Having been in Great Britain during the festive season has given me an eye opener for new smallish business ideas that could be established and driven forward. With effective management strategies they could even be developed into potential franchise ideas!
There are 100s of ideas and it all depends on your Imagination, and of course a lot of hard work. Below are 10 of these ideas taken from UK magazines:
1. Childminder
Kids. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em? Unless you are a childminder and then you can do both! A childminder is someone who provides care and education to children in their own homes – but hands them back to their parents at the end of the day. As of March 2023, there were 27,900 registered childminders in the UK. This number has decreased by 11% from the previous year, which shows a growing demand for childminders and creates a great opportunity for you to step in and start your own business in this space.
2. Home baker
Use your sweet tooth to create a startup! There’s a huge demand for baked goods like bread, cakes, and pastries (particularly specialist bakes that are vegan or allergen-free) from local customers, cafes and online. Sales of baking ingredients and equipment increased by 67% in the UK during the pandemic, and a poll conducted by Bake Magazine found that the pandemic led to a rise in consumers’ cravings for comfort foods which has continued in these tricky economic times.
3. Home brewer
Profit from your pint. A home brewer produces beer, cider, or wine in small quantities in their own home using specialised equipment. According to the UK’s Society of Independent Brewers & Associates, there are 1,748 active breweries in the country. What’s more, beer drinkers are increasingly looking for healthier options, with UK sales for low-alcohol beer doubling from 2022 to 2023 (650,000 to 1.3 million hectoliters) – making it the fastest-growing market in the world
4. CV writer
It’s like being a matchmaker, but instead of matching couples, you’re matching resumes to job descriptions. With huge amounts of movement in a highly competitive job market, people need as much help as possible to make sure their skills stand out to potential employees. If you feel you can tailor and tweak experience and expertise to be picked up by applicant tracking systems and showcase the key information that recruiters are looking for, this may be a good business idea for you. You could start small – offering your services to friends and family – and then build your clientele using their testimonials.
5. Petsitter
We are a nation of animal lovers but we also need to work and like to go on holiday. A pet sitter provides care and companionship to pets while their owners are away. The UK’s pet care industry was worth £8.2 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow in the coming years due to increasing pet ownership. The entry requirements for this home business venture are minimal; it mainly requires a love of animals and experience handling them.
6. Massage therapist
Who doesn’t love a good massage? Massage therapists provide therapeutic pummelings to clients to help alleviate pain, tension, and stress. In the UK, the demand for massage therapists is growing, with the industry expected to reach £1.2 billion by 2025. Needing minimal equipment – a massage bed and your hands! – this is a great business to run from your home.
7. Music tutor
In the UK, the music education industry is worth an estimated £4.5 billion and is expected to continue growing, driven by an increasing number of enthusiastic music learners of all ages. You don’t need to be a virtuoso violinist but you do need to be able to play your instrument reasonably well and have a quiet space from which to teach and tolerant neighbours – especially drumming tutors! Reading music would be a bonus and plenty of music tutors are self-taught.
8. Valet service
A valet service provides a range of car-related services, such as parking, cleaning, and maintenance, to customers. In the UK, the carwashing and valet industries are worth over £1 billion, with a projected market size of £9.8 billion by 2025. With no skills and minimal marketing required, this is a great business to run from your home (or the street outside to be more precise).
9. Pet clothing designer
A pet clothing designer creates fashionable and/or functional clothing for pets. This can include anything from doggy dresses to cat coats. In the UK, pet owners spend an average of £126 per month on their pets, while a survey by Pet Business World revealed that owners spend an average of almost £500 per year on luxury items like toys and treats. Obviously, an interest in animals and fashion would be a good starting point here – and there’s a lot of competition – but our love affair with our pets isn’t going away anytime soon.
10. Online small business ideas
An online business is any venture that can be run entirely from your laptop or computer. With little to no startup costs, the rewards of virtual ventures can be huge. Plus, the opportunities are only getting bigger as online shopping becomes the norm.
Over 80% of the UK population makes ecommerce purchases – that means over four in every five UK consumers are digital buyers. By 2025, the penetration rate among the country’s consumers is expected to reach 90%!
And the benefits of starting an online business are manifold. From the flexibility to work from anywhere at any time, to lower overhead costs compared to traditional brick-and-mortar businesses, here are some easy e-commerce enterprise ideas to get you excited.
With some careful consideration, the world is your oyster in that it means that you can do anything you wish or go anywhere you want in your life because you have the ability to do so.
Take care!
Prof. Carl Boniface
Vocabulary builder:
Manifold (adj) = various, diverse, many, multiple, assorted, multifarious, (ant) few, uniform
Brick-and-mortar businesses (idiom) = used to denote a business that operates conventionally rather than (or as well as) over the internet. "the bricks-and-mortar banks"
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