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Ideas For Home Based Businesses

Ideas For Home Based Businesses

When most people think of having a home-based business the ideas which come to mind often include day care, bookkeeping, copy-writing or cleaning houses. Needless to say, these types of businesses aren't very creative or engaging and unless you love cleaning houses or watching other people's children it isn't likely you'll enjoy what you're doing every day. The best type of home based business is to turn a hobby into a career and do what you love. Along these lines, here are some home based business ideas to get you started and maybe one or two of them will strike a chord and motivate you to get started today.

For Green Thumbs

If you have a green thumb there are a couple of ideas which apply having a garden and growing fruits or vegetables. Depending on how much land you have you may be able to grow significantly more produce than your family is able to consume. More often than not, people with fruit trees and personal gardens will give away extra fruits and vegetables to neighbors and friends and family. If you have the inclination and the time it might be worthwhile to take your extra produce to a local farmers market to make some extra money.

Many restaurants often have local suppliers for their fresh produce and meats but may be limited on selection or availability. If you're in the type of city that has a lot of restaurants and is focused on healthy eating you may be able to grow fruits and vegetables and various herbs to help supplement their resources for planning menus. This will obviously require a little more leg work and an extroverted personality. If however you like socializing and aren't afraid of hearing no, you can make more money than at a farmers market while dealing with fewer customers.

Computer Know How

If you're more technically inclined and have access to a computer there are many different types of home based businesses you can do from the comfort of your home office. One such idea is to provide home owners with home inventory services. Every single insurance company will tell homeowners to inventory their property in the event of fire or a burglary yet few homeowners actually do this. With a laptop computer, a spreadsheet application and a high-quality smartphone camera you could charge hundreds of dollars to do something homeowners could easily do themselves.

Depending on your experience and educational background it may be worthwhile to start a blog talking about your favorite hobby. It might sound crazy but if you're willing to put in the time and effort to create quality content on a regular basis you can make thousands of dollars per month writing about something you love. Do you love quilting or scrap booking and are you able to write new articles every day. This is something that may fill the niche online leading to traffic and ad revenue. Never underestimate what the Internet is interested in and what will make money.

Crafts n Stuff

Many home-based businesses have been started out of someone's garage building a product that was originally meant only for them. Countless examples can be found online where someone needed a type of hat or mailbox or scarf for themselves and then friends and family wanted one as well. Websites like Etsy.com provide online storefronts for individuals to sell their crafts and make some part-time money. Depending on how popular your product is it may become a full-time job but you won't know until you try.


Many people get locked in to the idea that home-based businesses are only for entrepreneurs or for specific industries like bookkeeping or day care. This couldn't be further from the truth as thousands of individuals have turned what used to be a hobby into full-fledged businesses with employees and international shipping. Don't limit yourself to some antiquated notion of what a home based business is and do what you enjoy. As with any business, you need to determine if there is a market for your product or service and run the numbers on whether or not it's economically feasible. If however, it looks like a possibility that you can turn a hobby into a moneymaker then by all means pursue it to its fullest.

Image by: Jeff Tabaco