5 profitable small business

Business ownership has been established as the only realistic route to financial independence available to most people. It is also a route fraught with many pitfalls. What, with the many stories we hear of businesses that turn against their owners, plunging them into pits of debt and even bankruptcy. Indeed, corroborated statistics show that out of every 100 business started, more than 90% of them fail within five years of their inception. And even for the businesses that do pick up, there is always the big question of profitability to look into. For the ultimate objective of starting any business is always to earn a profit, and a reasonable one at that, if one is to justify the hard work that is starting and running a business. Yet with the current hard economic times being faced globally, it has become hard to identify a business with a promise of reasonable profit that is also easy and within your reach to start. Thankfully, here are 5 businesses that are potentially highly profitable, and which are also easy to set-up and run.

Forex Trading

We are no longer living in the age where forex trading was the preserve of a certain elite class of people. With the advent of online forex trading programs, all you need is good Internet access, and the initial forex to start trading. This need not to be a big amount, for you can always start small and grow with time. And with the current upheavals in the financial markets (which translate into huge fluctuations in currencies) you stand to make a big killing. Moreover with aid of the modern forex trading software (which comes cheap or even free in some cases), you can arrange your forex trading in such a way that the program automatically sells the forex you are holding once it slides bellow a certain floor, thus eliminating the risk of your losing your capital.

Forex Trading Links

forextrading.com - Forextrading will help you set up and full understand trading.

Online Affiliate marketing

Total spending on online advertising runs into billions of dollars, and you can have your piece of this cake through online affiliate programs. These are programs in which you let sellers advertise their products on your websites for a commission. It is not as hard as it sounds. In fact, it could be one of the easiest profitable business ideas out there. All you need to set up an Affiliate marketing account and get a website have some basic know-how in sales and marketing. There are plenty of website creation aids available (some for free) on the web. Website hosting also costs a pittance, and in fact there are even some free web-hosting services you can give a try.

Affiliate Marketing Links

cj.com - Commission Junction is one of the largest Affiliate Marketing businesses around.

Custom Website Design

Sydney Website Design - Sab Solutions can set up a website for you from design to a complete package.

eBay Shop

eBay is essentially an online market where you can sell anything, from household goods to apparel, books and even patents. The key to making a good profit on eBay is by exploiting the economies of scale, that is, having many items on sale at the same time. All you need to set up an e-bay shop is a good internet connection and the initial stock to get you going. And the only overhead in this type of business will be your Internet costs only. You can have buyers pay for their own shipping, and in fact that is the standard practice on most eBay shops.

Set Up an eBay Store

eBay.com

Professional Consultancy

This is the greatest business idea for you if you have some marketable professional skill. This need not be anything fancy. You can set up a professional consultancy around your web design, book-keeping or any other skill you have. You may never know the potential value of the skill you are sitting on until you offer it for sale. In professional consultancy, you are mostly paid for what you know, rather than what you do, and the rates that professionals get paid for their advice can be simply astounding. Yet armed with a marketable skill, you don't need a lot of finance to set up a consultancy. In most cases, all you need to set up a professional consultancy is a basically equipped office and you are good to go. The key to succeeding in this type of business is simply keeping abreast of developments in your professional field so that you can offer your clients timely and valuable advice.

Retail

The current financial crisis is really hurting the big-time retailers and you can cut into their markets, potentially making princely profits. As a small time retailer, you have the advantage of lower overheads compared to the big retailers. Moreover, as a small-timer, you have the opportunity to offer your customers personal contact, an element of shopping that many shoppers are yearning for, and which the big retailers are finding themselves unable to offer faced as they are with forced staff-cuts. The key to success in retail will be to offer your customers a good variety to choose from, and great service. And while starting out in retail might be a bit costly, the concept of retail is easily and universally understandable and therefore easy to sell to financiers for start-up capital.