Home Based Business Ideas

If you’re like most people in the world right now, you are stuck at home—probably much more than you’d like to be. But rather than fill the void with Netflix binges and video games, why not allot at least some of your time to creating a new revenue stream for yourself?

Here are 7 home-based business ideas that you can use to create a lasting income. Whether you’re just looking for a bit of cash on the side or you want a full-time business of your own, all of these are perfect for entrepreneurs seeking to earn from the comfort and safety of their own home.

Life Coaching

If you have a passion for helping others achieve their goals, then life coaching could be the perfect home-based business idea for you.

Not to be confused with a therapist or consultant, a life coach serves their clients by supporting their personal or professional growth. As a life coach, you would help people identify their goals, break them into reasonable milestones, and actually take action on them.

Busy lifestyles make it difficult for clients to meet with coaches in-person, so life coaching is growing more and more into an online business that you can work from home.

Web Design

If you are skilled with building websites from scratch, it is the perfect freelance business to run from your home office. You can acquire clients, communicate with them, and deliver orders 100% online. In fact, dozens of freelance web designers are doing that on Legiit every day.

While you might be intimidated by the idea of developing complex websites for real businesses, keep in mind that there are plenty of people whose needs really aren’t that complicated.

Local service providers like plumbers, roofers, and electricians often are happy with a simple WordPress site. They just need something to get their contact info out on the web and provide customers with info about their services.

For more ideas, check out our list of 8 freelance web design jobs for beginners.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a way to earn money by promoting products fulfilled by others. In the world of internet marketing, it’s one of the most passive home-based business ideas around.

For example, let’s say you create a blog that is all about lawn care. You fill it with helpful posts that assist homeowners in creating beautiful backyard landscapes. Some of your posts might review or recommend specific products, such as fertilizer or a lawn mower. Naturally, you would include a link to these products for readers to purchase on another website such as Amazon.

If a visitor makes a purchase after clicking through your affiliate link, you’ll earn a small commission on the product.

Affiliate marketing requires a lot of upfront work to create your content and attract visitors to it. But once you’ve established that, it becomes a much more passive income stream. If you’re looking to learn more about how to do this, here is a very thorough course on affiliate marketing and similar business models.

Dropshipping

Dropshipping involves selling products without ever stocking them. In essence, you are creating your own e-commerce store (Shopify is one of the most preferred platforms). You list all of the products with complete details, options, and accessories—just like on any online store you’ve ever purchased from.

When a customer purchases from your store, you then fulfill that order straight from the manufacturer or supplier. They handle all of the storage and shipping, so you never have to actually touch the products.

Dropshipping is ideal because you don’t have to pay for inventory up front. You just buy it at the supplier’s price whenever a customer makes a purchase. Just keep in mind that this is very much an active business model. You are creating a real brand and will be providing customer support for real people.

Ghostwriting

If you are skilled with the written word, freelance writing may be one of the better home-based business ideas for you to explore. Pretty much every online business model relies on quality writing.

From product descriptions for an e-commerce store to service descriptions for a local carpentry business, there is an endless demand for good writing from people who don’t have the time or skill to do it themselves. You would even be surprised by the number of bloggers who outsource their writing to somebody else so that they can focus on the marketing side of their business.

Tutoring

Once upon a time, educational tutors would either visit students in their home or meet at some other designated place for in-person sessions. But today, with video conferencing technology like Zoom  and even Facebook Messenger, it’s easier than ever to turn tutoring into a 100% work-from-home business.

The great thing about tutoring is that just about anyone can do it. You might not be a jack of all trades, but you are probably pretty good at something. As long as you have a passion for sharing that knowledge with others, you could find success as a tutor.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (or SEO) is the process of getting a web site to rank high on Google and other search platforms.

While it’s an ever-changing science that does take some time to master, the good news is that it doesn’t take much study to know more about it than probably 99% of the world. And once you do know how it works, you can put that knowledge to the benefit of yourself (for things like affiliate marketing) and other businesses.

Selling and fulfilling SEO from your home office is easy. Many agencies and solopreneurs operate completely online, serving clients from around the globe.

However, there are a lot of different theories about SEO circulating around the web. If you try to follow them all, then you are going to find too many competing ideas. Your best bet is to find one system that has been proven to work and stick with it.  

This free online workshop is a good place to start. It demonstrates a simple, 3-step process that can be used to rank any website.

Make The Most of Your Time At Home

This is an unprecedented time in world history. If you find yourself stuck at home with more time than you know what to do with, use it productively. Create something that will become a lasting source of income for years to come.

These 7 home-based business ideas are a great place to start, but don’t limit yourself to them. Think about everything that you have to offer the world and find a way to make it happen.