The best business ideas for small busi­ness­es

Since the Coro­n­avirus pandemic, the trend has been toward working from home – par­tic­u­lar­ly for small busi­ness­es and free­lancers. In some cases, this can offer com­plete­ly new business ideas and fields of work. We’ll present seven small business ideas that you can start up from home fairly simply!

First of all, your own hobbies or previous pro­fes­sions often determine which kind of business you’ll typically want to start. For example, you if worked as a pro­gram­mer, graphic designer, or lawyer and decide to stay on the same career track, the move to self-em­ploy­ment is usually motivated by the promise of increased flex­i­bil­i­ty and freedom, but the job itself remains very similar. It might be, however, that you want to have a change and start something com­plete­ly new and different. In that case, knowing how to identify a good idea is the right place to start.

A good idea is only really revealed the more you plan it out - starting a business takes a lot of work in the first steps, during which, however, it often already becomes clear which dif­fi­cul­ties you’ll have to face, but we will go into this again below. In the following para­graphs, we will first list seven areas with concrete small business ideas that are suitable for starting up your own business.

Whether self-care boxes, candles and wax melts, regional food spe­cial­ties, cosmetics, or baby-shower boxes — almost anything is available as a package-product or sub­scrip­tion service. Either you look for (regional) co­op­er­a­tion partners or suppliers who provide you with the items for the box, or you go into pro­duc­tion yourself. Sales then take place via your own online store. Some of the ideas also open up further small business ideas: for example, offer online tastings or seminars to go with wine boxes, which you host wherever you like!

When all leisure fa­cil­i­ties closed during the Corona crisis, as well as many ed­u­ca­tion­al in­sti­tu­tions, the topics of e-learning and online DIY seminars ex­pe­ri­enced a real boom. The great thing is that once you have produced these courses, you can run them over and over again, but you no longer have to put in any extra effort. A business in in­struct­ing people on an area of your expertise may be fun and rewarding!

Similar to the idea of offering e-learning courses, you could also become a source of expertise for clients in need of guidance for their physical or pro­fes­sion­al wellbeing. Online as well as offline pos­si­bil­i­ties mean this is a large playing field to start your own business. You could give private or group fitness classes, help people find a new goal in life - or simply offer your expert knowledge on your current career to others. The advantage of these business ideas is that you don't need a lot of start-up capital to get going. It is not always easy to get started - con­sul­tants and coaches seem to be a dime a dozen but not all of them are reputable. If you have a good work ethic, a strong network, and good client feedback, you’ll be able to set up a strong foun­da­tion for your business.

Doing something good for yourself, working on self-im­prove­ment - these are eternally popular options for people. The health and beauty industry is booming, which is why there is certainly still a lot of potential to get involved here. This can involve the pro­duc­tion and sale of self-care products (but make sure you follow local and national guide­lines regarding the safety and labeling of these!), for example.

In the broadest sense, this also includes the de­vel­op­ment of health apps - whether for sports and exercise in general, for nutrition, or for med­i­ta­tion.

Not a business idea in its own right, but a huge field at the moment is the topic of sus­tain­abil­i­ty. Whether it's opening a zero-waste store, making plastic al­ter­na­tives, or simply providing in­struc­tions on how to live a more sus­tain­able life, people are in­ter­est­ed in sus­tain­abil­i­ty. Ad­mit­ted­ly, some of these start-up ideas are more costly, but they are worth it in more ways than one - you will be making a con­tri­bu­tion to the en­vi­ron­ment and there is a real market for sus­tain­abil­i­ty now.

These are not get-rich-quick ideas, but you can still generate a small side income in the long run with them. The only re­quire­ment is a certain amount of cre­ativ­i­ty – and you can print T-shirts with your own designs, sell your paintings or pho­tographs, sell handmade clothes and so on (and sew on?!)

If you're less creative, you can also simply offer a one-stop household service, providing every­thing from gardening to house and office cleaning, minor handyman work to dog sitting if you’re trust­wor­thy and caring.

Once you have decided on an idea, flesh it out, and record your thoughts in writing. To do this, first describe the actual idea, what your business model should look like and what skills you need and bring to it. Based on these con­sid­er­a­tions, create a business plan. This forms the basis for your foun­da­tion and is in­dis­pens­able if you want to convince investors to par­tic­i­pate fi­nan­cial­ly in your idea.

The most important contents in your business plan are a pre­sen­ta­tion of yourself and your idea, a detailed target group and market analysis, the as­sess­ment of resulting op­por­tu­ni­ties and risks as well as a list of all costs, a prof­itabil­i­ty and in­vest­ment plan. If you have a par­tic­u­lar­ly cost-intensive business idea, you should also think about the financing options in the business plan.

Note that a pro­fes­sion­al online presence is at least as important as a well-developed business plan. Starting with your own domain, you can then develop a handsome online store. At IONOS you will find an all-inclusive package to get you started and, if required, you’ll get all the support from experts you need for creating a website.