According to the US Small Business Administration, about half of all small businesses begin in the home. Home-based businesses are a great way to be your own boss or try out a passion project as an income-generating venture. Alternatively, you may be unemployed and looking for a way to make a living. Regardless, we provide 20 home-based business ideas that work in 2024.
These home business ideas are culled from a wide variety of industries and interests to give you a taste of the many opportunities running a small business from home can provide. Check them out. Do any resonate with you?
Online Businesses
1. Dropshipping
In a dropshipping business, you find a third-party supplier store that ships products to your customers on your behalf. You only have to pick products, promote, and sell. It’s very easy to start, and some platforms like Shopify integrate with the most popular dropshippers.
- Skills/education needed: Online store creation, marketing (social media or paid ads)
- Startup cost: $
- Requirements: Computer, webstore or website with a shopping cart, social media, ad accounts on social media or Google
- Potential income: BlueCart.com says dropshippers make an average 20% to 30% profit per item and can make between $1,000 and $5,000 per month.
Learn more about dropshipping. Read our articles.
- What Is Dropshipping & How Does it Work?
- How to Start a Dropshipping Business in 10 Steps
- How to Set Up Shopify Store for Dropshipping in 5 Steps
- 27 Dropshipping Statistics & Examples
2. Virtual Assistant
Virtual assistants provide a variety of services to clients they find online. These run from business writing to social media posting to managing the client’s schedule. You can find your own clients, seek freelance jobs, or join freelance boards like Fiverr or Upwork to get more clients.
- Skills/education needed: Good command of the language, computer skills, social media skills
- Startup cost: $
- Requirements: Computer, calendar software, word processing program, email
- Potential income: The average wage, per Indeed, is $24.44/hour. However, if you are highly skilled or work in a specific industry like legal, you can command higher wages.
3. Social Media/Website Development
Social media marketing continues to grow, expected to grow at a 3.86% annual worldwide rate through 2027. It’s a job that takes skill and a thorough knowledge of the different social media venues and what works on each one, but you don’t necessarily have to have a degree. A good portfolio and some success stories can be all you need to get started.
- Skills/education needed: Understanding the many platforms, graphic arts ability for making images, writing skills
- Startup cost: $
- Requirements: Computer, software for creating images and managing social media
- Potential income: Social media managers in companies average $57,155/year, according to Indeed.
4. Online Courses/Tutoring
If you love to teach but aren’t interested in a classroom, then online teaching is a good home business idea. You can sign up with online schools, home schooling programs, or tutorial services for kids. If you have specific expertise in an industry or teachable skill, you can create your own classes to teach online to adults.
- Skills/education needed: Public speaking, good command of your language, excellent knowledge of the subject matter
- Startup cost: $
- Requirements: Computer, video camera, mic, headset, and a webinar software or subscription to a teaching platform like Teachable if you do your own classes
- Potential income: This depends on the type of teaching you do and the number of students you have. Tutoring runs around $24/hour per Indeed. If you charge for courses, you can charge as little as $10 per student for a one-hour class or thousands of dollars for a full-on, multi-week course with webinars and individual consultations.
There are online teaching opportunities for schools or individuals. (Source: Pixabay)
5. Copywriting/Freelance Writing
Like many home-based small business ideas, this one is very low-cost but requires you to hustle your business if you want to make a living on it. You don’t have to have a specific degree, just a gift for language and the ability to follow a client’s directions. However, many freelance content writing jobs are low-income. If you have expertise in technical or business writing, you can command a higher price.
- Skills/education needed: Good grasp of grammar, sentence, and story construction
- Startup cost: $
- Requirements: Computer
- Potential income: Freelance writers often get paid by the word or article. How much you are paid depends on your speed and accuracy. Indeed says the average is $25/hour.
Businesses that Involve Working With Your Hands
6. Selling Reclaimed Furniture
Furniture reclaimers purchase old furniture at yard sales or thrift stores, or grab them off the side of the road, fix all the cracks and broken pieces, and then refinish or paint the surface. They then resell them at almost-new prices. If you love working with your hands and finding deals, this could be a great side business.
- Skills/education needed: You’ll need to handle power tools, learn how to strip paint and do minor woodwork repairs, and learn the difference between quality pieces and actual trash.
- Startup cost: $$
- Requirements: Computer, webstore or website with a shopping cart, sanders, saws, paint brushes, paint stripper, paints and stains, truck or van for hauling items
- Potential income: This depends on your skill, the market in your area, and how well you choose your furniture. It’s possible to sell a piece at over 100 times what you paid for it; other times, you may only make a small profit.
Reclaiming trashed or thrifted furniture can be very rewarding for those with a creative spark. (Source: Pixabay)
7. Selling Handcrafted Items
Creating and selling handcrafted items on sites like Etsy lets you indulge your creative side and reach a global audience with your artisanal brand. You can also sell to local shops, especially if you live in an art or tourist area.
- Skills/education needed: Crafting, marketing
- Startup cost: $ (more, depending on the items)
- Requirements: Computer, webstore or website with a shopping cart, materials and tools for creating the objects, equipment for high-quality photos
- Potential income: This depends greatly on your profit margin and how many you can produce. You will always be limited by the fact that there’s only you (or you and your employee) making the items.
Services
8. Subscription Boxes
Subscription boxes are a growing trend. These are themed packages with interesting or hard-to-find items that are gathered and sold on a subscription basis, usually monthly with options for three-month, six-month, or annual subscriptions. Every month is something a little different.
Some ideas include hand-crafted items, hobby supplies, unique games, or country-themed goods. You need a good supply of unique, themed items and a marketing hook.
- Skills/education needed: None, though a good eye for products is important
- Startup cost: $$
- Requirements: Computer, webstore or website with a shopping cart, suppliers for the unique items that go into your boxes, delivery services, packing materials, social media or paid advertising methods, custom packaging
- Potential income: According to ICSID, subscription boxes generate 40% to 60% profit.
9. Housekeeping
This is one business that will never go out of demand, but it does demand a lot from you, physically and in the ability to deal with other people’s mess. Specializations like crime-scene cleanup take some additional training and licensing but can be very lucrative.
- Skills/education needed: The ability to efficiently clean, specialty training if desired
- Startup cost: $
- Requirements: Cleaning supplies, transportation, licensing, liability insurance
- Potential income: Per ZipRecruiter, the owner of a cleaning business makes an average of $127,973/year.
Do you need insurance? Whenever you are dealing with someone else’s home or someone else’s property, having general liability insurance is a good idea to cover you in case you damage something. Learn more about liability insurance in our articles:
10. Car Detailing
Car detailing entails washing the inside and outside of vehicles, including vacuuming the carpets, washing the tires, and finding the loose change and French fries between the seats. You can do this as a valet service or go door-to-door.
- Skills/education needed: None—just have an eye for detail
- Startup cost: $
- Requirements: Cleaning supplies specific to cars, transportation, liability insurance
- Potential income: IBISWorld said owners of car detailing services can make around $100,000 per year.
Car detailing is a low-skill but potentially high-demand home business. (Source: Pixabay)
11. Pet Sitting
Are you good with pets? Pet sitting, at your home or theirs, is an easy business to start. For added value, offer dog training or pet enrichment. Or go high-tech and offer virtual pet sitting using cameras and automated treat dispensers. This business can come with some risk, as even the gentlest animal can be unpredictable.
- Skills/education needed: Good with animals, learn to train
- Startup cost: $
- Requirements: Transportation. If at home, kennels, treats, pet toys, enrichment activities, liability insurance
- Potential income: Per Indeed, pet sitters average $21.28 per hour.
12. Landscaping
Do you like working outdoors? Landscaping continues to be a growing industry. IBISWorld said that the landscaping services industry grew an average of 4.7% between 2018 and 2023, growing faster than the overall economy. Landscaping can be as simple as mowing and weeding or can include designing yards.
- Skills/education needed: Able to handle power tools up to a riding lawn mower, understanding about the local plants and grasses, knowledge of landscape design a plus
- Startup cost: $$
- Requirements: Landscaping tools like mowers, rakes, clippers, licensing, liability insurance
- Potential income: Turfbooks says that efficient companies have a gross profit margin of 50%. Other statistics we found put landscapers earning $50,000 per year or higher.
13. Home Daycare
Home daycare can be a great option for stay-home parents, but it entails more than just hoping your kids and your client’s kids get along. There are safety and health concerns, and you’ll want to provide a nurturing environment where kids can learn and play. Still, if you like kids, it can be a rewarding home based business idea.
- Skills/education needed: Basic childcare, first aid, child CPR
- Startup cost: $
- Requirements: Licensing, toys, healthy foods for snack time, child safety devices like cupboard locks, liability insurance
- Potential income: Per Glassdoor, home daycare providers make between $40,000 and $65,000 per year.
Providing daycare for children can be rewarding work, but there’s a lot of responsibility involved. (Source: Pixabay)
14. Physical Training
Physical trainers can tie themselves to a particular gym, and there are benefits to that. However, if you want to do this as a home-based business idea, you freelance your skills to gyms part-time, find clients independently, or create online courses and training and sell those.
- Skills/education needed: A degree or certification in the type of training you provide (ex: Pilates, cross-training)
- Startup cost: $ (more depending on if you need special equipment)
- Requirements: Computer, gym gear, transportation, webinar or other software if selling training online, liability insurance
- Potential income: Per Indeed, personal trainers earn an average of $28.21/hour.
Knowledge-based Businesses/Services
15. Bookkeeping
Bookkeepers do light accounting and prepare accounts for taxes, but don’t normally do taxes themselves. They also don’t do some of the duties of regular accountants, such as analytics and recommendations. You can always offer these as an additional service, however, if you have the qualifications.
- Skills/education needed: Mind for numbers and an eye for detail
- Startup cost: $
- Requirements: Computer, accounting software
- Potential income: Bookkeepers in businesses earn an average of $21.90 per hour, per Indeed.
16. Notary Public Services
A notary public is a state officer who can legally witness the signing of legal documents from powers of attorney to loan. This is one of the many small home-based business ideas that costs little to start but may require a license. You can offer your services in offices or to people in their own homes.
- Skills/education needed: Training and licensing
- Startup cost: $
- Requirements: You’ll probably need a background check, notary tools
- Potential income: According to Indeed, notary publics make an average of $17.28/hour in the US, although that can be higher depending on the state.
Notary publics provide official witness to legal documents. (Source: Pixabay)
17. Cybersecurity Consulting
Cybersecurity consultants protect businesses from hackers. They conduct risk profiles, test programs, backup software, and establish firewalls and encryption services.
- Skills/education needed: Technical degree or cybersecurity certification, although with the ever-changing nature of computer programming, you need to keep up with trends through study, conferences, or coursework
- Startup cost: $
- Requirements: Computer, specialized software, excellent internet connection
- Potential income: According to Indeed, cybersecurity consultants make anywhere between $69,677 and $169,520 a year when they are full-time employed by a company.
Food Businesses
18. Personal Chef or Micro-enterprise Home Kitchen Operation (MEHKO)
If you love to cook, then a personal chef business might be up your alley. You create meals for your clients, either individually in their homes or for multiple clients in your own kitchen for delivery to their homes. As a MEHKO, you prepare the food and serve it in your own home as a home-based mini-restaurant.
- Skills/education needed: Restaurant or food preparation experience a plus; food safety certification, able to cook to special dietary needs
- Startup cost: $
- Requirements: May need food handling license or certification; cooking tools, foodstuffs; MEHKOs may need more licensing, dishware, and decor. Liability insurance
- Potential income: Salary.com says private chefs make an average of $88,434/year.
Home chefs make delicious and nutritious meals for people in their homes. (Source: Pixabay)
19. Meal Prep/Food Boxes
Meal prep boxes are a growing industry. As a home-based business, you can give it a local twist by using fresh ingredients acquired locally. Another idea might be custom school lunches (or work lunches). As with anything food-related, you may need a food handling license and have your kitchen licensed.
- Skills/education needed: Restaurant or food preparation experience a plus; food safety certification, able to cook to special dietary needs
- Startup cost: $$
- Requirements: May need a food handling license or certification, a computer, webstore or website with a shopping cart, foodstuffs, recipe cards, custom packaging
- Potential income: Per Social Story, meal prep businesses have a 35% gross margin.
20. Baking
If you love to create goodies, then a home-based baking business lets you put your passion to work. From muffins to wedding cakes, people will pay well for homemade treats. If you have cake decorating experience or can create delicious goods with special restrictions, like gluten-free, then you can command even higher prices.
- Skills/education needed: Baking, cake decorating
- Startup cost: $$
- Requirements: May need a food handling license or certification, a computer, webstore or website with a shopping cart, baking supplies, cake decorating supplies (optional) custom packaging, delivery method, liability insurance
- Potential income: Looking at the revenues, this home business idea is better suited as an income supplement. Whisk Warrior says that a few custom orders a week can earn you about $300/month, while specializing in big events might bring it to $1,000/month. Indeed says the average hourly wage is $15.83.
Need more home business suggestions? Check out our other articles:
Why Start a Home-based Business
There are many reasons to start a home-based business. You can be your own boss, setting your own hours, standards, and requirements. You have full creative control. You can pursue your passions. If your business is conducted solely online, you have the freedom to travel. If something isn’t working, you have complete power to make changes.
Home businesses have lower overhead but great potential to grow. Consider Amazon, which started as a home-based business.
How to Start a Business from Home
We cover how to start a home-based business in detail in another article, but here are some of the basics:
- Choose the best home-based business for you, keeping in mind money, talents, and what your home can support.
- Do market research to be sure your idea has enough demand to turn a profit.
- Determine how you will stand out from your competitors.
- Try out your idea, either by doing some free work first, starting out part time, or running a beta test of your product or service.
- Create your budget for the year.
- Get the necessary business and industry- or job-specific certifications and licenses.
- Get financing, whether from loans, grants, crowdfunding, or your own finances.
- Set up your business space.
- Start your business and market hard!
Starting a home business can cost anywhere from nothing to tens of thousands of dollars, and generally does not pay all the bills right off the bat. Make sure your home situation can handle the startup period both financially and in terms of extra hours and attention being paid to your new business.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
These are some of the most common questions we encounter about starting a home-based business.
The best home business is the one that gets you excited, takes minimal start-up money, and offers steady profit that you can grow. We offer 20 of the best home-based business ideas. However, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, home health and personal care is projected to grow 25% from 2021 to 2031. If that’s not for you, then consider housekeeping, landscaping, social media management, or virtual assistant services. Dropshipping is also expected to grow.
Profit is never guaranteed, but some of the ones that have the highest promise of returns include physical training, car detailing, pet-sitting, online courses, and social media management.
Any small home-based business ideas that use your talents and things you already have are the cheapest; from there, you have to make them profitable. As seen above some of the best examples of profitable home-based businesses include online teaching, social media, or virtual administrative work. Any of these would be the most inexpensive business to start from home because you most likely have a computer for use and the internet, and need only your talents to start.
While it depends on your skillset, the easiest ideas for starting a home-based business are those that don’t require extra education or certifications. Dog walking, dropshipping, and tutoring or online teaching are some examples.
Every business comes with expenses. At the very least, you need to have communications equipment like a computer, advertising of some form, and whatever materials you need. Having said that, if you already have a computer, you can take advantage of social media and free website builders to promote yourself. With that, some cost-free home business suggestions include freelance writing, virtual assistant work, dog walking, or teaching online.
Bottom Line
When considering home-based small business ideas, think about your needs and passions. You want a business that satisfies your interests and your income needs. We provide 20 examples of home businesses for 2024, but there are plenty more. Use your imagination, do your research, and good luck on your new adventure.
