Starting a business is often thought of as something only possible if you have some money behind you, however, in todays day and age this has never been less true. 

Barriers to entry for starting a small business in the US, UK, Europe or any country for that matter have been reduced with the introduction of technology such as the internet, meaning you can quickly start a business with very little and in some cases almost no money down. 

Starting a business is only the beginning however, making a business survive, succeed and thrive is another matter and so within this guide we will give you some ideas and inspiration for types of businesses to start with around $5,000 and how you can give yourself the best chance of success.

How to start a business with $5k

If you wanting to find out how to start a business with $5k then there is no simple answer, it will all depend on the type of business you're looking to start and the market or industry that it is in. You'll need to work out what service or product you want to offer, who the market is for this and how you will get in front of this market and sell.

Once you've worked this out, then you can work backwards and work out how to start the business, what you'll need to invest in, any market research you'll need to do beforehand and the processes you'll need to get going.

There are many different types of business you'll be able to start with a budget of around $5,000 and we'll go through them all below.

Freelancing

This is one of the easiest businesses to set up, essentially you offer your skills and charge for them, for example if you’re particularly good at design then you could become a freelance designer offering to design logos, flyers and the like to people. 

If you’re unsure of what skills you have, then have a think about what you are generally good at and what others have said you’re good at. If you can’t think of any then it you could opt to learn a new skill first. 

Need based services i.e babysitting, gardening 

One of the best business to start with $5k are the service based businesses, there will always be a need for certain services, think of something that every household needs, whether this is window cleaning, gardening, painting and so on. Some of these services may need skills but others won’t or if they do and you don’t have them they are quick and easy to learn.

For example, you could set up a gardening business by borrowing tools from friends or spending a few hundred dollars on them, create a logo using a free online logo creator, make a website using a free website creator such as Webflow or Wix and you’ve essentially created a business. You can then make flyers, hand them out or go door to door to get customers.

Other ideas for this include:

• DIY/Handyman services
• Repair gadgets and technology
• Landscaping
• Jet washing
• House sitting

Blogging

This type of small business used to be all the rage around 5-10 years ago and it still is going strong, blogging is essentially writing on a website, now you may be asking how can you make money from this and put simply most bloggers earn money from affiliate links (links to retailers whereby they earn a commission) and through adverts that they place on their blog. 

Blogging is great if you have a natural talent or skill of writing, you’ll also need to have a passion for something as you’ll quickly stop writing if you don’t have passion about the subject you blog is about. 

Blogging as a small business can be set up for extremely little money, there are free blogging platforms available but we would recommend if you’re taking it seriously to purchase a domain name (approx $10) and set up some a blog on either Wordpress or a blogger platform. 

Consultant

If you’ve got experience in an industry, for example lets say you’ve been in marketing in the automotive industry then why not look to sell your knowledge as a service, going into businesses and giving them advice, action plans and so on.

This type of business can start with just yourself, your time and a little bit of branding but essentially zero startup costs and if successful you can look to expand by hiring people to do what you’re doing and you spend more time finding new clients and businesses. 

Personal shopper as a service

If you love shopping, then being a personal shopper could be your ideal job, of course this does always sound like a dream job to lots of people but it’s important that you realise that it is not simply just about going shopping.

Personal shopping services require you to have clients which will require marketing, you’ll need to prove that you can meet your customer requirements, have a good understanding of what they request and learn their style. 

Again this type of set up for a company has very low costs and it’s all about networking and getting a good selection of clients and customers. 

Become a Personal trainer

Similar to the above, if you love fitness and going to the gym, why not turn your passion into a business, this could be as simple as becoming a personal trainer and charging per hour to people to help them meet their goals.

Taking this another step, you could set up a business that offers this within businesses or create a network of personal trainers and help train others to become qualified trainers. 

The costs of this business again are very low, making it great for those who want to start a business with little to no money. 

Social media management

Social media is such a large part of many businesses, if you find that you enjoy using platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin then you should consider how you could turn this into a business.

Social media management is all about handling a business's social media accounts, posting relevant content, keeping everything on brand, and ensuring comments and questions sent to social media accounts are answered in a timely manner and correctly. 

One of the great things about this business is that you’ll find there are some very successful businesses that don’t do their social media well at all, this may be due to time restraints or that the owners don’t have a full understanding of it’s important or simply don’t know how to do it yourself. 

This is where you can come in and take all of these problems away from them and make their life easier whilst making sure that their business has a great social media presence which can help them increase sales and close leads.

You can start this type of small business with no money, just your time, a phone and reaching out to local businesses to ask if they need any help with their social media. 

Tutoring

If you're particularly knowledgeable about one subject then you could consider tutoring, so, for example, let's say you've just graduated from college or university in a Maths degree, you could easily go and tutor kids from high school who are in need of extra help in the subject of math.

This type of small business is often seen more as a part time businesses but it can easily be turned into a full business if you expand you offering and start hiring others to tutor in other areas.

Photography business

If you're a keen photographer then it could be worth exploring turning your hobby into a business by offering your photography services to people or businesses. Some ideas around this could be to offer wedding photography, pet photography or maybe you have another passion for cars then you could specialize in automotive photography.

There are many photographers out there so a good tip can be to niche down and target a specific industry, by specializing in this area people will be more likely to go for you as opposed to someone who does lots of different types of photography.

The set up costs for a small business like this may be higher but if you're looking to set up with around $5,000 this will be able to buy you a good second-hand camera and other equipment that will give you a great start, as with many in this industry you can simply upgrade and add to your equipment as you grow and earn more money.

Photography niches you could consider specializing in:

• Wedding photographer
• Couple photographer
• Baby and children
• Pet portraits
• Professional headshots for businesses
• Food photography
• Automotive/car photography
• Product shots

Offer Website design

If you’ve designed websites before then you’ll be able to do it for other people, this type of business is super easy to make with all the upfront costs really being the time to design your own website to showcase your work and then time to reach out to potential customers.

Top ways to do this include reaching out to local businesses, using social networks such as Linkedin to connect with people who run businesses as well as going to networking events and getting your name out there.

How much you charge for a website will depend on various factors such as the type of website, how skilled you are, the clients budget and more but you can expect to make small websites for a few hundred dollars and big ones can range from $5k to $10k and upwards. 

Set up an Ecommerce store

An e-commerce store is essentially a website where you sell products on, you control the products you sell, the price and so on. This kind of small business has grown massively in recent years and with platforms such as Shopidfy, Woocommerce and others allowing anyone even without any kind of website or technical knowledge to create one it really is a great option to consider.

You will of course need to research the type of products you want to sell, source them yourself or use a dropshipping service and then look into areas such as how you will deal with customers, how will you market the business etc. 

Don’t take this kind of business lightly, although you can often find people saying how easy it is to start one, it’s often the actual process of getting the customers that is the hardest part. 

This can be one of the best business to start with $5k or less as the returns can be made sometimes in just one website sale. 

Be an event planner

If you’re always the one organizing parties for the family, birthdays for friends, work events and so forth then it’s likely you’ll have a natural skill for event planning as a whole. 

You can start these types of business for less than a few hundred dollars and certainly not need to spend $5,000 for this type of business. 

Start small and potentially look to organize your first event for a friend or someone you know free of charge, make this your test event and document everything so you can showcase this to potential customers who will pay.

You could run events everything from birthday parties to weddings to baby showers and anything else you can think of. 

Start a cleaning business

There’s big money in dirt, from the residential side of cleaning whereby you could set up a business cleaning people’s homes or cars to the business side where you could create a company that goes into businesses and offers to clean their workspace or venue.

The startup costs for a small business like this can be very small and you can quickly find customers by reaching out to your family and friends as well as making use of social media networks to push awareness of what you’re doing. 

If you do a good enough job you’ll quickly find that people will refer you to others, known as Word of Mouth marketing this is one of the best ways a potential customer will hear about you as it will be seen as having been given a green light by someone they know. 

You can specialize in one area such as house cleaning or luxury car washing, alternatively, you could opt to offer a more wider range of services and then see which you get most demand for as well as which you enjoy and want to pursue more. 

Pet care & pet walking business

There is a lot of money to be made in the pet industry, over 70% of US households own at least one pet and the market as a whole is reported to be valued at over $75 billion. 

Startup costs for a pet walking or pet car business are small, you can opt to start with the cost of a few leads to walk dogs or if you’re looking for a business to start with $5,000 then you could invest in a pet startup by creating a space within your home for example where you can offer pet grooming services. 

What is great is that if you offer a great value proposition then you’ll get repeat customers as well as having them recommend you to their friends who have pets.

This is a small business that is great for those who are animal lovers and one that we strongly advise against if you’ve never been a fan of pets!

Start a Food Truck

If you love food and are great at making it, then a food business can be a fantastic business for you. These types of small business do have slightly larger startup costs than others but for around $5k you’ll be able to do many different food businesses.

Food trucks typically can start from around the $5,000 mark, you will just have to be sensible with your costs and buy many items that are second-hand/used. Having said that many people have set them up for around this price.

If you want to spend slightly less than it may be worth investigating becoming a food vendor first at an existing indoor food hall or market where you may get the cooking equipment supplied to you already and they simply take a cut of your sales. 

Remember though that running a food truck or vendor business doesn’t just rely on liking food and being able to cook it, you’ll need to be able to market your business, come up with a good brand, offer something unique or delicious enough that people come back as well as spread the word about it as well as managing the costs and finance part of the business. 

Music based business

If you’re naturally talented or have had years and years of experience playing certain instruments then why not look into creating a music teaching business, this will be a very low entry-cost style business and one that you can quickly get into if you connect with local schools, activity centres and so on and put advertisements up there.

Alternatively, if you’re a DJ or sing you could look to offer your services to people at events or even businesses such as to wedding venues. If they like what they hear then they will likely rebook you or recommend you to their customers as an option. 

Buying and Selling on Ebay/Etsy

Reselling items from websites such as eBay on places like Etsy is often quite a simply business to do, you essentially can hunt for items that are underpriced or seem a bargain, this may be due to poorly made listings with misspellings or poor photos, then purchase them and retake nicer photos and make a better listing and increase the price.

This type of small business idea can be good for short term small gains but certainly can be a hard business to make a lot of money from. We suggest you consider this as more of a side hustle than small business idea. 

Offer Graphic design

If you've got a skill for design then offering your services as a graphic designer can be one that can be lucrative, even if you're not say the most skillful designer there are now plenty of tools and software out there that can aid in your creativity, take for example Canva, this tool has many pre-existing designs which you can work off, helping save you time and give you inspiration.

Ways you could offer your graphic design services could be by reaching out to local businesses and offering to design anything that they need, offering a redesign for free to start building up a portfolio, posting on social media about your offering and contacting local charities to help them out.

Upcycling furniture

Although people have been upcycling for years, the rise of social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram has meant upcycling has boomed. 

With thousands of tutorials on how to upcycle furniture available you can simply watch these and spend a small amount of money on investing in tools to try it out yourself. 

Most people who choose to start a small business like this will source used furniture from places like Gumtree, Facebook Marketplace, garage sales and so on, they’ll then upcycle them by repairing them, changing handles, repainting and so on. They then list them back onto these places as well as the likes of eBay and sell them for a profit. 

If you’re creative, hands on and have an eye for design then this is certainly one to consider, you’ll be looking at startup costs way less than $5k and more likely a few hundred dollars at a maximum. 

Be a Virtual Assistant

Often referred to as VA’s this is essentially offering someone or a company your services as a personal assistant but you’ll do it remotely. The advantage of this is that you can do this type of business from anywhere and as a virtual assistant you can have multiple clients rather than typically just one if you’re a personal assistant.

The market for virtual assistants has grown exponentially over recent years with the rise of people running companies and needing someone else to manage other parts of it.

You can expect to offer services such as emails, appointment scheduling, social media management, research, bookings and much more.

This type of business is suited to someone who is organized, enjoys being productive and efficient and is a great communicator. 

From a business perspective the costs to starting this small business are very low, often just a computer and phone  (if you don’t already own them) and your time.

Which business is best for you?

When it comes to working out which small business idea you want to go with and which one is the best business to start with $5k you need to remember these key points.

Firstly, make sure the business is something you’re interested in, if you do, you’ll have the passion and motivation to work on it all the time, if not then you’ll quickly find that these start lacking and you’ll be demotivated.

Secondly, starting a small business is hard, anyone who says its easier has either got lucky or are lying. You’ll need to devote a lot of time, be self-motivated and you’ll need to prepare and accept that you’ll get kickbacks, whether this is people saying no, obstacles in your way, legal things you need to do and so on. Accept that these will happen and take a stand back and then face them and you will be able to overcome them.

Next, make sure that you keep an eye out on spending, you can of course invest in stuff for your business but don’t get carried away and invest in something that you don’t know will work no matter the promises someone may say (for example, an advert in a magazine that is read by 50,000 people, will likely lead to maybe one or two calls and with the typical conversion rate this will mean you’ll be lucky to convert one unless, this is the reality of print advertising in todays age)

One way you can watch the costs is to use startup credits such as those on FounderPass.com , many companies will give you either free credits to use services or big discounts such as 90% off, all of these can be found on FounderPass. 

Lastly, always make sure there is a market for your business, you could have the best service or the best product but if there is no demand for it then you won’t make it as a business. 

You can research if there is a demand for it by seeing if other companies are doing it, if there aren’t in your area then see if there are in other similar areas. You can also reach out to potential customers whether this is a wedding venue to ask if they’d be interested in your services as a photographer, a small business in the area to see if they’d be interested in someone managing their social media or browse the internet and see if people have sold your product before and see if they sell lots (this can be done by seeing how many reviews the product has for example)

On this note, one important thing to remember is that if you ask family and friends, it’s very likely they will say that your small business idea is great, amazing, perfect etc. You may need to take this with a pinch of salt, family and friends often won’t want to tell you negative things where as asking real potential customers will.

Our final piece of advice is that whatever small business you start, we wish you the best of luck with, it won’t be easy, but if you persevere and devote time to it you can succeed.