How to Run a Business for Next to Nothing: Low Cost Business Ideas You can Run from Your Home

Small business tips, ideas and tools

How to Run a Business for Next to Nothing: Low Cost Business Ideas You can Run from Your Home

28 April 2012 by Mariam Noronha in Business Ideas - 8 Comments

Low cost home business ideas

If you have been thinking about running a business but have been deterred by factors such as lack of finance, human resources, space and the like, I would say stop! Here are some great ways to run a business for little or next to nothing without so much as having to step out of your home…

Teaching a Skill Online

Do you cook, bake, paint, crochet, knit or design stuff? Then teaching people these skills can be turned in to a business. All you have to do to begin with is set up a free or paid blog (in the latter case you would have to buy a domain name and register for hosting) or set up a website and link to videos that you can post to You Tube. Giving music or language lessons on Skype is a great way to go too.

Sell Designs and Patterns

I am a crochet enthusiast and recently I was looking for patterns for kids booties and I came across a range of beautiful patterns on Etsy. Not only can you make products and sell from the comfort of your home, you can sell patterns that youâ€™ve created and earn from all the hard work you put in to creating them. What a great idea!

Work for the Publishing Industry

With the number of people taking the route to self-publishing and the burgeoning growth of e-books I think designing book covers and even helping people decide on titles for books or editing content are career routes you can take and work via email.

Translation

Knowing a foreign language is an added advantage and you can get several translation jobs online or get translation gigs by setting up a free Facebook page. You can even sign up on Elance for freelance job opportunities of every type.

Ghostwriting

If you have a flair for language and love writing then there are always people who cannot write and are looking for people to write on their behalf. If you donâ€™t mind other people taking credit for your writing then ghostwriting is just the thing to try.

Creating a Platform for Others to Network or Do Business

Providing a platform for people who want to network or do business is another option worth exploring. Setting up a service like Shopo which is a market place for all things Indian, Afday another online venture dedicated to selling handpicked goods or something like GyaanExchange, a place on the web for people to list classes and enroll for classes in a variety of skills are all options worth exploring.

Image: Ambro

Browse topics:

Please share this blog post...

http://www.gyaanexchange.com Siddharth Bhansali

Fascinating article was surprised to read my own start up Gyaanexchange.com mentioned at the end over there. However felt compelled to set a few things straight –
1. Nothing is as easy as it seems – running a platform like Gyaanexchange requires a lot of on field work, not to mention the technological complexity that goes into actually running a successful site that can execute transactions.

2. No business runs itself – Even a gyaanexchange which although might be a seemingly good idea requires tons of effort to drive user adoption. You might build something amazing but unless you can get people to use its, its quite worthless – and that isn’t something you can do from home. – with that logic even facebook could have run itself, there’s a reason they employ the thousands of people they do.

3. Don’t do it only because you can run it from your home – Starting a business is not about convenience its about having unshakeable faith in an idea and doing whatever it takes to get it done. If you want to start a business BECAUSE you want to run it from home- don’t, you won’t get very far. However if you want to build a business that will actually fill a need or gap or build value in someway – then you can even start from your own bedroom.
http://www.craftsvilla.com Collin Davis

Mariam those are really great ideas. Today the cost of living has multiplied beyond proportion and people often have to work part time to earn enough money to live a good life.

These are really cool ideas that cost next to nothing and definitely worth trying!
Femi

Pls i want website where i can read books on lucrative buziness for free help me. U can send it to my email my email is. [email protected]
Femi

Many thanks to the internet for making it posible for us to connect to people who have knowledge on business to share with us who don’t know…
http://www.noobpreneur.com/ Ivan Widjaya

Greetings, Mohamed!

The best way to start a business, in my opinion, is to make use of your experience as a banker. Starting a finance/banking-related business, such as becoming a finance consultant or creating your own finance-related products, can be viable options. What do you think?
mohamed

hi
I am from kuwait . i would like to start my own business…. really i need some information and experience to set up any kind of business … i am banker but i don’t i have experience in really market place…. I need really new idea to start it …thanks
Jessica Miller

If you really wanted to have your own business there are lots of ways that you can do. having perseverance in what you really wanted can make it happen.

Jessica Miller
Gmail fax
http://www.SatterleeMarketingInc.com Brian Satterlee

Nice list of services that cost you next to nothing but can generate some income. I especially like the last one, because you can set it up and it will run itself. Otherwise, there’s only so much of your time to spare.

Be careful of businesses where you are selling time for money. Isn’t that why we get into business in the first place, to avoid the time for money trap?