By John Sorento
But what business should you put up in 2020? Among all the possible businesses you can start today, what is likely to work and earn you profits?
Today, we will discuss the top five ideas for small businesses in 2020. By the end of this listicle, you will have a clear idea which businesses to start according to your risk appetite and skills.
Online Casino
Even if there are so many online casinos now, you should not be afraid to start one. There is a huge market out there. Each casino has a jurisdiction, which means they cannot service the entire world. What you have to do is to study which markets you can penetrate, and then build your online casino.
Here are the benefits of putting up an online casino:
- No hassle – you do not need to build your casinos from scratch.
- Game options – you can choose from thousands of games from various game developers.
- Easy to market – there is a wide audience for gaming online, especially since physical casinos are too far and too costly for the average gamer.
You do not need to be a technical expert to build one. Casinos today are white-labelled. What does this mean?
A white-label product refers to a product that is made by a manufacturer but branded according to your business name. In the online casino industry, you can ask a company to build you a casino, and then they can integrate games from various providers of your choice.
Once this online casino is ready, it is going to carry your brand name and make it look like as if you built it yourself. You do not even have to create your own games. You just need to apply for partnership with game developers like Netent, Microgaming, and BTG. If you get approved, you can integrate their games with your casino, and you will share the profits.
Dropshipping
Dropshipping is a business model where you sell someone else’s products. In this model, you post the products of a manufacturer on your website, and customers will buy them. Once a customer makes a purchase, that is the only time you order the item from the supplier, and the supplier will ship the item to the consumer.
This business model does not require you to keep an inventory. Here are the benefits of setting up a dropshipping store:
- No inventory required
- Small capital needed
- You do not have to ship
- Lots of products to choose from
- Highly profitable
In dropshipping, you post an item on your website and sell it at a higher price than what the supplier asks. On top of this, you charge your customer for shipping. The price difference between what the supplier’s price and your selling price is your profit.
Before you can start a dropshipping store, you have to choose what products to sell and what platform to use. Most products where the supplier agrees to this set-up are found in AliExpress. For the platform, the two most popular that are used are Shopify and WooCommerce.
You need a plan before you start dropshipping. You also need to take an online course to fully understand how it works. While the business is simple, there are technicalities that you have to consider, such as buying a domain name, how to choose a product that sells, and how you can use social media for marketing your store.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a process where you promote someone else’s products or services. In return, you get a commission if you make a sale.
In affiliate marketing, you need a channel where you can draw your audience, so you need either a website or a YouTube channel.
Here are the benefits of affiliate marketing:
- Small capital required
- No need to do customer service
- No need to create your own products
- Recurring commissions
- It is a passive income
Affiliate marketing begins with looking for a company that offers an affiliate program. You have to sign up to this affiliate program, and then you will get a special link, or what is called an affiliate link.
What you need to do is to draw people to click on this link. If they do, they will find themselves on the company’s website. If they make a purchase, the company will know that it was you that referred this customer, and they will pay you a commission.
The commission amount varies. Amazon offers at least 4%, while there are companies that offer as much as 50%. To earn more, you need to choose companies that offer high commissions, or companies that offer recurring commission. A recurring commission is usually offered in subscription-based products like software.
Many casinos offer affiliate commissions. This is why there are so many gambling review websites out there. You can do the same—find a partner, review casino games and offer free slots no downloads.
Use the demo version to attract potential gamers, and then send them to casinos that offer the games for real cash. If they register and make a deposit, you will get a commission.
Arts and Crafts
Another online business that you can build right now is arts and crafts. If you have a skill, you can build hand-made products and sell them online.
In this case, you do not have to build your own website. What you can do is to post your products on established marketing channels such as Amazon and Etsy. Both of these are marketplaces where you can display your products, and if somebody buys, you ship the item to the customer.
Here are the benefits of selling arts and crafts online:
- You have little competition – art requires skill, and only a few people can produce artistic, hand-made products.
- No website required – instead of creating your own and spending money for your website, all you have to do is to post your products on online marketplaces. You just need to register, and then only pay a fee if a product was sold.
- You price your own products – since you have little competition, you are free to price your products according to what you want. If you have a lot of competition, you will be forced to mark down your prices just so you can make a sale.
You do not have to limit yourself with arts and crafts. You can also sell retail on Amazon or other marketplaces. However, the retail business means you have to buy your inventory. In this case, you are better off with the dropshipping business model.
Drop Servicing
Drop servicing is the same as dropshipping. In this business, you do not sell someone’s products. What you sell are services.
Here are some examples:
- Writing
- Graphic design
- Video editing
- Web-building
- SEO
- Animation
Before you can start a business like this, you need to think about what kind of services you want to offer. These services must be things that you understand. You cannot offer to sell an app-making service if you do not know how this industry works.
Once you have selected the service you want to offer, you need to find freelancers who do it well. You need to know their prices and haggle so you have room for profit.
The downside to this is if the freelancer eventually finds out who your clients are—they may go straight to the client and offer their services for a low price. The trick here is to give your clients some bonuses that they cannot get from the freelancer, such as points or loyalty programs.
Again, we cannot stress enough that you must know the industry before you get into this. You cannot offer writing services and have it done by a freelance writer if you do not know how to gauge the quality of writing. You also need to know how to check if the work is plagiarised.
Start by offering small services that you understand. Take the time to understand how other industries work, and then add them one by one to your menu of offerings.
Summary
Before you start an online business, plan it accordingly. You need to list down the different types of software that you have to use, shop around for different providers, and decide which one can meet your needs.
If you can, test the software tools by availing the free trial that the developers offer. This is the only way you can test if the software can deliver, or if you need to upgrade and spend more money, so you can build a fully functional website for your business.
Better yet, take an online course first. Online courses can give you a clear business map—the teacher will save you a lot of time experimenting and making errors.
