You may ask, first off, why we are talking about small business ideas for women in particular? There are “roughneck” women along with men on oil rigs in the North Sea. And men are baking beautiful cakes for special anniversaries. Legitimate jobs cannot be sex-typed in any definitive way. But if you want to explore some ideas to become a business owner, let’s take a look at some.
Business Ideas for Women
There may be areas and activities that tend to interest women (though not only women), and entrepreneur ideas for women that especially accommodate women in their years of raising kids when they combine to have their own business with spending time with the family. There are businesses where experience shows women entrepreneurs tend to succeed. These trends are not necessarily unchangeable, but all entrepreneurial success takes advantage of the present’s needs, trends, and preferences.
How to Choose a Business Idea
If you are a woman seeking a great business idea, how do you make a choice? (A little later, we will get to things to consider before starting any small business.) But right now, how do you choose a business idea?
Start With Your Interests
Naturally, it is easier to put time and mental effort into what interests you. So one clue to making a choice are your passions, where your attention tends to turn. And your hobbies. And even your dreams. The hard reality is that entrepreneurs and their businesses are driven by passion, and the best businesses are powered by dreams. Your dreams are a reality in motivating the sustained effort of creating a successful business. Women have turned the love of sports, crafts, fashion, travel, exercise, and ceramics into small (and later not so small) businesses.
Consider Your Experience
You probably have earned degrees and held jobs. These credentials qualify you to provide certain services. They are your personal selling points. For example, experience in bookkeeping, marketing, copywriting, human relations, senior care, or baking can sell your services and products. Experiences need not be credentials for similar services, but they are assets not to be ignored when thinking about a consulting business as an example.
What is the Market
Are customers buying what you want to sell? Without an active, demanding market, your business may be on an uphill climb. Sure, sometimes you can create a market by offering a service and convincing the world that it needs it. Just consider if you want to start with that extra challenge? A ready, active, and growing market tends to float all new business ships. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic spawned new businesses all over America because people had urgent needs such as food deliveries, telecommunication with doctors, and more spaces for outdoor dining.
Things to Consider Before Starting a Business
When your business begins, it is you:
- Your financial resources.
- Your reasons for starting the business.
- Your financial objectives.
- The time you can devote to it.
Those are the considerations to define for yourself before starting. Will you depend upon your business for all your income? Can you devote full time to it? Or is it for extra cash earned part-time? Must you work from home, or can you go to an office that needs your services? Can you regularly travel if the business requires it? Are you an entrepreneur looking for a side hustle?
Answers to those questions will delimit our choices. Yes, circumstances will change in time, and business success opens new options. But for now, your choice of a business has to be a good fit for your life.
Small Business Ideas for Women Working from Home
Okay, for now, you need to work part-time from home. What are some options? If your goal is flexible hours, mainly working from home, and having a reliable income to manage a profitable business, you may seek a diverse clientele for your skills and services. The more your skills and experience fit clients’ needs, the more your skills will be in demand as a freelancer. Let’s look at some services that businesses now seek from home-based freelancers:
- Graphic designers get assignments and work at home to deliver a specific product.
- Editing and proofreading also can be done anywhere.
- Marketing copywriting is another field where you work project by project.
- Content creation sites provide you with assignments from organizations seeking blogs.
- Multiple sites exist for selling your photography to the vast market for online visuals.
- Online marketing— including SEO consulting, strategy, affiliate marketing, or social media managers—is in demand.
- Transcription is also on-demand for people who have a podcast, a youtube channel, or other types of audio or video content on the internet.
Other Business Ideas for Women
If you don’t necessarily require working from home, you could explore other business ideas that may appeal to you. Let’s have a look at some.
Teaching Outside the Classroom
- Tutoring
- Counseling college applicants
- Prepping for standardized tests like the SAT
- English as a second language
Helping with Pets
- Dog walking
- Caring for pets left at home
- Training dogs
- Taking dogs to the vet
- Grooming pets
Personal Assistant
- Shopping for people
- Assisting older people at home
- Coaching and counseling
- Training for fitness
- Doing massage therapy
- Wedding planner
Business Support Ideas for Women
Instead of hiring more full-time employees to handle extra work, many businesses use outside services as needed. Bookkeeping is a classic example, but your small business could provide:
- Recruiting for the human relations department
- Telephone services to customers
- Payroll services
- Deliveries
- Creating window displays
- Coaching computer use
- Creating Facebook pages
- Producing YouTube videos for local businesses
- Photographers
Selling Online or Off-Line
There is no reason you can’t put your good taste, creativity, and entrepreneurial drive to work building an online or traditional brick-and-mortar shop. Selling online through one or more websites like Amazon, Shopify, or Etsy can become a multi-billion-dollar business line. You can start online with very little capital because goods are not shipping until they are sold, so you need no inventory—only an attractive site, good taste, and a lot of work. There is an incredible amount of information and advice now available about achieving online selling success.
What if you want to go more traditional with a shop, boutique, or work as a travel agent? You probably would expect to start small, but capital still would be required. Or perhaps you could start with your own funds but then seek a loan to expand a proven successful business. It certainly is possible to get a startup loan, but it is considerably easier to borrow to grow a business.
How to Finance Your Small Business
If you want to know the types of loans available, what they require, and how to make the application process as simple as possible, you may want to explore your options to finance your small business.
Start-up Loans
If you want to seek a startup loan, you still get your business running before you apply for it. Lenders offering these loans want to know not only if it is a good idea and you are a good personal credit risk, but see your business operating for at least six months. For example, if you have been running a business from home and now want to move to a separate location, that might be the time for a startup loan to get the space and equipment you need.
Expansion Loans
Obtaining a loan to expand a business that has been operating successfully for a while is an excellent bet because you have a financial record for lenders.
With the capital you require, your ideas, determination, and achievements can be transformed into a thriving, growing small business that is exciting and financially rewarding.
