5 PROFITABLE ONLINE BUSINESSES YOU CAN START TODAY

Over the past years or so, I’ve been reading through world history. I just find it so interesting to see how everything fits together. I’m not necessarily learning anything new per-se, but just seeing the big picture of the world’s story, has been fascinating. Recently, I was reading about the industrial revolution, and as I was thinking about this article that I was planning to write, I thought that it was so fitting, and it was such a similar sort of situation to what we’ve experienced over these last years.

Prior to the industrial revolution, people were either skilled artisans, or craftsmen, or they were some sort of nobility, or they were serfs which were essentially peasant farmer slaves. You were one of these three things, and there wasn’t much in between. But when the industrial revolution happened and a lot of new machines were invented, that allowed people to do work much more easily. Things like creating fabric with looms, printing books with printing presses, or traveling so much faster with steam engines.

Opened Doors

The industrial revolution really opened up so many opportunities to people, where anyone could become a miller and make fabric, or anyone could become a carpenter, and use these different machines for woodworking. It meant that no longer did people have to fall into these specific classes and be stuck there their entire lives, but now there was mobility.

This implies that someone who previously was forced to be a serf because he didn’t have any skills, could become a miller and earn a lot more money. And I see that as something so similar to what we’ve experienced over these past 30 or so years.

The Internet

With the advent of the internet, previously, if you didn’t have a big marketing budget then you were pretty much stuck, and there wasn’t an opportunity for you to reach customers that were very far from where you were doing business, or to reach very many customers. But now that we have the internet, the global economy has opened up and we can now reach customers all over the entire world.

We can do freelancing opportunities and connect with clients all over the world, and it just means that there’s an even greater amount of mobility in the economy than there ever has been before. People can now move out of their socioeconomic class and into another socioeconomic class with relative ease, and I just think that that is so cool.

So, in this article, I’m going to be sharing with you five profitable business ideas that you can start today. And when I say that you can start them today, what I really mean is that you can start them right now, with the skills and the experience and the funding that you already have.

Even if you don’t have any sort of budget, even if you feel like you don’t have any skills, even if you have absolutely no experience running a business yourself, or doing any sort of service work, or selling goods yourself. These are businesses that you can start with essentially nothing. I’m really excited to be sharing them with you. With that being said, let’s get on into business.

5 Profitable Online Businesses You Can Start Today

We are going to start this list with something you may not have heard of before, I feel like this doesn’t get nearly as much exposure. It’s really quite an underrated business opportunity, and that is

1. Job servicing

What is job servicing?

Job servicing is basically a business model that is kind of similar to an agency business model, where you’re working with multiple clients, and you have people who are working for your company, that are doing services for those clients.

However, job servicing is fairly different from an agency model as well, primarily because you don’t have employees who are working for you, and you don’t have the hassle of managing employees. You also don’t have the sometimes very significant expense of having employees.

How It Works

Alright, here is how job servicing works.

First of all, you are going to choose a service that your business will provide to people. This does not need to be a service that you are personally capable of giving to people, it just needs to be a service that there is demand for, something that you know that people pay for. Even if you don’t have much experience, with a little tiny bit of research, I know that you can come up with plenty of different services that people do in fact pay for.

I’m talking about things like video editing, text editing, graphic design, or website design, you know the sky is the limit here. There really are hundreds of thousands of different services that people pay for, you just need to choose a service and then you need to go out there and you need to find some clients.

Let me give you a little example of what this might look like. Let’s say that you want to have a job servicing business that provides video editing services, what you can actually do is, you can email YouTubers and ask them if they need help with video editing. As you might know, if you go over to the about section of a YouTube channel, you are very likely to find that YouTubers email address.

If you target some mid-sized YouTube channels, I’m not talking about tiny YouTube channels where it might just be a little hobby of theirs, they might not be ready to outsource. But I’m also not talking giants with millions and millions of subscribers. But if you go in the middle where you’re targeting channels that have a few thousand subscribers, and your email let’s say a hundred of these channels, then you’re going to get quite a few people who are in fact interested in having you edit their videos.

Editing The Videos

If you get an order from one of your prospects, what do you do because you don’t have video editing skills?

Well, what you do is, you go on a site like Fiverr or Upwork, and you find a skilled professional video editor who can provide some great video editing services. And you simply outsource the work that you have contracted with these new clients to those freelancers. Basically, what you’re doing is, you have some clients who are paying you for services, and you’re turning around and paying these service providers for doing the work for you.

Of course, you’re going to charge good solid premium rates to your clients for the good work that your company is doing, and these freelancers who aren’t doing the work of going out there to find the clients are going to be being paid less. For example, you might charge $100 per video edit to your clients, and then you’ll pay the freelancers somewhere between $25 and $50 per video. You get to pocket the $50 to $75 difference per video edit as profit.

It’s pretty easy to see how this math is going to work out. If your clients on average are producing about four videos per month, then that means each client is going to be worth at least about $200 dollars to you. So if you have say 10 clients, then your business will bring in $2,000 per month in profit. Also if you have 50 clients, then you’ll be bringing in over $10,000 a month in profit, all without you having to do any of the video editings yourself.

Your Job

What you’re going to be doing is, working on finding the clients, facilitating communication, and managing the projects. In return, you’ll get compensated.

If this business opportunity sounds interesting to you then the very first step that I would recommend is starting by writing a business plan. Alright, I know what you might be thinking you have no idea how to write a business plan, that sounds long, that sounds boring, that sounds hard. But I promise it doesn’t have to be like that.

Especially when you are first starting out, I just want you to write a really simple plan just so you have some idea, some plan of where you’re going. We all know the phrase that “failing to plan is planning to fail” and also, you can’t get anywhere if you don’t know where you’re trying to go. So just writing a really simple initial plan can go a long way and can make sure that you’re really building the business that you want to be building.

Free Business Template

Now, if you want a little bit of help with this, I’ve provided a link to a free business plan template that you can grab for free. Just click on this link and it will take you to where you can download that right now.

With that said, let’s move on to the next business idea.

You’re probably aware that the way that a lot of people make money online is by doing some sort of freelancing, it’s a really common business model where you’re just providing services to clients. It’s really simple, it’s really clean, but the problem is that in order to do freelancing, you do need to have some sort of skill or service that you can provide yourself. Maybe right now you are starting at zero, and you feel like you don’t have any skills.

There are a few different freelancing opportunities out there that pay pretty decently, and only really require you to have some decent common sense, some good communication skills, and that you can keep yourself organized.

The one that I want to bring to your attention today is that of being

2. A Virtual Assistant

If you’ve never heard of a virtual assistant, essentially it’s just like an assistant in an office that is helping out with lots of little kinds of random things. Instead, you are going to be doing this online for typically digital companies, which means you get to do it from your own home, and most frequently on your own hours, which is of course one of the main appeals of working online and making money online, and this business idea really checks those boxes.

As far as what a virtual assistant does, basically, you’re going to be doing things like answering emails, managing calendars, maybe doing some really simple graphic design, or website updates, doing some customer service, and managing social media. You might be doing all of those things, you might be doing just one of those things. There’s actually a list of probably50 – 100 or so different skills and services that virtual assistants can provide to their clients, and I’m sure that you already have some of these skills in your back pocket.

Virtual Assistance Tasks

Some virtual assistant task involves the handling of bookkeeping and clerical tasks, and some may include posting regular updates on social media or writing articles for a blog. A versatile virtual assistant may also handle travel arrangements, appointment scheduling, data entry, and online file storage.

What To Do As A Virtual Assistant

Alright, if you are interested in becoming a virtual assistant, then here’s kind of the basic process you’re going to follow.

First, you want to assess what skills you have so that you know what you can offer to your clients. Then second, you need to work on getting your first clients. Now, this is typically the most difficult part of the process. When you’re doing this, you might want to offer to do some “pro-bono” work.

Yeah, I know a lot of people are against working for free, but I think that it is so worth it. When you’re just trying to get your start in a new industry, by working with a few clients for free, you will get some really valuable practice working with clients. If that’s something you’ve never done before, its also going to mean that you can get some testimonials, and maybe some reviews that you can share with other prospective clients.

Maybe you can get a few reviews on say your Upwork or your Freelancer page so that other future clients are more interested in actually working with you.

Once you have a little bit of experience under your belt, then you can start actually charging clients. When you come to that point, I would recommend if you haven’t already done so, creating a profile on Upwork and Freelancer, and really building it out, explaining the different skills you can provide. Then from there, you can start bidding on some jobs and working with your first clients, and earning money online.

A Little Hack

I also want to mention just a little hack. If you can network in some Facebook groups, some entrepreneurial Facebook groups, I think you will find a lot of eager clients. People are always looking to hire virtual assistants, especially in the networking circles. Word of mouth virtual assistants can actually get pretty expensive.

A lot of virtual assistants charge between $30 and $50 an hour, so if you can undercut that market just slightly just charging $20 to $25 per hour, you will find that there is a slew of clients who are interested in working with you.

The third business idea I want to share with you today is becoming a

3. YouTuber

Alright, I know that a lot of people feel like becoming a YouTuber would be an amazing job and business opportunity, but isn’t it a gamble? I mean, what are the chances of you actually being successful with it? Well, honestly, higher than you might think.

It’s true that it used to be more of a gamble. When YouTube was just starting out, they didn’t really have much of an algorithm, so the chances of you getting found on the platform were pretty random. Plus, it was only if you happened to get found and accumulate a large number of subscribers that your channel would ever go anywhere, and you could ever eventually earn money from it.

These days, things are a bit different because YouTube has really perfected its algorithm, they have built it into a super-powerful machine that is designed to match viewers with videos they want to watch. And so, if you can create good quality content on the platform, then it is almost certain that your channel will in fact take off, that your channel will grow, and you will be able to earn a living as a video creator.

Growing A YouTube Channel

Personally, I think it’s such a cool opportunity, and again it touches back on what I was saying earlier about this new kind of digital revolution that we’ve gone through, and how many doors it has opened up. If you are interested in becoming a YouTuber, of course one of the biggest questions is well, how will I get those views, how will I grow my channel?

These questions on getting views and growing YouTube channels are frequent questions. Personally, am not a YouTuber myself, and I can’t say much about getting views and growing a YouTube channel. But one thing I recommend is to attend free workshops about YouTube online, if you have a budget, you can go for the paid ones. YouTube uses an algorithm that matches videos to viewers, and there are lots of YouTubers who are taking advantage of that.

All you have to do is to learn from YouTubers who are successful and well-established. Most of the big YouTube channels have a free workshop or course on YouTube growth, you can learn from them and apply their strategies so that you can get monetized as quickly as possible, and you can start earning a living as a full-time creator.

Next up, we have

4. Print On Demand Businesses

Am going to start out by explaining what print on demand means, well, basically, it means that a product gets printed when it is demanded. Actually, what that means is that only when a customer purchases a product does it get created.

Typically, print-on-demand products are things like t-shirts, mugs, books, and anything that of course gets printed. These are going to be things that get manufactured ahead of time, but they’re blank, and then they can get printed with whatever design you want to put on them.

How Print On Demand Business Works

How a print-on-demand business works is that you’re going to create some designs, and put them on some of the products from a print-on-demand company, and then people are going to purchase those products.

After they purchase them, the print-on-demand company will finish creating the product by actually printing them, and then they will ship them out to the customer without you having to be involved in that transaction at all. That is really cool because it means you don’t have to carry any inventory, you don’t have to worry about storing the inventory.

Also, it’s way less risky because you don’t have to pay for the inventory upfront. Of course, it means that it’s way easier for you because you don’t have to deal with the hassle of shipping, or anything like that.

How You Make Money

How you earn a profit is that your customers are paying at the price you’re charging, but the print-on-demand company is charging you a lower rate. Let’s say, for example, you might be selling a t-shirt with a clever phrase on it, and you might be charging the customer $34, while the print-on-demand company is only charging you $10 for the t-shirt itself, and then $6 for shipping. This means that you are going to pocket $8 for every single t-shirt that gets sold. Pretty cool right.

How To Do Print On Demand

Super simple, how you’re going to do this is, first of all, you need to decide exactly what kind of merchandise you really want to sell. This really depends on you, you need to make this decision for yourself. Who do you want it to be for, and then think about what that group of people would like? If you don’t have any brilliant ideas don’t worry at all, because the internet is filled with lots of inspiration.

You can go scrolling on Pinterest, or even perhaps places like Tik Tok, and certainly other marketplaces like Amazon to find ideas for things that your shirts, mugs, or even notebooks, or journals can say. You can even get inspiration for the design.

The moment you have that inspiration, then you’re going to head to Canva, which is free graphic design software. On Canva, you can mock up a design yourself. But, if you are really struggling with this, of course, you could outsource this part of the process to a freelancer. You can find a freelancer on Fiverr or Upwork, you could pay the freelancer $5, $10, $20, or maybe $30 dollars to create the design for you. Of course, that is going to be money well spent if you are really struggling with this part of the process because it’s going to just save you so much time.

After Getting Your Design

Once you have your design, then what you’re going to do is, you’re going to head to Printify. Alternatively, you could also use a service called Printful, and you’re going to actually upload the design and create the product there which is super easy. What I mean is that, once you upload that design, you’re just going to slap it on a mug, or a t-shirt, or whatever you want it to be, and it’ll be done.

Etsy

The next step is to head over to Etsy, create an account there and then connect your Printify account to your Etsy account. This will get your products from your Printify store listed on Etsy. The reason why this is so important is that you need to put your products in a place where they will get found, and Etsy has something like it. Etsy is a great marketplace to put your products into.

After your products are listed on Etsy, then you can make sure they have the right title and description to be found easily in search, and then people are going to just start finding your products and buying them. When that happens, I think this is so cool, Printfy is actually going to just immediately ship your product directly to the customer.

You don’t have to do anything at all, you don’t have to ship it, you don’t have to facilitate a transaction between Printfy and Etsy, it just happens automatically. Okay, the only thing that you get to do is, you get to pocket the profit.

Sounds Cool?

If you think that this opportunity sounds as cool as I do, first of all, please leave a comment with your answer. This helps me to know that you were enjoying it, it really helps me out, and it motivates me to keep writing articles like this. And second of all, make sure you take the right first step by making a really solid plan for your new business idea. Again, click on this link to download a free business plan template to make the process of planning your business super easy.

My last business idea for you today is that of

5. Drop-Shipping

Wait, don’t click off if you’ve heard of dropshipping before, because I have a few tips and tricks I want to share with you that can help you to be a lot more successful with drop shipping. Plus, I also want to share some insights that I have about just how to succeed with it because I know that it’s something a lot of people talk about. I also know that it’s something a lot of people fail at because they’re just some nuances that often get missed.

With that said, first of all, what is dropshipping? Well, it is a lot like print on demand in terms of a business model, in that you are going to be selling a product that you don’t have an inventory, that you did not manufacture, and then when a customer purchases it from you, then the manufacturer is going to ship it out to the customer automatically. It means you don’t have to have inventory, it means you don’t have to be involved in that transaction. Overall, it’s just really easy for you.

The Main Difference

But the main difference is the types of products that are getting sold, and the kind of how they’re getting created. Print on demand products, they’re all printed products typically the mugs or t-shirts or notebooks are getting manufactured ahead of time, and then your logo and your designs just getting slapped on them, and they’re getting shipped out.

On the other hand, with drop shipping, you are going to be selling literally any product that is already being created by a manufacturing company. It could get customized for your specific customers but it won’t necessarily be. It just kind of depends on what you want, and that means that you can sell literally any product that’s being manufactured.

This also implies that there are so many more opportunities out there, you can reach so many more different types of customers, and you can have bigger profit margins potentially. It’s just a bigger opportunity.

Related: Drop Servicing For Beginners. Full Guide On Making Money Online

How It Works

Here are the basics of how dropshipping is going to work, and how you can get started with it.

First, just like with print on demand, you need to start by choosing your niche, deciding who you want to attract as customers, and figuring out what they really want. Then you need to choose the product itself. The best way to do this is to head to Alibaba, Alibaba is a website that’s kind of like Amazon, a global marketplace but it’s more focused on wholesale.

Alibaba is typically selling larger quantities of products, unbranded products at a wholesale type price. On Alibaba, you can start by creating your account, and then you’ll want to choose ready to ship as a product category. Once you choose ready to ship, then you will click on whatever sub-category you actually want to sell a product from. After that, you’re just going to scroll through the products until you find one you like, and then click on that product, and then you want to of course kind of assess the product and make sure it’s really what you want to sell.

Note This

Make sure to also assess the seller, so check out their rating, check out their reviews, and make sure that they look legit. The next thing you’re going to do is, you’re going to click on the contact button, and you’re going to reach out to the seller and tell them that you’re interested in selling their product and drop shipping it.

Not every seller is going to offer this service, but a whole lot of them do, and you are going to learn from them what you need to do in order to set up their product to be drop-shipped from your own website. You’ll also learn a lot about how good of a communicator that seller or manufacturer is, which can be really important later on.

I do recommend you do your research, and you don’t rush this step. Once you’ve worked those details out with the seller, then what you’re going to do is create your own website. Of course, you could just sell this product on Etsy or even Amazon, but another option that we haven’t really talked much about yet is setting up your own website and selling a product on your own website.

While it’s true that in this case, you will not be able to tap into all the customers that are on Etsy or are on Amazon, you will be able to specialize a little bit more and kind of stand out from the competition, potentially charge a slightly more premium price.

You can create your own shopping website with a service like Shopify which makes this really easy, then you can add the products that you found on Alibaba to your website.

Generating Sales

What you need to focus on is generating sales. How you can do this is by using typical digital marketing strategies like promoting your products on Pinterest, and even making Tik Toks where you use your products.

The go-to standby is using Facebook ads and Google ads. But you have to be careful here because, of course, those ads can get pretty expensive. But if you have a healthy product margin, what that means is the cost that you’re selling the product for is significantly higher than the cost you are paying for the product.

For example, let’s say you are selling a computer keyboard and you are getting the product from the manufacturer for $12 each, but you’re selling it on your site for $50. well, that means that you have $38 to potentially spend on ads for every single sale.

Typically, the more successful transactions you get, the less you have to pay on ads. That’s both because the ad algorithms learn who is actually interested in buying your product. And also because you start getting some word-of-mouth sales, and you start getting more positive reviews on your website which makes your conversion rate higher, which just means that a higher percentage of your leads or your website traffic will actually buy your products.

Hold On

Okay, before you start any of these business ideas, I would highly recommend that you start with a solid strategic plan for exactly what your business is going to do, how you’re going to grow it, and how you’re going to run the thing. This is where writing a business plan really comes in, I know that step can be intimidating but I promise it doesn’t have to be.

If you haven’t already, click on this link to download that free business plan template. And I know it’s going to help you so much both with writing your business plan, and with the long-term success, and profitability of your business.

Appreciation

That was a lot to take in.

All right, well, that brings us to the end of this article, thank you so much for sticking with me all the way to the end. I know it was kind of a long one, if you enjoyed this and you want to learn more about building an online business and becoming your own boss and succeed, then be sure to subscribe to my mail list and keep checking this blog.

I write new articles every single week, I would love to have you join me each week. And I would love to be just a part of your journey as you set out on your own, and start your own venture. So if you are interested in that as well, then be sure to always get in touch with me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, to stay tuned.

You can also help share this article so it could reach a vast majority of people globally. So that more people can find out about these awesome new business opportunities that have just started showing up. In the last 20 to 30 years, there are so many people out there who still have no idea that these opportunities exist, and they think that they have to be stuck at their current income level, and I really want to just spread this message. There are so many opportunities for growth and for changing your circumstances.

Again, thank you so much for your time reading this article, it was great to have you here with me on my blog today.