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40 Home Business Ideas for 2024 (+ How To Get Started)

From wholesaling to pet sitting, discover 40 proven home business ideas. Learn how to get started.

Did you know that half of businesses are started from home? You can own and operate all kinds of businesses remotely, from an online store that you manage by yourself to large scale ventures with physical locations and teams of employees.

Ahead, discover 40 home business ideas to kick-start your entrepreneurship journey, along with guidance on how to make them work for you.

40 best home business ideas

• Buy products in bulk and sell them online
• Sell homemade products
• Start a dropshipping store
• Start a print-on-demand business
• Offer online services
• Teach online classes
• Monetize your expertise
• Grow an audience you can monetize
• Buy an existing small business
• Start a subscription-box business
• Turn your pet into an influencer
• Sell used items
• Play video games professionally
• Sell your art
• Become a virtual event planner
• Launch a photography business
• Start a beauty business
• Start an affiliate marketing business
• Start a day care
• Sell on marketplaces
• Become a social media manager
• Become a virtual personal trainer
• Offer bookkeeping services
• Design websites
• Start a dog-grooming business
• Become a pet sitter
• Become a freelance writer
• Manage properties
• Start a landscaping business
• Start a house cleaning business
• Become a personal chef
• Start a home staging business
• Run a mobile spa
• Offer therapy
• Run meditation sessions
• Teach journaling methods
• Be a professional organizer
• Edit podcasts
• Create a herbal product line
• Create a candle brand

1. Buy products in bulk and sell them online

When you’re starting your first home business, don’t reinvent the wheel. Instead, try an existing, reliable small business model , such as importing popular products in bulk and selling them individually for a profit.

Find products that consumers already want to buy, then purchase them by negotiating a deal with the wholesaler . After that, create an online store to promote your catalog and sell to customers. 

The key to a successful home retail business is savvy product selection. Can you identify the next Stanley Quencher or fashionable beverage ? Tips for sourcing profitable products include:

• Analyzing social media for trending products
• Importing products that are popular in foreign markets
• Serving the needs of a niche market

If your customers would benefit from in-person browsing, you can even use your home as a showroom. That’s how home retail business Artemis Design Co. got its start.

“I was living in the south end of Boston, and I had my living room just full of these products,” says owner and founder Milicent Armstrong. “I would have people come over if they wanted to look at something or try something on, and that’s how I made my first sale .”

2. Sell homemade products

If you’re a maker (or know someone who is), consider turning that hobby into a business by selling your own creations. From homemade soaps and candles to handcrafted jewelry and artwork, the possibilities are endless.

Items crafted in your studio, workshop, or kitchen can become well-known products, with the right branding and marketing. Selling independent goods can also be cost-effective, as you won’t need to buy from wholesalers and can control nearly every aspect of production and pricing.

Craft brand Peg and Awl began as a way for husband and wife Walter and Margaux Kent to sell items they’d made using reclaimed materials in their home workshop. Today, their online store offers a wide range of products, from bags and journals to home décor items.

3. Start a dropshipping store

The first two tips in this list require you to buy or create inventory. But what if you want to start an online business without spending money on large amounts of stock?

Dropshipping is the go-to business model for home business owners who don’t want to deal with inventory. In a dropshipping business, retailers promote and sell products that are produced and shipped by a third party. In other words, a dropshipping supplier will give you a commission for making a sale, while they take care of storing and shipping the product to customers.

Many home dropshipping businesses find success by targeting a niche, such as "cute and kawaii merchandise" retailer Subtle Asian Treats . Curate products from different suppliers to create a collection of related items on your website.

Shopify dropshipping apps connect you with suppliers, so can source and import product listings into your online store.

Dropshipping to $1M: Kamil Sattar’s marketing success

Kamil Sattar, AKA The Ecom King, transformed his floundering dropshipping venture into a $1 million business. He now imparts insights on YouTube and underscores TikTok’s organic marketing potential for budding dropshippers.

4. Start a print-on-demand business

Print on demand is another home business idea that doesn’t require you to buy or hold inventory.

Print-on-demand services let business owners apply their branding and original designs to white label products. When you make a sale, the print-on-demand company will print and ship the item to the customer on your behalf.

There are many print-on-demand products you can sell: books, hats, backpacks, blankets, pillows, mugs, shoes, hoodies, phone cases, and more.

Many print-on-demand businesses focus on serving a specific niche or, better yet, a shared identity. Rebecca Lee Funk launched The Outrage , a women’s rights apparel brand that sells print-on-demand t-shirts. The business donates a portion of proceeds to non-profit organizations that work toward social causes.

5. Offer online services

If you don’t want to sell products online , how about selling a service? Service platforms may be even simpler to set up than retail businesses, because there’s no inventory to create or manage.

One way to develop a home service business is to leverage your existing talents. If your employment contract permits you to offer your skills independently, you could set up a website to sell your time and experience.

Monetize your DIY, technical, language, or musical skills with a website that offers assistance or lessons. Popular service-based home business ideas include:

• Freelance writing
• Virtual assistance
• Translation
• SEO consulting
• Web design and development
• Graphic design

Another benefit of service-based businesses is that you don’t necessarily need a large number of customers to make a profit. Depending on the service you’re providing, a handful of high-quality clients can be sufficient to support yourself full time while working from home.

6. Teach online classes

If you have a teachable skill, why not monetize and share that knowledge via an online course ? Online audiences exist for almost any desirable skill, whether it’s English as a second language, advanced marketing, or everyday home maintenance hacks.

For example, If I Made is an online home business that sells video classes to creative professionals, such as “How to take wedding photos” or “Taxes for creatives.”

Cosmetics brand Yegi Beauty , on the other hand, combines online courses with a product catalog, to create a full shopping and learning experience.

When you deliver classes through a website, you can choose to offer live or pre-recorded content. You might provide live courses at a premium rate, while customers can purchase recorded sessions at a discounted price. If you prefer teaching small groups, consider mentorship, masterclasses, or an online tutoring business.

Alternatively, create a fully downloadable online course for purchase, be it a video walkthrough, templates, articles, or how-tos. Use a screen-recording tool to capture your voice while you walk students through the material.

Looking for a home business that you can set and forget? Try these passive income ideas .

7. Monetize your expertise

One of the biggest downsides of some service- or teaching-based businesses is that they take lots of time. If you need to be physically or virtually present to carry out your service, your ability to scale your business is limited to your daily schedule.

“Productizing” helps you take your service business to the next level, by creating physical or digital products that package your expertise and can be sold many times over. You can cater packages to your current customer base or find new target markets in adjacent spaces.

Gabriella and Andrew Morrison started their home-based business by packaging their expertise around tiny-home living. They sell courses and plans on StrawBale —operating everything from the comfort of their (very cozy) home.

Here are some ways to add service-based products to your business:

• Licensable assets (stock footage, photos, music, etc.)
• Downloadable reports
• Digital templates
• Merchandise

8. Grow an audience you can monetize

If you’ve always dreamt of starting a blog, YouTube channel, Instagram account, or podcast , you could turn that idea into a home business by growing and monetizing a following .

Jordan Ferney, founder of Oh Happy Day Shop! , built an audience via blogging and later turned it into a fully fledged business from home. She designed her online business with the aim of spending more time with her family, and now sells products on her ecommerce site.

Similarly, Andrew Finn co-founded blog-turned-business Wait But Why . After amassing more than 300,000 subscribers and millions of visits, he added an online store to his website, selling products tailored for his already loyal audience.

Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark used Facebook groups to develop and nurture a community around their podcast, My Favorite Murder . After amassing more than 200,000 members, they added a paid membership tier for fans seeking additional perks.

Building a loyal audience requires patience, consistency, and focus. This isn’t the easiest way to start a home-based business (especially in the short term), but if you’re able to grow a following around something you love, it can be one of the most fulfilling.

How a Vegan Chef Built a Business on YouTube

Wil Yeung dabbled in everything from dropshipping violins to developing his own consumer goods. The serial entrepreneur and self-taught chef built his latest business with a YouTube content strategy. He now sells his recipes as books, ebooks, and online courses.

Read Wil’s story

9. Buy an existing small business

Some home business entrepreneurs don’t take part in sales at all. Instead, they buy and manage an existing business .

The cost of acquiring a business varies based on its state of health. Some businesses are sold while generating revenue, allowing you to simply take over.

Others no longer generate substantial revenue and may need rebuilding. However, they may also contain valuable assets like an email list, social following, online content, or brand reputation.

Physical retail stores may have inventory or equipment that comes with the sale.

10. Start a subscription box business

The online subscription box industry is forecasted to grow at an annual rate of 14% between 2024 and 2032. That growth has led to the emergence of direct-to-consumer subscription brands, as well as the adoption of subscription sales models by major brands like Sephora and Walmart. 

If you’re able to curate desirable product selections, you can start a subscription business from home. For example, Ashley Reynolds bundled surplus products into subscription boxes to sell on her ecommerce site, Cloth & Paper . If you already run an ecommerce business, you could do the same to make use of otherwise dead stock. 

Subscription boxes don’t have to necessarily be about selling. Haverdash is a subscription box company that rents clothes. When customers are finished using the items, they send them back—and Haverdash rents them out to another customer to generate more revenue. 

Increase recurring revenue with the Shopify Subscriptions app

The free Shopify Subscriptions app lets you offer subscription services and integrates seamlessly with your Shopify admin. Install it today to increase repeat purchases and customer lifetime value.

11. Turn your pet into an influencer

Pet influencers are all over social media, inspiring thousands of likes with cute videos (and promoting subscription brands like BarkBox ).

If you share your life with a pet, try turning them into a social media personality. You could grow their following, then connect with relevant brands to sign promotion deals.

Bodhi the Menswear Dog , a.k.a. the most stylish dog in the world, has made a name for himself on Instagram. Browse his feed, and you’ll see collaborations with big brands like Booking.com, Spotify, and Poly & Bark.

How an Internet-Famous Corgi Led to a Viral Dog Backpack Biz

Bryan Reisberg’s adorable corgi, Maxine, won over hundreds of thousands of dog lovers on Instagram. His efforts to keep her safe while traveling through Manhattan led to a massively successful backpack company powered by Shopify.

Learn about Little Chonk

12. Sell used items

As consumers become more environmentally conscious, sustainable shopping options are growing in popularity. For example, the global secondhand market is expected to nearly double by 2027, reaching $350 billion .

COAL N TERRY is one home-based business that found success by selling vintage finds . After beginning in a college dorm, the brand now boasts a loyal following and celebrity fans.

You can start small with your own home-based resale business. Marketplaces like Poshmark and Mercari are great platforms for thrifting your unwanted clothing. You can also try Craigslist, eBay, or Facebook Marketplace.

13. Play video games professionally

Did you know that video gaming can make you money? Esports and video game streaming platforms like Twitch have opened the door for gamers to monetize their skills.

The esports industry alone is worth more than a billion dollars , while leaked data from a few years ago showed that the best Twitch streamers earn millions per year. 

Aside from becoming a sponsored pro gamer, you could create a gaming-based home business by becoming a Let’s Play streamer. Game developers will pay you to play their games and stream your reactions to your audience. You can also sell merch on Twitch to make further cash.

Twitch isn’t limited to gaming streams: Maxx Burman and Banks Boutté used the platform to launch an online festival where they celebrated video game art directors. They then repurposed this content for other channels like Instagram and YouTube.

After building a loyal audience, the two launched KitBash3D , where they sell 3D assets for video games and movies. 

14. Sell your art

If you’re an artist, your creativity can become your livelihood. Whether you’re into painting, digital art, sculpture, photography, or music, there’s a market out there for your work.

Helen Levi , for example, is a Queens-based potter who turned her art into a business by selling ceramics from her online store.

Selling art from home involves more than just creating. You’ll need to dedicate time to promoting your work, building a brand, and connecting with your audience. Social media, art fairs, and online marketplaces such as Saatchi Art can be effective ways to get your work in front of potential buyers.

15. Become a virtual event planner

The virtual events market is expected to grow 18.8% each year until 2030. All those new events need coordinating and promoting, which is an opportunity for remote businesses.

If you have events management skills or experience, you might be able to build a home business as a virtual events planner. Perhaps you’re good with organization and love creating schedules? You may have a natural ability to network, negotiate, and bring people together. If so, these skills are invaluable when you’re trying to market yourself to customers.

Find a niche, either in terms of the types of events you organize (conferences, meetings, webinars, etc.) or the events’ purpose (personal parties, professional workshops, industry specific shows, etc.).

Getting familiar with event platforms like Hopin and Whova will arm you with the knowledge needed to win your first customers. As your reputation grows, repackaging your services and selling them as a toolkit for others can add an extra revenue stream to your business.

16. Launch a photography business

There are several options for selling photos online , all of which can be highly competitive. One strategy is to sell stock photography, either by opening your own storefront or by submitting pictures to well-known marketplaces like Adobe Stock or Shutterstock . 

If you’re interested in developing your own brand, and picking a photography niche, you could also start a career as a wedding, pet, fashion, or product photographer .

17. Start a beauty business

A popular niche for at-home businesses is health and beauty. You can work with a manufacturer to create your own cosmetics, or apply your branding to white label products .

It can pay to look beyond the current most popular cosmetics products to identify the next big beauty trends. With new tools and gadgets constantly hitting the market, there are countless dropshipping opportunities in this niche, from massage guns and smart mirrors to spa day reservations. 

Consumer trend research shows customers are keen to buy from businesses that offer convenience in the form of multiple purchasing and delivery options. This holds true for beauty businesses, where customers are often looking to reorder products that they like.

This Skin Care Founder Blended Her Personal Story with Her Brand

In this guide to brand storytelling, founder Charlotte Cho explains how her personal story and that of her culture were critical to building two skin care brands. As a popular beauty blogger first, she was able to build credibility when she eventually launched.

18. Start an affiliate marketing business

Affiliate marketing is a popular home business model where you promote a brand’s products or services. When a customer buys a product through your affiliate link, you get a commission on the sale.

Deciding on the best affiliate program  is where you’ll need to get creative. For example, some businesses choose to promote partner brands and products through Instagram Stories, while others create websites with relevant content. 

19. Start a day care

A reliable day care is a perennial home business idea. If you’re good with children, see how many day cares exist in your area, and if you think there’s demand, consider opening one for your local community.

The daycare market is currently valued at more than $60 billion and is only expected to grow in the coming years.

Minimal startup costs are required to make the necessary alterations to your home and acquire the right licenses to open a day care. You’ll need to research child care licensing requirements , undergo mandatory background checks, and get the required health and safety training.

20. Sell on marketplaces

Amazon , eBay , and Facebook Marketplace are all popular, viable platforms for selling stuff from home.

Flipping items on online marketplaces is one of the easiest businesses to start: once you open an account, upload your listings, and set your prices , you’ll be on your way to selling your first item.

While selling an item on a marketplace may be relatively easy, building a reliable income stream from marketplace sales can be more difficult. Options for promoting products are limited, and with traffic largely determined by retail costs, you may be forced into price wars with other sellers.

To avoid the pitfalls of marketplace selling, open an independent online store alongside your Amazon or Etsy accounts. With Shopify, you can easily sync your storefronts to stay on top of sales.

21. Become a social media manager

With some self-taught know-how, you could start a social media consulting business from your laptop. Demonstrate your social media skills with your own accounts and invest in subscriptions to a few social media management tools.

Take it from Rachel Pedersen , who leveraged her one million TikTok followers to quit her job as a hairdresser and run her social media business from home.

The hardest part of setting up a service-based business is landing your first customer. Increase your odds of finding a client by leveraging your existing network to let them know you now offer social media services. Use popular social platforms like YouTube and Instagram to show off your expertise with paid ads.

22. Become a virtual personal trainer

Personal training is estimated to be a $14 billion industry , with social media being a primary marketing channel for fitness professionals.

With the relevant certification to back up your services, it’s a matter of marketing your personal training packages to an audience interested in getting fit from home. Learn from how “fitfluencers” like Loisa Kurang and Triumph With Vin market themselves on Instagram.

Then, check out these low-cost alternatives to running paid ads to draw up a marketing strategy and promote your virtual services. 

23. Offer bookkeeping services

If you’re good with numbers, an at-home bookkeeping business might be the way to go. The average bookkeeper’s salary is around $45,000 in the US , but as a freelance bookkeeper, you stand to earn more as you increase your rates and build your customer base. To do this, you first need to file paperwork to establish a limited liability company .

Again, social media is often the go-to place to promote your services. See how Zeal Bookkeeping uses Instagram Reels to offer accounting tips and information.

24. Design websites

While it’s never been easier to build a website , many people lack the design skills needed to create a satisfying browsing experience.

If you possess those skills, you could set up a website development agency from home. Platforms like Upwork and Dribbble are solid starting points for finding your first customers. As you finish jobs and collect testimonials and samples, it should become easier to land clients without the help of a marketplace.

25. Start a dog-grooming business

If you have space in your home, you could try offering dog-grooming services. It’s an in-demand service with a market size of $5 billion .

Pet grooming businesses can also be scaled, by establishing a brand and selling complementary products. Check out luxury pet spa Paw La La for examples.

The beauty of a dog grooming business is that you don’t have to start big. Leverage your network of local dog owners to find your first customers, and consider offering lower prices in exchange for testimonials .

26. Become a pet sitter

When pet owners go to work or leave for vacation, they need reliable and responsible sitters. If that sounds like you, then a sitting service is another potential pet business idea . There are low startup costs and very little overhead.

Apps like Rover and Wag allow sitters to find clients in their area. You can decide your own hours, and even whether clients will travel to your home. Depending on where you live, pet sitters can make up to $40,000 per year .

You may need certifications and insurance if you want to turn pet sitting into a fully fledged business.

27. Become a freelance writer

Businesses are always looking for persuasive writers. Log in to LinkedIn and look through the writing job postings. You’ll see companies are looking for everything from copywriters to journalists and bloggers.

According to ZipRecruiter, the average annual salary for a freelance writer is $48,000 a year —with digital marketing writers, ecommerce writers, and blog writers most in demand.

If you’re hoping to make money from home from creative writing, take inspiration from entrepreneurs like Sadaf Siddique and Gauri Manglik , who began as children’s book authors and later founded the online bookshop KitaabWorld .

Using their experiences as readers and mothers, they made children’s books to tell diverse stories. Now, KitaabWorld is a place to both find and publish literature about different cultures and backgrounds.

The opportunities to make money from home through your writing are as limitless as your imagination. You could turn your pen to ebooks, a weekly subscription newsletter , or even sponsored social media posts.

If you want to learn how to make writing a home business, check out these resources:

• How to Make Money Blogging: The Ultimate Guide
• How to Start a Blogging Business (Beginner’s Guide)

28. Manage properties

About 100 million people visit Airbnb.com each month, looking for somewhere to stay for work or a vacation. Tap into the tourism industry by turning your home into accommodation.

Alternatively, offer your services to other hosts as a rental property manager. Management companies coordinate bookings, schedule cleanings, and act as a point of contact for guests. You don’t need many funds to start, and there’s no certification necessary.

Renting property is one of the most popular sources of passive income . If you’re a beginner, you can learn from the experiences of other Airbnb hosts .

29. Start a landscaping business

Another task for which people often seek assistance and expertise is gardening.

The lawn and garden market generates more than $130 billion each year in the US. To see this pastime’s popularity, just take a look at garden designer Monty Don ’s Instagram profile. Users flock to his page for tips on how to get the most from their green spaces. 

A landscaping business can mean several things, from simple grass cutting to creating dream backyards with ponds and imported trees. Ensure you understand your client’s needs and check out the competition in your area.

30. Start a house cleaning service

While other people commute to an office, you could create a home business by cleaning their houses. The global market for home cleaning services is projected to reach $10 billion by 2026 , with a variety of cleaning services in demand.

Don’t forget to acquire business insurance and perform the necessary checks on the employees who’ll represent your business.

31. Become a personal chef

Love cooking? Got some tried and tested family recipes? Transform your culinary passion into a business by becoming a personal chef. You can cook up a storm for clients right in their own homes, tailoring your services to their dietary needs and preferences.

As you grow, expand your menu of services with branded products, meal kits, or cooking lessons. You could even open a food truck or a website to sell food online . While it’s not exactly a home business, personal cooks get to spend time in their community instead of an office.

Cooking platform Truffle Shuffle scaled its business by providing a way for chefs across the world to connect with aspiring home cooks.

32. Start a home staging business

As a home stager, you’ll work with realtors and homeowners to make homes more appealing on the real estate market. A talented stager can transform a basic living room into a desirable space that gets potential buyers interested.

If you regularly get compliments on your home décor, try turning that ability into a business. No specific certifications are required, though a background in interior design or real estate could boost your credibility.

Check out staging companies like Fliphaus for inspiration.

33. Run a mobile spa

Bring the luxury of a spa into clients’ homes with a mobile spa business. Offering services like massages, manicures, and pedicures, you can create a relaxing spa experience with the added convenience of being near or in people’s homes.

Factor in that you will need to be certified to perform services like massages, facials, and other treatments.

34. Offer therapy

If becoming a licensed therapist interests you, there’s a wide range of popular paramedical treatments that you could offer from home. Therapies such as massage, acupuncture, or physiotherapy are all potential home business ideas.

Just like spa treatments, if you don’t have the space to host clients, you can also visit them. Platforms like Zeel connect users with licensed massage therapists who provide in-home services.

Again, you’ll need to comply with all local regulations and professional guidelines, and ensure you’re up to date with the latest techniques and trends in your field.

35. Run meditation sessions

As a meditation instructor, you can offer live sessions, pre-recorded meditation guides, or even a personalizable meditation app. No specific certification is required to teach meditation, but having a deep understanding of your practice and techniques will be crucial to success.

Also, you’ll need to create a calm, welcoming space for conducting sessions—whether it’s physical or virtual.

As you grow your business, consider offering specialized meditation sessions for different groups (like children or seniors) or focusing on specific areas such as stress reduction or sleep improvement. Notice how meditation business Mindspo offers a range of services to meet customer needs. They also market themselves via a meditation podcast.

36. Teach journaling methods

If you regularly journal or keep a diary, and have a method for staying committed, you could teach it to other people for a fee.

Ryder Carroll created his own journaling method that morphed into a home-based business idea. Now, he sells journal products and journaling advice on his website. 

37. Be a professional organizer

If you love to create functional, clutter-free spaces, consider starting a home business as a professional organizer. You can help clients declutter their homes or offices, creating order and calm wherever you go. 

Neat is a home-organization empire started by Molly Graves and Ashley Murphy. After realizing they shared a passion for organization, they created and branded a unique method for decluttering homes—which is now a franchised training program offered by professional organizers across the country.

38. Edit podcasts

Podcasting has become a mainstream pastime (or career option) in recent years.

For each podcast episode that’s recorded, an editor needs to cut together the various sections, strip out coughs and stutters, and refine the audio quality. If you have the skills and software to perform those tasks, you could make a living from home as a podcast editor.

Photo and video editing services can also be profitable home business ideas.

39. Create a herbal product line

If your family has passed a herbal remedy down the generations, or if you simply have an interest in natural treatments, you could make and sell herbal products from home.

For instance, Wooden Spoon Herbs was started by Lauren Haynes in her kitchen. She creates plant-based products using American-grown herbs and traditional methods. Her online store now sells a range of herbal teas, tinctures, and wellness products.

The brand’s website even has a quiz that customers can take to find the perfect herbal treatment for them.

40. Create a candle brand

Candle making is perhaps the classic home business idea. While often maligned, many entrepreneurs continue to find success by making, branding, and selling their own candles and fragrances.

The key to success in this industry is strong branding. Your brand should not only reflect the quality and uniqueness of your candles but also resonate with your target audience.

Take Brooklyn Candle Studio , for example. After buying a candle-making kit in 2013 and discovering a talent for the craft, founder Tamara Mayne began her business from her studio apartment, selling her candles at local markets. A year later, she quit her job to work full time on Brooklyn Candle Studio.

If you also possess the talent to mix and match scents, you could channel your inner Jan from The Office and create a candle company. As your brand grows and evolves, there may be opportunities to extend your product line to include related items, such as scented diffusers, room sprays, or bath oils.

Serious about candle making? Here’s how to start a candle business .

How to start a home business

Once you have an idea that fits your skills and experience, it’s time to get to work on building your new home business.

While you’ll no doubt encounter challenges, the process of starting a business doesn’t need to be overwhelming. Here are the five basic steps you’ll need to follow. (Working with a small business lawyer and accountant can also be helpful.)

• Come up with your own business idea
• Create a business plan
• Start the legal process
• Open a business bank account
• Start providing your products or services

1. Come up with your own business idea

The first step in launching a home business is coming up with a unique idea that gives you a competitive edge.

Whether you choose one of the tried and tested businesses above, or develop an original concept, try to think critically about your idea.

Ask trusted friends and industry experts to debate your business and poke holes in your plan, to make your idea as robust as possible.

2. Create a business plan

A business plan puts your idea into a recognizable and actionable structure. To make a plan, put together information including:

• A company overview
• Your product or service offerings
• Your target audience
• A competitor analysis

Easily create your own business plan using a template like the one below:

3. Start the legal process

Choose your business type , apply for your business license, set up your legal entity, and make sure you have all the proper paperwork.

You may consider hiring the help of a small business lawyer to ensure you’re correctly setting up your business’s legal entity. There are four main types of business entities:

• Sole proprietorship
• Limited liability partnership
• Corporation

Speaking to an attorney can help you decide which type of business is best for your needs, as well as making filing the paperwork easier.

4. Open a business bank account

Keeping your business finances separate from your personal finances will make taxes less stressful. There are a number of institutions you can turn to for opening your business account, so don’t be afraid to shop around for the best fit for your needs.

At minimum, you’ll want to open the following: 

• A business checking account for revenue
• A savings account to hold money
• A business credit card for expenses

Again, speaking to a professional can be a big help. Consider searching for a local accountant who can help you make informed decisions when it comes to opening your business accounts.

5. Start providing your products or services

Finally, it’s time to start selling! If you’re creating an ecommerce business where you sell products online, Shopify makes it easy to build and run your store .

What are the pros and cons of starting a home business?

Home businesses can be started and operated from your personal residence. They might be full-time pursuits or side hustles , and often involve the use of an ecommerce platform to sell products online.

Most home business models are designed to be light on infrastructure, so you don’t need to hold lots of inventory, hire employees, or rent a physical location.

Like every business model, however, there are pros and cons to consider when deciding whether a home-based business is right for you:

Pros of running a home business

• Home businesses often have few overhead costs, including office rent or warehousing fees.
• You may be able to claim tax deductions as a home business owner.
• With ecommerce , you can choose to target a local or international market.
• Working from home may improve your work-life balance —great for parents or retirees seeking additional income.
• You can create a family business where your relations or spouse can help out.

Cons of running a home business

• You’ll likely need dedicated office space to work, store equipment, or hold inventory .
• It’s up to you to meet regulations for your industry, such as food hygiene standards or holding relevant permits.
• You may be competing with large, established businesses that can access extra capital .
• Working from home offers freedom, but it can also be lonely .

When you use an ecommerce platform like Shopify , you have the tools needed to build almost any home business.

Find the perfect home business ideas for you

The best home business idea for you won’t be the same as for others.

Succeeding as a small business entrepreneur requires knowing where your strengths lie—and which business models fit with your skills and schedule. Could you turn your experiences as a parent into a successful business , or does your industry knowledge make you an in-demand consultant?

Technology has made almost any business remote-friendly, enabling you to interact with suppliers, employees, and customers from your home.

Once you have an idea, start small, and always make your customers’ needs your top priority.

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Home business ideas FAQ

How do i start a small business at home.

• Identify a business idea: Find a niche that suits your skills and passion.
• Create a business plan: Outline your goals, target market, competition analysis, marketing strategy, and financial projections.
• Develop your product or service: Ensure it meets market standards and customer needs.
• Secure funding: If necessary, explore funding options such as personal savings, loans, or Shopify Capital.
• Choose a business structure: Determine whether a sole proprietorship, partnership, or LLC best fits your needs.
• Apply for licenses and permits: Check local regulations to ensure legal compliance.
• Open a business bank account: Keep your personal and business finances separate.
• Get business insurance: Protect your business from potential risks.
• Implement a marketing strategy: Utilize SEO, content marketing, and social media to reach your target audience.

What are some low-cost home business ideas?

• Blogging: If you have a passion for a specific topic, you can start a blog and monetize it through advertising, sponsored posts, or affiliate marketing.
• Virtual assistant: Offer administrative services to businesses remotely.
• Freelance writing or design: If you have a knack for writing or design, offer your services to businesses.
• Home tutoring: If you excel in a particular subject, consider offering tutoring services.

Which home business is most profitable?

What kind of business can i start from home.

• Selling homemade crafts or products
• Providing specialized online services
• Launching a subscription box service
• Building and monetizing a dedicated audience
• Establishing a dropshipping store
• Initiating a print-on-demand business
• Starting a freelance writing career

Which business in the easiest to start from home?

• Dropshipping
• Print-on-demand services
• Selling pre-owned items
• Creating and selling homemade products
• Offering specialized services

How can I market my home business?

What legal considerations should i keep in mind when starting a home business, how can i balance my home and work life, how can i scale my home-based business.

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How to Start a Home Business: The Ultimate Guide

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If you've ever been interested in learning how to start a small business from home, now might be the perfect time. Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, more people than ever before are working from home and launching their own startups.

Although starting a business from home has its perks, like starting any business, there is a lot to go through in order to set yourself up for success. In this guide, we'll break down everything you need to do, step-by-step, to learn how to start a home business.

LLC Formation

How to start a home business in 9 steps

So, if you're wondering how to start a small business at home, you'll find that the process requires planning, preparation and the documentation to make it official (and legal).

Although it may seem overwhelming — as starting a business often is — if you take things one step at a time, you'll find that the process becomes much more manageable. Plus, when you're starting and running a business from home, there are a number of details you don't have to worry about, like finding an office or retail space.

1. Decide on a successful idea

The first step in starting a business from home is determining exactly what kind of business you want to start.

Of course, there are a number of different home business ideas out there — and within certain industries, home businesses are far more popular (and feasible) than others. As an example, according to the SBA, a business in the information industry has a 70% chance of being home-based, closely followed by businesses in the construction industry, at 68.2%.

So, how do you decide on the perfect (and profitable) idea for your home-based business?

In essence, this part of the process is a process in itself. After all, deciding what type of business you're going to run will influence all of the other steps from here on out.

With this in mind, to make this important decision, you can consider the following:

What skills or talents do you have? Thinking about the skills, talents and passions you already have is a great way to start brainstorming the best business ideas . For example, if you're good at sewing, you might consider starting a seamstress business, or you might consider making and selling your own apparel.

How can these skills or talents translate into a business idea? Unfortunately, not every talent or skill will translate into an actual business idea. For instance, you might be a great soccer player, but it may not be feasible to start a soccer coaching business.

Can this business idea actually be run from home? It's not only important to find an idea that plays to your talents, but also one that can be run from home. If you're a skilled cook, you may be able to start a private chef business where your home serves as your office, but you may find it difficult (with laws and regulations) to start a catering business from home.

Once you've gone through this exercise and have an initial idea for your home-based business, you'll want to ensure that it's worth investing in. To make this evaluation, you'll want to do a few things:

Conduct market research: First, you'll want to perform some research to ensure there's market demand for your product or service. Through this process, you'll also want to consider who your competitors are, what your value proposition is and what your target market looks like.

Consider startup costs: Before you decide to run with any given idea, you'll want to think about how much it will cost to start this type of business from home. If you're going to start a freelance writing business, your startup costs may be very low — especially if you already have a computer and internet access. On the other hand, if you're planning on starting an Amazon selling business, you might need to invest more in terms of inventory, packing and shipping, etc.

Test your idea: There are a variety of ways you can test your idea to decide whether it's a worthwhile investment. If you're starting a service-based business, you might offer your services for free to test the market. On the other hand, if you're planning on selling a product, you might test it out with a select group of people or advertise it on a crowdfunding platform to gather responses before moving forward.

Ultimately, people arrive at their successful home business idea in all sorts of ways. Scottie Yang, a Tempe, Arizona-based business owner, decided to go all-in on his home business after he lost his job. After a career in television and video production, he switched gears to start his own clothing company called Heights Apparel, which creates clothing specifically for men who are above-average height.

"Once I got a taste of getting to work from home, it made it really hard to want to go work in an office every day," Yang says. "I love the flexibility. I love not having to deal with office politics."

How much do you need?

with Fundera by NerdWallet

We’ll start with a brief questionnaire to better understand the unique needs of your business.

Once we uncover your personalized matches, our team will consult you on the process moving forward.

2. Write a business plan

Once you've decided on a profitable home business idea, your next step will be to write a business plan .

Writing a business plan can often be one of the most time-consuming parts of learning how to start a small business at home, however, it's essential to the potential growth and progression of your operations.

In this way, your business plan should contain all of the information you need to prepare you to run your business from home. Although there are different methods for writing a business plan, generally, you'll want your business plan to include:

An executive summary .

An overview of your business.

A market analysis .

A description of your product or service.

A marketing and sales plan.

A financial plan and projections.

By going through this process, you'll have an opportunity to expand upon the considerations you made in the first step — thinking about the way your business will operate in more detail. Along these lines, you can think of your business plan as a roadmap for how you'll grow into a profitable home business.

Moreover, your business plan will also help you later on when you need to apply for funding or seek investors to start or grow your business. Showing potential investors or lenders that you have a funding plan for your business and have considered all of the risks is essential.

This is also a great time to do more research if you aren’t experienced in the field you’re starting your home business in. Yang was doing research on his business three years before he even started it.

"Because of my lack of experience and knowledge, I began researching the concept in 2015. I did tons of research," he says. He officially formed his LLC in 2018 and started selling online in 2019.

For Yang, his research centered around understanding the challenges and pitfalls of the business.

"I'm 6'7'' myself, and I grew increasingly frustrated with the [clothes] options available to me, and the large amount of additional money I had to spend in order to get pieces of clothing to fit my frame the right way. It really has an impact on how you feel."

This lack of clothing options revealed a gap in the market that he decided to capitalize on.

3. Choose a name and business entity

After you've written your business plan, you'll want to officially decide on the name of your business .

You'll want to choose something that's memorable, but also something that makes it clear what your business is or does.

Once you have a name in mind, you’ll have to make sure it’s actually available to use. There are a few places you can check this — including your secretary of state's website or business bureau website, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and by doing a simple Google search.

This being said, extending your search beyond your state is especially important if you plan on launching an online component to your home business, as you'll want to make sure that a potential domain name is available for your business's website.

In addition to deciding on a name, you'll need to choose a business entity type to define your business structure. The business entity you choose for your home business will affect how your business is taxed and the legal risk you’re exposed to, as well as whether or not you need to officially register your business with the state.

At this point, you might decide to consult an attorney or online legal service to ensure you're choosing the right entity type for your unique business. The chart below can help you determine which of these options will work best for your business:

If you choose to structure your home business as a sole proprietorship or a general partnership, you won’t actually have to register your business with the state where you’ll be operating.

Therefore, because you won’t be registering with a specific business name, the name of your business will default to your legal name. In this case, if you'd prefer to start your home business with a different name, you can file a DBA, or “doing business as,” with your state in order to operate your business under that name.

» MORE: Best business credit cards for LLCs

4. Register your home business

If you decide to form your business as an LLC or C corporation, you'll need to register with your state to start and run your business from home legally.

The exact process that you'll need to follow to complete this registration will be unique to your state. Therefore, you'll want to consult your local Secretary of State or business bureau for guidelines on how to complete your business registration.

This being said, regardless of whether or not you have to register with the state, you'll want to register your business with the federal government by applying for an employer identification number. This number (also called an EIN) comes with a number of benefits, making it a worthwhile choice whether or not you’re technically required to obtain one.

In short, this number will be useful for hiring employees, opening a business bank account, filing business taxes and more. You can easily apply for an EIN online with the IRS.

5. Get a business license

Once you've completed your necessary registration with the state and federal governments, the next step in learning how to start a home business is getting a business license.

As a home-based business, your business license requirements may differ from other types of businesses. Nevertheless, the licenses and permits that you need will also vary based on the state where you're located.

Generally, when you're starting a small business from home, you'll want to look into the following types of business licenses:

Home occupation permit: Most home-based businesses will require a home occupation permit to operate legally. Essentially, this permit shows that by running your business out of your home, you're not adding significant traffic, noise, or harmful environmental conditions to your area.

Property use and zoning permits: When you're starting your business from home, you'll want to check into local zoning ordinances that apply to home-based businesses in your area. Some residential areas have strict zoning regulations that may limit or even prevent home-based businesses from operating. You'll want to check with your local or city government office to find out what regulations might apply to you.

General business licenses and permits: On top of the two previous permits that are more specific to home-based businesses, you'll also want to consider any general business licenses you need to operate legally. Along these lines, you might need a business operating license, professional or trade license, sales tax permit and more.

Overall, even if you're just starting an online consulting or freelance business from your home, you shouldn't assume that you don't need a business license. In addition to consulting local and state business resources, you might also work with a legal professional or service to ensure that you've taken all the necessary steps to run your business from home legally.

6. Separate your business and personal finances

At this point, you've taken the steps necessary to make your home-based business official and legal. Now, you're ready to take the steps to learn how to run a business from home legally — starting with managing your finances.

Although you may be a one-person operation, it's essential to separate your business and personal finances, especially when you're just starting out. As we mentioned briefly above, one of the downsides of some of the most common business entity types for home-based businesses is that you're personally responsible for your business's debts and liabilities.

For this reason, it's even more important to ensure that you protect your personal assets by separating your finances — plus, keeping your finances separate will be crucial for bookkeeping, tax filing and general organization. You can start small and simple here by using free accounting software to help you keep your business finances in order. As your business grows or if you find yourself overwhelmed with the bookkeeping process, you can explore online bookkeeping services to help with this task.

Open a business bank account

In addition to applying for an EIN, one of the best ways to separate your finances is to open a business checking account .

You'll use your business bank account to manage any money coming into your business, as well as for paying suppliers, services, or employees.

There are a variety of business bank accounts to choose from — however, you might start with the bank where you have your personal account, or look for a free business checking account .

Since you're running your business from home, you may want to focus your search on a business bank account with online and mobile banking, mobile check deposit and free ACH payments.

Apply for a business credit card

After you've opened a business bank account, the next step you can take to separate and start managing your finances is to get a business credit card . A business credit card can help you establish business credit and can be used for any transactions related to your business — which will make filing your taxes much easier to navigate.

Once again, there are a variety of options for business credit cards — so you might start by looking at the bank where you opened your checking account — or narrow down your search by your rewards preferences — such as cash back or travel points.

Choose accounting software

Finally, the last important piece of learning to manage your finances as a new home-based business is to choose accounting software .

Although you may not think you need an accounting software platform, successful home businesses often use one of these automated systems to make bookkeeping and taxes much easier. Plus, if you're concerned about cost, there are options for free accounting software, as well as specifically designed home-based business accounting software options.

7. Secure funding

One of the benefits of starting a business from home is that you can eliminate some of the costs associated with renting an office space or opening a brick-and-mortar location.

In some cases, you might not have any business startup costs at all. This was the experience that Alexis Haselberger, a time-management and productivity coach, had when launching her business.

What surprised me most was how easy it was to get started; as a service-based business working from my home, I had virtually no startup costs. Even without investing money into her business to start, Haselberger was able to gain clients from big-name companies like Google, Lyft, San Francisco State University and more.

However, depending on the type of business you're launching, you may need to secure financing to help cover some of your startup costs. If you’re starting a business that requires a lot of inventory or equipment, you will definitely have some initial costs. Luckily, about 44% of home-based business owners are able to start their businesses with less than $5,000 — but if your home business requires more capital, you'll want to explore your options for financing.

Typically, it's difficult for newer businesses to access traditional financing methods, so you might start with a simple business credit card or line of credit , as well as consider more creative forms of financing — like working with friends or family or starting a crowdfunding campaign.

8. Set up your office

Next, you're ready to move from starting a home business to actually running a successful home business.

The first thing you'll want to do to set yourself up for success in this regard is to set up your home office. Although there are a number of benefits to starting a business from home, there are also some drawbacks — namely, that you'll be working in the same place that you live.

For this reason, it's important to designate a specific home office space in order to promote productivity and separate your work from your home life.

As Yang said, it's easy to get distracted with other things. You will need discipline to start a home business, since no one will be monitoring your work — it’s really up to you. But once you successfully make the shift, the pros can vastly outweigh the cons.

Therefore, to set up your home office, you'll want to do things like:

Choose a designated space.

Invest in the right furniture, tools and technology.

Decorate your office in a way that works for you.

Take steps to minimize distractions.

Once you have the space you need to start running your business from home, it will be much easier to get going from there.

9. Set up tax accounts and learn about deductions

Understanding business taxes can be one of the most difficult parts of running a business — and as a home-based business, you may have unique tax obligations. We've already talked about how to obtain an EIN (if needed) and the different ways you can be taxed, depending on your business entity. As a business owner, you'll need to get set up to pay self-employment taxes quarterly, to both the federal and state government. If you have employees, you'll need to establish payroll withholding accounts, and if you collect sales tax, you must set up sales tax accounts with your state.

You'll also want to consider some key home office tax deductions you can enjoy when running a profitable home business. If you use your office regularly and exclusively for your business, you'll qualify for the home office deduction (in most cases). You can claim this deduction by calculating your square footage (the simplified way) or calculating specific home office expenses on Form 8829 (the regular method).

Taking advantage of this deduction can help you save money come tax season.

Use our guide to learn more about home business tax deductions.

Tips for running a successful and profitable home business

Even if you've technically completed all the steps necessary to start a home business, the learning process will continue as you begin your day-to-day operations. Therefore, once you've gotten to this point, you might consult these tips to successfully running a small business from home.

Consider investing in business insurance: Although insurance might not be one of your initial priorities, investing in business insurance can be crucial to mitigating your risks and protecting your personal assets. At a minimum, you'll want to look into general liability insurance for your home-based business.

Create a business website and social media profiles to promote your business online: One of the best ways to establish and promote your business's presence is to create a website and social media profiles. These online resources make it easier to interact with customers — giving customers an opportunity to learn about who you are and what your business does, as well as reach out for more information.

Always be marketing your business: Marketing is always essential to a business, but even more so when you're first starting out. You can start your marketing strategy by referring back to the plan you developed as part of your overall business plan. As you learn more about your customers and what works and what doesn't, you can adjust your strategy accordingly.

Determine when it's the right time to hire your first employee: Finally, when your home-based business grows to more than you can manage on your own, you'll want to consider hiring your first employee. Being an employer, however, will mean that you need to meet additional requirements for insurance, taxes and more. Therefore, you'll not only want to ensure that you complete all of the steps necessary to hire an employee, but that you can afford and it's the right time to do so.

This article originally appeared on JustBusiness, a subsidiary of NerdWallet.

On a similar note...

BUSINESS STRATEGIES

72 home based business ideas you can start today

• Rebecca Tomasis
• 30 min read

Starting a business from home is becoming increasingly popular for new and experienced business owners. With the rise of the gig economy and digital technology, including online retail, there are now more opportunities than ever to launch a business that operates out of your home.

Whether you’re looking to supplement your income (see our guide on how to make money from home ) or start an entirely new career, home-based business ideas provide an excellent opportunity to participate in both the passion economy and the sharing economy.

Whether you have a home-based business, travel to your clients, or cram in a few hours at a cafe, the possibilities of avoiding the 9-5 office life are plentiful. In fact, in the U.S. alone, the most recent census (2017) found that 8 million people worked from home .

Starting a business from home is a quick and resource saving way to get a great business idea off the ground. Yankee Candles started off as a small business in the kitchen of Michael Kittredge's family home. Start small, think big.

It takes a self-motivated, highly disciplined person to make a home business successful. Of course you should choose a good business idea that suits you best. Fortunately, there are options available for all skill levels and areas of expertise (including business ideas for stay-at-home moms ). From the lowest overhead costs to the most elaborate ventures, and from freelancers to full-fledged business owners, here are the top 70 home-based business ideas for you to choose from and get started on today:

Pro tip: After coming up with business idea and before you get started putting this into action, take some time to read through the following guides. Begin by reading up on how to start your business , which includes everything from how to create a business website to promote your work. You might also want to check out some business website design inspiration .

What defines a good home based business idea

There are many reasons why starting a business from home is a popular choice. Here we go over a few of the key reasons why:

Low startup costs

Starting a business from home can cost from just a few hundred dollars up, depending on which type of business idea you decide to run with. This makes the initial risk of starting a business much more minimal.

Flexibility

Business ideas that work from home allow for more freedom in terms of where you work from. They're often a good self-employment fit for parents with children at home, or for people who live in remote areas.

Learn more about how to sell online .

Profitability

Small businesses started from home can grow and with less overhead costs, which means larger profit potential.

Your business idea, whether a product or service aligns with current trends or fulfills a growing niche. This makes it more marketable and increases chances of profitability.

Easiest business ideas to start from home

Survey taker

Uber driver

Professional organizer

Personal shopper

House cleaner

Data entry specialist

Gift basket arranger

Freelance illustrator

01. Pet sitter

What animal-lover wouldn’t dream of this job? If your friends call you the ‘cat whisperer’ or you light up every time a cute dog passes you by on the street, you’d be crazy not to jump on this business idea . If you’re responsible, caring and organized, it’s worth reaching out to your social circle and online communities to offer your services. This is also an excellent option if you want to earn extra money on the side, or are looking for a job where you can multitask between other projects.

Median annual salary: $30,077

Read more: How to start a dog walking business , Business ideas for kids , Weekend side hustles

02. Survey taker

Did you know that you can get paid for expressing your opinion? As a survey taker you’ll fill out forms with your general sense of the public’s opinions. To get started, create a custom email address specifically for this because you’ll have a cluster of emails coming your way. Then, reach out to a minimum of five trusted companies initially, as invitations from each can be few and far between and each one pays differently. Overall, don’t expect to make tons of money from this, rather consider it as a side hustle .

Median annual salary: $16,000

Learn more: Automated business ideas

03. Uber driver

An excellent fit for social people who want to have control over their hours. Uber drivers responsibilities entail picking up passengers and safely delivering them to their destinations, as well as keeping their vehicles clean and inviting at all times. Based on a rating scale, you can become a crowd favorite and earn social respect fast if you do a good job. And with Uber, above other ride-sharing services, you’ll be working with the biggest network of active riders. Alternatively, if you don’t want to deal with passengers, you can work with Uber Eats and deliver food instead.

Median annual salary: $34,231

04. Professional organizer

If Marie Kondo, the Japanese organizing consultant, is your role model, then getting paid to tidy up others people’s mess could be your calling. Take this a step further and offer your clients tips to improve their organizational methods in the future. Whether it’s apartments or office spaces, the possibilities here are endless. The necessary criteria are communication, motivation and (of course) impressive organizational skills. You can also learn how to make money as a consultant .

Median annual salary: $53,000

05. Personal shopper

Your dream of getting paid to shop has just come true. If you have advanced knowledge of consumer goods and current trending products , you can consult or physically shop for others. From wardrobes to groceries to household interiors and more, take your fashion sense to the market and start making money by helping others.

Median annual salary: $32,808

06. House cleaner

You may not be working from your own home, but you will have a flexible schedule as a house cleaner. Whether you decide to work with one to two houses or set up an entire cleaning service (the choice is yours), the only requirements aside from the basics are that you should be a thorough cleaner and have strong communication with your customers. This can also be a great family business idea as it can be easily arranged around a busy schedule or a popular business idea for students , looking for part time and flexible work.

Median annual salary: $27,339

Read more: How to start a cleaning business

07. Data entry specialist

You’d be surprised that a lot of documentation today is still done manually, rather than online. If you want to be a part of converting the stragglers to the digital world, it’s possible to earn an income by entering information from paper files to online computer files. Not to mention, you’ll be helping the environment by saving some trees along the way. The main requirement here is to be highly detail-oriented in order to make sure that no piece of data is left out from your transfer efforts.

Median annual salary: $34,355

08. Gift basket arranger

Gift baskets have become a popular present option for many reasons. They usually include at least one item everyone will enjoy, they can be highly personalized and you can get pretty creative with the items. Based on your customers’ needs, you’ll be able to craft boxes with different assortments. Start small by working with close family and friends, then you’ll be able to use your baskets as samples to get more clients. Take this a step further sell subscriptions to curated gift boxes on a recurring basis. Be sure to create an eCommerce website to sell your gift baskets around the world.

Median hourly salary: $16

09. Freelance illustrator

Take your creative talents and fly solo. Working as a freelancer in the illustration industry allows you to have more control over your work by spending time on projects that you choose, which ultimately will ensue more motivation. You'll have to create a mesmerizing illustration portfolio website that showcases past projects and experience in the field in order to be able to obtain new clients too. Illustrations can also be sold as digital products for extra income.

Median annual salary: $49,380

Business ideas from home with low startup costs

10. bicycle mechanic, 11. pet groomer, 12. music teacher, 13. college planning consultant, 14. babysitter, 15. elder care provider, 16. private tutor, 17. translator, 19. party entertainer, 21. publicist.

Do you have a knack for fixing things? As most people don’t, your skills are bound to come in handy. This is especially the case with bicycles, where 47.5 million Americans cycle regularly , and the number is continuously rising. You’ll be surprised how many people come your way when you market yourself as the ‘handy-man’ in town. Prior experience required is being able to fix bikes from multiple brands, weights and sizes. And if you can work on electric bikes, that’s an added bonus.

Median annual salary: $21,000

From cutting fur to nail trimming, shampooing and brushing, you can be in charge of helping man’s best friend to look fresh, clean and ready to strut their stuff when they walk through their neighborhood. This job is meant for individuals who consider themselves animal lovers, have a lot of patience and know how to care for pets properly.

Median annual salary: $38,033

If you’re gifted at making beautiful, rhythmic sounds come out of an instrument or your vocal cords, this is a way to channel your strengths and spread them to others. From piano to vocals, solfeggio and more, you could become a music teacher. Note that teaching is a skill of its own, so it will require patience, care, communication and fundamental knowledge of your craft in order to start a career or a side gig in this area.

Median annual salary: $46,744

One of the most stressful responsibilities for a high school student is figure out all the answers to their burning questions about college and their future. ‘Will they be able to afford it?’ ‘How will they get into their dream school?’ ‘What will they study?’ If you consider yourself organized, motivating and connected in these areas, your ability to help students navigate their futures can earn you a sufficient income.

Median annual salary: $41,735

If you’re good with kids, toddlers, or newborns, taking on this job is a great way to make a meaningful living. Whether you decide to work as a full time nanny or spend a few hours after school watching your neighbors’ kids, there is always a never-ending demand for work in this field. On top of having the skills and diplomas to work with kids, if you also take a first-aid and CPR course, you’ll be able to differentiate yourself from the market by being a more trustworthy care provider.

Many day care centers often start from a home environment, before expanding and moving into specialized facilities. We love examples like this one . Make sure to do your research before starting a business as either a babysitter or daycare provider—always take legal advice and be sure to comply with local, State and Federal laws and regulations involving the care of children within a private home.

Median annual salary: $33,722

Read more: How to start a babysitting business

If you’re looking to step into a growing field, the senior care industry is it. Approximately 24% of the total U.S. popular will be 65 years or older by 2060 . And just like working with kids, this job involves being responsible, being trustworthy and having a knack for helping others. Here, you will need to provide hands on assistance with large responsibilities, such as meal prep, giving out daily pills, bathing, trips to the doctors and more.

Median annual salary: $23,874

Read more: How to start a home care business

Here’s an opportunity to provide assistance in a field you consider yourself gifted in, as well as able to communicate the process. From mathematics to grammar, languages and more, tutors are always needed at all levels of education, from grade school through post graduate studies.

You can choose to run online tutoring completely from home, and hold all of your lessons online. This also allows you to tap into a global demand for online tutors. Teaching English online for example, or music lessons, are always in high demand.

Median annual salary: $23,345

Read more: How to start a tutoring business

As more business and communication is going global, language barriers are one of the major obstacles in correspondence. If you’re fluent in multiple languages, this skill will serve you wonders in the job industry. Your assistance has most likely been requested before, whether on the job or through family and friends. Yet, now it’s time for you to start earning from it by taking on tasks from companies and individuals that demand these services to function.

Median annual salary: $47,190

This is a job that’s always in demand for individuals looking to mend their precious clothing, from fixing holes and loose threads to hemming skirts and pants—and so much more. It takes skill to work with different fabrics and lines of stitches, as well as sometimes redesigning or creating items from scratch. So, if you’re a needle and thread guru, this could be a great ‘fit’ for you.

Median annual salary: $32,560

The popularity of the entertainment industry is on the rise because having fun is a serious matter. Considering this, if your comic level or vibrant personality make you the life of the party, you might consider becoming a party entertainer. Whether you’re a clown, magician, balloon artist, cartoonist, comedian or something else, your talents will be requested in all areas of fun - just like this versatile performer, Shelley Siller .

Median annual salary: $23,290

If you’re unfamiliar with this term, you might recognize it under other names like ‘birth companion,’ ‘birth coach’ or someone that provides both emotional and physical assistance throughout and after pregnancies and birth. From breathing techniques to birthing plans, and communicating all of the procedures and processes involved, you can be a vital aid in helping women get through this incredibly exciting and stressful life-changing experience. Aside from the necessary training and skills, being a supportive, patient and responsive caregiver is crucial.

Median annual salary: $42,000

This job entails getting media coverage and managing the publicity of businesses, brands or public figures. If you enjoy working with the media, crafting promotions and consider yourself an excellent networker, you can make a living out of it from home (versus being employed at a big PR firm). Some of the duties and responsibilities you can expect with this job include helping each of your clients create a press kit, pitching stories to publications and following up consistently.

Median annual salary: $51,385

Unique home based business ideas

22. personal chef or caterer, 23. party planner, 25. video editor, 26. freelance photographer, 27. freelance graphic designer, 28. interior designer, 29. home staging professional, 30. florist, 31. voice over artist, 32. jewelry designer.

Are you a cooking or baking enthusiast? If so, your work can stretch further than delivering your neighbors fresh baked cookies or impressing dinner guests to a plentiful spread. You can start a business straight out of your kitchen by providing meals and goodies to individuals, households and events. Cooking skills, some basic business skills and a food-related website are required to kickstart your career here.

You can also take this to the next level by extending your home based cooking into the realms of Youtube and TikTok. Take inspiration from Chef Joshua Weissman whose cooking videos and cheap eat recipes have earned him a large social media following.

Go one step further again and combine cooking from home with a food delivery service, to make sure you really offer next level service to your customers.

Median annual salary: $45,929

How to start a food business

Food business ideas

If you thrive on planning events, set your goals on turning it into your own business. From weddings to birthday parties, corporate outings and more. Most people don’t have time in their own lives to deal with all of the operational details required in order to make their events as extravagant as they wish for them to be. This is where you come in, with basic planning skills, organization, communication and more. You could be organizing caterers, hunting down event spaces, creating wedding websites and more.

Median annual salary: $33,092

Read more: How to start a party planning business

24. DJ (disc jockey)

Do you have an eye for crowd-pleasing music? If you know how to mix songs and beats into flowing sessions that can keep a room full of people entertained for hours, this could be a great fit for you. And if you don’t have the skills but love the idea, you can take classes and practice with different DJ softwares to get started and feel it out. This is your chance to turn your hobby into a realistically paying job, just like this DJ did.

Median annual salary: $56,779

Read more: How to start a DJ business

The power of video today is inevitably strong. Brands have come to realize that consumers are eyeing this content more than any other form. So, working as a video creator is certainly worthwhile. And if you’re passionate about production and know how to create engaging clips, you’re almost all set. Once you create a video website and market your talents, brands will start to build trust with you and your work.

Median annual salary: $50,584

Here’s another hobby turned into a career. Photographers are needed across all realms, from weddings to businesses, magazines and so much more. Bring your talents to whatever field you specialize in, be it nature landscapes, family portraits, newborns, etc. Of course, you’ll need to be tech-savvy with the camera, but business and personable skills will truly keep your business afloat. For starters, you can create a photography website and add your portfolio so that every time you reach out to clients, you’ll be able to market yourself. Here are more tips to help you earn money as a photographer and some places to find freelance photography jobs online .

Check out this photographer’s site for more inspiration on how to get started with freelance photography from home.

Median annual salary: $35,726

Read more: How to start a photography business

Working in this field is one of the utmost creative feats. You’ll turn images, text, shapes and colors into company assets, like logos, business cards, posters, websites and other promotional items. If you’ve studied graphic design and are looking to pursue a career of independence where you can pick and choose your projects and clients, then consider flying solo. This freelance graphic design checklist will help you get started.

Median annual salary: $50,028

Are you constantly imagining ways to improve the spaces you enter, from offices to apartments and homes? Taking on the job of an interior designer will allow you to scale your visions into reality. You’ll be in charge of creating and finding elements that artistically fit together within a space. Oftentimes a level of schooling is required to get started, be it a bachelor's degree or a course. Ultimately, it’s about showing your clients how experienced you are and providing them with a vision and proof of your work.

Median annual salary: $51,775

Read more: How to start an interior design business

This job entails preparing homes and buildings for sale by “staging” the look of them via furniture, paint and accessories. Essentially its interior design, but for mock properties. Therefore, having an eye for visually pleasing design elements and colors is necessary for this job.

Median annual salary: $41,812

In Japanese, the act of arranging flowers is expressed through the term ‘Ikebana,’ or ‘making flowers alive.’ Such a vibrantly fulfilling job is great for creatives with a knack for arranging different types of flowers into uniquely packaged styles for events or sentiments. In order to work in this industry, a high knowledge of these plant species, the ability to arrange them in beautiful ways and work appropriately with clients, budgets and timeframes is required.

Median annual salary: $27,200

Read more: How to start a flower business

This job entails working in the entertainment industry providing voice-overs for commercials, video games, cartoon movies, movie trailers and more. If you have a very clear voice and fit the tone, you just might get a job. This market is very specific though, and having the right connections sometimes helps more than specific work experience. It’s recommended to take theater or acting classes to sharpen up your vocals.

Median hourly salary: $47.31

Whether you already create jewelry or are considered a crafty person, this fun hobby can become a business for you. It’s possible to sell your goods online , in stores, at festivals and other locations. To do so, you might want to take some jewelry making classes for specific materials you want to work with, from precious metals to wire, beads, stones and more. You can look into selling crafts online if you want a more general idea of how to get started.

Median annual salary: $57,485

Read more: How to start a jewelery business

Writer focused business ideas to try from home

34. resume writer, 35. blogger, 36. journalist, 37. freelance business writer, 39. copywriter, 40. grant writer.

If you feel strongly about your writing skills and have ideas for novels, it’s possible to take on writing your very own books as a profession. A job like this certainly requires strong grammar, organization and creativity, but also a lot of motivation to get past the rotating stages of writer’s block. If you set your mind to it, like almost anything else, it’s definitely possible.

Median annual salary: $62,170

Writing a resume is vital if you want to land a job in most fields today. Yet, many people claim to have trouble crafting their own. If you consider yourself an expert in spewing out marketable paperwork to attract employers, then this online business idea will prove itself beneficial to many eager job seekers.

Median annual salary: $35,000

There are many facts and stats that will tell you why starting a blog with a free blog maker is the way of the future. These reasons include generating more engagement and sales for businesses. It’s also become the norm for researching and consuming information online today (look at what you’re doing right now). And what’s in it for you? 45% of marketers outsource content creation , which is a justifiable reason to sit at your favorite café or on your sofa in your PJs and crank out excellent content for the Web. If you have the research and writing skills, along with prior experience, you can get started.

Not sure what to blog about? We recommend starting with something you love, start writing and go from there. We love how this blogger combines her love of wine and her dogs into one really interesting blog.

Affiliate Marketing is often used by bloggers to earn commissions from promoting other people’s products or services. It involves creating content around a product or service, and including an affiliate link in that content. When a customer clicks on the link and purchases the item, you earn a commission, making it a popular choice with bloggers and other content creators.

You can also consider turning your content into ebooks, that can be sold online or used to generate leads to a product or service. Self publishing is a great way to create and promote your own content online.

Median annual salary: $42,170

Read more: How to start a blog

Journalists have one of the most important jobs today, as they educate the public about matters happening around the world. The angle that they choose to take on a story can completely sway public opinion one way or another. That being said, a job in this field is certainly possible. Your responsibilities include thoroughly researching your subject matter and conducting interviews, then conveying all of this through strong writing skills. In this field, it’s about standing your ground and choosing projects that you feel passionate about and believe in. It’s an exciting and independent journey you will venture into. If photography is more your thing, you can also consider photojournalism which also works from home.

Median annual salary: $45,845

If you’re an experienced researcher and know how to craft your knowledge into beautifully written text, this job is a match for you. From writing blog posts to user experience text, marketing emails and more content-related material, there are many directions you can go with this. Writers either branch off from full-time content positions, or take this up on their own, but either way connections in the industry and previous writing experience to back up your claims is important to land yourself gigs. If you want to impress the businesses you work with and create a funnel for them to request your skills, create a freelance website.

Median annual salary: $42,120

A level up from writing content is being able to edit it for both grammar and style. So if you love the field, you might just enjoy making adjustments and improvements to others’ work. A job such as this one requires a high level of grammar and specific knowledge on editing styles. Oftentimes that’s learned on the job, but an editing course will give you a leg up among competitors. You can do this with articles, novels and various other mediums of written content.

Median annual salary: $59,480

Essentially the purpose of this job is to craft the written content for a company for various mediums, from blog posts to ads, newsletters and more. Unlike a business writer, your job is more concentrated on promotional marketing rather than entertaining. It’s a great fit if you love to write and are able to adapt to different companies needs and styles. Most companies need someone to create great content, so you will definitely be able to find work. Digital journalism has been on the rise for a long time and so plenty of opportunities exist.

This job is not the most creative, but it’s always in demand. Your duties would entail writing proposals for a nonprofit organization or institute of education to apply for financial assistance from the government, companies and others. Requirements include knowing the ins and outs of the organization you’re working for, and being able to write, submit and manage proficient grant proposals. Some jobs require degrees, and others are just looking for writing experience.

Median annual salary: $53,806

Beauty and wellness home business ideas

41. hairstylist, 42. fashion stylist, 43. beautician, 44. health coach, 45. wellness instructor, 46. massage therapist, 47. virtual therapist, 48. personal trainer, 49. fitness instructor.

Coloring, highlighting, cutting and styling hair is something you can totally manage from your very own home salon. If you’re passionate about the beauty industry and follow your state’s requirements for opening up shop (licensing, beauty school and certificate, etc.), there’s no doubt you can pamper guests and make them feel more glamorous from the moment they walk into your home.

Median annual salary: $24,850

Does your love for fashion shine through from your clothing choices to recommendations for friends and family? If so, it’s possible to sell your services and start helping others feel more confident about their looks and attire. You can sway this different ways, from high-end fashion to budget-friendly fashion and more. Some go to school for this, which is recommended, yet it’s possible to start a career without proper schooling by finding experience and educating yourself on trends and body types.

Median annual salary: $34,429

Like being a hairstylist, this is also a way to offer your services out of your very own home. This can include manicures, pedicures, waxing and more. If you are able to do one or many of these, clients will come your way. This is because home salons are typically less expensive than other options, and are naturally much more cozy. To make sure that you attract enough business and maintain a professional aura, create a beauty salon website.

Read more: How to start a beauty business , Beauty business ideas

This emerging market has grown to reach revenues over $6 billion in services . So, for those that love to study the most up-to-date nutrition trends and offer their companions advice for living the healthiest lifestyles, it’s possible to make a career out of it. Your job will entail working one-on-one in regular meetings with your clients, where you can help them define health goals and stick to them in order to maintain overall physical and mental wellness. In order to work in this field, you’ll need to take a course or study a nutrition-related degree.

Median annual salary: $48,239

Read more: How to start a coaching business

Meditation is the fastest growing health trend in America, and yoga isn’t too far behind. These and other tools of wellness are starting to spark the interest of more and more individuals as they’ve been proven to help reduce stress, improve concentration and aid in many other health-related issues. Entering this field is a competitive feat, but if you find your niche, you’ll be able to gain a following. In order to work as a wellness instructor, you’ll need to get a certification in the course of your choosing. You can then begin on your own, teach at a gym or studio, or work on a freelance basis with corporations. As you can see, there are many paths to take.

Median annual salary: $37,900

Read more: How to start a fitness business

If giving your time or gifts to others was always something that made you feel warm inside, providing these therapeutic treatments will be right up your alley. On top of just giving massages, you can also work with other doctors, from psychologists to chiropractors, physicians and more to be able to help your patients in multiple ways. In order to work in this field, you will need to obtain your license after taking a course.

Median annual salary: $41,420

If you’re already a working therapist but looking for more flexibility in your life, exploring this option is worthwhile. There are several ways were you can offer online therapy, such as through an application, video chat, voice calls, or messages (audio or text). Of course, you would need to be a licensed therapist to provide this kind of assistance, which means that you will need to obtain your degrees first.

Median annual salary: $79,010

If you enjoy working out as well as motivating others, becoming a personal trainer is a great job for you. A course is required to gain certification but after that you’ll be able to work on your own. Or you could apply to work in a gym, health center, or any other place of fitness.

Median annual salary: $33,120

Teaching classes can be even more fun than participating in them if you’re passionate about a sport. By taking a course in a specific sport/genre that you love, you’ll be able to learn the ins and outs, you’ll be able to gain the deepest understanding of that sport, then spread your knowledge to your students in the style that you want. It will also feel amazing to motivate others by doing what you love.

Median annual salary: $39,820

Successful at home business ideas

50. online store owner, 51. bed and breakfast owner, 52. online micro jobs, 53. bookkeeper, 54. tax preparer, 55. gardening business, 56. landscaping business.

Consumerism is increasingly on the rise. If you live in the U.S., or plan on selling goods there, you’ll be pleased to know that this specific market in the largest in the world. In 2016, it was valued at approximately $292 billion . The types of eCommerce business ideas are endless here, from the resale of consignment and vintage items, to selling handmade jewelry, clothes, wood work and more. With some knowledge of budgeting, marketing and sales, all that’s left to do is open your own online store .

Median monthly salary: Ranges from hundreds to ten thousands of revenue per month.

Read more: How to start an online store , things to make and sell

If you love hosting guests, take it a step further and turn your home into your very own boutique hotel. This is an excellent option especially if you live in a popular tourist destination, from New York to San Francisco and more. To get started, you’ll need to have strong business and marketing skills, as well as make sure that you register your home business appropriately with the government. And lastly, create a hotel website for guests to be able to book a stay.

Dealing with guests not your thing? You can still consider managing vacation rentals or flipping property as other property related home business ideas.

Median annual salary: $30,959

This vague description can apply to many small freelance jobs, such as transferring website data, creating logos, building dynamic pages and more. Many experts from various backgrounds can find mini jobs here, such as social media, programming, app development, graphic design, photo editing and so many more gigs. You’ll discover these opportunities across various platforms, from Fiverr to Gigwalk and Mechanical Turk.

Median annual salary: Varies according to tasks.

If you’re a trained and employed accountant but would like to step out of the corporate environment and take on your own clients, this is a great option for you. Bookkeepers are always needed, especially for small businesses who can’t afford one in-house. By picking up a few clients, you’ll be able to turn this into a full-time job. And if you’re not experienced in the field, you can gain background knowledge by taking several bookkeeping courses from an online college or one in your area.

Median annual salary: $39,240

Read more: How to start a bookkeeping business

Filing taxes is a burdensome task to many that’s often delegated to tax preparers. It’s also a job industry that’s not going anywhere, as taxes will always need to be paid. If you have a tax accounting background and you are registered with the IRS as a tax preparer, you can start taking on clients and forming your own business out of this handy skill.

Median annual salary: $38,730

If you love to garden, this is another way to turn a hobby into a business. Profit potentials are high, especially if you specialize in a specific area, like organic farming or native plants. Many people struggle to grow their own plants, which means that they would definitely pay for the help. So whether you’re only setting up a garden for them, or consistently maintaining it, your services will be desired.

Median hourly salary: $25,290

Read more: How to start a lawn care business

Landscaping businesses are very common among suburbs and urban areas. They add an artistic touch to buildings that makes them more inviting. Skill requirements include various tasks, from cutting lawns to planting flowers and trees, and arranging stone sidewalks and other pathways. To get started, you’ll also need to invest in pricey equipment, yet the profits are completely worth it.

Median hourly salary: $27,670

Read more: How to start a landscaping business

Innovative home business ideas

57. web designer, 58. youtube personality, 59. social media influencer, 60. video game tester, 61. podcaster, 62. travel agent, 63. virtual assistant, 64. web developer, 65. app designer, 66. digital marketing consultant, 67. call center representative, 68. webinar instructor, 69. research assistant.

70. Virtual media scribe

If you have a knack for design and are considered tech-savvy, web design for business websites could potentially be something you can get paid for. Website builders like Wix will considerably ease the process for you with drag and drop features and hundreds of website templates which are ready to personalize. And if you’re already experienced in the field, you can hone in on more creative options with Velo . But how will you find business? You can apply to become a partner website designer and from there, obtain access to a community of clients in need of your website building expertise.

Median annual salary: $57,470

If you know how to use a camera and have an eccentric personality, making a name for yourself on YouTube might just be your calling. From tutorials and how-tos to comedies, mini-episodes and more, the options are endless. Use your imagination and hobbies, and see where you can shine. Producing this content isn’t directly what earns you money though, that’s a supplemental process obtained through ads and brand endorsement. In order to gain traction, first read up on this guide to starting a successful YouTube channel .

Hand in hand with being a YouTube personality comes video live streaming and gaming. Video streamers recording themselves playing games online, is how entrepreneurs such as Mr. Beast got their start, and it remains a highly trending business to start from home.

Median annual salary: Highly dependent on your success. Money is generated from the streaming platform, as well as from sponsorships, donations and brand collaborations.

Social media influencers are taking over the Web and replacing the power celebrities once had. This is because they are known for being authentic, which means that consumers can relate to them more. In order to become one, you have to consistently work extra hard at building a community based around your goal, whether it’s to promote fashion, sports, or any of your hobbies. You’ll then be able to start making money in several ways, from promoting products to becoming an affiliate, selling your own products (t-shirts, photos, other merchandise) and more.

Median annual salary: Highly dependent on your success.

If your eyes just lit up when you heard this option, keep reading. It’s no joke, you can make money by playing video games all day. It’s possible to work with video game creators to test out the logic of their games and to look for any bugs in the program. There’s no experience required, except the ability to continuously play video games for hours on end. Yet, knowledge of programming or computer science will give you the upper hand at understanding the game’s functions.

Median annual salary: $22,360

Learn more: How to start a gaming business

The podcast world isn’t that old as the first one was released in 2004. However, since then it’s become a worldwide phenomenon. From commuting to work to cleaning their house and more, many people love to absorb information strictly through an audio medium because it allows them to multitask. So, if you have the right equipment and an interesting topic or theme to discuss, consider learning f reelance and making your own.

Do you love to explore the world and work with people? Travel agents can do all of this virtually from their computers. In this role, you’ll be in charge of booking trips and activities for people. From hotels to flights, restaurants, tours, top attractions and more, you’re in charge of making sure that your clients have a good time and nothing to worry about while they explore. So, if you love planning trips (even when they aren’t your own), give this a try. Although no degree is required, if you decide to major in travel and tourism in college, it will help you earn credibility and have a better chance of finding employment in the industry.

Median annual salary: $36,990

Just like being an office assistance, this job requires answering calls and emails, planning meetings, making travel arrangements and more. Your tasks will vary depending on who you work for, yet the perk of this versus going into the office is being able to work out of your very own home. Although no degree or training is required, employers are looking for candidates that can manage their time well and have good communication and organizational skills. Other opportunities within this field include medical billing and auditing from home.

Median annual salary: $22,000

Learn more: How to start a virtual assistant business

Just like a web designer, one of your roles will be to design websites, however this position goes much further. On top of that, you’ll need to know more about coding and modifying content, from fixing bugs to adding applications and extensions and more. Agile knowledge of different platforms and coding languages ranging from Velo to Python is necessary as you’ll dive deep into the technical side of websites. Typically, web developers go to school for computer science engineering or programming in order to obtain this knowledge.

Also if you have the necessary qualifications and experience you might want to consider ethical hacking. This is where companies pay ethical hackers to hack their systems in order to identify potential weaknesses for less than ethical hackers to attack and exploit.

Median annual salary: $75,487

There were over two million smartphone applications available in 2018 alone. It’s a rising market as consumers are expecting almost all businesses to offer some kind of application. And lucky for you, many of those businesses are outsourcing this job, especially startups that can’t afford to hire someone full time. This is where you come in, if you have a background in app design and programming, which you’d typically obtain through a college degree in a related field.

Median annual salary: $56,737

From social media to email, SEO and more, digital marketing consultants help companies grow and become noticed by their consumers. It’s possible to offer this in house, for an agency, or start your own individualized work. If you have experience in the marketing field and can send your clients marketing plans and meet your quota, then you might consider going freelance and taking on several clients of your own, while working from home on your own schedule.

Median annual salary: $60,714

Learn more: How to start a marketing business

Customer service is an industry in constant demand with most of the employees working online. It’s possible to find a company that will allow you to work remotely. Your job would entail answering customers questions and fulfilling their requests, from solving issues to connecting them to the appropriate departments and more. This requires staying organized, having patience and working at a timely pace. Previous customer experience, problem solving and people skills are among the requirements necessary to work in this position.

Median annual salary: $32,890

Many people are interested in taking courses online to further their knowledge in particular subjects, from software training to language learning, coding classes, online marketing and and endless amounts of other topics. If you have the knowledge and teaching skills, you can offer this opportunity to people for a price by conducting virtual classes by creating a webinar or an online course.

Median annual salary: $58,758

Oftentimes institutions and businesses pay individuals to conduct extensive research for them. Depending on what you’ve studied and what the job requires, your responsibilities can vary. However, motivation, attention to detail, technical and analytical skills are among the most common requirements.

Median annual salary: $29,098

70. Virtual Medical Scribe

This job involves charting physician to patient interactions, especially during medical exams. Oftentimes, medical scribes are hired as it saves physicians the hassle of filling out paperwork and other pertinent tasks. Here, you’ll be in charge of tracking all of the client-related information, managing documents and data, booking appointments and other administrative medical tasks. This is a great position too if you’re in university, working toward a degree in the health field.

Median annual salary: $24,857

eCommerce business ideas from home

71 Dropshipping

72. Print on demand

71. dropshipping.

Dropshipping can be easily started from home. It's an e-Commerce business model where you sell products online without ever actually having to manage inventory or ship the goods yourself. When a customer purchases an item from your store, it's then shipped directly from one of your assigned suppliers. This allows you to start selling products with minimal upfront investment and no risk of inventory or shipping costs. Dropshipping is an inexpensive way to get started with eCommerce.

Median annual salary: $45,500

Learn more: How to start a dropshipping business

Print on demand is an innovative and unique business idea that can be started from home. With print on demand, entrepreneurs can set up a store online for customers to purchase items with their desired design printed on them. The company who you partner with will then take care of the inventory and shipping so that your business can focus on marketing and promotion.

Median annual salary: $55,637

Learn more: How to start a print on demand business

How to start a business from home

Starting a home business is an excellent way to make money and be your own boss. It can be a profitable venture, as long as you have the right business plan in place. Don't forget your business name , business plan and registering your business . You'll also want. to consider your business financing and what type of business to start.

How to promote a business from home

There are many ways to help your promote a home based business. Many of these involve tapping into the potential of online marketplaces. Etsy, for example, is an online marketplace allowing you to connect with millions of potential customers and sell handmade goods or crafts.

When it comes to using social media to sell, Instagram and Facebook are also invaluable platforms for home based business owners to market and sell products.

Potential cons of home based businesses

While home-based businesses offer working flexibility and the ability to start a business with limited costs, they also come with potential downsides:

Challenging work-life balance: Blurred lines between work and personal life can lead to burnout and difficulty separating roles especially when you work out of your home. You'll need to set specific working hours, when you switch off to focus on family or personal commitments.

Isolation: Working alone solely from home can lead to loneliness and lack of social interaction, impacting mental well-being. This might not be relevant if you have employees helping you our or if you're in a client facing industry.

Business legality and regulations: Complying with zoning laws and business licenses can be complex and vary depending on location, including specific state and business type.

Home based business ideas FAQ

What are the 5 most popular home based business ideas.

In the US, 5 of the most popular at home business ideas include - starting an eCommerce store in response to skyrocketing demand for online shopping over the past few years; online education and tutoring, as demand for remote learning has also soared; freelance writing and content creation as many companies push their content marketing efforts; pet care such as pet sitting and walking; home based food businesses, including homemade food and cake creation.

What is the most profitable business to start from home?

What kind of business can i start from home, how can i make sure my home business is secure, explore more business ideas.

Part-time business ideas

Craft business ideas

Reselling business ideas

DIY business ideas

Clothing business ideas

Small-town business ideas

Dropshipping business ideas

Business ideas for couples

Rental business ideas

B2B business ideas

Scalable business ideas

Business ideas for teachers

Recession-proof business ideas

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How To Start a Small Business at Home: Step-By-Step Guide

The COVID-19 pandemic blurred the lines between work and home. Between 2019 and 2021, the number of Americans working from home tripled, going from 9 million to over 27 million. Many of these newly minted remote workers used their skills to go into business for themselves—without having to leave the living room. And you could be next.

Learning how to start a small business at home is no easy feat. It takes months of research, planning, and effort. But if you’re ready to take the plunge, here’s everything you need to know, from developing your idea to getting your first clients.

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Starting a Business From Home: 6 Things You Need

Before you start a home business, it’s important to have a strong foundation. Here are the key things you need to set yourself up for success:

1. A Great Business Idea

Every successful business starts with a great idea. If you don’t have one in mind already, take some time to brainstorm. Think of a product or service that solves a real problem and has an interested audience. The best home business ideas combine your skills, passions, and experience so you know you can execute them well and will enjoy the process.

Some of the most common home-based businesses include:

• Freelance writing
• Online tutoring
• Graphic and web design
• Web development
• Virtual assistance

These fields typically have low business costs and don’t need a lot of space or equipment to get started.

2. An Understanding of the Market and Competition

Once you’ve settled on an idea, do some research to understand your target market and identify your competitors. Learn about potential customers’ needs, preferences, and buying habits. Look at your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. Then, brainstorm ways to make your business stand out.

3. A Plan for Success

Draft an outline of a business plan that outlines your strategies, goals, and financial projections.

Having a basic plan in place helps you determine whether your ideas are viable.

4. A Dedicated Workspace

While it’s tempting to work from your bed or couch, you should create a dedicated home office space.  

Choose a quiet area with good lighting and ventilation. Invest in a comfortable chair and desk, and keep your workspace organized with everything you need. Having a dedicated space helps you focus on work when you need to while maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Plus, you’ll work more productively without distractions.

5. The Right Tools and Technology

Make sure your home office has reliable technology and equipment. Depending on your business, you might need:

• High-speed internet
• Specific software or tools for your industry

Having the right setup lets you provide great service instead of wasting time with subpar tools.

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6. A Separate Business Bank Account

Set up a dedicated business bank account to keep your personal and business expenses separate. This makes bookkeeping easier. It also helps you track your business’s financial health.

A separate business account also shows professionalism and builds business credit over time. This will be useful as your business grows, especially if you need funding.

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How To Start a Home Business in 6 Steps

With the essential components in place, it’s time to take action to bring your home-based business to life. Follow these steps to get your new venture up and running:

1. Create a Detailed Business Plan

Once you’ve solidified a viable idea, use your outline to develop a comprehensive business plan. This serves as a roadmap for the first few months of running your home business. You’ll also show this plan to potential investors if you decide to look for funding. Include the following key sections:

• Executive Summary . Provide a brief but compelling overview of your business. This includes your mission, products or services, and goals.
• Company Description . Describe the business in detail. Outline its legal structure, location, and key team members.
• Market Analysis . Present your research findings on your industry and target market.
• Product or Service Description . Explain what you’re offering and what sets it apart from competitors.
• Marketing and Sales Strategy . Describe your plan for promoting your offerings and reaching your target customers.
• Financial Projections . Estimate your income, expenses, and cash flow for the next few years. This shows your business’s financial viability.
• Funding Requirements . Detail how much money you need to start and operate your business and how you plan to obtain it.

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2. Choose a Business Structure and Get Registered

Decide on the best legal structure for your home business. The most common options are:

• Sole proprietorship
• Partnership
• Limited liability company (LLC)
• Corporation

Sole proprietorships are most common for single-person small businesses. They’re the simplest to run. But before you choose, consider factors like liability protection, tax implications, and paperwork. Some structures are more complicated, but they give you more tax benefits and government support.

Once you’ve decided on a structure, register your business with the appropriate state and local agencies.

3. Establish Your Financial System

Open a business bank account and set up a bookkeeping system to manage your finances. Consider using accounting software to streamline your financial management. 

Keep track of your income, expenses, and invoices, as well as tax obligations. If you’re overwhelmed, consult with a financial advisor or accountant to set everything up properly.

4. Get Required Licenses, Permits, and Insurance

Research the licenses, permits, and insurance policies you need. These vary depending on your industry, location, and business structure. Common requirements include:

• Home occupation permit
• Business license
• Professional licenses
• General liability insurance

5. Build Your Online Presence

Many people look for businesses online, so having a strong digital presence is essential for a growing company. Develop a professional website that showcases your offerings and pricing. Set up social media profiles to update and connect with your audience. 

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6. Network and Promote Your Business

Spread the word about your new home business. Attend industry events, join local business organizations, and connect with other professionals so people learn who you are and what you do. Plus, different marketing techniques can help you reach your target audience, such as:

• Email marketing
• Content marketing
• Paid advertisin
• Referral programs
• Partnerships with other businesses

Don’t get discouraged if business isn’t booming right away. Success takes time, and working with even one or two clients in the beginning is totally normal. Keep going.

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6 Tips to Run a Successful Home Business

Running a successful home business requires dedication, hard work, and a willingness to adapt. Here are some tips to help you thrive:

1. Embrace Continuous Learning

To stay competitive and grow your business, commit to continuous learning. Stay up-to-date with industry trends and best practices. Attend workshops, webinars, and conferences to expand your knowledge and skills. It’s also a good idea to read books, blogs, and articles about your field.

2. Offer Exceptional Customer Service

Providing outstanding customer service is key to generating positive word-of-mouth and standing out from the crowd. Respond promptly to customer inquiries and concerns. Go above and beyond to meet their needs and exceed their expectations. And above all, regularly seek feedback. Your customers are your best resource.

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3. Maintain Financial Discipline

If you want to keep your business up and running, you need to practice effective financial management. Keep accurate records of your income and expenses. Create a budget and stick to it. Don’t forget to set aside money for taxes, and consider working with an accountant to ensure compliance. 

4. Adapt and Innovate

To keep up with the ever-changing business landscape, you need to adapt and innovate. Stay attuned to changes in your industry and be open to new ideas. Don’t be afraid to experiment with new approaches or technologies. By embracing change and innovation, you’re better equipped to seize new opportunities and stay ahead of the competition.

5. Prioritize Work-Life Balance

Running a home business can blur the lines between work and personal life. To avoid burnout and maintain a healthy lifestyle, prioritize work-life balance. 

Set clear boundaries between work and personal time. Establish a routine and stick to it as much as possible, taking breaks throughout the day to recharge. Don’t let hobbies, exercise, and social activities fall by the wayside.

6. Stay Organized

Organize your time and your space. Use tools like calendars, to-do lists, and project management software to stay on top of tasks and deadlines. It might take some trial and error, but you’ll eventually develop efficient systems for managing paperwork and emails. This equips you to focus on growing your business.

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Win More Jobs, Increase Your Profit, and Support Your Clients With Homeowner Financing

Starting a business is complicated, whether you work from home or not. But Joist is here to streamline client relations for you.

With Joist, you can land more jobs, win more upsells, and get paid faster by offering your customers financing options on-site. Joist partners with some of the industry’s best lenders to offer your clients competitive personal loans with quick funding in as early as three business days. You’ll never have to worry about money coming in.

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How to Start a Home-Based Business and Work From Home

8 min. read

Updated April 30, 2024

Did you know that 50% of U.S. entrepreneurs start their business at home? And for good reason. A home-based business can provide a quicker startup path, greater flexibility, and lower startup costs. 

However, you still have to follow the same startup steps as every other business to succeed. Plus, there are additional considerations because you work from home.

This guide will cover the specific steps for starting a home-based business.

We will not go in-depth on steps that apply to all business types and recommend checking out our full startup guide to dig deeper.

1. Questions to ask before starting a home-based business

• Can you focus and stay motivated?

When working from home, you’ll be dealing with far more distractions—household chores, pets, TV shows, and that comfy bed calling for you to take a nap.

• Do you have a support system?

Whether it’s a mentor, family, or some other form of support—you should have someone who can help when you get stuck. Ideally, this person will have remote business experience and better relate to your situation.

• What are your goals?

Why are you starting a business? Why does it have to be from home? What is your long-term vision? You may need to rethink starting a remote business, depending on your answers. 

• Is your home suitable for running a business?

You need to determine if your current home setup is built for running a business or if you need to make changes to create a suitable workspace. 

• Can you balance work and personal life?

As a business owner, work-life balance is not guaranteed. Long hours spent pouring through your numbers, finishing orders, etc. Balance can be even more difficult for home-based businesses where your office is always just a step away.

These questions are specific to starting a home-based business. They don’t cover your other considerations when becoming a first-time entrepreneur. 

For additional guidance, check out what to do before starting a business .

Dig deeper:

5 myths about working from home

Don’t let these common misconceptions about working from home set your new business up for failure.

Tips to run a successful home-based business

Learn what experienced entrepreneurs recommend you focus on when starting an at-home business.

Brought to you by

Create a professional business plan

Using ai and step-by-step instructions.

Secure funding

Validate ideas

Build a strategy

2. Identify a business idea that works remotely

There are specific qualities that make for a good business idea. The idea solves a problem, shows clear market demand, and fits your goals.

However, even if an idea meets the criteria above it doesn’t mean it will work as a home-based business. Here are additional qualifications you should consider:

• Digitalization: Can the business be operated entirely online or with minimal physical interaction? 
• Independence: Can the business be run independently without needing a large team or physical infrastructure?
• Scalability: Can the business be scaled up without significant physical infrastructure? 
• Supply chain: Does the business require minimal physical inventory or a supply chain you can manage remotely?

Remember, you must conduct thorough market research and speak directly with your potential customers. An idea may look good on paper and meet the requirements to function remotely, but it won’t be viable if there’s no demand.

Check out our complete guide on idea validation for more information.

Online business ideas

A fully online business can be a great option to start from home. Here are a few options to consider.

Subscription service business ideas

While we may be past the gold rush for this business type—the right subscription service could still capture consumers’ attention.

• 3. Write a business plan

Writing your business plan will help you think through every aspect of your home-based business. It’s where you:

• Describe your product or service .
• Document your research .
• Create a financial plan .
• Outline marketing and sales efforts .
• Provide an overview of your operations , business structure, and team .

You should address everything in this list to create a complete business plan. And since you’re starting from home, pay special attention to:

• Operations: 

What does the day-to-day look like, and can it work in your home office, garage, or shed?

• Financials: 

How does being remote impact startup costs, and how do you intend to scale to achieve profitability? 

Is that possible from home, or must you invest in another space?

• Product/service description: 

What about your product or service allows it to be sold from the comfort of your home? Is there a competitive advantage for doing so?

While having a detailed business plan is essential, it can be helpful to start with a one-page plan . It’s quicker, easy to update, and provides a working overview of all the above components.

Plus, you can always expand it into a more traditional plan later. 

Need help to write your plan? Check out our business planning guide for step-by-step guidance.

Dig deeper: How to build remote work into your business plan

• 4. Understand the legal requirements

A home-based business has to follow all of the same legal requirements as every other business, including:

• Choosing a business structure
• Registering your business name
• Applying for a state and federal tax ID
• Obtain the right licenses and permits

There are also some unique legal considerations you’ll need to account for:

• Home business permit: 

Some local governments require home-based businesses to obtain a particular home business permit.

• Zoning laws: 

Check your area’s zoning laws to ensure that running a business from home is allowed.

• Homeowners Association (HOA) rules: 

If you live in a community with a homeowners association (HOA), check the HOA rules to see if there are any restrictions on running a business from home.

• Business insurance: 

While not a legal requirement, you should have some business insurance. Some home insurance policies do not cover home-based businesses and may need to purchase additional coverage.

5. Figure out your startup costs and finances

Starting a home-based business is often more cost-effective due to eliminating rent and other associated expenses. 

Depending on your business, you may have virtually no startup costs . But that doesn’t mean you can skip out on budgeting and forecasting . 

At a minimum, you should account for:

• Your home office setup
• Technology and equipment
• Legal expenses
• Marketing/advertising

Remember, the startup costs for a home-based business can vary widely depending on the nature of your business and your circumstances. Creating a detailed budget and forecasting revenue and expenses is essential for sufficient funds.

Lastly, don’t wait to separate your personal and business finances . You may find it tempting to intermix funds when working from home, but this will make performance harder to track and potentially lead to legal issues. All it takes to get started is opening a business bank account . 

Dig deeper: Do you save money by working from home?

• 6. Set up your workspace

You need to choose a dedicated space to run your business. Somewhere with minimal distractions and a way to separate your work and home life. 

Ideally, this room can become a dedicated office. The reality is not everyone has that much extra space. If so, you must set strict boundaries for how and when to use the space.

Once you have a space in mind, make the necessary adjustments to turn it into a productive work environment. Here are a few things to consider:

• Introduce bright, natural lighting: Proper lighting reduces eye strain and helps create a pleasant working environment. Natural light is best but experiment with different light tones to find what works best for you.
• Get creative with storage: Utilize storage solutions like floating shelves, vertical file cabinets, or desks with built-in storage to maximize space and organize files and supplies.
• Prioritize comfort: Invest in a good chair with proper back and arm support, and consider a stand-up desk to alternate between sitting and standing.
• Upgrade your equipment: At a minimum, you need a high-speed internet connection. You’ll likely need additional tools and services to run your business, but these entirely depend on your business idea.  

How to set up a home office on a budget

If you’re trying to avoid overspending on your office setup, here are a few tips for making a useful space without overspending.

Home office essentials for entrepreneurs

What are the necessities for a working home office? Here are a few areas worth investing in.

7. Manage your time 

Improving your time management and focus will be an ongoing process. But, there are a few ways to set you, and any employees, up for success. 

• Use project management tools:  

Utilize online tools like Trello or Asana to organize tasks, set deadlines, and monitor progress.

• Set clear expectations:  

Communicate tasks, deadlines, and expectations to yourself and your team. Setting deadlines and making regular updates help keep everyone on the same page.

• Encourage regular breaks:  

Short breaks throughout the day can improve productivity. Encourage your team to take regular breaks to clear their minds and recharge.

• Regularly communicate:  

Use communication tools like Slack or Zoom to stay connected with your team, contractors, or vendors to facilitate collaboration.

• Avoid multitasking:  

Focus on one task at a time to ensure quality work and avoid mistakes.

Try this work-from-home checklist

Follow these steps to optimize your time when working from home.

How to stay productive when working remotely

Are you struggling to focus on your business while at home? Here are ten ways to increase productivity.

How to manage and motivate remote workers

Are you bringing on remote workers or contractors? Learn how to help them stay productive and find motivation outside of an office setting.

9 tools to manage your remote team

If you’re struggling to track work and communicate with your growing remote team—check out this roundup of tools.

Learn more about what it takes to start a business

By following these steps, you’ll be well on your way to starting a home-based business. But there is far more you can learn about starting a business.

Check out the following guides to learn how to promote and grow your burgeoning business:

• How to start a business from scratch
• How to market your business
• How to put the right team together
• Set up your business finances

Kody Wirth is a content writer and SEO specialist for Palo Alto Software—the creator's of Bplans and LivePlan. He has 3+ years experience covering small business topics and runs a part-time content writing service in his spare time.

Table of Contents

• 1. Questions to ask before starting
• 2. Identify an idea that works remotely
• 5. Figure out your finances
• 7. Manage your time 
• More about starting a business

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Starting a Business From Home: The Ultimate Checklist

Stay on the right track to set up your home business for success.

Table of Contents

When faced with employee burnout , unemployment and underemployment, people from all backgrounds can find new opportunities by starting a business from home. While many start working from home as a side hustle alongside their regular job, home-based businesses can grow to become successful primary endeavors. 

If you want to start your own home-based business, getting organized with the right mindset, financing and marketing is crucial. If you’re unsure where to start, use our in-depth checklist to stay on the right track.

Before you start

Accomplish the following action items before you officially start your new home-based business: 

• Conduct a personal evaluation. Ensure you’re ready to start your new business. One handy tool is the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Entrepreneurship Readiness Assessment , which can help you better understand your skills, characteristics and experience in relation to your readiness to become an entrepreneur.
• Sign up for small business training classes. Free courses are available through the SBA’s learning platform , and SCORE.org has additional resources and mentors. These tools can help you develop a business plan, gain familiarity with small business accounting , better understand small business tax considerations, and learn effective marketing best practices.
• Research the market . It’s crucial to know your industry. Who is your target audience ? Who else is in your space, and how can you stand out from the competition ? Is the sector or industry poised for growth? Track your industry’s trends to understand precisely what’s happening.
• Write your business plan. After learning about business plans through expert resources like the SBA and SCORE.org, it’s time to formally write a business plan . You can reach out to mentors at SCORE.org for feedback and advice.

Getting set up

It’s time for some practical considerations and tasks related to starting your home business. 

• Name your business. Determine the perfect name and register your business name with your state. Keep your potential business domain name in mind when choosing your name.
• Secure a P.O. box. Many small business owners prefer receiving their mail via a P.O. box to keep their personal mail separate. Using a P.O. box at a business services location is also handy for mailing packages, getting documents notarized and more.
• Set up a separate phone line. You likely won’t want to conduct business via a home phone or personal cell phone. Look into business phone systems that cater to small businesses or run your business from a smartphone dedicated to work calls only.
• Figure out where to set up shop. You’ll need to equip your workspace with a desk or table, comfortable chair and proper lighting; you’ll also need easy access to electrical outlets. Save money by looking into used office furniture that suits your needs.
• Track utility costs. Determine your household’s regular costs for electricity, real estate taxes, mortgage interest, insurance, repairs, etc. Depending on how much space you use as your home office, you may be eligible for tax deductions and benefits for business expenses.
• Buy a laptop for work-only purposes. Your personal search history, family pictures and social media accounts should be separate from your work activities. Use a laptop or computer dedicated to your company to streamline operations and work more professionally.
• Choose business software and applications. Depending on your business and its needs, pinpoint the software best suited to your work. You’ll likely need an office suite, such as Microsoft Office or Zoho Office Suite. Then you’ll need to consider accounting software like QuickBooks or Zoho Books (read our Zoho Books review and our QuickBooks Online review to learn more). File storage tools like Dropbox and Carbonite can come in handy, too. 
• Invest in an all-in-one printer. An all-in-one printer can help you scan, print, fax and copy. Investing in one will save you from countless trips to the post office or Staples.

Legal considerations

Pay close attention to your new business’s legal considerations, as staying organized and compliant is crucial.

• Decide your business entity form. Speak with a lawyer or conduct research to determine if forming a limited liability company (LLC) is right for you. Forming an LLC can protect your personal assets. You may also consider entity forms like a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation or S corporation.
• Apply for an EIN. You will need an employer identification number (EIN) to act as your federal tax ID. You will need it to pay taxes, take out loans, open a bank account, apply for licenses and permits, and more.
• Properly register your business name. You’ll need to register your business name with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Registering will prevent you from violating any trademark or copyright laws.
• Find small business insurance. Look into small business insurance , including general liability insurance and errors and omissions insurance . Also, double-check your homeowners’ insurance policy to understand whether or not it covers home-based business losses.
• Research workers’ compensation insurance in your state. If you don’t have any employees, most states don’t require you to purchase workers’ compensation insurance for yourself. However, if you don’t have it, you won’t receive any benefits if you’re injured on the job. Whether you’re starting out alone or you have several employees, it’s critical to understand workers’ compensation insurance laws in your state.
• Reach out to a local CPA. Whether or not you’re ready to hire a CPA , consulting with one is valuable. A CPA can answer any questions you may have and organize and submit your business taxes for the following year.
• Check if your industry needs licensing. Business license and permit requirements vary by industry and state. Research your situation to ensure you remain compliant.
• Interview potential business lawyers . Developing a relationship with a business lawyer you trust is crucial. Choose one with whom you feel comfortable. Issues can arise unexpectedly, and the last thing you want to worry about in a crisis is finding a good lawyer. 

Financial management

Finances are your business’s life force. Establish excellent financial management practices from the start.

• Get a bank account and credit card. Open a business bank account and apply for a business credit card . Establishing credit will help you apply for business loans and secure additional financing.
• Figure out your business’s budget. When determining your small business budget , consider how much money you’ll spend on supplies, advertising, operations, shipping and more. You must also decide on your salary.
• Secure startup funding. If you’re not self-funding your business , research your financial options. Financing options include crowdfunding, securing venture capital and getting a business loan. You may also consider reaching out to friends and family for seed money.
• Stay on top of deadlines and due dates. Pay your bills on time to increase your credit limit spending when you need to scale your business.
• Separate your business and personal accounts. With regard to credit cards, bills, banking and more, separating accounts will make it easier to keep track of debt and stay tax-compliant.
• Proactively manage inventory. If your business has inventory, it’s crucial to avoid having too many or too few products. 

Building an online presence

Even if your business’s official address is your home, your online presence should be professional and impressive. 

• Register your domain name URL. Use Instant Domain Search to ensure your name is available, and then register it properly.
• Create a website. Design a website that’s professional and easy to navigate. Choose one of the best website builders to fit your budget and needs, whether you require a complex online store or a straightforward business presence.
• Optimize your website for mobile devices. Work with your website designer to ensure an optimized mobile experience. You want users to be able to view your website easily on multiple platforms.
• Develop an SEO strategy. It’s crucial to prioritize your SEO strategy so your webpage ranks higher and enjoys more relevant traffic.
• Use social media, your website and email marketing. Staying active online and posting content frequently will keep your brand relevant and engage customers.
• Establish your business email account . Having a business email account sends a professional message to customers.
• Get listed on web directories. Establish your business’s presence on appropriate directories. For example, create a Google Business profile or a profile on Bing Places for Business, Yelp and Apple Maps.
• Partner with influencers. Build brand awareness and increase organic marketing by using influencers and brand ambassadors who are genuinely enthusiastic about your products or services.
• Get set up to accept credit card payments . You’ll want to be able to easily accept credit card payments, so set up a merchant account with a top merchant account service. If you’re selling online, ensure your website has online shopping cart functionality. 

Marketing your business

You’ll need to get the word out about your business by marketing your products and services.

• Design basic marketing materials with your contact information. This may include images for social media accounts, brochures, e-books, business cards and direct mail pieces.
• Set up an email marketing account. Email marketing is an inexpensive, effective way to reach your customers and prospects. The best email marketing services can handle your email campaigns and provide valuable metrics.
• Secure your social media presence. You’ll want to secure your business’s name on various social networks where you plan to have a presence.
• Promote your products and services with social media. Some best practices for social media content include publishing meaningful blog posts, offering exclusive content, providing thoughtful insights and posting discounts across social channels.
• Focus on collecting five-star reviews. When possible, request reviews from satisfied customers. Good customer reviews that praise your company and products are useful for boosting sales.
• Use customer data to find your target audience. Narrowing your audience to your most likely prospects can save marketing dollars and customer acquisition costs.
• Network your business as often as possible. While digital marketing efforts are essential, don’t forget about your local community. Take advantage of local marketing strategies like attending community events. 

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How to start a small business at home in 2024

Blair Travers

Sierra Campbell

“Verified by an expert” means that this article has been thoroughly reviewed and evaluated for accuracy.

Published 8:07 a.m. UTC Feb. 16, 2024

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Starting a small business at home can help you turn your passions, skills or ideas into financial prosperity. There are some unique perks and challenges to consider when deciding to start a home-based business. 

You’ll also want to have a solid plan and follow some key steps to get your business off on the right foot. It’s helpful to know where you can find ideas, answers to your questions and other resources you need to run an at-home business successfully.

Should you start a business at home?

There are many factors to consider when deciding to start a small business at home. On the one hand, it’s important to make sure there is demand for your business. On the other hand, you want to be able to handle the amount of business you receive. Gauging things like demand, profit margins and the ability to scale your business early on can help you avoid trouble down the road.

Across the country, at-home businesses make up a large portion of small businesses. C.E. “Tee” Rowe is the president and CEO of America’s Small Business Development Centers (SBDC), which provides free or low-cost support for small businesses in partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration. “Here at America’s SBDC, we have seen an uptick in home-based businesses that started during the pandemic but continues to date,” said Rowe. 

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How to get the bonus

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• Open a new Chase Business Complete Checking account, deposit at least $2,000 of new money into the new checking account within 30 days of enrolling, maintain a balance of at least $2,000 in the account for 60 days from the offer enrollment and complete at least five qualifying transactions within 90 days of offer enrollment. Qualifying transactions include debit card purchases, accepting card payments through QuickAccept®, Chase QuickDeposit, ACH credits, credit and debit wires and Chase Online℠ Bill Pay. The following are not considered qualifying transactions: ACH (Debits), Person to Person payments such as Zelle® and online transfers to Chase credit card(s).

After you complete these steps, Chase will deposit the bonus cash into your new account within 15 days.

To qualify, you must not be a current Chase business customer (you can have a personal account with Chase). Your business also can not be a non-profit, Political Action Committee, or have other political ties. You also cannot have closed an account with Chase within the past 90 days or closed a Chase account with a negative balance within the past three years.

Pros of a home business

Here are some key benefits to starting a business at home:

• Increased flexibility: Set your own hours, freeing you up for other commitments as needed.
• Less commuting: Save time and money by skipping the drive to work.
• Comfortable work environment: Design your workspace how you want it. After all, it is your home.
• Money-saving perks: Pay lower startup costs compared to larger businesses by avoiding costs like renting retail or office space. Take advantage of tax breaks for at-home businesses.
• Reduce risk: Protect yourself by limiting your liability and avoiding the cost and risk of maintaining commercial space.
• Rewards for your hard work: Work hard for your business, and your business reaps the benefits instead of some other employer.

Cons of a home business

These are some of the disadvantages of starting a business at home:

• Limited space: You give up part of your home, and even then, you may still need more space for your business.
• Distracting work environment: Crying babies, barking dogs and loud neighbors can all be distracting when running a business at home.
• Professional boundaries: Some people may feel awkward about meeting to discuss business at your home or a public location.
• Increased mental health risks: Running a home business can feel isolating for some. A lack of social interaction, time outside, work-life balance or effective time management can also threaten mental health.
• Growth restrictive: If your home-based business scales too rapidly, you may outgrow your workspace quickly. In this situation, success creates a problem for home businesses to solve.
• Increased costs: Whether you’re paying new employee salaries or wages or forking over more money for higher utility bills, you may feel the financial squeeze.

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7 steps to start a home business

After considering the pros and cons, does the idea of taking the reins and starting a home business appeal to you? You’re not alone. 

“When we work with individuals seeking to start a home-based business, it is frequently based on a desire to control their own circumstance and success, which are great reasons, but it always needs to be thought out carefully,” Rowe explained.

Planning is key. From creating a business plan and determining your business structure to securing funding and setting your marketing strategy, there’s a lot to think through. Follow the steps below to get on the right track to starting a small business at home.

1. Find your niche

Plenty of successful at-home businesses arise from emotion: a passion to do what you love, a frustration with the status quo or excitement to seize on a timely opportunity.

If you’re struggling to find your niche, ask yourself:

• What do you love to do that others may find challenging?
• What is a need that no business currently has the right solution for?
• What are you good at? What do people ask for your help with?
• What high-demand skills or services do you have to offer?

2. Draft a business plan

Having a business plan is essential for running your business effectively. As Rowe pointed out, “Every business needs a solid, comprehensive plan to guide them to success. That plan needs to focus on skills, finance, revenue and marketing.”

A business plan outlines the direction of the business — its goals, strategies, structure, ways of measuring success and plans for dealing with things like change and risk. Simply put, it’s the roadmap to success for your business.

When creating your business plan, include key sections such as an executive summary, a business description, market analysis and financial projections. For more on what to cover, check out this step-by-step guide to drafting a business plan .

3. Select a business structure

According to the IRS, the most common business structures are sole proprietorships, partnerships , corporations and limited liability companies (LLC) . Each business structure comes with its own set of operational, legal, financial and tax considerations. 

A sole proprietorship is a business owned and operated by a single individual, while a partnership is jointly owned by two or more individuals who share responsibilities. 

In contrast, corporations — like C corporations and S corporations — are independent legal entities. C corporations limit shareholder liability but are highly complex. S corporations feature pass-through taxation, distributing income (and losses) to shareholders.

While sole proprietorship is a common structure for just starting out, LLC is another popular option for at-home businesses. It combines elements of a corporation and a partnership, offering limited liability to its members and the flexibility of pass-through taxation. Members of an LLC can choose to be taxed as a sole proprietorship, partnership, C corporation or S corporation.

4. Register your business and get an EIN

After you choose a business structure, you’ll need to register your business with state and federal governments. Select a business name , pay fees and provide required documents, which vary by state.

After getting registered with your state, you can then apply for an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS. Once you’re approved, you’ll receive this unique nine-digit number that is essential for all sorts of business purposes, from filing your taxes to hiring employees. 

Not all businesses need an EIN, such as sole proprietors and single-member LLCs with no employees.

5. Get any required licenses and permits

Depending on your industry and federal, state and local requirements, you may also need to obtain licenses and permits for your business. 

Here are some examples of licenses and permits you may need, depending on your business:

• Occupational, professional or trade licenses.
• Online business permits.
• Sales tax permits.
• Health department permits.
• Safety permits.
• Home-based child care licenses.
• Zoning, signage, environmental and other permits to operate an at-home business, as required by local government, HOA or deed restrictions.

6. Obtain funding for your business

Many owners fund their businesses using their own savings. Self-funding is a viable choice if you can get up and running without much money, can come up with the needed funding from your own accounts or can ask for help from family or friends. 

You can also apply for a business loan . Banks will likely want to see a rock-solid business plan, strong financial projections, good personal and/or business credit history and any collateral you’ll use for your loan. If you are a good candidate for lending, make sure that shows in your application so that you can get the best funding and terms for your business.

If you don’t have much personal or business credit history, it may be easier to get a business credit card . This gives you benefits like payment flexibility, credit card rewards and essential early or emergency spending power. It will also help your business establish or strengthen its credit so you can get favorable terms on future loans and other credit.

7. Launch and market your business

You’ve planned out your business, defined its structure and gotten your business registered, licensed, permitted and even paid for. Now it’s showtime. For many who seek to start a small business at home, the launch is the most exciting part of the journey. You are now ready to conduct business.

It’s also important to get others excited about your small business — and keep them engaged. Here are some of the most common marketing strategies for small home-based businesses:

• Social media marketing: Reach potential customers on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter) by sharing engaging content and updates.
• Business website: More than just a place to sell your products or services online, your business website should help users find what they want to meet their needs. It should also help achieve business objectives by offering features like payment services or e-commerce functionality .
• Advertising: Platforms such as search engines and social media can help you reach your target audience.
• Content marketing: Write blog posts, produce videos or create helpful graphics to explain what your business offers and to establish trust and authority.
• Email marketing: To keep business coming back, build an email list to communicate using promotions, newsletters and updates.
• Word of mouth: In the early stages, many small home-based businesses rely on word of mouth. You can also ask for customer reviews on platforms like Google and Yelp.

Weigh the costs and benefits when deciding on your marketing plan, so you choose what’s best for your business.

Top home business ideas

Check out these home business ideas to find the right fit for you:

• Retail: Sell products you make — including crafts and customized gifts — or resell products you get for less than what you pay for them.
• Case-based services: Open up an in-home daycare, provide home-based care for adults or even take care of pets by offering pet sitting and mobile grooming.
• Events: Plan weddings and events. Create the perfect look as a makeup artist or stylist. Play music in a band or take your place on the 1s and 2s as a DJ.
• Art and creative services: Capture the moment as a photographer, or maybe you’d rather bring your vision to life as an artist. More of a words person? Write, edit or translate content. 
• Education: Teach the next generation how to do math, play an instrument or learn a new language. Provide adults with specialized training in arts and crafts, life coaching or test preparation.
• Health and wellness: Become a personal trainer to get people in the best shape of their lives or a mental health counselor to help them find their inner peace.
• Home and real estate: Transform homes by organizing, decorating or even staging. Produce virtual home tours for real estate agents, or become a realtor yourself.

Resources to start a business

For more resources and guidance on how to start a small business at home, check out these guides and articles:

• Follow our step-by-step guide on how to start a business from the ground up.
• Learn how to start an LLC if that’s your chosen business structure.
• Discover how to start a business with no money so funding doesn’t hold you back.
• Skip the overhead that comes with brick-and-mortar stores and find out how to start an online business .
• Explore options to accept payments online and start making money in your sleep.
• Find the cheapest payroll services to pay your employees and contractors.
• Build a successful business by attracting loyal, repeat customers. 

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

The cost of starting a business at home varies widely and depends on several factors. Some businesses, including sole proprietorships, can get away with paying little to no money to start their business. Other home-based businesses, including those with manufacturing or inventory expenses, could have considerably higher startup costs.

Yes, you can use your home address to register a business. However, you’ll want to make sure that usage does not go against local laws, HOA bylaws or property covenants. It’s also a good idea to check with your mortgage and homeowners insurance companies to make sure that running a business out of your home does not introduce unforeseen headaches.

Blueprint is an independent publisher and comparison service, not an investment advisor. The information provided is for educational purposes only and we encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding specific financial decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Blueprint has an advertiser disclosure policy . The opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Blueprint editorial staff alone. Blueprint adheres to strict editorial integrity standards. The information is accurate as of the publish date, but always check the provider’s website for the most current information.

Blair Travers is a business writer and content strategist with over a decade of experience breaking down complex problems to help businesses move forward with confidence. He brings a wide range of technology, banking and retail expertise. Blair enjoys helping businesses figure out complex processes and make choices that are right for them. His work has been published in U.S. News & World Report and Carfax.

Sierra Campbell is a small business editor for USA Today Blueprint. She specializes in writing, editing and fact-checking content centered around helping businesses. She has worked as a digital content and show producer for several local TV stations, an editor for U.S. News & World Report and a freelance writer and editor for many companies. Sierra prides herself in delivering accurate and up-to-date information to readers. Her expertise includes credit card processing companies, e-commerce platforms, payroll software, accounting software and virtual private networks (VPNs). She also owns Editing by Sierra, where she offers editing services to writers of all backgrounds, including self-published and traditionally published authors.

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• Home Office

How to Set Up a Small Business at Home

Running a business from home is a great option for entrepreneurs who need to conserve cash or simply don’t need the inconvenience of a storefront. Home-based businesses tend to keep overhead costs low, offer more flexibility, increase productivity, improve work-life balance, and may even have some tax benefits, depending on where you live. Many of today’s most successful business strategies can be easily done from home.

What businesses can be run from home?

There are some laws and regulations that limit what types of businesses you can run from your home. Most home-based businesses are privately owned corporations , as public companies typically are too large to be led this way.

Finding the right business idea can often seem like a daunting task, especially when you’re looking for business opportunities that can be run from your home. It’s important to consider your skills, interests, and market demand while brainstorming ideas. A home-based business should ideally leverage your existing skill set and passion, while also providing a solution or service that’s in demand. For example, if you’re skilled in graphic design and notice a market need for affordable, high-quality design services, starting a home-based graphic design business could be a viable option. Similarly, if you’re passionate about baking and live in a community where homemade baked goods are cherished, a home bakery could be a lucrative business opportunity. The key is to find a business idea that aligns with your skills, passion, and market needs, making your home-based business not only profitable but also enjoyable.

It’s also essential to find a balance between your passion and the practical aspects of running a business from home. Keep in mind that while you may love what you do, you also need to handle logistics , marketing, customer service, and possibly even shipping. Let’s say you’ve decided to turn your love for baking into a home-based bakery. You’d need to consider practical matters like health and safety regulations, creating a business website to take orders, and figuring out how to deliver your products. Thus, you should be prepared to wear many hats, especially during the early stages of your business. It can be a challenging yet rewarding journey, turning a hobby or interest into a sustainable home business. This route to entrepreneurship is a great way to ensure that you’re spending your days doing something you love, while also serving a market need.

For most entrepreneurs looking for businesses they can launch from their house, great options will be products or services that you deliver or perform somewhere else, whether online or in a client’s space. Some great ideas of small home businesses include:  

• Online retail ( selling products like clothing and accessories)
• Freelance writing or editing
• Tutoring and teaching
• Pet services
• Personal Fitness Training
• Yoga Instructor
• E-commerce Store for Handmade Products
• Home-based daycare
• Consulting or coaching
• Video or design content creation
• House cleaning
• Social Media Management Services
• Meal Prep and Delivery Services
• Virtual Assistance Services

Some businesses aren’t great options to run from home, including businesses that require heavy equipment that can cause noise disturbances, involve hazardous materials and chemicals, generate significant traffic that requires extra parking, involve the storage or sale of a high volume of goods, and those that require specialized permitting like restaurants.

Pros of running a business from home

As with all business ventures, there are pros and cons of running your startup from your house.

Time with Family

When you work from home, you have the unique advantage of being able to better balance your work and personal life. Not being tied to a traditional office or workplace means you can design your work schedule around your personal commitments and family needs. For instance, you might start work early so you can break for a few hours when the kids get home from school, or perhaps you prefer working in the evenings when the house is quiet. You could take longer lunch breaks to walk the dog or enjoy a meal with your partner. In essence, working from home puts you in control of your time, allowing you to prioritize and adjust your work commitments to fit in with your family life. This flexibility can lead to reduced stress and better overall well-being. However, it’s important to establish boundaries and stick to a routine to avoid work seeping into your personal time.

Many people prefer to work from home so that they can be around for the family, as it’s one of the most enjoyable advantages of being in your house. Small business owners can be on-site to keep an eye on older relatives who may need occasional assistance. For parents, you can be at home when children are let out of school, and enjoy flexible hours to quickly leave home and attend kids’ events like after-school track meets or basketball games. Parenting while working from home is definitely not for the faint of heart, but it can be a big plus for entrepreneurs.

Even if you are a “pet parent,” staying at home jobs or starting your own business will be ideal for taking care and sharing more time with the people you love or your furry loved ones. 

Zero Commute Time

The average American spends an hour per day commuting to and from work. That adds up to 20 hours per week. Many people spend even more time commuting, enduring the stress of heavy traffic, inclement weather, and crowded buses or trains. There is also the substantial cost associated with work commutes.

Being at home will reduce these extra costs since you will be able to cook and eat at home, avoid traffic, and lower your gas or other transportation budgets. Small business owners are notoriously short on time, so this also presents an opportunity to take care of yourself by eating a healthy diet, adding exercise and meditation, or just spending more time doing hobbies at home.

Space Optimization and Creativity

Running a business from home also opens up the opportunity for creativity in utilizing and optimizing your available space. With no need to adhere to the traditional office layout, you can shape your work environment to inspire creativity and productivity. This could mean setting up your office in a space with plenty of natural light or decorating your workspace with items that inspire you. You can arrange your space in a way that caters to your work style and needs, be it a tranquil, distraction-free zone, or a lively area that stimulates innovative ideas. Having the freedom to personalize your workspace could also lead to increased job satisfaction, motivation, and efficiency. By strategically utilizing your home space, you can foster a work environment that promotes both personal comfort and professional success.

No rent cost

When you run your business from home, you can save the cost of rent. If you operate your business in a commercial space, you’d be required to pay rent, utilities, and insurance. You can avoid this type of overhead by operating your business online from your home. You can reinvest the money you save on commercial rent back into your business in some other form, such as digital marketing . 

Work-life balance

While it may take some practice to juggle tasks associated with your business and personal life skillfully, you can undoubtedly multitask when running a home business. You can break from your work to throw in a load of laundry or prep for dinner on your lunch break. You can create a daily dynamic schedule that includes tasks related to your business and household needs. Moreover, you may easily fit a wide range of tasks into your day without the commute time.

Increased productivity

Because your business belongs to you, you’re likely to feel a tremendous investment in its success – it’s not surprising that entrepreneurs are highly productive . Moreover, there won’t be any other employees (unless you decide to hire them) or a boss around to distract you from your tasks. This usually means you can more easily stick to your workday plans.

The environment where you work can significantly influence your productivity. By designing a space that is dedicated solely to your business, you can encourage a more focused and productive work environment. This might involve having a separate room in your home, with a comfortable chair, a large desk, and all the necessary technology . It should feel distinctly separate from your living area to promote a mental switch between your personal and professional life.

Additionally, cultivating daily routines can also boost your productivity. It’s not just about the physical separation of your work and living areas but also about the psychological separation. Establishing routines like having a morning ritual before starting work, or setting specific hours for deep work can reinforce the boundary between work and home life, prevent burnout and enhance your productivity. It’s all about finding what works best for you and making it a habit, as consistent routines can lead to increased productivity over time. The freedom to design your work environment and routines is one of the unique advantages of running a business from home.

When you run your own business , you can set your own goals in terms of productivity and develop strategies to achieve them. A great way to get started is to create a schedule you know you will follow every day. It must have realistic metrics so you can stay motivated throughout this new journey. While making your schedule, you might add some household activities or maybe just take an outdoor walk to maintain balance. Choosing to be your own boss affords you this flexibility, but you have to be intentional about taking advantage of it.

To further increase productivity and maintain a structured workday as an entrepreneur, you might consider the use of tools like a job description generator. This can help you break down your daily tasks and responsibilities into manageable bits, ensuring nothing is overlooked or neglected. Moreover, if you do decide to expand your team, a job description generator can come in handy to clearly define roles and expectations for potential hires. Thus, not only will it increase your personal productivity but will also lead to a well-organized business structure, a vital ingredient to the growth and success of your business.

Cons of running a business from home

Limited space.

Limited space can make launching a business from home hard because many businesses require space for equipment, inventory, or workstations. If you don’t have enough space in your home to accommodate these needs, it can be difficult to get your business off the ground. It can also lead to disorganization and make it difficult to find the materials or equipment you need to run your business efficiently. This can result in wasted time and decreased productivity.

Lack of professionalism

Running a business from home may not project the level of professionalism or credibility that a traditional office setting can provide. This is especially true for business plans that require consistent phone calls and Zoom calls, or if you’re someone who is easily distracted and late for appointments.

Running a business from home can be isolating and lonely at times, particularly if you don’t have regular face-to-face interactions with colleagues or clients. Isolation may happen for a variety of reasons, like a lack of workplace culture, routine, or work-life balance. Some entrepreneurs envision constant phone calls and business deals when creating their small business alongside their household duties, but usually, the first weeks and months are very quiet.

Potential distractions

The familiarity of home can create distractions that may negatively impact productivity. This is particularly true for businesswomen who are also juggling family duties.

If you want to stay productive, there’s a list of things you should avoid:

• Putting your desk in your bedroom. Your room should only exist for the purpose of relaxing and sleeping. Adding work to a place of relaxation might confuse your brain and interfere with your sleeping schedule, taking productivity away when you want to work.
• Working without an agenda. Building an agenda will boost your productivity by organizing your tasks in days and hours. Following your agenda will improve your time management and will make you focus on what’s important instead of working on activities that are not actually important at that time.
• Neglecting your personal morning routine. Get up, take a shower, clean your face, and get dressed for success. This plays an important role in how we interact with others and ourselves. Feeling clean and dressing nice will definitely make your day more productive.
• Eating at your desk while working. Many people do this thinking they can work while eating and not waste any time but this actually affects more than you think. First of all, the brain doesn’t process what you are actually eating since it’s concentrated on working. Second, you are actually dividing your mind into two tasks which interferes with your capacity for problem-solving. Third, your desk should be used only for its main purpose, work.
• Sacrificing your health. Building your own business and selling products online is such a time-consuming practice that we often forget we need to drink water, stand up and stretch or take a walk to freshen up our brain and open up to new business ideas . Pay attention to how you are feeling and take small breaks from time to time.
• Using old, uncomfortable furniture. If your home office needs a refresh, be sure to buy a comfortable ergonomic desk and chair to avoid body injuries or discomfort while working.

Establishing your business

Developing your business plan

Creating a business plan is a crucial step for developing your home business. It can include every aspect of your business, guiding its launch and operation. Hiring a business coach at this stage can be highly beneficial, as their industry knowledge and experience could help streamline your business plan, highlight potential gaps, and provide strategic guidance tailored to your business needs. Some key elements of your business plan should include:

• Company description: provide a summary of what your company does. Company descriptions give an overview of key aspects of your business, such as what you do and what sets you apart from the competition . Your business description should clearly explain what you do.
• Breakdown of your products and services: The product or service section of your business plan should emphasize the value you offer clients or customers.
• Executive summary: provide a formal business summary, one that could appear in professional business directories.
• Marketing and sales plan: describe how you intend to market your company and promote it (i.e., digital and traditional sales measures)
• Competitive analysis: analyze the marketplace you intend to operate in; know how you fit in and who your competitors are. 
• Operating plan: describe how you plan to run your business and list company departments and managing personnel.

Cover your insurance, legal, and financial bases

Insurance considerations.

Typically, standard homeowners insurance policies do not provide coverage for business-related losses, including those that occur within a home-based business. However, some insurance companies offer endorsements or riders that can be added to a homeowners policy to provide some coverage for a home-based business.

These endorsements or riders are often referred to as “home business insurance” or “in-home business insurance” and can provide coverage for things like business equipment, inventory, and liability related to the home-based business. It’s important to note that coverage limits and exclusions may apply, so it’s essential to review the details of the policy carefully.

Alternatively, business owners can consider purchasing a separate business insurance policy to ensure that they have adequate coverage for their home-based business. An insurance agent or broker can provide more information about the options available and help determine the appropriate coverage for a specific home-based business.

In the realm of safeguarding assets, while it’s crucial to secure your business belongings and liabilities, one shouldn’t neglect the foundational layer – the home itself. Home insurance plays a pivotal role in protecting the structure of your house and its contents from unforeseen events like fires, theft, or natural disasters. Especially when running a business from home, any damage or loss could have a ripple effect, affecting both personal and professional realms. So, alongside securing your business, it’s wise to periodically review and, if necessary, upgrade your home insurance policy. This ensures that both your living space and your workplace are adequately shielded from potential risks.

Financial considerations

You’ll need to carefully evaluate your finances and develop a budget related to your startup expenses and business operation. Don’t forget to add in costs for items like marketing, insurance, and other necessary business expenses associated with the types of products or services you’ll sell. Taking these budget process steps will help ensure a comprehensive financial plan for the success of your business.   

Determine whether or not you’ll need to apply for a business loan. For entrepreneurs who are starting new businesses, personally funded venture capital is often the first thing they consider. While this is common at the beginning, it is essential to separate your personal and professional funds when your business is growing and earning cash, not only for tax purposes but also to protect your credit and eliminate unnecessary stress.

Legal considerations

Take time to determine your business’s legal stature and structure . Do you intend to own your business as a private proprietor or to create a corporation? Learn about the different structures and decide which is best suited for you and your business.

Be sure to calculate the cost of your license into your startup costs. Although there are general business licenses, there are also specialty licenses that may apply to your business. 

Branding and marketing your business

Starting a business is an exciting prospect, but there are a lot of details to address. By staying organized and tackling all necessary tasks, you can set your business model up for a successful launch.

Craft your business strategy

Take time to define your business clearly for making a proper customer buying journey . Will you sell products, services, or both? Although you may already have a good idea of what you want to do, you’ll want to think in terms of specifics once you’re serious about starting a small home business.

Take time to think through some ideas and make a list of the possibilities you’re most interested in pursuing. Invest in visual identities such as logo design , website, etc., and prepare for business branding . Once you have a shortlist, you can research your options and take a look at the marketplace to determine if there’s a need for your offerings.

Take into consideration also what are you good at, baking, cooking, singing, tutoring, numbers, dropshipping , etc. This will help you to keep motivated and have a business project that you will enjoy and won’t feel like a boring work task that you just have to perform.

Choose a great name

Take time to choose a business name carefully. Coming up with a business name can be a fun and creative process, but it’s important to consider several factors when choosing a name that will represent your brand effectively. You’ll want to choose a name that’s easy for customers to spell and remember.

It makes sense to select a web-friendly name in this digital age and nothing too similar to your competitors’ names. Your business name will be used on your website, social media channels, brand marketing efforts , and will even appear on review websites. So be sure it’s easy to spell and remember for all your future satisfied customers.

While there are business name-generating apps available that you can try, you might also want to make a list of possible names for your business and run them past family and friends to get their thoughts. You can even ask your close friends and family to suggest options as a way of helping you brainstorm .

Identify your target audience

To ensure the success of your marketing campaigns, it’s crucial to employ effective marketing tactics that resonate with your target audience. By understanding the preferences, needs, and behaviors of your target market, you can tailor your strategies to effectively engage and attract potential customers. Utilizing various marketing tactics allows you to reach your audience through multiple channels, maximizing your brand’s visibility and impact.

From utilizing social media platforms to implementing email marketing campaigns or even employing influencer partnerships, a well-rounded approach to marketing will enable you to connect with your target audience in meaningful ways. On the other hand, a successful webinar can boost engagement with your target audience.

However, it’s important to note that not all marketing tactics will be equally effective for every target audience. Experimenting with different strategies, analyzing data, and adapting your tactics based on the results are essential steps in refining your marketing approach. By staying abreast of industry trends, consumer preferences, and emerging technologies, you can stay one step ahead of the competition and continuously improve your marketing tactics to deliver compelling messages that resonate with your target audience.

Who are you trying to sell to? Defining your target audience, whether it’s local homeowners or teenagers nationwide, will help you market your business effectively. When you have a target demographic in mind, you can create more targeted strategies for engaging potential customers. Therefore, you must identify your product or service’s target audience before you begin marketing efforts for the brand. The group will include existing customers as well as potential customers.  

Understanding and catering to your target audience can also play a pivotal role in reducing customer acquisition cost. By focusing your marketing efforts on a well-defined group, you ensure that your resources are utilized efficiently. Tailored campaigns that resonate with your audience’s specific needs and preferences are more likely to convert, eliminating the wastage of funds on broad, unfocused strategies. Over time, as brand loyalty builds within this group, referrals and word-of-mouth promotions can further decrease the need for expensive marketing efforts.

Your target market does not necessarily consist of everyone who may be interested in your products. It’s important to identify the people you want to reach through your brand marketing efforts, whether you’re using digital marketing campaigns or advertisements on social media channels.

While defining your target audience and refining your marketing strategies, it’s equally vital to determine your unique selling proposition (USP). This is what sets your product or service apart from competitors in the eyes of your target market. It could be exceptional customer service, an innovative product feature, a commitment to sustainability, or competitive pricing. Understanding and articulating your USP is crucial as it guides the direction of your marketing campaigns, ensuring they highlight the aspects of your offering that are most appealing to your target audience. An effectively communicated USP not only attracts attention but also fosters brand loyalty by aligning your values and benefits with the needs and desires of your customers.

Plan your marketing campaigns

Marketing is essential for any business but definitely a home business. You won’t have the benefit of being in a commercial area where you can post commercial signage. Here are some basic types of marketing initiatives you should consider, depending on your strategy:

• Building a website: Building a website  is a critical marketing tool for any small business. It provides an online presence and enables customers to find and learn more about the business. You’ll need to learn more about SEO best practices to make the most of your website.
• Creating a Google My Business listing: Google My Business is a free online tool that allows businesses to manage their online presence across Google, including search and maps. A digital marketing agency can also help with optimizing your web presence.
• Social media marketing: Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram provide a cost-effective way to connect with customers and promote products or services. By weaving a compelling narrative around your brand through a well-crafted social selling strategy , you can foster deeper connections with your audience, turning casual browsers into loyal customers.
• Email and SMS marketing : Email marketing can be an effective way to stay in touch with customers and promote products or services. It’s important to build an email list of interested subscribers and create engaging content that will resonate with them. You can also use business texting software to follow up with potential clients over text, which younger generations tend to prefer.
• Utilizing promotional products: Don’t underestimate the power of tangible promotional products in your marketing arsenal. Items like custom-branded pens, mugs, or tote bags can serve as constant reminders of your brand in your customers’ daily lives. These items can be given away at local events, included as freebies in customer orders, or used as rewards in social media contests. Promotional products not only increase brand visibility but also help in building a loyal customer base. They act as a physical connection between your business and your customers, making your brand more memorable. Remember to choose products that align with your brand image and are useful to your target audience to maximize their impact.
• Creating a business promo video: A compelling business promo video can be a game-changer for your home business. Videos are a powerful way to showcase your products or services, tell your brand’s story, and engage with your audience on a more personal level. Platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook are ideal for sharing your video content. By incorporating elements such as customer testimonials, behind-the-scenes footage, or a sneak peek into your product creation process, you can create an authentic and engaging narrative that resonates with your audience.
• Networking: Networking with other business owners and industry professionals can be a valuable way to build relationships, generate referrals, and promote the business.
• Implement strong email authentication: Use  SPF, DKIM, and DMARC  to verify the authenticity of your emails and prevent spoofing. This helps protect your brand reputation and ensures your emails reach the intended recipients.
• Exploring automation options: Alongside traditional marketing methods, embracing modern tools like Automateed, Hootsuite, and Mailchimp can significantly enhance your marketing efficiency. These platforms offer various automation capabilities, from scheduling social media posts with Hootsuite to creating targeted email campaigns with Mailchimp. Automateed can further analyze customer interactions and provide insights for more effective strategies. By diversifying your tools, you can automate repetitive tasks, ensuring a consistent and engaging online presence, which is invaluable for a home business navigating the digital marketplace.

In addition to planning your marketing campaigns, consider leveraging dispatch tracking solutions to streamline your business operations. These tools can enhance the efficiency of your delivery processes by providing real-time tracking and monitoring capabilities. With a fleet fuel management solution , you can ensure timely and accurate deliveries, improve customer satisfaction, and optimize your overall logistics management. These solutions enable you to track packages, manage routes, and monitor delivery progress, empowering you to provide a seamless customer experience. By incorporating dispatch tracking solutions into your business model, you can enhance your operational efficiency and build a reputation for reliable and efficient delivery services.

Incorporating traditional marketing methods can provide a robust complement to digital strategies for your home business. Engaging in local events, distributing business cards, and utilizing print media such as flyers, brochures, and even a creative flipbook can significantly boost your brand’s visibility. A flipbook, with its interactive and visually appealing format, can serve as a unique and memorable take-home material for potential customers. Direct mail campaigns, despite the digital age, continue to have a tangible impact, offering a personal touch that electronic communications often lack. Furthermore, local newspaper advertisements and community bulletin boards provide additional platforms to reach a broader audience. By intertwining these conventional strategies with your online efforts, your marketing campaigns can achieve a balanced and comprehensive reach, ensuring you connect with your community both online and offline.

Navigating startup costs

Approximately 61% of Americans have thought of establishing a business, and 34% have had more than one idea. Despite this, due to financial limitations, it is still only a fantasy for many. In fact, 63% of Americans have abandoned their plans to launch a business because they lack the necessary resources, according to Zapier.

Even if you have a successful business idea but no money to start it, you can still become an entrepreneur. There are numerous ways to launch a business without any funding . Most of the time, all you require is an entrepreneurial attitude, which includes perseverance, diligence, inventiveness, and a willingness to try new things.

You must pick the correct kind of business to launch without any capital. Numerous business concepts need little to no initial funding. You’ll probably still need to pay for some expenses, though. However, the methods listed below can help you start generating cash flow and launch your business.

• Opt for a service-based business . Service-based businesses don’t need a lot of cash flow to get them off the ground. Service providers create offerings for target customers after identifying significant demand gaps. Find a market where customers may benefit from your unique knowledge and expertise to offer an intangible service.
• Consider a startup fund . Consider putting together a startup fund for your company if you’ve got an idea for a business but aren’t quite ready to launch it just yet. To get things rolling, you need to establish a second bank account and give it the name of your desired company. Then, every time you send money, you will be reminded of the purpose behind your savings. You can contribute money to the account in several ways, such as setting away some money from each paycheck, using your tax refund or bonus at the end of the year, and so on.
• Research small business grants and local funding . Finding and receiving grants for small businesses is not always the easiest thing to do. But once you get your company up and going, you can begin your search for free money in earnest, no matter how little it is. Remember that grants will typically have specific requirements to be met to apply. If you satisfy those conditions, you will be entered into a drawing for a sum of money that is entirely yours to keep if you win.
• Apply for a small business loan . Even if getting a small company loan should not be your priority when looking for ways to finance a new venture, doing so is not out of the question. Several loan programs are available to first-time business owners to assist them in getting their company off the ground and running. Start your search for a loan by contacting the Small Business Administration (SBA), which manages the many lending programs made available by the United States government. Before your application for a loan can even be evaluated for funding, you will need to fulfill all of the requirements.
• Consider crowdfunding . If you want to finance your business but don’t want to deal with bank loans or venture capital firms, crowdsourcing may be an alternative worth looking into. This route requires a low initial investment but does rely on your networking and salesmanship skills to secure financing.

Top home-based business ideas for inspiration

Choosing the right type of home-based business to start requires careful consideration of your skills, interests, and market demand. First, make a list of your strengths, talents, and passions. Then, research the market to determine what products or services are in demand and which ones align with your strengths and interests. Look for gaps in the market that you could fill, and consider how your business could provide value to your potential customers.

Understanding the l role that fervency and zeal play in your entrepreneurial journey can pave the way for a business brimming with authenticity and joy. Embracing the belief that passion is important for success not only nurtures creativity but can also help forge a deep connection with potential customers, who can sense the love and dedication in your offerings. Picture a kitchen bustling with the aroma of freshly baked goods as you initiate a home-based bakery, or visualize a serene corner of your home transforming into a vibrant studio space where you bring colors to life on canvas. These aren’t just businesses; they are extensions of what you hold dear. So, as you stand on the threshold of this exciting journey, keep in mind that intertwining your business essence with your passions can be your north star, guiding you towards a path not just of financial gain, but of fulfillment and heartwarming success.

You should also consider the startup costs, potential revenue, and scalability of each business idea. It is important to choose a business that you are passionate about and can realistically manage from home. Here are some of the most popular business ideas that might work for you.

Passion-based businesses

Passion-based home businesses are becoming increasingly popular as more people seek to turn their hobbies and interests into a viable source of income. These types of businesses are built around the founder’s personal passions and skills, and often involve providing a service or teaching others a particular skill. These can be highly rewarding for those who are passionate about what they do, and can offer a flexible working schedule and the ability to work from home. However, starting a passion-based business needs careful planning and consideration of the unique requirements , challenges and opportunities that come with working from home.

• Music teacher. Teach an instrument such as guitar, violin, or piano. As a music teacher , you can plan to offer your services on different teaching platforms and offer private lessons as well as group lessons.
• Art teacher . Teach drawing and illustration, painting, or sculpture. Define which are technique you are best at and create a schedule of all the different hours available you have.
• Language instructor . Teach Spanish, Chinese, Latin, or French. Be sure you completely dominate the language you are planning to teach.
• Yoga instructor . Teach virtual yoga and meditation techniques.
• Freelancing photography . Consider the type of photography you want to do and what are the most popular requirements needed from your potential clients.
• Online course creator . Develop, create, and sell an online course that teaches people how to do something you’re really good at, including any of the items listed above!
• Copywriting . A copywriting career can be exciting and challenging, with a wide range of opportunities and job types available. Copywriters are responsible for creating content for various types of media, including websites, social media, email marketing campaigns, advertisements, and more. These professionals typically represent companies, so ensuring your content is high quality makes this different from personal blogging.

Digital marketing businesses

Blogging can be a successful home-based business as it provides the opportunity to create content on a topic that you are passionate about and share it with the world. With a consistent blogging schedule, quality content, and effective promotion, a blogger can attract a loyal following, generate traffic to their website, and monetize their blog through advertising, affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, and product sales. Blogging requires minimal startup costs and can be done from the comfort of your own home, making it an attractive option for those looking to start a home-based business.

There are several styles of website that can help you make money blogging . The most common ways to monetize a blog are through display advertising, affiliate marketing, sponsored content, and selling digital or physical products. Display advertising involves placing ads on a blog and earning revenue based on impressions or clicks. Affiliate marketing is when a blogger promotes a product or service and earns a commission for any sales made through their unique affiliate link. Sponsored content is when a blogger is paid to create content that promotes a brand or product. Finally, small business bloggers can sell digital or physical products such as e-books, courses, or merchandise related to their blog’s niche. Each type of blogging monetization requires a different approach, but with dedication and effort, it is possible to earn a substantial income from a successful blog.

Embracing eCommerce and online selling is essential for reaching a broader audience and capitalizing on the convenience and accessibility that online shopping offers to consumers. Running an e-commerce site from home involves setting up an online store to sell products or services. To start, you need to decide what products or services to sell , and then source or create them. You will also need to set up a website or use a platform such as Shopify or WooCommerce to create an online store.

Before diving into the marketing aspects, it’s imperative to understand the importance of an intuitive, user-friendly design for your e-commerce platform. Whether you’re building your website from scratch or using a platform like Shopify or WooCommerce, the usability of your online store plays a significant role in customer acquisition and retention. Ensure that your site has a clean, attractive design, simple navigation, and a smooth checkout process. High-quality images and detailed product descriptions will give customers a clear understanding of what they’re purchasing, reducing the likelihood of returns or dissatisfaction. Incorporating customer reviews and ratings can also enhance trust in your products and your brand. Your site should be optimized for mobile devices, as an increasing number of customers are shopping on their smartphones. In essence, a well-designed website can significantly contribute to the success of your e-commerce venture.

Once you have set up your e-commerce site, you will need to focus on marketing and driving traffic to your site to generate sales. This can involve strategies such as search engine optimization, social media marketing, email marketing , paid advertising, or hiring an Amazon agency . It is important to have a clear understanding of your target audience and how to reach them effectively. You will also need to handle order fulfillment, including shipping and handling, and customer service. You can purchase products in bulk and sell them online, but then you’ll also need a plan to handle that inventory. With dedication and hard work, running an e-commerce site from home can be a successful and lucrative business.

In the rapidly evolving e-commerce landscape, the role of AI is becoming hard to ignore. The integration of  AI in eCommerce  is becoming increasingly prevalent and can be a game-changer for your online store. When integrated properly, AI has the power to transform your online store into a highly personalized and efficient shopping experience. Just imagine the possibilities – personalized product recommendations crafted from detailed customer behavior analysis, predictive analytics steering your future strategies, and chatbot services providing instant customer support.

AI doesn’t just create a customized shopping experience that aligns with customer preferences; it also builds customer loyalty by making interactions seamless and personalized. From a business perspective, AI’s ability to take over repetitive tasks leaves you more time to focus on strategic decisions and growth plans. And it’s not just about enhancing the customer journey or easing operations. By providing insightful analytics, AI helps you make data-driven decisions. In the realm of e-commerce, embracing AI isn’t just a good move – it gives you a critical edge over the competition.

An essential part of running a successful e-commerce site is having a robust and efficient order fulfillment system in place. Think about it – a customer’s journey doesn’t end with a click on the “Buy” button. The experience they have after making a purchase is just as important, influencing their overall satisfaction and future loyalty. Efficient packaging, reliable shipping and handling, and prompt customer service are all key components of this. Especially if you’re selling products in bulk, a well-organized inventory management system becomes indispensable. The ability to keep an eye on stock levels, predict future demand, and get timely alerts for restocking can help avoid those dreaded “out of stock” scenarios. Automation tools can take the heavy lifting out of these processes, minimizing human error and increasing overall efficiency. So, don’t overlook the impact of a smooth and reliable order fulfillment process – it can greatly enhance your customers’ shopping experience and be a real boon to your e-commerce success.

Implementing discount pricing strategies for eCommerce business can be an essential part of your marketing and sales plan, organically attracting customers and encouraging purchases. Discount strategies involve temporarily lowering the price of your products or services to stimulate sales. This can be done in many ways, such as offering limited-time promotions , seasonal sales, or discounts for buying in bulk. A well-planned discount strategy can not only attract new customers but also incentivize repeat purchases and larger orders. However, it’s important to carefully balance your discounts to ensure they do not undermine your profitability or the perceived value of your products. Furthermore, promoting these discounts effectively, through channels like email marketing and social media, is crucial to maximizing their impact. In essence, discount pricing strategies can play a significant role in the growth and success of your eCommerce business.

Selling homemade products

Selling homemade products from home can be a profitable and rewarding business venture. To get started, you will need to create a product that you are passionate about and that there is a market for. Once you have created your product, you will need to set up an online store or sell your items through an online marketplace like Etsy. You will also need to consider packaging and shipping costs , and ensure that you are complying with any regulations related to selling food or other items.

Marketing your homemade products is also an important aspect of the home-based business. You can use social media and other online channels to reach potential customers and build a following. It may also be helpful to participate in local craft fairs or farmers markets to promote your products and connect with customers in person.

Fun home-based business ideas include the following:

• Candles . A candle company may be the best business for anyone passionate about wicks, soy blends, and achieving the perfect scent. You can offer soy candles, scented candles, beeswax candles, paraffin candles, and more. 
• Books . Selling books online is a great way to get started, also consider selling e-books through social media or your website.
• Cooking and baking . Bakeries have been around for a long time, but recently they have grown in popularity. Entrepreneurs have taken their cakes, cupcakes, and cookies from home and open regular bakeries and restaurants, and even franchises that make.
• Jewelry . Making people’s personalities come alive through jewelry is a very fulfilling creative pursuit. Think about creating beaded bracelets, necklaces, earrings, rings. etc.

Running a service-based business from home involves providing a specific skill or service to clients from the comfort of your home. To start a service-based business from home, you first need to identify your area of expertise and determine what services you can offer. Once you have a clear idea of the services you can provide, you can create a website or online portfolio to showcase your skills and attract potential clients.

You can also use social media platforms to promote your services and network with other professionals in your industry. As you build your client base and reputation, you can continue to grow your business and offer additional services to meet the needs of your clients.

• Makeup tutorials . Teaching how to properly use makeup and providing some confidence tips might be a loving activity, not only for you but also for your potential clients. Even showing how to apply lashes properly would be a great way to get started.  
• Dog walking . Taking care of furry babies and just having a long walk outdoors could definitely bring you great benefits. 
• Personal training . While training for your own personal goals, you are also helping others to achieve theirs. 
• Virtual assistance . if organizing and scheduling your day is a passion of yours, you should definitely offer these services to people that don’t have that same passion or patience as you do. 
• Personal shopping . Clients of personal shoppers usually buy clothing and accessories for themselves. A personal shopper may work directly for a client or their stylist; other personal shopper employment is available through boutiques and departments stores.
• Housecleaning . This is a great opportunity if you are passionate about cleaning and decluttering. These services have a high demand.

Home Office Essentials

When developing your business, you’ll want to create a home office where you can ‘set up shop’ and manage all the important aspects of operating your business. Here are some home office essentials to consider:

Be sure that you have good lighting so that you can work without straining your eyes. You may want to have better overhead lighting installed by an electrician. Or, you can add more lamps to the space to ensure that you have great lighting even on dark and dreary days.

Adjustable workspace

An adjustable desk is ideal for a home office. You can use your desk for various tasks that may be related to your business.  A standup desk is also a great feature if you’re concerned about fitness. You’ll burn more calories by standing up to work.

Comfortable furniture

Try to invest in a quality ergonomic office chair. You’ll be spending a lot of time in your home office, so be sure to have comfortable and supportive furnishings for yourself and anyone else who may be working with you. You may also need filing cabinets, a workbench, or other furnishings related to the type of work you perform.

Decor and plants

Office decor may not seem essential, but it can enhance your mood each day. Remember, your office is your place of work. Decorate it in a way that inspires and motivates you to be productive. Although you don’t want to add much in the way of clutter, some thoughtful decorative pieces will add personal warmth to your office.

House plants can make your home office feel cozy and welcoming. However, that’s not all. Many house plants feature air-purifying properties. Add plants to your office space like aloe vera or spider plants to keep the air smelling clean and fresh. Consider plants of various sizes to add a dynamic look to the space.

You’ll likely need basic office equipment and may require other equipment or gear related to your products or services. For instance, if you perform sewing services, you will need a high-quality sewing machine. Typically, you’ll need office equipment such as:

• Computer or laptop
• Internet (consider business internet service)
• Business Phone
• Copy machine
• Headphones 
• Adding machine/calculator
• Postage scale

These are just a few ideas. You’ll need to brainstorm to ensure you have all the equipment you need for your operation. 

Final thoughts

Setting up a small business from home can be a lucrative and fulfilling venture, but it requires careful planning and execution. By considering factors such as legal and financial considerations, home security, data protection, and marketing strategies, you can successfully launch and grow your business from the comfort of your own home. Remember to prioritize your passion and skills, and don’t be afraid to seek guidance and support from experienced professionals in your field. 

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15 Profitable Home Business Ideas To Make Money From (2024)

Home-based businesses are making waves for their flexibility and low costs. Did you know that half of all businesses start from home? From online tutoring to podcast editing to selling handmade crafts, there are plenty of home business ideas that you can explore.

Ahead, discover 15 ideas to start your home business, along with tips on how to make them successful on your entrepreneurship journey.

Best small business ideas to start from home

• Start a dropshipping business
• Launch a print-on-demand company
• Teach online classes
• Provide online services
• Build an audience you can monetize
• Start a subscription box business
• Play video games
• Launch a beauty brand
• Start an affiliate marketing business
• Become a virtual event planner
• Sell on marketplaces
• Offer b ookkeeping services
• Offer therapy
• Become a social media manager
• Edit podcasts

1. Start a dropshipping business

If you like the idea of running an online store, but you’re not sure what to sell, consider starting a dropshipping business from home. This is a home business idea with low startup costs.

Dropshipping is a type of ecommerce in which sellers don’t need to purchase or store the products they sell. Instead, sellers partner with dropshipping suppliers who  manage the inventory and ship products directly to customers on the seller’s behalf.

The best part is that starting a dropshipping business from home is easy. With dropshipping apps like DSers, you can get started quickly. Just sign up for  Shopify , install the  DSers app , and search for products to add to your store.

2. Launch a print-on-demand company

Print on demand is a home business idea that doesn’t need you to buy or hold inventory.

You can put your branding and designs on white label products. When you make a sale, the print-on-demand company prints and ships the item to the customer.

You can sell many print-on-demand products : books, hats, backpacks, blankets, pillows, mugs, shoes, hoodies, phone cases, and more.

When it comes to niche selection, think about your target audience. From pet lovers to vegans to gamers, there are many niches you can create products for.

3. Teach online classes

If you have a teachable skill, why not make money sharing it? You can do this in person or through an online course. There are online audiences for almost any skill, whether it’s learning English, advanced marketing, or home maintenance tips.

For example, SkillShare offers video classes on various topics, like “How to Bake Artisan Bread” and “Basic Photography Skills.”

You can teach through a platform where you offer live or pre-recorded content. This route gives you the option to price live classes higher, while recorded sessions can be sold at a lower rate. You can also consider mentorship, master classes, or online tutoring if you enjoy teaching small groups.

Another option is to create a fully downloadable course, including video tutorials, templates, articles, or guides. Use a screen-recording tool to capture your lessons and start your online tutoring business.

4. Provide online services

If you don’t want to sell products online, consider selling a service. Service platforms might be simpler to set up than retail businesses, since you don’t need to manage inventory.

Leverage your talents to start a home service business. If your job contract allows, set up a website to sell your time and skills.

Monetize your DIY, technical, language, or musical abilities by offering assistance or lessons online. Popular service-based home business ideas include:

• Freelance writing
• Virtual assistance
• Translation
• SEO consulting
• Web design and development
• Graphic design

Service-based businesses also don’t require many clients to be profitable. A few high-quality clients can support you full-time while working from home.

5. Build an audience you can monetize

If you’ve always wanted to start a blog , YouTube channel, Instagram account, or podcast, you can turn that idea into a home business by growing and monetizing a following.

Start with sharing your passion online, whether it’s through writing, videos, or social media posts. You can also create a community around your content using platforms like Facebook groups, and eventually offer paid memberships or exclusive content.

Building a loyal audience takes patience, consistency, and focus. It’s not the easiest way to start a home business, especially short term, but if you grow a following around something you love, it can be incredibly fulfilling.

6. Start a subscription box business

Starting a subscription box can be a great business idea if you enjoy curating unique product selections. The online subscription box industry is expected to grow at an annual rate of 14% between 2024 and 2032. This growth means there’s a lot of potential for new subscription-based businesses .

You don’t just have to sell products; you can rent them too. Some companies rent items like clothes, allowing customers to use and return them. The items are then rented out to another customer, generating more revenue.

Consider bundling surplus products into subscription boxes to sell on your ecommerce site. This can help you make use of otherwise dead stock and generate consistent revenue.

7. Play video games

Did you know that video gaming can make you money? Platforms like Twitch let gamers turn their skills into cash through streaming and esports.

The esports industry alone is worth more than a billion dollars , and top Twitch streamers earn millions each year.

Get started by setting up a Twitch account and streaming your gameplay. Build your audience by engaging with viewers and providing entertaining content. Once you have a following, reach out to game developers for sponsorships.

Another way to make money is to become a Let’s Play streamer. Game developers will pay you to play their games and stream your reactions to your audience. You can also sell merch on Twitch to boost your income.

8. Launch a beauty brand

One of the most popular small business ideas is starting a health and beauty brand. You can work with a manufacturer to create your own cosmetics or brand white label products.

Look beyond current trends to find the next big thing in beauty. There are many dropshipping opportunities in this niche, like massage tools, smart mirrors, and spa day reservations.

You’ll also want to offer various purchasing and delivery options to meet customer expectations. Research shows customers value these conveniences and are likely to prefer brands that offer them.

9. Start an affiliate marketing business

Affiliate marketing is a home business model that involves promoting a brand’s products or services. You set up a website or social media profile to share links to the brand. Each time someone uses your link to buy something, you earn a commission.

Finding the best affiliate programs takes some research. You might choose to promote through Facebook posts, blogs, or YouTube channels, depending on your audience and content style.

10. Become a virtual event planner

The event planning business is no longer one where you need a physical office to meet clients and organize details. Now, you can plan, organize, and execute events virtually, from the comfort of your home.

The virtual events market is expected to grow 18.8% each year until 2030. That means there’ll be plenty of opportunities to offer your skills and expertise.

Think about the types of events you want to organize, like conferences, meetings, or webinars, and about their purpose, such as personal parties, professional workshops, or industry-specific shows.

Getting familiar with event platforms will help you manage and promote events more effectively. Use tools like Hopin and Whova to streamline your planning process and impress clients with seamless virtual experiences.

11. Sell on marketplaces

Facebook Marketplace , Amazon , and eBay are popular platforms for selling stuff from home.

Flipping items on these sites is one of the easiest businesses to start. Open an account, upload your listings, and set your prices. You’re ready to sell your first item.

While selling an item is easy, building a steady income can be tough. Promotion options are limited, and prices often lead to competition. Price wars with other sellers can cut into your profits.

12. Offer bookkeeping services

If you’re good with numbers, try starting an at-home bookkeeping business.

You can sell your services to small businesses and entrepreneurs. Consider working as a freelance bookkeeper for more flexibility and control over your rates.

Social media is a great way to promote your services. You can use platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels to share accounting tips and information.

Pro tip: Set up a limited liability company to offer a professional service. Having an incorporated business will help build trust and protect your personal assets.

13. Offer therapy

If you want to be a licensed therapist, you can offer many popular treatments from home. You could do massage, acupuncture, or physiotherapy as a small business.

If you don’t have space for clients, you can visit them. Platforms like TaskRabbit connect users with service providers who come to their homes.

You’ll need to follow local regulations and professional guidelines. Stay updated with the latest techniques and trends to run a successful business.

14. Become a social media manager

Do you know TikTok inside and out? Are you a pro on YouTube? Consider starting a consulting business where you manage social media for companies.

Getting the first customer is often the hardest part of creating a service-based venture. You can increase your chances by letting your network know you offer social media services. Use forums, LinkedIn, and Instagram to showcase your skills.

You can also consider investing in subscriptions to some social media management tools. These make it easy to schedule posts and track campaign performance.

15. Edit podcasts

Many people and companies create podcasts to share ideas or promote their work. But they often lack the time or skill to edit their recordings.

If you can use basic editing tools, you can fill this need and work from home.

As a podcast editor, you’ll cut sections, remove coughs, and improve audio quality. With more experience, you can also offer photo and video editing services.

How to start a home business

Once you have an idea that fits your skills and experience, it’s time to build your new home business.

Starting a business can be challenging, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Here are five basic steps to follow:

• Brainstorm your own business idea
• Write a business plan
• Incorporate your business
• Open a business bank account
• Start offering your products or services

1. Brainstorm your own business idea

Brainstorming a unique business idea that gives you a competitive advantage is the first step to launching a home business.

Think critically about how you will position your business, whether you plan to pursue a new concept or choose a proven one.

Validate your business idea by presenting it to industry experts and friends. If they find it promising, you’re onto something great.

2. Write a business plan

A business plan gives structure and clarity to your idea. To create one, include details like:

• A business overview
• Your product or service offerings
• Information about your target audience
• An analysis of your competitors

Bonus: Use these templates to easily create your own business plan.

3. Incorporate your business

Select a business structure, apply for a business license, establish your legal entity, and make sure you have the right paperwork.

To ensure you’re setting up your home business’s entity correctly, you may consider talking to a small business attorney.

There are four main entities under which you can operate:

• Sole proprietorship
• Limited liability partnership
• Corporation

Consulting with a lawyer can help you choose the best type and make filing paperwork easier.

4. Open a business bank account

Keeping your personal and business finances separate makes managing taxes simpler. There are many banks you can choose from, so shop around until you find the best fit.

At minimum, you should open the following:

• A business checking account for revenue
• A savings account to hold money
• A business credit card for expenses

Talking to a professional can help. Find a local accountant to guide you in setting up your business accounts.

5. Start offering your products or services

Okay, now you can officially start your business. If you’re creating an ecommerce store, use a platform like Shopify to streamline the process.

Pros and cons of starting a home business

You can start and operate a home business from your personal residence. It can be a full-time job or a side hustle. Often, home businesses use online platforms to sell products and services .

Most home business models don’t need much infrastructure, so you won’t need to rent a space or hire employees. However, there are a few pros and cons to consider to see if this type of business is right for you.

Pros of running a home business

• You can improve your work-life balance, which is great for parents or retirees wanting extra income.
• Home businesses often have low costs, like no office rent or warehouse fees.
• You might get tax breaks as a home business owner.
• You can target local or international markets with ecommerce.
• You can make it a family business, with your spouse or relatives helping out.

Cons of running a home business

• You’ll need a dedicated space for work, storing equipment, or keeping inventory.
• You must meet industry regulations, like food hygiene standards or getting permits.
• Competing with large, established companies with access to more resources can be challenging.
• Despite the freedom, working from home can be lonely.

Choosing the best home business idea for you

Everyone has different abilities and interests. So, choosing the best home business comes down to understanding your strengths and passions.

Can you turn your love for cooking into a business? Does your design expertise make you a sought-after freelancer? Use these insights to find the best business idea for you.

With technology making almost any business remote-friendly, you can find suppliers, hire employees, and promote your offerings to customers from home.

Home business ideas FAQ

What are some low-cost home business ideas.

Starting a home business doesn’t have to cost much. Here are a few inexpensive online business ideas:

• Social media manager: Help businesses manage their social media accounts
• Freelance photography: Offer photography services to clients, focusing on products or portraits.
• YouTube channel: Share videos on a topic you love and make money through ads and sponsorships.
• Online tutoring: Teach a language you are fluent in to students online.

How can I balance my home and work life?

The nature of a home-based business can make it difficult to balance home and work life. But you can set work hours, create a separate workspace, take regular breaks, and set boundaries with family to help manage it.

Can I run a profitable business part time from home?

Yes, many profitable business ideas can be run part time. Examples include selling handmade crafts online, providing pet-sitting services, or offering freelance graphic design.

How can I scale my home-based business?

To scale your home business, you may need to take several steps:

• Hire freelancers or employees.
• Expand your product or service offerings.
• Consider new markets.
• Invest in better tools. 

Make sure to plan your growth strategy carefully to ensure your business thrives in the long run.

Want to learn more?

• How to Use Shopify: A Quick and Easy Shopify Tutorial for Beginners
• What is Dropshipping: Things You Need To Know Before Getting Started
• Shopify Pricing Plans: Which Shopify Plan is Best For Me?
• Do You Have an Entrepreneurial Spirit? Find Out Here (With Quotes)

70 Small Business Ideas for Anyone Who Wants to Run Their Own Business

Published: March 19, 2024

A good business idea may seem hard to come by, but with some planning and preparation, you can easily launch a small business to supplement your income — or become your own full-time boss.

Maybe you already have an idea of the business you’d like to start. But while you might feel ready for a new venture and passionate about your idea, you might be looking for some direction.

To help get you started, here's a list of small business ideas separated into a few sections:

• What makes a good small business?

Best Small Business Ideas

Best businesses to start with little money, home business ideas.

• Online Businesses Ideas

Easy Businesses to Start

Business ideas for students, creative small business ideas, how to start a small business at home, starting a small business: faq.

The first step to becoming a successful entrepreneur is finding a business idea that works for you. In this article, you’ll find dozens of small business ideas you can start from home and scale up as your clientele grows. Let’s get started.

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What makes a good small business idea?

Not all small business ideas are made equal: Some require more effort and funding than others, while some can be launched with few resources — or resources you already have. As a potential small business owner, you’ll want to save as much money as possible on training, rent, supplies, and other necessities.

Let’s go over what makes a good business idea:

• Requires little to no training . A good small business idea will ideally leverage your existing field of expertise and require little to no training. That will not only shorten your time-to-launch, but also lessen your expenses, since training courses can cost a significant amount of money. Plus, you’ll be more confident offering services that you feel prepared to deliver.
• Requires low setup costs. Your business should be cheap to start. Maybe you only need to purchase a website domain or buy a desk for your garage.
• Requires little hands-on inventory or supply management . A great business idea needs few supplies and little inventory management. If you want to sell physical goods, you can either try drop-shipping and manually make goods in small batches.
• Is based online . The best small business ideas are based online and can be carried out from your personal computer. This will automatically lower your commuting costs and give you greater flexibility over your personal and work life.
• Can sustainably be managed by few people . As a small business owner, you won’t have the funds to hire other people to help you run your business — at least not at first. A good business idea should give you the ability to run your business on your own.

Airbnb Co-founder, Brian Chesky, said, “If we tried to think of a good idea, we wouldn’t have been able to think of a good idea. You just have to find the solution for a problem in your own life.”

If you’re like Brian and you’ve already thought about a solution for a problem you encounter in your life — or you’re on the path to doing so — then starting a small business may be in your future. It may also be for you if you dream of clocking out of your nine-to-five job for the last time and becoming your own boss.

Below, we include the best ideas for you to start your small business — with resources and examples to help you get started.

1. Handyman

8. Life/Career Coach

If you have experience navigating career, personal, and social transitions successfully, put it to good use as a life or career coach. Many of us are looking for guidance in our careers — and finding someone with the time to mentor us can be tough.

Life/career coaches don’t come cheap, but they are able to offer clients the intense and hands-on training and advice they need to make serious moves in their personal and professional lives. After all, everyone needs some uplifting advice from time to time.

To start your life/career coaching business with confidence, you can look for a certification program (like the Life Coach School’s or Diane Hudson’s ), then apply your skills as you acquire new clients.

A resume writing business is economical, has few overhead costs, and has few educational requirements. We still recommend having an Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree and a few resume samples on hand. If you still feel that you need to brush up on your resume writing skills, you can take a course like Coursera’s or LinkedIn Learning’s .

Once you’ve gotten resume writing down, you can expand your business to include cover letter writing and even offer career coaching services in conjunction with these services.

10. Freelance Writer

If you have writing skills , there’s someone out there willing to pay you for them. Write blog posts, magazine articles, and website copy galore — just make sure you have a body of work built up to share with potential clients. Even if you create a few sample pieces to have on hand, they’ll help exhibit your work and attract new business.

To become a freelance writer, it’s essential to choose a specialty. For instance, you might choose to only write for publications in the healthcare industry (maybe because you were previously a healthcare worker) or focus on lifestyle publications. Whatever the case, specializing will help you find your niche market and gain confidence as a new freelancer writer.

There are no educational requirements for freelance writing, but you do need strong writing skills. It also helps to enjoy writing. While certification may be beneficial, getting practice and writing every day is more important. Try these writing prompts to start.

11. Landscaper

Mowing, tree-trimming, and seasonal decor are all neighborhood needs. If you have or can acquire the equipment, a landscaping business can be a lucrative affair. It’s also a great choice if you enjoy doing it for your own home and have a good eye for landscape design.

The good news is that you can start small. For instance, you could offer your neighbors seasonal planting services and start with a few perennial plants, or simply offer mulching services.

To grow your landscaping business, you should consider taking some formal training. The following organizations offer courses:

• New York Botanical Gardens

After completing a course and getting enough experience, you can apply for a certificate from a landscaping organization. While a certificate isn’t necessary to work in the field, it can build your credentials and help you make industry connections to take your landscaping business to the next level. The Association of Professional Landscape Designers offers one potential certificate you could pursue.

Some states require licensure, especially if you’ll be using pesticides and fertilizers. Be sure to review the requirements for your state.

Learn some of the basics now with this video on landscape design from Lowe’s:

12. Videographer

Video production requires you to have invested in the equipment up front, which can be quite expensive. But that’s also what makes your services so valuable. Make sure you have a reel of your work to share or create a website with several selections of your work available for interested viewers.

There are no educational or licensure requirements for starting a video production business. As with writing and other creative arts, though, it pays to specialize. Real estate videos differ radically from wedding videos, and wedding videos differ radically from in-studio interviews and testimonials. By specializing, you target a highly specific customer who’ll benefit the most from your services, and you can also skill-up more effectively in one shooting style.

While you can find general classes on videography, you should consider taking a class in the type of videography you’d like to do. For instance, you could take The Complete Wedding Videography Course .

Hot tip: If you’re interested in specializing in video marketing, check out The Ultimate Guide to Video Marketing and download our starter pack below.

13. Photographer

Start by conducting photo shoots for your family and friends. As you build a body of work, ask for referrals and reviews. Photography businesses often grow by word of mouth, so create a Facebook page where you can tag recent clients. Photos where you tag those clients will show up in their friends’ newsfeeds, where they can view your work. You can also ask them to leave reviews on your Facebook business page.

Like with a video production small business, you’ll want to specialize. Will you do product shoots or portraits? How about wedding or fashion photo shoots? Once you specialize, you’ll be able to create a body of work that most accurately represents your strengths.

There are no educational or licensure requirements for starting a small photography business. Still, we recommend investing in a few photography courses, especially if you haven’t used your camera in a while. Some courses you might start with include:

• Cornell’s Digital Photography Certificate Program
• New York Institute of Photography’s Course

From there, seek courses that help you build skills in your chosen specialty.

If you’re not sure where to start with freelance photography, take a look at Erica Clayton’s journey into the business below. Her advice? Give yourself a firm deadline to turn a profit.

14. Bed and Breakfast Owner

5. Personal Chef

We all love to eat, but few of us have the time or energy to cook healthy, delicious meals. Advertise your services to local families and businesses alike. To save on start-up costs, consider scheduling certain groups of clients together — say, vegetarians — so you can cook larger quantities of the same dish.

You can also begin by selling food in batches at local farmer’s markets or via a food truck. Once you’ve generated some awareness, you can begin taking on clients. Alternatively, you can start a delivery meal prep service by cooking 5-7 days’ worth of meals for clients.

Some consulting industries are more competitive than others, so be sure to complete your research before starting a small consulting business. One way to find out how competitive a consulting niche is by doing keyword search . If your target niche is highly searched or is already dominated by big companies, you may have a harder time breaking in. You can use keyword research tools to uncover keyword volume and local demand.

If there’s room for you to enter the market, the next step is to land your first clients. Be sure to participate in local networking events covering your niche and reach out to potential prospects through cold calling and emailing. Investing in dedicated sales software can also help measure and improve your emailing strategy, as well as keep track of worthwhile leads.  

12. Event Planner

An event planning business is an excellent choice if you have great organizational and interpersonal skills, and it’s relatively cheap to start. You might choose to specialize in a specific type of event — like weddings or company meetings — or set yourself up as an event planner of all trades.

The good news is that event planners are always in demand. It’s not an easily automated job, so this small business idea is set to thrive regardless of the digital landscape. To start, you’ll want to look for a platform that will easily allow you to advertise your availability, such as event planner directories like Eventective and WeddingWire .

If you’re highly organized, detail-oriented, and have experience planning large events, it might be time for others to benefit from your skills.

13. Personal Assistant

Personal assistants help business owners and executives take care of administrative tasks. To launch a freelance personal assistant business, you should leverage networking opportunities on LinkedIn and attend small business events at local chambers of commerce. Most local business owners might not even know they need a personal assistant until you market your services to them.

If you’re an organized, highly-detailed person, the life of a personal assistant might be for you. Don’t want to be tied to one office or person all day, every day? Consider becoming a virtual assistant, which allows you a more flexible work environment.

To become an assistant, choose a niche — will you be helping women business owners specifically? Do you have a specific field of expertise, like bookkeeping? A website can also go a long way, and be sure to print business cards for you to hand out during networking events.

14. Consignment Shop Owner

If you have an eye for style but don’t want to invest in the inventory of a brand-new boutique, consider starting a consignment shop. It will allow you to curate a collection of clothing that matches your goals and aesthetic without the overhead of a boutique selling entirely new garments.

The beauty of a small consignment business is that you can now start one online. You can sign up on a platform such as Poshmark , Depop , and even Etsy , then easily start selling your own used fashion from home.

Once you’ve defined your niche — such as vintage clothing, unique locally made art, or colorful shoes — you can begin sourcing new products from your local stores and thrift shops.

15. Caterer

If the personal chef gig is too restrictive for your schedule, consider catering instead. Pick your projects, work on fewer but larger events, and hone in on your time management skills.

Becoming a caterer is a natural step for those who are used to cooking for large events — for instance, you may have already catered your friend’s wedding or brought a 20-person meal to a potluck (that counts, too!).

It’s essential that you have enough temperature-regulated storage for the meals prior to each event, and that you arrange for reliable, temperature-controlled transportation to and from your home kitchen. Alternatively, you can lower your costs by inviting customers to pick up their order at your home.

16. Gym Owner

Kickboxing gyms, yoga studios, CrossFit, oh my! Turn your passion for fitness into a community for others by creating your own gym — start one from the ground up, become an affiliate, or open a franchise location.

Available franchise opportunities include Anytime Fitness, Orangetheory Fitness, Pure Barre, Planet Fitness, Crunch Fitness, and more. Be prepared to take out a loan to finance your franchise — most agreements start with fees upward of $20,000. But the payoff can be tremendous due to brand recognition. You’ll have no trouble recruiting new members as long as you use local marketing strategies .

Alternatively, you can create a local studio, but ideally, it should be for a specific activity instead of general fitness. Yoga, pilates, bootcamp-style gyms, and martial arts perform well as independent fitness studios.

17. Boutique Agency Owner

What’s your specialty? Whether it’s marketing, social media, or PR, it might be time to start your own agency. Many other small businesses need this type of help but don’t have the resources or volume to necessitate a full-time position.

To start an agency, you would ideally have worked in your specialty for a number of years. You should also be prepared to interface directly with clients, fulfill their requirements, and temper their expectations (if they want results in an unreasonably short amount of time).

Consider building a small team and learn from other entrepreneurs who’ve successfully started their own agencies, like Duane Brown of Take Some Risk .

18. Coffee Shop Owner

Turn your caffeine addiction into something a little more lucrative. Opening a franchise or buying an existing shop are lower-risk entry points to the coffee game, but they usually require a little more cash upfront. Starting a shop from scratch requires more planning and work — but it also maximizes your earning potential in the future.

A coffee shop is an excellent fit if you already have a full-time remote job and wish to supplement your income with a small business. You can manage the coffee shop as you work at one of the tables, but be sure to have the budget to hire an experienced barista who can pick up the slack.

If you would like to open a coffee shop and run it full-time on your own, you’ll need to undertake barista training, understand worldwide coffee sources, and have excellent customer service skills.

19. Moving Company

A truck, moving equipment, manpower, and the correct permits and insurance are the building blocks of starting your own moving company . Before you buy your first fleet of trucks, however, start small with a moving van and keep your costs low.

Still sound like too much of an initial investment? Consider offering packing services only, which have a much lower financial barrier to entry. You can partner with moving companies and offer to do their packing, or have them refer clients to you.

You could even take a niche approach to the industry as Astro International has by offering international moving services.

2. Vending Machine Owner

Since 2015, the growth rate for vending machine businesses has increased 1.4%. Even as social distancing restrictions are still in place, this business can still be lucrative if you choose the right locations. High-traffic is key — places like hospitals, schools, and community centers are smart places to start placing your machines to generate enough revenue to cover cost and turn a profit.

3. Social Media Manager

Do you have a knack for social media? As a social media manager, you can use your skills to manage the social media accounts for companies and even individual people. Influencer marketing has become more common and many influencers rely on marketing agencies or employees to help them run their social channels.

Online Business Ideas

If you want a business idea that you can run entirely online, check out the ones below. These ideas are ideal for those looking for a passive income stream. In other words, you shouldn’t need to do too much manual work to launch these businesses from your home or preferred business location.

1. Become an online reseller.

To become an online reseller, all you need is some business savvy and some funds to invest in product stock from manufacturers — or, of course,the willingness to sell your own used items. Generally, this is a low-touch but high-performance way of creating a passive income online business.

Online resellers usually use a platform, such as Facebook Marketplace or Amazon Sellers, to sell either their own or manufacturers’ stock. The benefit of using Facebook Marketplace is that you can begin today with your own Facebook account, and simply list items that you already own.

Interested buyers typically drive directly to your home for pick-up — but if you’re not interested in human interaction, you can leave it outside and have the buyer pay via an online platform.

Blogging is one of the most accessible small businesses to start, and there are countless niches to choose from. That said, because there are many blogs online, you’ll need to learn blog SEO and keyword research to ensure your audience finds you. That way, you actually make money out of your blogging efforts.

The great news is that a small blogging business has a ridiculously low overhead. All you need is a custom domain and your time for writing blog posts. Although finding the right topic ideas and outlining your posts may seem challenging at first, especially if you’re new to writing, you can let a blog ideas generator do most of the grunt work for you.

These tools leverage Artificial Intelligence to help you brainstorm ideas and set up your content structure. That way, you can kickstart your creative juices and begin writing about what you love right away. 

5. Home-Baked Goods Seller

Warehouse-made, store-bought chocolate chip cookies will never compare to a batch made with love in someone’s home. Simple desserts can be easily baked and packaged to sell at local events or around your neighborhood. Use custom labels and watch the word spread about your goods!

You can begin a baked goods business easily by opening a Facebook and Instagram profile. Facebook and Instagram are both excellent platforms to market your goods, show pictures of your previous baked products, and even showcase happy clients.

Build a loyal following slowly, and save on costs by asking clients to drive to your home to pick up their order. Choosing a niche can be helpful here, or baking in a specific style that can’t be found at grocery store bakeries. The overhead can be especially low if you already have most essential baking supplies.

6. Ecommerce Store Owner

Do you create, collect, or curate anything special? Consider starting an ecommerce store and turning your hobby into a full-time job. Whether you need somewhere to sell all that pottery you’ve been making, or an excuse to search for the sports memorabilia you love tracking down, an ecommerce store can make it financially viable for you to pursue your passion.

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Starting an ecommerce store is simple and easy. You can set up a shop using an ecommerce website builder , all of which start at a minimal monthly subscription (some even start at free). Be sure to take good photos of your products and write descriptive product pages .

If you don’t have inventory, you can always own an ecommerce store by using dropshipping . Instead of creating and shipping your products yourself, you’ll instead partner with a dropshipping website and have them mail out the orders directly to your client.

7. House Cleaner

With a low barrier to entry, house cleaning can be a great way to start doing what you love — soon. Consider advertising to homes in your neighborhood and get more bang for your buck by earning a few small businesses as clients as well. They’ll usually bring in a higher paycheck for a similar amount of work.

To become a house cleaner, you should be prepared to invest in cleaning supplies and accessories, or be willing to use your own. If you plan to serve small businesses, you should buy industrial janitorial supplies so you can get work done more effectively.

Need some inspiration? This small business cleaning service grew virtually overnight on Instagram after their content went viral during the pandemic.

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4. create a business plan..

No business plan? No business. Particularly if your small business idea requires investors, you'll need to draft up a business plan to provide an overview of your market positioning, your financial projections, and your unique competitive advantages. You can download HubSpot's free business plan templates for free to get started.

Learn more about choosing the right structure for your business from the Small Business Administration.

6. Create a business bank account.

Once you have a legally formed business and have been issued an Employer Identification Number (EIN), open a bank account specifically for your business. Having a business bank account is essential for keeping your personal and business finances separate which can help you gain an accurate picture of your business’s cash flow and financial health.

Additionally, keeping your personal and business finances separate makes bookkeeping and tax preparation easier.

Many banks offer business checking and savings accounts. Business checking accounts typically do not have a limit on the number of transactions that can take place, and issue a debit card that can be used for making business purchases. However, these checking accounts do not accrue interest.

Business savings accounts typically earn interest over time but have a limited number of transactions that can occur each month. When you’re just starting out, look for a business bank account that does not have a minimum balance requirement so you are not penalized for having low funds as you work to build your business.

7. Determine if your business idea works well from home.

Ask yourself whether your business idea will work well from home. Some businesses simply aren’t suited to be based from home. If you want to run a dog boarding center but live in an apartment without a backyard, you might want to consider a dog walking business instead.

8. Set up an office.

If your business idea is well-suited for being run from home, it’s still important you have a designated workspace. While a home office might not be possible, consider setting aside a corner in your living room or putting a desk in your bedroom for a space that inspires you and creates the conditions for success.

Need a more professional space? If you conduct client-facing work requiring you to be on video calls, no one wants to see your rumpled sheets in the background. Check out local coworking spaces for memberships that earn you access to conference rooms, desk space, and more.

9. Get to work!

You’ve put in the hard work, but I’ve got bad news — it’s only going to get harder. But most entrepreneurs will agree that the payoff of being your own boss, making your own hours, and working on projects that you’re passionate about will pay dividends for the rest of your life.

What are the types of small businesses?

The types of small business structures are sole proprietorships, partnerships, limited liability companies (LLCs), and corporations.

• Sole Proprietorship — The simplest type of business structure is a sole proprietorship, which is also the easiest to start. As a sole proprietor, you are personally responsible for the business's liabilities and profits, and you have complete control over your business. If you are a solopreneur, you are automatically considered a sole proprietor.
• Partnership — A partnership is a business model involving two or more individuals who agree to share the business‘s profits and liabilities. Each partner contributes to the business and shares the risks and rewards. It’s essential to have a partnership agreement that defines each partner's roles and responsibilities to ensure clarity and prevent potential misunderstandings.
• Limited Liability Company (LLC) — An LLC, or limited liability company, is a common option for small businesses because it protects its owners by separating personal assets from the company's liabilities. To form an LLC, the business owner must file the required paperwork with the state.
• Corporation — A corporation is an independent legal entity distinct from its owners. It provides limited liability protection to its shareholders, who are not held personally accountable for the company's debts. Corporations have formal requirements and often raise capital by issuing stocks or shares.

Which business type is best?

The best business type is a limited liability company (LLC). Operating as an LLC means that your personal assets are separate from your business assets. If your business goes bankrupt, your personal holdings won’t be affected. That said, it’s also one of the costlier types, requiring a fee paid to the state.

The easiest business type to start is a sole proprietorship. The main downside is that there’s no differentiation between you and your business.

It's crucial to seek advice from legal or accounting professionals to determine the best business structure based on your unique needs and objectives. Each structure has advantages, legal requirements, tax implications, and flexibility considerations.

How do I create a business idea?

To create a business idea, determine your skill set, work preferences, startup budget, and available resources. It’s important to strike the right balance between what you can feasibly offer and what you can feasibly afford in the short and long term.

We recommend starting with your skill set so that you can easily determine the niche in which you can effectively compete. For instance, if you have ample experience as a writer, you might consider starting a freelance writing business. But if you know you’d prefer to work with clients face-to-face, you might choose to start a ghostwriting business instead. That’s why it’s so important to take your work preferences into account, as well.

After that, take a look at your budget and determine the type of business you can start based on the resources at your disposal. For instance, you might not be able to afford a physical office or location, so a location-based business will likely not be a good fit. In that case, starting an online business is your best option.

What resources or tools can I use to refine and validate my business ideas during the brainstorming process?

Online market research tools like Google Trends, Keyword Planner, and SEMrush can provide insights into market demand, competition, and keyword trends related to your business niche. Industry reports and market analyses from reputable sources such as IBISWorld, Gartner, Statista, and industry-specific publications can offer valuable data and trends to inform your decision-making. Ensure you know the industry risk before embarking on your small business venture.

→ Download Now: Market Research Kit [Free Download]

Additionally, joining entrepreneurial communities, forums, and social media groups can provide opportunities to seek feedback, network with like-minded people, and gain insights from experienced entrepreneurs. Finally, consider conducting surveys or interviews with potential customers to gather feedback and validate your business concept before investing significant time and resources.

What are some of the most successful small businesses?

Every small business has the potential to be successful and profitable, provided it’s backed by a strong product-market fit and a robust business plan . These two elements are essential. Maybe postnatal services are one of the most successful small businesses to launch, but if you live in an area with declining population or a large elderly population, then that small business idea won’t yield a high return on investment.

Think carefully about the market where you’re launching your business, and you’ll be more than likely to see lasting success.

What are the top growing small businesses?

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How to Become an Entrepreneur With No Money or Experience

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The Straightforward Guide to Value Chain Analysis [+ Templates]

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40 Small Business Ideas You Can Do From Home (Free Business Plan)

Author: Holly Reisem Hanna

March 2, 2024 8 Comments

Do you dream of starting a business from home but have no idea what type of business to start? Oh, believe me, I’ve been there! If you’re interested in being the boss and calling the shots, here is a list of the best small business ideas you can easily run from home!

1. App Creator

If you have an idea for a smartphone app that makes life simpler or more enjoyable, becoming an app creator or developer may be the perfect small business idea for you! One mom that has found success as an app creator is Patti Rogers . She created the Rallyhood app to help organize community outreach and simplify communication between individuals in a group.

To start this business, you’ll likely have to secure funding for your app development. As an app creator, you can earn money through ads, in-app purchases, or affiliate marketing once it’s live.

2. Bake and Sell Dog Treats

It’s estimated that pet owners spent $136.8 billion on their pets last year, with online shopping being the preferred method for purchasing pet supplies for millenials! If you want to cash in on this lucrative industry, consider starting your own gourmet dog treat business. My friend, Kristin Larsen, did this as a side gig for many years and easily earned $500-$1,000+ per month!

Today, she teaches others how to start their own dog treat businesses. If this sounds appealing, you can check out her free training series here . Once you’re on the page, click on the pink free training workshop button. You can also enroll in her course, which you can complete in as little as a weekend!

Are you known for your baked goods? Do you enjoy decorating cupcakes and cookies? Then maybe starting an at-home bakery business is your calling. With this sort of business, you’ll need to secure the proper permits and licenses and figure out kitchen space, storage, and delivery logistics.

One woman that’s found success as a baker is self-taught cake designer Jennifer Jacobs of the Wandering Whisk. Jennifer ran her cake-baking business for four years out of her home, but in 2019 she opened a brick-and-mortar location. If you think this is the ideal business for you, check out this post for more details.

There are so many reasons why I love blogging, such as you can write about any topic; there are multiple ways to monetize and market your business, you don’t need a college degree, and it doesn’t cost a lot of money to start. 

If you’re interested in starting a blog, I have a free step-by-step tutorial  that walks you through the process. Once you have your blog up and you’ve written a few blog posts, you can make money with affiliate programs , direct ad sales, brand sponsorships, selling e-books, digital courses, printables, and so much more! According to  Financial Samurai , bloggers who have 100,000 page views per month can easily earn $1,000-$10,000 per month.

Of course, with blogging, there is a learning curve. You’ll need to educate yourself on best blogging practices, like learning SEO (search engine optimization), how to diversify your income streams, and FTC rules for affiliate marketing and sponsorships. Even though there is a lot to learn with blogging, I’d argue it’s one of the best online business ideas who people who enjoy writing and being creative.

5. Bookkeeper

If you’re detail-oriented and love working with numbers, launching a virtual bookkeeping business may be your calling. Not only is bookkeeping lucrative ($60-$80 per hour), but it’s also an in-demand service, as most business owners dread bookkeeping tasks, myself included. While bookkeeping itself is pretty straightforward, you will need to be familiar with bookkeeping software, how to get clients, and stand out from the crowd; this is where a bookkeeping course can come in handy.

The course I’m most familiar with and recommend is Bookkeeper Launch . More than 15,000 students have gone through this program, including Callie Sitek of the Radical Profits Club; you can read more about her entrepreneurial journey here .

6. Consulting Business

Not a new business idea by far, but it is an easy one to start. Take the expertise, knowledge, and skills that you already have to consult others in that area. For instance, if you worked as a social media manager before becoming a stay-at-home parent, take this expertise and pitch businesses that don’t yet have an online social media presence. 

With consulting, you’re helping businesses and individuals incorporate processes, strategies, and a plan for achieving their goals. Other consulting business ideas might be baby-proofing consults for new parents or organic lawn care consulting for the environmentally conscious. Take what you know, and start pitching your ideal clients. For a full blueprint on how to begin a consulting business from home, check out this article .

7. Copywriter

When I first heard of copywriters, I thought they were legal professionals that dealt with filling copyrights for books. That is not what they do!

Copywriters are skilled persuasive writers that write marketing promotions and advertising campaigns. While you can get a degree in business and marketing to become a copywriter, many copywriters that I know have taken online training courses and have become proficient at writing persuasive copy.

One such individual is Mindy McHorse , who left her project management job and pursued copywriting by taking a course through the American Writers & Artists Institute. According to Salary.com , an agency copywriter can expect to earn $63,711-$80,404 annually, but a freelance copywriter, especially one who writes copy that converts leads to sales, can make much more!

Both Mindy McHorse and Danny Margulies earn six figures a year running freelance copywriting businesses from home – be sure to check out their stories!

8. Course Creator

If you’ve succeeded in a particular area and people always ask you how you achieved your success, you may be the perfect candidate to create an online course. I know people who have created courses on how to choose a paint color, how to decorate your house, and how to stay on budget — the topics are endless!

You can use video, audio, written, or a combination of the three formats to present your materials to students. There are lots of platforms that you can use to deliver your course content, from free sites like Skillshare and Udemy or paid platforms like Teachable , Kajabi , or Uscreen .

Now, let’s talk about money. Some course creators earn an average of $0-$1,000 per month. Yet others, like Nick Stephenson , have made $130,208 with his first-course launch! According to data , 17.9% of creators using the Teachable platform for 15 months sold under $25,000, so you can make excellent money selling courses online!

9. Craft Seller

If you love creating handmade items, you can make a full-time income selling crafts on Etsy , Amazon Handmade , or Shopify . One such crafter that’s found success in the crafting arena is Melanie from Simple Made Pretty . In 2014, Melanie started selling custom-made cards on Etsy, and because of her unique greeting card niche (she created anniversary cards for homeowners), she ended up doing exceptionally well. Today she earns a full-time income from selling crafts like printables, decals, SVG files , and party supplies on her Shopify store and crafting blog.

10. Customer Service Agency

If you would like to start your micro-call center business, Arise can help you achieve your goals. For a small startup fee, Arise will guide you through the steps of starting and running a call center business from home. With this opportunity, you can remain a solopreneur or expand and manage a team of call center agents. With Arise, you can choose to focus on retail, e-commerce, travel and hospitality, insurance, roadside assistance, healthcare, telecommunications, and more. The average costs for getting started with Arise are $280-$595.

11. Direct Seller

The direct sales industry has come a long way in the past ten years! Selling updated and premium products and expanding into a variety of niches, if you have the right personality for direct selling, this may be the perfect business idea for you!

For a nominal startup fee, you’ll get everything you need to start selling products online and in person. One thing I love about direct sales is that you have other team members helping and cheering you on. With this sort of business model, you’ll earn a commission (averaging 20-40%) on personal sales, and if you decide to build a team, you’ll make even more.

Here are a few opportunities worth checking out:

• Bellame – Skincare and makeup
• Cabi – clothing
• Noonday – fashion accessories
• Tastefully Simple – food

12. Dog Walking and Pet Sitting Business

One of the easiest home businesses to start is that of a dog walker or pet sitter. People are always needing qualified pet lovers to care for their pets while they are on vacation or working long days at the office. With this business idea, you don’t even need a website to get started. Post a notification on your local neighborhood or Facebook group letting others know about your pet-watching services.

The types of pets you can watch and the services you can offer are diverse, and all depend on your preferences, availability, and skills. If you’d like to reach a further audience, you could post a cheap ad on Craigslist or use a third-party app like Rover or Wag! to connect with potential clients.

13. Event Planner

If you love planning, organizing, and executing events, becoming a home-based event planner  may be your calling. While most companies will want you to have training or experience in the hospitality industry, you can start your own event planning business without a degree or previous job experience. 

First, read up on the industry . Then see if you can plan a party for someone you know, either for free or at a discounted rate, to get some experience and a positive testimonial that you can use to promote your business. Start with smaller gigs like birthday parties and then work your way up to bigger events like weddings or corporate events. You can even specialize in an area, like decorating , and pitch other event planners with your service offerings.

14. Flea Market Flipper

Do you enjoy watching TV shows like Storage Wars, Auction Kings, and American Pickers? Think you’d be good at finding that diamond in the rough? If so, becoming a flea market or garage sale flipper or reseller may be your calling.

One couple that has found success in this industry is Melissa and Rob Stephenson . In 2016, they earned $130K, reselling used stuff on eBay. They search for items on OfferUp, flea markets, and even dumpsters for things that are cheaply priced (or free), and they clean them up and sell them for a profit. If reselling items sounds like a fun business idea, be sure to check out their course on how to get started.

15. Franchise Owner

You’re already familiar with franchises like Starbucks and McDonald’s, but did you know there are smaller, more affordable franchise opportunities that you can do from home? The great thing about franchises is that you get detailed training and instructions, making it easier to replicate the same successful business model. The downside of franchise opportunities is that they often have steep startup costs and recurring fees. If you’re curious about this business model, here are some home-based franchise opportunities to check out.

• Club Z – tutoring
• Cruise Planners – travel
• Elite Teepees – children’s sleepover parties
• Fit 4 Mom – fitness
• Neat Method – organizing

16. Freelance Writer

If you’ve got a way with words, there are many ways in which you can make a good living as a freelance writer . From copywriting and grant writing to ghostwriting, resume writing, and writing articles online, there are a ton of opportunities for people who can eloquently string words together.

Here are some places where you can apply, pitch, and bid on freelance gigs:

17. Graphic Designer

You don’t have to go to design school to be a graphic designer ; in fact, I know many self-taught designers who run successful businesses from home. Even if you don’t know how to use Photoshop , you can create simple graphics using Canva or PicMonkey. Depending on your skill level and the types of projects you work on, graphic designers can earn anywhere from $35,430-$100,920 per year.

18. Influencer

If you love creating content for TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube , becoming an influencer may be your calling. The great thing about this small business idea is all you really need is a smartphone with a good camera and the time to create eye-catching content.

As your audience grows, you can make money through paid sponsorships , ad revenue, and affiliate marketing. Once you have some money coming in, set up a blog to expand your web presence and earnings. One person who has found major success in making millions as an influencer is Judy Travis , who creates parenting content and beauty reviews on her YouTube channel.

19. Inventor

If you can create a product or service that solves a problem, you can make excellent money as an inventor!

One of the most well-known female inventors of our time is Sara Blakely , the creator, and founder of Spanx. If you’re not familiar with Sara’s story — she needed a smoothing undergarment to go under some white pants she was wearing to a party but didn’t have anything that fit the bill. So, she cut up some control-top pantyhose to solve her problem. This one moment started the whole Spanx revolution. Today, Spanx makes slimming undergarments, leggings, and clothing for women and men and generates an estimated $400 million a year!

20. Life Coach 

If you enjoy helping other people achieve their life ambitions, starting your own business as a life coach might be just the thing for you. Most coaches, whether a life, business, career, health or another specialty, enroll in some sort of online training. iPEC offers certificate training programs in life, executive, health and wellness, and sports and performance coaching. This is a good small business idea for people who are empathic and enjoy helping others. 

One lifestyle entrepreneur coach who has had massive success is  Jessica Nazarali . She started a blog and an online health food shop that she worked as a side gig on nights and weekends. This side gig quickly took off, and people started approaching her on how to do the same. Jessica eventually quit her day job, sold her business, and started coaching other lifestyle entrepreneurs on how to be successful. Today, she earns seven figures a year, mentoring others!

With coaching, you can work anywhere in the world, as long as you have a computer and internet connection. With platforms like Zoom, it’s never been easier to run a virtual coaching business from home!

21. Lip Gloss Maker and Seller

OK, I’ll admit it, I have a small lip gloss addiction. Right now, in my purse, I have eight tubes of lip gloss. It turns out I’m not the only one who enjoys a good tinted or plumping gloss; according to  Grand View Research , Americans spent 1.98 billion dollars on lip care products in 2020. If you love makeup, becoming a lip gloss maker and seller is a fun way to start your own business. 

Honestly, I had never thought about this business idea until I came across an entrepreneur ( Kiki Quesada ) on TikTok who films her lip gloss business-making activities. With over 1.7 million followers on TikTok, she’s constantly running out of products to sell. I’d say she’s doing pretty well with her lip gloss business! For more info on starting this kind of business, check out  this post.

22. Membership Business

This is a good business idea for people with expertise in a specific area; start a membership business! With platforms like Patreon and Podia , it has never been simpler to generate recurring income with a membership business. 

First, decide what you’re going to provide for monthly members; it could be meal plans, a newsletter , templates, job leads, training in a subject like freelance writing, music, and on and on. Once you decided on what you’ll deliver each month, choose a platform to deliver your content and set up your payment options. Then get the word out about your business on sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and more. 

Carol Tice, the brains behind the Freelance Writers Den, offers a monthly membership to freelance writers. With this $40-a-month membership, members get 300+ hours of training, a forum, live Q&A sessions, and more. Talk about a lucrative business; the last time I spoke to Carol, she was making $300K a year just from her membership income.

Go to this post , for more tips, on starting a membership business.

23. Online Tutoring Business

If you have expertise in a subject like math or you’re bilingual, you can make good money as an online tutor . With this small business idea, you can reach out to neighbors, friends, and family letting them know about your online tutoring services. You can also get the word out on sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Nextdoor. Having a website is a good option for showcasing your credentials and listing your hours, prices, and policies. 

Adrianne Meldrum left her full-time job as a teacher to become a stay-at-home mom. But after a year of full-time mom duty, she felt the need to exercise her brain. With a suggestion from her sister, she launched a small home tutoring business. Today, she runs a tutoring agency from home called Made for Math. If you’d like to learn more about starting a tutoring business from home, check out her interview , it has lots of great tips.

24. Personal Concierge

Would you enjoy managing a client’s personal affairs? As a personal concierge , sometimes called a personal assistant, you’ll help people tackle their personal to-do lists. Some common tasks may include running errands, making appointments, paying bills, booking travel, and picking out gifts.

According to Forbes , a personal concierge can expect to make $40,000-$60,000 annually, depending on the number of clients and the types of services you offer. The great thing about this small business idea is that it doesn’t require any special knowledge or skills to get started.

25. Personal Trainer

Becoming a fitness instructor is an easy way to share your love of fitness with others while making an income from home. If you don’t have a college degree in kinesiology or exercise science, you can train online to become a personal trainer in almost any discipline.

I recently did a 200-hour yoga teacher training online, and it only took four months to complete. Once you have the proper skills, start getting more comfortable as an instructor by offering free classes to your friends and family. Once you’ve built up your confidence, you can teach group classes online via Zoom; you can sub for other instructors and even teach private lessons.

26. Photographer

Do you have an eye for lighting and composition? Do you enjoy snapping photos of the world around you? If so, you can start a photography business from home! Depending on your interests, you can specialize in various niches such as drone photos , pets, nature, flat lays, feet , family, newborns, fashion bloggers, and stock photos; the opportunities are endless!

One photographer I know purchased a $5 ad on Craigslist and landed $2,700 in business in just one month! You can read the exact steps she took here to achieve this success level using Craigslist.

27. Professional Organizer

If you get a sense of accomplishment from organizing, decluttering, and tidying, becoming a professional organizer may be your calling. You may already possess natural organizing skills, but if you need some help in turning this passion into a business, some professional training from the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals ( NAPO ) or Marie Kondo can quickly get you up to speed. According to this Forbes article , professional organizers can earn around $30-$130 per hour!

28. Proofreader

Do spelling and grammar errors drive you bonkers? Then perhaps starting a proofreading business from home is your calling. As a proofreader, you can help authors, bloggers, writers, and small business owners proof their documents and articles for critical errors. Having an English or journalism degree can help establish you as an expert, or you can take a proofreading course like Proofread Anywhere , which will teach you proofreading and business-building skills.

29. Publishing Business

If starting a blog from scratch sounds daunting, consider joining one of the many local publishing companies that offer a blog-in-a-box business opportunity. With these companies, you’ll purchase the rights to a specific geographical area, and you’ll get a website and training on how to run your publishing business. Some companies split advertising commission 50/50, and with others, you get 100% of the advertising commission, but you have recurring fees.

If this sounds appealing, here are some companies to check out:

• City Mom Collective
• Living on the Cheap
• Macaroni Kid

30. Purchase an Existing Business

Not sure which type of business to start, but you like the idea of a turn-key-ready operation? Perhaps purchasing an established business is your path to entrepreneurship. Take a look at online business marketplaces like Flippa , Niche Investor , and Digital Exits . On these sites, you can view the cost of the business, how much revenue it generates, and other pertinent factors. For some great tips on buying an established business, check out this interview with Lisa Stein .

31. Resume Writer

Have you worked in HR or been a recruiter? Do you know what makes a resume stand out from the crowd? And, of course, do you enjoy writing? If so, use your passion and inside knowledge and spin it into a home-based resume-writing business! According to this post , resume writers can earn an average of $62,170 per year. You can also offer career and interview coaching, cover, and thank you letter services to expand your offerings and increase your earnings.

32. Sell Printables

Are you a pen-and-paper fanatic? Do you love to create invitations, daily schedules, or custom gift tags? If so, turn your passion into a profit by creating and selling printables from home ! Two people who’ve found success in this arena are Julie Berninger and Cody Berman of Gold City Ventures. Julie has made thousands of dollars selling bachelorette party printables on Etsy, and Cody has created a successful side hustle selling kitchen jar labels, coloring pages, and cleaning binders!

Together, they’ve combined their knowledge into the E-Printables Side Hustle Course , which will teach you everything you need to know on how to start a successful printable business from home.

33. Social Media Manager

Do you know how to create social media posts that generate a lot of views and likes? If so, starting a social media business from home could be your calling. The types of services you offer and the platforms you manage will depend on your expertise. Whether it’s setting up new accounts, creating videos for TikTok or YouTube, or managing advertising campaigns on Facebook or Pinterest. While you can work as a generalist, I highly suggest choosing a niche. One course that can help you launch a Pinterest social media business is Pinterest VA . In this course, you’ll learn both Pinterest skills and business-building skills so that you can help clients manage their Pinterest accounts.

34. T-Shirt Seller

Another great business idea is designing and selling T-shirts , coffee mugs, tote bags, sweatshirts, and hoodies online. With the print-on-demand (POD) economy, it’s never been easier or more affordable to start this kind of online business. 

To begin, choose which POD platform you’d like to use ( Spring , Spreadshirt , and Redbubble are good for beginners), and start adding your designs, logos, or catchy phrases to items. Next, you’ll price your items and then promote the listings online.

A few nice things about POD companies are most are free to get started, and you don’t have to worry about inventory or fulfillment, as they print the item on demand and ship it directly to your customer. The company will then take its cut of the profit and cost of supplies, and what’s left is yours to keep.

35. Translator 

Are you fluent in more than one language? If so, take your bilingual skills and open a freelance translation service business! With this small business idea, you can apply for freelance translation gigs, or you can build your website and find your own clients, taking 100% of the profits from your work. Or maybe you want to think bigger and build your own translation agency, hiring other bilingual individuals to do the translation work. Of course, you have other options to explore as well, such as language tutoring, offering interpreter services, or even captioning services.

36. Travel Agent

Do you love searching the web for the best travel deals and unique places to visit? If this is your idea of fun, starting a home-based travel business may be your calling. According to this post , travel agents can earn $50K-$100K per year on the low end, and on the high end, $250K-$500K per year!

Pick a traveling niche that you’re passionate about, such as Disney , cruises , family, adventure, or luxury travel, and either start an agency from scratch or find a hosting company or franchise to join.

37. UGC Creator

If you enjoy creating videos and filming unboxings, reviews, and other forms of user-generated content, you can make good money with this new type of business venture.

The nice thing about being a UGC creator is that you don’t need a large following on your social media accounts. This is because the companies you work with will take your content and license it for their social media platforms. Essentially, you are creating content and ads for companies and not trying to influence your audience to take an action or make a purchase. 

To get started as a UGC creator, launch your social media accounts (TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and Facebook) and start creating content. Your content should reflect your video and editing abilities, the types of products and brands you’d like to work with, and the style of your work. Once you have some content on your platforms to showcase your skills, you can either begin pitching brands or sign up with companies that match brands and UGC creators. This post has a list of companies you can sign up with and more details on launching this small business idea from home.

38. Vending Machine Business

This next business idea is going to take a little capital upfront, but it can be an excellent way to earn passive income. Starting a vending machine business will require you to purchase the machine and snacks or drinks, but once it’s all set up, you’ll watch the money roll in without doing much work. According to  this article , one machine can generate $75-$650 a month. To make this a truly profitable business idea, most vending machine owners purchase multiple machines increasing their monthly earnings. 

While a new vending machine will likely cost you $3,000 or more, you can find used machines for $200 on up. Of course, this business idea will require you to leave the house to fill your machines and shop for bulk supplies. But if that doesn’t bother you, this might be an excellent home-based business to start.

39. Virtual Assistant

If you’re detail-oriented and organized and enjoy working on a variety of professional tasks, this next small business idea might be your calling. Many small business owners, including real estate agents, bloggers, influencers, legal firms, and authors, need extra hands to help them with administrative tasks .

The jobs you’ll perform will be based on your experience, skills, and expertise but could include editing, writing, research, design, data entry, or managing calendars and email. The more complex the tasks, the more money you can charge. Be sure to check out this post , where nine virtual assistants share their highest-earning services.

40. Voice Actor

Do people tell you that you have a great voice? If so, you can make good money as a voice actor ! One woman that has found success in narrating audiobooks from home is Julie Eickhoff. She started in 2011, and since then, she’s recorded over 100 audiobooks, and she’s an Audible-approved producer.

Today, Julie helps other aspiring voice actors break into the business with her course, Work From Home Doing Voice Overs . In it, you’ll learn voice acting skills, the equipment needed, and how to run your business. If you’re not sure voice acting is the right path for you, check out her free mini-course here .

Launch Your Small Business Idea

Out of this list of home-based business ideas, did you find one that suits your personality? Great, here are some common next steps to starting your small business.

1. Get the Proper Training

If you don’t already possess the skills needed to perform the task at hand, you’ll need to educate yourself on both skill-building and business-building skills. If you’re taking a course , ensure that it covers both of these aspects so that once you master the skill, you can get your business up and running quickly.

2. Write a Business Plan

Every business, no matter how big or how small, should start by writing a business plan. Writing a business plan will help ensure that you have all of your bases covered, and it will help you think through all the next logical steps to take. Not sure how to get started? No problem! Grab our free business plan template here .

Free Business Plan Template

Would you like to start a home-based business, but you’re not sure where to start?

Grab our FREE Simplified Business Plan Template , which will walk you through the questions and steps you need to take to get your business off the ground!

3. Get the Right Tools

As a new business owner, you’ll need to invest in the right tools to get the job done. At a bare minimum. you’ll need a computer, a high-speed internet connection, a way to accept payments, and, more than likely, a website. 

A website allows you to showcase your expertise, your service offerings, rates, testimonials, and more. 

Here are some pages you’ll need to include: 

• Contact information
• Privacy policy
• Services or products
• Testimonials

There are so many easy-to-use and affordable options for building your website, and  this post  can help you determine which platform or online marketplace s right for you.

4. Market Your Small Business

I don’t know who said,  build it, and they’ll come , but I doubt that they ever started a business. 

Once your business is up and running, you’ll need to get the word about it, meaning you’ll need to choose 2-3 marketing methods and block out time in your schedule each day for promoting your business. You can choose to get the word out by: 

• Attend networking events
• Bid on freelance gigs
• Cold calling
• Email marketing
• Pitching clients via email
• Social media
• Use Facebook groups

Be Your Own Boss With These Small Business Ideas

Sometimes, the most challenging part about starting a business is figuring out which type of business to start. But with some exploration of your skills, passions, personality type, and familial obligations, this list of best business ideas should spark some ideas that will be perfect for your situation.

Looking for more profitable business ideas? Here is a list of service-based ideas and creative business ideas !

Originally published April 12, 2021. Content updated March 2024.

Would you like to start a home-based business, but you're not sure where to start?

About the Author

Holly Reisem Hanna

Holly Reisem Hanna is a former nurse who decided to start a blog to make money from home while caring for her daughter. Since its inception in 2009, The Work at Home Woman has helped millions of readers find legitimate work at home jobs and business ideas. Under Holly's guidance, The Work at Home Woman was named one of the best websites for your career by Forbes two years in a row. Holly graduated from the University of Texas and has been featured in Yahoo Finance, Woman’s World Magazine, CNN, and many others.

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Reader Interactions

March 2, 2024 at 10:25 am

Hi Holly, are there any other bookkeeping courses that are less expensive? I’ve looked into that one & although it looks good, it’s very expensive & I’ve read it’s mostly a marketing course. Do you know of any other way to learn to be a bookkeeper? Thank you.

March 3, 2024 at 9:12 am

Coursera has a few to choose from: https://imp.i384100.net/Kjmqd9 (my affiliate link).

The Intuit Academy Bookkeeping course would be a good one since Intuit QuickBooks is what most companies use. There are reviews on each course, so you can determine which is best suited for your situation.

All the best, and keep me posted!

May 8, 2022 at 10:35 am

Hi Holly, Gone through the details given above, I still could not find a suitable and simple typing job site. I do not have much technical expertise and whatever the sites I checked, all are not genuine. Can you please suggest any suitable job that can be done online from india. Thanks and regards

May 9, 2022 at 9:17 am

These are business ideas, not companies hiring employees.

Try looking at Kelly Services, Robert Half, and Adecco for data entry clerk and administrative type jobs.

October 19, 2021 at 9:28 am

It great to offer so much choices well elaborated.

October 21, 2021 at 6:35 am

Glad you enjoyed the list of ideas!

September 28, 2021 at 1:27 pm

Hi, Holly , I want to thank you for creating this content. With everything going on in this world right now we all need help. My interest is in Direct Sales. Besides, Cabi, Stella & Dot and Tastefully Simple. Are there any other direct businesses that are legit? Not a scam. Some can be dishonest. I don’t want to purchase a starter get and not get the proper training to grow my business. I don’t have money to waste. Also, which website is good for customer service jobs? Flexjobs etc ? Some of your list are long. I would like to narrow it down to a few companies to start with. Any help you can give would be appreciated. Keep up the great work your doing. I know I’m going to find the right work from home job for me. I don’t want to settle for anything. I know you understand. Take Care! God Bless!

September 28, 2021 at 4:45 pm

There are many legit direct sales companies; what type of products are you interested in selling? I would narrow down the kind of products ( https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/direct-sales/ ) and then find one that you LOVE! It’s hard to sell something that you feel just so-so about.

Do you have experience in customer service? If so, there are lots of companies to choose from! Right off the top of my mind PhoneBurner and Smith.ai have good opportunities. This article has a ton of ideas: https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/get-paid-talk-phone/

Good luck and keep me posted!

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How to Start a Small Business at Home in 2023: 20 Ideas + Tips

The information in this article is intended for general information purposes only. You should not rely on it as the sole basis for making any business, legal, or other decisions. While we make every effort to ensure that facts stated are correct at the time of publication, we do not accept any responsibility for keeping this information up to date. Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Pay.com.

If you’ve got a great business idea and the drive to put in a bit of work, you can get your very own home-based business up and running fairly quickly. It’s not as complicated as you may think, especially if you set everything up the right way.  

In this article, I’ll break down the process into 8 easy-to-follow steps that work for pretty much any type of small home business. If you know you want to start a business from home but you’re not quite settled on a particular business idea, I’ve also got some interesting ideas for you.

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8 Steps to Start a Business from Home 

The steps below are general guidelines that you can follow to get your home business off the ground. Follow them to a tee or adapt them to suit your own needs - either way, there’s no time like the present to get started. 

Step 1: Choose Your Business Idea

You may already have a great idea for a home business, or you may just know you want to do something entrepreneurial that doesn’t involve going into an office every day. 

Your first step is deciding on the focus of your new business venture. If you’re not sure what you want to do yet, you can jump ahead to a great list of ideas.

Here are some questions that can help you find the direction for your business:

• Do you have specific talents or interests that could potentially be monetized?
• Is there a particular problem or challenge you have a solution for, and you think others could also benefit from the solution? 
• Are there existing small home-based businesses that you admire and can think of ways to improve upon?

Once you have an initial idea, a few other questions to consider include:

• Is there likely to be demand for this particular product or service?
• Is it logistically possible and feasible to run this type of business from home?
• What will the startup costs entail?

You’ll go into more of these questions in depth later on in the process, but you’ll want to know that a market for your idea exists before you move forward. 

Step 2: Scope Out Your Competitors

Unless you’ve come up with a super obscure idea, you’re more than likely to have some competition. Spend some time online and try to find out what your potential competitors are offering .

Check their prices, see what kinds of questions/reviews they’re getting on social media, and read their testimonials for starters. This should give you a sense of how successful they are as well as where there may be room for improvement.

This will help you come up with your own unique value proposition, which can make your business stand out from the competition. 

Step 3: Write a Business Plan

Your business plan will become your best friend. This should be a living document that you consult all the time and update as needed, as your business grows and develops. Whether you go the traditional route and follow a template or simply write notes in your favorite app, your business plan should include some of the following elements:

• A brief summary of your business idea
• Market and competitor analysis
• A detailed description of the product or service you plan to sell
• Your sales and marketing plans
• Your financial projections

Don’t let this list stress you out - no section has to be super formal. Think of the business plan as a place to write out all of your ideas. You can refer back to it as things progress and use it to make sure you’re on track. 

You may need more of an official business plan if you decide to seek outside funding. Your potential investors or lenders might have specific information they’ll want you to include. 

Step 4: Take Care of Bureaucracy

There’s no escaping the bureaucracy involved in setting up a business, but it doesn’t have to be stressful. Just take it step by step and work through each item. Below are the critical processes that you’ll most likely need to complete as you create your business:

Action Item	What's Involved
Choose a legal structure	Most home businesses will be sole proprietorships,in which there's no real legal separation between you and the business. You may decide creating a Limited Liability Company (LLC) makes more sense for you as it provides legal protection for your personal assets and keeps them separate from the business. Whichever structure you choose, you'll need to based on your local laws. Contact your government offices to find out exactly what you need to do - this is likely to just be some simple paperwork
Open a business bank account	in order to keep your personal finances separate from the business. You should be able to do this at your local bank. If you already have an account there, you may be able to save on certain fees
Purchase business insurance	Depending on the type of business you’re starting, you may want to get insurance. Some policies you might need are general liability insurance, commercial property insurance (in case you have equipment), and business income insurance, which would help cover expenses in the event that you can’t run the business.
Hire an accountant	Unless you’re very financially savvy, it could be a good idea to hire an accountant or bookkeeper to help you manage your finances. This way, you’ll be sure that you’re paying all required taxes and that your business is structured properly. This is especially important if you’re going to have employees on the payroll.
Acquire any necessary licenses	Check local rules and regulations to determine whether you need any licenses or permits to conduct your business. A food business, for example, is likely to be subject to health and safety regulations and inspections.

Step 5: Create a Marketing Plan

You’ll want to have a plan in place for how you’re going to attract customers. Like your overall business plan, your marketing plan may change over time.

To create a marketing plan, think about what your goals are. Are you aiming for a certain number of sales? Are you looking to earn a certain amount of revenue each month? Do you want to reach a particular number of people each quarter?

Once you know your goals, think about your target customer and what you may need to do in order to reach those goals. Where do they hang out online? Should you be doing social media ads? Should you consider print ads in newspapers or magazines? There are many different ways to run a marketing campaign .

Social media is an excellent way to market your business, raise awareness of your brand, and bring in customers. Don’t underestimate the value of your potential community - the more you can get your followers to engage with your posts and get them to participate in conversations around your product or service, the better. 

Email marketing can also be a powerful tool, and there are platforms out there that make it easy to get set up. You can get leads by including a signup form on your website.

After you’ve laid out your marketing ideas, create a detailed list of all of the tasks you need to complete to put it into action. Add due dates and a timeline, and your marketing plan is complete. 

Step 6: Build a Website 

In today’s day and age, a website is a must-have for any business. It can be your virtual storefront , or just a way to provide potential customers with information about your business.

Even if you don’t have any tech experience, you can use one of the many drag-and-drop website builders out there to get a professional-looking site online.

If you’re going to be selling products online, the most important elements to include on your ecommerce site are a clear description of what you’re offering, high-quality product pictures, and a payment system with a checkout page .

Step 7: Set Up a Payment Infrastructure 

To accept payments from your customers, you’ll need to choose a payment service provider and set up a payment infrastructure. You’ll want the payment process to be very simple and streamlined for your customers. 

It doesn’t get easier than Pay.com. From the quick onboarding process to adding different payment methods to your website at the click of a button, we’ll make sure you’re set up and ready to let customers pay you. 

Not all payments will necessarily take place on your website, and Pay.com has a solution for that too. You can easily take your customers’ payment details over the phone and enter them into the system manually, or send them direct Pay Links . Then, you can keep track of the status of all your transactions through your Pay Dashboard.

Click here to get started with Pay.com.

Step 8: Start Selling

With all of the above in place, all that’s left for you to do is launch your business. 

I’m a strong believer in just putting yourself out there and trying things. If one product doesn’t sell well, figure out what you can change and try again. If it seems like there’s no interest in your services, try a new marketing method. There’s no magic formula - success will come with hard work and a bit of luck mixed together!

20 Ideas for Small Businesses You Can Start at Home 

Now for the fun part! If you’re still unsure what type of business you’d like to start, we’ve put together a list of 20 potential ideas to inspire you. 

1. Ghost Kitchen

It may sound spooky, but a ghost kitchen is not haunted! A ghost kitchen is essentially a virtual restaurant that only offers food for delivery or takeout. You cook in your own home or a rented commercial kitchen, put a menu online, and accept orders from customers for delivery. 

This could be a great business opportunity if you love to cook. It doesn’t require a lot of startup costs, especially if you start out cooking in your own kitchen. Once you start growing, however, you’ll need to be sure that you’re appropriately licensed and adhering to food safety regulations. 

2. Candle Business

Who doesn’t love to add ambience to their home with a pretty candle? There are so many different options - decorative candles, scented candles, tea lights, birthday candles, and the list goes on and on. With just some wax, wicks, and a heating element, you can start a candle business of your own .

Then, all you need is a website where you can showcase pictures of your creations and where people can choose their favorites for purchase. There’s room to grow and expand the business with custom orders or even candle-making workshops if you so desire. 

3. Bookkeeping Business

If you laughed to yourself at the “hire an accountant” step above, perhaps you can put your skills to use helping other small (or large) businesses with their bookkeeping. To start your own bookkeeping business , you’ll need to be fully qualified and licensed based on local rules.

If you’ve got the skills and the license and maybe have some years of in-house work under your belt, taking this skill freelance is a great option for an at-home business. Once you start to build a reputation, you can rely on word-of-mouth and referrals to keep growing your business. 

Selling a service is slightly different than selling a product online , and while you should probably still have a website, you may not need a checkout page as you’ll want to invoice your clients directly. Here’s where Pay.com’s Pay Links could come in handy - you can send a link for the client to click on and then pay you directly. 

4. Dog Walking Business

Are you walking your own dog every day? Why not turn that into a business and walk other people’s dogs too? Plenty of people have to leave their dogs home alone all day while they go to work. Imagine how relieved they might be to know that someone is there to take their dog out during the day. 

What could be better than getting paid for something that you have to do anyway? Once you start your own dog walking business , you can expand to doggy day-care or overnight care should you see the demand. 

5. Art Business

Whether you love creating your own art or you’re an art dealer, starting an art business from home could be a good choice for you. If you’re creating your own art anyway, then there’s virtually no overhead (other than the supplies).

You can create a gallery website where you can showcase your work and let people purchase directly from the site or make appointments to come see the artwork in person. 

6. Craft Business

Do you have a room full of scrapbooking materials or half-finished sculptures? Don’t let all that inventory go to waste. Pick a niche and start your own craft business . You might want to start out using a platform like Etsy that will help you reach a wide audience. 

Eventually, you may want to create your own online shop that will give you more control over the customer information you can collect and relationships you can develop . You may even find yourself offering craft workshops in addition to selling your creations. Custom orders are also always a good upsell opportunity. 

7. Clothing Business

Opening an online boutique or specialty clothing store is another potentially lucrative small business option. You could consider a dropshipping business . That way, you don’t have to maintain any inventory or handle the shipping logistics. The supplier takes a cut of the profit, though.

Of course, you could also keep your own supply of inventory and sell directly to customers. There are tons of options for choosing a specific niche in the clothing business . You could focus on baby clothes, kids’ pajamas, athleisure wear, and the list goes on. 

8. Consulting Business

Do you have a flair for helping others? Maybe you’ve started successful businesses in the past and want to use your talent to help others. Whatever your speciality, consulting is a great freelance gig that lets you use your skills on your own schedule.

Joining networking groups and other industry forums is a great way to make connections and build up a client base. 

9. T-shirt Business

Custom-made t-shirts are all the rage for things like sweet sixteen parties, graduations, family reunions, girls’ trips, and so much more. With an investment in some basic equipment, you could set yourself up with a t-shirt business from home.

You could set up a website that allows people to upload a photo and customize the design they want. Using Pay.com, they can choose to pay using the method of their choice , whether that’s a credit card, a digital wallet, or even ACH transfers. 

10. Jewelry Business

From high-end diamonds to handmade jewelry and everything in between, you can create an online jewelry store and sell to customers all over the world.

Depending on the value of the jewelry you sell, you’ll need to take into account insurance and potentially higher shipping costs , but with the right pricing you can run a profitable business. As there are always fraudsters out there looking to make a quick buck, you’ll want to be especially sure that your payment infrastructure can detect questionable transactions and keep you safe . 

11. Tutoring Business

Did you have a favorite subject in school that you were really good at? Or perhaps you’re still a student (or recent graduate) looking to earn some money during your free time. Putting your knowledge to good use teaching others is something for you to consider.

When you start a tutoring business , your only cost is really the value of your time, so price accordingly. You can offer tutoring lessons online in addition to in-person which will significantly increase the size of your target market if you aren’t limited by geographic location. 

12. Catering Business

Another way to turn your love of cooking or food into a lucrative business is by starting a catering business . If you start out with small events, you can work directly out of your home kitchen.

As the business grows and you want to take on larger events, you may end up renting space in a commercial kitchen or even outsourcing the cooking itself while you focus on business development and client relationships.

13. Photography Business

A photography business could take on many different forms. Of course, the traditional photography business involves getting out your camera and scheduling photo shoots. This could include newborn photos, family shoots, weddings, and more. 

Perhaps you love taking amazing pictures of nature (or any other subject). You can set up a website through which you can sell your original photos. You’ll have to partner up with a supplier who can print them for you, so keep that in mind when setting your prices. 

14. Personal Training Business

Exercise is all the range and there is no shortage of demand for personal trainers, both in person and online. You’ll need to first get certified as a trainer if you aren’t already, which is both a time and money investment, but a worthwhile one if you’re committed to your business.

Once you’re certified, you can start advertising your services. Offer a free outdoor session in a local park to raise awareness and let people get to know you. Then choose whether you want to offer individual sessions, group classes, or a mix. 

Don’t forget, even if your business itself is not online, you can still use Pay.com to accept payments. Send your personal training clients direct Pay Links and all they have to do is click the link and enter their payment details. 

15. Makeup Business

You can become an affiliate with one of the myriad direct-to-consumer makeup companies out there. A word of caution - while there are plenty of legitimate companies, do your research well before committing as some may be pyramid-type scams! 

Whether you’re an affiliate of an established company or decide to go out on your own selling makeup or other personal care items, you’ll want to first make sure that there is a market for the products you plan to sell. Put out some feelers, ask your friends and family, maybe even put a survey out on social media to get a sense of what types of things people are looking for. 

A makeup business is a good candidate for offering subscription services too. This way, your customers will know that they will never run out of their favorite mascara (or whatever products you sell). With Pay.com , you can allow your customers to save their payment information so they don’t have to re-enter it every time they make a purchase from you. 

16. Interior Design Business

Do you have a flair for design? Do you love rearranging furniture and envisioning new uses for spaces? Put those talents to work and get yourself certified as an interior designer. 

You can set your own hours and choose how many clients and what types of projects you want to take on. Focus on individual rooms or entire houses or even office space. You’ll get to use your creative mind every day while helping people make their living or working spaces more beautiful. 

17. Virtual Assistant Business

For the super-organized people who love getting tasks done and checking things off the list, a potential job you can do from home is working as a virtual assistant. This means offering administrative services to other business-owners who need extra help.

You can choose which services you would like to offer, but many virtual assistants do things like scheduling meetings and travel, customer service tasks, social media management and more. Once you choose your own speciality, you can start advertising your services. One of the big upsides to being a virtual assistant is that you can work for anyone anywhere in the world (taking time zones into account, of course). 

18. Sticker Business

From name stickers to put on kids’ school supplies and lunch boxes to inspirational quotes for decorating a planner and everything in between, who doesn’t love a good sticker?

All you need is an eye for design, basic knowledge of a graphic design tool, and a high quality printer that can print on sticker paper and you can get your business up and running. 

You can create a website where you can showcase the different sticker options and use Pay.com for the behind-the-scenes payment infrastructure. Your customers will be able to use the payment method of their choice and you’ll see the funds in your bank account shortly thereafter. 

19. Online Life Coaching Business

If helping people make changes in their life is right up your alley, consider starting a business as a life coach . This is another one that requires training and proper licensing, but can result in a nice home-based business.

You can meet clients in person or you can run your entire business over Zoom or other video tools. Based on your expertise, you can provide one-on-one coaching or also offer group sessions, webinars, and other training programs. 

20. Event Planning Business

With minimal startup costs, you can set yourself up as an event planner for in-person events, online events, or both. You can be a generalist or focus specifically on events like weddings or proms, corporate conferences, trade shows, webinars, virtual parties or meetings, and the list goes on.

Once you get up and running, you’ll start to create a network of suppliers and vendors that you like working with who might also be able to refer new clients to you and you to them. 

The Pros and Cons of Starting a Business from Home

As with any big decision, it’s a good idea to weigh the pros and cons before you decide whether starting a small business at home is right for you or not. Here are a few things to consider.

The pros include:

• Low overhead costs 
• Many expenses (e.g. rent/mortgage, electricity, etc.) can be claimed as tax deductions if you work from home.
• Online business means ability to sell to a wide geographic market.
• Flexible hours and good work-life balance

The cons include:

• Finding the space in your home to set up your business which may be disruptive to others in your house.
• Navigating bureaucracy including licenses and registrations which may be necessary even for a very simple business.
• Working alone can be lonely without the camaraderie of an office.
• Income can vary greatly month to month.

The Bottom Line: Is Starting a Business from Home Right for You? 

If you have a hobby that you think you can earn money from, if you want to work but don’t want to have to go to an office every day, or if you’re just feeling the entrepreneurial spirit, starting a home business might just be the right thing for you.

Think it through, weigh the pros and cons, imagine what your life would look like with your new business up and running and then decide if you want to try or not.

No matter what type of business you decide to launch, you’ll need a way to accept payments from your customers - and that’s where we come in. Pay.com lets you easily set up a payment system and accept a variety of payment methods, including credit cards, debit cards, ACH transfers, digital wallets, and more. Click here to find out how you can get started.

How can a home business accept credit card payments?

You need to choose a payment service provider that can integrate with your website and facilitate transactions via credit cards and other payment methods. This doesn’t have to be complicated - Pay.com makes the process easy, even if you’ve never taken payments online before.

If you don’t have a website, you can use Pay.com to send your customers direct Pay Links, or even take their credit card information over the phone. Click here to get started.

What is the easiest small business to start at home?

It really depends. It’s probably easiest to start a business that involves using a skill that you already have and that requires little to no startup costs. Think of something that is scalable so that you can grow your business and earn more as time goes on.

How can I start a business with no money?

As the saying goes, you have to spend money to make money, but that doesn’t mean you have to invest millions (or even thousands) to get a new business off the ground. Especially if the business you want to start is consulting, life coaching, bookkeeping, or another service that uses your existing skills, your biggest cost is just your time. 

Which business is best for beginners?

The exact type of business you start notwithstanding, it’s probably best to start out small as a beginner. Selling make-up or clothing, for example, is easier and less of a commitment than studying to be a personal trainer or bookkeeper. Whatever product or service you want to sell, test the market and make sure there is demand before you invest a lot in inventory, etc. 

Even if you’re just getting started with your business, Pay.com makes it simple for you to accept credit cards and a variety of other payment methods. You can invoice your customers, take their card details over the phone, or let them pay through your website.

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Start » startup, how to start a small business at home.

If you want to start a small business at home, these five steps will make it easier to get started and gain momentum in your business.

According to the SBA , there are 31.7 million small businesses in the U.S., and half of them are home-based. If you’ve been thinking about starting a small business from home, here are five steps to get started.

Write a business plan

The first step to starting a small business is coming up with a business idea that interests you. Once you’ve done that, you need to write out your business plan.

A business plan is a roadmap for your business, and it helps you gain clarity. A strategic business plan is also important if you plan to bring on investors or apply for small business financing.

According to the SBA , most business plans fall under the category of a traditional business or a lean startup. A traditional business plan is very comprehensive and will include many different sections, including an executive summary, a description of your services or product line, and financial projections.

In comparison, a lean startup business plan is a high-level overview summarizing the most important aspects of your business. This business plan can work if you don’t plan to seek out funding.

[Read more: When to Update Your Business Plan ]

Choose a business structure

The business structure you choose affects many different aspects of your business, from how much you pay in taxes to whether you can hire employees. There are four main types of business structures you can choose from:

• Sole proprietor : A sole proprietorship is the easiest way to get started, but there is no legal separation between you and the business. This means your personal assets will be at risk if you get sued.
• LLC : An LLC is easy to set up, and it creates a legal separation between you and the business, so your personal assets will be protected in most instances.
• Partnership : A partnership is formed by two or more people, and it could be a good option for a business with multiple owners.
• Corporation : A corporation is a separate legal entity that’s owned by its shareholders. It’s a good idea to speak to a business attorney if you think you want to set up a corporation.

[Read more: How to Start a Business With Your Spouse or Partner ]

The business structure you choose affects many different aspects of your business, from how much you pay in taxes to whether you can hire employees.

Open a business bank account

Once you’ve chosen your business structure, it’s time to set up a business bank account. A business bank account separates your personal and business finances and can make things much easier come tax season.

You’ll need to apply for your employer identification number (EIN) before you can open a business bank account. Your EIN is a federal tax number that identifies your business entity. You can apply for free on the IRS website and receive your EIN within minutes.

Work with an accountant

Taxes are confusing for many small business owners, which is why hiring an accountant is invaluable. If you expect to owe more than $1,000 in taxes, you’re required to pay estimated quarterly taxes to the IRS.

Your accountant can tell you what you owe each quarter and at the end of the year. Your accountant can also ensure you’re tracking your expenses correctly, and tell you what expenses you can deduct on your tax returns.

Start selling your products or services

Once you’ve come up with a plan and have a legal structure in place, it’s time to test out your business idea and begin selling your products or services. Successful businesses are measured based on profitability, so you want to be sure there is a demand for what you’re offering.

Expect that there will be missteps in the beginning, and it may take time for you to gain traction. Be prepared to learn from your mistakes and adjust your strategy as you go. The important thing is that you’re creating a solution that’s relevant and fills a need for your customers.

CO— aims to bring you inspiration from leading respected experts. However, before making any business decision, you should consult a professional who can advise you based on your individual situation.

CO—is committed to helping you start, run and grow your small business. Learn more about the benefits of small business membership in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, here .

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How to choose a legal entity for your startup, 5 steps to use social media to launch your business, 5 alternatives to writing a traditional business plan.

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How to Start a Small Business at Home in 12 Steps

• Choose a small business idea and conduct market research to identify your target market.
• Create a comprehensive business plan outlining operations, costs, market analysis, and financial projections.
• Register your business, acquire necessary licenses, and set up separate business finances.
• Build an online presence with a website, optimize for search engines, and establish social media channels.

Identify your target audience

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Why Identifying Your Target Audience is Key to Success

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Tailoring your message to your target audience

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The role of demographics in identifying your target audience

Are you tired of the rat race? You’re not alone.

Many people have entertained a long-gestating business idea while toying with leaving their full-time jobs.

However, the confusion as to how to start a small business at home has stopped them from taking action.

This guide aims to explore what it takes to start a business.

So whether you want to do search engine optimization, graphic design, dog walking, or other freelance work, you’ll learn everything you need to act on your home business idea.

How to Start a Small Business at Home (Step-by-Step Guide)

Follow these steps to pave the way to a successful business:

Step 1: Decide on a Small Business Idea

Your first step to starting a small business from the comfort of your home is deciding on an idea for your business.

There are thousands of viable businesses you can start from your kitchen counter, car trunk, or garage.

Thanks to the internet, small business owners can compete with huge players using nothing more than a laptop, internet connection, and credit cards.

The same applies whether you’re running a product or service-based business.

However, deciding on a business and ensuring it succeeds come down to how thoroughly you conduct market research.

Your business needs a target market, which refers to the group of people that needs your product or service.

You can only confirm that these people exist after doing your research.

To do market research, you can converse with people who you think fit your target customers and ask them about their needs.

In the alternative, it’s quicker to rely on data compiled by data-gathering companies like Statista.

Once you confirm that a market exists for your product or service, making a decision will come easier.

Step 2: Develop a Business Plan

Your business plan outlines your vision for your new business.

The business-plan-creation stage demands you to be forward-thinking because you’ll be planning for a business entity that is yet to exist.

Thus, when creating a business plan, you must cover everything from how your business will operate on a day-to-day basis to the fixed and variable costs of staying a going concern.

A typical business plan has the following sections:

• Executive Summary: Talks about your business’s mission and vision
• Business Overview: Explains your business idea
• Market Analysis: Provides an analysis of the market your business will cater to. It could include your business’s marketing strategy, marketing and sales plan, etc.
• Cost Analysis: Explain your business’s fixed and variable costs . Some businesses have fewer upfront costs than others (e.g., a graphic design versus a catering business)
• SWOT Analysis: Stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. A SWOT analysis explains your business’s strengths and weaknesses and the opportunities and threats it faces.
• Financial Forecast: Indicates your financial projections and explains how you see your business making money over a time period.

The business plan sections listed above aren’t exhaustive. Note that the level of detail you put into your business plan will depend on the industry you’re entering.

Also, this stage of starting a small business is vital, so don’t skip it. You’ll need a business plan to provide a roadmap for your operations.

It’ll also give you a guide that’ll help you stay on track and keep yourself accountable.

Step 3: Create a Business Name

With your business plan done, now would be a good time to think of a business name.

While there’s no exact science to choosing a business name, you can consider the following factors:

• Does the name reflect your brand and core values?
• Does your business name tell the public the types of products and services to expect?

Once you’re satisfied the name meets the above criteria, you’ll need to check if it’s available.

You can check for business name availability in several places, including:

• Your state’s filing office
• The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website

Regarding searches conducted at a state filing office, consider checking for availability beyond your state if you plan to operate nationwide or online.

Your search should also reveal any domains registered in the name you’re after.

Consider drawing up a list of possible business names just in case one or more are already taken.

When you find an available business name, consider trademarking it. Then, register a domain with a .com extension and create accounts for it on your target social media platforms.

Step 4: Choose a Business Entity

After choosing a business name, your next step is to choose a business structure. The Internal Revenue Service ( IRS ) lists five business structures:

• Sole Proprietorship
• Partnership
• Corporations
• S Corporations
• Limited Liability Corporation (LLC)

Deciding on a business structure for your business is important because it determines the following:

• Your level of exposure to legal liability
• Whether you’ll need to register with the state
• How you’ll be taxed

Sole proprietorships are the easiest to start, but they offer no separation between you and the business.

So if someone sues your business, and its assets aren’t enough to cover the money they’re suing for, they can get you to pay the balance from your personal assets.

Many small business owners prefer this business structure.

LLCs and the various corporation types offer better protection for your personal assets. Therefore, in the event that your business gets sued, the person suing can only claim against its assets.

The downside to these structure types is they require you to register with the state and are susceptible to double taxation.

If you choose a sole proprietorship structure but want to operate under a separate business name, consider registering a DBA (doing business as).

Step 5: Register the Business

This step applies if your business fits the legal structure of a corporation or LLC.

There’s no one-size-fits-all process for registering a business, as each state has unique regulations governing business registration.

So it’s a good idea to visit your local Business Bureau to get the exact guidelines for registering your home-based business.

Regardless of what the procedure is at the state level, you also need to register with the Federal Government.

The process involves applying for an Employer Identification Number (EIN), which, among other benefits, lets you hire employees and apply for a business bank account.

The IRS is responsible for issuing EINs.

Step 6: Acquire Business Licenses

After registering your business at the federal and state levels, your next step is to get a business license.

Businesses require different licenses depending on their type, industry, and location.

Below are some of the licenses worth looking into when you’re taking this step:

• General Business License: This is a requirement to operate a business in the U.S. It may take the form of a sales tax permit, business operation license, etcetera.
• Property/Zoning Permits: Every area has zoning laws that regulate how home-based businesses can operate. Some are stricter than others, going as far as banning home businesses outright. So ensure you check your area’s zoning laws to make sure you’re not violating them.
• Home Occupation Permit: If you’re running a business from home, you’ll need a home occupation permit to do it legally. This permit tells the government that your business isn’t constituting a nuisance by causing traffic, environmental damage, noise pollution, and so on.

Please note that you’ll need these licenses regardless of whether you’re running an online business or offering a freelance-based service.

Step 7: Setup Your Business’s Finances

Depending on your business structure, the law may recognize your business as a separate entity from you.

As such, you’ll need to separate your personal and business finances using a business bank account.

The way to achieve this split is by opening a business bank account.

A business bank account lets your business receive money, obtain small business loans and take on business debts, and other benefits.

Even if you register a sole proprietorship, it’s still a good idea to keep your personal finances separate from your business’s.

Step 8: Gather Funds

Starting a new business from home means you’re exempt from many typical startup costs (like office space) that other businesses incur.

However, the opposite is true if you need equipment and inventory to run your business.

Plus, if your business needs more capital than your savings can cover, you’ll need to secure outside funding.

While it’s challenging for newer businesses to secure funding, you’re not out of options just yet.

You can obtain loans from friends and family, get a business credit card, and obtain a line of credit.

Thus, once you open a business bank account, start gathering the funds you need to fuel your operations.

Step 9: Setup an Office

A major drawback of starting a small business at home is the lack of separation between home and office.

Setting up a home office will help you ensure work-life balance, but it has another benefit: it instills a sense of discipline.

Before you worry about building an entirely new living space, you can convert an extra room, shed, or garage into an office space using existing furniture around the house.

Step 10: Prepare for Taxes

As a small business owner, you must pay taxes to the state and federal governments every quarter. Therefore, you need to set yourself up to pay self-employment tax.

Also, if you hire employees, collect sales tax, and so on, you’ll have to set up different accounts (payroll withholding and sales tax accounts) at the state government level.

Most people find this step challenging, so it’s best you consult a tax expert in your area to learn everything you need to be compliant.

Step 11: Take Care of Accounting and Payroll

Running a business from home involves keeping track of its finances. You have three options: do it manually, hire an expert, or use payroll software.

Doing your accounting manually might seem like the best option when you’re starting out, but it’s time-consuming.

Also, you’re liable to be fined for mistakes. Meanwhile, your business’s available capital might not be enough to justify hiring an expert.

Thus, your best bet is to use one of the many accounting and payroll software programs available.

Accounting software offers the best of both worlds in terms of letting you do your taxes like an expert without the monotony and mistakes that come with doing manual data entry in a spreadsheet.

You can get one within budget and save yourself high fees and headaches.

Step 12: Build an Online Presence

Nowadays, everyone is on the internet, including your customers and competitors.

So after sorting out your business’s financial affairs, build a business website.

Your website should:

• Inform your target audience about your products or professional services
• Provide related marketing materials
• Showcase your branding (business logo)
• Display your contact information and social media channels
• Be optimized for search engines

Also, you need to register a domain name for your business and purchase a hosting plan. You can think of your domain name as your business’s digital address on the World Wide Web.

Meanwhile, if a domain name is your business’s digital address, hosting is the rent you pay to a hosting company to host your website on its server.

Don’t worry if you don’t have the skills or budget to design or hire a web developer.

There are several easy-to-use content management systems and website builders you can use to quickly put together a professional-looking website .

Wrapping Up

Starting a home-based business is straightforward, and anyone with a business idea can do it.

After reading this guide, you’ll be equipped with the tools to join the many entrepreneurs who have, no matter your financial situation.

Brett Helling is a gig economy expert who has been running his own small business for over 10 years.

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How to Start a Home Business (in 9 Steps)

Are you interested in starting a home business? Today, working remotely has become increasingly popular, which provides an abundance of opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Starting a successful home-based business can be overwhelming for many people just beginning their journeys. Our guide will help simplify the process with the essential steps and advice from small business owners who have already launched their business ventures from their residences.

We focus on helping you by discussing the following topics. Just click on a link to jump right to the home business information that interests you.

What are some advantages of a home-based business?

What are some disadvantages of a home business, factors to consider when starting a business at home, decide on a home business idea, write a home-based business plan, name your home-based business, get an llc for your at-home business, get business licenses for your home business, get a home business bank account, set up your home office, market your home-based business, serve your customers, what business can i start in my home, how do i start a small home-based business, can a tenant run a business from a rental property, what are the three general rules for qualifying your home office as a business expense, what percentage of utilities can i deduct for home business, what insurance do i need to run a business from home, home business faqs, balancing work and life at home.

• Expanding and scaling your home business

Ready to start your own business?

Get ready to start a small business at home.

Short summary

• Start a successful home-based business by carefully considering the type of business, creating a comprehensive plan, obtaining necessary permits and licenses, setting up an ergonomic workspace, marketing your venture effectively, and delivering quality products or services.
• Identify and focus on specialized market segments to help ensure success in any home-based venture. We show you how.
• Learn from inspiring success stories of individuals who have turned their ideas into thriving home businesses with hard work and the right strategies.

What is a home-based business?

Home-based businesses can be any size as long as the primary office is in the small business owner’s home. Small business owners have lots of options to choose from, including:

• Local service businesses
• Online and dropshipping businesses
• Freelance business ventures

Cristobal Mondragon started Bumble Bee Cleaning Services (formerly Queen Bee) as a home-based cleaning business. Now it makes over $1.5 million annually.

Check out Chris Mondragon’s FREE training to kickstart your own cleaning business. You can learn more about his inspiring journey by watching the interview below.

Read on for all the info you need to decide on a profitable home business idea that will work for you based on your skills and interests in combination with the resources available to you.

A home enterprise has several advantages over other small business ideas. Some of the best benefits of a home business include:

• Flexible schedule
• Lower startup costs
• Lower overhead costs
• Increased productivity
• More opportunities
• Less risk than renting a space
• More room for personal growth
• Tax deductions
• Great creative outlet
• Reduced personal expenses

Flexible schedule	Self-discipline required
Lower startup costs	Paying attention to daily tasks
Lower overhead costs	Lack of privacy
Increased productivity	Separating work and home life
More opportunities	Lack of space
Higher pay	Not taken as seriously
Less risk than renting a space	Lack of coworkers to collaborate with and learn from
More room for personal growth	Feelings of isolation
Tax deductions	Procrastinating or overworking
Great creative outlet
Reduced personal expenses

When starting a small business from home, many business owners struggle with aspects like:

• Self-discipline required
• Paying attention to daily tasks
• Lack of privacy
• Separating work and home life
• Lack of space
• Not taken as seriously
• Lack of coworkers to collaborate with and learn from
• Feelings of isolation
• Procrastinating or overworking

Many small business owners will attend networking groups that help them overcome these common challenges. Start practicing good habits early to give your home-based business idea the best chance of success.

Starting a home business can be a huge advantage or disadvantage to a business venture. Ask yourself the following questions before starting your own business from home:

• What type of business suits your skills, interests, and resources?
• Do you have the space for your new business?
• Does your neighborhood have rules against certain small businesses?
• Will your family be supportive if you start a small business at home?

UpFlip Cautionary Tale

Many local business owners will find that their neighborhood has rules about running small businesses from home. I have lived in neighborhoods that don’t allow local service trucks, ones that won’t allow any small businesses, and ones that will only allow online businesses.

Make sure you understand the rules for your area before you start a service-based business from home.

How to start a home business

Successful home business ideas will normally follow a nine-step process for the best odds of success.

• G et an LLC for your at-home business

Keep reading to find some of the best home business ideas.

The first step in starting a home-based company is choosing a business idea. The best small business ideas from home normally fall into the following categories:

• Online Business Ideas
• Service Business Ideas
• Professional Services

We’ll provide you with some home business ideas for each of the three categories next.

Online business ideas

Many successful business owners choose to start an online small business. These make a great new business from home because they don’t require a lot of space and can be started with just the internet and a computer. Consider options like a:

Dropshipping business

This business idea requires creating an online store, finding dropshipping suppliers, and marketing their products. Learn more about dropshipping .

Affiliate marketing business

Small business owners can make a great living through affiliate marketing. You’ll need a marketing and sales plan because you’ll be paid on commission for selling other companies’ products.

Social media business

A social media manager uses digital marketing skills to help other businesses with marketing on social media. Make sure you don’t forget to build your own social media presence, too. Check out our interview with a successful social media manager.

Online store

Whether you have a subscription box business or a dropshipping business, you’ll need an online store. You could even buy an existing eCommerce business.

Check out more online business ideas .

Service business ideas

Check out some of the most popular service businesses that many small business owners run from home.

Car detailing business

Start a small business at home in the car detailing industry. You’ll be washing cars all day. This profitable business can make a ton of money.

Find out how Alan Tursunbaev turned an idea for a summer into a small business that brings in $50K per month.

House cleaning service

You can make a great living when you start a small business that’s a house cleaning service. Just ask Chris Mondragon, who started Bumble Bee Cleaning Services (formerly Queen Bee), which makes nearly $2 million per year.

Dog grooming business

There are lots of businesses involving animals. You could start a pet-sitting business, a dog-walking business , or even a mobile grooming business.

Professional services

You can start a professional services small business at home. Consider one of the businesses below.

Renting commercial real estate

Real estate agents can make a great living and work from their own homes. Check out how Thach Nguyen has built a $100M real estate empire.

Consulting business

Whether someone needs a freelance writer, help with social media, inventory management, or financial projections, consulting is a great business.

Learn more about consulting businesses .

Perform market research

Once you have identified the best home business idea, it’s time to research how to make your small business idea work in more detail. This could involve conducting:

• Target market research
• Competitive analysis
• Research on barriers to entry
• Opportunities research

Once you’ve selected a small business idea, you should write a business plan.

Did you know a well-written business plan can help a company grow 30% faster than one with no business plan?

A detailed business plan is essential to any home-based venture’s success. It functions as a roadmap. Plus, the business plan details your goals, strategies, and financial outlook.

Check out our blog about business plans to download a business plan template and learn how to write your business plan.

Next, you’ll want to name your home-based business. Your business name is the foundation of your brand identity and will inspire your logo, marketing, and customer service.

Your unique business name should be easy enough to remember yet reflective of the values held by you and the company. Try our business name generator . You can find a small business name you love and check the availability on Name Cheap .

Setting up a limited liability company (LLC) for your home-based business is an essential step in safeguarding yourself and preserving your individual assets.

An LLC provides its owners with restricted liabilities, meaning you won’t be personally liable for any debts or duties of your organization. They’re easy to create and manage and offer tax benefits for successful businesses.

Establishing an LLC for your at-home business requires registering with the Secretary of State.

By forming this type of legal entity, you protect both your small business and your personal assets. You might also consider a different legal structure like a sole proprietorship or a corporation.

When starting a home-based business, it’s vital to acquire the essential licenses and permits. Depending on where you’re located and what kind of business you’re running, there will be various requirements for

• licenses such as general enterprise approvals
• sales tax documentation
• professional credentials
• any local requirements

Check local and state laws for any rules that might apply to your business. You may receive harsh penalties if you do not follow them. Make sure to keep track of your records and renewal periods, too.

All this needs to be done so that your company remains legit during its operations. Complying with legal requirements helps you avoid issues. Just ask Cristobal Mondragon:

For any home-based business, it is essential to open a bank account to separate business finances and personal ones. This simplifies tracking profits and expenses for bookkeeping purposes like tax filing.

To establish such an account, you’ll need your legal paperwork like your LLC registration, Tax ID, business licenses, and EIN (Employer Identification Number).

A dedicated credit card may be beneficial so that you can cover costs while your business builds credit history. All these play into managing your business finances. The better you manage the finances, the easier it will be to identify opportunities for improvement.

A dedicated home office is essential for managing your work and keeping up efficiency. Designate an area that provides privacy and limits disturbances so you can focus on running the business from your house. Comfort should be of utmost importance. Get an ergonomic chair and make sure the lighting facilitates whatever type of work you’ll be doing.

You’ll also want reliable, high-speed internet and software that will help you manage your business. The software you need will vary depending on the type of company you’re starting. Check out our HR blog for human resource provider reviews. Other software we suggest is:

• Google Workspace: Get a free 14-day Google Workspace trial .
• Quickbooks: Get 50% off Quickbooks and manage all your business expenses.
• Customer Relationship Management Software: There are a ton of options. Research the ones best for your industry. Two of the best are Monday.com and Asana .

You need an effective marketing strategy to launch and grow a home-based business. It’s essential to have insight into your target audience and research the competitive landscape. Reach potential customers on social media platforms, websites, or by partnering with related service providers.

Track and measure your promotional efforts using key performance indicators (KPIs) like web traffic or customer inquiries to decide where to allocate advertising dollars. Google Analytics is the tool most small businesses use to monitor their success at getting people to their websites.

Most importantly, marketing is a long-term game plan that requires consistency and dedication. Be patient and you’ll stand out from other home-based business owners.

Successful home-based businesses rely on providing their customers with stellar service. Depending on the type of business you start, this could be anything from offering personalized attention to delivering high-quality products. Practice operating on the old adage “Under-promise and over-deliver.”

Every happy customer will help build strong relationships that lead to loyalty and often positive word-of-mouth referrals. These can help you grow your at-home venture even faster.

Most businesses can be started from home as long as there are no homeowner association rules or local government prohibitions. You probably won’t be able to start home-based manufacturing or energy companies, for example.

Beginning a small, home-based business can be achieved by following the essential steps we’ve outlined. First, consider potential ideas and determine if they are suitable for working from your residence.

Consider profitability by creating an organized blueprint of how to move forward. Pick out the right company configuration, give it an apt name, register it with your state authority, and attain an applicable tax ID number and licenses to pave the way for a successful at-home venture.

You may be able to start a home business if you rent. You’ll need to:

• Check your CC&Rs or lease.
• Talk with your apartment complex manager, HOA, or landlord.
• Research zoning laws.
• Check for other laws prohibiting home businesses.
• Get a landlord permission letter for home business activity.

You may need a signed letter of authorization (see our sample) giving permission to use the property for business purposes.

According to the Internal Revenue Service , you have to meet three main criteria to claim a home office as a business expense:

• Exclusive and regular use : Your home office must be used exclusively for business purposes on a regular basis. It should not be used for personal activities.
• Principal place of business : Your home office should be the primary location where you conduct substantial administrative or management activities for your business.
• Meeting clients or customers : You must use your home office to meet your clients, customers, or patients, or the office space must be a separate area used exclusively for business purposes.

As long as your home office is exclusively used for work and is where you consistently do admin work, you will normally qualify to deduct 100% of direct business costs and a percentage of indirect but relevant household costs.

According to the Internal Revenue Service , you can deduct utilities using two methods:

• Simplified Method : Up to 300 square feet at $5 per square foot for a total of $1,500.
• Actual Expenses : This method allows you to use the same percentage of the home you actually use for business. Keep reading to find out how to calculate it.

Using actual expenses, you can either use the percentage based on square feet that are used exclusively for your business, or, if the rooms in your home are approximately equal in size, you can use the percentage of rooms used.

For instance, my office is approximately 15×15 feet or 225 feet out of 1,600 square feet in my home, which equals 14%. I can’t use the rooms method because they are not approximately equal. That calculation would suggest my office space is 33% of the home, which is not a fair representation.

My utilities are around $12,000 per year, which means I can claim 14% of that or $1,687.50 of my utilities. Given my mortgage is $1,700 monthly, 14% of my annual mortgage is $2,856, making my total home office claim $4,543.50—a far better deduction than the Simplified Method’s $1,500.

A home business will normally want a business owner policy (BOP) that bundles together three important coverage types:

• General liability insurance
• Commercial property insurance
• Business interruption insurance

It’s typically cheaper to buy a BOP compared to buying each policy separately and you can add additional coverage types as needed. Simply Business is a great place to get your business insurance because it compares rates from 16 major insurers.

While running a home-based business provides advantages, work-life balance may be compromised. You’ll want to create good rules for yourself to balance your personal time and work time. Here are some rules people suggest (and I wish I followed):

• Create a schedule for yourself with regular breaks and start-stop times. This helps keep your work from infringing upon personal time. My wife wishes I’d listen to this one.
• Maintain a separate space for your work so you can avoid being in it during personal time. This one is the easiest to follow.
• Schedule personal activities including exercise, hobbies, and dates. I try to do this one, but only exercise works flawlessly. My dog and I go for a mile walk every morning.
• Send your kids to boarding school if they start plying in your home office (jk).

Expanding and scaling your successful business

Once you start a small business at home, you’ll operate the business. As you build success, your business entity will likely need to hire more people, automate systems, or diversify income streams. Careful planning and research are essential for a successful business idea to grow. Some of the best ways to scale a business include:

• Introduce new services and products .
• Add another market segment .
• Explore partnerships .
• Upgrade technology .
• Add staff members. (This might mean you need to change the legal structure or move the business out of your own home.)
• Add new locations .
• Create a franchise .
• Increase the budget for your marketing and sales plans .

Now you know how to choose a business idea, create a business entity and legal structure, and some of the unique features of a home business. It’s up to you to take the time to create a solid business plan, build your business model, and market your business.

What business will you start from home?

80% of businesses fail... Learn how not to.

Learn from business failures and successes in 5 min or less. The stories, frameworks, and tactics that will make you a 10x better founder.

Brandon Boushy

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10 Tips to Starting a Home Business

These simple steps can set you on the road to success.

Running your own business from home has a real charm to it. You’re your own boss. Your working hours are flexible. Costs are low since you don’t have to pay rent on a brick-and-mortar office. And there’s no need to ask permission from anyone to, say, walk your dog when the spirit moves you.

That said, not everyone is hardwired for running a successful home-based business. Making a serious go of it requires careful planning and hard work.

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Getting ready to take the plunge? Here are 10 tips you’ll want to consider.

1. Pay attention to the permits

If you’re running a small business out of your home, you may need tax registrations, business and occupational licenses, and permits from state and local governments in order to operate legally. Check to see that your homeowner’s association is OK with the idea. It might have restrictions.

For help with questions like these, tap the experts at  SCORE , a nonprofit that offers free business advice.  The U.S. Small Business Administration  is another source of help in getting you up to speed on permits and more.  AARP’s small business center  also includes articles and advice.

2. Update your insurance

It’s a good idea to add an insurance rider to your homeowner’s or renter’s policy in case a delivery person or client tumbles on your steps. Home-business owners typically get little or no coverage from their standard homeowner’s policy.

The cost of a rider might be around $100 a year per $2,500 of additional coverage. The added cost would vary by the type of work you do, the amount of insurance you want and the volume of inventory stored at home that you’ll want to protect from theft or damage.

If you need further coverage, you can opt for a business owners policy — an insurance package that covers your business property and provides liability coverage for clients coming to your home. These policies generally cost from $500 to $3,500 per year.

Each state has its own rules about insurance that can be offered to home-based outfits. Look up your particulars at the  Insurance Information Institute , an industry trade group and information clearinghouse.

3. Don’t ignore the IRS

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You will need to pay estimated federal taxes on business income each quarter, instead of once a year on April 15. Depending on the location of your business, you may be required to pay state and local income and business taxes, too. Go to the IRS  Self-Employed Individual Tax Center  to learn how to pay the federal taxes. You may also want to consult with your accountant.

4. Set aside a precise place for work

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You should be able to take a tax deduction for 100 percent of costs directly related to your home office, such as the purchase of a work computer or printer toner.

The other kind of tax-deductible home office expenses are “indirect” ones that are prorated, based on the size of your home and office. These are things like your mortgage or rent, insurance and utility bills. Many people with home offices skip the tax break because they’re concerned the write-offs will trigger a tax audit. That’s unlikely.

In general, to get the deduction, the area must be used for work  exclusively  and on a regular basis, either as your main place of business or a location to meet with clients or to do paperwork, such as billing and ordering supplies. That means your kids can’t play games on your work computer when you’re away, and your spouse can’t set up the new elliptical machine in the home office space.

To get the deduction, you must file Form 8829, "Expenses for Business Use of Your Home." For full details, go to  IRS  Publication 587 .

Generally speaking, if the square footage of your home office equals 10 percent of your home's total, you can claim 10 percent of its expenses. The IRS also has a  “simplified option”  rule, which allows you to deduct $5 per square foot of your home office on your return, with a maximum write-off of $1,500 (based on a maximum of 300 square feet). It’s a good idea to take a picture of the space so that you have a record, in case the IRS does scrutinize your return.

5. Establish a work schedule

It’s easy to get drawn into work filling every waking hour. You must be disciplined, manage your time well and be a self-starter. Set daily work hours and do your best to adhere to them. That’s easier said than done, but burnout will do nothing to boost your business.

6. Find a mentor

Working solo can be isolating. Sometimes you’ll need a professional to tap for some advice. Look for a mentor among your industry connections. This relationship can take time to build, but it’s worth it.

Another option is to find a virtual colleague.  PivotPlanet , an online mentoring service, lets you connect with its expert advisers via one-on-one video and phone conferences. It’s designed to help shape a relationship that can evolve over a series of sessions at regular intervals or on an as-needed basis. These meetings are billed hourly at rates of $40 to $125.

7. Don’t overlook the human touch

Working at home can prevent you from developing workplace relationships and doing face-to-face networking for new clients. Push yourself to get out of the house regularly for lunch or meet with prospective clients or colleagues for coffee. And go to industry conferences. At the very least, make it a point from time to time to make a phone call instead of zapping off an email or text.

8. Network electronically

Get active in LinkedIn groups that relate to your industry and clients. Make posts and comment on posts by others. This will display your expertise and give you a feeling of being connected to a community. Check out this post on ways to improve your  LinkedIn  profile.

9. Spread the word

Learning how to  promote yourself  is a lynchpin for success. In addition to having a LinkedIn page, consider having Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and  Twitter  pages for your business. Check out competitors to see which networks they use professionally. Photographers, for example, often showcase their work on Instagram, while Pinterest is popular with people selling consumer goods such as jewelry and glassware.

10. Ramp up your tech skills

When you work for yourself, there’s no tech support person to call when things go haywire. Consider taking a computer class at a community college or, if you’re a Mac user, at an Apple store in your neighborhood. If you need to give presentations, you should become conversant with web-based meeting programs such as GoToMeeting, Cisco WebEx, Join.Me, TeamViewer, Zoom or Google+ Hangouts.

All of these tips will help you create a home-based business that has legs. But the biggest ingredient to your success will be your own drive and determination. The dreamy idea of working from home can be a nightmare if you don’t pay attention to the details.

Kerry Hannon, AARP jobs expert, is the author of   What's Next? Finding Your Passion and Your Dream Job in Your Forties, Fifties, and Beyond  and  Great Jobs for Everyone 50+: Finding Work That Keeps You Happy and Healthy … and Pays the Bills.   Follow her on Twitter   @kerryhannon.

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Web.com review August 2024: Features, pricing, integrations and more

Corey McCraw specializes in writing about voice over internet protocol (VoIP) and unified communications as a service (UCaaS). Corey has been working and writing in the business communications space for more than a decade, and holds a degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Web.com is a website host offering an intuitive interface that allows users without cascading style sheets (CSS) or content management system (CMS) knowledge to create pages. Even in a busy web hosting market, Web.com is very successful. As of the time of this writing the service boasts three million customers. There’s a reason why these types of hosting platforms have become so popular. With a service, such as Web.com, you can craft and host attractive sites without a dedicated web designer or information technology (IT) team, which makes it ideal for small businesses just starting out.

Web.com hosts each page on their servers. As one of the best hosting provider , Web.com has a 99.9% uptime guarantee for site reliability. In addition to this reliability, Web.com sites load quickly, take as little as an hour to build, and have extensive customer support channels. In this review, we’re going to take a look at all of this so that you can determine if Web.com is right for your business.

Introductory price:	Starting at $2.95 per month (for 1 year)
Renewal price for the same plan:	$9.99 per month
Discounted rates for longer terms?	Yes, save up to 70% with a three-year commitment

• Drag-and-drop builder interface
• Free domain
• Unmetered bandwidth
• 24/7 phone and chat support
• No free trial
• Renewal can be expensive
• Does not offer unlimited storage

Web.com pricing & plan overview

Web.com has a three-tiered plan structure, and each plan starts at a very low rate for the first year and renews at a higher monthly rate. For example, the first-tier Website plan starts at $2.95 for the first year and renews at $9.99 per month for features, such as a free domain and business email. Each plan has unmetered bandwidth, up to 40GB of web storage, and a drag-and-drop web builder for sites. Learn more in our guide to web hosting costs .

Plans	Introductory rate	Renewal rate	Features
Basic	$2.95 per month (first year)	$9.99 per month	1 website 10GB storage 15,000 visitors
Plus	$4.95 per month (first year)	$13.99 per month	5 websites 20GB storage 50,000 visitors
Premium	$6.95 per month (first year)	$16.99 per month	10 websites 40GB storage 200,000 visitors

Basic
Introductory rate	$2.95 per month (first year)
Renewal rate	$9.99 per month
Features	1 website 10GB storage 15,000 visitors
Plus
Introductory rate	$4.95 per month (first year)
Renewal rate	$13.99 per month
Features	5 websites 20GB storage 50,000 visitors
Premium
Introductory rate	$6.95 per month (first year)
Renewal rate	$16.99 per month
Features	10 websites 40GB storage 200,000 visitors

Best Web.com plan for small businesses: Basic

The Web.com plan that has the best array of features for a smaller business would be the basic plan. The Basic plan is specifically provisioned for smaller companies needing a single website. This plan features an intuitive web builder, has 10GB of website storage, and comes with a free domain. While it is limited to 15k visitors, this is a fairly extensive number of available visitors for a small company that’s starting to grow. 

All of these useful features are available at less than $3 a month for the first year. This, of course, increases to $9.99 after this period ends, but this is still a very low cost of entry price point that smaller businesses take advantage of as they build a customer base. This plan even comes with a business email so that you have a venue for customers to reach your business without relying on an external service or going with an @gmail, @yahoo, or other email address. 

The aforementioned website builder is a major advantage of this plan. Being able to make use of a drag-and-drop system to build your site is very helpful. In addition to this, the provided templates are very customizable, so while you may have used the same template as another business, yours will still look unique with a few tweaks.

• Business email included
• Easy-to-use, drag-and-drop website builder included
• No free trial 
• Add-on features/services get expensive
• Only 10GB of storage

Other services Web.com offers  

In addition to hosting services, Web.com features several additional services that’ll be valuable to a small business. Here are a few to consider:

• Search engine optimization (SEO): For $29.99 per month, Web.com provides dedicated SEO services. These include SEO health checks and improvement monitoring.
• Domain name search: Web.com features a top-level domain (TLD) search function that provides .com, .net, .org, .co, .store, and .info domains. You can even use keywords.
• WordPress hosting: The host also features the capability of building your site through WordPress and features multi-site management and customer support. 
• Secure sockets layer (SSL) certificates: With four monthly plans, Web.com has SSL certificates. This masks site data and makes private data unreadable with encryption.
• Free email: Starting at $1.49 a month, business emails that match the purchased domain are provided. These integrate with calendar apps and feature 25GB of storage.
• Professional website design: The host employs web design experts who will help business owners create eye-catching sites. 

The Web.com platform and customer support  

As a hosting platform, Web.com is designed with ease of use in mind. It’s easy to add on services, navigate, and build sites through the intuitive user interface (UI). Immediately, you’re presented with options for password protection, file transfer protocol (FTP) and content publishing, site enhancements, configurations, and statistics for your page. You’re granted access to the website builder under the FTP submenu quickly.

Customer support is critical for a service, such as Web.com, especially since many use a provider like this to avoid the expense of hiring a full-sized IT support organization. In this regard, Web.com does a good job of providing the channels customers need to get help. Most of their channels are available 24/7. When you need help with various site issues that might arise, you have the choice of:

• Email support
• Live chat support
• Phone support
• An online knowledge base

Is Web.com secure? 

This host has a wide variety of security features to ensure your page’s continuity. One of the more useful security features is Web.com’s CodeGuard system. This is a three-tiered plan that ranges from $3.99 to $9.99 per month. CodeGuard backs up anywhere from one to 10 websites and provides additional storage and databases for each. Each plan has infinite backup retention, daily backup and monitoring, and one-click restore should the worst happen.

Another security offering is their SiteLock plans, which also come in three tiers that range from $6.99 to $24.99 per month. These provide daily malware scans, automatic malware removal, bot blocking, and blacklist monitoring. There’s even distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection at the higher tiers and continuous malware scans. 

Web.com user reviews

Overall, users have given the hosting packages offered by Web.com a solid score. In fact, HostingAdvice.com gives them a score of 4.3 out of 5 when it comes to web hosting. With the affordable pricing scheme and easy-to-use website builder, most beginners have a fairly easy time. If difficulty arises, there is a support staff available 24/7 that responds quickly to inquiries. There are plans with unlimited storage and bandwidth, so scaling is easy with Web.com.

The negative reviews about the service often circle around the pricing structure. The fact that the first year is much lower than the renewal price is definitely a perk, but when renewal time comes around, users can be caught unaware of the new, higher charge. Add-ons tend to increase the price as well, causing the final price to be more expensive than originally expected.

Compare Web.com alternatives

Starting price per month (with annual payment)	Starting price per month (with annual payment)	Starting price per month (with annual payment)
$13.99 per month	$23 per month	$29 per month
Free trial available?	Free trial available?	Free trial available?
No	Yes, 14-days	14-day money-back guarantee
Storage (in GB)	Storage (in GB)	Storage (in GB)
20GB	Unlimited	50GB
Unlimited bandwidth?	Unlimited bandwidth?	Unlimited bandwidth?
Yes	Yes	Yes

Web.com vs. Squarespace

When it comes to hosting, both Web.com and Squarespace offer cloud hosting with a 99.9% uptime guarantee. They both come with unlimited bandwidth, a drag-and-drop editor, and storage options. The difference is that Squarespace offers unlimited storage while Web.com only offers up to 40GB. In addition, Web.com does not have a free trial, but Squarespace allows you to try the service, without charge, for 14 days.

Web.com vs. Wix

To start, these web hosting services are very similar to drag-and-drop editors for the web-building process and unlimited bandwidth. Neither service offers a free trial, but Wix has a 14-day money-back guarantee. When it comes to pricing, Wix has a higher price point with paid subscriptions, but they also offer a free plan with somewhat limited functionality. Web.com has a low price per month, but for the first year of subscribing, you get a discount. You also save up to 70% with a three-year contract.

Is Web.com right for you?

Web.com is a good selection for any small business that wants to quickly find a host that also has an intuitive site builder included. The host has a wide array of add-on services that will enhance the functionality and performance of your site quickly. Small businesses will appreciate how easy it is to fine-tune SEO performance with Web.com. That being said, larger businesses might be better served with a host that doesn’t include the builder component, especially if they have web development staff on hand. 

Frequently asked questions

Is web.com a web hosting service or a website builder.

Web.com is both. The service offers a dedicated website builder and hosting service with web builder functionality.

Does Web.com provide a free domain?

Yes, Web.com offers a free one-year domain registration in its hosting plans. After the first year expires, you’ll have to pay renewal rates.

Is Web.com a good hosting site for beginners?

Yes, Web.com is a good site for beginners as it requires very little IT knowledge. With the host, you craft a website using the drag-and-drop interface, and you can rely on the site being online with the host’s guarantee of 99.9% service uptime.

• Entrepreneurs need more from their business checking accounts .
• We’ve done the hard work to find the best business credit card for your small business.
• Choosing the best CRM platform for your small business is easy with our ranking.
• VoIP systems are not all created equal. Our list ranks the best VoIP services on the market.

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EDITORIAL DISCLOSURE : The advice, opinions, or rankings contained in this article are solely those of the Fortune Recommends ™ editorial team. This content has not been reviewed or endorsed by any of our affiliate partners or other third parties.

• Disaster recovery planning and management

Example disaster recovery plan for small businesses

Small businesses make significant investments in it infrastructure. they must protect those investments from unplanned and potentially destructive events with a dr plan..

• Paul Kirvan

Technology disaster recovery plans are necessary for businesses of every size. A small business disaster recovery plan protects and recovers critical IT infrastructure assets after a disruptive event.

DR plans provide step-by-step procedures for recovering disrupted systems and networks, helping them return to normal operations. The goal of these processes is to minimize any negative impacts to company operations. DR plans are essential for ensuring that a business can continue to deliver its products and services in the aftermath of a crisis.

The scale and details of a small-to-medium business ( SMB ) DR plan are typically less complex than those for a large enterprise but no less necessary. The key is to have the resources and procedures for recovering critical systems, networks and data the organization needs to function.

Included in this article is an example disaster recovery plan for small business. This template is a solid first step that can facilitate the initiation and completion of an IT DR plan. The structure of this article and the template is consistent with established national and international standards for IT disaster recovery .

Why create a DR plan specifically for small business?

Regardless of the type and size of the business, a DR plan provides a structured approach for responding to unplanned incidents that threaten an IT infrastructure. These can include threats to software, networks, processes and people.

Protecting an organization's investment in its technology infrastructure and its ability to conduct business are the key reasons for implementing an IT DR plan. Considering that businesses of any size depend on technology, DR plans should be on every CIO's short list. Support from senior management is the primary starting point for a small business DR plan, especially with funding and a project budget .

Get started with goals and analyses

Once management approval has been received to develop a DR plan, IT and DR teams should begin by completing a risk assessment to identify potential threats to the IT infrastructure. A risk assessment can also be used to identify potential vulnerabilities and single points of failure that could cause a disruption or outage.

The goal of a risk assessment is to determine which infrastructure elements are most at risk to the organization's business. For a small business with less than 100 employees, this could be any hardware in the data center, key applications the business uses, and networking resources. If the organization uses external cloud resources, the assessment should consider risks that might affect their ability to recover from an incident.

When an incident -- internal or external -- negatively affects the IT infrastructure, the business could be compromised, resulting in loss of business and reputational damage. Identifying risks and threats to the infrastructure is a key activity. For smaller organizations with fewer resources, attention to detail is critical.

It might be advisable to conduct a business impact analysis (BIA), which identifies the most important activities the organization performs. BIAs also correlate the key functions with the technologies needed to support them. This information, coupled with data from the risk assessment, results in a DR plan design that focuses on protecting the most essential systems and functions.

What do you need for a DR plan?

It is essential to have the right players during the planning process as well as a team ready to respond to system disruptions. Coordination with business unit leaders, particularly those who are responsible for the mission-critical functions, helps zero in on the technology requirements needed to sustain business operations. Senior leaders define recovery time objectives and recovery prioritization.

The DR planning process identifies critical IT systems and networks; links them to mission-critical business functions; prioritizes recovery times; and delineates the steps needed to restart, reconfigure, and recover operations.

A comprehensive IT DR plan also includes relevant supplier contacts and sources of expertise for recovering disrupted systems.

In today's business environment, both large and small businesses use cloud-based services to supplement existing IT resources. Data storage is a key use for cloud services, and many cloud vendors offer DR services of their own. The flexibility and relatively low cost of cloud DR make it a good option for small businesses.

In addition to securely protecting data, databases and applications, hardware devices must also be protected in a DR plan. Having one or two spare servers ready to use if an existing server fails is one way to minimize the consequences of a device failure. Backup power, such as uninterruptible power systems , is also essential.

Considering how much small business technology can be deployed today from hosted sources, one could make the argument that in-house DR is unnecessary for SMBs. Such a decision should be carefully made and in consultation with third-party resources to make sure they can support the technology needs of a business.

Limitations and benefits of a DR plan

Among the less tangible benefits of a DR plan is peace of mind. Aside from that, it is good to know how to manage disruptions to IT systems and return them to normal. In situations where the technology is on site, a DR plan -- even if it is only a few pages of who to call and what systems to fix first -- is far better than having no plan at all.

By contrast, SMBs using hosted systems for most of their infrastructure will still need to know who to call, what to say, and how to work on an interim basis while the third party fixes operations.

One of the key activities to perform with a DR plan is a periodic test . This will determine if the right systems are being addressed and the recovery steps have been validated. Periodic testing ensures that backup systems and data are accessible, and the organization has contact information for all necessary parties, within and outside the organization.

Regrettably, testing is perhaps the one activity most SMBs fail to perform, and it increases the risk of damage from a disruptive event.

Another challenge with DR plans is keeping them up to date. Changes in technology, installation of new patches, changes to storage devices, updates to key applications and other events should be added to DR plans but often are not.

Additional resources to develop an IT DR plan

In addition to the plan template attached to this article, the National Institute for Standards and Technology Special Publication 800-34, Contingency Planning for Information Technology Systems , is a helpful resource for building a DR plan.

This standard covers several areas of DR organizations can include in a plan. Helpful additions from this standard might include the following:

• Add a vulnerability assessment component to the risk assessment to identify and address any potential weak points.
• Identify preventive controls that reduce the effects of system disruptions and can increase system availability and reduce life cycle costs.
• Conduct plan testing, training and exercising to improve plan effectiveness and overall company preparedness.
• Consider the plan as a living document to be reviewed and updated regularly to remain current with system changes and business requirements.

SMB considerations

While this article addresses disaster recovery from a general perspective, the SMB template is designed to be flexible yet comprehensive enough to address the key business and technology issues an organization might face in a disaster. An SMB might decide that the focus is recovering critical system and network resources. As such, other sections of the template can be omitted.

Staffing can be a challenge in an SMB. In some organizations, there might be only one or two employees who can lead a recovery effort. Organizations with a one- or two-person IT department might be challenged to respond in an incident.

It might be necessary to consolidate DR plan data and procedures into a one- or two-page document. As long as emergency contacts are up to date for crisis communications , procedures are current, and backup resources are in place, SMBs can likely make it through all but the most devastating events.

How to use the template

The included template is designed to be flexible for most SMBs, and users can delete sections that don't apply to their business. Key sections to review include emergency contacts, recovery and restoration procedures, and any other activities needed to return the IT infrastructure to normal.

Following is a summary of the plan template and its sections:

• Information Technology Statement of Intent . This sets the stage and direction for the plan.
• Policy Statement. It is important to include an approved statement of the organization's policy regarding the provision of disaster recovery services.
• Objectives. These describe the main goals of the plan.
• Key Personnel Contact Information. Key contact data should be included early in the plan. It is the information most likely to be used right away and must be easy to locate.
• Plan Overview. This describes basic aspects of the plan.
• Emergency Response . This describes what needs to be done immediately following the onset of an incident.
• Disaster Recovery Team . This lists members and contact information of the DR team.
• Emergency Alert, Escalation and DR Plan Activation. These list steps to take through the early phase of the incident, leading to activation of the DR plan.
• Media. This includes tips for dealing with the media during and after a crisis.
• Insurance. This summarizes the insurance coverage associated with the IT environment and any other relevant policies.
• Financial and Legal Issues. This lists actions to take for dealing with financial and legal issues.
• DR Plan Exercising. This underscores the importance of DR plan exercising.
• Appendix A – Technology Disaster Recovery Plan Templates. This includes sample templates for a variety of technology recoveries. For some organizations, these templates might be sufficient by themselves as DR plans.
• Appendix B – Suggested Forms. These are ready-to-use forms that will facilitate the plan completion.

Paul Kirvan is an independent consultant, IT auditor, technical writer, editor and educator. He has more than 25 years of experience in business continuity, disaster recovery, security, enterprise risk management, telecom and IT auditing.

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How To Get A Small Business Loan Using These 7 Easy Steps

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Starting a small business is an exciting journey, but it often requires a significant amount of capital to get off the ground and you’ll need to know how to get a small business loan. Whether you need funds for inventory, equipment, marketing, or working capital, securing a small business loan can provide the financial boost necessary to turn your business idea into reality.

However, obtaining a loan as a start-up can be challenging, especially if you’re navigating the process for the first time.

Let’s walk through the steps to get a small business start-up loan and set your business on the path to success.

1. understand the types of business loans available.

Before applying for a loan, it's crucial to understand the different types of start-up loans available. Here are some of the most common options:

Traditional Bank Loans: Banks offer loans to start-ups, but they typically require a strong credit history, a solid business plan, and collateral. These loans often come with lower interest rates but are harder to qualify for.

SBA Loans: The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers several loan programs for start-ups, including the SBA 7(a) loan and SBA Microloan Program. These loans are partially guaranteed by the government, which reduces the lender’s risk and can make them more accessible to start-ups.

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Online Lenders: Online lending platforms offer start-up loans with varying terms and interest rates. These lenders may be more flexible with their requirements, making it easier for start-ups with less established credit to qualify.

Business Credit Cards: While not a traditional loan, business credit cards can provide short-term funding for start-ups. They can be a good option for covering immediate expenses but should be used with caution due to high-interest rates.

Microloans: Microloans are small loans, typically under $50,000, offered by nonprofit organizations and community lenders. These loans are often easier to obtain for start-ups, especially those focused on underserved communities.

2. Prepare a Solid Business Plan

When you're applying for a small business loan, having a solid business plan is crucial. It’s your chance to show lenders that you’ve thought things through and have a clear direction for your business. They need to see that you not only have a vision but also a practical plan for how the loan will help you achieve your goals. A well-prepared business plan demonstrates your commitment and makes it easier for lenders to trust you with their money.

3. Evaluate Your Creditworthiness

Your personal and business credit scores play a significant role in your ability to secure a start-up loan. Before applying, review your credit report and address any issues that could negatively impact your score. Lenders will look at:

Personal Credit Score: As a start-up, your personal credit score will be heavily considered. A score above 700 is typically preferred by lenders.

Business Credit Score: If your business has been established for a while, lenders will also consider your business credit score. If you’re just starting out, focus on building your business credit by opening a business bank account and using business credit cards responsibly.

4. Gather Necessary Documentation

When you're applying for a small business loan, be prepared to provide a variety of documents that lenders will need to evaluate your application. These typically include your personal and business tax returns for the past two to three years, financial statements like profit and loss statements , balance sheets, and cash flow statements, and any relevant legal documents such as business licenses and registrations.

You'll also need to share personal financial details, including your assets, liabilities, and net worth. If you're offering collateral, you'll have to provide proof of ownership and its value. Having these documents ready can streamline the process and improve your chances of securing the loan.

5. Choose the Right Lender

When choosing a lender , it's essential to recognize that not all lenders offer the same experience, and selecting the right one can greatly impact your loan process. Begin by comparing loan terms, including interest rates, repayment conditions, and any associated fees, to find the most advantageous terms for your business.

Evaluate the lender's reputation by researching reviews and ratings, prioritizing those known for excellent customer service and transparency. Ensure that you meet the lender’s eligibility requirements, which may include specific criteria such as credit score, business revenue, and the length of time your business has been operating.

Consider the loan process itself and pay attention to the application steps, the time it takes to get approved, and the speed at which funds can be disbursed. These factors combined will help you choose a lender that best meets your business needs.

6. Apply for the Loan

Once you’ve prepared your business plan, evaluated your creditworthiness, gathered the necessary documentation, and chosen a lender, it’s time to apply for the loan. Be prepared to answer questions about your business, provide additional documentation if requested, and negotiate loan terms if necessary.

7. Use the Loan Wisely

After securing your start-up loan, it’s crucial to use the funds wisely. Stick to your business plan, track your spending, and ensure that the loan is used to grow your business in a sustainable way. Responsible management of your loan funds will not only help your business succeed but will also build your credibility with lenders, making it easier to secure additional financing in the future.

The bottom line is that securing a small business start-up loan can be a complex process, but with the right preparation and approach, it is entirely achievable. By following these steps you can obtain the funding you need to launch and grow your business. Remember, the key to success is not just getting the loan but using it effectively to build a thriving business.

Melissa Houston, CPA is the author of Cash Confident: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Creating a Profitable Business and the founder of She Means Profit . As a Business Strategist for small business owners, Melissa helps women making mid-career shifts, to launch their dream businesses, and I also guide established business owners to grow their businesses to more profitably.

The opinions expressed in this article are not intended to replace any professional or expert accounting and/or tax advice whatsoever.

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Kamala Harris has an ambitious plan to build 3 million new homes. She'll have to get through Congress and local NIMBYs first.

• Kamala Harris unveiled a housing plan that includes building three million homes in four years.
• Her plan includes tax incentives for builders to construct small and affordable homes.
• Harris' supply-boosting policies could get the most traction among Republicans, but it'll be an uphill battle.

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris unveiled some of her major economic priorities in a speech in North Carolina last week.

Central to her agenda is a plan to make housing more affordable — an issue that's become increasingly urgent for millions of Americans amid a housing supply shortage and skyrocketing prices . Part of Harris' plan involves spurring the construction of lots of new housing through policy changes and subsidies. But barriers to new construction abound — from an often-gridlocked Congress to state and local leaders and communities.

Harris has pledged to build three million homes across the country during her first term as president. She wants to offer tax incentives for home builders to construct starter homes — smaller, more affordable units — for first-time homebuyers. She would also expand a current tax credit for businesses that build affordable rental housing. And Harris says she would double the Biden administration's $20 billion housing innovation fund intended to support local governments and developers looking for new ways of building affordable housing. Last, the campaign called for a reduction in "red tape and needless bureaucracy" that stalls new construction.

These three million new homes would be in addition to the homes developers would otherwise construct, The Wall Street Journal reported .

Jenny Schuetz, an expert in urban economics and housing policy at the Brookings Institute, told Business Insider that while a goal for new home construction is helpful, it's not necessarily an accurate prediction.

"There's no way that the government can guarantee X number of homes are going to get built," Schuetz said. But, she added, "putting the number out there and then marking progress is actually quite helpful."

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Aside from incentivizing new housing construction, Harris' plan includes a proposal to crack down on investors buying up homes in bulk and landlords from using rent-setting algorithms "to collude with each other and jack up rents."

The campaign also proposed expanding the Biden administration's assistance for first-time homebuyers, proposing an average of $25,000 in downpayment support for first-time buyers.

A spokesperson for the Harris campaign didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Harris' plan focuses more on boosting the supply of housing than the current administration has. The federal government has traditionally focused its housing policy on demand-side subsidies like housing vouchers. Schuetz and other housing experts are glad to see this shift, noting that a housing shortage is the central cause of the affordability crisis.

There is some bipartisan agreement on housing policy. At the state level, Republican lawmakers have successfully cut red tape to spur home construction. But boosting federal funding and shifting strategies won't be easy in a bitterly divided Capitol.

"Acknowledging that this is a problem isn't the same thing as saying we've got a magic wand that will allow us to solve it," Schuetz said.

Barriers to action

Most of Harris' housing plan would require support — and lots of new funding — from Congress. The WSJ reported that the tax credits for starter homes and affordable housing construction would cost about $80 billion combined. And getting Congress to agree on anything is a serious challenge.

Andy Winkler, director of housing and infrastructure projects at the Bipartisan Policy Center, noted that while there isn't much Republican support for demand-side housing policies like Harris' downpayment assistance program, some of the supply-side measures could get bipartisan backing.

He's most optimistic that expanding the Low Income Housing Tax Credit and other supply-side, tax-based policies could pass Congress as it debates tax reform in 2025. But he's skeptical the reforms Harris could get through would result in three million new homes in four years — a goal he called "pretty ambitious."

"I have trouble foreseeing a sweep election, so if either the House or the Senate has a Republican majority, I think the tax policies are where you could see the most potential," Winkler said.

On top of getting Congress on board, a Harris administration would need states and municipalities to reform many layers of land-use regulations and other housing-related policies to make way for new construction. Many of the policies that restrict housing construction — including land-use laws like zoning — are controlled by local and state governments, meaning the federal government's influence over those policies is limited.

The White House and Congress can use federal subsidies to incentivize local officials to loosen regulations and otherwise spur construction, but they can't force this action. And there is often lots of local opposition that significantly slows down or halts all kinds of development.

While Republicans in Congress might be interested in cutting red tape at the local and state levels, the devil's in the details, Winkler said.

"It's really difficult from the federal level to incentivize those behaviors," he said.

Watch: Can Kamala Harris win over Democrats after Joe Biden drops out of 2024 presidential election?

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