Selling from home, new fad

More and more people are discovering ways to use remote work to pursue entrepreneurship with their headquarters at home.

In today's connected world where technology affords us more flexibility in how and where we work, home-based businesses come in a wide variety of forms. Here are ideas that could help you start a home business

Sell homemade products

If you are a creative maker, you can consider turning a hobby into a business. Even if you have to create your products elsewhere in a studio, commercial kitchen, or workshop you may be able to store them and sell them in your own home.

With the ability to control nearly every aspect of the products you sell, you can make them more cost-effective, improve their quality, or cater them to a certain audience to target demand in the market.

Start a dropshipping store

There are a variety of online businesses ideas to pursue that allow you to take inventory and shipping off your hands.

These businesses employ a dropshipping model, where a third party produces, stores, and ships your products on your behalf, leaving marketing and customer service as your chief responsibilities.

Your dropshipping supplier can be local or overseas, but you need to ensure you find a supplier you can trust to deliver a consistently great customer experience after the sale. Always do your due diligence or you might put your business's reputation at risk.

Start a print-on-demand business

Using a similar dropshipping model, a print-on-demand business doesn't require you to hold any inventory or ship it yourself either.

Print-on-demand even offers you more flexibility to customize white label products with your own creative designs.

And there are a wide range of products you can sell: books, t-shirts, hats, backpacks, blankets, pillows, mugs, shoes, hoodies, phone cases, watches, and more depending on the supplier you choose to work with.

Sell your service or expertise

Service-based businesses often require a lot of networking and word of mouth referrals to find suitable clients, but satisfied clients will likely retain your services over time and continue to give you their business.

For this reason, you don't necessarily need a large number of customers to do well, as you would with a product-based business. Depending on the service you're offering, a handful of high-quality clients can be enough to support yourself full-time while working from home.

Grow an audience you can monetize

If you're a content creator, have a sizable online audience already, or have always thought about starting your own blog, YouTube channel, Instagram account, or podcast, then you can potentially grow and then monetize your following using any of the previous ideas on this list.

On top of that, you can also explore becoming an affiliate—selling other products or services for a commission—or accepting payment for sponsored posts to give brands a chance to connect with your audience.