Five Businesses You Can Start for Next to Nothing

While starting a small business can certainly be costly, there are plenty of low-risk opportunities that don't cost anything but your time. Here are some you might consider:

Blogging: You may have heard that A-List bloggers can make more than six figures a year, but what is not widely publicized is that there are a lot of part-time bloggers that make five figure incomes as a side business.

It's possible to begin a blog for absolutely nothing at places like Blogger.com and it costs less than $20 to begin if you want to buy your own domain and host your own blog. All you need to have is a subject that you love writing about, which you can do on a consistent basis, and take the time to learn how to monetize it.

Dog Walker: If you enjoy going on walks or walk for exercise, you can turn this activity into a profitable business as with virtually no start-up costs. This is an especially easy job to create in cities and in places where many families have two working parents (and thus no time to walk the dog). It's simply a matter of getting the word out and building a clientele.