When people talk about starting up a business, many of them require that the people working in them have a degree of some sort. But there are a lot of them that don’t require you to get that. College can be very expensive, and it can be hard to try to get on your feet when you have debt. Here are 10 labor business ideas that don’t require a college degree.
1. Fence Services
Walk around your neighborhood. Do you see a lot of fences around people’s homes? Are you good with your hands and doing yard work? This could be one of the better labor business ideas for you. There’s no shortage of people wanting fences – they might want to replace their old fences or just have new ones installed on a property that they just bought. As a result, you could get a lot of customers very quickly after starting your business.
The first thing you need to do is register your business by coming up with a business name. Then you plan the business, like deciding what kind of fencing material you want to offer to customers. See what kind of radius you could cover. Starting out might be tough since you might not have the fleet of fence contractors that some other businesses have, but you can get there. You might start off with another company and gain experience to start your own.
2. Auto Repair
Here’s one of the better labor business ideas for those who like cars and other vehicles. Do you pretty much know how everything works? Are you not intimidated when you open the hood of any vehicle? While you can’t just start doing everything right away – you have to start learning and being trained. You could start at one garage and eventually open your own after you observe how the business is run and then incorporate that into your own business. Learn how to properly do something like a transmission service. That way, when it’s time to start your own auto shop, you’ll have the basics under your belt.
You might have some trouble going up against some of the larger auto shops in your area, but you can focus on impressing the customers you have with excellent service. That way, you can see your base grow over time, and then they can pass along great reviews, either via word of mouth or via online review sites like Yelp or something similar. It might be slow-going at first, but as you bring in more people, then you can use the money that you earn to improve your shop and add more equipment.
3. Freelance DJ Services
Here’s one of the better labor business ideas for those who love music and are outgoing. Do you like getting people to move to the rhythm? Do you like controlling the tempo of a party? Do you have access to a lot of different types of music? If the answer to all of these is, ‘Yes,’ then you should consider becoming a wedding DJ.
The thing with offering wedding DJ services is that the cost can be very low. You buy a speaker set-up, a table, and a laptop. Streaming music makes it so much easier to do this. No more having to lug crates of records around anymore. Just log into an app like Apple Music or Spotify and curate your own dance tracklists. Instead of studying for a test over a weekend, you could help a couple have the wedding reception of their dreams.
4. Wedding Planning
Speaking of giving people the wedding of their dreams, here’s another one of the better labor business ideas for this field. Do you have a knack for organizing the best parties? Were the people around you always asking you to put something together? Is your Facebook page used for this purpose? If the answer is yes, you might want to strongly consider being a wedding planner. You get to help people live the best day of their lives while getting to pick the best event venue. Weddings have a lot of moving parts and if you’re able to keep track of everything going on with multiple people, then this might be the best job for you.
The best way to do this is to start off as an assistant to a wedding planner. You might have friends or former high school classmates who are wedding planners or used one to plan theirs. You have to be personable, though, and persistent. Show the wedding planner that you are good at it. Then you can work with them and become better known yourself before starting your own business.
5. Interior Designing
Do you have an eye for making things look nice around the house or apartment? The office? A store? Do you have noticeable results, like people commenting that your place looks fantastic? Then that could open the door for one of the more creative labor business ideas – interior designing. You can use your expertise to evoke feelings in people when they are there.
While there are schools for this, this is more of a ‘proof is in the pudding’ thing where you can show that you have a knack for spotting what colors work well with each other and which ones can also suitably contrast without causing it to make the room become an eyesore. You might want to include shade companies, since curtains can also set the tone for a room, too.
See about being an assistant for an experienced interior designer. You can learn how to do things like contacting clients, getting the materials you need, and how to set them up with some help from other people or workers who you can direct where to put each thing – this is where the labor business ideas come in. Eventually, you’ll be ready to move out of the designer’s shadow, open your own company, and get your own assistant.
6. Landscaping and Masonry
While interior design is for people who like designing things inside, landscaping and masonry can make the lawn of a person’s property the canvas. People who work for a masonry company can build structures out of brick, stone, or other similar mortar materials. They can craft unique-looking walls that immediately attract the attention of those who are passing by. The same goes for landscaping, where the workers can create all kinds of figures with things like shrubs.
If you like the outdoors, grass, or crafting things out of stone or other materials, then this is one of the more enticing labor business ideas out there. You can start off with a landscaping company or masonry company, and gain experience over time. You’ll see what the people in charge are buying and how they are allocating it to the workers. You’ll also watch how they get customers, whether it’s through marketing or word of mouth. Then you can save up and open up your own company.
7. Dogsitting
There are some labor business ideas that can be built around people’s passions. Do you love dogs, for example? Do you always want to pet every single one that you see on the street? Do you always talk to them like they are little babies? Do you have dog wallpaper on your smartphone? If the answer is yes, you might be able to make money from this by opening a dog daycare. Yes, feeding, walking, and caring for dogs of all sizes and breeds. It’s not a dream – it’s one of the labor business ideas.
Just like being a dog walker, though, you’re going to have to prove that you can handle the job. Watching over a dozen dogs at the same time can be a daunting prospect, but you work your way up to it. Prove that you can do this by first starting with a couple of dogs. Work on how to get them to get along. Just like people, dogs have their own personalities and temperaments, and some will be fine around other dogs while others might get aggressive.
The best way to start is by working at another dogsitting service and watching what they are doing. See how they handle any aggressive or problem dogs. As time goes by, and you show that you can handle things, then you could see about eventually opening your own business. But you don’t need a college degree to do this.
8. Gutter Cleaning
People take pride in their roofs. They want to make sure that they protect their homes in the best way possible. One area that they need to be diligent about is their gutters. These allow the water to run off the side of the home, keep the roof from becoming wet, and also keep the attic dry. As far as labor business ideas go, this is an excellent choice. You can start working with a roofing company and learn the best way to clear these gutters. There are a lot of homes, so that means there’s also a lot of work.
Responsible homeowners will ensure that their gutters are regularly cleaned. If the gutters get clogged, then they can also pull away from the home, which also creates an eyesore as well as a water damage risk. Neither of those is ideal. Once you start your own business, if you’re well known in a neighborhood, you could make a lot of money in both the spring, summer, and fall, and maybe in the mild winter climates.
9. Moving Services
No matter where you live, people are going to be moving. They will need movers to take their things from their old home to their new one. That’s where you can come in with a residential moving company. If you’re smart about leveraging large items and working with other people to move things efficiently, then this is one of the more fantastic labor business ideas.
Do you want to be the one to have your company name on the side of the moving truck? Spend some time learning the moving business. You can even see how they hire people to do things like scheduling the moves and how many moving trucks they have. Then see how they organize payrolls. Then you can eventually be the one hiring people for your own company.
10. Residential Painting
Have you always been fascinated with how people paint walls? How can they make every layer of paint look evenly applied? Interior painting is an art form and people pay good money to have their homes painted. The best thing to do is join a residential painting company. Learn how they do things like apply the pre-coat. You want to become known as one of the better painters. Eventually, you might become known as a leader in your company, and that will mean you’re ready to open your own home painting company.
If you have an artistic streak, then this is one of those labor business ideas that you need to jump on with two feet. See how the owner of the company you work for figures out how to do things like order a certain amount of paint. Then you can apply that when you start your own business.
The best thing about these labor business ideas is that you can make some very good money doing any of the above jobs that we suggested, money that you’ll be able to use for your own benefit rather than having to send payments to a student loan organization or to a college for course credits or dorms. The internet has made things much easier. There are plenty of resources that you can use to study any subject you want for free.
As you can see, there are a lot of labor business ideas that can keep you quite busy and satisfied without having to go near the corporate world. That will be worth it for you, especially when you look back on your career.