It’s no secret that some of the world’s most influential businesses are run and managed by women. From makeup and skincare brands like Glossier and Proactiv to tech and data companies like Bumble and CreditKarma, successful women everywhere have shown other women who are just starting that it is possible to achieve their dreams!
However, you might not want to start a multi-million dollar business that will outlive you when you’re gone. Instead, you might want to create a small business that provides you with a comfortable lifestyle or helps you pay bills every month.
No matter your reason, starting a small business can be challenging if you don’t know what to do and where to start. Our guide will walk you through 17 of the best small business ideas for women, some of which allow you to work from the comfort of your home! We’ll take you through business ideas that you can do online, on the side, and if you’re a student.
Now, let’s take a closer look.
Table of Contents
Online Small Business Ideas for Women
Starting a small business from scratch can be challenging, but thankfully, the wonders of the internet allow you to kickstart several businesses online from the comfort of your home. Here is a list of five small businesses you can start online.
Blogging
If you’re a talented writer who wants to make money without leaving the house, blogging is the perfect place to get started. You need to create a blog on a free platform and start writing about topics that interest you! One of the best things about blogging is that you needn’t worry about finding a specific topic that you enjoy! You can write about anything you want without sticking to a single topic. For instance, if you enjoy writing about food and taking pictures of the food you make, you can start a recipe and food photography blog. Once you begin to gain enough readers, you can write sponsored product reviews that give you a portion of the revenue. You can take things a step further, add a YouTube channel to your blog, and monetize your advertisements. Blogging opens up multiple doors for you, and once you start, you’ll find that you cannot stop!
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is another excellent way to start a small business. It is a form of marketing where businesses pay you or your website a commission based on referrals from the traffic you generate. For instance, imagine you own a website dedicated to blogging, and a company selling baking gear like measuring cups and bowls wants to market a new range of products. You could write a post or make a video on your website talking about the latest products. Then, you could post an affiliate link in the description of your video or hyperlink the website in your blog post. When people click on the link you’ve posted, you are generating revenue for the company you’re working with. As a result, the company pays you a commission based on the number of sales and traffic you’ve generated for them.
Social Media Influencer
If blogging isn’t for you, maybe being a social media influencer might suit you better. Social media influencers are some of the most successful small business owners, and a considerable chunk of their work starts on their phones! Social media marketing is a form of affiliate marketing. Still, the only difference is that you market products or services by using social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or TikTok. If you want to become a successful social media influencer, it would be best to have a reasonably high number of followers so that you don’t have to worry about growing a following before starting to market different products.
Social Media Manager
Working as a social media manager is another great way to start a small business. If you are passionate about social media, you can write to companies and volunteer your services as their social media manager. Your job will include creating content, increasing the company’s social presence, and taking care of social media-related tasks.
Interior Designer
While being an interior designer might sound like a challenging job to do online, it’s one of the most convenient jobs you could do! As long as you have a computer and a little bit of creativity, you’re all set! Interior design is all about making the inside of a home look beautiful. If your home has two bedrooms, you can design them differently and take high-quality pictures to set up a design-related business. Interior designing your home allows you to show potential clients your capabilities as a designer. Once clients start to trust your vision, you can ask them for the blueprints for their homes and start designing!
Side Business Ideas For Ladies
Here is a list of four side business ideas for women with limited time or resources to run a business every day.
Food Business
Have you ever received a ton of compliments on your cooking and wanted to make money from it? Now is your chance. A food business is one of the quickest ways to earn extra cash. You get the opportunity to sell delicious food while also learning how to manage a business. You could start a food business by selling food at your church or the weekly flea market in your neighborhood or even cater small events for people in your family. While catering to small events, you can also start a few social media pages so that future clients know where to find you.
Pet Grooming
If you love animals, pet grooming lets you kill two birds with one stone. Pardon the awful animal-related pun, but pet grooming allows you to hang out with cute animals on the side of your day job while making money from the time you spend with them. Many people have shaggy dogs and cats that need regularly groomed but don’t have time to take them to a groomer. This is where you come in! Since grooming pets is something you’re doing on the side, you can pick clients based on convenient timings and grow your side business that way.
Yoga Instructor
People worldwide are trying to become fitter and more active, especially after spending most of the pandemic locked down at home. Since many people don’t like going to the gym or running, they prefer yoga because of its calm and relaxed nature. If you want to start a side business as a yoga instructor, you can join a fitness academy and teach yoga classes on the side whenever you are free. Alternatively, you could start teaching yoga online through Zoom or offer yoga teacher training cources at studio. Teaching people how to do yoga gives you the chance to interact with new people without having to leave your home! Once you get enough clients, you can turn your side business of teaching yoga into a full-time studio.
Vertical Gardening
Do you enjoy getting your hands dirty and making the most of your green thumb? If your answer was yes, then vertical gardening might just be what you need to start a business on the side. It’s a new form of landscaping that helps people build a garden on a wall with less space. When you begin vertical gardening, you can collaborate with architects, designers, and even software engineers to help your clients achieve the vertical garden of their dreams.
Businesses for ladies sitting at home
The pandemic affected people in multiple ways, but it gave women time to start businesses from home, thanks to all the free time. If you’re one of those women looking for business ideas to start from your home, the list below might help you get started.
Become a Career Counselor
To become a career counselor, all you need is a laptop and a schedule that allows you to speak to multiple students in a day. Career counselors give people of all ages and walks of life advice on what careers are best for them. You might know some high school or college students struggling to find direction about what job might suit them best, and therefore, you can give them advice that points them in the right direction. To help boost your earnings as a career counselor, you could develop a quiz or test to provide clients with some clarity about the field they will thrive in.
Become a Home Tutor
Have you always wanted to teach people but didn’t feel comfortable teaching a classroom full of students? Becoming a home tutor is the perfect way to find your footing as a teacher while still making money while working from home. One of the best things about tutoring people from home is that you can interact with students of all ages! No matter what subject you teach, you will always be able to find students who need a little extra help. If you aren’t comfortable with them coming into your home, you can always tutor students virtually.
Start a Bakery Business
Your oven might have to work overtime if you want to turn your baking hobby into a home-based business! Starting a bakery business is one of the wisest ways to invest your money and time from the comfort of your home. If you would like to start making money through baking, we highly recommend baking a specific type of food. By carving out a particular niche for yourself, you can sell more food and make money since people enjoy eating certain types of food that they cannot get elsewhere.
Become a Freelance Content Writer
Another excellent option for women who want to start working from home is freelance content writing. One of the best features of writing content is the number of topics and niches to choose from! You don’t have to restrict yourself to only one topic! Content writing offers you the chance to charge clients your own rate, and you can charge them by the number of words you write or per article. Overall, we highly recommend giving this type of career a shot.
Small business ideas for girl students
Our final category talks about ideas for girls who are students and looking to start small businesses.
Start a Service-based Business.
If you’re a student, an excellent small business idea is to start a service-based business! One of the best things about this type of business is that the options are endless. For instance, you could offer people graphic design, housekeeping, or even academic editing services! Once you get your name out there, you can charge higher rates and earn more money.
Try Drop Shipping.
Dropshipping is another excellent way to earn money as a student. If you aren’t familiar, dropshipping is a type of retail business where you, the seller, do not keep any stock of the product you’re selling on hand. Instead, you transfer whatever orders you get to your manufacturer, factory, or another retailer, who will send the product directly to your clients.
Teach, Mentor, or Tutor.
When you’re a student, there’s nothing better than passing on the knowledge you receive in a classroom every day to another student. If you’re a senior in high school or college senior, you can teach, mentor, or tutor young students a few times a week. Pick one or two subjects that you think are strengths, and teach!
Sell handmade goods.
The last suggestion we have for those of you that want to start small businesses is to sell handmade goods. As a student, you may not have an adequate amount of time to begin to a full-time business. Therefore, to dip your toes in the world of entrepreneurship, you could start selling handmade goods to family and friends, then slowly branch out into selling things at craft fairs or even on Etsy.
Summary
In this article, we walked you through a list of 17 options for women that want to start a small business. Starting a business on your own can feel scary, but sometimes, all you need is an idea, and you can do anything you want.
About Carson Derrow
