Top-10 Proven Home Based Business Ideas

2020 has been quite a dreadful year for working professionals around the world, as millions lost their jobs due to the restrictions imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19. Even though employers and governments are trying their best to provide aid for essentials, most find it barely sufficient.

Waiting for things to get better is surely a great thought, but pondering on such thoughts alone won’t improve things for you. It would be best if you looked for ways to get a steady income so that you are prepared for the different adversities this pandemic has yet to bring upon us.

People who were furloughed at the very start of the pandemic have come up with some great business ideas that require minimum to no investments. The best thing about these businesses is you can operate from the comfort of your home without having to purchase a separate business space or an office.

If you go fishing for such businesses, you will come across innumerable options which can also confuse you. To help you out, here are the top 10 proven home-based business ideas that can help you make some extra money during the lockdown.

1. Translation Services:

This is a great opportunity for people who are proficient in more than one language. Businesses frequently require people who can translate documents, MoUs, website content, and more. To get started all you need is a computer or a laptop and a stable internet connection for translation and correspondence respectively. You can add more credibility to your resume by getting a certificate of grammar or translation from an authoritative association for, e.g. the American Translator Association.

2. Online Consulting:

It is a suitable time to put your professional knowledge to use by sharing it with others at a reasonable price. You can create an online consulting firm that you can operate from the comfort of your home. As a consultant, your role will be to provide information to people and solve their problems. Before you start, making a list of your skills, abilities, and the businesses that can make the best of your assistance. You need to have a strong network to get clients for online consultations.

3. Content Writing:

Content writing is one of the highly lucrative business options that you can opt for to cope up with the pandemic expenditure. It offers a great deal of flexibility along with a vast array of options to choose from such as articles, blogs, books, writing instruction manuals, and even advertising slogans.

To get a content writing job, all you need is a good grasp of the language of your choice and its grammar. However, you will have to be careful about the deadlines as failure to deliver work on time can cost you both the gig and your reputation.

4. Handmade Crafts:

Turn your craft-making hobby into an income-generating business by selling them online. People love buying handmade craft work that are functional or aesthetically appealing. To benefit from this, you need to follow some important steps.

• Find the places that you can sell your handmade crafts such as Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, and more.
• Look for the top sellers in the category that your handcrafts fall in and observe them very closely to learn how to price your products and attract customers.
• Click some awesome photos of your creations
• Make sure you produce enough goods so that there are no delays in product delivery.

For detailed tips on how to get maximum sales on an e-commerce store, you can refer to Amazon’s seller blogs.

5. Drop-Shipping Store:

With the strict lockdown regulations imposed in all the major cities of the country, people hardly get a chance to visit the store. Furthermore, when they visit the stores, they often don’t find the items they need. All of this has led to a substantial rise in online shopping; that’s where a golden opportunity lies.

If you don’t produce any goods or sell anything, you can still be a part of the eCommerce business by operating as a Drop-Shipper. The idea is very simple, an online retailer will send you a dropshipping order from the website, and all you have to do is pack the said item and ship it to the customer on behalf of the retailer.

It may seem tiresome at first due to the low margins, but once you start shipping multiple orders, you will see steady growth and constant income flow. If you can manage more than 100 orders a day, you can begin a delivery system for some retailers too.

To get better results, you need to look for products or categories that other delivery systems do not support. However, you have to be careful as the entire responsibility of delivery is on you so any damaged or used product delivered to the customer will get you in trouble.

6. Website Design:

As most businesses are taking their operations online, the first thing they need is a stunning website to attract their customers. If you have experience of using website designing tools along with an adequate understanding of colour and artistic approach, you’re all set for the business.

In the initial phase, you will have to spend on important things like high-speed internet connection, website templates, and domain cost. Since website design is a highly competitive domain, you have to ensure that your work is unique enough to stand out from the others.

7. Private Tutor:

Teaching is not that tough if you have adequate knowledge of a particular subject. If you are good with handling kids, you can start a mini treehouse, but if you are affluent with subjects like physics, maths, and sciences, you can teach a more mature audience.

You can teach the students in person or lead them remotely via online video conferencing. Even though you don’t have any certificate for teaching, having extensive knowledge about a particular subject will suffice.

Apart from knowledge, you should also have the ability to teach the students more effectively, so that they understand the topic or the lessons well.

8. Graphics Designing:

Graphic Designers need not feel distraught about the entire COVID-19 situation and being furloughed as they can capture a much larger market. Businesses need flyers, social media posts, website banners, and images, posters, etc. to carry on their marketing activities. You can approach such businesses with your extensive portfolio and get the order of creating such marketing collateral for them.

To set up a graphic designing business, you will need a high-performance PC or a laptop that should be able to handle all kinds of software or at least the ones you can use.

9. Digital Marketing:

The shift from offline to online is still troublesome for many businesses which is why a digital marketer can be of great help to them. You can provide them with solutions like content marketing, social media, and website management. Since digital marketing is a huge space, you can find your area of focus that matches your skills and abilities to provide the best results to your clients.

10. Virtual Assistant:

If you have been a PA (personal assistant) or an EA (Executive Assistant) for business owners or managers in the past, you put those skills to use too by becoming a virtual assistant. You can provide a series of services like scheduling, sending emails, keeping a record of the meetings and business transactions, and even providing customer support.

To run a virtual assistant business, you need a PC with a good internet connection. You might also want to use the contacts from your previous job in the initial phase.

Conclusion:

As the saying goes, ‘Every Cloud has a silver lining’, the jobs mentioned above can be your silver lining to help you shine bright in this pandemic. Furthermore, if things go well, you can turn it into a full-time business and grow passionately.

Also read:
Online Business Ideas You Can Start Quickly
Best investment ideas during the COVID-19 pandemic
What is the Risk of Not Using Social Media for Business?
How Many Social Media Sites Can I Promote My Online Business On?