100+ Small Business Ideas for Women [Make Your First $10K Online]

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Marianne was bored at work so she quickly went to Google to look up small business ideas for women.

You see Marianne knew fully well that she was made for so much more than a corporate job.

Ever since she was in Elementary school Marianne dreamt of running her own business.

The biggest problem that she faced is not knowing what kind of business to start.

Over 50 years ago there were not many options when it came to starting a low-cost business.

However, with the invention of the Internet, there are so many options available in a variety of categories.

If you are like Marianne let me know if any of these sound familiar.

1. You are constantly bombarded with amazing ideas every week
2. It would be nice if you had a business partner to get started with you
3. A business coach to show you the way is one thing you crave
4. The inability to take action is the one thing holding you back
5. You have $10,000 or less available to start a business

If only there was a way to find a resource that acts as a bridge to help you on your business journey.

In this post, you’ll find an amazing list of business ideas that you can use to get started right away.

You’ll also learn what you need to do to find your first paying customer or client.

Do You Need a Business Plan?

For many years I was led to believe that my attempts at starting and running a business failed because I didn’t have a business plan.

The folks at Dragon’s Den, Shark Tank and The Profit will cringe when they read my next sentence.

You actually don’t need a business plan to start a business.

There, I said it. Haha!

This is especially true if you are not quite sure what exactly you want to do.

It is also true if you are not looking for outside investors or a loan to get started.

The truth is that you can start working with clients right away if you have a system in place.

If you are offering software as a service like Todoist or ClickUp then you would need a business plan.

So, depending on your business model and the funding required to get the business off the ground you may need a business plan.

Maybe you just want to be super organised and put everything down in writing.

I have a blog business plan resource that you can use to do just that.

How to Fund Your Business

Depending on where you live in the world, there are several ways to get funding for your business idea.

Funding for your business also depends on the type of business you want to start.

Here are some questions you’ll need to consider.

1. What’s your business model?
2. How do you plan to get your first 5 customers?
3. Who will you be selling to? (B2B, B2C)
4. What equipment is needed to run your business?
5. Where will you conduct your business? (online or offline)
6. How will you process transactions?
7. What does the customer experience look like?

A person running an e-commerce shop will need a different set of business tools compared to a coach or consultant.

Spend some time carefully considering the type of business you want to run in order to figure out the funding.

If you have no idea what you need to get started then there may be ways that I can help.

This 5-day start your business challenge may be just the thing you need.

Your business can be funded by family, friends, a bank loan, a business grant or using an overdraft or credit card.

N.B. I’m not a qualified financial consultant so it’s important for you to get the right financial advice on how to fund your business responsibly.

Who is Your Customer?

A few years ago when I got started in business I had no idea how important this is for entrepreneurs.

Don’t worry if you have no idea who your ideal client avatar is right now.

The most important thing is realising that you’ll need to get clear on this person in order to scale.

Promoting your business is vital to getting clients to sign up with you.

However, if your message is not clear then your potential customers will not take action.

Here are a few things you’ll need to know about your audience.

1. Age range
2. Gender
3. Where do they live? (country, city)
4. Do they live in a house or an apartment?
5. Their neighbourhood, what does it look like?
6. What are their daily, weekly, monthly or annual challenges?
7. Outline their biggest needs?
8. The kind of problems they are trying to solve personally, financially
9. Their deepest desires and dreams for them and their family, what are they?
10. In terms of their biggest fears, what are they? (not spiders, emotional ones?)
11. Do you get their short-term and long-term goals?
12. Any idea of their good and bad habits?
13. What gets them excited?
14. The stuff that annoys them, what are they?
15. Their passion projects, what are they?
16. Where do they spend the most time online?
17. List the kind of items they spend their money on when they get paid?
18. What type of podcasts do they listen to?
19. Which software and/or apps do they use?

The secret to ensuring that your marketing message resonates with your potential clients is by understanding them.

You’ll also need to use the language that they use when expressing themselves.

Your Customer Journey

Earlier on in this resource, I asked you what your customer experience looks like.

There are actually two aspects to your customer’s experience.

The first is how they felt after interacting with your brand or business on social media platforms which relates to your brand messaging.

On the other hand, there’s the journey of how they become a paying customer and a repeat buyer.

For example, with a hairdressing service, it could be simply placing flyers in letterboxes, a potential customer shows up and gets their hair done.

However, for a business that offers software as a service like Booking.com the experience is very different.

Here’s an image of a typical buyer’s journey for digital businesses.

What may look pretty simple at first may actually be a lot more complicated.

There are 5 stages to the buyer’s journey from a marketing or promotional perspective.

Your audience is at different stages of this journey all at the same time.

So, you’ll need to cater to everyone by ensuring that you have these 5 stages in place.

How to Find a Skill

If you’re like me and you don’t want to transfer your corporate skill into your own business then listen up.

I worked for 18+ years in the corporate world as a salesperson. My last role was as an Account Executive.

However, for most of my corporate life, I was very interested in working as a marketer.

You are probably thinking but isn’t that the same? Lol!!

Let’s say it’s one coin but two different sides. If you want to understand the difference check out marketing vs sales here.

It means that I needed to develop the marketing side of my abilities and niche down to doing an area I enjoyed.

The best way to develop this new skill is by learning and implementing what you learn.

I suggest that you do the same.

If your business requires you to have a certification before practising then work on getting certified.

Here are 5 places where you can find online courses available at affordable prices.

• Udemy
• Coursera
• Skillshare
• Discover by Teachable
• Domestika

As you can see the options to grab a skill are endless for anyone wanting to explore their abilities.

If there’s one thing you need to find as a business owner it’s this.

Discover those skills to keep your happiness levels at an all-time high.

You may decide to settle initially but only offer the skills that you thoroughly enjoy.

100+ Small Business Ideas for Women

Now that you have some background coaching on the things you need to know before starting a business.

Let’s look at a few small business ideas for women.

Quick Start Business Ideas for Women

Getting started in business doesn’t need to be difficult.

Here are 8 business ideas you can start over a weekend.

1. Rent a room
2. Put your car on Turo for rent
3. Offer an experience or tour on Airbnb
4. Become a celebrity double
5. Rent your bike
6. Sign up to be a delivery driver
7. Host students
8. Rent out your camera

In these examples, you can take something that you already have and rent it out with very little effort and investment on your path.

If you would like to sign up to work as a celebrity double go here.

Rent a Room

Check out the look, feel and price of other local rooms in your area. Declutter other shared areas of your home.

Spruce up the room by adding a few design enhancements like painting, hanging new curtains, adding blinds, replacing old carpets and adding lamps.

Get professional photos of the room and list it for rent.

Renting a bike, camera or car

Check out other listings of similar items. Take a note of what the reviews are on these items, especially what people disliked.

Get the items cleaned and take professional photos of them.

Write eye-catching descriptions for each item and add them to the respective listing.

Create your listing, add your content then go live.

Notice that there will be a little investment required to take professional photos and invest in car detailing (for the car).

Other People’s Property

Depending on your circumstances you may not have access to your own resources which means that you’ll need to get creative.

Here are 7 business ideas using other people’s property

1. Buy abandoned storage units and sell off items
2. Purchase high value, low cost items at garage sales
3. Buy liquidation pallets and sell off items
4. Sublet a room
5. Purchase abandoned properties and flip them
6. Start selling on Amazon as an FBA seller
7. Purchase property for no money down and rent it out

It will take time for you to develop a knack for spotting items that will sell for a higher price.

However, you’ll get better and better over time.

How to Buy Liquidation Pallets + Abandoned Storage Units

Head over to Google and enter “abandoned storage units” or “liquidation pallets”.

Take a look at the results and a more careful look at the items for sale.

If you’re not sure if the items will be profitable, list them for sale on the Facebook marketplace or other local listings.

Remember to calculate the cost of shipping those goods locally and nationally.

Based on the interest/feedback you can decide whether these items are sellable or not.

Dropshipping Business Ideas for Women

As someone who did drop shipping or online retail for a while, I can tell you that it can be quite easy to get started.

There are 2-3 ways to get started in dropshipping.

1. Start a clothing store on Shopify selling items from popular brands
2. Develop a print on demand store on Shopify (Printful)
3. Develop your own store on WordPress (using the Woocommerce plugin), sourcing goods from top brands

This will require you to learn the skill over time but you can get started at a pretty low cost.

How to Start Dropshipping Online

Make a monthly budget of how much you’re willing to invest in your dropshipping business.

Even though you will not be purchasing inventory there are other ancillary costs that you’ll need to take into account.

For example, you’ll need to run Facebook Ads or Google Ads to your store in order to get your first set of buyers.

Decide what kind of goods you would like to sell and who is your audience.

Choose a name for your shop and write a tagline from your mission statement. For example, you may only want to sell baby clothes made from ethical cotton.

Find 1-5 suppliers of these items and check them out thoroughly. Order a few test products to gauge the quality and shipping times.

Here are 6 to choose from.

• Wholesale2B
• AliExpress
• Worldwide Brands
• Doba
• SaleHoo
• Wholesale Central

Choose a dropping platform and eCommerce platform where you can process orders and sell goods.

Five of the most popular eCommerce platforms include WooCommerce, Shopify, BigCommerce, GrooveKart and CommerceHQ.

The two popular dropshipping platforms include Dropified and Oberlo (Shopify only). These platforms help you to automate your dropshipping businesses at scale when you need order fulfilment.

Sign up with 2-3 of the wholesalers and start listing their items for sale in your store manually or with the help of Dropified or Oberlo.

Run Ads to the items for 1-3 months via a Facebook page or social media accounts and check the feedback.

Creating Your Own Products for Sale

If you are a creative person, you may get more satisfaction from developing your own line of products.

Here are 5 things you can sell

1. Create your own candle brand
2. Develop your own line of beauty products
3. Create printables that you can sell on Etsy
4. Design a brand new clothing line to fill a gap
5. Develop a unique food item like gluten-free cookies
6. Create a vegan soap brand or other organic products

This option will require you to conduct some market research so that your product fills a need.

How to Start a Candle Business

One of the best business ideas ever is starting a candle making business.

You see, like beauty products, selling candles are like gifts that keep giving.

First, you’ll need to decide on what is unique about your candle brand. This is important in helping you to develop unique selling propositions (USPs) for your candles.

Based on your USPs, develop your first batch of candles and take high-quality photos of your candles.

Set up your own online store or candle shop and upload photos of your candle creations.

Give them out as gifts over the Xmas holidays (be sure to include a voucher where they can get a 10% discount on their next purchase).😉

Get feedback from your receivers and add those as testimonials to your store.

Feel free to run Ads to your store for the first 1-3 months.

Virtual Assistant Business Ideas for Women

Many businesses need help to grow their business or just to outsource overwhelming tasks.

Here are 12 ways you can help an existing business.

1. Graphic design
2. Business manager
3. Operations assistant
4. Marketing coordinator
5. Bookkeeper
6. Social media manager
7. Pinterest manager
8. Web developer
9. Web designer
10. Facebook Ads manager
11. Freelance writer
12. Proofreading
13. Travel agent
14. Branding strategist

As I mentioned previously, you may need to develop the required skill before offering it as a service.

Be sure to check out the 5 platforms that I mentioned previously where you can learn a new skill at an affordable price.

How to Become a Virtual Assistant (VA)

The path to becoming a virtual assistant (VA) is simple but it requires a certain level of confidence to pull it off.

I personally used this method to make my first $10,000 online in less than 12 months.

You’ll need to decide what type of services you’ll like to offer and develop a brand or name for your business.

Create branding (including a logo) for your new business and make a list of the packages you’ll like to offer.

If you are not quite sure what skills you’d like to offer as a VA, head over to Udemy and learn a skill that excites you.

When you’re happy with your business name, branding and packages that you’ll like to offer.

Develop a portfolio that has an about you section, who you work with, the services you offer and how someone can contact you.

Head over to this Facebook group and take part in Swap it Sunday to get your first 2-3 testimonials.

You’ll need a little extra money to put a system in place to onboard your clients.

4 Places to Find VA Jobs

Well, if you are one of those people like me looking to achieve time and freedom in your daily life.

Then I’ll let you know 4 places where you can find virtual assistant jobs.

1. Facebook groups
2. Instagram Feed and Stories
3. Online Job Boards
4. Company websites

If you need more details about those 4 places I created a resource earlier this year that went into a lot of detail.

In fact, that resource talks about how to start a service business and find clients fast.

There are even two courses included in that resource if you need coaching and/or a support group to help you.

The most difficult part of becoming a freelancer is knowing what services you want to offer clients vs your skills.

Head over here to learn how to become a freelancer and make your first $10K online.

Become a Coach

You may not be that kind of hands-on person that assists small businesses with tasks.

However, you may be able to offer solid, practical advice as a coach to help entrepreneurs become unstuck.

Here are 10 types of coaches the market needs.

1. Personal development coach
2. Life coach
3. Money mindset coach
4. Financial management coach
5. Business strategy coach
6. Marketing strategy coach
7. Business operations coach
8. Parenting coach
9. Fitness coach
10. Nutrition coach

Many coaching programs will require you to become a certified coach before you can start practising.

Do your research to see what you need to do and follow the right protocols.

Book in a one hour call with me to pick my brain on how I made my first $10,000 online and learn how you can too.

Trades Person Business Ideas for Women

One of the areas that have a great need is that of tradespeople.

Of course, you’ll need to work under someone as an apprentice before setting up your own shop.

Here are 16 skills you can learn to offer your own trade.

1. Plumber
2. Electrician
3. Mechanic
4. Pest control
5. Locksmith
6. Jeweller
7. Shoemaker
8. Hatmaker
9. Welder
10. Tanner
11. Tiler
12. Bricklayer
13. Builder
14. Painter
15. Seamstress
16. Tailor

The ability to do any of these is quite possible especially if it is something that you enjoy doing every day of the week.

Consulting Business Ideas for Women

If you’ve worked as a vice president or you’ve been part of the C-suite it’s possible for you to offer advice to other businesses in the form of consultancy.

This can be achieved by becoming a fractional C-level executive for 6 and 7-figure businesses.

Here are 5 examples of titles in high demand.

1. CMO
2. COO
3. CEO
4. Director of Sales
5. CFO

At first, it may seem impossible that you can offer help to any business for just 1-5 hours a month.

One example where you can find a list of potential clients include a place called Founders Gigs.

You can start working as a Fractional C-level executive by offering your services from as little as 5-10 hours a month.

The Benefits of Fractional C-level Executives

Any small business owner will tell you that in the first few years of business it’s difficult to allocate a budget to hire the best talent on the team.

This is why having a Fractional CEO, CFO, COO or CMO on the team will give their business the boost they need.

Without the need to pay them 6-figure salaries.

For the C-level executive, they get the experience of taking a small business to new levels of success.

As you can see this is a win-win scenario for all the parties involved with this arrangement.

Working with Animals

If you enjoy working with animals then there are several ways that you can use this skill to generate an income.

Here are 8 ways that you can do so.

1. Dog walking
2. Pet sitter
3. Dog breeder
4. Pet grooming
5. Open a petting zoo
6. Dog trainer
7. Cattle farmer
8. Beekeeper

In each of these examples, you just need one client or animal to get started.

Of course, if you already have land to start a farm it would be a lot easier to become a cattle farmer. 

You can also use that land to start a petting zoo especially if you’re concerned about animal rights.

Neighbourhood Business Ideas for Women

If you are the type of person who prefers to build lasting relationships with people in your community then running a local business may be just what you need.

Here are 8 business types you can do locally.

1. Babysitter
2. Lemonade stand or local shop
3. Baking bread for neighbours
4. After school club
5. Local handy person (cutting lawns, fixing things)
6. Grow organic food for sale
7. Develop a plant nursery
8. Housecleaner
9. Food truck
10. Professional photographer
11. Event planning (birthday party)
12. Personal trainer

Many of these ideas require very little capital to get started as they are mainly built on trust from your local community.

How to Start a Viable Neighbourhood Business

While the list of 12 business ideas may seem overwhelming at first, it’s important to remember that doing some market research help you gain success quickly.

You have the advantage of knowing what your community needs through observation and common sense.

It may not be immediately obvious but be sure to ask your friends and neighbours the following question.

“If you can wave a magic wand, what’s the one thing you will fix about our neighbourhood.”

The answers might surprise you.

After asking around you will have a shortlist of 3-5 items which you’ll be able to turn from a business idea into a profitable business that fills a need.

Investment Business Ideas for Women

Are you one of the lucky people to have access to $20,000, $50,000 or even $100,000 but you want to get that money working for you?

A good way to increase your income passively is through investments.

While investing has risks it also can produce great rewards over the long term. If you don’t believe me, look at Warren Buffet.

Here are 6 business ideas for investors.

1. Peer to peer lending
2. Trading on Forex
3. Buying stocks
4. Investing in Cryptocurrency
5. Purchase NFTs
6. Property investor

It is important to spread your funds across several areas rather than placing all your eggs in one basket.

Warning: I’m not a qualified financial advisor at all so investing can put your money at risk. It’s important to get the best advice possible before making any investment decisions.

Digital Business

Developing a digital business that generates passive revenue after 3-5 years takes a lot of time, energy and patience.

However, it is totally doable if you are willing to wait to experience these rewards.

Here are 7 online business ideas that you can create to generate a passive income over time.

1. Blogger (you can buy an existing blog)
2. IG Influencer or social media influencer
3. Affiliate marketing
4. YouTuber
5. Course creator
6. Email marketer
7. Best selling author

The key thread that connects each of these businesses is the fact that you’ll need to develop a community or a following of raving fans.

N.B. Growing a YouTube channel requires hard work and perseverance for 1-2 years. However, it’s a very lucrative business for those who really want it.

How to Start a Blog in 10 Days or Less

Starting a blog can be a simple process depending on the platform you’ll like to use for your blog.

The platforms available include the following.

1. Squarespace
2. WordPress.org (self-hosted)
3. Wix
4. WordPress.com
5. Weebly (owned by Square)

If you are not a tech-savvy person you may want to stay away from WordPress.org for now.

When you are ready to make your blog more professional consider using a platform like WordPress.org.

I’ve created a free course on how to start a blog in 10 days here.

Feel free to dive in and find out if blogging is for you.

The Arts

Now that we’re on a home stretch to showcase business ideas in the creative space, it’s important to remember the artists among us.

Here are 13 business ideas that you can do with your creative talents.

1. Singing
2. Songwriting
3. DJing
4. Commissioned art
5. Food photography
6. Catering
7. Cake decorating
8. Chef
9. Interior design
10. Decluttering
11. Meal planning
12. Home renovating
13. Wedding planner

It’s amazing how many small business ideas for women exist in today’s economy. Yet it is difficult for the average person to choose one of them from this huge list.

I can tell you from experience that finding the perfect business idea that’ll suit your personality can be very difficult but doable.

How to Become a Food Photographer

I mentioned earlier that the most profitable business idea when it comes to blogging is starting a food blog.

What you need to know if you plan to become a food blogger is this…

The most successful food blogs are the ones that have drop-dead gorgeous food photography.

This is one of the things I learned on my journey over the last few years.

You’ll be happy to hear that even though you don’t consider yourself great at food photography there’s help available.

Basically, there are two options as follows.

1. You can take a food photography course
2. There’s a secret marketplace where you can hire food photographers

Depending on how busy you are with blogging will determine the best option for you.

If you just want to become a food photographer for bloggers only then check out this version of the course.

Summary

Now that you have over 100 small business ideas for women that you can choose from you’ll face another problem.

You’ll start suffering from analysis paralysis. Lol!!🤣

If you’re a multi-passionate entrepreneur like me it will be more difficult to choose and implement the right business idea.

My advice is to start with the one that gives you the quickest return on investment.

Hint: Whatever you do, don’t start with blogging unless you are going into the food or parenting niche. Check out the most profitable niche blogs here.

Do you need help with starting your business? Book in a one hour call with me to gain clarity in your business.

Of all the small business ideas for women that I shared, the one that gets you paid in 30-60 days is becoming a VA.

Maybe you want to invest in the one that gives you passive income in the long run. So, becoming an influencer on YouTube can take 3-5 years to see results but you’ll get passive income for years to come.

If you need resources to help you become a VA fast check out how to start a service business.

Over to you, do you have any small business ideas for women?

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My journey as an entrepreneur has been long because I didn’t have good resources or coaching available 20 years ago.

I started this blog in 2017 because I had a burden on my heart to reduce women illiteracy globally.

Because this is a huge undertaking I have decided to help 1,000 women over the next 10 years to become wildly successful in their online business through simplified marketing strategies.

That way we can build a strong business network of women who can donate 1% of their profit and together we can help reduce women’s illiteracy worldwide.

Would you like to be part of this movement? Shoot me an email using alvern (at) successunscrambled (dot) com.