Do you want to start a business in San Diego, CA? If YES, here are 50 best profitable small business ideas & investment opportunities in San Diego. San Diego is one of the largest cities in the United States of America. It is the second largest city in California located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, and shares a border with Mexico. San Diego is home to a number of major multinational companies including a major wireless company.
Due to the extensive beaches and several tourist attractions, San Diego gets a lot of tourist visits every year. The city has an impressive business climate which makes it a very great place to start a business. However, you need to go with business ideas that are guaranteed to make a lot of money. Here are at least 50 ideas for you:
50 Best Small Business Opportunities in San Diego
1. Employment Agency
There are several companies in San Diego, and major companies in the US are expanding to the city as well. You can set up a business that helps these companies to hunt for the right candidates to fill their vacant positions. You can also help the residents of the state who are without jobs to find suitable employment.
2. Cleaning Agency
There are numerous schools, homes, offices, parks and other tourist organizations in San Diego and typical of any major city, most people are too busy to do the cleaning jobs themselves so they resort to hiring people to handle it for them. This is a low-cost business idea that you don’t need any special skills to set up.
3. Cruise Trips
San Diego has a coastal area, which makes it a perfect location for starting a cruise ship business. You can become an affiliate to other companies offering cruise services so that you can earn some commissions for the sales you make. If your pocket is deep enough, you can consider organizing your own cruises too. San Diego gets a lot of tourist visits so you wouldn’t find it hard to sell your cruises and make profit from it.
4. Air B ‘n’ B
You can join the Air B ‘n’ B platform and start renting your house to tourists who want to stay in the city for a short period. This is a very nice and easy business idea because all you need is an extra bedroom in your home that you can touch up for that purpose.
5. Photography Business
You can start a solo photography business where you visit the various tourist attractions in the city to take photos of the tourists. Many tourists love to have professional photos taken so that they can add it to their photo collections. You can also sell some of your work to magazines and newspapers who need stock photos for their publications.
6. Pick-up and Delivery Services
As you already know, a lot of brick-and-mortar businesses are setting up online versions and these people need people who can pick up the items and deliver them to their customers. You can start with shipping locally, and then expand to shipping outside San Diego.
7. Group Adventures Organizer
You can organize hiking, biking or surfing trips, or any other group activities. You can even sell your services to companies looking for fun activities for their employees. Group activities are much more fun than solo activities hence you’ll get a lot of people to patronize your business.
8. Restaurant
You can set up a restaurant that offers international cuisine to serve tourists from all over the world who regularly visit the city. Make sure you pick a good location, preferably very close to a popular tourist attraction so that you can get more visibility for your business.
9. Summer Camp
A lot of families spend their summers in San Diego. You can start a summer camp for children so that while the adults enjoy doing adult things, the kids can have fun at summer camps.
10. Researcher
If you are looking for a business that allows you to work from home in San Diego, you can consider working as an internet researcher who helps businesses and private individuals to gather important data that they need for their businesses and persona use. You can earn around $15/hour doing this from home.
11. Cab Service
Another great business idea that would make you a lot of money is to set up a can service to help tourists and residents of the city get around easily. You can affiliate yourself with other major cab service networks like Uber, or you can start as an independent cab service provider; either way, you’ll make a lot of money.
12. Microbrewery
The microbrewery business is becoming more popular all around the world. You can brew beer for sale at restaurant, beaches, and other hang outs.
13. Car Rentals
Some tourists or people on long-term visits don’t like using cab services; they prefer to rent a car that they can drive by themselves so that they can save some money and have some privacy. You can start renting cars out to this category of people in exchange for steady flow of income.
14. Bio-Medical Equipment Store
You can start selling bio-medical equipment to the various research centers, hospital, clinics, and research institutes in San Diego. You can also preform repair services on faulty equipment. San Diego has a booming bio-medical industry and this is what makes this business a great idea.
15. Café
You can set up a café where people can hang out, hold business meetings and have dates. There are many cafés in the city but people always need new places to hang out especially when the place is beautifully designed and piques some curiosity.
16. Co-Working Space
The work-from-home trend has made co-working spaces essential. Most people prefer to work from a place where there’ll be less distractions than to work from their homes so if you’re able to set up a co-working space with great facilities that workers often need, you’ll make a lot of money from it.
17. Solar Installation and Repairs
Companies and homeowners always look for ways to cut back on their business expenses and electrical bills are one of the most expensive costs everyone wants to cut back on. You can start a business that helps people install and service solar panels so that they can enjoy alternative energy sources.
18. Lawn and Landscaping Services
Another easy, low cost business idea is to start a landscaping business to help residents of San Diego to care for the lawns in their homes and commercial properties.
19. Fashion Designer
You can start making bespoke outfits for sale to fashionable and deep-pocketed residents of San Diego.
20. Messenger Services
Busy people need the services of other people who can help them run errands for small fees. You can target busy office workers or businesses for this service.
21. Bakery
You can start baking bread and other baked goodies for sale to residents of the city. You can also supply your products to supermarkets and grocery stores around the city. If you sell good products, many of them would be willing to make you a permanent supplier.
22. Web Development and Design
There are a lot of businesses in San Diego and with good marketing skills, you can convince them to pay you to develop or maintain their business websites for them.
23. Party DJ
Lots of events happen in San Diego on a daily basis, and there are also a lot of bars and night clubs that regularly hire DJ’s to supply good music to entertain their clients.
24. Computer Repair Services
Another great idea is to start a computer repair service. A large percentage of people in San Diego own computers so you can make a lot of money offering computer repair and maintenance services to these people.
25. Event Planner
You can start offering event planning services for corporate events, weddings, birthdays, bachelorettes and other events that regularly hold in the city of San Diego.
26. Real Estate Agent
Another great idea is to become a real estate agent. You can earn impressive percentages from people who need to buy their own homes, people who need holiday apartments and residents of the city who need to rent good apartments.
27. Poultry Farming
You can set up a poultry farm to supply eggs, and packaged poultry meat to the numerous supermarkets and grocery stores in San Diego.
28. Drinks Supply Business
Another idea is to start sourcing for drinks and supply them in wholesale quantities to restaurants, bars, supermarkets and grocery stores in San Diego.
29. App Developer
If you know how to create apps, you can think of a common problem in San Diego, and create an app to solve that problem. For instance, you can create an app that helps people to find handymen to take care of little repairs in their homes, or to find available hair dressers to help them make their hair on short notice.
30. Mobile Laundry Services
Mobile laundry services are becoming increasingly popular in major cities around the world because busy people would gladly pay someone who can pick up the laundry, and deliver it to them without any extra stress.
31. Lunch Delivery Services
Another business idea that caters to busy people is lunch delivery. If you have good culinary skills, you can start preparing packaged lunch, and deliver them to busy employees.
32. Nanny Services
You can start offering your services as a nanny, or you can start a nanny sourcing service where you can help people who need nannies to find the perfect match for them.
33. Mobile Auto Workshop
Sometimes, people have their vehicles breakdown and need rescue services especially when they on the highway or in dangerous places. You can start a mobile auto workshop to help such people repair their vehicles at the point of breakdown.
34. Billboard Rentals
You can invest in a giant billboard, and have people pay you to place adverts on the billboards. This is a very lucrative business that can earn you passive income over a long period of time.
35. Virtual Assistant
Another business that can earn you good money per hour while working from home is virtual assistance. You can help people perform some clerical duties from home, while you earn some cool income.
36. Furniture Remodeling
You can go around the city to pick up discarded furniture items, remodel them into something nice and trendy, and then resell them for good profit.
37. Thrift Store
Thrift stores never have problems with making sales anywhere in the world because they help people get cheap bargains for items. You can sell clothing items, furniture and other valuables at your thrift store.
38. Phone Repair Services
Almost every resident of San Diego owns a phone and when their phones get faulty, they’ll need someone to repair it for them. You can add sales of phone accessories to your phone repair services too.
39. Beauty Salon
Another lucrative business idea with a huge clientele is beauty and nail salon services. A lot of fashionable women live in San Diego and they regularly need to have their hair and nails done.
40. Herbal Store
You can set up a store to sell herbs and herbal products to residents of the city who are interested in Naturopathy.
41. Milk Farming and Dispensary
Milk is a highly-consumed commodity in most homes. You can start a milk farming business and supply fresh milk directly to people’s homes or supply your product to supermarkets and grocery stores.
42. Tradeshows
You can start organizing trade shows and sell booths to people who are looking for more visibility and patronage for their businesses.
43. Health and Wellness Shop
In this generation where a lot of incurable diseases are being discovered regularly, people no longer joke with their health. Residents of San Diego would patronize a business that sells products and offer services that would help them stay healthy and happy.
44. Social Media Manager
You can consider becoming a social media manager for companies in San Diego looking to take advantage of social media to promote their goods and services.
45. Travel Consultant
You can offer consultancy and advisory services to people looking to visit San Diego for tourism. You can also offer concierge services to them as well.
46. Gift Shop
Tourists usually need gifts to take home to their friends and family. You can start a gift shop in San Diego to sell gift items, and novelty items to visitors and residents of the city.
47. Yoga Studio
A lot of people are interested in Yoga because of the many health benefits they can derive from it. You can earn good profits from the subscription fees that people would pay you for using your yoga studio. If you cannot teach yoga, you can easily hire a yoga instructor that you can pay to teach your students.
48. After-School Activity Center
Busy parents usually need a safe place for their children to hang out and learn some extra-curricular activities after school. You can consider setting up one of such after-school activity centers in San Diego.
49. Hostel
There are a lot of students coming into San Diego from other cities and countries all over the world. You can set up a hostel to cater to the accommodation needs of this category of people.
50. Equipment Rentals Service
Lastly, you can start renting building equipment and heavy machinery to construction companies and businesses looking to cut cost of production by renting equipment rather than buying them.