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Ideas for
starting your home-based business
Home Office /
Monte Enbysk
Yes, trading the
early morning rush hour for a commute from your bedroom to your home office does
sound appealing. But running a home-based business isn't for everyone. "You have
to have the personality for it," says Jeff Berner, a San Francisco-area author
and consultant who has worked from his home for 33 years. "If you like to work
in groups and need to interact with people on a daily basis, it may not be for
you."
Such warnings
haven't stopped a growing number of people from joining the home business set.
The number of home-based businesses in the United States surpassed 20 million
this year, and is expected to eclipse 25 million by 2003, according to the
research firm International Data Corp. (IDC). The average household income of
those with home businesses topped $57,000 in 1998, says the IDC. Think about
this as you consider entering the home-business world: Nearly 8,500 new home
businesses start every day, and there are no signs of a slowdown.
The Internet is
largely responsible for this "no place like home" trend, offering more ways to
do business at home than the telephone ever could. In 1996, only a quarter of
the home-office households had Internet access, according to IDC. Three years
later, more than 65% were hooked up. Last year, as a group, small- and
home-office workers spent $52.2 billion on technology, a figure that will jump
to $78.8 billion in 2002.
What kind of a
home-based business will you start? Here are 10 ideas from Microsoft bCentral,
compiled from interviews and from a host of lists by other writers and
publications. The criteria to make our top 10 were based on high ease of entry,
relatively low cost, high future demand and potentially high return. See if one
of them sounds like you:
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Internet
sales and marketing. Yes, indeed, there are dot-com failures around us.
But the Internet train keeps gathering steam. If you have a product to sell,
this is very likely the way to sell it (or auction it). If you don't have a
product, you can sell someone else's from the confines of your home.
"Opportunities such as e-stores, e-auctions and site selling have moved this
category into the No. 1 position — that and over a billion dollars in sales
last year," writes Brian Delaney in HOMEBusiness Journal. Get a Web site built
and you're off and running.
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Children's
products and programs. From toys and furniture to educational programs,
this category sizzles with possibilities. The U.S. birthrate is stagnating,
but median family incomes are rising and so are parents' efforts to do more
while having less time for their children. "With so many working parents,
after-school and summer programs with substance are desperately needed," says
Marcus P. Meleton of Home Business Magazine. Children's furniture, painted
murals and training and exercise programs are other items that will be in
demand, he says. Profit potential is moderate, but you will be doing something
important.
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Information
detective or researcher. Have a bit of Sherlock Holmes in you? You can
make good money by sleuthing for information that corporate executives and
others need but don't have time to search for themselves. Government
regulations and intelligence regarding competitors are but two areas to
pursue. Technology has made information gathering easier, but also has
stockpiled the amount of information to plow through. "Solve someone's time
problem by offering to locate and retrieve the information they need and
you'll have people knocking on your door!" Delaney says.
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Home
inspector. Home sales are increasingly dependent upon the results of a
professional inspection. The inspectors generally are independent contractors
who are trained and certified, many also having past experience as
homebuilders or in the construction trades. While that experience is helpful,
it is not mandatory. But certification is necessary if you want to move beyond
having your mother-in-law and best friend as clients. Not only do buyers need
home inspectors, but real estate companies, insurance firms and banks do, too.
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Internet
webmaster. Get started by developing Web sites for your church, your
child's school PTSA or your politician friend. But building sites for
businesses is where the money is. Training is available through the Web
(naturally) at low cost, but you will need a scanner, additional disk storage,
a faster Internet connection and other equipment. But if this is a labor of
love for you, and you know how to market yourself, you will never be out of
work. "You can earn $50 and $100 an hour and hire out as a contractor to
businesses for large [Web site] developments," says Meleton.
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Personal assistant. For many business people today,
time is more precious than money. You help them, not by unplugging their
clocks, but by doing their shopping, running errands, chauffeuring children
and doing other tasks that effectively give them more personal time. The most
ambitious here will also see ways to become virtual business assistants by
providing services such as word processing, newsletter writing, even digital
photography or Web site design. "Serve your clients in as many ways as you
know how," Claire Liston, 28, tells
Entrepreneur magazine. Liston turned
her in-between-jobs stint into a service business that could gross $70,000
this year.
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Event
planner and organizer. Life won't become one big party, but it could
become many little ones. Talented organizers for weddings, bar mitzvahs,
morale events and the like are in high demand if they are strong marketers as
well. But it takes a creative bone, an entrepreneurial spirit and an
indifference to the traditional workweek. Startup costs? Antonia Calzetti and
Brenda Yagmin spent less than $500 to begin their home-based business in New
York in October 1999. The two, who met at a small catering company, have
helped build their clientele through direct mailings, press releases and other
marketing efforts. Their new company's sales should reach $100,000 this year,
they tell Entrepreneur. "We party every day," says Calzetti.
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Home repairs
and landscaping. Delaney, in his HOMEBusiness Journal article, calls this
category, "Home equity enhancement." Cute name, but the real words here are
"cleaning," "painting," "repairing" and "landscaping." The more you can do in
increasing the value of a home in the real estate market, the more you can
make. Selling yourself to real estate agents is a good first step. How can a
PC help? New technology allows you to provide potential clients with a look at
their home — with your improvements added.
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Personal
coach. Corporate chieftains, entrepreneurs and most everyone else could
use an objective listener to identify and correct weaknesses. The key here is
that you must possess the ability to help someone, from skills and experience
you have developed in your own life. You also must be a good listener and a
good self-marketer. Talane Miedaner used a personal coach in her job at a
Manhattan bank — then followed his lead, enrolled in a training program and
became one, too. She now has a business that works with 40 clients a month and
is generating $150,000 a year in sales. "I love the commute," she tells
Entrepreneur, referring to her home in New York's Catskill Mountains. "I roll
out of bed and I'm coaching away."
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Technical
support. Those who troubleshoot computer system problems at businesses big
and small will never be out of work. But you can build a similar business out
of your home, offering training and support (even security consulting) to
small offices, home offices and residential customers with PCs. Prerequisites
(besides a demonstrated knowledge) include a passion for technology, a
customer service bent, hourly rates and a flexible — but not too flexible —
schedule.
But here's a
caution from Azriela Jaffe, a noted author and nationally syndicated columnist
on home-business psychology: "Individuals and couples must exercise great
caution in pursuing home-based business opportunities simply because they show
up on a top 10 list. The first and foremost thing that should be leading you to
choose a business is your love for it and your skill in doing it."
by-http://www.bcentral.com
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