Once you've mastered your field, work with other businesses to solve complex problems as a consultant. You could help in various areas, like building their social media presence, managing finances, or optimizing internal resources.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows the job outlook for management analysts will grow by 11% growth by 2029, which means demand for these services is growing much faster than the national average.
Whether your background is in HR, finance, marketing, or operations, you can put your expertise to use by opening a consulting firm.
With more people working remotely and the global expansion of e-commerce, the need for cybersecurity solutions has skyrocketed.
Firms that help companies plan and implement security measures for IT systems, devices, and networks will be increasingly in demand. Your small business could play a big role in helping to reduce data breaches and cyberattacks.
The BLS predicts that the need for information security analysts will increase 31% by 2029—much faster than the national average.
Most business owners will pay a premium for assistance promoting their products or service, especially if your insights help generate more revenue.
If you're a pro at all things related to search engine optimization and other web optimization efforts, you may want to start a generalized digital marketing company. That way, you can attract customers who want different services but only want to pay once.
If you ever need to do something that's a bit out of your wheelhouse or get too busy, you can hire freelancers in those niches.
Help businesses manage their appearance, reputation, and growth on popular social media platforms. If you're good at relating to people, identifying content opportunities to attract viewers, and keeping up ever-changing the latest trends, experiment with social media management.
You can be a generalist, but specialists who excel in Instagram, Tik Tok, and Pinterest are in high demand currently as well.
Turn your passions into profits with one of these creative business ideas.
If you spend a lot of time reading or writing, you're known for your impressive vocabulary, and the idea of sharing value with the world through words appeals to you, try your hand at becoming a professional writer.
There are so many types of writing you can do. You can become a book author, technical writer, magazine contributor, exam writer, proposal writer, screenwriter, lyricist, or try out a number of alternative niches.
If you're creative and like to communicate using visuals, graphic design could be the perfect business for you to pursue. Graphic designers are in high demand and you can work from home.
With some practice, drive, and the right tools, it's entirely possible to make a good living whether you're doing brand work, apparel design, 3-D modeling, animation, or illustrations.
If you can type 70 words per minute or faster and have a penchant for accuracy and proper spelling, you already have the skills needed to excel as a transcriptionist.
Most transcriptionists can make a solid income by offering medical transcription services, and you can boost your earnings even more by earning certifications.
If you are fluent in multiple languages, you may have what it takes to become a professional translator. Businesses and hospitals often need to hire translators to communicate with clients and patients when there's a language barrier.
You could find work as a simultaneous interpreter, literary translator, judiciary translator, or localization translator.
Translators who speak Spanish and Mandarin are in the highest demand, but you can also find demand if you speak Arabic, German, French, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, or Italian.
You must have a high school diploma or equivalent, demonstrate language skills by passing an exam, and obtain an interpreter certificate after you receive 40 hours of training.
If you're dedicated to art and practice your craft daily, and you can't think of anything more rewarding than someone wearing your art on their body for the rest of their lives, consider becoming a tattoo artist.
You'll need to start out in someone else's shop while you complete your apprenticeship and hone your craft, but after a few years, you can open your own shop.
Some other creative business ideas you can pursue include:
Make life a little sweeter for your customers by helping them plan for some of life's best moments, whether that's a trip, wedding, or some other event.
Help a couple pull off their big day by negotiating with vendors and keeping the wedding planning process on track.
As someone who cares about the little details, finds unique solutions to problems, and has good communication skills, you could help take a lot of stress off an engaged couple's shoulders.
If you're passionate about changing people's lives for the better, consider becoming a coach. Whether you focus on coaching people on life, dating, or some other niche, you can do a lot of good by listening and sharing your experiences.
If you're good with people and like to cook for people or make them feel comfortable, there's room for you in the food and hospitality industry.
From charity fundraisers to conferences, virtual events are here to stay. Those seeking assistance with planning include corporations, educational institutions, nonprofits, and associations.
Virtual events go beyond setting up a Zoom invite. They can involve video conferences, live streaming, broadcasting, trade shows, job fairs, and sales meetings. As a virtual event planner, you'll help arrange logistics, set the agenda, build enthusiasm, and drive marketing. You'll bring the event to life, even when it's virtual.
You don't need a specific degree or certification to plan events. You can offer your services through a small business if you're organized, creative, and dedicated to making an event a success.
If you want to work in food service, there are several routes you can take, from being a personal chef or caterer to a food truck owner or meal kit delivery service person—the possibilities are endless.
You can choose which direction to take based on where you want to be located, who you want to work with, how much time you want to spend face-to-face with customers, and other criteria.
If you already have credentials, now is a great time to put them to work for you by starting a fitness coaching business or offering mobile physical therapy sessions. The job outlook for fitness trainers and instructors is growing faster than average, with an expected 15% increase from 2019 to 2029, according to the BLS. Physical therapists can expect job opportunities to grow by 18% within that same timeframe.
A lot of people need an extra push to help them meet their fitness goals, and others just feel helpless when they step into the gym because they don't know how to use the equipment.
As a gym enthusiast and someone who has enough experience to help people meet their fitness goals by monitoring their health and progress, you could end up changing someone's life for the better by offering this service. However, it is important that you read up on best training practices and obtain a proper education in fitness.
Rent out chairs in your beauty salon to makeup artists, hair stylists, estheticians, eyelash technicians, and manicurists to bring in more revenue while giving others room to practice their craft.
Open a retail store with interesting wares, try selling high-quality found items, or spend your time helping other business owners ship their products.
Dropshipping is a retail practice that involves shipping products to customers through third-party vendors. This means you never store or handle the products. In turn, dropshipping requires less capital to start than traditional retail methods.
From 2019 to 2025, the global dropshipping market size is expected to grow by 28.8%. What's causing this massive expansion? With the rise of online shopping and e-commerce, more product sales happen through online stores without inventory.
Before starting a dropshipping business, test your product to ensure its quality so that you can confidently promote it.
Did you know that you can make money just by shopping and posting your finds online?
If you love collecting trendy clothing, vintage video items, or rare books, you may want to consider selling some of them for a profit on websites like Poshmark, Mercari, eBay, or Amazon. This can be an excellent side hustle or a legitimate small business.
Some other amazing retail opportunities include:
Many people hire professionals to help with their improvement projects—from new flooring to updating bathrooms. Consider beginning a home improvement business in your area. According to BLS data, construction occupations are expected to grow 4% from 2019 to 2029. This includes carpenters, floor installers, drywall installers, electricians, roofers, and painters.
Do you geek out over home improvement shows? Are your friends always impressed by how orderly your home is? Do you like wowing others with the storage solutions you found on your latest run to Target or Ikea?
If so, have your love for organization make you some money. Minimalism continues to be a trend, and many people are willing to pay someone to help them declutter their lives.
If you have great ideas to help clean out a cramped and cluttered home and you can help the people who live there to keep it tidy once you leave, you could have a promising career as a home organizer.
If you love helping people find their dream home, spending time staging amazing properties, meeting new people, and going to bat for your clients in a competitive market, you could be an excellent realtor. It also doesn't hurt if you're always organized and can breeze through paperwork.
Some other home services business opportunities include:
Help people care for the people and pets they love when they can't, or consider teaching people new skills online. You can host live classes, webinars, or pre-recorded courses based on your schedule.
Starting a virtual tutoring business requires little equipment, and you may already have the skills to get started.
Whether you're skilled at math or can play the piano, you can teach people new skills from the comfort of your home. Some common online tutoring subjects include preparing for college entrance exams, teaching a foreign language, and offering individualized help to students with special needs.
There are more opportunities for entrepreneurs in the virtual learning space than ever before. Now you can host webinars and classes to teach others about a subject to reach students worldwide.
You can teach art, workout, programming, design, and language classes, or something completely different. When you're ready to get started, you can look into publishing your courses on Teachable, LinkedIn Learning, Udemy, or Coursera.
If you know how to change a tire in 10 minutes, have built your own custom system from scratch, know how to apply paint protection film seamlessly, or just love fixing up cars, you should try out one of these profitable automotive business ideas.
Help people keep their cars up and running and make modifications so their cars perform how they want them to. Or, if you're an educator at heart, you can also teach people how to drive.
Fix cars and make them look good as new with paint protection film, interior rejuvenation, and window tinting.
If you're 25 or older, you know traffic laws inside and out, and you're a great teacher, you could try to start a driving school.
Teach the newest generation of drivers the rules of the road so they and everyone else will be safe when they get behind the wheel. This job isn't for the faint of heart, but it is a phenomenal earning opportunity for anyone who is patient, good with people, and a top-notch driver.
You can also open one of the following car-related companies:
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