Starting a business with little money is possible. These businesses can be started with minimal investment and can be scaled up as your budget and skills allow. Additionally, you can explore other low-cost business ideas such as blogging, social media marketing, and dog walking to find the right fit for your interests and budget
1. Building a Helpful Website
Websites are super low risk businesses to start, and have great earning potential. All you need is an idea, a domain name ($10-20), and web hosting (as low as $5/month).
Of course there’s a learning curve here like there is with all businesses, but the articles you publish can earn traffic and revenue long after you’re done writing them.
One of my favorite examples is Andrew Fiebert’s GiftLab.co. He publishes curated lists of gift ideas for very specific audiences, and earns affiliate commissions from Amazon and other stores when people buy his recommendations.
The site solves a real problem — coming up with gift ideas — and he reported it having earned over $1.2M in total affiliate commissions in its first 5 years.
2. Freelancing
The next low risk business idea to start is freelancing. Simply put, this is where you get paid to solve a problem for someone else — often remotely.
Freelancing usually doesn’t cost any money to start, and you can begin work right away.
What service could you offer?
Take an inventory of your current interests and skills. For example, I’ve been paid to do freelance writing, book editing, and even virtual assistant recruiting. I earned $25-35 an hour, but more specialized skills can command even higher rates.
Once you have a service in mind, you can put it up for sale on sites like Fiverr, or connect with clients in relevant Facebook groups.
3. Local Services
We spend a lot of time on ways to make money online, but there are plenty of opportunities in your hometown as well. Homeowners spend over $13,000 a year on maintenance and improvement projects.
That means you could start a business offering:
Window washing ($250+ per house)
Power washing ($250+ per house)
Pet waste removal ($30-50/hour)
Car detailing (up to $5k a month)
Litter pick up ($30-50/hour)
Interior cleaning ($150+ per job)
All of the above have low startup costs and strong hourly earning power. You may even already have the equipment needed.
4. Flipping Products
Becoming a reseller is a low risk business because you can start with whatever level of initial inventory investment you’re comfortable with. You can even start with items lying around your house!
It’s a game of buy low, sell high. If you love the treasure hunt of finding great deals, this can be a very profitable side hustle.
Resellers typically source inventory from flea markets, garage sales, and thrift stores. I’ve even found profitable inventory on the shelves at Walmart and Home Depot. From there, you can list the items on eBay or Facebook Marketplace.
Several members of Side Hustle Nation earn a full-time living doing just that!
5. Reselling Furniture Returns
One specific niche under the flipping umbrella is worth mentioning separately, and that’s reselling furniture returns. This unique low risk side hustle is a great way to make money if you have a truck or larger SUV.
How it works is you join Sharetown as a local “reverse logistics” rep. Sharetown partners with direct-to-consumer mattress and furniture brands to handle their return requests — when the customer decides they don’t want to keep the item.
The company then dispatches you to go pick it up (that’s where the truck comes in) for free. Then you’ll clean it up, photograph it, and list it for resale on sites like Facebook Marketplace.
The Sharetown reps I’ve connected with target $150-250 per flip — and the kicker is you don’t have to pay Sharetown for the inventory until the item sells.
6. Consulting
Similar to freelancing, consulting is another low-risk business to start. The easiest way to get started is what I call “software with a service.”
In this model, you piggyback on the popularity of an existing or up-and-coming software product. Ideally, it will be a tool you already use and love, but new software tools come out all the time.
For example, Paul Minors began creating tutorial content about Asana on YouTube. He’d provide some helpful tips and guidance, and as a result of his videos, companies started to reach out for consulting and training. When we spoke, Paul was earning thousands of dollars a month — working from home.
It doesn’t cost anything to become a consultant, and the liability is very low, making it a very low risk business.
7. Print on Demand
Next on this list is print on demand, which is a low risk brand of e-commerce where you don’t have any physical inventory. How it works is you upload digital designs to sites like Redbubble, Merch by Amazon, and Etsy, and when someone orders, they create the product and send it to the customer.
The model is ideal for:
t-shirts
mugs
hats
phone cases
socks
and more
Print on demand sellers often use Canva to create their designs, and earn $1-10 per sale. At those rates, it’s very much a volume game, but if you like creating fun designs, it can still be a viable business.
8. Digital Product Sales
Businesses where I can create something once and sell it over and over again definitely appeal to me. In this category, you’ll find low risk businesses like:
Self-publishing
Printables
Online courses
and even software
These digital products take time to create, but can generate passive sales for years. For example, I’ve earned almost $80,000 in self-publishing author royalties since 2012:
You can check out some of my titles here. Amazon makes it easy to upload your books, and that’s just one type of digital product you can sell.
My friend Rachel earns over $10,000 a month selling printable files on Etsy. These are things like chore charts, meal planners, and budget templates that people can find and buy on Etsy.
9. Tutoring
Another low risk side hustle is tutoring. You can do this with almost no startup costs and take students in person or remotely. Offer tutoring services in subjects where you have expertise, either in-person or online.
To start, it might make sense to niche down to a specific subject or test. For example, Matt Fuentes makes up to $1,000 a week tutoring for the SAT and ACT.
Top tutors command rates of $80-100 an hour or more, and the only overhead is their time.
10. Product Licensing
One of the most interesting businesses I’ve come across is product licensing. This is where you sell your ideas for new products to larger companies, in exchange for a percentage of future revenues.
For example, Nate Dallas sold a Pictionary-like card game to Mattel, that ended up being worth over $300,000 in royalties! Not bad for just coming up with idea and making the pitch!
Again, the only startup costs here are your time and possibly some prototyping or design software. After that, the company handles the manufacturing and marketing — and fronts any product liability.