A few decades back, there are only two ways that you can start a business. First, you can build a mom-and-pop establishment with just sufficient start-up funds; print or word-of-mouth advertisement; and a lot of business gumption to work with your business plan. Second, you can have an already established multi-million dollar corporation and simply build another business from there.
Naturally, those who only have a few thousand dollars to use as a start-up capital need to go with the first option. You don’t necessarily need millions of dollars as capital to start a business, but it would help a lot if the nature of the business itself will stand the test of time.
Fortunately for today’s entrepreneurs, they can rely on the accessibility of the Internet to sell and advertise their products or services. In fact, there are plenty of huge businesses now which rely on a purely online sales operation – and the capital required is not impossible to raise.
If you have a creative project, you can even rely on crowd sourcing to fund your project and allow it to come to life. In the next sections, we will take a look at which business ideas soared for 2015, and which top ten business ideas are bound to stand the test of time.
Which Business Ideas Soared for 2015?
Kickstarter is a global crowd funding platform based in the US which aims to bring to life creative projects. From films, music, food, stage shows, journalism, comics, and video games, the idea is for people to back the projects that they like. If a project gets sufficient funds, it can see fruition.
For 2015, the top 10 most successfully completed Kickstarter projects based on amount of total funds raised are:
- Pebble Time = $20.338 million
- Coolest Cooler = $13.285 million
- Pebble: e-Paper Watch for iPhone and Android = $10.266 million
- Exploding Kittens = $8.782 million
- OUYA: A New Kind of Video Game Console = $8.596 million
- Pono Music = $6.225
- The Veronica Mars Movie Project = $5.702 million
- LeVar Burton’s Reading Rainbow = $5.408 million
- Torment: Tide of Numenera = $4.188 million
- Project Eternity = $3.986 million
Some of these projects started a few years back and due to the creativity of the idea, they did get sufficient funds from backers to be realized. The figures are from Statista.com.
Also from Statista are indicators which show the small business optimism index in the US from February 2014 to February 2015. From an index of 91.4 on February 2014, the number has risen to 98 for February 2015. The highest index was for December 2014 at 100.4. The index also consists of ten indicators which were derived from questions addressing small business owners. The indicators include:
- Current inventory
- Current job openings
- Expectations for better credit conditions
- Expectations for the economy to improve
- Expectations for higher real sales
- Plans to make capital outlays
- Plans to increase inventories
- Plans to create employment
- The current time being good timing to expand
- Trends in earnings
You can probably take inspiration from the most prominent and oldest-existing manufacturing firms in the world, which is exactly what a timeless business equates to:
- 1665 – Saint-Gobain
- 1760 – Lorillard
- 1802 – Dupont & Co.
- 1806 – Colgate-Palmolive Co.
- 1837 – Procter & Gamble
- 1866 – Sherwin-Williams Co.
- 1872 – Kimberly-Clark Corp.
- 1876 – Eli Lilly and Co.
- 1886 – Johnson & Johnson
- 1883 – PPG Industries
10 Great Business Ideas That Will Stand the Test of Time
Now, if you are looking forward to starting your very own business, it pays to go into a venture with a timeless quality to it. Remember that it would take you two, three or more years before you can earn back your capital.
As such, you should not venture out into a business which no one will care about two or three years from now. You need to have a constant stream of income, repeat customers, and a product or service that will continue to make money in the years to come.
To help you out, here are the top ten business ideas which are bound to stand the test of time:
1. Auto Detailing
Even if cars get ultra-futuristic designs a few decades from now, you can still expect an auto detailing business to flourish. It is best to strengthen your foundational knowledge of cars, its interior and exterior.
Going into the auto detailing business also requires you to pay very close attention to detail, which is exactly the job description. There will always be clients who are car enthusiasts, so your business should be all set for years to come.
2. Child Care
What better, more timeless business is there to start than child care? Whether it’s day care, babysitting or similar child care services, you are bound to always have clients who are harangued mothers, especially ones who are juggling their home and work life.
When you’re just starting out, you can free up your weekends and take in several kid clients at the same time. This is when you can build up your earnings and maybe use the funds to start your very own child care business. This will definitely last you for years to come.
3. Cleaning Services
Next, you can get into cleaning services which is something that will always be in demand. There are many ways that you can go about offering cleaning services. You can focus on home clients or office clients.
Office clients require janitorial services while restaurants and similar establishments require more specific cleaning services. You also have the option to go into more specialized cleaning services like carpet cleaning, dry cleaning, or boat cleaning.
4. Events Planning
As long as there are people who socialize, your event planning business will always have clients. Whether it’s baby showers, birthdays, corporate parties, private parties, bachelor/bachelorette parties – these events are made easier and more successful with professionals handling the details.
You just need to make sure that you are paying close attention to detail and that you know how to handle the requests of the clients, because that is what will turn your business into a timeless success.
5. Food Services
This one is quite tricky. Almost anybody can get into the restaurant business, but not all will succeed. This is because the palate of diners change, and there are cuisines which people will love more than others. To make sure that your food business will last for years to come, you have to continue offering something new to even the most finicky eaters. You could create a special menu using a custom Qr code generator, or a secret dish for your loyal customer based on his previous orders and selections
6. Freelancing
In the age of the Internet, almost anyone with a specific skill can offer his or her services online through freelancing. If this is something that you know you will succeed on, you can start a freelancing business.
Just make sure to broaden your skills in as many areas as possible – be it writing, web designing, programming, etc. This way, you will never run out of clients and have your business last through years to come.
7. Interior Decorating
Yet another timeless business that you can get into is interior decorating. Although there are trends that exist in the interior design industry, it’s still a matter of personal tastes. If you have a flair for design, color combinations and you know that you can suit the tastes of your clients, you should definitely start your very own interior decorating business.
Homeowners will always find the need to improve something about their house, so you will not run out of clients to serve.
8. Handyman Services
If you are skilled at basic home repair, you can definitely start your very own handyman services. Some of the tasks include basic plumbing, fixing broken wooden furniture, tinkering with electronics, paintjobs – you’ll be surprised at how willing people are to pay handymen for services that they would rather not do themselves.
9. Online Selling
If you have a great idea for a product or a service, you can sell it using an online store. It’s very easy to set up an e-commerce site these days, so you just need to have a good product to offer or an outstanding service to sell.
Make sure that your prices are competitive and that you are always offering something new, so that your business can last for years to come.
10. Wedding Planning
Finally, if you love romance, dreams and fairy tales and you have a flair for organizing and decorating, you should think about getting into the wedding planning business.
Again, pay close attention to details and familiarize yourself on how to deal with stressed brides-to-be and clueless grooms-to-be. Everyone loves to have the wedding of their dreams, and the wedding industry does not disappoint in terms of the number of clients that planners usually have.
As you can see, there are several business ideas that should stand the test of time. If you are thinking about getting into any of them, learn as much as you can about the industry and the business itself; be open to changes; and always be in tune with the needs of your target market.
