If you live in the Philippines and feel like having a lot of problems around, you might feel disappointed at times, but you must be aware that there are tons of opportunities too. Unemployment is one of the biggest problems in the Philippines, but if you’re unemployed you do have the opportunity to start your own business with small capital or with no money at all. So, here are small business ideas for Philippines.
In fact, entrepreneurship is booming in the Philippines, allowing unemployed fresh graduates and undergraduates, college students, stay at home mommies and retired to be their own boss while making good profits.
So, if you are looking for in-demand small business ideas for the Philippines with small capital, you’re at the right place. This article will list and discuss at home and other small business ideas with low or no capital requirements for the Philippines.
Food Related Businesses for Philippines:
No matter how bad an economy is going, people will always need food, i.e. food is a recession proof business, and there’re several food related businesses that have a great market in Philippines. Here goes the list of food related businesses for the Philippines.
1- Mobile Restaurant/Food Cart: A mobile food kiosk is the cheapest available option for a food retail business. The cost may vary depends on the type of cart you choose, i.e. you may cook at home and sell on cart or have a mobile kitchen where you cook on order. You can serve the meal of your choice and it doesn’t require a much of your investment too. You need to ensure that you maintain the best quality and standard of the food.
2- Office Food Delivery: Getting home cooked food in office is a blessing for the hardworking office going people. Help them and earn money by providing healthy nutritious food. Target offices with lot of employees and distribute their templates.
3- Home Cooked Food Delivery: Desiring for freshly cooked homemade food is what everyone loves, but busy working class has hard time in doing so. Offering on-demand food preparation for regular days and for events is a great way to address the problem of this class and take your profit share. You can run this along with the business idea #2, whereby you initially get commercial clients for lunch and later offer them regular dinner and party food as well.
4- Food Delivery Service: The food deliveries can cater to the working population in the same way as home cooked food does. Students and other similar people who love trying outside food can be the target market. Just set the weekly menus, target populated areas having huge corporate offices, a university or college, buy food from local restaurants and hire a delivery team to deliver the food.
5- Baking on Order: If you love baking and have a hands-on expertise in the field, you can do it to generate good revenue. You may sell homemade custom cakes and cupcakes for more profit. However, marketing is a critical area that you need to look upon.
6- Home Based Bakery: It’s a little different from on-demand baking. Here you need to get in touch with local grocery stores and supermarkets, you bake a variety of items and deliver them on daily or alternate day basis.
7- Catering: You really don’t require any formal qualification to get start a catering business, but yes you do need some capital, i.e. for basic setup. Most of the materials can be purchased on credit or you can ask your customers for a partial pre-payment to finalize an order and use that money for purchasing products. Just produce and deliver good food and you are popular.
Clothing & Textile Related Business Ideas for Philippines:
Clothing is second most reliable business sector in terms of being recession proof; everyone needs clothing despite the fact they are rich or poor. Think out of the box and you can have hundreds of ideas for making and selling clothes. Here are a few in demand clothing related businesses that can go great in Philippines.
8- Budget Clothing Shop: Since, most of the people in Philippines opt for budget clothing and the demand of such readymade garments is quite high you can open a small scale clothing store that provides quality yet affordable items. Focus on delivering the best and witness your business touching new heights.
9- Dress Designing: If you are someone with true sense of dress designing and know the fashion trends well, you can start your own clothing line right from home. Excessive marketing is the key to success for this kind of business.
10- Online Clothing Shop: You don’t even need to buy the inventory and rent a shop. Just have an ecommerce store and sell online from various retailers by joining their affiliate programs.
11- Buy & Sell Used Clothing: Hundreds and thousands of people look for budget clothing, while there is a consumer group who can afford a lot and they often want to shed their unwanted stock from the closets. Just bridge the gap and you should be doing a great business.
Services Related Business Ideas for the Philippines:
The Philippines is one of the countries with highest literacy rate which means the services industry can flourish very well if the opportunities are streamlined strategically. However, if you’re unemployed or looking for additional source of income, don’t wait for any state level changes and be a master of your destiny by finding the right opportunity yourself. Here are some of the highly demanded services within the Philippines and around the world. You can start a services related business targeting local clients or can reach global markets through the internet as well.
12- Market Research: It’s not just about joining various paid survey programs and participate in surveys to earn some quick money, but there is a whole new world of market research where you can find opportunities. Check out the freelancing websites and LinkedIn jobs and you will find a great deal of well-paying market research jobs.
13- Website Design & Development: Web designers and software development outsourcing are among the most sought after fields, but you are required to spend more time on acquiring knowledge and seeking business rather than spending it on social networking sites.
14- Photography: Showcase your photography skills with a quick portfolio or do some voluntary photography at the various wedding and corporate events to get noticed and you’re all set to start your photography business.
15- Recruitment Agency: Manpower is the basic requirement of any business and it largely contributes to its success, however not always the business scenario allows the business to have an extensive & stressful recruitment process. Thus, the need of the recruitment agency arises. You also do not need to worry about getting the job applicants as there are thousands and millions of people who are looking for a job change or new job.
16- Insurance Broker: There are various forms of insurances that are required by an individual in his or her life including car life, health insurance etc. To meet the ever growing demand of the insurance sector, you can act as an insurance company agent and earn your share of profit.
17- Property & Real Estate: You can do this business part time too. All you need to do is to just keep eyes on the real estate and act as a platform between buyers and sellers and get your commission.
18- Event Organizing & Management: If you have been part of event organization or managed events earlier then do consider the option of getting full time into it by encashing your skills.
19- Small Scale Industrial Home: If you have expertise in various skills like stitching, baking, and cooking etc., then you should consider imparting the knowledge to others and turn it into a profitable business. It doesn’t take much investment as you can start it right from a spare room of your house and can initially focus on skills that do not require heavy equipment, i.e. painting, hand printing, baking, cooking etc. Later you can approach government and NGOs for funding.
20- Niche Website: Information is required in each and every business and the primary source of information these days is web and thus there are lots of opportunities to build website portals. Focus on a niche of your expertise and you can go really well. The higher number of visits your portal will get, more revenues it will generate.
Related Reading: How to Build an SEO Optimized Business Website Overnight
21- Virtual Assistant: Once, it was just data entry that companies used to outsource, but nowadays companies look for virtual assistants to do a variety of tasks on the computer and via phone. Do a little research of what you can do in this particular field and you will find your way. If you devote a lot of time being online, consider utilizing it into a proper business.
22- Blogging: when nothing seems working, but you have skills to write down things pretty clearly, blogging is probably one of the best businesses that don’t require you to invest a penny. All you need to do is to write about your expertise and publish it online and people will follow your blog and money will pour in.
Small Scale Shop Ideas for the Philippines:
Small scale shop can be a great business, especially when you are living in a small town, rural area or a village and have some capital. But, it can be equally profitable in a big city where business activity is higher. The only difference for opening a shop in a big city and a small town is the rental value of the space, rest all the costs are almost same. Here are some shop ideas that you can start and run successfully in the Philippines.
23- Sari-Sari Store Business: it’s a typical Filipino business whereby you can sell a variety under one roof, i.e. snacks, drinks, stationary etc.
24- Budget Gift Shop: Everyone wants to celebrate, but most people have limited budget, which you can help by offering quality gifts on a budget. The business of gift shop can turn a real profitable one, that too, quickly. All you need to do is to buy products of various brands, provide them with your packaging and sell them further.
25- Imported Shoes & Handbags: Try to browse sites like DHgate.com, Alibaba.com, and others to import high-quality Chinese products on a limited budget. The items like handbags and shoes are very popular in demand and you can make a good profit.
26- Hair Salon: You need to have a sense of styling and experience in the field of hair cutting to make a great salon business. It doesn’t need much investment, as you can start by renting a small shop and having limited equipment, but you must have a foolproof hair salon business plan in hand.
27- Cosmetics Shop: Cosmetics sale is booming in the Philippines just like any other country developing country because women want to look beautiful. And, believe me, they will always love to look beautiful, so a small scale cosmetics shop can go really well in the Philippines, preferably in urban and semi-urbanized settings. Doing cosmetic sales offline is a task in itself, but if you take it online you will generate decent sales in a short period of time. If you are deeply involved in makeup and cosmetics with hands on in creating stunning styles, you may also start a makeup artist business.
28- Laundry & Dry Cleaning Service: Like cooking and cleaning, laundry is yet another tedious and time-consuming task for working class and you will see large population always finding ways to avoid it as much as they can. You can start it with a small shop, but a better option is to have a mobile laundry pickup and delivery services as they address the laundry concerns in a better way. Have a good laundry business plan and you’ll surely make a good fortune!
Travel Business Ideas for the Philippines:
Starting a travel related business is more than just a business, i.e. you are making a profit while you promoting the tourism industry of your beloved Philippines. Here are some travel related business ideas you might consider starting.
29- Travel and Tour Agency: This kind of business can earn commissions from selling airline tickets, hotel deals, and tour packages. All you need to have is good marketing!
30- Car Rental: Yes, you may be thinking to have a fleet of cars which requires intensive investment, but let me tell you that you can start it with your very own car even. Take some partners along, i.e. who want to rent out their cars with or without a driver. Have awesome rates and see your business growing.
31- Bed & Breakfast: If you are an owner of a certain property and have many extra rooms in your house then consider letting them out to the tourists and other people who are in the city for business purposes. This will help you to earn quick cash for your unused space. This is apter in case the property is located in cultural heritages lush landscapes, airports and places of tourist interests.
32- Souvenir Shop: This is an awesome business idea for all those who have easy access to tourist spots. Visitors from around the world will love to have some souvenir items from the Philippines.
Miscellaneous Small Scale Business Ideas for the Philippines
The Philippines is the land of opportunities for those who are keen to explore the options and make right choices at right time. There can be hundreds of more small business ideas that you can do in an innovative way. Just to make this list of small business ideas useful for everyone, here are a few more ideas.
33- Handyman Services: Required by most of the people, the handyman services always has a big market. You can easily start this type of services business with a few tools required to start a handyman business and can grow it with just a couple of people by your side. All you need to do is to find a densely populated area and start your services immediately.
34- Mobile Auto Workshop: Wherever there are cars, workshops are needed. Even though there are many car workshops at any location but the car has to be driven there for repairs but what if the car gets stuck midway and you cannot drive it to the location. A mobile workshop can provide the ideal help in such cases and brings a lot of satisfaction to the customer satisfaction and generates profit for the workshop.
35- Tutoring: As a student, you may have a lot of time and it can easily be channelized to earn money through tuitions. If you have a decent amount on knowledge on various subjects and want to earn money, then start providing tuitions to your juniors, especially in groups.
36- Home Based Gym: If you are a fitness enthusiast yourself, you may already have a little gym at home. Taking your interest and expertise into business account is a great way to make profits. In this case, you will not require much of an investment; however, your training shall be a class apart.
37- Car Washing Service: It may sound difficult, but if you get into partnership with offices and other big customers, you can make it really good. Hire a couple of car cleaners and pick and drop them on the task spots on time and you have an awesome business running and growing.
38- House Cleaning Services: A house needs to be cleaned but not everyone can do it themselves, especially in big cities where most of the population is working class. House cleaning business offering cost effective solutions can be a great business.