7 Business Ideas That Are Taking Off Right Now

It’s been a rough couple of years for businesses all over. Hardly any industry has gone untouched by the coronavirus pandemic, and many of them have taken a turn for the worse.

In 2020, the hospitality and food service businesses have taken an especially hard hit. Not everything has been all doom and gloom though. Some businesses such as home improvement stores and delivery services saw their business and demand increase.

Many who found themselves furloughed or let go turned to entrepreneurial efforts in order to make ends meet. If you’re considering a similar move, you might want to consider one of the business ideas that are enjoying popularity at the moment.

Dropshipping

Let’s face it, no one really likes working in retail as an employee. But what if you could eliminate the face to face aspect of retail and streamline the whole process so it was easy to do online? That’s part of the appeal of dropshipping.

When you have a dropshipping business, you have an online store through which people place their orders. Once the order is placed, it’s fulfilled by a third party. That party handles order compilation and shipping, which means you don’t need to find space to store inventory or deal with shipping logistics. T

his also reduces your overhead costs, which can make it much more affordable to start your own business.

Consulting

Do you have a bunch of experience and knowledge about a certain aspect of business? Maybe you’re great at leadership coaching or are a top of the line social media marketing guru. Maybe you’re one of the best there is at coaching a sales team.

Whatever your area of expertise, you can leverage that into a successful business by becoming a consultant for that topic. Start out as your own personal business of one and then expand by hiring other consultants down the line as the demand for your services increases.

The nice thing about becoming a consultant is that your job is essentially going to be to solve problems for businesses, and the fact is that any business that tells you that they don’t have any problems is either unaware of them or lying.

You’ll just need to figure out which ones are most in need of the services you offer and learn how to sell your services so they’ll be willing to hire you.

Freelancing

If you have a specific skill set that you think you can use to make some money, you don’t have to limit yourself to just using it as an employee. You might find greater success and income potential as a freelancer.

There are a ton of different things you can do as a freelancer. Copywriting, web development, coding, marketing, PR, translating, branding, and accounting are just a few examples of different things you can do as a freelancer. 

Remember, when you work as a freelancer, you are essentially your own business and you are being hired by or entering into a contract with the other business. As such, it’s a good idea to think carefully about what business structure you want to use.

If you don’t choose something different, you’ll be considered a sole proprietorship by default. You should also be aware of the tax implications that go along with different structures.

Subscription Boxes

Is there anything you’re especially passionate about or knowledgeable about? If so, you might be able to leverage that into a subscription box business.

Subscription box businesses work by sending customers a package with items that cater to a specific niche on a regular basis, often monthly. There are a variety of types of subscription boxes you can start, so find one that plays to your interests.

Keep in mind that the items in your box need to be good enough to keep your customers satisfied. If they become dissatisfied with the contents of your subscription boxes, they may very well cancel their subscriptions. Lose too many customers and you’ll be out of business before long.

Blogging

You may have noticed something of a common theme here. As with other business ideas, blogging allows you to take advantage of something you’re familiar with and turn it into a source of revenue.

When done right, a successful blog becomes a source of passive income. That said, blogging isn’t meant to be a get rich quick sort of thing. It takes time and effort to put together a successful, high quality blog.

The good news is that it’s generally pretty inexpensive to start. Make sure that whatever you choose to make the topic of your blog is something that you’re going to be comfortable writing about for a long time.

One of the keys to running a successful blog is making sure that you’re posting quality content on a regular basis.

Online Courses

Yet again, personal expertise offers an opportunity to make some extra cash. If you’re an expert at something, consider creating online courses to teach others.

This can be a highly profitable business and allows you to make use of the knowledge and experience you’ve gained through the course of your life. Not sure how to make one? There are plenty of resources available, including online courses on how to make your own online course.

Once you’ve got an idea of how to get started, you’ll just need to figure out which online course platforms you want to use.

Digital Marketing

One of the keys to building a successful business is to know what the demand is like for your business and the services it offers. While there had been a trend towards business becoming an increasingly digital enterprise, the pandemic accelerated that trend dramatically.

Many businesses were forced to focus more on their online presence than they had before if they wanted to have a chance at surviving. The tricky thing about running an online business is that you need to get seen if you want to attract customers.

That’s where digital marketers come in. If you have digital marketing skills, you can turn those into the fuel for your own digital marketing business. 

Like running a consulting business, you have the option of starting out as your own business of one and then expanding your business and hiring employees later on as needed. When you start out, you may find it best to focus on one specific aspect of digital marketing.

Choose between SEO services, social media marketing, content creation, or other options. As your business grows, expand the services you offer. This can help you make sure you’re able to offer excellent quality services and avoid being overwhelmed and unintentionally over promising on what you’re able to deliver.

Choosing to become your own boss and make the transition from employee to business owner is a big step. It’s challenging, for sure, but the rewards can be well worth the effort if you can make it work.

Take some time before you get started to figure out what sort of business is of interest to you and what there is demand for. That will help you choose one that you’ll be happy with and one that will give you a greater chance of achieving the level of success you would like to see from your business.

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