19+ Business Ideas in Tamil Nadu with Great Returns in 2022

Vanakkam! Looking to start a business in Tamil Nadu? You’ve come to the right place. Here are some amazing business ideas in Tamil Nadu to feed the entrepreneur in you!

Tamil Nadu is India’s fourth-largest state, situated on the southernmost tip of the country. It’s rich in not just heritage and culture, but also farming.

This graph shows the cultivation area in Tamil Nadu during the year 2021.

As an economy, the state of Tamil Nadu exhibits high economic dynamism and human development indicators (with a literacy rate of over 70%), strong infrastructure, a highly attractive investment climate that can be benchmarked with the best in Asia, and India’s leading knowledge and innovation hub.

This gives entrepreneurs a one-of-a-kind opportunity to start working on unique ideas for their businesses.

Let’s look at what are the best business ideas in Tamil Nadu for you.

Business ideas in Tamil Nadu

Here are some of the most lucrative business ideas in Tamil Nadu to pursue.

1. Start a South Indian Food Joint

The state of Tamil Nadu prides itself in its authentic and distinctive cuisine, with a delicious spread that includes idlis, dosa, upma, pongal, sambar, rasam, parotta and more!

Therefore, if you research well, the perfect food business opportunity will not be very hard to find.

Select a niche and choose a convenient location (or even start online), acquire licenses, secure your sourcing, hire staff, essential cutlery and get requisite licenses.

2. Create an Online Store

Be it Tamil Nadu, or Texas, online stores are where most people prefer to shop, instead of traditional stores.

When you start any business, especially a small, or home-based business, it is important to manage your finances and invest in the most important aspects.

You can do that with an online store, and actually sell anything online, from things as small as pins to as big as cars, easily and quickly.

You can also easily scale your business, add more products, and skip the rent and overhead costs completely.

This video could help you create your online store:

3. Open a Salon

Salon services are widely used by men and women across age groups in urban areas of Tamil Nadu nowadays.

You must carefully analyze the market potential in your area, the likes and preferences of customers, the prevailing competition and optimum location based on your budget and potential footfall.

Today, you could even start beauty services from home, leveraging your residential neighbourhood and pre-existing connections/friends initially.

4. Start Dropshipping

Dropshipping is one of the most popular, and in our opinion, most profitable ways to run an online business.

As you don’t have to worry about inventory or shipping, you can just focus on scaling your business, and especially women who want to work from home can start dropshipping.

It’s a low-risk high-reward idea that can benefit one and all, and if you need some ideas about which products to sell, here’s an article filled with interesting ones!

Watch this video to learn how to start your dropshipping business:

5. Open a Rice Mill

Paddy farming and rice mills are some of the most popular means of livelihood in Tamil Nadu.

You can open a rice mill and even open an online store where you can sell farming equipment, fertilizers and pesticides, etc.

6. Sell Handmade Woolen Apparel

This one is mostly for the ladies…

So, you can turn your winter hobby into a full-fledged business.

All you have to do is create an online store where you can list your products, and of course, some beautifully hand-knitted winter wear.

Recommended reading: 23+ Things to Make and Sell from Home.

7. Open a Turmeric Processing Unit

A turmeric processing unit is one business that will flourish in Tamil Nadu, because of the huge amount of turmeric farming that’s done.

You can process it, dry it, turn it into the powder form which is used in households, or even extract curcumin to use in medicines.

8. Start a Pickle-making Business

Another popular business in India, especially in Tamil Nadu, is pickle making.

You can source fresh fruits and vegetables, organic spices and herbs and prepare these delicacies.

Then, you can sell them through your online store easily not just in your state, but throughout the country.

9. Start a Macaron Export Business

Macarons are extensively made in Tamil Nadu, and exported to countries throughout the world.

You can also start exporting macarons abroad and earn marvellously.

Also, you can look into creating your own online store and selling them locally.

10. Open a Tea Processing Unit

Plantation farming is performed abundantly in Tamil Nadu, with one of the main crops being tea.

You can open a tea processing unit where you process, package and distribute tea leaves to different businesses, like brands, restaurants, tea-joint franchises, etc.

11. Offer Math Tutoring

You must have seen all those billboards and signs along roads all throughout Tamil Nadu which offer math tuitions and already know how in-demand they are.

It can be a very lucrative idea for you to start offering tuition to students, especially in subjects like maths and science.

12. Start a Cotton Distribution Business

Cotton is another crop that is grown extensively in Tamil Nadu. You can open a cotton processing plant and sell it to hospitals, clothing factories, textile companies, etc.

13. Start a Cashew Export Business

Cashew is another plantation crop that’s found very commonly in Tamil Nadu.

You can start a cashew export business and make the most of its cultivation by selling it to various countries.

You might also want to sell it locally directly to customers or supply it to other businesses through your online store.

14. Start a Clothing Venture

Tamil Nadu is a leader in garment production and exports in India and is also a major hub for footwear, leather, and leather products.

It ranks first in the production and export of cotton yarns and second in the production of blended yarn.

While Tirupur has earned recognition as the knitwear hub of the country, Coimbatore has been labelled the Manchester of South India.

Therefore, it is an excellent location to set up an online garment retail business.

You can start your online clothing store, customize ready-made wholesale clothes, dropshipping or create a small t-shirt company using print-on-demand services, or even sell souvenir T-shirts and beachwear to visitors.

15. Open a Poultry Farm

Tamil Nadu had the highest poultry population in India at around 120.8 million in 2019. Poultry demand is growing rapidly and has huge growth potential if conducted diligently.

Firstly, you must decide, based on resources, on the segments you wish to enter – meat, eggs, poultry feed, chicken breeding or egg and meat processing.

You may need to take adequate financing initially to cover equipment, staff costs, land expenses, etc. Build an attractive brand identity for your business and promote it on the internet.

16. Offer IT Consulting

The IT ecosystem of Tamil Nadu has moved from strength to strength in the past few years, and it is only getting better.

With the right skill sets, you can provide various value managed IT services, hardware repair, ERP consulting, software consulting, or cloud services.

Procure your specific certificates and licenses, register your business and start promoting your services. You need essential office equipment and space, and then you can start on your own.

Promote your business online and steadily build your professional network for the long term.

17. Sell Packaged Food Products

Due to the strong base of raw agricultural inputs in Tamil Nadu, you can start a wide gamut of food processing units, and sell packaged food products – tea, coffee, jams, spice blends and pastes, pickles, biscuits, chips, bread, etc.

It is important to register your business and procure an FSSAI license. Scan the market for opportunities, but ensure that your product sourcing is verified and quality tested.

While you must aggressively promote your venture, you must start slow unless finances are very strong. Or you can start an online store where you can sell these products easily.

18. Provide Homestays

Give tourists from India and around the world a taste of the rich cultural traditions and hospitality of Tamil Nadu.

And with widespread recognition of ecological conservation, homestays are expected to get more popular among tourists in the coming years.

The government has already been encouraging them as employment opportunities and a means to showcase the ‘Indian way of life’.

19. Sell Handicrafts

Given its cultural richness, it is not surprising that Tamil Nadu hosts a variety of handicrafts that are well regarded throughout the world.

There is a wealth of brilliant work by the state’s hardworking and skilled artisans including Tanjore Paintings, Jewelry, terracotta figurines, bronze ornaments, floor rugs, Woodcarving, Stone Carving, Pottery, musical instruments and much more.

You can play a vital role in bridging the gap between these artisans and buyers looking for authentic and traditional items with your online handicraft store.

20. Start Offering Courier Service

Tamil Nadu already has a very strong industrial base and strong connectivity that’s growing at an impressive pace, which means rich gains for courier companies.

To crown it all, the eCommerce segment has witnessed an unprecedented acceleration in the aftermath of the pandemic.

You could start as a franchise for a courier company, or on your own if you have adequate finances.

You can explore possible segments: personal gift items packages, small office-related couriers, perishable goods, packages of hotel and tourism companies, etc.

21. Become a Flower Supplier

Tamil Nadu is home to multiple floral varieties like jasmine, chrysanthemum, rose, marigold, etc.

This can be a huge opportunity for you to start a floral business where you can supply to event managers, wedding planners, temples, etc.

If you’re still looking for more ideas to begin your online business, we have some more for you in this article.

How can Dukaan help you?

Irrespective of the nature of your business, you can get started with Dukaan which offers merchants, retailers, and other entrepreneurs a powerful DIY platform that they can conveniently operate without the need for complex programming skills.

Why keep planning about your business when you can start your business with just a few simple steps?

An online storefront can also be useful for your existing business, as it can help you increase your reach and customer base.

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