7 Businesses You Can Build from Scratch : Are you giving serious thought to starting your own business, or even a brand-new career working for someone else, but aren’t sure what’s out there? The good news is that there’s plenty of room for just about any idea and you can go solo or take on the challenge of entrepreneurship with one or more partners. Likewise, people with accounting, transportation, and finance skills are always in high demand.

Of the thousands of fields, categories, and sub-niches available, the following seven are among the most popular as of the early 2020s. Some require specialized degrees while others call for a year of two of direct experience in the given discipline. The descriptions below should be enough to give you a taste of what the seven jobs or startups encompass. After deciding which ones appear likewise career paths for you, do some additional research before making a final selection.

E-Commerce Retailer

You won’t need a degree or any experience to start an online retail store, but it helps if you’ve got a background in sales or marketing. The centerpiece of e-commerce selling is smart advertising and promotion. Competition is stiff, and merchants who know how to use social media, paid ads, discussion forums, and special events to move goods have the best chance of doing well. In the beginning, consider spending a lot of time researching the market to see what the current best-selling items are, how they’re being presented, and which areas seem to lack a wide array of offerings. Preliminary study will tell you what kind of goods to offer and give you an idea of how long it will take to turn a profit.

Fleet Manager

Most fleet managers in the transport industry begin as drivers, which is probably the best way to acquire a full understanding of the kinds of challenges trucking companies face in a highly competitive business environment. Fleet management entails numerous skills, particularly the ability to deal with others, plan ahead, and pay close attention to detail. It’s common for transport companies to hire fleet managers from within, particularly among the driving teams. If you like life on the road and are ready to use a driving job as a stepping stone to fleet management, take the time to review an online guide to see if long-haul trucking would be a good fit for you.

CRM Expert

Customer relationship management (CRM) is perhaps the most vital tool available to anyone who sells anything online. Even brick-and-mortar retailers collect enough client data to do in-depth analysis about buyers’ habits, needs, communications, and complaints. Indeed, the best CRM apps and programs do an excellent job of maintaining and using nearly every piece of information they can assemble about each buyer. As a CRM expert, you’ll need to know the current software training and products inside and out. It helps to have a college degree in business with a major in marketing. If you don’t, it’s still possible to leverage any knowledge or on the job experience you have with CRM. Most of your first clients will be startups and small entrepreneurs who have no idea how to install or operate basic, off the shelf CRM programs.

Art Dealer

In a high-tech marketplace where virtually, every business is a national one, the field of fine art has exploded. But what artists lack is business acumen, and that’s where art dealers, or fine art consultants, come in. Your job as a dealer is not to be an expert in painting, sculpture, or any other of the fine arts. It’s to know the marketplace. Dealers spend the bulk of their time trying to find buyers for the artworks created by their clients. Much the same way car dealers earn a profit on every vehicle they sell, people in this profession work on a 100 percent commission basis as independent contractors.

Credit Counseling

Easy credit might be a generally bad thing for the economy and for millions of consumers who find themselves awash in high-interest debt. Ironically, it’s a very good thing for professional credit counselors. Often the last stop for troubled folks who are considering bankruptcy, your job is to help them avoid that drastic step and to help them make a realistic plan for getting out of trouble. You don’t need a college degree to work as a credit counselor, but you’ll attract more clients if you have either an accounting or finance diploma from a four-year college. There are several online training courses that teach the core concepts for building a successful credit counseling practice. No matter how you learn the basics, it’s essential to acquire solid communication and negotiating skills in order to deal with a wide variety of clients and the creditors to whom they owe money.

Business Tax Consultant

With the recent uptick in solo and at-home businesses, demand is high for professionals who can prepare accurate tax returns for owners and entrepreneurs. Unlike the personal tax prep niche, business preparers work year-round because most of their clients are required to file a return four times per year. Another aspect of the job that keeps demand up is the fact that business returns are much more complex than personal ones, take longer to complete, and often entail murky legal principles that call for the expertise of a full-time consultant.

Vehicle-Finding Service

Car finding services have been around for decades, but the practice has moved into high gear (no pun intended) in the digital age. Nowadays, practitioners can work the entire national market, not just their hometown region. If you already have a broad knowledge of the automotive market, that’s a big plus. If you don’t, spend several weeks learning what the hot sellers are in both new and used niches. After that, your main effort will be advertising your new service and getting those first few customers. Locally targeted, online advertising will serve you well in this regard. And it never hurts to begin building relationships with several of the large dealerships so you’ll be ready to make deals for your customers.