Working at home and owning a home-based business used to be the dream for pretty much everyone. After all, who wouldn’t want to spend more time doing something they like, be closer to their friends and family and not have to face the humongous amount of stress, anxiety, and sheer panic that comes with traveling to and from work every single day?
Back in the day, only a few select people had this option – and even then, they couldn’t hide away for an eternity. Some high-level managers could do it, for example, but not all the time. Some freelancers could do it too, such as translators, for instance.
But the vast majority of the people out there, they just had to go to work every day, regardless of how miserable that made them feel and regardless of whatever their dreams were.
Today, owning your own home-based business is actually pretty easy. If you have a skill, you can probably transform it into a home-based business. From knitting and baking to writing complex code for cool software applications or owning a pet care franchises, there’s a myriad of things you can do to make money at home.
What are the best home-based businesses, though? We have some tips for you – so read on and find out more.
Writing
If you have always been good with words and would like to make some money with it, you will be happy to learn that you don’t have to go farther than a few clicks away. There are a lot of people out there looking for content writers, copywriters, and ghostwriters who would be willing to pay for the service. You can quickly and easily list yourself as a freelancer on sites like www.Upwork.com to be found by individuals and businesses looking for your skills. Other similar sites include www.Freelancer.com , www.Guru.com and www.Fiverr.com as well.
And, if short-form content like this doesn’t appeal to you, or if you think you could do much better with longer forms of content, why not become a published author? In the entire history of time, writers have worked from home – but never has it been easier to get your book out there, self-publish, and start making cash out of this.
Handmade Items
Do you knit, crochet, or simply create arts and crafts items?
We probably don’t have to tell you that this can become a lucrative business, especially now that people are more and more eager to look for authentic items that are as far away from the mass-market consumerism as they can possibly get.
You can start selling your items on Facebook, on Etsy, eBay, or simply create a website using easy to use services like Wix and Weebly. And once that’s done, you can roll in the promotion, the marketing, and the attractive photos!
Bookkeeping
If you like numbers, bookkeeping might be just the at home job you are looking for. Depending on where you live, you will most likely have to get a license for this, but other than that, you can probably find quite a lot of work in this field. After all, every business needs a bookkeeper – and the great news about all of this is that it’s a lot easier to keep the books of a company these days, especially with all the software available.
If you are looking for more info, this is a pretty good resource for those of you looking for a roadmap on how to become a bookkeeper.
Child Care
Another popular business idea for those of you who want to work at home is to create a child care service for people in your area. You could transform your house into a limited-number after-school for children in your neighborhood and make a pretty good living out of this.
Do make sure you check with all the legal requirements of making this official, and do make sure that you keep your entire space safe for the little ones. But most importantly, don’t forget to do this with care and attention because this is just the kind of job you simply cannot do if you don’t like it.
Pet Care
Have you ever considered a professional dog walking and pet sitting franchise? It’s the easiest way to open a business that allows you to help pet owners (and their beloved furry family members) to make their pets’ lives a lot happier and healthier.
It’s a lucrative business, one that can get a pretty good income into your household without that much of a start-up effort (if you settle for the franchise option), but with a lot of satisfaction on every plain.
National pet care franchises such as Fetch! Pet Care, are easy to start, and provide you with all the training, systems, processes, procedures and coaching you need. They offer very quick ROI with minimum investment, they come with the prestige of the franchise brand you’re buying into, allow you to have dog walkers and pet sitters on staff to perform the actual assignments, and they are lots of fun as well.
Life or Business Coach
You might have to get certified for this, but if you have a lot of life and/or business experience, you could become an online life or business coach.
These people have hands-on experience with different situations, and they can use their expertise to help other people (who, in turn, are willing to pay for the service). It’s a win-win work at home kind of business you will definitely love!
Here’s more info on how to become a life coach or a business coach.
SEO, Social Media, or Digital Marketing
Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, Content Marketing – as a general rule of thumb, pretty much every business these days needs a good digital marketing strategy.
The best news about this path is that there is SO much information online that you simply can’t get bored of this. Moreover, because this is a relatively recent addition to the spectrum of services companies businesses are willing to pay for, there aren’t many “official” diplomas you can get (but you can get certified in numerous areas of digital marketing, and these certificates are recognized).
You can find a ton of digital marketing sources online, including the following courses:
- SEO course
- Social Media Marketing course
- Email Marketing course
- AdWords course
- Facebook Ads course
- Google Analytics Course
Graphic Design
You might need a good computer for this one, and you most likely need an artistic inclination as well. Once you master the graphics design skill though, you can easily start a freelancing business at home and offer your design services to… the world.
Good designers make quite the income, so this is a path you definitely want to consider if you meet the criteria and are ready to work your way up to achieving seniority and experience in this field.
Want to become a graphics designer? This is a pretty great way to start out your journey, then.
Subscription Box Service
This one might be a little bit more difficult to escalate from home, but if you want to sell a luxurious subscription box service with a limited number of boxes or if you are targeting a relatively small segment of the population, this could totally work.
For instance, you could start a subscription box service targeting a very high end female clientele. You could sell unique perfumes and beauty products, for example, and do it in a limited amount. This will not only help you with the space problem you might have at home but, done right, it can also create a sense of “fear of missing out” in your potential customers and urge them to order quicker.
You might not be able to do it entirely from your bed, but you can definitely do it from your garage (which, let’s face it, is still a lot better than daily commutes). Plus, as the business grows, you can move the physical part of it to a new location and hire people to handle this while you work (mostly) at home and focus on strategy, marketing, and sales.
Software and/or Web Development
We don’t need to say more about this. If you want good money, a decent job, and to ensure that your at home job is a future-proof one, get into software and/or web development and start building a business out of this.
Why not do it in an office? Because working remotely is a lot better, as it allows you to do other things at home too, it gives you the opportunity to work with a lot of people, and the list could go on and on, and on.
AirBnB
Do you have a larger home or an extra room you have available from time to time? Consider listing it on AirBnB. If your house is located next to touristic points, this could be an amazing way to support others in traveling more, discovering your area, and offering them an unforgettable experience.
Here’s how to rent your house or part of it on AirBnB, right from the source, and here’s how to make sure your rental becomes popular.
Stock Investments
Again, this has been possible as a work from home option for quite some time, but the main difference now is that you can do it online, and you can do all the necessary research online as well.
There’s a LOT of information on how to become a stock investor from home, so be sure to check it out!
Homemade Food Business
We bet you’re an excellent cook and that your bakery products taste like little pieces of Heaven! How about running a homemade-based food business – such as catering to events in your area, for example?
You might never get to make as much as large catering companies, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a niche you can target to make a decent living doing something you genuinely enjoy. How could that be bad in any way?
For more info, check out this site on how to open a home-based catering business.
Obviously, these are just a few of the ideas you could use if you want to open a home-based business. If the mind can conceive it and if you don’t depend on large pieces of equipment, there’s a pretty good chance you can do it from the comfort of your own home these days.
Times they are a changin’, people – and they sure look like the future’s bright and exciting for all those who want to work at home because 4.3 million people in the USA work remotely now and the numbers are only growing. Join them today!