Starting your own business is a very challenging task. But the amount of money, risk and time involved will depend on the business idea that you are chasing. Contrary to popular belief, there are a lot of ways you can start a small business that will let you focus less on the upfront cost and logistics, and focus more on how to get it started.
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These “low-cost” and low-investment business ideas on the Internet make a good entry point for bootstrappers, people with a busy schedule and first-time owners, letting them pick up an entrepreneurial opportunity without dropping everything else.
But people still need to come up with an excellent idea, market your product and services the right way, build a brand, and provide a unique way to provide excellent service to every customer. But there is a way you can bypass a lot of the traditional startup costs like warehousing, retail space and initial inventory. Listed below are some low-investment ideas that you can start today.
Partner with a reputable drop-shipper
Buy a stock, store it, pick, pack and ship it. Managing an inventory can be a very huge commitment when you are running a business on the Internet. Drop-shipping or moving goods from the manufacturer to the retailer is a fulfillment model where a third-party supplier ships or stores inventory to consumers on your behalf.
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All you need to do is make the sales and pass all the orders to your supplier. You do not need to handle all the products by yourself. You can organize and present from one or more suppliers into your online store under them that emphasizes specific niches like items for yoga enthusiasts or food and water bowls for cat and dog owners.
When consumers purchase from you, the order is then sent to the supplier who will fulfill it on your behalf. But you will still make your own customer service and marketing tasks. There are both overseas and local suppliers that you can work with if you can establish a good relationship with them and build trust. An unreliable supplier will poorly reflect on your brand.
Drop-shipping is considered as a low-investment way to try out the product and market fit, as well as launch businesses before you spend your money investing your own products. Just make sure to order a sample for yourself to ensure that all your suppliers are reliable, reputable and the quality of their products are fit for selling to your loyal customers.
Design, create and sell customized items
According to the business coach that we interviewed, another excellent drop-shipping model, designing, creating and selling print-on-demand items is another good business idea. But unlike the drop shipping idea mentioned above, the main focus here is to customize things with your designs to create something unique and original.
Shirts, phone cases, shirts, hats, tote bags or hoodies can become excellent references that resonate with pet lovers. If there are pride and passion within the community, there is a potential business that you can start. Even if you are not an excellent designer, but have the passion in this kind of industry, you can look for an excellent designer to work with using a freelance website like Upwork, 99Designs, Fiverr or Dribble.
With a lot of print-on-demand services, you are paying per-product. The base price per product will be a lot more expensive compared to if you order in large quantities. But the advantage in this kind of business is that if a particular design does not sell, you have not actually paid for that item yet, only the item design if you outsourced it.
You can even use mock-up templates, so you do not actually need to spend a lot of money on full photoshoots for every design. There are different kinds of print-on-demand platforms that you can work with, a lot of which can be integrated with your own Shopify store for seamless order fulfillment. But make sure that you always order a product sample for yourself. Usually, these samples are offered at a discount to make sure that your custom products will look good.
