The Best Business Ideas For Women in 2024

Oprah Winfrey, Beyonce, and Ariana Huffington are just a few celebrity examples of successful women entrepreneurs.

These women and others like them currently employ as many as nine million people and earn an average of $1.7 trillion in sales per year. It’s hardly surprising that they’re inspiring women everywhere to follow in their footsteps.

Unfortunately, business ideas for women can still be frustratingly difficult to realize.

After all, any woman can start any type of business, but 50% of all enterprises are still likely to fail during their first five years. While things have improved, especially in the United States, where female entrepreneurship is booming, women face unique hurdles to their side hustles and entrepreneurial reachings, such as discrimination and difficulty being taken seriously.

This highlights the need for intentional, well-chosen female business ideas. In this article, we consider how to settle on the ideal option for your skillset in the most female-dominated fields of the moment.

Questions All Female Entrepreneurs Should Ask

If you jump right into a poorly informed decision or take out a small business loan without a solid business plan, you stand to lose both a lot of money and the confidence to build something you can be proud of. That’s why it’s always crucial for all business owners to ask some essential questions before considering their options: 

1. What skills do I possess?
2. What am I most passionate about?
3. How much money do I need to get an idea off the ground?
4. How are other entrepreneurs performing in my field of choice? 
5. What would I need to learn to become an expert in my chosen field? (return to college part-time, attend skill courses, etc.)

For entrepreneurs looking to juggle female business ideas with family life, it’s also often essential to consider the time you can dedicate to this task. After all, small businesses require hard work and dedication for as long as three years before you even see profits.

Therefore, carefully choosing opportunities significantly increases your chances of success.

The Best Fields For Female Entrepreneurs

There are now 40,000 women-owned businesses in the US alone, which means a fair amount of good ideas got off the ground. Therefore, we’re going to consider the areas where women-run enterprises are already earning significant sums and attention, so the odds are good you could too.

Creative Work

Nearly 5% of businesses run by women are in the arts and entertainment industries. Female entrepreneurs with a keen eye for the arts or an ample breadth of knowledge in this area have decent chances of success.

In fact, a recent study revealed that female artists are generally more prolific than their male counterparts. There are some great and realistic small businesses for women within the creative sphere:

Interior Design

Women account for as many as 69% of interior designers to date, making this a fantastic field for any female entrepreneur with an eye for home styling.

Top female designers like Zaha Hadid have significantly changed the face of interior design in recent years, paving the way for yet more groundbreaking debuts from determined women.

It is worth noting that some states (e.g., Florida) require you to have specific licenses before starting a business of this nature, which can increase the initial costs a little.

Generally speaking, though, it is possible to get on the interior design track for as little as $500 or, more often, a few thousand dollars. Once established, interior designers can expect to earn a median salary of around $82,281 per year.

Graphic Design

If they want to start a small business, women who know their way around crucial tools like the Adobe creative suite and other digital imaging techniques can build one around those skills. As many as 60% of graphic design degrees belong to women, many of whom are aspiring entrepreneurs.

Graphic design is especially tempting because it’s flexible in terms of execution and timing: Your company can take on projects to do with everything from logo design, ad campaigns, web design, and beyond.

Startup costs in this field generally rest at any point between $2,000 and $10,000, depending on the software you want to use and whether you’ll need to cover additional training. On the plus side, your median income can be as much as $91,144 as your firm’s principal designer.

Photographer

Whether you’re interested in covering events, editorial and fashion shoots, or applying your creative eye to global destinations, photography is among the best female business ideas.

Admittedly, it can be challenging to get started here, as your primary business drivers will be things like social media exposure, word of mouth from your clients, and the strength of your skills. That said, if you have passion fuelling you, then this can be an incredibly rewarding work opportunity.

To compete as a professional photographer, your store of equipment and editing software will need to be pretty advanced, which is why starting a photography business can cost over $12,000. Luckily, the ability to grow at your own pace means that it should be possible to space out those costs and ultimately start earning between $42 and $80 thousand a year once you find your target audience.

Writer

If you’re a writer or blogger, one of the small business ideas for women that have significantly gained in popularity over recent years is starting your own content-creation company.

The move towards the online space is stronger than ever, so even if you don’t have an idea for a blog yourself, multiple publications are seeking this type of service for their own website content.

Freelance writers also obviously have the option of becoming bloggers themselves using even a basic site from platforms like Blogger.com. Building a decent following through unique and informative articles can help attract publishers, affiliate programs, and beyond.

Even better, writing businesses can be free to start as long as you have a laptop and an internet connection, but your salary can still go over $63,000.

Crafts

Since the introduction of DIY-oriented eCommerce sites like Etsy, crafting has become one of the best business ideas for women at home with a creative streak. With relatively few resources and expertise, even basic crafts can now become a source of revenue.

In fact, on average, a craft-based business could see you earning as much as $51,661 a year, often without an excessive amount of overhead. The main thing to bear in mind here is that you need to be passionate about your craft of choice and constantly improving.

You need to put in the hours necessary to keep up with orders when they arrive. Here are a few viable craft side business ideas:

• Knitting
• Candle making
• Soap making
• Jewelry making
• Baking
• Pottery
• Woodworking

Education Services

Studies reveal that as many as 76% of public school teachers across the US are female, making education a largely female-dominated field with some fantastic self-employment ideas for women.

A passion for learning and sharing knowledge is essential here, but educational options that fit within school hours can be invaluable for moms looking to reduce childcare requirements and costs. Options worth considering in this field include:

Tutoring

While you will likely need academic skills and qualifications to break into the market, online and in-person tutoring services can prove to be an excellent business for ladies looking to either boost their income or start a flexible enterprise.

Tutoring is valuable to children and young adults of all ages, from elementary school right through to college. However, you will generally need more qualifications if your students are older or need help with expert subjects.

Again, word of mouth and a portfolio of successful students are perhaps the best ways to grow in this area. Sites like Wyzant.com offer the fantastic opportunity to reach out to suitable students directly. Practically all you’ll need here is a laptop and camera for providing your services online, or teaching resources and stationery for in-person tutoring.

All in all, the costs here won’t go far above the $100 mark ($500 if you plan to rent a tutoring space), and you could earn an average of $51,734 per year from doing this full-time.

Course Creation

Pairing technical know-how with an educational focus means you have the option to create online courses that, thanks to their shareable nature, can often provide far more income than they took time.

Whatever the subject, one-time quality videos or complete video-based course modules can help to keep vast numbers of students engaged, even if you don’t have time for one-on-one sessions.

Obviously, you do lose some of the personal elements of teaching here, which may not work for everyone, but it is possible to still connect with students by scheduling a time to answer questions, or perhaps offering webinars and video calls that wrap up your program.

Admittedly, the costs can be high: You’ll need quality filming and teaching software, as well as a good camera, so you might have to spend over $5,000. That said, the reach of this option still makes this a fantastic business idea for women that could ultimately lead to a salary of around $50,000 per course, especially as the popularity of e-learning continues to grow.

Care Services

Women make up the majority of the health and social welfare workforce: They account for three-quarters of employees in care-related industries.

Full-time care jobs that often require long hours aren’t suitable for many, but there are also care-based side business ideas for ladies that provide the satisfaction of care jobs alongside significantly increased levels of freedom.

Even women who are still at home caring for young children may, therefore, benefit from considering care-based ventures:

Childcare

A childcare business can often feel like the ideal compromise for moms, providing a rare opportunity to work and spend time with your child at the same time.

On top of reducing your childcare overhead, childcare entrepreneur ideas for women, including a home daycare business, can be a huge help financially. You’ll just be utilizing the skills you already have on a broader audience.

People especially value personal, home-based childcare setups that see their children enjoying an array of activities and games in the comfort of a home environment – an environment that you already have access to if you have young kids around!

Of course, as with all care-based roles, any woman looking to break into this field will need to consider licensing and building a reliable reputation before she can enjoy real success.

That said, once you’ve taken care of the technicalities, starting a childcare business could cost as little as $400, and could see you charging as high as $340 per child per month.

Animal Care

Although it may not be the first thing to pop into your brain when someone says ‘care services,’ animal care is a significant part of this sector. It’s also a fertile ground for aspiring women entrepreneurs seeking more flexibility.

A job like this can be especially rewarding for individuals with an affinity for four-legged friends, and could take the form of a wide range of services, including:

• Dog walking
• Pet sitting
• Dog food sales
• Grooming services

Financial Services

Finance and insurance businesses account for as many as 2.6% of all female-led small businesses. Some options in this industry are:

Accounting

Good business ideas for women with a passion for numbers include finding work as an accountant. You could help various companies and entrepreneurs ensure that profit stays on the right track.

The rise in self-employment over the years, particularly during the pandemic, means that there’s an increasing demand for accountants, many of whom can work seamlessly from home and on an independent basis.

That makes this a fantastic small-business idea for anyone looking to go it alone. Admittedly, you will need at least some experience in this field, preferably in the form of an accounting degree, or at least a few courses under your belt.

If you’re familiar with the world of accounting and understand the ideal software to invest in for quality services, it shouldn’t be too difficult to impress your customers with your knowledge and ensure that their accounting needs are taken care of.

Best of all, you can expect an annual salary of as much as $78,000.

Bookkeeping

A bookkeeping business could also be a viable side-business idea for ladies looking to provide financing assistance on a more specific basis. An eye for detail and the ability to look at the bigger picture are crucial here, as is an understanding of profits and potential areas for financial improvement.

Bookkeepers must develop close relationships with both clients and other accounting professionals. This, in turn, requires research and a great deal of patience.

However, the ability to develop quality and lucrative close relationships by offering services to a select few clients should provide a perfectly manageable workload that could prove as lucrative as $40,000 a year.

Your Skills Determine Your Options

The positions listed above are just the most prominent choices for women striving to become entrepreneurs. The reality is that business ideas for women are as varied and exciting as they are for anyone else.

In fact, once you set your mind to the task of finding the ideal career, you’ll find that women can do anything they dream of, with a surprising amount of jobs now accessible from home.

A business plan, the right technology, and a desire to make a difference with what you know could lead to a range of interesting industries: 

• Food service
• Social media
• Event planning
• Virtual assistance
• Proofreading
• Amazon selling
• Plenty more

Becoming your own boss is an undeniable benefit of pursuing any small business idea, and this reality has never been easier to reach for women of all abilities.

All you need to do is consider some of the best options on this list, or find something you’re passionate about. Then, plan to make those dreams a reality through funding, guidance, hard work, and a healthy dose of confidence.