Have you been trying to make extra money online? Have you always wanted to earn money from your writing, cooking, painting, accounting skills independently from your job? Many wonder how to start an online business with no money. It’s not easy, but it can be done if you’re determined!
In the times of Gig Economy, today is as good as any day for your start.
Here are some simple ideas to get your started. If you long for your own little (or big!) company, you are, well, in a good company, because now, businesses started by women are growing at twice as fast as those owned by men in the US, at least.
For independent women, having a small business brings financial independence, flexible working hours and a pride that comes from owning your own business and only answering to your self!
Haven’t you heard Beyonce?
Here are a few business ideas that you can explore that require minimal initial investment.
[su_note note_color=”#f6f6f6″ text_color=”#000000″]TIP:For your online business you would need a website. After looking into some ideas, check which hosting company you would rather work with. Hosting is necessary for any website, so you would be getting one. So might as well make it environmentally friendly. [/su_note]
1. Consulting
If you’re like most modern women, you probably have or had a job at some point. If you see that you could demonstrate real value add to your employer you could create a small agency and offer your services on a contract basis.
This would save your employer pension contributions, sick leave, holiday leave and employee-affiliated taxes.
So it could be a good idea to offer your services for the same – or slightly less that – monthly fee as you’re currently receiving in paychecks.
A good way to see if this could work, would be starting a trial with working from home once a week and slowly extending the amount of time you spend outside the office.
By proactively showing that you’re delivering more value, are more enthusiastic and driven about your results, you could well end up getting your emplyer as a client.
Then, it’s a matter of self-promotion online. Inc Magazine has a good article on this subject, have a read. And don’t shy away from reaching out to your broader network of contacts, professional and personal alike.
2. Online Shop
Ebay, Etsy and Amazon are only three of hundreds of online shopping platforms you’re yet to discover. All of them help you reach your customers using their services. Here is a good How-to guide on how to start your shop on Amazon.
This means you would have a ready-made store to promote within the platform of your choice. A more general, and a slightly more complicated way to start selling online is to create a store using free website on a platform called Word Press, for example.
Here is a detailed article on how to do just that.
3. Sales consulting
If you looked into running your online store and it seems like too much work and responsibility, there’s an alternative in becoming a product agent or consultant. You can choose beauty products, clothes brand, jewelry, gadgets or even home appliances and more to promote online and among your networks.
Have a closer look at what becoming a sales rep implies.
4. Virtual Assistance
Did you know that virtual assistants can get paid from $15 to over $100 per hour?
Help businesses by offering administrative support to them online, via project management software (ASANA is free), Skype (also free), Gmail and Google Drive (you guessed it – free). You can manage your clients’ email inboxes, organise their calendars, provide simple marketing and bookkeeping support using your computer and home desk.
If you’re more skilled in specific areal, like website management, or marketing project management, you can negotiate for projects that suit your skills best. Even knowledge of Photoshop can bump up your hourly rate, so don’t forget to mention as many skills as you’ve to your potential clients.
A good place to look at this as a potential business, read an article on how to become a virtual assistant.
5. Convenience Services
Do you live in the area near a park? Do you love children or dogs? Today there are great apps for providing nanny or dog-walking services. An average dog walker makes about $18 per walk, but if you use Wag App and become a so-called private professional walker, you could be making between $20 and $40 per each walk, literally, in a park!
As for babysitting jobs, you could try using UrbanSitter or a more generic TaskRaddit app, where you can find lots of different small jobs for helping people with chores, shopping, picking up kids from school and more.
Here is useful and very detailed article on the Top 10 Highest Paid Jobs Without A Degree, which you might find helpful also!
