Top 12 Small Business Ideas to Start a Business in Austin December 26, 2019 shivkumar Business Ideas Starting a business is the boldest move you can make. It is a very hardworking task as you have to invest your time, money and dedication into building a business. Starting a business is more than just a small business idea. As an entrepreneur, your highest priority is to find whether there is a business opportunity or not and to find what customers really want. This article will provide you with top 12 small business ideas to start your business in Austin. But, before that let’s find out why Austin should be on your list for starting business. Why Austin for your Small Business? Austin, Texas is home to many Corporate Headquarters and Regional Offices of big tech companies and the reasons are pretty obvious. The population of Austin is 865,000 making it the largest city in Texas and the fourth largest in the United States, making it prominent places for businesses to flourish, especially small businesses. In early 1990s, Austin experienced a big dot-com boom resulting in it being the home of many tech companies. Google, Facebook, Adobe, IBM, Apple Inc. etc. are some of the big names that have an establishment in Austin city hence, nicknamed Silicon Hills. Every Year Austin host an event called as “ACL Music Festival” due to which Austin is also called as the “Live music capital of the world”. It is a 10-day festival celebrates film, music and digital media. Many visitors from around the world visit here to participate and enjoy the 10-day festival. According to many publications like Forbes, Travel & Leisure magazine etc., Austin is a great place to live, making it best place to have a small business. “Keep Austin Weird” has been a local motto for years featured on stickers and t shirt designs. Austinites population is a mix of government employees, foreign and domestic college students, high-tech workers, blue-collar workers and business people.  Since, Austin is such a great place to start business due to its population, diversity and economics. These small business ideas will provide you with promising opportunities for your business to grow. Food & Beverage Business Wherever there are people there will be business opportunities especially when it comes to food & beverage. Eating is the primary motivation of human existence and when your business can provide people with this need fulfilled, along with an unmatchable service then your business is more likely to grow exponentially.  Recently, Food truck business in Austin has become more popular as the investment is low to start a food truck business.  Austin has the second largest number of food trucks in the United States. It is one of the best small business ideas that has the potential of becoming into a big and profitable business. All you need to start a business on wheels is a truck, equipment, business logo design and a plan. You are all set to start your business. Laundry Service Everyone likes to look good and presentable, especially business people. Wherever there is a need there is an opportunity. Now that being said, the problem that people experience is that they do not have time to wash their clothes. You can start a laundry business to meet their needs and save their time and money. To start a laundry business in Austin, all you need is a space, machines and business plan. You can bring in a lot of innovation in this business, like by providing a home delivery service, making it easier for people to get laundry service. Retail Store A retail store is a place where you can get everything in one place. It is a place where customer consumes like clothing, drug, grocery, and other convenience items. Austin’s population is big and a retail store is the place where they find their daily needs. Starting a business of retails store is very profitable small business and you can also provide online services making it available to bigger areas. Industries like pharmaceutical and tech industries are some of the primary industries in Austin. So, sourcing products related to these industries could be cost effective and you can get big margins in these products. Delivery Service Delivery services are the most profitable business opportunity that helps businesses to get their products reach to their customer. You can act as a mediator in providing these businesses with delivery services. You can partner with eCommerce websites like Amazon in becoming their delivery partner on contractual basics. The resources that you need for starting a delivery business are a vehicle and a delivery partner. You can sign up for Amazon delivery service partner, which is a very lucrative offer as you do not need to find customers, Amazon is your customer and when Amazon is your customer then you do not have to worry about your business. It is one of the best B2B2C businesses that will offer a lot of expansion in future. Fitness Studio Fitness Industry is a booming industry with a Global market of $87.23 Billion and in US alone the market size is worth $27.6 Billion. People want to look good, men or women they want to be fit as it makes them feel confident, attractive and desirable. One of the primary motivations of human beings is to procreate and being fit aids you with that. A person subconsciously finds a partner who is fit, healthy and attractive. The fitness industry thrives on this basic human nature. The average amount that you need to start a fitness club in United States is $10,000 to $50,000. You can get customers to take annual membership and along with that you can also sell fitness products. There is a whole new opportunity for fitness products like Protein powder, BCAAs other supplements. You can also sell these products online which will make you extra bucks. Online Marketing Service To get any business out there you need to market your business. Marketing helps a business to get customers. A brand is created using marketing and the efforts to provide great service. In this digital age, online factors have affected the entire globe. Many studies show that people prefer more and more to buy products online. Ecommerce industry is big and it is getting bigger. They all have one thing in common, they all need Digital Marketing. Google is one of the most used search engines in the world and ranking your website high on Google will not only drive more traffic to your website but also it helps you in selling more products or services. Selling products or services means more revenue. Anyone is willing to pay you a good amount of money, if you can bring your website high on ranking for them. It is the best B2B business, which offers you a scope for expansion. It is a constant process so the revenue will be reoccurring. Graphics plays a very important role in online marketing, so, if you are good at designing then you can also provide graphic design services along with Digital Marketing services. As a startup, you can provide services from your home or you can find a co-working space. You can get customers online either on your own website or other freelancing websites like UpWork, people per hour etc. Transport Service The transportation industry is a big industry, especially in Austin. People use vehicles, public transport, metro, etc. to get to their destination. There is a lot of opportunity in this industry and you can either provide service or a rental based business model. For service based business, you can partner with Uber or independently start your own travel agency or you can do both. Uber gives you freedom of doing the rides when you want and where you want. So, doing both will make more sense. For a rental business model, you have to find the vehicle category you want to invest in. It depends on lot of factors hence, it is necessary to do market research on how people will respond to your business idea. After that you can start planning your business plan, market it, and get funding. Wedding Planner Wedding planning is not only a profitable business but also a very joyful one. You can use creativity and management skills to create a beautiful experience for the couple entering into their new life. This business is the best because investment is very low and the profits are very high. Average wedding cost around $30,000 and people are willing to spend more. Your commission from this business can be $5,000-10,000 per wedding and when you add that number annually, you get a six figure business. You can pitch your customers different packages and ideas and get them to pay for additional benefits. This can be your unique selling point and help your business in creating market space for itself. All you need to start a Wedding Planner business is business card designs, a catalog and an office. You are all set to execute your plan for building your six-figure business.  Maintenance Service Whether it’s our home or office, we need to maintain the functionality of them. That’s where a maintenance services come into play. Providing maintenance service to household as well as corporations helps you in making this business profitable. Technically, every building is your customer meaning the opportunity is limitless. You can start this business from your home. The things that you need to start this business are knowledge and a professional certification. If you do not have the certification, then you need to hire people who can do these services. You can do that either on incentive based or have them on salary base. Your primary revenue will be the maintenance cost and the margins on the replaced product. Since you can start this business from home, the startup cost in as low as $2,000. So, if you are searching for a small business idea for business then this is it. Security Services Security is the primary concern for corporations and people. There are different types of security services that you can provide like cyber security, bodyguards, industrial security, security guard etc. Many corporations hire security service providers for maintaining and protecting the security.  Many corporations are more concerned about cyber security than their office security. They keep their servers and information very private. If you can bring a product or service that helps the business in keeping their data online safe, then you just have a business there. This is the best business, if you have experience in providing online security measures or software development. If you are more inclined towards providing one on one security then you can start your own security agency. Solar Panel Installation Business Ever since the invention of the engine and petroleum industry, people have been searching for alternative energy sources. The very first energy source used for producing electricity was coal, which was used to operate steam engines. It was replaced by petrol and diesel. There are very limited amount of energy sources that are extracted out of the earth. Fossil fuels are depleting on a large scale and we need to replace them with an alternative energy source. This is where energy sources like solar energy, wind energy, hydro energy etc. come into action. You can produce very high amounts of energy in the form of electricity using these energy sources. Solar panels are one such method that uses solar energy to produce electricity. People are more inclining towards installing these panels for a variety of reasons like saving environment, long term cost saving etc. Austin, Texas is blessed with a good amount of sunlight for using it as an energy source. Starting a solar panel installation business will earn you good profits as many Governments from around the world are actively participating in promoting the use of alternative energy. So, they provide special incentives for customers who want to install solar panels. In the United States, going solar gives you a tax credit dollar to dollar reduction. These benefits for customers can add value to your business and you can provide your customer with better and a quality service. Salon and Spa Business Salon and Spa business is also one of the small business ideas that require a very small to big amount of investment depending on the quality of service you want to offer. It is the best business idea, if you have skills for providing professional salon service. We all visit the salon once a month to get our hair done or to get a certain look. As mentioned earlier, this business also thrives on human need to look good and perceived attractive. A combo of salon and spa service will give you a great exposure to clients because you can recommend a salon customer with Spa service and vice versa. This way you can increase your business revenue and get more customers. The average investment cost for starting a salon business is $100,000 to $500,000 based on a variety of factors. However, the investment has good potential of getting a good ROI. You must include a plan for this business for getting profits.  Conclusion Starting a small business can be overwhelming but taking business step by step can make your job easier and it also help you in tracking your progress. The most important part of starting a business is planning. You must plan your business before executing any steps regarding your business. The other major part of starting a business is marketing. Many businesses spend the majority of their spending on marketing. It is the best way for businesses to get customers to know them.