15 Easiest Business Ideas You Can Start With Less Than $100

Introduction

Starting a business doesn’t always require a hefty investment. In fact, with a bit of creativity and resourcefulness, you can launch a successful venture with minimal funds. Whether you’re looking to supplement your income or embark on a new career path, plenty of opportunities won’t break the bank.

This post will explore 15 of the easiest business ideas you can start with less than $100. These ideas are budget-friendly and simple to set up, making them perfect for aspiring entrepreneurs. So, if you’re ready to plunge into the business world without a significant financial commitment, read on to discover some inspiring and achievable options.

1- Making Rugs with a Tufting Gun

Number one on the list is the easiest business idea: making rugs with a tufting gun. So, there is a massive market for people wanting custom rugs. A little-known fact is that the first rugs were made over 4,000 years ago in ancient Egypt, and ever since then, there has been a high demand for rugs.

But lately, people have wanted more custom-type rugs, and you can make these using a tufting gun. Here’s an example of a guy who started tufting rugs at 19. He started doing it for family and friends here and there, and then now he owns a tufting rug company called Urba Rugs.

This type of thing has been going viral on TikTok and other apps. You can sell it in your local area or on websites like Etsy because people enjoy having custom rugs, and they know they’re the only person in the world who has them.

In addition, this is also a widespread birthday gift that people like to get for their family or friends, so this one’s pretty good. I noticed that it blew up last year or so. People have made a lot of money from this, so I included it. Now, regarding this good opportunity, I will give this one a 7.5 out of 10 opportunity score.

2- Pallet Business

The next easiest business idea is a pallet business, which involves sourcing, reselling, or recycling wooden pallets typically used in various Industries to carry stuff and move it from point A to point B. There are several different ways you can make money doing this.

You can buy pallets of random stuff if, for some reason, it got lost, it didn’t get delivered, or it got returned, or something like that. Sometimes, they’ll just put them in pallets so you can bid on the entire palette and then sell everything individually. So, that’s one way you could make money from this.

A common way of making money is just the pallets themselves. So you can either recycle the pallets or build them, then deliver them to places that need them. Here’s a guy who does this business and makes up to two thousand dollars daily.

So, this one is perfect if you are into logistics, if you’re into making this stuff, and you know, getting it to the right place at the right time. I will give this one an 8 out of 10 opportunity score.

3- Professional Show Cleaning

The next easiest business idea is a professional show cleaning service. There are many different ways of doing this. You may have gone to a mall before and had somebody ask if they could clean your shoes. Typically, they’ll clean one of your shoes and show you the difference between the two.

So they’ll show you that one of your shoes is much cleaner than the other. Hopefully, you’ll see the difference and want to buy more supplies to do it yourself. Hopefully, they will also clean the other shoe, but starting this extremely profitable business is straightforward.

Typically, they’ll charge about $30 for a standard clean, $40 for a deep clean, $55 for a complete exterior and deep clean, and $69 for a complete exterior and interior. Many people take their shoes exceptionally seriously, and many sneakerheads are out there.

This is one of those businesses you can start and make a ton of money from, so it’s a good one. I’ve also seen many channels related to shoe flipping, shoe cleaning, and all things related to shoes and being a sneakerhead.

There are many opportunities to make money directly from doing it and on social media by documenting your journey. So, this one’s pretty good. I’ll give it an 8.5 out of 10 opportunity score.

4- Starting Your Own YouTube Channel

The next easiest business idea is to start your own YouTube channel. You can start your own YouTube channel just by recording your screen. For instance, this guy Sergi Gatari makes over $600,000 a month, and he began by making loom videos where he’s just recording his screen and talking about some stuff on Google Docs, which is pretty freaking hilarious.

So, starting a YouTube channel with a 10 out of 10 opportunity score is a lot of work. You have to put in the work, and it takes some time, but it’s incredibly worth it. YouTube is also the best social media platform for making money. There’s no other social media platform where people make nine figures yearly. So, YouTube is amazing.

5- Cutting Bottles into Cups & Selling Them

The next easiest business idea is cutting bottles into cups and selling them. Yes, this is a way you can make money. There’s an entire video on YouTube about a company that does this, and there are kids they sell online to do this as well.

You can cut these bottles up, sell them online, locally, or use them as your glasses to save money. There are lots of different sites. You could sell these on Etsy or Amazon. You could also sell them locally on websites like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace.

This is another one that’s been blowing up lately on TikTok. So, it’s a pretty good one to get into. I will give it a 7 out of 10 opportunity score.

6- Making Mini Building Blocks

The next easiest business idea is making mini building blocks and selling them. So, I’m not discussing Legos here. However, that is one way you could make money. Many people make money buying and selling Legos, but there are other ways to make money with this as well. You create more industrial-grade building blocks or Legos.

You can use it in the real world, and this is actually what this guy Palumbo did with his business partner, Matt Hoffman. They founded Mini Materials and turned their childhood love of Legos into a real-world way of building actual structures. So, they developed a realistic miniature building supply product line.

You can use these to build realistic-looking buildings in the miniature to medium-sized range. There are many practical and fun use cases for this. For instance, you could make something and have a design before you build it out in real life, and that would be very practical, or you could use it for fun and build random stuff.

But I’ve also seen this becoming popular online lately. Many businesses are growing around it, so I thought this was a perfect opportunity. I’ll give it an 8 out of 10 opportunity score.

7- Selling Printables Online

The next easiest business idea is selling printables online, and I am incredibly excited about this in the next few years. Many people already know about this because, for instance, you’ve got mugs printed on demand. I’ll go through that very quickly; it’s straightforward. You have a coffee mug with a particular design, and you put that design onto it, but it’s only in the digital world.

It’s not created in real life, but when somebody buys it, the company will produce and ship it to them. So, you’re not taking any risk and don’t have to worry about whether people will buy your stuff. Then, order a couple hundred or a couple thousand of them and store them.

You figure out whether they will buy it before you make it, and that’s why that’s a business that’s done exceptionally well in the last few years. Print on demand is excellent. There are a lot of mugs out there, but it’s becoming harder and harder to create original mugs. So, I will give that one a 7.5 out of 10 opportunity score.

8- Selling 3D Printables Online

This new one is the easiest business idea: selling printables online. I’m incredibly excited about it because in the next few years, what’s going to end up happening with this is they are going to start 3D printing just about anything that you want online. So you will be able to design just about anything you want, and they will 3D print it online for you.

So, just as a use case, if you want a particular Halloween costume, you can design it online or look at already-designed costumes. Then, you just put your measurements in, and it will 3D print it to perfectly fit you. This will be a massive business in the next five years. There are probably people doing it already.

I haven’t found them yet, but I haven’t seen anyone doing it at a high level yet. This is going to be a massive business soon. When you combine this print-on-demand with the 3D printing world, wow, it will become incredible. Then, when you add that AI is getting good at designing things for people, you will have people prompting AI to create something.

It’s going to create it in the 3D digital world, and then you can make a few adjustments here and there, print it, and have it delivered to you in real life, which will be incredible. So, I’m super excited about selling printables online, print-on-demand 3D printing, and its AI applications. Someone’s going to do this, and it’s going to be a billion-dollar business.

So, I will have to give this one a 9.5 out of 10. A billion-dollar business will be created from this, and then many million-dollar companies will be designed around the ecosystem. So, I’m super excited about this one. 

9- Window Cleaning

The next easiest business idea on the list is straightforward but highly profitable: window cleaning. So this is how easy it is to start a window cleaning business. All you need is a bucket bunge and some soap. That’s it. You could start one with, never mind, less than $300.

How about less than $10? How about $0, and you look in your cabinet or borrow something from your neighbors? This is a zero-cost business, and you can easily make $20 to $40 an hour immediately doing this. It also doesn’t take very much skill or anything like that. So, the average window cleaning service owner makes $200,000 to $500,000 a year per business.

So, if you think you can’t make money cleaning Windows, you can. The average window Cleaning service owner makes 200 to 500 000 per business. Now, imagine you own many different window cleaning businesses; imagine how much money you could make there. There are a ton of companies out there that need window and cleaning services.

Of course, you can clean residential windows, but you can also clean commercial windows. If you want to clean tall commercial buildings, you’d get paid a lot more money, but it’s also scary because you have to hang off of them. But window cleaning is a perfect business to get into. I’ll give it an 8.5 out of 10 opportunity score.

10- Appliance Repair

The next easiest business idea is an appliance repair business. If you’re good at repairing different types of appliances, this can be a lucrative business. Fixing refrigerators, washers, ovens, etc., is costly. I mean, replacing a refrigerator might cost several thousand dollars.

So if you can hire somebody to come in and fix your refrigerator and have it run for a couple extra years, that’s worth the money, and there are tons of people out there making money doing this. So, a straightforward way to get started with this type of thing will be the app TaskRabbit.

You can also get started on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace or advertise in your local marketplace that you are good at repairing appliances. So yeah, this one’s perfect. There are lots of opportunities out there. I’ll give it an 8 out of 10 opportunity score.

11- Custom Candlemaking

The next easiest business idea is custom candlemaking. This is another one I’ve seen blow up on social media in the last year or two. People just started making custom candles. The look of the candle itself, as can the smell, and it can also be custom once you light it. So, it’s a very artistic business, and making candles is probably a lot of fun.

You can start a candle business for $300 or less. So, in the candle business, it would typically cost about five dollars to create a candle. You can sell off about $20. So each one is about $15 in profit. So, to make a hundred thousand dollars a year, you only have to sell 667 candles, about 556 per month.

Some people are selling thousands and thousands of monthly candles online, again, on places like Etsy, and this is blown up. Another perfect one is TikTok. A TikTok shop is an incredible opportunity right now. So, I’ll give this one an opportunity score of 7.5 out of 10 in 2024. It might not be suitable in 2025, but in 2024, I will give this one an opportunity score of 7.5 out of 10.

12- Personal Training

Personal training is the next easiest business idea, but the catch is that you want to specialize in something. So, I have a friend who specializes in helping upper-class dads get in shape. This guy started by doing personal training and then started an online coaching program.

Now, he makes about a million dollars a month—I think he made more last time. He told me it was over $850,000 monthly, so he’s making 10 million a year. So it would be best if you specialized here. You want to ensure you specialize in a specific type of person and give them particular training.

So, my friend has his own methodology for helping people get in shape, and everyone has his theories on how to do this. I think many people will resonate with different ways of getting in shape. So it’s all about finding you, you know, in a preferable way.

However, personal training can be significant. Individual trainers typically charge at least $30 to $50 an hour, and it’s straightforward to start. I’ll give this one a 7.5 out of 10 opportunity score.

13- Delivery Services

The next easiest business idea is delivery services. There are many different ways you can do this. First, you can start working on apps like Instacart, Uber Eats, etc. But you can also begin your delivery services well, and some very profitable Industries to do this in, for instance, are medical courier services, where you could start with your car—that’s it.

Another profitable way to do this is offering airport lost baggage delivery services. In this service, you deliver lost baggage that people you know lost at an airport to their house or the hotel they’re staying in. Typically, you’ll make at least $36 an hour for delivery service, and there’s almost unlimited demand for people to do this.

You need only a car, that’s it. The delivery service is excellent, and the startup costs are super cheap. I’ll give this one an 8.5 out of 10 opportunity score.

By the way, if you read the article, let me know by commenting below. Let me know your favorite side hustle and least favorite one, and if I didn’t include one that you think should have been in the article. Maybe I will include it in a future article.

14- Handyman Services

The next easiest business idea is handyman services, and specifically, you can start by using the app TaskRabbit. Now, there are many different ways you can make money with this. Of course, you could start your own business. You could advertise on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist. However, a straightforward place to start is by using TaskRabbit, an app that allows you to make 35 an hour or more.

I do get asked all the time. Like Arslan, I have to make money right now. What would you do if you were in my position? This is precisely what I would do. I would do these handyman-type jobs, these odd jobs on apps like TaskRabbit or Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace if TaskRabbit is not available in your area.

The great thing about TaskRabbit is that it starts by paying you $35 an hour. It goes up from there, and I have used TaskRabbit many times; it’s a unique and straightforward app. I love it. This is literally what I would do if I had to make money to pay rent. Like next week, for instance, I would start offering these types of services.

I’ve done this many times in high school and college, and typically, a handyman charges anywhere from 35 to a hundred dollars per hour. This could involve helping people box things up, allowing people to move, mounting a TV on a wall, assembling some furniture, etc. It’s a super, super good one to get into. I will give this one a 9.5 out of 10 opportunity score.

15- Mobile Car Wash

The next easiest business idea is the mobile car wash. I’ve also seen this one blow up in the last few years. More and more people are getting too busy to go to the car wash, but they want a nice, clean, shiny, sleek car, so what do they do? They order a mobile car wash while they’re home or while they’re at work.

This is especially good because the types of people who would order this type of thing are typically those who are okay with paying high ticket prices so that you can charge a reasonable amount. Here’s a post from a guy who said he spent five hours researching mobile car washes. He already made money from it.

He said he was lurking on this sub reading about mobile car washes. He already has seven clients and earned a hundred dollars in profit. His goal is to make two thousand dollars in the first month. You can make a ton of money doing this. Essential mobile car wash services charge at least $20 to $50.

You can also offer detailing services, where you clean the inside of the car. You can charge more than that, so that’s a good one. It’s a huge opportunity to save people time and convenience at any time. I’ll give this one an 8.5 out of 10 opportunity score.

Wrapping Up: The Easiest Business Ideas to Kickstart Your Entrepreneurial Journey Under $100

Considerable capital is not always necessary for an entrepreneur. According to our discussion, many business ideas require less than $100 to start up. In addition, these ideas reduce your economic risk and allow you to be a little more entrepreneurial.

For example, the possibilities for freelancing or selling handcrafted items are endless. The point is that you can use your skills, passion, and the available resources to set up a business that matches what you want in life. Remember, most successful businesses start small and grow big over time.

By taking one of these easiest business ideas, you begin your journey toward financial independence and self-actualization. If you need a side hustle or want to build a full-time business from scratch, these cheap startups will form a solid basis.

This way, make a leap of faith into the unknown and see how investing just a little money can turn dreams of entrepreneurship into reality, starting now! Creativity, persistence, and dreaming big but beginning small are attributes that will lead you to prosperity on this path.

By the way, I wrote an article about Proven Passive Income Streams that went viral. It’s “13 Proven Passive Income Streams That Generate Cash”. You can check that article, too.