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Home » Family Articles » 5 Popular Homebased Business Ideas

5 Popular Home-Based Business Ideas

Since receiving child support payments and back-child support payments for over twenty years, it's no secret how that support has helped to provide for my child's well-being. Fortunately I was able to use a portion of my child support funds to make more money by starting a small business. If you really give it some thought I am sure you too can come up with a home-based business idea that will help you provide a little something extra for your family.

It's no secret that these are difficult economic times for many parents but particularly for parents who have only one income. Today everyone appears to need several streams of income and in this volatile and often unpredictable economy operating a home-based business is one available option.

Consider operating one of the 5 home-based businesses. None involve a lot of start-up money and although they won't make you a millionaire, they will allow you to provide for the additional needs of your family. Believe it or not a one time in my life I have had to do each one.

1. Home work Tutor

Do you like to listen to your children read? Are you patient and caring? Do you visit the teacher's store in your area buying little books that can help your own children read, write or do basic math? Would you like to help another child in your neighborhood? If you think you might be interested in helping children with their homework, become a homework tutor. There are busy parents who do not have the time to help their own children and would appreciate someone making sure their children understand and complete their homework. Remember parents are not only paying for your willingness to review their child's home work, they are paying for your time and expertise. Make sure you provide parents with a weekly progress report and ask them to let their child's teacher know they are working with a homework tutor, so your efforts will not be in vain.

2. Letter Writing Service

Several hundred years ago only clergymen and professionals were literate. Today even literate individuals need help writing letters, particularly written complaint letters and letters seeking a resolution or response to a concern. If you enjoy the research involved in helping to resolve everyday problems this may be the home-based business for you. There is little doubt that you will encounter a wide variety of needs as a professional letter writer and your goal is not to solve a problem but to write in such a way that you bring the problem to light. Think carefully about who might need your services and why and remember there is power in the pen or in the keyboard.

3. Mystery Shopper

Can you shop till you drop? Would you like to get paid to shop? This may be the home-based business that fits your schedule and fore fills your need to make extra money. Mystery shoppers, also known as secret shoppers have been around for many years. Their purpose is to complete service checks, performance evaluations and frontline evaluations along with other checks and balances requested by the company employing the mystery shopper. Mystery shoppers enable trained researchers to take a "birds-eye-view" of a shopper's experience. It also allows management the opportunity to quickly and efficiently evaluate their business practices, deliverables, and employees from the perspective of a non-bias consumer. If you would like to learn more about becoming a mystery shopper visit: www.nationalshoppingservice.com

4. Community Foody

Do you have a food specialty? Is there a dish you prepare that is always a family favorite? Have you ever tried to sell your special cheesecake or gumbo? Today everyone seems to be consumed with thoughts of food, and why not since most of us have little time to cook or even think about cooking. The old adage "I owe, I owe, so off to work I go" is more true today than ever before. Take a look around your community and visit bakeries and cafes, is something missing? Is there a café that would benefit from your double fudge pecan cluster ice cream or those lovely black currant scones? You may want to start small and deliver a few goodies to a local eatery in your area. You may want to sell your recipe to a local bakery or become a recipe developer for a number of restaurants in your area. Are you into recipe contest? Commercial food companies are always looking for a new original recipe and they are willing to pay. What have you got to lose? As Nike would say..."just do it!"

5. Teach Your Talent

Few people know that according to the No Child Left Behind legislation all school districts should be offering parent involvement opportunities to participating Title I parents. These opportunities may be in the form of a parent enrichment seminars/workshops. You can teach your talent and get paid for it. All Title I eligible schools have parent involvement funds that can only be used to provide parents with information that will assist them in helping their child achieve in school. Children cannot achieve when parents are homeless, jobless, illiterate and lack the skills to help their child do well in school. There are many people who have the skill and ability to teach resume writing, job seeking skills, tutor or teach adult reading, and help parents clean up their credit. If you think you could present this type of material in a professional manner, create a proposal and submit it to schools in your district. The funds available to provide these services to parent must be used or school districts will be penalized. This is a great way to make a real difference in your community.

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Retirement or Financial Freedom?

In the past most people never retired. They died. The average life expectancy was much less than it is these days, and there were no financial planners around to help people save up enough to quit work. As recently as the 1960's, if you did manage to save up enough money to retire, you'd be lucky to live another 5 or 6 years before you kicked the bucket. This made financial planning for retirement a little easier because you really only needed enough income for a few years.

Nowadays, if you retire, chances are you can live forever. Well, it can seem like forever...especially if you haven't saved up enough money. It is a daunting task, attempting to set aside enough money to supply an income for 25 or 30 years, in the 15, 10 or 5 years you have before you retire. We say this because most people don't get really serious about their retirement planning until they hit 50...and realize they had wanted to quit work at 55!

This is the standard model that has been followed since we began living long enough to bother with retirement savings. You set aside enough cash to cover things off at some future distant time. You build the nest egg and then hope it lasts, and the financial planning community is right there to help you. And yet this is not how the most successful people in our community do things at all!

Still, most people are busily trading their time for their money. As an employee, you are limited by how much time you can actually devote to your job, and you are limited by how much time you want to devote to your job. Time you give to your workplace is time you don't get for yourself. It's similar for self-employed people such as our selves. The more successful we are as financial advisors, the more 'in demand' we become, and the less time we have.

Retirement looks pretty good when you're an employee, or a self-employed person. You'll have the money coming in, and the time for yourself. The problem is that it is an awful long way off. Is there another way?

The first time Rick read 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad', he just got irritated. After all, this was the book that pointed out how he was locked in the self-employed cycle where success leads to less free time. And he likes his free time. However, author Robert Kiyosaki also proposed 'an out'. It's called passive income. Passive income is income you have coming in to the household that you don't really work for anymore. The key is that it is designed to happen in the near future instead of the distant future.

Since reading his books we have begun to change our financial plan. Instead of continuing to organize our finances around future income for a distant 'retirement', we are re-orienting things toward near-future passive income and 'financial freedom'. We have been doing this by purchasing income-producing real estate and by looking to start internet businesses.

The success of our new 'passive income' plan remains to be seen, but it is interesting to note how changing our end result from retirement to financial freedom has completely altered the path we're taking. These two goals are NOT the same. When you build a retirement nest egg you are looking to draw an income from it at some future time. When you are looking to attain financial freedom, you are looking to purchase or create assets which provide you with 'passive' income right away.

Should everybody be changing their financial plan? Of course not. For one thing, many people hate the idea of being landlords, and many others don't have the stomach for business, let alone the technology business. Retirement planning is still needed. RRSP's, mutual funds, and other longer term savings programs still have their place. There will always be employees and self-employed people who rather like what they do and are quite okay working until their retirement age.

All the same, if you are wondering if there might be a better way to ensure your future financial wellbeing 'sooner', perhaps you should pick up a copy of 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad'... and get irritated. Either way, it will probably turn out better for you than it did in the past.

In the past most people never retired. They died.