Each Monday, I am going to be featuring 5 random small business ideas that you might consider when choosing to start your own home-based business. The best part about most of these ideas is that they are inexpensive businesses to start that will allow you to work from home online. It’s important that you choose something based on your talents and passions, not just “Oh, that sounds fun” or “I could probably make a lot of money doing that.”
- Online Tutoring
With the growing demand of online schools, there is also a greater need for online tutors. Not only that, but as an online tutor you can also offer your services online to students who are attending offline schools. The best part about this business is the fact that you could have more clients than you could ever serve, since nearly everyone has access to the internet these days. It’s also good because you can specialize in the subjects you wish to tutor in such as math, social studies, business, etc. The toughest part initially would be finding where to market in order to bring in your first clients. It might be best to distribute flyers locally or become part of some online forums with parents whom you can befriend. There are also other ways such as social media, videos, etc. that you can use to market your business online. Business will definitely take off for you once you get your first few clients, get them seeing positive results, and then sharing their experience with others about working with you.
- Virtual Assistant
One of the most popular businesses I’ve seen people starting online has been a Virtual Assistant service. This is both a good and bad thing. While their is a ton of great virtual assistants online now because of the boom, there are also twice as many worthless virtual assistants who constantly over-promise and under-deliver while giving the whole virtual assistant industry a black eye. If you’ve had some sort of prior experience as an administrative assistant, then you might want to check out becoming a Virtual Assistant. Typically, Virtual Assistants doing administrative type of tasks for both online and offline businesses. The reason they’re called Virtual Assistants is because the reason that they virtually live anywhere in the world and serve businesses worldwide. A couple of suggestions I would make to you if you decided that you would like to go this route, would be to A)niche into a single business market (real estate, insurance, internet marketing, etc.) and B) once you’ve decided your niche, then learn every single piece of software that industry uses. By doing these two things, you will be heavily in-demand, but you will also be able to charge premium rates.
- Recruiter
You will be the one to decide if opening your own recruiting business is a good idea. Being a Recruiter is a very lucrative business, but it all comes down to contacts. If you are constantly networking and have a bunch of contacts then you will be able to really build a business quick. If you don’t, then you might be eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a while. Think about it this way. Let’s say you’re a matchmaker. You may have all these amazing men whom you want to get lined up with dates, but unless you have a bunch of qualified women that would be the perfect match for them, then it would never work out. The same is true if you decide you would like to open a recruiting business. You may have all kinds of executives who are looking at you to find them a job or a better job, but if you don’t have contacts with any companies whom are looking for executives in that field, then everyone will end up frustrated. To make it a bit easier on yourself, I might suggest that you niche in a certain niche such as healthcare, industrial, etc. so that it is easier for you to find both, the talent and the companies that you wish to serve, much easier.
- Cake Decorator
For the creative types of people who also love food, this is a great idea. Cakes are used for various occasions throughout the year such as weddings, graduations, birthdays, anniversaries, grand openings, etc. Most cake decorators are just looking to sell a cake. I would market and position the business a bit different so I was basically the cake person for that family during their life. Sounds weird I know, but look at the number of cakes that a typically family needs over the course of a lifetime. Wouldn’t you like to serve only a certain number of families, but provide them with the cakes they need throughout the year. I might even suggest putting together some packages so they get cakes from you 2-3 times per year so you have a better guaranteed income as a cake decorator. As you continue to grow, you may want to add on some things such as cupcakes, cookies, and other things you can provide your clients. Don’t forget to check with your local Health Department to make sure you can do this in your home. If you can’t, then you can alway check into renting a kitchen somewhere or sharing a kitchen with a restaurant, catering business, etc. Be creative!
- Family History & Genealogy
This one is fairly uncommon, but its a great idea for the right person. Let me just start off by saying if you’re thinking of doing this, you will need to make sure that you are a super organized person and also one who has no problems being very investigative both online and in-person. There are many families out there that have all kinds of information about various parts of their family both current and in the past. If you decided to become a Family History & Geneaology Specialist (BAM! See that awesome title), then it would be your job to take all that information from the various family members and piece it all together into some sort of family chart. From there you would see where the missing holes are and then do some researching and interviewing to figure out the missing parts. The awesome thing about this business is the stories that you would hear and be able to share with other family members.
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