14 Best Low-Investment Business Ideas You Can Start Online

Contrary to popular belief, there are actually many ways to start a business that allow you to focus less on logistics and startup costs and more on getting started.

These low investment business ideas are a great entry point for beginners, bootstrappers, or anyone with a busy schedule, and will allow you to start a side business without having to drop everything else.

You still have to come up with a solid idea, build a brand, put effort into marketing and provide excellent customer service. However, you can bypass many of the traditional start-up costs such as start-up inventory, storage and retail space.

Here are some of the low-investment business ideas you can start today.

The best business ideas with low investment that you can start next door

To think about emerging low investment business ideas that you can start today, you need to assess your strengths, skills, assets and financial situation. Once you figure this out, you'll have a baseline from which to assess business models that work for you. Let's start by understanding a useful framework that keeps your business investment low.

A framework for thinking about business ideas with low investment

Think about what makes a business idea low investment. What are some ways businesses can reduce their costs today? Some of the ways are described below:

Sell ​​without holding inventory

Buy inventory, store it, pick it, pack it, ship it. Inventory management can be a big commitment, not to mention a cost, when running a business. You can significantly reduce your capital and operating costs by completely eliminating inventory hassles using third-party fulfillment models such as dropshipping.

Sell ​​the service

Unlike products that require development, manufacturing, sourcing, warehousing, shipping, etc., services for large businesses have lower overhead and operating costs. Essentially, you would be selling skill or expertise multiplied by time. Therefore, depending on the service you choose, you will have greater opportunities to reduce your initial investment and operating costs.

Create and sell digital assets

Products and assets that are entirely in the digital realm are a special case where, once created, they can be replicated an infinite number of times into copies without any additional cost. This means that your marginal cost of scaling is essentially zero. And production costs are limited to your computer and the tools you can use to create a digital product.

Turn your hobby/passion into a business

If you already spend time doing something as a hobby or passion, and if there is a market for the things you do/create, you can turn it into a business without too much extra effort or investment.

Explore emerging niches

The success of any business ultimately depends on reaching consumers and making sales. So marketing is quite a significant expense. Targeting emerging niches is a great way to reduce your marketing investment because your potential customers will be easier to reach and convert online, even if your market size is limited by the niche market.

You can use more than one of the above methods to keep your investments low. For example, if you choose online teaching as a low investment business idea, you will create and sell digital assets while turning your hobby into a business and exploring an emerging niche in the subject you teach.

Also, be aware that the businesses discussed in this article exclude less active money-making opportunities on the side that could be considered a passive income opportunity—for example, rental property. You can check out our passive income basics blog to learn more about how you can make money while you sleep.

So let's go through the business ideas below with the above considerations in mind.

Drop shipping

Design and sell print-on-demand products

Start your own custom gift shop

Sell ​​your digital creations online (music/photo/digital art)

We sell courses or webinars

Turn your skills/expertise into service

Start your own fashion boutique

We sell handmade and homemade goods

Grow an audience that you can monetize in several ways

Cloud kitchen or bakery

Start your own book rental shop

Self-improvement coaching

Create an application

Digital marketing