If you have the passion for creating masterpieces out of wood and you’re looking to start a home-based business, here’s a solid guide on how to make money woodworking from home.
Yes, you read that right. You can do everything from product creation to marketing your work from the comforts of your own garage and home office.
On this post, we’ll discuss how select Etsy sellers make a living just from several pieces of wood furniture and learn how to pick the woodworking projects that sell well.
Things You Need to Make Money Woodworking from Home
There are three important things you need to make money woodworking:
1. The Right Mindset
Unlike other online businesses, woodworking is a very labor-intensive business. Many woodworkers who begin to turn their passions into a business should be ready by the possibility of getting exhausted day in, day out. You should have the physical strength and stamina to operate power tools, lift heavy items, and just move about your entire work day.
The physical demands of this job means you should enter this business with the right mindset. Income comes only after you sell a project, so the fulfillment of completing a day’s work should be enough until payment comes in. Sometimes you get to finish three orders in a day, while other days you don’t get to reach halfway through a job.
As a woodworker, you’re the employer and employee. Sometimes, you’ll even serve as a marketer, customer support, and accountant all at the same time. Being someone with woodworking skills and wearing all kinds of hats involves the right mindset as well.
2. Equipment and Woodworking Skills
Woodworking and mechanical skills are a given, since it would be hard to earn from the projects you make if it takes you a month to make one pair of shelves, which you then sell for $50. On the other hand, a skilled woodworker could quickly make several shelves in a day.
You should also be good in math, can read blueprints, and have a natural ability to follow instructions. And because you’ll be needing numerous tools to create your products, you should have (or be ready to invest in) equipment such as:
Power tools
Table saw, hand planer, power drill, circular saw, and other similar equipment
Hand tools
These include quality-made hammers, wrenches, screwdrivers and other hand tools
Carving tools
If you’re offering carved furniture, you must also invest in knives, chisels, gouges, v-tools and more to do the job.
A PC and camera
You’ll need a camera to take product shots of your work and a PC to upload the photos, edit lighting and list on your chosen online marketplace. If your phone has a good camera, a phone could be an alternative for a camera+PC setup.
You should also have ample space (somewhere from 75 to 125 square feet) for adequate lumber storage and to move around and create the pieces you’re going to sell.
3. A Good Business Plan and Marketing Skills
You may be working from home, but you should still be following traditional business operations. As such, you’d need a business plan to see things through.
Some of the most important things you should include with your plan are:
Business goals – Whether you plan to sell “just one item a month,” or scale up your production to $500 a day, writing your goals early allows you to have a timeline to follow. Some useful advice before you begin?
Spy on your competition
Buy only the necessary tools. You only need the basic tools in the beginning. You can scale up your woodworking shop once orders begin to rain.
Learn the numbers. Understand how pricing for handmade products are computed. Include cost of raw materials, your labor hours, electricity, and other considerations.
Audience building – Sooner or later, you’ll realize that you just can’t produce furniture to everyone. Even if you started making amazing dressers, pallet-inspired furniture, fancy coffee tables, and every other furniture requested by customers, it’s only natural that you’ll find the niche to focus on. For example:
Reconstructing guitar bodies into dining tables, shelves, or other cool stuff. This niche known as furniture flipping is a hot niche.
Cool wooden furniture for gadgets, such as a phone docking station
Rustic furniture
Custom-made furniture (only for the seasoned woodworker who has mastered almost all kinds of furniture projects)
Pick a Home base – Build a website, get a free blog up and running, create a business Facebook page, or join Pinterest, Instagram or any other platform of your choice. Pick one or all, but the important thing is to have an online “home base” where you can showcase your work. It would serve as your portfolio, “calling card,” and catalog in one.
Promotion – The most effective way to spread the word about your work is through past clients, but if you wish to be aggressive with marketing, you have options. Social media is powerful, but extremely cheap to use and if you decide to pay for sponsored ads, you can control your spending and gradually increase your ad budget as your finances allow it.
Etsy is the number one online marketplace for everything handmade, so from greeting cards to custom wedding rings, pillowcases to furniture, you can find a vibrant community of buyers and sellers here.
There are thousands of members on Etsy, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. As a new seller, building your customer base and getting an edge over your competition may not take overnight. However, once your shop gets its footing, you’ll be able to enjoy the thousands of potential buyers already part of the Etsy world.
Another benefit of Etsy as a seller is that you should only $0.20 listing fee per product for four months and a 5% transaction fee.
Remember how I told you that you’ll need good pictures to showcase your work? Check out the presentation of Australia-based shop WoodYouBuy, which shine with jewelry organizers, entryway shelves, decorative furniture and gorgeous docking stations. The shop is run by husband-and-wife team Lesley and John and since joining Etsy in 2018, is about to make the 3000-mark sales.
It isn’t as popular as Etsy yet, but Amazon is the largest marketplace in the world, so expect a bigger and more varied audience here.
The downside is you need to apply to become an Amazon Handmade seller and you pay 15% referral fee, but the good news is there is no fee for listing items. Sellers can create a custom profile to promote your other products.
A warning though: if you get popular on Amazon Handmade real quick, it could be challenging to supply the demands of customers if you’re just starting out and have no employees to help you create wooden products.
ArtFire is similar to Etsy, where items like craft supplies, and other woodworking goods are sold. There are several plans, starting at $4.95/month (with 250 listings) and up to $40/month (2,500 active listings).
If you decided that your home base is an official website, you can accompany it with your own store.
The best thing about this route is that you can post pictures of your past work and do a ‘create-by-demand’ scheme similar to PoDs, wherein would-be buyers order items and only then will you create the piece.
For woodworkers with little money as startup, you don’t have to go with Shopify (that has a monthly fee). You can get a domain for $10, a hosting provider (as less as $3/month), and set up a WordPress store on your own.
The Best Advice to Make Money Woodworking from Home?
I have three:
First: There’s no project too big or too small, especially if you’re just starting out.
This is particularly true if you still haven’t found your niche, or you’re still trying to attract customers. You need to have a good mix of products available – from high-priced pieces to $10-dollar iPhone docks – to be able to yield the most revenue.
Second is to produce quality work.
It doesn’t matter if you’re only working on re-purposed pallets, or the most exquisite wood you can find. The secret to surviving this business is to product quality items all the time, even if you’re only making a simple book shelf for a kid’s bedroom, or a centerpiece table for the living room.
Lastly is to master the art of customer service.
As an online business, you won’t have much employees. And if you’re like many online businesses, you’d probably be wearing the hat of customer service rep as well. Know that you don’t need a course to be good at this – you just need to be professional, attentive to your customer’s needs and helpful enough to answer inquiries or resolve issues.
And if you stick to these 3 tips and keep passionate about the craft, you can be one of the many people who actually make money woodworking from home successfully.
A couple of days ago I mentioned several ways you can get paid to sleep, but then I thought – what about the night owls amongst us? I can think of a lot of reasons why work from home overnight jobs have become popular amongst people from nearly all walks of life. These types of jobs offer a lot of flexibility.
Here’s why:
Say you’re a stay at home parent during the day but still want to generate an income for your family – working a couple of hours at night when the kids are asleep could be perfect for that.
Or, maybe you’re a bit of an insomniac who’s up all hours of the night anyway and you might as well spend that time making some extra money.
Whatever your situation, there are plenty of overnight work from home jobs out there that could be a fit for your skills and schedule.
Most of these will require at least a laptop and a steady internet connection, of course. I did some research and picked 10 types of overnight jobs that I think covers a wide range of skills and interests. But I tried to mostly stick to the ones that are easy to get into and don’t require a ton of experience in any particular field.
Take a look.
Types of Work From Home Overnight Jobs
1. Online English Teachers
In many non-speaking countries, English teachers are still heavily sought after and if you decide to go down this path then you can earn a sizable income from teaching classes for an hour or two every day.
You’ll likely have to plan lessons ahead of time as well and maybe mark homework or tests, which is extra time that some companies don’t pay for – so watch out for that.
Also, keep your time-zone in mind when picking a company or class.
In terms of qualifications, most companies require a TESOL/TEFL certificate and that you’re a native English speaker.
Operators have all sorts of responsibilities depending on the type of hotline you’re working for.
But whether it’s a suicide hotline or crisis intervention hotline, you’ll need to have patience, good telephone etiquette, and be able to help a distraught person in a calm manner.
Most hotline operators will have to go through training and also learn their specific company/field’s best practices.
If you don’t think you are emotionally ready to provide this type of service then you could look into other types of hotline operator jobs like in sales fraud.
3. Customer Service Agents
Some call centers need to be operational 24/7 and so customer service agents can work at night too, believe it or not.
International companies don’t always have call centers in every country they do business in, opening up an opportunity for you to join the “night shift” at a call center.
A lot of these companies, like Aira have home office technical requirements and standards that you would need to meet. You will likely also have to go through training and learn the company’s policies.
Moderators are up at all hours of the night, answering questions and deleting inappropriate comments that break a page’s rules. And yes, this is very much a legitimate job now – it’s work that someone needs to do after all.
Don’t expect to become the moderator of a meme page or tattoo subreddit, though. If you want to get paid then you’ll get hired by a company that wants someone to moderate their social pages (which could include their own subreddit) at night when no one is in the office.
Sometimes, social media companies hire moderators as well. Facebook, for instance, planned to hire 3000 new moderators between 2017/2018. I have no idea if they ever actually did hire that many, though.
5. Video Game Testers
These people probably have one of the most fun jobs out there, but I guess playing games are still less fun when it’s work.
Studios and publishers periodically hire testers for the games they’re working on to get feedback on game mechanics, bugs, and so on. You will likely get a long list of things to look out for and will have to log any bugs you encounter and deliver a final breakdown of what you thought of the game.
Keep in mind that this is a very competitive space, and while you don’t need experience as a game tester to get in, it will certainly count in your favor.
Tutors can teach others a specific skill via online videos.
You don’t have to start your own tutoring business if you don’t want to either. There are places like Udemy and Skillshare that allow for a massive variety in the types of tutoring options available to you, from helping kids with math or college admissions to teaching an instrument or helping people learn how to do their taxes.
There are more traditional video call tutoring setups available as well through companies like Chegg.
Transcriptionists are usually free to work at whatever time of the day they want so long as they deliver the transcriptions by the set deadline.
There are a few websites that specifically cater to this type of job, including GMR Transcription and Quicktate. Some companies have more requirements than others – GMR, in particular, is friendly to newbies although you’ll get paid less than someone with experience.
VA’s who have clients in distant countries are pretty much assured of night-time working hours depending on the difference in time-zones.
The number of hours you’re required to work per day will depend on your client’s needs, but generally, this type of jobs is more geared towards someone who wants to work 4+ hours a night and so it might not be the best option if you’re just looking for some extra income after a full day job.
This is another entirely viable work from home overnight job for night owls. This job doesn’t require that you work with people or between certain hours.
Data entry encompasses different forms of data (the type and volume depends on the company) that you will have to enter into a database or some sort of documentation platform.
This is one of the easiest types of part-time and full-time flexible jobs to get into as well, because it just requires that you have a computer and are able to type.
Freelancers usually have some of the most flexible working hours depending on what they do and the clients they have.
Some of the jobs I’ve mentioned here fall under the “freelancing” banner, but I also wanted to mention freelancing in its entirety because most of the time you can choose your own working hours.
You also have jobs in pretty much every industry available to you, save the ones that are customer-facing or require physical work.
How To Find A Credible Overnight Job
While some places will offer work from home jobs that require you put in night-time hours (such as the call center option), most won’t specify any working hours and would be happy to let you work at night so long as you fulfill your responsibilities.
Your best bet for finding flexible jobs that you can do from home at night will be freelancing sites like Flexjobs and Upwork. But don’t overlook the many companies out there that don’t advertise on these sites. It will take a bit of digging but they’re not too hard to find.
Just always make sure to verify whether the company is legitimate by going through their website, looking at reviews, and typing their name + scam into a search engine.
I’ve also tested a number of companies that claim to offer legitimate work from home jobs but end up being scams myself. So feel free to search the name on IveTriedThat to see if anything comes up. Ripoff Report is another good place you can check, especially if the company has any sort of “sign-on fee”.
Sometimes legitimate companies do have fees that you need to pay upfront, but more often than not those are scams. Our rule is to never pay for access to a job or for the training required to do a job – if they’re not willing to provide that at no charge then they’re not worth your time.
The Bottom Line
Work from home overnight jobs offer legitimate opportunities to make side-cash from working for an hour or two at night. Of course, if you’re looking for full-time night shift work then most of the options I’ve listed here are just as solid in that respect too.
You might also have noticed that I didn’t mention any writing jobs here, and that’s because there’s such a big variety in terms of the types of writing jobs you could apply for. Not to mention a constant demand. If you want to turn your writing skills into cash then take a look at this list of work from home copywriting jobs.
There are few things more frustrating than trying to find legitimate work from home jobs.
That’s why I did all of the research for you.
Below is a list of 95 different work from home jobs you can do and they are all completely legit.
Best of all, each job idea links out to companies that are currently hiring. This list literally contains thousands of companies that are actively hiring remote works.
This is one of the most comprehensive and complete guide online today.
Hopefully this list helps alleviate some of the headaches you’ve no doubt experienced while searching for a job.
Let’s just get right to it!
Please note that this list ONLY includes jobs that can lead to a substantial income if hired.
And by income, I mean, these jobs PAY YOU. Some work from home jobs pay by the hour, others are salaried, some include benefits, and others offer career advancement options. Remember, these are JOBS!
Admin Work From Home Jobs
1. Data Entry Jobs
Data entry involves scraping information from one source and transferring them into a new source.
Pay for these jobs are either by project or per entry completed.
Rates can be on the low side, but considering how many data entry jobs are available without any educational/skill requirement, it’s a great way to start a work-from-home career.
A VA (virtual assistant) is the modern-day secretary.
Tasks include answering phone calls, responding to e-mails, organizing tasks, and more. General VAs earn somewhere from $4 to $10/hour, while those with specialized skill (such as marketing or programming) earn higher.
If turning audio (like interviews) into text is something you’d be great at, check out these 15 online transcription companies that pay.
Note that bilingual jobs should be priced higher than English transcriptions.
4. Web Research
Research is highly lucrative because most companies have no time to go through the nitty-gritty of compiling thousands of local business e-mail addresses or mining a list of cosmetologists within a specific state.
There’s plenty of work to be discovered online, whether you’re fluent in French, Russian, Arabic, Chinese, or any other language.
Note that you may price your service higher when translating legal documents, medical transcripts and other technical texts beyond the scope of regular folk’s expertise.
6. Customer Service
Customer service jobs were one of the first legit opportunities available online.
Today, even giant companies like Amazon and TeleTech offer entry-level positions with benefits.
Pay ranges from $8 to $25 per hour, depending on experience levels.
Many of the customer service jobs are phone-based, which means you’d need a working landline and phone service on top of a desktop/laptop and other devices.
In some cases, chat-based support may only require a computer, high-speed internet and acceptable typing speed.
If you’re a part of the technical support team of a company’s products and services, your responsibilities may slightly vary.
Other jobs that may fall under customer service include home-based travel agent, helpdesk, sales agents, and more.
Writing Work From Home Jobs
7. Blogging
There are two ways to get started with blogging.
Either get hired by someone and begin blogging away on the client’s website, or start your own blog and monetize it.
Of course, the first option is better if you need money more quickly since blogging from scratch won’t make you rich overnight.
If the blog owner pays you for the posts you publish, you’ll receive a nice paycheck at the end of each month.
8. Copywriting
If you’ve got flair for words, copywriting should be your go-to specialization.
Copywriting is one of the most expensive types of writing, with the most in-demand writers bagging 20 cents to $1 per word projects easily.
Marketing copy for websites, email campaigns, landing pages, etc. are often sought out by companies.
Freelance is the way to go – so copywriters can juggle multiple clients at a time and earn the biggest chunk of commissions.
9. Web Content Writing
Writing for the web is similar to blogging, except copyright of all the content you craft such as ebooks, manuals, articles, magazine features, technical writing, blog posts, and other texts will be passed on to the client.
Depending on the job agreement, a web content writing position may be paid on a per-word basis, weekly or monthly.
It is rare to find writing jobs with hourly rates.
Writing academic papers has been a booming business for years, even if the whole idea of writing essays or papers for lazy students who are willing to pay ghostwriters has been debated since the start of these websites.
Essaywriters.net, for example, lets you pick a topic you wish from the database, let you work on the essay, and get paid upon approval.
12. Resume/Cover Letter Writing
Writing resumes and cover letters require very specific rules and styles.
If you’re skilled at making resumes look impressive to the eyes of an HR personnel, then you can try your luck at this writing subsector.
You can join a company like Resume Writers so you skip marketing and go straight to writing, or market your own writing service on a platform like Fiverr.
13. News Writing
If you know the who’s, what’s, where’s, when’s, why’s and how’s of stories you read day in, day out, your journalistic talent may be trying to get out.
You can either write news for a single blog, or a news network site.
Either way, payment will mostly be done on a weekly or monthly basis. You can also try to apply to SmartBrief and summarize news stories in exchange for $14/hour pay.
14. Email Marketing Specialist
If you have experience with internet marketing and a proven track record with successful copywriting, this career path would be perfect for you.
Not only does it offer up to $50/hour pay, it also introduces you to an entire group of internet marketing clients, who will more than likely keep you busy for years once you’ve proven your copy to work wonders.
15. eBook Writing
The cool thing about writing an eBook in this day and age is that there are endless tools to make it a breeze.
As a writer, offering an eBook package to your clients allows you to focus on one topic at a time and serve as a break from demanding deadlines.
If you know someone who could help with eBook cover design as well, then best to pair up for the service package.
In the long run, you can even write your own eBook, market it yourself, and keep 100% profit of your passive-income generating eBook.
16. Online Dating Ghostwriting
Yes, you read that right.
If you’re a natural flirt with a strong romance game going on, why not help other people get their love lives started?
This type of ghostwriting is kind of underground and in the gray area when it comes to ethical writing, but has existed for years on popular online dating sites like Match.com and Bumble. You’ll even find some help-wanted job ads for ghostwriter on Tinder.
Teaching has been a part of the online employment space for years.
Professional licensed teachers, or even just passionate people who love to share what they know to others has plenty of opportunities available online.
You can either make money by blogging about what you know, or find an online teaching company that often serves as the middleman for students and fellow teachers like you.
These companies charge by the hour… sometimes as little as $5/hour, or as high as $25/hour.
20. Homework Tutoring
You don’t have to visit houses for tutoring gigs anymore.
Today, you simply need to apply and log-in to sites like Homeworktutoring.com and get paid for helping students with math, English, physics, economics, chemistry, biology and other subjects.
Generally, tutors don’t need teaching qualifications to land a job, but rates could go higher for licensed educators.
Millions of people around the world are interested in learning how to speak English properly to advance their careers or just to learn a second language.
Anyone can become an ESL teacher with these ESL companies and start a work from home job that pays by the hour.
22. Write Lesson Plans
Dozens of teachers have successfully turned this into a lucrative business.
It may sound sketchy, but teachers only sell lessons plans to fellow teachers, who in turn, spend less time preparing class lessons during their down time.
If you’re interested in a seasonal, part-time job, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) opens up slots for online test scorers for tests like TOEFL, GRE, and more.
24. Online Fitness Coach
There’s a growing community of online fitness coaches who are making videos of exercises and fitness programs.
You can do this by creating an exercise and diet plan in exchange for a one-off fee.
Graphic & Design Work From Home Jobs
25. Draw Cartoons and Caricatures
Many artists are selling customized work online.
Whether you’re good at caricatures or crafting unique cartoon characters, there’s a special niche you can choose for your drawing business. A great place to showcase your work is on DeviantArt or Fiverr.
You won’t have a fixed income, but if your designs become popular, you can definitely earn huge in this business and even turn all past designs into a passive income-generating machine.
30. Logo Designer
Logos remain an important part of branding in any company; logos are now needed on websites, blogs, apps, printed materials, and so on.
So if you have vector skills, this career route should be one of your priorities.
Logo designers on Fiverr earn somewhere from as little as $10 to a whopping $1,000 per job, so the income you make depends largely on your skills and how well you market yourself.
31. Illustrations
From sketches to children’s book drawings, anime or black and white portraits, you can sell your artwork online no matter what drawing style you’re good at.
You’ll need to master the popular tools like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and more, but once you do, your earning potential is endless since there’s a market for every kind of artwork online.
32. Freelance Photographer
You don’t need to work a desk job as a photographer to earn a great income.
As a freelance photographer, you can take your camera and laptop anywhere and still be able to produce stunning work.
What’s great about this career is that almost any industry requires professionally-taken photos. For instance, Obeo hires photographers to take pictures of homes on the real estate market.
33. eBook Designer
eBooks are here to stay, which makes ebook designing a suitable career for those with internet marketing, publishing and graphics design experience.
This job doesn’t just involve creating a head-turning cover, it also requires designers to format the book with proper layout (Table of contents, call-to-action buttons, and more).
Adobe InDesign or other specialized software should be used.
A single eBook can churn out as little as $100 or high as $1,000.
34. Sell Calligraphy
If you’ve mastered the art of calligraphy and is obsesses with Pinstagram-worthy artwork, you can turn this hobby into a full-pledged income-generating career.
Love inspirational quotes and heart-warming greeting card designs?
The paper card version may not be as popular today, but the virtual kind continues to be a favorite all over the world.
There are over 25 companies that would love to hire a card designer with a fresh take on happy birthday or Valentine’s Day cards, so make sure to check them out.
Audio & Video Work From Home Jobs
36. Create Whiteboard Videos
Explainer videos have become a popular way for companies to “explain” products, services, finances, and other topics that may have been hard to communicate otherwise.
It showcases information in easy-on-the-eyes animation.
There’s a huge income potential for this niche and there’s very little competition right now.
37. Voice Over Acting
Do you have what it makes to become the next James Earl Jones or Morgan Freeman?
Were you born with an amazing voice that fits ads and other videos perfectly?
You can provide voice-over work as a freelancer on Fiverr, or join a group of voice-over talent on companies like Voices.com or InternetJock.com and earn as much as 35% commissions on every job.
38. Write Closed Captions
Closed-captioning originated in the broadcasting industry, wherein texts are placed at the bottom of the screen and shows viewers the exact words people are saying on screen.
Today, it’s available in YouTube and most video content, so the closed-captioning industry has become a thing of its own.
If you have experience in video production, you can find telecommute or work-from-home jobs that cater to the production of videos from start to finish.
From freelance motion graphics artist to post-production editing, there are tons of available opportunities to choose from.
Hourly rates vary, depending on your experience, skill and job description.
40. Create Animated Videos
Creating short animated logos, banners and videos could earn you from $50 to $500 a pop.
If you’re good at 3D animation, this can add up pretty quick and give you a substantial monthly income.
Fiverr and Upwork have tons of gigs available for animated video work, so make sure to check out what’s available.
Better yet, build a website for your portfolio, so you could market your animated video work more effectively.
41. Write Lyrics
Poets and those with a flair for lyrics can have a career in video production.
Marketing companies regularly hire people to write music lyrics for ads, and other types of content.
You can even write lyrics for a client’s romantic engagement plans, or have it in Spanish, Hebrew, or any other language. Rates for lyrics range from $20 to $500.
42. Create a Jingle
Creating jingles have been a popular side gig for musicians for decades, but the advent of YouTube and online marketing has refreshed its popularity and it seems to be a growing sub-niche in video production.
Whether you’re using a ukulele or any other instrument with your jingle, or just your voice in English, Spanish, or another language, you’d find that each custom, 30-second jingle can earn you anywhere from $30 to $200.
Not bad for a day of hard work, right?
43. Sing or Rap for Videos
If you’re not fond of jingles, but has the voice chops for a brandable song, you can always sing or rap for cash.
As long as you have a home studio set-up and an amazing voice to boot, you can advertise your skills and earn up to $500 per song. To give you a perspective on the income potential as an online singer, there’s a popular opera singer on Fiverr who earns $1,000 for every 1-minute song produced.
44. Produce Sound Effects for Videos
Audio engineers can make a killing online earning from sound effect work.
Whether you love making zombie sounds, or adding sound effects for animation, mobile games, apps, podcast, short ads, commercials, corporate videos, there’s always a need for professionally created, royalty-free sound effects.
Earn about $10 for every 10-second sound effects and if you’re pretty good, this could add up quickly to a sufficient monthly income.
45. Compose Original Music
Musicians looking to cash in on their guitar or piano skills can compose original music for clients in exchange for cash.
The soundtrack can be used for a wide range of industries, and included in YouTube promos, TV ads, presentations, trailers, branding, and more.
Depending on the genre of music you could provide, rates can be as basic as $100 a pop, or up to $1000 for corporate jobs.
Web, Mobile & Software Development Work From Home Jobs
46. Search Engine Evaluator
Help Google, Bing, and other companies ensure that their search engines are working effectively.
You can earn up to $15/hour by testing web search inquiries of its relevancy, sending reports to the company, and cashing in monthly.
Game development has had its peak at the height of the Android and iOs boom, but it continues to be a lucrative career option if you have experience in the field.
Whether you’re expertise is in the development of online games or games for consoles like PS4 or Xbox, the need for skilled game developers are at an all-time high.
As a home-based game developer, you can earn up to $65,000/year (or more), depending on the company you apply to.
48. Mobile App Developer
There are tons of success stories of mobile app developers who have hit it big and sold their apps for millions of dollars.
But if you’re just starting out and want a more stable income, you can check out Android Jobs or Core Intuition (for iOs/Mac) for mobile app development jobs with an hourly rate or project-based fee.
There’s always space for more apps in the world of smartphones and mobile gadgets, so the outlook for this career path remains positive even after 2017.
49. Software Programmer
The number of software programmers working from home full-time has been growing 11.5% each year in the last 10 years and this number won’t be going down any day.
If you’re one of the thousands of skilled programmers thinking of transitioning into a home-based position, there are always opportunities available for experienced software programmers.
An average of $70,000 can be earned, but this income can go lower or higher depending on experience and expertise.
50. Quality Assurance Tester
Those with comprehensive experience in software development can transition into QA testing.
The pay is much lower, about $10 to $15/hour, but you get to work totally from the comfort of your own home 40 hours a week.
Crossover, for example, has a continuous need for QA testers from around the world.
51. Helpdesk Support
If you have technical knowledge in mobile phones, networking, software, apps, and other common tech issues, you’d be amazed by the number of helpdesk opportunities available for you.
Chat-based support often receives less per-hour rates compared to phone-based support, so if you have a landline and fast internet and aren’t bothered by phone jobs, then choose from any of these 7 legit companies offering home-based helpdesk support jobs.
52. Technical Writer
For those who are lucky to have a knack of writing technical material, such as programming tutorials, there’s a very special place for you in the online world.
It’s rare to find people with both exceptional writing skills and tech knowhow, which is why technical writers earn anywhere from $30 to $75/hour rate, plus more if you decide to do consulting as well.
53. Web Developer
There is never any shortage for websites that need creating, so web developers continue to be in-demand.
If you’ve got mad skills in coding in HTML and CSS with in-depth knowledge in languages like Ruby, JQuery and JavaScript, you can earn up to $70,000 annually as a web developer.
The great thing about this career is you can build a portfolio from past projects, so it’s easier to market your work in web dev.
54. IT Project Manager
With many virtual offices being put up, even managerial positions can be done from home.
Such as the case of IT project managers, whose main job is to oversee tasks of a work-from-home team from start to finish.
Much like its office-based counterpart, IT project managers communicate with the team, end users and customers throughout the duration of a project.
Earning potential is lower than $100,000 a year.
55. System Administrator
Remote technologies have given sysadmins an opportunity to perform their jobs from home.
Today, system administrators can develop systems, install, maintain and upgrade computer systems even without being on-site.
While the office-based sysadmin can earn about $70,000/year, note that the home-based version usually has lower rates.
Internet Marketing and Social Media Work From Home Jobs
56. Social Media Marketer
Do you know the ins and outs of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media networks?
Do you have your own following? Is it easy for you to communicate on social media?
You can earn as little as $15 an hour, or as high as $30/hour, depending on the company and your level of experience.
57. SEO Specialist
A search engine optimization specialist or expert wears many hats, but the job’s ultimate goal is to optimizing content and webpages for Google Search.
It’s a type of career that can only be performed through extensive experience, since no amount of certifications or degrees could compare to A/B testing and proven track records.
If you have what it takes to increase rankings of web pages, you can earn from $35/hour to up to $200/hour.
58. Internet Marketer
Internet marketing professionals has a flair for advertising products, services, or events online.
Their job encompasses SEO, SEM (search engine marketing), target market research, e-mail marketing, content strategy, keyword research, webpage banner ads, and more.
Depending on your experience, you can earn up to $1,000 a month per client.
59. PPC Consultant
Online businesses rely on ads to attract more customers and spread word about their products or services.
But placing ads isn’t as simple.
A PPC consultant helps manage paid ad campaigns and decide which network (Google/Bing/etc.) is best to post an ad, at what time, and directed at which type of audience.
Setting up an ad campaign can earn a PPC consultant $1k up to $5k, then a monthly fee of $300 (or more) for continuous management.
60. Lead Generation Specialist
Lead generation specialists help companies discover and collection information of potential customers who have higher chances of buying the products.
Because customers are the number 1 driving force of businesses, leads to buying customers are priceless.
And if you go the freelance route and take in more clients, the earning potential is limitless.
61. E-mail Campaign Copywriter
Newsletters and email campaigns require a special kind of writing skill because it involves keyword and market research, strategically-placed call-to-action buttons, and a bit of psychology that would encourage readers to join, buy, or perform any other goal.
Depending on what works best for you, you can set an hourly rate of $35 to $50/hour, or a one-off fee ranging from $200 to $1000 for the entire campaign.
62. E-mail Marketing Expert
This internet marketing professional is the go-to guy in everything involved in creating effective marketing strategies and proper distribution techniques of email newsletters.
The e-mail marketing expert uses statistical analyses and social media cues to increase sales.
The average pay range of this career is about $50,000.
63. Affiliate Marketing Executive
If you’ve been in the make-money-online space for years, you know exactly what affiliate marketing is and how it works.
Those with proven track results of growing revenue via affiliate marketing will have the opportunity to earn up to $80,000/year, plus commissions depending on the deal you made with your clients.
64. Social Media Influencer
Marketing agencies are always on the lookout for big names in social media.
If you have a huge following and can “influence” this audience by promoting products and services, you can turn your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media accounts into a money-making portfolio.
Generally, social media influencers are either paid per post or per campaign and the rates are dictated by the amount of followers you have.
65. Analytics Master
Those who know their way around Google Analytics and can analyze the website data and use this to improve traffic, convert leads, enhance page loads, and ensure that search engines crawl through the web site regularly.
A Google webmaster is a very specific job, which means competition is low but qualifications can be grueling.
If you’re confident of your skills, you can earn from $40 to $50 an hour working as a Google Webmaster for each client.
66. Social Media Evaluator
Social media evaluators are hired by social media networks (or third-party companies hired by the big social media) to assess certain parts of the platform and improve relevancy of the newsfeed for better user experience.
In some cases, ad placements, navigational menu, or newest updates on each social media platform are evaluated.
There’s no specific requirement to become a social media evaluator, which is both a good thing (no certifications or advanced skills needed) and a bad thing (competition can be tough).
Social media evaluators are usually paid $10 to $15 an hour.
Miscellaneous and Odd Work From Home Jobs
67. Online headhunter or Virtual Recruiter
The cool thing about globalization is that even jobs that have been exclusively performed in the office can now be done from home.
As an online headhunter or virtual recruiter, your job is to find skilled talent for a company or client’s specific requirement.
While majority of online headhunting positions are commission-based, look further and you’d be able to see opportunities with a base salary of around $47,000/year with commissions.
Banks and other financial institutions have welcomed the potential of generating leads online and have begun hiring virtual mortgage loan officers that work from home.
As a loan officer, your main role is to help people get approved for a home loan.
And like most opportunities in the financial industry, the income potential is impressive.
On top of an average of $60,000 annual income, loan officers may also take home up to 2% commission for every loan closed.
69. Assistant General Counsel
Even attorneys can work from home and earn a substantial income.
As an assistant general counsel, your job is to help companies comply with relevant laws and regulations by developing policies and business practices in line with state, federal and international laws. On average, assistant general counsels can make up to $190,000 annually.
70. Problem-Solver or General Researcher
Do you love Googling various information every day? Are you a natural at researching?
If so, there’s a sub-niche of online workers whose main goal is to solve problems of clients.
On Fiverr alone, online private lessons in this category go from solving a mechanical engineering problem, to answering police questions.
71. Online Counselor
Online counseling is just like the traditional counseling, except your patient won’t have to visit your office.
You could just “meet” online instead. Those with counseling experience and educational background can earn from $15 to $25 per hour, while senior-level counselors with over 10 years of experience can even make up to $50/hour.
If you don’t have qualifications and still want to become an online counselor, give relationship or life advice, post an ad on Fiverr instead.
72. Nutrition Planner
Nutritionists with a knack of writing can consult or write features for fitness websites for up to $500 per piece.
If you want a more stable income stream, you can provide a service to create customized meal plans with exercise programs and earn about $100/month per client.
Those who wish to employ with a company can take home up to $44,000 annually from a work-from-home nutritionist position.
73. Genealogy Researcher
Genealogists (those who study family history or family trees) can work online with flexible hours and enjoy the freedom to take on multiple clients.
Those with certifications can earn up to $100/hour, while hobbyist genealogy researchers are paid from $15 to $25/hour or on a per-project basis.
74. Gaming Coach
Are you exceptionally amazing at a particular game?
Are you willing to share your well-kept secret on how to move past a popularly-difficult level on Dark Souls 3?
Can you create a custom Minecraft world?
If you have a specific skill on any game and want to coach someone in exchange for cash, there’s a community of gamers open to welcoming you as a gaming coach any day.
Your earnings, of course, depends on the job you complete.
75. Local Travel Guide
Even travel guides don’t have to be in the field anymore.
As a local travel guide, you can be paid by creating a custom itinerary for tourists based on their requirements (kid-friendly, nature trips, beach stop, etc.). Some even go further by creating a budget spreadsheet, or including basic local phrases for the trip.
76. Notary
Notary services are more in-demand than most people expect.
The cost to get setup is minimal and it’s a great way to pull in some extra money each week from the comforts of your own home.
I’ve broken down the exact steps you need to follow to become a notary.
77. Fashion Stylist
Becoming a fashion stylist is a dream to many. Imagine getting paid to pick out and put together someone else’s wardrobe.
With the right connections, you can even make it big in some circles in Hollywood.
Here’s a full breakdown of everything you need to get started and different companies that are currently looking for fashion stylists.
78. Medical Billing
As a medical biller, you will handle billing of doctors patients and insurance companies alike.
You will be responsible for sending, appealing, and even denying claims. This job usually requires a background or training first, but once you get that out of the way, you can perform all of your work remotely.
Continuing our medical themes, medical transcription is a more specialized version of your standard transcription jobs and with that comes higher salaries.
They are more competitive and require more experience than other jobs, but once you’re in, you’re in.
Check the link above for requirements, potential salaries, and companies that are currently hiring.
80. Sewing Jobs
For our more crafty readers, you can put your sewing skills to work and land a remote job as a home based seamstress.
There are lots of companies out there looking to hire people to sew from home and you can even turn your sewing skills into your own full-time business, independent of employers.
81. Accountant
Here’s another traditional office job that is transitioning into remote possibilities.
If you have experience as an accountant, you can keep your skills at home and work remotely.
Although similar to accountants, virtual bookkeepers perform more specialized services.
Experience requirements are generally a little more lax and these jobs may be better suited for entry level positions.
83. Data Scientist
A data scientist is someone who is table to clean up a large dump of data using their knowledge. They do this in order to discover solutions and make sense of the data being given to them.
This is probably the most specialized remote job on this list and with that comes huge salaries. Data scientists can get paid upwards of $200,000 per year.
Yeah.
Seriously.
84. Drone Pilot
This may just be the newest job on the list.
Drones are increasing in popularity year-over-year as new uses are found for them almost daily.
With increased demand, comes even more need for drone pilots to handle everything from surveillance to package deliveries.
85. Secret Shopper
While it’s unlikely you’ll be able to find a job that provides you with a full-time income, secret shopping is still a viable way to make money from home.
You will be responsible to evaluate stores and employees alike. Help brands see what their store are doing right and how they handle customer interactions.
86. Mobile Bartender
You can finally put the skills you learned in college to use!
All of those nights you spent mixing drinks instead of studying have paid off!
I kid, I kid.
But seriously, mobile bartenders are needed around the world to help cater to off-site events and companies are regularly hiring to fill positions.
87. Errand Runner
The gig economy isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
As an errand runner, you’ll be helping people complete tasks throughout the day that they otherwise wouldn’t have time to do.
You’ll often find jobs like walking dogs, picking up groceries, or keeping houses clean.
89. Beta Testing
Companies are always looking for beta testers to help try out new products or services.
You’ll be paid to test out both digital and physical products. You’ll be required to write reviews, provide feedback, find bugs or glitches, and to just share your overall thoughts and experiences.
90. Brand Ambassador
Brands are constantly looking for influencers to help spread awareness of their products. If you have an Instagram account, you no doubt have come across ads masquerading as normal every day posts.
Those are brand ambassadors and they’re getting paid to do some stealthy “word-of-mouth” advertising.
With the right niche and a big enough following, you can make some really good money, receive free products, and rise to the top of your social circle.
91. Loan Signing Agent
You can become a loan signing agent and work with mortgage companies to help process loans, all from the comfort of your own home.
Depending on how much you want to work, you can easily do this full-time or part-time to make some extra cash in your spare time.
The requirements are few and there is always a demand.
92. Appointment Setter
Unlike traditional virtual assistant work from home jobs, appointment setters focus on just one area and I’ll give you a guess as to which one that is.
You will be making phone calls on behalf of a company to either get the sales team or a manager on the line with prospective clients.
You will need good conversational skills and somewhat of a thick skin as these are typically cold calls you’ll be making.
93. Book Typing Jobs
All of those Kindle eBooks have to come from somewhere. Did you know that people are regularly hired to transcribe paper documents into digital ones?
If this sounds like something you’re interested in, check out our full list of book typing jobs here.
94. Online Consulting
If you have expertise in a field and wanted to try your hand at online consulting, look no further than this list of companies hiring consultants.
This is one of the few work from home jobs where you can set your own rates. The more experience you have in a field, the higher your talents will be valued.
95. Online Proctor
Yes, I did a double take too, but these are online PROCTOR jobs, not the other thing you might be thinking.
You’ll be administering tests remotely and making sure no cheating is being conducted. Pay ranges from $9-$25 per hour, which isn’t bad considering the work is fairly straightforward.
Other Work at Home Jobs to Consider
The above list is a massive compilation of all different types of jobs you can do remotely.
But what if you’re looking for something more specific or have certain requirements?
I’ve broken down some more specialized resources for you below.
Finding a Job with Benefits
Many people who plan to transition into a work-from-home career do not pursue this route because of the lack of benefits.
If this sounds like you, you might want to check the 10 companies offering work-at-home jobs with health insurance. Note that if you go the freelance route with any of these career options listed above, you can always negotiate for benefits (or their equivalent amount) before signing on the dotted line.
Be aware that rates will generally be much lower if you’re not from the United States, UK, or any other first-world countries.
This is because employers usually conduct research on local salary rates before offering home-based jobs to potential hires.
Finding a Work at Home Job as a Mom
Moms have it especially difficult when it comes to landing a real job from home.
It can be hard to balance raising a child and committing full-time to an employer all in the same day.
You would think remote work and disabilities would be a perfect match, but the truth is, it’s hard for disabled people to find real work from home jobs.
This list of legitimate work-from-home jobs can be the start of your journey to financial freedom and obtain work-life balance you can’t achieve in a 9-to-5 job.
As always, feel free to leave a comment below if you have ANY questions regarding any of these jobs.
I’ll be more than happy to help point you in the right direction!
Please Share Our List of Work From Home Jobs!
If you found this article useful and you know of someone who is looking for a work at home job, please do us a favor and help us spread the word!
Each category has multiple companies that are currently hiring and pay out quickly.
Call Center Jobs
Customer service jobs may involve all calls, chat-only, or a mix of both. Some may even just require you to man a company’s email account. These are all home-based, work-from-home call center jobs.
A Better Call – B2B telemarketing. Pays a base rate of $20/hour, plus commissions. Applicants must have experience in the contact center industry.
Accolade Support – Customer service agents are paid from $7.25 to $9 hourly. Work hours are flexible – you can choose what time to work.
Blue Zebra – Appointment setters are paid $15 to $25 an hour.
Blooms Today – Assist people ordering flowers and get to earn from $15 to $24 an hour.
Brighten Communications– Appointment setters and lead generation experts can earn $12 an hour. You need to commit at least 20 hours weekly.
Call Center QA– Get hired as a telephone mystery shopper and earn $5 per call. Payment are sent weekly via PayPal.
Gametime – As a “Fan Happiness Associate,” you make sure that inquiries, concerns, and complaints about orders, ticketing and returns are completed. Pay is $15/hour plus benefits.
Infocision – Hires work-from-home sales representative to make calls on behalf of non-profit organizations. Pays weekly.
LunarCow – Available only in the US. You are assigned to cold-call businesses and invite them to place ads within LunarCow’s guides.
NextWave – Hires outbound political call agents, Pays at least $10 an hour.
OnPoint@Home – Transcribe and make outbound calls on behalf of politicians. Pays weekly, but you must commit to at least 24 hours a week.
Pleio – Help patients remember to take their meds by calling them from home. You can earn anywhere between $8 and $20 per hour.
Westat – Work from home collection agents are paid $8.25 per hour. Get paid more if you’re bilingual.
Data Entry Jobs
Data entry jobs won’t lead you to your first million, but if you’re not doing anything, might as well earn some cash on the side while passing time, right? I don’t recommend these data entry jobs as a full-time job, but they’re definitely one of the easier ways to make money online.
Amazon Mturk – This micro-task website lets users earn quick change for tasks that you can complete within minutes. Payment is done weekly via gift card or direct deposit.
Clickworker – Similar to Mturk, you can perform a bunch of small tasks like browsing the web, tagging photos, and so on. You can earn up to $9/hour, paid weekly.
Sig Track – US citizens only, since you’ll be processing voter registrations and petitions. Must know how to work spreadsheets. Tricky payment scheme, but pays weekly via PayPal.
Lionbridge – Data entry specialists are paid $5 to $6 an hour. Payments sent by check only.
Tutoring Jobs
If you have a heart for teaching and want to get into what jobs pay weekly, check out these online tutor opportunities that send payment every week.
Tutor jobs range from teaching English to people from another country, or helping a student get through Algebra.
Cambly – As a tutor for Cambly, you get paid $0.17 per minute (that’s around $10/hour). You’ll be teaching English to people from around the world via video chat. No teaching experience necessary, but you have to be a Native English speaker. Receive payment via PayPal every Monday.
Chegg – Tutors here earn up to $20 an hour and they can work when they want. The company accepts 18 years old and up with some kind of teaching experience. Payments are sent every Thursday morning via PayPal.
NiceTalk – Teach English via an app. The company prefers experienced teachers, Payment is $10/hour paid weekly as long as you earn a minimum of $20 for the week.
Studypool – This website is quite different than other tutor sites, since you help students by bidding on their questions and giving the best answer. You’re paid via PayPal weekly.
Transcription involves listening to audio files and transcribing the content into text format. You’ll have to be a good listener and have super typing skills to perform these kinds of jobs.
Allegis Transcription – Transcribe interviews for insurance companies. No experience needed, but you have to complete training before starting.
Babbletype– Transcribe content for market research. Earn around $10/hour.
Daily transcription – Accepts only Canada and US-based transcribers. Earn from $0.75 to $0.85 per audio minute and get paid weekly via check.
Go Transcript – As a transcriber for Go Transcript, you can earn up to 60 cents per audio minute. Payments are sent weekly via PayPal. Get to work as little or as much as you want.
Rev.com – This is a popular transcription site. Pays low (around $.40 – $.65 per audio minute), but work is available constantly. Receive payment every Monday through PayPal.
Scribie – One of the oldest companies here (launched in 2008). Pays $5 to $25 per audio hour. You can withdraw your “income” anytime since there is no minimum payout threshold.
Speechpad – Get hired to caption and translate content. You can earn from $0.25 to $1 per audio minute and get paid automatically to you PayPal account every Tuesday and Friday.
TranscribeMe – No experience necessary, but those with specialization like law or medicine can earn higher than the regular $20 per audio hour
QuickTate – Jobs here are unique because you get to transcribe voicemail messages or letters. It’s flexible with work hours – choose when to work since the company operates 24/7. Earn $0.25 cent per word for general transcription and $0.5 cent per word for technical transcription. Payment sent Mondays via PayPal. There’s no experience necessary, but you have to pass a $15 background check before you begin working for QuickTate.
WeLocalize – Transcribe song lyrics and get paid $4 per song. You just need the iOs app and iTunes to begin. Weekly payments sent via PayPal.
Of course, the faster you are in completing a task, the more tasks you can work on and the higher income you can “take home.”
Website Testing Jobs
As a website tester, you just visit websites and navigate as normally as you would any site. Click links, check out posts and find possible errors to report. You don’t need technical knowledge, since the target of these website testing is common folk like you and me.
Usertest.io – Review websites and get paid $10 after 2 days. No experience necessary, but your internet connection must be excellent.
Usertesting.com – Also pays $10 per test, but you need to pass a test before getting access for website testing jobs. Once accepted, you will be sent an email every time there’s an opportunity available for you. Pays $10 via PayPal 7 days after test completion.
Userfeel – Those with good ratings receive more tasks. Get paid $10/test every 7 days via PayPal.
TryMyUI tester – Each test gets you $10, sent every Friday via PayPal.
These jobs that pay every week are in demand, so bookmark these sites if you really want to cash in one website testing.
Writing Jobs
For those who have a knack for writing, I hand-picked what jobs pay weekly for you.
Boost Media – Those who have strong copywriting skills can make a killing writing Pay-Per-Click ads. You’re paid $15 to $20 per hour, with payments sent via PayPal every Tuesday.
Hire Writers– Available for writers based in USA, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Singapore and New Zealand, this company has a tier-based fee for writers. You can earn up to $20/article, plus bonus from clients if you impress them that much. Payment is sent every Friday.
iWriter– The problem with iWriter is that everyone starts with very low rates. However, if you work hard to go up the ranks, you can earn as much as $40/500-word article. The company also pays weekly through PayPal.
Online Writing Jobs – Payments are sent every Friday via PayPal or check. Writers earn somewhere between $15 and $40 per article.
Textbroker – This one also works on a tier system and only accepts writers from Native English speaking countries, but they’re one of the highest paying sites. top-tier writers can earn up to 5c per word and paid weekly via PayPal, direct deposit, check or other methods.
Verblio – Formerly known as BlogMutt, this company hires writers and pays via PayPal every Monday (as long as you sent invoice for all your submitted work). Tier-based rates, so the higher level writers get to earn more.
Translation Jobs
Unbabel – Hires translators from around the world. Double-checks work of robots. Pays via PayPal or Payoneer weekly.
Translate.com – Founded in 2011, workers here are paid to translate social media posts, blog articles, support tickets, and more. Users report downtimes with work, but you can “withdraw” your earnings via PayPal whenever you like.
Earn from Mobile Apps
There are jobs that pay weekly which you can do straight from your phone. You don’t need much experience or specialization – you just need a bit of time to commit and to download the necessary apps:
Field agent – Tasks are easy, but they’re not work-from-home. You have to get out as a “field agent” and complete tasks like taking photos of grocery items for $3 to $12 per task. Get paid via Dwolla or PayPal weekly.
Gigwalk – Similar to Field Agent, which means you can get to earn $3 to $100 completing simple tasks around your area. It’s available as Android and iOs app. Payment is available via PayPal.
The Bottom Line
If you’re new to the work-from-home space, I recommend you try these jobs that pay every week so you can dip your fingers into each industry and see where you want to focus on.
Cursive writing has been slowly becoming extinct for decades, but a surprise comeback has ignited a passion in the form of calligraphy. So I put together this quick guide on how to start a calligraphy business to help you cash in on your exquisite handwriting.
If you’ve always loved gliding your fancy pens onto paper and create classy handwritten posters, greeting cards, invitations, envelopes, menus and other creative letterings on a wide range of media, now’s the time to get started.
How much do calligraphers make?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, calligraphers and other fine artists earned abour $49,000 in 2018.
Many calligraphers also sell ready-made products on top of their custom orders, which ensure that even slow periods could produce money in the end.
Like any business, marketing will also dictate the sales you’ll receive, so learn how to spread-the-word (both offline and online) your calligraphy products and services.
Here’s how to setup your business and get started:
How to Start a Calligraphy Business in 6 Steps
1. Practice Makes Perfect-for-Selling
Calligraphy is a skill not many people have, but if you practice often and take time to learn from books, online courses and workshops, you’d find your artwork getting better by the day.
It could be feedback from your friends on social media, or a 100-piece wedding invite gig offer from an acquaintance, but you’ll definitely know when your work is store-worthy.
2. Gather Your Startup Capital
Let’s face it:
You may have started calligraphy as a hobby, but once you turn it into a business, you’ll require some kind of startup capital to buy more equipment and supplies, such as pens, markers, ink, paint, brushes, calligraphy pens and stocks of specialty paper (parchment and calligraphy paper).
If you’re going to promote your work online, you’ll need extra cash to set-up a website, produce business cards, invest in a good camera and set aside marketing funds.
Depending on the amount of supplies you already have before you decide to put up a calligraphy business, your startup capital could be as little as $100 or as high as $1,000.
And since you won’t have an employee or a brick-and-mortar store, almost all your sales would be for profit.
3. Decide on an Angle
In order to get the attention of customers, you have to develop your own style.
There are tons of resources online to get inspiration.
Check Pinterest, download as many fonts as you can, visit websites of other calligraphers to see what kind of classic and modern calligraphy styles are out there.
Fortunately, handwritten calligraphy can be so similar that no person can copyright their work.
Using quotes, lyrics, and other copyrighted words and then selling them for profit, on the other hand, is against the law.
Once you’ve decided on a calligraphy style and practiced it to perfection, you then have to figure out a game plan to market your handwritten work. Do want to focus on the wedding industry, or diversify and try out various markets?
The minute you’d decide to sell calligraphy, you have to be ready with pricing (even if you don’t have any customers yet).
There’s nothing more off-putting to would-be buyers than when they catch you unprepared.
It can be tricky, since this industry doesn’t follow a “one size fits all” pricing. However, you can compare prices of other sellers on Etsy and go from there.
Many calligraphers start with a lower price than market prices, but don’t go too low that you’ll end up losing money.
You can increase prices as your skills improve. As a starting point, note that calligraphers charge about $1 to $5 per wedding invitation, but those would longer text can be priced a lot higher.
Before you market your product on Etsy, make sure you have your own ordering system in place.
Set up a work calendar, so you can easily check if you can accommodate orders as they come in.
When creating an Etsy listing, ask customers to fill-up a quick questionnaire that includes deadline, number of orders, writing media (watercolor, ink, markers, etc.), colors, and information about the text that will be handwritten.
Do the math and send your customer a quote. If he/she agrees with the price, create a new Etsy listing specifically for that customer. Begin the work once your customer buys that customized listing.
5. Join a Community of Creatives
The comeback of calligraphy also resulted in various communities popping up both online and offline.
Join a calligraphy group where you can learn from people who have successfully turned their craft into a profitable business.
It’s also a great way to discover new calligraphy styles, develop marketing skills, and seek feedback from people who knows best.
Aside from regular contests, these groups also hold calligraphy exchanges which are a popular pen-pal-like activity where participants send and receive handwritten postcards and other artwork by mail.
Both contests and exchanges are a fun way to practice your skills and receive much-needed feedback, especially for those who are just starting out.
6. Master Your Craft
It doesn’t matter if you’re busy with customer orders or not, but you have to spare time to master new skills, new calligraphy techniques, new media, and more.
Adding specialties to your offering could double your earnings significantly.
The Bottom Line
You can thank Instagram and Pinterest for the rise in calligraphy over the past few years and this is creating huge opportunities for people to launch their own businesses fueled with nothing but their own creativity and the power of Etsy.
While you’re here, check out these 29 other online jobs for artists to see how you can put your other artistic talents to good use.
Being a starving writer may be conducive to your craft, but it certainly isn’t a fun way to live. I often find that people avoid becoming writers because they don’t think that they can get paid to write articles.
In reality, it’s a perfectly viable option.
Modern life – in the form of the internet, especially – has made becoming a paid writer easier than ever. The online world is moving at breakneck speed and people are constantly looking for new content to feast their eyes on.
Yes, a lot of the content on the internet that’s being soaked up these days come in the form of video, but that doesn’t mean writing is dead. Not by a long shot.
Here’s how you can make a career out of writing online and get paid to write as many articles as you want.
Blogs Where You Can Get Paid to Write Articles
Taking on the odd writing assignment here and there can be a great way to get started as a writer.
Luckily, there are plenty of blogging sites who are constantly on the lookout for guest posts or contributors.
If you’re able to get one or two articles submitted to a couple of places then you can start building a name for yourself as a writer and, hopefully, many more opportunities will follow.
Take a look at these blogging sites across varying niches that pay for articles:
This blog distributes their articles to freelancers from all over the world every week. They focus on articles about writing for writers and those working from home.
They pay $60 per 600 words via PayPal and you need to send them a query (idea for an article) so they can accept it before you start writing.
This is a woman’s magazine that focuses on in-depth informational pieces, persuasive essays, and creative non-fiction around certain topics.
The article ideas you can present depends on the theme of the coming month’s issue, so make sure to check out their editorial calendar. They pay $25 for a cover piece and $15 for other articles.
Being a popular name in the gaming and entertainment industry means you’re going to have a big demand for lots of content. Which is exactly why Polygon needs a lot of contributors.
Just pitch them an idea in one of their categories, and if they like it, they’ll get back to you.
They pay per word and effort put into an article, though no specific price was given.
Know a lot about being frugal? This blog is all about creative ways to earn and save money. They require evergreen articles of at least 700-900 words and payment will be discussed after your pitch is accepted.
There are many, many more blogs and websites out there that are willing to pay for article submissions.
Just make sure you know how much they’re paying before sending in any content.
Have a knack for writing pop-culture articles in a humorous light?
Crack is known to pay up to $250 for accepted submissions. Be sure to read a few articles on their site first so you know what you’re getting your in to with Cracked.
Great Escape is always looking for writers to write about their experiences making money in travel, not so much the travel itself.
If you can help others make more money in the travel industry, you can get paid $150 per article published.
How to Regularly Get Paid Writing Jobs
The key to landing any writing job is to write quality content.
People say that they want this length and that topic, and these SEO practices must be adhered to. But the most important thing – and it will always be the most important thing – is that the content appeals to the reader. That means high-quality content.
Getting regular work as an online writer takes some gusto and confidence in your writing abilities. After all, if you don’t want to read what you put out then how can you expect other people to?
Some other things to consider:
1. Settle into a Niche
The first thing you’ll want to do when starting a writing career is, find your niche. Of course, not everyone finds a niche that fits them right from the start and it’s perfectly normal to add new niches or even switch to a different niche later on in your writing career.
The point of a niche is to focus your writing skills. Because you need to be very familiar with the topic for you to be able to piece together meaningful sentences about it.
I’m not saying you have to be an expert, because learning on the job is very much part of what it means to be a writer. But every topic is different and has a different audience. You need to know how to write for them.
Only repetition and growing your skills in one niche will help you become better at this.
2. Try These 10 Freelance Writing Sites
In addition to blogging sites, you can try freelance websites who usually have a list of available writing jobs.
Becoming a successful paid writer can be just as much about marketing yourself as it is about writing any actual content.
Setting up your own website with examples of your work and ways for potential clients to contact you can be a great help towards setting yourself up as a professional writer.
Just make sure to market it effectively on social media and other sites.
How to Make More Money Writing Articles
Finally, I have a few general tips that will help writers across any industry.
These are a few small adjustments you can be making that will certainly add up over time and help you bring in even more work.
1. Learn the best SEO practices
SEO is an extremely important part of writing online articles.
You want your articles to rank well on search engine algorithms so people can easily find them.
Otherwise, the company or blog you’re writing for will likely start looking at hiring someone who can achieve that. So make sure to keep up with all the latest SEO trends.
2. Build up a portfolio
Having a portfolio is just as important for a writer as it is for a designer. In the beginning, especially, simply getting writing jobs is much more important than getting paid to write articles.
Yes, we all want to get paid for our work. However, it will be much easier to make money writing articles once you start building up a writing portfolio.
3. Thesaurus is your friend; Just don’t abuse it
Some people might warn against using a Thesaurus. But I say hogwash and poppycock to that.
A thesaurus can be an amazingly handy tool for a writer – if used with great care and moderation.
4. Always keep building up your writing skills
Writing is a learning process and if you don’t keep at it, you’ll eventually stagnate or even lose the skill. Passion is a big part of it, but so is excellent grammar and a big vocabulary.
If you want to be a great writer then keep writing (even when you don’t need to) and read other writers’ work to get a feel for what works.
Go and Get Paid to Write
Building a career might seem impossible as a budding writer.
But it really is easier than ever to get started and live out your passion.
With home-based jobs popping left and right in fields that aren’t traditionally accommodating to remote work, such as doctors or bookkeeping, it’s understandable why many college students are trying to find out if there are actually legitimate internships from home.
Who wouldn’t want to complete internship credits at the comfort of their own homes, right?
Join me as I try to investigate everything you need to know about online internships.
Do virtual internships exist?
And if so, are there paid internships from home?
The quick answer is YES.
There are virtual and paid internships, but as you might have guessed, they come few and far in between and they’re very quickly filled. Plus, not all industries are able to offer virtual internships because the work involves face-to-face interactions.
When it comes to virtual internships, the curse of social media managers remain the most important thing to watch out for. Many companies believe that for interns to be able to work remotely, the only job fit for them to perform involve manning the company’s social media accounts.
Although social media is usually one of the tasks performed by interns across all industries, internships do not have to be exclusive to this role.
Instead, internships should:
Give interns industry-specific skills – Studying business management in school is one thing, but actually putting what you’ve learned into action is the next step. Internships give students a platform to gain new skills and practice what they know in a real-life setting.
Provide interns with work experience – After graduating college, job-hunting will prove to be challenging for those who didn’t complete an internship. This is because companies prefer to hire people with experience, even if the “experience” only involves a couple of months of internship.
Allow interns to network within their future industry – Working as an intern gives them an opportunity to meet people and build their professional contact list.
Build confidence – Since interns are learning every day (either by doing or through observation) within a specific business, they gradually become more confident in their chosen field. This will show during interviews when ex-interns try to land their place in real-world jobs, as they convince certain HR folks that they’re the best one for the position.
Pros and Cons of Internships from Home
As someone who has had my fair share of working from home (and also an office-based employee of a company), I can guarantee that both set-ups have their ups and downs.
And since internships are just like regular work, the pros and cons of completing internships from home are almost the same.
Pros of Virtual Internships
The biggest advantage of virtual internships is the flexibility it gives college students.
Most often, internships are required in the junior or senior years, which is also the busiest time of their schooling.
This flexibility give you more freedom and control over your time, so you can take your courses or work part-time all while completing an internship as well.
Because you are allowed to complete your internship tasks remotely, you can do them at home, in school, or wherever your obligations need you to be during your “shift.”
When it comes to improvement of skills, doing your internships from home will develop three major skills:
Communication skills – Skype is there for face-to-face meetings, but most of the communication between the intern and his/her superiors would involve e-mail and messaging apps. If you’re used to communicating verbally, you can always call and video-chat instead of e-mailing and sending text messages, but as you progress with your internships, you’ll be able to notice the refinement in your communication skills.
Time management skills – Doing your partial (or entire) internship remotely means you’d have to plan and prioritize your tasks. Interns may not find this skill as useful now, but once they begin their careers, they’ll soon realize how juggling tasks effectively can impact their overall performance at work.
Computer skills – Most of the tasks involved in online internships are digitized. Although many people today are up-to-date with the latest gadgets, apps and tools, learning what is used within the industry you want to built a career on is actually useful.
Cons of Online Internships
You might think that completing your internship from home is all good, but know that this set-up isn’t for everybody.
For example, if you’re used to being around people while working, you’d feel quickly isolated without “officemates” throughout your internship stint.
There’s an easy fix for this: You can still be around family or friends as you do your internship and not feel isolated.
However, it doesn’t change the fact that as an intern working remotely, company news, memos, instructions from your superior, or other updates may not be given to you in real time.
As such, there would be times that you’ll be out of the loop or experience miscommunications.
The biggest disadvantage of virtual internships is that completing tasks on your own require discipline and self-motivation.
Most people develop this sense of discipline in school, but if you’re a late bloomer and was waiting for your first job to practice your work ethics, online internships could become a struggle for you.
Where to Find Companies Offering Internships from Home
You can find virtual internships traditionally and online.
Traditional sources – Referrals from your professors and your school’s career center are traditional sources of internship leads, but they require submitting applications and interviews before landing the internship program. Sometimes, internships are already part of your chosen course, so you’re lucky if you are given options for remote internships.
Online sources – Your first bet is to check out industry-specific career websites. For example, if you’re studying pre-law, look for law career sites and check available internship programs there.
Internships.com – Like InternQueen, this website has been around for a long time, even before Chegg.com acquired the original Internships.com in 2014. No matter which company owns it, the site remains one of the most comprehensive internship listings you could find.
InternQueen – This is Lauren Berger’s blog and she’s been helping young professionals land internships and jobs for over a decade. Aside from virtual internship leads, there are also a ton of solid advice available here.
LinkedIn – The cool thing about LinkedIn is that the companies themselves post internship programs, so you’re guaranteed that there are slots available.
VirtualInternships.com and other similar paid services – Companies like VirtualInternships are involved in the placement of interns in fields like business, legal, marketing, engineering, IT, and so on. They remove the need to dig for the best internship program for you, but their services are pretty expensive, especially for young professionals who are just starting out their careers.
Note that India is probably the biggest supporter of remote internships, so don’t be surprised if the results of your online search is filled with India-based companies. Stick with Internships.com, InternQueen, LinkedIn and popular career sites like Indeed, Glassdoor, Dice.com, and CareerBuilder, among others.
The Low Down on Internships from Home
You don’t have to sacrifice your part-time job, family time, or extracurricular activities while completing your internship credit requirements in school. With virtual internships and the skills needed to perform jobs remotely, you’ll be able to juggle everything your way.
Is doing the daily grind taking a toll on your body and soul? Go through our list of small, profitable business ideas and see if it sparks something in you to leave the daily grind behind and start your own business.
Thanks to the internet, there are now numerous opportunities for entrepreneurs of different backgrounds.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a working student looking to augment your income, or an employee working 50 to 60 hours a week just to get by, or a retiree or almost-retiree looking to have some spending money in the twilight of your life.
If you have a computer and an internet connection, you can launch a business.
The internet has solved previously difficult problems for entrepreneurs: training, selling platforms, suppliers, marketing, and even temporary or full-time employees can now all be found online.
If you want to succeed so badly that you’re willing to learn everything you can and dedicate as much time to your business as you need, you’ll likely build a profitable business.
Here is a list of small but potentially profitable business ideas to inspire you to launch your own business.
Product-Based Business Ideas
A product-based business, as the name implies, sells actual physical, tangible items.
Many factors can drive the success of a business, but for product-based businesses, the major factor that can make or break it is the quality of the product you’re offering.
It doesn’t matter if your website looks good and functional, or if your buyers receive their products on time. If the product you’re offering is shoddy and poor quality, they’ll never buy from you again, and worse, they’ll let everyone know how bad your products are.
Here are some small product-based businesses that are potentially profitable.
1. Making and Selling Handmade Products
With sites like Etsy and Amazon Handmade, selling your own handmade products is easier than ever.
These are some handmade products you can make and sell.
Jewelry. You’ll need training, excellent tools, high-quality raw materials, and a unique creative instinct.
Wire-wrapped crystals, personalized engraved necklaces and bracelets, and beaded jewelry are some of the types of jewelry that sell best.
Home and living products. Handmade home décor, such as handpainted wall hangings, hand-poured candles, and handmade doilies are some products you can make and sell from home.
Aromatherapy products. Essential oils and blends are making a comeback, and making your own oil blends can get you some profits.
Shower steamers, inhalers, and roll-ons are some of the best-selling aromatherapy products on Amazon Handmade.
Skin care and hair care products. With the increasing demand for environmentally friendly, organic, and natural skincare products and packaging, you can fill that demand with handmade products.
Some of the popular products in this category are soaps, shampoo and conditioner bars, moisturizers, and salves.
Bear in mind that skin and hair care products are classified as cosmetics, and there are FDA guidelines for these as well.
Hair accessories. Headbands, floral crowns, and tiaras, especially for children, are currently trendy.
Other hair accessories you can make include decorative hair combs, sweat-wicking headbands for workouts, and one-of-a-kind hair clips.
Retail arbitrage, is the act of buying products from retail or online stores and then selling them for higher prices so you can make a profit.
It may have had a bad rep lately, but this is a small lucrative business idea that you can comfortably start from home.
The first and probably most important rule of retail arbitrage is to choose items that you can get for cheaper than what people are willing to pay for them.
When shopping for items for retail arbitrage, always have a smartphone with internet access so you can scan bar codes and compare to prices on Amazon or other marketplaces such as eBay.
This will help you determine whether the possible profit is worth the trouble, especially considering you’ll have to shoulder packaging and shipping costs.
Merchant fees also take away from your profit, so keep that in mind as well when you tack on your desired profit to the product cost.
Here are a few suggestions for products to buy and sell.
Clothing. You can get the most profit from brand-name items, and even more if they still have the original tag.
Kids’ toys. You can get toys on clearance for a lower price, sometimes even for a mere 10% of their original retail price.
Kids’ toys are in demand around the holidays, so make sure you have enough stock during the months of October to December.
Cosmetics. Makeup junkies are always on the lookout for discontinued shades or product lines.
Stationery. Journaling buffs are on the lookout for low-priced notebooks and writing implements.
You can find and buy these items from clearance racks of stores like Walmart, Target, Costco, Big Lots, Ross, Marshall’s, and TJ Maxx.
Even specialty stores such as Home Depot, Lowes, GameStop, Office Depot, Staples, Walgreens, and CVS may have random items on sale or clearance that you can sell.
Thrift store flipping is similar to retail arbitrage, but instead of buying and selling new, unused items, it involves buying secondhand, used items and reselling those.
If you’ve ever been to a thrift shop, you’d know that people will donate anything, and you’d have so many choices of products to sell.
Here are a few suggestions for products to look for.
Clothing. If you can find brand-name items, even if they already show some signs of wear, you can sell them for at least some profit.
You can also put together a collection or a clothing lot. For instance, you can put together 10 garments in the same size and the same type (e.g., blouses, summer dresses, winter coats) and sell them as a lot.
This way, you can move several products at once, save on shipping costs, and keep a larger profit.
Video consoles and video games. Older consoles and old games have a large nostalgia factor for gamers. As a general rule, the oldest ones and the newest ones sell best.
Book sets. Popular books can make you some money, but book sets are more profitable since people are willing to pay more for them instead of having to find each book in a set.
Limited-edition book sets, such as anniversary releases or boxed sets, can earn you even more.
Glassware. You’d be surprised at how many buyers look for glassware online.
Look for glassware in unique shapes and colors (blue glass is particularly in demand). Vintage Pyrex cookware also get snapped up pretty quickly by collectors, so keep an eye out for these.
Furniture. If you have a talent for repairing and refurbishing furniture, flipping furniture may give you the highest profit margins among all the other products I mentioned.
As the name suggests, your main sources of products are your local thrift shops. Other sources you can look into are flea markets, garage/yard sales, Craigslist (if you’re lucky, you might even get some items here for free!), and library book sales.
The main marketplace for thrift store flippers is eBay, but the site Decluttr is also popular.
If you manage to find vintage items like jewelry, rugs, silverware, and other antique items, you can also turn to Etsy to sell them.
Not everyone can make handmade products or have the time or access to source products in actual brick-and-mortar stores.
Fret not; another option you have is dropshipping.
Dropshipping is a fulfillment method in which the retailer (you) does not stock the items; instead, the retailer forwards the order and the customer details directly to the supplier, who then packages and ships the items directly to the customer.
The retailer is in charge of marketing and promoting the products, as well as processing customer payments and making sure the payment is forwarded to the suppliers.
The advantages of running this type of business are that it’s very simple to start (you can start now if you want to), you don’t have to put out a lot of money for inventory, and you can work from anywhere that has an internet connection.
Here are a few products to dropship that are currently more profitable than others.
Shapewear. This product category includes waist shapers, bodysuits, butt lifters, and any other garment designed to improve the body’s silhouette.
It first became popular a few years back, and with its popularity still growing, it may well become an evergreen product category.
Pet products. You can take your pet to a groomer, but more and more pet owners are now trying to do it themselves.
Pet grooming products, such as brushes, clippers, rakes, flea combs, dental care tools, and shampoos and conditioners specially formulated for pet hair.
Pet accessories also sell well. Pet clothes, diapers, fancy leashes, and beds are sought-after items.
Athleisure. Athleisure is growing faster than any other fashion category, as the line between activewear and daywear is slowly being blurred.
Athleisure includes hoodies, leggings, sweatshirts, sweatpants, sports bras, tank tops, and capris, all available in a wide range of colors and material.
Travel products. The travel industry continues to flourish, and travelers are always looking for ways to make their travel experience easier and more comfortable.
Packing cubes, travel-sized containers, travel pillows, and folding bags (for those times when you suddenly need to hand carry some items) are a hit with travelers.
Smartwatches. Wearable tech surprisingly remains popular, so make sure to find suppliers that provide high-quality smartwatches that can track steps, measure heart rate, and even monitor sleep.
Your choice of suppliers will make or break your business. Look for reputable suppliers who carry high-quality items, pack them carefully, ship on time, and address issues quickly and in a satisfactory manner.
5. Selling Private Label Products
Private label products are those that are manufactured by one company for another company or retailer (that’s you) that places their own brand on the products and sells them as their own.
It’s not like buying wholesale for a lower price and then selling at retail price, because in that scenario, you’re clearly a middleman; the brand is already established, and you’re merely making it available to people who want it but can’t access it, for instance.
When you’re selling private label products, you control the specifications, the packaging, and how you want to sell them, without having to build infrastructure for manufacturing.
The ideal private label products are those that are easy to ship, affordable, and are in demand.
Below are some suggestions of what to sell.
Clothing. Customers are always on the lookout for unique, high-quality clothing that fits their lifestyle.
Make up. There is a general movement away from conventionally produced makeup with preservatives, irritants, and potential carcinogens that are tested on animals.
Look for cruelty-free, paraben-free, fragrance-free, organic cosmetic private label products.
Packaged food. Health-conscious consumers are looking for “guilt-free” snacks that are gluten-free, nut-free, organic, non-GMO, and low in trans-fat.
Supplements. Various supplements addressing various needs or nutritional deficiencies are popular online.
Phone accessories. Cases for Apple AirPods, mobile phone grips, mobile card wallets, and self-charging mobile phone cases are a hit with customers online.
As with all product-based businesses, you’re only good as the quality of your products. Choose private-label manufacturers carefully. See the list below for some high-quality product manufacturers.
Instead of selling physical products, service-based businesses sell a service that involves skill and expertise.
In this type of business, your relationship with clients can significantly impact the success of your business.
Unlike product-based businesses where the quality of your product is the main factor of your success, in service-based businesses, your interactions with your clients largely dictate whether they return as clients, give you larger tasks, and recommend your service to others.
All of these businesses have you starting out as a freelancer or an employee.
Upgrading to a business almost always involves hiring your own freelancers or employees, while you become in charge of the management side of things: workforce and project management, training, and marketing.
Below are some service-based businesses that you can start from home.
6. Virtual assisting
Being a virtual assistant doesn’t sound very glamorous, but the pay can be decent if you have unique skills to offer.
You’ll need to be a good communicator and have great organizational and time management skills.
The duties may vary depending on your client, but usual tasks include organizing calendars, booking meetings, and replying to emails.
Offer advice to businesses or individuals about how to use social media for promotion and marketing.
If you feel you don’t know enough about social media marketing, you can take online courses for you to learn basic to advanced knowledge and techniques.
8. Website development
Note: Need at least a certification, more preferably a bachelor’s degree.
Websites, quite simply, are in demand nowadays. Every business, online-based or brick-and-mortar, small to medium or multinational, needs a website to reach out to potential customers and widen their reach.
You’d need to have the programming knowledge to develop websites, and plenty of courses are available online that you can take within the comfort of your home.
Some of the projects you can do include building e-commerce pages (with product pages and shopping carts), online galleries (for showing off portfolios and artwork), and other specialty websites that are specific to the clients’ preferences and needs.
9. Graphic designing
If you’re an artist who knows how to use digital tools like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, you can put those skills to use as a graphic designer.
There is a constant demand for visual and branding elements for companies big or small. You can be asked to design logos, flyers, pamphlets, newsletters, infographics, slide decks, promotional emails, banner ads, and other marketing materials.
10. Financial advising
Note: Need at least a certification: Certified Financial Planner.
Managing personal finances is difficult to do on your own.
Add student loans and credit card debt to the mix, and you have a disaster in the making.
If you don’t have control over your personal finances, it can result in crushing debt and ruined credit.
Here’s where you can help.
Provide sound financial advice to individuals so they can get out of debt, avoid debt, or know where to invest their hard-earned money.
You can also help other entrepreneurs organize both their personal and business finances so they can separate personal and business expenditures and pay the right amount of taxes to avoid penalties.
11. Copy editing/proofreading
Nowadays, content is king.
But not if the content is error-laden.
If you have a knack for syntax and grammar, or if you have experience in teaching English or proofreading, this line of business can be a perfect fit for you.
There are hundreds of thousands of documents out there that need to be edited or proofread: from college application essays to college homework, from business proposals to marketing plans, from blog posts to sales pages.
If you’re bilingual, or at least reasonably fluent in more than one language, offer translation services to individuals and companies.
Marketing nowadays isn’t just limited to one’s local area; companies are now able to sell worldwide, and they’d always need translators to accurately communicate their marketing messages in the local language, considering social and cultural quirks.
13. Video production
If you’re already a videographer by trade, or if you’re proficient with video editing tools, such as Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro, offering video production and editing services from home can be a lucrative business.
Video production is in demand for commercial and real estate applications, as well as for events and weddings.
You might also get an aspiring YouTuber or two who create compelling videos but can’t edit their videos to save their lives.
14. Travel planning
You can now purchase travel agency software online and book flights, hotel accommodations, car rentals, and tours.
If you love to travel, and love planning for travel, have great organizational and planning skills, and a talent for finding bargains and deals, this can be something you can help fellow travelers with.
15. Online teaching
Do you have teaching experience, or currently teaching? Online teaching may turn out to be profitable for you.
If you’re proficient in a few subjects, especially English, you’ll always find students who’ll need tutors like you. Offering this service online allows you to reach students from all over the country and even around the world.
Building an online business from the ground up can be a harrowing experience if you don’t have the technical, marketing, and social media expertise to start.
If you’re an entrepreneur with capital, willing to hit the ground running, and confident of your business idea, a turnkey business might be a good fit for you.
A turnkey online business is an existing business that is ready to operate at full capacity from the moment you purchase it.
It’s similar to buying a grocery store with the infrastructure built, licenses and permits current, electricity and water hooked up, complete inventory, employees, suppliers, and POS installed: all you have to do is turn the key in the doorknob and you’re open for business.
However, because you’re likely putting a great amount of capital into this business, you’ll want to research the business you’re buying very carefully. Always be clear about what is included in the price you’re paying and if you can, have it valued by a third party.
Here are a few turnkey business ideas that you can start from home.
16. Franchising
Franchising is an agreement between a franchiser and a franchisee (that’s you) that enables the franchisee to use the brand and trademarks of the franchiser, as well as its business systems and processes, to sell products and services according to specifications set by the franchiser.
Franchising traditionally has been for brick-and-mortar businesses, such as coffee shops and fast-food restaurants, but nowadays, franchising an online business is now possible.
Check out sites such as Franchise Direct to read details about possible online businesses open for franchising, such as a website builder business, a social media agency, or video marketing agency.
The good thing about franchising is that the business model is already proven and tested. However, you may have to pay royalties continuously to the franchiser, depending on the franchise you purchase.
17. Direct selling/multi-level marketing (MLMs)
MLMs have been controversial, to put it mildly, but contrary to popular belief, MLMs aren’t always pyramid schemes.
Direct selling refers to selling products directly to the customer in a nonretail environment; that is, not in malls, stores, or kiosks. Instead, sales occur at home, work, or other non-store locations.
This eliminates many steps in the distribution process that drive up the price of the item so that consumers get the lowest price possible.
You or your mom has probably bought makeup from a Mary Kay beauty consultant, lotion from an Avon lady, or containers from a Tupperware dealer. Those are established, legal direct sales companies.
Multi-level marketing (MLM) is a technique used by direct selling companies to encourage existing distributors to recruit new distributors. They incentivize it by offering a percentage of their recruits’ sales.
So how do you know if an MLM company is legit?
A good way to ascertain if an MLM company is legitimate is to read the fine print and determine whether the focus is on making sales to consumers or on recruiting new members or “downlines.”
Does it encourage its sellers to make money from selling its products to consumers? Or does it encourage sellers to recruit new members to buy their products? If it’s the former, then it’s quite likely that it’s a legitimate MLM company. If it’s the latter, it’s likely a pyramid scheme.
Aside from that, search for any cases against the company from the FTC or any class action suits.
Some of the top legitimate MLM companies you can consider joining include the three companies I mentioned above, as well as Amway, Herbalife, and doTERRA.
18. Flipping websites
Perhaps you don’t like any of these other turnkey business ideas.
Why not try your hand at supplying a turnkey business?
Flipping websites involves checking out websites that have potential, buying them, improving them, and selling them.
Your prospective customers are those who want to run their own website but don’t have the time or inclination to start from scratch.
When customers buy from you, they expect a fully functional website, with content and special features required by them, such as ordering products, booking appointments, or enrolling in online courses.
They would also expect that the website already has a significant amount of traffic and their responsibilities will be to maintain that traffic.
Others
These are businesses that don’t fall exactly into the categories above but are solid business ideas nonetheless.
19. Application development
“There’s an app for that.”
Thanks to application developers who create these apps, there’s an app to help with almost every conceivable problem, from the mundane to the extraordinary.
If you have a knack for creating apps, with or without experience, you can certainly take some online courses and study how to do it.
You can then create the application for a client, or let your creativity and problem-solving skills kick in and create an application by yourself.
Once you’ve created your application, promote it with a marketing strategy designed to promote your application to whoever needs it.
20. Stock photography
If you’re a professional photographer or even a passionate amateur, consider selling stock photos to photo selling websites or sell them from your own website.
You can also expand into selling prints of your photos, or daily items, such as mugs, t-shirts, mousepads, etc. with photos you’ve taken.
Which Small Profitable Business Idea Will You Launch Today?
Of the 20 business ideas I’d enumerated, which ones are you most interested in? Do you have any other small business ideas? Tell us below!
Maybe you like smelling lavender-scented candles during your me-time or enjoy displaying beautiful candles in your home.
You may even have tried your hand at creating candles at home as a hobby.
Whichever way you appreciate candles, you’d probably agree that they are nice to have and beautiful to look at.
Candles make excellent home décor and gifts that people buy all year round. Thus, making and selling candles can be lucrative if you know what you’re doing.
Today’s blog post is a guide on how to start a candle business: considerations, requirements, and steps to take when you’ve decided to build your business.
Should You Start A Candle-Making Business?
A candle business can be profitable, as I’ve mentioned, but it may not be for everyone.
Here are some factors to consider before you decide to start making and selling candles:
Candle Making Laws
First, read up on your state laws and learn if your state allows you to manufacture candles in your home.
Aside from state laws, individual cities and counties may have conditions on such businesses, and zoning laws may not allow you to operate from home.
Thus, before you even decide to do it, be sure to check the fire safety regulations applicable in your area to ensure that you can do it.
Space to Make Candles
You can certainly start making candles at home, but make sure that you’ll have plenty of space for making the candles, as well as storing the materials and equipment you need.
If you don’t have space in your home, you might want to rent a nearby facility to use as a workspace, though of course, this will entail rental costs.
Investment Needed to Make Candles
You’ll have to invest at least some money into the raw materials and the equipment so you can start with your candle business.
As I’ve mentioned above, if you end up renting a workspace, you’ll have to consider that in your initial investment.
Research early about possible suppliers of materials and equipment so you can estimate how much you’ll need to invest.
If you don’t have money to invest in the business, maybe a candle business is not a good fit for you.
Candle Making Business Objectives
How much you’ll make is highly dependent on how big your candle business is, and the good thing about owning your business is that you can decide how big or how small you want it to be.
Figure out what you want to achieve with your business and keep a record of it so you can have that goal in mind in everything you do.
Ideal Customer
The bottom line is, what type of customer do you want to sell your candles to?
It’s good to draw up a profile of your ideal customer: their demographics, likes, dislikes, wants, and needs.
When you have a profile of your ideal customer, you can then weigh your candle-making skills and find out if you have the skills to meet your target customers’ needs and if not, if you’re willing to invest time and money to learn new skills and hone existing ones.
What You Need To Start Your Candle Business
If you’ve considered the factors above, and you’ve decided to start with your candle-making business, you’ll still need to put some things in order before you actually start.
Here are some of the things you’ll need to organize before you begin.
Market Research
As I’ve mentioned, knowing who you want to sell to is important so you’d know if you can meet their requirements.
This is why you need to do market research.
Market research is the process of gathering and analyzing data about a target market’s needs, preferences, and buying triggers.
The aim is to be able to draw a mental picture of your target customer so you can understand how they decide to buy something and form your business and marketing strategy around that.
We’ve previously covered the details of doing market research in another article.
Niche
In general, your target market is anyone who wants candles.
But different people want candles for different reasons.
For instance, there are those who buy candles as purely an emergency light source for an event such as a blackout.
There are those who want beautifully shaped candles for decorative purposes in their home.
Others want scented candles for aromatherapy, ambiance, or to mask pet or cooking odors.
Custom and novelty candles are for more specific niches. For instance, religious candles, photo candles, and holiday candles fall into this category.
Business Plan
A clear, concise business plan is necessary for you to chart your journey and help steer you toward achieving your goals.
Candle-making classes are available in online learning marketplaces, such as Udemy.
Local classes may be a little harder to find (and maybe more expensive), but hands-on classes may be a better fit for you.
Even if you’ve been making candles as a hobby for a while, you can always hone and perfect your craft.
Practice
Quite simply, the more candles you create, the better you get at it.
As you get better at it, you’ll probably create some candles that aren’t store-worthy, but it doesn’t need to be a waste; you can give them out as free samples or sell them at a heavily discounted price.
Network
Local craft groups can also be good venues to meet other artisans and suppliers from whom you might require services.
For instance, you might meet graphic designers who can design your candle labels. Or you might meet suppliers of containers for your candles.
You can also meet with local groups of entrepreneurs and small business owners who can help you with tips on how to get your business going and how to set it up for growth.
If you’re looking for a more focused organization, the National Candle Association is a nonprofit organization that has a great resource website on the science of candle manufacturing, fire safety, and legal issues.
Raw Materials
Your raw materials will largely depend on your customers’ needs, so you don’t want to stock up on too much wax or too many wicks.
However, you will want to research all the best places to source your raw materials from.
Amazon carries pretty much everything you need to start, but you can also look at wholesalers, craft stores, and beekeepers for beeswax.
To give you an idea of what you’ll need to buy, here are some of the raw materials you’re likely to need.
Candle wax. The most popular wax in candles is paraffin wax, but many different kinds like beeswax, soy wax, palm wax, and gel wax.
You can buy many different dyes to color wax in many different ways.
Wick. There are many different materials of wicks: all-cotton, cotton-paper combos, wooden, paper-cored, metal-cored, and many others.
Certain types of wicks go better with certain candle materials, so research and experiment to find out exactly which combinations work best.
You can also buy accessories to make it easier to assemble your wicks: wick tabs, glue spot, wick bars, and wick pins.
Fragrance oils. There are thousands of types of fragrance oils, which you can blend in literally hundreds of thousands of combinations.
Some general categories of fragrance oils include earthy, citrus, fruity, floral, and spicy. For novelty candles, you can consider smells of food, random stuff, and even stinky smells.
Candle molds. The usual candle molds are made of aluminum and create typical cylindrical candles, like votive candles or tea lights.
For more artistic designs, there are customizable designer plastic molds, polyurethane molds, and clamshell molds.
Candle containers. Glass is the classic material for candle containers, as they come in all shapes, sizes, and colors.
For travel-friendly candles, candle tins are becoming an increasingly popular choice.
Equipment
Your raw materials may be the purest, best-quality ones, and your technique may be impeccable, but if you don’t have the right equipment, your candles will come out substandard.
Here’s a list to give you an idea of what equipment you would need.
Pouring pots
Bars, bowties, and glue dots for holding wicks in place where the cal
Wax melters and heaters
Candle molds
Thermometers
Workspace
Candle-making is an activity that necessitates enough space for assembly, storage, and packaging while adhering to fire safety requirements.
Make sure you have a fire extinguisher in your workspace that’s compatible with wax fires.
This early, read up on your city’s zoning laws and fire codes to ensure that your workspace is safe, not only for you but for the surrounding area.
How To Start A Candle Business
If you’ve made the decision to start this candle business, and you’ve arranged everything you need, then you’re ready!
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to start your candle business.
1. Acquire all necessary licenses and permits.
As I’ve mentioned, running a candle business requires special licenses and permits, so you’ll need to get all of them before you start manufacturing your candles.
If you can, schedule an inspection with a fire safety officer so that you’re entirely sure that your facilities and workspace are up to fire safety standards.
Make sure you register with the IRS as well. Having a tax permit allows you to save tax on buying supplies and passes on the tax to your buyers, so make sure to register with the IRS to pay state and federal business tax.
2. Register your candle business.
It is advisable to register your company as a limited liability company (LLC) so you can disconnect your business assets from your personal assets.
In the off-chance that your candle business gets sued or bankrupt, your liabilities are limited to your company, and your personal finances can’t be touched.
3. Organize your business financials.
As I’ve mentioned above, your business and personal finances should be separate, so assert this separation by opening a separate business bank account and credit card.
Doing this establishes a credit line for your business that you can use for when you decide you want to expand the business.
In line with this, organize your bookkeeping records so that your personal expenses and business expenses are distinct.
You’d also need to get insurance for your company: general liability for cover against bodily injury, property damage, and personal injury.
If you need to hire employees at some point, you’ll also need to get workers comp.
4. Define your product offerings.
There probably are infinite types of candles that you can make, and you’re only limited by your creativity, skills, and raw materials.
You’d want to start with a limited product line, just so you don’t get too overwhelmed at the outset.
Religious candles (e.g., Jewish-themed, Catholic-themed, Wiccan)
Embedded object candles (e.g., candles with seashells, flowers, glitter)
You can also make your product line one of a kind with the materials that you use.
The candle material, wick material, scent, and containers you use can all be combined in different ways to create a product line that’s unique to your brand.
Note that I said “unique”; make sure that your product line doesn’t infringe on any trademarks, copyrights, or patents of other candle companies.
It’s easy to make this mistake; after all, how many candle scents and names could there be?
But the burden is on you, the manufacturer, to ensure that there is no copyright breach.
Aside from selling the candles themselves, consider selling candle accessories that your customers may want.
Accessories include plates, warmers, wick trimmers, candle snuffers, wick dippers, and candle holders for additional income for you.
5. Test your products.
Normally, this would be lumped with the product creation phase, but since candles are higher risk items compared to other non-food products in terms of physical injury and property damage, the stakes are higher in terms of adhering to standards.
Also, if you’ve developed your own scents for your candles, test the candles to make sure that your candles smell the way you intend them to smell.
6. Come up with a pricing plan.
At this point, you should know how much investment you’ve put into this business.
Monetary investments include money down for supplies and equipment (and space, if you’re renting it), license applications, training (if you need it), and other incidentals.
Aside from your monetary contributions, factor in your time in making the candles and assign a value to it. How much would you pay for yourself for each hour of work?
Finally, your artistry and effort need to also have values assigned to them.
It’s most effective to have a target profit per candle, so figure out the cost per candle based on the above values, add your target profit per candle, and you have your selling price.
7. Choose where to sell.
First, think about where you’re going to offer your products/services.
Selling your candles online is easiest, as there are plenty of platforms for you to choose from. The most popular ones are Etsy, eBay, and Amazon Handmade.
Here’s a good read if you’re debating whether to go with Etsy or eBay. And this is another great article on our site about selling crafts online.
If face-to-face selling is more your style, you can look for flea markets and craft shows where you can physically sell your candles.
You can also set up a storefront to sell your candles, like a mall kiosk to start or a larger space when you’re getting enough income to rent one.
Make sure your selling location is also compliant with fire safety standards.
If you’re going to have a physical location, register this location on Google My Business so potential customers in your area can easily find your business.
8. Establish your online presence.
If your candle business is going to be successful, you’ll need to build an online presence to make sure that when customers research about you, they’ll find information about you and confirm that you do insist.
First, open social media accounts for your business. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are the basic ones that your business should have.
While social media marketing is important for networking and advertising, aim to launch your own website at the same time, or at least very soon in the future.
Having your own website is a huge content marketing opportunity through a self-hosted blog and a newsletter if you have the time and motivation.
The next step is to set up a shop right on your website so you can sell your candles directly and not depend on third-party marketplaces, online and offline.
9. Organize your contact information.
First, create a business email so you can register your social media with that email and not your personal email. You don’t want to be flooded with emails on your personal inbox.
Also, you’ll want potential customers to be able to contact you in a variety of ways, not just email and social media.
However, just like you want your business finances distinct from your personal finances, you’re going to want your contact information distinct from your personal contact information.
If you’re working from home and registered as an LLC, you can technically have your home address listed as your business address.
The problem is that business addresses, called Registered Agent addresses for LLCs, are part of the public record.
I would imagine that you don’t want to have your home address publicly available, so you can either get a mailbox through UPS or look for a co-working space that offers the use of a street address as a mailing address.
Another thing you’ll want to take care of is a dedicated business phone number so you can turn it off during non-work hours. You’ll also want to have a smartphone by which you can do your social media updates and answer emails.
Final Thoughts On Starting A Candle Business
Running a candle-making business takes skill, dedication, and patience.
Of course, there is no guarantee that your business, or any business for that matter, will be successful, but I hope our guide on how to start a candle business helps you.
If you decide you don’t want to open a candle business but may want to open another business, you can go through this article with 50 ways to start an online business.
Or maybe all this post achieved was to convince you that starting a business isn’t for you, but that working from home is a better fit for you. Here is a list of jobs that you can work from home.
How does starting a candle business from home sound? Has my blog post inspired you to try it?
So you want to learn how to start a greeting card business.
Making people feel warm and fuzzy with awesomely matched words and graphics is big business. These greeting cards are present in almost every occasion, from birthdays to funerals, anniversaries to job promotions, baby announcements, and even just day-to-day of expressing one’s love for another person.
Have you been a part of this industry as a writer crafting the words for greeting card companies? An artist making the graphics? A poet adding rhyme and rhythm to texts? Or are you inexperienced coming into the business?
Steps to Take to Start a Greeting Card Business
There are many questions to answer when figuring out how to launch any kind of company, which is why your first line of business should be to build a solid plan.
1. Create a Solid Business Plan
A business plan not only gives you a “map” to the business you want to build, it also helps you decide if you really want to pursue such a venture.
Money matters: How much money you can invest. If you have a partner investing on this idea, how much will he/she put into the business and how much of the income will be put back into the business.
Perform proper costing (list down cost of paper, printing services, artist fees, writer fees, and so on)
Amount range you plan to sell your greeting cards for
Amount you must set aside for paying employees or contractors like cartoonists, poets and so on.
Ongoing expenses to run your greeting card business (This could be anything from business insurance to printing equipment, desktop publishing software, computers, rental cost if you’re leasing an off, and so on)
Target market: Who is your initial target market? Do you plan to expand this to include other market groups?
Niche: Are you planning to focus on a niche for your greeting card business? For example, greeting cards with funny jokes, greeting cards drawn in a particular style, hand painted greeting cards, greeting cards handmade with buttons, greeting cards embellished with leaves or other nature’s trinkets.
Important Decisions to Make
Selling online, vs. selling in real life
If you decide to sell your greeting cards exclusively online, it will remove big expenses like office rental and upkeep of your own printing equipment.
If you plan to sell in real life, think of the commitment level you’re willing to give.
Can you join artist markets and introduce your brand to the world, talking to would-be customers face to face? Of course, you can also sell both online and offline, if you wish.
Handmade vs. Print-on-demand
When it comes to greeting card design, you need to decide if you want to go the handmade route or print-on-demand cards.
Choosing between these two methods will affect everything from your business plan, to production, selling method, and even marketing.
The main benefit of going the handmade route is you’ll attract a very specific target market who value how artists do it old-school.
Every card is undoubtedly special.
However, producing these cards require a lot of time and effort in the artist’s part, which means there will be less cards produced and less income made.
Print-on-demand greeting cards begin just like any handmade card, but once the first card is designed, it will become the prototype for future cards and only printed when a buyer decides to pick a design from your greeting card catalog.
2. Make Your Business Legal
You may be starting a business that revolves in creativity, but you must still take care of the legalities:
Name Your business. Know that the legal name can be different to the brand you’re going to use throughout your greeting card business. But picking one that resonates with your product should be your main goal.
Establish a business entity, such as corporation, LLC, etc. This prevents anyone from suing you as an individual (and sue your company instead).
Secure a permit. Check with your city or state what kind of business license you’d need to operate your greeting card business. This is super important because delaying a business permit could lead to paying fines, or worse, get shut down.
Open a business bank account. This separates your finances as an individual and as the business owner of your greeting card company. If you can secure a business credit card while you’re at the bank, do so. It could help with future expenses and build your company’s credit history.
Get insured. If you plan to hire employees or rent an office, it is important that you get business insurance. It will prevent would-be headaches in the future.
Set up the company’s accounting. Learn how to do your own company’s books at the earliest stage of your company’s life, so you’d be able to keep an accurate and detailed record of your company’s revenues and expenses.
3. Begin Branding
Now that we finished the serious side of how to start a greeting card business, let your creativity fly free with branding and brainstorming card ideas, themes or collections.
“Branding” means promotion of a product or company, so why would be begin branding before actually creating the product? You’ll see.
There are 3 important things you should do first:
Build a website – It’s very easy to build websites these days, especially if you choose the drag-and-drop, hosted sites like Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, and the like. Joining any of these sites is easy. Just register, pay for a plan, choose a website template, and within an hour or two, you have a working website. You can even add a shop to your website.
Build your company’s online presence – The easiest way of marketing products (without any investment) is through social media. Join the big 3 – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Set-and-forget LinkedIn. And turn Pinterest into your catalog of greeting cards.
Print business cards and samples of your product – If your goal is to sell greeting cards beyond the internet, you should be armed with business cards whenever you join art bazaars, artist conventions and other similar events.
Make sure you use the same business name for all 3 tasks. You want people to know your greeting card business, so using different names for every platform would just confuse your potential market. Be consistent. Decide a voice for your company (formal? conversational? Not-safe-for-work? Too cool for school?) and then stick to it all throughout your channels.
4. Get Cranking with Crafting and Selling Greeting Cards
Everything we learned about how to start a greeting card business boils down to this.
Brainstorm ideas. If you’re hiring talent to do the artwork and text for your greeting cards, then begin brainstorming with them. If you’re the one drawing, then you just need to turn those ideas into something tangible.
Create a content calendar. Your goal as a business owner is to produce greeting cards enough to meet deadlines, seasons and holidays. You have to organize your staff so that you’ll be able to release Valentine’s Day greeting cards on time, or produce Christmas greeting cards two or three months before December.
Create, create, create. If you’re doing traditional greeting cards, you need to gather your supplies (paper, markers, paint, watercolor, etc.) and just create the cards you’ve brainstormed. If you’re making a digital version, then you just need a computer, drawing tablet, and the right software to do the job for you.
Printing greeting cards. This depends largely on how you wish to sell your greeting cards. If you’ve already talked to a publishing house where the greeting cards will be sold, then you have to print them on a massive scale. If you’re selling them one-by-one directly to customers, you have several options:
Continue promoting your stuff. While creating greeting cards, you should be consistent in updating your website, Facebook, Pinterest and other platforms. These will serve as free advertising for your business. Plus, it would let customers know that you’re open for business.
Wrap Up: How to Start a Greeting Card Business Successfully
You can control how small or how big you want to launch your company.
In fact, many small businesses begin operations on a part-time basis, then scale up to full time and gradually bring it out into the world when the company’s finances are stable and ready for expansion.
You may think that the $1 to $5 price tag of greeting cards won’t lead your business into success, but think about this for a minute: every time a greeting card is created under your wing, this card can be sold multiple times online and offline.
It won’t become a $20-billion Hallmark company, but since you’re running a passive income generating business, its earning potential is endless.
If your home-cooked meals are a hit with your family and friends, you may have wondered if you can start a home-based catering business.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you can turn your love for good food and cooking into a nice little income or even into a catering business?
Today’s article is a guide on how to start a catering business from home: how to decide if it’s right for you, everything you need to start, and how to establish your business.
Should You Start A Catering Business?
A catering business involves preparing and providing food at events, parties, and other large gatherings.
It’s very different from preparing food for your family for the holidays and simple get-togethers with friends.
Here are some of the most important factors to consider before you start your catering business.
Laws
First, find out if your state allows a home-based cooking business. Aside from state laws, individual cities and counties may have stipulations on such businesses, and zoning laws may not allow you to operate from home.
Thus, before you even decide to do it, be sure to check all of the food regulations applicable in your area.
Facilities
If your state is able to give an in-home catering business license, it comes with very strict requirements, as everything food-related should be.
In general, the kitchen where the food for catering is prepared should be separate from all living areas by a door.
Plus, all storage areas (i.e., freezer and refrigerator), utilities, and ingredients used to prepare food for catering must be completely separate from those used to prepare food for those who are living in the home.
Investment
In terms of food businesses, a catering business costs less than a restaurant in terms of initial investment, but you’ll still need at least some initial equipment to get started.
Take inventory of the equipment and cookware you may already have and canvass the best deals for the equipment you’ll need to get started.
If you don’t have enough cash, maybe it’s not yet the right time to start your catering business. If you want, you might like to try online jobs that don’t require an investment first so you can save up for capital.
Keep in mind, though, that a catering business can net you between $30,000 and $80,000 a year, depending on costs and how large the catering jobs are.
Business goals
The good thing about a catering business from home is that you can choose to grow your business to cater to bigger events or you can keep your business small and manageable and earn a constant income.
Figure out what opening this business will help you achieve so you can keep your eyes on the goal.
Ideal customer
You’ll want to have an idea of the type of customer that you want to serve food to.
When you have a profile of your ideal customer, you can then weigh your culinary skills to meet your target customers’ needs.
It is particularly important in the food business to please your customers because a single meal can make or break your reputation as a caterer.
Steps to Take to Start A Home Catering Business
Are you now absolutely, 100% sure that you want to do this?
If yes, then here’s what you need to put together before you start your catering business from home.
A Niche
All businesses have to have their own niches to capture.
But finding your niche is especially important in a home-based catering business because keeping your marketing focused and costs low is a priority for start-ups.
Narrow your focus on a particular cuisine and/or certain kinds of events.
For example, if you’re an expert in grilling, you can specialize in barbecue catering. That way, you have a clear marketing focus on a target market, plus you can focus on buying equipment centered around grilling and not much else.
Other niche ideas are cocktail party catering, kosher catering, and brunch catering.
You can also specialize in special diets: vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, nut-free cuisines are increasingly in demand.
Market Research
A catering business can certainly be profitable, and you’ll want to find out everything you can about the niche that you want to target to make sure you’re competitive and meet their needs.
Market research is the process of gathering data about a target market’s needs, triggers, and preferences, and analyzing this data so you can figure out who to offer your catering services to, what you can offer them, and how to offer your services to them.
We’ve covered the details of doing market research in a previous article.
A Business Plan
A clear plan is critical to the success of your catering business.
The basic points to consider are your target market, your financials, and your overall goals.
We go into the details of creating a business plan in another article on our site (plus, you get to learn about another business idea from home).
The Right Equipment
The niche you select will have plenty to do with the equipment you’re going to purchase for your catering business.
First, you’d need kitchen equipment, which includes cookware, chef knives, and food preparation equipment such as a peeler, a blender, and a food processor.
You’d also have to get food storage equipment, like a large refrigerator and upright freezer.
Next, you’d want to have your stoves, grill, oven, sandwich maker, microwave, and any other implements to cook your food.
Also, you’d want to have disposable materials that are crucial for food safety, such as food-safety gloves, mouth shields, aprons, and hairnets.
You’d also need dedicated cleaning supplies for your work area and surfaces where you prepare food: cleaning and disinfecting solution, mops, cleaning cloths, scrub brushes, and sponges.
Servingware, where you plate and present the food you prepared, is another important equipment to get; presentation is a big part of the appeal of food.
Serving supplies such as china, glassware, utensils, linens, tables, and chairs can be rented if you want to keep costs down to a minimum, but you can certainly purchase these later.
Food containers are necessary as well for transport to and from your kitchen to the venue.
Lastly, you’d need food transportation equipment, such as a van or a small truck and food cabinets for hot food and coolers for cold food so you can keep the food temperature constant before serving.
State-Mandated Training
To be clear, you can be a caterer whether or not you have a diploma or even have gone to culinary school.
But you do have to take up mandatory food-handling courses provided by your state.
These are series of courses of four to eight mini-courses that instruct about how to store food properly, heating and cooling requirements, correct sanitation methods, and other specific requirements of the state.
Other Training
Just because you’re running a catering business doesn’t mean you’ll be dealing with food all of the time.
You’ll also be dealing with customers, suppliers, and employees, if you decide to hire people down the line.
Learning administrative, managerial, and customer service skills before you officially start your catering business would be a great help to your success.
Experience
It’s going to be more advantageous for you to work in a restaurant or any other food-business for a few weeks or months before you start your catering business.
But if your schedule or anything else doesn’t permit you to, at least cook some sample dishes for your friends and family and ask them for their honest feedback.
Network
Attend trade fairs to meet caterers and restaurant owners as well as suppliers of equipment and ingredients.
Also, you can join local or state associations of caterers and restaurant owners so you can get updated about your competitors and the latest trends in the industry.
Workspace
At this point, you should be sure you know what the state and city requirements are for your kitchen space, so before you even apply for your first license, you need to configure your workspace so that you meet all the requirements for a license.
How To Start A Catering Business From Home
So you’ve decided that you want to open this business, and you’ve prepared all you need to prepare.
Here’s how to start a catering business from home.
1. Obtain all the necessary licenses and permits.
Your catering business must be licensed as a Food Service Establishment, which your local health department provides.
Before you can acquire your license, a compliance officer needs to inspect your workspace and kitchen to determine if it meets all the necessary requirements.
Also, if you intend to serve alcohol, either with your meals or by offering bar service, you’ll need a liquor license as well, so keep that in mind when you’re preparing requirements for your license.
If you plan to hire employees in the future, you also need to make sure that you meet Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirements.
2. Register your catering business.
It is recommended that you register your company as a limited liability company (LLC) to separate your business finances from your personal finances.
You’ll want to protect your personal assets from liability in case your catering business gets involved in debt or litigation, so it’s also advisable to open separate bank accounts and credit cards for your business
.
3. Organize your business financials.
Once you’re registered as an LLC, you can open a separate business bank account and credit card, which not only asserts the separation of your business and personal finances but also establishes a credit line for your business that you can utilize when you’re in a tight spot or when you decide you want to expand the business.
Aside from separate bank accounts, you want your business books and personal books to be separate as well. Set up an accounting record of your business as soon as you get your LLC status.
You’ll also need to register to the IRS to be able to pay state and federal taxes, as well as to be eligible for tax breaks.
Another thing you’ll have to register for is insurance: general liability to be covered against bodily injury, property damage, and personal injury, commercial auto insurance, and workers comp if you decide to hire employees at some point.
4. Create your catering menu.
You can offer buffet-style dining or a sit-down plate service, depending on your niche as well as your clients’ preferences.
The best way to offer dishes is to create catering menus that clients can easily choose from as well as customize.
When building a catering menu, you need to take into account the cost per plate (i.e., total food cost divided by total number of guests), labor hours, materials cost, and how much profit you can reasonably tack on (around 10% to 12% of total costs, not just food costs).
Pricing can be a delicate art, and you might not get it right the first few times, and that’s why you need to compare your prices with local competitors to make sure you’re not being overly aggressive or you’re not undercutting yourself.
5. Set up your calendar.
A perk of running a catering business from home is that you get the flexibility to decide what days of the week you want to cater, as well as which hours of the day.
You can target the busiest period for your niche and work as frequently as you can and then take a rest during nonpeak, or you can continue catering for another niche.
For instance, if you’re targeting weddings or wedding-related gatherings (e.g., engagement parties, rehearsal dinners, stag or hen parties, etc.), the wedding season is considered to be May to October in a year.
6. Establish your online presence.
Yes, catering is more of personal business, but before anyone books your service, they’ll research about you, and one of the first places they’ll go to is on the internet.
Start by getting on social media. Facebook is good for targeted advertising, while Instagram is good for showing off high-quality photos of your food.
Social media marketing is important, but aim to launch your own website at the same time as your social media or at least soon.
Aim to create a website where customers can reserve a date and even pay a reservation fee through various channels.
But even if you don’t end up having this feature, merely having a website is a big marketing and promotional opportunity for your catering business.
7. Organize your contact information.
Just like you want your business finances separate from your personal finances, you’ll want your business contact information separate from that of your personal contact information as much as you can.
It’s a little bit tricky because you’re working from home, and technically you can have your home address listed as your business address if you’re registered as an LLC.
The problem with this is that business addresses, called Registered Agent addresses for LLCs, are public record, and if your home address is made public, you’ll tend to receive plenty of junk mail or maybe even have unwanted visitors.
To keep your home address private, you can either get a mailbox through UPS or look for a co-working space that offers the use of a street address as a mailing address.
Another contact information you have to take care of is a dedicated business phone line. This is easier to take care of than getting a street address.
You’d want a business phone that you can turn off during your non-work hours as well as a smartphone by which you can post and update your social media.
A separate business email is also advisable, although that should be taken care of if you set up your own website.
Starting A Catering Business From Home: Additional Tips
To be a go-to caterer, you’ll need to be reliable, punctual, trustworthiness, value for money, variety of food, professionalism, and proper decorum, especially for formal events.
Of course, there is no guarantee that any home-based catering business will be successful, but culinary skills, passion, and determination will go a long way.
Maybe all this post achieved was to convince you that starting a business isn’t for you, but that you’d like to work from home. Here is a list of jobs that you can work from home.
Are you thinking of starting your own catering business from home? Did my article inspire you to give it a go? Tell us your stories in the comments below!
Embroidered garments and accessories have been in style and in demand since the dawn of history, and they remain popular even now.
Whether you have a passing interest in embroidery, or it’s already a hobby for you, you probably want a piece of the potential profit from getting into the embroidery industry.
Here’s a guide on how to start an embroidery business: what you need to consider beforehand, what you need to prepare, and how you can establish your business.
Should You Start An Embroidery Business?
An embroidery business can definitely be profitable, but it may not be for everyone.
Here are some factors to consider before you start.
Space
Basic embroidery machines take up very little space; some are as small as an end table.
However, you have to have space for the other materials you need as well as your finished products for selling or for delivery.
Think about whether you have enough space in your home or in your garage for all these, or if you’ll eventually need to rent a space.
Costs
Will you be able to spring for the initial cost of the machinery and raw materials?
These do not cost much: a basic embroidery machine costs as low as $500 and a bobbin wound with 145 yards of white polyester thread costs as low as 18 cents.
But if you don’t have extra income to cover even that, then starting an embroidery business may not be for you.
Business objectives
Despite the many apparel decoration methods available (e.g., silkscreen printing, heat press, and direct-to-garment printing), and advances in the technology involved, embroidery will always stay in demand.
However, if you’re more knowledgeable or comfortable with other technologies apart from embroidery, then embroidery may not be a great place to start your apparel business.
Nevertheless, nothing can stop you from expanding your offerings to include other apparel printing types so you can target a more diverse target audience.
Ideal customer
Speaking of your target customer, it’s good to have an idea of who your ideal buyer is.
When you have a profile of your ideal buyer, you can assess yourself and decide if you have the skills and vision to meet your target customers’ needs.
What You Need Before You Start Your Embroidery Business
Once you’ve decided to go ahead with it, you’ll need to do some things first to prepare.
Here are the steps you need to take to ensure you’re prepared to open your embroidery business.
Self-Learning and Networking
You don’t have to have a college degree to start an embroidery business, but you do need to know plenty and you need to be updated.
Learn as much as you can about the apparel industry and especially the custom embroidery segment of that industry.
There are embroidery and custom apparel associations you can join to get the latest industry news and trends.
Look for trade shows to attend so you can network with suppliers and other business owners for advice on where to get the best supplies and how to run an embroidery business.
Read up on custom embroidery through online articles, journals, and books to learn the right techniques and the most current designs.
Most importantly, practice the skills necessary for this business: embroidery and design, as well as business management and marketing skills.
Market Research
“Market research” sounds intimidating, but it doesn’t need to be.
Market research is the process of gathering and analyzing data about a target market’s needs, triggers, and preferences.
The aim is for you to know who to offer your embroidery services to, what you can offer them, and how to offer your services to them.
The first thing you need to do is to draw up your buyer persona, which is a general, hypothetical representation of your ideal customer.
The point of this exercise is to be able to visualize who your target customer is so you can understand how they make their purchasing decisions and form your business and marketing strategy accordingly.
An example of a niche you can go into is the commercial market, where you create embroidery for uniforms, corporate giveaways, or marketing materials.
Another example of a niche is the private market, where you make custom embroidery for personalized clothing, gift items, events, or parties for individuals.
There may be other niches that you can tease out during your market research that you might want to target.
Business Plan
A business plan is one of the most important documents that you’ll ever create and possess related to your embroidery business.
A written, well-organized business plan helps give your business a clear direction and how you’re going to achieve your goals.
That said, it doesn’t have to be formal unless you’re going to submit it as a requirement to get a small business loan.
It doesn’t even have to be 100 pages; who would read such a long document?
As long as it is easily understandable and all of the essential information is included, that’s an acceptable business plan.
Remember that you’re going to refer back to your business plan from time to time, and you should also be able to edit and refine this document as your business changes and grows.
Keep this document where you can easily access it anywhere, anytime, preferably in a cloud drive.
Here, in a nutshell, are the essential elements that you need to include in your business plan:
Executive summary
Company profile
Organization (when you do expand your business and hire employees)
Market research
Product/Services offered
Marketing plan
Financial plan
The executive summary is your business in a nutshell: who you are, what you offer, and your target market. If you can, limit this to one or two sentences.
While this is the first thing that readers will read on your business plan, it’s advisable to create this last. After all, this is a summary of everything else on your business plan.
On the other hand, the company profile is a bit more detailed description of your business, the specific products and services you offer, details of your target market, and your advantage over your competitors.
Running an embroidery business can be daunting, especially if you handle all the steps from sales and marketing to design, creation, shipping, and aftersales.
You’ll probably hire some people to work with you at some point, and when you do, include an organizational chart to your business plan.
Details of your market research would certainly be needed in your business plan to establish who your target audience is, what their needs are, and how their problems are being solved by your competitors.
Your business plan should also include a complete, detailed list of the products and services you’re offering.
As your target market’s needs evolve and your business evolves, you should be able to add and remove items on this list.
Your marketing and sales plan should include how you plan on reaching your target market and selling to them, your promotion strategy, your pricing plan, as well as partnerships you plan to make, if any, to help further your business interests.
A typical financial plan should have a sales forecast with your gross projected income and your direct costs that eat into the income.
Also include your indirect costs, which are expenses that are associated with running the business, such as rent and utilities. Marketing and promotional costs are also normally included here.
Aside from these sections describing your business, bear in mind that you need to express your passion and dedication.
Don’t hesitate to state your values, challenges, strengths, and what makes you stand out from your competitors.
Even if you’re the only one who ends up reading your business plan, rereading it and reconnecting with the passion that you have for your business allows you to get your bearings back when you’re feeling lost.
Embroidery Machine
Here are some factors to consider when shopping for the best embroidery machine for your business.
Brand
Value for money
Ease of use
Automated processes
Embroidery area
Connectivity
Compatibility with digitizing software
Warranty
Support and training
Name brands of embroidery machines tend to have the best features and aftersales support, but just because a machine is expensive doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best.
Consider what you’re getting for the price you’re paying. You may be paying too much for too few features or features that are of no use to you.
Also consider how easy the machine is to use, and which processes are automated, such as automatic thread tension and cutting, needle threading, bobbin winding, and other minor processes.
These may seem frivolous, but the time you take to do all this manually is time that you could have put into actual embroidery.
Another largely overlooked feature is the embroidery area. A bigger area allows you to create larger designs and gives you the space to create more complicated designs.
You’ll also want an embroidery machine that has plenty of connectivity options to a computer for uploading designs.
At the very least, it should have a USB connection so you can use a thumb drive or connect it directly to a computer.
Wireless connectivity is an obvious plus, but if you’re going to be working in close quarters with a single machine, then a USB connection should be enough.
Because everything is digital now, another feature you should be looking for is how compatible your machine is with digitizing software so you can work with digital designs.
Don’t forget to check out the warranty that’s included in your purchase and what’s covered. Also, consider whether they cover shipping costs for replacements and for repair jobs that have to be done in their facilities.
Customer service is another aspect to consider; what channels are available during what hours, and whether they’re genuinely helpful and reliable.
Of course, even the best embroidery machine would be useless in the hands of an unskilled operator.
Make sure you train yourself in the use of the machine that you end up buying. Take advantage of available training, whether free or paid, online or offline.
Raw Materials
Your raw materials will largely depend on your customers’ needs, so you don’t want to stock up on too many spools and bobbins of embroidery threads and too many needles.
However, you’ll want to research all the best places to source your raw materials from.
Amazon carries pretty much everything you need to start, as well as on an as-needed basis.
Gunold is another online store, but this one specializes in discount embroidery supplies. They also offer a wealth of resources and workshops to help you hone your embroidery skills.
How To Start Your Embroidery Business
At this point, you’re probably feeling like you’ve run a couple of marathons.
But it’s worth putting everything in place so you can get off to a great start.
Here’s how to (finally) get started with your embroidery business.
1. Register your business.
You can hold off on this for later, but it’s advisable to get the proper licenses and registration as early as you can.
Registering as an LLC is recommended because then, your liability is limited to the amount of your investment in the business, and you needn’t dip into your personal savings fund if you ever get into debt or litigation as long as you’re careful to keep separate records.
Remember that embroidery is a creative job as much as it is a labor-intensive one.
Being registered as a business also gives you the advantage of being able to apply for copyrights and other intellectual property claims for your designs.
Register with the IRS as well so you can take advantage of the tax benefits as well as wholesale prices from suppliers.
The requirements for getting licenses differ for each state, so call your local government offices to know exactly what you need to file and submit.
2. Determine your pricing strategy.
Creating a pricing strategy can be a bit sticky, especially for an embroidery business, which deals in custom, personalized outputs.
When drawing up a pricing strategy, remember these factors that you should consider: the price of the raw materials, the complexity or intricacy of the design, the actual size of the design, and how much time it will take to finish.
Of all these, it’s the time to do the job seems to be the most overlooked, so what you can do is to have a target profit per hour in mind, then factor in all the other costs to come up with a fair price.
3. Decide what to sell.
When you’re starting from scratch, you’ll want to probably start with a few small projects first to build your confidence and show off your skills.
Small projects include patches to attach to clothes, or small garments and items, such as onesies, handkerchiefs, face towels, coasters, holiday stockings, and other such items.
And then you can move on to larger projects like embroidered shirts, jeans, and dresses.
However, there are plenty of embroidered items for sale on other stores, so the ultimate goal really is to get orders of personalized items with custom designs, either for corporate clients or individuals for holiday gifts and events.
4. Choose where to sell.
First, decide if you’re going to offer your products/services online, locally, or both.
You can sell your projects on a number of online platforms, such as Etsy, eBay, and Amazon Handmade.
Here’s an interesting read if you’re debating whether to go with Etsy or eBay.
If you want to set up a physical storefront instead of or in addition to your online shop, set up your space accordingly.
Make sure that aside from your embroidery machine, your materials, and your basic office (laptop plus files), you have a suitable place to display finished work and to entertain customers who want to commission embroidery.
Also, if you’re going to have a physical location, it’s advisable to register your embroidery business on Google My Business so that potential customers in your area can easily find your business.
5. Set up your online presence.
Given the world we live in now, an online presence is an absolute necessity for any business that wants to be successful.
Whether or not you decide to conduct business online, your possible customers are expecting to be able to research you and connect with you online.
However, don’t feel you need to sign up for all conceivable social media sites. Embroidery is very visual, so show off your work on visual platforms like Instagram and Facebook.
Social media marketing is very important, but having your own website, whether or not you turn it into an e-commerce site, is going to open plenty of marketing and promotional opportunities for your embroidery business.
6. Organize your contact information.
The basic principle is to keep your personal contact information separate from that of your business as much as you can.
Technically, you can have your home address as your business address, or your so-called Registered Agent address.
The only problem with this is that Registered Agent databases are public record, and I imagine you wouldn’t want to have your home address made public.
To keep your home address private, you can either get a mailbox through UPS or use the address of a co-working space.
You can also hire a virtual business address service that provides a physical address as well as a mail scanning service that weeds out junk mail and sends you digital copies of the important ones.
An easier hurdle is getting a dedicated phone line for your business.
You’d want a business phone that you can turn off when you’re not working as well as a smartphone by which you can do social media updates.
A separate business email is also advisable, though that should be taken care of if you set up your own website.
Starting An Embroidery Business: The Bottom Line
An embroidery business is one that does not require any bachelor’s degrees or formal training; the quality of your work speaks for itself.
Hopefully, today’s article has inspired you to start your own embroidery business today.
If you’ve changed your mind about starting a business and are only looking to work from home, here are 90 work from home jobs you can try your hand at.
Did this article make you want to start your own embroidery business, or did it make you realize you want something else?
