It’s the era where the possibilities are endless: you can work full-time, engage in business, and still live your life. And that’s not exactly a grand delusion, it can be a reality, especially the starting a business part for those who probably only have a vision at best as capital.
For millennials who are nourished by ideas from the internet, travel, and learning, the world is a playground to explore business ventures. Of course, access to capital/credit, communication, and the platform/marketplace itself eases out the traditional rigors of starting a small yet scalable business.
Starting Small Businesses the Millennial Way
It can be the attitude to life, the curiosity to explore, and the adeptness to technology that make millennials a different breed of entrepreneurs from their predecessors. The proof is the proliferation of start-ups focusing from the complex such as trading to something as mundane as hailing a cab. Where ideas for business are concerned, take it from millennials to try and put them to good use.
Here are top three ideas for a small business that can be successful, for your emergency fund, travels abroad, and other life pursuits.
1. Take Freelancing to the Next Level
The world is never short of demand for skills, whether it is for web design, web development, content writing, graphic design, video editing, and social media, to name a few. While you can provide any of these services directly via side hustle, it’s not a bad idea to open a one-stop shop that pools these services together and thus attract more clients.
You can start a freelance business, an ad agency, or a tech office with friends or talents offering a diversity of skills you can offer in packages. Connections are very important in this line of business to build them first and make sure you have a solid business plan.
2. Monetize Your Passions
Against the backdrop of mass production, customization has never been more appreciated. One perfect example is calligraphy, a hobby that has scribbled its way to wedding invitations, greeting cards, restaurant signages, planners, book covers, and more. Because they are done by a craftsperson and customized at that, these works of art can fetch a handsome price per piece.
Other profitable modern-day hobbies are blogging and its more upbeat sibling, vlogging. Both can sometimes generate higher income than full-time jobs through articles and videos, respectively. When you have built your online reputation and your content ranks high on search engine results, you’ll collect ad revenues, get first dibs on products, or even do a collab with a brand.
3. Set Up an Online Shop
The internet is not just a marketplace of ideas, anything is virtually sold here. Per Statista’s count, close to 2 billion people made online purchases in 2017. This number of shoppers from all over the world is too massive to be ignored, prompting anyone interested to sell tech, household, personal care, food, clothing, and even made-to-order products online.
Online shops are relatively easier to pull off because your base is your home, communication with customers and suppliers is done online and mostly free of charge, and eCommerce hosted platforms are very much available for beginner entrepreneurs like you.
The Millennial Entrepreneur
With today’s conveniences and flexibilities, the doors are thrown wide open for millennials to walk into the world of business. Indeed, of the three recommendations above, an online shop is the most feasible. For starters, you can start selling clothes online which requires a relatively small capital to buy the initial inventory and pay fees attendant to set an online shop.
You can start an online shop powered by an established eCommerce platform with all the solutions and functionalities for you to run your business wherever you are. It’s a practical move to regulate costs and keep your business spending on track.
Popular trends amongst millennials tackle issues pertaining to health and lifestyle, it is also important as a budding entrepreneur to know the latest trends and innovations most young people care to think about. You can start off by providing healthy meal plans or selling detox drinks that are helpful for a quick cleanse of toxins. It is advisable that products or services, come fast and handy which is something that most millennials need especially in this instant-gratification generation. While there is no shortcut to success, you can certainly take advantage of viable alternative routes that lead to the same outcome.
