We know that sourcing huge amounts of money can be hard, especially when you’re looking to invest startup money in a business. Another running worry can be deciding which business model would work the best for you and yield the most profit. So, how to start a business with 10k?
Things like this can depend and be factored in by multiple things, including your possessed skill sets, regional demographics, planned-out business strategies, specialized legal assistance, and marketing opportunities. Good businesses don’t grow overnight. Having a smaller investment should not hold you back, but having a solid game plan is extremely fundamental.
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, over 50% of small businesses fail in the first year. Statistically, the prime reason why SMEs fail falls under the category of poor business planning. Having a meticulously strategized business plan majorly increases your chances of field success.
We have compiled a list of career ideas for those wondering what to do with an investment of as little as $10k. Don’t worry. We go into details of why these ideas may be the one for you, how much money you could possibly make back on executive reporting, what things and skills you may need as well as statistics to show you just how lucrative each of these industries is.
Health & Wellness
A relatively new industry in terms of market boom and upraise, self-care, personal hygiene, and wellness, in general, have been slowly but surely becoming a crucial part of people’s everyday lives. The global health and wellness market reached a value of US$ 3.31 Billion in 2020. Following are some ideas rooted in this industry:
Essential Oils & Soaps Business
A hugely diversifying industry varying from essential oils and soaps of different scents to various health and medical benefits and properties, this industry is expected to reach an anticipated value of $458.4 million globally by 2026.
You don’t have to be a market giant to invest in such a business. Our tip: study the market and go indie. The venture can be kick-started with as little as $10,000, including the machinery, ingredients, packaging, HR, and marketing cost.
For example, a recognizable package design will help your projects to the next level. The well-designed custom labels with your business logo and slogan will effectively help your customers better identify your brand, the labels are also cost-effective giveaways for marketing.
Men’s Telehealth Advice Platform
With the shift in the world’s current tech climate, more and more people lean towards online health check-up appointments. American Medical Association claims that telehealth services could safely reduce close to 75% of all doctor, urgent care, and emergency room visits.
Being a doctor, pediatrician, or health worker from any particular field, you can tap into this field with enough of a marketing boost behind your back and an efficient enough online platform, be it a custom site or an established portal.
Personal Trainer
This is an excellent opportunity for those out there who have always considered monetizing through a fitness program. The fitness industry is valued at over $32 billion, with $10 billion comprising solely of personal training.
Start with a base-level official certification. Licensing in such businesses is important. Build your own workout plans, diet regimen, and pricing models through a pre-planned strategy and focus on in-house appointments or affiliation with a local gym to provide personal training services.
White Labeled Fitness Supplements
Following up with the previous idea, snack bars, shakes, heat-up meals, and pills are all fitness supplements that go side-by-side with fitness journeys, especially in a younger demographic. The National Institutes of Health states that 66% of college-aged students take these supplements. That’s a huge market right there.
Get linked with a trusted and licensed manufacturer, and aptly start with a smaller product range focusing on key protein ingredients and gradually expanding. If the protein market is too saturated try finding white label beetroot powder supplier since beetroot is always in high demand among fitness and gym enthusiasts. You won’t be disappointed.
CBD Products 
People are going haywire over CBD products, especially for the last few years. The US News reports that 1 in 7 American adults utilizes CBD products to treat pain, stress, and insomnia. CBD is infused in various forms, e.g., in gummies, shakes, oils, pills, cigarettes, vapes, and many more.
For quick action, we recommend CBD vape pens to use for consuming CBD.
Invest in manufacturers to create relevant products in compliance with the state laws on what’s acceptable, how much is acceptable, and the advisory on its marketing.
Healthy Snacks Business
As the diet culture and awareness on wellness, in general, has been increasing, so is the flocking towards healthier food and snack options. This may include snacks produced from naturally sourced ingredients and/or are also cruelty-free and vegan.
The global healthy snacks market size is projected to reach $108.11 Billion by 2027. Ensure a licensed kitchen certification with your initial $10,000 investment first and foremost. Focus the rest on rental or in-house delivery charges, ingredients, and local marketing.
Home Medical Equipment Rentals
We know that this sounds like a super-specific niche, but trust us, the numbers speak for themselves. Market size for the global home medical equipment is estimated to reach $56,457.87 million by 2027.
Not only does this serve as a huge service to the old age citizens and people with disabilities related to mobility, but it also brings in a reasonable profit. Provide the equipment to people on rent, permanent basis, hospitals, old-age homes or hospices, etc.
Massage Therapy
Self-care is prevailing, hence naturally also becoming a very lucrative venture. An average of 21% of adult Americans got at least one massage in a spa last year. According to the AMTA, the massage therapy industry values $18 billion and continues to grow.
Start with getting the proper chiropractic or massage training and receiving a licensed certification in the field. Professional masseuses makeup to tens of thousands of dollars in a year or even a month, depending on their growth.
Meal Prep Company
Riding off of our previously discussed concept, healthy eating is becoming a huge part of everyday American life. Still, not many people possess the requisite information to buy the key ingredients and prepare a meal on a day-to-day basis. This is where the niche opens up for you.
In 2022, the meal prep market reached $20.54 billion. The major chunk of your investment will go towards kitchen licensing and food prep ingredients/utensils, plus the cooking location.
Medication Delivery Services
People barely have enough time to squeeze enough tasks into their day. Pharmaceutical drug delivery right at one’s house sounds like a dream, saving a lot of time and resources. This industry is expected to reach $1,733 billion by 2026.
Focus vendor partnerships with mostly smaller pharmacies to allow you better deals. Build an easy-to-use website, and ensure prompt customer responses, and you’ve got this in the bag. Make sure to ensure your operations comply with the state laws on this.
B2B Services
Essentially considered the most common and one of the oldest business methods, the services sector is considerably lucrative. While your first instinct may point towards it being a super saturated market, the following ideas are incredible niches that possess the potential of giving you independence from a nine-to-five drudgery.
Virtual Assistant Agency
As more work scenarios are shifting online, so has become the need for virtual assistants more indispensable. Freelancers and independent contractors hire such resources to help provide administrative or editing-level support. The virtual assistant agency is poised to grow by $4.12 billion during 2021-2025.
A lucrative venture for you is establishing a virtual assistant agency, providing assistant staff on-demand to any freelancer or contractor in demand. The primary investment in this usually leans more towards acquiring clients through business development.
Security Business
Security has always been a giant and very crucial industry. The security business market can be mainly divided into three main sectors: security systems, private security guards, and security consulting services.
The industry will increase at an annual rate of 3.4% to $46.3 billion from 2021-26. The general investment cost required to start a venture like this ranges around $10,000 with hiring the properly licensed professionals and applying for the necessary legal certifications, of course.
Research Services 
Trust us when we tell you that this is one of the key B2B services scenarios. No business can thrive without thorough and rigorous market research. The market for these services is expected to reach $82.87 billion by 2023.
From your $10,000 investment, you’ll have enough resources to hire the necessary staff seasoned in market analysis and advertising your services to other businesses. An adeptly designed website will be a necessary but worthy cost for the business proliferation.
Port-A-Potty Rentals
We know what you’re thinking, but think of it this way: They’re always there. Do you have any idea how much Port-A-Potty Rentals make in a year? Let’s just say that the industry revenue for this industry is expected to grow to about $2.1 billion by the end of 2021.
A single rentable Port-A-Potty costs around $500-$1000, giving you room to invest in a good few and put in the rest of the investment in a sizable storage unit to keep the portable toilets when required to be stored.
Paid Ads Specialist
Remember how we mentioned marketing costs earlier? You could do that for others with your $10,000 too. The current digital insurgence and saturation of work in every possible niche have put a specific business industry at the top of their marketing & advertising game. According to eMarketer, worldwide digital ad spending is predicted to reach over $375 billion by the end of 2021.
Your major cost lies in hiring professionals who know how to put the right ads on the right channels at the right time – nationally and internationally.
Online Business Manager
As business owners are always running against the clock and there’s only so much they can do, an online business manager can relieve the stress of their work, from compiling their financial ledgers to taking care of the international payroll. They may even work at a project manager position and spearhead the whole operations. Freelancers contribute about $1 trillion to the American economy.
Either aim to invest your $10,000 in forming your own online business manager agency, or invest in relevant resources to become one yourself.
Equipment Rental Services
Given the current infrastructure of modern-day mechanics, nearly every possible task to be done, be it in a professional, construction, medical or educational capacity, etc., requires certain machinery, tools, or equipment. A study by the American Dental Association (ARA) revealed renting equipment in the construction industry is at an all-time high.
The only thing you majorly need to invest in here is the equipment cost itself and the storage unit in which to accommodate the said equipment.
Computer Repair
Downtime due to computer or network issues can wreak havoc on both a company’s actual real-time functionality as well as its overall reputation – indicating that the market to keep computers operating reliably is both large and valuable. As of 2010, there were over 550,000 people employed in the maintenance and repair sector in the United States.
Focus your initial investment on building the right team and renting out a studio space for the team to operate and customers to visit. The rest will follow suit.
Collection Agency
The data for debt collection in America is depressing, adding all the more reason to the existence of debt collection services. More than 1 in 4 Americans (28%) have at least one debt in collections.
The format is simple. Either work from your home initially or establish a group of debt collectors alongside you in an office setup. Try to work on a commission-based model. The best thing about this idea is the dearth of investment required to kick-start it.
Carpet Cleaning
While this may seem a really far-fetched and lackluster option in terms of market appeal as well as sales, it’s surprisingly quite the opposite. According to Allied Market Research, the global cleaning services market is expected to reach $74 billion by 2022.
With figures this high – we hope considering this option becomes a lot more viable for you. The initial cost required to set up this business would be equivalent to only the relevant machinery and equipment required and some local marketing budget.
Airplane Cleaning
The aircraft cleaning and sanitizing market are expected to grow by USD 1.56 billion during 2021-2025, according to Technavio. The amount of trash and just the overall disturbed condition passengers leave the airplanes in leaves no wonder why this is a billion-dollar industry.
Airlines welcome such services with arms wide-opened. Your main job in this venture is to ensure thorough cleaning and upkeep of all the sections covered. Especially since the outbreak of a worldwide pandemic, rigorous sanitization is specifically to be ensured.
Valet Services
With the upraise in better customer care and service, every establishment is geared towards treating their clients in the best possible conditions and ways. Valet is the best to ensure that from right out the gate (literally). It’s high time for you to monetize this stellar opportunity.
There’s no significant overhead cost for this business venture, nowhere close to $10,000. Just the relevant hand signs, uniforms (if necessary), and office space to operate to cater to your clients.
Telephone Answering Service
This is a prime example of a less challenging yet high profit-yielding business idea. Normally, companies search for customer service or cold business callers to improve their business growth, and enterprises like such can help them manifold. Just for 2016-2019, the Telephone Answering Services industry in the US reached $2.7 Billion in revenue.
Set up your own organization with telephone answering professionals, rent an office space, and work on a number-of-calls-based model. If you are looking to rent or buy a space, you can connect with Loving Phoenix Realty.
Sales Training
Sustainability reigns supreme in the business framework of any enterprise, be it small or large. This can only be made possible by driving as many product/service sales as possible. Imparting sales training to corporate or SME is highly profitable if in possession of the required salesmanship knowledge. The product-based sales training market is projected to grow by $4.21 Billion from 2020-2024.
There is no major overhead cost in this model since it mostly relies on client visits. Just focus most of your spending on proper self-marketing.
Promotional Products Business
Who doesn’t like free promotional products like keychains, mugs, pens, and caps, etc.? This is precisely what this industry entails. They foster and increase a customer’s value and appreciation towards a brand. The promotional product industry has a value of $23.3 billion.
The best model to invest your $10,000 in this business is to source and partner up with a trusted supplier. A good deal will end up with the goods being manufactured, invoiced, and shipped to you all within the same deal.
Green Business Consultant
As the world is evolving, the state solutions to energy needs and other manufacturing are leaning more towards “clean” and “green” methodologies. Being a green consultant, your job would be to advise companies on what benefits they can reap from deploying green technology and how they can actually implement them. The global green technology and sustainability market size is projected to reach $48.36 billion by 2027.
If already possessing field education in this sector, the initial investment cost would be negligible. Otherwise, you can opt for education.
Blind Cleaning Service
We all have blinds either in our homes or offices. And surprisingly, the cleaning industry overall has been increasing by 10%+ per year, with a projection of $50 Billion by 2023. A blind cleaning service is incredibly profitable, all things considered.
While there may be various methods around it, we would suggest investing a major portion of your $10,000 in getting an ultrasonic machine. These not only allow you to carry the equipment with you, but you can do the cleaning while on-site.
Local Delivery Service
The US has seen a rise of 5.3% in the annual industry growth for local delivery services for the past 5 years. The main concept of this service is to send a local messenger down to the customer’s desired location to drop off the delivery or pick it up.
The main costing here from your initial investment would be drawn towards the necessary company registrations and acquiring a personal API. You are starting a business to track down people’s houses. Sorting out the necessary legal stipulations first and foremost only makes sense.
Direct Customer Services
No strategic niches and no online commitments (well, except one), these ideas represent all the myriad of ways in which you can monetize your direct customer services and turn them into hugely profitable ventures. These practical and hands-on services are sure to rake in all that profit that you have set in mind.
Car Dent Removal
On average, the demand for paintless dent removal on cars in the US is very high given the amount of vehicular upsurge the country has seen over the past 2 decades. This has understandably also resulted in cars needing dent repair. This is a great niche for you to start with.
Try to put most of your investment in learning how to do this right, procuring the necessary equipment, and self-advertising. If done right, you can earn between $70,000 – $200,000+ a year.
Mobile Car Wash
Considered a lot more convenient by the general masses than in-store car washes, a mobile car wash is a great option to consider for investment. This industry is already valued at $12.6 billion, with a nearly 3% growth rate annually expected to increase by 2024.
Put the majority of your $10,000 investment in acquiring a reliable and spacious automobile able to carry all your equipment – which will be your second major investment.
Window Tinting
Window tinting is not some gaudy way of reinforcing a social hierarchy through your automobile windows. Still, it is actually a great way to prevent harmful UV rays’ penetration and ensure a degree of privacy. The global window film market is expected to reach $14.97 Billion by 2028.
Make an effort to acquire the necessary skill set required to do this, practice, and use your $10,000 investment to make a purchase of all the necessary tools required.
Daycare
A typical American household is a relatively busy one. Taking care of children gets increasingly difficult, which is where daycare comes in. Some children may undoubtedly be more of a nuisance than others. Still, this industry holds a total market value of $27 Billion.
This might need every last bit of your $10,000 investment from acquiring registrations to renting daycare space and filing for insurances, plus the relevant staff and other miscellaneous items – but it’s worth it.
Dog Walking & Sitting
Pets – especially dogs, are just as much part of the family for an American household as any other member. However, walking or sitting a dog is often missed out on due to busy schedules, which is where you can capitalize on this opportunity. The current market value of this industry lies at about $1.1 Billion.
Either you can establish your own dog-walking business or work through a third-party platform (you can find multiple online) through which a portion of your earnings will be commissioned to the said platform.
Esthetician
Beauty Industry has seen gargantuan growth in the past decade, and an esthetician is an adept part of it. This is someone responsible for advisory on things ranging from beauty products to skincare. However, this job requires you to put in the relevant educational hours and get an official certification to start practicing.
The global esthetic market will grow to more than $19.4 Billion by 2023. We hope that’s motivation enough.
Eyelash Extensions
The major portion of the female demographic has raised the statistics of this industry much higher due to the evolution of beauty standards and positivity over the past decade. According to a report by ABC News, the lash industry is expected to reach a whopping $1.5 Billion in the next five years.
If you’re interested, then time to study up and get certified to become a reputed lash technician. The rest of the investment will only go towards your work equipment.
Mobile Locksmith Services
While no one enjoys getting locked out of their house or car, a locksmith is certainly a welcome sight, especially one who is able to make personal visits to fix things for you on-site. This industry, valued at $2.8 Billion, though, might sound completely random. Still, it is actually a lot real and rooted in people’s needs.
Brush up your skills on services including emergency lock-out assistance, key cutting, and more. Very little money begs to be reinvested back into the business.
Mobile Nail Salon
No – this isn’t as superficial as you think. Nail grooming, manicures, and artificial acrylic/gel nails done through mobile nail technicians, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, have been a huge trend. The global artificial nails market is expected to reach $1.2 billion from 2019-2024.
The demand for nail technicians is high, and it’s expected to grow by 10% between 2016 and 2028, so get your certification and equipment ready.
Online Subscription Service
Are you knowledgeable in certain fields and possess invaluable information but don’t know how to monetize it? Just put it on a subscription platform and sell the information in the forms of guidance videos, teaching lessons, or personalized coaching calls. The Subscription E-Commerce Market is expected to reach $478.2 Billion by 2025.
What you need to do with most of your investment is to create as professional and cohesive-looking content as possible, whereas the rest should be spent on marketing.
Retail
You are looking at one of the big three of the worldwide industry. What entails and counts as a retail venture is truly up to the imagination now as every possible product/service is being sold in-person and online. Here are some retail options for you to consider keeping your $10k investment budget in mind.
Vending Machines
These machines full of snacks, drinks, and sometimes other items pertaining to different odds and ends are actually quite the money-making market. The vending machine market in the US values $8 Billion.
A single vending machine can cost you around $1500 – $2500, so you have the opportunity to invest in a couple and then spend the rest on filling them up with stuff that should suit and serve the demographic of the location they’re placed in.
Storage Container Sales
Storage or shipping containers are used in transporting products on a global scale. They’re the very building block on which the rest of the shipment depends. The global shipping containers market projected to reach $12.08 Billion by 2027 is actually highly lucrative, with all things in place.
What you’ll need, obviously, is shipping containers ranging from lesser to higher prices based on their condition. Secondly, you’ll be needing to get in touch with shipping companies and rent these containers out to them.
Skincare/Beauty Products
Being one of the biggest industries in the market right now, valued at over $530 Billion, the skincare/beauty products lines are actually quite a tricky but immensely rewarding business venture.
Owing to the high market demand, the brand disposition is already fairly saturated with newer brands and products introduced every day. You should focus on finding a niche, beneficial formula, or unique product in terms of looks or usability and tap into it.
Reusable Goods
As climate change gets more and more real, companies all around the world are getting more conscientious of the packaging they use and the impact it leaves on the environment. The Global Reusable Packaging Market is projected to grow to $66.96 Billion by 2027.
Use your initial investment to get in touch with a manufacturer or supplier, file in certification to produce the packaging under your legal brand name, and go from there.
Refurbished Electronics
We go about our day and believe every individual is holding a brand new mobile device in their hands or using fresh-out-the-box appliances, but things come to perspective when one learns that the market for refurbished electronic goods is estimated to be about $10 Billion.
That’s right. Just focus on acquiring an electronics repair license and perfecting your repair skills when starting a business under just $10,000. This business will certainly serve you well.
Jewelry & Accessories Business
People have been upping their fashion game as more and more fashion literacy has been going around, and jewelry and accessories are a majorly integral part of it. After all, just in 2020 alone, the total revenue of this industry was $35.3 Billion and is estimated to reach $59.7 Billion by 2027.
Either you can source a supplier and send the products online on e-commerce platforms or design and build your own jewelry/accessories line and sell at your own website.
Import-Export Business
This is a pretty important and big industry to delve into, but there’s always room for multiple niches like any other industry. The US international trade deficit in goods and services increased to $71.2 Billion in May from the $69.1 Billion in April. This is a number from just 2 months alone.
The most vital thing for you to do with your $10,000 for starting this business is to analyze what product niche you want to get into and in around what numbers and quantities.
Ice Cream Truck
As the pandemic is wearing off, so are the street vendors getting back in business. This could be your endgame business venture too. Before the pandemic, the street vendors industry, which includes ice cream trucks, experienced a 3.4% growth from 2015 to 2020.
To start off this business with your $10,000, invest in a van to turn into an ice-cream truck and spend the rest to procure the products and supplies necessary. Make sure to spend some on good branding too. Color attracts people!
Food Truck
Now, this is a business venture that offers you a much smaller risk of failure than starting a brick-and-mortar restaurant, and there is a great money payoff. The food truck market size in 2020 alone surpassed 1.2 billion dollars in the US.
However, the total startup cost for this may exceed your initial $10,000, depending on the level you want to scale up. We suggest considering a lease option to better help you with this.
Food & Beverage Stand
Undoubtedly a universal need, and one that will never go out of demand. People will always get food and beverages. This is exactly why you should be investing your $10,000 to consider starting this business. The global interactive kiosk market size will reach $45.32 Billion by 2028 according to estimates.
Businesses are opening back up. Do research on a prime location to set up your stand and acquire the food and beverages to be sold.
Dropshipping
You must’ve heard this name getting tossed around a lot, and sure it sounds incredibly easy and profitable to sell other people’s products and deliver them. After all, this is going to become a $591.77 Billion market by 2027.
But the operational framework of this venture is a bit tricky. It takes a good amount of trial and error before you find the sweet spot. We suggest you start small and invest some time in this because it can be massive if done right.
Candle Making
The different scents of candles are burned and appreciated all over the US. It is actually quite a big industry and not one which has been drastically explored or saturated. You can easily find your own nook in this! And the industry is projected to grow to $6.64 billion by 2027.
Candles come in all shapes and sizes. Since the overhead cost won’t be a lot, we suggest you spend most of your time perfecting your candle-making skills as it can be a bit tricky.
Amazon FBA
Yes, we’re sure you’ve heard of this. But we’re also here to tell you that the market is far from being saturated and dead. A study from JungleScout indicates that Amazon drives more than its annual $386 Billion revenue from these sellers and entrepreneurs.
Get acquainted with good online learning courses on this subject matter if you want to utilize your $10,000 investment (which will more than suffice) to start this business. New Amazon sellers usually make around $42,000 per year in profits, with prospects only looking up there onwards.
Activewear Line
As mentioned above, inclination towards personal health and fitness has also resulted in a skyrocketing of the activewear lines all around the globe, so much so that the activewear industry is estimated to be worth nearly $100 billion by 2023.
Here lies your choice of how to invest your $10,000 to start this business. Either source a partnership deal with a supplier, sell the activewear apparel on e-commerce platforms, or design and craft your own indie brand.
3D Printing
This obscure yet unfathomably innovative technology was introduced last decade and has now taken over the world in terms of its demand for manufacturing different products down to very nitty-gritty custom sizes, with the potential to print – well, everything.
The worldwide market for 3D printing products and services was valued at around 12.6 billion US dollars in 2020. To start off this business from your initial $10,000 investment, put aside around $200-$500 for your 3D printer, and the rest go on office space and marketing.
Online Reseller
Investment-wise cheap and yielding high results in terms of sales and profitability, this really is a superior market at the moment. Millennials and Gen Z-ers are really attracted to the idea of thrifted or resold items. Just in the apparel sector alone, the market is projected to double in five years, reaching $51 Billion.
To start this business with your $10,000, just research and settle on a good quality niche with high demand value and use platforms like eBay or Amazon, etc., to operate.
Liquidated Inventory Sales
It’s a common retail practice to have lots of unused or, in some cases, defective product stock up that ultimately needs to be sold to the liquidators who either auction them off to further liquidators or to end-customers who may be interested. Interestingly there is a staggering $1.1 trillion inventory loss accumulated by retailers worldwide, according to Conveyco.
Get in touch with retailers selling products to be liquidated and set up an operations workflow on how you manage your sales.
Apparel Line
Who isn’t buying clothes? This massive $1.9 Trillion industry is only expected to grow to $3 Trillion by 2030. Owing to the COVID-19 onset, the apparel purchase has sizably increased.
In order to start your own apparel business through your $10,000 investment, design your own line to ensure cost and resource-friendly practical applications within your process workflow. Our tip is to start small with a small range of items and then gradually branch out. Make sure to market the devil out of your line!
Entertainment
People love to be entertained. Being one of the largest industries worldwide, there are more facets and niches to this than we can count. We have still come up with a list of careers you could opt for, which would cost you $10k or less in terms of startup investment with great money-back guarantees.
Portable Charging Station
This is an amazing opportunity to take advantage of. Charging phones and devices on the go has become a basic everyday necessity. Picking what niche to invest your $10,000 isn’t necessarily always about the markets most appealing towards the general public, but finding industries that are deceptively high-in-demand, but no one’s paying attention.
The portable charging battery industry is expected to reach a whopping $18 Billion market value worldwide by 2023. Just ready your investment to get those charging stations.
Photo Booth Rentals
Set up your photo booths to bring in the people to smile and say cheese! Photo booths are propped in all sorts of events ranging from baby showers to even corporate events. The industry has been valued at about $400 Million as of 2020.
The major investment out of your $10,000 budget lies in getting the camera equipment, buying and creating props, and booking gigs through marketing. You’ll make back the money in just the first few events, and it’s only uphill from there.
Outdoor Adventures
This may have been an off-limits industry in the last year, seeing as the stats spoke for themselves. New data suggest that the travel and tourism industry in the United States suffered a loss of $766 Billion in 2020 due to the ongoing pandemic. Yikes.
However, countries are opening state lines back up. As life resumes to normalcy, the market is expected to get an exponential surge to make up for the time people couldn’t go out to travel. If you’ve got the skills and knowledge for tourism guidance, monetize it!
Event Planning
Event planning is also going to see a rise in demand in a post covid world. Social gatherings will again become more acceptable both legally and socially. People will always have an event to gather at, be it professional or entertainment-related. The events organization industry is expected to reach $1,552.9 Billion by 2028.
Since your clients will be covering most of the event cost, work under the provided budget and utilize your initial $10,000 budget to acquire event planning certifications.
Inflatables Rentals
Inflatables at the right parties, events, or stand-off spaces are a fun addition to any neighborhood’s entertainment value. And it’s not a difficult one to get into. This industry surprisingly has an annual turnover of $10 Billion worldwide, which is, yes – a lot.
To start this business with your $10,000 investment, you won’t be needing any extra charges for office space. Just invest in inflatables of varying sizes, dimensions, and magnitudes based on the client’s demands.
Home Improvement & Maintenance
People naturally have a high affinity with the places where they reside, and things tend to break or wear and tear with time. The home improvement, repair, and maintenance industry is definitely a more hands-on option in terms of career opportunities. However, it is one with a considerable demand still.
Landscaping
If getting down and dirty to weed out and professionally landscape customer grounds isn’t too bad to you, then let us tell you that the industry numbers back its profitability up. Statistics from the IBIS World Landscaping Services Industry Report show that the landscape services industry has a market size of $105.1 Billion as of 2021.
There are multiple subfields within this with what kind of landscaping services you can provide. Wisely invest money in your equipment and maintenance, and you’re good to go.
Home Staging
Real estate involves more than just showing the property and selling the home. In what light the property is shown adds a lot to its final sale. A staged home helps buyers visualize that. 82% of buyer’s agents said home staging makes it easier for prospective buyers to visualize the property as a future home.
What you’ll need the most are some good home-décor skills and an eye for visual aesthetics. Budget the interior items according to your available investment at hand.
Home Inspection Business
Real estate and homeownership are on the rise. So much so that the Washington Post reports an 11 percent increase in new home sales. This is, in fact, causing a shortage in the home demands.
This is prime time to invest in home inspection services. To start this business with your $10,000, you’ll first of all need a completed certification program, as well as the necessary insurances to protect your errors and general liabilities.
Handyman Services
There’s no shame in fixing house repairs and working on its maintenance. It’s actually a huge business market. The market size, measured by revenue, of the Handyman Service Franchises industry, is $4.4 Billion as of 2021.
What you’ll need above all is the right set of tools and equipment and deciding on a niche handyman service – or you could do it all. Just make sure to have a good grip on all these home repair skills.
Furniture Repair & Refinishing
Furniture is bound to get wears and tears over time, leading to the need for repair, refinishing, and re-upholstery. People on average like to invest more in more long-lasting products rather than opting to immediately replace and buy a new one. The market size of the Furniture Repair & Reupholstery industry is reported to be $1.6 Billion in 2021.
Either you can learn carpentry and general reupholstery skills or outsource the work to actual professionals to do the refinishing for you. Either model is profitable.
Deck/Outdoor Furniture Building
Summer is upon us. As the world opens back – the economy starts showing signs of recovery again – people will get out into their lawns, backyards, or patios and like them to be decked with outdoor furniture or other repairs. The outdoor furniture market is set to grow by $8.27 Billion during 2020-2024.
Acquire the relevant power tools and material equipment with your $10,000 investment and set to work – or again, outsource the work to other professionals.
Appliance Repair & Maintenance
This crucial industry benefited by nearly every person across America actually rakes in a lot of money annually and is a $3.9 Billion industry in 2021. Home visits to repair faulty appliances or ensure their annual maintenance holds a lot of monetary value.
To start this business in $10,000, all you’ll need is the relevant power tools and equipment as well as a dedicated automobile – preferably a van – to run these jobs. Spend the rest on your branding and marketing.
Real Estate Investing
Real estate fell off for a while over the past year owing to the worldwide pandemic, but it’s back with a vengeance, and people can’t jump in and invest fast enough. According to IBISWorld, the industry revenue is expected to grow by 3.5% in 2021.
Real estate investment, though thrives better under hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of investment, but that’s not the end-all, be-all. You can start with as little as $10,000 by investing in commercially underappreciated properties or real estate wholesaling.
Creatives & Visual Arts
Technological advances around the world have resulted in a wide demographic out there who pay considerable amounts for creative and visual arts services. These demands can be custom or purchasing ready-to-buy products. Still, with the right strategies matched with the right business ideas, your $10,000 will yield you substantial numbers.
Video Production
Video production, editing, and filming are more and more becoming integrated with companies’ operational synergies. A skill like video production can be monetized pretty easily with almost no worries about making money back. According to Statista, the video and film industry values currently at about $286 Billion.
Good quality equipment is sure to cost you quite a bit of your $10,000 investment chunk, but it’s a necessary purchase. The rest lies in just acquiring the relevant clients.
Drone Photography & Videography
Digital media is all the rage, and well-shot photographs and videos are in high demand, pushing consumers to pay good money for these. It’s been just over the last decade when the drone industry took over, and boy did they ever. According to Statista, sales of US consumer drones to dealers surpassed $1.25 billion in 2020.
The necessary equipment, including your drone, will cost around $5,000+, but again, that money payback is guaranteed.
Niche Magazine
Content curation is still very much in – the only difference is that people prefer to read things on the go, through platforms. Digital publishing revenue in the United States is expected to continually grow to around 35 Billion US dollars by 2025.
Find an underappreciated but interesting niche and start working on content creation for whatever your magazine might entail. To start your business in $10,000 in this field would be an easy task, so long as you find a digital platform with a decent public outreach.
Self-Publishing
Publishing your own book is, though, an esteemed feeling. A manuscript most often than not sees a plethora of challenges and rejections before it can get the rights to get published. If it gets the right to get published. This is why writers have focused more on liberating from this dependency and self-publishing. Almost 300m self-published units generated $1.25 billion in sales in 2016, in the US, in a $6 Billion industry.
Put your investment in publishing an e-book or contact beginner publications to push through for your book.
Portrait Studio
If running a portrait studio has been a lifelong dream of yours, we’re here to tell you that it can absolutely be achieved in your select investment budget of $10,000 or less and prove to be lucrative too. The profit for first-year for a home-based photography studio is projected to be between 25-41% ROI.
You’ll be able to get all your necessary studio equipment in around $5,000 or a bit more. At the same time, you can invest the rest in finding the right studio space. Nothing too big or fancy.
Other exciting ideas for startup businesses under 10k
As mentioned earlier, there is a wide range of opportunities outside the industries, ranging from selling various products or services online to more engaged job ventures. These ideas depict multiple more miscellaneous ways in which you can profit reasonably through a startup business without breaking the bank.
Become a blogger
Now, this is a job of the 21st century. Blog writing has taken over the world with statistics so wild, you wouldn’t believe them. More than 3 out of 4 internet users read blogs regularly. Also, more than half of marketers accept blogging as the most important content strategy.
Becoming a blogger requires practice and patience and no real investment out the gate. You can spend money to get relevant courses to sharpen your skills and start your own blog or write for others.
Create Apps
Needless to say, mobile applications and applications, in general, have eased the hard burden of a lot of tasks for us and increased efficiency significantly. The global mobile application market size is projected to reach a hefty $407.31 Billion by 2026.
In order to start this business with your $10,000, invest money in getting courses and certifications that validate your authenticity and knowledge threshold. Once you have the technical know-how, create stand-alone apps or for corporate industries.
Digital marketing consultant
Corporate companies do not take a single step without receiving valuable insights and mitigating every possible risk before making any marketing move. A marketing consultant is a position valued by most white-collar organizations – even smaller ones now. The Global Marketing Consulting market will grow by USD 22 billion as we reach 2024.
Try to study and research the field as much as possible before delving inside. Make sure to create a marketable image of yourself towards any brand you may approach.
E-commerce portal
Sales have shifted to the internet almost entirely, and only a matter of time before most sales are conducted online. As of 2020, about 10-11% of surveyed manufacturers and distributors revealed that about 80-100% of their revenues was generated through eCommerce portals.
Did this interest you? Well, it can be made possible through your $10k investment. All you need are the technical certifications and know-how to build said portals, and companies will start lining up.
Flipping Domain
In 2011, Facebook paid a massive $8.5 Million to acquire the domain name fb.com. The incredulous pricing and market for domain flipping continue as multiple more stories, and cases like this surface, including the most expensive domain name called cars.com, was sold for $872 million.
Domain flipping is tricky since most of the names are already listed under certain registrars. However, multiple technologies exist to track down unused or expired domains.
Live to stream
Streamers are all the rage as live streaming becomes a prime source of entertainment and infotainment every day. Global Live Streaming Market will reach $247,275 Million by 2027.
Though this isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme since you would certainly have a considerable amount of time to build an audience big enough to start generating you any income, once you’re in, it’s a pretty flowing revenue stream, we can promise you that.
Making chatbots
Oh yes – this is no longer a small niche market anymore. According to Insider, by 2024, Insider Intelligence predicts that consumer retail spending via chatbots worldwide will reach $142 billion—up from just $2.8 billion in 2019. That stat is projected to go up more than 100%!
To get into this business with your $10k investment, start with studying up for the relevant technical computer courses right away and diversifying your portfolio by working on as many gigs as possible.
Online freelancing
Gone are the days when freelancing sounded like a loner’s job. Now 35% of the global workforce is freelance. Over the next few years, 52% of the US adult workforce is expected to work freelance or have otherwise worked as an independent contributor.
Being the agency’s supervisor, you don’t require any of the practical skill sets required from a freelancer to complete a certain job. Just set up a commission-based model and invest in a competent Business Development resource to fetch your clientele.
We did describe starting up a freelance agency before, but why not become yourself? If you perform better solo and don’t have any trouble sourcing clients yourself, then becoming an online freelancer might be the move for you. Plus, being online offers you the possibility of dealing with a clientele of a wide regional demographic. Upwork reported that freelancing income stood at almost a staggering $1 Trillion in 2019.
As said before, to succeed, focus on increasing your portfolio size, whatever field of freelancing you may choose.
Online learning or tutoring
COVID-19 keeps affecting various industries in different ways. While some suffered considerably, there are others like online tutoring and teaching that made tides exponentially all across the globe. And though the pandemic is dying down, the concept of online tutoring has seasoned the world for this mode of education. The Online Tutoring Market is projected to grow by $132.21 Billion during 2020-2024.
Online tutoring is not very hard and does not require much investment, just a strong grasp on the topics you offer to teach.
Pet grooming
Pets are loved all across America, with owners willing to spend generous amounts of money grooming their little (or big) animal friends. As of 2021, the pet grooming & boarding industry is valued at a whopping $8.81 Billion in the US alone.
Start this business with your $10k by purchasing your kit of necessary products and equipment and a pet grooming van or office to conduct your business out of. Customers with their pets will flock in (quite literally).
Real estate appraiser
Real estate properties often require appraisals to increase the value of the said property to sell it better in terms of its mortgage, loans, etc., and increase the credibility of any property. The market size, measured by revenue, of the Real Estate Appraisal industry, is $9.8 Billion in 2021.
With the right legal certifications, and connections with realtors to appraise their property, you could gradually garner enough experience to become a credible real estate appraiser.
Sell decorative knick-knacks and potteries, homemade paper bags, or rug bags online.
Handmade items, accessories, and goodies such as bags, décor items, pottery, etc., have a specific niche market out there, so much so that the small business sales on Etsy contribute on average $4.7 Billion to the US economy.
These small businesses are small only in their magnitude, not in terms of profitability. Find your own niche, and through your $10k investment, either design your own products or outsource from suppliers who do.
SEO consultant
Businesses are now more SEO-conscious of what content they put on their websites than ever. This has never made more difference than now, as search engine ratings for whatever keywords a user may enter could make a difference in making a sale or site visit for a business. This market is expected to reach $103. 24 billion by 2025.
Practice the industry ins and outs regarding what SEO writing requires and offer your services on online platforms to companies in need.
Stock and trading
The stock and trading industry isn’t as daunting as it sounds. You just haven’t been researching in the right places. If done right, it can passively reap thousands of dollars in a year. The US represents about 55.9% of the total global stock market capitalization. Whereas 55% of US adults have money in the stock market.
The bull market in 2021 after the decline of the COVID-19 is looking promising. The possibilities of what you can do with your 10k in this market are endless.
Website themes
How are your web design skills? If you possess the necessary skills and knowledge on how to design and develop website themes, you can make a good fortune out of it. Design themes that universally look appealing and can be deployed by customers from a wide variety of different industries.
We suggest going with WordPress to start off. WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system powering 34% of all websites on the internet.
WordPress Plugins
On top of the themes, all websites require some base-level functionality, or in some cases, some very specific or custom plugin features. You could be the creator of those! The WordPress Plugin Directory currently features about 55,000+ plugins.
There is no direct overhead cost, so if you wonder what to do with your 10k to start this business, just improve and increase your WordPress knowledge through various offered courses.
YouTube Channel Partner
We all consume YouTube content and see the ads of content creators over their videos. We’re also aware of how lucrative these ads are for these creators, which is why YouTube Channel Partners is an emerging industry responsible for getting creators different sponsors, responsible for the ads placed on their video, and getting commission for providing these services. According to YouTube’s Partner Program, YouTube’s ad revenue amounted to over five billion US dollars.
Our tip is to research this business venture and establish contacts with both different content creators and brands looking to provide sponsorships.
Conclusion
Phew – That took a while. If you are still reading this, thank you! We hope these business ideas sparked your desire to start your own business in 10K. We tried to cover as many ideas as possible, but we live in a big world, and the business opportunities are endless. Do let us know what you think, and if you have a great business idea for 10K, don’t forget to share it with us in the comment section. We would love to include it on our list.
