Working at home has become widely popular in recent years. It’s no surprise that many are making the shift, given the diversity, flexibility, comfort, and decent to lucrative income potential that remote work provides. What’s even great is that most of these at-home professions require zero to minimal costs and little to no experience. It’s easy to start as there’s always a gig that can suit your schedule, preference, and skill set. If you’re interested in having an at-home career, here are the easiest professions to get started with.
1. Data Entry Clerk
While data entry may sound technical and complicated, data entry is actually quite simple. Usually, it serves as the stepping stone for many people who want to start remote work.
This role entails inputting alphabetic and numeric information into the company’s system or database or converting them from one format to another. For instance, a task would be transferring data from a printed document, order form, or invoices to a spreadsheet, computer program, or another digital source.
All you need to do is to have proficient typing skills, excellent written communication, good organizational skills, keen attention to detail, and great time management abilities to do such duties.
Thanks to advancements in technology, it’s also now easier for organizations to outsource data entry work, leaving many opportunities available. Most companies usually only require a high-school diploma to accept candidates for freelance, part-time, and full-time projects.
Data entry work also usually doesn’t need to be accomplished during business hours, making it easier if you’re looking for a more flexible time as well.
2. Proofreader
If you have extensive knowledge of the English language and sharp attention to detail, another excellent way to start is being a proofreader. Proofreading involves carefully checking text for errors before it is shared or published.
You’ll serve as the final set of eyes that must correct any spelling mistakes, punctuation errors, consistency issues, and incorrect styles and formatting. Any writing material must be proofread, whether it’s an online editorial, news article, an academic journal, or a job application letter.
Many platforms are available online that can help you reach clients that can match your skills. Expect to take a skills test as part of the application process. Though English, communication, and journalism are a plus, there are many candidates with other degrees or no prior professional experiences who are accepted for this profession.
3. Virtual Assistant
Virtual assistants are basically administrative or executive assistants that provide remote support to companies. It involves duties that are traditionally done on-site, such as answering phone calls, responding to emails, maintaining filing and databases, making travel arrangements, preparing memos, taking notes, doing research, keeping a calendar, and scheduling meetings and appointments.
Positions in the VA industry are usually entry-level, and you can land one with just a high school diploma. Excellent verbal and written communication skills, proficiency in Microsoft Office tools, great organizational skills, and the ability to work well independently and with little to no direction are other qualifications you need for the role.
4. Bookkeeper
If you have an accounting or bookkeeping background, you can also start an online bookkeeper and enjoy the key benefits of working at home. Tasks include handling the company’s financial transactions, including purchases, expenses, and revenue. You’ll serve as the go-to person for all the business’s financial reports and records and keep them organized.
Thankfully, bookkeeping software now allows the secure management and storage of all financial correspondence and documents. You can even work for a client outside your city or country and in a different time zone. The hourly rate typically falls between $18 to $22, making it also an excellent way to earn from home.
5. Graphic Designer
You don’t need any art degree to start a career in graphic designing. If you have a knack and eye for design and knowledge in using tools like Canva and Adobe Photoshop, there are plenty of opportunities awaiting you.
As a graphic designer, your common tasks include creating online ads, announcements, logos, Pinterest images, product packing, infographics, and much more. All these visuals are vital for companies as they help convey the messages, ideas, and information that the company, business, or individual wants to impart.
Clients or employers usually provide what they want, and you’re free to accomplish it with your computer and other equipment at home. Thus, making it an easy at-home profession. Just hone your creative and artistic skills and be knowledgeable on the current trends in layout, design, and software, and you’ll achieve paramount success in this role.
6. Writer
Being a writer has long been a work-from-home profession. Today, writers are even more in demand with many types of jobs also available. The best thing is you don’t need much to get started in this position. As long as you have incredible language skills, including spelling, word usage, and grammar, you can work as a writer on a part-time, full-time, contractual, or freelance basis.
Some of the writer positions available are in fields like technical and medical writing, copywriting, and content writing. Most writers also have their preferred niches, such as social media, personal finance, pregnancy, long-form blogs, cryptocurrency, alternative health, real estate, or technology.
Clients and employers will usually require you to pass a writing test and your portfolio of writing samples. If you don’t have one yet, seeking guest post opportunities and writing for nonprofit organizations are great ways to begin your journey in this at-home profession.
7. Social Media Manager
With strong online presence becoming more and more valuable to businesses, it has also become more vital for them to hire social media managers that will run their social media pages like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. While they can manage them on their own, companies are usually busy with other aspects of the operations, making it more practical to outsource the task to at-home workers.
With that, becoming a social media manager has also become one of the easiest and most popular remote work today. Depending on your client or the business, usual tasks normally include planning and scheduling social media posts, creating graphics, writing copies, responding to comments, answering chats, emails, and comments, implementing social media campaigns and keeping track of social performance.
Opportunities are bountiful with small businesses to giant companies looking for a social media manager. You can work part-time, full-time, or freelance. A bachelor’s degree is usually necessary. Just make sure that you have a strong command of various social media platforms, strong writing skills, and impeccable creativity that are needed for the job.
8. Customer Service Representative
Another easy home profession to start with is being a customer service representative. It’s perfect if you love talking to people and know how to deal with customers that might be upset. Your tasks will also usually include modifying client accounts, updating records, placing or canceling orders, tracking shipments, troubleshooting, answering queries, responding to requests or feedback, and fixing issues and complaints. Support is provided by phone, email, or chat, depending on the company you’d be in.
Yet, be mindful that customer service representative roles usually follow strict schedules. While it’s easy to apply for and get hired, see to it that you have inquired about flexible hours if that’s what you need. Moreover, it also requires a quiet background. So, it won’t probably be a good fit if you have kids or other caretaking responsibilities to attend to. Make sure that you consider these before starting in this profession.
9. App and Website Tester
If you love sharing your thoughts on what works well or great on apps and on the web, you can easily land a job as an app and website tester. When releasing apps or publishing websites, developers want to get the other’s say on the ease of use, functionality, and overall look of their output. With that, they hire testers to examine the apps or websites to examine them and get their insights.
Usually, developers are looking for a beginner’s viewpoint, which means you don’t even have to have deep technical knowledge for the job. All you need to do is to complete certain tasks like registering on the website, navigating through the site, playing an app, leaving comments online, and answering a set of questions relating to your experience. Reviews usually take about 15 to 30 minutes to complete.
It’s a good work-from-home job to consider, and you can find many positions available in businesses doing e-commerce and financial transactions.
10. Online Teacher/Tutor
If you have teaching and tutoring experience, you will find many related jobs. English teachers are most in-demand in countries where English isn’t the main language. An education degree isn’t required, but companies will most likely require you to pass tests and have a teaching certification.
Once hired, they’ll be providing the resources that you need to teach your students online, such as lesson plans, games, and online language platforms. Thus, making the task pretty easier. However, a challenge will be working in the early or wee hours due to the differences in time zones.
Meanwhile, you can also work as a tutor, which entails teaching students about a specific subject or the entire curriculum. Moreover, you should also help them develop the necessary studying and learning habits and skills that they need to become successful in their studies. Apart from English, common subjects that tutors tutor include Science, History, Math, Finance, and more.
Usual typical physical prerequisites for online teaching and tutoring are a laptop or desktop computer, a reliable internet connection that has ample bandwidth, and suitable, quiet working space in your home.
11. Microworker
Do you wish to start with side-gigs first instead? Being a microworker can be your best to earn some extra income in the comfort of your home. You can do micro jobs online, which are small tasks from which you’ll receive a small fee upon completion.
These tasks can include answering surveys, testing websites, doing captchas, data entry, and other actions that don’t require high-level skills. These brief chores are easy and simple, usually requiring only a few minutes to perform.
While tasks can be done in a breeze, the fee is usually so small. As such, your primary goal is to accomplish as many tasks as possible to get your desired income. Many companies also require a minimum payout. For instance, you may need to wait until you reach $20 before you can receive your money. Some popular websites that offer these types of tasks are ySense, Clickworker, and Amazon’s Mechanical Turn.
12. Virtual Travel Agent
Another easy-to-start work-from-home profession is being a virtual travel agent. Your main responsibility is to help clients get the best travel and accommodation reservations and make the process as easy, smooth, and stress-free as possible.
To do so, you must do tasks like booking tickets, managing deposits and payments for bookings, taking the client’s budget and preferences, checking visas, vaccinations, and travel requirements, and maintaining records.
While employers prefer applicants with an associate or bachelor’s degree, a high school diploma or equivalent will usually suffice. Customer service skills, negotiating skills, and problem-solving skills are also beneficial to the role.
13. Search Evaluator
Search evaluation is an at-home position that is known by many other names, such as internet assessor, internet judge, and ads quality rate. As a search evaluator, your main task is to evaluate and provide feedback about the search results that come up when looking for a specific term on the web. You’ll provide valuable insights on the correctness, relevance, accuracy, usefulness, and lack of spam of the assignments.
Typically, you need to be well-versed, a skilled communicator, knowledgeable about cultures and have reliable access to the internet to be accepted for the role. No direct prior experience or degree is needed, though some clients may prefer them. Though it’s usually offered to bilingual candidates, there are also English-only positions available. Some companies that hire search evaluators include Lionbridge, Appen, and Google.
14. Life Coach
If you’re fond of helping others and have excellent advice, tips, and experiences to share from any area of expertise, then you can be a work-from-home life coach. As a life coach, you’ll be a wellness guru that will help clients define their goals, determine roadblocks, find strengths and weaknesses, and establish plans of action, all for the objective of improving their lives, jobs, relationships, or businesses.
Interaction happens via phone, email, chat, or video conferencing, guiding your client through the entire process or simply getting that start towards that positive, long-lasting change they need in their personal or professional lives.
There are many different types of life coaching, such as health coaching, spiritual coaching, personal finance coaching, skill coaching, performance coaching, and career coaching. No specific education or degree is required to be a life coach. Still, a background in business, wellness, and psychology and related certifications are a definite plus and will help you appear more marketable and credible as a life coach.
15. Music Producer
Use your passion for music to earn while at home. If you’re a music producer and a songwriter, you can produce for various clients and other artists. It can be custom music for businesses’ ads, podcasts, or websites. You can also write songs and collect royalties from them.
To promote your services, take advantage of social media and post info about your work on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Alternatively, you can get the word out through your friends, family, colleagues, and other people on your network. To get clients, you can visit Upwork or Indeed for postings about businesses or individuals looking for riveting written and audio content.
16. YouTube Influencer
Another way to maximize any passion and turn them into a profession that can help you get hundreds, thousands, or even million is by being a YouTube influencer.
If you have something you are ardent about, such as toys, beauty products, fitness, music, pets, and any other things under the sun, you can start a YouTube channel about it and make money through sponsorships and ad revenue.
Be mindful that this requires extra effort and patience as you first need to establish a decent following before earning. Luckily, it won’t be as hard to do, especially if you’re talking about something you actually love.
17. Online Moderator
Online moderation is a profession where an individual oversees the client’s message board, blog, forum, comments section, chat room, and social media accounts. It’s a position that is ideal for you if you’re not the type of person who is fond of taking jobs that require making phone calls or vdeo calls.
As an online moderator, you must check all those platforms and ensure that each post adheres to the site’s standards. You need to watch out for and clean any post that displays sexism, racism, hate speech, bullying, profanity, and other offensive forms of writing, content, or behavior to make the platform safe to use.
Apart from that, you also need to check if all users comply with the rules and deal with problematic users if there are any. Plus, you must also update your client about the current trends in the discussions or any common issue that users, members, or customers may raise.
Outstanding communication skills, a keen eye for detail, and the ability to control emotions and stay professional while dealing with various types of posts and users are common skills you need for the job. Salary is usually paid hourly, ranging between $15 to $20 per hour.
18. Transcriptionist
Being an at-home transcriptionist is also quite easy. Majority of the remote transcriber positions you can find online don’t require any experience. All you need is a good understanding of the English language and decent typing speed, and you’re free to apply for the role.
As a transcriptionist, your main responsibility is listening to audio (or video) content and converting it into a text document by typing what you hear accurately word-for-word. Sources of audio files can vary greatly, ranging from lectures, meetings, e-books, phone calls, or interviews.
Transcription work is in demand, and you can find many companies looking for transcribers. The rate differs per site or client, but the range falls between $90-180 per audio hour.
19. Dropshipper
Do you dream of handling your online store but don’t have enough capital or logistics to do so? Well, you can make things easy by becoming a dropshipper instead. Dropshipping is an excellent option where you can build a storefront on platforms like Magento, WIX, or Shopify. You’ll have your own list of products and have your customers receive their orders.
The difference is that you don’t have to touch physical products and ship them. What happens is you’ll partner with a third-party supplier, who would then dispatch the items to the buyer for you. It’s an amazing opportunity to engage in sales while being hands-off in the manufacturing, stocking, shipping, and delivery process.
Another exciting thing is that you can sell basically anything like baby products, home interiors, office supplies, phone accessories, apparel, event tickets, and a whole lot more. Just partner with the right suppliers, and you’ll have good earnings while working at home as a dropshipper.
20. Translator/Interpreter
Being able to speak more than two languages fluently is another way to land an excellent at-home profession. You can showcase your speaking and interpreting skills as a translator or interpreter, helping convert and interpret written and spoken data from one language to the target language. It can be a piece of document or live and recorded dialogue, depending on the needs of the individual or the company.
Other duties include ensuring that the translated content imparts the original meaning and tone, proofreading translated text for spelling, punctuation accuracy, and grammar, and facilitating communication between the two parties speaking different languages.
Common requirements for the role include proof of language fluency or certifications, familiarity with content editing tools and translation software, and at least a high school qualification or equivalent. Being a translator or interpreter is among the most lucrative at-home professions, promising a salary between $48K to $64K a year.
21. Stock Photographer
You can also find many easy job opportunities if you have talent in photography. You can start with stock photography, which entails shooting and creating images and selling them to businesses for their websites, magazines, marketing campaigns, and a whole lot more. Offers are endless, and you can earn from every image sold, making it one of the best ways to earn passive income while at home.
The good thing is you don’t even need to buy professional equipment. Other sites and online marketplaces accept photos taken using smartphones. Just make sure to maximize lighting, use the best settings, keep the image focused, and create visual interest when taking photos.
You can also take photos of nearly any usual activity from home, such as gardening, cooking in the kitchen, playing with kids, or feeding your pets, making it easier to engage in stock photography.
22. Blogger
Among the most popular at-home professions today is being a blogger. If you enjoy a certain topic, helping people, and sharing your thoughts and experiences, you can start writing a blog and make money from home even on a part-time schedule. Just be mindful of devoting extra patience as blogging usually takes 6 to 18 months of consistent writing before being profitable.
Once your site gains traction and popularity, you can begin earning in different ways like advertising or getting paid by placing ads on your blog and affiliate marketing or receiving commission for any third-party products or services you sell in your blog. Alternatively, you can also sell your own digital products like courses or e-books or digital services like consulting or coaching to enhance your earnings further.
What to love more about blogging is that it’s quite affordable to begin with too. All you need is your laptop or computer, a reliable internet connection, and excellent writing skills to create interesting blogs that can capture readers’ attention. Plus, there are also a lot of free blogging platforms like Wix, WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, and Weebly, making it easier to start your blogging journey.
23. Virtual Recruiter
What once used to be done only in an office setting, being a recruiter is also now a profession you can easily do at home. You’re in charge of posting vacancies, looking for potential employees, and filling up those positions with the most qualified individuals from the pool of candidates.
The hiring process happens virtually, and you’ll use the latest technology to conduct interviews, assessments, and surveys in evaluating the applicants. You’ll serve as the liaison between the candidates and the employer, helping the latter find the best fit for them. As such, you also need to constantly update the employer on the status of the hiring process through email, chat, phone calls, and other platforms.
Other duties include reaching out to the hiring party to determine their need, contacting recruits via email or phone, using several hiring platforms to build an applicant pool, answering queries, and guiding the potential recruits.
While some employers require virtual recruiters to have an associate or a bachelor’s degree in business, human resources, psychology, marketing, and other related fields, others accept those with at least a high school diploma or equivalent. Having prior experience with recruitment or customer service is also a plus. Still, many companies are very much willing to train well-motivated people with excellent communication skills to be virtual recruiters.
Virtual recruiters are usually employed by recruiting firms, but you can also opt to be a freelance virtual recruiter instead and find clients on your own.
24. Video Editor
Video content has been growing rapidly on the internet. With that, the demand for video editors has also been surging in recent years. If you have a knack for editing videos, you can easily get a healthy paycheck from doing this easy at-home job.
As a video editor, your main duty is to handle various materials to create a cohesive video or film. To do so, you’ll do tasks such as assembling clips, converting files from one form to another, connecting videos, inputting appropriate audio and images, applying effects, improving or correcting lighting and color grading, ensuring logical and smooth sequencing, and fine-tuning the final output. It also entails continually coordinating with the client to ensure that the finished product aligns with their vision.
Common qualifications to be accepted for the role include a strong portfolio, prior work experience as a video editor, familiarity with different video editing software like Premiere, After Effects, Lightworks, Final Cut, and Avid Media Composer, good time-management, creative mind, and outstanding storytelling skills.
Though it’s a bonus to have a degree in media, media production, film and television studies, and other related fields, you don’t actually need a degree to be hired as a video editor. Truth to be told, many successful video editors didn’t even attend any film institution but are certainly reaching great heights in the industry.
25. Event Planner
Capping this is another easy and exciting at-home profession you can start with – being an event planner. Also called event specialist or event coordinator, this role means helping clients plan and run various events, such as company parties, campaigns, corporate meetings, trade shows, fundraisers, or conventions, and ensuring that everything on the day of the event goes smoothly.
Expect to do tasks like brainstorming concepts and themes, preparing a budget, contacting vendors and suppliers, communicating with on-site personnel, devising registration systems, booking venues, coordinating all the logistics aspects, managing set-up, tear-down, and cleaning operations, collecting feedback, and developing post-event reports. You’ll often use various means like email, chat, phone, and video conferencing software to collaborate with all the stakeholders.
Common requirements for this position include a degree in management, public relations, hospitality, or other similar fields, previous work experience in event planning, excellent organizational skills and multitasking abilities, strong interpersonal and communication skills, ability to lead and motivate a team or groups of people, and creativity or out-of-the-box thinking. The best part is today’s society has never been busier, so you can be assured that there are plenty of opportunities available for you as an event planner.
Takeaway
Indeed, at-home professions have become more prevalent, and there are many options for you to jumpstart your home-based career. Just make sure to assess everything first and ensure that the jobs you’re planning to take fit your preference, talents, hobbies, skill set, schedule, and lifestyle.
What you’ll love more about remote work is that you’re also never restrained from having one profession alone. As they’re easy to start, you can maintain a YouTube channel, be a blogger, and work as a virtual assistant at the same time. All it takes is taking that first step, and soon, you’ll achieve success, and the better you will be in the long run. Good luck!