You might have the motivation to start your own business, but renting a physical office or interacting with strangers might not be your cup of tea. Well, there are plenty of low-cost, home-based business and start-up ideas that will help you overcome this and help you make the most of your talents and skills.
Find something that feeds your passions and
uses your skills to the max and put it to work. One cannot live only on their
passions, after all! Depending on what your talents are, pick a business idea
from the list below.
1- Bookkeeping Services
If you are great with numbers and have a bookkeeping
degree or training course in your CV, you can work from the comfort of your home
as a bookkeeper. You don’t have to be a Certified Public Accountant, but you do
have to master those numbers. You will need an invoicing tool, but some free
ones available online will make this part easier for you. Due.com and
Sighted.cm are a great example of free invoicing tools you can use. With a little
previous experience in the field, you could offer some of the following
services.
- Create
financial reports quarterly, monthly or annual ones; - Create
balance sheets; - Provide
income statements.
Depending on your skill and rapidness, you
can work for more clients and boost your revenue in time. In the beginning, try
not to work with too many clients. This will make you lose important parts of
your job and slack on the quality.
2- Marketing Services
People with a little background experience
and knowledge of marketing can consider using it to boost their income and
establish their first start-up. Even if you lack prior knowledge and
experience, you can enrol in an online marketing course get a good grasp of the
basics. While this is not the most affordable investment you can make, you can
be sure you will have the necessary skills, tools and knowledge base to work in
the field.
After you get your theory and a little bit
of practice straight, there is nothing holding you back from opening your
small, solo
digital marketing agency. Alternatively, you can work as a freelancer and
find jobs on platforms like Freelancer.com or UpWork.com. There are plenty of
companies looking for freelancers to supplement their efforts and capabilities.
SEO agencies are in constant search of trained and knowledgeable freelancers as
well. But before bidding on such projects, ensure that you can deal with the
following.
- Create
high-quality, informative content; - Create
Meta descriptions and suitable titles; - Use the
right keyword density and avoid spammy phrasing; - Tags and
categories; - Images
relevant to the content with SEO captions and tags.
3- Online Learning or Online Courses
Making money with an online course seems
like a dream to you?! Well, the market for online courses if big enough to fit
you in! Find a field you are proficient in or get proficient in one before
anything else!
If you still don’t know enough in the
field, online courses will help you
learn more. With a good knowledge base, start to search for guidelines and
directions.
Try to create content for your course in
such a fashion to make it different than the ones already available in your
niche. Make it engaging and make it informational enough to help your students
learn as much as possible. Also, ensure that your course is as readable as
possible. You want to make it easy for your students to accumulate and use the
information you provide.
After you are happy with your content, you can start working on your marketing strategy. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter are amazing social media platforms to get the word out about your course. Use them!
4- Personal Virtual Assistant
Personal virtual assistants are thriving. Everybody seems to be needing one today! Why don’t you jumpstart your home-based business by becoming one? If the job title doesn’t sound too classy for your own taste, you should know it: they pay well! As a digital version of a personal assistant, some previous experience will help. But don’t worry, you don’t necessarily need the experience to become a valued virtual personal assistant. You can start as a part time virtual assistant and grow your business into full time when you are all set.
This type of business allows you to
preserve your freedom and select your clients, depending on your preferences,
available time, your pay rate and payment schedule, and so on. You can find
clients on platforms like Upwork.com, and you can select only those who fit
your requirements.
5- Tester and Reviewer
Start-ups or
online retailers usually search for testers and reviewers for their products or
services. These positions pay well enough to allow you to comfortably live and
if you’re good enough, you will end up being
approached by companies to test their products.
Start with a
profile on a freelancing platform, and you might end up becoming a reputable
influencer in your area if companies are pleased with your work. If you have
your own profile or blog, you can even write entire posts about products and
services. This will allow you to change more and supplement your income. Plus,
it’s entirely home-based!
6- Secretarial Services
Secretarial
services are similar to virtual personal assistant ones, and they require
little to no experience. All you need to have is the following set of skills.
- Strong
organizational skills; - State-of-the-art
communication skills; - Time
management capabilities; - Perfect
autonomy levels.
What will you be doing as a virtual
secretary? You will have to book meetings and organize calendars, replay to
emails and put together presentations for products, services or the company
itself. Not as hard as you thought, and this type of job pays incredibly well.
Find your clients on the platforms we already mentioned above.
7- Online Dating Consultant
The online dating world is growing at a
fast pace. Multiple dating platforms and applications mean more potential
clients for you, as an online dating consultant. If you’re good with words and
know how the entire online dating gig works, become a virtual wingman or wing
girl for those searching for their other half online.
Your daily schedule will consist of writing
profiles, offering phone updates for users’ matching status and acting as an account
manager on dating sites for your clients.