Find out more about the mass market business ideas that will help you start a business with low investment costs and make money online.
Business Ideas for Mass Market: A lot of companies struggle to find good business ideas because they don’t look at mass-market opportunities. In this article, I will share 10 business ideas that can potentially be successful in the mass market and also make you money!
Business Ideas for Mass Market
For starters, these businesses don’t require very high capital but are big enough to generate decent revenue. Second, these businesses don’t need a lot of human resources so you can start them yourself or with a few co-founders. Lastly, you won’t need an office space or any physical infrastructure to run them on a day-to-day basis.
1) Be a Consultant
Whether you want to be an on-call tech guru or offer your expertise on a part-time basis, consulting is a good way to make money from your business idea without having to fork over a big chunk of it. And, as long as you have something valuable to share, it doesn’t matter whether people are looking for what you offer—you’ll still end up with clients. That’s because they’ll value your opinion and need your services.
To get started, create a portfolio website (like Mike McClary’s Web Development Portfolio) and start promoting yourself online and at local meetups. Keep in mind that consultants typically get paid per hour or project, instead of receiving a steady salary—so factor that into your pricing structure. If you’re just getting started, here are some tips for charging your first clients.
2) Make Information Products
If you have a knack for writing, researching, ing, or creating information products, it’s easy to do some market research and develop information products targeted toward specific groups. You can sell them directly on your site or market them through sales pages in your other content. Information-products businesses aren’t without their challenges, but they are extremely rewarding if you have a talent or interest that people want to learn more about.
No matter what sort of product you create, be sure it is something others would find helpful and valuable before putting time into making it. The more focused your topic is, the better chance you have of making money from those who need help with that specific niche. As an example, you could offer how-to guides related to photography. Or teach others how to make candy at home using sugar substitutes. (And yes, there is such a thing.)
Another option: Provide step-by-step tutorials for using Photoshop software—the possibilities are endless! This way, when someone comes across your business card or website, they’ll know exactly what it’s all about and will get in touch if interested. And don’t forget that marketing doesn’t always mean charging money—it also means sharing your knowledge freely so people see you as an expert and someone worth paying for.
3) Sell Consumables
Consider any consumables that your customers use up in a short period of time, such as air fresheners, paper towels, or cleaning supplies. Consumers will buy these products repeatedly over a long period of time because they need them, which means recurring revenue. Business ideas like these can have high margins, which means you could generate significant profit from small sales volumes and make it worthwhile to be in your local market.
For example, home-cleaning services might charge more than $100 per cleaning session—but that’s no problem if clients need weekly cleanings. This is also a good option if you want to work with customers one on one. In addition, many companies will pay commissions based on the number of sales rather than the amount sold. This makes selling consumables attractive, especially when compared with other business models where commissions are based on the total revenue generated by your customer (which is harder to track).
Finally, consider whether there are opportunities for multiple service providers at different price points in your area. You might find that there are people who would pay higher prices for premium services—and others who would appreciate lower prices but still purchase frequently enough to support frequent visits from multiple providers. The key is identifying what consumers want and how much they’re willing to spend on it so you can offer something valuable without going broke doing so!
4) Sell Subscriptions
If you have a large following on a service like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram, you can sell your followers a subscription to your newsletter. There are lots of websites that allow you to do this. MailChimp is a great (and free) place to start. You simply sign up and create content that you put behind a paywall so only people who pay will be able to see it. Then when someone pays, they will receive an email inviting them to sign up. This gives you access to their contact information which means you can market directly to them in the future.
5) Offer E-learning Courses
As technology becomes more and more ubiquitous, people’s expectations of what they can get from a website increase. People have come to expect 24/7 interaction with businesses, regardless of time or day. They expect information to be available when it’s needed and at their fingertips through mobile apps and mobile web portals.
There’s no longer any excuse for being out of touch; services such as Google Drive make sharing documents, presentations, spreadsheets, and project template simple. You could provide clients with access to your basic course materials so that they can take your e-learning course from anywhere at any time. The great thing about online courses is that you don’t need to be an expert in every subject area.
You just need enough knowledge to teach others how to learn. If you don’t know much about something, there are plenty of free resources on YouTube and other video sites where you can pick up new skills quickly. The key is learning how to present complex topics in easy-to-understand language.
6) Create a Demand Service
Offer a service that lets businesses create custom merchandise, such as shirts and mugs, on-demand. This can be an effective way to advertise your business because most people will have an easier time remembering your brand name than where they saw it. Make sure you’re offering clients a high-quality product or service at an affordable price and you could win over many new customers in no time.
Depending on your market niche, other examples of on-demand services include web design and personalized video production. You can even take something like mass printing a step further by offering printing-on-demand (or POD) services where consumers can upload digital files of their artwork and then pick up their finished products shortly after. The key is to make things easy for your customers so they don’t have to go through a lot of hassle to receive what they want.
7) Lead Groups
If you have expertise in any area and a group of people who need that expertise, consider hosting lectures or workshops. If you’re interested in becoming a personal trainer, start by offering free workouts to friends and family. By providing value to others with your time, energy, and passion, you’ll gain word-of-mouth customers if other people are willing to pay for that service.
Create an email list via MailChimp or use information collected at workshops or classes to stay connected with potential clients. This system also works great for virtual assistants – just be sure everyone involved understands what is and isn’t expected so you don’t get stuck doing tasks without compensation.
8) Promote Affiliate Programs
Do you have a website with a good number of daily visitors? If so, selling other companies’ products as an affiliate can be one of the easiest ways to make money from that site. In fact, you could build up your affiliate business to such an extent that it eventually eclipses your main source of income, as Wired did with its Focus Tips site, which now brings in more than $100,000 per month just on affiliate revenue.
The above example is just one way to monetize a website. You could also sell advertising or make e-books and courses and sell them online. Your business model doesn’t need to be complicated—you just need to figure out what works best and run with it.
9) Promote Other Products as an Affiliate
When you promote products on your site, you can earn commissions on any sales that occur. That’s a nice stream of income to have. But what about if you could do it across multiple sites? This will allow you to earn even more money! Sign up with these affiliate networks and start promoting others products: The Best Affiliate Marketing Platforms of 2018 (These platforms make it easier than ever to run an affiliate campaign or find a new product to promote.) Commission Junction is one of the largest affiliate networks in existence.
They offer thousands of different products from hundreds of vendors, making it easy to find something that fits your niche perfectly. ShareASale is another great network to join because they specialize in providing information and services related to selling online—which includes everything from hosting solutions to e-commerce software solutions. Forrester Research named Commission Junction as one of its top 10 global partners in 2013, so you know they are legit!
Check out their website today and sign up for free! After signing up, you’ll be able to access their marketplace where you can search through thousands of different offers from various vendors who pay Commission Junction when customers click through and buy their product or service.
10) Sell Wholesale or Dropship
If you have a good relationship with a manufacturer or supplier, you can cut out retailers and sell products wholesale to consumers. This is a great way to build your brand’s awareness and increase its profitability. In addition, dropshipping requires little overhead; you don’t need any stock upfront. But keep in mind that ordering too much inventory upfront might lead to an unnecessary cash flow problem as it sits unsold.
Also Read: Business Ideas for Massage Therapists
Conclusion
To close, here’s one more way to come up with a novel idea. The book, How to Get a Job: Secrets of a Hiring Manager — Revealed! features tips from a top hiring manager, who’ll share secrets on how to make yourself stand out in your cover letter and how to ace that all-important job interview. In fact, he says you should practice answering these 15 questions before your next interview.
Identify one or two questions that strike you as particularly pertinent. Then answer them — as if responding directly to an interviewer — and use those answers as inspiration for an original business idea.
