Creating an excellent idea for a small business to start-up can prove a daunting task, especially with the apparent feeling that all the great ideas for business are already taken. However, it’s still possible to expand on a current set-up or build on a much older idea. One thing is sure; being self-employed presents far more benefits than the challenges that come with it, and it is, thus, completely worth the effort. Over the years I have done 12 business startups, and that really adds spice to my life.

As a business coach I work with many business owners including entrepreneurs who are doing startups. For the most part these amazing clients are successful. All it takes is a good idea and a willingness to learn, learn, learn and work, work, work!

That said, here are some start-up ideas to inspire you, which you could implement this year!

51 Small Business Ideas to Try in 2022

Let’s get creative. Find inspiration as you explore this exhaustive list of ideas from varied fields like nutrition-based, travel, writing, etc., and take up what works for you.

1. Specialty Travel Tour Organizer

For a travel-based start-up, consider a specialized travel tour company. This company would offer the service of catering for travelers’ individual lifestyle preferences, taking into consideration varied aspects as travel preferences of travelers, diet-preferences, or even age of travelers. Such a company will specialize in attending to a well-defined set of preferences travelers have and would exist to meet those needs.

2. Develop an Airport-Centric App

Consider setting up an all-inclusive app that enables travelers to navigate through airport information and make informed decisions in real-time. This is seemingly non-fallowed ground when it comes to start-up ideas and could be quite lucrative. While it is apparent various travel apps exist, an all-in-one app that shows information like amenities, TSA line wait times, ground transportation options, and airport maps could be quite useful to travelers.

To reach a wider audience, you can run your app on both iOS and Android. To achieve this, you can find a Flutter or React Native developer for hire. Therefore, there will be no need to develop two separate apps for different platforms.

3. Wedding Destination Planner

If you’ve ever been close to someone who did a wedding, then you know planning such events isn’t as seamless as the event may seem to unfold, and you could step in to relieve the hosts of weddings of the stress as a wedding venue planner. This would also allow you to explore various parts of the globe as you pick out suitable venues for weddings based on the couple’s preferences. Though working hours for this start-up may be extended and pressure ever great, yet if you love exploring new places, then you’d do great with this option.

4. Creating Local Guides

If you’ve ever been a tourist in a place you’ve never been to before, then you know having a local guide could mean the difference between life and death, and that could be an excellent start-up option – making local guides. It doesn’t matter whether or not you’re versed with the locality or not. You could help tourists enjoy off-the-beaten-path experiences in your locality with themed guides and highlight attractions. And it doesn’t need to end there; you could get in touch with companies in your area and land advertising gigs as well.

5. Setting up a Local Grocery Delivery Service

With very minimal start-up cost, needing virtually just a cell phone and a vehicle, to begin with, a grocery delivery service is a great option to consider. You could stand in the gap to aid senior citizens or people who are just too busy to pick up their groceries themselves and make a living while doing it. You could set up partnership agreements with local grocery stores in your area and get to work.

6. Become an Event Planner

Consider setting up an event planning company in your community. To achieve such a feat, networking and careful research are necessary to succeed. It is also interesting to note that you could set up and run such a company remotely for ultimate flexibility.

7. Open a Coworking Space

With the rising popularity of remote working, you could capitalize on this by setting up modern coworking spaces. Simply select a suitable location, incorporate necessary and sought-after amenities, and reach out to the community for primarily local impact.

8. Meal Preparation Business

The world has gotten a lot busier than it used to be, and people no longer have the time to cook their food all the time, and where there’s a problem like this, you could provide the solution with a meal preparation business like restaurants. You could focus on generally ordered foods or diet-specific options, all depending on the community you find yourself in.

9. Devise a Food Waste Solution

Developing a solution to deal with food waste would not only make you a lot richer. Still, it would significantly impact the food industry, helping grocery stores and restaurants save a lot of money.

10. Capitalize on Veganism

Veganism has been on the rise in the past decade, and being able to provide plant-based food options can be a great business idea to consider. Setting up a vegan supermarket, restaurant and rolling out vegan alternatives of traditional foods are great places to start.

11. Start a Dropshipping Business

The e-commerce dropshipping model is quite fascinating because you don’t have to purchase inventory upfront. Selling high-end products with low shipping costs would prove quite lucrative and could become profitable quickly if you do thorough competition research.

13. Deal in Zero-Waste Products

Not only is this a smart option, but it is eco-friendly and an ethical thing to do. Zero-waste products include reusable and recyclable products like reusable bags, bamboo toothbrushes, and even zero-waste packaging materials. Such products would appeal to a world plagued by climate change.

12. Curate Subscription Boxes

Subscription boxes have become quite popular and a lucrative business venture. Simply identify a niche and curate this specific set of items to modern customers.

14. Produce Pet Products

Over 85 million U.S. households have at least a pet, and you could tailor your business to meet the needs of these companion animals. Consider making toys, clothing, and accessories for pets.

15. Deal in Phone Accessories

The average person owns a mobile phone, and dealing in phone accessories has the potential to flourish in almost any setting. Though there is apparent saturation in the field, there is always room for one-of-a-kind smartphone add-ons.

16. Engage in Electronics and Mobile Phone repairs

You could consider engaging in electronic equipment repairs and, especially, mobile phones, helping people get their electronics working again.

17. Create Custom Clothing

You can become a custom clothier, dealing in custom clothing, such as using dye sublimation printers for designs on garments, or rendering tailoring services if fashion is your thing.

18. Sell Vintage Goods Online

Like it’s said, “one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure (or something like that)!” you could consider dealing in used merchandise, selling thrifted, vintage, or upcycled items online, and there are tons of sites to make that possible.

19. Become a blogger

The key here is to identify a comfortable niche like sports, technology, lifestyle, etc., and create engaging content on the subject. With time, as the audience expands, you could make money via advertising, affiliate links, and even sell products.

20. Write E-book

Perhaps you’ve got a way with words and know-how to present stories in ways that captivate and arouse the desired emotional response in the readers. You could put those skills to use by becoming a self-published e-book writer and selling your work on virtual platforms.

21. Consider Ghost-writing

Perhaps you have the skill to write, are good with words but don’t mind always attaching your name to your work, then consider becoming a ghostwriter for other busier professionals. It’s a great option to consider with minimal start-up cost.

22. Become a Resume Writer

Everyone needs a resume, but not everyone can write out a great resume, and if you’re good at something, then you don’t have to do it for free. You consider resume writing as a great start-up, with little start-up cost attached.

23. Become an Online Coach

If you desire to see others achieve success and attain their desired goals in whatever aspects of their lives, online coaching is a great start-up option to consider. You could set-up a YouTube channel with niche-tailored resources to help people reach their goals as you reach yours.

24. Engage in Website Flipping

Website flipping involves buying a website, making alterations to the site, and then selling it to make a profit. Such a start-up would require some starting capital as well as some tech skills in web development but could quickly pay off.

25. Engage in Web Development

As the world increasingly becomes digital, the need for custom websites continually increases. As such, skills like mastering programming languages and working with WordPress could really come in handy and open doors for a lucrative start-up.

26. Start a Podcast

A podcast could be a great start-up, especially if you find that you’re knowledgeable or passionate about a particular subject matter.

27. Be a Social Media Influencer

If you can successfully build a following large community on social media platforms like Instagram or YouTube, you could create a stable income source through influencer marketing.

28. Create Online Courses

If you have hobbies that people could be interested in mastering, then you could set-up online courses to teach these skills. This is entirely dissimilar to coaching as it’s more passive but will still yield a meaningful income.

29. Become a Marketing Consultant

If you have digital marketing skills, then consider becoming a marketing consultant helping small businesses engage their audiences by providing SEO, social media, or copywriting services. Even without the necessary experience, you could take online courses to get you started.

30. Engage in App Development

Your big break could be in creating an app. All it takes is the right skills and a great idea, and you could get the jackpot. And what’s interesting is, you don’t need a lot of coding skills nowadays to build a great app.

31. Make a Smart Appliance

In an incredibly digital world, developing a healthy and needful appliance could be the big break you desire. All it takes is a great idea. To be inspired, carefully consider the average person’s daily life and figure out what tasks at home or at work would be significantly facilitated using an appliance.

32. Look to Virtual Reality Experiences

VR is the future, and that future has already begun. Join the community making VR by creating virtual reality experiences or accessories.

33. Develop a Dating Site

While it is true there are tins of dating websites and apps out there, you could stand out from the crowd by presenting a niche-tailored dating website targeted to meet the needs of a rather specific group of people.

34. Develop a Chatbot

Even with really knowing much about coding, you could create a chat box that uses artificial intelligence to communicate with people—to help businesses improve their communication.

35. Offer Matchmaking Services

This is a step further from just setting up a dating website; it requires a more active role in accessing, based on the users’ provided info, who is best matched and most suited for who. Matchmaking could be completed online or in person, helping you make money and develop relationships simultaneously.

36. Become a Virtual Assistant

Online assisting is quite a promising start-up alternative, as it can help in administrative tasks in both professional and personal lives.

37. Reinvent Exercising

Exercise is essential for healthy living, but it can get boring, especially when it comes to following the exact same routine daily. So then, how can people exercise but still find ways to have fun while doing it?

38. Eco-Friendly, Health-Friendly Makeup and Beauty Products

Yeah, that’s quite specific. As more people become aware of the environment and the need for eco-friendly products, even makeup and beauty products should align to such standards. Creating safe and eco-friendly beauty products could be an excellent start-up option and one that hasn’t got a lot of congestion.

39. Try a Food Truck

Perhaps, starting a restaurant may have been the idea, but you could consider a food truck instead. And moreover, you can hire someone by using food service interview questions. Even though you’d most likely need the qualification and background in food handling, a food truck may be more feasible a start-up idea compared to a restaurant as it would require less workforce and fewer resources to pull off.

40. Start an Organizing Company

Some persons have a knack for organization – keeping things neat and tidy, where everything has its place, and others do not. If this is your thing, you could engage the start-up idea of organizing homes, offices, kitchen utensils, bookshelves, etc., for people who are clearly not gifted or less busy doing it themselves.

41. Interior Design for Your Professionals

Everyone (or almost everyone) will appreciate a well-designed house, one that feels like home, but not everyone can achieve that. It requires picking out the right furniture, setting up with the right design, decoration, paint color, and even smell of the house. And if you have an eye for decorating, then interior designs could be a great start-up to consider.

42. Become a Freelance graphic designer

It’s all about pictures in a social media age, and you can capitalize on that as a great start-up option. Decide the projects you work on, apportion your time and build a portfolio. You could consider graphic content for websites or blogs to company specifications for all manner of projects.

43. Start up a Translation Gig

Do you speak more than one language? Then you could offer translation services. For optimum results, you should identify a particular domain or specialize in, like medical, transportation, finance, etc. You could expose yourself to tourists and get paid to aid in communication.

44. Engage in Photography

Photography is arguably more of an art than science, and you may just have what it takes to excel in it. You can test yourself with small family events and build a portfolio with referrals. As you get known in the community, more gigs would come your way, which is progress. Also, use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, etc., to make your rade known.

45. Set-up a Handyman Service

Perhaps you may be good at fixing things and improvising solutions when things fail. Or maybe, people around you always need your attention when things need fixing; then consider becoming a handyman. Find a domain that works for you and grow by asking for referrals.

46. Become a Woodworker

If you’re good with wood and delight in crafting out beautiful furniture, you could set up a woodworking business. You can start out with a local base, meeting locals’ needs in the community while building an online following as you showcase what you can do.

47. Become a Videographer

Though videography is a start-up that would require some capital upfront to invest in the right equipment, its demand will never run out. So, give it a shot. Create samples and advertise online, and have interested viewers queue up to demand your services.

48. Car-detailing specialist

Cars – who doesn’t love ’em? Car dealing specialists are in demand highly, and if you can pay attention to intricate details, then this may be your big break. You may also need to be mobile, and you should have the necessary flexibility, transportation, and equipment for the job.

49. Home inspector

This is a more formal start-up option and may require certification and a great deal of expertise. You can supply services like confirming licensing requirements and inspecting land assets for sale or purchase. You may need to take a few courses on the subject for this start-up and expand your knowledge and expertise.

50. Housecleaner

With almost no qualification whatsoever, you could start-up a house cleaning gig. To succeed at this, you should consider making your services known through the community to get more bookings, clients, and, of course, more bucks.

51. Personal chef

We all need to eat, but not everyone has the time to cook and are comfortable eating out. As such, you could provide the service of becoming a personal chef. This is especially needful for special-diet individuals like vegetarians or patients. And as an added hack, you could group clients with similar feeding preferences and cook for them in bulk.

How to Choose the Best Start-up Idea

As much as these ideas are all great and you’re feeling anxious to jump on that idea, there are a few things you must consider. First, there must be a need you’re meeting in choosing that start-up; there should be demand for what you’re considering in the locality you’re envisaging. No matter how appealing the idea on this list is, you’d be setting up for failure if there isn’t a demand for it in the community you desire to start up.

Secondly, you should have a well-articulated business plan. Where there’s no plan, there’s ample room for failure. The business plan will help your business stay on track, so it’s a must-have.

You should also take into consideration your skillset, what you can do, and choose wisely. Even if you desire to learn the new skill, you should still assess whether it’s a feasible route to take.

To wrap things up

The opportunities for start-ups are limitless; all it takes is an opportunistic vision to jump on every demand and start-up a business. Whether or not you choose from this list, stay motivated and strive to succeed. Read this article to view a Business Startup Checklist.

Here’s an article about Deciding on the Right Business Structure.