The idea of being in control of your personal business sounds like the ultimate solution to a happy-go-lucky life. You don’t have to get up at 7 am to catch the early subway so that you can reach your office on time.
And, you wouldn’t have to spend your Saturday evenings working on a critical deadline for Monday. Plus, the weekend is a snooze fest; you prefer watching Netflix with a huge tub of ice cream (break-up feels) and endless pizza instead of meeting your friends for those weekly drinks.
But, managing a business doesn’t mean that you get off that easily too. You get liberty and leisure, but you will also get the pressure of managing your clientele and taking their flack first-hand. If all of this seems pretty exciting for you, then you, my friend, have landed on the right page.
You dream of becoming an entrepreneur - who doesn’t? But, your savings account is unsupportive of your strong business acumen. Plus, you’ll be haunted by a ton of depressing and anxious thoughts if you ever decide to start a business in 2022. For instance, what if the economy doesn’t improve? What if your business idea is a stump? What if your customers (if you get any) hate you?
What if, what if, what if?
Well, here’s the deal. There are a lot of what-ifs to consider whenever anyone is thinking of starting a business, but the future is always uncertain. And that shouldn’t be the reason that’s holding you behind from thinking big. With that said, we don’t mean that you should jump on the bandwagon and start a business without pondering over your idea, capital, investment, or competition in the market.
Did you know that around 50% of small business enterprises start from the comfort of their homes? As per World Bank’s analysis of business insights, today’s digital era has made starting a company from your personal computer a matter of seconds. Plus, around 50% of SMEs are responsible for uplifting the global economy, maintaining cash flow and employment opportunities.
If you are struggling with a low-cost business idea so that you can launch your startup in 2022, don’t worry. We are throwing in 3 trending business ideas that will be ideal for you to quit your boring job (in the near future, of course) and multiply your assets at the same time.
1. Dropshipping Business
How about we tell you that you can spare the day-to-day hassle of rushing to your suppliers, checking inventory, and storing it in a rented warehouse? Being a retailer gives people nightmares, mainly because it involves a lot of legwork and upfront costs in the beginning. It warrants more time dedication, strong marketing, and interpersonal skills, and excellent leadership.
But you don’t have that kind of capital right now. You cannot afford to lose hundreds of dollars in refunding a faulty product. Plus, managing inventory is one of the biggest headaches - and who has the funds to open or rent a warehouse right now?
About 27% of business savvy merchants are investing in dropshipping models as compared to online retailers who have to foresee inventory and shipping as well. In 2017 alone, digital buyers dominated online sales with a market valuation of over 23%.
Plus, as compared to online retailers who stock and manage inventory, online dropshipping models have garnered 50% more profit and boosted the growth of several SMEs. The wonders of dropshipping aren’t limited to just online retailers. Online suppliers saw an 18.33% increase in sales with dropshippers as compared to the revenue generated from their respective online stores.
Welcome to the world of dropshipping! A dropshipping business is remarkably easy, fun, quick, cheap, relatively scalable! The dropshipping market jumped from a revenue of $122.3 in 2019 to $149.4 bn USD in 2020 alone. According to Grand View Research, the dropshipping business will reach collective market revenue of $557.9 bn USD by 2025.
You get to enjoy the perks of being a retailer without actually getting involved in the hands-on part. No more buying, storing or packing a product all by yourself. Plus, there is no need to break your back to gather the capital for investing in a completely new business.
There are three prerequisites to fulfilling a dropshipping business.
- Firstly, you need to choose a niche with a unique selling point. For instance, suppose you want to cash on the fitness industry. You can easily monetize athleisure and fitness gear such as dumbbells, yoga mats, medicine balls, and other exercise equipment.
- Your unique selling position (USP) needs to stand out from the competition. Ten of your competitors are dropshipping fitness gear - why will your consumers find you different? You need to personalize your brand with an aesthetic logo, customized fonts, a How-To blog or quirky merchandize.
- Next, you would need to choose a third-party supplier (or more) from whom you can purchase products. Relax - you don’t need to store any of the inventory in a warehouse. Your supplier will be responsible for storing, packing, and shipping the inventory to your customer.
- You should have a medium to interact with your customers. For instance, in today’s digital world, it is necessary (somewhat mandatory) for you to at least have a website where you can showcase the products.
- After choosing your USP, you need to show that you can live up to your word. You need to build a brand out of your business, and that can only happen if you have excellent customer service to manage your leads and customers.
Your customers can go to your website, see the products enlisted, and order! Once ordered, all you have to do is contact your supplier and give them the details and requirements of your customer.
The pro to starting a dropshipping business is that you, being the seller or retailer of the product, don’t have to get involved in packing and shipping the inventory. But, note that even if you don’t have to do any legwork yourself, your brand gets to tackle any complaints involving inventory or shipping intricacies.
Let’s learn how the big giants do it:
Case: Notebook Therapy
Notebook Therapy is a stationery hoarder’s ultimate dream - and also the best inspiration for any aspiring dropshipping entrepreneur.
- The website has a clean interface with a lot of white space and pastel colors that are subtle and perfect for their targeted community.
- The East-Asian-owned brand owes its success to its USP and, of course, unmatchable marketing strategies.
- They are the most avidly searched stationery store in the US, with over 1.5m followers on Instagram alone! Plus, almost anyone who uses journals in the U.S or beyond has posted a review of their experience with the brand on YouTube.
- Their blog offers unique journaling ideas as well. Combining them with their stationery and viola is the perfect recipe to kickstart a thriving hobby.
- And they offer free tracked shipping globally. (We don’t even get free shipping locally)
2. Customize, Print, and Sell - Artistically Gifted
The Print-on-Demand model is perhaps one of our favorite business ideas for all artistically inclined friends. If you’re a graphic designer, cartoonist, artist, photographer, or basically a designer of any sort - you need to start monetizing your passion right now. From t-shirts to hoodies, tote bags to canvases, greeting cards to posters or coasters, the world is your oyster. If you can customize it, sell it.
Sure, everybody’s doing it, but what difference are you making by starting a print-on-demand business as a mock start-up? A print-on-demand business is one of the safest and cheapest side hustles. But, earning revenue without a proper marketing strategy in place might waste your time and efforts.
If you are a cartoonist or a graphic designer, good news for you. You can monetize your content by selling your assets on any public domain, such as a business website or social media shop. If you’re artistically impaired, not to worry. There are plenty of print-on-demand templates that you can download. customize, and post on your website or any online mockup generator.
- Consider Printify - a print-on-demand mockup generator that has over 500+ digital templates and readily available stock designs for the public to use. From unisex and children’s clothing to mugs and home decor ornaments, you can customize and sell anything your heart desires.
- Printify also allows you to establish your E-commerce store on Shopify, Ebay or Etsy so that you have a frontier for conducting sales.
- The best part of Printify is that it uses dropshipping to ensure timely and prompt delivery to customers.
- Premium users have access to branded customer support as well as a 20% discount on all of their products. With yearly subscriptions, you can save 14% of your investment and use it for marketing purposes!
Case: Mike Pasley - famousinreal. life
Enter Mike Pasley, a curious young boy who started experimenting with eBay at the age of only 12 years old. Pasley knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur, but who knew he would see the light at such a tender age?
Now the founder to famousinrea.life, Pasley owes the success of his print-on-demand business to innovative, fun, and charismatic ideas. With an emphasis on experimentation, Pasley recommends aspiring entrepreneurs to invest in a business that dwells on the audience’s interests.
Pasley’s targeted community found solace in his customized apparel wear and accessories, which pay homage to movies and shows and capture quirky quotes. The best part about Pasley’s print-on-demand online store is not only his fabulous catalog of over 400+ designs, but his commitment to entertaining his customers with rounded support.
3. Become An Influencer
To monetize your hobbies, you need to have an audience that is responsive and interactive. While YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram are three of the hottest social media channels to garner a strong following base, it doesn’t hurt to incorporate all three of them into your marketing strategy.
This step is not necessary, but it wouldn’t hurt to become an influencer before monetizing your content. Why should we trust you, anyway?
- Be consistent. You need to post regularly on your social media with content that’s tailored to meet your audience’s interests. Optimize your content with SEO so that your name pops up whenever someone searches for your products/services.
- Add a contest or gimmick once in a while to grab the attention of your ghost followers. Host giveaways and award your top followers for staying with you throughout your journey. Also, never forget your first 100 followers and thank them at least once in a while for showing that you wouldn’t be here without their support.
- On days when you’re not posting, consider TikToking your way through social media. You can also use the ‘Shorts’ feature on YouTube or the ‘Stories and Reels’ features on Instagram to build your audience even on inactive days.
- If you think you cannot manage all of your accounts at the same time, schedule posts or hire a social media consultant to do the chore for you.
Case: Kat Gaskin - Influencer and Aspiring Entrepreneur
Kat Gaskin (@katgaskin), a content creator on Instagram, initiated her product launch when she had only 3,000 followers. Now, with 49.9k followers on Instagram, Gaskin’s showing us how to influence the right type of audience at any given time.
- Gaskin’s personal instagram might give you Disney’s Moana vibes as she embarks on a journey comprising pineapples (her major marketing trademark), sunny beaches, tropical sunsets, tranquil silhouettes, and lots of pastels.
- Being a graphic designer, Kat launched her store on Canva and currently, has over 50 followers. Canva is ideal for graphic designers who wish to monetize their designs and sell to a remote fan base.
- For instance, you can decide to tailor a post for Facebook using a design from Gaskin’s arsenal of copyrighted images, and create a fan following for your product.
- Gaskin is also the founder of The Content Planner, and she makes sure to use plenty of pastels to attract her consumer base.
Minimalistic Design, Pastel Hues, and Squeaky Clean Journaling Templates - The Content Planner
Stationery is always one of the best ideas for low-cost startups, but its execution varies from creator to investor. If you are creating your personal business out of your passion or hobby, you might carry it out way better than a businessman who is in it just for the money.
The Final Note
Once you find your niche, experimenting with dropshipping or print-on-demand models will seem like an interesting feat instead of an upcoming challenge.
Sure, you want to leave that daily hustle behind, but you also want to make sure you break even. What if (there is that phrase again) we told you that you can start a low-cost business without having to leave your day-time job? Not that you don’t want to leave it in the first place, but it is better to opt for a side hustle if your capital is low and the market is completely new.
But, don’t let that stop you. If you’re brave enough to kickstart a business, you’re surely wise enough to understand your responsibility of keeping your customers happy. After all, we do want to retain customers, right?
