5 BUSINESS IDEAS TO START IN INDIA WITH MINIMAL OR NO INVESTMENT.

 

At present there are a large number of people who are looking to start a successful business with minimal investment, with India’s growing economy, there are a lot of possibilities where one can venture into.

In this article we are going to talk about 5 business ideas that can be started with a little or no money. I tried to come up with these  5 easy to start business ideas which wouldn’t require much capital and you could do most of them from comfort of your home. These aren’t the online surveys, click & earn or online form filling jobs because most them are not legit and even if they are legitimate they aren’t business, they are just online employment where they don’t pay you well. 
following are 5 very basic business ideas but i am sure they will get you thinking along the lines what you can do.

1)  BLOGGING :

The first one is blogging. Blogging is accessible to anyone. All you need is an internet connection and a computer. Now-a-days with the help of few applications you can blog from your smartphones and tablets as well. You can setup your blogging page on free blogging websites like blogger[dot]com, WordPress[dot]com, blogspot[dot]in, etc.. Or if you have a little bit of money you can also self host your page. I would recommend to start with the free service and later upgrade to your own domain once you gain some momentum. You can blog about anything but you would probably want to blog about subjects that you are interested in, because that will make it more enjoyable and easy as you have to do a lot of content writing yourself. You can also blog about something that you don’t understand or subjects that you don’t have expertise on, in that case you can just outsource content from websites like freelance[dot]com, elance[dot]com and many other outsourcing websites where you can get people to write content for you and with that you can put 100% of your efforts into marketing. 
A blog has two sides, the publishing side and the marketing side. The beauty of this model is that if you have setup your blog correctly, which means you not only have a blog viewing content but you also have an opt-in mechanism through which you collect email addresses, get twitter followers and facebook likes or some way to build a subscriber base. In this way every post you publish and every little piece of marketing you do adds into the funnel which builds up your subscriber base. 
I am not saying these are easy ideas because blogging is very difficult thing to start with, but if you really want it and you are going to put your time and effort into it, you can really achieve it. All you need to do is work the flow, hustle and put your blog on all platforms, interact with people, comment on others blog, share your views and you could start up a successful blog where you can sell products or do advertising or you can do premium content. There are many ways to monetize a successful blog and if you think you can do it, just jump in. Start your blog, start publishing content and then let it evolve from there. 
SUCCESS MANTRA : write your own articles at initial stage – outsource content and concentrate on marketing once you gain momentum.

 

2)  BUY AND SELL :
                     The next easy to start business idea is the basic element of any business, buying and selling. It is best if you have good knowledge about a certain product. Eg: if you have a strong interest in watches you can shop around, look for antique shops or place where you can get watches at low price . Buy watches that you believe will sell fast and where you can make a profit by reselling them. You can buy and sell anything and any product that you can think of. Just make sure you understand or develop the understanding of the product, because you will have to buy and sell at specific prices to make a profit. This is a business that you can start from home specially when you have a Internet connection. You can go to websites like ebay where in you can buy products at cheap rates and relist them. I know this friend of mine who buys the products at very low bidding price on eBay, relist the same and give them more exposure and make profit by reselling the product at higher price. (this concept mostly work for products under bidding category ). 
Buying and selling is the basis of any business. So if you can master this art you can basically do any business and with the introduction of many free listing websites buying and selling was never this easy. 
Detailed article on online selling techniques and tools will be covered in future article very soon. 
SUCCESS MANTRA : buy in bulk  –  sell individually.

 

3) TRAINING AND CONSULTANCY :
              Next business option is training and consultancy, for this business idea you need to have a skill or expertise in a certain area / field where people are ready to pay to be taught or consulted on. for example if you are  really good in programming you could go into consulting on programming or if you are a good graphic designer you can train people on that. Many companies hire freelance trainers and consultants to get their employees trained on some language, software, etc.., for this business to work you should be interested in the product and you should be passionate about it. Always try to keep yourself updated when it comes to product knowledge. 
Once you are passionate about your skills then you can apply that and sell it as a product and make it a successful business opportunity. The best thing about freelance training and consultancy is you can also outsource the work that you are bringing into other people which makes it a scalable business. Outsourcing your work gives you more time and helps increase the number of clients you handle on a daily basis. So if you are good at something don’t wait, this is your opportunity. 
SUCCESS MANTRA   : keep learning  –  keep earning.

 

4) CRAFTS BUSINESS :
                 This business idea suits you best if you have some creative skills like making cards, sketching, drawing, etc.. 
Once again internet and free product listing websites will be the  tools  for this business, plus emergence of websites like thesouledstore[dot]com and inkfruit[dot]com makes it even easier, it enhances your chance of making it big. You can submit your designs to these websites and if it gets selected you can earn a lot of money and experience. One can also take part in exhibitions and expo shows. If you have some money you can book your own stalls in a famous exhibition which can become a launching pad for your business. With the help of technology and graphic designing softwares you can become more creative and competitive, you can imprint your designs on products like t-shirts, mugs and various other merchandises. Chumbak[dot]com is a great example of this business model. 
You can scale up your crafts business by exporting your products, as Indian handicraft products are always in demand in western countries. Outsourcing can be applied in this business idea as well. So if you just want to concentrate on the marketing, branding and selling part, you can always hire people who can help you with the designing. So go ahead dream ! and show your creativity to the world. 
SUCCESS MANTRA  : be creative  –  be unique.

 

5) COOKING AND CATERING SERVICES  :
              If you love cooking, you can easily start a small scale business from the comfort of your home itself. Might be you can start providing office lunch box service or make some special dish and sell them. These services are becoming more and more popular not only in big cities but it’s showing a good sign of progress in tier 2 cities as well. You can take help of social media services like Facebook and Twitter to advertise  your service and engage with people. Use your friend circle to get your business started and get some word of mouth publicity as well. 
   If you are confident enough, you can also launch your website and package your dishes to give it a professional image. You can also work with some catering services as a freelance cook. Call me a feminist but females have an upper hand when it comes to making food. So it is a good business idea for housewives who want to work in their free time. Identify the market and target area, prepare your best dish and you are ready to go. 
SUCCESS MANTRA  : the shortest way to a customers heart goes through his stomach.

There are many small business ideas which can be started with low investment. Choose a business idea which suits best based on your timing, choice and based on how much you want to earn.

Are there any low-cost small business ideas you are thinking about? What hurdles are you facing? If you are already running one, how did you get started? Would be great to hear your story in the comments below.

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