10 Distinct Business Ideas to Motivate You This 2017

If you want to hit it big as an entrepreneur, you need to either solve a current problem or fulfill a need -- even if it's one consumers didn't know they had. There are lots of business ideas you can come up with -- from faux-handwritten thank-you notes to a Tinder-like app for rescuing pets, you'll be surely inspired to start a business venture with these unique lines of business.

Fetal Greetings

The greeting card business has been huge for years, and it seems to get bigger with every passing holiday. Fetal Greetings offer a special opportunity for expecting mothers: To have their baby greet the world in a form of a card! Hooly Nill-McKay started the company in 1999, and while the idea may sound strange, it's actually a great example of a unique and clever idea that builds on an existing industry. The cards themselves are cute, and they make wonderful surprises to send to family and friends to announce a pregnancy.

Shareable office space

Every day, technology makes it more and more possible for employees and entrepreneurs to do their jobs and run their businesses from anywhere, which means businesses don't necessarily have to invest in their own office space. WeWork provides office space for the office-less, with flexible month-to-month membership options for everyone from individual freelancers to large companies. Freelancers who prefer to work outside of their homes can have a more reliable work space than a local coffee shop, and companies and other teams can have a place to collaborate and hold meetings and events, for instance. WeWork, which as founded in 2010, has locations in more than a dozen cities across the United States as well as locations in Israel, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The company also fosters a sense of community among its members, so you can network with peers and customers while saving money on rent and other fees that come with maintaining your own office space.

Tinder for dogs

Borrowing a page from popular dating app Tinder, BarkBuddy makes it easy to find and adopt the perfect dog for you. Users tell BarkBuddy what they're looking for in the perfect pup, and then swipe yes or no on different profiles of dogs in their area. Once you've found the right dog, you can set up and meet and greet through the app. The company see to it that everyone using the app is qualified to adopt, too. You have to fill out an adopter file to be approved first; otherwise, you won't be eligible to adopt.

Bedside service

Being pregnant can be a physically and mentally exhausting nine months for a lot of women. In the hope of making pregnancy a little bit easier, Stephanie D. Johnson founded Bed Rest Concierge as an answer to these needs. The business provides a wide variety of pre- and post-delivery services, including creating and managing a baby registry, birth announcement creation and distribution, nursery design, diaper delivery service, laundry service, and hospital preparation. Aside from these, Bed Rest Concierge offers a number of "pampering services," such as manicures, pedicures, and facials.

Individually packaged small items

While bigger might be better for some, Minimus takes a different approach. In operation for nearly a decade now, this online company offers more than 2,500 different individually packaged products, including travel-size toiletries and individual servings of various food items -- everything from chips to Tabasco sauce. When it was founded, Minimus did not have any employees and was housed in 500-square-foot space. Today, the company takes up two large Los Angeles warehouses and employs dozens of workers. Aside from the individual items, Minimus sells premade kits specially designed for different uses, such as baby and family kits, outdoor kits, first-aid kits and military-care packages.

Personalized thank-you cards

Saying thank you has never been easier with the help of Thankster. The online business lets users easily create personalized thank-you cards with simulated, authentic-looking handwriting. The service gives users the ability to pick and choose from a variety of handwriting styles in order to best match their own. For consumers, Thankster is great for sending thank-you cards for weddings, bar mitzvahs, graduations, and baby or bridal showers. Many businesses use the service to send personalized "handwritten" notes to valued clients, customers, partners and employees. After the notes are finished, Thankster stuffs, stamps, and sends out the letters to their intended recipients.

Classy Restrooms on-the-go

For some events, the typical green and cramped portable toilet just isn't enough. ElizaJ rents out high-quality, clean, and attractive portable restrooms for any outdoor event. Each of ElizaJ's individual restrooms include fresh flowers, designer soaps and lotions, name-brand paper products, wicker waste baskets, air fresheners, and fresh water. The company recently unveiled it's newest restroom called "The Powder Room," which can accommodate events of up to 350 people and is designed to compete with those in the finest restaurants and department stores. ElizaJ has also launched a franchising model to give other entrepreneurs the opportunity to run their own portable restroom operation.

Personalized tea

Design A Tea offers consumers the ability to design their own tea blend from scratch. Founded in 2007 by J. Brian Pfeiffer, the online business lets tea drinkers choose from among 40 flavors that can be mixed and matched to create their own artisan tea blend. Shoppers first select a base flavor -- black, oolong, green, or rooibos -- and then mix in two other ingredients, such as almond, Irish creme, passion fruit, rum, or wintergreen. In total, there are more than 10,000 different combinations tea drinkers can create. As part of its mission, Design A Tea has adopted numerous socially responsible practices, including using recycled paper products, labels and environmentally friendly inks. All of their tea flavors are 100 percent natural, organic, and gluten-free.

I Do Now I Don't

Every day, there are couples in love who get engaged. And every day, couples who have fallen out of love separate or break an engagement. When the latter happened to Josh Opperman, his fiancee was kind enough to return the engagement ring, and he didn't know what to do with it. Since the wholesale markups on engagement rings are insanely high, he would have taken a huge loss in returning it. So instead, he started his business, I Do Now I Don't, which is an online marketplace for unwanted engagement rings. Customers can buy rings at prices far cheaper than you would find in a traditional jewelry or department store, and you can sell at rates that are better than you'd get if you tried to return the ring. Business started booming, and now you can buy and sell other jewelry items there, too.

Something Store

Do you love the feeling of waiting for something to come in the mail? Well if you do, then you have to try the Something Store. For $10 (no shipping cost), they send you a random item. It could be anything in the world. Since 2007, they've shipped over 50,000 "somethings" to customers who wait with anxious anticipation.