Have you ever thought of starting your own businesses? What about doing some business aside your regular job to earn some extra cash?

What if you could put your skills to good use and make money from them?

Here are 101 businesses you can start with very little money. Take these ideas and turn them into your dream businesses!

With some of the ideas, I have included links to both well-known people and lesser known friends of mine who are doing great in these businesses so you can be inspired.

For some of the other ideas too, I have added screenshots from Fiverr.com so you can see how others like you are making money from those ideas. Fiverr.com is a site which allows people to sell their services to anyone in the world.

I have categorised the ideas into three main parts with sub-categories just to keep them organised. Here you go.

Natural Talent Based Businesses

These are businesses that you can start by taking advantage of your talent or natural abilities. Many people are naturally good at certain things and they don’t struggle to do those things.

If you are good in any of these you could take your talent a step higher by starting a business from it.

Trust me, there’s nothing more fulfilling than doing what you are naturally good at and being paid for it.

If MUSIC and MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS is your talent, you could:

1. Offer private music or voice training lessons to individuals and singing groups.

2. Record your own music and upload to YouTube. Charlie Puth and Justin Bieber are well-known musicians today. Their initial breakthrough came through their own music videos which they put on YouTube.

3. Create an online course to teach people how to play musical instruments. Teachable is an online service which allows you to create your own online courses for free. Jermaine Griggs, founder of HearandPlay teaches people how to play the piano online with his online courses.

Check out how to create your own online course on Teachable.

4. Create musical instrument tutorial videos and upload on your YouTube channel. When you are able to build a large enough audience, there are several ways you can make money from your YouTube channel.

Check out this WikiHow article on how to set up and make money from your YouTube channel.

5. Form a music or instrumental band with your friends and play at events or gigs. PL Crew is a well-known gospel instrumental band based in Ghana.

6. Sing or play instruments at events and programs. Alfred Addaquay is a well-known singer and organist who renders good classical music for events.

7. Be a backing vocalist for a singer.

8. Be a DJ at parties and events.

9. Offer Audio editing services for singers

People like you offering singing related services on Fiverr.com

If DRAWING or ART is your talent, you could:

10. Make and sell your own art or paintings online, on the streets, in exhibitions, etc. All you need to start advertising your own work is an Instagram or Facebook page.

11. Offer to draw portraits of people for their birthdays and other special occasions. My friend, Caleb Menka draws portraits of people for occasions.

12. Offer private art classes or create an online art course.

13. Start an art blog. There are several ways you can make money from a blog. Check out this really great guide on how to make money from your blog.

14. Draw cartoon characters and make  animations for game developers

If ELOQUENT SPEAKING  is your talent, you could:

15.  Offer MC services.  Ammishadai Ofori, co-founder of Flippy Campus also offers MC services for events.

16. Be a spoken word artist. My friend, Thelma is a really good spoken word artist.

17. Do jingles and voice overs for radio advertisers. My friend, Caroline Gyamera-Tawiah gets paid for doing jingles and voiceovers on radio.

18.  Be a motivational speaker. Jeremiah Buabeng has carved a name for himself as one of the renowned motivational speakers in Ghana.

19. Be a correspondent or reporter for a radio station.

If COMEDY is your talent, you could:

20. Be a stand-up comedian. Kevin Hart is well known for his comedy talent. My good friend, Kossi Akplah a Doctor of Pharmacy student is also a fast-rising stand-up comedian.

21. Start a comedy podcast.  Tikya Kwadwo has been able to use his excellent command of the Twi language to create a comedy podcast on his Facebook page which reaches 100,000 people every week. Companies pay him to show their ads at the end of his podcasts.

22. Write good comedy punch lines for speakers and MCs.

23. Create short funny videos and upload on  YouTube. Emmanuella is a 6-year-old girl from Nigeria famous for her YouTube comedy videos.

If CREATIVE WRITING is your talent, you could:

24. Start a creative writing blog. Kossi Akplah,  Nana Elikem and I started 2eweboys.com, and we’ve won several awards in just over a year.

25. Offer copywriting services to online marketers and businesses.  Nana Elikem offers copywriting services to business and individuals.

26. Write poems and literary pieces for people. David Antwi, a dental surgeon, writes some of the most romantic poems ever for people for a fee.

27. Be a columnist for a newspaper or website.

28. Be an editor for a magazine, publication, newspaper, news website or blog.

29. Transcribe audio or video clips into text for publishers.

30. Offer proofreading services for reports, publications, thesis, journals, etc

31. Write CV and cover letters for people.

People like you offering proofreading and editing services on Fiverr.com

If you can SPEAK A FOREIGN LANGUAGE, you could:

32. Translate people’s books into a foreign language.

33. Be a translator for events, churches, etc

34. Teach others how to speak your foreign language.

If ACTING Is Your Talent, you could:

35. Do promotional videos for companies

36. Direct plays and movies.

If you are ACADEMICALLY GOOD you could:

37. Offer private tuition to students in the areas you are good at.

38. Be a consultant for students projects and assignments (provided it’s legal).

39. Be a SAT or GRE tutor.

40. Be an adult education part time teacher.

Skill Based Businesses

These are businesses that you can start by taking advantage of skills that you have mastered. Even if you don’t have these skills yet, you can easily learn them.

Sites like Coursera, edX and  Udacity can teach you almost any skill you want to learn for free. If you like any of these ideas, you can learn the right skills needed for them even if you don’t have them now.

If you have GRAPHIC DESIGN skills you could: 

41. Be a freelance graphic designer. My friend, Perk, is making money from his graphic design skills.

42. Design premium templates and sell online (Business card templates, poster templates, etc). Envato Market is an online marketplace where you can sell your designs.

43. Offer graphic design classes online.

For artists and graphic designers, Behance allows you to showcase all your creative work and get hired.

If you have WEBSITE DESIGN skills you could:

44. Be a freelance website designer

45. Design and sell your own HTML templates.

46. Design and sell your own WordPress themes.

Many designers are making a lot of money selling themes and templates on Themeforest.

47. Teach people how to design websites.

48. Start a web design blog.  MonsterPost is a top web design blog with attracts millions of visitors every month.

49. Build and sell your own WordPress plugins.

If you have SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT skills you could:

50. Be a freelance software developer.

51. Test apps and software for startups and individual developers.

52. Create an online programming course.

53. Offer to fix website/software bugs for people.

54. Help students with coding assignments or projects.

55. Be a software consultant for startups.

56. Start a software blog.

Sites like Freelancer and Upwork let you easily sell your software development skills to anyone in the world.

If you are good at ELECTRONICS, you could:

57. Repair electronic gadgets and appliances for people.  My friend, Ernest, runs On-The-Spot Engineering Solutions and fixes electronic gadgets for people on the spot.

58. Offer practical electronics classes to engineering students. I used to do that while I was in the university and it paid well.

59. Start a blog for electronics circuits and projects. My site, learn.inventelectronics.com is an example.

60. Start a  YouTube Channel to review the latest tech gadgets.

If you are really good at COOKING, you could:

62. Offer private cooking services for homes and companies.

63. Start a cooking blog or YouTube channel.

64. Write a cook or recipe book.

65. Offer online cooking courses.

Ayesha Curry, wife of NBA superstar, Stephen Curry turned her cooking skills into a business. Apart from being a chef and TV personality, she has written her own cookbook.

66. Making and selling pastries and local confectionaries for events. My friend, Philomena, makes local drinks for sale to people organising parties and other events.

If you are good at PHOTOGRAPHY you could

67. Be a freelance professional photographer for events. My friends, Charles and Kafui, make money from shooting at events.

68. Offer picture editing services.

69. Enlarge, frame and sell your own photographs. Kafui, whom I mentioned earlier, frames and sells her own documentary photography works at malls in Ghana.

70. Start an online photography course.

If BEAUTY and FASHION are your strong suits, you could:

71. Be a makeup artist. My friend, Gifty runs Nuna’s Nest and offers professional make-up services for all occasions.

72. Be a hair stylist or braid ladies’ hair.

73. Offer manicure and pedicure services.

74. Offer massaging services.

75. Design and make your own clothes. My friend, Joshua, designs and sews clothes for modelling agencies.

If you are good at using SOCIAL MEDIA or have a huge social media following you can

76. Promote products and brands on your social media pages at a fee.

77. Manage social media platforms for people.

78. Help companies and celebrities increase their social media followers.

79. Offer social media consultancy for individuals who want to build their brands.

People like you offering different social media related services on fiverr.com

If you are good at HANDICRAFTS or making things with your hands  you can

80. Make and sell local bead jewellery like my friend, Baaba.

81. Make and sell locally made handbags or purses.

82. Make and sell locally made footwear.

83. Make knitted and crocheted clothing and accessories. My friend and business partner, Anne-Marie makes beautiful hand knitted clothing and accessories for sale.

Other Businesses You Can Start

Here are other businesses you can start with very little money:

84.  Be a Freelance journalist.

85. Enter data for organisations.

86. Offer SPSS Statistical and Data Analysis services for students working on project theses.

87. Running errands for busy professionals (such as going to the market to buy groceries).

88. Sell event tickets for a commission.

89. Network marketing.

90. Be a Gym/Fitness instructor.

91. Be a swimming instructor.

92. Be an Uber driver.

93. Offer decoration services for events.

94. Offering delivery or courier services.

95. Be a babysitter.

96. Offer printing, photocopy and scanning services.

97. Starting a news blog. Ameyaw Debrah runs his own news blog which makes him a lot of money each month.

98. Start a satire blog. My friends and I recently started bombonews.com, a Ghanaian satire blog which became an overnight success. We got over 20k views in the first 48 hours of launching the blog.

99. Start a technology blog.

100. Model for photographers.

101. Sell books for other authors for a commission. My friend, Selina sells books for authors for a commission.

102. Be a business consultant. I offer business consultancy services to people who want to start their own business and I make money for my services.

So that it. A tall list of smart business ideas to choose from!

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If none of the ideas here matches your skills, don’t worry.  Fortunately, most of these skills can be learned. Like I mentioned, there are several sites offering free online courses for anything you want to learn.

Once it’s something you are interested in, you can easily learn it online. So go online, learn something and make a business out of it now!

Final Thoughts

Remember that not every interest or skill can be turned into a business. You have to be sure your passion or interest creates value that people are willing to pay for. Here’s a guide to finding the right business idea which will work for you.

Also, having an idea which customers are willing to pay for does not mean you will be successful.

You’ll need to know how to build a business which means you have to keep learning.

Read my post on how to launch your own business with very little money to get started.

I have helped a lot of people start their own businesses and I can help you too. Feel free to get in touch with me here.

Do you have any other business ideas? Have you tried any on your own? Did you like this post? Please let me know in the comments session below.