These days, the internet is overflowing with work-from-home business ideas. But let’s face it, most of them are just a waste of time, and some are outright scams.
What you really want are home business ideas that actually bring in money, whether you’re doing them part-time or full-time. And not just any ideas – ones that don’t require a hefty investment and can be set up and grown by anyone, regardless of expertise, in as little time as possible. Sound about right?
Sorting through the endless options online can be a real challenge. I know because I’ve done it for you.
If you’re in the market for some fresh and creative home business ideas that are open to everyone, I’ve got some solid contenders for you. These ideas can potentially rake in 6 to 7 figures without any risk or upfront investment. But let’s be real, it’s gonna take some serious time and effort to turn a profit, so make sure you’re willing to put in the work. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Take any of these suggestions and tailor them to your interests and expertise. Our ideas are designed to save you time and money on setting up shop. But remember, your home business won’t magically flourish on its own – you’ll need to actively refine your offerings, build your brand, and get the word out there.
Our Top 8 Profitable Home Business Ideas
- Design print-on-demand clothing catalog.
- Start a dropshipping business from home
- Offer personal coaching online
- Sell your homemade and handcrafted items
- Develop a high-traffic SEO blog
- Become a work-from-home freelancer
- Start a reseller services
- Start an event planning business
Pros and Cons of Working From Home
Pro’s
- Working from home gives you the freedom to create a schedule that fits your life, with hours that can adapt to your needs.
- When you run a business from home, you get to choose whether to sell your products or services to a global audience or focus on your local community.
- Businesses that require minimal investment come with fewer expenses like storage or warehouse fees and may even offer tax benefits.
- Starting a part-time business without needing a significant initial investment is entirely possible.
Con’s
- Finding a balance between work and life might get a bit fuzzy.
- Owners still gotta stick to rules, like getting the right licenses or permits.
- You might have to transform your home into your workspace.
- You’re fully responsible for handling tax filings.
Run a Print-On-Demand Business Without Inventory
Print-on-demand is a cool business model where you can create custom apparel and items without having to worry about storing inventory. Plus, you don’t end up with a bunch of leftover stuff like in traditional stores. This home business idea is super straightforward: you design, put it up on your website, and then just chill and wait.
Meanwhile, the printer sits tight, waiting for someone to snag something from your site. When a customer buys, the printer springs into action, making and shipping the product directly to them. With this home business, all you gotta focus on is providing top-notch customer service.
How Do You Market Print-On-Demand?
You’ve got a bunch of ways to promote your print-on-demand home business. You’ll want a website to get things rolling, which means you can tap into organic SEO to help boost your visibility. Plus, you can hop onto social media platforms where your ideal customers hang out and set up profiles there.
Another trick up your sleeve for turning your print-on-demand idea into a successful home business is influencer marketing. By teaming up with influencers, you can tap into their follower base to promote your products. They showcase your stuff in their posts, and you watch those sales roll in.
But hey, remember to play it safe when it comes to trademarks and copyrights in your print-on-demand venture. Stepping on someone else’s intellectual property could land you in hot water, even getting sued, which could put a serious damper on your work-from-home dreams.
What Websites to Use
Printify
Cost:
- Free
- Premium: $24.99 per month
Printify is a print-on-demand network that works seamlessly with popular eCommerce website builders. With Printify, you get to design over 300 different products, bringing your small home business ideas to life. You can then sell these products on your site, and Printify takes care of order fulfillment.
Under the free plan, Printify takes a percentage of each product sold. For instance, if you sell a shirt for $30 on your website, Printify would take $12 for the shirt, leaving you with $18 in profit. The free plan allows you to connect up to five stores, giving you plenty of room to expand your home business ventures.
Shopify
Here’s what Shopify offers:
- Free trial for 14 days
- Lite: $9 per month
- Basic: $29 per month
Shopify is an incredibly versatile platform crafted specifically for building eCommerce websites.
The Lite option works great if you already have a website or plan to create one on another platform. It seamlessly incorporates Shopify’s listings and point-of-sale functionality onto your existing site. It’s a perfect fit for sprucing up an already-established website.
With the Basic option, you get one of Shopify’s user-friendly websites along with full integration for selling print-on-demand items. Shopify connects with suppliers like Printify, and before you know it, your work-from-home business store is up and running smoothly.
Manage a Dropshipping Store With No Storage Space
Dropshipping is a business where people can run a store without having to hold inventory. It works very much like the print-on-demand business model. Once a customer has purchased the supplier you work with will ship out the package from their warehouse to the customer’s doorstep. You won’t need to worry about packaging, shipping, or storing products.
How Do You Market Dropshipping?
The print-on-demand marketing model shares many similarities with other marketing approaches. When it comes to dropshipping work-from-home businesses, there’s a plethora of marketing options available.
To start, having a website is key, as it opens up avenues for SEO optimization. Additionally, you can extend your reach by promoting your website across your social media channels, targeting platforms where you know your audience hangs out.
Another strategy to boost your dropshipping business is through influencer marketing. By collaborating with influencers, you can tap into their follower base to promote your home-based product ideas. The influencer showcases your product in their posts, giving it a significant visibility boost.
What Websites to Use?
Sprocket
- Price: $19.00/month
- a free trial available.
Sprocket is a cool website that runs a dropshipping marketplace, helping retailers grow their online stores. It hooks you up with thousands of suppliers, mostly based in Europe and the USA, making it super convenient for retailers to connect and expand their offerings.
AliExpress
- Price: It’s free to sign up, with no upfront costs or fees.
AliExpress is a retail dropshipping marketplace that brings together drop shippers, suppliers, and products. The platform boasts over 50 niche categories, making it easy to find just what you’re looking for.
Become an Online Personal Trainer
A home personal trainer offers virtual consultations and workouts, tailored to your needs. There’s a range of options available: one-on-one sessions, workout guides, meal plans, workout libraries, group classes, and more—all from the comfort of your own home.
The key to successful personal training is certification, which typically costs around $200. Getting certified shows your clients that you have the knowledge and skills to help them achieve their fitness goals effectively and safely.
How Do You Market Personal Training?
One of the best tricks in marketing for personal training is offering free samples. People just can’t resist giving something a try. Once they see how your method works for them, they’ll be much more likely to make a purchase.
When it comes to social media, it’s essential to choose the platforms that best suit your target audience. Many personal trainers kick things off by streaming their workouts on social platforms and then inviting viewers to check out their products or services. It’s a great way to grow your audience right from home.
Networking is also a fantastic marketing technique for home-based businesses. Part of running a work-from-home business is knowing when a client isn’t the right fit for your services. Sometimes, another trainer might have the perfect client for you if they don’t quite match their style. It’s all about building those connections.
What Websites to Use?
YouTube
- Price: It’s free!
- Once you’ve got a big enough following, YouTube starts paying you.
YouTube is a video platform where you can create your own channel to showcase your content. Your channel houses all the videos you upload, and visitors can search for them, subscribe to your channel, and get notified when you post new stuff.
With all these features, YouTube is a fantastic way to share your home business idea with the world. It’s one of the most popular video platforms out there, and the best part is, you have full control over what goes into your videos.
Simply Book
- Price: It’s free to start.
- Basic Plan: $9.90/month
Simply Book is a great option if you’re into selling one-on-one personal training sessions. Even with the free version, you can create a custom booking page and even add a widget to your existing website.
The free version allows up to 50 bookings per month, but you’ll have to handle the point of sale separately. Plus, you won’t have access to a client app, which could potentially turn away new customers interested in your work-from-home services.
With the Basic plan, you get all the booking functionality you need, including features like sales and gift cards. You’ll also have a client application available, giving you more control and making it easier to attract new clients. As your business grows, you can even offer bookings for multiple staff members.
Sell Your Homemade Products Online
Homemade covers anything you create, whether it’s knitting, making soaps, pottery, woodworking, art, or any other craft. If you’re already passionate about a hobby like this, you shouldn’t have any trouble turning it into a profitable home business.
Even if you’re making your products in a community woodshop or another secondary location, you can still label them as homemade.
Usually, homemade goods are sold in marketplaces, either physical ones like farmer’s markets or digital ones. If you opt for the digital route, you’ll need to create listings for each product on your home business website to make it a success.
How Do You Market Homemade Products?
There are plenty of ways to market homemade products. Some folks like to showcase their process through YouTube videos, while others prefer sharing photos on Instagram. The key on social media is to find where your customers are and connect with them, turning your ideas into a successful home business.
Plus, if you join a marketplace, they usually handle some of the marketing for you. After all, it’s in their best interest for your products to sell so that you keep coming back for more, contributing to the success of your home business ideas.
What Websites to Use?
Etsy
- Price: Fee-based
- $0.20 per listing
- 5% transaction fee
Etsy is one of the most well-known marketplace websites out there. Opening a shop on Etsy doesn’t cost anything upfront. However, once you hit publish for each product listing, you’ll be charged $0.20.
On top of that, Etsy also takes a 5% transaction fee, meaning they keep 5% of the total price of each order. Additionally, there are payment processing fees that vary depending on your currency preferences.
Etsy offers a recurring listing feature, which can save you time if you’re selling multiples of the same product from your small home business, like soap bars. Although you’ll still have to pay the listing fee each time you use this feature, it’s a handy way to streamline your process.
Aftcra
- Price: Fee-based
- 7% transaction fee
Aftcra specializes in homemade and handcrafted products from the United States. It’s a marketplace where you can set up your own store as part of your home business ideas. Unlike some platforms, there’s no listing fee on Aftcra, but keep in mind that each listing is only active for six months.
Aftcra makes money through a 7% transaction fee, which helps cover their costs without needing to charge listing fees.
Freelancing: Sell Your Skills and Expertise as Contract Work
A freelancer is someone who works independently, taking contract assignments from various companies. It’s all about offering your skills and time for a price you set. Freelancing online has become a popular option for those looking to work from home.
When it comes to freelancing, the possibilities are endless. You can use a wide range of skills, from drawing illustrations and providing commercial voiceovers to editing videos or even building entire websites. The sky’s the limit when it comes to work-from-home ideas—you could even offer services like closet organizing if that’s your thing!
Freelancing often starts with small gigs here and there. As you build your reputation, you can specialize and become a virtual assistant for specific skills, if that’s what you’re interested in.
What Websites to Use?
Fiverr
- Price: Free
- 20% fee on every completed order for sellers
- 5% fee on buyers
Fiverr operates as a traditional freelancing marketplace. You create standard offers based on the skills you want to sell, and buyers can either purchase these offers or reach out to your home business for a custom arrangement that suits their needs.
For sellers on Fiverr, there’s a flat 20% fee on any completed order over $20. Additionally, there’s a 5% fee charged to sellers, added on top of your gig price.
Fiverr also employs a level system with different perks. Until you reach the top seller level, there’s a two-week waiting period for your earnings to clear after completing work on your work-from-home idea.
Upwork
- Plus: $14.99 per month
- 3% processing fee for buyers
- 20% on $500 or less, 10% on $500 to $10,000, and 5% on over $10,000 in lifetime work for an individual client
Upwork is like a job marketplace, but it works by having you send proposals for jobs you’re keen on. However, there’s a limit to how many proposals you can send, which helps prevent clients from getting overwhelmed.
They use something called Connects. Every time you submit a job proposal, you use up some Connects, and different proposals need different amounts. With the Free account, you get 10 Connects monthly, while the Plus account gives you 80 Connects.
On this platform, fees vary based on your earnings with each client. Upwork takes 20% of each completed order initially, then it drops to 10%, and finally, 5% if a single client spends over $10,000 on your work.
Use Niche Blogging to Gradually Build Passive Income
Niche blogging is all about creating a website focused on a specific topic. You then make money from the blog by using things like backlinks, affiliate marketing, or selling merchandise. Of course, your blog needs to be SEO-friendly so it shows up high in search results.
To kick things off, you gotta write or buy top-notch articles for your blog in the niche you’ve chosen for your home business. It really helps if you’re passionate about the topic. Typically, your content should include how-to guides, listicles, and other stuff that’s easy to rank in search engines.
Once your blog starts ranking on Google, you can explore different avenues. One popular option is link building, where folks pay you to include a link to their site in one of your blog posts.
Affiliate marketing works kinda like link building. You stick a special link in your blog posts, and if someone clicks on it and buys the product, you get a cut of the sale.
Merchandising can be as simple as using a print-on-demand plugin like we talked about earlier. Or, if you’ve built up a following with your niche blog, you can get more creative with your work-from-home business strategy.
How Do You Market Niche Blogging?
Niche blogging marketing relies heavily on your specific niche. It doesn’t make much sense to promote your work-from-home ideas on social platforms where your target audience isn’t hanging out regularly.
Email marketing is a solid option. You can team up with someone else to feature in one of their emails, which exposes you to a portion of their audience and boosts your site’s ranking since you’re gaining more readers. Plus, email marketing helps to keep people engaged with your website over time.
Running a niche blog also positions you as an expert in your field. From there, you can explore marketing avenues like TV appearances, podcast features, video collaborations, and getting featured on aggregation websites. You might even pitch your ideas to publications.
What Websites to Use?
Wix
- Price: Free
- Combo: $14 per month
Wix is a fantastic free website builder perfect for hosting your small home business ideas blog. With Wix, every website gets free hosting and a custom URL. However, keep in mind that the free version comes with a permanent sticky ad that lets visitors know you built your website using Wix.
Wix is super user-friendly, and you don’t need any coding skills to make it work for your small home business idea. Everything you need can be easily dragged and dropped onto your website. Plus, Wix offers a range of widgets to enhance your site’s functionality.
Bluehost
- Price: $8.99 per month
- VPS: $19.99 per month
Bluehost acts as a host, providing servers to house your website. When you sign up for Bluehost plans, you also get a domain name included. Setting up and launching the website builder for your small home business ideas is a breeze with Bluehost.
Bluehost is particularly well-suited for building websites on WordPress, an open-source platform. This means that almost any functionality you might need for your work-from-home business website likely already has an integration available. With Bluehost, you’ve got all the flexibility necessary to create an outstanding niche blog.
Reseller Services: Sell Other People’s Products for Them
Reselling services are pretty simple as far as small home business ideas go. You’re essentially acting as the middleman, selling someone else’s stuff. And when the item sells, you pocket a percentage of the profits.
This work-from-home business opportunity works because not everyone has the time or patience to manage selling their items on peer-to-peer marketplaces. But they still want their stuff sold and cash in hand.
How Do You Market Reseller Services?
This work-from-home business mostly relies on word of mouth. You begin by helping out a busy friend, do a great job, and then casually mention to their friends how smooth and easy the experience was. Doing top-notch work is crucial for this home business idea to take off.
What Websites to Use?
Craigslist
- Price: Mostly free
- $5 fee for selling cars
Craigslist stands as one of the original peer-to-peer marketplaces. With free listings for most items except cars, it covers a wide range of niches. It’s a great starting point for your home business ideas.
Craigslist suggests accepting cash or using secure options like PayPal for payment. It also advises against shipping items, advocating for in-person meetings to avoid scams.
Facebook Marketplace
- Price: Free
- 5% fee for shipping or payment integration
Facebook Marketplace is a newer player in the peer-to-peer selling game. It came after users had already established selling groups and a routine for selling items to friends.
Facebook has recently taken more measures to safeguard buyers and sellers, particularly with COVID-19 in mind. The company now helps with shipping items for a 5% fee. Additionally, there’s a small hold on funds to ensure the product’s delivery.
Become an Event Planner and Help Others Get Organized
The event planning industry took a hit during the pandemic. However, as venues reopen, it’s poised to bounce back and serve as a solid home business idea. Many folks prefer not to sweat the small stuff when it comes to their events or be the go-to person for managing various aspects like catering.
Event planning spans a wide range of occasions, allowing you to specialize in specific areas like weddings, retirements, awards ceremonies, community events, and more.
As an event planner, you’ll need to be super organized and have excellent people skills. You’ll be responsible for keeping all the planning details in order and handling any unexpected issues that arise on the big day. It can be one of the more demanding home business ideas out there.
While you can offer your services exclusively online, some clients may prefer having your physical presence on the day of the event for coordination.
How Do You Market Event Planning?
Whether you’re aiming for a digital-only approach or a hybrid model, having a website is key. It helps your work-from-home business appear in local search engine results, where you’re most likely to attract clients.
Getting involved in local events is another fantastic way to build a reputation for top-notch event planning. Even large virtual events can benefit from the expertise of an event planner, as can events of all sizes, including charity functions.
Social media is also a great avenue to explore. You can share photos of your event planning work or offer tips on related activities like time management. This way, social media becomes a hub where potential clients can discover your home business ideas and services.
What Websites to Use?
Trello
- Price: Free
- Business: $10 per user per month
Trello is a versatile organizational tool. You can set up a board for each event, customize the columns within the boards to track statuses, and easily move tasks between columns as they progress. You have the flexibility to add as much detail to each task card as you need.
The free version of Trello offers all the essential features. The only restriction is that you can only use one plugin per board, like calendar integration. It’s ideal for getting started or when working with a small team.
HoneyBook
- Price: $9 per month
- Unlimited: $39 per month
HoneyBook is your go-to, all-in-one solution tailored for event planning. It covers everything from crafting proposals and scheduling to tracking leads and managing workflows seamlessly.
With the HoneyBook Starter plan, you get access to all the features you need.
Just keep in mind, there’s a $10,000 limit before you’re prompted to upgrade to Unlimited. By then, you’ll likely have a solid grasp of whether HoneyBook aligns with your home business ideas.
Final Thoughts:
One of these small home business ideas could set you on the path to replacing your regular income with a six- to seven-figure salary. It does require dedication and hard work to make it happen, though, so make sure you’re prepared.