Top Business Opportunities to Earn Money in 2022

Business opportunities are hard to define and the definition will vary depending on the person you ask. However, there are some general notions that are applicable and the aim will most often be: to make money.

In this article, we will explore what business opportunities are. What are the most common types of business opportunities? What are the benefits?

We answer these questions and list some great online business opportunities.

What are business opportunities?

It can be hard to define exactly what business opportunities are because they can mean different things to different people. 

Nevertheless, business opportunities will most often involve either the lease or the sale of products and services. This lease of sale will then enable the person buying or leasing to start a business.

The seller or licensor of this business opportunity most often will guarantee help to the buyer. The seller can help find the right location or provide the goods to the licensee/buyer.

This varies from selling an independent business. In the latter case, there is no continued relationship with the seller once the initial deal has been made.

Another way to define business opportunities is as a packaged investment that enables the buyer to start their own business. Technically, any franchise is a business opportunity. However, not all business opportunities are franchises.

The franchise business differs from the business opportunities. The business opportunity seller most often has no control over the way the buyer’s business operates. There will most often be no continuance of relationships between the buyer and seller after the sale.

Due to this, business opportunities will generally offer much less support than franchises. However, this is not necessarily a disadvantage and can actually play in your favour, if you enjoy having more freedom.

Generally, you won’t have to follow the strict rules that franchises have to follow.

With business opportunities, you’ll most often buy the necessary equipment and then operate the business however you see fit. Most often, there are neither continuing royalties nor trademark rights.

The makeup of a business opportunity

Typically, business opportunities are made up of four different elements which are all present within one domain or geographic area.

These elements are:

• A need
• The means to fulfil this need
• A method to apply the means to fulfil this need
• A way to benefit 

If any one of these elements is missing, then a business opportunity can be created, by discovering this missing element. Ideally, the combination of these elements will be unique.

A company can best exploit the opportunity depending on how much control it has over the elements. If it has high control, it can become a market leader.

Common types of business opportunity

There are three different types of business opportunities that are most common.

Distributorship

A distributorship is an agreement to offer and sell the goods of another company. Yet, you don’t have the right to use the trade name of the manufacturer.

The distributor might only be allowed to sell the products of that specific company. Or, it will be able to market a range of different products from different companies.

That depends on the agreement between the distributor and the sold.

Rack Jobbing

Rack jobbing describes the selling of another company’s products. You can do that by using a distribution system of racks in a range of shops. The rack jobber will supply your shops with the goods to sell.

With this type of business opportunity, the buyer or agent will typically enter into an agreement with the parent company.

The buyer or seller will take the parent company’s goods to market at various shops through strategically positioned racks.

Through the agreement, the parent company will acquire a number of locations. There the parent company can place racks on a consignment basis.

The agent is then responsible to maintain stocks, arranging products, attracting new clients and taking care of the bookkeeping.

The agent will show the shop manager an inventory control sheet that shows how much of the goods have been sold. The distributor is then paid by the shop once the shop has taken its own commission.

Vending Machine Routes

The vending machine route is very similar to rack jobbing.

The investment (or the investment opportunity) most often is larger for this kind of business opportunity. This happens because the distributor has to buy the machines on top of the goods being sold in them.

However, in terms of payment procedures, it is the opposite as with job racking.

The person operating the vending machines most often pays the location owner a percentage based on the number of sales made. For this type of business opportunity, the location is most important.

The machine has to be placed somewhere where there is a high footfall or as close as possible to one. If the machines are spread far apart, then travelling between them will cost you a lot of time and money.

Time and money should be employed wisely or it could cut your profits.

The advantages of business opportunities

There are of course many benefits to business opportunities. Here are a few:

Business opportunities require lower initial fees than a franchise

There have been more and more low-investment franchises cropping up recently. However, it remains the case that fees for business opportunities are most often a lot lower.

Business opportunities provide a proven product or operating system

Tried and tested systems are there to optimise effectiveness and return on investment whilst minimising any issues. It is only a matter of passing on knowledge and experience.

If there are any issues, the parent company will still be around. It will be able to provide help and support to the licensee.

Initial intensive training programs

Within most companies, the initial learning period will pump up a lot of time and money. Strong business opportunities can get rid of the majority of inefficient steps through initial intensive training sessions.

More advantageous financing

It will most often be able to offer much more advantageous financing options than any individual person could obtain. This depends on the size, contractual agreements and credit line of the parent company.

High-quality marketing and advertising

Most SMEs don’t have a proper budget for advertising. And they are not willing to spend a lot of money on it as well.

Some are willing to set some money aside for their marketing. Yet, their plan is often badly thought through and lacks consistency.

This is why many business opportunity ventures offer pre-made advertising material. They also give access to various advertising channels to help them with their marketing efforts.

Some business opportunities will even have cooperative advertising agreements within their contract where costs for advertising are split. 

Ongoing support

Most business opportunity ventures will offer support throughout the training period. They will also offer expert guidance and knowledge otherwise not accessible for an independent.

Some parent companies will also offer some legal, accounting, financial, tech and strategic advice and support.

Location assistance

Experts within the parent company will help you with site selection and marketing. They will help with leases and contract negotiations. With their help, you can get the best deal possible.

How? Thanks to the leverage the size and status of the parent company afford them.

Buying power

Often, the buying power of the parent company, as well as their techniques and knowledge, will make it easier for you. Indeed, you can access the right equipment and outside services at a lower cost.

Top online business opportunities

If you want to start an online business or open an online store, there are different solutions that might suit you. We wrote a list of small business ideas for you.

After the COVID-19 spread, many people have started working from home and kept doing it even now. This allowed them to have more time and make some extra money with a side hustle.

Therefore, you can earn money, enjoy remote work and earn billion by 2025.

If you are thinking about starting a business, you have to prepare a business plan and set a business model.

You should also decide on a business strategy. If your business grows, you will also need business continuity planning.

Start a blog and monetise it

​​It has never been easier to start a blog and make some profit from it.

You can’t expect to make money as soon as you create your blog. You should create content on a regular basis to get attention.

The content should be informative, high-quality, entertaining or educational. Then you are on the right track.

Most importantly, if you want to monetise your blog, you need to find a way to sell something through it. For example, this could be products, ad space, sponsored posts, ebooks, coaching or digital products.

If you are serious about this and are committed to the long term, then blogging can be very profitable.

A good way to make a profit out of a blog can be affiliate marketing. This means recommending a product or a service through your blog.

However, even though it is usually a full-time activity, it can also be a part-time job. In this way it allows you to have small business opportunities and to work from home according to your time basis.

It is a great way to make passive income.

Influencer services

This can be associated also with your blogging.

If you have either a large or an engaging following on social media, you could make a profit out of it. Influencer marketing relies on having social media following who trusts you enough to recommend products or services.

Influencer marketing can be a good idea to make money online. In the beginning, you can partner with affiliate programs to see if your audience grows.

It is fundamental to find the right business partners for you and your audience.

It is a great business that you might have underrated.

Sell your art online

No matter what kind of art you produce, whether that be paintings, photography or music. There are many ways in which you can launch online businesses and transform your work into a source of income.

For instance, you can open your eCommerce business website. There, you could sell your originals or prints. You can create your own website or use Printful or Printify.

If you are a musician, then you can also sell your music as digital downloads.

This is a great way to transform your art into something tangible. In this way, people can buy it and use it in their own personal spaces.

Become a freelancer

Social media managers, web designers, app developers and writers can all make a living by starting their own businesses. You can base it on your expertise and be the business owner of yourself.

Freelancers can make money by helping others with their own projects. You need to use your own knowledge and expertise. For instance, SEO consultants are particularly required right now.

Freelancing does not mean that you have to give up all your free time by taking up huge projects.

Indeed, projects vary in length and weight. This means you will be able to pick and choose what suits your own schedule best.

Upwork and Fiverr are two great platforms for finding people who might be interested in your services.

Develop a niche product

If you discover a business opportunity within a certain niche, you might have discovered your next online business idea. Niche goods and services provide for very specific audiences or communities.

The niche could be a certain demographic, industry, values, geography, product attributes,… A niche is anything that is specific enough to target a small section of the population as potential customers. 

Nowadays, there is a high demand for niche products. Everyone is looking for something unique. They could own it, wear it, photograph it, or show it up.

Due to the high demand, you have job security even though you work on a customer base.

Create an online course or digital product

You can monetise your knowledge and expertise. You can create an online course or a digital product to help others. Through them, you can pass on your experience to others.

However, you will have to do the promotion of your product yourself. You could create your own website, create an email campaign, or find a third party to do the promotion for you.

You will also need to create convincing sales material to convince people to buy your product.

Nevertheless, sharing your expertise and knowledge online to help others can be a great way to make money.

Become a copywriter

Copywriting describes the act of writing with the aim of moving people to action. It is the occupation of writing the text for the purpose of marketing or advertising.

This can be done for a website, a sales page, a blog, and much more.

If you enjoy writing and are good at it, copywriting can be an effective way of monetising your talent. It can also enable you to work remotely and have better control of your schedule and time.

Help people with lead generation

Companies are always looking out for ways to generate new leads. They are, after all, what leads to deals and income for the business.

When helping a company with its lead generation, you are acting as a matchmaker.  You connect the company with leads who have a problem you can solve.

The company (or companies) you are helping will conclude a deal thanks to the lead you generated. In this way, you will gain your commission.

If you are suitable at it, it can quickly become very lucrative.

Become a virtual assistant

If you are extremely organised, you can work as a virtual assistant.

Virtual assistants help business people, entrepreneurs, leaders, managers and executives organise their own professional and personal affairs. For example, they create a business model that they can follow.

Responsibilities can be wide-ranging, from marketing management to scheduling meetings and appointments. Being a virtual assistant, all the work is done online.

Develop apps and websites

If you are good with technology, you might want to consider learning some coding skills and start developing some things.

Whether you want to create mobile apps or websites, you can create digital products. You can then sell products or you can start providing your services to different companies and clients.

After this Covid pandemic and every crisis in general, the real estate industry will boom. You can start practising apps and websites for real estate agencies so that you will be ready after the pandemic. 

In addition, you can also create apps or websites in which people post businesses for sale. You can create an app or a website to use as a second shop for them.

Customer support

Customer support is a service that many companies require. You can start your own business like customer service. These are great business opportunities.

You can manage other companies’ issues with customers via phone, email or (live) chat.

If many companies show interest, you can also expand your business. You might hire new people and they can work from home as well so that you cut your costs.

Open a food truck

Many people are passionate about food. Owning and running a restaurant can be quite expensive.

Original types of business opportunities could be opening a food truck. A food truck does not have the same downsides.

How we can help you find online business opportunities

Using online platforms is a great way to discover business opportunities that you might not have come across otherwise. Whether that be because of your location, the industry you operate in or whatever reason.

CONNECTS is a SaaS platform that allows you to find trustworthy business opportunities online.

On our platform, you can find

• suppliers
• partnerships
• clients
• business communities
• online leads

As it is one single platform, it will save you a lot of time and effort and can really boost your online business efforts.

Join CONNECTS and discover a world of new opportunities you can trust. The platform is a Business and Chamber Directory.

If you are interested in finding out more about the types of opportunities on CONNECTS, check out our opportunities page.

You can start our free trial for new members.

If you are a member of a participating chamber, you can join our business platform for free.

Want to learn more about CONNECTS? Find us on Google maps! For more information, don’t hesitate to contact us or request a demo.