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20 Great Online Business Ideas for 2024
Who knew you could be sitting at home with an online business? Thanks to new working norms, 58% of respondents in the American Opportunity Survey say they can work remotely at least part of the time.¹
If you’re interested to see what opportunities you can seize in the digital space, read on. We’ll also look at how Wise Business can help you manage your international business at low cost.
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Best Online Business Ideas
Looking to start an online business, but not sure where to start? This comprehensive list will give you examples of profitable internet business ideas, from virtual tutoring to web design.
Note: There is no particular order here. The best business ideas change with time and technology. Many of these business ideas have been around for a long time, while others have only sprung up in recent years.
What to consider when starting your online business
Here is a small list of things to consider when starting your online business.
| What to consider when starting an online business | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Can you test out the market before quitting your job or investing a lot of money? | Trying to work freelance or do some small projects related to your business of interest may prove useful and even change your opinion on entering the field. |
| Startup costs | Remember to consider how long you have to invest into your business before you generate revenue and profit. Cashflow, for example, is particularly critical for companies selling physical products and can really make it hard to succeed if not managed properly. |
| Working from home | For some individuals, working from home is heaven. For others with pets or young children, it can be the exact opposite. Consider how you will work effectively with your own business, especially if you will need to have meetings with clients. |
| How much do you want or need to earn on a monthly basis? | The self-employed lifestyle sounds good until you’re overcome with work and barely making enough to pay the bills. How much money is enough? After answering this question, consider taking on only enough to meet this number, so you can still maintain a proper work-life balance. |
| Are you close to any potential clients? Similarly, do you have any former co-workers or a portfolio that you can show incoming clients? | Both these questions should be answered on the run-up to starting your business. |
1. Health and Fitness Coaching Business
Health coaches guide clients toward better health and wellness. They might craft personalized nutrition plans, provide motivational support, and promote habits for sustainable, healthy living.
Often, health coaching goes hand-in-hand with fitness coaching. Being an online fitness instructor requires you to combine creating workout routines and guiding clients virtually. They inspire people to stay fit and active and motivate them throughout the workout session.
Why start a health and fitness coaching business?
- It can be high-paying with only a few clients
- You get to transform the lives of your clients
- You get to live a lifestyle centered around health and fitness
2. Life and Career Coaching Business
The role of a general coach involves helping clients navigate life’s challenges, achieve personal goals, and hone in on their potential. This could span career advice, personal development, and time management strategies.
Coaches are not therapists, yet they do provide skills, tools, and advice to help get their clients on a better path.
If you’re considering coaching, your background does play a big role. Your expertise will often attract specific clients. Let’s say you were in a management position, then you can do coaching for executives or individuals aspiring to be in a management role.
Why start a life and career coaching business?
- It can be high-paying with only a few clients
- You get to help people achieve their personal and professional goals
- Coaching has become a hit industry is expected to continue growing with a 14% CAGR in 2023²
3. Content, SEO, and Ghostwriting Services
Whether it’s blog posts, articles, or social media content, writers help create engaging online material that informs and entertain readers. In recent years, many agencies have popped up that focus on written products. They are typically skilled in adopting the style and tone of voice of a company. In addition, they know how to rank on Google or write copy that sells.
An individual consultant can only do so much without burning out or lowering their quality. This requires them to either hire more consultants or limit their skills to a few reliable and trustworthy clients. With specific technical knowledge in the areas of law, accounting, finance, and medicine, writers can charge a much higher fee for their services. Along with this idea, many new businesses will choose one section to focus on, such as writing for social media.
Why start a content, SEO, or ghostwriting business?
- Writing is still the primary way of communicating simple and complex information
- If you’re entering these services with any specialized knowledge, your skills in these areas could get you a higher salary
- Low startup costs
4. Graphic Design Business
Ever imagined making money with your visual creativity? Online graphic designers work to make stunning designs for clients by hand or using software to visually communicate an idea to their audience.
Graphic designers can work for themselves, or they can also grow their business through hiring more talent under them. As always, scaling this endeavor will mean that your online business will change its focus from just creating visual art and designs to managing a business.
Why start a graphic design business?
- Interesting projects that demand your creativity
- Businesses of all sizes seek design help because branding is crucial to their success
- AI may serve to help graphic designers scale their businesses even further
5. Recruiting Company
Think of a recruiting coordinator as a matchmaker for jobs. You’ll connect the right people with the right jobs, coordinate hiring processes, and keep interviews running smoothly. In niche industries, recruiting skills may be needed for finding and attracting the right talent. These services might also come in handy when a company is hiring someone without enough knowledge or know-how to interview them. This is how your new business can fill the gap!
Why start a recruiting company?
- Global client base that is seeking new talent
- Solving crucial problems for your clients
- Specialized knowledge in science, law, engineering, and other industries mean you can separate yourself from the competition
6. Virtual Assistant Services
A virtual assistant is like a modern-day secretary with a tech twist. Duties include managing tasks like scheduling appointments, answering emails, or even social media management.
Why start a virtual assistant business?
- Work with a small client base
- Use your organizational and communication skills
- Work tasks in a number of areas
Are you looking for a no-nonsense account to manage your business funds?
Wise will help you receive your hard-earned funds, keep your personal and business finances separate, track your cash flow, set budgets, and handle cross-currency transactions.
| Some features Wise Business users love |
|---|
| Receive Payments like a local: Businesses can pay a one-time fee for account details in global currencies, such as USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, so they can receive money without any additional fees |
| Account Software Integration: QuickBooks, FreshBooks, Xero, Sage, and Wave |
| Batch Payment Tools: Pay up to 1,000 invoice in one instance |
| An International Account: Hold 40+ currencies at once |
| Transparency: Wise Business is trying to get rid of all your business account fees |
Looking to send low-cost international payments?
Trustpilot: Excellent ⁴
Send Money: Free account registration to send international transfers
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7. Online Teach, Tutor, Course Creator
Online educators find joy and purpose in helping students master a specific topic, such as foreign languages, math, or music. Through digital platforms, you’ll conduct lessons and make learning fun.
Teachers and tutors can also develop self-paced courses and downloadable products with their knowledge. These courses add more scalability to your work and allow you to make extra money outside of teaching individual students.
What are the benefits of online teaching?
- Teach something you care about
- Choose your own subject and audience (children, teenagers, adults)
- Can develop scalable products for self-paced learners
8. Web Development Business
This in-demand job isn’t just intellectually stimulating, but also an extremely lucrative business idea that pays well above average. You’ll be tasked with creating and building websites and applications.
For instance, experts in WordPress wear many hats. They can design beautiful and functional websites, perform updates, and troubleshoot site issues. Provided you have the technical know-how, it’s a great online business idea, as the pay is great and has the chance to scale into a consultancy or agency.
What are the benefits of a web development business?
- It is an in-demand business internationally
- Web development generally pays well
- Solve complex problems and help people at the same time
9. Affiliate marketer, Influencer, Blogging Business
Affiliate marketers promote a company’s products or services online and earn a commission from sales. They typically do this through a referral link, which tracks the eventual buyers and attributes the sale to the affiliate. Using smart marketing tactics, you can build relationships and generate income. This business has become popular in recent years with individuals using various tactics to make money through blogging, social media, and podcasting.
In essence, you build a brand around a specific niche, and you make partnerships with companies that believe you can sell their products to your audience. On many occasions, you start just by checking out their affiliate program and the percentage they give on a sale. If you’re selling a lot of their products, it pays for you to try to negotiate a higher percentage or a better deal directly with them.
What are the benefits of an affiliate marketing business?
- Talk about subjects you’re passionate about
- Use your creativity to place yourself in the right niche
- Use your sales and marketing skills to earn more
10. Event Planning Services
If you love planning get-togethers, event planning could be the best online business idea for you. From home, you can arrange everything from corporate functions to birthday parties, handling the venue selection, catering, and guest lists. However, this one does come with a caveat: In-person events will still (most likely) be a component of this job
What are the benefits of event planning services?
- Offers the benefit of working from home
- A large amount of potential clients regardless of industry
- Meet people from many professional backgrounds
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10. Online Sales and Marketing Consultancy
Online sales and marketing consultancies are in frequent demand for a variety of services. They can help a sales team learn how to better pitch products, close deals, maintain customer relationships, and keep the shopping experience smooth.
Marketing consultancies can alter a brand’s image, provide a digital marketing strategy, write and create content, manage a company’s social media channels, and even dive into the specific makeup of a website.
What are the benefits of an online sales and marketing agency?
- Many specific areas where you can specialize: conversion rate optimization, search engine optimization, social media, paid search, and more.
- A large potential client base across industries and countries
- Can start finding clients easily through word of mouth or on freelance websites, such as Upwork.
11. Vacation and Travel Planning Business
Virtual vacation planners plan and organize dream holidays for clients, tailoring itineraries, booking accommodation and transport, and offering travel advice. Your role is to make sure every traveler’s journey is smooth, enjoyable, and memorable. It’s an easy online business idea, provided you have the talent!
What are the benefits of a vacation and travel planning business?
- Knowledge of a specific region or country, as well as the local language, can help you attract a client base
- Can be seasonal (also can be a disadvantage), which allows you to relax during a certain part of the year
- You can work from anywhere on the planet
12. Helpdesk, Customer Support, and Chat Services
Customer support services handle client issues, resolve technical problems, and provide user-friendly solutions. In many instances nowadays, these jobs are outsourced. That’s because someone else can do it more cheaply and efficiently. That’s not to say you can’t earn any money doing it. For example, small businesses might not be able to afford an in-house team, so they would rather go with an external company.
What are the benefits of customer support services?
- Flexible hours, which are linked to the locations of your clients’ markets
- Specific skills in areas such as IT will help your business earn more
- Upsell possibilities with unique insights and tools that you can provide in addition to your core services
13. Photo, Video, Transcription Services
Photo editors turn raw photos into works of art, using various types of software to enhance and retouch images.
A similar area is video production and editing. This field has blown up with the arrival of social media. Businesses in this area can help edit short-form and long-form videos, give guidance about how to make videos better, and also help transcribe text to ensure that it gets the attention it deserves.
What are the benefits of photo, video, and transcription services?
- Use your creativity to produce new works of art
- Learning a niche or a bit of sales and marketing can pay off
- Narrow your clients to a few select projects
14. Bookkeeping Business
Bookkeepers manage financial records, track transactions, and make sure accounts are accurate. They’ll also answer specific questions about taxation that allow them to charge a hefty hourly fee for.
Why start a bookkeeping business?
- Low startup costs
- Work from wherever you want
- Relatively low barrier to entry
15. Data Entry Business
Data entry is important as an individual job, as a data entry clerk’s main task is entering, updating, and cross-checking data in digital databases. They also may be tasked to transcribe and process forms, which requires sharp attention to detail and strong typing skills.
Data entry can be done at scale and with more technical ability, you can request a higher fee for the doing this service.
Why start a data entry business?
- Large client pool
- International potential for clients
- Specialized knowledge means higher pay
16. Proofreading and Editing Services
To become a proofreader, you’ll need a sharp eye to spot grammatical errors and poor punctuation and be able to refine content to perfection.
Why start a proofreading and editing business?
- Flexibility to work whenever or wherever you want
- Those with attention to detail and understand of copywriting are well-suited for this business path
- Low startup costs and no certification required
17. Ecommerce Store Owner
Ecommerce has been around for a while now, and it isn’t going away anytime soon. It’s predicted to grow 39% by 2027.³ Ecommerce businesses have found a distinct advantage in eliminating costs and expanding to new markets. They often have done this through using digital marketing and online marketplaces to their advantage, which is something many larger companies still struggle to do well.
Why start an ecommerce store?
- Access to international markets, means lower costs and expanding your selling possibilities
- Many online ecommerce platforms exist to help you grow, such as Amazon, Etsy, Ebay
- Social media makes marketing your products easier, especially sites with organic reach
18. Homemade Arts and Craft Business
There’s a reason why Amazon recently added their own handmade goods section to their website—it’s because this area of ecommerce is bustling with artisan sellers who are making a fortune selling their products. For many businesses in this niche, they are selling jewelry, art, clothing, and more on sites like Etsy, Pinterest, and Instagram.
If your creativity is limitless, you will be able to develop a string of handmade products that you can sell across platforms.
Why start a homemade arts and crafts business?
- Monetize your hobby or creative abilities
- Form an audience around your art
- Ecommerce platforms, such as Etsy, Amazon, and Pinterest, make selling your goods easier
Looking to send low-cost international payments?
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19. Translation and Localization Agency
Those who have amazing language skills can launch an online business as a translator or engage in content localization. This can help companies bridge the gap between a global brand and a local market
Why start a translation and localization agency?
- Work with people from different countries and cultures
- Scale up or scale down your client base to meet your needs
- Work from anywhere in the world
20. Renting your space
Got extra space or a second apartment? Why not list your spare room or entire property on home-rental platforms like Airbnb?
Why rent your space?
- Lucrative in cities and touristic places
- Relatively low maintenance
- Can scale up to other properties over time
Where to find customers for your online business: A List of Sites and Options
In a technology-driven world, finding online clients and business opportunities has become more accessible and diverse. Not sure where to start?
Take a look at these strategies and platforms:
Word of Mouth:
This option is always the most popular, as some of your biggest advocates are those closest to you, and they can vouch for your skills in and abilities before you start reeling in clients. But, don't forget that even your friends have a limit, and you should be able to deliver to ensure clients keeping in further down the line.
Another point with online business is that your friends might also be more accommodating to your situation than strangers, so it could be good to talk to friends first.
LinkedIn:
This professional networking platform also serves as a marketplace for jobs. Make sure your profile is optimized, portray your expertise and engage with content relevant to your industry.
You can even get a subscription to LinkedIn that will help you reach out to individuals outside your network and dramatically increase your client base if you're looking to take on more work.
Freelance Job Boards:
Freelancer websites are one of the best places to find clients for your online business. They also often provide resources and even tax documents to their customers. Of course, it is important to understand that they do charge an additional fee for the pleasure of using their services.
Here are a few examples:
Regular Job Boards:
When I write regular job boards, I mean job boards that are known for offering full-time jobs.
Here's a short list of those job websites:
- Indeed
- ZipRecruiter
- Glassdoor
- Monster
- CareerBuilder
Industry Events and Job Boards:
Conferences, webinars, and meetings could open doors to job opportunities in real time. Plus, face-to-face networking often helps in creating a lasting impression.
Networking:
Never underestimate the power of connections. Your network may well know of unadvertised consulting opportunities.
What now? How to start a successful online business
We’ve spent time discussing the potential ideas that you can choose. Starting any business - whether online or physical - follows a similar process. The first step is to identify your area of interest or expertise. Let’s go over the next steps after finding your idea and expertise.
| Quick Summary: How to Start a Business |
|---|
| 1. Decide the industry you want to enter - consider your skill set and interests, as well as the health and profitability of different industries. From here, you can decide what’s best for you |
| 2. Find a name for your business - a name can make or break a business. |
| 3. Look for gaps in the market, or the specific niche you want to specialize in - do your research and find out what’s missing in the market, and what is in high demand. |
| 4. Research what is required to succeed by looking at your future competitors and current market leaders - analyzing your competitors and market leaders is key to understanding the industry you’re involved in, as well as your consumers. |
| 5. Formulate a business plan and invest in the necessary capital - creating a strong business plan simplifies your work, and allows you to invest your money in only what is necessary to your success. 6. Formulate a detailed marketing plan - a detailed marketing plan is one of the last steps in the process, but an equally important one. |
In the world of today, a strong, well-planned marketing campaign is absolutely crucial to your business’s success.
Manage your Business Finances with Wise
Launching an online business doesn’t have to be difficult when it comes to the financial aspect, thanks to Wise Business. Opening a Wise Business account helps you start off your journey at a low cost, without any hidden fees.
You can keep your personal and business finances separate, track your cash flow, and handle cross-currency transactions with minimal costs, allowing you to reach customers all around the world!
| Some features Wise Business users love |
|---|
| Receive Payments like a local: Businesses can pay a one-time fee for account details in global currencies, such as USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, so they can receive money without any additional fees |
| Account Software Integration: QuickBooks, FreshBooks, Xero, Sage, and Wave |
| Batch Payment Tools: Pay up to 1,000 invoice in one instance |
| An International Account: Hold 40+ currencies at once |
| Transparency: Wise Business is trying to get rid of all your business account fees |
Looking to send low-cost international payments?
Trustpilot: Excellent ⁴
Send Money: Free account registration to send international transfers
Receive Money: Get local account details after one-time fee: USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, and more
See the Best Banks for Small Businesses >>
Sources:
*Please see terms of use and product availability for your region or visit Wise fees and pricing for the most up to date pricing and fee information.
This publication is provided for general information purposes and does not constitute legal, tax or other professional advice from Wise Payments Limited or its subsidiaries and its affiliates, and it is not intended as a substitute for obtaining advice from a financial advisor or any other professional.
We make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether expressed or implied, that the content in the publication is accurate, complete or up to date.
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