Starting a business and making investments are almost synonymous to each other, but that doesn’t always mean that the investments have to be huge though. In case you are thinking about starting a home-based business, but don’t have thousands of dollars to spend on it, here are five businesses that you can start right from your home, without having to break the bank.
The Online T-Shirt Business
You don’t need a website to sell them or a mill to make the t-shirts; all you need is a seller’s account on Amazon and eBay, alongside some artistic sense. Buy a dozen or so generic t-shirts at low price from a wholesaler and then print the designs you want on them. Now, you can either take the easy route by printing something popular but common, or you can try a unique theme of your own to stand out from the competition. If the first dozen doesn’t sell, try something new the next time around because you won’t be suffering too much of a loss in any case.
Freelance
The term freelance is a very broad one because almost every skill out there can be used to freelance. Nevertheless, since we are talking about home-based business ideas, your options include writing, commercial drawing, coding, web designing, bookkeeping, accounting and remote teaching to name a few. It’s quite simple really, as long as you have a skill to monetize, you can do so with the help of sites like 4ra.in or Freelancer. In fact, 4ra actually has a dedicated section on work from home jobs as well, if you are looking for that.
Tiffin Service
Home-cooked meals are often a luxury for those that have to stay in the office all day and especially for all the people who are living away from their homes due to work. If you have a community near you that has young workers living in it, this can become a very profitable business pretty soon. Keep in mind that since we are talking about food here, quality is of the utmost importance, so start small and cater to only 3 – 5 people/households before you make enough money to hire extra helping hands for the business.
Coaching/Teaching
This is not that different from freelancing really, but instead of video conferencing, you will be taking actual classes at your home. Just like freelancing, what you will be teaching or coaching largely depends on your skillset, so it could be music, dance, musical instruments, painting, coding, etc.
Baking
Baking is probably one of the oldest home-based businesses in history and the good news is that it’s still going strong. As long as you bake good cookies, pastries and cakes, you can start selling them right from your home and without any real added expenses. If you find that your bakery is making good money, the next step would be to start selling them in branded, custom packaging.
These are not the only home-based business ideas but they have some of the highest rates of success. Just keep in mind that they are low-investment ideas and you need to keep them that way until you see enough success to justify bigger investments. If the idea does turn out to be a success though, you will definitely have to invest and expand in the future.