Top 25 Realistic Small Business Ideas For Men

We found 25 small business ideas for men that you probably haven't heard about. You'll for sure find something on this list to make earn some extra money fast.

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure for more information.

Are you an ambitious millennial looking to earn extra income from home? If your answer is yes, I will share 25 home-based small business ideas for men in 2024.

Before you jump into the list. Be sure to keep this in mind when choosing what small business idea you want to pursue:

  • Go for profit over passion. Profit potential takes precedence over your own personal interest in a subject. Remember, you can always outsource your content and copy to someone who does know a lot about the topic.
  • Go for big, evergreen mass-market niches that always sell. I’ll explain why, and what these niches have in common.
  • Focus on solving a specific problem. “Getting in shape” is a broad niche. “How to get a six-pack in 6 weeks or less” is a specific problem.

Strapped for time? I've explained more about starting your own side hustle or small business in an interview with Cheddar which you can check out below.

I've also compiled a list of small business ideas for men (Check here for the women version) so that you can fatten your wallet this year. Certainly, there’s something here that can earn you some extra dough.

25 Small Business Ideas For Men

Be sure to bookmark this page as this side business ideas list will continue to grow! Without further delay gentlemen, let’s get started, here are the best small business ideas for men to make money:

1. Find Legitimate Online Jobs

If you wanted to find legit side small business ideas for men, why not consider online jobs that people are using now to make money on the side?

An estimated three percent of America’s workforce now consists of telecommuting employees or people who work from home, according to a survey conducted by FlexJobs.

How does an extra $1,000 a month sound? You can get there and discover the most lucrative online jobs and work from home jobs.

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2. Become an Airbnb Host

airbnbOwning a home can be pricey—sharing your place on Airbnb can help pay your rent and other bills.

If you have extra room in your house, you can make money hosting guests on Airbnb and earn up to $2,000 per month.

By becoming an Airbnb Host, you can start having your own weekend side hustle listing your home and open bedrooms to travelers looking to book through Airbnb.

With a little bit of traction, you can easily earn extra money that can go towards your rent or mortgage by hosting guests on Airbnb.

You can use the calculator below to see how much you can make this month as an Airbnb host.

3. Real Estate Investor

Wouldn’t it be great if you could invest in commercial real estate and apartments without dealing with all the hassle of buying, improving, and re-selling real estate?

You don’t have to be a millionaire to invest in these types of properties. You can now invest in large-scale real estate for as little as $10 with Fundrise.

Through their real estate investment products, investors earned an average of 8 – 11 percent on their money last year, and all without painting a wall or dealing with unruly tenants.

There is a reason why they currently have over 300,000+ users, this app really pays you!

Fundrise
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Make your money work for you with Fundrise! Start real estate investing with just $10—no need for big bucks to get in. Fundrise gives you access to funds built to grow your money steadily. It’s easy, affordable, and designed for your goals. Want to let your cash hustle for you? Fundrise has you covered.

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We earn a commission for this endorsement of Fundrise.

4. Get Paid to Read Books

Getting paid to read books sounds like a dream, but in fact, you could make $1,857 a month by reading and writing books online, according to Forbes.

If you wanted a slice of the pie, you can learn about ways you can get paid to read books. This small business idea just involves you and one of your favorite fiction, novel, science fiction, romance, crime or favorite money book.

5. Search Engine User

side hustleSwagbucks will pay you to simply use its search engine. You can use the earnings to supplement your small business. And, they will also give you $5 if you sign up through our Swagbucks $10 bonus link. So yup.  This is probably the easiest way to make money on this list.

Earn around $50 to $1,000 per year
Swagbucks
5.0
$10 welcome bonus

Swagbucks offers a variety of ways to earn money online. You can take surveys, play games, surf the web, watch videos and more to earn points towards gift cards or cash.

Start Earning Swagbucks Review

6. Get Paid to Play Games

side hustles

Of course, you know it's possible to get paid to play games online, especially this year.

I already knew that professional video game testers are getting paid to play video games but I was surprised to learn that they made on average around $49,063/yearly!

If you are interested in getting paid to play games then you can sign up for InboxDollars which pays you, in cash, to play paid games, watch fun videos, and take surveys.

get paid at inboxdollars playing games
If you sign up and claim the $5 sign up bonus (after verifying email) and fill out the user questionaire you'll already have $5.50 in your account. You can see your amount on the dashboard, which is exhilarating!

Plus, you can download the InboxDollars app to play games on the go. If you sign up before the end of this month, they also give you a $5 free bonus just to give it a try. By spending just 5-10 minutes per day on this (either on your lunch break or during TV commercial breaks) you can earn and earn an extra $50/month just by playing games. More people should be doing this!

$5 sign up bonus
InboxDollars
4.5

InboxDollars offers a variety of ways to earn money online. You can take surveys, play games, surf the web, watch videos and more to earn points towards gift cards.

Start Earning InboxDollars Review

7. Music Reviewer

side hustlesAll you need to do is listen to music and you can make money. Given how easy it is to lose yourself in a never-ending cycle of Spotify or Pandora, this one couldn’t be easier. The catch here? You have to review the music. So you literally get paid to review music for record companies before the music is released to the public. The payouts are great and for example, you will have to review a lot of music clips and get paid up to $200. This is one of the only survey companies that currently offer this. You can get a sign up bonus through this link.

$1.6M+ monthly payout to its members
Survey Junkie
4.5
Over $55,000 Paid to Survey Junkie members daily

Survey Junkie is one of the highest-paying survey sites available. Complete three or more surveys a day, and you can earn as much as $100 monthly. With $76 Million paid out to date, Survey Junkie is one of the best survey sites available.

Start Earning Survey Junkie Review

8. Teach English Online

Still wondering, about the best small business ideas for men? Well, have you considered teaching English online (pick your own hours too)? All that is required is that you are fluent in English, have a bachelor’s degree, and have some tutoring experience. This a great way to earn money from home and already 30,000+ use VIPKID to teach English from home.

You’ll make $12-$22 an hour, and Forbes ranked this company #1 on it’s 2017 “Top 100 Places Work From Home Companies” Since this is a legitimate way to make extra money, the application process pretty detailed.

With an opportunity to make $650 a month, just from one hour out of your day, may be worth looking it. You can learn more about teaching English online on VIPKID’s website.

9. Blogging

Starting a blog is easy. The hardest part is getting yourself to just do it. Once you create your blog, you’ll actively work towards growing it and it’ll grow to become a new passion or hobby you have in life and can make you money. After starting it, there are a ton of helpful sites and articles for newbies. You can start blogging as a complete amateur and you can get started initial set up done in under 20 minutes. It’s basically:

  1. Buy Hosting & Register Your Domain ($3.95/mo + free domain if you use this link).
  2. Next, you can do a one-click install of Wordpress, and then start writing away.
  3. Start bringing traffic to your blog by social media and networking.
  4. Once you have some traffic you can put Google ads on your blog and make money.
  5. Continue to build your blog and connect with other bloggers. It’s like it’s own awesome community.
Earn around $1,000 for every 30,000 page visits
BlueHost

You can start a blog for as cheap as $2.95 per month when you choose to host your blog on Bluehost which is the best web hosting provider if you want to start a self-hosted WordPress blog or site. Bluehost is one of the few web hosting companies recommended by WordPress.org to host self-hosted WordPress blogs.

Start a Blog

10. Lyft Driver

lyftIf you’re free nights and weekends, you can make money driving your fellow citizens around. You can make money by becoming a Lyft driver if you have a car, it’s a perfect way to make a good amount of extra money whenever it’s convenient for you. A lot of people do this full time, so you can imagine that’s it definitely possible to do this on the side and make $100 every day and be able to save it.

11. Deliver with Uber Eats

ubereats side hustleIf you’re free nights and weekends, you can earn extra money delivering food for fellow citizens around your city. It’s easy to deliver food with Uber Eats – if you have a car, it’s a perfect way to make a good amount of extra cash whenever it’s convenient for you.

A lot of people do this full time, so you can imagine that’s it definitely possible to do this on the side and make extra money by delivering food with Uber Eats, and be on your own schedule.

12. Freelancer

Fiverr is one of the best sites in the world. The basic premise is “what would you do for $5?” You’ll find everything from hilariously weird and useless gags to legitimate and genuinely helpful micro-business tasks.

Lately, I’ve been experimenting as a seller on Fiverr, and have found it a pretty successful avenue for selling website optimization services, article writing, slide template designs, and proofreading services.

Fiverr can work for you as both a seller and a buyer. It is a great way to make money and also you can find millions of services. The best $5 I’ve ever spent was using a Resume Revision service and now I receive way more employer callbacks now after the revisions. If you want to know which service I used, leave a comment below. If you want to try Fiverr, sign up through here for 20% off your first order at Fiverr.

13. Podcasting

If you can build an audience for your podcast, then you can make some money through sponsorships, affiliate advertising, and other offerings. Companies regularly pay $250 to $500 for a 30-second advertisement on podcasts. If you need help getting started you can refer to this podcasting guide.

There is money to be made with this side hustle. Alternatively, you can also use this guide to start your own blog (in 30 min or less).

14. Write eBooks

Are you a good writer? You could write an eBook on your topic of choice and sell it on Amazon, Payhip, Lulu, Smashwords, Kobo Writing Life, PubIt! and many other websites that start you out in your side hustle as a published eBook author.

15. Resume Writing Service

Learning to write an effective resume is not difficult, it just takes a little bit of time to master what keywords and phrases that appeal to each industry. Once you learn it then you can repeat the same process for each individual resume your write. Then you can start charging for your Resume & Cover Letter writing services on Fiverr.

16. Advertise on Your Car

This is some seriously passive income. Companies such as Carvertise will pay to put a wrap on your car, and then pay you to simply drive you regular routes with the advertisements on your car. You can get the right to say “no” to a particular ad you’re uncomfortable with the content of the ad. Most companies pay you between $100-$400 a month to advertise on your car. Not too bad.

17. Invest in Websites

Did you know the global SaaS industry is set to reach an impressive valuation of $117 billion by the end of 2020? Some people are finding ways to profit by building SaaS products or investing in websites.

We had an interview with a man who makes his money by investing in websites. Here’s a snippet from the interview when we asked him “How can you make money investing in websites rather than build your own?”

“Why not save the initial capital investment, and just build your own from scratch? One word: Time. Our most valuable resource, which many of us seemingly don’t show it the respect it deserves.

Skip the dull process of waiting months to earn your first dollar building up a website from scratch. Throw yourself in the deep end, lay down an initial investment, show your commitment to the journey, and watch the learning curve reduce exponentially.”

18. Sell Your Parking Space

Many houses, rentals, or other accommodation include a garage, driveway, or some form of a parking space. If you’re not making use of it at the moment, chances are there’s someone who could.

Better still, they’ll pay you for the privilege.

Just Park lets you ‘let’ your parking space to busy people who are tired of paying through the nose for daily parking. The busier your area, the more you’re likely to make.

19. Open Class Action Lawsuits

If you use a product that’s involved in a class-action lawsuit, a little online legwork could get you a cash payout. The rules of each settlement are different, but in most cases, you’ll have to provide proof of purchase or product use, like a serial number or a receipt. Once you fill out your online claim form, you may have to wait a few weeks or months before receiving your payment.

Psst — I regularly post new class-action settlement information, so check in often to make sure you’re not missing a chance to get paid!

20. Investing

It’s been said that the average millionaire has seven streams of income. Dividend stocks are usually always in the mix. Dividend stocks are similar to regular shares of stock, but they pay you a small portion of the companies earnings monthly or quarterly. So it’s wise to build a portfolio of dividend-paying stocks!

If you want to get hip to dividend investing, check out Webull and it's $1,000 free stock promotion.

What I like about Webull is that they make it really easy to invest in stocks, while still having plenty of features as you get more comfortable with investing. Plus, they'll give you a free stock valued up to $1,000 just for joining. The process is easy, just sign for a new Webull account using this referral link, after registering — you can download the app and in the menu hit “my free stock” to see which stock you got.

The stock will be worth between $3 and $1,000 and credited within 5 trading days and you can sell it right away and withdraw the money to your bank account if you wanted too.

Get up to 16 free stocks
Webull
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Expand your stock portfolio & own fractional shares of your favorite companies at a $5 min. Pay $0 in commission & management fees when you trade fractional shares with Webull.

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21. Download Money Making Apps

make money playing games

We all heard the old saying “Time is money” right?

Instead of playing games on your phone like everyone else and feeling bad for wasting your time — now you can get paid for it.

Getting paid for playing games sounds like a dream. But if you download a free new app, and then download games from it and play, you earn money.

As you level up you can earn more money for cash rewards or gift cards.

This is a great opportunity for those looking to get paid for something they enjoy, like winning free gift cards and cash for playing games. I use it and it is legit and has over 35,404 positive reviews in the Google Play store.

If you’re interested, I recommend you download the app from the Google Play store for free by clicking here.

100% free, no deposits required
Mistplay (Android Only)
4.5

Earning money by playing games on your phone sounds like a dream. But Mistplay really pays you for playing new games with free gift cards. It is 100% free to play and you never have to deposit any money.

Start Playing Mistplay Review

22. eBay Seller

Sell your unwanted items around your household on eBay is a good way to declutter and earn side income. I’ve been using eBay for about 7 years now and it is very easy to sell things around your home that you no longer use or find items that you can purchase for cheap and then flip them on eBay for a profit. I personally made $1,1379.79 one month by flipping iPhones. Just make sure that you keep the fees in consideration.

23. Coaching & Consulting

One of the best small business ideas for men is becoming an online coach or consultant for others as it is becoming more valuable in the information age. If you are very savvy at social media or are a fitness expert then selling your time and hopping on a Skype call or Google hangouts is a great hustle. You don’t even have to start your own website at first, you can list your services on Fiverr.

24. Cash Back Apps for Gas

Upside provides you with a variety of helpful information. First, it gives you 25 cents back on every gas station receipt you submit. It also shows you the best gas station deals and the cheapest gas.

This free cash back app for gas is saving users an average of $124 in a year. There is no minimum for cash outs, but a $1 fee will be made on withdrawals under $15.

To score the best gas prices, grocery prices, and restaurant offers with Upside, all you need is your phone and your receipt. There’s no limit on how much you can earn, and you can even use it with other coupons, discounts, and loyalty programs!

  1. Click here to download for free.
  2. Claim your offer for the best gas price, restaurant or grocery offer
  3. Snap a photo of your receipt or receipts
  4. Cash out via PayPal instantly!
Upside
4.5

Upside (which used to be called GetUpside) lets you save up to 25 cents for every gallon of gas you buy at certain gas stations. You can also get up to 35% back when you shop for groceries or eat out at over 45,000 places that work with Upside. If you use the app a lot, you might earn more than $100 in a year.

Start Saving Best Gas Apps

25. Cash Back Apps for Groceries

ibotta referral codeThe next easy business idea you should know about is Ibotta. This cell phone app is available for iOS or Android phones, helps you make money off your grocery receipts.

You can get cash back everywhere you shop with offers at hundreds of stores with these types of rebate apps.

Ibotta users have earned millions (they've paid out over $526,418,586) in cash back rewards. Join real people earning real cash.

Click here to get started with a $10 instant sign up bonus.

Ibotta
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Ibotta pays you cash back for shopping at over 500,000 retailers, which you have to do every month. So why not get paid for it? Get started saving today.

Start Saving Ibotta Cheats

Need More Small Business Ideas for Men?

If you wanted more ways to make money online besides these methods of small business ideas for men, here’s my list of the best ways to make money online:

About the author

Brian Meiggs
Hi, I’m Brian Meiggs! I’m a personal finance expert and founder of My Millennial Guide, here to help you build real wealth. With a background in finance, I’ve spent years guiding people on smart, practical ways to grow their money. For stock market beginners, I recommend Acorns. It’s a simple way to start investing with just your spare change, helping you steadily grow your portfolio over time without the need to actively manage it. And if you’re interested in real estate, check out Arrived and Fundrise. I use both myself—they make it easy to start investing in property without needing huge upfront capital. These platforms are perfect for anyone looking to add real estate to their investments for passive, long-term growth. I believe these tools are great for building a balanced investment portfolio, combining stocks and real estate for a solid approach to wealth-building. You can trust this advice—my work has been featured in major publications like Business Insider, Entrepreneur, The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo Finance, NASDAQ, Discover, Fox News, and MSN Money.

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Arrived
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Build wealth with Arrived! Start owning shares in rental properties with just $100. It’s a simple way to earn steady, passive income without the high costs. Want an easy path into real estate? Arrived makes it possible.

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Fundrise
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Make your money work for you with Fundrise! Start real estate investing with just $10—no need for big bucks to get in. Fundrise gives you access to funds built to grow your money steadily. It’s easy, affordable, and designed for your goals. Want to let your cash hustle for you? Fundrise has you covered.

Learn More
We earn a commission for this endorsement of Fundrise.

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