Today’s guest post is from Mark G. Founder @ HomeGrown Income, where he creates educational resources for business owners.
Photo by Anastasia Shuraeva from Pexels
Right now is one of the best times to start a business from home. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, more people are spending time indoors and shopping online.
Whilst starting an online business has its own challenges, it’s still a great way to build an additional income stream with a low barrier to entry.
Read ahead to see five different tips on how you can start your home based business venture.
1. Start an Online Store (Ecommerce)
Ecommerce is a low cost and easy to start online business. Ecommerce works by sourcing in-demand products and selling them to customers through an online storefront.
Before you start, you need to make sure there is demand for the products you want to sell
To carry out product research you can use the following methods:
Google Trends
Go to Google Trends and search for the terms “online shop” or “online store”, you should see the name of some online stores pop up.
Note down those names, go to their sites and see what they sell. Note down the products on their website, go back to Google Trends and check it’s popularity.
For example, you go to Google Trends, search “online store”, under the results you see “Joe’s Camping Goods”. So you copy and paste the name into Google and click on the store link.
Once on the Joe’s Camping Goods site, you see that cooler boxes and family tents are some of the main products being sold.
Now you go back to Google Trends and search for “cooler boxes” and “family tents”. If you see high interest (judging by the Trends graph) you know you have a potential product you can sell.
Ask Friends and Family
Ask the people in your network what items they cannot live without, ask them what products they wish existed and note them down.
You can also run these products through Google Trends too. Lets say your great-aunt told you she cannot live without her humidifier during the winter.
The next step would be to search Google Trends and see how popular the term “humidifier” is.
Start Your Online Store
Once you have identified a product to sell, the next step is creating your online store. You can easily create an affordable online store using a website builder, for example, pricing for Squarespace starts at $12 a month when paid annually.
Market Your Online Store
Once you have an online store the next step is marketing. You market your online store using Facebook Ads and Social Media influencers.
2. Sell Handmade Goods
Selling handmade goods is a great business idea for creative parents. You can use platforms like Etsy to sell handmade crafts including:
- Knitted clothing, bags and accessories
- Wooden product
- Essential oils
- Artwork
- Bespoke jewellry
- Candles, bath bombs and soaps
The best thing about selling hand-crafted goods is the fact that it’s easier to stand out by creating unique products.
Handmade goods are also a very niche business to get into, with loyal communities who are likely to become return customers.
3. Become a Freelancer
Do you know how to edit videos, are you a good copywriter? Then freelancing could be a great business choice for you.
You can use online platforms like Freelancer and Fiverr to sell your skills.
As a freelancer you can do the following:
- Logo Design
- Copywriting
- Graphic Design
- Web Design
- Mystery Shopping
- Live Chat Agent
Working as a freelancer allows you to work on small tasks, from your home, a great choice for most parents.
4. Become a Virtual Assistant
Working as a virtual assistant is a great way to earn some additional income from the comfort of your home. As a virtual assistant you’ll take on tasks including:
- Checking and responding to emails
- Booking appointments and meetings
- Creating powerpoint presentation, Research and writing reports
If you’re interested in becoming a virtual assistant you can use a virtual assistant agency to get started. Just search for “virtual assistant agency” to get started.
5. Sell Your Talents
The internet makes it easy to sell your talents, for example you can make money teaching English to foreign students or you can start a consultancy business.
You most likely have a talent that is valuable enough to another person, to the point where they would even pay you.
Think about your strengths, your hobbies and the main activities you do outside of work. Examples of talents you can sell online include:
- Teaching languages – Teach English, Spanish, French or any other popular language you are fluent in.
- Consulting – You can consult people on fitness, leadership, stress management, life coaching etc.
- Sell Artistic Work – If you’re into photography you can sell photos on Shutterstock, if you’re a painter you can sell art etc.
We all have a talent that is valuable, once you find yours you can use it to generate some additional income, from the comfort of your home.
Conclusion
Starting an online business doesn’t have to be hard or intimidating. Hopefully these five tips will help you to start a business that you can run from the comfort of your own home, surrounded by your family and kids.
