Today, a lot of people are looking for opportunities to make money from home, and the idea of building a business from your kitchen table seems to have grabbed most people’s attention in recent years.
Indeed, with the advent of the internet and the subsequent influx of online opportunities allowing people to work from home, it can sometimes be hard to distinguish between a viable opportunity vs. a deal that promises the world yet under delivers when it comes to return on time and financial investment.
If you’re looking to make money from home, it can be tempting to get caught up in the latest fad, yet the best advice is to set up a business focused around a passion, or in the alternative, you might want to learn more about trading on the stock market as this can be a very lucrative way to make a decent amount of money; but it is important you do your research and get to grips with trading, rather than going in blind.
Moving forward, this article presumes you are wanting to set up a business from home and have some idea of what this business will look like, in terms of what you are going to sell or provide to consumers. Here’s in an essential checklist on the first few things you need to do in order to get customers coming through your door, albeit most likely a virtual door.
1. Set up a website or web-based platform
You don’t need to build your own website, nowadays, as there are a variety of platforms such as Shopify or Etsy that do most the hard work for you, including marketing. The most interesting thing about a platform like Etsy is that is it not only allows you to sell your products, by providing a shop window, but it also offers a busy high street of relevant customers.
2. Get on eBay
It’s easy to underestimate the power of eBay as a sales platform for your new product or service but eBay has a huge user base, and it can even be good to build your reputation with Google and assist with increasing your domain authority.
3. Leverage others
Sometimes it can be tempting to feel like you need to do it all by yourself, but you’ll get much faster results if you leverage aligned businesses, for instance, you could promote a personal training service within a hairdressers. Often, all you need to do is return the favour and recommend your customers to them.
4. Online marketing
There’s a lot to consider within the realm of online marketing from content marketing such as blogging and vlogging to online advertising using platforms such as Facebook and Google Ads.
There’s also the plethora of social media platforms, the most relevant for business being Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, though LinkedIn is king if you are selling B2B services such as consultancy or training workshops. There are many courses you can take for free when it comes to digital marketing – Udemy and Lynda are both great resources.