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While there is nothing wrong with it, working a 9-5 just isn’t for everyone. Some people prefer the draw of being their own boss and setting their own hours. Both paths are reasonable, valid, and good paths to wealth. But, today we will be focusing on the entrepreneurs.
Thanks to the internet and its wealth of online resources, starting your own business has never been easier. All across the internet and the world are niches to fill and customers to reach. At the same time, marketing channels are more wide open than they have ever been before. If you are willing to reach and work for it, the opportunities are there for you to grab. So, in this article, we will be discussing the 5 Best Online Businesses that you can start in 2022.
1. Social Media Management
Having well made, engaging social media accounts and content is a must for businesses today. A strong social media presence can help find customers, drive sales, and expand the business’s brand. Unfortunately, most business owners either 1. Do not have time to handle their social media presence or 2. Do not know how to create good social media content (and sometimes, it is a combination of both). And that is where you come in.
Now let’s talk about how to start your social media management business:
Step 1: Build Your Portfolio
It is up to you to show and prove to potential clients that you can create engaging social media content and grow their online following. The best way to do this is to create Twitter, Instagram, and/or Facebook accounts and start posting and growing. These become your basic portfolio to show to clients and the better posts you have and the more followers that you gain, the better it looks to prospective clients.
Step 2: Find Clients
This can be the easiest or the hardest step, depending on how good you are at selling yourself. One of the easier ways to find clients is to create accounts on freelancing sites such as UpWork, Freelancer, or Fiverr. Here you can directly connect with businesses who are looking for social media help and they are, typically, willing to pay upfront.
Another common option is to DM and email companies to offer your services. The key here is to provide value in your email. Common value-adds are offering to do a free social media check-up or offering a short, free trial to prove that you can create content that fits their niche.
Step 3: Execute, Scale, and Repeat
Now that you have found a paying client, you have to keep that money coming in. Keep working with that client, find more clients to increase your income, and keep expanding your portfolio. If you find enough clients, you can replace your 9-5 and potentially hire more people to expand your business.
2. Dropshipping
Dropshipping has been gaining popularity in recent years and it can be highly profitable with little work on your part. If you haven’t heard of dropshipping, in short, dropshipping is when you sell someone else’s product for a premium. You never hold any inventory, instead, you list the item on your site, the customer buys it from you, then you purchase the item from the original seller, and tell them to ship it straight to the customer.
So, how do you get started dropshipping?
Step 1: Source Your Product
All good stores start with a good product. There are hundreds to thousands of great sites made to help you find good and profitable dropshipping products.
Step 2: Create Your Store
The next step is to pick a hosting site. Popular sites for dropshipping include Shopify, Squarespace, and Bluehost to create your own website and store. But, you can also use established marketplaces such as Ebay and Amazon as well.
Step 3: Advertise
The last step to run a successful dropshipping store is to advertise and market. No one will buy anything from your store, so it is very important to get your name out there. Social media marketing on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter, and Youtube can put your name and product in front of thousands of eyes and lead to a very high conversion rate.
3. Create and Sell Your Own Product
If you are a creative person, creating and selling your own product can be extremely easy to get started. Thanks to new digital tools, it is easier than ever to get your arts and products in front of and in the hands of thousands of people. Whether you are good at designing clothes, make great print art, know how to make unique handmade goods, or anything else, you can find a market for it!
So, let’s talk about how you can get your art ready to sell:
Step 1: Decide What To Sell
Like we mentioned earlier, there is a market for most any kind of art. Decide what you are best at, and are comfortable selling, and can make a lot of quickly. The more unique it is, the better!
Step 2: Create Your Store
Of course the same options are available as with the dropshipping stores, but there are other great options for art stores. The most popular options for art sellers are Etsy and RedBubble (), depending on what type of product you plan to sell. As another tip, if you are planning to sell clothing or household items, we recommend Printful. Printful has a long list of integrations that gives you several different websites to choose from to build your store.
Step 3: Marketing
If you are selling your own product, the good news is, you can market and find customers for free! Create social media profiles and post your creations on there. There are many alive, and thriving, communities online where you can promote yourself and your store.
4. Create A Subscription Box
The key to any good business is recurring revenue. Getting customers to come back week after week, month after month, and year after year can be very challenging. But, if you pick the right business model, recurring revenue will not be an issue.
In recent years, subscription boxes have been becoming more and more popular. With this business model, customers pay a monthly fee, or subscription, to keep receiving their box every month, guaranteeing you recurring income.
Step 1: Decide Your Niche
There are thousands of communities out there that you can tap into. Some popular examples are:
- TV shows
- Movies
- Comics
- Books
- Food
Just pick one that interests you and you can begin!
Step 2: Source Your Products
This is very similar to dropshipping, in the sense that there are many places to source products and online resources dedicated to helping you begin. Local stores, wholesalers, and online suppliers are great places to start looking.
Step 3: Marketing
Once again, social media marketing is most likely your best play here. One of the most effective strategies is to reach out to large influencers in the industry, send them a free box, and have them open it and promote it for you.
5. Become a Consultant
Last one on this list is becoming a consultant. If you have experience with growing business marketing, IT, anything tech related, or any other in demand skill, companies and businesses will pay you to lend your expertise and teach their employees.
Step 1: Pick a Niche
Whether you are a business guru or a tech specialist, decide how you will describe yourself to clients. The more specialized that you can make this the better. For example, instead of “business coach”, maybe you are a “Start-Up Guru – Specializing In Helping Start-Ups FInd Customers and Get On The Right Financial Footing”.
Step 2: Find Clients
Next up is to find clients. Most likely, the best way to find clients is on LinkedIn. Here you can find and be found by businesses that could use your help. Create a professional profile, list your experience, and message potential clients.
Step 3: Repeat and Scale
Once again, the only thing to do here is find more clients and keep growing. Finding that first client is a great start, but you will need more to continue generating income and profits.
Conclusion
And that is our list of the 5 Best Online Businesses to Start in 2022! Have you had any success with any of these ideas? Or do you have another one that you would add to the list? Let us know down in the comments below!