50 Best Small Scale Cottage Industry Business ideas for 2020

Do you want to start a cottage-sized business from home, full time or part time? If YES, here are 50 best small scale cottage industry business ideas for 2020.

After the Global recession that hit major economies of the world in the early part of this century, more people have tilted towards starting businesses of their own. In fact, a lot of people with regular 9-5 jobs are creating side businesses that they can always fall back on in case of uncertainties. Cottage businesses are among the most popular businesses for such people.

A cottage business is a type of business that you can easily operate from home on a part-time or full-time basis. This type of business usually requires very minimal, or no capital at all, making it very easy to start and run them.

We have come up with a list of at least 50 profitable cottage business ideas that cost very little or nothing to set up, and can always guarantee regular flow of income whether you choose to do them on the side, or as a full-time business.

50 Best Small Scale Cottage Industry Business ideas for 2020

1. Freelance Writing: Getting the right type of content is very important for bloggers and just about anyone who plies their trade on the internet. Unfortunately, not everyone is gifted in writing and most of them cannot afford to hire full-time content writers, so what they do is to hire freelance writers on websites like Freelancer, Fiverr, and Upwork to write for them.

If you are a gifted wordsmith, you can easily start a content writing business where you write from home and earn some money on a full-time or part-time basis from helping people develop attractive contents for their businesses.

2. Online Tutoring: This one is targeted at students and people who are hungry for information. You can earn money from offering tutorials online, or packaging information that people are interested in into a digital product that you can sell for a profit online.

3. Soap Making: Almost everyone uses soap for bathing and laundry purposes. If you can come up with a good recipe, you can earn a lot of money making and selling soap to your friends, family and colleagues and supplying them to grocery stores around you. If you have a good delivery system, you can even sell your soap online.

4. Gunsmithing: If the Gun laws in your locality permits it, you can start a business of making and repairing guns. You can also rent out guns to hunters, security officials, and other licensed individuals.

5. LockSmithing: Security is paramount on the minds of most individuals- everyone wants to leave their homes with a guarantee that it would be secure and protected from unwanted intrusions. Locksmiths help to create good door and window locks to help guarantee home security. This type of business requires some training but as soon as you are able to start making locks, you’ll be able to earn a lot of money especially when you sell your services to building contractors and home builders.

6. Auto Repairs: Another business idea is repairing of damaged and broken down vehicles as well as offering vehicle maintenance services to vehicle owners around you.

7. Computer Repairs: You can offer computer repair services to commercial enterprises or private individuals in your locality. If you want to get more customers and earn more profits, you should consider offering remote computer repair services too so that you can sell your services to people from all over the world.

8. Knife making: You can start a business of making fancy knives, especially kitchen and hunting knives. Knives are really easy to make and when attractively designed, they command very good prices.

9. Welding: Welders service a wide range of customers including people in the construction industry, automobile industry, agricultural industry, and so on. If you have the skills and knowledge or willing to spare some time to learn, you can earn some good profit from starting a home-based welding service.

10. Childcare/Babysitting Services: Busy parents need people who can always look after their wards while they go about their daily activities. The good thing about this kind of business is that you can do it in your spare time as a part-time business, or double your income by setting up a home-based crèche where multiple children can be kept in your care.
11. Cleaning Services: Nowadays, most people are too busy to clean their own homes. You can set up a cleaning service and earn some good money per hour from helping people clean their homes. You can also get some commercial establishments to pay you for cleaning their offices and business spaces.

12. Knitting: Knitting is often overlooked as a business and many people consider it a hobby but do you know you can make a lot of money from making and selling knitted baby caps, bibs, blankets, quilts, mats, and clothes. With good designs, you wouldn’t find it hard to get people to patronize your knitting business.

13. Beekeeping and Honey Production: Honey has a lot of medicinal benefits and this is why they have become a sort of must-have for every home. Honey also has a lot of byproducts that can also be converted to cash such as beeswax. If you have space in your backyard or can rent space, you can set up a small bee farm and start earning money on the side from selling your harvest.

14. Production of Essential Oils: Essential oils also have a lot of medicinal values. With a pressing machine, you can easily set up your own mini essential oil factory where you manufacture and sell essential oils for profit.

15. Candle Making: Candles are very common amongst spiritualists, restaurant owners, party planners and romantic lovers. You can earn money from creating your own brand of candles from home.

16. Household Cleaners: Another cottage business idea is to start making and selling your own brand of household cleaners. You can make and sell dish washers, toilet cleaners, carpet cleaners, furniture cleaners, and other types of cleaners that are commonly used in and around the home.

17. Jewelry Making: The good thing about jewelry making is that there is no limit to how much you can sell a very good design. You can start creating your own brand of jewelry from home and sell them on platforms that promote art and crafts such as Elsie, or on social media.

18. Leatherwork: Another way to profit off handmade goods is to start creating leather goods like wristwatches, belts, shoes and bags. A lot of people would buy them if the designs are attractive.

19. Papercraft: Electronic devices have limited the need and use of paper but paper hasn’t gone extinct yet. People still make use of paper notebooks, envelopes, files, packaging materials, greeting cards, sticky notes, and so on. These are things that you can easily make at home in your spare time, and sell them to other people for a profit.

20. Woodwork: You can make and sell wooden toys, chopping boards, wooden decorations, wooden pencils, wooden trays, pens and other wooden items that can be used at home or in the office.

21. Baked Goods and Candies: You can start making cake, cookies, candies, pies, and other baked goods in your spare time and sell them to your colleagues at lunchtime or sell them to children at parks. You can even supply them to grocery stores, supermarkets and shops in your locality.

22. Catering: Catering is a very lucrative business with a good profit margin. It is also a very good business to do on the side because you can offer party catering services which only involves cooking occasionally.

23. Personal Chef: If you are a good cook, you can become a personal chef. One good niche to explore in this business is to become a personal chef for people on a diet or with special dietary needs. This category of people often hire people to cook their meals for them in order to reduce the temptation of eating meals that are not compliant with their diet.

24. Pet Food Manufacturer: More pet owners are choosing organic pet food because it is believed to be healthier and safer for pets. You can come up with your own brilliant pet food formula and start making money from selling pet food to pet owners and pet stores in your locality.

25. Social Media Consultant: You can start a business that helps people sell and promote their products and services on social media. You can help them create business pages, manage their pages, engage their audience, and set up Facebook advertisements for their products all of these while earning per hour income for your services.

26. Fishing: If you love fishing and can obtain a fishing license, you can set up your own fishing business where you harvest and sell fresh fish to people who oven eating fresh fish.

27. Handyman: You can earn money from offering repair services to homeowners who need to have small repairs done in and around their homes.

28. Mobile Hair Stylists: Mobile hair styling is becoming increasingly popular as most people would prefer to have someone come and style their hair within the comfort of their homes than have to book appointments and drive several miles to get their hair done.

29. Pet Grooming: You can earn money on the side from helping people care for their pets, walk their pets and train their pets to be of the best behavior.

30. Landscaping: Landscapers are also usually on high demand especially in upscale areas and commercial establishments. You can make money from setting up a landscaping business on a full-time or part-time basis.

31. Masseuse: You can set up a home-based massage parlor or a mobile massage service in your city. This type of business requires very little capital to set up and if you’re very good at what you do, you would have a lot of customers calling you up for massage sessions every week.

32. Personal Fitness Trainer: People are taking their health and fitness more seriously than they used to do several decades ago. You can make money from becoming a personal fitness trainer who teaches people how to develop and maintain the best body shapes.

33. Skill Classes: If there’s any skill that you have acquired that people would be willing to learn, you can make money from teaching it. You can make money from teaching CPR classes, swimming, diving, boating and any other useful skills.

34. Equipment Rentals: This is the easiest business anyone can do although it requires a huge capital outlay. You can purchase equipment that you know are in high demand within your locality (such as construction equipment), and earn money from renting them out to people who cannot afford to buy their own equipment, or who are just looking to save money by renting equipment instead of buying them.

35. 3D Design and Printing: You can set up a 3D design and printing business and sell your services to people in the construction industry and people looking to create 3D prototypes for their product ideas.

36. Graphic Designer: Just like with freelance writing, you can sell your graphics designing services to individuals and business owners online and offline.

37. T-Shirt Designer: You can also earn money from designing and selling T-shirts on platfoms like Teespring and Zazzle.

38. Web Designer: Another idea is to become a web designer. You can design blogs, eCommerce websites, and business websites for individuals and commercial enterprises around you.

39. App Developer: Creating mobile apps and developing business software is another lucrative business idea at the moment as many businesses and private individuals need them for their businesses.

40. Herbal Drug Production: Although this kind of business requires licensing and may require huge capital outlays but you can make a lot of money selling herbal drugs online or exporting them to other countries for sale.

41. Fertilizer Production: You set up mini compost and sell organic fertilizers to farmers in your locality.

42. Egg Production and Supply: You can set up poultry specifically for egg production and supply eggs in crates to grocery stores and supermarkets.

43. Clothes Designer: You can either set up your own clothing line, or sell design prototypes to owners of clothing lines in your area. This is a very good business idea for you if you are very good with graphics and drawings.

44. Events Hosting: Event organizers often require the services of hostesses and ushers to help them coordinate events. From the comfort of your home, you can easily set up an event hosting business that supplies ushers and hosts to party planners.

45. Mobile Phone Accessories: There are just so many phone accessories to sell from fast chargers to protective casings, hands-free devices, photo enhancement devices, storage devices and so on. You can buy these in bulk and resell them for a profit, or you can design your own mobile phone accessories, have them manufactured, and then sell them for a profit.

46. Pillows and Bed Sheet Making: Another cottage industry business idea that requires more of skills and minimal financial investment is making and selling of bed spreads, pillow cases, duvets, blankets, and other beddings.

47. Diapers and Wipes: Another good idea is to start making and selling diapers for babies and senior citizens. You can learn how to make your own brand of disposable diapers or cloth diapers.

48. Tissue Paper Production: Another product you can easily make at home for resale is tissue paper. Tissue papers are a must-have sanitary product in every home and if you are able to create a very good product, you can earn good income making and selling them.

49. Furniture Remodeling: You can go around to look for furniture that has been discarded, and then remodel them into trendy furniture that you can resell for good profit.

50. Making Wigs and Weaves: You can also learn how to make wigs ad weaves from the comfort of your home and sell them on popular eCommerce sites like Ebay, Amazon and Etsy.

In conclusion, please remember to check zoning and business establishment laws in your location if you are looking to set up any of these businesses (especially the ones that involve manufacturing). This would help you avoid unnecessary run-ins with the law, and help you ply your trade peacefully and profitably.