Entrepreneurial spirit is high in modern society. Every coffee shop seems to be filled with young bright minds planning the launch of their new start up. Young hopeful future Elon Musk’s seem to be sprouting up by the minute.
But the sad truth is that most businesses fail within the first 5 years. There are too many factors to why a business could fail, from poor planning, financial constraints, to simple bad luck.
Unfortunately for many potential entrepreneurs, working hard is not always congruent with success. But in today’s cutthroat world, working smart is.
So, in 2018, what are the smartest businesses to pursue?
The smartest businesses to pursue are the ones that require little start-up capital and have good potential to grow. For 2018, I found the three most promising emerging businesses:
Consulting
Starting a business doesn’t always mean creating a product or hiring a team. Sometimes all you need is your own brain. If you have expertise in a certain area, leveraging that through a consulting business is a smart business opportunity.
A lot of people are swayed by the thought of starting their own consulting firm because they don’t happen to have a phD in whatever subject they would consult in. The truth is: you don’t need one. Experience in an industry holds a ton of value.
Consulting is how I started out in my own digital marketing business. As I gained momentum and built up more clients and added to my portfolio, I had built a healthy reputation with a good network to help me expand into an agency.
And as a bonus, starting a consulting firm won’t take a toll on you financially because you don’t need much start-up capital or overhead.
Online education service
Not surprisingly, the accessibility of the internet and all it has to offer has spurred a wide range of business opportunities in the digital sphere. E-commerce can be risky, and manufacturing and distribution expenses can be steep.
On the other hand, offering an online service, such as an online education tool or course, is a great business idea that will be in demand. More and more people are turning to the internet as an educational source. With some research and planning on your part, you could create an entire course and sell it online.
As with consulting, starting an educational service business online requires little start-up capital. There’s loads of potential to grow as your course becomes more popular.
Take one of my clients, Warrior Trading, as an example of how far online education can take a business. They saw an opportunity to leverage their resources and expertise on online trading to create a community of people learning to do what they love together. Plus, they’ve grown into one of the largest platforms for day trading training, generating revenue in the millions.
Affiliate marketing service
The internet has dominated almost everything we do, including how we shop. The online world is basically a giant marketplace, filled with competitors digitally vying for the consumers attention.
This is where affiliate marketing has boomed. An affiliate marketer recommends a certain brand or company through their personally owned online platform and receive a commission every time a product is bought through their recommendation.
As with the other businesses on this list, you don’t need to produce an actual product. You just need the digital savvy to create a well performing website that generates lots of traffic. Once you have a substantial and loyal following, you can build affiliate partnerships with companies that sell products or services online.
Affiliate marketing can be anywhere from recommending a product through your personal instagram page to building an entire website filled with products from all sorts of companies. If you want an idea of how large an affiliate marketing business can be, check out Clickbank.
Starting a business, no matter which, will require an abundance of time, effort, and patience. Even in the digitally-fuelled world we live in today, no business venture is a guaranteed success. But being smart about which business to get into can make things run a little smoother.
In 2018, little start-up capital, good potential for growth, and an online presence are all ingredients of a smart business that can grow to make good money.
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