There are many ways to start making money, online and off, requiring little or no upfront investment. Many can be started with considerably less than £1000. However, businesses that start this small tend to cost a lot in another resource – time.
If you’re happy to start a slow-burning side hustle that could make you hundreds of times the investment you put in, here are some tried and tested ways to start a business with less than 1000£.
1. Start a blog
You can start a blog if you’re passionate about a particular subject. It doesn’t cost much to set up, and you can make money through advertising, sponsorships or affiliate marketing.
To begin with, you will need to discover a niche topic with enough people interested in it that you’ll be able to sell copies of your online magazine without so much competition that you struggle to get started.
Once you have your idea, you’ll need to create the content. You can either write this yourself or turn to freelance writers on sites like Fiverr, who can write the content for you.
Creating a blog is the simplest option for presenting your content. Grab some web hosting and a free template, or download something from one of the many websites that provide amazing custom themes. We love Envato Elements, which gives us access to an amazing array of WordPress templates, HTML themes, stock images, and much more.
Blogging is a labour of love, to begin with – it can take some time before the search engines begin to show you any love and send traffic to you, but persevere. You can eventually be receiving huge volumes of traffic, allowing your blog to make you passive income from embedded Google-Ads, or other ad traffic sites.
Costs:
- Envato Elements – £150 for a year (approx)
- Domain Name: Free (for the first year)
- Webhosting: £30 (for the first year)
- Freelance writers: Optional and can begin from £4.50/$5 per article but expect to pay more for good work.
2. Create and sell an e-book
If writing is in your blood, maybe it’s time to create an e-book. This can be a work of fiction or non-fiction, and you can sell it on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.
The hard part is finding the time to sit down and create the book. Once that’s done, turning it into a digital format and uploading it to the platform of your choice is relatively straightforward.
Once you’re uploaded your work to Kindle, don’t expect to see money pouring in. Like any passive income stream, it takes time to get up and running. You’ll need to build a body of work on the site so that customers that like your work can go on to buy up the rest of your backlist of books.
Costs:
- None other than your time
Sticking with writing for just one more, if you’ve got a knack for social media, you could start a business offering consulting services to small businesses.
There are two ways you can go about this. You can either offer your services for free in the hope that clients will see the value in what you do and hire you once their business has grown. Alternatively, you can charge a monthly fee from the outset.
The key to making this work is demonstrating your results. Many businesses are happy to outsource their social media to someone who can show them a return on their investment.
To get started, compile a portfolio of case studies that show the kind of results you’ve been able to achieve for other clients. Then, set up a website and start looking for clients. You can use sites like Upwork or Freelancer to find projects or approach businesses directly.
You may wish to create a simple website that showcases what you can do for your clients and gives you a presence. Setting this up yourself will cost you the domain name, hosting, and whatever theme you decide to apply to the site. We’d recommend WordPress for its great flexibility, ease of set-up, and the fact you can combine a website with a blog, which will help get your site up the search rankings.
Costs:
- Upwork – Free, but takes a percentage of your earnings
- Freelancer – Free, but also takes a percentage of your earnings.
- Domain Name: Free (for the first year)
- Webhosting: £30 (for the first year)
4. Sell handmade crafts or jewellery online
If you prefer to work with your hands than with a keyboard, consider setting up an online store and selling handmade crafts or jewellery. You can do this through sites like Etsy and eBay, both of which will take a small cut of any sales you make.
The key to making a success of this is two-fold – first, you need to be sure that you’re pricing your items correctly so that you’re making a profit. Second, you need to be able to make enough of each item to meet customer demand. This can be a real challenge if you’re trying to do everything yourself, so it’s important to start small and gradually scale up as your business grows.
You won’t need your own website unless you grow so successful that you want to branch out from these platforms and sell through your website. If you go that route, we would recommend Shopify as a platform, as it is easy to use and allows you to integrate several other services.
Costs:
- Etsy – £0.20 per listing + 3.5% of each sale
- eBay – £0.35 per listing + 10% of each sale
- Shopify – £19 per month
5. Drop ship products
Dropshipping is a business model in which you sell products without stocking them yourself. When a customer orders an item from your store, you simply contact the supplier and have them ship the goods directly to the customer’s door.
This has many advantages – first, you don’t need to invest any money in inventory upfront. Second, it’s a great way to test products and see if there’s a market for them before you commit to stocking them yourself.
Because you only buy the item when your customer has brought it from you, you can test out several products at once without needing to place large orders or warehouse the items. You can drop ship across many platforms, including eBay, though you need to have all shipments sent quickly and white labelled (i.e., they carry your details, not those of the real supplier).
Alternatively, you can open your own store and promote it on social media platforms like Facebook. To get started, you’ll need to create a store on a platform like Shopify or Woocommerce. Then, sign up with a dropshipping supplier like Oberlo. Once you’ve done that, you can start adding products to your store and marketing them to potential customers.
Costs:
- Shopify – £19 per month
- Woocommerce – Free (But with upgrade options)
- Oberlo – Free (But with upgrade options)
- Facebook Adverts – Starting small will cost around $50 a month.
6. Provide local services
There are a host of local services that you could quickly engage in that do not require licences to begin.
You could offer to provide pet walking services. This would require some time to get going but could be a great way to earn extra income if you live near a park or green space.
You could also offer services like laundry, grocery shopping or running errands for those who are busy or do not have the time. You may need to purchase some equipment for this, such as a washing machine or car, but this can be done for under £1000.
A mobile carwashing business is often greatly appreciated by busy people and can be run with very little start-up costs, and the same is true for lawn care services. Busy people will often happily part with £5 or £10 for a quick lawn mow or car wash.
For all of the above, your costs will come down to how much advertising you decide to do. Traditional print marketing is expensive, but it gets your message directly into people’s hands in your local area. Social media marketing is free, but it can take a lot of time to build a following that will get you business through word of mouth.
One of the quickest ways to get going will be to go door to door in your local neighbourhood to introduce yourself and your service. Of course, in a world of internet introverts, that can be challenging for many of us!
Costs:
- Advertising – £50-£100 a month (Minimum)
- Equipment – Washing machine – £200-£400
- Lawnmower – £100+
There are opportunities everywhere for those with an entrepreneurial spirit and a little bit of start-up capital. With creativity, you can get your business off the ground for less than £1000. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and make your dream a reality!
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