This is a collaborative post.
Do you want to earn a living without leaving the house?
No more getting up at the crack of dawn, going out in the cold and spending time commuting to the workplace in traffic, or on busy public transport.
No annoying colleagues to bother you with their irritating habits of passive aggressive emails, and no angry boss breathing down your neck, micromanaging your every move.
Instead, you get to work in comfort. In your own space, at your own pace and with none of the time, hassle or expense of getting from A to B.
More people than ever have taken the plunge from working at a traditional ‘workplace’ to earning a living right from their own home. And you can do it too!
It’s worth being aware that some of these things can take a while to get established. A good way to go about things, is to start up the venture you hope to get into in your spare time, and build it up while you’re still in full time work.
Then when you’re earning a good enough living you can quit your day job. To give yourself better financial security (and earn more money) you could consider setting up a few of these home-based businesses.
Write a blog
Blogging started with lots of people writing about the things they loved, purely as a hobby. In the beginning, there wasn’t any money to be earned from it, it was just a way to connect with others, have a creative outlet and improve their writing and photography skills.
You can still do all of those things now, but as a bonus, in time you can earn money from your site. Advertisers and bigger companies realised how influential bloggers were, and now pay well to be able to work with them.
You need to work on building up your site so it’s at a stage that companies are willing to pay to work with it.
First of all, you’ll need to buy your own domain. This enables them to check your domain authority, which is what will allow them to decide if they want to work with you, and how much they’re willing to pay.
Lots of bloggers with a domain authority over twenty will get contacted about paid work now and again.
Get your domain authority over thirty, and you should be earning a decent, part-time income. Over forty and you may even be able to quit your day job.
You should invest in a nice site design, take beautiful photos for your posts, and ensure all of your content is well written. Keep at it, and working hard at gaining traffic and you could make it as a blogger.
Start a Youtube channel
If writing isn’t really your thing, starting a Youtube channel is another option. If you’re naturally charismatic and talkative then it could be a great way to share your knowledge on a subject with others.
If you don’t have a particular topic of interest in mind, you could just share lifestyle vlogs. Even if you don’t think your life is all that interesting, as human beings we’re nosey creatures and many of us love seeing how others live.
Vlogs are very popular for this exact reason, and in time you could build up a loyal following.
This also brings with it opportunities, from free products to travel opportunities to paid work.
It’s not for everyone, but it could be a great option if recording and editing videos falls within your skill set and interests. You’ll need to invest in a good camera as well as video editing software.
Create your own home business
There are lots of directions you could go in for setting up a home business. First of all, do you have any passions, skills or experience that you could monetise?
If you’ve already built up a career in a certain industry, you could go it alone and start your own business. If for example you’ve carved a career in design, bakery, floristry or nutrition, why not start your own company instead of working for someone else?
You could run a business right from your home, making and selling items or services, or you could become a tutor and conduct paid video sessions teaching your craft. If you don’t have any special skills to speak of, how about a business buying and selling items?
You could start a store in an area that interests you, anything from homewares to fashion to health items. Find things cheap at wholesale, and then resell. It helps to have a unique selling point, for example, instead of just selling clothes do something specific. It could be designer baby clothes or budget shoes.
Instead of selling homeware, think of a theme such as industrial, Scandi or shabby chic and stick to the theme. This will help you to gain customers. You could sell on an online marketplace such as eBay, Etsy or Amazon, however you will pay fees on whatever you sell.
Or you could set up your own website, use an experienced designer, as understanding web design is important. If you go down this route, you’ll more than likely need to hire a marketing agency too, to promote your site and ensure it’s being seen by those who will be interested in your business.
Be a remote employee
If you like the security and regular wages that being an employee brings, why not become a remote worker?
Lots of companies are now seeing the benefits of hiring home based staff- less employee sickness days, better productivity and increased worker mood.
For this reason, there are more remote positions than ever. Lots of jobs offer employees the chance to work from home on certain days, but others hire completely remote staff.
If you’re working from home, you can essentially work for a company that’s located anywhere in the world so extend your search. Working from home as an employee (or even self employed with set hours) guarantees an income, but you still get the flexibility you’ll be looking for.
In most cases you’ll be assigned a workload with a deadline to complete it, but it’s up to you how you schedule your day. You could work regular nine to five office hours if you wanted. You could get up early and get your work finished early, or you could choose to work late.
If you have commitments throughout the day such as childcare and school runs, you could take time out in the morning and make it up later that evening. It’s a lot like freelancing, but more secure as you have guaranteed work each day.
Sign up to a freelancing site
Freelancing is a fantastic, flexible way to earn money. In fact, I would go as far to say that is one of the best ways to earn a living without leaving the house.
All you have to do is sign up to a freelancing site, and take on the jobs that you want to do. There’s no minimum or maximum amount you can do, so it’s easy to control your own workflow. Just make sure you’re sticking to deadlines of each individual piece.
You can earn a living just doing freelancing alone, or you can use it as a way of earning extra money around any of the other options. If you’re blogging for a living for example and are experiencing a quiet month, you could take on some freelancing jobs to boost up your monthly income.
Find a site you like and keep an eye on the jobs you’re able to do. Work on building up your review scores, the more good feedback you have from past clients, the more likely you’ll be to get accepted for the jobs you bid on.
Again, it’s something you can do in your spare time around a full time job. By the time you quit, you’re in a good position to be accepted for most of the jobs you want to do.
Freelance work can be anything from writing to design, app or website design, even reception and admin work can be done on a freelance basis. Social media management, video editing and more are often jobs that are placed on freelance sites. Lots of companies like to use freelancers to do these kinds of jobs, as it saves them from hiring an extra employee.
Conclusion
When you’re working from home, in most cases you’ll be classed as self employed, so it’s important to register your business.
It’s simple to do, usually a couple of forms online and the tax office in your country will contact you if they need more information. Get into the habit of putting away twenty percent of your earnings each month for your tax bill.
If you enjoyed this post, then you may want to read about how you can start your own business for free, and make a start on your entrepreneurial journey!
Do you work from home? What kind of work do you do? Let me know your stories in the comments below.
