Do you want to start a business in New York, USA with high profit? If YES, here are 50 best small business ideas & investment opportunities in New York. New York is sometimes known as the city that never sleeps because of its fast pace of life. This city is home to big names in business like Meetup, Tumblr, Foursquare, Shutterstock etc. In fact, more and more enterprises are popping up every day, further enriching the business environment of the state.
50 Best Business Investment Opportunities in New York
1. Maids Services
People these days are getting so busy with their professional lives that there is hardly any time to look after the home. One can take advantage of such opportunity to set up a maids service, and you can make it quite affordable in order to increase your customer base. Establishing such a company is easy and can prove quite successful within a short time frame.
2. Farming
New York is known to be a farmers destination, and you can also start a business as a farmer. There are many niche areas in farming, as you can focus on only organic farming, running a greenhouse, planting vegetables or even running a poultry. Know that you can always make sales no matter the scale of your farm. Please note that you can only be given the nod to farm if you are in a farming community.
3. Flowers Delivery Service
Flowers are special to a lot of people, and it is used majorly as gifts. This is what makes it a hot business opportunity. You can open a delivery service where you get to deliver flowers when people place orders. You can maximize this business by also running an online store.
4. Online Trading
A lot of online platforms exist that aid in buying and selling and you can take advantage of them to establish your business. Selling on Amazon and eBay is a quick and fine way to start your online trading business, but you must have something unique to sell at an amazing price to succeed in the business.
5. Dry Cleaning Service
People, especially those that spend a better art of their lives in an office environment, find it quite tedious to do laundry. You can start a laundry business to offer this service. If you are considering a laundry business plan, then do consider adding mobile laundry pickup and delivery services.
6. Tour driver
New York is a good tourism destination as the American falls and Niagara Falls attracts more than 12 million visitors each year. If you are familiar with this destination and various other ones, you can put your car to good use and become a tour driver. You can equally double as a tour guide to maximize your income during the tour season.
7. Grocery store
If your neighborhood is far from the local grocery or convenience store, you can decide to open a grocery store to fill this need. Note that your store need not be as big or well stocked like 7eleven or Walmart, you only need to have a small shop that stocks everyday essentials. The population in New York would ensure that you make good sales.
8. Crèche/daycare
Do you love kids, and have what it takes to care for them? You can open a center where you can keep an eye on them while their parents work. In New York today, most families have both parents working, so the need for daycare facilities are on the increase. You can start this business from your home with no problems, just ensure that your house is child proofed. This business would be most suitable for women especially former teachers or nurses.
9. Hardware store
Setting up a hardware store in New York is a good business idea not only because you do not need any skills to start the business, but because the startup cost of the business is quite reasonable. You can setup your store in a commercial area and offer a wide variety of products at reasonable rates. To make it more appealing, you can set up an online store front for people to choose items from and offer free delivery.
10. Farmers market
With New York being a state known for its agriculture, you can set up a farmers market in the community to connect farmers with produce buyers, to enable farmers sell off their produce on time.
11. Foreign Cuisine Restaurant
People love to have access to non-indigenous food and some of them travel to various parts of the world just to have the special taste of the local food. There is an ever growing demand for foreign cuisine and since New York is quite populated, you can easily start your restaurant or foreign cuisine food delivery services.
12. Rent Your Garage
If you have a sizable garage space, you can rent it out to people who want to use it as a sales point. If you publicize the business well, you could get deals weekly.
13. Niche Blogging
If you are comfortable with writing, you can start a blog. Blogging is not just writing a blog and putting it up. It is a very good Business model for those who want to be rewarded for their expertise and skills.
14. Translation Service
New York City hosts businesses and startups that have target audience in various parts of the world and to communicate effectively with them they need to speak their language. If you have an expertise in any foreign language, then you should start a translation service, helping businesses with foreign language website content, marketing materials, videos and other stuff to translate them so people from other countries would understand them.
15. Bed and breakfast
A bed and breakfast is a good business to start on a small scale if you have the capital to startup or if you can get a loan. New Yorkers are always on the go, and would always need an affordable place to spend the night, so you would not want for customers.
16. Food packaging and processing factory
New York being the hub of agriculture would benefit from yet another food packaging and processing factory. Note that this kind of factory can be started on a small scale, and you can start by serving small scale farmers pending when your business grows.
17. Wellness and weight loss center
A lot of people deal with weight issues, so if you are an expert in this, you can start a wellness and weight loss center where you would give people advise and tips on how to stay in shape.
18. Swim school
Most people do not know how to swim and would appreciate some lessons in that regard. In order to take advantage of this niche, you can either open a swim school, or you can offer your services individually to people or even to schools to help coach school children.
19. Ink and toner retail business
Businesses still need ink and toner to print out documents, so you can start selling these products to businesses. You could go the the various offices and offer to be their supplier.
20. Gardening service
Gardening is a fast-growing business idea that can save customers’ money and beautify the landscape while also helping the environment. With people generally being too busy or lazy to take care of their gardens, you can offer this service for a fee.
21. Waxing hair removal business
Every lady wants her bikini line and legs to be perfectly smooth all the time. You can set up a business that offers this service and maybe affiliate with hair salons to get your first clients, your expertise is what would keep them coming back.
22. Electronics repair store
Are you technically inclined? If you are, you can set up a small shop where you can repair electronics for people. To make the most out of this business, you can make your business mobile. Because new electronic gadgets keep coming up everyday, you need to constantly update your knowledge by taking training courses.
23. Kiddies store
As the population of New York is high, so would the population of kids born into the state every year. You can open a store where you get to sell kiddies clothes, shoes, toys and other stuff. To take good advantage of this niche, you can also stock maternity gowns and baby products.
24. Personal investigator/background investigation service
Businesses always need people to conduct background checks on employees; and individuals, for one reason or the other always need the services of private eyes. If you have a background in security or investigation, you can open a business and successfully offer this service.
25. Sports goods store
Sports is robust in New York, so a store selling sports goods would never want for sales. You can buy and sell or supply directly to clubs.
26. Catering service
You can start a catering service that would specialize in making and supplying business and corporate organizations breakfast and lunches.
27. Business consulting
With a lot of small businesses trying to find their feet in New York, you can set up a business where you offer them business and financial advise and consulting. Before you can offer this service, you have to make sure you are well versed in the environment of business.
28. Box Subscription Services
You can find any product or cuisine that you want in New York City, as long as you are willing to spend the time to look for it. With a box subscription, seeking is made easy as customer’s desired items or special menus are sent directly to their doorsteps.
The varieties of box subscription services is growing and it includes everything from pet food to makeup to coffee beans, so identifying an untapped market for a subscription service in New York City, or the particular town you are residing in, is the first step.
29. Traveling Salons
Traveling salons or pop-up salons do not wait for customers to come to them, but they instead go the distance to bring their services to customers at their doorsteps. In an era of convenience where people will pay for everything they want to come to them, a traveling salon caters to those expectations and busy lifestyles.
30. Fundraising service
A fundraising service is a business that helps individuals and businesses to raise funds for their cause. A professional fundraiser works with charities, nonprofit organizations, schools, groups and political campaigns to help each organization raise money to meet its needs. Being that there are a lot of such businesses that need help raising funds in New York, so a fundraising service would do well in the state. You will get your income from commissions from the funds you raise.
31. Mystery shopping
Setting up a mystery shopping service is quite easy as you need to recruit mystery shoppers, train them to your standards, and start offering their services to businesses and research centers that require such services.
32. Massage service
A massage therapist is someone who treats clients by using touch to manipulate the soft-tissue muscles of the body in order to relieve pain, rehabilitate injuries, reduce stress, increase relaxation, and aid in the general wellness of their clients. Most people tend to overwork themselves especially in New York where most people run their private businesses. You can set up this business to help them relieve their stress. You only need aggressive marketing to set this business on track.
33. Software training
Are you versed in the various software applications in use today, and can you train people to create some on their own, then you need to start offering this service. You can start your training online if you cannot yet afford a physical facility.
34. Healthcare consulting
As an independent healthcare consultant, you can offer management and data analysis for organizations like hospitals, labs and therapist offices to help implement solutions to improve efficiency and save money. If you have a marketing or economics degree, this is a great opportunity to put it to use.
35. Food truck
A truck is a much less expensive investment than a brick-and-mortar restaurant. With the right equipment and some great recipes, you can have your mobile eatery up and running in no time. You only need to pick a niche food that you are very experienced at preparing.
36. Contracting
Contracting is a great option for skilled workers who are ready to take the leap from being an employee to owning their own company. With the economy improving and more people looking to purchase or improve their homes, there is more of a need for skilled labor, making this the perfect time to start offering contracting services. It is probably best to start small and test the waters, but once you have a proven track record of success, your business can continue to grow.
37. Courier Business
You can be delivering things through DHL, FedEx, UPS, and other well-known carriers but still be autonomous. All you need is a trusty van and a spotless driver’s license. Of course, your main costs will be those around your vehicle.
38. Accounting
If you already have this professional qualification, then you can start local, from the comfort of your home. Local businesses in your area might find it useful to have an accountant just a block away. If you are able to market yourself properly to those around you, then you can start with simple things such as bookkeeping.
39. Moving service
If you have a van, then you could be both delivering things and helping people move from homes. You can operate locally and around school campuses where there are students who are constantly moving in and out.
40. Recruitment
You may think that there are a lot of companies offering this service, but the fact remains that people resign from their jobs everyday and others graduate and join the job market, so there is still space in this niche. If you have a particularly good understanding of certain infrastructures and niches, then you could be the next big thing in recruitment.
41. Non-emergency Medical transportation service
Do you have access to some vehicles, you could start a non-emergency medical transportation service that conveys people, especially seniors to doctors appointments and the likes.
42. Gift Shop
Granted, there are many gift shops already in New York, but there is still room for new players in the trade. Though the business might be somewhat seasonal, with profits spiking during the Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Valentine, and other festive periods, an encouraging volume of sales can be made all year round.
43. Antiques business
The antiques business is also a great idea for anyone looking to start a small business. The majority of people interested in quality antiques are most times from the upper class. Sure, this is definitely a time-consuming sector but the rewards may exceed your expectations. Also, antiques have no expiration date and they become more valuable with time.
44. Babysitting
This is one of the easiest businesses you can start in New York. Instead of babysitting on your own and making little capital, you can set up a service where you contact mothers who need babysitters and connect them with reliable people who need babysitting jobs.
45. Start a doula service
A doula is basically someone who offers emotional and physical support to a woman and her partner before, during and after childbirth. If you are an experienced parent who knows a thing or two about birth and newborn babies, then you can become a doula – helping new mothers with taking care of their babies. Offering this service can be very financially rewarding, and you can as well start a service that connects doulas to expectant mothers.
46. Market Research
Offering to carry out market research for businesses is also a good business idea. All you need to do is share your opinion of products or services, or to be the one who is asking the questions. The idea is to simulate an environment where the mindset of clients is better understood.
47. Online Virtual assistant company
You could start a company that finds tasks online and delegates them to other virtual assistants. You can take all sorts of tasks like finding particular types of gifts, services, or products.
48. Pawn shop
People are sometimes low on cash, and are willing to pawn off some valuables to get the much needed cash to settle their problems. If you know the ropes on this business, you can obtain a license and set up the business. You should also make provisions to also sell items cheaply to people.
49. Shared office space
If you have an empty space, you can build a facility that you can start a shared office space that you can rent out to businesses for a period of time.
50. Sales and sales management training
This is a sales management training program that provides sales people and sales managers with proven skills, knowledge and tools they need to drive bottom line performance. New York is a state that is high in productivity, and as such sales would be big business there. Setting up a center that trains people to be proficient in sales would be a money spinner because you would always have individuals who want to acquire this skill, and organizations who are sending their people over to be trained.