Home Business Ideas

There are millions of ways to make money; how do you choose which one is right for you? Well first off, don’t get trapped into thinking there is only one right way for you — there are probably hundreds that fit your temperament, skills and interests. Your real challenge is selecting the best from among the many options you have to choose from. Sometimes it comes down to trial and error learning, but there are ways to judge some of the relevant factors in advance.

Is it Right for Me?

The first step is to do a little introspection. A simple tool to facilitate this process is the basic good/bad list: draw a line down the middle of a blank sheet of paper, and on one side write the good points, on the other write the bad. Evaluation isn’t a simple matter of counting the good vs bad — you need to decide how important each factor is, how much ‘weight’ it carries — but putting it in writing helps.

Make a list of possible money-making opportunities, and evaluate each of the following factors, using the good/bad analysis described in the preceding paragraph:

1. Can I sustain enthusiastic interest in this?
2. Do I have the capacity to learn all I’ll need to know or particular skills to do this?
3. Will I need further education or experience to learn the practical ins-and-outs of running such a business?
4. Do I have the experience and knowledge required already?

Can I Make Enough Money?

I’ve heard people preach ‘Do what you love and the money will follow … ‘ — but that’s just what it is ‘preaching’ — a matter of faith that, in this case, is not supported by reality. It all depends on what you love! You may be the finest sand-castle builder on the beach, but there just ain’t no money in sandcastles honey…

You need to look at not just how profitable the venture is likely to be, but note how the cash-flow goes. Will it take time to build-up momentum before you begin to see a profit? If your starting out part-time to supplement existing income, or are living in your parent’s basement, you might be able to get by with that. But if it requires full-time commitment and you have a family to feed and little or no savings, it’s just not an option. So it all depends on your personal situation.

How much do you need to invest in such things as stock, advertising, etc., to get started? Will you be able to finance replenishing stock from income earned on the initial purchases, and how much does that leave for you? Will you need to hire employees, and what do you do with them if there isn’t enough business to keep them busy?

The usual way to determine the potential profitability of a potential business is to create a business plan. Far too many businesses skip this essential phase, which is one reason so many start-up businesses fail. Don’t think of the business plan as a sales pitch to potential investors, think of it as an investigative tool to help you clarify the details of your business intentions. Don’t farm it out to someone else to do — it is in researching the details you need to know to complete a plan that you learn about your own business. There are good software programs that will walk you through the questions you need to answer. Finding realistic answers to those questions will help you know if a business is feasible or not.

Do I have an Exit Strategy?

Something few people think about when starting a business, but a factor that may make the difference between a good idea and a great idea, is what happens once you have built your business into a thriving concern. What happens when you decide to leave: because you have to for health reasons, or because you want to for personal reasons? There are three possible scenarios, based on the type of business, and how it was structured to begin with:

1) The Business Dies (This is bad)

The business was entirely dependent on your personal efforts, so when you quit working, the business ceases to exist. You never really had a business — you just had a job where you were your own boss.

2) You Sell the Business or Business Assets (Can be good if you get enough)

You find someone to buy out your business, or you sell off your business assets, hopefully at a huge profit. That gives you money to live on while you build another business, or enough for permanent retirement if your business was highly profitable when you sold it. If you feel good with the value you receive when considering how much work you put into building the business, then this fine.

3) The business keeps going without your input, and you continue to reap the profits (This is great)

In the ideal situation, you have structured your business to keep running without you. Perhaps you incorporated, and kept 51% of the stock. Or perhaps you just have trusted employees (with some equity stake in the business, one would hope) that know how to run the business, train new employees, and continue on without your active participation.

Knowing your exit strategy has an effect on how you build your business from the very start. When choosing a business, be sure to look for one that allows you to build in a successful exit strategy, rather than just creating your own job.

• Leave a comment... (1)

In the very first post on this blog, I urged you to start a blog. No matter what kind of home business you decide to run, a blog can help promote your business. But some people are using blogs as their primary business. If you have good writing skills, this is probably the easiest and best way to enter Internet based entrepreneurship.

Don’t expect it to be easy — it takes a lot of hard work to develop and promote a successful blog. Then you need to learn how best to monetize the traffic you attract. But it can be done. This is an especially attractive option if you already have a full-time job, and are looking for a way out. It takes time to develop your blog, and you might want to keep eating once in while during that process. So don’t quit your day job, but spend a few hours each night writing and promoting your site. Blogging need not be a full-time occupation in order to be profitable.

If this seems a good option for you, go over to Yaro Starak’s blog, and check out his two newly released free videos — there is enough there to get you started on the right path. Yaro is one of the biggest names in blogging, and he tells us that he earns over $100,000 per year through his blog. One of his main techniques for drawing readers to his blog is that he gives away tons of great information for free, it is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in earning money through blogging.

• Leave a comment... (0)

Lots of people talk about the tax benefits of having your own home business — and it is all true. Yes, you can deduct that vacation to Puerta Vallarta if you can show that it is a business trip — and what trip isn’t a business trip if you are working all the time? Wink, wink, nod, nod.

Sorry if this post has a U.S. bias, but that is the only tax system I am familiar with — you will have to judge if any of this applies to you if you live in another country.

Tax benefits go way beyond your working-vacation trip. Many of the things you spend money on at home become deductible, from your computer to that handy plastic-sealer you use for CDs but that works great on food bags too. The IRS is not going to come into your house to see how you use that device, but their rules say you can only take the business-use proportion on your tax form.

Which brings us to the tricky question of ethics and tax reporting. Tax laws were written to be pro-business and hit the employed working-man hardest. Is it unethical to use those laws to their fullest extent? That is a personal decision you must make. Any tax preparer will tell you that there is a lot of ‘wiggle room’ in interpreting tax laws. Are there any good reasons to err on the side of paying-more when interpreting those laws? Probably not. Usually, the worst penalty you will get is having to pay the taxes you avoided (plus interest) — but you had the use of that money in the mean-time, and if used wisely have earned at least the going interest rate on them. In most cases though, the IRS will not challenge your interpretation, there are bigger fish to go after.

Some of the things that will put you in that ‘big fish’ category that you should avoid would be:

• Having a high income and not filing any tax return at all.
• Having substantial business income but showing a net loss year after year.
• Not reporting a substantial portion of your income — how substantial depends on too many factors to go into here…
• Basically, any business return that is so far off the norm that it seems implausible.

So by all means, start a home business for the tax benefits — if nothing else. Be sure to work toward profitability, of course (you have to have an income to deduct against!), and let your conscious (and qualified tax adviser) decide how beneficial the results should be on your tax return.

• Leave a comment... (0)

Yahoo has posted its recommendations for the ten most popular work-at-home jobs. Let’s see what they came up with:

• Administrative Services Manager at more than $30 per hour. In their own words: (some) administrative services managers have earned the option to work some or all of their hours from a home. So if you already have this type of job, beg your company to let you work from home, otherwise forget it.
  
• Computer Systems Analyst at over $30 per hour. A major part of all computer systems are the hardware devices — and when something goes wrong, you need to go where that hardware is. If you already have a college degree in computer system analysis, you might find an employer that lets you work part of your time at home.
• Database Manager at more than $30 per hour. Here they are referring that small minority of database managers who work freelance from home to service small companies that do not need, or can not afford, full time staff. Requires a good education in database management, plus marketing skills to sell your services — if you have that combination this is feasible, if you want to work for yourself.
• Public Relations Specialist at over $22 per hour. Again, they are talking primarily about freelancing — offering your PR services for a fee to various companies. Most companies will not deal with you unless you already have experience in the field, of course, so to start out you need a degree in communications and several years experience working for someone else … if you have that plus personal marketing skills, then you can consider going freelance with some hope for success.
• Paralegal at over $20 per hour. Here again, you are offering your services on a freelance basis to one or more law firms. Generally, an associate degree in law or legal administration is needed. This can be a good gig if you have the skills and education. Just remember you are dealing with lawyers — some refuse to pay, knowing the cost of suing for your money would exceed what you can get. Be sure your employer is reputable.
• Probation Officer at $20 per hour plus benefits. Let’s see — invite criminals to visit your home periodically, or go out looking for them (not exactly a home-business then is it?) If this sounds like fun to you, and you have a social work degree and/or experience in the security industry, go for it. Oh yes, not all states permit probation officers to work from home, so you may need to move to a different state as well.
• Web Design Professional at over $20 per hour. Now they are talking traditional, web-based, home employment. If you have the skills or connections to beat out tons of competition, this may work for you. Remember, you need both graphic-design and computer programming skills to produce today’s highly graphical and interactive websites.
• Desktop Publisher at more than $20 per hour. Here is another job where graphic design skills are important, as well as good language and writing skills, since it is often necessary to clean up rough projects submitted by one-person small businesses. Finding your potential customers is always the problem with such freelance jobs — try allying yourself with one or more print-shops that are too small to have their own design staff.
• Medical Transcriptionist at $14 per hour or more. This has become a traditional home based business since the advent of the Internet — but scams exist on the training end. Be sure to check out your education provider before taking any training. This is basically a specialized-typing job — be sure you can stand the tedious repetitious nature of the job before investing in the education.
• Virtual Assistant at $13 per hour or more. If you have developed a personal relationship with someone who needs this kind of service, and knows you and your work, you have a great opportunity to enter this field. Otherwise you are competing with offshore companies that offer the same services for $5 per hour, plus a lot of competition from experienced former office workers. It can be done, but don’t expect it to be easy to find work to do.

Those may be the top home-businesses with Yahoo, but in the real world they constitute a tiny minority of home workers. Most of them fail to offer the independence of a real business — they are just jobs you can work from home. Some pay no more than the equivalent office job — yet you lose all of the benefits of employment if you freelance.

Subscribe to our RSS feed for great ideas for home businesses.

• Leave a comment... (0)

One of the most flexible, but highly competitive home business ideas, is to buy things that are available in your local area at a discount, then sell them nation-wide or globally using sites like eBay. This is undoubtedly the fastest way to get cash. All it takes is a certain knack for spotting bargains, and organizational skills to make the listing and delivery of the products as hassle-free as possible.

This type of business existed years ago for used booksellers and antique stores — but it was an inefficient job at best. With the advent of the Internet and competitive bid auction sites, these ‘picker’ type workers have begun really raking in some dough. Most make the rounds of garage sales, estate liquidations and pawn shops, scarfing up the best deals before anyone else gets there. These are the people that call you the night before your announced garage sale, and ask if they can ‘take a quick look’ before official opening time, on their way to work or some similar excuse.

You don’t need to limit yourself to garage sales. Watch for ‘going out of business’ signs and buy up unsold stock at a bargain. Advertise your willingness to buy with posters on bulletin boards and on your business card (not to mention your website — you did start that blog I recommended on day one, didn’t you?) Let family and friends know you are willing to help them dispose of unwanted or unneeded goods for a small commission, and be sure to encourage them to spread the word for you. Just be sure they have realistic price expectations, and agree on a minimum sales price in advance.

There are lots of online guides to using eBay — that is the largest auction market, you should begin there. But there are hundreds of other online auction sites, some specializing in a particular field, others just as general as eBay. They mostly have to charge less than eBay in order to compete, but they have much smaller audiences. If you have lots of one thing, sell some on eBay and some on other sites. Many of these competing sites don’t even charge a listing fee — you only pay if you sell. A few are even entirely free.

Keep good track of your online promotions. Don’t advertise the same thing on two sites unless you actually have two available — nothing is worse for your business reputation than having to refund a successful bid because you already sold the item to someone else. Be sure you know who has purchased what, and ship the right product to the right customer. Accept as many different forms of payment as you can — checks, PayPal for credit cards, and of course cash if people want to pick something up in person.

Specializing in one particular type of item will help you learn all the details that affect prices, and make you better able to spot a bargain. This takes time, but it pays off in more profitable transactions. Start with something you like, so that if it doesn’t sell, you won’t feel bad about having to hold on to it yourself! If you have spare cash, invest some in things that are likely to increase in value over time — antiques, coins, used jewelry, etc., and set them aside to sell later when prices have risen.

Buying locally and selling online is the most fluid business model you can have — if one thing doesn’t work out, you simply choose something else. But competition is fierce, so you need to make sharp buying decisions, to be sure you don’t get stuck with a turkey. And it takes time to shop, list items and ship items — don’t undervalue your time! Only sell cheap items (under $5) if you can buy them in bulk.

• Leave a comment... (0)

So, in the preceding two posts I outlined a plan for a biochar-based home business. Remember, this is premium product you are producing, if you want to make money price it accordingly. Consider giving free samples of your biochar-enriched mulched soil for people to try out — maybe a small pot with some easily grown flowering plants in it.

For the charcoal, some people prize charcoal made from particular wood — claiming it makes better steaks or burns hotter, etc. This is mostly nonsense, but if you have a premium wood available, why argue with them? Texans, for example, think Mesquite wood charcoal makes better steaks than regular charcoal. In fact, of course, any aromatic oils that might make Mesquite wood fragrant, would be burned off in the charcoal-making process. Similarly, Hickory charcoal is favored in some areas. In both these cases, the wood itself may indeed have constituents that make the smoke impart a distinct flavor to meat, but that characteristic is not present in the charcoal.

And speaking of charcoal — do not mistake charcoal briquettes for real charcoal. Those uniform little cubes they sell are made of coal, sawdust, binders and other ingredients and are NOT suitable for making biochar, even if you wanted to go to all the trouble of grinding them up fine to make them into a powder.

Also, speaking of sawdust — that can be a great source for making biochar, so long as it comes from untreated wood. If you have a carpenter nearby who will give or sell you his sawdust, fine; just be sure he does not cut pressure-treated wood or wood composites (like plywood or fiber-board). The same goes for wood chips, though they can be a little more difficult to pulverize after carbonization, depending on their size.

Finally, let me plug another biochar site, this one my own — it is a brand new blog called Biochar and Fertilization — not much in it yet, but come join us and follow the developments.

• Leave a comment... (0)

In yesterday’s post I introduced you to biochar, wonderful stuff that will improve soil while sequestering atmospheric carbon — the only carbon-negative process that has economic benefits that outweigh its cost.

When we think of charcoal, we usually think of wood — as wood charcoal is the kind we are most familiar with. It has been used for thousands of years to provide heat for homes and industrial processes. The problem with using wood to produce biochar is that it is very difficult to reduce it to the powdery form needed for soil enrichment. But charcoal can be produced out of almost any organic matter.

Charcoal is simply the left-over carbon when organic matter is heated to moderately high temperatures in the absence of oxygen. Finding a friable substance to turn into biochar makes the process much easier, as the material will crumble easily. In some places they use rice hulls or coconut fibers to make biochar. Leaves will work well too. Even green leaves could be used, but the energy required to drive off the moisture makes the process inefficient, so it would probably put more carbon in the air from the heating process than could be saved by burying the resultant biochar. If you live in a rural area, dried horse manure makes excellent biochar.

I promised some web resources for you to follow up on this, so I’ll begin with a link to the Twin Oaks site, which has an excellent and efficient charcoal maker, and instructions on how you can make your own. As your dried organic material is heated, it gives off flammable gas, which in this charcoal maker is recycled back under the drum to burn in the fire that is providing the heat — thus reducing the amount of fuel required to produce the charcoal.

For small home experiments, you can just put a covered pot full of organic material in a bonfire. Be sure the top is loose enough that the gasses can escape or you will have an explosion when it expands! The little bit of oxygen in the container will burn off and/or get driven off by the expanding gasses, so your material will turn to charcoal rather than burn. This is an inefficient way to create biochar, so it probably puts as much carbon in the atmosphere during the heating as is saved by the char, but you can produce enough to convince yourself this really works, before investing in a larger operation.

The only dangers associated with biochar are that the fine powder is probably bad for the lungs if inhaled (use a surgical mask when unloading your container), and biochar can be highly flammable. Think old-fashioned ‘black powder’ gunpowder, and one of the ingredients was powdered charcoal. Of course without the potassium nitrate, biochar is not so explosive as gunpowder, but it still can burn fast and furious under the right conditions.

The safest way to sell biochar then is as a component in composted soil. If you have some of that horse manure I mentioned earlier, don’t char it all — save some for compost. Add leaves and similar organic matter, some existing soil for the bacteria and worms and such, and about 25% biochar by volume. The biochar will also help your compost work faster, with less odor. The resulting biochar enriched soil can be sold in those big (reusable) woven-plastic bags used for agricultural crops. It is great in pots for houseplants, or in the garden. Use some in half your own garden, and show people the difference between the biochar side and the regular dirt side, and you will have customers.

Here are some more web resources for information on biochar:

• Cornell University - and Terra Preta - research and resources on biochar and the Amazonian soils that lead to it’s use.
• Biochar.org - further information on current research on biochar.
• Experiment in Iowa — using biochar from dried corn stalks to improve corn production.
• You Tube — one of several YouTube videos showing biochar experiment results. See ‘related videos’ for others.

• Leave a comment... (0)

Given the title of this blog, I suppose some folks will arrive here looking for a specific home business idea. Well, here’s one I guarantee you haven’t seen before (unless you are reading this years after I first introduced it, so it has become commonplace).

What would you say to a product that can:

• Help reclaim unproductive soils to make them fertile.
• Improve production of garden or farm crops by 50% to 100%
• Reduce the use of irrigation water on those crops.
• Reduce the use of fertilizers on those crops.
• Improve the texture of the soil.
• Reduce pollution to rivers and lakes from fertilizer run-off.
• Reduce carbon in the atmosphere that is a major contributor to global warming.

That’s right, this product will help feed more people with less land, less fertilizer, and less water, all while reducing global warming. And if you have a normal sized yard, you can make it at home. Nobody is selling it yet, but it will soon be commonplace.

This product is called biochar. Basically, it is just charcoal — but ground very fine. It constitutes a major ingredient in Terra Preta, rich black soils of the Amazon basin that continue to be incredibly rich hundreds of years after the farmers that created them abandoned them. And that in a rain-forest environment, where nearby natural soils are leached-out and infertile.

Biochar seems to work by providing a favorable environment for soil micro-organisms. Each ounce of biochar provides a surface area equivalent to a football field for the growth of these microscopic creatures. The biochar also absorbs and holds moisture, and has a chemical property that facilitates something called cation that makes minerals in the soil more available to plant roots. The biochar is NOT a fertilizer, it remains in the soil for centuries unchanged — but acts like a catalyst to benefit plants without itself being consumed.

Because biochar is not a fertilizer, it needs to be used on soils that either have sufficient nutriments already, or used in combination with fertilizer — ideally organic fertilizer such as compost. In fact, adding biochar to compost will help it ‘work’ faster, turning the organics into rich soil. The biochar increases the efficiency of the fertilizer, and reduces the leaching-out of nutriments provided, so further fertilization is needed less often. Plus, the biochar retains moisture, so the plants require less watering.

Biochar is ideal for home lawns and gardens, as well as farmland. A home production unit will probably not produce enough to meet the needs of farmers, but there will not be any demand from farmers until they first try it out on their gardens and see how it works. Everyone with land on this planet needs to begin using this if we are to stop global warming! Think globally, act locally — introduce your neighbors to biochar, and get the ball rolling.

In tomorrow’s post I’ll give links to Internet sites that provide more information on biochar, and that show you how you can make it at home, with only a little investment. Make it, mulch it, use it. Then be ready to sell it when your neighbors beginning asking about that beautiful garden…

• Leave a comment... (0)