Are you thinking of starting your own business, but don’t know what to go in for? The ever-evolving society we are in is giving us all new ideas for entrepreneurial endeavours and the amazing reach of the internet is making them all more lucrative by the minute. You can market and gain customers with a free website and sell your products online all by yourself. Add in the fact that people have had a lot of time to rethink their working life and the closure of a lot of stores, starting your own business is becoming more and more attractive.
So, if you’re thinking of giving up that office life, or even just doing something on the side, take a look at our top ideas for businesses in 2022.
Gender-neutral makeup
The “beauty community” is about as old as YouTube, which, for reference, will be turning 17 in February. And if has proven anything, it’s that makeup isn’t just for women. The three biggest English-speaking creators on the platform are Jeffree Star, James Charles and NikkiTutorials, who are two presenting male creators and Nikki revealed herself to be trans last year. They have 24.6, 16.5, and 13.8 million subscribers respectively and have released their own beauty cosmetic brands.
If we’re being honest, making and marketing gender-neutral makeup isn’t much different from making and marketing makeup exclusively to women. We all have the same skin and health regulations to adhere to, and as long as you are releasing a quality product, people all over the sexuality and gender spectrum will buy it. The main difference would perhaps be in the marketing, where you can make it clear, in varying degrees, that it was created for everyone. This could mean leaning into traditionally masculine colour scheme stereotypes in your graphics, or simply mentioning that you support the idea in your marketing.
As for the products, you have two ends of the spectrum when it comes to presenting men in makeup: some like a barely noticeable enhancement to their features with a little eyeliner, mascara, etc. Others are looking to paint their face and will want every colour imaginable and the wildest and latest makeup items.
Buy a franchise
Purchasing a franchise is a fantastic way for aspiring entrepreneurs to test the waters of business ownership without feeling alone. As a franchisee, you will receive constant support from your franchisor, giving you a level of security. Franchises are also known to have a much lower failure rate than independent businesses, which is always a plus. To browse franchises currently recruiting new franchisees in the UK, you should use Franchise UK to search through the latest franchise opportunities.
Ghost kitchens, pop up kitchens, and food trucks
Ghost kitchens are a concept that have grown out of the recent troubles over the past couple of years. While we were all locked up, restaurants had to shut up shop, but take outs were booming. Just because people couldn’t enter the premises didn’t mean people couldn’t have their food cooked. A lot of businesses quickly adapted to become a delivery service, so that even the most high-quality Michelin star restaurants were on the back of a Just Eat cyclist.
And some discovered that it wasn’t the worst idea and have kept their takeout options for the time being. This, coupled with the rising appreciation for quality street food, has made a lot of new opportunities for people with some culinary skills to make money.
On the smallest scale, you can make food in your own home and deliver it to people in your area if you market yourself well, but it might be more realistic to get a premise. Whether that is a kitchen or a food truck and deliver it to people in your area. The benefits of a food truck in particular, is that you can move when you need to, setting up at events or busier towns.
Reselling
With nostalgia catering everything from music to film and TV, why shouldn’t fashion follow suit? Fashion is always looking back anyway. You can’t think of Vivienne Westwood without seeing her take on aristocrats of the past and all the corsets that came with it. Plus, there are people who think fashion comes in cycles. A few years ago, the 80’s were dripping into our day-to-day wear, and nowadays the 90’s is everywhere, in our athleisure obsession, designer sports brands love, and resurgence of t-shirts with dresses.
So why not take advantage of the nostalgia of fashion. Due to more awareness of the perils of the fashion industry, fast fashion is starting to get a bad rep for its wastefulness. When you don’t want to support fast fashion, where do you look? Vintage.
Vintage stores have been around as long as the high street, but they are making a resurgence. With the acceptance of not only older items, but quirkier and more individualistic styles, items like varsity jackets, Doc Martin boots, sport brand hoodies, and more are hitting the shelves of vintage stores.
Reselling can be seen as you sifting through charity shops for a potentially expensive item and reselling it for a great markup. When you are finding items for £3 in a charity store and selling them for as little as £30 or as much as £90, you can see the profits clear as day.
