2009 Top 20 Home Business Ideas

Home business office

• Low startup cost, some even can be started with nothing down.
• Low overheads, with no office premise leasing expenses.
• No fuel expense to travel to and from your office.

Home business, mainly driven by the more accessible Internet and the World Wide Web, is flourishing and thriving today. The prolonged period of recession is actually an opportunity for home-based business to grow and expand. And no worries, it’s never too late jump into the band wagon of home-based business.

Here are my top 20 home business ideas for the second-half of 2009 you can start right away from the comfort of your home:

1. Blogging
   Paid blogging is a lucrative money making opportunity for an avid blogger. Blogging for a network, such as B5 Media or About.com, can bring you two major benefits: Financial reward and personal branding.
2. Affiliate marketing/Internet marketing
   You can start with nothing down through affiliate marketing and Internet marketing. Joining a multi-tiered affiliate marketing allows you the opportunity to receive residual income (a percentage of money made from your referred member.)
3. Clerical
   Clerical jobs, such as data entry, have always been on demand. Filing medical transcriptions and insurance claims are some other examples of clerical jobs.
4. Article writing/copywriting
   Writing jobs are wide open as content are becoming more and more important these days. Writing jobs include writing sales copy, promotional letters, newsletter articles and many more.
5. Virtual assistance
   The role of virtual assistant (VA) has evolved dramatically in role and grown significantly in demand. VA is no longer involving secretarial works only, but also involving other, often trivial, works, such as market research and SEO/link building.
6. MLMs
   Multi-level marketing is here to stay. Product distribution with residual income opportunities interests many due to the low investment with unlimited potential, not mentioning the benefits of business training given on regular basis.
7. Translation services
   If you have multi-linguistic capability, offering translation services is a great business idea. Translating official, legal and academic documents are some of the most common services offered.
8. Real estate brokerage
   Forget the crashing real estate industry. Opportunities are still exist, especially in the foreclosure market.
9. Online business/ecommerce
   Selling on eBay, dropshipping and other online money making opportunities are lucrative. The industry has reached 4 billion dollar mark in an exponential way.
10. Organising (party, wedding, event)
    Are you a well-organised person and simply can’t let something out of place? Helping others with successful parties, wedding or events is rewarding financially and emotionally.
11. Professional researchers/information brokerage
    Businesses cut cost, and business intelligence has gone frugal – Now businesses hire independent researchers and information brokers, instead of a large research firm, to gather important business-related information. All thanks to the Internet.
12. Financial planning
    Either personal finance or corporate finance, from budgeting to auditing purposes, independent financial planners are well sought after these days, especially in the midst of economic turmoil where financial planning has became more important than ever.
13. Tech Support
    Either a blank PC screen problem or programming errors, you can help other to tackle tech problems by offering your service on-call basis.
14. Desktop publishing
    Web and graphic design, including newsletter setting and other publishing-related services are a long-time favourite – A PC or laptop and a printer are enough to do the job that relies on your creativity.
15. Ghost writing
    Similar to article writing, you can actually becoming an author’s “body double” – Write on behalf of the author, with full rights released from you to the author.
16. Website flipping
    Similar concept to real estate flipping, but for websites. How lucrative is website flipping? From Flippa.com (an online website flipping marketplace) alone, the total money circulation in buy and sell activities has exceeded 24 million dollar mark.
17. Tutoring
    Are you an ace in some school subjects? You can help students ace homeworks and tests by offering you help in explain things better. If in where you live resides many international students, teaching English as foreign language can be very lucrative.
18. Consulting
    Are you a retiree or a well-seasoned professionals? You can help individuals and a group of people to achieve their personal and/or professional goals by transferring your knowledge across.
19. Child care
    With busy parents these days, child care plays a more and more important role. Offering a child care service can be a life-saver for working parents.
20. Arts and crafts
    Scrapbooking, sculpting, flower arranging – The possibilities are limitless. You can open a class to teach other what you know. To expand, you can even form a group that can create arts and crafts product to sell, with profits shared among the group member.

Ivan Widjaya
I heart home businesses
Image by Eric__I_E.