3 Best Business Ideas You Can Start in 2020 (and Make Money) on the Side of Your Day Job

1. Start a Blog.

Learn How to Start a Blog as a Business Idea 

Think blogging is no longer a viable source of income? Think again. Recent blogging statistics show that tens of thousands of bloggers (including yours truly) are creating profitable content on topics as diverse as scrapbooking, home cooking, travel, film, lifestyle, business, personal finance and more. The best part? It doesn’t cost much to blog—about $65/year. And more people are growing their blogs into six-figure businesses thanks to a combination of email subscribers, affiliate marketing, blog sponsorships, and other revenue streams. Your first step with starting a blog is quickly getting the technical side of things handled and then both understanding what your audience craves and learning how to attract those readers online.

If you want to speed up the process of launching your blog, I recommend setting up quick, affordable and easy website hosting with a company like Bluehost or one of the other best web hosting plans for bloggers, working through the process of creating a blog business plan and choosing a simple WordPress theme and working on your first post—in order to set the precedent of prioritizing your time on creating content, connecting with (and building) your target audience. You’ll also need to employ the right blogging tools to grow your blog along the way.

2. Graphic Design.

While having a formal background in graphic design is absolutely going to be helpful, it’s also relatively easy to learn the foundations of graphic design on your own. An increasingly easy-to-use Adobe Illustrator and even more easily accessible tools like Stencil and Visme are making it so that just about anyone with two opposable thumbs, a bit of creativity, and motivation can earn a side income doing things like designing (and selling) images like these motivational quotes that can be printed onto posters and sold on platforms like Etsy. Or you can find a local startup, small business owner, or photographer who could benefit from some extra help designing or altering images.

Learn Graphic Design to Sell Your Skills and Build a Business on the Side (Graphic)

But before you can graduate from side business ideas and begin earning a full-time living as a graphic designer, you’ll need to build your skills—I recommend starting with reading the foundational book Graphic Design School and Steal Like an Artist, the incredible book by Austin Kleon about how to become more creative. To accelerate your education in becoming a graphic designer even quicker, check out the online courses Graphic Design Fundamentals and The Graphic Design Bootcamp. Then once you’re an expert at your craft, you can further your education and move up to offering more hands-on experiences like design sprints for higher-value clients around the world.

Recommended Courses:

Graphic Design Fundamentals by Timothy Samara on CreativeLive

The Graphic Design Bootcamp by Derrick Mitchell on Udemy

3. Web Design.

Freelance Web Design as a Way to Make Money on the Side of Your Job

Web designers are incredibly valuable for technology companies—which is why becoming a freelance web designer is a top side business idea today. Web design is all about mastering the art of creating a beautiful, value-driven experience for the people using a website or app. There are always new websites popping up in need of professional web design, and foundational books like HTML & CSS: Design and Build Websites by acclaimed web designer Jon Duckett and Don’t Make Me Think by user experience legend Steve Krug will get you started down the right path to quickly determining whether or not becoming a web designer is one of the most viable side business ideas for you.

Then you can move into more actionable online courses like Modern Web Design on CreativeLive and Learn Web Design and Profitable Freelancing on Udemy will teach you everything from foundational web design knowledge to earning your first freelance income as a web designer. On top of that, you can take even more immersive courses and learning experiences with access to direct instructor feedback and personal mentorship with platforms like Treehouse and General Assembly to get up-to-speed even quicker with this career path and listen to my podcast interview with Ian Paget about how to become a freelance designer as a side business idea.

Recommended Courses: 

Modern Web Design by Andy Pratt & Jesse Arnold on CreativeLive

Web Design & Profitable Freelancing by Cristian Barin on Udemy