15 Small Business Opportunities in South Africa

Starting a small business can be very empowering and sometimes even life changing.

While we may all understand the benefits of owning a successful business in South Africa, many people still have a fear of getting started due to a perceived lack of experience, resources, or just the general ‘fear of the unknown’.

Fortunately, there are plenty of small untapped business ideas that you can easily start with very little capital in South Africa. The absence of resources no longer has to be a hindrance.

The best way to overcome the ‘fear of the unknown’ is by reminding yourself that even if everything were to fail and the business goes down the drain, you could easily just go back to what you were doing before. If you were a teacher, you could just go back to teaching and life goes on.

Starting business in South Africa is definitely a risk worth taking. The potential benefits are immense. You’ll have an opportunity to live a happier life without constantly thinking about money problems.

A successful business provides a sense of security and comfort to you and those close to you. Don’t let the fear of failure deter you from living a fulfilling life.

Best SMALL UNTAPPED Businesses to Start in South Africa with Little or No Capital

The business ideas covered in this article include:

Creating an online course based no something you’re good at
Selling ‘Outsourced’ services online
Selling niche products online/drop shipping
Online consultation/coaching
Airbnb arbitrage
Homemade soaps and scented candles
Cryptocurrency day trading
Pallet furniture
Becoming a virtual assistant
Ghostwriting
Editing, proof reading and beta reading
Starting a podcast
Starting an outsourcing agency
Office sharing
Investing in crowdfunded real estate projects

1. CREATE AN ONLINE COURSE BASED ON SOMETHING YOU’RE GOOD AT

If you are experienced in a particular field, or have a useful skillset, you can earn money sharing that knowledge with others. There are various online platforms, such as Teachable, that make the process straightforward and secure.

You can teach almost anything as long as it’s legal and ethical. These include drawing, cooking, using a musical instrument, physics, mathematics, web development, singing, and much more.

Additionally, Teachable is very popular with millions and millions of students. This gives you the advantage of being exposed to millions of people, increasing your earning potential.

Your course can be composed of pre-recorded videos that students will be able to access as soon as they register and pay the fees. This saves a tremendous amount of time and energy as you don’t have to actively conduct the lessons.

2. SELL OUTSOURCED SERVICES

Nowadays it is very easy to start almost any type of business even if you have don’t have the skills or experience.

Outsourcing is the process of using external helpers to do some of your work. It is often used by companies to take some of the load off their backs.

In this case, you can advertise your business online, and once you get a client, you outsource the work to a freelancer charging a cheaper price, and then keep the profit margin.

For instance, you can advertise web design services for $85. When you get a paying customer, you then find freelancer on Fiverr who will do the same job for $50, making a profit of $35.

Fiverr is the best place to find inexpensive freelancers for almost any type of virtual service. You can sign up here to get 20% discount on your first transaction.

3. SELL NICHE PRODUCTS ONLINE/ DROP SHIPPING

Niche products usually appeal to a specific kind of market, and many of them don’t have much competition. Therefore, the barrier to entry is not too high and success is highly achievable.

E-commerce has become huge, and drop shipping or selling niche products online is a great way to get in on the action. Furthermore, it does not require a large amount of capital to start because you don’t need to have the products in stock.

You can order them as the clients purchase them on your site. Use Shopify to easily build and manage your e-commerce shopping store.

Below are some examples of niche products that have been very successful in the past:

Children’s toys
Outdoor furniture
Wireless earphones
Workout equipment
Vaporizers
Shapewear
Fitness supplements

Although it seems quite straightforward, it requires some research to find winning products and reliable wholesalers who sell their goods inexpensively. AliExpress is a great place to find cheap products that you can resale.

4. ONLINE CONSULTATION/COACHING

If you have profound knowledge in a certain area, e.g. fitness, dating, business, finance, marketing, etc., you can monetize your expertise by starting your own online consultation or coaching service.

You’ll first need to create a website, if you don’t have one already, to become more accessible to people searching online. You can get your entire site built for you for free on Free Web Design.

5. AIRBNB RENTAL ARBITRAGE

Airbnb rental arbitrage is simply the process of renting a house and subleasing it on Airbnb. You would typically have to furnish it and make it comfortable for the guests. Alternatively, you could sublease each of the rooms separately.

Rental arbitrage is a lot cheaper to start than the traditional rental practices since you don’t need to own the property. And it has the potential to be a lot more profitable.

6. HOMEMADE SOAPS AND SCENTED CANDLES

Homemade candles and soaps have a very niche market, making them potentially very profitable products to sell. They are fairly easy to produce and are guaranteed to bring in repeat customers since they often need to be replaced.

7. CRYPTOCURRENCY DAY TRADING

A cryptocurrency, or just crypto, is a digital asset that is similar to a stock. Bitcoin is currently the most popular and most valuable cryptocurrency.

The volatility of the crypto market is what makes it possible to engage in day trading. The price of a crypto can literally double, or drop significantly, in a short period of time. Therefore, day trading has the potential to earn you huge profits fairly quick.

As a day trader, you would be aiming to buy coins when their prices drop, and selling them when their prices are up. There are several crypto exchange platforms, with the most popular being Binance.

8. MAKE PALLET FURNITURE

Pallets are flat structures usually used during the storage and transportation of goods.

They can be found cheaply, if not for free, in schools, bars, furniture stores, construction sites, retail stores, and more.

Pallet furniture is rapidly growing in popularity in SA, particular among trendy restaurants and hotels. You could either build the furniture yourself, or use the services of a professional carpenter, and then just focus on the marketing.

9. BECOME A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT

Virtual assistants provide administrative help to busy people over the internet.

Since the entire service is done virtually, you can be an assistant to someone in a different country.

Some of the tasks that virtual assistants perform include administration, social media management, accounting, scheduling, and so on.

As a virtual assistant, you could take advantage of online freelancing sites such as Freelancer or Upwork to find clients. There are numerous ways to easily find clients online.

10. GHOSTWRITING

A ghostwriter is simply someone who writes in place of someone else who will officially be recognized as the author. This may be a speech, book, song, article, etc.

If you are good at writing, this is something you may be interested in. Good ghostwriters can potentially earn thousands of dollars.

11. EDITING AND PROOFREADING

Editing and proofreading consists of finding and correcting spelling, grammatical, or any other kinds of errors in other people’s content.

Many professional writers hire proofreaders and editors to ensure their content is error-free before being published.

Some great platforms to find such work include Upwork, Freelancer and Fiverr.

12. START A PODCAST

This is probably the best gig for people that love talking. A podcast is simply an audio show with new episodes aired periodically. Podcast owners can earn money through advertisements, affiliate marketing, and sponsorships.

There are various topics which you could discuss make your podcasts interesting. For instance, you could, discuss sports, entertainment, dating, etc.

Just make sure you are well versed in whatever you choose to focus on. Having a partner or co-host may also help.

Once you have recorded your episodes, you can share them online using platforms such as SoundCloud and iTunes.

13. START AN “OUTSOURCING AGENCY”

Outsourcing is a common practice used by businesses to take some of the load off their backs while cutting costs. This is because it removes the need to hire full-time employees.

An outsourcing agency is simply an organization that offers professional services to other companies. This may be in marketing, accounting, IT, cleaning, security, etc.

To get started, you can form a team consisting of freelancers who are skilled and experienced in whichever field you choose to focus on.

14. OFFICE SHARING

Offices are important to many small businesses in South Africa. Not only do they provide a professional work space, but they also increase a company’s credibility and trustworthiness.

You can implement this idea by renting a big space and splitting it into smaller stations. Each of these work stations can then be subleased separately. You can also provide offer extra services such as Wi-Fi for an additional charge.

15. INVEST IN CROWD FUNDED REAL ESTATE PROJECTS

Real estate is a massive industry in South Africa, however it has such a high barrier to entry that most people simply cannot afford to invest in it.

Crowdfunding is an investment method where money is pooled from many people to fund a property. Investors can either get equity in the entire project, or interest from the income generated once it’s completed.

This method of investing enables people without access to large amounts of money to get in on the action. Fundrise, Rich Uncles and Realty Africa are some of the platforms on which you can get started on.