Many of us working in a 9-to-5 job sometimes daydream about what it would be like to be our own boss; to have the autonomy to make your own decisions about the work you do and the business you run. When you’ve got deadlines to meet and difficult customers to deal with, this thought can seem especially appealing!
And we may also imagine reaping all the benefits of owning a company, such as increased earnings and more flexible hours – even reducing the amount of time we spend working after setting up a business with passive income streams. Ahh, earning money while you sleep sounds lovely, doesn’t it?
So, if you want to escape your conventional job and become self-employed but don’t know what you want to do, here are some ideas:
Embrace existing businesses
You don’t have to start from scratch if you want to set up a company and be your own boss. There are other existing businesses out there that can do it for you through franchising.
This means your brand-new company will get all the benefits of linking up with an established company with a good reputation and can use its existing branding materials and marketing strategy to help you hit the ground running.
Some franchises even send customers your way if you’re covering a location that they’re not already working in: a customer will enquire through the main brand website and will be sent straight to you to do the work. That way, you’ve instantly got customers knocking on your door with very little effort from you.
And it doesn’t have to be expensive to set up a business in this way; there are plenty of affordable franchise opportunities out there that you can buy into. When you consider all the things you would have to pay out for if you were setting up a business from scratch – the website, logo design and branding, advertising – it’s often good value for money.
Some franchises even provide physical items you’ll need, such as tools, equipment, uniforms, vehicles and so on, meaning you’re probably saving money overall on your start-up costs.
Create your own product
Perhaps you have a product idea bubbling away in your mind while you’re sat at your desk doing your 9-to-5 job. If so, maybe you can try to develop that product and turn it into the next big thing. Every inventor who has been on Dragon’s Den started with an idea – so why can’t that be you?
Get those ideas on paper and start trying out the techniques needed to develop the product. But don’t ‘reinvent the wheel’ – often there are already materials or techniques available that you can use in a different way in order to create your product without having to invent anything new.
For example, you can use various industrial companies to form the product to your specifications rather than stock up your garage with laser-cutting equipment and injection molding materials. Likewise, if you want to design a graphic or pattern to be placed onto products, there are so many sublimation or printing companies out there that will do it for you.
Once you’ve developed your product, you don’t have to physically take it to your customers in order to sell it, so there’s no need for market stalls or even shop premises. Instead, you can pitch it to retailers who will stock and sell it for you.
Plus, if you set up ways to sell your product through distributors, a drop-shipping website or through Fulfilled by Amazon, you’ve instantly got a passive income – you’ll be earning money with very little work needed from you. The orders come in and the e-commerce provider fulfils the order for you.
Skills you can share
Of course, a business doesn’t have to be a physical product or a shop – you can sell a service too. All you need to consider is what skills you already have that you can make a profit from. This could include practical tasks such as DIY and gardening, or you could teach a skill like crochet, art, languages, tech knowledge, cooking and so on.
Again, you don’t have to splash out on a business premises to do this and, if it’s already a hobby of yours, may already have the equipment you need to get started straight away. Many teaching-based activities can be done virtually using live video-calling. Or you could record a video course that you can sell over and over again, generating a passive income.
This type of business is certainly one that you can start straight away alongside your main job. You can teach your knowledge or share your practical skills during evenings and weekends, which will allow you to earn money on the side and boost your savings without giving up your main income.
It gives you the chance to test out your business before you decide to become self-employed. Here’s another article I wrote about 3 strategies to start a side hustle with almost no investment that might help you launch your part-time business.
I hope that all of these ideas have given you inspiration for ways that you can launch a business or product with very little effort and plenty of support so that you don’t have to slog away at making a success of your company for years. These ideas skip a few steps and make it easier to achieve whatever idea that’s bubbling away in your brain.
Let me know in the comments below what type of business you’d like to set up and I’d love to hear your story if you’ve already made the leap into being self-employed.
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This article is a sponsored collaboration. The pink links in the content indicate a sponsored link or information source. The blog post reflects my own experience and the sponsor hasn’t had any control over my content 🙂
