Your Home Business: Sell Your Services

What Services Could I Sell?

There are many types of services that you can provide from your home. Remember your life B.C. (before children)? Most stay-at-home parents were working or going to school before the kids came, and a good place to start is to consider what you did before you decided to stay at home. Many times, the area your already experienced in can be fashioned into a home business. For example, if you have experience teaching, you might offer to tutor students or teach private lessons in your areas of expertise. If you worked as an accountant, you could offer to prepare taxes from you home. A degree in graphic design? Design logos or even entire websites for folks interested in homepages or small business looking for creative ideas. Whether or not you have work experince outside the home, you can match your talents with what you enjoy and turn it into a small business. Are you a great cook? Teach a small cooking class once a week in your home, or be meal planner: provide customers with complete weekly meal plans, recipes, and detailed shopping lists. Consulting is another avenue for home business. Wedding consulting, children's party consulting, event consulting, or business consulting are a few areas that attract customers. Do you love kids? Day care services can be provided from your home, by tending several children you can make an income as well as provide company for your own children. There are many things you can do from your own home to make extra money. Your services can provide a supplemental income, or you can expand your business into a full-time career.

How Do I Get Started?

A service business will require a little more research before starting, and can be a little more difficult to set up, but the long term rewards can make it worth your effort. First, consider how much time and effort you want to put into the business. Decide how many hours you are willing to work each week and whether you will need child care or other special arrangements while you are working. Be sure that you are working within any local government restrictions (i.e. you may need a food handler's permit for your catering business) and that you obtain any liscenses or permits necessary to run your business. Because there is such a wide variety of options for offering services from your home, individual start-up needs will vary.

Getting the Word Out

If your service is one that requires customers to visit your home, advertise locally in newspapers, on local bulletin boards in universities, churches, community centers, schools and by word of mouth. If you can serve a larger audience outside of the proximity of your home or town (i.e. consulting, financial planning, web design or anything that can be done by telephone, computer, or postal mail), you can advertise on the Internet to reach the largest number of potential customers. Mommerce advertises services in the Mommerce Mall, and can set up a website for your business. Visit Join Mommerce for more information. Or, for more information about building your own websites try Get With the Web.