More and more people are fed up with the daily commute, working long hours, lining someone else's pockets, a lack of flexibility regarding childcare when working - the list is almost endless.
That's why an increasing number of people are looking at other options, one of them being starting their own business working from home. There are some businesses that are very well suited to being carried out from home, others that are not quite so good. In this article, we will focus on the types of business that works well from home.
Broadly speaking, there are two types of businesses you can run from home:
-A home-based business, where part of the work is carried out outside the home but the majority still at home.
-A pure home business, where all the work you do can be undertaken from the comfort of your home.
There are, of course, many other ways to classify home businesses, but that's beyond the scope of this article.
A home-based business
This is the sort of business where you spend most of your time working from home but some of the time working outside your home, for example for client/prospect meetings, events such as fairs and shows, etc.
Types of home-based businesses
- Providing a service that can be done at home or outside, e.g. photographer/portrait artist, various types of consultancy (such as business coaching, social media management, marketing consultancy), ironing service in your own home, child minding, etc.
Much of this type of work can be done at home but it often involves meeting prospects/clients at their premises, In the case of the ironing service, you may want to offer a collection and delivery service as well and in the case of child minding, you may want to take the children out some of the time.
- Network marketing/multi-level marketing (MLM)
Although you will spend a fair amount of time working from home in an MLM business, it usually involves attending events and meetings, often in the evening or at the weekend, as well as delivering products to customers.
A Pure Home Business
As suggested above, this is the type of business you can carry out completely from home, without having to go to meetings, either with customers/prospects or suppliers. Depending on the type of business, you may, however, have to go out to purchase materials/ingredients, although this can mostly be done online.
Types of pure home businesses:
- Producing/making something, e.g. cakes, confectionery, hand-made cards, paintings, arts and craft, etc.
Depending on how you market yourself, this could turn into a home-based business, where you have to go to fairs and shows, for example, to promote and sell your products. However, if you sell online, you'll only need to make trips to the post office to ship your goods or, if you're lucky, get people to come to your house to collect their order. The latter can apply to things such as cakes for special occasions. This sort of business would really only cater for local people.
- Online selling, e.g. via eBay.
For larger or heavy items, people would have to collect from your house, so you could be completely home based, provided you have somewhere to store these items. For small and light items, you'd have to make trips to the post office, unless, of course, you use a courier who would pick up from your house.
- Providing a service, e.g. teaching something, restoring antiques, repairing small items, telemarketing
If you have a separate office where you can accommodate a minimum of one other person comfortably, you can offer courses in whatever you can teach people or be a coach; or you could use this room to repair/restore items. A friend of mine runs chocolate making workshops in her shed, another friend is a coach. This works well for them. Apart from the telemarketing, this is again restricted to local businesses and people.
- Internet marketing - different to online selling.
This is essentially selling a service or product that can be delivered online, e.g. online training, downloadable software, e-books, downloadable videos and audios, etc. This is perhaps the purest of the pure home businesses, as there's no need to purchase materials, no need to ship goods, no need to attend fairs or other events. And all you need is a computer and Internet connection, which don't have to be in a separate room. And the beauty is that this isn't limited to any specific geography, as you can target the whole world if you want.
If you're looking to start your own business working from home, this article has hopefully given you some ideas about the types of businesses that work well. You'll have to take into account whether you want to work from home all the time or work outside your home some of the time. Both have their merits.
I personally tried the MLM route but found being away in the evening for meetings and presentations and being away some weekends for meetings difficult to fit in with children and stepchildren. I therefore opted for the Internet marketing route, as it allows me to work from home the whole time and gives me the greatest flexibility.
Whichever route you decide to go down, here's to your success.
Insa Winkelbrandt is an Internet Marketer and Social Media Consultant. Having worked in marketing in the IT industry for 13 years, she decided to become her own boss, working from home, and fit work around children and family. To find out more about Insa, please visit
http://www.insawinkelbrandt.com/
If you think Internet marketing is the business for you, why not have a look at [
http://www.AboutTheSFM.com]http://www.AboutTheSFM.com, where you can find out more about the system Insa uses - called The Six Figure Mentors -, its founders and its mission and how it helps people like you to start your own turn-key Internet marketing business.
You can also contact Insa on +44 7575 787475 or +44 118 357 7475.
Article Source: [
http://EzineArticles.com/?What-Businesses-Lend-Themselves-to-Working-From-Home?&id=6166316] What Businesses Lend Themselves to Working From Home?
