Finding an Idea
If you are planning to own and operate a business, you might be thinking about things like renting commercial properties, moving into an office, or managing employees. However, starting and running a company from home has become easier than ever.
What are the Benefits and Drawbacks of Starting a Home-Based Business?
A home-based business is a venture – whether full-time or side – that you can start and manage using your personal residence as a base for operations. Some home businesses, especially those that sell online and do not buy and hold large quantities of inventory, can even be run without being confined to your home.
Of course, there are benefits and drawbacks to consider when deciding whether a home-based business is right for you.
Benefits of Home Businesses:
- Lower operational costs (such as storage fees) and potential tax deductions you can claim.
- The option to sell products or provide services locally or internationally.
- A flexible work-life balance, which is ideal if you are, for example, a stay-at-home mom or retired.
- You can create a family business where your family members or spouse can contribute as needed.
Drawbacks of Home Businesses:
- You may need to convert space in your home to support your business needs (like storing inventory, creating a home office, or storing equipment).
- It can be challenging to do this without impacting your home life.
- You still have to comply with any regulations related to the business you want to start (like needing to rent a commercial kitchen if you plan to sell food products, or obtaining a license/permit to hold inventory).
- Your business may grow and require you to rent additional space and hire employees.
- Working from home gives you a lot of freedom, but it can also be distracting. This can be difficult if you enjoy being around others.
30 Ideas for Profitable Home Businesses
There are many ways to start home business ideas, and here are some of the most viable ways to create a profitable business for yourself:
1. Buying Products Wholesale and Selling Them Online
Many businesses rely on a simple concept of importing products wholesale and selling them individually for a profit. You may have recently traveled abroad and found unique products that are not readily available in your local market but feel there is a demand for them. Or perhaps you have an innovative idea for a niche market and know the perfect way to serve it.
Regardless of the case, if these products are easy to store and ship, you may have a good idea for a small home business.
2. Selling Handmade Products
If you are a maker yourself (or know someone who has that skill), consider turning your hobby into a business. Even if you have to produce your products elsewhere – like in a studio, commercial kitchen, or workshop – you may be able to store and sell them from your home.
When you control every aspect of the products you sell, you can make them more cost-effective, improve their quality, or target a specific audience by directing market demand.
3. Starting a Dropshipping Store
So far, we’ve discussed business ideas that require you to keep inventory at your home. However, there are a variety of online business ideas you can pursue that do not involve worrying about inventory and shipping.
These businesses use a dropshipping model, where a third party produces, stores, and ships the products on your behalf, and your main responsibilities are marketing and customer service. An example of this is Subtle Asian Treats, which uses a dropshipping model for its home business.
4. Starting a Print-on-Demand Business
Using
With a similar direct shipping model, you don’t need to hold any inventory or ship any products yourself in a print-on-demand business. You can design custom products and print them on blank items that bear your brand.
An example of this is The Outrage, a company that sells T-shirt designs that express women’s rights and uses the print-on-demand model to fulfill customer orders.
5. Offering Online Services
Providing services is easier than offering products from home, but the challenge lies in distributing your limited time. “Time is money” is truer than ever when running a service-based business.
Creative professionals, such as designers or marketers, may work as freelancers or consult with other companies, managing multiple clients, and often working remotely from their home office, with occasional travel. Others may work based on appointments and bookings to provide their services directly to individuals.
Ideas for home-based service businesses include:
- Freelance writing
- Virtual assistance
- Marketing
- Design
- SEO consulting
- Website design and development
- Graphic design
6. Teaching Online Lessons
You can turn a teachable skill into online lessons. There is an audience for any desirable skill, whether it’s English as a second language, advanced marketing, or even everyday home maintenance hacks.
If you have a skill that can be taught, you can not only share it in forums to gain exposure, but you can also turn it into online courses. You can offer live lessons or pre-recorded sessions. You can also provide live lessons at a higher price, while customers can purchase the recorded sessions at a discounted rate.
7. Bundling Your Service or Expertise into a Product
As just discussed, one of the biggest downsides of running a service-based business is that you are only paid for the time, skills, and effort you provide. Emily Neumann from If I Made turned her lessons into digital courses, where she packaged recordings from her live sessions and sold them at a lower price.
Transforming your service – creating physical or digital products that incorporate your expertise and simplify or complement the service you provide – can add additional revenue streams to your business. You can direct your existing customer base or even find new customers in the same field.
8. Attracting an Audience You Can Monetize
If you are a content creator and already have a large online audience, or if you have always considered starting your own blog, YouTube channel, Instagram account, or podcast, you can grow and monetize your audience using any of the ideas listed above.
An example of this is the founders of Wait But Why, who turned their blog into a business. After gathering over 371,000 subscribers and millions of visits, they created digital content products specifically designed for their loyal audience. Today, Wait Buy Why is a fully e-commerce site with digital and physical products for sale.
9. Buying an Existing E-commerce Business
If you are interested in investing in a source of income that you can maintain from home or while on the go, consider purchasing an existing e-commerce business.
Prices can vary significantly based on a variety of factors, including total revenue generated, profit potential, available assets (like email lists or social media followings), inventory, and more. Some sellers may even train and teach you how to run their store.
10. Starting a Subscription Box Business
The online subscription box industry is expected to grow by 20% annually from 2021 to 2026. This explosive growth has led to the emergence of new brands targeting this market, as well as major brands like Sephora and Walmart adopting this model.
You can
start a subscription box business from home. Ashley Reynolds collects excess products into subscription boxes to sell them through her e-commerce site, Cloth & Paper. If you already manage an e-commerce business from home, you can do the same to leverage what would be considered junk.
11. Turn Your Pet into an Influencer
Animal influencers on social media promote brands like BarkBox and inspire thousands of likes with their charm. If you have a pet, you can turn them into a social media influencer and work with brands to promote their products online.
An example of this is Bodhi the Menswear Dog, known as the world’s most stylish dog, who has gained popularity on Instagram in particular. If you browse his page, you’ll find collaborations with many brands like Booking.com, Spotify, and Poly & Bark.
12. Sell Unwanted Items
As consumer awareness of the environment increases, they are also looking for ways to modify their shopping habits to support sustainability. The secondhand clothing market is worth $15 billion in the United States alone.
COAL N TERRY is one of the successful home businesses that sells vintage finds. And while the business didn’t exactly start from home – it was a room in a college dorm – it has grown to become a brand with a fan base and celebrity followers.
13. Play Video Games
While many people may think video gaming is a waste of time, it can be a hobby that generates income. And there’s nothing more convenient at home than sitting on the couch in front of the TV.
In the world of esports and video game streaming platforms like Twitch, opportunities have opened up for gamers to earn fame – and ultimately money – from their talents. The esports industry alone is worth over $1.2 billion, and Twitch streamers can have up to 100,000 viewers at once.
14. Sell NFTs
Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, have garnered a lot of attention as a lucrative business you can start from home. If you have artistic skills or know someone you can collaborate with to start this type of business, you can generate income from home by creating and selling NFTs.
Artists like FEWOCIOUS have the potential to make money selling their artwork as NFTs for millions of dollars. While these may be exceptional success stories, there are many other artists selling the NFTs they create at home. You can also be creative, even if you aren’t an artist. Look at the story of Brittany Pierre, who made $109,000 selling her art and photography as NFTs.
15. Become a Virtual Event Planner
With the onset of the pandemic and the shift from in-person events to virtual ones, the demand for virtual event planning skills has increased. While many companies are returning to the office, some changes have become permanent – with more remote workers and spread-out teams in the post-pandemic world.
The best part is you can get started with just a smartphone, a laptop, and an internet connection while keeping costs relatively low as you work from home and find your niche. Virtual event planning specialties cover many different needs, whether it’s planning for:
- Corporate conferences
- Business meetings
- Virtual parties
- Fundraising campaigns
- Trade shows
- Webinars
- Educational conferences
- Group training or workshops
16. Launch a Photography Business
You can sell photos online, regardless of your skill level. You might consider selling stock photos by opening your own store or selling images to well-known stock photo sites like Adobe Stock, iStock, or Shutterstock.
To
You can create a successful business from your photos, you need to know how to market yourself and develop your brand.
Source: https://www.shopify.com/blog/home-business
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