10 Ideas for an Online Business in 2024

Are your inner entrepreneurial senses tingling? Do you want to increase your income and become financially free? Do you have a burning desire to run something bigger than yourself that you can call your own?

If you said yes to these questions, then it might be about time to launch an online business. While the past years have seen a proliferation of small businesses launching (and a handful of them closing), there’s never not enough room for new blood to enter the market.

That said, it can be tough to find the best offering in the market. It’d be an expensive shame to hold unbridled enthusiasm for a business idea only for it to be met with next to no customers in its opening month.

If you want to start opening and operating a successful online business, but are unsure where to look and how to start, we got you. This article will lay out a few fun and profitable online business ideas that have a high potential to thrive in the year 2024.

No more waffling, let’s take a look at ten of these killer business ideas in more detail!

1. Digital Marketing Agency

Are you good at marketing products and services? Are getting clicks, impressions, and conversions your thing? Do you like handling people who can specialise in anything and everything marketing-related?

Then it may be a sign to open a digital marketing agency. You can choose to open a multi-channel marketing agency specialising in website design, email, SEO, and PPC. You can also choose to narrow down your niche into one specialty, like purely SEO writing services.

Whatever the case, opening a marketing agency can be a great business idea. This is because the costs are fairly minimal, consisting of only SaaS and a PC at the start. Once you do scale though, this business structure has massive growth potential.

2. Coaching Services

If you have a passion and a knack for motivating people and helping them improve, then you may consider opening an online coaching service as a business.

Coaching services blend seamlessly into most online platforms due to the presence of video-call software like Zoom and Google Meets to conduct appointments.

Furthermore, coaches can also create a website and write exclusive and public learning materials on their email and blog pages respectively. It’s also fairly simple to get inbound leads with some marketing magic.

There are many types of pathways coaches can choose, and it’s entirely dependent on their speciality.

For instance, if you’re into health and fitness, you can brand yourself as a health and fitness coach. If you want to help people jumpstart or pivot in their careers, then a career coach pathway is more than viable as well.

Whatever you feel you’re an expert at and the world may need, go ahead and consider it as a coaching topic! Once it kicks off, you can expand your services and even hire other subject-matter experts to fill in.

3. Freelance Specialist

Do you possess any hard skills that businesses seek? If you do, then you should consider selling your service to these establishments.

Being a freelancer can be a great way to supplement your monthly earnings. There are dozens of skills you can specialise in that companies want, such as editing, web development, SEO services, graphic design, and a whole lot more.

If you’re strong in any hard skill, then you can consider selling your services to companies that may need them. The best part of freelancing is that you have the freedom to businesses you’re partnering with and the project’s scope.

Once you build a strong reputation and refine your skills over time, you can leverage your client base and exponentially grow your rate. This can make you live the pace and lifestyle envision for yourself in time.

4. Course Seller

Are you a subject matter expert? Do you know how to market and manage a digital product website?

If so, then you should consider selling courses online. This is a great way to earn a passive investment since courses can be created once and sold repeatedly. Although, it’s in your customers’ best interest that you update it with relevant information whenever necessary.

Besides selling them on your individual website, you can sell these courses on platforms like Udemy and Coursera as well. The subjects can range from web development and advanced data analytics to English communications—whatever you’re good at and whatever people are willing to buy!

5. Content Creator and Blogger

Being a content creator is hard work, especially if you’re starting from scratch. However, if you do manage to accumulate a healthy follower base, then you can easily leverage that follower count to earn more through sponsorships and brand deals.

For instance, fashion businesses may partner with fashion creators and pay them a fee to sponsor their products and travel bloggers can partner with hotels, airlines and tours.

The more followers you have, the higher these businesses will pay. So definitely try to commit to the role if you have a knack for publishing content and being on camera.

6. Blogging and Affiliate Marketing

You can also earn money through blogging and affiliate marketing. Making a blog and regularly publishing content (all while following standard SEO practices in website building) can help you build an audience.

You can leverage this audience by pushing ads onto your website and getting kickbacks from links to products. Over time, you can earn a passive income stream, even if you aren’t actively maintaining the website.

7. Dropshipping Store Owner

Want to own a brand and a store, but don’t want to physically deal with storing merchandise and inventory? Then you may be best suited as a dropshipper.

Dropshipping entails partnering with suppliers who manage your inventory, while you deal with the branding, marketing, and customer service.

You can source products from sites like Alibaba and make a shop using Shopify.

The best part of dropshipping is that you don’t need a lot of capital to start, you only buy a product if it earns a sale in your store. It’s risk-free in that regard. You can also rotate the products you’re marketing easily until you find the winning product.

8. ESL Teaching School Owner

The best part of conducting business online is that you’re not geographically bound. You can give your services to anyone, anywhere—even if that means a non-predominantly English-speaking audience.

Being an ESL academy owner is a good way to capitalise on the increased globalisation the world is facing in 2024.

You don’t need to have a lot of experience in teaching English to get started as there are many resources and guides online to help you get started. In fact, you can simply hire ESL tutors to conduct the operations for you. That said, be sure to get the right certifications before selling your services to the public.

As your school gains a good reputation in the ESL space, you can grow your student base, which can make it easier to expand and grow your business to higher heights.

9. Specialty Store Owner

If you have a knack for creating products from scratch, or for finding high-ticket items and reselling them, then you can consider opening an eCommerce store and selling these products to the public.

Anything from phone lockers for schools in Australia to 3D-printed items can gather an interested audience—all you have to do is make enough supply, market it, and hope for the best!

Just like dropshipping, you can use software like Shopify and WooCommerce to start selling your products online. Alternatively, you can also conduct business through social media like Instagram and Facebook.

10. Virtual Assistant Agency

Do you have a knack for linking skilled talent and small businesses together? Or are you at the very least interested in doing it? Then you may consider running a virtual assistant agency as a business model in 2024.

This agency model is one wherein you recruit a team of skilled virtual assistants, train them, and connect them with budding businesses in need of virtual talent. Virtual assistants are fantastic because they can come from anywhere around the world, including low-cost-of-living countries.

These skilled personnel can take care of administrative tasks, customer service, social media management, and many other duties.

If your client base provides excellent reviews, and if you have a constant stream of VA talent you can tap into, then you’ll have all you need to scale your business to even bigger heights.

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Rebecca Lee