Home Business Ideas

So you want a little cash on the spare, or as is the case for many at the moment, you are currently not in work and you want to use the time to generate some income. The best way to do this is to work from home, but to do that, you need an idea.

Trying to decide what to base your home business on can be the most daunting part of actually doing it. We all have thousands of ideas on a daily basis, but we write them off because we don't think they'll work or there's too much competition already.

To help you out with this, as it's something I've struggled with in the past, I've got together 10 home business ideas you can get started with right away:

1. Child minding - if you're a lady (usually) and you are at home most days with your own children, why not offer a child minding service for parents who work. You could even offer a pick up service, where you pick up children from school and entertain them for a few hours until their parents finish work.

2. Sell on Ebay - and I don't just mean all your personal possessions! The trick with Ebay business is to buy low and sell cheap. Is there anyway you can find cheap stock which you can then sell for a profit on ebay? If you need some ideas about doing business on ebay, then look HERE at this article to get you started.

3. Home based administration - Many small companies struggle under the weight of administrative tasks. These are tasks that must be done to keep the business running smoothly but which do not add immediate value to the company. Lots of small companies will pay people to take this burden off their hands and will favour the option of using a self-employed secretary, thus reducing the overheads and legal burden of employing someone. For more info on how to get into home based office work, SEE HERE.

4. Set up an events organisation company - you could make money from home by organising coach trips to attractions or events. By negotiating on large numbers of hotel rooms, admissions etc, any difference between the package price and your costs is your profit. For example, you could organise a two night stay to blackpool. You would first call some suppliers (coach hire, hotels, theme parks...) and negotiate your prices to be as low as possible. Don't give up until you have the best prices!! Then work out your costs and work out how many people, at what price you need to at least cover this. This is your break even mark. Any more takers, or a higher price = profit.

5. E-shop - in the same vein as selling on Ebay, setting up your own internet shop by buying low and selling high is a good way to make money from home if you get the product right. Products that will sell well over the internet are usually products that it's not easy to go into a shop and buy, especially in rural areas. Don't forget too that if it's something quite common, the whole fun in buying over the internet for many is that they save money, so bear this in mind and try to choose high-margin products.

6. Blogging and article writing - this is a one for creative types with a flair for writing. By writing blogs, articles and even websites, you can generate an income. No, no one buys your writing unfortunately (unless you get talent spotted by a magazine or newspaper!), but you can generate considerable income from blogging and writing for the net. This is a very low cost way to make money from the internet and working from home and if you're good, you can make plenty. See HERE, HERE and HERE for more information on making money from blogs, articles and websites here.

7. Affiliate Marketing - Affiliate marketing can be very lucrative if you get it right. Its basic principle is that you get paid to refer customers to a company through your sites, articles and blogs. The trick is in getting those referrals and that means dedicating each affiliate site to one product and making it keyword rich and informative. There's so much more to affiliate marketing than we can get in this little ideas guide so start HERE for much more information and guidance on getting started.

8. E-lancing - E-lancers is the new term for freelancers who work through the internet. If you have any skills, knowledge or talent, there is probably someone out there willing to pay for some of it. There are many sites that deal with uniting elancers with people requiring elancers. See our GUIDE TO ELANCING here.

9. Cosmetics/products agent - Okay, so this is not entirely home based as you will have to go out and see clients, but selling products as an agent for a major company can be a great way to make extra money. To get a better idea of what you could sell, see our GUIDE HERE.

10. Sell your own expertise - why not base your home business around something you know well? If you're a techie, you could set up a techie site and forum. If you can do accounts, set up as a freelance book keeper. You can clean right? We can all clean - so why not set out as a mobile cleaner. You can even specialise in something, like cleaning for landlords or commercial premises. Think about what you can do, do your market research and go for it. Your best asset is yourself!