Those in the US, what's the easiest self employed business you can start up with low cost?
1d 11h ago by lemmy.world/u/return2ozma in asklemmy
Window washing.
Put up signs in apartment buildings. Costs you practically nothing to start. Also, you can offer other services on your fliers.
Also, you might want to check this book out. "Discover What You Are Best At" Linda Gail. It's a series of self tests and an index that shows you what jobs your talents might suit you to. It changed my life.
Finally, apply for civil service jobs. They won't hire you overnight, but it's worth the wait. Steady work, strong unions, and great benefits.
To add on to this, if you're doing window washing, add solar panel cleaning to your list of services. Good money for it in the right locations.
Window washing
I've read news that many Window washing services in large cities are under organized crime control. You wash windows in their territory and bad things happen.
That's commercial window washing in large buildings and store fronts.
I'm talking about apartments and houses.
Well define "low cost". I have too much free time and a little money, I'm contemplating opening a small bookstore.
Found a space that rents for $600 a month, $600 for shelving, $350 for a POS system, domain and email registration, LLC filing for $100, initial inventory of $5,000. Social media advertising.
Thinking I can do this...
If you do this, and you're near me, I'll come buy a book from you.
Plan is to also offer online sales so you don't have to be local. 😉
Online sales can be brutal, just a warning. Amazon and the like have set a precedent that no local, independent seller can fulfill. Everyone wants free freight, and they expect their product in a day or two. They don't understand that not only does Amazon have its own national distribution network with centers everywhere, but Amazon doesn't make money on physical products that they sell. Selling shit online is a loss leader for Amazon. Small businesses can't eat the cost of that.
My company got an online order from someone 3000+ miles away on a Monday, to ship FedEx ground. She called us on Tuesday angry that she hasn't gotten it yet.
Our location is in the name of our company. It should be very clear that it will take more than a day to go that distance. You would think so, at least. She ended up canceling the order and we had to put everything away. Wasted easily an hour of company time for absolutely nothing.
I have a couple of ideas for online sales, first, you can sell books through Door Dash and Instacart. Yes, shipping costs, but also more or less instant gratification locally. 😉
I've also been hearing good things about a platform called Whop.
But you're right, making shipping times 100% clear is a must!
I started my game shop with about that much. I was open for 7 1/2 years. I did not make much money, but that was because I was in a town of <10,000 people. Being in Portland you should do a lot better. And that rent is amazing. My last building was $1,250/month.
OP didn't say Portland though
I mod the Portland community so it's a fair guess. 😉
This is the greatest mystery of that comment
But the person I replied to is in/around Portland.
Theyre going to have a rough time competing against Powell's and chain stuff like B&N.
The suburb I'm in has very little in the way of bookstores and zero chains.
How many books would you need to sell to make your money back? How many books would you need to sell to cover your recurring coats and make a decent profit?
It's less about "how many books?" and more about "how much per day?"
There's a minimum amount "to keep the lights on" and then how much to turn a profit.
Generally speaking new books carry a profit margin of 30-40%.
So $600 a month for rent. Utilities (electricity, internet, insurance, security system) probably another $150.
Figure a 30 day month that means doing $25 a day just to keep the lights on.
I have to replace the stock sold with more stock. So 60-70% goes back into maintaining the supply.
So $25@30% means sales of x@100%, solve for X. 25*100 = 2500 / 30 = $83.33 a day just to keep the lights on. $25@40% = $62.50 a day.
If an average transaction is $20, that's 4 or 5 sales a day just to keep the lights on, with a little bit extra, figure 1 to 2 books per transaction?
Now, that being said... To recoup the total costs, $600 for fixtures, $350 for a Point of Sale, a certain percentage of each transaction to handle credit card processing (generally 2.5% + a transaction fee that can be as high as $0.10). That's $950 + $0.60 per transaction I have to make back before there's any money left over.
Let's say I do 5 transactions a day, $100 a day.
$100@30%
83.33 - Keep the lights on.
$16.67
$0.60*5 - $3 a day transaction fees.
$13.67
I have startup costs of $950, not counting domain registration, creating the LLC, etc. I'm ball parking this to keep it simple. 😉
$950 / $13.67 = 69.5 days before I make back the money on the fixtures and machinery needed to run the business.
$100@40%
62.50 - Keep the lights on.
$37.50
$3 a day transaction fees.
$34.50
27.5 days to make up the money on the fixtures and machinery.
Now, I haven't paid ME yet, and I have a mortgage, health insurance, and I need to eat too...
So let's say to personally survive I need $5,000 a month.
$166.66 a day. 30% that means an extra $555.55 a day. 27 transactions a day pays ME. So figure on $671.55 a day pays me, the transaction fees, and keeps the lights on. 34 transactions a day.
$166.66 40% that means $415 a day. 21 transactions a day pays ME. $527.60 a day pays me, the transaction fees, and keeps the lights on. 27 transactions a day.
Doesn't count advertising, taxes, the domain and email costs, the business license and such, one time costs that I'll likely just eat. But you get the idea.
If I hit 35 transactions a day at $20 per, I'm golden.
Space can be open 8 AM to 8 PM, 3 sales an hour? Every day? Seems feasible. Would be working myself to death, but that's life in startup!
Maybe throw in a coffee shop and some evening events. Not much reason to go to any retail establishment these days.
The space I'm looking at is part of an international market hall.
Think Mall Food Court only without the mall. My shop would be between a Cuban bakery and a jewelry store.
I have multiple friends who started a landscaping business out of high school and did fairly well with them.
I think mechanics is oddly the most important skill here: keep all that equipment running.
Photography is a good option. You can take a class for it in most high schools or online if you're an adult. A decent enough camera can be had for around $300 and you can do the editing on free programs like gimp. In turn, you can make that back with a single client foing senior pictures for highschoolers, most wedding photographers charge around a grand for a wedding, more depending on length and if they want touch ups. Realitors like to keep a professional in their pocket because good photos of a house gets more people interested. Then of course there's all the family/baby/dog/business/etc photoshoots in between.
Tailoring. In a world of fast fashion, having someone who can fit you for a suit is a necessity if you're wearing it more than once. Most tailor services I've met work for 3 or 4 clients a month and that covers their lifestyle.
HVAC pays really well and by the time you finish you're trade school class on it you'll already have everything you need to go solo.
Landscaping is another good option if you font mind the heat and labor. For about $2k you can get everything you absolutely need to get into it and by the 5th client you're probably looking at enough to get more professional gear. The best bet for clients are actually smaller businesses like gas stations that aren't chains, rental properties, and specialty clinics. Most of them don't have the service built in and are willing to make a deal if you offer better service or cheaper prices than the current option. This gets even better if you learn local landscaping practices and do the design work too. I knew a guy that got himself a contract with an HOA to do the work for an entire neighborhood. When he started he couldn't dream of affording to live there, by the time I met him he made more than most of the residents.
Word of warning. In MS and AL a lot of the landscaping is done by the sheriff's relatives who use trustees for a pittance. If you cut into their profits be prepared to get harassed by the local sheriff department.
Went through this shit when my roommate started landscaping. Our house got raided 3x and I got 5 tickets on made up bullshit just because I lived at a marked house.
Sex work
Prostitution, you just need a warm hole and no gag reflex and you are all set.
gets fucked in the ass
gags
Oh god, I laughed way to hard at that.
Dang it
Don't worry I'm sure you'll find no shortage of volunteers to help you work on that gag reflex.
Stop using ice dildos and your holes won't be cold.
I can help you turn that problem around.
Pressure washing. Idk what a pressure washer costs but once you have the machine and a means to transport it, you should be good to go.
Probably some form of drop shipping.
Maybe lawn care? You'd definitely need a loan to buy your equipment but if you can find customers you could pay it back pretty quick and grow from there.
lawn care
grow from there
Lol
Physical labor advertised on things like craigslist, facebook marketplace etcetera. Works best for start up cash but you can evolve it into landscaping, moving, hauling, scrapping etcetera. Or any business really, just where you get the seed money.
If you have a garage, detailing is probably a pretty decent bet. You probably need around 1 - 2 thoundands to start proper and not disappoint.
You need time and patience for the most part. Tools and materials arent too expensive and nowadays they're pretty forgiving too.
I knew a guy that did car repairs that did not need a lift or taking out the engine. Would do oil changes and even charged a bit more than cheap places but say on par with a dealership. Was worth it though as you got an oil change and an honest inspection of your vehicle. He would drive it around a bit after and even do something like a grocery trip in your car but again it was worth it because he was evaluating the performance while driving it. Was hard to explain but if I had someone like that nearby I would use them in a heartbeat.
I actually have a guy like that. His work is cheap as it gets, no bureaucracy bullshit, he doesn't have all tools he needs but if he can do it, you know for a fact he'll do it carefully and never lie to you. If it's not a hard job and doesn't require advanced tools he's your guy. My and my friends and family always go to him, and we never had any dishonesty or scammy behavior from him. Sometimes he needs to fix things twice but that's just mechanic work not necessarily his fault.
yup thats exactly it. Its the guys integrity that really makes it. Well that and he knows what he is doing. You know honor and self respect are as important to him as making money. Im pretty sure he charged based on the longest it would reasonably take that would not screw himself over. His profit margin was basically when everything goes smoothly.
I don't even think he charges as much as to cover his ass if he fucks up at some point. You'd go to him for a more complex job where the parts are $200 and he'd charge you like $50 labour. He cray-cray. I have no idea how he manages to work like that AND renovate a fucking house he bought from the money he makes off it AND survive. Guy's nuts.
Lemonade stand.
Whenever I see kids selling lemonade now, I think about how they are subsidized by their parents (you know they’re not buying those supplies at the store) and then I realize most grown adults who “start businesses” are subsidized by their parents as well. So what I’m saying is that lemonade stands are unfair. Also, I never carry cash and they rarely take Venmo.
We must liberate the means of lemonade from the bourgeois children!
We have nothing to lose but our thirst!
Make sure to have some grapes on hand, just in case.
Open up a lemonade stand on your front lawn.
You might be joking, but seriously. Fresh made lemonade has ridiculous profit margins, and people can't get enough of the stuff when it's hot. When I ran a bratwurst/hotdog and lemonade stand, we routinely made triple in the lemonade sales that we did on the sales of the brats/dogs and sides that we had.
Only joking in-so-far as an adult legally running a lemonade stand is gonna cost more than just making the stand and the lemonade. Hella places literally have shut kids down because they didn't have a liscense to sell food.
Oh yeah. Those licences can run up to $10,000 per season depending on the location. You'll make that back easily though. The food licences only cost a couple grand a year. You'll make it back in a good location in one weekend though. It cost us $0.30/$0..35 for materials and labor to make either a regular or a large, ($3.50/$5) and because we sliced the lemon in front of you, and had simple syrup premade, we literally couldn't make them fast enough most afternoons.
Tarrot card reading
Would tea leaves be cheaper? Perhaps some chicken bones?
Itd be cheaper for the customer to avoid it in the first place lol
Bundle/sell firewood.
How much $ for how much wood is fair?
Around me, bundles are generally 5-8 dollars when I buy them, but I've seen people charging over 10/bundle, and they can go fuck themselves
Managed IT services. This is assuming you already have work experience though, and to start the cost is probably just a laptop. And those can be had for quite cheap if needed. There aren lots of great paid tools but you can definitely operate on open source or free tools to start.
Doing it for regular people is one thing but when you say "managed" I assume you mean for businesses? That seems risky but I really don't know much about it. Companies have more litigation money/resources than every-day folks and may be more apt to try and hold you liable for any security breaches, whether they were your fault or not. At least, that would be my fear.
I wouldn’t say this fits the prompt. The liability is so high it’s straight up negligent to go into this without expensive E&O insurance.
Plumber