Have you ever wondered if it is possible to make money while lying on your bed? Home business ideas?
Or have you dreamt of being independent?
I have compiled together for you a magic cheat that will help you in achieving your dream.
Just think of this as my gift you this year.
If this is your first time being here,
I am Akinduyo Eniola a freelance writer, blogger and an entrepreneur with big dreams. Sorry did I just forget to say that I am a human right activist?
Yes I have said it I am playing that little role I can to cub child trafficking and sexual abuse.
I do not have that long epistle to share with you but just think of me as your virtual teacher on starting the perfect home business.
I have compiled together 35 list of home businesses you can start and how you can start it with resources to help you get started.
Side note: you do not need to have any technical skill to start a successful home business, all you need is that willingness to learn and unlearn whatever you do need and do not need.
I started my online business with no prior knowledge of anything.
In order to avoid giving useless idea with a very slim chance of success, I have written this guide alongside with successful entrepreneurs in that niche.
So I assume you are that dummy totally new to the world of home business, so I will discuss this starting from the basics.
So let me make something clear about home businesses.
60% of home businesses are online businesses. So the list of ideas I would be giving you here are basically home business ideas you can start.
So, What are Home Businesses?
Home businesses are businesses which you run at the comfort of your bed without having to leave your home.
These businesses are mostly online businesses as I have said earlier on. Home businesses are suitable for anyone willing to take the stress and build something worthwhile.
Before we continue, I would love to take away something: truth about starting a home business.
Some Facts about Starting a Home Business
· It is Stressful
This cannot be ruled out. Starting a successful home business is very stressful.
You have to perform all task by yourself when just starting out and it might totally look overwhelming because you are new to it.
So you need to prepare yourself for the stress starting a successful home business comes with.
· Time consuming
To start and grow a successful home business, you must be ready to spend a lot of time. The more time you spend on growing your home business, the faster it grows.
So this simply shows how important time is in starting a home business and online business.
But this should not be a reason to quit like I always say.
If you want something big, then you must be ready to face something big.
That is the truth about everything.
· Be Ready to embrace failure
A bitter truth you need to prepare for. Your first home business might not be successful but that does not mean you should quit.
And I am not implying that your first home business will fail, I am only implying that there is a tendency for your first home business to fail.
As a matter of fact, there are a lot of people who succeeded in their first home business but for many of us, it was not like that.
So you could have your luck in starting a successful home business in your first trial.
· It is the best decision you can make
Surprised I added this?
Yes! It is the best decision you can make when it comes to business.
No matter how challenging it is to grow a successful business, succeeding at it could change your entire life and make you that different person you want to be.
So you have made the best decision to start an home business, follow it to the end and learn from the experts in order to become an expert.
I have talked about the difficulty starting an home business comes with.
It would be best if I discuss the benefits of starting a home business.
Why Start Your Home Business?
1. You are the boss
Have you ever thought of being the boss where you don’t have to work under someone’s policies.
That is what starting an home business comes with.
You work on your own terms and conditions.
2. You work less and earn more Later on
Yes this might sound contradictory, but it is not.
When starting a home business, you spend more time growing your business.
But once your business has been established you can always run it on auto pilot;
having a lot more time to work on other things.
It is not just about escaping the 9-5 jobs , it is more about living the life you want.
1. Freelance writing
Do you think freelance writing is no longer lucrative? Then I challenge you to carry out your research.No matter how crowded it might look, that is not really what it is.
A lot of freelance writers have made well over $100,000 dollars from just freelance writing and many are still making a whooping monthly income from freelance writing.
That being said, there are many freelance writers way below $100 per month.
Not just that, they under price their service making them earn very little and spread the news that freelance writing is not worth it.
I have been there.
When I started my freelance writing business, I started the wrong way and was one of those freelance writers earning way less than $200.
But still the truth remains that freelance writing is very lucrative thanks to the establishment of new online businesses and software companies.
Here is why:
Technology companies and blogs hire freelance writers to write for them.
The project varies from writing static pages like About us page, contact us page, and writing a copy for their product.
It also extends to writing blog posts, case studies, etc.
That is one reason why freelance writing niche will keep booming.
Everyday new blogs are created new businesses are started.
And freelance writers are who they turn to; to help them create quality content.
So the right question should be; how do I Start my Freelance Writing Business?
How to Start your Freelance Writing Career
Here is the thing: there are different ways of launching your freelance writing business but the formula remains the same.
So what’s the formula?
Step 1 - Create a Wordpress blog for your freelance business
In starting any home business, you need an online home where your services will live and an address.
That is how simple it is.
Same applies here; you need a blog to showcase your service as a freelance writer.
Does this really worth it when just starting out?
Yes it does.
You need to have a professional website to look professional.
Most people start by judging you by your website.
And this is what is common among all online business.
You are first judged by your website design before considering your service.
So consider creating a website for your freelance business.
A look at Elna cain’s blog shows how professional she is and also gives a sense of the quality she can provide her clients.
Your website is not just to house your service but also to showcase your samples and portfolio.
Step 2 - Choose a Niche
Going multi-niche does not really help when just starting out as a freelance writer.
This is why you need to nail down your niche.
Your niche is the topic you would love to write about.
And also make your niche something you are knowledgeable about or something you love learning about.
Here is how it work:
Who do you think a company that specializes in the real estate industry will hire?
Is it
· Mr A that writes about technology, health and real estate industry
OR
· Mr B that writes about the real estate industry and building.
I can see you are nodding.
Mr B, right?
That is how it works.
You need to have a niche in order to make yourself competitive in your industry.
If you are finding it difficult to decide on what niche to choose, you can read this guide by Carol Tice on choosing your freelance writing niche.
Step 3 – Create Samples and Guest blog on blogs in your industry
As simple as that sounds, it works like magic in helping you getting more freelance writing projects.
Congratulations! On selecting your niche (because this is really one of the decisions that many people find difficult).
You now have a niche; you now need samples in that niche.
Guest blogs do pretty well in building your authority online.
If you visit some blogs, you will always find them flaunt their badges of where they have been featured.
It is just a way of telling their prospective client they are an authority in their niche – simple.
So as a freelance writer, you need to guest blog on top blogs in your niche and be sure to flaunt their badges on your blog.
Step 4 – Cold Pitch prospective clients
Now you have samples, know who your prospective clients are, then it time to connect with them.
Send them a cold pitch about your service and how you can help them.
But it would be more effective if you start out by sending a cold pitch to your prospective clients.
But do not be hopeless when you do not receive any response.
Because the response rate of cold pitch is around 10% - 17%.
So you can always follow up your email if you received no reply.
To get started, you can read Matt Stephen guide on starting a freelance writing career.
2. Start a blog
With the increasing number of blogs in the blogosphere, one might be deceived to think that the blogosphere is crowded.
Everyday thousands of blogs are created daily and many of those blogs become redundant after they have been created.
That is a large percentage of new blogs are created by lazy bloggers who don’t really know what blogging is.
What exactly am I saying?
There is enough room for serious bloggers to join the blogosphere.
Starting a blog can change your life entirely if done well.
But as a newbie, you might find many of the tasks overwhelming.
All remaining the same blogging is very interesting because you are paid to impact lives.
To get started, my friend at Daily Blogging Tips has created a post on starting a blog.
After starting your blog, you will need to set up your page and I personally advise you to launch your blog with at least 10 posts.
I have created an ultimate guide to help you be a successful blogger in 2019.
So you can read that to understand all what it takes. It contains around 23 tips on being a successful blogger and most from personally experience.
3. Web Design
Are you are good at designing web sites or web apps? This could be a path for you to follow.
You are wondering:
What if I am not good at web designing?
Never mind! You can always learn web designing.
Web designing is all about designing beautiful and attractive websites and web apps for companies and individuals.
Having no knowledge of web designing is not an hindrance, you can always take a course in it on Udemy and other online courses.
Joining Facebook groups for web designing, LinkedIn, Slack group can help you learn fast from experienced web designers.
And you can also consider signing up for web designing boot camp.
You can always find clients by joining freelance websites as a freelance web designer, or by pitching your service to prospective clients.
That is another way around it.
Do not quit your day job, give your web design business to grow before considering quitting your day job.
4. Graphics Designing
If you are good at designing graphics, flyers, then you can consider starting a freelance graphics designing career.
Top graphics designers make 6 figures from their graphics designing business.
And graphics designing is one of the top rated home businesses you can start in 2019.
If you don’t have any knowledge of graphics designing, you can start by taking graphics designing courses and improving your skills.
Joining LinkedIn, graphics designing groups can help you grow your skill fast.
To get your first client, you can go ahead and try cold pitching to your prospective client.
But you have to keep in mind that the response rate is always low. So do not expect 50% of your prospective client to reply.
That being said, you can always follow up your first email; because there is a probability that your mail was counted as spam.
Joining a freelance site and job boards is another way of landing clients.
Fiverr, Freelancer, 99Designs, are examples of freelance sites you can join to land recurring gigs.
But do not quit your day job as it might take some few months before your graphics designing business take up.
So you can do this alongside your day job in the mean-time and only quit when you are convinced.
Between, have some samples to show prospective client.
That is:
Do not talk like an expert, be the expert.
5. Typing
Do you have a good typing speed?
Then consider doing freelance typing online. This is very simple without any technical aspect. All you need is a good typing speed and fluency in English language.
Typists make a good part-time income online by completing some tasks for clients online.
A good typing speed of 50 words per minute is a good start as a typist.
And you might be wondering what if I am not good at typing?
Practising typing is all you need to improve your typing speed and earn online.
You can use applications like Typing Master, Mavis Beacon to practise and measure your progress.
But you might not be able to earn that amount you need to quit your job, but you can always earn enough money to support yourself.
So to start this, all you need is a laptop, internet connection and word processing software.
For the word processing software, you can make use of Microsoft Word, or better still make use of Google docs.
Once you have your tools ready, you can start by joining freelance sites for clients and tasks.
6. Logo Design
Logo designers are experts in creating logos for companies and individuals.
And you know what?
They are also one of the top earning freelancers in the freelance worlds. Some logo designers earn well above 5 figures monthly income while few earn 6 figures monthly income.
To become a logo designer, you need to have a sense of colour and also learn how to use designing software like Adobe Photoshop.
Being a logo designer, you can also work as a graphics designer and vice versa.
But Logo designing takes more time because it deals with coming up with great ideas for a company;
and also cutting across branding.
What if I cannot design?
There are various online courses to help you with learning logo designing.
Udemy is a great place to take online courses on logo designing and also getting your certificate.
And to build your connection and network, you can join LinkedIn in order to help you build your professional circle for recurring clients.
Joining LinkedIn can also help you learn from expert Logo designers while still building your logo designing business.
At the beginning you will need to still keep your day job because online businesses are long term and they are not a quick way to make money online.
And you know what?
It being long term does not mean it is not lucrative, you can build six figure logo designing business online.
Not just any sweet talk, there are logo designers earning six figures online.
And you also can.
7. Become an Amazon Kindle Publisher
While writing an eBook is not easy while still keeping your day job, it is one of the easy ways to earn money online.
You can earn anything from $100 dollars in a month to $50,000 and even more.
You have something you know better than most people, you can always write an eBook around it to help others while still making your money.
Your eBooks can be as small as 7,000 words and as lengthy as 60,000 words it just about fulfilling what you promised in your title.
Having a great writing skill is a plus but not as important as having a good marketing skill.
You should know that the more sales you make money you make.
And the sales happen even before reading the eBook and seeing your great writing skill.
That is just to tell you how important it is to learn marketing and sales in order to boost your eBook sales.
Robert Kiyosaki of Rich Dad said that what makes him a best-selling author is not because he is a good writer but because he is a great marketing.
And you know what it is called best-selling author not best-writing author he remarked in one his book.
That is totally true.
In order to have great success with eBook writing, you need to learn writing.
To get started, you should start by reading this guide on writing eBooks.
8. Take Surveys
Okay, you want a lazy way to make money online, right?
This is just the perfect example of lazy ways of making money online.
Taking survey is a way of making money by answering some questions online and getting paid.
But you know what? You earn pennies that might not reach the $100 dollars until months.
This is actually not the best way to make money online.
But you might be able to make some money to fill some needs.
But some surveys pay way less that you might need a year in order to reach $100 dollars.
But still, do not take my word for it, some people earn well above $500 dollars a month by referring.
You can join Swagbucks for a start, PaidViewPoints is also another survey site to join.
9. Become an Online tutor
You have a skill that others are craving to have? You can consider tutoring online.
Starting an online course involves creating a series of tutorials in form of both videos and text and then offering it for sale online.
You can also go ahead issuing certificate to those that complete the course.
The idea behind this is getting paid while teaching others what you know.
Are you a JavaScript developer? Then you can create online courses on JavaScript to help beginners master JavaScript.
While this might sound a bit stressful; it is not.
There are applications and websites that can help you with this.
You can create an account as an online tutor and create courses in what you are knowledgeable in.
While creating your course, do not make the mistake of making it expensive.
Here is what I mean:
You should take your time to master the pricing of other courses in your niche, then make yours cheaper.
The idea behind this is to make it attractive to people looking for courses to buy.
But along the way, you can increase your course pricing.
10. Affiliate Marketing
Do you have a website? Or a popular following on Facebook, You Tube, or any other Social media network!
Affiliate marketing is a way to monetise all that traffic and following.
Affiliate marketing involves marketing a product and earning a commission when someone buys the product.
This means that you only earn when someone buys the product.
Like I have said, if you have a website with high amount of traffic or a Facebook group or page, you can always monetise it by promoting others products.
To get started, you can browse through the list of affiliate marketing programs you can join, then pick the best affiliate marketing product that suits you.
Do not make a mistake of just picking an affiliate marketing product only based on commission rate, that would only set you up for failure.
So what do you do?
Pick an affiliate product that you have used before or that you trust. Because promoting other people’s product, you are putting your online brand and trust on risk.
If perhaps the product you are marketing is not good, you can easily lose the trust your audience have in you.
So only promote an affiliate product you trust.
I have compiled a guide to help you in starting affiliate marketing and a list of affiliate marketing programs to join.
11. Become a Social Media Manager
We all make use of social media religiously a lot. Without visiting Facebook a day, you might not feel okay?
Do you also feel this sometimes? It has even topped out to-do list.
You might as well turn your hobby into a profession, getting paid for visiting social media networks. Yes that is becoming a social media manager.
A lot of companies are in search of talented social media manager that can help them keep their audience engaged through their social media accounts.
As a social media manager, your work involves and not limited to updating the company’s social media account, responding to questions and comments on their social media accounts.
Your work also involves promoting the company’s brand through social media.
You can find such jobs through freelance sites and job sites like flexjobs, Jobberman, etc.
To get started, you can take online courses or watch some YouTube videos on social media management in order to learn more.
With this, you can earn a full-time income online.
12. Become a Pet sitter
If you have those magical powers in taking care of pets, why not become a pet sitter and help pet owners take care of their pets.
As a pet sitter, you can earn anything above a few hundred dollars a month.
And yes this will involve you quitting your day job.
And I will advise you to only quit your daily job is you are earning way less than a thousand dollars a month.
Because being a pet sitter, you might earn way less than a thousand dollar.
But you might also have your luck.
And you can do this on a part-time basis while still doing other jobs but this might not be that easy.
13. Become a Baby Sitter
Yeah Babysitting!
Babysitting is a good side business that you can start. But you must be willing to work at odd hours to make good side income.
And one more thing, babysitting is not just for college students, you can also leverage this as a way of making money.
Though this might not be the best move if you have a good day job, because it will pay you less than what you presently earn.
But did I mention that it is a good way to build connection with great people who can be of help to you when the time comes.
And this might also be an opportunity to visit new environments.
A new environment, new people mean new and fresh ideas.
So do not underestimate the benefits that babysitting comes with.
14. Become a Uber driver
Do you have a car and also love driving, why not get paid while doing what you love?
Yes I am talking about become an Uber driver.
Becoming an Uber driver, you get paid to pick up a passenger. While this is very lucrative, it comes with it own disadvantage.
You might also need to do your own calculations in order to know if it is worth it.
You can earn from $200 to $1,000 dollars on a monthly basis. This is only due to your location.
To get started, you need a car and a cell phone.
15. Flip Domain Names
Do you have a good sight for premium domain names? You can make a living online by flipping domain names.
Domain flipping involves buying domain names and selling it at a higher price.
While this might not be easy while just starting out, you can make a full-time monthly income through it.
Some people have made more than a million dollar flipping domain names.
You can start a domain flipping business with as little as $100 dollars, a laptop and internet connection.
You can head over to Go Daddy and buy good domain names, then put them for sale on any of the flipping websites online.
You can try Flippa and Sedo to flip your domain names or can also use Afternic (a domain flipping site owned by Godaddy).
You can read my guide on starting a domain flipping business.
16. Flip Websites
Are you good at creating and growing websites? You can flip them to make good full-time monthly income online.
While this is not an everyday thing, you can build a six figure online business around website flipping.
A lot of companies and individuals are in search of good and promising websites to buy.
You can start multiple websites for the main purpose of flipping them after some months.
The more traffic your website has and the more money you make per month the more your website worth.
Your website’s worth is calculated by multiplying the monthly income by 12 months or 24 months while some sell their website based on 36 months.
Ramsay is a blogger that flipped one of his websites for $20,000 dollars and he has gone on to flip others around the same price tag and even higher.
Did I forget to say that flipping websites can make you reach and live your dream life? But you must be ready to exercise patience when just starting your website flipping business.
17. Become a Music Teacher
There are a lot of people (both young and old) passionate about learning music and musical instruments.
If you are good at any musical instrument and writing music or singing, you can make a good side income while doing something you are passionate about.
Teaching people how to play musical instruments online is also another way of turning this into a six figure online business.
There are many guitar websites that teach you how to play guitar online while getting you to open your wallet.
Yes you can also do the same with your passion.
If this is you, you can get started by creating a website and Udemy account as a tutor.
Having a great knowledge of internet marketing can help you generate huge sales for your online music course.
18. Start a YouTube channel
YouTube is a good place to make money online if you love the idea of standing in front of the camera.
Starting a YouTube channel can help you build your personal brand while still making money from it. You can build a six figure online business around your YouTube channel.
Not just another sweet talk, it is another way celebrities make money.
If you can generate a large amount views on your YouTube videos then you can monetise it with Google AdSense and affiliate marketing.
And you can easily be contacted by companies to sponsor your videos while getting mentions on your videos in return.
If you can reach about 100,000 followers, you can consider quitting your day job and work full time online.
Having large followers will make it easy for you to make more money online.
And yes, you can shoot your videos through your phones and edit it using any of the available video editors or hiring someone to do that for you.
19. Become an Event planner
Everyday events take place and the number only keeps increasing, if you enjoy planning and attending events this is a good way of making a full time monthly income while working part-time.
Event planners organize and see to the success of events like wedding events, birthday parties, and professional events.
Being an expert in event planning and having great network can help you in scaling up your event planning business.
Having a LinkedIn account, Facebook page and a website is a good foundation for your event planning business.
That can help you secure good and quality projects while still keeping your day job.
20. App Developer
Do you have a good programming skill? Why not make money online while developing useful apps.
This is another home business you can tap into to make a good side business online.
If you do not have a programming skill, you are covered.
Yes! Covered because there are many platforms to learn app development both free and paid platforms.
All you need to do is to create time to learn and practise programming and you will be okay within 6 months.
And if you are willing to speed up the learning process, you can consider signing up for a coding bootcamp in order to master the important skill.
Creating a single app might not bring you to that full-time monthly income and you will need to create more apps to reach the 5 figure monthly income mark.
21. Become a Home Lesson Teacher
No matter how fast online tutoring is increasing, home teaching will never be pushed out of the system.
If you love the idea of teaching, why not find a home tutoring job.
Home tutoring jobs can be stressful but are interesting because you will have to teach just a student or maximum of 5.
But the idea is that you can earn a part-time income while still running other part-time jobs.
You can easily find home tutoring jobs online through job boards specifically for home tutoring.
If you find this interesting then you can take your first step by looking through some local job boards like Prepclass.
22. Start your Poultry farm
While this idea might not be that attractive but it is one of the lucrative home business you can run without having to worry about running other jobs.
But at the beginning you need to keep your day job because your poultry farm will still be in the early stage and will take about 6 months before you start making money from it.
And it is not one of those businesses you can dive into with no prior knowledge of it.
You will need to learn how to run and take care of your poultry farm, how to feed your poultry birds, what feed and drug should you give them and at what age should you give it to them.
Many things to learn but trust me it is not that difficult to master.
But I had advise that you work as an apprentice (or better still a paid staff) in an established poultry farm in order to gain first-hand experience of how it works.
Starting a poultry farm will require initial capital to get it running which is unlike other business ideas listed here.
23. Rent your car
I have made mention of the idea of being a Uber driver, I would assume you don’t like the idea.
So why not rent your car to a Uber driver and get a monthly income from it without having to do anything other than renting out your car?
Yes this monthly income will not be enough, sure! But the idea is to have some monthly passive income.
This idea comes with some risk, you have to be sure of who you are giving your car to and must also provide a terms and condition.
The terms and conditions will help you get the right person in for the deal and chase wrong people.
24. Become a Computer tutor
This is a very common thing I see trending in schools.
Some schools cannot afford the cost of hiring a computer teacher for their students and love the idea of a Part-time tutor.
If you are good at operating computer and using some simple tools, why not apply as a computer teacher to nearby schools in your community.
You can just visit nearby schools in your community and if accepted, you can fix a date when you will take your computer classes.
If you are lucky and able to have about 3 schools under your belt, then you can be sure of making a full-time income from it.
In fact, you will be able to make much more than a full-time teacher if you have more than 3 schools under your belt.
You can get started by reaching out to schools.
25. Laundry service
Laundry business is a very lucrative business in developed cities. If you are okay with offering laundry services, you can set up a laundry business in your community.
While this depends on your environment, you can always make a full-time income off it.
You can get started by getting a good ironing stand and iron and other necessary equipment that will help you create the perfect impression to your clients.
26. Photography
While photography is a hobby for many and it is a very interesting thing most people love, it is also a business idea for the entrepreneurial-minds.
While we all like the idea of taking pictures (except some people like me), there are companies who are willing to buy those pictures from us.
Some photographers sell their pictures starting from as low as $100 dollars.
And yes they buy pictures for professional use, like using it in their blog posts, using it in videos and many more uses.
I have said this to only let you know your pictures are safe.
That being said, you should also be careful of pictures you upload for sale.
There are sites that allows photographers to sell their pictures like Pixels,
27. Take Action
It is good having to read all this and it has shown that you are really interested in starting your own home business.
And I think that is not just enough. You need to take action starting NOW!
The thing is a lot of people read this and only few take actions and that is not just enough.
It is not just enough to add comments telling me you are going to try this, you need to really take action even after leaving a comment (by the side, I love comments!!)
To get started, I had advise to write down about five (5) business ideas that resonates well with you.
After having this list, you can then begin to go through the list and select the one that suits you most (this might be difficult to do but ensure you time yourself)
Now I assume you have settled with an idea.
Write down what you will need to get started and what steps you need to take.
After you have done this, you need to arrange your list in terms of priority.
Not doing this will only cost you your time because you will always battle your step on what to do every day.
Having this, you can then seek advice from experts in that business or from someone who runs this type of business.
The idea is to know what works and what does not.
Not asking for advice was what delayed my success in my online business.
So if you have successfully done all this, I strongly advise to speak to an expert.
If it requires you to work under someone, then do not hesitate to do so.
That will help you minimize the risk and save you some stress when fully launching your home business.
Finally,
Give me a heads up when you launch your home business
I would love to share that joy with you and would be happy to see that someone actually took a step.
I love comments!!!!!!
