Today we are going to be revealing six hidden goldmines. These are going to be small business ideas, many of them weird, many of them kind of boring, but all of them potentially very profitable.
We are going to be giving you exact examples of the business ideas and people who have had success with them.
Small Business Ideas
Crochet Business
lf you’re familiar with what crochet is, you can basically create handmade items like bags, hats, scarves, and other home decor. And you’re essentially turning yarn into finished products that people want to buy.
Most sellers focus on trending items like tote bags, baby clothes, or seasonal decorations, and these can be pretty good, especially if you find the right niche. But this business specifically revolves around creating unique handmade pieces that mass production can’t replicate. And that’s what makes crochet so good.
The barrier to entry is incredibly low because people love these unique pieces. You need basic crochet skills, which you can learn for free on YouTube tutorials in a weekend, and the initial investment is minimal. Just yarn, crochet hooks, and basic supplies. No special equipment or expensive tools required. And the biggest barrier is time. Each piece is handmade, so scaling requires patience or hiring help.
An example of this is Lingzi Handmade. They turned their crocheting experience into a thriving business that’s generated nearly 20,000 sales. And she sells her stuff on Etsy, and it’s always sold out, creating a wait list of eager customers who want to buy it. And a conservative estimate of $30 average per item would mean that her lifetime revenue sits at $540,000.
She basically markets her business by uploading videos to YouTube of her just making the different items. That’s it. No fancy marketing, no paying for ads, just simple YouTube videos where she records herself doing what she already would have been doing.
Starting a YouTube Channel
Starting a YouTube channel is a business that works synergistically with all of these other businesses that we’re going to talk about on the list, including the first business we talked about. So this is all about creating video content that attracts viewers and generates revenue through ads, sponsorships, and donations.
The barrier to entry on YouTube is virtually zero. You need a smartphone or if you don’t have a phone, you could also just use a computer. There’s literally free editing software available, and you can just record your screen.
You don’t need professional equipment to start. The real challenge is finding your unique angle, finding the right ideas to post about that people actually care about. There is no excuse if you think you have nothing going for you, you can still start a YouTube channel and make money.
Custom Planner Business
This business creates customizable and refillable planners and inserts. Customers build their own planners by choosing sizes, cover designs, dividers, and hundreds of insert layouts like daily pages, weekly spreads, habit trackers, and meal planners.
It’s all about providing personalized organization solutions that generic planners can’t match. The barrier to entry is low, but it does require some design skill. You need basic graphic design knowledge, which you can learn through free tools like Canva.
Initial costs include design software, printing setup, and materials. The learning curve involves understanding what planner users actually want and creating templates that solve their problems.
There are a lot of people making planners that you can sell on Amazon, for instance, the Amazon KDP program.
You could also sell book-scented candles. Yes, this is an actual thing. A lot of people don’t know this, but the sense that is most closely related to emotion is smell, right? It’s not sight. It’s not taste. It’s actually smell. If you can capture certain smells that evoke certain emotions in people, that is powerful.
Roxy and Tom started Frostbeard Studio making candles in their Minneapolis apartment in 2013, initially as a side business alongside Roxy’s pottery. The breakthrough came when Roxy experimented with fragrances and created something completely unique: an Oxford library scent that literally smells like old books and libraries.
That’s when everything changed and the candle business became their full-time income. Today, Frostbeard Studio generates an estimated annual revenue between $1 and $10 million while maintaining a lean team of just 3 to 10 employees.
Their success proves that finding the right niche, in this case, book lovers who want their homes to smell like libraries, can transform a simple hobby into a multi-million dollar operation. So, can you find a smell that evokes a certain emotion in millions of people out there? If you can, you can start a candle business and make a ton of money.
Etsy Digital Products
We already mentioned Etsy and we talked about physical products, but they actually do digital products as well. For instance, spreadsheets, templates, printables, and guides that solve specific problems.
These are intangible products that are delivered instantly via download. Popular items include:
- Budget trackers
- Meal planners
- Digital artwork
- Organizational templates
The barrier is extremely low since there’s no physical inventory. You need basic computer skills and knowledge of programs like Excel, Canva, or similar tools.
The main investment is just time learning what customers want and creating quality digital products for them. Once created, the products can be sold infinitely with no additional costs.
Handmade Hair Accessories
This one is actually really profitable. Here, you create accessories. You could even 3D print them, like hair ties, clips, headbands, and scrunchies. The focus is on quality materials, unique designs, and personal touches that mass-produced accessories lack. It’s all about being able to customize things these days.
That is like the biggest, most important thing, right? Mass-produced stuff, people are kind of tired of it because everyone else has it. But if you can make something that’s actually very limited and not that many people have, that is where the real money comes in. Many successful businesses start with simple items and expand into full accessory lines.
The barrier to entry is very low with basic crafting skills and minimal equipment needed. You can just craft these or you can even 3D print them.
So think about things you could 3D print or things you could make that are accessories that people can put on their bodies.
Meal Prep Delivery Service
People want to eat food that tastes good. They want it to be timely so it doesn’t take them very much time, right? They don’t want to have to deliver it in the morning or they don’t want to have to order something and wait an hour for it to get there. And they want it to actually be healthy.
So this business prepares healthy meals in bulk, and it delivers them to customers on a regular schedule. It combines cooking skills with delivery logistics to provide convenient, nutritious meals for busy people. The focus is on consistent quality, healthy ingredients, and reliable service.
A pro tip here is focus on creating one type of food, for instance, maybe Mexican food that’s healthy or Indian food that’s healthy, or a type of diet. For instance, you could make food that’s only carnivore or only vegan or only pescatarian. And that’s how you really separate yourself from the rest of the pack and get customer loyalty.
And yeah, it’s pretty easy to start this, right? And the biggest thing is you just make the food and then you deliver it right to people’s houses.
Conclusion
You can combine any of these with YouTube, right? Building your social media presence, and that’s basically free marketing, right? You don’t need to go door to door. You can just record yourself doing it, post it on social media. YouTube is the best one.
YouTube makes the most money, but then you can syndicate that content out to the other platforms, which you can do in a pretty much automated way.
