7 best businesses to start in 2022!

Starting a new business is always a big step. With 2022 just around the corner, many people look to open new avenues for their existing business or even start a new business altogether. To start a new business, it’s crucial to know the industry trends. Through this blog, we will be looking at some of the best online businesses to start in 2022.

Although one thing is for sure, the entrepreneurial spirit has grown heavily over the past year and a half. As of September 30th, 2021, there have been a massive 1.4 million startup applications submitted in the United States alone. To put this in perspective, there were 1.1 million in 2020 and 980 thousand in 2021, with the highest surge coming in the last quarter. Surely this drive to start a business is bound to continue in 2022.

Starting a new business can always be tough. With nearly 4 out of every 5 startups closing their doors within the first 3 years, it is imperative to understand what are the challenges that startups face.

Let’s take a look at 7 common challenges faced by startups.

1. Lack of capital/failure in raising capital: Capital is one of the most important factors in the functioning of any business. The biggest challenge faced by many young businesses is the ability to maintain their liquidity along with raising additional capital to meet the needs of their business plan.

2. Need of product in the market: It has been noted by CBSinsights that approximately 35% of startups or young businesses close their doors is because they look to tackle problems that are interesting to solve rather than being focused on the need for a particular product in the market.

3. Competition: It is often said that businesses must focus on their product rather than being focused on their competitors. On the contrary, we often see that as soon as a product gains attention or validation in a market, many businesses try to capitalize on it. It is important to focus on your product but ignoring competitors altogether could be a recipe for disaster.

4. Business model: Any entrepreneur would agree that identifying the right business model is crucial. Being rigid towards a particular model or failing to identify further channels of expansion has been cited as a major cause of business failure.

5. Pricing/costing issues: Pricing is a dark art when it comes to startup success. Startup post-mortems highlight the difficulty in pricing a product. There is a fine balance between pricing high enough to eventually cover costs but low enough to bring in customers.

6. Mistimed product: The timing for a business to launch its product is an extremely important factor that often gets overlooked. Businesses might launch their product prematurely, causing initial users to disregard it as not good enough. A strong first impression is crucial. Having a negative experience in their first go will cause most users not to return in the future. On the other hand, businesses might wait too long to launch and potentially miss out on their window of opportunity.

7. Inability to pivot: The ability for a business to adapt to the changing wants and needs of its consumers often determines the long-term success or failure of that business. Being married towards a particular direction may often cause deviations between what a business is looking to do. 

Keeping these challenges in mind is imperative towards establishing a successful business. Now let’s look at the most important topic.

Here are 7 business sectors that are shaping up to be the next big thing in 2022. 

EdTech

Education was one such sector that saw massive uncertainty over the past year with many students, teachers, and educational institutions looking for new ways to adapt to the online education system. With schools and coaching institutes looking to shift their teaching mediums online.

The EdTech industry has seen a drastic increase in the numbers of new startups entering the space along with the positive attitude of all parties involved in the same. With EduTech expecting to have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.1% year-over-year through 2027 (Grandview). EdTech is set on being a key player in shaping the future of the education industry, making it one of the best business prospects in 2022.

NFTs (Non-fungible tokens)

An NFT is a digital object – some computer code and data that conveys ownership of something. Non-fungible tokens are becoming more and more popular. These tokens are unique and provide real financial value at the same time.

During the first few months of 2021, we could see the NFT explosion. In February, the top ten NFT collectibles marked an overall 400% increase in sales. The sales went up to a whopping sum of $400 million in gross sales. With the shift towards all industries going digital due to covid, NFTs have seen a boom. Earlier only big players had entered into the market, during the last quarter of 2021, we have seen the masses also entering the NFT market, leading it to be antics as one of the hottest sectors in 2022. 

Pet Products & services

Another extremely important sector in this list is pet products & services. In 2020, for the first time, pet industry sales exceeded $100 billion, according to the American Pet Products Association. As a trickle-down effect for the same, Morgan Stanley believes that this massive upsurge is expected to continue not just for the coming year, but for the coming decade.

With pet industry spending forecasted to nearly triple to $275 billion by 2030. Pet owners’ shopping habits shifted drastically during the last year. As many as 86% of all pet owners looked to purchase their supplies online. Traditionally, 60% of all pet owners shopped from brick and mortar stores. This number fell to almost 41%. These changes in the purchasing habits, accompanied by the increase in pet ownership, all but guarantee that this will be one of the hottest sectors in 2022.

Digital Marketing

In today’s time, it has been well established that having an online presence for your business is no longer just an option, but almost a necessity. Along with this, it is also imperative to connect with the right audience to bear the fruit of your online presence.

This is where digital marketing comes into the picture. Establishing a connection with your target audience through appropriate channels is the most crucial aspect of your digital presence. With the right digital marketing team by your side, it could be key to unlocking growth for your business. This has been widely recognized by companies across the globe. Through this, digital marketing has grown massively in the last year and will continue to do so in 2022.

Sustainable/Eco-friendly products

From research conducted by NYU Stern, products marketed as environmentally sustainable grew 7.1x faster than those that were not marketed as sustainable. Today a majority of consumers are aware of the ecological problems in our environment and believe that their actions have a direct role in their contribution to the same.

As a result, this is reflected in their buying habits, amongst other actions. By analyzing factors such as increasing awareness along with the change in buying habits, sustainable and eco-friendly products, while having some competition, looks to be a great sector to enter into in 2022.

Teleconsultation

The COVID-19 pandemic saw a soar in the telehealth sector as consumers along with providers sought a safe new way for medical consultation from their homes. Moreover, research conducted by McKinsey showed between 40 and 60 percent of consumers express interest in a set of broader virtual health solutions. Topics such as a “digital front door” or lower-cost virtual-first health plans gained tremendous traction. Through these changes, the telehealth sector has boomed over the last year and looks to maintain growth as more consumers show a positive attitude towards it. 

Home services

Over the past year, people spent more time at home. It showcased major emphasis towards improving the quality of life within one’s own home. With the introduction of Work From Home and young startups, Home services also saw a surge as consumers found it essential to improve the quality of their household.

We have discussed some of the key challenges faced by entrepreneurs when starting or scaling their online businesses. We’ve also taken a look at some of the key sectors that are looking promising in 2022. 

Let’s now have a look at how you can take a step closer towards entering these sectors with Jungleworks. Jungleworks is an organization that looks to empower entrepreneurs to adapt their businesses to the digital world. With a large array of tech solutions, you can take various different types of businesses online with ease. 

• Yelo is a platform by Jungleworks that focuses on establishing a digital presence of your local business. With an easy-to-use, low-cost solution you can create your very own applications and websites without any coding. 

• Tookan is a delivery management software that allows businesses to optimize their deliveries through route optimization and delivery applications. 

• Panther is a consultation stack which aims to empower online consultancy. With its feature and integrations, Panther focuses on improving the teleconsultation experience between users and consultants.

• Hippo acts as a customer engagement and marketing automation platform, allowing your business to communicate with your customers through a wide array of marketing channels.