Retirement Business Ideas: 20 Ways to Financial Freedom as a Retiree

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If you’re seeking the best retirement business ideas, then you’ve landed on the right content.

This post covered businesses that require low capital to start. Therefore, it doesn’t matter if you retired without much capital in the bank.

Let’s get to it.

1. Grocery Sales

If you can contend with dealing with staff and customers then this is one of the best retirement business ideas for you.

You can use your retirement benefit to set up a grocery store within your neighborhood and make quick money. Interestingly, starting a grocery store does not require much to start. Finally, since there is always room to grow, you can always start small and scale up.

2. Explore Your Expertise

The best way to start any business is to start from what you’re already good at. Prior to retiring, there could be things that you’re already good at. This could be painting, craft making, or event photography. You could leverage this to start a business after retirement. For example, if you’re good at craft making, you could make crafts and sell them off at Etsy.

3. Buy a Franchise

Being a retiree means that you’ve worked for years and have saved up some amount of cash. Instead of trying to figure out the best business to start, why not buy into an already successful one. In addition, being a franchisee means that you are getting an all-in-one package. Finally, with a franchise, you’ll get a business with an existing customer base.

4. Podcast

You must have gathered lots of experiences all through your years of being in active service. That could serve as a niche idea towards starting a podcast. Moreover, it could even be a podcast in the industry you retired from. People who are still in the profession can become your loyal streamers so that they can learn from a veteran in the game.

SEE: How to Make Money with Podcast

5. Day Care

This is one of the retirement business ideas that will sit down well with female retirees. Instead of sitting idle at home, you can use the opportunity to set up a daycare service. However, this business is mainly for those with a love for children. In addition, patience is needed in order to thrive in this business. Note that your duty will mainly be looking after kids while their parents are away at work.

6. Tour Guide

What better way to make money from knowing the history of your city than being a tour guide? As a tour guide, you’ll be required to conduct tourist around places of interest in your city. However, this role necessitates that you are sound when it comes to knowledge of your city’s history and culture. In addition, you must have a means of being mobile. You can get clients by partnering with travel agencies.

SEE: How to Make Money as a Tour Guide

7. Property Management

You could decide to be a property manager where you’ll be helping other people to either lease or rent their unoccupied property. As a property manager, you’ll oversee the day-to-day operation of the property.

Furthermore, the property involved could either be residential or commercial. In addition, this is one of the retirement business ideas that come with the opportunity of rent-free living. This is due to the fact that one of the benefits of being a property manager is being able to live in a portion of the apartment for free, especially if it is a residential property.

SEE: How to Make Money With Investment Properties

8. Blogging

Except otherwise stated, this should be one of the most profitable retirement business ideas on this list. In addition, this business idea is not gender-sensitive. If you decide to go this route, you’ll be providing useful information to people through your blog. Moreover, the key to profitability is being able to choose a niche with lots of interests. Finally, affiliate marketing, Google AdSense, and sponsored posts are some of the ways of monetizing your blog.

9. Create an Online Course

If you are lucky to have retired from a profession that has a general appeal coupled with a pain point, then you’re in for a big payday. It thus means that you can leverage your experience over the years and turn it into an online course. In addition, this is one of the retirement business ideas that yield passive income. For example, if you are a retired gynecologist, an online course on preventing infertility will sell.

SEE: How to create an online course like a professional

10. Ecommerce

Are you looking to sell physical products but don’t want to border yourself with stocking inventories? Then it is best to go the eCommerce route. While starting an eCommerce business is profitable, however, a large part of your revenue will go into marketing. You can source for the products to sell on sites like Alibaba or Aliexpress. This business will require you to have a good knowledge of how to run Facebook ads.

SEE: Top dropshipping companies for your eCommerce business

11. Buy a Business

Instead of starting from scratch, you could decide to buy an existing business and scale it up. This means that you’ll be buying all the processes of the business and its assets. Moreover, the major downside to this business is that it requires lots of money to get started. It is important that you buy a business that resonates well with your dreams and aspiration.

12. Poultry Farming

There are several reasons why poultry farming is a viable business. However, poultry meat and egg are two products from poultry farming that will make you money. If you have enough space, you can run this business from your home. Alternatively, you could buy or lease a piece of land and set up this business. However, it is important to know that this business will take a substantial amount of capital to get started.

SEE: How‌ ‌to‌ ‌Make‌ ‌Money‌ ‌With‌ ‌Farm‌ Animals

13. Freelancing Business

If you fancy work-from-home opportunities, then you’d like the idea of being a freelancer. As a freelancer, you’ll be working on certain outsourced gigs. The beauty of this retirement business idea is that it will give you the opportunity to work at your pace. In addition, you’ll get to work from anywhere in the world as well. Note that the amount you’ll earn will be dependent on the complexity of your skill.

SEE: How to become a freelance writer

14. Be a Landlord

Looking for a passive and recurrent income with just a one-time investment, then it’s owning a rental property. Note that you’ll have to invest a large chunk of money up front to pay for the property, except you’ll be financing it through a bank loan. However, once you have the property, you can put it up for rent and collect rent yearly.

15. Website Design

If you have some tech skills up your sleeves, this is one of the retirement business ideas that pay well. The premise for this is the fact that virtually every piece of information online is hosted on a website. As such, web designers will always be in demand. In addition, this job can be done remotely. And the best part is that you can get started with this business even though you may not have any prior knowledge. There are videos on YouTube that can take you from beginner to advance in web design.

SEE: How to make money with web design

16. Pet Sitting

If you love animals, it could be a means of earning some extra money while working from home. There are people who may be embarking on a journey and will decide not to go with their pet. However, rather than keeping the pet at home all alone, they’ll look for a pet sitter and commit their pet to such. Note that while at this, you’ll be performing some owner’s duties. These include feeding, bathing, and cleaning poo.

SEE: How to Make Money With Pet Grooming

17. Consulting

One major advantage of building a career in life is that the knowledge gathered can be leveraged for multiple purposes. Therefore, if you retired from a professional career, with further training programs, you’ll be certified as a consultant. For example, a retired police officer can transition into being a security consultant. On the other hand, a retired medical doctor can serve as a health consultant. It’s worth noting, though, that in some sectors, a license is required.

18. Virtual Assistant

Think of not wanting to start a business, but being good at assisting others? Then being a virtual assistant is an option you should explore. Similar to being a freelancer, you’ll be assisting businesses to carry out certain tasks, but this will be done over the internet. Businesses tend to lean towards hiring virtual assistants as a way of cutting down on costs.

SEE: How to earn a full-time income as a virtual assistant

19. Being an Angel Investor

What if you don’t like the idea of starting a business but rather sponsoring the idea of others? Then being an angel investor is the best way to go. If you are thinking of being an angel investor, it then means that you’ve saved up lots of cash. While this is a risky idea that may not turn out well, however, if the business you’re supporting turns out to be successful, then you’ll be earning royalties for life. Finally, before making any angel investment, it is best to set out the terms and conditions straight from the beginning.

20. Life Coach

There are lots of teens, youths, and young adults who are facing lots of challenges in their lives. In addition, these sets of people want direction in life. Conversely, as a retiree, you’ve already passed through such situations before and you’re now better experienced to proffer advice.

Note that this business requires you to be a keeper of secrets. This is because being a life coach is one of the retirement business ideas that will expose you to people’s inner life.

SEE: How to Make Money as a Life Coach

FAQs

What do you do when you retire with no money?

When you retire with no money, then the best thing to do is to offer services and get paid for them. This way, you’ll be exchanging your time for money. After saving up some cash, you can then start the business of your choice.

What should you do one year before retirement?

Prior to retiring, it is best to plan ahead and see if you’ve saved up enough to cater to your needs after retiring. If otherwise is the case, then it’s time to start planning on the best business to start after retiring.

What is the best retirement business to start?

The best retirement business to start is that which does not take up much of your time. In addition, it should not also require much capital to get started. Finally, it should be within your skillset.

Where should you invest your retirement income?

Your retirement income should be invested in a business that will continue to earn you money without much effort. Hence, if you’ve saved up enough amount of cash, it is best to put it into a commercial or residential property.

Conclusion

If you’ve read thus far, you’ve most likely decided on the best retirement business idea to start. However, my candid advice is to put your money into a business that will not take up much cash.

Thus, if you fancy earning recurring income, then start by investing your money into rental properties. Conversely, if you’ve not saved up a lot of cash, you can opt to go the blogging route. This is because it doesn’t cost much to start a blog.

Finally, I’d like you to check out this article on the best businesses to start with $20k. It will bring you to a plethora of options that require little investment to get started.

Thanks for reading.