Low cost business ideas are fun to find. Once you find your ideal idea you know you're in for a quick turnaround of profit in your first year in some cases, and in others even on your first day of business!
Who wants to know about high profit low cost business ideas? We all do! I have chosen 5 core areas I believe are high potential businesses with a history of long-term sustainability, healthy growth and demand, and can be started with a low budget in many cases.
The 5 low cost business ideas I have chosen are in Jewelry, Arts & Crafts, Interior Designing, Manufacturer and Wholesale products, and SME Bookkeeping. Lets get started.
Jewelry Seller
Think you can run your very own dream jewelry business? We all know that our the love for gold and silver, and for precious stones like diamonds, rubies, and sapphires, is so age old this trade is going to last as long as there is romance on this planet of ours. You can bet your enchiladas the jewelry business is here to stay and to service that love!
While this business may sound expensive to run, you can start small by spending only a few hundred dollars in carefully selecting your merchandise at good wholesale prices.
I have a client who works for a telecommunication company who also runs a part-time jewelry business on the side. She buys pieces she adores and only from a couple of trusted gems and jewelry wholesale suppliers and on sells her merchandise to her clients. You can easily Google for these wholesalers in your local area.
Buy only from certified suppliers who can give you assurance you are buying the genuine article. Once you find reliable suppliers, stick with those. My client runs her business without a fixed shop by promoting her business to bridal shows and to expos that women and couples attend, women organizations, business owners, company executives, and at the local chamber of commerce. She does well. She also sells her more unique merchandise at high markups to other jewelry stores.
Make sure you buy pieces that have that 'sellable' factor, the ones that have classic designs at very competitive prices. Try to stay away from abstract designs when you start out, unless you want to specialize in certain types of looks and make.
If you are going to set up shop try checking out these ideal spots:
- Shop in a busy mall
- Busy city areas
- Tourist hot spots and resorts
- Uptown hotels
- Your own online store
- eBay
- Bridal shows
- High fashion zones
One great piece of advice she gave me was to make sure the collection you buy has an interesting mix of gems that are already set, gold and silver pieces, and an array of loose gem stones. You will need classy looking velvet boxes and pouches, and black velvet mats to place your merchandise to showcase to the customer.
One thing about this business is that it will never be without an audience of interested or potential buyers.
Interior Designer and Consultant
An interior designer usually 'discovers' his or her own unique decorating flair early in life. If you have a natural passion and talent for decorating and designing interiors, this might be a great business to let loose your designing skills and be paid well for it!
The reason why I feel this is potentially a very good business idea is from a recent personal experience I had. My wife and I hired a decorator and for around $400 she helped us with some needed renovation ideas. She came to our house and gave us the best 3 hours in home decorating tips and ideas. For us, it was well worth the money we spent which wasn't that much in the scheme of things. In fact she's been back several times to drop off a few more research she did on what we had asked her about. We got a new lease of inspiration for our home that we couldn't have achieved ourselves and she got our life long recommendation.
By the way, we were referred to her when we were looking at color schemes at our local paint shop. So go and make sure you network at places that spins off from what you do such as the paint shop, the hardware store, the curtain place, the local real estate office and so on. You get the idea.
There will be so many situations and places that will require a service like this if you stop to think about it. Here are some you can start your list on:
- Businesses with reception areas
- Practices such as doctor's waiting rooms
- Private residences that are going through renovation
- Government offices
- Luxury boats and yachts
- Commercial premises
- Factory offices
- Portables such as classrooms and temporary offices
- Tired-looking business establishments
- Businesses that have just moved in
It would help your business success greatly if you have evidence of experience, testimonials and perhaps a relevant qualification. A nice website would be advisable to showcase your work.
Arts & Crafts Market Business
Ah this is an evergreen. No matter how futuristic life gets we will always need the works of interesting arts, paintings, and hand-made crafts to bring that touch of life and joy into a place.
This is another lucrative business idea and it can be started with a few hundred dollars for products and material. By observing the constant announcements of art shows, craft fairs and market days held in streets, shop fronts, galleries and open car park spaces across the country and in every suburb you can tell this is one thriving industry.
If you are good at creating something that people have said they'd give you money for, the arts and craft business might be a business to consider seriously and get paid for what you love doing. If so, here are some things you can do to get a feel of the potential before you start out:
- Check out a few arts and craft shows and markets yourself
- Get a feel of how you might run your business
- Investigate the various costs to hiring a booth or a stand
- Factor in transport costs, packaging, and signage
- Apply for a credit card machine
- Get a permit if required
- Call your local council and make some enquiries
- Learn some good customer service techniques
If it is convenient to do so (I don't see many operators do this) try to collect contact details of your customers to build a dedicated mailing list. This is going to come in handy to make your business hum with profitability.
By building a list you can offer your customers a periodical arts newsletter and use it to announce where and when your next show or stand will be at and the specials you are going to offer. The more you interact with your list, the stronger the loyalty you will earn. Your list will eventually be worth a lot of more money than you imagined. Start by collecting email addresses and or telephone numbers of your customers and from enquiries you get.
Do the above and pretty soon you will have more people than you can manage!
Independent Sales Rep For A Manufacturer/Wholesaler
This idea may sound like a job, but its not. Yes, there are sales reps that are employed by companies to represent them but there are many manufacturers and suppliers who prefer independent sales reps who can sell for them, all at a cut of the sales or for an agreed sum. This can be a quick-earn business that you can get up and running in no time.
You can source for products to sell by visiting trade expos, industry showings, to the manufacturers themselves. Choose the kind of products you want to sell. Do your research. Find out what the market wants. Use good old Google to find a good list of manufacturers and product suppliers you can contact. They would love to hear from you. If you can prove your ability and experience they would love to load you up with goodies.
You are not tied to a fixed schedule or territory, however this might depend of the needs and demands and the specific arrangements both parties agree on.
Try to start with products you can physically transport and showcase. Although this is not necessarily always the case with every manufacturer, sometimes you can sell large machineries and equipment that normally are just not possible to access or carry. Your customers are already used to seeing these 'heavy' products via brochures and video presentations.
As you can see, this is a business you can start as quickly as you find a supplier who will agree for you to rep for them. If you get a hold of a product that enjoys high demand you can be turning a profit on your first sale.
Your market is dual, you can sell direct to businesses or the end user retail consumer, depending on what you are selling.
Bookkeeping Services to SMEs
If you are meticulous about balancing the account, and numbers bring a smile to your face, then you were made for this business!
Ask anyone at a party or your local businesses, chances are that they will tell you that their accounts are in a mess or that they dread pulling out their financial statements to fix them. That's where you come in!
Here are some of the key issues that businesses and business owners suffer from that make the bookkeeping service such an attractive proposition for the right person:
- They are just too busy to do their books
- They dread 'doing the numbers'
- They feel inadequate to do so
- They are not happy with their current bookkeeper
- They struggle with keeping up to date with the ever-changing accounting laws
Depending on the depth and breath of what you offer you can charge anywhere from around $20 to $70 an hour and packaged deals or fixed fees for more specialized preparation of financial and tax statements.
Here are some things to consider before you start:
- Your qualification to be a bookkeeper
- Public liability and professional indemnity insurances
- Permits
- An office or office area
- Telephone to contact businesses
- Stationary with letterhead and business cards
- Computer and or laptop
- Bookkeeping software program
- Scanner and fax
- Back up hard drive
- Filing cabinets
- Marketing budget to promote your business
- An optional answering service
While its nice to hold a double degree in math, nowadays SME operators just want a good bookkeeper who can spot the numbers and provide accurate and great looking balanced monthly statements.
Most business owners and individuals require some kind of bookkeeping help and advice, and many can't afford to keep a full time bookkeeper. The idea of an off-site on-demand bookkeeping service is great news for businesses and for individuals. It's a boom industry for anyone who can deliver on-time accurate bookkeeping management.
In summary
I hope you've enjoyed my 5 low cost business ideas in Jewelry, Arts & Crafts, Interior Designing, Manufacturer and Wholesale products, and SME Bookkeeping. These were chosen for their potential to turn a profit quickly. However, its advisable that you seek guidance from a professional before embarking on any of the ideas listed here.
In closing let me list a few more low cost business ideas for you to investigate. I feel these have unique market potential and long term business growth:
- Wellness & Diet Personal Instructor
- Gift and Fruit Basket Business
- Health Snacks Vending Machine Business
- Resume and Covering Letter services
- Residential and Commercial Cleaning Business
- Beauty and Hair Supply Business
- T-Shirt With Unusual Taglines business
- Outdoor Furniture For Children Business
- Garden and Organic Lawn Care Business
- Band Promoter & Scout
- Mobile Hairdresser Service
- Private Home Tutoring Service
There's nothing like finding your own low cost business idea that can turn a profit in your first year! Be independent. Go for it.
