Penning good small business ideas is easy. But guess what’s easier? Reading these.
Pursuing business ideas in real, and executing it right is tough. Only a small percentage of people actually do it. Respect my efforts and do pursue your dreams 😀 Start a small business, create job opportunities and make at least one of these ideas a big one 😉
Here’s a quick list of small business ideas, jump to the idea of your interest to know my thoughts on how you should approach these ideas-
Who can pursue these small business ideas?
These are for college students, working employees, entrepreneurs, innovators, women, and of course, business professionals.
Before I share the 19+ small business ideas, I’ve an important story to share with you. It’s from my personal life. The lesson is shared towards the end of the story. Do read it if you want. Or else, skip to the list of small business ideas to start in India in 2024.
The story behind why I’m sharing small business ideas
By the way, I’m Nishant – a small business consultant from India.
Story: We were a group of four friends in college. I was someone who was a bankrupt kinda person, always having no money, saying ‘no’ to any party/outing plans for obvious reasons. And because the lifestyle was almost dead, the only thing I could speak about or talk about with my friends used to be either movies, sports events, or small business ideas or unicorns.
Because, when you do not have money – you do not go out dining, dating, travelling, doing experiential things, and because you do not spend time off-college with your friends, you do not have many things in common to discuss either.
Friendship & business plans
My friends were good and supportive. They kinda understood my situation. Kind of very empathising friends …and so, they never let go of a single opportunity to blame me for postponing/cancelling plans, labelling me as “Kanjoos”, and “kaltibaaz”.
Friends will be friends.
But there’s also one more face of friendship – no matter what your background or financial condition is – real friends always want to stay together and because of that they look out for ways to achieve this. Their actions will speak louder.
School friendship was about planning for the same college, same city, and stuff like that. In college, it is about planning a business together and becoming partners …most importantly, it is about hiring the class toppers to work under you. Lol.
College was cool.
But… of-course, just like how school plans of getting into the same college barely turns true, college plans hardly come true.
There are a lot of success stories of co-founders starting from the same college, but I am pretty sure if you do some research on the number of plans made vs how many exactly took the first step – the ratio would be less than 0.05.
Our group also used to discuss small business ideas – some of us have started our businesses, but sadly – our interest domains changed with time. My closest friend got into investing, my school day pal is into textile, and I am into data and marketing. We are yet to start something together. But I am happy, we are all doing good in our personal businesses.
THE BIG TAKEAWAY
The takeaway here is – don’t find excuses to delay starting your business.
Choosing family/friends as business partners is not an intelligent decision anyways. While I am not denying a family member or friend could be a great business partner, choosing your business partner just because you are family or friend can be disastrous.
Delaying your startup plans again and again because you want to start with a specific person is not a good thing. Always choose business partners based on their skills, your skills, the compatibility, business understanding, mutual respect, trust, competency, innovative mindset, etcetera.
If you are emotional in the matters of business or career – I feel 80% chances are that “tumhara katega!”.
I repeat, don’t delay your plans.
Be realistic while planning, starting, pursuing business and career.
Having said that, let’s explore aforementioned small business ideas.
List of small business ideas for skyrocketing growth!
1. Start a spices powder manufacturing small business
India is #1 producer of spices in the world.
There are 109 spice varieties officially acknowledged by International organisation for standardization (ISO). India produced 10.7 Million Tonnes of 75 varieties out of the 109 spices in 2020-2021, and exported spices worth USD 4.18 billion.
Spices related small business ideas can be pursued in the Indian states like Madhya Pradesh, Andhra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Rajsthan, Karnataka, UP, West Bengal, Kerala. These are some of the top spice producing states in India.
To start spices manufacturing small business ideas you’ll need talent with expertise in the know-how. The spice manufacturing involves-
- Cleaning the produce from dirt, dust, stone.
- Dry the produce.
- Roast to impart the right aroma, color, and taste.
- Grinding to pulverise the roasted spices into powder.
- Grade the pulverised spices based on type, flavor, size, color, density, and shape.
- Sieving the graded powder into uniform dimensions using a mesh.
- Packaging & branding of spices
Before you could ship the spices powder & products to market, like other small business ideas, you will need to register your spice manufacturing business and obtain certain licenses & certificates. In India, to run spice powder small business ideas, you need following registrations-
- Company incorporation
- GST registration
- Trade license
- MSME registration
- Trademark registration
- FSSAI registration
- IEC code
- BIS certification
- ISO certification
2. Rice Export Small Business Ideas
Rice exports is one of the lucrative small business ideas in India, Vietnam, and Thailand. Recently, as per the news, Bangladesh will import 1.2 million tonnes of rice from India. And not to mention, the export price of broken parboiled rice is $380 per tonne i.e., INR 32/Kg. But in September 2022 to control the local prices of Rice in India the Indian government introduced a ban on export of broken rice. Also, GOI introduced a tax of 20% on several varieties. Anyways, if you are looking for profitable small business ideas to start in India, Vietnam or Thailand, and in the agriculture segment, rice export is your catch. But do check which varieties you can export from India.
Just like the spice powder business idea, Rice exports small business ideas too need a set of registrations:
- Company incorporation
- GST registration
- Trade License
- MSME Registration
- Trademark for your org
- FSSAI
- IEC for export
- RCMC
- ISO for respective varieties
- APEDA & FIEO
Not all the registrations are quintessential, it varies based on what sort of small business you are starting.
Lastly, in case you are wondering which countries you can start exporting rice to from India, here’s the list:
- China
- Phillipines
- Nigeria
- EU
- Cote d’lvoire
- Saudi Arabia
- Nepal
- Iran
- Iraq
- Malaysia
- SouthAfrica
- United States
3. Open a small scale Apparel Stitching Factory business
Custom garments is back in trend and so are women owned boutique shops. During the festive seasons and marriage seasons, people are looking for custom stitched, well-fitting dresses. For such occasions, we head to a local tailoring shop. In India, you will find a tailoring shop in every village ad town. Towns have multiple tailoring boutique every 2 Kilometer. It is damn easy to setup and start a stitching shop. With little strategy and planning, you may also scale the small business into a full scale stitching factory. In the beginning, you can set up the stitching machines in a 100-200 Sq Ft. area. Later, when you are scaling up, you can do outsourcing for textile companies and set up 50-100 machines in a 1500 Sq Ft. area.
4. STEM Coaching small business ideas
India is a education first country. We as parents put a lot of pressure on students to score high in exams – esp science and mathematics related subjects. And this creates a huge market for educational institutions and coaching businesses alike. STEM coaching is one of the most profitable small business ideas on the list as far as margins are considered. On an average a good teacher charges annually 12 – 15 Lakhs. And a set of 5 teachers can look after 300 students split into a batch of 60 students per batch. If you charge a Lakh an year per student, you can easily make 1 – 2 crores in profit after adjusting Ops cost and taxes.
5. Recreational Swimming Pool Small Business Ideas 2024
Recreation small business ideas helps break the mundane lifestyle. People with passion for spending time outdoors, who love creating memories, experience new things are the customers for recreational business ideas. There are lot of small business ideas that you can start here – like build a cycling community, or start a center for bowling, golf, spas, sailing, trekking, and so many other things. One of my favourites is starting a Swimming pool small business idea. As simple as it may sound but this too is tricky. You need license to start a commercial swimming pool in India. The architectural requirements differ from one state to another. So, it is best to check with the local authorities.
6. Build a small scale indoor sports stadium
Continuing on the recreational small business ideas, if you want to go big, consider opening an entire indoor sports stadium. This can be started in state capitals. Or of course in the metro cities. Ideally, if you are doing this in an Indian metro city, this may take an investment of Rs 50-70 crores. The ROI here is something that can be questioned. As lot of investment goes into the architecture and land part and only 15-20% of the cost will be actually towards the equipment and sports specific infrastructure, maybe you can explore a public private partnership and see if that works. In indoor sports – you can have swimming, bowling, badminton, Table tennis, Karate, boxing, skating, basketball too. There can be an exhaustive list of such sports.
7. Establish a dry fruits processing unit
Dry fruits provide our body with required nutrition – protein, antioxidants, vitamin, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and dietary fibre. With information democratised and commerce too, people buy good quality dry fruits right from the comfort of their home. The point is that there is healthy demand for dry fruits, and small business ideas that falls under fitness & health segment are flourishing recently. You can package Cranberries, Figs, Blueberries, Peaches, Pruns, Raisins. Almonds, Cashews, Walnuts, and Dates are top dry fruits in demand. Like Spices & Rice small business ideas, for dry fruit processing business too we need same licenses. The cost of setting up cashew processing unit would go upto 1 Crores and business will break even (i.e., profitable) in maybe 3 years.
8. Oil manufacturing small business ideas
Cottonseeds, soybeans, peanut, and mustard seeds oil processing mills are great small business ideas to try in 2024. In India, apart from these Coconut oil is also equally popular. Again, these oils are consumed in cooking and applied to skin/hair at times. So, you need to obtain relevant licenses. To set up a 5 Ton or 10 Ton oil manufacturing small business, you would need an investment of upto 70 Lakhs. Mechanical pressing extracts 85% of the Oil normally, and also yields cake residual which can be sold too. If you want to extract the max amount of oil, you got to use solvent led oil extraction methodologies. Continuing our list of small business ideas – next in the list is ‘Electronics eCommerce business’.
9. Launch an online electronics store small business
The consumer electronics market is going to surpass 9000 Million pieces by 2027. The present market size is already USD 1 Trillion. And is growing with a healthy CAGR of above 2%. Total online users are now 5 Billion, and they all love the comfort of eRetail. Small business ideas, esp, the one in eCommerce are damn easy to start. You can sell Smart TVs, Laptops, Smartphones, Smartwatches, Headphones, VR headsets, Security cams, Video projectors, Speakers, Doorbells, Trimmers, Hair dryers, Electronic Toys, Lights, Weight machines, and so on.
10. Vernacular podcasting platform
Hell lot of podcasts are coming up these days. But sadly, I can’t say all of them are worthy of listeners. A major problem which I identifies with podcasts is that only a few of them are actually vernacular. Mostly, it is like if a podcast is in English language then it won;t be available in Russian, Spanish, and French. Which is understandable, but if you can start a podcasting platform or maybe podcast aggregator platform where podcasts from all the languages and regions of the world are available to be streamed in just a few clicks then it could be phenomenal. Yes, there are platforms like Google Podcasts but I don’t know – it’s so painful to find a relevant podcast for me. And the recommendation system of the current podcasting platform just $ucks. So, maybe there lies an opportunity for you!
11. A salon chain small business idea
Beauty industry is an emerging sector in India. The pace of urbanisation, the penetration of tech, and the increase in disposable income of the working class of India over the last decade – all opens up a massive opportunity for beauty focused entrepreneurs. Small business ideas and prospects in the salon business is huge. It takes you INR 10-15 Lakhs to set up a small salon business in India. This business can easily go even in 1.5 – 3 years. To expand this business, you can franchise your salon. But I must warn, Salon business is li’l tricky. To attract all brackets of customer, you need to have different offerings like Economy (low-price), Business (affordable but middle-range price), and Premium (higher-end prices). Location & client equally matters.
12. Customised Food Truck Business
Westernisation is not all bad, mobile food trucks are the proof. A moving restaurant is one of the best food related small business ideas in 2024. Idk about you but I’m already fantasizing about mouth watering delicacies.
I just love the Masala Dahi Puri, which I get from the Food Truck near to my building in BTM, Bangalore. By my building, I meant where I stay on rent. Yeah, not rich. Not yet. But I’ll be. I’m helping you guys with business ideas, and I know one way or the other you will help me too. Maybe, by buying the useful products & business tools that I promote.
Anyways, coming back to the topic. Food truck is craze is catching fire in developing nations. From grilled chicken wings to double chicken steak burger, and from chilli hot dogs to hickory-smoked barbeque chilli chicken pops – you get everything on a food truck. Veg, non-veg, just everything.
A lot of people do actually think about starting a Food Truck business. And there lies the opportunity – the best among the list of food industry small business ideas.
Ever wondered who is customising these mobile restaurants that serve smoking hot delicacies with savouring flavour?
Yup! Nothing pops up in my head either.
So, you can start a nation-wide chain of manufacturing or modifying customised food trucks and go for home delivery options. Because why not. This is going to be a gem among all small business ideas.
If you start manufacturing these in one city, you can cover the sales in nearby 3-4 cities. In fact, more. So, what do you think about this business idea of starting a garage kinda custom truck modification services and food-truck retail business?
13. Fast food restaurant food industry small business ideas
Ummm…. Just felt one is not enough, I must add 2 small business ideas from the restaurant and dining industry. Because a lot of people, and I mean literally a lot of people just love cooking. Men, Women, and everyone else – people just love cooking.
So, maybe for such people, starting restaurant small business ideas would sound quite convenient and appealing. Right?
Burger, snack, chicken, sandwich, and pizza are among the top most popular fast food items out there.
You can consider your own small restaurant like how KFC was started, or you may takee franchise of large and highly popular fast food restaurants like Pizza Hut, KFC, Dominos, and so on.
14. Elder care small business ideas
I’m someone who is very close to my grandmom. I never had the opportunity to see my grandfather. But yeah, I did stay with my maternal-grandfather, who is an inspiration to me. And for some reasons, I do feel little inclined towards serving to the elder community. If this is something you too care about, if you too believe that most of the old guys deserve a better ending and a not-so-lonely last phase of life, you can start small business ideas which one way or the oter serves elder people. Here’s what you can do:
- Companions for seniors
- In-home care services
- Mobile beauty services
- Home maintenance services
- Medical assistance
- Technical support for elder people
- Concierge services
- Cooking, cleaning, Gardening, Exercise, etcetera.
15. Living Room Exquisite furniture store small business ideas
Our life is so full of a$$#@les, and home with furniture. Guess what.. we have the choices to choose less stinky good a$$#@les who we hangout with, and amazing furniture that we keep in our home and workplace. Well, I’ll do another post on 13 traits to look for in the a$$#@les you keep company with, #12 will blow your mind. Just kidding. I won’t do that. But I’ll definitely tell you small business ideas that you could start to sell exquisite furniture items for the living room and make money online or offline.
Living room furniture items small business ideas:
- Benches,
- bookcase,
- cabinets,
- clock wall hanger,
- TV stand,
- accent chairs,
- Floor/wall mirrors,
- Sofas & sectionals,
- Recliners.
Beige, Oak, Walnut, Teal, Espresso, and Burgundy finished furniture are quite in demand among the affluent sections of our society. So, with them as your target audience you can plan to pursue furniture store small business ideas.
Not the end, continuing the list of small business ideas
We detailed out on 15/19 small business ideas. Here are additional 4 small business ideas, which we have discussed in other business ideas related insights on GrowthRomeo. Do explore these:
- Open a language coaching institute
- Start a home flooring PVC sheets, wall paper coverings business
- Get into home interiors decor business
- Start a small scale NBFC business lending business
I understand, sometimes 19 small business ideas might not be enough to find a great one that suits your calibre and expertise domain. So, here is a mega list of 277+ business ideas for you to choose from 😉 Yes, it’s a goldmine.
Let me know if you seek any help with starting and growing your business in terms of registration, building or launching an app/website, finding leads, etcetera. I work with agencies and professionals to get your small business up and running. But beware, I do charge a li’l premium for my consultancy services 😛
