In this write-up, we will explore ten businesses you can start with little or no money. These businesses or services that require little or no capital. They are not capital intensive. You don’t In most cases, they are businesses you can start if you have a mobile phone and access to the internet.
Sometimes, you may need to spend 50K, 500k, 20k, or 2M if you want to but you can choose not to spend at all or just 5k or 10k. Mind you this is based on what obtains in Nigeria.
What to know before choosing the right business to start with Little money
You will need to do a SWAT business analysis. This is a strategic business planning technique that identifies the potential strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of any business before venturing into the same.
This is crucial in choosing what is best in your given environment because not all types of business will succeed in a certain environment. Every business in any given environment has its peculiarity.
Nevertheless, these businesses are also applicable in the environment of USA, UK, Canada, Scotland Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt and other African Countries etc. However, some of these businesses may not be peculiar or may not work in some of the selected countries.
Businesses you can start with little money in Nigeria
Online tutor
One business you can easily set up with little or no capital is online tutoring. In Nigeria and other African countries, those that engage in this service are called lesson teacher
They may be looked down on in some of these countries, but you can make a whole lot of income from teaching online. Online tutoring as a business boomed in 2020 following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This has led to high demand for it.
Even while operating in Nigeria, you can target markets in the United state or Europe. It is a lot easier to get clients from these countries because they are used to this method of teaching and have the necessary facilities too. In this case, you may need a laptop, desktop computer or phone with access to the internet.
To do this, you can set up an advert account and run an advert on Google, Facebook, Tik Tok etc In setting up your account, you may have to set the sort of location you will prefer to have your customers from.
According to a survey Brookings Institute, a lot of students said they preferred online tutoring, you know, during the lockdown, they prefer there because there is no pressure on them and the distraction is less.
You can create a social media platform and make a description of your tutoring profession in your profile. More like, I offer online tutoring. And then you come in with a social media post, I offer online tutoring, you put your contact details on how people can get in touch with you, and simple, you’re in business, it’s not going to cost you a dime.
You can just show yourself tutoring somebody, be very business-like, you know, and then take a subject maybe mathematics, English or geography or history, and then just do like a 30-minute promo, put it on your social media profile. So that’s people see what you are doing.
You don’t have to put your price just tell people to contact me for details, it could cost you zero money to start. However, you make choose to run advert which could cost less than 30,000 naira.
Print on demand
Now, the second thing that people can do is print on demand. This business is massive and it’s so easy. You’ve got a lot of people, in China, in Europe and in some parts of Africa into this line of business.
You do printing jobs for people in this business. So you can set up a print on demand business. You offer print on demand services to people in your immediate community.
Again, the only expense you will need to make is to create a business website that looks very professional. You can get a business website for less than 20,000 naira. You reach out to corporate bodies online to inform them about this services that you provide.
This business thrives more during the festive season because people make a lot of printing in the process of packaging presents and gifts. Even corporate organisations need the services of their clients and customers.
You can go to printiful or printify,
They do a lot of printing business. You will not be doing a lot of work here because you only placed an order on this site they will make the printing and deliver it to your clients.
Elderly care provider
The third business you can do with little or no income is to become an elderly care provider. Elderly people often fall ill at old age and they have no family members to look after them.
In a country like Nigeria, the business is not properly structured, but you will be surprised at the extent of demand for this service. It’s so difficult to find elderly care, you know, so if you had to go to like Nigeria, Ghana, India, Bangladesh, you know, Pakistan, Cambodia, Nepal, it’s something that you can do.
Just even like, the same thing you do with online tutoring, you project yourself via social media, that you provide elderly care. So many middle-income families, upper-middle-income class families, and successful people will employ you to provide care for their parents.
Online travel consultant
The next business to do with little or no income is acting as a travel consultant So many people want to travel. A lot of them don’t know the basics of travelling, they don’t know how to get a visa, they don’t know how to get into like hotels, Airbnb etc.
This is something that you can study and know how to do. And it’s something that you can do. It’s not hard, you can go on, different embassy websites and study their criteria. And when you get to know their criteria, then you know what they prefer and how you can provide the service for them.
In the process, you act as a middle person between the intending traveler and the country he intends to travel to. Remember you will need to market this, either with your social media profile. creating a website or paid advert to get a substantial result.
Amazon kindle direct publishing
The fifth one is Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. Now, a lot of people think that you got to pay money for Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.
You don’t have to pay any money for Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. Here is a link from Amazon on how you can make free publication through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.
So what you can do is this you can start making money publishing your books, or you can start up your printing your own publishing business.
Or you can set up a publishing business. And then when people come to you, you simply publish their books for free on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, and then you do profit sharing with them.
Social media marketer
Now the next one is, social media marketing. As a social media marketer, what do you do? It’s so easy. There are corporations on social media, maybe Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, you know, you name it. what you do is that you go into their DM’s.
Go into The DM’s of breweries firms and people that are going to be needing marketing. Maybe they have a new programme coming up or a new product entering the market. Contact these CEOs and tell them you can market it for them
Become a youtube publisher
Now, the next one, obviously, YouTube Business, A lot of money can be made from Youtube. Trust me, And the finance gradually grows over time.
If you stay in Nigeria or some other African countries without a phone or internet then will only need maybe 50k, 100k or 500k depending on the make or brand of phone you want to use. If you have a good phone then fine you can start with this. All you will need is data.
How do you go about this? Just set up a Youtube channel. Login to youtube.com and set the channel up. Find a niche, that is, a topic you intend to be talking about. Find a niche you are passionate about and people will be interested in. Do deep research on the topic you want to discuss before making the video. It is that simple.
Apart from producing these videos yourself, you can simply be uploading videos from other sources. Just edit these videos, cut them into interesting parts then boom!!! you are good.
YouTubing is one of the smartest ways to make money even without having to have so much money. If you have a phone with less than 5k you can start this business. Though you must work hard to get the minimum number of subscribers needed to be eligible for monetization. Currently, it’s about 1k subscribers. You can cut a corner if you are willing to buy a youtube channel with a substantial number of subscribers must be careful when buying such observing some online safety security measure while making purchase
Airbnb business
Now the next thing is this. Airbnb. What is Airbnb? Airbnb is an American online marketplace for providing lodging and homestays for tourists or foreigners.
A lot of people think that you’ve got to be living in a posh area, you know, like a very, very posh area to do Airbnb. You can be living in ghetto areas like in Kibera, in Kenya, you can be living in a ghetto, like an Ajegunle in Nigeria, in the slums of India, remember Slumdog Millionaire, and still have Airbnb it doesn’t matter.
The only difference is that you can not charge as high as people who live in a posh area, but you can still do it. And what do you need to do it, you already have the space, you already have your home, you just opened up your home, and then you’re making money. Because it’s so easy making money in this area.
Selling a social media profile
Now, the next thing h or business you can do with little or no income is to grow and sell social media profiles.
Social media has come to stay and new organisations are often impatient to grow their social media profile organically so they look for ways to get an already built one. You can be building and selling these profiles for huge figures.
So you can grow a social media profile, it’s not hard, you grow an Instagram profile, grow a Twitter profile, grow a Facebook profile, and then you sell it to people who want to use it to market.
It’s something that you can do very, very easily, it requires no capital, and it’s not illegal. To grow social media pages you need to be updating them regularly with useful and interesting contents
Become an estate appraiser
Now, the next thing you can do is to become an appraiser. What is an appraiser? Banks all over the world, when they want to maybe like give someone a mortgage for to buy a house.
Or maybe they want to take a house as collateral for a loan, what they do is that the need that has to be appraised, an appraiser is just that somebody goes to see the house, and then determines the value of that house, the worth of that house, the market value, not the sentimental value, but the market value.
So now in countries like America and Europe, you need to be certified to do an appraisal work. But in countries like, Ghana, Kenya, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia Nigeria, Tanzania, you don’t need to be certified.
So what you can do is that you can go online, take some free appraiser courses. And then what you do is that, again, you create Website, and then you begin to market on social media, and then other ways you project yourself.
As an appraiser, you slide into the DMs of banks, even the DMs of microfinance companies, and then you begin to market yourself.
In conclusion, you can pick any of these business that is of interest to you, study the said business, do extensive research on the said business and work on it.
