10 Best Home-Based Business Ideas 2024

In this day and age, finding employment can be tough. For some, it may be all but impossible, especially if a long stretch of unemployment has left you without childcare or a car.

But, the good news is, there are more and more employment opportunities for people who are looking for work that can be performed at home, especially those looking to create their own business opportunities.

Home-based business often have a lower barrier to entry than traditional business and can be done on a smaller scale to start with.

Businesses such as home renovation, online stores, and a variety of service-based business are perfect candidates for home-based businesses. 

1. Home Renovation Services

Home remodeling is a booming market. There are tons of homes on the market already as well as many more getting ready to enter the market within the next 3 to 6 months.

In order for home-owners to attract buyers with so many homes on the market, many are turning to home remodelers to give their homes the edge over the competition.

Another great niche for home improvement specialists is the foreclosure market. Banks and other lenders are stuck with a glut of houses they can’t sell due to a wide variety of structural weaknesses.

Many turn to renovation specialists to help these houses back into shape so that they can be sold at auction.

2. Pet-Related Products

There is no expense that doting pet parents will spare in order to keep their beloved pets feeling posh.

Designing pet products may be tough, but for those with a creative and innovative spirit, the sky is the limit here.

Related: How To Start a Custom T-shirt Company

3. Catering Services

While there is no doubt that much of the nation is struggling with unemployment, but for those whose struggles include balancing a 40+ hour per week job, a family and other commitments, caterers are not an extravagance, they are a necessity.

Many professional couples are tired of dining out and take out and are choosing to spend that money having food brought in. So, if cooking and serving is your niche, you may be a successful caterer.

4. Cleaning Services

Along with a decreasing amount of time left over for cooking nourishing meals comes a decreasing amount of time to dust, do laundry or even vacuum regularly. This leaves a huge opening for aspiring entrepreneurs like yourself to fill this gap.

If you are good at organizing, enjoy helping others keep their houses in line, this could be a huge opportunity for you to launch a successful home-based business.

5. Wedding Consultant / Event Planner

Are you good with details? Do you work well under pressure?

If so, event and wedding planning may be the niche for you. More and more people are choosing to get married, especially in the gay and lesbian communities.

So, if you like the idea of helping people plan great parties, think about becoming an event planner.

6. Dietary Consultant

Obesity is the number one health-related issue in the United States and the problem is growing. If you have a background in nutrition, put it to good use helping people become healthier.

Related: 10 Best Jobs for Stay-at-Home Moms and Dads 

7. In-Home Beauty Services

There has never been a better time to put your beauty school education to work for you.

There is an insatiable demand for services that help both men and women look younger and more vital.

Couple this need with a hectic work and family schedule that leaves little time for patronizing traditional spas and salons and you have the perfect business opportunity.

8. Sewing and Alteration Services

Like to sew? Start an alterations business. Sewing is going the way of blacksmithing and other lost arts, however, unlike these other arts, custom tailoring will always be in high demand.

With less and less time available for the more mundane chores in our lives, many are turning toward having alterations outsourced, which provides the perfect opportunity for you to launch a great home-based business.

9. Life /Business Coaching Services

Coaching, both personally and professionally, has been a hot industry for a while, but it’s one that still has enough steam to land you a successful home-based business.

Make sure that you have the education to back you up before you head into this arena.

As you can tell, there are many opportunities for people to start a home-based business. Many of these opportunities require some sort of specialized skills or education, which is why they are so successful.

If you lack the skills or training necessary to launch a business in one of these categories on your own, don’t sweat it. Find an entrepreneur looking for a business partner who is willing to help you obtain the knowledge necessary to become successful.

10. Online Store

There once was a time that if you wanted to sell products, you needed to rent out a brick-and-mortar store.

But with the advent of eCommerce, that’s no longer the case. With eCommerce, you can build a booming retail or service business right from the comfort of your bed or couch.

What is eCommerce?

eCommerce is simply the buying and selling of goods or services on the internet. eCommerce offers several benefits. First, you have access to a global consumer market. You can literally sell to people from around the globe.

Second, eCommerce businesses have more affordable start-up costs. You don’t need to pay for rent or utilities on a building.

And, third, eCommerce can provide passive income. Once you’ve set up your store, your systems and processes can run themselves fairly well. You can literally make money while you sleep.

Learn more about how to make passive income.

What is an Online Store?

While eCommerce refers to the online business industry as a whole, your online store is the specific place where you sell your goods or services. 

Online stores require certain things that other websites don’t. For instance, you’ll need an easy way to display your products and pricing. You’ll also need built-in software that can process orders. And, finally, you’ll need a way to accept payments.

If you’re wondering what to sell on your online store, think about products that you already love to use. Or go to Amazon or eBay and scroll through their most popular products.

Or you could just use a retail arbitrage approach: where you buy things at a discount and mark them up for a profit.

Learn more about how to start a retail arbitrage business.

How to Start an Online Store?

There are three main ways to start an online store.

First, you could try to build one from scratch using a website builder like WordPress.

However, WordPress is really meant primarily as a platform to build informational websites and blogs. If you try to use WordPress to build an online store, it could require a lot of time and effort.

Second, you could pay a web design service to build your online store. But that could get very expensive.

Third, you could use an eCommerce store builder like BigCommerce. With BigCommerce, you’ll have access to dozens of customizable templates,  checkout customization, and you can build your BigCommerce site on top of WordPress if you’d like.

You’ll also get tons of other features with BigCommerce like the ability to offer coupons and discounts and accept payments from digital wallets like Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, and PayPal.

Learn more about how to make money with an online store.

Next Steps

No matter which home-based business you pick, you’ll want to research best practices and try to learn from people who are already doing well in that space.

Perhaps you could take a course or join some business-focused Facebook groups.

Finally, you’ll need to market your services. You can definitely use online and social media advertising or a matching service like Thumbtack, but don’t overlook the power of word-of-mouth.  When you treat your customers well, they can be your best marketers.

And before you know it, you could have a thriving home-best business on your hands.

Do you have a home-based business idea? Share it in the comments below.