Raising a family is an incredibly rewarding experience, but it also comes with its own set of challenges. When you decide to have a family, it can be difficult to balance maintaining a career and organizing childcare. Some people choose to leave their careers behind and stay at home with their children, while others are returning to work, either through necessity or choice. Whatever your situation, one way that you can continue to earn an income without having to leave your house is to run your own business from the comfort of your own home. If this is a route you feel you would be interested in taking, then here are six potential business ideas which would be viable to undertake from home.
Teaching and Mentoring
From playing the piano to being a skilled mathematician, if there is a specific subject or skill that you excel at, then it is easy enough to become a teacher or a mentor in that subject. The best way to get business in this area of business is through word of mouth and good reviews, so one good way to gain clients is to provide one free lesson to people at first, so that you can prove that you are a good teacher, before they pay for lessons.
Freelance writing
There are a number of opportunities for people to get into writing, especially when it comes to freelance work. Depending on your skill set, you could try anything from marketing and advertisement to journalism and becoming a columnist. Blogging is a very common practice in this day and age, which the most common platforms being sites such as WordPress; though this method gives you the freedom to the writer about whatever topics you like, it does rely on high volumes of readership to be profitable. Going freelance also requires flexibility, so be sure that you can give this endeavor the appropriate allowances in terms of time and effort that will be put in.
Art and Design
The internet makes selling products and services simpler than ever before, with E-commerce becoming a growing method of retail for entrepreneurs. The most important aspects of having a successful online business is to have an easy to navigate online store and to provide straightforward online payment processing. There is always a market for the unique and unusual, so get creative and see what products you can come up with; you could produce anything from your own clothing to original paintings or bespoke furniture.
Animal or child daycare
If you are already staying at home to look after your own children, then it isn’t that big a leap to become a childminder for other people’s children too. While you may not need any specific training to run a daycare, you will need the appropriate licensing, and should also get some comprehensive insurance cover. Alternatively, you could also run a pet daycare center, and take in animals for other people while they are out at work, or away on holiday. Not only is this a great way to earn some income, but being around the animals will also provide some fun and entertainment for your children too.
Customer services
You may think this is something you need to work in a call center to do, but in actual fact, you can be contracted as an inbound call operator from the comfort of your own home. All you really need is a dedicated phone line, and the ability to accurately relay information to clients of a variation of companies with speed and finesse. If you feel you are a confident speaker, who is a good problem solver, and can withstand the pressure of dealing with customer complaints, this could be the ideal job for you as a stay at home parent, as it requires practically no start-up costs.
Proofreading and editing
If you are the type of person who reads through books and articles and becomes frustrated by the typos and grammatical errors that you come across, then being a proofreader could be the ideal job for you. It is entirely up to you what type of work you take on, from manuscripts to legal documents, so long as you have the expertise required to do the job. The best thing about this form of work is that, as long as you have a computer and good internet access, you are looking at practically no start-up costs at all. However, it may be worthwhile lowering your prices as you start out, in return for clients leaving you good reviews, as this will help you to drum up business.
