Examples of 250+ Businesses Started With <$5K That Have Profited $100K+

Over the last three years, I’ve started two different businesses (FanBump and a stealth affiliate business) with less than $1k of upfront capital that have profited $100k+. And I have a third passive business that will cross the $100k mark in 2020.

As a result, I’m a firm believer that building hyper profitable internet businesses is both doable and learnable (if that’s a word!).

Are you interested in figuring out how to quit your job and build passive income? Then I highly suggest studying successful businesses because it will help you to understand what it will take to build your own. This is how I started on my journey!

Here are links to the best resources where you can study highly profitable, mostly passive businesses.

1. Six-Figure Businesses Built for Less Than $100: 17 Lessons Learned
   1. This is a great breakdown by Chris Guillebeau of key commonalities and things to know.
2. EmpireFlippers and the EmpireFlippers Podcast
   1. EmpireFlippers is one of the leading marketplaces for digital cashflow businesses. By looking through their listings, past listings, and listening to their in-depth podcasts with sellers, you can get a great feel for what types of businesses are making money
3. FE International
   1. FE International is another digital business broker where you can look at businesses for sale and businesses that have been sold.
4. Starter Story: Interviews With Successful Bootstrapped Entrepreneurs
5. E-commerce: Shopify’s Marketplace
   1. If you’re looking to purely look at e-commerce businesses, Shopify’s marketplace is a great place to dig in.
6. SaaS Businesses: Latka
   1. Latka is a site that publishes the metrics of SaaS businesses which enables you to study exactly how much money various types of software businesses are making.
7. IndieHackers (make sure to use the filters on the left to filter for profitable businesses)
   1. IndieHackers, now owned by Stripe, is a fantastic site that has detailed interviews with founders who have started profitable businesses.
8. Failory’s 40+ Entrepreneur Interviews
   1. Interviews & Metrics With CEOs of Profitable, Bootstrapped Businesses
9. 30 Successful Online Businesses (from I Will Teach You To Be Rich)
   1. A list of 30 businesses that make money with links to their websites
10. Quiet Light Brokerage – Higher End Biz’s ($1M+)
    1. Quiet Light is another brokerage but they specialize in higher-end listings.
11. Flippa (frequently lower quality)
    1. Flippa is one of the most popular digital business marketplaces but it also has the least human vetting which means that there are a lot of low-quality businesses.

If there are any awesome resources that I missed, please leave them in the comments section and I’ll make sure to add them to this post!

Also, if you haven’t read the guide on how to make money from anywhere, you’ll likely find that helpful!

Don’t hesitate to leave any questions or thoughts in the comments as well.