Ten Small Business Ideas To Start In 2021!

Personal Garbage Disposal

Now I know this is one you definitely haven’t thought of, but it really could be a lucrative side gig. I know what you’re thinking, garbage disposal is free and provided by the city, so where’s the money in that! The money comes in at particular times of the year, major holidays and events to be exact. During these special events the garbage bin could become overloaded with junk and end up sitting outside for a week or two and that’s where you come in. You could offer your service door to door the day before the big event and collect your mula the day of.

What you’ll need to get started:

Cell Phone

Large vehicle to haul trash

Planner

Once you’ve collected all the garbage for the day, you can haul it to a trash site.

Mobile Locksmith (24/7)

This next one requires a bit of an investment, but it’s still very profitable. Everyone at some point or another, has locked their keys in their car and as a result had to pay a hefty bill for a locksmith to open their car. Here’s where you come into play, you don’t need vast knowledge and experience in being a locksmith, just a little research and funds. This is the plan. You purchase a lock smith’s tool kit for vehicles off of Amazon. Educate yourself at the University of Youtube and The Internet and create a webpage to display your services. Try to set your prices between $20 - $40, this way you can make a profit without seeming outrageously overpriced. You can based on the time of day or night you are being called.

What you’ll need to get started:

$80.00 (for tool kit)

A web page and hosting

A car

A cell phone

With this line of work, be prepared to be called on at any time and be safe during the late hours.

Greeting Cards

I almost considered not adding this one to the list. This industry is saturated. However, if you’re the creative type greeting cards can be an excellent way to make money. The competition is stiff, now more than ever everyday people are finding new and creative ways to enhance the norm. Let’s take the example of Emily Mcdowell’s empathy cards. These are greeting cards that send a different kind of message, one that’s not afraid to address the misfortunes of life. Honestly tell me, who would have thought of that? It may have been you if you started making greeting cards.

What you’ll need to get started:

Pen

Paper

Scanner

This is really one of the best choices if you’re good with making crafts.

Personalized Coloring Books

This idea is great for new parents. They get all the fun of teaching their kids to color while creating a family portrait. Here’s how it’s going to work, you take the photographs selected and turn them into outlines using Adobe Capture. You can do this for friends and family, or even for events like prom night.

What you’ll need to get started:

Adobe Capture

Computer

Photos

Make sure to always keep a backup of the original photo.

Personalized Study Guides

This idea can make a lot of money, especially when exams are just around the corner. This is the perfect opportunity for college or even high school students to make some money on the side. This is the plan of action, first you’ll have to create a website that allows people to scan chapters of a book to you (one at a time). Once you have the scan, you can condense the chapter into short concise notes and send it back to them for a fee. I really like this idea because, not only is it profitable, it’s reputable. This is NOT CHEATING, which will allow people to purchase guilt free and without fear of being kicked out of school.

Once you have made the notes, be sure to include a practice test and some study tips, this way it can be sold as a full package. The price range is up to you, but I would suggest 1 chapter which is 1 - 10 pages = $10.00 (including the practice test and study tips). Another Idea is to charge the client depending on how close they are to the test date.

For example:

3 days before the test = $$$

2 days before the test = $$

1 day before the test = $

If the chapter goes over one to ten pages you can charge extra. As proof of your abilities offer up your transcript in order to see the correlation that good notes lead to good grades.

What you’ll need to get started:

A website

A cell phone

An example of already condensed clean notes

A copy of your transcript (this will help to build trust)

Be sure to only complete one chapter at a time, as not to overload yourself and to follow the 10% rule for coping books for fair use.

Fingerprint Keychains/Jewelry

I can personally attest to this one, that it MAKES MONEY and also builds up a good rapport with customers. Now you don’t need a lot of fancy materials or an expensive ink pad, all you need is an Amazon account. The idea here is that you make personalized fingerprint jewelry to sell using very inexpensive materials. The process is very personal and also assist in building up a client list.

What you’ll need to get started:

$40.00

Cardstock paper (white)

Keychains

Nontoxic fingerprint ink pad

Scissors

Pin / lid remover

Here’s what to do to prepare for your first sale:

Take $40 to purchase the materials off of Amazon

Cut the cardstock to the same size as the keychain and place it inside, close the lid.

Repeat the previous step about nine more times.

When approaching your first customer, ask them if they would like to buy a fingerprint keychain and explain to them that the process is done on the spot.

Take one of the keychains and remove the lid.

Simply take the customer’s finger, roll it on the ink pad and press it against the cardstock which is already inside the keychain.

Seal the keychain with the lid.

This is a very lucrative side gig as a pack of 50 key chains cost about $12.00, you can sell them for a dollar each and repeat the process over and over again.

Note that this type of work is very extroverted, so be sure to practice a sales pitch.

This next few will be short and sweet.

Making Jewelry For Children

What you’ll need to get started:

Starter jewelry making kit

A ton of brightly colored beads and charms

Places to sell your jewelry:

Malls

Fairs

Flea markets

Charity events

Selling Candy For Charity

Remember when you had to sell at least two boxes of chocolates to raise money for your school, well now you’ll do that again except this time you’ll get to keep a portion of the money. Firstly, register online with a charity of your choosing, let the charity know you’re trying to raise money for them and they may help you with getting donations. Pledge to donate 30% or more towards the charity and see to it that you have some sort of evidence (screenshot or physical document) towards this pledge. Now all you have to do is sell the candy.

What you’ll need to get started:

A charity to donate to

A few packs of candy of your choice

Please KEEP YOUR WORD, no one will do business with a liar.

Creating And Selling Icons

If you know just a little bit about PowerPoint, then you’re already set. It’s very easy to make Icons using PowerPoint and there are literally thousands of tutorials out there on Youtube.

Places to sell the icons:

Graphic River

Icon Finder

Creative Market

Canva

The pro here is that you can make money while learning a new skill.

Selling Jam

Believe it or not, there is money to be made in selling jam. I sold jars for $5 each for an afterschool club. The jam we made was so delicious it was addictive, that’s why people were willing to pay so much for it (also the fact that I was a cute kid may have had something to do with it). Start small and learn some simple recipes and when you’re well read start experimenting.

What you’ll need to get started:

Jars and lids

Water

Sugar

Fruit

Lemon Juice

Don’t despair if your first batch does not come out right, just find out where you went wrong and try again.

Well that’s it for my first post, I hope I’ve given you some insight as to what to expect from this blog and that you are able to enact at least one of these ideas.

Thank you for reading.

KD