5 Businesses You Can START Today With Low Capital In 2026

Most people are waiting for the perfect moment to start a business. More money, more time, more confidence. But here's the truth that nobody's saying out loud. You don't need any of that. I found businesses that you can start today with a thousand dollars or less, and stick around for number four. I personally run it, and for every business I'm giving you the startup cost, real income proof from real owners, and why right now is the best time to start it, and whether or not it's a good idea for you to start it in your specific situation. So, with that being said, let's go ahead and jump into it right now. number one is going to be dog walking and pet sitting. And I know what you're thinking. Dog walking? Seriously? That's not a real business. But hear me out. CNBC list dog walking on their list of 27 businesses that you can start for less than a thousand dollars, and you just need to spend on pet business insurance, which is around two hundred to four hundred dollars a month. The way you start is you sign up on Rover or Wag for free, you set your rates, and the platform does the marketing. And if you like dogs, this is perfect for you. Now, Allison Chan is a paralegal in Chicago, and she started boarding dogs through Rover while studying for the bar exam. And she needed extra money, and she figured that she'd watch a few dogs alongside her own. And she now makes three thousand seven hundred fifty dollars every single month from dog sitting. And this is all while doing a full-time career. And she calls it like a second salary. But it doesn't stop there. Bethany Lane started her dog care business in 2014 just to make rent and pay off loans. Charging upwards of thirty-five dollars per walk, she hired more walkers, scaled it up, paid off all of her loans, and bought a vacation home. And her business is comfortably in the six-figure range, but she started it just to make rent. But why now? Well, the ASPCA reports that over twenty-three million American households have a dog or a cat. And as more and more people are starting to stop working remote and go back to the office, those dogs still need walks every single day. So, yeah, very easy business to start, a bit harder to scale, but possible to scale as well. And there are tons of channels, by the way, about dog walking or just dogs in general. I even have a client who sells Labradors and uses YouTube as their main way of getting customers themselves. And by the way, I do teach people how to grow and make money on YouTube, and just about all of these different business models have the same problem, which is it's hard to get clients. But if you have a YouTube channel, that makes it super easy, which is why I'm doing a completely free live training this week. Click the link in the description and the pin comment below to check that out. All right, so, business number two is niche down print on demand store. Now, this one sounds almost too easy, and it kind of is, but there is a caveat. Print on demand means you design something, like a t-shirt, a mug, a candle label, etc. And then you list it online. And when someone buys it, a manufacturer prints it and ships it directly to the customer. So, you never touch the product. All you got to do is design it and list it for marketing. Everything else is taken care of. Now, one thing I have to say, though, is print on demand as a general strategy is crowded. And what isn't crowded is a specific niche. Retired nurses, homeschool moms, saltwater fishermen. The riches, as they say, are in the niches. So, go broad, and you'll get buried. Go specific, and you'll own a corner of the market that nobody else is paying attention to. Now, Francisco Rivera started a print on demand candle shop on Etsy, and his shop brought in four hundred and sixty-two thousand dollars in sales, enough to quit his tutoring job. And then when asked if somebody else could do it, he said, "I don't think I'm special. I just work hard." Emily O'Dea Sutton started her shop in December 2022, sitting on her couch, watching Real Housewives. And her shop did two hundred and twenty thousand in its first full year. And she used the profits to wipe out her entire twenty thousand dollars in student loan balance. And she's still going strong. And recently, she just reached over eight hundred dollars in Etsy sales. Now, Entrepreneur Magazine calls print on demand one of the top online business models actively working right now. And they say low risk and fast to start, no storage, no inventory, and no shipping headaches. Now, as you can imagine, there are lots of YouTubers who do print on demand. They sell merch. With that being said, it's very easy to do that when you already have a massive audience. But there are definitely other ways of doing it, like listing it on different marketing platforms, Amazon, Etsy, etc., and just being able to stand out. quick break. I'm hanging out with my brother Zach right now, and I just wanted to let you know that this week we are hosting a free one-time live workshop. So, one thing that people struggle with the most is finding their niche, and that is why we actually created an AI called the niche validator that's going to help you find your niche or help you dial in your niche if you already have one. And we're going to be giving away this niche validator this week at a live workshop. And it's called the YouTube content advantage for making money in 2026. If you're struggling to find your niche or you don't want to commit months or even years to a niche that ends up not being profitable, then this is for you. So, click the link in the description and the pin comment below. Once you register, hit add to calendar so it shows up on your Google, Apple, or Outlook calendar. And if for whatever reason you're watching this in the future, still check the link in the description and the pin comment below cuz we may be doing another live workshop in the future, and it'll tell you when. Now, you'll also be able to ask me questions live, so I look forward to meeting you. And you'll also get an update on how this guy is doing on YouTube as well. So, see you this week, and back to your regularly scheduled programming. All right, business number three is thrift flipping or reselling. Now, this is one that I've done a ton of in my lifetime, and basically it's buying low and selling high, which is one of the oldest business models in the world. Now, with thrift flipping, you go to a thrift store, a garage sale, or Facebook Marketplace, and you find something that's underpriced. You list it online for more than you paid, and you keep the difference. And Entrepreneur Magazine includes reselling on their list of businesses that you can start with less than a hundred dollars. Buy some older items, then add the shipping costs, and that is your capital. The barrier to entry could not be lower. And Jocelyn Elizabeth started when her dad brought home a five-dollar lamp from a church yard sale. And he found the same lamp listed at seventy dollars on eBay. And from there, she went thrifting the next weekend with her baby in a stroller. That was 2011. Today, she runs Nick Nacks, a seven-figure reselling marketplace, and personally earned over two hundred and sixty thousand dollars from it in 2025 alone. And she says, "Anyone could go to Goodwill and pick something up and find out it's worth fifty dollars. If you're willing to put in the work, anyone can really accomplish this." So, Fifi Regal started in her college dorm room, buying items for five to ten dollars and flipping them for fifty to a hundred dollars. And she built it into a six-figure business. And here are some of her recent and amazing flips. Five to three hundred fifty for a Versace dress, and thirty-five to five hundred twenty-five for a bolo jacket. So, as you can see, this is especially good if you are knowledgeable in a certain niche or vertical. So, in her case, she was knowledgeable about clothes. I don't really know much about clothes, so it wouldn't be the right vertical for me. But that is what gives you an advantage is having knowledge of a particular vertical. And here's why the timing is right. The resale market doesn't slow down during economic uncertainty. It actually grows. And as one CNBC feature reseller put it, "When a recession hits, people don't want to pay full price." Thrift stores thrive during recessions, and resellers do, too. All right, next business model is going to be online coaching or online education. And this one is personal. I'm not just recommending this business, I run it. The only thing that you need for this business is your knowledge. The other thing you need is probably already sitting in front of you, a laptop. You start with zero capital, and they are going to pay for your expertise. Now, I built Content Growth Engine, which is a YouTube coaching program, starting with nothing but a channel, a skill, and the willingness to teach. No investors, no massive team to start, no fancy office, just me, a camera, and a niche that I understood. So, the startup cost was basically zero cuz I was just teaching people something that I was already good at. And trust me, there are things that you are already good at that you can teach other people. And the demand is already there. According to IPEC, every single month there are 1.5 million searches by individuals and companies looking for executive, business, and life coaches. You just have to show up. Now, here's how my model works. And pay close attention to this. I create content that attracts the right people. Those people attend my free weekly webinar where I teach YouTube growth strategies. Ninety-nine percent of people who watch my channel and attend my webinars benefit from them. They get a ton of value, but they never end up working with me. But there's one percent of people out there that do attend, and they actually do want one-on-one coaching with myself or my team. And this makes a lot of sense because I teach YouTube growth strategies, and of course, you And I've even had million-dollar months. So, if you want to see more about how this actually works, you can attend my free live training. Click the link in below. And not only will I teach you how YouTube works, but you'll also see how I do it. All right, business number five is notary signing. And most people have no idea that this job or this business even exists. And the ones that do are usually the ones quietly making two hundred dollars an hour from it. Now, this one is great because it could be a job. There are notaries out there. It could be a side hustle. You could just do this on the side. You can also turn it into a full-time business. And a notary signing agent witnesses and verifies the signing of legal documents, real estate contracts, loan paperwork, and power of attorney. And every time someone buys a house or refinances a mortgage, a notary has to show up in person and make it official. Title companies and law firms don't want to send their own staff out for every single signing, so they pay independent agents to do it. And CNBC reports startup costs range from two hundred fifty to five hundred dollars, basically covering your state notary commission, a stamp, a journal, and errors and omissions insurance. That's it. And Angelina Nguyen was twenty-five years old with no bachelor's degree when she started charging seventy-five to two hundred dollars an hour as a notary signing agent. And on some mornings, she makes a hundred and fifty dollars in five minutes. And Barbara Hill stated that after watching an elderly notary walk through paperwork at her own home, she now makes sixty-six thousand dollars a year. And she does it with flexible hours on her own schedule. So, the certification process takes four to nine weeks depending on your state, and after that, you list yourself on national signing databases, and title companies find you, and you show up when someone needs a signature witnessed. And every mortgage, every refinance, every home sale legally requires a notary to show up in person, and that's not changing anytime soon. So, the notaries Angela Nguyen's father worked with on real estate documents were, in her words, in incredibly high demand. And that demand is built into how property transactions work in this country. So, yeah, this is another one that can be a really good one to get into. And yes, there are entire YouTube channels about how to become a notary as well. So, again, if you want to learn how to do YouTube, click that link in the description in the pin comment below and attend the live training at this week where you will literally get to ask me questions live on Zoom. And also check out this video right here where I go over exactly how to start a YouTube channel and how we help people grow with it.