Home business ideas?

My wife and I are desperately trying to find something we can do from home for extra income. It doesn’t need to be tech or programming related of course, but just anything that can make a few bucks.

I happen to be a tech guy, so all that stuff is covered (websites, programming, graphics, organizing tools, SEO and marketing knowledge etc).

The problem is we can’t find anything. The online market for any kind of sales is just saturated, there are enough websites selling cheap China crap and clothing and other sales that we can’t think of a niche that isn’t saturated.

There are some niche markets like transcription or whatever but those require intense manual labor, they can’t make any money without putting in the time. We’re avoiding pure trading of time for cash.

We’re trying to find a business we can run that can still make money even when we take a break for a few days, which pretty much excludes pure labor-type work.

I’m just wondering in general if any of you run home businesses for side work or extra income that doesn’t require huge time commitments but still helps with the bills. If any of you have a spouse that stays home with the kids, if they make any money online, what do they do?

Any ideas?

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Try and find a business which doesn’t have many competitors, and you can charge a lot.

For example a site where you buy custom skins for phones/tablets/consoles/pcs would be good, especially if you have the skills you say. You would need to find a supplier and then you just post them.

Just an idea :slight_smile:

This might sound a bit hokey, but I know a few people who (after their f/t job is done for the day) have signed up with Dominos Pizza to have telephone calls forwarded to their house. They will take the order from the customer, enter it into a computer that then prints out the order at the local Dominos. I don’t know how much it pays, but it’s “a few bucks.”

(shrug)

V/r,

:slight_smile:

Hi zackw,

Rather than asking for ideas of what you could do, why not look at this from the other side: what skills / knowledge do you and your wife currently have?

My wife likes to write and wants to do something relating to family and health, child rearing and teaching (she is a degreed gradeschool teacher).

I like working with anything tech.

We’re always having ideas about product sales but know nothing about manufacturing or basically how to produce products or get them made. She wants to do something that really helps people rather than just trading some useless “stuff” for cash.

We’re talking about extra income like maybe $500 to $1500. Part time an hour a day or so in maintenance and labor.
It would be hard for my wife to be tethered to a computer or phone so I’m trying to think of something we work on “online” when we can, to build it, and it runs itself in the middle.

Self-help / life-hacking seem to be a popular theme these days. Perhaps you could think about writing an e-book related to some mix of those subjects that you mentioned? Maybe a guide to home-schooling / supplemental tutoring using freely available online resources? Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a path to easy money, but if your wife enjoys writing you could try to build a following by blogging about these topics to see if the interest is there, and then expand on the most popular topics in an e-book.

Check out people like Chris Guillebeau, Tim Ferris, and James Clear to see how they do it.

There are so many things to do that I wouldn’t be able how to start. Some markets, as you say, are crowded and saturated… that doesn’t mean that you can’t be successful and earn good cash. Only that you’ll have to smarter than your competitors.

Why are there so many Word/Excel courses, lots of them free, out there and still people keep selling them? Because while the topic may be covered over and over, the style of each teacher, the quality, the extra mile or the extra services are different from one to another.

But if you want some extra cash, you don’t even have to do it online. Why don’t have a weekly session home to learn… whatever? or enjoy a bit of cake and a soda and talk about the weather?

2 hours a week, charge 10 USD per person and those could be an easy 100-200 USD per sesion (depending if you charging by the hour).

There are a lot of ideas, but does anybody DO them here?

I mean, does anybody here actual have small side businesses they run from home?

Yes :slight_smile:

So…what business?

Do you really care what business it is?

I do understand that you want something that has been proven and tested but, as you said, those areas are very crowded and competence is fierce.

Would it really matter if it was something that you loved to do? No, because even in I crowded, saturated market there’s room for someone else and anyone can be successful if he has determination, learns from his mistakes and has a good business plan.

So what it is something completely new, something that nobody is doing right now? Or that others didn’t make it work? Would you be scared? Does it mean that you will not adapt it and make it work yourself? No, you can perfectly be successful where others failed. Again, it takes time, determination, know-how of course and have a good business plan, you will make it.

Of course, whent that happens, we say that the guy had vision and he was a genious because even if others tried and saw that the ones before them failed, they run away… but that guy stuck and made it work

So does it really matter?

which business do you want to start?

@emma_Williams He doesn’t know yet. He’s looking for ideas. :smile:
Better to read the very first post slowly :smiley:

I think he’s just looking for tangible examples. I understand that sentiment. Online guides and help to (insert any self employment here) are always like “Find something you love” or “Find a niche to make your service unique” but sometimes people would just like to see an example or two that prove that can actually be done (i.e. “At age 32, I decided to supplement my income. I did these 12 things (list here) and by the time I was done, I was making a steady $1000/mo of side income beyond my regular job. Any questions?”) instead of empty generalizations and platitudes :smiley:

It’s not so much about mimicking those people’s efforts as much as just knowing it’s doable and getting tangible pointers from people who have done it.

If that’s not what you’re after @zackw, sorry, not trying to put words in your mouth :smiley:

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Exactly, that’s why I linked to some people who have practiced what they preach :slight_smile:

Yeah, I’m mostly responding to @molona - he asked if people here do, she said yes, he said so… what do they do… then she asked why he cares what business…

Wasn’t directed at you :smiley:

Maybe I should have used the reply feature more carefully :smiley:

No worries, I didn’t think it was, I was just agreeing with you really.

I think one of the great things about the Internet is that you can find people who have already done what you want to do and learn from their experience. The real problem is actually taking action on what you read. At the end of the day, the reason that not everyone does these things is because talking about it is easy - actually being motivated to do it is hard.

Yeah. I know when I first started doing freelancing work, I felt that way, and I never found many good examples of people who had done it, and who were willing to share. It’s definitely nice to have.

At the end of the day, the reason that not everyone does these things is because talking about it is easy - actually being motivated to do it is hard.

Absolutely. That’s the trouble isn’t it? We’re all at least a little lazy :smiley: - and some of us more than a little!

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I know that and I understand the feeling… But that’s why I asked… Does it really matter what business work? Because the same thing that works for me, may not work for them.

At the end of the day, it is true that you need to do what you love because the truth is that you’re going to be fed up with it. So the only way to get it going and succeed is loving what you do.

[quote=“jeffreylees, post:17, topic:189541”]
Yeah, I’m mostly responding to @molona - he asked if people here do, she said yes, he said so… what do they do… then she asked why he cares what business…
[/quote]I know you were answering to my comment.:wink:

I insist, I didn’t expand on my answer because I may be successful or not but that has nothing to do with their ability to succeed.

Everyone wants the easy buck but that just doesn’t exist. There’s a lot of learning to do, for starters. Now, once that you know what you want to do, you can automate and make your life easier.

That’s a fair perspective.

I’ll still contend that just seeing examples would’ve helped me when I was in a similar spot; but I can understand why one might think that wouldn’t help. Different people think and generate ideas in different ways, I suppose.

Everyone wants the easy bu8ck but that just doesn’t exist. There’s a lot of learning to do, for starters. Now, once that you know what you want to do, you can automate and make your life easier.

That’s definitely true. And a lot of people find the right thing to do, and do it even, but they fail to improve on things - as you say, automate and make your life easier! That’s what I’m trying to work on a bit myself now, streamlining some of the freelance or other administrative tasks I have to make things less time consuming…