So you want to start your own business, but there’s only one problem. You don’t have a lot of startup cash to inject.
But that’s not really a problem since there are many businesses you can start with less than $5,000. We’ve listed out 16 of the best ones to start, but there are plenty more out there.
Each of these business opportunities has a low overhead in the long term, and the startup costs are minimal.
But if you don’t want to handle everything on your own from the jump, consider buying someone else’s existing business from these models so you can scale from there.
Buying a Business with $5k Vs. Starting One
Starting a business requires tons of upfront work. And it involves taking on risks at the same time, too.
It’s true that you can start a number of businesses with less than $5,000 in startup cash. But most of these small-scale businesses are more like side hustles than actual income generators.
But what if you could skip all the startup hurdles and jump right into a company with a proven model?
There are plenty of cheap businesses to buy and you can buy a mature business for little to no money by using tools like seller financing to get your foot in the door. Most people don’t even know this is an option.
When you buy instead of starting from scratch, you get a huge leg up with things like:
- Equipment
- Operations
- Staff or contractors
- Customer base
- Cashflow
Take window washing entrepreneur Johnny Robinson for a great example of why it makes more sense to buy in. He purchased a window washing business making over $250k/year for under $5k and turned it into a $700k/year business.
Like Johnny, you can buy another business using less than $5k with seller financing.
Think tree services, laundromats, car washes, or lawn care companies. You pay back the old business owner over time but don’t have to come up with the full value of the business from your own cash or by taking out a huge loan.
There are plenty of options at $5k, so the big question is which type of business looks best to you. Whether you start or buy, here are 16 profitable business ideas to point you in the right direction
1. Pool Cleaning
This business takes a bit of chemical knowledge to run tests and fix problems, but not so much that you get in over your head.
A little bit of learning in advance goes a long way. And other tasks like cleaning out filters and running vacuums? Simple enough.
Standard pool cleaning, including chemicals you add, runs between $120-270. With several hours on a weekly route, that’s quick and easy cash.
You don’t need much to start a pool cleaning business, and you can definitely do it for less than $5k.
2. Window Washing
Whether residential or commercial, window washing brings a clean look to interiors and exteriors.
It’s just annoying enough that homeowners and building owners don’t want to do it on their own. That’s a big opportunity for you!
Starting a window washing business requires only a handful of basic supplies for your first few jobs. You can keep costs low by booking gigs in the same region or offering a “neighborhood special” so you maximize your fuel.
If you want a living, breathing example, check out how Johnny and his business partner took only $150 and turned it into a $65k/month window washing empire:
3. Power Washing
A good power washer costs $300-500 on Amazon. Add in some supporting tools and a website for customers to schedule with you, and you’re still well under $5k to start your own power washing business.
Yes, we’re talking about blowing off gunk using a pressure washing machine.
From garages to siding to grimy sidewalks, people often have no idea how dirty things are until they see a power washer.
Want to hook your customers? Give them a taste test in a corner of the driveway.
It seems too good to be true. One machine, one service, tons of potential?
Oh, yeah.
You can actually scale this into a million-dollar business if you want. Check out how:
4. Carpet Cleaning
Carpet is an affordable, comfortable, and all too common choice for flooring. And it has a dark side.
It takes on a ton of dirt, wear, and tear over its lifetime.
Regular carpet cleaning helps to extend the surface’s lifespan and gives a fresh scent and look to the flooring.
Starting a carpet cleaning business may seem confusing due to the specialized equipment and processes involved.
It’s well worth looking into buying a carpet cleaning business from someone else instead. And an owner who knows what they’re doing can teach you how to use the equipment, too.
5. General Cleaning Services
“I love spending my free time cleaning my own house,” said nobody ever.
But if you love the idea of working on your own or with a small crew, general cleaning may appeal to you.
With little startup cash needed and plenty of one-time and recurring gigs out there, you can clean up in this business. If you don’t want to take on the heavy lifting of finding your first customers, you can buy a cleaning business from another provider instead.
6. Lawn Care and Landscaping
A few pieces of hand equipment. At least one lawnmower. A trailer to bring the lawnmower to jobs.
Sure, it takes a few of the right tools to start your own lawn mowing business, but you might already own some of them.
Lawncare and landscaping businesses all deal with clearing up and beautifying other people’s properties. Of the two, lawn mowing is easier to break into because you don’t need advanced horticulture knowledge.
You can start a lawn care business or landscaping business completely on your own and then scale into multiple contractors to cover more ground (yes, literally).
7. Painting Services
The market for interior and exterior painters grows every year. It’s not that hard to break into, either.
Learn on YouTube or use your own home as the launchpad for practice and before/after pictures. You can even charge your first few customers in advance and use those funds to buy your startup supplies.
If you don’t want to learn how to price and complete jobs through trial and error, buy into a painting business instead.
8. Handyman Services
You’re probably imagining someone coming over to help with a few odd jobs here and there when you think of a handyman. So would it surprise you to know that the handyman market is worth over $1.8 billion?
Yep, we’re talking about mounting TVs, replacing door knobs, and the like, which comes in at $100-200 an hour.
Yes, you do need some knowledge of how to fix things since that’s literally the whole gig, but the supplies and startup money? Not that expensive.
A good toolkit with wrenches, pliers, nails, files, and paint scrapers should get you started. Stack these tiny jobs together to make more with each client, giving them huge relief as you cross things off their to-do list.
9. Junk Hauling
You know all that crap stored in the back of your garage? Things too big for the trash company but which you’ll never use again?
There’s a business just for getting rid of that stuff. It’s called junk hauling, and it involves coming to someone’s house or place of business and driving it away to the dump or other disposal site.
This one is so easy it’s almost a joke. You need to know your disposal site rules and at least one truck capable of hauling away heavy junk.
You can even start with a used pickup truck if that’s all you have or can afford.
When you start your junk hauling business, ask clients to text you pictures of their piles so you can plan ahead and time your runs. Over time, you can use your income to buy a bigger truck if you need one.
10. Vending Machine Businesses
We live in an age where consumers demand instant gratification and ultimate convenience. And sometimes, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel with a business idea.
Why not start a vending machine business?
Vending machines go back to at least the late 1800s with the same general concept. Pay for an item, and it plunks down right away.
Whether you run an ice vending business, cupcakes, or the traditional snack machines, you can score a used machine for a few thousand and start with your first placement. Then grow from there. If you go the snack route, hit up Sam’s Club or Costco to stock your first supplies!
11. Microgreens Businesses
The little greens popular on sandwiches can make you money. They don’t take up much space, and yet microgreens can sell for $50 a pound or more.
If you have garden space or even live in an urban area, you can get a lot out of your yield by choosing the right microgreens to grow.
You’ll need some seeds and general gardening materials, but a website is likely your biggest expense to get things going.
You can always break into this business by doing in-person deals at places like farmer’s markets, too.
12. Wedding Arches and Wedding Decoration Rentals
Wedding arches are the perfect background for stunning photos of the new couple making their vows. But these can cost anywhere from $70-700 to build, and not everyone has the skillset to make one.
And then what if you build it, but you don’t have a place to put it?
By investing in a handful of different wedding arch styles, you can rent these out for other people’s big day.
Here’s what’s to love about this and other rental businesses: buy it once, get more than your money back over time.
To find potential customers, spend time on social media and maybe sign up for wedding websites, too.
13. Bounce House Rentals
For kids’ parties and community events, nothing says fun quite like a colorful bouncy house. For under $5k, you could get one or a couple of bouncy houses to rent out. Starting your own bounce house business doesn’t take that much money.
With just a few rentals, you cover the cost of your initial investment, and you can upgrade to bigger and better options.
This is a great low-cash way to get into the rental industry, where you can expand into a bigger party rental company over time.
14. Real Estate Video Editing
The saying goes “location, location, location” for selling homes. We’d argue that’s true, but you can’t get any interest in booking a tour or attending an open house without great photos and videos.
Realtors want prospective buyers to start imagining themselves in a new home, keeping a mental checklist of all the things they love. More of them are using interior videos and even outdoor drone recordings to build the hype.
Since the realtor only makes a commission when the house sells, they’re highly motivated to do things like invest in staging or professionally edited videos. With some basic video editing skills and good software, you can get your start in a real estate video editing business.
15. Virtual Assistant Companies
Have you ever worked in an office? Are you decent with online tools and computer programs?
Good news: you probably have most of the background needed to start a virtual assistant company. Virtual assistants handle tasks like admin responsibilities, calendaring, answering emails, or scheduling social media posts.
Hiring a VA can cut a company’s costs by as much as 78% since they don’t have to hire someone in-house to handle short-term or limited-hours projects.
Most people don’t even need to invest more than $1500 to start this business, with most of that spent on marketing costs like a website. By setting a strong hourly rate or monthly packages for clients, you’re profitable pretty quickly.
16. Productized Services
This is a top pick for starting a low-cost online business. Start with a simple digital skill and then scale it up.
Take graphic design service DesignJoy, for example.
The founder uses a subscription service where users can order as much as they want, one request at a time. And subscriptions start at $5k/month, so you’ll earn back whatever you put in with 1 client.
You can start a productized service business on your own and use outsourced experts to handle the actual workload.
You can scale this up to passive income, too, like selling templates or workflows.
Pro Tip: Look For High ROI, Low Cash Businesses
The best way to decide on a business to start or buy for under $5,000 is by looking for what we call high ROI, low cash companies.
This means low cash down but tremendous upside potential.
To calculate ROI, you take net income divided by cost of investment x 100.
If you spend $1,000 to get into a car detailing business for example, and make $10,000, you get an ROI of $9,000.
Here are the four things to look for in these businesses:
- Is it sellable? Can you sell a product on day 1?
- Is it high-earning?
- Is it low cost to start?
- Is it high leverage? Can you eventually get out of the business as the owner/operator?
Answering those questions is the key to finding hidden gems that don’t cost much to start or buy while still bringing in solid revenue.
Put Your Startup Budget to Work
If you’re still sure that starting your own gig is the best route for you, take your launch funds and pick one of the businesses above.
But if you see the benefit in avoiding all those startup problems and going right to an already successful business, use those funds for a little money down or necessary equipment to buy a business instead.
You have a better chance of making your minimal investment back faster since this other business already has equipment, customers, and cash. And you don’t need to spend months trying to figure out things like hiring, pricing, and marketing all on your own.
