According to recent statistics, the Indian economy has shown clear indications that in the next few years, people will choose entrepreneurship and small-scale business as a mode of earning their living. There is stiff competition in the job market hence more talented people are coming forward with their ideas to start a business in India. I know a lot of people who are doing jobs in big IT firms halfheartedly, they do not like their work at all and they want to start a business but they are unable to take the plunge because they are not sure what types of business they can start with minimum or no initial investment.
There are certain pros and cons of starting a business in India especially when you are in your 40’s. But you know what, this is clearly a safe path since you have saved enough money for your family and secured their future. But now that you are already 35, you are afraid to take risks and without risks, no business has ever flourished. So if you have really made up your mind to pursue your dreams but ”later” in your career you have to first secure your future with a job that you do not love. Then reconsider your decision. Since you cannot wait forever to get rich or achieve your dream, it’s time to give it a serious thought.
What is the first factor or force that drives you to start your own business? Well, it might be your hobby, something that you are good/expert at and last but not the least something that you love doing.
Things to do before you start a business in India
To start a business in India may sound cool, but it is not and hence before you jump in, here’s what you should do to validate your business idea and feasibility of execution and scale.
A complete feasibility study should be done to identify all these factors like
How much demand will be there for your product or service?
How much cost do you have to incur before you start making a profit?
How much competition is there in the market?
How long it will take you to reach the desired position where you want to see your business in the near future?
For instance, you have figured all this out and finally, you are ready to start. Now the million-dollar question arises. Who or how the money will come from the initial investment? Well, there is a simple answer to it. It won’t unless you have got some angel investor by your side or you are ready to open your own stash. So does it mean that if you are from a poor family then you won’t be able to fulfill your entrepreneurial dreams? Absolutely not!
Opportunities to start a business in India
I am going to discuss a few marvelous and simple small business ideas to start, with minimum or no investment. I will include a few contemporary & mainstream businesses as well as some offbeat ones.
Here are a few businesses that you can start with minimum investment and maximum passion
Tuition Classes
If you like teaching, then this is something that you can start. All you need to start is a room, a whiteboard to write, a patient and calm attitude and a friendly approach with the students. If you are really passionate about teaching and you were good at your academics in high school or college. Then no matter what your neighbours say, do start your own tuition classes. Nowadays, even small children’s parents are worried about their studies and ready to invest a good amount for their studies. So even if your neighbor’s son or daughter is settled in the US working 24/7 to earn 7-digit salaries. You don’t have to worry if you make a name for yourself in this field, trust me you have to expand your business in no time. Make sure you give your 100% as there is no alternative to hard work in business or job. You can initially start with people who already know you, and you can also market your services online. I have done it in the past trust me it works.
Consultancy business
Consultancy business is now the hottest type of business that everyone is going after. Minimum risk is associated with it and also takes a little effort in comparison with other service businesses, as a consultant is always the middle person who is only helping you to make a call to choose a particular service or product provider and is not responsible for anything beyond that. There are several kinds of consultancies dealing with various services or products like real estate consultants, job consultancies, service consultancies, insurance consultancies etc. In the consultancy business, all you need is proper resources and a small office to start with. Like all other businesses, goodwill is the major factor for this trade too; people will come running to you if you have genuinely helped anyone in the past to achieve their goals with the aid of your services.
It is also playing a vital role in shaping and providing proper infrastructure to these businesses. But for a small business, you need not have to hire an IT team or something. All you need is a proper online presence with a website and your path-breaking idea.
Catering and events planning
It is the most popular and contemporary business of our time. Food is a basic necessity for human beings, so what better business can you think of other than starting your own restaurant or catering service? But it is better if you have a background in hotel management or you are friends with people who have. In this trade you don’t have to worry about customers, if you manage to find some good place for your restaurant and maintain the standard of cuisine then certainly there will be no looking back.
There is a very vast opportunity for catering service too as there is a good demand for a good catering service for various occasions like marriages, parties, corporate meets and other festive & events.
Dance or music classes
If you have some serious dancing skills, then don’t waste your talent by doing a boring job for some firm. Rather you can open your own dancing school. Make a smart and innovative, introductory video and share it online. Most of the young teenage people will love to join your classes if you’ve got the X factor.
Packers and movers
This particular business needs some special skills and training but does not require lots of investment upfront. Training such as how to pack household goods, office or industrial goods, loading, unloading etc. But the movers and packers industry is growing rapidly at around 10% CAGR and that’s huge.
To begin with, you can start by offering local home or office shifting services in your city and later on as you learn and make money, you can expand. A typical house owner or corporation will gladly let you handle their entire headache of shifting, packing and moving for a handsome fee as it is a one-time investment. It is a business where you can get the maximum number of clients coming from the central government services, public limited companies, private sector employees and running customers.
I have an exclusive post on how to start a movers and packers business in India that you may like to check to know everything that is important for starting a packers and movers business and growing it rapidly.
Here’s a detailed and extensive video where I have talked about everything worth knowing about starting a packers and movers business in India. From how to name a company, to what type of business entity will be most effective, from renting out office space to setting up an office and ideas on promoting and generating leads.
If you want to start the movers and packers business and don’t know where to begin, then watching this exclusive video will be the best thing to do.
Cable and Internet business
With the increasing demand for “good” internet service, more and more people are choosing local internet service providers over government internet plans for obvious reasons. If you are from an IT background with a specialization in networking, do yourself a favour and go for this profitable business instead of working in some IT firm fixing their servers and routers. Although you need a little investment with this, you can manage if you can get hold of a few of your friends who share common traits with you.
School carpooling service
Already many officegoers and schoolchildren do this often; there is a growing need for this service. You can start this service by identifying potential schools and vehicle owners and offering personalized carpool service to kids. Usually, parents pay in advance and you can use that money to rent a vehicle on a monthly basis. If you can learn to drive yourself then you can even save on driver’s fees.
Handyman services
If you are a good technician, electrician, carpenter, plumber or computer mechanic, you can make your expand your business by getting hold of a few service consultancy that offer various package-based enquiries or leads to help you get more customers that too with a very small investment. And there are lots of potential as in you can offer annual maintenance packages and one-time calls for fixing smaller home maintenance issues. The only challenge is to retain expert technicians because they will be facing the customer and they have to be the best.
House painting service
Usually, it is hard to find contractors for house painting and hence there is a potential. With just a little bit of training, you can learn the trick of the trade and hire some experts who do good quality painting and start. Approach developers, and consumers and spread the message in your community and you can find potential clients who need painting services. When you offer them good rates and affordable labour charges, you can grow your business like anything. If you succeed in doing a few projects successfully and impress your clients they will come back to you again along with their friends and relatives who require similar service.
Web and App development
There are tons of web development agencies in India, but there is a huge opportunity in this sector. If you can design and develop good-quality websites, web apps, games etc. then you can quickly grow your business. Starting up in this industry should not be difficult because you can find work easily through various freelancing websites and initial investment is also not so high.
Internet Marketing
This is one huge opportunity because we are moving online and every business wants to be found when their prospect searches on Google and other search engines. Initial investment is not high, just a couple of PC/Laptop, Internet connection and sound knowledge of Internet marketing.
Blogging
Many of us often overlook another lucrative profession/business. If words come to you automatically, if you are really fond of writing on various topics and you have got a lot of ideas about creative writing then you are on the right track to start your own blogging website. You can take along your creative friends with you and make a multi-blogging platform too. Advertisers pay good money to high-traffic websites, so just make sure that your readers are coming back with a minimum bounce rate and write interesting stuff to engage the traffic. This will only cost you the web designing, domain and hosting charge.
Over to you
You know what, I believe the growth of a country depends on business and when more and more people will start doing business, the country will automatically grow. When you start a business, not only do you create jobs for others in your community, but you actually contribute to the growth of your country. So what are you waiting for? Find your passion and start a business today.
