Marianne was bored at work so she quickly went to Google to look up small business ideas for women.

You see Marianne knew fully well that she was made for so much more than a corporate job.

Ever since she was in Elementary school Marianne dreamt of running her own business.

The biggest problem that she faced is not knowing what kind of business to start.

Over 50 years ago there were not many options when it came to starting a low-cost business.

However, with the invention of the Internet, there are so many options available in a variety of categories.

If you are like Marianne let me know if any of these sound familiar.

You are constantly bombarded with amazing ideas every week It would be nice if you had a business partner to get started with you A business coach to show you the way is one thing you crave The inability to take action is the one thing holding you back You have $10,000 or less available to start a business

If only there was a way to find a resource that acts as a bridge to help you on your business journey.

In this post, you’ll find an amazing list of business ideas that you can use to get started right away.

You’ll also learn what you need to do to find your first paying customer or client.

Do You Need a Business Plan?

For many years I was led to believe that my attempts at starting and running a business failed because I didn’t have a business plan.

The folks at Dragon’s Den, Shark Tank and The Profit will cringe when they read my next sentence.

You actually don’t need a business plan to start a business.

There, I said it. Haha!

This is especially true if you are not quite sure what exactly you want to do.

It is also true if you are not looking for outside investors or a loan to get started.

The truth is that you can start working with clients right away if you have a system in place.

If you are offering software as a service like Todoist or ClickUp then you would need a business plan.

So, depending on your business model and the funding required to get the business off the ground you may need a business plan.

Maybe you just want to be super organised and put everything down in writing.

I have a blog business plan resource that you can use to do just that.

How to Fund Your Business

Depending on where you live in the world, there are several ways to get funding for your business idea.

Funding for your business also depends on the type of business you want to start.

Here are some questions you’ll need to consider.

What’s your business model? How do you plan to get your first 5 customers? Who will you be selling to? (B2B, B2C) What equipment is needed to run your business? Where will you conduct your business? (online or offline) How will you process transactions? What does the customer experience look like?

A person running an e-commerce shop will need a different set of business tools compared to a coach or consultant.

Spend some time carefully considering the type of business you want to run in order to figure out the funding.

If you have no idea what you need to get started then there may be ways that I can help.

This 5-day start your business challenge may be just the thing you need.

Your business can be funded by family, friends, a bank loan, a business grant or using an overdraft or credit card.

N.B. I’m not a qualified financial consultant so it’s important for you to get the right financial advice on how to fund your business responsibly.

Who is Your Customer?

A few years ago when I got started in business I had no idea how important this is for entrepreneurs.

Don’t worry if you have no idea who your ideal client avatar is right now.

The most important thing is realising that you’ll need to get clear on this person in order to scale.

Promoting your business is vital to getting clients to sign up with you.

However, if your message is not clear then your potential customers will not take action.

Here are a few things you’ll need to know about your audience.

Age range Gender Where do they live? (country, city) Do they live in a house or an apartment? Their neighbourhood, what does it look like? What are their daily, weekly, monthly or annual challenges? Outline their biggest needs? The kind of problems they are trying to solve personally, financially Their deepest desires and dreams for them and their family, what are they? In terms of their biggest fears, what are they? (not spiders, emotional ones?) Do you get their short-term and long-term goals? Any idea of their good and bad habits? What gets them excited? The stuff that annoys them, what are they? Their passion projects, what are they? Where do they spend the most time online? List the kind of items they spend their money on when they get paid? What type of podcasts do they listen to? Which software and/or apps do they use?

The secret to ensuring that your marketing message resonates with your potential clients is by understanding them.

You’ll also need to use the language that they use when expressing themselves.

Your Customer Journey

Earlier on in this resource, I asked you what your customer experience looks like.

There are actually two aspects to your customer’s experience.

The first is how they felt after interacting with your brand or business on social media platforms which relates to your brand messaging.

On the other hand, there’s the journey of how they become a paying customer and a repeat buyer.

For example, with a hairdressing service, it could be simply placing flyers in letterboxes, a potential customer shows up and gets their hair done.

However, for a business that offers software as a service like Booking.com the experience is very different.

Here’s an image of a typical buyer’s journey for digital businesses.

What may look pretty simple at first may actually be a lot more complicated.

There are 5 stages to the buyer’s journey from a marketing or promotional perspective.

Your audience is at different stages of this journey all at the same time.

So, you’ll need to cater to everyone by ensuring that you have these 5 stages in place.

How to Find a Skill

If you’re like me and you don’t want to transfer your corporate skill into your own business then listen up.

I worked for 18+ years in the corporate world as a salesperson. My last role was as an Account Executive.

However, for most of my corporate life, I was very interested in working as a marketer.

You are probably thinking but isn’t that the same? Lol!!

Let’s say it’s one coin but two different sides. If you want to understand the difference check out marketing vs sales here.

It means that I needed to develop the marketing side of my abilities and niche down to doing an area I enjoyed.

The best way to develop this new skill is by learning and implementing what you learn.

I suggest that you do the same.

If your business requires you to have a certification before practising then work on getting certified.

Here are 5 places where you can find online courses available at affordable prices.

• Udemy
• Coursera
• Skillshare
• Discover by Teachable
• Domestika

As you can see the options to grab a skill are endless for anyone wanting to explore their abilities.

If there’s one thing you need to find as a business owner it’s this.

Discover those skills to keep your happiness levels at an all-time high.

You may decide to settle initially but only offer the skills that you thoroughly enjoy.

100+ Small Business Ideas for Women

Now that you have some background coaching on the things you need to know before starting a business.

Let’s look at a few small business ideas for women.

Quick Start Business Ideas for Women

Getting started in business doesn’t need to be difficult.

Here are 8 business ideas you can start over a weekend.

Rent a room Put your car on Turo for rent Offer an experience or tour on Airbnb Become a celebrity double Rent your bike Sign up to be a delivery driver Host students Rent out your camera

In these examples, you can take something that you already have and rent it out with very little effort and investment on your path.

If you would like to sign up to work as a celebrity double go here.

Rent a Room

Check out the look, feel and price of other local rooms in your area. Declutter other shared areas of your home.

Spruce up the room by adding a few design enhancements like painting, hanging new curtains, adding blinds, replacing old carpets and adding lamps.

Get professional photos of the room and list it for rent.

Renting a bike, camera or car

Check out other listings of similar items. Take a note of what the reviews are on these items, especially what people disliked.

Get the items cleaned and take professional photos of them.

Write eye-catching descriptions for each item and add them to the respective listing.

Create your listing, add your content then go live.

Notice that there will be a little investment required to take professional photos and invest in car detailing (for the car).

Other People’s Property

Depending on your circumstances you may not have access to your own resources which means that you’ll need to get creative.

Here are 7 business ideas using other people’s property

Buy abandoned storage units and sell off items Purchase high value, low cost items at garage sales Buy liquidation pallets and sell off items Sublet a room Purchase abandoned properties and flip them Start selling on Amazon as an FBA seller Purchase property for no money down and rent it out

It will take time for you to develop a knack for spotting items that will sell for a higher price.

However, you’ll get better and better over time.

How to Buy Liquidation Pallets + Abandoned Storage Units

Head over to Google and enter “abandoned storage units” or “liquidation pallets”.

Take a look at the results and a more careful look at the items for sale.

If you’re not sure if the items will be profitable, list them for sale on the Facebook marketplace or other local listings.

Remember to calculate the cost of shipping those goods locally and nationally.

Based on the interest/feedback you can decide whether these items are sellable or not.

Dropshipping Business Ideas for Women

As someone who did drop shipping or online retail for a while, I can tell you that it can be quite easy to get started.

There are 2-3 ways to get started in dropshipping.

Start a clothing store on Shopify selling items from popular brands Develop a print on demand store on Shopify (Printful) Develop your own store on WordPress (using the Woocommerce plugin), sourcing goods from top brands

This will require you to learn the skill over time but you can get started at a pretty low cost.

How to Start Dropshipping Online

Make a monthly budget of how much you’re willing to invest in your dropshipping business.

Even though you will not be purchasing inventory there are other ancillary costs that you’ll need to take into account.

For example, you’ll need to run Facebook Ads or Google Ads to your store in order to get your first set of buyers.

Decide what kind of goods you would like to sell and who is your audience.

Choose a name for your shop and write a tagline from your mission statement. For example, you may only want to sell baby clothes made from ethical cotton.

Find 1-5 suppliers of these items and check them out thoroughly. Order a few test products to gauge the quality and shipping times.

Here are 6 to choose from.

• Wholesale2B
• AliExpress
• Worldwide Brands
• Doba
• SaleHoo
• Wholesale Central

Choose a dropping platform and eCommerce platform where you can process orders and sell goods.

Five of the most popular eCommerce platforms include WooCommerce, Shopify, BigCommerce, GrooveKart and CommerceHQ.

The two popular dropshipping platforms include Dropified and Oberlo (Shopify only). These platforms help you to automate your dropshipping businesses at scale when you need order fulfilment.

Sign up with 2-3 of the wholesalers and start listing their items for sale in your store manually or with the help of Dropified or Oberlo.

Run Ads to the items for 1-3 months via a Facebook page or social media accounts and check the feedback.

Creating Your Own Products for Sale

If you are a creative person, you may get more satisfaction from developing your own line of products.

Here are 5 things you can sell

Create your own candle brand Develop your own line of beauty products Create printables that you can sell on Etsy Design a brand new clothing line to fill a gap Develop a unique food item like gluten-free cookies Create a vegan soap brand or other organic products

This option will require you to conduct some market research so that your product fills a need.

How to Start a Candle Business

One of the best business ideas ever is starting a candle making business.

You see, like beauty products, selling candles are like gifts that keep giving.

First, you’ll need to decide on what is unique about your candle brand. This is important in helping you to develop unique selling propositions (USPs) for your candles.

Based on your USPs, develop your first batch of candles and take high-quality photos of your candles.

Set up your own online store or candle shop and upload photos of your candle creations.

Give them out as gifts over the Xmas holidays (be sure to include a voucher where they can get a 10% discount on their next purchase).