Starting a small business online has never been easier. And thanks to AI for small business, you can launch with low overhead costs, lean operationally, and from home.
That’s how this blog started: a small business idea to make money online to support me and my family while offering me time freedom. Then adopt AI to grow your business, specifically using artificial intelligence as leverage to scale. After years of having a boss, I choose to be my own boss. And you can, too.
Whether you want to start a side hustle part-time or full-time or start a small business that will allow you to quit your job, these best 13 low cost and online ideas of 2023, and the AI technology, that will have you on your way.
How Do I Set Up A Business the Right Way?
After the idea and research stage, you need to look into the legal requirements necessary to start a small business. Should you start a sole proprietorship, an Limited Liability Company (LLC), a partnership, a corporation, or do nothing?
Each business entity has many pros and cons.
Before starting any business, choose the structure of your business, form legally, and file with your local and state governments.
What Are the Best Ideas for Small Businesses?
If you’re a potential business owner, get started with this list of the top ideas, and the best AI tools for small businesses, for potential business owners.
1. Best Online Small Business Idea: Start a Profitable Blog.
With a blog, treat it like a business and not a passion or hobby. Become an authority in a niche people hop on Google to search. Is that travel, food, home, tech, marketing, fitness? Once you start ranking on Google, you can monetize by selling:
Your time through coaching or consulting
Your products through an e-commerce store
A company’s products through affiliate marketing or ads
With a low barrier to entry and potentially high profits, it’s a top idea for small businesses and one that’s perfect while working full-time from home.
With an AI powered writing assistant such as Jasper, ChatGPT, Grammarly, and Surfer SEO, you’ll quickly write content for your blog, social media captions, and newsletters.
2. Start an E-commerce Business.
With e-commerce, you can choose to sell on Amazon, drop ship, or make products to sell on your website.
Selling products online is a simple process:
You’ll need to build a website on a platform like Shopify, Wix, or Squarespace which have free trials.
If you have a physical retail space or do pop-ups, you’ll need a point of sale software like Square or Shopify POS to capture payments and customer information. Having your customer’s contact information is critical so you can use email marketing to nurture a relationship that will convert a one in-person sale, into a repeat customer.
Artificial intelligence solutions like: CommentSold, LivePerson, Buywith can help personalize your customer’s shopping experience. These solutions leverage AI for higher sales, fewer returns, and more customer loyalty, setting your e-commerce store apart from other retail small businesses.
3. Start a Podcast.
How do you jump on the podcasting wave and start your podcasting small business?
The first step is to plan your podcast episodes, get your equipment and podcast software. From editing to transcription, AI tools will help you produce and distribute your podcast.
Then, sign up for podcast hosting like Buzzsprout or Podbean. A podcast host is a service that stores your audio files and distributes them to major podcast networks like iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, and Spotify.
4. Graphic Design.
Companies always look for graphic designers to design cohesive marketing and branding materials, including logos, banners, posters, landing pages, and websites.
If you’re beginning, Hone your graphic design skills with graphic design courses:
Fundamentals of Graphic Design (Coursera)
Graphic Design Fundamentals: Getting Started (Creative Live)
Sharpen your skills, using graphic design software which integrate artificial intelligence to simplify and speed up your workflow. Leverage AI to free up your time to focus on higher ticket items such as signing new clients, including:
Adobe InDesign
Photoshop
Canva
Visme
Design.ai
Graphic designers can join freelance websites like Flexjobs, Upwork, and Fiverr to find relevant work.
5. Web Development.
Front-end web developers are needed by small businesses to build or finish websites.
Every web developer needs basic coding skills in computer languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Learn or refresh your skills through free or cheap online courses, plus how machine learning can perform tasks which give you a competitive edge. Online courses, including:
Treehouse
AI-powered web development tools can help your write faster code, help analyze customer behavior, and optimize for great UX.
6. Instagram or TikTok Influencer.
With people spending hours scrolling on social media, it follows that when consumers need product advice, they increasingly turn to niche influencers.
But do influencers actually influence purchase decisions? Yes we like to look at their photos and feel pangs of FOMO. But will we buy a product they recommend? Most often, no unless we’ve developed a relationship with them based on commonality and community.
Powerful Instagram and TikTok influencers build and cater to a small, engaged community, not the vanity metric of a massive follower count.
To become an Instagram or TikTok influencer, first, choose a niche you’re passionate about–home goods, tech gadgets, marketing, to beauty, or wellness. Then, create and post a lot of engaging and relevant content for your target customers. Use software or apps with machine learning to write content.
Pro Tip: to not burn out on the social media hamster wheel, AI can help perform tasks suchas batch produce and schedule your content. Use social media marketing AI tools like:
Later
Socialbee
Buffer
Once you build a strong following, brands will pay you to promote products via sponsored content.
If you’re savvy with marketing and get thousands of Instagram followers, you can earn anything from $500 to $6,000 per post, and with a few sponsored posts a week, be on your way to a profitable business.
7. Affiliate Marketing.
Brands that want to sell products online create new affiliate programs and allow affiliates (publishers and bloggers) to promote their products and earn commissions, generating for established bloggers between $7,500 — $25k per month.
Bloggers and influencers recommend services or products they like or find helpful, earning a percentage of profit for each sale.
Register with networks like ShareASale, Awin, Rakuten, Clickbank, or Skimlinks to start making money from the content published on the website. The income will gradually grow along with the growth of your website.
Implement AI to track and level up your affiliate marketing campaigns, including helping to optimize ad spending, improve keyword research, monitor A/B testing of ad copy.
Tracking, analyzing, and optimizing your affiliate marketing efforts in real time are just some of the ways AI can steamline your workflow. Some AI tools for affiliate marketing include:
Post Affiliate Pro
Scaleo
Refersion
Pricing ranges from $99 to $999/month.
8. Virtual Assistant.
Virtual assistants (VAs) are in high demand by corporations, freelancers, and businesses.
While it’s a lower-paying home business, it can hone your digital skills while you get your foot in the door of a more lucrative freelance career.
Register on freelance job websites like Flexjobs, Upwork, or Fiverr.
9. Social Media Manager.
If you have experience with social media marketing and the ad network, you can start a social media consulting business.
Everyone from small businesses to large corporations needs help getting their message on social media.
As a social media manager, you can use the latest AI technology tools to boost the ROI of your services, such as:
Create content for brands
Create and track custom ad campaigns
Integrate content with other email marketing and PPC strategies
A/B test, analyze results, and tweak campaigns
Start by getting social media experience and gain clients on Indeed, Zip Recruiter, and CareerBuilder.
Once you have the skills, a portfolio, machine learning tools, and clients, you can start a consulting business and charge either a project fee or a monthly retainer.
10. Freelance Content Writing.
Are you a good writer? Whether its website copy, social media captions, sales pages, blog posts, or email newsletters, experienced freelance writers earn between $1,000 to $5,000 per week. You can also use the latest AI writing, grammar, and SEO optimizing tech tools to edit and proofread work.
Get clients by offering your content writing or SEO services through outreach on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram. Or to attract inbound leads, create a website showcasing your portfolio and services.
11. Data Analysis.
Data helps online small businesses operate better and make more profit. If you know digital marketing and how to use the top machine learning solutions, plus can interpret business insights and make recommendations based on data sets using skills like Google Analytics and data visualization tools, you’ll be in-demand. Data analysts earn an average salary of $60,000 a year.
You can learn data analysis by taking online courses from:
Coursera
Udemy
edX
Use AI tools to:
Polymer
Tableau
MonkeyLearn
Free to $299+/month, and more.
Once you build your data analytics expertise, you can find remote data analysis jobs on platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, and Flexjobs. With honed skills and portfolio of clients, you’ll be on your way to building a profitable data consulting business.
12. Freelance Content Marketing.
Startups, small businesses, and influencers always want to increase their online presence by promoting high-quality, engaging content.
Your expertise in providing effective content marketing efforts can help you land high-paying clients such as startups, small businesses, and influencers. Once you start building a portfolio of established clientele, you can command a project fee of thousands of dollars.
You can start looking into your existing network to find out about the companies seeking content marketers to build their brands.
AI-powered content marketing tools are fast-changing the landscape, allowing you to work faster and more effectively, to optimize your client’s content marketing. Keep following top content marketing blogs to stay in the groove.
13. Resume Writer.
With the economy, more people need a good resume. Yet they’re not easy to write, especially now with machine learning tools that priviledge keywords within job descriptions and automated reviewers.
If you know how to create professional and unique resumes that land jobs, you’ll have plenty of clients. People will come through referrals or do outreach directly or through social media–all through your computer with few startup costs.
Define Your Target Customer
Who is your ideal customer and what are their problems or needs that your business can solve?
If you can answer this question, your business is off to a solid start, and other parts will fall into place, including sales and a successful marketing strategy.
That said, a top, super power for a business is to be able to constantly pivot, after testing, evaluating feedback, and iterating.
In this way, you’re providing value to your customer, while improving and growing your business.
This could involve adding new products, services, the right collaborations, and leverage AI to improve your marketing or operations.
Being in tune with your customer and adapting to circumstances will result in a healthy, relevant, and growing business.
What business should I start?
1. Find a market that is not too saturated and where there are still greenfield opportunities, especially if it’s a business in the sweet spot between customer demand and innovation where AI solutions can give you a competitive edge.
2. Start an online business. Artificial intelligence makes it easier and more affordable than ever. Think: an ecommerce store on Shopify or Etsy, consulting on videoconference, or freelance writing.
3. Look for innovation in your industry. Is there an emerging trend or AI solutions? For example, if you have a blog devoted to home, smart home technologies are on an upward trend.
Now it’s your turn.
These small business ideas have low startup and maintenance costs and can help you earn a good income.
I recommend starting an online business like a blog, an e-commerce store, or a consulting business for their earning potential and flexibility, and use artificial intelligence to streamline business processes so you can scale. If built smartly, they small can stay afloat and thrive during economic uncertainty like Covid-19 or inflation.
Did I miss any business ideas? Let me know in the comment section below.