Creativity doesn’t always require money to start a business since there are many creative businesses out there. Once you know how to define your most reliable niche, you can start a good-paying business without any start-up capital. 

Starting a business of your own has always been on your mind. You’re fed up of working your ass off for someone else who may not even appreciate your genuine hard work and effort.

You love the responsibility and flexibility that comes with operating your own business. But, something critical is stopping you from realizing your dreams—you don’t have huge startup capital. You don’t even have a dime for that matter, and you throw your hands up in despair.

Are you giving up already? You don’t have to. 

There are 1,001 creative businesses you can start without committing any money upfront. Whether you’re a graphic artist, or a professional graphic illustrator, or a blogger, just name it; you can start using your creativity to make money without investing a ton of money.

Please sit back and let us tell you how.

Dependable, Creative Skill Sets That Earn Big Money Without Spending Any Money 

1.       Freelance Writing

Do you have a passionate and robust flair for writing? Do you know how to play with words, and use words to create magic for the betterment of a business objective such as branding, brand consultancy, marketing or for digital advertisement?

Oh, I know what you’re thinking; don’t worry, you won’t be working your hide off in a boring office. Just take up your writing skills and start a business as a lucrative freelance writer. You get paid for each piece of writing you produce.

A freelance writer is someone who works remotely from anywhere and who engaged in any, one or more types of writings for businesses, organizations and individual needs.

As a freelance writer, you will run your own business. i.e., you are self-employed.

The good thing about becoming a freelance writer is that the freelance writing industry is so huge, and the niches and sub-niches in it are virtually endless.

Below are a few niches/sub-niches that you can excel in with your freelance writing skills.

• Article Writer

A freelance article writer is someone that specializes in writing of all types of articles, or specific articles bearing information on a comprehensive or particular range of current topics, with the intent to publish them in newspaper, magazines, or journals while targeting a large audience. Articles may include health articles (discussing health issues), tech articles (all about technology and innovations), legal articles (about legal topics), content writing (information about the works of a business), academic articles, and more.

Many sites on the Internet offer freelance writing opportunities for freelance writers. Examples of popular freelance writing sites are Upwork.com, Fiverr.com, peopleperhour.com, Guru.com, and more. Go over to any of these websites, register as a writer. Create your profile and portfolio according to your area of expertise. Go live and start selling to millions of individuals and organizations that need the services of a freelance writer. The entire exercise is completely free. No money involved.

• Resume Writer

As the name implies, a resume writer or CV writer is a freelance writer that specializes in the preparation of job application profiles/CV for job seekers that are looking for paid employment in any specific job industry. Professional resume writers are in hot demands as they can help a prospective employee or organization land a dream job or project.

Upwork and Fiverr are the hottest marketplace for resume writers to sell their talents.

• Ghost Writer

You can describe a ghostwriter as another name for a freelance writer who is hired to write, get paid but doesn’t take credit for what has been written. In other words, once you have been hired by a client to write or rewrite a brand consultancy copy, blogs, or copies for marketing, social media or branding needs, your name and profile will not appear as the writer on the client’s site page.

That is the tiny difference between a ghostwriter and a typical article writer. In some instances, A regular article writer, based on a proper understanding with the client may have their name published as the writer on the client’s webpage.

Ghostwriters are in real demand online, especially in the book and academic categories.

2.       Art & Design

Apart from being a freelance writer, you can also use your art and design skill to make good money without spending a dime. Below are some of the sub-niches where your art and design skills can earn up to six-figures; depending on the quality of work you will deliver.

• Web Designer

A web designer is a professional in information technology (IT). As a web designer, you are not that much different from a graphic designer because you will be tasked with the responsibility of designing the layout of a website, its visual appearance and intuitive usability.

To succeed as a good web designer, you must have excellent technical skills and creative graphic designing skills. You must be able to visualize how a particular site will function and how to convert a design into a working and productive website.

To succeed and even hit the six-figure pay range as a web designer, hone your web designing skills in the areas of:

• Solid working knowledge of extensive web designers packages such as Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, etc.
• Technical know-how to create with CSS and XHTML, even without relying on one of the packages as mentioned earlier.
• Understanding scripting languages like PHP, NET, and JavaScript.
• Being able to work tight schedules and deadlines.
• Continuously updating skills in the area of conformity with new technology and reliable software development tools.

A professional web designer can earn anywhere near $15,000 – $50,000 per year, depending on your skills and experience.

• Graphic Designer

As the term implies, a graphic designer is someone that creates graphically oriented visuals such as posters, flyers, logos, billboards, bus wraps, complimentary cards, business card designs and other marketing materials.

Depending on the industry, a graphic designer will usually engage in a wide variety of graphic designing. For instance, indie graphic design experts are in hot demand in the artispreneur sphere where graphic art is in vogue. Every business wants to stand out from the competition, and a logo design offers an incredibly unique way to do that, which automatically generates job opportunity for a professional logo designer.

To succeed as a professional graphic designer, you should:

• Be able to design outstanding visuals that don’t require a lot of thinking for someone to understand.
• Be flexible and make adjusts where necessary.
• Have a strong familiarity with graphic design software such as Photoshop, In Design and Illustrator.
• Know and imbibe the latest design trends.
• Be able to deliver within or before deadlines.

A good Graphic Designer is sure to be making a huge profit in areas such as branding, Facebook marketing, Instagram marketing, digital advertising, and more.

• T-Shirt Designer

“A T-Shirt designer? Who gets rich from designing T-shirts? Besides, you’ll need to own a shirt manufacturing company to do that.”

These are some of the thoughts that invade people’s mind once a T-Shirt designer is mentioned.

But they are wrong, and you are as well if you’re thinking the same way.

A T-Shirt designer is also a graphic designer. But, not all graphic designers can draw correctly. So, a T-Shirt designer is a graphic designer that knows how to illustrate freehandedly. Illustrate? Oh, yes! As a T-Shirt designer, you will be responsible for creating graphics that will most likely get engrafted or printed on T-shirts.

On the contrary, you don’t need to own a company before you can start earning big from T-shirt design. In short, many T-shirt design companies offer T-shirt design jobs where you can freely design any type of T-shirt and sell it at Amazon TeeSpring.

• Illustrator

A technical and professional artist who specializes in creating two or more dimensional images for different companies and industries is called an illustrator. A graphic artist who uses a graphic illustrator technique to create materials related to fashion design, magazines, medical manuals, children books, and websites, advertising and technical designs is an illustrator.

Typically, as an illustrator, you can specialize in one area of the industry and work as a freelancer. You can work as a fashion illustrator by sketching clothing or scientific illustrator by illustrating Earth formations, foliages or animals.

The pay range for an illustrator is as beautiful as every other area in graphic design. You can earn from $100 to $10,000+ depending on the project you have at hand and the industry you’re in.

3.       Content Creation

• Blogger/Vlogger

Blogging or vlogging is another excellent way to earn passive income without spending much money.

A blogger is a skilful writer who creates informative contents in the written form known as a “blog” or “blogs” to target a particular audience and drive traffic and authority to the website of a particular business in a specific niche.

Apart from creating blogs for different clients, you can also start up your blogging business by opening a free account with WordPress, or Blogger/Blogspot, or Medium, etc., create your blogs and monetize them to make money.

A vlogger (video blogger), on the other hand, is someone that also create informative content but in the video format known as “vlogs.” Examples are the video clips you watch on YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, etc.

There are thousands of companies and businesses that are looking for bloggers and vloggers to create contents for them in the areas of branding, brand consultation, marketing, Twitter marketing, and more. You can also create your own vlogging channel and excel in it.

• Podcaster

Did you know that about 51% of adults in the U.S have listened to a podcast?

You can make money from distributing audio files throughout the Internet for others to download. A podcaster helps to create advertisement and content marketing for businesses and organizations.

Select a topic that is both interesting and engaging and start your podcasts series once your audience starts to grow. You can add adverts to it later.

• YouTube Personality

This ties into Vlogger and Podcaster. You can go to YouTube and create a free account. Then, proceed to create engaging contents like “How to” related videos that could be about money, health, fitness, pets, and so on. Share your videos and make money from ads displayed on them.

• Voice Artist (Voiceover)

A voice artist or voice-over artist is a person who uses his/her voice in a film, theatre, radio, television and such other presentations. It is an off-stage or off-camera narrative or commentary that may involve a dialogue between two or more people, or just one person reading from a script.

Artists’ with voice-over skills can earn from commercials, narrative or documentary work, corporate or promotional work, radio dramas, and production narration. There are lots of voice-over jobs waiting on Google.

4.       Social Media 

Whether it’s a graphic design firm, a branding consultancy business, marketing or digital advertising; social media has become a major point of consideration. With excellent social media marketing skills, you can help various companies in the areas of:

• Social Media Manager

Many businesses, organizations and individuals are looking for a professional who will help them manage their social media engagements. As a social media manager, you will be in charge of the business social media accounts–creating posts, editing uploaded contents, responding to posts, while always keeping with the primary objective of that organization/business.

• Social Media Influencer

Suppose you have a high social standing with authentic credibility on a social media site. In that case, you can use your connection with your large audience to persuade huge numbers of your followers to patronize the product or services of a particular business. Many businesses are looking for social media influencers who will promote their products or services. You can offer your influence to them in return for money.

• Social Media Marketer

Use your social media marketing skills to promote the products or services of a business that needs your skills. Many companies are looking for ways to grow their brand awareness, increase market share, generate leads and make more conversions. You can use Facebook marketing, Twitter marketing and Instagram marketing to help businesses to target the appropriate demographic and make huge returns from leads generated and converted.

Wrapping Up

You can start making money today without investing a dime. Just know what you are good at and narrow down on your niche. Take a giant step and start doing what you know best. With patience and persistency, you will see the doe flowing through gradually.

It’s just a matter of time… and it’s never that long.