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With an average online shopping industry growth of 6.1% over the past five years, New Zealanders are becoming more confident to tap into a viable work-from-home business as consumers have become increasingly confident in conducting transactions over the internet.
So, what’s the most profitable online business to start? How to start it and what to actually sell?
In this article, I’m going to share with you the 13 best online business ideas to start in New Zealand that are actually not limited to a specific country or region as you can practice them from home, or from wherever you want.
All you may need is a laptop/computer with an internet connection. Yup, this is what the internet has allowed us to do!
Before we just dive in, I encourage you to take a look at the official consumer law for starting and running an online business issued by the New Zealand Government to stay compliant with their terms & conditions!
If you find this post inspiring and useful, share it with your friends, please! (Virtual high fives and awkward hugs to all my sharers out there ✋)
How Do I Start An Online Business In NZ?
To start an online business in NZ, first, you would need to identify your strengths, your skillset, and your passions. It’s important to understand what business model you’re capable of before start investing your time and money. Secondly, you would need to list down the available online ventures, see which one fits you most and what it takes you to get started with it!
Gladly, this quick guide could be of great help for you to pick the right business model that will allow you to live the life you want, work anytime you want, and simply be your own boss!
13 Online Business Ideas To Start In New Zealand
- Blogging
- Affiliate marketing
- Virtual assisting
- Social media management
- Selling Fiverr Gigs
- Transcription
- Writing & selling eBooks
- Dropshipping
- Drop servicing
- Print on demand
- YouTube Channel
- Sell hand-made crafts
- Proofreading
Here’s more information about the above list of the most trending, popular, and fruitful business models that you can tap into as a beginner or as an intermediate. Despite the place you’re in, the level of skills you’re at, or the background you’re from, chances are that inside this list, you’d find the idea that will tickle some area in your mind and encourage you to take action right away.
If you’re lucky enough to find the right idea for you inside this blog post and want more information about it, don’t hesitate to reach out to me via email (you can find it on the contact page) and if not, you can alternatively check out this guide of 43+ ways to make extra money online and offline!
1. Blogging
Blogging is the act of publishing valuable content that answers a particular search query or question. Bloggers are the heart of the internet as they provide enough information for what people are searching for every day.
It is a lucrative long-term business opportunity that can allow you to earn a full-time income living the lifestyle you want, traveling the world!
With the hidden power of a website builder like Bluehost or WPX, starting and creating a blog is a seamless process that involves few minutes of work (here’s a quick step-by-step tutorial for starting a money-making blog from scratch!)
Currently, blogging is an active part of the media of New Zealand, and it’s dominated by a community of around 600 blogs that comment largely on New Zealand politics, society, and occurrences.
There are some personal blogs that have been around since the mid-1990s, but there are now blogs about cities, science, law, fashion, and more!
While starting a blog is fairly easy and requires little to no technical skills with innovative web hosting companies like the ones mentioned above, monetization is where most people stuck and unfortunately, end up giving up on their blog!
Monetization is actually how you’re going to make money with your blog, and luckily, there are tens of different ways that you can turn your blog into an income-generating machine.
Related: 40 Lessons To Learn From Top Bloggers And Most Popular Blogs
Before starting a blog, you should be aware that this is not an over-night success, and it requires some serious work to get your blog to success.
For having a headstart in your blogging journey, following a proven game plan and a step-by-step program could be a game-changer, and here’s where enrolling in communities like the Income School comes into play.
Jim & Ricky of the Income School has a program called Project24, which is a project that’s designed to help you make a full-time income in a matter of 24 months or less through blogging.
- Learn more about Income School – Project24.
- Learn more about Acabado – The fastest WordPress theme on earth, developed by the Income School.
2. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is performance-based marketing that involves getting compensated for promoting other companies and other people’s products.
This unique business model is rapidly growing, and one of the quotes that I love for Robert Bennet is:
“Affiliate marketing has made businesses millions and ordinary people millionaires!”
Robert Bennet
The way that this business model works is really simple, yet involves a lot of professional practices that actually differentiates veteran marketer from amateurs, which you can find inside this FREE 13-video mini-course!
Nowadays, almost each company has its own affiliate program that you can sign up for and either get approved or rejected.
Clickfunnels, for example, a sales funnel software, landing page builder, and all-in-one marketing toolkit has its own affiliate program that you can join and get paid 40% of each user’s spending on the platform.
The cool part is, you will get paid every single month, as long as the company is getting paid!
Pro Tip: Promoting companies with a professional ecosystem and a proven value-ladder like Clickfunnels will result in long-term passive income streams and allows you to earn monthly recurring revenue for months, or even years to come!
Finding affiliate programs is fairly easy, and to make it even easier for you, I’ve assembled the highest paying affiliate programs for you in one blog post.
You may also like: How A 28-Year-Old Got Fired Then Built A $500K-A-Month Business While Traveling The World
3. Dropshipping
Dropshipping is a product-fulfillment method in which you sell other suppliers’ products without ever worrying about fulfilling, packing, delivering, shipping, or stocking any inventory!
You simply get the authorization from sellers who are already supportive of the business model, list their products on your store, set your own prices and margins and you’re good to go! Spocket & Salehoo have solved some problems like finding suppliers without taking a charter plane and fly searching for a supplier!
Dropshipping is way more efficient and profitable than a brick-and-mortar business as you don’t need to hold any inventory that won’t sell… You only purchase the item after an order was placed in your store, and you pay for it from the amount that the customer’s paid you!
Companies like Shopify have allowed us to create a complete digital storefront from scratch, in a matter of minutes, even without any technical or coding skills!
And the best part is that you don’t need to break the bank for starting an online store with Shopify! Shopify offers a free 14-day trial in which you get the chance to test out the platform, familiarize yourself with it, and test its water without even pulling out your wallet and paying a single dime yet!
However, in order to receive actual orders and capture real payments from your customers, you would need to select and pay for a paid subscription plan. To learn more about Shopify’s different packages, features and prices, I encourage you to take a look at this ultimate Shopify pricing guide that I’ve created for you.
Would you be interested in learning how to launch your own Shopify store without paying big bucks to some “Guru”? Then, this free 8-video course is something that you don’t want to miss as it shows the exact step-by-step process that you can use to get your Shopify store up and running today.
Want to learn how to start a profitable dropshipping business the right way? This 95-page PDF contains 7 modules for starting a dropshipping business the right way, and it will also teach you a secret social proof method that will boost your reputation.
Best of all, it comes with 60-day money back guarantee, which allows you to test it risk-free!
4. Drop Servicing
Similar to dropshipping, in drop servicing, you would be selling something that you don’t technically own or provide, but instead of selling physical products, you would be leverage other people’s skills and capabilities and flip their services online as if you’re providing them by yourself.
You don’t need to declare this to your clients, and this is totally legal in case you’re wondering…
The below image demonstrates exactly how the drop servicing business model actually works, and how the relationship between all parties looks like.
The eServices industry is booming, and its revenue is projected to reach US$238,736m in 2021!
Technically, you can sell any service that comes to your mind, as long as you’re knowledgeable about it. You don’t need to be an expert in that service, but you should at least know the basics of how it works so you can look authoritative in front of your potential clients.
The reason is, people buy from people who they know and trust, and they don’t just buy products and services, they buy fixes to their issues and problems.
A brick-and-mortar business, for example, be it a gym, restaurant, store, or any other professional practice would have a problem in getting more leads and promoting their business because they don’t have the know-how.
This is a problem that they have, so, they hire a freelancer or a social media manager to fix their problem and help them get more leads. And here’s where you can come into play as a professional digital marketer and offer your services that are technically other people’s services.
Some resources that you may find helpful and useful:
- 23 Best Drop Servicing Ideas For Monthly Recurring Revenue
- What Makes A Good Drop Servicing Niche? 6 Things To Consider
- How Much Does It Cost To Get Started With Drop Servicing?
- How To Start A Shopify Drop Servicing Business (Stupid Easy)
- How To Build A Drop Servicing Website On Bluehost (With Pics)
- What Is The Best Drop Servicing Course For Complete Newbies?
It may sound a little bit confusing, but it’s too straightforward and simple if backed up with a solid game plan like the eComDimes Drop Servicing Blueprint.
Fill your info in the form below and I’ll send you a FREE 10-point checklist for starting your new or next drop servicing business!
5. Print On Demand
Print on demand is an innovative business model in which you partner with printing companies that have a variety of white-label stocked products, and get them to print, pack, ship and deliver your custom-printed products to the end consumer without ever worrying about anything.
So, What Products Can You Sell With Print On Demand?
- Men’s & women’s clothing
- T-shirts
- Hoodies
- Sweatshirts
- Long Sleeves
- Tank Tops
- Sportswear
- Skirts & dresses
- Pants
- Swimwear
- Shoes
- Home & living
- Mugs
- Bottles & Tumblers
- Canvas & posters
- Journals & Notebooks
- Magnets & Stickers
- Home Decor
- Bathroom
- Blankets
- Pillows & Covers
- Pets
- Kids clothing
- T-shirts
- Sweatshirts
- Long Sleeves
- Baby Clothing
- Accessories
- Face Masks
- Phone Cases
- Bags
- Socks
- Hats
How To Start A Print On Demand Business?
To start a print-on-demand business and sell custom-printed and personalized products, you need to either set up a self-hosted store on Shopify, or leverage marketplaces like Etsy to sell your products to the world! For Shopify, you should be prepared for at least $29/month for the monthly subscription plan, and for Etsy, it’s almost free!
A couple of weeks ago, I’ve created a new Etsy store that sells motivational quote mugs, as a case study for my readers. I’ve created the designs, so the only running cost for me is the monthly integration between the print on demand company that I work with (PrintTech) and Etsy, which is $10 a month!
What Are The Best Print On Demand Companies?
Related: What Is Shopify Used For & How To Leverage It As A Complete Beginner?
6. Become A Virtual Assistant
With the fact that slightly more than 54,000 new websites are created globally every single day, chances are, those business owners and content creators would need VAs, virtual assistants to help them with their day-to-day tasks!
If, for example, you have a passion for writing, you can help business owners to create content for their blogs or social media. Or you can even help them with designing, marketing, or video creation.
What if I told you that there are 275+ services that you can offer as a virtual assistant? You’ll find yourself saying, “I can do that!” and “I LOVE doing that already!” more times than you can count! 😍
Some resources that may kickstart your virtual assistant business:
- How to become a virtual assistant even without experience
- Jumpstart Your VA Business – $19 Mini-Course
- HorkeyHandbook success stories from real students
7. Social Media Management
Nowadays, you can barely find a business that doesn’t realize the power of social media advertising and not using it in their business. The problem is, 62% of small businesses feel like their paid Facebook Ads are failing.
Traditional brick and mortar business owners either don’t have the to learn the skill or are not willing to put the time to create really simple Facebook ads that literally take 5 minutes to make, to grow their businesses.
So, they would be more likely willing to hire a professional in this domain to get them more leads, customers, and sales!
The cool thing about this side-hustle is that you can potentially make $1,000 per client, per month, you can handle multiple clients at the same time as the work required could be an hour or two, on a weekly basis!
Besides all the financial benefits of this new-age opportunity, it’s very flexible and requires little work to get things set up. Being a “Freelance Digital Marketing” expert allows you to live the lifestyle you want, work from anywhere in the world and set your own schedule, while helping business owners acquire more leads to their business.
You may think that learning and gaining Facebook skills is hard, it’s not, especially if you rely on a trusted source, with proven success.
No one was born with knowledge… At the end of the day, paid advertising is a skill that you can learn, practice and master.
8. Make Money On YouTube
YouTube is the second most visited website in the world, and it’s Google’s little kid, with over 2 billion monthly active users!
The potential of growing on YouTube is huge and when it comes to utilizing this huge platform for making money, there are actually multiple ways to achieve this, and earn extra money on the side, or even replace your full-time job!
So, How To Make Money On YouTube?
- Raise capital through crowdfunding
- Fan funding & tips
- Earn with Adsense ads
- Sell your own products or merch
- Dropshipping
- Build an email list and monetize it on your own
- Become an influencer and get sponsors
- Become an affiliate for other vendors
- Offer and sell your services
Here’s a quick video by Michelle Bali – Creative Strategist at Shopify, that goes through the 5 top strategies to earn income, from your YouTuve channel:
What if I told you that there’s a way you can earn money on YouTube without showing up on a camera? Matt Par has a program called “Tube Mastery” where he teaches how he runs 9 different profitable YouTube channels and makes 6-figure from them!
In my recent blog post, I’ve discussed exactly how you can make money on YouTube without showing your face!
Matt’s YouTube blueprint contains 7 different modules that you have lifetime access to and can watch at your own pace. Inside Tube Mastery, he shares his exact strategies of raising half a million subscribers on one of his channels in a matter of a year!
Want to start a YouTube channel and reap the reward of being on this huge platform without even showing your face? Matt has got you covered, as he shares with you the best niches that you can start without jumping on a camera or even recording a voice-over.
Click here to learn more about Matt’s Tube Mastery!
9. Make Money Selling Fiverr Gigs
Fiverr is one of the biggest freelance marketplaces on the whole web, opening opportunities for both experts who are looking forward to attracting new clients, and business owners who are looking forward to purchasing services to grow their businesses.
Click here to join Fiverr for free, and experience buying/selling/reselling services the right way!
Anyone can create a free account on Fiverr, and either buy or sell services on the platform.
But, what if I don’t have expertise in anything or don’t have a service for my own to sell on the platform. Can I still make money on the platform, Odeh?
I hear you!
The good news is, you can resell other freelancers’ services on Fiverr, without the need to declare this to anyone, and it’s totally free! This is actually a relatively brand new business model, and it’s called drop servicing.
I’ve recently published an article on how to make money online reselling Fiverr gigs that I highly recommend you check it out to learn how you can establish yourself on the Fiverr marketplace and earn money by simply becoming a middle-man between businesses that are looking forward to purchasing services and actual service providers.
10. Sell Hand-Made Crafts On Etsy
Do you create hand-made crafts and are looking forward to selling them online? Odds are, you would need an online store to showcase your products for potential buyers who might be interested in what you sell!
But, what if you don’t feel like you’re up for the challenge of starting your very own self-hosted online store? Isn’t there an alternative for a Shopify store? Some may ask.
Good news, there actually is a marketplace that’s meant for something exactly like this, called Etsy!
“Etsy is an American eCommerce website focused on handmade or vintage items and craft supplies. These items fall under a wide range of categories, including jewelry, bags, clothing, home décor and furniture, toys, art, as well as craft supplies and tools.”
Wikipedia
Starting an Etsy is fairly easy, and the learning curve is fairly reasonable. In my recent article on what is Shopify used for, I’ve discussed the difference between having a self-hosted website on Shopify or having an eCommerce shop on Etsy. I highly recommend you give it a shot if you’re considering starting an online storefront!
11. Become A Proofreader
Does the incorrect use of there, their, and they’re drive you crazy? Then, you can put your eagle eyes to good use by earning money as a proofreader.
Proofreading is the final step in the editorial cycle before publication and it’s the act of reading the document or text and finding grammar mistakes and errors.
If you possess excellent writing skills, an eye for detail, and a single language command, you can earn extra income by being an outline proofreader.
Caitlin of Proofread Anywhere was able to make over $43,000 in her first year as a proofreader, in her spare time, while studying abroad, and she decided to share her experience. So, she’s created a 76-minute workshop that’s completely for FREE!
Inside her workshop, you’ll learn exactly how to transform your passion for words and reading into a thriving proofreading business, in as little as 30 days…
So, If you easily catch errors when reading, or cringe when you come across grammar mistakes, you might consider the idea of being a proofreader.
12. Become A Transcriptionist
Transcription or transcribing is the act of converting an audio file into a written document, and it involves medical, general, and legal transcription activities.
There are so many companies that are offering transcription opportunities that allow you to earn decent amounts of earnings while working from home or any place you want.
This is another cool idea since you can set your own schedule, decide when to work and when not to work, and you can basically work with multiple companies at the same time.
Some great resources that you might find useful:
- Free eBook – The Truth About Transcription
- Free General Transcription Mini-Course
- 21 Best Companies Providing Best Transcription Opportunities
- 6 Reasons AI Can’t Replace Human Transcription
- Five Solutions for Handling Childcare when Working at Home
13. Become A Self-Published eBook Author
eBooks are a great way to generate passive income in your business, and it’s one of the best ways to monetize your blog as you only need to create the product (eBook) once and sell it thousands of times.
This is a simple, yet profitable business model and you can easily make an extra $2,000 per month with your blog or online business selling eBooks in topics you’re authoritative in.
Ana of The She Approach has recently launched an eBook Bestseller Bootcamp, which is a step-by-step signature video course that teaches you how to write, launch and sell your first (or next) bestselling eBook!
The Bootcamp contains 3 modules, 30 in-depth video tutorials + $500 worth of bonuses! It’s not all about the money! Becoming a published eBook author can do so much for your business. Such as:
➡️ Grow your email list
➡️ Build an engaged community
➡️ Get recognized as an expert + boost your credibility
➡️ Increase your online visibility and get featured in traditional media
You don’t need to figure it all out on your own! Use Ana’s course as a framework for publishing a bestselling eBook. Your purchase is covered by our 30-day 100% money-back guarantee!
What Is The Most Profitable Online Business To Start In New Zealand
With all that the internet is offering us today, do you still need to start a business offline?
No matter where you’re from, New Zealand, United States, Brazil, Africa, or any place in the world, today, the internet is opening doors that were not there before, allowing ambitious people like us to build a business they are proud to own and promote, with less risk, overhead, and efforts!
This article has gone through the 13 online businesses to start in new zealand, or any other country in the world without breaking the bank or losing a heck ton of cash on scaling.
I hope that this article has added something to your knowledge, and if you’re looking forward to starting your very own online business but still overwhelmed and don’t know where to start, my friend, John Crestani and I would like to invite you to a 2-hour free training that goes above and beyond on how to create a 6-figure online business.
P.S. As seen on Forbes. Read Crestani’s story on how he went from broke-fired to a multi-millionaire, living the lifestyle he’s ever wanted and owning his dream house in Malibu.
If you find this post inspiring and useful, share it with your friends, please! (Virtual high fives and awkward hugs to all my sharers out there ✋)
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Cheers,
Odeh Ahwal
