Starting a business is tough, it’s a long hard slog, and statistically, you’re destined to fail. But getting a business off the ground is only a problem you’ll face if you can come up with a business idea to begin with. I ran my own company for about two years, but it took us three weeks and a lot of ‘meetings’ at pubs to eventually come up with something we wanted to do.
Whether you want to make some money on the side, run something when the kids are at school or create the next Facebook, here’s a humongous list of business ideas. To make things a little easier on the eye, I’ve broken the list down by industry/area, feel free to scroll through the lot or skip as you please.
Domestic & household service business ideas
Domestic service businesses are great, they’re easy to setup, cost practically no money, and you get out what you put in.
1. Cleaning company
Probably widely regarded as the most straightforward business to make money from. Get Microsoft Publisher, print off some flyers and put them up in local shop windows and drop them in letterboxes nearby. The costs are minimal, just your cleaning supplies and the ink for your printer. Easy to scale too. Check out our recent interview with the founders of Homejoy, a multimillion dollar cleaning company. (Update: Homejoy unfortunately went out of business between funding rounds and was acquired in a small deal.)
2. Laundry service
Go to big apartment blocks and flyer them. A lot of flats in built up areas don’t have washing machines. You can also partner with laundrettes to offer their existing customer base a ‘delivery option’, simple!
3. Carpet cleaning
Same as above, although a little more expensive as decent carpet cleaning equipment can be pricey, but with that comes a higher barrier to entry so you can charge more.
4. Window cleaning
You get the gist now, print flyers and target your local community. Everybody has windows unless they’re in prison.
5. Pool cleaning
Only do this is you know what you’re doing, you don’t want to be responsible for a swimming pool turning green. Contrary to popular opinion, you don’t have to be 21 and well-built to do this job.
6. House sitting
Pretty awesome job if you ask me, get paid to hang out in a mansion while the owners are on holiday… a fully stocked fridge and a king-size bed, happy days! Now, back in the real world… there’s also a decent market for waiting for deliveries when people are at work. As for how to market, see all the above.
7. Catering company
If you love cooking and can handle catering for the masses, a catering company could be an excellent idea. You can work from home and start small catering for buffets with sandwiches and the such, then scale up to hog roasts. Be careful with this one and make sure you have all the required licenses like a food hygiene certificate.
8. Personal chef
Basically catering without the masses. The wealthy people that live among us are partial to a person chef, somebody that’s just on hand to cook for them morning noon and night. Think catering + house sitting, same rules apply for licenses.
9. Childcare
The perfect business for stay at home parents. If you really love looking after children, then look after other people’s kids while yours are at school. You can become a registered childminder, or even open a day care centre.
10. Painter/Decorator
Take everything I said for a cleaning company, change the designs, job done. You may also need some form of insurance.
11. Gardening company
I worked for a small gardening company when I was younger, it’s great to work outdoors (yes, even in England with all the rain). The great thing about gardening is the results speak for themselves, start working for a neighbour and work your way up to an empire.
