10 Best New Age Business Ideas Creating the company of your dreams often begins with connecting with the things that matter most to you.
By Adam Toren
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
This story has been updated by the staff of Entrepreneur.com.
You don't have to bang your head into a wall hoping that a good idea will come out. There are many ideas for people of all levels of experience and interest that have proven track records of success.
One category that has had sustained interest since it became popularized in the 1970s is that of New Age products and services. The term New Age encompasses alternative approaches to traditional Western culture, spirituality, mysticism, holism, and environmentalism. If you feel a connection to that philosophy and purpose, here are 10 New Age business ideas to learn about.
Related: 20 Business Ideas You Can Start With Less Than $10,000
New Age business idea: Healthy fast food
Don't be mistaken -- fast food is thriving today just as much as it ever has. But today people seek out healthy alternatives to the greasy meals that make up much of fast food fare. Taco trucks, burger joints and ice cream stands just aren't doing it anymore. Restaurants who offer acai bowls, quinoa-kale salads and whole-grain wraps are in.
One great little niche is the healthy fast food truck. Take Green Pirate and Nectar, for example. Both trucks offer fresh juices and smoothies to a different location every day. Native Bowl and Hola Arepa mix up creative bowls and salads full of fresh, local ingredients. If mobile fast food isn't really your thing, don't worry -- restaurants like Green Tomato and Zoe's Kitchen do just as well.
Related Book: Start Your Own Food Truck Business
10'000 Hours | Getty ImagesNew Age business idea: Yoga studio
Yoga's popularity is growing as more and more people look to lifestyle changes to solve ongoing weight and pain problems in their lives. The 2016 Yoga in America Study, conducted by Yoga Journal and Yoga Alliance, revealed that 36 million Americans engage in the practice, a big increase from 20.4 million in 2012.
There are many ways to get involved in the business of yoga: becoming an instructor, selling apparel and accessories, and opening your own studio. There are several yoga franchises to explore as well, like Bikram and YogaFit Studios. Explore other great health and wellness opportunities by checking out Entrepreneur's Franchise 500 list.
New Age business idea: Tiny houses
Sometimes a 10,000 square foot mansion doesn't constitute a dream home. Plenty of college students and graduates seek tiny houses on wheels instead. Why? They let you travel the country without paying for pricey hotel rooms. Even with full amenities, they cost far less than a normal-size home -- Tumbleweed's tiny houses start at about $10,000. They're cuter and more practical than RV's, and they're (almost) fully customizable. Some even have tiny porches to match.
No, tiny houses aren't just a fad you see on HGTV; they also make up an entire movement and an awesome business idea. Though a couple of companies already offer them, those companies don't take advantage of the full range of possibilities. Very few tiny houses are stylishly decorated, and even fewer are optimized for pets. Maintenance companies tend to ignore the tiny house demographic, too -- that's another business idea, right there.
Related: Tiny Business Is Serious Business
Yunha KimNew Age business idea: Wellness app
The health and wellness space is exploding in all directions, and a savvy coder (or someone with a great idea and can build a team) can do find great success with an innovative app that helps people de-stress. On a recent episode of Entrepreneur's podcast How Success Happens, founder Yunha Kim discussed the process of creating her meditation app Simple Habit. Since launching the stress relief and wellness platform in 2016, the company has gained more than 2.7 million users and received the 2018 Google Play Award for Best well-being app. In November 2018, Kim raised $10 million in Series A funding.
New Age business idea: Ethical business consulting
Ethical entrepreneurship and management is a huge focus of concern for this generation. It's not just about protecting employees and vendors from discrimination based on race, gender, sexuality and religion -- business owners and managers also worry about ethical product acquisition, social responsibility and environmental awareness.
Whether they're first-time business owners or seasoned managers newer to ethical business, there are hundreds of potential clients waiting for an ethical business consultant to help them out. Maybe they're going through a massive hiring period, and they'd like an ethics consultant to help protect job candidates from discrimination. Perhaps the company is working on making their products fully biodegradable for a "greener" demographic. There are countless areas you could work in, and the best part is, you can easily pick a specialty you find most interesting and engaging.
Related: 9 Business Ideas for People Looking to Cash in on the Marijuana Boom
New Age business idea: Virtual reality (and its accessories)
Virtual reality (VR) is an impressive facet of modern technology. With a pair of goggles and the right computer hardware, you can immerse yourself in a variety of fascinating worlds using VR.
If you aren't the most computer savvy person you know, never fear -- you don't have to be a programming genius to create a VR-centered business. In fact, most VR-related business ideas have nothing to do with the technology itself. Rather, you can start your own VR industry update website, where you write about new tech, games, software and more. You can sell creative cardboard headsets (like Google Cardboard, but cooler). If you are good at the programming side of things, you can create your own games and software . . . or you can use this incredible tech to help the environment. Stanford University professor Jeremy Bailenson, who runs the Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL), had his team build a VR game that explains ocean acidification and encourages players to take active steps to help the problem in real life.
ShutterstockNew Age business idea: Website rentals
Many people call themselves web developer, but not many rent websites.
Creating websites from scratch for specific companies is an antiquated way of generating revenue from Web clients. Instead, Web devs are creating several websites at a time for a certain niche, then renting customizable versions of each site to local businesses. The businesses pay monthly for a website the developer maintains. It's a great way to make passive income and expand your existing Web dev business -- as long as you know what you're doing.
New Age business idea: High quality or raw pet food
Pet owners are becoming increasingly careful about what they're feeding their furry friends. It's common knowledge nowadays that cheap food can sicken or even kill your pets, grains are sometimes detrimental to a pet's health and raw pet food, when possible, is preferred over the dry stuff at the convenience store. If you have pets of your own, you may have heard some of these concerns before.
This is an outstanding opportunity for the modern entrepreneur. As long as pet owners are buying high-quality food for their furry friends, you have room to create a brand-new business. You may start offering raw food for pets with specific allergies. You may think about making deliveries -- and take your doggie customer for a walk while you're there! The possibilities to expand are numerous.
Related Book: Start Your Own Specialty Food Business by The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc. and Cheryl Kimball
New Age business idea: Edtech
Have kids or younger siblings? If so, you may know that more and more classrooms are utilizing Chromebooks and tablets. With the rise of this new privilege comes the rise of edtech, or educational technology. This can include "blackboard"-style student portals, educational games, online discussion platforms, assignment submission forms and much, much more. In fact, we've taken a stab at the edtech industry ourselves with the Kidpreneurs Academy, which is a series of fun and interactive videos on young entrepreneurship and a complement to a book we wrote that teaches kids seven through 12 the same concepts.
Related: How This 13-Year-Old Entrepreneur Built a Multi-Million Dollar Healthy Candy Company
It may seem like every type of edtech imaginable has already come to fruition, but realistically, a lot of today's edtech is glitchy or impractical. Few online classroom resources do everything a teacher or student needs them to do; those that are actually complete are also inexplicably expensive. As an entrepreneur, it's up to you to create (or sell) a solution that meets more than just one requirement at a time.
New Age business idea: Subscription boxes
You see them all the time on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest: subscription boxes. Now, you can receive a monthly box of just about anything: international snacks, high-end makeup, stickers and even craft beer. There's a subscription box for almost every hobby and personality... but not quite all. A subscription box business may just be the fun side biz (or full-time gig) you've been waiting for. Think about items like candles, oils and other consumable items that are prominent in the New Age lifestyle.
An even easier and less cost-intensive way to get into the subscription box biz? Try "unboxing" them. One particular family of three, UnboxingRocks, has built a highly-engaged audience on YouTube by opening their favorite subscription boxes on camera, then reviewing the contents with viewers. If building and shipping subscription boxes isn't quite your thing, then perhaps sharing boxes online is.
With these 10 New Age business ideas, it's more possible than ever to create the modern company you've been dreaming of. How will you place your own creative spin on these ideas?
