25 Stay at Home Business Ideas that Actually Make Money in 2024

Making a living can be a grind. But it doesn’t have to be.

Since the pandemic shook things up for workers, employers and entrepreneurs alike, it opened all sorts of new avenues and work models. Some say it accelerated the eCommerce sector by more than 5 years!

So maybe it’s time for you to look a little outside the box too. Consider some new options, dip your toes, set up a little side hustle. A little time invested in starting your own thing now may well see your labor of love turn into an entrepreneurial success in a few months or years.

Change is scary and the multitude of options can be overwhelming. So we’ve put together this little overview for you, detailing how to get started with your own venture and giving you plenty of options with varying degrees of commitment. Rome wasn’t built in a day, so start with what feels manageable today and take it into the future from there.

On this page

• What makes a good home business idea?
• What’s Your kind of business?
  • Passive income
  • Passion-driven vs opportunity-driven
  • Home warehouse vs dropshipping
• The 25 best home business ideas
  1. Sell your crafts
  2. Start a business for subscription boxes
  3. Sell your clutter
  4. Buy product in bulk and sell online
  5. Become a Virtual Assistant
  6. Sell NFTs
  7. Start a dropshipping business
  8. Sell your photos
  9. Open an online beauty store
  10. Become an affiliate marketer
  11. Start a blog
  12. Print-on-Demand
  13. Start a pet supplies business
  14. Get gigs on Fiverr
  15. Give people their caffeine
  16. Sell phone accessories
  17. Productize your skills and sell digital products
  18. Make natural organic beauty products
  19. Start an online thrift shop
  20. Make your house a vacation destination
  21. Start a YouTube channel
  22. Start a wedding store
  23. Become a social media influencer
  24. Design and manufacture your own product
  25. Buy an existing ecommerce business
• FAQ
• Conclusion

What makes a good home business idea?

The main appeal of a home business is that you can run it from home without having to pay for an office or warehousing. This means you can start something new relatively easily and don’t have much risk or set-up costs. All you need is internet access, a serviceable laptop or computer and a nook to turn into your workspace. 

While it really is very easy to get started with most home business ideas, there are some factors that make an idea especially suitable:

1. You can work from your desk.

2. You don’t need much inventory.

3. You’re able to start with little to no capital.

4. Work hours are flexible.

5. You can work solo.

What’s your kind of business?

Now that you know how to identify a valid idea for your future business, there are just a few more considerations before we launch into some great examples.

Passive income

Passive Income has been one of those buzzwords around the entrepreneurial media scene these last few years. What it means is that, once you’ve done all the necessary setup, the income basically makes itself. So the passive one in this scenario is you! This is opposed to active income (which is the norm), like getting paid for turning up to an employment every day. There are all sorts of examples for passive income from the digital (like selling online courses) to the physical (like setting up a vending machine). Some people’s goal is to set up various streams of passive income so that they end up having to do very little overall. Sounds pretty sweet right!

Passion-driven vs opportunity-driven

There are all sorts of different ways to approach starting a business. Some people have a hobby or a passion that’s been a part of their life for some time before they decide to turn that passion into an income stream. The advantage of this is that you’ll already have some knowledge of the market and its audience and can use that to your advantage for turning a profit.

On the flipside of that are those entrepreneurs that start a business following an opportunity they’ve spotted. Say they’ve noticed amongst their circle of friends the demand for a particular kind of adapter, e.g. the lighting to headphone jack adapter, and that there aren’t many cheap suppliers selling those. Following opportunities like this is great because you identify a demand from the get-go which should mean that you’ll definitely have customers. On the other hand it does mean that you have to be particularly diligent with your market research, as you may not have oodles of knowledge to back up your business plan to start off with.

Home warehouse vs dropshipping

If you’re planning on going down the eCommerce route for your business, one final consideration is whether you want to keep any inventory in your home or if you’ll be operating fully online, e.g. by running a dropshipping business. Both have their upsides and downsides. 

Buying in bulk from a wholesaler can be a smart move as it’ll mean lower per unit cost, enabling you to sell things to your customers at a lower price. You’ll just need to make sure you pick a product you actually have room for, such as small electronics accessories. If you’re going down the route of larger products like furniture, dropshipping will definitely be your better move. With dropshipping, customer orders go directly through to your supplier and get shipped from there, eliminating the need for any warehousing at home.

The 25 Best home business ideas

1. Sell your crafts

If you’re a hobby maker, this can be a great opportunity to turn something you’re already doing into a side hustle. People love quality homemade goods and the fact that they make great gifts turns the run-up to Christmas into a particularly lucrative time of the year.

You don’t even need your own website to get started. Craft-focused marketplace Etsy boasted 90 million active users in 2021 and offers excellent listing tools and support for new sellers. With the competition of 5 million other sellers, you may need to put in some work to get your shop seen by potential customers, but once you’ve earned a few good reviews the Etsy algorithm will bump you up in search results and you should be flying. If you don’t fancy bracing the competition of Etsy, there are plenty of other smaller Marketplaces around to get you started on your sales journey.

2. Start a business for subscription boxes

You may have heard of veggie boxes, where your local farmer puts together their best seasonal collection of vegetables for you each week. Well, the same principle can be applied to pretty much any product category. In fact, subscription box services are getting so popular that they’re pegged to grow by 18.7% each year until 2026 from an already impressive $18.8 billion market share in 2020.

People love convenience and that’s exactly what a subscription box can provide. They can sign up to your service and regularly receive a selection of whatever you’re offering.

Some fun examples include Doughp’s Secret Cookie Dough Club, a subscription service that will deliver edible cookie dough to your doorstep each month, ScentBird who sends you tester size designer fragrances and Say it With a Sock who (yes, you got it) sends you monthly pairs of socks.

3. Sell your clutter

Everyone has stuff lying around that they don’t need or use anymore. So here’s a great little stepping stone to getting into the eCommerce field. Think about how much untapped capital is hiding in your cupboards and garage right this moment!

There are numerous great places to start selling things, such as eBay, Amazon, Facebook Marketplace or even Craigslist. Start by having a spring clean of your house and identifying all the things worth selling – there are probably more than you think! Think ‘One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.’ Take some good pictures and start listing. You can just do a couple each day and slowly they’ll not only start making you money but clearing up your space all at the same time.

4. Buy product in bulk and sell online

It’s the original commerce model. Buy products from a wholesaler and sell it for a profit. It may seem old-school, but it’s a model that works. And modern eCommerce practices have made it easier and easier for budding entrepreneurs to enter the race.

The world really is your oyster here. You can start small and sell on marketplaces like eBay or Amazon, or set up your own online store. You can specialize, following a hobby or passion, or keep it broad with a range of products. Of course you have to keep in mind the physical limitations of your home space, so that’s an essential consideration when picking your product.

Also make sure that you’ve done your market research before you invest your money in a big purchase. Comparing prices and availability of competitor products on popular marketplaces is always a good starting point. Also try to get an insight into customer demand. The fact that there aren’t many suppliers on the market selling a particular product may signify a good niche, or it could also mean that the demand just isn’t there. A market research tool like SaleHoo Labs can come in really handy here.

5. Become a virtual assistant

Don’t we all kind of wish we had a Personal Assistant to make life… just work? Well, believe it or not, more and more people are actually able to live this dream thanks to Virtual Assistants around the world. A VA works remotely, shaving off some of the employer’s workload by taking over a variety of tasks that are easily delegated. Tasks are often administrative, marketing or writing-related – much like for Personal Assistants. VA’s tend to be multi-skilled with a talent for solutions-based thinking and generally work for multiple clients.

Does this sound like something you could excel at? If so, working as a VA can be an extremely flexible way to subsidize your income and only work as much or as little as fits into your schedule.

6. Sell NFTs

Have you heard of the blockchain and cryptocurrency? If yes, then you might be interested in the latest artworld craze. An NFT or nun-fungible token is a sort of digital artwork that’s uniquely linked to its owner through the blockchain. It’s basically like a type of cryptocurrency itself, except that unlike a BitCoin (for example) each NFT is truly unique and not interchangeable for another (like one BitCoin would be interchangeable for another).

While this might sound abstract and hard to wrap your head around, the NFT business is no joke. Artists like CryptoPunk are selling NFTs for literally millions and this trend is set to continue as our ideas of what’s possible online and in the digital space continue to develop and warp.

If you’re interested in selling NFTs, you’ll first need to understand minting and set yourself up with a crypto wallet on a platform like OpenSea.

7. Start a dropshipping business

Dropshipping is an eCommerce model that has been a growing trend for some years now. Rather than buying products wholesale, you don’t actually own any of your own stock. You pick the products and provide the shopfront, but when a customer places an order it’s forwarded to the supplier who then dispatches it to the final destination.

As with buying products in bulk, you’re extremely flexible on what and where to sell. You may want to go with established marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon or set up your own store. You could sell one niche product, cover a broader audience with multiple products or curate a selection of choice products for a particular audience like Notebook Therapy does.

The important thing with dropshipping is choosing a product that is relatively high value. Due to a higher per unit cost your profit margins are relatively narrow, so low-value products end up making you a mere pittance.

If you want to make things super easy for yourself, SaleHoo Dropship helps you pick the best products from a huge database of over 4500 vetted suppliers, as well as automating listing and order management system for your Shopify store.

8. Sell your photos

Everyone is taking photos all the time right? But have you ever thought you have a particular knack for getting just the right angle and lighting?

If you feel like your photos have a certain sparkle to them, you should think about monetizing them. After all, brands and companies are constantly in need of beautiful, genuine photos for everything from websites to brochures and social media posts. There are plenty of stock photography sites where you can sign up and upload your photos for varying returns. Some, like Alamy, will give you premium payouts if your photos are exclusive to them. Other ‘micro-stock’ sites like Shutterstuck are non-exclusive and pay less. Have a shop around and be sure to stay on top of recent trends and in-demand subject matters if you’re serious about making money here.

9. Open an online beauty store

The health and beauty sector, while taking the inevitable hit through the pandemic, has proved to be more resilient than most. The dips in retail profit from retail have been offset by increased online sales, and research shows that do-it-yourself and self-care products are on the rise. Small surprise really, when decreased personal contact and increased stress levels have made looking after oneself ever more important. At-home spa treatments, self-massagers like acupuncture mats and essentials like hand sanitizers are just some of the things you could sell in your very own beauty store.

Again, you have options here as to how much you want to commit. You could start out using third-party marketplaces and a dropshipping model before deciding if you want to set up your own website or buy product wholesale.

10. Become an affiliate marketer

Affiliate marketing means promoting somebody else’s products and getting paid for every sale that company makes – Your commission is usually a percentage of the sales price.

To get started you need to join a so-called affiliate program, which basically means signing up with whatever brand you want to work with – they’ll set you up with a custom link to give to potential customers. This way any sales you work on can be traced back to you, meaning you’ll get paid. Ka-ching! Exact commission rates vary greatly and it definitely pays to shop around for the best affiliate program out there. It can be between 5%-50% of the sales price or a set amount, depending on the product.

Over 80% of companies use affiliate marketing and affiliate spending is predicted to reach over $8 billion dollars in 2023. So if you think you have good reach for a potential audience (through social media for example), this is definitely one for you.

11. Start a blog

While talking about affiliate marketing, it’d be rude not to mention blogging too. Starting a blog definitely isn’t the latest craze anymore, however – it seems like something everyone was jumping on circa 10 years ago. But the bloggersphere is far from past its use-by-date! The evolution of paid ads and affiliate marketing has made them very lucrative for both bloggers and brands alike.

If you have a knack with words and enjoy writing on a particular topic, it could be well worth investing some time into this. Once your blog is set up and gaining a following, it can be a vehicle for all sorts of lucrative business ventures, such as the aforementioned affiliate marketing, but also selling courses and memberships or offering consulting services.

To get started, pick a niche that you enjoy writing and thinking about, choose a blog name, set up hosting and a blog theme (e.g. through WordPress which is a popular blogging CMS) and start publishing! Popular topics include food & baking, personal finance, parenting, and health & fitness – but really, the world is your oyster! Most importantly you need to be passionate about whatever you choose, as this will make your writing truly engaging to readers too.

A great example is the Minimalist Baker, a food blog run by food photographer Dana, which has gained thousands of followers through her simple ‘10 ingredients or less’ recipes. She now makes a living solely off her blog and associated ventures, such as online courses and ebooks.

12. Print-on-Demand

Selling print-on-demand products is like the kooky surfer cousin of dropshipping. It’s basically the same idea as dropshipping, but with a creative twist. You come up with a product and a design, for example a T-shirt with a custom graphic on it. But instead of getting a bulk load printed and selling them from your house, you work with a print supplier who will produce these shirts for you on demand and send them to each individual customer.

The great advantage of this model is that you can have a range of different designs on offer, but if one of them doesn’t prove to be popular, you haven’t lost any money on it. There’s a huge range of things you can print on these days – tote bags, hats, beanies, mugs, you name it. You can also print books on demand, but that obviously requires a great deal more work from your side than a single shirt design.

Getting started is easy, and you don’t even need to have crazy graphic skills yourself. If you have an eye for what’s cool and an idea of the kind of style you want to go for, you can simply work with a designer to create your artwork. Plenty of freelance designers offer their services on sites like Upwork, Fiverr, Dribble or 99Designs. Then, all you need to do is find a print-on-demand supplier you want to work with.

When it comes to selling your pieces, you can again start simple and go for established marketplaces like Etsy, or start your own shop.

13. Start a pet supplies business

Millions of people own pets and dote on their little furry friends like parents. Subsequently the pet industry is HUGE and in 2023 people are predicted to spend $109.6 million on their pets in the US alone.

There are plenty of service-based pet businesses out there (such as dog walking and sitting), but as we identified earlier in this article, you should ideally be able to run your home business from your desk. This has the added benefit of making it scalable. Instead, see if you can hone in on pet supplies and accessories. If you own a pet yourself, you’re ideally positioned to know the kinds of things animals and their humans need and love in their life. Is there something that you personally haven’t been able to find for your pet that you could add to the market? Is there an item that’s only available in a particular style or color, where you could provide some variety or even a better price?

Remember, as a pet owner you’re already part of your target audience, so it’s a great place to start. If you don’t own a pet, survey your friends and family and see if you can find a market gap using their insights.

14. Get gigs on Fiverr

Fiverr is a global online marketplace where people can buy and sell services for the cost of $5. Pretty much anything and everything goes, from writing tweets, proofreading, and cutting out graphics on Photoshop, to funny gigs like writing someone’s name in the sand or being a virtual text friend for a day. You sign up to the service and ‘create gig’ to offer up whatever you have in mind. A gig is the name for services offered on Fiverr and they’re visible to all buyers. Gigs on Fiverr are a fun way to make a bit of extra cash if you have spare time to do so. Just make sure that whatever you’re offering doesn’t take you long – after all, you won’t be earning big money for it.

15. Give people their caffeine

More and more people are getting into making barista quality coffee at home rather than having to run to the coffee shop for every single caffeine hit. This was accelerated by the pandemic and coffee shops just being full on closed, *GASP.* So plenty of people now have their own coffee grinder at home and are getting real fancy with their brewing techniques. Hello business opportunity!

If you want to go into the coffee business, you have a couple of options. You can either go into roasting beans yourself – a slightly more complex undertaking that’ll require buying a roaster or roasting in your oven – or source beans/ grinds from other roasters. As with everything, it’s not just production of goods that’s valuable to customers, but also curation. Coffee connoisseurs have particular flavor profiles they prefer and those might not be available from one single roaster each week. So perhaps you could be the one to curate the best selection of fruity/ chocolatey/ nutty beans out there – you name it!

16. Sell phone accessories

Talk about a lot of people having pets… pretty much everyone has a mobile phone. Phone accessories bring in a crazy amount of money each year – $278.2 billion in 2021, which is only predicted to keep growing in the foreseeable future.

It’s a fun field to get into, because you can go as big or small as you like. From small things like phone cases, charger cables and adaptors to higher value items like portable printers and ear buds, there really is a huge range of products. Not to forget creative and custom items like bespoke phone case designs.

Another big pro for choosing to sell phone accessories is that the industry keeps creating fresh demand every time new versions of the main phone companies are released on the market.

Since it’s not a particularly niche field, creating a special branding and customer experience isn’t as important here, so selling on popular marketplaces (Amazon, eBay, Facebook Marketplace etc.) will likely serve you well. Saying that, you could still create a brand around custom-picked high end products if you wanted to go down that route.

Both dropshipping and bulk buying can work well for a home business with phone accessories. Storing product should be relatively easy given their small size if you have the capital and decide to buy in bulk.

Once you get to listing phone accessories for sale, remember to always detail which phones and versions they’re compatible with.

17. Productize your skills and sell digital products

There are plenty of products of high value that are non-physical. Think courses, workbooks, videos, ebooks, PowerPoint templates. The great thing about these products is that you don’t have to worry about shipping or return logistics, everything is right there in the Cloud.

What particular skills do you have that are of value? Have a think about which of them you could ‘productize’, i.e. turn into a digital format for people to buy. It could be as simple as a step-by-step workbook on how to craft a winning resume, a video guide on how to build a planter box or a beautiful WordPress template. Of course, creating a quality digital product takes time and energy – people won’t just pay for any old Word document – and you need to find the audience to purchase it too.

A route that tends to work well is building a following first, e.g. by running a blog, Instagram page or YouTube channel and then using that audience to market your products. Your followers will have already have a liking to you and be interested in the field you’re moving in, so they’re the perfect audience for selling your products to.

Alternatively you can create a dedicated shop front, using providers like Sellfy or Podia who specialize in digital products and provide great features for running webinars and looking after your community.

As an easy-access stepping stone, you could also create an online course and offer it on an online learning platform such as Udemy or Skillshare. This way you have access to an existing user base and will be able to get some traffic without having to invest too much in marketing at the start.

18. Make natural organic beauty products

As we mentioned before, the beauty and health sector has proven to be both resilient and profitable. On top of that, natural organic products are gaining more and more popularity. Ever hear that word ‘artisan’ thrown around? Yep, me too. It seems to be everywhere in the handmade sector, because people dig the idea of lovingly hand-crafted items.

If you love making things by hand, this might just be your niche. Consider hand making soaps, creams or lotions from high quality natural products. The organic skin care sector is projected to grow by 8.72% in the next five years, a development that has been influenced by the pandemic and people’s desire for ‘clean’ health and beauty products.

Start by making small batches to test the waters and be sure to double check any legislation that may be in place locally regarding the production of anything that’s ingested or applied to the body.

19. Start an online thrift shop

‘I’m gonna pop some tags, only got 20 dollars in my pocket…’

Thrift shops have gone online, and if you love hunting for treasures and finding those second hand gems, this idea might be for you. Starting an online thrift shop basically means you’re going into fashion retail of sorts. The only difference is that the clothes you’ll be selling will be second-hand items provided by other people. You’ll be getting these items on consignment which means you only have to pay for them after you’ve sold them. Pretty handy, right?

You can source these second-hand clothes from private people by advertising that you’re looking for stock (e.g. on your shop’s social media channels), or through bigger suppliers who will be able to provide more clothes in one go. This is advantageous when sourcing every single item individually starts to get tedious.

There are various options for where your Thrift Shop will live online. Some people do all their sales through an Instagram page and take payments via Paypal, such as Treasures of MTL. Or you can set up a dedicated ecommerce shop on your own website

20. Make your house a vacation destination

Have a spare room that you’re not using? Or, even better, a self-contained studio or loft space?

Then you might think about monetizing it.

Renting is the original passive income. It’s ideal really isn’t it? You own a property, let somebody live in it and get paid every month for providing that service. All without doing much at all.

Airbnb has taken this concept into the future and enabled private home owners to rent spaces to holiday makers for short periods, making the whole thing even more profitable. The great thing is that you don’t have to do much marketing. Being listed on the site with its 44.5 million users (in 2021) is generally enough.

So if you want to make a bit of extra cash and you don’t mind doing a bit of extra laundry here and there, consider listing your spare room on Airbnb or Homestay. You might be surprised at how profitable it can be.

21. Start a YouTube channel

It used to be that children wanted to be firefighters or police men/ women when they grew up – nowadays they want to be YouTubers. It’s probably unsurprising when there’s such an amazing array of creative outlets on the platform which has pretty much replaced traditional tv for the younger generations.

Youtubers have a huge influence on Millennials, with almost 50% admitting that a Youtuber inspired them to make a personal change in their lives. So influencers or YouTube are the tv personalities of the modern age, but when successful they also get to live out their creative passions with a dedicated fan base to boot.

It’s not necessarily as easy as shooting a video on your phone and uploading it, and boom – you’ve made it. But essentially that’s what you need to do to get started. If you have a great idea and something you’re truly passionate about, why not give it a go? The key to gaining a following is to keep posting genuine and engaging content. Once you have 1000 subscribers to your channel, you’ll start getting paid by YouTube. The average YouTuber earns about $3- $5 for every 100 views (which, with 100k subscribers, works out to be about $2400 to $4000 per month) plus whatever ad revenue they make from sponsorships and affiliate marketing.

22. Start a wedding store

Here’s another thing lots of people do: get married. Although there’s plenty of strong independent women out there, getting married and having a big beautiful wedding is still high on lots of people’s lists.

The wedding industry has always been huge (worth $74 billion in 2016), but after a sharp decline in revenue over the Covid years and many a canceled nuptial, 2023 is forecast to be the biggest year for weddings since 1984. Yep, everyone is tying the knot and with persisting supply chain issues (e.g. for paper), wedding planners will be on the lookout for suppliers. What better year to start a wedding store?

If you’ve ever organized or even been to a wedding, you’ll know there are countless little tidbits and decorative items required to make everything perfect. So there’s no end in choices for setting up your store and picking a great selection of items for your future customers. To begin with, maybe focus on one product type, say decoration, before you diversify. Also be sure to look into personalisation for wedding paraphernalia, such as place cards and gift bags for guests. These are the sorts of details that will set you apart.

You could sell your wedding items on eBay and Amazon to start with and then move on to your own website when you feel confident you have a solid customer base. Again, dropshipping and buying in bulk are both options here.

23. Become a social media influencer

Who’d have thought you can make a career out of scrolling social media? Well, you can! Although maybe unsurprisingly, the gig involves a bit more work than mindlessly thumbing your phone.

‘Influencer’ is a relatively new term for social media personalities, usually normal folks like you and me, who have a large following and thereby exert influence on their followers’ behavior when it comes to brands and buying. It’s kind of the evolution of tv advertising. People are just too smart to fall for blatant advertising messages encouraging them to buy things. They know what advertisers are trying to do and just block them out. Influencers on the other hand endorse products in a way that makes it feel more like a recommendation from a friend. This can be a very powerful marketing strategy.

And that’s exactly how influencers themselves make money, with paid influencer collaborations. After they’ve established themselves as someone with a significant following (several thousand would be the minimum), they then get paid by brands to endorse them on their various channels (=affiliate marketing). As an additional income stream, there are collaborations where an influencer will work with a brand on a product e.g. design a line for a fashion brand - that's called an 'influencer collaboration.' 

Sarah Michelle Landry, known as TheBirdsPapaya, has perfected the art of influencerdom with her 2 million followers on Instagram. As part of her candid, family and body positivity themed content she regularly endorses brands she likes, such as Knix with whom she’s created three ‘Papaya Boxes’ to date (some of which reportedly sold out within minutes). She also hosts her own podcast with sponsored ads.

If you fancy becoming an influencer, have a think about what your unique point of view is that people might flock to. Find your niche, then be as likable and approachable as you can in your content.

24. Design and manufacture your own product

This is one for the more ambitious folk out there. Say you have a great idea for a product you think would do really well on the market, but you just haven’t been able to source it from any supplier out there. Well, if you have the capital or can find investors, why not create the product yourself?

There are several steps involved in a venture like this and you really need to follow each one diligently when embarking on a bigger project like this. It’s ideal if you already have an idea or at least a particular industry you want to focus on, so that you can do some targeted market research. You’ll want to make sure there’s demand for your potential product, but no oversaturated market. And if there’s competition, think about what will set your particular product apart and make it more appealing than others to future customers.

Once you have a clear idea in mind of what you want your product to look like, you can move on to designing it. Unless you’re a product designer yourself, you’ll want to work with a professional here and get all the details just right. You’ve got the option of working with a freelancer and hiring them on sites like TopTotal or Upwork or going to a dedicated product design company. This can be useful when designing more complex things, as companies will have a portfolio of engineers and other professionals that they can enlist for your project. However, it’ll cost you a bit more than a freelancer.

After the design stage comes finding a manufacturer who will produce a prototype for you. When looking for a manufacturer, you’ll ideally want one that can sell you a package deal for sourcing supplies, producing all parts and packaging your product. This will make it a lot easier than trying to juggle several suppliers and manufacturers for your first ever project. Manufacturers often offer package deals like this to sole traders or small entrepreneurial businesses.

When the prototype is made and you’re happy, you’re ready for production! Simultaneously you should start thinking about marketing and where you’ll be selling your product, so that once your stock arrives, you’re ready to roll.

25. Buy an existing ecommerce business

If you have some capital and want to save yourself the aches and pains of starting a business from scratch, why not buy an already existing ecommerce business? With the Covid-fuelled ecommerce acceleration, there’s never been a better time to buy in. Buyers are moving online and this trend is only set to continue as we move into the future.

You can go through traditional channels like brokers who will have listings of businesses for sale, or use a service like Exchange (powered by Shopify), an online marketplace for buying and selling ecommerce businesses. The upside of this is that numbers like revenue etc. are verified through Shopify, plus there are handy filters to find exactly the size and type of business you’re looking for.

Whichever way you choose to go, be sure to do a detailed review of the books, including gross income, gross profit, expenses and net income before you decide to go forward with a potential purchase. Some research into the particular market will also come in handy to find predictions on future customer behavior and ensure that the business is future-proof.

Conclusion

As we’ve discovered through the course of this article, starting a business from home is a great way to add a bit of extra cash to your wallet and really monetize those hours you spend at home. The great thing about it is that you can start as small or large as feels comfortable for you. As the pandemic has shown us, you don’t need to be at the office (or wear pants!) to be productive – your earning potential is right there at your fingertips.

Do you want to learn how to start your ecommerce business today? SaleHoo Educate is a comprehensive collection of resources to teach budding entrepreneurs exactly what to do, step by step. Or if you want to start dropshipping or wholesaling right away, SaleHoo Directory and SaleHoo Dropship has made it easier than ever to get started quickly. Chat to our lovely 24/7 customer services team on live chat to find out more.