This article has been written by Zoya Naqvi. Zoya is an editor, educator, blogger, spiritual seeker, former TV anchor, and women advocate. She loves being with her family, meditating, teaching, eating out, making plans and chit-chatting all night with her close friends.

When I was researching for this write-up, intended to focus on “low-investment” business ideas only, I did some calculations and analyzed market trends too. Therefore, in this article, I will share business ideas suitable for the majority of people landing here – ideas that will interest all those who do not want to risk a huge amount of financial investment and are looking for low-investment possibilities to start with, or those who are essentially looking for passive-income or extra money such as stay-at-home moms, anyone planning on shifting their life-style from the 9-5 rut to that of an entrepreneur or simply looking for a part-time project.

Fact is the best and almost risk-free idea is always to start with a service-based business. Some of the ideas below are online while others are more like remote jobs hence you can modify work-related aspects according to your strengths and resources. Here is the list of a few low-to-no investment business ideas:

1. Travel Agency

I will start my list with a travel agency business or becoming a travel agent, where you can charge per project or per client. This is more of a business idea, but some people do this on a part-time basis too. As a travel agent building a small business or even working for one, you need to spread the word that you take people to tours and arrange accommodation too; market your business enough to help you acquire clients.

If you can do this alone, great! Else, you can hire someone full-time or collaborate with a service provider who may be able to support you remotely. For running this venture, you might need a partner or two who can act as a backup and work as a POC when you are not present. Select the destination, connect with the hotels and other vendors you might need, sign the contract with a transport company so they can get in touch with you when you finalize the trip for your customers, and most importantly reach out to tourists. You can sign a deal for sharing a certain amount of revenue only or whatever all parties mutually agree to.

2. Event Planner

Everybody is blessed with unique strengths and some people are great at coordination, and planning activities or events. If you find yourself associating more with the planner in you, and think you can execute ideas as planned, you should start an event planning business. You can have a dedicated workplace where you can meet with your clients or you could simply go to meet your clients wherever they may be in order to discuss and finalize whatever they want for their event. This option also allows you to independently run the event management and PR business remotely, while you coordinate with your clients and vendors over the phone. However, being physically present where the event or preparation is taking place and/or spending maximum time with the vendors will result in a better outcome due to direct and clear communication with the team on the ground.

3. Mobile Masseuse

Speaking of mobile businesses and services, you can start masseuse services, if you’re a trained masseuse or massage therapist. If you are not a trained therapist or masseuse, you can hire a group of trained resource on a contract basis, where you can pay them per project. Your mobile business will be structured such that you or your hired staff could travel to where the customers may be. A mobile van will, therefore, present the best option to keep you on the move if necessary and also provide you with a place that can be utilized to deliver services, while everything else is coordinated over the phone. This business will, however, need the right kind of marketing – you must remember referral marketing, in this case, can be highly effective to earn you widespread endorsement and more clients.

4. Makeup Artist

This idea can also fall into the remote business category, in the sense, the makeup artist sets up an appointment with a customer and visits them for delivering services. The job can be outsourced too so that the business owner markets and acquires clients and sends over the makeup artist to deliver goods. Alternatively, you can even dedicate a corner in your apartment and set it up for the provision of makeup services – such an arrangement can be utilized occasionally or as per the flow of orders, primarily to suit your convenience.

5. Start Your Drop-Shipping Venture

For drop-shipping business, the idea is simple whether you are working with a local eCommerce store e.g. Alibaba, Ali express, Shopify or Amazon — you have to buy the stock, store it, pick it, pack it, and ship it. This allows you to sell your products to the clients living overseas along with the local market. Nevertheless, before you do anything, you need to comprehend the fact of how crucial your supplier is in this chain.

The supplier can be from your local market and overseas too, depending upon the products you plan on selling, not to forget which of the two options is the more cost-effective. Choose your supplier sensibly, a bad supplier can destroy the image of your business equally for your loyal and newly acquired clients. And the repercussions of this could be as big as losing your hard-earned clients forever. As an end note, you can also create your own shop and sell the products in a particular niche through your own business.

6. Create An Online Fashion Store

If you follow fashion magazines, and stay in touch with the latest trends online or have an eye for that, you can easily start your own online store, following the model of drop-shipping. You can add more than just dresses, shoes, bags, jewelry, swimwear and accessories – in fact, whatever suits you and your business the most. This business also does not require a high-level investment however you must ensure the supplier is reliable and delivers the product on time without compromise on quality.

Conclusion

Most low-investment business ideas greatly rely on high-speed internet whether it is to assist at dealing with the suppliers, building an online presence, marketing the product or coordinating with the customers. All six notions discussed above qualify as low-to-no investment business ideas – certainly, you will find many more ideas talked about online – and you can also invent your own utilizing available resources while relying on your own ability to work smart!