In this article, we will take a look at the 27 businesses to start with no money. We will also take a look at some entrepreneurial journeys of successful business owners. You can skip our detailed discussion and go directly to 5 Businesses to Start With No Money.
Successful Businesses Started with No Money
Starting a graphic design business is one of the best business ideas to start with no money. While starting a business is daunting and costly, becoming a freelancer and creating a personal brand of your name costs close to nothing. On May 16, 2020, Business Insider uncovered the entrepreneurial journey of Morgan Overholt, a freelance designer and owner of Morgan Media LLC. Before setting up her own company, she worked a 9 to 5 with an annual salary of $75,000. Her business now makes more than $300,000 in revenue and she takes home over $200,000. Her revenue streams include her self-acquired design contracts, contracts from Upwork, rent from her office space, and blogging contracts.
Website design is another great business idea to start with no money. On May 22, Business Insider published a report on the entrepreneurial journey of Oliur Rahman, a website designer. Rahman did not continue formal education after high school. Instead, he decided to sell his website designs on Tumblr in 2014. To get noticed by other clients he started sharing his design work on Dribbble, and later he began designing websites at full speed with no formal training. Before selling his designs on Tumblr, his income remained between $20,000 and $30,000 a year. By the age of 23, he was making six figures and moved into his own home. Once he moved out, he became a founding member of a design company, Plasso. The startup was then purchased by GoDaddy, giving him a large payout. Fast forward to 2020, his YouTube channel grew to 100,000 subscribers where he created sponsored content. That year, he made almost $1 million in revenue and in 2023, he made $600,000 from all his ventures.
The market for virtual assistants is a rapidly growing career choice for people. Rebecca Morassutti, a successful virtual assistant, was interviewed by Business Insider on February 10. In 2014, Rebecca decided to take up clients as a virtual assistant after being denied a 2% raise from her 9 to 5. She acquired her first client from Upwork and still works for her 10 years later. In her first year as a virtual assistant, she made $65,000. She now has 4 to 5 fixed clients and receives a fixed monthly compensation, which is incremented every year. In 2023, Rebecca made $144,000 in revenue from her virtual assistance work.
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Why You Should Get Started on Upwork?
Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK) is one of the best freelancing platforms in the world. It connects job seekers with short and long-term projects. The platform is functional in more than 180 countries across the globe and offers over 125 categories of work to freelancers. The company celebrated a milestone in the first quarter of 2023, logging over $20 billion in lifetime freelancer earnings, doubling from $10 billion within three years. In the second quarter of 2024, the company’s active clients reached 868,000, up 6% year-over-year.
On January 2, Business Insider interviewed Emma Larocque, a freelancer on Upwork and a blogger. Emma started an Etsy store in 2020 while she was still in college but worked on social media on the side. After thorough research, she figured Pinterest to be one of the best ways to drive traffic to her website. If you want to read more about leveraging Pinterest you can read our article on the businesses you can start for under $1,000. In 2021, she joined Upwork as a Pinterest account manager for clients. Initially, she would offer her services for free, and once she had a strong clientele, she started charging $500 for one month’s work. She slowly increased her client base and made $29,500 working five hours a day last year.
Like Emma, Upwork can be used to make a steady stream of income. Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK) is making strides in product innovations, increasing the ease of doing business for people like Emma. On April 30, Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK) reported interesting updates to its AI segment helping businesses and freelancers hire and work more efficiently. Uma is Upwork’s Mindful AI, which was developed using leading large language models. Uma can enhance the hiring and working process for businesses and freelancers, helping parties discover each other more efficiently. Upwork’s new Best Match insights feature, powered by Uma, allows businesses to find the right person for jobs instantaneously based on client reviews and the skills required.
The company reported 67% year-over-year growth in sales in the AI and machine learning subcategory during the second quarter of 2024. Upwork’s Freelancer Plus subscription, comprising AI-backed tools and features to enhance skills and visibility, increased its subscription by 28% year-over-year. Innovation and investment in new products have been a primary driver of Upwork Inc.’s (NASDAQ:UPWK) financial success in the first half of 2024.
While we acknowledge the potential of UPWK as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than NVDA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
Now that we studied some successful businesses you can start with no money, let’s take a look at the 27 businesses you can start with no money.
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Our Methodology
To gather a list of the 27 businesses to start with no money, we consulted threads on Reddit and over 10 rankings and reports on the internet. We picked the business ideas that appeared in 50% of our sources and then ranked them.
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27 Businesses to Start With No Money
27. Home Design Consultancy
Home design consultancy is a great business idea. According to data from Glassdoor, an interior designer can make somewhere between $101,000 and $187,000 per annum in the United States.
26. Web Design & Development
Web design and development is another great business idea to start with no money. Individuals can provide their services on freelance platforms such as Fiverr and Upwork. On average, a web developer can make between $100 and $1,200 for a project on Upwork.
25. Virtual Event Planning
Virtual event planning is one of the best business ideas to start with no money. There is an abundance of software that can help event planners manage online ticketing and guest planning.
24. Virtual Assistant
Becoming a virtual assistant costs nothing, contributing to its ranking on our list of the best business ideas to start with no money. Virtual assistants in Upwork can make somewhere between $10 to $65 per hour.
23. Translation Services
Becoming a translator costs close to nothing, contributing to its ranking on our list of the best business ideas to start with no money. According to data by Indeed, a translator earns $24.9 per hour on average in the United States. Translators can offer their services on freelance platforms. The average hourly rate for translators on Upwork is $20.
22. Transcription Services
Starting a transcription services business is one of the best business ideas to start with no money. According to data from the Transcription Certification Institute, individuals can make somewhere between $19 to $30 per hour. Transcriptionists can offer their services on freelance platforms like Upwork and Fiverr.
21. Social Media Influencer
Becoming a social media influencer is one of the best business ideas to start with no money. As per reports by Business Insider, social media influencers can make $100,000 per annum on average.
20. Social Media Consultancy
Starting a social media consultancy business can be free of cost. Social media consultants can provide their services on freelance platforms like Upwork and Fiverr. On average a social media consultant on Upwork charges between $5 to $100 per session.
19. SEO Consultancy
Starting an SEO consultancy business is one of the best business ideas to start with no money. Individuals can offer their services on Upwork and Fiverr to avoid startup costs. On average, an SEO expert can make somewhere between $15 to $35 per hour on Upwork.
18. Sell Online Courses
Selling online courses is another great business idea to start with no money. Experts can create courses and sell them on platforms such as Udemy. A Python Bootcamp course on Udemy by Jose Portilla and Pierian Training has a star rating of 4.6 and has 1.9 million students. It is priced at $74.99.
17. Resume Building
Resume writing is another great business idea to start with no money. Individuals can consider selling their services on Upwork. On average, a resume writer can make somewhere between $25 to $65 per hour on Upwork.
16. Proofreading and Editing
Becoming a proofreader and editor is one of the best business ideas to start with no money. Proofreaders and editors can make somewhere between $10 and $500 for projects on Upwork.
15. Podcasting
Starting a podcast is one of the best business ideas to start with no money. Podcasters can set up a podcast on YouTube for free and create supporting profiles on social media platforms to create a brand image.
14. Pet Sitting
Pet sitting is another great business idea to start with no money. According to data by Indeed, a pet sitter makes $15.99 per hour on average in the United States.
13. Personal Training
Starting a personal training business is one of the best business ideas to start with no money. Individuals can set up a virtual personal training business using free software such as Zoom and Google Meet. They can also join a fitness club as a fitness trainer and provide personal one-on-one training to clients.
12. Online Tutoring
Starting an online tutoring business ranks 12th on our list of the best business ideas to start with no money. Individuals can provide online tutoring using video conferencing software such as Zoom and Google Meet. Making a classroom on Google Classroom is also free of cost.
11. Newsletter
Starting a newsletter is one of the best business ideas to start with no money. Substack is a platform that allows people to create newsletters for free.
10. Graphic Design
A graphic design business is a business idea you can start with no money. A graphic designer can make between $15 to $150 per hour on Upwork. Designers can also make money by taking up one-time projects.
9. Freelance Writing
Freelance writing is one of the best business ideas to start with no money. Freelance writers can make somewhere between $15 to $40 per hour on Upwork. The compensation for one-time projects, on the other hand, lies between $40 to $200.
8. Dropshipping
Dropshippers are not required to store inventory, making it one of the best business ideas to start with no money. According to Shopify, the global dropshipping market is valued at $351.8 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.39% between 2020 and 2026.
7. Digital Marketing
Providing digital marketing services is one of the best business ideas to start with no money. According to data by Indeed, a digital marketer can make $65,000 per annum on average in the United States.
6. Data Entry
Becoming a data entry specialist is another great business idea to start with no money. A data entry specialist can make somewhere between $10 to $300 for a project on Upwork.
5. Content Creation
Content creation is one of the best business ideas to start with no money. The earnings of a content creator depend on the platform under use. Individuals can leverage social media to create content for brands or YouTube for long-form video content.
4. Career Coaching
Career coaching ranks fourth on our list of the best business ideas to start with no money. According to data by Glassdoor, a career coach in the United States can make $57,776 per annum on average. A virtual career coaching business can be set up using free video conferencing software such as Zoom.
3. Blogging
Blogging is another great business idea to start with no money. According to data by Indeed, the average blogger in the United States can make $64,846 per annum. Moreover, data by Fiverr suggests that blog owners with 10,000 to 100,000 monthly page views can make between 2 to 10 cents for each page view.
2. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing ranks as one of the best business ideas to start with no money. Affiliate marketing entails the promotion of goods and services for clients and they can earn a commission in that process. According to data by Ahrefs, affiliate marketers can earn somewhere between $58,000 to $158,000 per annum.
1. App Design and Development
App design and development is one of the best business ideas to start with no money. Offering services as a freelancer is one of the most ideal options since it costs nothing to set up an account on Upwork or Fiverr. App developers average $60 per hour on Upwork, and the average hourly rate may go up the more experience and expertise someone has. According to data by Glassdoor, an app designer makes $75,285 and an app developer makes $87,501 per annum on average in the United States.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.