Business that cost less than $250

By Charles Dundley

Your dreams of becoming a business owner may be at your fingertips. All you need is a reliable computer to start these businesses. Of course, you’ll need an appetite for wise risks taking, decision making and communicating with potential customers. Solid marketing, time and money management skills don’t hurt either.

Content Firm – Visit career specific job boards to attract your first clients. After you build a clientele of 10 or more “real” businesses, put ads at job boards, alerting experienced writers to the fact that you’re looking for talent. In addition to hiring writers to develop online content, you can also use your firm to provide content for print magazines, journals, etc. This is truly a business you can start from home for less than $250. You can even generally declare business related deductions when you file annual income taxes.

Website Design Business – Yes. There are several sites entrepreneurs can visit to build their own website. Yet, these sites use templates to build websites. Small entrepreneurs and artists who are looking to build customized websites, are still working with experienced website designers. You could build your clientele by letting customers know that not only will you build websites for them, you’ll also check and update code at their websites as needed, keeping the websites compliant with search engine guidelines. Additionally, by offering mobile design options, you can pull in more customers. Check out these website design businesses if you’re looking for ideas:  Digital Creative, Accenture, Dee’s Solutions and Shopify.

Graphic Arts Company – Creating colorful, multi-page brochures, postcards, t-shirts, retail packaging, catalogs and digital newsletters are a few projects your graphic arts company could take on, each requiring no more than $250 to start working on. You may have to start out by offering 100% digital work until you generate enough revenues to pay for a printer, complex software and a camera. The better your equipment, the more projects you can take on which can, in turn, lead to more paying customers. It goes without saying that you need to have a strong working knowledge of computer software, the arts and how image and written content work together to create lasting impressions. These are a few graphic arts design companies that are making a name for themselves: Black Bear Design, RLM Graphic Arts, Landor and Baltimore Graphics.

Editing Firm – Make sure you have strong line and structural editing skills before you start an editing company for $250 or less. You should have edited corporate brochures, white papers, case studies and maybe a few full length books before you start your own editing business. Expand your business and you can start taking on video editing projects. The more services you offer, the better as long as you don’t take on more work than you can handle adequately. Work with major book publishers and top artists and you could earn $10,000 or more a project. As with the other businesses, it’s a good idea to build up your revenues before you start taking on payroll expenses.

Coaching Business – Life coaching has gotten a lot of attention over the last few years. Plan on earning life coaching certifications if you want to land top paying clients. As a life coach, you can also get paid to speak to large groups, offering listeners motivation, encouragement and targeted advice. Other types of coaching businesses you could start for less than $250 include athletic coaching, interior design coaching and culinary coaching. Put it this way, if you have the skills, knowledge and passion to create winning sports, interior design, life and culinary works, you can get paid to teach others to do the same for themselves.