Ideas to start your own business have been roughly divided into active and passive income. There are many different possibilities in self-employment, however, these two areas can often not be precisely separated from one another, since all incomes must first be actively operated before they can become partially passive. In the following, you will find 20 ideas with which you can achieve the dream of self-employment this year.
20 ideas to start your own business
A. Active income
With active income, there is a direct and proportional relationship between the hours invested and earnings. Some examples of active income in self-employment are given below.
- Virtual assistant
Working as a virtual assistant can be a good idea to earn money on your own. This job is one of the most flexible professions. You can freely choose your tasks and your place of work.
As a virtual assistant, you can find your customers via the Internet and platforms such as UpWork or Freelancer.com. In principle, you can offer all activities that you are good at and that someone would pay you for, such as writing texts or telephone service.
- Copywriter
As a copywriter, you write texts of all kinds. For example, you can write blog texts, PR texts, web texts, or advertising texts. You don’t need any specific training to work as a copywriter. As a freelance copywriter, you take on assignments that you get paid for.
In addition to writing the texts, you also deal with research tasks and make agreements with your customers. Working as a copywriter is a good way of earning money as a part-time self-employed.
- Translator
If you have very good language skills in a foreign language, working as a translator could be an idea to start your own business. In this area, there are a large number of different clients and subject areas, but there is also quite a lot of competition.
Therefore, it can make sense to specialize in a niche. As a freelance translator, you can receive assignments from authorities and companies, but also private individuals.
- Yoga teacher
Yoga has become increasingly popular in recent years. If you want to become self-employed as a yoga teacher, you should have a solid education. Good basic knowledge and the ability to lead a group are essential as a yoga teacher.
Most clients will also want to see proof of your skills. You can win customers through a website, but above all through word-of-mouth advertising. Another way to make money would be to write a book about yoga.
- Become an online coach
If you are well versed in an area or have a lot of experience in a special area, online coaching is a good idea for self-employment from home. As an online coach, you help your clients to solve their problems through questions and suggested solutions, but you are not responsible for the implementation.
- Open a franchise company
If you are looking for an idea to earn money on your own, opening a franchise company may be an option for you. As a franchisee, you are responsible for implementing an existing company.
The head office develops the business system and you “borrow” this concept for a fee. In this way, you can benefit from the brand awareness and the skills of the headquarters but are limited in your entrepreneurial freedom.
- Open a coworking space
A coworking space is an office space that is shared by several companies and people, which means that although you can work independently in different areas, it is still possible to exchange ideas.
If you open a coworking space, you provide the framework conditions for work, such as electricity and the internet, and pay the rent for the building. You receive your income through the usage fees.
- Set up a marketing agency
You can use an online marketing agency well if you want to become self-employed part-time. There are many possibilities in this area. For example, you can advertise a product or service from others and receive a commission for it.
Another option is to sell your products on Amazon. Perhaps you would also prefer to work as a consultant or coach. This is also possible with a marketing agency.
- Open a second-hand shop
Another business idea for self-employment is to open a second-hand shop. The willingness of Germans to buy used goods has increased in recent years so that there is a high demand in second-hand shops.
You must make yourself clear what kind of goods you want to sell. In general clothing, for example, you will face a lot of competition. However, if you concentrate z. For example, on second-hand clothing for children, the competition could be less.
- Become an online language teacher
Another idea of being independent of the home is to work as an online language teacher. You can either teach German or another language that you have a very good command of online. You don’t need any special training for this and you can work from anywhere.
With providers like Preply, you can easily give online tutoring. You can do the lessons as private one-to-one lessons or in groups. This is usually done via webcam. This activity is also suitable for part-time self-employed.
B. Passive income
With passive income, there is no proportional relationship between working hours and earnings. A passive income is always associated with the fact that work is initially incurred that is not directly paid, but afterward, permanent income is generated without significant expenditure of time.
- Create online courses
The demand for online courses is growing steadily. If you want to benefit from this trend and set up your own business with an online course, you should first think about what you want to offer.
There are many possibilities in this area. For example, you can create a language learning course or teach programming skills in a course. Video tutorials are particularly suitable for this.
- Create a blog
If you want to create your blog and become self-employed, you can write on a wide range of topics. There are several ways to make money on a blog. For example, you can embed an ad on your blog and get money for every click on the ad.
Selling your products via your blog is also possible, provided you have developed your products. As an additional source of income, it is possible to collect donations from readers.
- T-Shirts (and other merch) with POD (Print on Demand)
Another online business idea is to design and sell your own designed t-shirts on the web. There are special POD platforms (Print-on-Demand) with which you can design T-shirts and other things.
This is also possible with Amazon Merch. You design your t-shirt via the Amazon Merch website and, as soon as a buyer has been found, it is created and sold directly via Amazon.
- Open a dropshipping shop
Dropshipping is a simple business idea. If you open such a shop, you sell your products through your online shop and a third-party provider takes care of shipping and any returns. You can find various providers on the Internet to create such a shop. With the opening of the dropshipping shop, you can set up an online business and start your own business from home.
- Program an app
If you want to set up your business programming apps, you should be a good programmer. But that alone is not enough to earn money independently. In addition to programming skills, it is also important that you know the market and user behavior. There are different apps in many areas that can entertain or are simply practical.
- Create a YouTube channel
Many young people dream of making money on YouTube. Therefore, competition is also growing. To start your own business with YouTube, you should first create a channel and think about what kind of videos you want to make. To make money, your videos must be viewed and liked frequently on. For example, an advertisement is played before or while your video is viewed and you receive a small fee for each click.
- Sell leads with an online site
In online marketing, a lead is a new contact that was gained through a marketing measure. You can generate and sell such leads, i.e. the contact details of potential customers.
To do this, you can, for example, create a website that is optimized for a specific keyword (e.g. plumber in Dresden) and then simply adds a contact form on the page through which interested parties can be won.
You can then resell the contact details of these interested parties (e.g. to plumbers in Dresden). Of course, you have to observe the GDPR.
- Create an exclusive newsletter
The creation of an exclusive newsletter is another idea to earn money independently. You can freely choose the topic and you are flexible in your choice of work location and working hours. If you write a newsletter on a specific topic, you can place a suitable advertisement in it that will make you money.
- Write a book (or eBook)
For many people, being a writer is a dream job. As an author, you can let your creativity run free and work when and where you want. If you want to write a book or eBook, you have different options for what you write.
It is important that you can organize yourself well and have strong stamina. Publishing a book or eBook is relatively easy these days. You should also be aware that as an author you usually do not make quick money because the participation in the sales price is very low.
- Affiliate Marketing
In affiliate marketing, in contrast to the blog, you create a special niche page on a certain topic. In this blog, you can then incorporate so-called affiliate links, which direct the reader to a shop. If the prospect buys something there, you will receive a commission. This way, making money is easier than blogging, but you have less freedom.
- Conclusion
There are a variety of different ideas to start your own business so that everyone will find something suitable with which they can earn money on their own. However, not every idea is equally successful and it can be difficult to build up independence to the extent that you can make a living from it. Many of the options can also be carried out on a part-time basis so that you can first see whether the idea is profitable and suits you.
What other ideas to start your own business did I miss?
