But earning great salary or wages is no guarantee that you will make it to the journey end, and neither does earning low wages enough to deny you your place in financial freedom. The key is in putting your Earned Income to use, and investing portion of that income in instruments and businesses to yield portfolio and/or passive income. In today's article, we bring you ten small businesses that you can invest in, and run while you are at your current job.
E-Commerce
You think of Jumia, Konga, and Deal Dey when you hear of online businesses, but truth is that marketplaces are not the only option you have to break into e-commerce.
You can set up your own online store to sell products and services online. With the penchant of Nigerians for all sorts of foreign goods and brands such as cheap phones and accessories, car accessories, clothing, women jewelleries, artificial and human hair, men jewelries, wristwatches and information products, you can set yourself up for some great side income if you can tap into that market if you know what to do.
You can start a mini-importation business where you bring cheap items through the postal system from China or premium goods bought from Amazon to resell in Nigeria, or you can start a Drop-Shipping business where you buy and have the manufacturer mail the goods directly to your own buyer - in your name. You can also request the manufacturer package the products with your service marks and brand name.
Website maintenance
In a new era when all businesses are either making their presence felt online or simply selling online, you can sell yourself as an expert in website maintenance, helping people with mundane tasks like updating plug-in, core software and content. Not everyone is aware of the maintenance that comes with a website once it’s up and running, but these are all part of running a fully-functioning website, and you could be making good money from performing the tasks for other people.
Most people who own websites could be your potential customers if you know your way around a Word Press dashboard. Market yourself as an expert service provider who can help your customers save time and you could be on to a money-making venture, and blazing a part for yourself towards financial independence.
Beauty business
The whole concept of the direct marketing business founded by Mary Kay is built on making women more beautiful, and she made famous the art of paying compliments. Making people more beautiful is a winner any day. If you have a spare room or a spacious garage and a passion for beauty – you have all it takes to start your own beauty business. Of course, you will need to get the relevant qualifications for your chosen beauty treatment – but that is not a problem if you are passionate about the business of making people beautiful.
You can search for courses to attend on DealDey and Udemy, or enroll yourself in any beauty school part-time. Most courses can be completed either in a couple of days to a few months depending on the treatment you want to carry out. It is also not a problem if you do not want to carry on this business in your home or neighbourhood. Simply go mobile! Either with your own car or other transport arrangements.
From nail treatments to hair dressing, massages, spray tans and make-up, eye lashes, or skin treatments – there are many ways to get started in beauty. What is more, it is a scalable business, so you can learn new treatments on the side, and add to your product list as you get additional qualifications while you are also building your client base.
Freelancing
If you’re a talented writer or designer, there will be a huge audience for your skills and expertise – and that audience will be more than happy to pay well for good work. The only investment you’d need to make in starting up a freelancing business is the investment of your time, making it a low-risk, easy job you can do on the side until you build up a big enough client base to take it full time.
Building up clients is the trickiest part. A huge portion of your marketing will be word-of-mouth and social media contacts, so you’ll need to actually find a few people who are willing to invest in you before things start taking off. However, freelancing is such a lucrative career option for so many that you don’t actually have to figure this all out by yourself anymore. You can join an online agency like Upwork, where people can approach you for high-paying freelance tasks. With the right strategy, you could end up earning a very decent income from your freelance business.
Blogging
Remember Linda Ikeji? A blog used to be something like an online diary, but now it’s a certified way to make money online! From affiliate linking, to ads, to creating brands and selling your own products and services, if you make it really big – the money-making opportunities are endless with blogging. It only takes a quick Google to bring up hundreds of blogger success stories – and it’s even more lucrative now as larger brands are increasingly turning to bloggers and social media influencers rather than traditional advertising.
It is not so difficult to start in blogging. You can open a paid wordpress blog site with your own custom domain or simply go to blogger.com to open a free blog site. Which ever one you should choose, success in blogging is hard work: You have to post constantly to be relevant to your audience, but if you do it very well and consistently, success is within reach. Apply for google adsense, and you could be on your way from making great income on a monthly basis.
Web Hosting Reseller
You can sign up for a domain or website hosting reseller. What if you could start a business from your home – with all the products given to you, all the payments processed for you and the only money coming out of your pocket is a fixed monthly fee for your business?
Sounds like a dream, but it’s actually possible if you become a web hosting reseller. Here’s how it works: you sign up as a reseller with Godaddy or Hostgator. You then sell GoDaddy or Hostgator products to your customers, under your own brand. It’s up to you how much you charge. Another big plus? You get a discount of up to 40% on GoDaddy products.
Tutoring
If you’re an expert in a subject or field, you could be making a nice side income by setting up your own tutoring business teaching students/clients without setting foot in a classroom .
A home tutoring business could be just what you need. Don’t be fooled – it sounds simple, but this business would be run like any other. You’d have to set up a website to market your services and you’ll need a booking system and some sort of payment processing. You’ll also want to think about scalability as your student-base grows.
It’s best to start small with a business like this – pick a subject you’d like to teach, market yourself to potential customers and watch your business grow. Start-up costs are minimal and of course, the best part is that it can easily be done from home.
Home bakery
Love baking? You can turn that passion into a fully-fledged business and put those homemade cookies and cakes up for sale. People are willing to pay for custom-made baked goods and you can start this business straight from your very own kitchen.
Most of the equipment you need are already in your kitchen, or at worst you will have to make a small initial investment in baking equipment, ingredients and possibly learning materials or a course if you’re starting from scratch. But you’ll be able to earn that back in sales if you really knuckle down and figure out a good marketing strategy. Word of mouth marketing and social media are probably where the bulk of your customers will come from. The proof is in the pudding – if your baked goods are up to scratch, people will be happy to return to you and recommend your services to others.
Visual social media platforms like Instagram can be very helpful in promoting businesses like this as you can take pictures of your creations and display them to the world. Go on, start now, the world is your oyster.
Online Vitamins/Health Food Store
The natural health industry brings in billions of dollars in revenue every year and many entrepreneurs want to find a way to cash in on this booming business. There are several different ways to open a natural supplement store online and, with drop-shippers, you don't even have to stock an inventory.
The return is good, but like every other business, you have to work at finding good and reliable suppliers, customers who will buy from you. You can follow the tips below to start:
Find reliable suppliers
If you are not planning to be a reseller through dropshipping, you need to make your online store stand out from the crowd. For example, instead of just listing out products. Give information about know ailments, and illnesses that your products can help with. Then position your products as the solution.
Plan your marketing activities well in advance. Examples of marketing strategies would include word-of-mouth advertising, placing online ads on fitness center and gym's websites, pay per click ads, and Facebook advertising. Once customers start coming in, you will quickly recover your costs and enjoy your new business.
Test your online store before going live, and ensure that everything works as they should. You need to have your custom domain, web hosting space, shopping cart and merchant account, and ensure that they all work well before you go live.
Stay up to date with news and information about the vitamins and health food industry, about new ailments and new products. This will help you determine which new products to stock or which inventory to drop.
Virtual Assistant
Ever heard of Virtual Assistants? The business has been steadily growing since its inception in the 1990s. The growth and affordability of technology, along with the increase in the number of solo-entrepreneurs, has created a need for virtual support staff.
A virtual support business is the ideal way to take skills you have in administrative support and apply them in a home based business. Virtual Assistants (VA) can do just about everything. From writing, emailing, customer support, calendar management, bookkeeping, marketing, website maintenance, project management, and more. Just focus on the skills you have and which you enjoy doing. You can offer only one service, such as transcription, or you can provide many services.
Getting started is not as difficult as it sounds. If you have names, list them. However, if you don’t know anyone who may need your services, list possible markets that need virtual support services. For example, Realtors, lawyers or solo-entrepreneurs often outsource work to virtual assistants. You can tailor your business to fit an industry, such as real estate, or provide the same service across several industries, such as email management for speakers and online entrepreneurs.
Yes, there you have it! Ten great business ideas that can add some earning power to your 9 - 5 job. If you can use more money than you are making currently, choose one of the above as your side hustle. Do the deed, and watch as more cash flood your bank accounts. If you need more help getting started on any of the business, shoot me a mail.
Have a great new week.
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