Last Updated on September 6, 2022
This list includes lucrative businesses you can start or invest in, in California. You can also read about small business ideas in Virginia, UK, Germany, Australia, and Canada.
There are lots of small business ideas and opportunities in California. So if you live in California or you intend to relocate with the purpose of starting a small business in California, then it might interest you to go through this article as you will learn about some of the most lucrative business ideas in California that you can start.
Table of Contents
25 Lucrative Business Ideas In California
1. Photography
If you have the skills and a good camera, you can start a business taking pictures of others. You can start by showcasing your photography skills with a good portfolio or do some voluntary photography at various weddings and corporate events to get noticed.
2. Boutique
Boutiques are good businesses for anyone who has an eye for clothes. You can open a store where you retail clothes. You can equally open a consignment store if you reside in a not-so-wealthy neighborhood
3. Data Analysis
One business idea that you can start small in California but can earn you a lot of income is data mining and analysis. If you can learn the ropes, you can earn a lot of money by offering this service on freelancing platforms.
4. Gift store
Granted, there are many gift shops already in the state, but there is still room for new players in the trade. Though the business might be somewhat seasonal, with profits spiking during the Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Valentine’s, and other festive periods, an encouraging volume of sales can be made all year round.
5. Auto Repair
California has a lot of automobiles running on the road, and this presents a great business for someone who is technically inclined and knows a lot about cars. You can choose to repair a particular brand of car that you are familiar with. Alternatively, you can sell auto parts from different vehicle manufacturers and still make a profit from it.
6. Importing
No country is self-sufficient, even California. You can look for a product or produce that may still be experiencing some scarcity in the market and start importing it to supplement the country’s supply. It is true that you can start this business on a small scale, but you need to get a lot of licenses and permits before you start this business.
7. In-home care for seniors
For many seniors, living at home for long as possible is a priority, but the natural aging process can make that difficult over time. You can start a small business in California where you provide care for seniors directly in their homes. You need to have assistants who would visit these seniors at home in order to cook, clean, do laundry, help them shop for grocery amongst other things.
8. Fitness center
With the frightening rise in the rate of obesity in the state, a fitness center is a good business to set up anywhere. If you aim to have all the equipment needed to start a standard fitness center, you may run into financial difficulties, so you should start small with just the basics, and offer your services to your neighborhood for the time being. You can even start from your garage if you have a sizable one, but ensure that you adequately publicize your fitness center so that you can gain enough membership to help you expand the business.
9. Medical staffing
Medical staffing companies supply health care professionals such as nurses and therapists, to health care organizations, such as hospitals or nursing home facilities. This is a good business to start in California as there are a lot of medical and health facilities there, and these organizations would be needing staff from time to time.
10. Providing pet boarding, grooming and day care services
If you are an animal lover, you can open a resort where you can provide boarding, grooming and daycare services for pets.
11. Healthful Quick serve restaurant
Californians are always health conscious, so if you can open a quick serve restaurant that focuses on serving only healthy food, then your restaurant would sure carve a niche for itself in the growing market. You would need moderate start up capital to for this business, but it would pay you in the future.
12. Hair Salon
Women would always need to look good, that is almost like a basic need. The good thing about starting a hair salon is that the business can be started small and in any part of the state and the business would still get enough customers. Just ensure that you have enough skills in the trade and you would make profit in your small business.
13. Cleaning business
If you are quite comfortable with the mop and rag, then you could start a cleaning service. You can easily start your own cleaning business, or if you have saved up enough money, you could buy a cleaning franchise. You can focus on retail businesses and keep your customers clumped into one or two blocks. If you provide great services, it would serve as a mode of advertising for you because your customers will come by word of mouth.
14. Savings consultant service
A savings consultant helps clients accomplish financial objectives by assessing financial situations; developing and presenting financial strategies and plans; monitoring changes in financial status and life circumstances. California being an economically viable state, savings consultancy services are quite essential.
15. Cruise planning
Californians love to go on holiday at least once in a year, so you would make good income if you set up a business planning and arranging cruise trips for people.
16. Temporary staffing business
With all the new businesses cropping up in California, you can start a business that provides temporary staff for them. If you want to maximize profit, and you have training skills, you can choose to train the staff before you send them off to the requesting firm.
17. Private Security firm
Security is very essential in every state. One major factor that drives the private security industry is the inadequate distribution of law enforcement personnel, so individuals and companies are forced to hire private security personnel for things like event security and residential patrol. If you have some experience in this area, then you can decide to seek for licensing and open your own private security outfit.
18. Painting business
Can you paint? If you can, then you can open up a small business where you can offer painting services to people. You can run this business conveniently from your home and market your services to real estate developers and building remodelers.
19. Brow care
Are you a trained beauty therapist? you can decide to focus on giving people perfect brows. Brow care is actually a niche in the beauty industry that can net you good income.
20. Appliance repair shop
An appliance repair business repairs equipment and appliances that are used in the home and garden. The barrier to entry into this industry is very low and a majority of establishments in this industry are individuals who are running the business on their own. If you have the knowledge, you can start a business where you can repair appliances for people.
21. Coffee Shop
A lot of people love coffee, and would always stop over for freshly brewed coffee every once in a while. Setting up a coffee shop in a busy area will attract many customers during office break times and in the mornings. You can add donuts, pretzels or bagels etc as coffee accompaniment.
22. Rug and carpet cleaning
The cleaning service is doing good in California because most people do not have the time nor experience to do them by themselves. With little capital and a lot of experience, you can successfully start a rug and carpet cleaning business.
23. Recycling Business
A recycling facility engages in the recycling of materials such as plastic, paper and glass from waste locations. Once these materials have been separated and sorted, operators go ahead to refine them into usable products and then sell them to wholesalers as well as manufacturers. You can run a small recycling plant in California and where you can recycle either paper, plastic, metals or the likes.
24. Pizza place
Pizza is one snack that people love so much, and if you look at the history of prominent pizza houses, you would notice that they all started small. So you as well can start your own pizza place on a small scale and watch the business balloon in future if you take good care of it. You have to know though that you need to have some capital before you can start this business.
25. Tanning salon
Some people want to be brown all year long, and since the California climate cannot offer them that luxury, they tend to patronize tanning salons. Your customers here would be mostly young people.