The Top 10 Business Ideas for Women: Pursue the Life You Want Today
In 2018, 1,821 net new female owned businesses were added in the United States each day. The ROI for investing in female led businesses is also strong. For example, a study showed that startups founded and cofounded by women had better performance over a five-year period, generating 10% more in cumulative revenue than startups founded by men.
If you are concerned about making the jump into entrepreneurship rest assured all entrepreneurs are not risk takers. Wharton Professor and author Adam Grant writes in his book Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World that entrepreneurs who kept their day jobs when starting out had 33% lower odds of failure than those that quit.
He also writes that the most successful originals like the founder(s) of Warby Parker, Google and Nike “are not the daredevils who leap before they look. They are the ones who reluctantly tiptoe to the edge of a cliff, calculate the rate of descent, triple-check their parachutes, and set up a safety net at the bottom just in case”. If that sounds like you, you are in good company!
All of this great news means that there is no time better than the present for you to start a business. While you are excited about the possibility of starting a new business you might be wondering where to start. Here’s a list of 10 great business ideas (plus one bonus one) for women looking to become entrepreneurs. Each of the businesses ideas do not require a lot of capital to get started and could be started as a side gig until you get the business off the ground.
The top ten business ideas for women:
1. Become a Life Coach
We all need a bit of life advice from time to time don’t we? It seems as if more and more people are finding life difficult to manage. Are you that someone that people turn to for advice? Are you a good listener who is adept at seeing what lies beneath the surface of your best friend’s problems? Have you overcome adversity in your own life and now you have strategies and remedies to help people with similar problems? If you are answering yes then becoming a life coach could be a path for you.
You can get started by letting your friends and families know that you are available for coaching sessions. Or you could build up a following on YouTube as life coach Stephanie Lyn has. This could prove to be a rewarding course of action if you love helping people.
Additional listening:
Another successful entrepreneur who started her career as a life coach is Marie Forleo. You can learn more about how she got started by listening to this podcast where she is interviewed by Business Insider.
2. Write a Book
Writing and publishing your own book is a great way to reach a broader audience and cement your status as an expert in an area. It is best to write a book on a topic you are passionate about that focuses on a particular area, if you go too broad your book may easily get lost in the sea of existing titles.
Once you have written your book you can seek out a traditional publishing house or you can self-publish and sell your book on your website or through Kindle Direct Publishing (owned by Amazon), Writing Life (owned by Rakuten) or iBooks Author (owned by Apple).
Self-publishing may be the best option for you if you want a bigger cut per book sale. Authors that self-publish keep between 50% - 70% of sales vs. 15% to 25% royalties for publishing a book in a traditional manner. Keep in mind that while you will generate more revenue per book through self-publishing you may easily spend the difference in marketing fees especially if you are relatively unknown and are trying to build a following.
Additional reading:
Tips on How to be a Writer from J.K. Rowling, Author of Harry Potter
3. Start Blogging
Is there something you are passionate about? Cooking? Tech products? Health and wellness? If you have a passion and a point of view you could start a blog where you provide insight and wisdom on a topic of your choice.
Gone are the days when you need to learn how to code to build a website. Using online website builders like Squarespace or Wix you can build a website to host your blog quickly and easily.
To generate revenue from your blog you can sign up for Google AdSense. Google AdSense allows you to display targeted ads from a wide range of advertisers on your website. You are paid by Google typically on a cost per impression or cost per click basis. Or you can reach out to brands/marketers directly and sell them advertising space.
Many people also add affiliate links to their blog posts. If you are recommending products you believe your readers will benefit from you can also include affiliate links within your blog posts. Affiliate links are simply the digital equivalent of commissions and referrals. These links are pay-per-action; they require your blog audience to click the link and make a purchase of a product (let’s say for a product that you are recommending).
Income generation is dependent on traffic to your blog and it can take up to 12-18 months before you see a meaningful level of traffic. Becoming proficient in SEO (search engine optimization) and learning how to market your blog are also important keys to success.
Additional reading:
How to Make Money From Your Blog With 4 Effective Strategies
4. Create Online Courses
It is fairly easy to create and sell an online course through online training platforms such as Udemy, Thinkific and Teachable.
Udemy’s platform which I have used myself to create my own online course allows you to easily upload video, slides and basically everything you need to create a great course. As a novice in this space I found the entire process of creating a course on Udemy very smooth which was a relief after spending several months developing the content for my course.
As with all of these opportunities, the work does not stop with content creation. You have to market your online course in order to drive course enrollment.
Additional reading:
Popular and Trending Online Course Topics
5. Become a YouTuber
You may have already thought about creating your own YouTube videos or wondered how people make money from it. Becoming a YouTuber can serve as a lucrative form of passive income if you do it right. Start by figuring out your target market. Do you want to do DIY videos for new moms? Or do you want to focus fitness videos?
Once you have identified your audience and value proposition start making videos. Frequency and consistency are the keys to success on YouTube and for blogging as well. Try to post a video at least once a week on the same day. That will create a habit as your subscribers tune into your channel each week to watch your latest video.
In the same way that Google AdSense can be used to display ads on blogs you can also use Google AdSense to display ads on your YouTube videos.
Additional reading:
6. Become a Merchandise Reseller
Reselling is a big business which has led to the growth of many online sites where you can easily sell merchandise. Some of the popular ones are Poshmark, Amazon and eBay. The benefits of selling on these platforms is that they give you exposure to millions of potential customers.
Poshmark
Poshmark is an online resale site that primarily sells clothing and home décor items. You can get started on Poshmark by selling what you already have in your closet. If you are struggling with what to get rid of you can always seek Marie Kondo’s words of wisdom in her book the Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.
You can try selling just a few items at first to understand how the platform works. Once you have some experience and results under your belt you can try buying items in bulk from your local thrift store. See what sells, what doesn’t and if you start to make an income over time you can decide if this might be a pursuit that you want to do on a full-time basis.
Additional reading:
Poshmark: How to Make Thousands of Dollars by Selling What’s in Your Closet
Amazon
There are two ways of selling on Amazon. Either Amazon purchases your inventory and resells it (first party sales) or you sell your products on Amazon’s marketplace directly to customers and Amazon takes a cut of the sale (third party sales).
First party sales are by invitation only. In this case Amazon purchases your goods at wholesale prices. Amazon owns the inventory, warehouses it, sets pricing, fulfills orders including shipping and handles customer care.
Third party sellers on Amazon are independent sellers that sell a range of new and used merchandise. Amazon has the largest marketplace for third party sellers in the US and 58% of Amazon’s eCommerce sales volume are from third party sellers.
Additional reading:
The Ultimate Guide to Selling on Amazon in 2019
The Top Ten Categories That Amazon is Winning In
eBay
You can sell almost anything on ebay from electronics, to clothing to shoes. In terms of online retail spending, Amazon comes in first place with a 47% share versus eBay that comes in a distant second-place with a 6.1% share.
Amazon’s marketplace focuses more on selling new merchandise rather than used while eBay has a greater focus on secondhand goods. eBay is also be a good platform if you are looking to source merchandise that you want to resell. Many merchants that sell on eBay also sell on Amazon.
Additional reading:
How to Sell Successfully on eBay
7. Become a Personal chef
Are you one of those people that loves trying new recipes and cooking for your family? Most people feel like they are time started with the average person spending two hours commuting every day. That means people have less time to cook. And if someone is looking for healthy options it can be even harder to eat the right foods when time for food preparation is limited.
If food is your passion why not try cooking for others. What is more important than what we put into our bodies each and everyday? And the best part is that the need for healthy and wholesome cooked meals will never go away.
Additional reading:
Personal Chefs for Everyone: Bespoke House Calls in the Digital Age
8. Sell Arts and Crafts on Etsy
Do you have a hobby that involves your creative side? If your weekends and nights are filled with pottery classes, oil painting lessons and DIY jewellery projects you may want to consider making that your side hustle. If you are concerned that you are only a beginner and don’t have what it takes you will never know unless you try.
Sites like Etsy make it incredibly easy to sell arts and crafts. On Etsy’s website it says: “if it’s handcrafted, vintage, custom or unique, it’s on Etsy.” If that sounds like you, what are you waiting for? Plan and complete your next project and list it for sale on Etsy. Over time you will get a good sense of what items are selling well and which ones are not a great fit for the platform.
Additional reading:
Here’s What it is Really Like to Make a Living Selling on Etsy
9. Become an Online Tutor
Is there a subject such as English or math that you have always excelled in? If there is you may want to consider becoming a tutor. You can offer after school programs for children in your neighborhood. There are also a lot of options to provide a service like this online but setting up an in person service may offer the best value to students. Popular subjects to tutor include math, English, sciences and English as a second language.
To get started determine what subjects you will teach and for what ages.
Additional Reading:
The 10 Best Online Tutoring Websites Have Thousands of Experts Available for Round-the-Clock Help
10. Become a Personal Stylist
Do you have great style? Does everyone wish they had your wardrobe? Then why don’t you help others to look as good as you do. You could help to style other women that work in professional settings that want to look great while they climb the corporate ladder. Or you could help men find their weekend style.
One thing that will never go out of fashion is the need to look great. As online shopping continues to grow it offers a lot more choice but at the same time that choice is often overwhelming. There will be a growing need from people that just want someone else to make sense of all of the clothing and outfit options. The person that does that could be you.
Additional reading:
Inside the World of Personal Styling for Non-Celebrities
Bonus*
11. Do Something You are Passionate About
The last idea on this list is the idea inside of you. It is something that you have been thinking about for a very long time. It’s going to solve a problem that someone you know has. And you are really excited about it. Most great business ideas are formed this way.
What business idea do you have? It might have more potential than you realize.