I've been in this online business world for five years and businesses I've made generated well over 500k US in profit.
I've tried everything from service-based work to digital products to content creation, with this channel of 14 million subscribers.
And I get asked all the time what online business should I start in 2025 if I'm a complete beginner?
So in this video, I'm going to give you a real breakdown of each business model, without selling you empty dreams, like many gurus promise on YouTube to make passive income without any additional work or sensing.
I'll break down how much it costs to start, average time to make your first 1000 and, most importantly, scalability.
Just one side note, though.
None of these businesses are easy.
If building a successful online business was simple, everyone would be doing it.
One of my favorite quotes is Entrepreneurship is the art of staying home while the house is on fire.
It's so true.
And if you want to learn the exact steps to build an online business, especially on YouTube, I actually created a free, comprehensive guide that walks you through everything.
The link is in the description below.
So check it out.
If you're looking for the fastest path to make money online, service-based businesses are, in my opinion, hands down your best option in 2020.
Because you're selling your time and skills directly to clients who already have money and they have problems to be solved.
The most in-demand services right now that I know are centered around career economy and digital marketing, which are like thumbnail editing for YouTubers, video editing, both long form and short form, brand partnership managers, copywriting for emails and sales pages, and also social media management.
Now, I know what you're thinking right now, but I don't have many of these skills, which is completely fine, because you can actually start as a junior freelancer offering services at a lower grade while you're still developing your expertise.
You don't need to be best in the world.
You just need to be slightly ahead of the person willing to pay you.
And if your price reflects your experience, most of the time people are fine with that.
So where do you find these opportunities?
Most people use artwork and firework, but in my opinion, real opportunities are more like in niche communities like, for example, discord servers, facebook groups or twitter, and in my opinion, twitter is like a gold mine for creator economy, related like freelance work, because creators are often fine with training sound to their taste and they're searching it on social media platforms.
So how can you stop?
I would say pick one skill that interests you.
Use free YouTube tutorials to learn the basics, because there are comprehensive courses on every skill that you can ever think of on YouTube.
And, after you learn the basics, price yourself 30 to 50 below market rate and start looking for small projects.
I know it's low and it doesn't sound exciting, but if you don't have any experience, your priority should be gaining experience and building your portfolio as fast as you can, not to like make six figures overnight.
And the biggest challenge with service-based businesses isn't actually the skill, even though most people think that way, it's consistently finding clients.
And for that, you have two main options.
The first one is networking, where you directly reach out to potential clients and build relationships.
That could be DMs, emails or maybe word of mouth.
And the second one is content marketing, which is creating strategy content that showcases your work and where you try to reach to your potential clients through content.
The, if my service is good enough, customers will find the mic set is a completely myth and it's outdated.
So for service providers, you don't need to become a full on content creator with the fakes everywhere, but you need to showcase your work.
Because otherwise, where the hell will people find you?
I get hundreds of DMs every day and I want to give you a quick tip on cold outreach.
The people that I actually hired didn't message me saying like I love your videos, I can 10x your views by re-editing them, or something like that.
Instead, they re-edited my existing videos posted on social media and tagged me instead of saying do you want to see my work?
Or DMs.
Or like they rewrote part of my landing page and explained what they did differently.
So you have to be different with your approach. to send out from crowd.
And the people that I've hired so far showed me their work instead of just like talking about it and asking for permission.
Like just send it.
The startup costs are quite minimal, like zero to $500.
All you need is a computer plus free learning services.
And you might invest in basic software, but many beginners like start with free ones.
Usually within three to four months.
If you're already actively and very reaching out to clients, usually like junior freelancers, either get a part-time job and they can get their like 4000 that way, or they complete like 10 to 20 small projects.
The second category is product-based businesses, which offer more scalability but require different resources upfront compared to the service-based ones.
And basically, there are two main types.
The first one is physical products.
You ship things to the customers.
And the second one is digital products, which are downloadable items, courses, or software.
Product businesses have higher scalability because they're not directly tied to your time.
Once you create them, you can sell the same product repeatedly without additional work.
Digital products like templates, e-books or courses have higher profit margins because there are no production costs or you don't need to keep like them in a store or something.
And for physical products, on 2025, print on demand has the lowest entry point.
You design products like t-shirts or mugs and they are printed and shipped only when a customer orders.
There's no inventory risk, but profit margins are lower and competition just higher because it's so easy to get started And for any product you offer, you'll need a professional looking website to sell it right.
But especially if you're a beginner.
It takes time, money and also you need to learn the skills to build a website.
So to solve this issue, I want to recommend Build Your Store AI, especially for beginners.
Not only it's free, but also the entire process is streamlined and it's super easy to go from nothing to be ready to sell your products online.
Let me show you how it works.
So first you register and select a niche that is relevant to you and set up Shopify with their basic plan.
And the good thing is that it's just like $1 per month for the first three months.
So you only need like $3.
And after installing the Build Your Store app, their AI builds your entire online store with a single click.
For product sourcing and fulfillment, which is often the most time consuming part.
You can integrate with O2DS for only 1 again for the first 30 days, which basically means like you don't have to manually handle order or inventory.
Just for a dollar.
Your store comes fully optimized for mobile and it also includes features like bundle deals to increase your average order value.
And the best part is that you can have like everything up and running in just a few minutes and you don't really need to do much.
It's actually like crazy that now i can do all these things for us for such a low cost.
If you're just starting, you don't have to spend hours or a bunch of money to hire freelancers like for your first website.
You can launch a fully functional website using like build your store, and you don't need any capital or you don't need to spend a bunch of time.
You know you can first set up your first online store with it and as you grow, If you really need it, you can hire a freelancer.
But if you're just getting started, Build Your Store is perfect.
So if you want to get a free store built by AI, check out Build Your Store.
I have a link in the description below.
And thank you Build Your Store for partnering up for this video.
Whether you use a platform like Build Your Store, AI or create your own store, the key to success with products is finding the right product and marketing it effectively.
A great example would be Oliver Bercato I guess that's how you pronounce it who started selling like unique chocolates.
And I'll come to what kind of chocolates, search them online because... i don't want to get demonetized and he generated over like 11 million dollars in sales through tiktok and the idea was pretty good but the marketing was what made a difference as he also explains in like different podcasts you can watch it you absolutely must have a marketing strategy i'm saying this again and again about spread that's very important and for product-based businesses Your approach needs to align with your product type.
So let's say like you're selling low ticket visible products.
Low tickets, basically like more cheaper items or affordable items, I'd say.
Marketing them on short form on TikTok, Instagram is good.
For digital products, short form content, Twitter and YouTube is quite nice.
For high tickets products.
YouTube works best because you need to establish depth and build a relationship on high ticket products.
For additional products.
You are looking around like 0 to 300, which covers your website setup and possibly some software and also some learning material to create your first products.
If you're going the print on demand route, expect to invest between 100 to 500, which includes your website, basic design software and maybe a little bit of ads to test your products and also to get some samples.
For digital products, you're typically looking at like four to six months, which includes time for developing your product and getting your initial marketing off the ground.
With credit on demand.
It's usually around like, I think, five to six months, as far as I've seen, unless you already have an existing audience or a decent ad budget to accelerate your growth.
To be honest, when it comes to these kind of things, especially with product-based businesses, the timeline is highly dependent on your marketing skills.
Because someone with a strong social media skills might hit their first thousand dollars in their first month.
While if you're a complete beginner, it might take much longer to gain traction if you don't know anything about marketing.
Like, for example, with my own digital product, my Kaizen Notion template for ADHD brains.
We hit like 10K in the first day.
But that's because I already had a huge following.
Even though I knew like a lot about marketing, the main thing that came from my content push.
The third category is content-based businesses, which is actually my personal business model, or I would say like my main business model.
So how it works is that you create valuable content around specific topics and you monetize it through ad revenue, which is basically the money that you get from views, and then brand partnerships and sponsorships, your own products and services and affiliate marketing.
The honest truth is that content businesses typically take longest to learn size.
Like I'm going to be completely honest with that, okay?
But have the highest ceiling for growth and offer incredible flexibility.
And now a question that I always get asked is that can anyone build a successful content business in 2020?
Bye.
I actually don't think so.
And I want to be, like, completely honest and transparent about this.
Because, like as someone who goes on YouTube since 2016 and only started to see growth after four years of failure, I think, like in 2025, successful content creators need much more than just consistency.
They need a genuine, unique selling proposition.
Basically, what makes you different.
It could be a specialized knowledge in an area, or maybe you need perspective or an ability to explain complex topics differently simply, or maybe your personality, you know those could be what makes you unique.
You also need to understand the business side of content creation, like analytics, audience growth and monetization strategies.
And many people can though, borrow once or twice, but the hardest part is sustaining it and making it a consistent revenue.
Each platform has like different strengths.
For example, in my opinion, YouTube is best for building deep connections and teaching complex topics, because you have more length and depth there.
TikTok and Instagram have the highest growth potential.
It's easier to go viral there, in my opinion.
And Twitter works well if you're more like a writer.
Personally, I'm biased towards YouTube being the best platform because you can always repurpose long-form content into short-form, but you can't do the other way around.
The startup cost would be $0 to $100 depending on your content type.
Like you don't really need an expensive gear to start.
A good microphone like DJI Osmo Mark II and a decent camera would be great if your phone is old.
If your phone is new and you have storage and phones, if your phones could be fine in my opinion.
The what ladders is really the audio quality.
If you are a complete beginner, I would say to get ad revenue in six to 12 plus months.
Brand deals, six to eight months.
Once you build like a small but engaged audience, you can actually get sponsorships faster than you expect.
And a few day marketing.
I would say six to eight months can be faster with the right niche or right product.
And yes, the initial period is brutal because you'll need to create collagen without immediate financial return with content creation businesses.
But you're investing in your business and playing the long game.
Because like getting traction and getting leads is the hardest part.
Most people struggle with.
It's not the product or it's not anything.
It's the leads.
That's why, like brands, spend millions and millions of ads, influencers and creators every single year.
You know, and for those interested in starting a youtube channel, i actually have a free, comprehensive youtube guide that walks you through the entire process, from choosing your niche to optimizing your videos for growth, and also helps you understand what makes you unique and your strengths.
It covers like how to write scripts, how to come up with ideas, etc etc.
So i'll link in the description below.
It's completely free.
Check it out.
So which model is right for you?
If you need immediate cash.
In my opinion, service-based processes sale like identify one marketable skill, apply a firm to your positions, start creating content about your service and gradually increase your rate as your skills improve.
That's like what i would do.
And if you want better scalability, product businesses over best bet, especially like digital products with great marketing and you can use tools like go to store ai to get started quickly with minimal investment.
And if you're fine with a slower start but want long-term revenue and a personal brand, I would say choose content creation.
That's what I did.
I focused on building my audience and bringing value, before I accepted sponsors or developed my own products.
And after I got sponsors, I reinvested that money to develop my own services and products.
At the end of the day, I'm doing all three business models now.
You know the product service and product creation business.
I started with content and built my audience and created my digital products.
And now I also offer coaching services for those who want to grow their channel.
They like work all beautifully together.
One kind of like a reminder is that, whichever business you take, this isn't about building a quick side hustle.
It's about building a real business that can grow and eventually provide you with freedom and meaningful income.
And there will be challenges at dealers.
But if you're willing to push through those moments, building your own business in 2025 is absolutely possible.
Like no one believed me back in 2016, but I built it after four years.
If you found this video valuable and are interested in how to utilize YouTube for content creation and product sales, I have a free YouTube guide with everything you need to get started.
The link is in the description box.
If you find this video valuable, I'm sure you'll find this video valuable too.
See you soon.
