December 12, 2022 | Last Updated on: October 30, 2023
In this article, we cover:
There are a dizzying amount of business ideas to consider. How do you pick the right one? This article focuses on small business ideas that, with hard work and determination, can become million-dollar businesses. If it was easy to turn a million-dollar business idea into a successful business, every entrepreneur would do it. We take a practical and realistic look at how to get started and what it will take to drive your business to the 7-figure revenue mark.
There are two main strategies to sell products online. They are 1) reselling products that already exist and 2) manufacturing products on your own and selling them under your brand. Let’s define each approach, discuss how to start a business using each strategy, and review online business ideas:
As a reseller, you are taking products that already exist and selling them on your eCommerce-enabled website or a 3rd-party shopping site like Amazon.com. The benefit of being a reseller is you don’t need to come up with a product. You can sell something that already exists (even brand-name products like Apple).
You can resell your products on 3rd-party shopping sites such as:
In addition to selling on 3rd-party websites, you can also resell products on your eCommerce-enabled website. eCommerce website providers like Shopify, Square, and PayPal enable you to create an online store and collect payments on your website.
Some businesses specialize in providing resellers with products. You can either buy the products, have them shipped to your location, store the inventory, and pack-and-ship orders, or you can partner with a drop-shipping company who, for a fee, will store the products at their location, and pack-and-ship each order directly to your customer.
Here are several examples of where you can obtain products to resell:
If you have a manufacturing process, you can produce products that you can sell under your brand. The way to sell products under your brand and resell existing products is similar. You can do so on Amazon, Walmart, Etsy, your eCommerce website like those offered by Shopify, and more.
Creating a unique product and an associated brand is harder to do than reselling. However, the potential is near limitless. If you can produce a unique product or product line, and a brand name that becomes recognizable, there is a possibility that you can sell your company to a larger competitor, take your business public, or grow it into a very large valuation.
Creating an affiliate marketing business can be highly lucrative and you never have to deal with products. Affiliate marketing is when you send traffic to a shopping website like Amazon and if that person buys something, you receive a commission from the sale.
You need a website, a social media channel, or both. Special tracking links placed on your website or social media content are the mechanism that drives traffic to an Amazon product page (or whatever other affiliate marketing partner website). Typically, websites/social media channels are purpose-built for affiliate marketing review and test products. For example, create a website where you review the latest technology products and then provide a link to the Amazon product page so your reader can buy. The approach for social media is similar in that you need to review products and provide a link to the product in the text portion of your post.
There are a lot of affiliate marketing opportunities out there for both products and services. Let’s review how to create an affiliate marketing business with Amazon to give you a sense of how the process will work with other companies offering affiliate marketing opportunities:
Creating a successful affiliate marketing business does not require you to be a marketing genius. You need to have a high-level understanding of a few concepts, basic online know-how, know the basics of content management systems, know where to go when you need help, and have a relentless drive to keep producing quality content.
Focusing on creating quality content about the products you are reviewing is the key to creating a good business using affiliate marketing.
In addition to a website and social media, a podcast is another medium for you to grow your affiliate marketing business. Similar to social media and websites, a podcast has low start-up costs, and the key is producing great content. Buzzsprout is a popular podcast-hosting website that offers a free subscription tier to help you get started.
At its core, a service business is one where you provide tasks for your customers. There are a lot of angles here so choose a business model that you’re an expert in or can quickly become one. Small business funding might be needed for some of these ideas to get off the ground. Here are some ideas for service-based businesses that can you turn into million-dollar businesses:
Real estate businesses can easily become million-dollar small business ideas. Out of the ideas we’ve discussed so far, real estate likely has the highest barrier to entry because selling it requires a special license. However, you don’t need to sell real estate to create a new business using real estate, you can purchase real estate, or use an existing property you own, and rent it out via Airbnb or VRBO.
This type of business likely does not require you to work full-time either. For additional information, please visit our article Can You Use Loans to Run Your Airbnb Operation?
Opening a franchise allows you to operate a business with a proven model, an established brand that resonates with consumers, and receive support from the franchisor to help you succeed. The 2022 Quick Service Restaurant Magazine annual report, which details 2021 financials of popular quick-service restaurants, Chic-fil-A, of the brand’s 1,836 U.S. free-standing restaurants outside of malls (those open and operated for at least a full calendar year, from a total of 2,023), posted average annual sales of $8.142 million. For a full breakdown of franchises, including how to secure financing, review our article titled Ways to Get a Business Loan for Opening a Franchise.
Entrepreneurship is hard. For a small business owner to turn a side hustle into a great business that makes a lot of money requires handwork, determination, and grit. There are a lot of business opportunities to choose from, and whichever idea you decide to pursue, consider writing a business plan as a first step. Think of a business plan as the foundation of your business; a pathway for how to structure, run, and grow your business. It is a way for you to think through key elements of running your business. Also, if you need business financing, writing an effective business plan can improve the chances of your loan application being approved.
