Best online business ideas for 2023
Want to join the online work force, do your dream job, or maybe just work from home? While there’s plenty of demand for online workers today, breaking in can be intimidating. Even if you’ve researched the top online business ideas and picked your best match, you still might not know how to get started or what to expect.
To help you find innovative business ideas for a digital career, we’ve compiled a list to inspire you. But before we dive into the best online business ideas, let’s talk a little about how to find the right path for you.
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Online Business Ideas for 2023
Your success in whatever job you choose will depend on your skills and talents, and your happiness will depend on what that job entails.
How to find online business ideas for you
For starters, if you’re already a skilled laborer, you may be able to seamlessly migrate your job from offline to online. Specialized jobs like teacher, executive assistant, translator, bookkeeper, or personal shopper, all have online counterparts. Depending on your experience and credentials, you may even have an advantage over your online competition from day one.
So before you look at new innovative business ideas online, your first step should be seeing if you can shift your current job online. Of course most professions still need be handled on site, but in the wake of all the pandemic lockdowns, you might be surprised at what you can do online. Start by hitting the job boards (listed below), specifically for your field of expertise.
Of course, if your offline career is doing well, you have to ask yourself if switching online is really necessary. Maybe you like working directly with people, or maybe you prefer offline methods of attracting new business. Consider both your personal taste and the online demand for your services before making a decision to upend your offline business.
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If you’re choosing a brand new career, that’s another story. Choosing a new career is always filled with obstacles and uncertainty. However, that’s just the price you pay for getting the job you want, especially with the flexibility of online work or doing your dream job. If you’re not sure where to start, ask yourself some introspective questions:
- What am I good at? What skills, knowledge and natural talents do I possess that can be used to make money?
- What do I enjoy doing? What tasks can I do comfortably all day every day?
- What resources do I have at my disposal? HD camera, Photoshop license, popular social media account?
- How much startup funds do I have? How long can I last without pay while my new career finds its footing?
The next step is finding out just how viable each career path is. The best way to begin is researching the business ideas you like online. A good starting point are the job boards that cater specifically to online work. Browse the sites below to see the expectations, salaries and demand for your the job you’re interested in:
- Jobspesso - an international job board specializing in development, design and other solutions for tech brands like content creation and customer service
- Dynamite Jobs - a good resource for finding remote jobs in traditional fields like engineering, financing and HR.
- LinkedIn Jobs - the job board at LinkedIn has a wide reach and lots of variety, plus it can even assess the skills in your profile for recommendations.
You won’t find all online business ideas represented on the job boards, however. For example, if you want to start an ecommerce website or build an influencer brand from scratch, you won’t normally find job postings. Your best bet then is to check out your competitors—go to their sites and see what the day-to-day of the job entails.
Look for details like how much they charge or what services they provide. Feel free to request a quote if they don’t disclose their fees publicly. This will help you budget your business more effectively, or reveal that it’s a dead end because you can’t compete with their prices.
Lastly, make sure you’re prepared for the lifestyle of being self-employed. The switch can be quite jarring if you’re not used to working for yourself, so read our guides on how to build and online business or how to leave your job and become a full-time freelancer.
It’s not always about the job, either—such a change in lifestyle can affect your mood and perspective and it can take a lot of determination and persistence, so be prepared for that as well.
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How to find your business niche
Narrowing down your job prospects is just the beginning. Your online business is more likely to succeed if you hone in on a particular niche, a very specific category of work or clientele. One of the biggest drawbacks to running an online business or freelance career is the competition—your best chance for making money is to specialize on a particular group to reduce that competition.
For example, let’s say you want to start an ecommerce business. If you sell a little bit of everything, shoppers will just continue using Amazon or Walmart because that’s what they’re familiar with. However, if you sell specialty products that aren’t readily available on other marketplaces, such as vegan pet food or your own handmade crafts, that reduces the competition and gives shoppers more incentive to buy from you.
That doesn’t just apply to retail, either. Creative professions like writers, photographers, artists, graphic designers, bloggers, vloggers, speakers and videographers can also specialize in certain fields and styles to stand out from the competition.
Aside from specializing in a certain industry or style, you can also hone in on a pricing niche. If you’re just starting your business, you may want to avoid high rates and charge to reflect your experience. This appeals more to customers on a tight budget, and can give you an advantage over more experienced competitors who charge twice as much.
That principle also applies to ecommerce. If you’re selling the same products as a more popular competitor, you can attract more customers by undercutting their prices. You can fill the market’s inexpensive niche for shoppers on a budget.
Then there’s your own branding niche. In business, people ultimately choose the option that most appeals to them, even if it’s not the most logical option. To appeal to a certain group of shoppers or clientele, adapt your site design, social media posts, content style, etc., to match. For example, if you want to target younger clientele or come across as friendly and casual, use emojis and slang in your site copy and email marketing.
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