When starting a 14 Low-Risk Businesses to Start: $15k, it is important to minimize your risks.
Risk in 14 Low-Risk Businesses to Start: $15k can be divided into three categories:
- Downsizing – it can be not easy, and it can be financially draining
- Liability – New legal risks arise in your business
- Start-Up Cost – How much it costs to get your new business up and running
But the risk is minimal. No one talks about the dangers of having a job you hate. How does it affect you psychologically and socially?
The bad news: None of your business will be immune from these threats.
The good news: There are specific steps you can take to help you succeed.
For example, working with mentors, holding yourself accountable, and keeping your startup costs low are all ways to reduce your risk.
The Lowest Risk Businesses to Start, Statistically
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has all kinds of data on business failures, so we have hard data on which 14 Low-Risk Businesses to Start: $15k are least at risk. Fun fact: the BLS doesn’t call it “failure.” Instead, they call it “survival rate” – I really like that term!
Here are the companies with the highest 3 and 10-year survival rates.
| Industry | 3 Year Survival Rate | 10-Year Survival Rate |
| Agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting | 74.5% | 50% |
| Manufacturing | 66.6 | 43.1 |
| Utilities | 65.1 | 42.6 |
| Real Estate and Rental and Leasing | 66.2 | 40.9 |
| Other services | 56.8 | 39.3 |
| Retail trade | 66.7 | 38.9 |
| Construction | 60.3 | 38.8 |
| Accommodation and food services | 64.3 | 38 |
| Educational services | 63.7 | 37.4 |
| Finance and Insurance | 62.9 | 37.1 |
All of this is higher than the national average survival rate for all private businesses. They reach 61.2 percent by age 3 and 34.6 percent by age 10. (based on data from 2012-2022
The downside of this information is that it is not very interesting. And just because farming is cheap doesn’t mean you have to go out and start farming!
(Side note: You can become part of the farm with our partner AcreTrader.)
With that in mind, here are some basic tips for starting a low-risk business.
1. Building a Helpful Website
Websites are a very low-risk business, to begin with, and have the potential to make a lot of money. All you need is an idea, a domain name ($10-20), and web hosting ($5 per month minimum).
Sure, there’s a learning curve like any business, but the articles you publish can generate traffic and Income long after you’ve written them.
One of my favorite examples is GiftLab.co by Andrew Fabert. She publishes a curated list of gift ideas for specific audiences and gets rewarded by Amazon and other retailers when people buy her recommendations.
The site solves a real problem – donation ideas pop up – and has reportedly raised over $1.2 million in affiliate traffic in its first 5 years.
Next Steps
- Check out my free guide to setting up your website quickly and cheaply.
- Add my blog/affiliate marketing playlist below to your podcast app for actionable tips.
2. Freelancing
The next low-risk business idea is a freelance business. In short, this is where you get paid to solve a problem for someone else – usually outside. Freelancing usually costs nothing to get started, and you can start working right away.
What services can you provide?
List your current interests and skills. For example, I have been paid to do freelance writing, document editing, and even hire virtual assistants. I make $25-35 an hour, but special skills can cost more.
If you have a service in mind, you can offer it for sale on sites like Fiver or connect with customers in related Facebook groups.
Next Steps
- Check out this guide on how to start a freelance business.
- Download my list of 101 business ideas below for some freelance business-type inspiration.
3. Local Services
We spend a lot of time on how to raise money online, but there are plenty of opportunities in your city, too. Homeowners spend more than $13,000 a year on repairs and improvements.
This means you can start offering business:
- Window Cleaning ($250+ per home)
- Power washing ($250+ per household)
- Remove Animal Waste ($30-50/hour)
- Traffic data (up to $5k per month)
- Decontamination ($30-50/hour)
- House Cleaning ($150+ per job)
All of the above have low upfront costs and hourly rates. You presumably, as of now, have the devices you really want.
For liability protection, I recommend affordable liability insurance.
4. Flipping Products
Being a seller is a very low-risk business as you can start with any level of initial product you want. You can start with the environment of your home!
It’s a buy low, sell high game. If you like treasure hunting for bargains, this could come in handy.
Consumers often come from convenience stores, convenience stores, and convenience stores. I also picked up basics from the shelves of Walmart and Home Depot. From there, you can list products on eBay or Facebook Marketplace.
Many members of Side Hustle Nation make a full-time living doing just that!
Next Steps
- Here is a list of the best products that you can take advantage of.
- Check out this free on-demand training on how to start your own flipping business.
5. Reselling Furniture Returns
One niche in shadow flipping is worth discussing separately, and that is furniture sales. If you have a large truck or SUV, this particular low-risk side is a great way to make money.
The way it works is that you join ShareTown as a local “reverse logistics” agent. ShareTown works with direct-to-consumer bedding and furniture brands to process their return requests – when a customer decides they don’t want to keep a product.
The company will send you to get it for free (in a van). Then, you clean it, take photos, and list it for sale on sites like Facebook Marketplace.
The Sharetown reps I’ve been involved with are targeting $150-250 per share. Flip – and the kicker is that you don’t have to pay Sharetown for the product until the product is sold.
Next Steps
- See my Sharetown guide for more information.
6. Consulting
Like freelancing, consulting is a low-risk business to start. The easiest way to get started is with what I call “software as a service.”
In this format, you provide feedback on the demand for existing or upcoming software products. Ideally, this will be a tool you already use and love, but new software tools are released all the time.
For example, Pole Mines started creating content introducing Asana on YouTube. He will give some advice and guidance, and based on his videos, companies are starting to get advice and training. As we speak, Paul is making thousands of dollars a month working from home.
Becoming a consultant costs nothing, and the liability is minimal, making it very low risk.
Next Steps
- Here are the incentives for a software consultant making $225,000 a year part-time.
- Start your free 5-day trial of Salesforce to see how effective it is.
7. Print on Demand
Next on the list is print-on-demand, which is a low-risk e-commerce method when you don’t have physical inventory. The way it works is that you submit digital designs to sites like Redbubble, Merch by Amazon, and Etsy, and when someone places an order, they create a product and ship it to the customer.
The model is suitable for:
- T-shirts to be made
- Cup
- hat
- Phone numbers
- a pair of socks
- And other things
Most print sellers use Canva to create their designs and earn $1-$10 per copy. Sell. At this price, it’s a quality game, but if you like interesting designs, it could still be in the market.
8. Digital Product Sales
It’s true for me that there are 14 Low-Risk Businesses to Start: $15k where I can make something once and sell it over and over again. In this category, you will find low-risk businesses such as:
- Self-publishing
- Published publications
- Classes online
- And software too
These digital assets take time to develop but can generate sales for years. For example, I have collected nearly $80,000 in self-expenditure subscription fees since 2012:
You can see some of my themes here. Amazon makes it easy to get your books online, and it’s just one type of digital product you can sell.
My friend Rachel makes over $10,000 a month selling prints on Etsy. There are many things like charts, meal plans, and budget templates that people can find and buy on Etsy.
9. Tutoring
Another small risk is teaching. You can do this without initiative and take students in person or remotely. First, it will be important to make room for a particular event or experiment. Matt Fuentes, for example, earns about $1,000 a week for the SAT and ACT.
The best teachers have rates of $80-100 an hour or more, and the only overhead is their time.
10. Product Licensing
One of the most interesting 14 Low-Risk Businesses to Start: $15k I have come across is product licensing. This is where you sell your new product ideas to larger companies for a portion of the future revenue.
For example, Nate Dallas sold a card game like Pictionary to Mattel for over $300,000 in royalties! It’s not bad just to come up with an idea and become a runner!
Again, the only upfront cost here is your time and maybe some design or development software. After that, the company takes care of production and marketing – and possibly product warranty.
Next Steps
- Check out some of the programs at InventRight to learn more about how this company works.
- Listen to my interview with Stephen Key, founder of InventRight.
11. Real Estate
Finally, the house completes the list. Rental 14 Low-Risk Businesses to Start: $15khave a life expectancy of 10 years longer than average, according to the BLS. That’s because everyone needs a place to live! (There’s also an old Mark Twain line about buying land: “They can’t do it anymore.”)
Real Estate has a higher starting price than the other 14 Low-Risk Businesses to Start: $15k on this list, but it also has some great features:
- You can buy with leverage – which means you only need the first 20-25%
- Tax policy favors real estate investors
- The product is interesting for that time
My friend Dustin Heiner managed to retire early after building a portfolio of mortgage loans. As we speak, he is making about $15,000 a month in passive Income.
If your local market is too expensive, platforms like Income can help you buy more homeownership for less than $100.
12. Laundromats
Laundry is a shrinking business – people always want clean clothes.
You may have seen data showing that washing machines have a 95% success rate, but it’s a good idea to buy an existing one from the start. That way, you have already created a customer with the product.
Page Hustle advises Juno Santamaria’s listeners to do just that. He found a local laundry for sale and was able to do most of the buying. So, using his digital marketing and automation skills, the business tripled in the first 12 months!
Worth a look: My friend Cody teaches a class on how to strategically trade small business profits.
13. Transportation and Delivery
The truck shortage is well documented, which means there is an opportunity to help meet this demand. The biggest challenge here is finding drivers if you don’t want to do it yourself.
If you don’t mind time behind the wheel, Amazon and other companies often hire local delivery drivers who make “last mile” deliveries.