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Top Low-Cost Business Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs

Vaishnavi Gupta
Vaishnavi Gupta Mar 05 2020 - 5 min read
Top Low-Cost Business Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs
The study revealed that about 8 million women have started or are running businesses.

The days when women were only housewives are long gone. Now, women are more conscious about their life. They are walking side by side with men when it’s about operating and growing a business through different regions.

The study revealed that about 8 million women have started or are running businesses. This shows the exponential rise in the number of successful women entrepreneurs.

According to a 2015 study by McKinsey Global Institute, India's GDP could rise between 16-60% by 2025 if women participated equally with men in the economy. This could mean a whopping $2.9 trillion added to the economy. It further reveals to us that women entrepreneurs are necessary for economic development.

Therefore, if you are willing to start your entrepreneurship journey, here are some low-cost business opportunities:

Social Commerce

Women in India have long battled a litany of challenges to start their own businesses. The major constraint faced by the women before starting a business is low access to capital. But with the internet becoming more and more part of people’s lives around the world, what is needed to start and run a business is changing.

Owing to the growing popularity of the internet, social commerce apps are being developed. These apps enable people to become resellers of clothes, jewellery, accessories, etc.

According to the industry data, 390.9 million people accessed the internet through their mobile phones in 2018. This figure will likely cross 500.9 million mark by 2023. By 2022, India is expected to have 442 million smartphone users from the current 374 million, as revealed by Industry data.

With these outstanding figures, social media is constantly emerging as a preferred channel for shopping. Therefore, this social commerce space is generating a lot of employment opportunities for women entrepreneurs.

The social commerce marketplaces allow retailing through social media platforms without the hassle of managing or investing in inventory. Therefore, women can start their business with no capital as they are not required to maintain an inventory. These platforms offer catalogues of products, which are mostly low-cost, unbranded items sourced from 20,000 suppliers. Then, resellers are required to list these products on their social media pages.

The marketplaces collect payment from a customer, take its commission, and transfer the rest to the reseller’s bank account. Sometimes, the company adds a delivery cost if economies of scale don’t cover it. The reseller can even add its own margin to the product cost.

According to the EY & IVCA report, nearly 18 lakh women sold beauty, fashion and lifestyle products worth $8 billion through social platforms in 2018.

Education Program

Being a mother is a challenging task and managing a business at the same time is even tougher. But today’s moms have adorned the super-mom cap quite successfully as there has been a significant increase in the number of mompreneurs in the industry.

For all the moms who want to work post-pregnancy but on their own terms so that they can willingly divide their time with their child as well as in making their career, many companies are providing employment opportunities for the women by staying at home.

The companies are offering programs like Recharger Program that enables women homemakers across India to bring home a significant additional income. The woman homemakers' huge untapped potential is highly suitable for the Recharger program.

The Recharger Program offers employment opportunities to women. It will be creating an enabling environment for women edupreneurs and connect them with students at the grassroots level throughout the country.

Women can choose to become an entrepreneur by just investing Rs 5,000. These edupreneurs will be earned through referral bonuses and sales incentives, which could run up to Rs 100, 000 during a period of one year to start with.

Selling Beauty Products

Every woman dreams of being her own boss and beginning a business gives you the freedom to work for yourself and achieve your goals. In the business of beauty, who else understands the consumer better than a woman entrepreneur herself?

This industry is dominated by women because they understand the business. As per the industry sources, the beauty industry is growing at a rate of 20% per annum. Thus, it is deemed profitable to invest in the beauty industry.

The beauty industry is driven by the rising disposable income, changing lifestyles, an increase in the number of working women, and increasing affordability of luxury products. Therefore, the beauty industry is attracting the attention of entrepreneurs towards it.

So, if you are looking to start your own business, you can become a beauty consultant. Either you can dedicate yourself full time or run a business to make some extra money during your spare time. As a beauty consultant, you can order products at a reduced-price level and sell to customers at the catalogue price and earn profits.

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