As the internet surges with opportunities from Africa to Asia, thousands of young people are building their own businesses successfully with zero to little capital and many of them are inspiring others to do the same; but as a beginner, the odds are stacked against you if you’re unable to start with any of the viable online business ideas for beginners.
In spite of the near zero barrier entry, low resource requirements and numerous opportunities to build real success; as I have learned, a single mistake could set back any aspiring entrepreneur for months or even years.
On the other hand, I have also learned that with the right idea, commensurate resources and effort, you can crack the barriers to build a successful and sustainable business in a far shorter period of time.
In this post, I’ll be sharing with you some of the key business ideas you can use to start an online business as a beginner, grow it and earn your own success on your own terms.
Content Marketing & Blogging
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Content marketing is one of the best online business ideas for beginners and it has been successfully used by beginners in different niches, industries and geographical locations to launch their own businesses.
Now, content marketing is the idea about creating and sharing content with a specific audience to arrive at a pre-determined outcome.
One of the reasons why this is a great business idea for beginners is because it demands far less skills, resources and experience as compared to many other business ideas you’d like to start with.
If you’re already a writer it makes it even easy to switch into full time content marketing as a service where you provide professional content marketing services to clients online and elsewhere.
Where you’re not a writer or someone experienced in creating content, if you’re passionate about creating content, it becomes even easier to sign up to content marketing trainings or even learn by yourself and start creating content for others.
The best part of this is the fact that content marketing is very foundational to most niches and also relevant to most industries. It gives you a foundation to build up something as a beginner and somewhere to start from.
Also, a whole lot of digital professionals at some point started out as content marketing experts.
To carve a niche for yourself, you can decide to specialize as a content marketing expert in a specific niche, build a portfolio and grow your brand from there.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a business models that allows publishers, creators or promoters to earn a commission each time a customer buys a product they promote for other companies, using their own unique links.
It is a top tier online business idea for beginners because it has low entry requirements.
As a creator with a decent number of followers, audience or reach, you can use the affiliate marketing model, identify and promote a product from any specific company of your choice and get paid when your followers buy the product or services using your link.
What makes affiliate marketing unique is that there are a lot of options. From traditional affiliate marketing products to non-traditional ones, you’ll always have a handful of options to use.
Also, you don’t necessarily need a very large audience to start with however you’re going to have to understand how to rally your audience to take actions that leads to actual sales directly via your affiliate links.
Another advantage of affiliate marketing is that it can be combined with other business ideas, leading to an even better chance at building a higher income off the web.
To stand out with affiliate marketing, you have to be good at identifying the top affiliate products with high demand by your audience and of course, a more generous affiliate earnings.
Drop-shipping or ecommerce
Over the past few years, ecommerce has become a booming business in many regions across Africa, Asia and most developing world.
A number of new entrepreneurs have delved into this business model, selling and delivering their products and businesses across cities, using their ecommerce platforms.
The fact that starting a small ecommerce business does not require a large scale investment compared to starting an offline retail business is one of the reasons that makes this a key online business idea for beginners.
In essence, you can start ecommerce business with little capital. For example, outside setting up your ecommerce website, using paid promotion options etc., you might not necessarily have other needs to run expenses at the start.
Additionally, if you’re completely without the necessary resources to build an ecommerce platform, you can start with a third party ecommerce storefront like Amazon, Jumia, Flutterwave etc. while building your own set up, when you’re far more grounded in the business.
Where you do not have your own product or services, dropshipping – a business model where you stand as middleman to deliver products directly from the manufacturer to the customer can always save the day.
You have to understand that while this is a great idea for beginners and anyone with zero capital, you still need to have some idea or guidance on how this all works out before getting started.
Social Media Management
In a time where nearly everyone is using the social media to connect, engage and socialize with people around the world, social media management has evolved into one of the top online business ideas for beginners.
The reason is not farfetched. With more than 4 billion users around the world, the social media has become a big platform where brands can easily gain visibility, interact with and attract new customers.
Based on this, most brands are creating handles and a presence on social media. And these brands are now looking for professionals who can manage and keep their handles up to date on the social media platforms.
As a complete beginner with some experience on social media marketing, this provides you with a great avenue to make money either by starting a social media management brand or applying to manage these platforms individually.
One good thing about social media management is that it is easy to learn. And if you’re able to provide consistent results, you can earn a very decent income from it.
Additionally, you can also target a specific niche or take steps to learn, grow professionally or build experience in a very specific niche or industry. This kind of specification coupled with a decent results can enable you to command a very decent salary from your target clientele.
To further set yourself apart as a professional social media expert, you attend trainings like the ones we have here, acquire certifications and get yourself positioned as the social media marketing expert that you are.
Online Trainings & Tutorials
If you have some specialized skills, experience etc. starting an online training or tutorials based off your skills is one of the top online business idea for beginners you could start with.
With this idea, you don’t need to start from scratch. All you need to do is identify the high demand skills and experience you have and you’re willing to share, put this skills together into a training material.
Identify a platform with the people in need of this skills or experience, create a brand for yourself on that platform and begin to position yourself as the expert there, using content marketing and strong storytelling to grow your brand.
When you’ve been able to build a decent audience and followers, you can then start creating a paid course out of this skills.
Depending on the content form you’re using to create your tutorials, you can choose a relevant third party platform including Udemy, Skillshare, Teachable, YouTube etc. to upload and share your content with your target audience.
Eventually as your brand grows, you can then build your own platform either individually or integrate it with a third party platform so you can have a full control over your business.
Where you do not have any specific skills or experience, you can learn, practice them, share your story and start teaching others eventually. This is even a very good way to build authentic expertise and thought leadership with your potential target audience.
Virtual Assistant
A virtual assistant service gives you the chance to provide an administrative, technical or creative services professionally to clients virtually.
It is one of the top level online business ideas for beginners. And it is a high demand idea especially for solo entrepreneurs or individuals in need of opportunities to work from home.
As a virtual assistant, you can leverage your existing skills, expertise or experience to professionally work for clients in specific industries or you could also learn a particular skills for that purpose.
With a burgeoning digital and remote working options, you can take up virtual assistant roles in companies either locally or internationally and you can also work with smaller brands, depending on what works for you.
Being a virtual assistant gives you the flexibility to combine different online business ideas, schooling and working or any other combinations.
It is a great options for stay at home moms or dads wishing to make some side incomes, students and other busy professionals, in need of extra income.
As your business continues to grow, you might have need to grow your brand by taking extra measure to enhance your visibility through the creation of social media profiles, content, online portfolios etc.
Freelancing
A good number of online entrepreneurs started out as freelancers before going ahead to build their own businesses.
In most developing countries, starting out as an entrepreneur gives you the option to build your expertise, get grounded on a specific set of skills or even grow a business out of your freelancing activities.
Additionally, you can also evolve from a freelancer to a more long term career after building your expertise if that’s what you want.
As someone that started out this way, I can assure you that this is one of the most realistic ways to build a brand, grow professionally and even build a start-up or an agency if you want.
This is why freelancing is one of the key online business ideas for beginners without a lot of experience. It gives you the leverage to build and grow into whatever you want, regardless of the resources you have at the moment.
As a freelancer, you can choose any of the top high demand skills, provide services around those skills to clients in different industries.
Where you don’t have the needed skills, you can learn and start from scratch then expand into different skills as you grow.
As your business continues to expand you can diversify, niche down or narrow your focus to a specific niche where you can grow your brand and become a key player. This allows you to command a better rates eventually.
Final Words
Just like you learned today, it’s very possible to start and grow a successful business as a beginner but one of the key things that will guarantee your success is identifying and working with the right business ideas for beginners.
This is because starting a small business that thrives is not a walk in the park. But with the right ideas, coupled with planning and effort, you increase your chances at success.
With what you’ve learned today, I believe you now understand what ideas can work for you and you and how you can start and grow your own business with these ideas. And you don’t have to start alone. Sign up for our courses and get equipped with the right skills. Connect with us let’s mentor and work with you while you get started here.
Now, it’s over to you. What are some of the challenges you’ve experienced when it comes to creating and starting your own business? Drop your comments below.
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