Whenever we think about starting our own business and setting up a new business venture, our brain gets bombarded with heaps of concerns such as we are going to need business education, an office, may be partners, and above all, money for an investment. There can definitely be challenges when starting a business but they can be overcome. In fact, there are numerous businesses that you can start from your home right now depending upon your skill set and they don’t really require a lot of money. Here is the list of most interesting home-based business ideas which can be fun and profitable at the same time.
1. Freelance Writing
Are you intrigued by the idea of working from home and become a freelance writer? Today’s market for writers is broad and wide open and thousands of writing opportunities exist as there are a variety of niches available which you can choose depending upon your area of interests. It all depends on your decision of what you want to write on and which topics you can discover with delight and curiosity. There are varieties of slots that can be targeted such as Health fitness and nutrition, traveling, sports, animal care and technology (requires technical knowledge).
One can also write fictitious content but must keep in mind that it is much more challenging as compared to the fact based writing so bear this in mind when making a choice. There are many freelancing platforms such as Fiverr and Upwork that are available where you can register yourself and start earning as a freelance writer.
2. Social media specialist/handler
There are several money-making opportunities on social media than you may realize. In this era, having an established site for your startup business is not enough. You have to make productive and comprehensive use of these global sites to market your business. The job of a social media consultant is to help business owners by promoting their product and services on Facebook, Twitter and other similar sites available. There are some crucial factors which you need to consider while choosing this as a career. Are you active enough on all the major social media platforms? Will you be able to respond back comments and messages? To ensure that you are running an interactive page and is extremely responsive to everything that’s thrown their way. One must also make sure while preferring this field is that he upholds effective and influential communicational skills and is coherent in his/her decision-making power.
3. YouTube
Do you consider yourself an effective communicator in front of the camera and don’t feel any hesitancy or shyness and believe there is something you can offer in which you are good at? Then YouTube might be an option to consider. There are a lot of people who are reluctant to create a YouTube channel because they presume that this platform is complicated because it can be difficult to rank videos and gain attraction.
The question which should be asked here is that whether making a YouTube channel is worth it or not? The answer can be big YES if planned properly. The key to success here is to choose your area of interest and gather significant knowledge about it. One also needs to make sure that you are generating unique and innovative content as it will help in gaining loyal subscribers which can further lead to the channel’s success and various business opportunities.
For instance, if you think you are good at explaining technical stuff then you can start a tech channel that covers specific devices and gadgets. If you are a person who loves doing DIY projects and likes teaching others, then you can make a channel that contains video tutorials that can help others to accomplish little DIY tasks.
4. Tutoring Service
If you think that you have specialized knowledge and proficiency to communicate your knowledge in an effective and concise way, then you can consider starting a home-based tutoring business. As tutoring services are becoming increasingly common, the demand for tutors is also greatly increased.
There are many people and students who need help to successfully score better on tests, learn new languages or improve their grades in school. You can help them achieve what they want and earn a lot of money in return. This business can be extremely rewarding as it doesn’t need any investment and is easy to start. You can also sell your tutoring services on many e-learning platforms such as Udemy, by registering yourself.
5. Virtual assistant
Do you know you can make a solid income stream just by assisting people with basic tasks? You are still an entrepreneur here because you are not officially employed by any specific company or person. You can register yourself as a virtual assistant on any freelancing platform and do data entry, offer mail services, plan travel, do social media and accomplish other tasks as an assistant for a client online. For example, you can visit virtualassistants.com as they have abundant jobs regarding this field.
6. Photography
Have you ever thought of yourself as a decent photographer? Do you believe that you possess strong photography skills and what it takes to be a professional photographer? Kudos, there are many ways which you can use and start getting paid using this creative skill. You can go to events and capture the moments as it will not only provide you dynamic experiences for the starters but also help you get many clients. There are many professional photographers out there that make good money out of photography. If you got the passion for it and appropriate gear, then you can make a career out of it and earn a lot. You can do:
7. Event Photography
People always need someone to capture the special moments of an event and if you are able to take great photos then you can sign a contract for the event with your client and make a good amount of money just by taking some amazing shots. In addition if you have some basic graphics editing skills you can touch up the photos as well.
8. Stock/Microstock Photography
There are websites such as Fotolia, Adobe Stock, iStockphoto, Shutter Stock and Getty Images where you can upload your clicked photographs of nature, clothes or anything worth-seeing. Many agencies refer to those websites to buy photographs for different purposes such as composition or web designing.
9. Wedding photography
This is highly paid profession because people who are getting married are typically willing to spend a lot to get nice photos of their special moment. Try to develop a comprehensive portfolio and use various means like social media to develop your market and promote your business as a compelling photographer.
10. Renting
One unique way to make an income at home is to rent out stuff which you already have to other people when you are not using it. It’s something that you can turn into a solid business. For example, there’s a website named turo.com that allows you to rent your car when it’s not being used. This is useful when you have multiple cars or a car which isn’t used on an everyday basis.
If you own second home such as a beach or a lake house or just have an extra bedroom that’s not much used then you can also rent it out using AirBnB.com and generate a source of passive income without doing any hard work.
11. Test Websites
Did you know that you can earn money by testing websites online? Yes, you can. This is something you can do by sitting on your couch if you don’t want to get up. There are many websites out there and the problem arises when they do not live up to the expectations of the users, for example, they are not responsive enough, crash issues, things get formatted wrong or the created website isn’t user-friendly. These issues create a lot of problems for the company and they want their end-user to scroll through perfection. This is the reason why there are services that help connect freelancers who are obliging to test the websites with these people who need their websites to be tested. One of the most popular websites which link such users is User Testing and it pays them about $10 per test. All you have to do is be a bit technical and speak your thoughts out loud about the website or a mobile application.
12. Sales Copywriter
You might have no idea what this is but whenever you see a catchy text in an ad on Facebook or a billboard and words on a website that sell you something, just remember someone is getting paid for this.
There are people who base their entire career on writing convincing and persuasive text which is appealing and compelling at the same time. This helps drawing customers in and develops a connection with them so that they ultimately buy something. These people are known as sales copywriters who write text called a sales copy. This job doesn’t necessarily require any technical skills, but you need to have good English and must understand human psychology and marketing strategies at a basic level.
13. Graphic Design
This last skill does require come more in-depth technical skills, graphic design. A graphic designer creates visual art on a computer for organizations and businesses. They might design a logo, a brochure, a t-shirt and basically anything that can be designed digitally. There are no certain qualifications that you need to have in order to be a successful graphic designer but you do need to have an ability to be visually creative and good with Adobe tools such as Illustrator and Photoshop.
You can sell your services on several freelancing platforms available online such as Fiverr, Freelancer, Upwork, People Per Hour etc. A Graphic designer can earn $20 – $45/hr. or $3000 – $7000/month.
Conclusion
The point of this article is to demonstrate that you don’t really need to have hard core technical skills in order to start earning from your home. There are a diverse set of opportunities that are fun and which you can tailor for your own skill set. You just need an unflinching determination and strong focus in your area of interest be successful in a home-based business.