The internet is making it possible to start a wide range of businesses from home. Entrepreneurs are jumping over the opportunity to start home based businesses and avoid having to rent office spaces and take on debt to start a business.
There are several opportunities available, many of which can be started with little to no money. If you have been thinking of starting an online business from home, maybe some of these examples will appeal to you or spark an idea for another opportunity.
- Social media consultancy or manager.
Every business needs to be active on social media these days, but many simply don’t have time or they don’t understand it enough and can’t grasp the proper way to manage it. This provides you with a huge opportunity to roll out a social media consulting company.
There are a few angles you can take this. One, you could educate and teach how to properly do social media, or you could offer to handle all of the content creation and promotion for them, completely outsourcing the job to you.
The education and consulting aspect might yield a higher payout, but you will have to constantly find new customers. As a social media manager, you close a client and they become recurring monthly revenue.
- Virtual assistant.
These days, a business needs to have customer support via phone, live chat and social media around the clock. The old nine to five mentality just doesn’t work. The internet has created an e-commerce world and customers expect businesses to be responsive at any hour.
Now, while the main store might close, that leaves the door open to handle the off duty customer service for several companies. Thanks to the internet location is irrelevant, so you could target companies that are closed during your desired working hours. The opportunities are limitless and the only business expenses you will incur are internet and a laptop.
You can also offer generic virtual assistant duties, and bill accordingly to the difficulty of each task. Once you determine what niche you enjoy the most, become specialized in that area. Companies will pay a premium for specialized service providers.
- Web and graphics designer.
New online businesses are started every day, creating a huge demand for quality web designers and general graphic designers. If you have skills, you can really do well for yourself. If you join a platform like Freelancer or Upwork you can upload your portfolio, set your hourly rate and begin to receive offers the same day.
You truly get to set your own hours and work on projects that excite you. Focus on collecting solid five star reviews and positive feedback in the beginning, as this will help you land better clients down the road.
- Niche-specific blog.
There are several blogs that generate millions of dollars a year in advertising revenue, and while they are far and few between, there are many bloggers that are earning a healthy living simply by blogging about topics they are very passionate about.
The key to success is starting a blog because of that passion and not because of money. If you do it right, and really put out a quality blog, you are going to naturally attract readers and an audience. If you keep doing that your views and engagement will continue to increase, eventually presenting the opportunity to monetize the blog.
- Ghost writer.
Content marketing is one of the most effective forms of online marketing, and one that businesses of all sizes are actively participating in. This has created a high demand for skilled content writers.
Most businesses simply don’t have time to allocate for creating content and publishing it to their blog. If you want to really impress clients, learn the fundamentals of SEO and create content that attracts organic traffic. If you do this, combined with handling all of the posting and on-page optimization you can charge a premium.
Freelancer marketplaces are a great way to find customers, as there are always job postings looking for content.
- Affiliate marketing.
This is one online job that has no ceiling in terms of earning potential. The catch here is that the competition is massive and the learning curve is steep. You will need to invest some money into trial and error in order to learn how it works, but once it’s mastered the earning potential is large.
This is something I would only encourage if you have some spare time and funds to invest. If you don’t have seed money and need to make money right away, any of the other options in this article would be a smarter choice.
