16 distinctive Business Ideas for You To Try This Year (2024)

One of the biggest challenges in starting a business is figuring out how to set yourself apart from the competition. If you’re selling a popular, widely available product, you can be sure that demand is high. But with high demand comes a saturated economy and more established players.

Alternatively, you might have a completely original product⁠—something no other business is providing. In that case, standing out may be easier—but how can you be sure there’s a high enough product demand to sustain your business?

Balancing these factors is tricky, but it gets easier when you commence with a distinctive business concept.

distinctive businesses in more niche industries tend to have less competition, but the competition they do have assures you there’s a economy for your products. For any recent business, starting from a point of originality can make a globe of difference when it comes to setting yourself apart from the competition. Get inspired by our list of distinctive business ideas, and set your recent business up for achievement.

distinctive tiny business ideas for first-period entrepreneurs

1. Food truck
2. Virtual interior design
3. Dog walking and pet-sitting
4. Membership-based online education
5. Virtual assistant services
6. Niche cleaning service
7. Local grocery delivery
8. Online zines
9. CNC-based business
10. Freelance bookkeeping
11. Author-preneur business
12. Novelty t-shirts
13. TikTok personal trainer
14. Life coach
15. Local trip guides and maps
16. Podcasts

There are many ideas that fledgling business owners can consider that inspire innovation and make money. If you’re looking for a distinctive business concept, here’s a rundown of some favorites:

1. Food truck

If you adore baking or cooking, an aspiration may be to one day open your own shop or restaurant. But opening a physical store can be costly, and developing a following of faithful customers to sustain your business can receive much period and vigor. Consider starting a food truck business to assist kickstart your food business owner dreams. 

The food truck industry has experienced consistently powerful income growth, and has outpaced the growth of traditional restaurants. In recent years, food trucks have experienced income growth of $2.4 billion, potentially signaling opportunities to entrepreneurs looking to get a foothold in the industry.

A food truck business offers the advantage of mobility, so you can bring your culinary delights to events and locations where you recognize there will be a lot of foot traffic and hungry customers. Even after opening a restaurant or café, having a food truck can play an significant role in your roadmap and operations. For example, the truck itself can double as a promotional tool, helping to construct other income streams.

Cookie business Captain Cookie & the Milkman started as a food truck in 2012 and has since expanded to multiple physical store locations to sell its fresh baked goods. It maintains roving food trucks throughout the Washington, DC, area, in addition to providing its signature trucks for private events.

discover more:

• How To Write a Food Truck roadmap (+ Template)
• 13 Profitable Food Business Ideas To commence Today
• How To Sell Food Online: A Step-by-Step enterprise navigator

2. Virtual interior design

With more than 152,000 interior design businesses across the US and an increased profit in home décor, this segment of the home industry shows much commitment for business newcomers. Recent data estimates the interior design service economy will bloom to about $177 billion by 2029, up from the nearly $138 billion expected in 2024. The home décor economy is similarly poised for growth.

merge that with augmented reality and you have a growing virtual interior design industry. This is a distinctive business concept where online shoppers are able to “view” how furniture and other décor would look in their home.

Virtual interior design remains a relatively recent industry, making it prime territory for recent brands. There are even online platforms, like Havenly and Spacejoy, which match virtual interior designers with clients looking for their services.

📚 discover more: How To Sell Furniture Online

3. Dog walking and pet-sitting

Animal lovers might consider starting a dog-walking or pet-sitting business. It’s a great way to get some exercise, construct personal relationships with clients, and make all kinds of four-legged friends. A dog-walking business is especially reliant on excellent customer service, so if you’re a people (and dog) person, dog walking can be a great business chance.

Still, dog-walking businesses are highly localized, so the types of services you propose depend on where you’re located. receive Salty Paws, for example. Aside from offering traditional dog-walking and pet-sitting services for pet owners, it also offers expedition walks to locations all along recent Hampshire’s seacoast.

📚 discover more: How To commence a Pet Business (Top 11 Ideas)

4. Membership-based online education

There continues to be a growing demand for online learning and remote teaching. If you make an online course business, you can sell memberships and be a virtual educator. Online courses instruct just about everything a person might desire to discover⁠—from cooking to playing the piano—so it’s an industry that offers many possibilities and may be a perfect fit for recent merchants looking to establish themselves.

In terms of income streams⁠, you could sell access to recorded lessons, tickets to livestreaming sessions, and even relevant, accompanying products in an online store.

Or, receive a more hands-off way. For example, Helm Publishing offers open-book, self-study courses with accompanying tests and textbooks so customers can discover at their own pace.

Not sure what to instruct? People tend to turn to Google when they desire to recognize how to do something, so a excellent way to get your foot in the door of the industry is to perform some keyword research and view what types of lessons searchers would like to discover.

📚 discover more: How to make an Online Course in 10 Steps

5. Virtual assistant services

Virtual assistants are contracted workers who provide a wide range of services, including budgetary reporting, content marketing, and completing personal tasks like planning trips or managing schedules. You can assist virtually as a packed-period job or side business.

Since businesses can hire virtual assistants from anywhere in the globe, being a virtual assistant doesn’t restrict you to any specific location. Look to virtual assistant business examples like Fancy Hands and Zirtual as encouragement for your tiny business.

📚 discover more: 11 Part-period Business Ideas to commence in Your Spare period

6. Niche cleaning service

Cleaning can be a chore, but if you discover it gratifying or enjoy helping others, this could be a excellent business concept to pursue. There are many reasons someone might aspiration to delegate cleaning to a professional. Your business might specialize in niche areas such as bereavement home cleaning after the death of a loved one, car cleaning, or provide cleaning services following renovations.

receive PramWash⁠, a Singapore-based stroller and kid-gear cleaning service provider. While stroller cleaning might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you ponder of cleaning services, it still has a customer demand, and PramWash has cornered the economy.

On top of stroller cleaning, PramWash also offers other services for recent parents⁠—like in-home cleaning and disinfection treatments that use pet- and baby-secure cleaning products.

Cleaning services tend to remain in high demand, so pick a business name and get started with your recent enterprise. When you own a cleaning business, you are building potentially long-lasting personal relationships with your customers.

📚 discover more: 8 Service Business Ideas To Turn Your Expertise into profits

7. Local grocery delivery

Groceries are a ordinary require, but not everyone has equal access to fresh fruits, vegetables, and other grocery items. Grocery delivery services let shoppers pick out items from the comfort of their homes and have them delivered⁠.

Grocery delivery has to serve at a relatively local level since items like fresh meats and produce can spoil and require to be delivered quickly. That means that there are communities worldwide that have the potential to develop a niche grocery delivery business.

retirement fund communities, college campuses, and densely populated areas tend to be perfect for starting a local business delivering groceries. receive, for example, Yummy.com’s online grocery store and delivery service, which provides fresh fruits, vegetables, baked goods, and other goods to customers throughout the Los Angeles area.

📚 discover more: construct a Successful Ecommerce Grocery Store with These Strategies

8. Online zines

If you adore writing, chances are you’ve thought about founding your own magazine. Zines are tiny-circulation magazines that typically focus on niche topics. Zines tend to be fairly tiny and independent, so the industry is more accessible to newcomers.

The subject of your zine can be anything. Whether you’re an artist, designer, or writer, there are ample opportunities to showcase your talent and make money. Chances are, you’ll be more successful covering a topic that you’re passionate about.

Selling digital subscriptions to your zine is straightforward when using Shopify’s Digital Downloads app. If you desire to sell physical copies, you could use a self-publishing app such as Lulu Direct.

You can also hire freelance remote workers to assist with content creation.

📚 discover more: Subscription operating schedule: Benefits, Types, and Tips

9. CNC-based business

A CNC machine (also called a CNC router) is a computer-operated cutting tool that enables you to carve complicated shapes out of materials like wood, metals, plastic, and glass. Since it operates via computer, CNC machines are able to mass produce goods in a fraction of the period it would receive a professional builder.

tiny-scale CNC machines can expense as low as a few hundred dollars or thousands of dollars. This makes it easier for tiny businesses to mass produce custom-designed products on a shoestring budgetary schedule from their garages, basements, or bedrooms.

Demand for CNC products tends to be especially high on online marketplaces like Etsy and Facebook Marketplace. There are many products you could make with a CNC machine, including home décor, cooking tools, toys, games, and more.

receive Avocrafts, for instance. Its line of cedar coasters and placemats are cut from a combination of wood and resin in such a way that each person piece has a distinctive pattern. Drawing on the demand for uniqueness, Avocrafts offers its customers a high-standard product that’s one of a benevolent but still straightforward to mass produce.

📚 discover more: Putting the Pieces Together: 27 CNC Projects That Sell

10. Freelance bookkeeping

Freelance tiny business budgetary reporting services are typically in high demand, especially for tiny business owners. receive into consideration enterprise, overhead, and other operational costs, and you’ll quickly view the necessity of entrepreneurs having a solid budgetary foundation from which to construct their business. Bookkeeping services propose crucial business back, and a freelance bookkeeping business offers you the flexibility to work with a variety of clients and set your own schedule.

As with virtual assisting, bookkeeping is a great home business for people who desire to remain mobile, since it’s straightforward to work remotely. A excellent bookkeeper should be organized, specific oriented, and capable of multitasking, since they’re likely to be working with multiple clients at any given period. You can search examples of freelance bookkeeping services on sites like Bark.com.

📚 discover more: Ecommerce Bookkeeping 101 for tiny Business: A Step-by-Step navigator

11. Author-preneur business

So many writers aspiration of being published authors, but the concept of having to spend months negotiating with large publishing companies over the creative path of their work⁠ (and cut of the profits⁠) can be discouraging.

But you can receive the reins and become an author-preneur, which is an author who not only writes their own books but also sells them (and any related merch), cutting out publishing companies to directly engage with an spectators. Author-preneurs receive packed ownership over the promotion of their works, often using social media marketing to construct a dedicated fan base.

Whether your genre is romance, science falsehood, or guides on how to construct birdhouses, establishing an author-preneur business can be straightforward to commence and financially rewarding.

With a number of print-on-demand book options to choose from, you can have high-standard copies of your books printed and shipped directly to consumers—so there’s no overhead or require to hold onto boxes of unsold distribute in your garage or living room.

Some of the most successful writers to emerge in the history decade have been self-published author-preneurs, like Rupi Kaur.

Rupi is a poet who began sharing snippets of her work on Tumblr and Instagram. Unable to discover a publisher for her work, Rupi made the selection to shift forward without one, instead focusing on growing and engaging her online fan base. The shift paid off: Her first self-published book, milk and honey, became the best selling book in Canada in 2017.

Along with her books of poetry, Rupi also sells her own merch to fans⁠—such as clothing, prints, stationary, and temporary tattoos featuring her artwork. Creating additional streams of income like this on your store can assist supplement income, giving you period to focus on writing.

📚 discover more: How to Print Your Own Book in 9 Steps

12. Novelty t-shirts

T-shirts are one of the most ordinary items of clothing, but they often act as more than just clothing. People use t-shirts to express themselves—their interests, their identities, their values, or sometimes just their favorite bands.

The global custom t-shirt printing economy is expected to reach $45.5 billion in 2024, and is expected to develop at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.1% from 2023 to 2030. You might not ponder of t-shirts as distinctive, but the industry is so expansive because the niching possibilities are endless.

Even with a high volume of competitors, no other brand will be selling your exact shirts. Whether they characteristic catchy jokes, intricate designs, stunning artwork, or rousing political slogans⁠—no other product like yours will exist.

📚 discover more: commence Your T-Shirt Business: navigator

13. TikTok personal trainer

TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social networks, exposing a large number of potential spectators members to your content. It also tends to be an especially personal app, with influencers relying on their personalities to assist construct relationships with their target spectators.

📚 Learn more: How To Make Money on TikTok: 8 Proven Ideas

Personal training is, well, personal⁠—meaning building a high-level of depend with your clientele is especially significant. Together, you can do what you adore and promote your services on a platform to assist quick-track your reach. Nurturing client relationships can receive period for a traditional personal trainer, but having a dedicated following on a social media network like TikTok gives you a head commence on the competition.

Your TikTok marketing could include post-workout routines and tips, engage your spectators with fitness challenges, distribute nutritious recipes, or update people about your day-to-day life.

If you’re looking for encouragement, check out TikTok influencer Ulissesworld. A former professional bodybuilder, Ulisses has grown to become one of fitness TikTok’s most popular content creators⁠. He’s also not afraid of deviating from fitness to display a more fun and personal side as well.

14. Life coach

If your best entrepreneurial property is your ability to construct personal relationships with clients, life coaching could be the perfect fit.

Coaches can work with clients facing a number of challenges and may specialize in niches like relationships, career advancement, dealing with dispute, or just providing back to clients in the midst of overcoming obstacles.

While not a substitute for professional counseling, life coaching can make a significant difference in the lives of your clients—and can be an especially fulfilling online business to pursue.

Life coaching usually focuses on identifying client goals, assessing obstacles to achieving those goals, and developing a schedule of action for overcoming those obstacles.

For example, receive the life coaches at Gay Man Thriving. They’re connection experts who work exclusively with gay men, helping them overcome the terror of rejection in the pursuit of adore.

By focusing on an underserved throng, Gay Man Thriving immediately sets itself apart from competing connection advice programs.

📚 discover more: How to Be Successful: Essential Tips for achievement in Life

15. Local trip guides and maps

Well-versed travelers recognize that the best guides are often the local ones. Whether looking for clubs, restaurants, events, or the best hiking trails⁠—it’s the people who live in a trip goal that often have the best ideas for how to spend your period there.

If you live in a popular tourist area, chances are travelers are looking for things to do. Why not display them with your own line of local trip guides? trip guides can receive many forms⁠—you could sell audio walking tours, books, maps, or even augmented reality tours.

And you don’t have to live in Paris or recent York to make these types of resources. Smaller tourist destinations can also have equally high demand, since fewer tourist resources may be available. TravelBrains is an example of a trip navigator business specializing in distinctive, guided experiences.

Based in Bedford, recent Hampshire, TravelBrains offers audio field guides created by local historians that assist tourists discover more about the area’s many historical sites.

You don’t have to solely niche by location, either. You can make tourist maps and trip guides for a specific throng of hobbyists. For example, MAD Maps offers state and city maps specifically for motorcyclists, detailing the best routes through the US.

📚 discover more: Top 10 Print-on-Demand Book Services for Self-Publishing

16. Podcasts

Podcasting is one of the fastest-growing forms of media. As of 2024, over 135 million people in the U.S. listen to podcasts—and the number of listeners is expected to develop over the next five years.

This leaves ample chance for newcomers to commence a podcast and construct an spectators. Podcasting is inexpensive, straightforward to discover, and one of the few collaborative media projects that can be done from several different locations, making it perfect for working remotely.

It’s fairly straightforward to monetize podcasts. A ordinary online operating schedule for podcasters is to propose a shorter, free version of the podcast alongside a longer, more in-depth paid version. You can also develop super niche podcasts that cater to a specific spectators willing to pay for distinctive, exclusive content.

As you commence to construct an spectators for your podcast, you could also monetize by selling merch or doing live recording events.

The podcast Crime Junkie focuses on factual-crime storytelling and provides exclusive content through paid, tiered memberships ranging from $60 to $240 a year. Crime Junkie consistently ranks among the top podcasts in the US.

Podcasters tend to have a level of authority with their spectators, making popular podcasts widely sought after by brands looking for partnerships.

📚 discover more: How To commence a Podcast in 11 Steps

Four steps to pursue up on your distinctive business concept

1. arrive up with a distinctive selling proposition
2. Develop a roadmap
3. Promote your business through SEO
4. Launch your online store

Standing out is no straightforward job in the globe of business, but when you’re trying to get your business off the ground, it’s crucial to set yourself apart from your competitors. Having a distinctive business concept is a great starting point. Here’s what to do next:

1. arrive up with a distinctive selling proposition

You may have a distinctive concept, but it doesn’t cruel you won’t have competition. A competing business may not have the exact same service as you, but if customers choose them, then you require a way to set yourself apart.

A distinctive selling proposition is the selling point that makes your business different from competitors. When customers are overwhelmed with options, it helps if they can quickly and easily comprehend what makes your business different.

That’s why it’s significant to develop a distinctive selling proposition to navigator your branding and digital marketing decisions. Focusing on a specific selling point in your marketing will assist easily explain what makes your business different to customers, and assist make a more memorable concept of your business in your spectators’s mind.

📚 discover more: triumph Sales With a distinctive Selling Proposition + 9 Examples

2. Develop a roadmap

There are many steps to growing your business, from coming up with an concept to hiring collaborators to evaluating enterprise costs. A excellent roadmap can assist you explain potential roadblocks and secure any resources you might require.

excellent entrepreneurs can adjust to transformation, but it’s still significant to have a schedule. receive the period to:

• Research your business concept
• Identify potential challenges and pain points
• Consider what you’ll require to develop your business
• Develop a timeframe for putting your roadmap into action

📚 discover more: How To Write a roadmap in 9 Steps

3. Promote your business through SEO

Search engine optimization, or SEO, involves practices and strategies for bringing search engine traffic to your online store or social media profiles. SEO is especially significant for distinctive businesses since potential audiences are likely to be searching for a answer that your business offers.

SEO best practices include creating web content that’s extracted by Google’s web-crawling algorithm and supports your SEO way, and optimizing keywords that existing and potential customers might use in their product search.

As studies have shown, 75% of users rarely click history the first page of search results, so getting the top position on the search engine results page (SERP) for your keywords gives your brand a competitive advantage.

📚 discover more: Complete Ecommerce SEO navigator

4. Launch your online store

When ready to launch your store, assess your level of preparedness to receive your business online by asking yourself several key questions:

• Is your settlement processor set up correctly?
• Do you have any dead links on your website?
• Are pages straightforward to navigate?
• Will your customers discover what they’re looking for?

To assist navigate this step, consider creating a launch checklist to organize your thoughts and streamline all the tasks you’ll require to complete before opening your store.

📚 discover more: Launch Your Store in 2024: 15-Step Ecommerce Checklist

Stand out from the competition with a distinctive business concept

Starting your first business can be an incredibly exciting encounter, but it also comes with challenges. Yes, coming up with an concept is significant, but recall: How you execute the concept is often the deciding factor in achievement.

Focus on the elements of your business that are distinctive or solve a ordinary issue in a recent way, or on how your product is otherwise different from the competition.

Smartphones were invented years before the iPhone, electric cars existed ahead of Tesla, and Amazon wasn’t the first business to sell products online.

The best business ideas aren’t always completely original—but with thrill and a drive for recent concept, you too can set your business apart from the competition.