21 Great Small Businesses to Start in 2022

Did you know that the Tik Tok boom, combined with the Covid-19 pandemic, has created an entrepreneurial boom?

It’s true. With so many entrepreneurs sharing their business strategies on Tik Tok, many individuals are inspired to quit their day jobs and make their side hustle a full-time job.

Online shopping makes any business international, making 2022 the best year to start your own business. But what is the best business to start in 2022? To get you started in your business planning, here is a list of the 21 best business ideas to start in 2022.

1. Podcasting

When most people think about what business to start, they want to start something that they love, which is profitable. Let me tell you a secret. If you really love it, it can become profitable.

Podcasting has become an incredibly lucrative industry recently, especially when you consider how much podcasters are making from sponsors.

2. Education Consulting

Did you go to Stanford or Harvard? One of the schools that makes people say “wow” when they see your alumni sweatshirt?

You’re a great candidate to work as an education consultant if you did. Many parents want their kids to go to a great school but don’t know where to start. That’s where you come in.

3. Pet Sitting

Some of the best small business ideas are the simplest ones. Pet sitting doesn’t require much skill beyond creating a strong schedule for yourself and sticking to it. But crafty individuals can make quite a bit of money through this venture.

Many people who want a pet sitter also want a house sitter, so if you are willing to live somewhat out of your car, you might be able to get housing out of the deal as well. Remember, when it comes to pet sitting, it’s all about taking those personal steps that add value to your client experience.

Invest in a nice set of combs so that you can groom the animals for your clients while they are away.

4. Personal Training

Many individuals who once went to the gym every week to work with their personal trainer struggled to stay in shape during the Covid-19 pandemic. Virtual personal trainers is a quickly growing industry.

What’s more, if you work as a personal trainer online, you get to help people achieve their mental health and fitness goals, which always feels great.

You need to be someone who is a creative thinker and can accommodate the diverse needs of your clients.

5. Online Reselling

eBay, Poshmark, Facebook Marketplace, and Amazon are all huge companies that give individuals the platform to sell used products to each other.

If you have an eye for a bargain at a thrift store and have always wanted to use that skill in a business, then reselling products online might be the place for you.

If you are great at repairing items or clothes, you can use that skill to increase the value of the products that you are going to sell.

6. Professional Organizing

Did you binge The Life-Changing Art of Tidying Up and The Life Edit? Do you love color-coding and helping your friends go through their closets?

Professional organizing might be the business for you to start in 2022. Professional organizing has grown as an industry during the Covid-19 pandemic as people spend more and more time in their homes.

Many people are learning that their mental health is closely linked to their physical environment and are taking steps to improve that environment and make it more versatile, warm, and inviting.

If you have basic carpentry skills, you can also combine a professional organizing business with a closet remodel business where you help people add shelves and drawers to make the most of their storage space.

7. Photography

Photography is a surprisingly low-overhead business if you are a good photographer who knows how to work with light to create expensive, professional-looking photographs anywhere. To start this business, you need to have strong photography skills as well as a good eye for locations.

Many people want a photographer who can come over to their home and take engagement, maternity, or holiday photos in their backyard. As you start out as a photographer, you will need to build a portfolio of images to show prospective clients.

Offer free or low-cost photoshoots to your friends and family to build this portfolio.

8. Daycare

If you are great with kids, running a daycare might be a great small business idea for you. If you have a home that you don’t mind bringing a few kids into, you will not have to pay for a daycare space (which can be the biggest hurdle to starting this business).

Daycare centers do need to be licensed, so you will have to do some research on the licensing laws in your area. This is also a business that a vigorous background check may be a part of the process.

9. Tutoring

If you have teaching experience but are retired or do not want to take on a full classroom, tutoring can be a great option for you. There are essentially two paths when it comes to online tutoring.

You can work for a company that will get your clients for you, or you can tutor independently and do your own marketing.

If you tutor independently, you can make three or four times as much money as you would make with a company; however, you will have to find your own clients, which can be difficult if you do not know many people with children.

The pay for working as an online tutor for a company can be fairly low, so finding other work to supplement this income will probably be necessary.

You can also start working for a company and then get good at marketing and networking in your free time and then branch out on your own in your free time.

10. Content Writing

Are you a savvy wordsmith who loves creating content to help companies reach their search engine optimization goals? Working as a content writer might be a great choice for you.

Writing content is a great gig for anyone who doesn’t like being tied to one place. Many content writers choose to live and work from vans or sailboats so that they can travel the world while they write.

Similar to tutoring, you can work as a freelance content writer as well as for a content writing company. There are tradeoffs to the decision, and the choice really depends on whether you want to work independently or as a team.

Media sites are starving for people who can write and know just a LITTLE bit of SEO.

11. Car Cleaning

Car cleaning is a service that so many people need, but so few have the time to do. Many people will pay you well to wash their car, wipe it down from the inside out, and do small detailing jobs.

This is a great small business to start if you have enough extra space on your property for someone to park their car for a while. Make sure that you have a sheltered place like a garage to work, and make sure you are great at scheduling your clients.

Another option would be to get the equipment to be able to go to their house to clean their car. This is a huge benefit for busy people. It is like house cleaning but for their cars.

If you can get a handful of clients on a weekly washing schedule, you would begin eliminating the need to just keep chasing NEW business.

12. Home Care

Many retirees need help around their home completing basic housekeeping and landscaping work like shoveling snow, doing laundry, and meal preparation. Home care work can range from simple to complex.

Some retirees need someone to come in every day to help them clean themselves and prepare food for them, while others just need a bit of help with heavy lifting once a week. Home care workers can also cater to people with disabilities who need help with certain tasks.

13. Cleaning

Like professional organizing services, many people realize during the pandemic that they want some help deep-cleaning their home if they are going to spend all of their time in it.

By making a few initial investments, you can provide your clients with better cleaning supplies and services than they could achieve on their own.

By renting or buying a RugDoctor, you can deep-clean their carpets, and by buying live traps for rodents, you can help them get rid of their rodent problem.

People will pay good money to get rid of this particular problem as it is a constant stress on their home life.

14. Alterations

If you like to work with your hands independently while you listen to music or podcasts, an alterations business might be great for you.

You will need a sewing machine, thread, and the know-how to use a sewing machine, but if you already have those things, then this is a no-brainer.

Alterations work is often on sentimental pieces of clothing, wedding gowns, or other formal wear. This means that you need to be confident in your sewing skills.

Alterations can also be a great entry point to the fashion business if you are interested in tailoring or other fashion work.

15. Gardening

Gardening and landscaping can be fun freelance work for people who like to work outside independently. If you like this sort of work, you can make a good deal of money gardening or landscaping independently.

The one issue with this work is that it can be seasonal in some regions, so if you want to make it your full-time job, you will have to pair it with another job like carpentry or professional cleaning.

16. Air BnB

It seems like everyone is running an Air BnB right now. They can be a great way to make a bit more money than a long-term rental, and they cause less wear and tear on your house.

Remember, if you are renting things out on Air BnB, you are the maid and repairperson for the rental if something breaks. Although, many owners hire this out as well.

If there is enough profit in the deal, a property management company could also work.

There are certain areas where short-term rentals are illegal, which makes renting out something on Air BnB more difficult.

You will need to research the laws around short-term rentals in your area and determine if it is the right business for you to start.

17. Refurbishing Furniture

Similar to reselling clothing online, reselling furniture can range from buying pieces and selling them at a bit of a markup to completely refurbishing vintage furniture and selling them for four times what you bought them for. Many people create businesses that are somewhere in between these poles.

Suppose you don’t have much experience with refurbishing furniture, but you want to get started in the business. In that case, you should consider which skills you would like to learn first and pick away at it one skill at a time while you get your business off the ground.

18. Voice-Over

The idea of working in voice-over can be intimidating to some people, who think that they have to be able to sound like Bugs Bunny or Cinderella to get work in voice-over.

In fact, all you need is a smooth, calm conversational voice. A lot of voice-over work involves reading texts aloud so that they are accessible to people with visual impairments.

19. Meal Preparation

If you are a great cook and you love to organize, helping people with meal preparation can be a great choice. These services can really out busy families who don’t have time to pack lunches.

Meal prep is also a great service to offer to seniors who do not want to prepare their own meals but still want to live on their own. As you start this business, remember to include the cost of any containers that you will want the family to have into the meal prep fee.

20. Etsy Business

Etsy was created for crafty small business owners. When you sell your crafts on Etsy, you don’t have to do the work of making your own website for your business because there is already an existing market that you can use.

As you envision your Etsy business, you need to think about what you can create that nobody else is making yet. Think about the people who are not being served in traditional markets and find ways to serve them.

21. Transcription

Transcribing recordings is a great side hustle for anyone who is a quick typist and enjoys working independently. If you are interested in transcription, think about transcribing things for people who work in an industry that fascinates you. This will make your job much more fun and interesting.