India is inching towards becoming an economic powerhouse. Business opportunities are thriving. Much of that is thanks to spirited entrepreneurs who are taking the world by storm and adding millions to the economy. The hinterland of India is buzzing with opportunities and several entrepreneurs are looking for Small Business Ideas for Rural areas in India.
Needless to say, entrepreneurs are not limited to the cities- in villages too, there are many who are looking for the right opportunities.
So, if you want to be a rural entrepreneur, here are some small business ideas for rural areas in India- as given by renowned experts.
People who have lived in a small community today can access the entire world with just a touch on their phones.
If you have a profitable business idea, you can set up a successful business on a small scale that will give you good returns.
So, let us check out some business ideas that aspiring entrepreneurs in small towns and rural areas can try to turn into reality.
Local composting removal service – Business ideas for a small village in India
Lack of proper waste management has emerged as a big issue today. Compost Removal services can be a very profitable business in small towns and big cities alike.
“Rural entrepreneurs may start their own local composting removal service as many rural properties use composts in their yards to get rid of food scraps. This is a great way for homeowners to lower the garbage that they need to dispose of, and also a great way to create new soil for planting season. However, a major issue that some homeowners in rural areas have is that they don’t have places to dispose of their compost or a way to get rid of the extra dirt.
Such a business idea would cater to that problem by providing people with a way to remove old compost and extra dirt they have for free, instead of them dealing with it themselves. You could then sell the extra dirt you get or set up an area to dump all the collected composts so you can create new healthy dirt to sell back to the community,” William Taylor, Career Development Manager, VelvetJobs.
Innovations in Farming- Best Village business ideas in India
Farming is going through many changes. Today, demand is growing for organic foods, and many people are now taking up organic farming. You can try selling your organic produce online.
“It’s honestly hard to suggest a specific kind of business model. Just like anywhere else, it all boils down to what the people’s needs are. At the end of the day, when it comes to business, in order for it to succeed, you have to look into the needs, and slowly develop solutions for those needs based on what’s easily available. I believe most people living in the rural parts of India though still make a living through farming.
Business-minded people may want to consider looking into what are the needs or innovations needed when it comes to farming to make it even more successful. Perhaps making it more accessible to people in urban areas by making their crops available online? That’s one example to look into,” says Pratibha Vuppuluri, Chief Blogger She Started It!
Start small with farming – Best Business ideas in rural areas in India
“Usually, due to limited budget farmers are unable to purchase modern farming tools and equipment. If you have enough funds, you can invest and rent tools like tillers, rotavators and similar. I would start small, with staple items that would provide me cash flow I would need for further expansion,” says Peter Koch, Dollar Sanity.
Agarbattis and Paper cups – Business ideas for rural areas
We use agarbattis or incense sticks and paper cups every day- all across the country. They are easy to make and count among the best small business ideas for rural areas in India.
“Agarbatti is something that most Indians like to burn during religious ceremonies. Making it available to the local village is a great way to earn an income. In general, producing items that are scarce but practical on a day-to-day basis works well for businesses in Indian villages.
Making paper cups is a good example. The demand for that is steadily rising in both villages and cities because the world is getting more environmentally conscious. So making paper goods- especially paper cups- counts among the best business ideas for rural India.
Other interesting business opportunities include making lemonade, children’s clothing, leather belts, or packaging drinking water, ” says Jack Choros, Content Marketing Expert Iron Monk.
Jute is the answer! – Village Business ideas in India
“Last year India, one of the world’s leading plastic polluters, made a huge breakthrough by introducing bio-degradable plastic made of jute. This is exciting news for the local economy in India since it can be grown just about everywhere in the country. India could become one of the world’s largest exporters of jute, which research suggests has the potential to replace millions of tonnes of plastic in the next few years.
So I would recommend opening businesses in rural India centered on jute plantation and production since there is a huge market potential there. Whether it’s planting the jute or producing bio-degradable bags out of it, I would suggest investing as soon as possible. If jute is indeed the new plastic gold you can anticipate that many foreign companies will try and establish a presence in rural India to join the gold rush.
Going for making jute goods is one of the best business ideas for rural India. There is big money to be made there, and jute is an excellent place to invest in the future of India.
Also, last year on October 2nd, 2019, which was coincidentally Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, India started phasing out plastic in favor of jute. This includes a ban on common plastic items such as cups, straws, bags and small bottles in over 24 states in India. The government plans to completely replace plastic with jute by 2020,” says Casper Ohm, Editor-in-Chief Water-pollution.org.uk.
Tourism, education, insurance and logistics – Small Business Ideas for Rural areas in India
Not many people think of insurance when they think of small business ideas for rural areas in India. But the thing is- farmers need insurance. This is a great opportunity that enterprising people can look into.
“Village tourism: Wherein, villagers promote their village and show to the others about the life and way of living there. They involve tourists in their daily lives – and let them experience the way life is levied in a village.
School for preparing for entrance level examinations: Most young people in villages tend to go for higher studies in cities, and hence have to write entrance examinations. A school focused on preparing students for the same, can benefit a lot of young people. Such schools can be opened in other fields also – e.g., teaching the English language.
Insurance retailer: For the protection of crops, and other agricultural output, which faces the risk of weather dependencies, rains, and other natural calamities such as a fire. For a nominal amount, if insurance can be provided to the farmers, it can help them a lot in case of a natural disaster.
Last-mile delivery for eCommerce companies: Wherein, an entrepreneur opens up a logistics channel, for the last mile delivery of goods bought through online e-commerce websites. It is expensive for e-commerce websites to deliver to interior villages. And if an entrepreneur can service a group of villages, it will benefit both the e-commerce company as well as the villages. And the entrepreneur can earn money on each delivery made,” says Saurabh Jindal, CEO of Talk Travel App.
Women can start their own rural marketing agency – Rural Business Ideas
“Women can start their own rural marketing agency. Many marketing agencies specialize in reaching people in big cities, online, or through places like TV or billboards. But there are not many people that specialize in targeting strictly rural communities. That is where women could come in and start a side business that specializes in marketing to people in the rural community. They could charge other cohttps://www.brandloom.com/small-business-ideas-for-womenmpanies a fee per lead or a fee for the service done, and their company would go door to door to market the services or products of their client,” says William Taylor, Career Development Manager VelvetJobs.
for more Small Business Ideas For Women in India
Eco-friendly beauty businesses – Small business ideas for rural areas
“Women in rural areas may want to consider putting up businesses that are eco-friendly and has something to do with beauty. They may consider soap-making made of eco-friendly, natural ingredients. They may also consider developing other beauty products or home products that are made from locally accessible or locally sourced materials. It’s actually hitting two birds with one stone — promoting a good quality product and promoting the locality as well,” says Pratibha Vuppuluri, Chief Blogger She Started It!
Day and night biz – Small Business Ideas for Rural areas in India
“The good thing about starting a business in a rural area is its exclusivity, although to some big business in urban or big cities-this can be a risk to start a business. Most rural areas have centralized markets which can be a great venue to start a small business and making it grow and expand in time. In starting a business, if your town or village is small enough, merging 2 businesses may be a good hit.
You might consider having a cafe restaurant in the day time and the same business at night turning it into a bar. This may be a chill-out place or a coffee station from 10 in the morning until 6 in the evening, then you can start offering drinks and turn it into a bar onwards (serves wine and beer), ” says Leonard AngAng, Writer Enko Products.
Bake and upcycle! – Business ideas in Rural India
Who doesn’t like sweet stuff? Be it locally made ice creams, cakes, or other sweets- you can easily start a baking business. Similarly, you can make innovative items from discarded stuff. You can just collect things that people throw away and turn them into interesting products. Not only does this make sourcing raw materials cheap, but also takes care of waste management in an area.
Leonard also says, “Study shows that starting a Bakery beside a small grocery store can be a great starter in a small village. This is a potential small town/village needs. Although this may require hard work most of the time, this is a great venue to connect to your community. As you go along, you can hold classes to share your expertise in your village. The idea is to earn and to educate your girls/people to also take part in your business and start their own.
You can also consider making use of recycled products to come up with something useful like plastic pots and flower decorations made of used bottles and tin cans. In a modern world, we badly need to come up with great ideas where we can minimize garbage in the area and we can earn from it and start a good business. In some rural areas, they’ve started building houses made of used plastic bottles as an alternative for cement blocks.
There are actually a lot of good business starters in a small community or in villages, you just have to consider and assess what really the community needs and start from there. This can also help nearby villages to cater to their needs and surely it will not just uplift the morale of the community but also to start a livelihood for women with great skills and creative ideas.”
Door to door sales- business ideas for rural areas in India
“Indian FMCG companies including Amul, Hindustan Unilever, and Marico have in recent years established and expanded efforts to hire and train local women as door-to-door salespeople in rural areas. These women can become micro-entrepreneurs by earning commissions on sales of products, especially smaller-volume packets known as sachets (a.k.a. low unit packs), containing everything from shampoo to snacks, that are designed to make daily necessities affordable for lower-income rural communities. Based on our research, sachets account for over one-third of all FMCG sales in India,” says Andrei Stetsenko, Co-managing PartnerFarley Capital LP.
Homemade food, clothes and jewellery – Business startup ideas in Rural areas
“Rural women entrepreneurs who live in villages, actually have an advantage when it comes to being successful in business. This is because people love authentic, handmade, and organic items. For example, if they live in India, they can make Samosa, Kachori, Pakora, Vada pav, Punugulu, Panipuri, and Bhaji snacks right in their kitchen. Of course, this is only if they have the ingredients available. They can also sell these items within the local village or nearby markets. Another business idea that rural women entrepreneurs can make and sell is homemade clothes and jewellery. They can also form partnerships with local manufacturers to sell their items on a larger scale,” says K.T. Redwine, Author, Servant Leader, and Speaker Kate by Faith.
Make Natural Soaps – Best business ideas in village
Think of how popular hand-made soaps have become nowadays. Making natural beauty products presents a lucrative opportunity, and you can easily start this business by procuring fresh ingredients locally.
“In the past few years, women have turned towards organic cosmetic and all-natural skincare products. This trend is ideal for women who live in rural areas since they have access to natural ingredients. For instance, soaps made of goat milk are rather easy to make, yet very popular. Women can find a variety of recipes online and start experimenting. Plus, they can slowly develop their business without a lot of investment. At some point, these soaps will have to be licensed, but these regulations vary between countries,” says Jovan Milenkovic, Co-founder KommandoTech.
Embroidery, crochet and food- Business ideas in Rural Areas
“The women in the village are stronger and can manage the double workload more efficiently. I will suggest a few simple Businesses which need very less investment and can give you a good return. Find some avenues or gap areas that people in the cities are struggling with and try to put a little effort to fill in the gap. The urban lifestyle relies upon the readymade stuff in every department, and rural women can build a bridge in between.
The village women usually are well aware of the crochet and embroidery techniques. A little bit of improvement can be made by taking guidelines from the internet to create sophisticated designs. These items can be sold easily by running simple social media campaigns. Homemade food can be delivered to parties and offices. During festivals, sweets are a hot favourite, look at filling the gap by making authentic items. Keep your price a little competitive for the quality you might want to offer,” says Shiyan Gong, CEO ailaw .
Conclusion
Most small business ideas for rural areas in India do not require a lot of investment. Entrepreneurs can, in fact, look at how they can utilize available resources judiciously to make products that are in demand. Remember, the demand for these products not only exists in villages- but all over. So think carefully about what you can do, and what is in demand- and work on your idea accordingly.
With technology permeating every part of our lives, rural entrepreneurs can also reach out to the entire world. All you need is a good website and an online store. You can even sell via Facebook or other social media platforms.
So, here is a roundup of the best business ideas for rural India. Can you think of other such ideas? We will be happy to hear from you!
