One of the best things about online business is that the barrier to entry is low: for many, all you need is the right know-how (or the willingness to learn), a computer, an internet connection, and a little cash – just $100 seed money will get you on the right track!

Compared to all the costs associated with brick-and-mortar businesses, this is nothing. Of course, if you need to bootstrap, you may be able to get started for even less money and pick up additional tools as you start bringing in revenue. So, what are the best online businesses to start with little capital?

Fortunately, if you’re smart, it’s pretty easy to find businesses to start online with little capital. There are a few you should avoid at this stage, namely Amazon FBA and buying your own inventory to sell directly. Both of these usually require at least $500-$2,000 to get started, if not more, so are best avoided if you’re trying to get started on the cheap. Here are 3 of our favorite online businesses to start with no money:

1. Sell a Service

Do you know exactly what it takes to grow Instagram followers? Are a whiz with Photoshop or Illustrator? Chances are, you’ve got a skill someone else doesn’t, and will pay you for. Selling your services online is a great way to get a start making money online, especially if you want to make a living working from home ASAP.

You can technically get started doing this for free, using freelancer platforms and your own social media accounts, but if you’ve got any money for your new venture, you’ll want to get your own website and store. It may sound strange, but if you can find a way to sell your services or easy-to-use templates on an e-commerce store, you’ll see your revenue increase ten-fold.

Don’t worry, it’s not expensive to do this. With us, you don’t even need technical experience – we’ll help you turn your idea into a working business for as little as $15 a month.

2. Retail and Outsourcing

Outsourcing, if you don’t know, is where you find a supplier with an item you wish to sell and you list it on your store. You don’t buy inventory or ever touch the product – when you sell it, you simply submit the order to your supplier and they’ll ship out the product for you.

Now, there are some downsides to this form of e-commerce because shipping times are often long. In main cases, you’re lucky if you can find a supplier that can get it to your customer in less than 10 days, so do your research and think about how you can market your products best so your customer will swallow the long shipping times.

Many businesses start by dropshipping and start ordering inventory as soon as they can afford it, so this may be an avenue if you’ve got a great idea for an e-commerce store but haven’t got the capital to get it off the ground just yet.

Dropservicing, pracitcally outsourcing, is where you sell services and outsource the work to third parties through platforms like Fiverr and UpWork. It follows the same model but applies it to the digital and freelance sectors. It’s a great idea for a business and has been on the rise in recent years due to the growing presense of the gig based economy.

3. Sell Digital Products

Remember that point about selling templates in our first point? One of the best ways to make money online is to make an e-commerce store that sells digital goods. These goods can be books and guides, images and videos, or even SaaS (Software-as-a-Service). SaaS is a huge industry now, and one many entrepreneurs want to get into.

With Krepling, all your digital goods will be emailed directly to your customer upon completion of their payment, so it’s a great way to set something up and be hands-free. That means you can make money while you sleep! (What everyone wants, right?)

Another huge benefit of selling digital products is that you don’t have to incur shipping or manufacturing costs, so your profit margins can be much higher than if you were to sell a physical product.

We also give you the ability to offer your customers a paid membership to your website that will allow them to access ‘members-only areas’ with exclusive information or products, which is another great way to increase revenue.

4. Blogging

While not a new concept, monetized blogging is always a popular option for an essentially no-cost business.

There are tons of options when it comes to making money from your blog, such as affiliate partnerships, producing ebooks, offering online courses and webinars. Some of these work better than others, as and certain blog niches will be more popular and easy to monetize than others. For instance, beauty, food, and parenting blogs are some of the most popular niches, and will, therefore, be easier to monetize (though you’ll also face stiffer competition).

It’s worth mentioning, however, that monetizing your blog will work best when you choose a subject that you are actually passionate about and personally invested in to blog about. So, this route works best if you’re thinking, “Yeah! I’ve always really wanted to start a blog about my love of handcrafted artisan chocolates!” (or whatever else gets you going). Merely wanting to make money isn’t enough.

5. Freelance Writing

Are you a strong writer? This one is a no-brainer. If you have solid writing skills, consider starting a business as a freelance writer.

Starting a business where you can offer one-off writing services can be a powerful idea.

6. Subscriptions

Starting a subscription business is always a great idea.

One of the most important benefits of using a Software-as-a-service (SaaS) business model, if not the most important benefit of SaaS, is the fact that it provides a recurring stream of revenue.

If you charge on a recurring basis, and can keep churn in check, you have a regular stream of income that is easy to predict. This can also compound over time as you add an ever-increasing number of paying users to your platform.

You don’t have to invent the next Netflix or Spotify to get in on SaaS either. By using Krepling, you can create subscription-based products for almost anything, even services, and physical products!

7. Consulting

Starting a consulting business is always a popular free business to start. The type of consulting you choose to offer will depend on your skill set; do you have a social media marketing background, or maybe you’ve got legal experience?

Look at your skills and your previous job experience and see what you could bring to the table that others might not have your expertise in. 

Using Krepling To Launch A Business (With Little Capital)

Every business on this list can be started using Krepling.

If you’re ready to start your own business but don’t have much cash for the venture, we’re here to help. Krepling is the ultimate choice for new entrepreneurs and we allow you to experiment with whichever type of business suits you best.

We will host the website you build with us, and give you all the e-commerce tools you need, including safe payments in an instant checkout, marketing tools, and domain and email management. Krepling provides you with everything you need to start and grow a successful online business, all in one place for as little as $15 a month. Click here to find out more and get started today.