Business Opportunities for the Home Worker

Hey, running your own business from home sounds awesome! We've been doing it for years, and we see no reason why you can't either. You'll need the right skills, a good idea to start with, and personal connections. And you might have to send a lot of emails. But if the internet has anything to say about it, working from home is totally the way to go! Just don't dwell on all those people who dream of finding their passion, quitting their day job in pursuit of that passion - eh hem - and never coming back. In fact, if they really wanted to stay at home, they could set up a business that didn't require them to be in the same room on a regular basis. At least they're pursuing their passion. If you want to stay home with your kids or spouse and want to make money, you've come to the right place. We've created some great opportunities for you that are way less stress-filled than being "in the office" with everyone staring at each other (not that there's anything wrong with that). Let's dig in. What exactly is a home-based business?

Home based businesses are small, usually one-person companies that operate from an owner's home or office, and take advantage of the internet as a way to reach customers. They range in nature from part-time or hobby micro businesses to full-time or "professional" businesses that offer something of value to the marketplace, such as personal computers, graphic design work, web design work, virtual assistant services and so on.

How much money can I make?

The amount of money you can earn varies depending on the nature of your business and the industry you're in. If you're in the computer or web design business, the most money comes from offering services or consulting to other companies. If you're a virtual assistant, then the most money comes from offering time-based services to companies. If you're a massage therapist or dog groomer or pet sitter or babysitter, then the most money comes from offering your time/experience to individuals, either paid as an hourly rate, in return for keeping their pets/animals overnight or taking care of their children while they work at their desk jobs (e.g., sitters pay $35 an hour and watch 4-6 hours of "business" per day), or through membership fees (e.g. $10/month gets you unlimited dog walks, or $35/day gets you a dog walker who will pick up your dog in the morning and drop it off in the evening). How can I get started?

We're glad you asked! Firstly, check out our great resource for starters called The Ultimate Guide to Freelancing . It walks you through how to decide on a business idea (and get rid of all of your bad ideas first), find good opportunities, set up a business bank account, deal with taxes and more. Then check out our recommended home-based business opportunities:

Home-Based Business #1 : Virtual Assistant You can become a virtual assistant by offering your service to individuals or businesses as an independent contractor. You'll need to get your own website and social media accounts, but all of our customers are technically independent contractors so we use PayPal, Stripe and other services to convert them into full-time employees.

Home-Based Business #2: Freelance Graphic Designer

You don't have to be an artist or have perfect web design skills to become a freelance graphic designer. You can simply outsource your graphics needs for your business and make money doing so. We've partnered with a graphic designer  who's been doing this for years and she's made an excellent industry reputation for herself (check out her YouTube channel ). In return for outsourcing your designs to her, you can make some cash back by doing the same thing for other people.

Home-Based Business #3: Blogging and Content Writing

So much of our company's success has been attributed to how we manage our blog and content, most notably customer service articles that encourage people to email us and social media posts that bring in thousands of views a day. We already had the infrastructure in place to handle an onslaught of customer emails - what do you do? If you have some interest, writing skills and enough time on your hands, we suggest you take a crack at blogging. Just head on over to Google Blogger or Wordpress , set up an account and start writing. If you have a bit more time, you can even set up a high-quality website and offer consulting services.

Home-Based Business #4: Pet Sitting or Grooming

If you've got the skills and experience to take care of people's pets, then becoming a pet sitter could be a fantastic way to stay home and make money, even if it isn't as quick or easy as some of these other opportunities. This is one business where you may want to start small with just taking care of one pet in exchange for $15/hour. You can quickly up your hourly rate by offering other services such as cleaning (dogs especially) and walking your own dog while the owner works. We recommend checking out Care.com for a directory of pet sitters in your area.

Home-Based Business #5: Web Design

However you landed on this page, you're probably considering a web design business. If so, we've got two recommendations. One is offering services as an independent contractor and the other is offering membership services to other businesses in your market. We can help you with either one! 

To start as an independent contractor , set up your website (we recommend Squarespace), hire some marketing consultants to help you create content and email lists (see below), and start building relationships with clients on social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn . Once you've got some clients and have built up your reputation as a designer, you can consider selling your services to other businesses for membership.

To start as a member business, you will need to obtain an EIN and the PayPal account via a merchant account. You can then offer subscription services for other businesses in your market (farmer's markets and tradeshow associations are great places to start). To do so, once you've created your website and linked it to PayPal, start listing yourself as an expert in Yelp  and Angie's List . These are two excellent ways to build your network of potential clients while simultaneously raising the value of any products or services that you sell.

By now you should have a good idea of how much work and how much money you can earn from each of these home-based business opportunities, but we recommend taking our advice and starting small. Why? Well, simply put, everyone is your first client. And that's someone who will take advantage of your unique skills and knowledge to help solve their needs by paying you with money. When the time comes to scale up and make it a full-time job, you'll be able to afford the best services for yourself because of the money that's been in the bank for years (and hopefully made some great friends along the way). But for now, just enjoy building relationships with clients and learning how different industries work from each other on Twitter .

Conclusion

Being your own boss is one of the most sought-after things in the world. Let's face it - bosses are jerks. They're egotistical, controlling, manipulative and for the most part, clueless. But if you're going to go down that road, it may as well be a road that leads to success because if you don't have a boss beating down on you every day with deadlines and stress, then why not have yourself doing those things instead? There's freedom when it comes to being self-employed.