From the gig economy to people looking to work full time for themselves, growing numbers of workers are setting up at home or planning their next move away from the traditional office.
Whether the choice to work from home is to build a second career or to provide some insurance if their main career doesn’t pan out, home working is a booming market. These are some of the most lucrative opportunities when it comes to creating a successful self-made career.
1. Consulting From Home
Using your current industry knowledge and applying it for the benefit of others is the leading way for people to head out on their own.
Creating a consultancy requires years of a particular skill, a wide range of contacts and perhaps a strong reputation in your field. But, with those to hand, people in PR, marketing, legal, architecture, design, advisory work, and many other areas, have struck out successfully to capture clients from their old business or build new customer bases.
Consultants can charge premium rates for their skills, knowledge and advice and consultancy work often comes with a side order of business lunches, premium networking opportunities, and other events to help make an even stronger business.
2. Writing for a Living
Many writers often have side gigs, be it website, magazine or newspaper reviews, industry articles, or writing a novel or script. Anyone with the ability to write can find endless use for that skill.
Much freelance writing work starts out as low-pay but is still better for students or those starting work than other options. And as your portfolio and contacts grow, writers often find better work, while professional writers can build who primary or secondary careers out of well-paid gigs, including travel writing with lots of perks, or business/political writing with great rates and access to power.
And, if you can write fluently in a popular foreign language, you are able to work across borders for highly-skilled translation work.
3. Virtual Assistants Are In Demand
While a consultant uses their business knowledge to provide a career, virtual assistants use their practical business acumen and skills to provide key office/secretarial/admin skills to people who run their own small companies but lack the time or resources to handle them. A good VA can be just as smart as the CEO, just as useful as an office manager, and can work for several businesses at once time-sharing as needed, either permanently or until they find one company they really like working with and feel of great value to.
4. Creative Skills Can Make You Stand Out
For people not used to the office environment, using your creative skills is a great way to build a home business opportunity and can be ideal for building a personal brand or bespoke product line that no one else offers.
From baking cakes to making crafts (using driftwood, sea glass, scrap metal, and other free resources is a great way to start if you have a limited budget).
Many artists sell their work online or through local events and gain a growing reputation that allows them to sell pieces for higher prices or take on valuable commissions, but even for someone who loves baking artisan bread, being creative is a strong part of the reason to work from home alongside the profit. Typical earnings $1.2K-12.5K
5. Home and Useful Services
Almost anyone can pick up a batch of domestic products and start a cleaning company, servicing the needs of local homes and businesses. Anyone with a van and a love of animals can start taking pets for walks or doing home visits to keep people’s pets company when they are out.
While the pay might not be up there with more value-added service, it allows anyone to get a foot upon the business ladder, to learn the basics of marketing and customer service at their own time and pace, while building up contacts, friends and customers when (or if) they do want to expand the business. Typical earnings $6-10K
Whatever your skillset, wherever you live, there are plenty of opportunities to create a business from home that can match your ambition or passion.
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