Can you start an online business with just $10?
Of course.
But you will be looking at areas with extremely low barriers to entry (like, zero barriers), which are naturally saturated, since everyone can access them.
What this typically means is, these businesses take even longer to break through and start generating a profit.
So whilst it is fairly easy to start an online business with just $10 to invest, at the same time, it’s very difficult to turn a profit from such a business. What you avoid investing financially, expect to make-up in sweat equity – hard work, energy, and time.
My first piece of guidance, therefore, before we move on to the type of businesses you could start for just $10, would be to ensure you have an income from elsewhere so you can actually afford to live whilst your business gets off the ground.
When you start an online business with just $10, don’t expect it to generate an income substantial enough to live on, for quite some time.
Think about it in rational terms – people with hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of dollars to invest, they typically look for yields (return on their investment) of between 5–20% per annum for passive investments (property, stocks, other long-term investments), and when investing in trading businesses, the scale varies even more wildly depending on the industry, business model, and the investor’s appetite for risk.
Scale this back to the example of your investment of $10, and even in the best case scenario, a respectable 20% return on your investment would be $2 . . . per annum.
If there were business and investment opportunities out there that consistently and reliably yielded more of a return than this, and they were accessible to those with as little capital as $10, everyone would be doing it.
The reality is, lucrative opportunities don’t exist at this level of investment – without making-up the rest in sweat equity.
So if you’re prepared to absolutely work your ass off – every evening when you return from your day job, you’ll be working until Midnight, every morning, you’ll be waking earlier than usual to squeeze a couple of hours in before you go to work again, entire weekends will be spent on your business, and heck, even lunch breaks at work should be utilised (maybe you could be posting on your businesses’ social media on your phone?).
And you’re prepared to do this day-in, day-out, for up to 5–10 years before you even see a dime return.
Then, and only then, can you make a $10 business work.
I’m not saying this to be depressing or to put you off. I’m saying it to be realistic.
Pretty much everyone in the developed World has $10 available at one point or another, so any glimmer of opportunity at that level is going to be massively saturated.
So you’re going to have to be prepared to outwork the masses, to work harder, longer, and smarter than everyone else in that space, to come out on-top and make it work.
So, if you feel you have that level of commitment and dedication in you, read on.
If not, keep that $10 in your pocket, and stay employed (or focus on getting employed, if you aren’t already) until you can save enough money to start looking at opportunities that are a little harder to access, financially.
So, here’s a few business ideas at the $10 seed investment level, for the crazy-committed:
- Blogging (maybe utilise an existing free platform that comes in a hosted-solution, since your $10 will be spent in just 2 months on even the cheapest shared hosting package – that’s putting the domain purchase and any design requirements aside)
- Affiliate marketing
- Youtube videos (provided you have a suitable smartphone or camera for filming)
- Service-based businesses (what services require no equipment or tools, that you can offer? What are your strengths? What are you knowledgeable in? Copywriting is a good option if you can write well, social media management is another – you can use platforms like Fiverr and Upwork to bid on projects that people are looking to get completed, to get going for zero investment in advertising). More old-fashioned models in this space would be leaflet-delivery services, car washing, dog walking, grocery pick-ups and so on.
That should be enough to get your own ideas flowing regarding the areas you should be looking at when you’re wanting to start an online business with just $10.
When on offer, you can download my Udemy course Fasttrack Entrepreneur for just $9.99 – which will guide you through each step of the business idea and setup process. So this may well be the best way to invest your $10 when you’re looking to get started.
Good luck with your venture!