It’s no longer taboo for people to leave the daily nine to five lifestyle behind and start their own business. In fact, it’s never been easier, and cheaper, to start your own business. But, it’s one thing to start your own business and it’s another to become a millionaire from that idea. The good news is that it’s feasible. And, you can use these 25 ideas to become a millionaire in four years or less.
1. Agribusiness
While the growing population will obviously need people to grow fruits and vegetables, raise livestock, or start a fish farm to meet their needs, there’s an interesting trend happening. For just the second time in the last century the number of farmers under 35 years old is increasing.
“Young farmers tend to start small and sell to direct markets, because that’s a viable way for them to get into farming,” said Lusher Shute, executive director of the National Young Farmers Coalition. “But many are shifting gears as they get into it — getting bigger or moving into wholesale.”
2. Bicycle Sales/Rentals/Repairs/Storage
Between 2012 and 2017 the number of cyclists/bike riders has increased from 51 million to 66 million. With so many people interested in bicycling, there’s a need for someone to sell, rent, or repair them.
But, depending where you live, this could be more of a seasonal business. If so, consider opening a bicycle storage business so that riders don’t have to transport them back-and-forth.
3. Blogging/Vlogging
With just a couple of dollars you can start your own blog. Ideally, your blog should be something that you’re knowledgeable or passionate about. If so, you can start selling educational/educational content or become an affiliate partner.
If you’re charismatic, then launch your own YouTube channel. It’s actually the norm for YouTube celebrities to pull-in six-figures annually.
4. Cannabis
Currently, twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have laws broadly legalizing marijuana in some form. As such, the cannabis industry is growing rapidly. This includes everything from growing to distributing cannabis, as well as lesser known opportunities.
This can include creating beauty products from cannabis to running tours of relevant destinations to building your own social network.
5. Chatbots
“Where 10 years ago every company needed a website and five years ago every company needed an app, now every company needs to embrace messaging with AI and chatbots,” said ChatBot expert Murray Newlands.
Creating chatbots may sound too complex, but thanks to tools like Chattypeople you can easily build a Facebook bot without having any previous coding knowledge.
6. Construction
Forbes reports that “five of the 10 fastest-growing industries in small business are tied to construction. Contractors involved in site preparation, foundations, utility lines, remodeling and mechanical equipment installation all have been growing sales notably faster than the 8.5 percent average for all small businesses.”
Even businesses related to cleaning services and pest control are growing rapidly.
7. Drones
BI Intelligence expects the sales of drones to surpass $12 billion in 2021. “That’s up by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.6 percent from $8.5 billion in 2016.” The growth is expected to occur in the following industries; Consumer Drones, Enterprise Drones (aka Commercial Drones), and Government Drones.
You could capitalize on this trend by stating a drone-based business like sales, customization, repair, training, photography, mapping, surveying, and security.
8. eCommerce Website
Combine living in a global marketplace with the low-cost of building an online storefront and decreasing transaction rates and you can see why eCommerce websites are flourishing. To get started, do a little research by seeing what’s popular on Google Trends, eBay, and Amazon.
For example, hammocks were trending on eBay this year, along with having an engaged community of hammock lovers on Reddit. With that in mind, you could start an eCommerce that sells hammocks that have been handmade from locally-sourced fabrics.
9. Eldercare
There are approximately 75 million Baby Boomers in the U.S. alone. Additionally, the Gen X population is projected to outnumber the Boomers by 2028. That means launching a business that aids the elderly will be in great demand.
Obviously, this is going to benefit the nursing industry. But, other business ideas include running errands, doing household chores, paying bills, transportation, and just keeping people company.
10. Family Volunteer Vacations
The “voluntourism” industry helps connect service-minded travelers with developing communities. Programs such as Discover Corps make it possible for individuals and families to partake in meaningful, culturally immersive trips through two-week volunteer vacations.
This industry is growing rapidly, but as millennials start having families of their, expect volunteer travel to compete with traditional family vacations.
11. Financial Services
According to 35.7 percent of respondents of the World Wealth Report, financial services was one of the sectors that was most likely to create millions. Financial services include accounting, bookkeeping, and tax preparation.
12. Food eCommerce
Food eCommerce is booming. In fact, CNBC reports that this industry will “grow five-fold over the next decade, with American consumers spending upwards of $100 billion on food-at-home items by 2025.”
This can include delivering fresh local ingredients to customers doorsteps or building an online ordering portal for local restaurants.
13. Food Truck
In 2015, the U.S. food truck industry was valued at 856.7 million dollars. By 2020, it’s expected to jump to 996 million dollars. Even if you don’t have the cash to start your own truck, there are more affordable options like a trailer or hot dog cart.
14. Graphic Design
Businesses — both large and small — are in constant need of talented creatives to tell their story through branding. This includes anything from designing a logo, advertisement, newsletter, magazine, flyer, or information sheet.
If you don’t think that this is a millionaire dollar idea, then take a lesson from Nicky Laatz. Laatz works from home designing fonts, graphics, and templates and has been able to make a million dollars by selling them online.
15. Green Energy
Green energy is increasingly becoming mainstream across the world thanks to things like electric cars and rooftop solar panels. Even more, renewable energy has become more affordable and it currently employs 9.8 million globally.
A couple of ideas to get started would be manufacturing solar-powered shingles, becoming an electric car dealer, opening an electric car station, or installing solar panels. You could also open a solar-powered bike cafe or just consult businesses on how they can become more green.
16. Insuretech
“Customers are seeking more digital touch points for convenience, as customers experience in their daily lives that degree of personalization,” Keith Webb, vice president at Capgemini and co-author of the report, told CNBC.
“And the insurance industry can’t actually lag behind, although I think that it still is lagging behind other sectors. But certainly it’s waking up to the fact that working in partnership with more insurtech firms — working in partnership with technology firms generally — through their innovation labs now which are fairly common, is definitely enabling more rapid, and more innovative engagement models with customers, that take them into that personalization stage that really customers are beginning to expect.”
Enter insurtech, which is an offshoot of the financial technology (fintech) sector. This rapidly evolving movement is focused on simplifying and improving the efficiency of insurance.
17. Investing
Investing is a practical and proven way to earn a million dollars or more in a relatively short period of time. This could be investing in stocks and bonds to real estate to something more risky like bitcoin.
I would recommend you review a guide, like this one from the Motley Fool, before you start investing though.
18. Make Your Own Board/Card Game
Have you heard of Cards Against Humanity? The game was by a group of high school friends who enjoyed making-up their own games. They eventually launched a Kickstarter campaign and within two years made $12 million.
If you want to follow in their footsteps, the company created a free PDF download to get you started.
19. Mobile App Developer
It’s anticipated that by 2020 there will be close to 3 billion smartphones globally. And, what do you expect these users will be demanding?
They’ll be searching for mobile apps that will help them manage their lives or a game that they can’t stop playing. Even if you don’t have the coding skills, but an idea, you can work with a software developer to make your app a reality.
20. Niche eBooks
Ebooks are, well, books. They’re just digital copies that you can self-publish on sites like Amazon. People can make a decent living by writing and selling eBooks to niche markets.
For example, Hugh Howey sold a series of science fiction books via Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. There was one point when he was selling 20,000 – 30,000 copies a month, which generated $150,000 per month.
21. Pet Care
Americans spent an impressive $62.75 billion on their pets in 2016. That amount is expected to increase to $96 billion by 2020!
If you want to enter this market, you could start a business like grooming, training, walking, or sitting. The real money, however, is producing and selling organic pet food and treats.
22.Purchase a Franchise
As I mentioned in an article for Entrepreneur, franchises are often overlooked — despite being profitable. This is because you’re not starting from scratch. You’re purchasing an established business that has already has a brand and customer-base built-in.
23. Subscription Service
What I like most about the subscription business model is that it’s predictable. This makes creating and sticking to a budget a lot easier since you know how much money you’re bringing in each month.
Need some ideas. Then check out Cratejoy. The site has hundreds of suggestions that range from beauty, grooming, fashion, gaming, food, pets, and books.
24. Virtual Reality
While companies like Oculus Rift and Magic Leap are spending millions in developing their virtual reality products. You could probably cash-in on the trend with little investment. For example, you could rent-out virtual reality headsets, create a theater experience, sell cardboard-like headsets, or create VR related content.
25. Wireless Security Cameras
Wireless security cameras are consistently ranked #1 on Amazon’s “Movers and Shakers” camera category. Furthermore, a lot of people have questions about them. With demand and the amount of unanswered questions, there’s a real business opportunity to capitalize on wireless security cameras.
If you don’t physically sell them, you could start a business where you instruct, educate, or train others on how to use them.
Coming Up With Your Own Million Dollar Business Idea
Not feeling the suggestions listed above? Then here’s a couple of tips that you can use to come-up with your own millionaire business idea.
- Pay close attention to upcoming trends and technologies.
- Think of how you can improve something that really bothers you.
- Be on the lookout for goods or services that currently aren’t provided.
- Innovate an industry that’s gone stale.
- Sell products or services that are cheaper than other businesses through outsourcing and minimizing expenses.
- Talk to potential customers and listen to their main complaints.
- Bring in a new product or service to a location where it’s currently unavailable.
