How to Choose a Good Home Business Idea
Brainstorming a decent idea for earning at home can be a bit grueling. How do you decide which business is best for you? Today’s blog is to help those of you who haven’t yet decided what to do.
First you will need a pen and paper (or a computer) and some quiet time. Take five minutes or so to write down all your skills and interests. Leave nothing out. If you once worked in a pizzeria when you were ten, add that to the list. Mom skills are to be included, so that means mending, ironing, etc.
Once you have your basic list, go down and cross off everything you hate to do. For me that would include laundry and ironing!
This should leave you with a considerably shorter list. Now comes the hard part. Try to think of a business idea for each skill you have put down. If you come up with more than one, that’s great! For example, if you put down cooking, you might write “catering”, “frozen dinners”, “home bakery”, etc. Don’t start to judge the ideas yet, just let them flow. This part of the process can take some time, so if you have to, do it over a few days.
Once you have your business ideas, run down the list and choose the three that appeal to you most. Write them down on a separate piece of paper and write out the pros and cons. For example, let’s say I chose “catering”, “home child care”, and “freelance writing”. I would then write the negative and positive side of each one. Here is how I worked out freelance writing.
Pros: Flexible hours, at home all the time, I enjoy it, good pay if you get good assignments
Cons: Long hours on the computer, poor pay to start with, very unstable.
If you have more pros or cons than the other, you might want to ditch the idea. Select the best idea and start working out a theoretic business plan. If all three ideas lose their appeal once you really start thinking about them, go back and select another three.
This should help you narrow down, if not pinpoint, the perfect home business for you.
[...] If you are still in the planning stages of your business, I hope this article will help you choose a name. You might also want to check out my post How to Choose a Good Home Business Idea. [...]
[...] category and you´ll find quite a few business ideas that can be run at home. Or brainstorm a great home business idea that is based on your [...]
Great information. Having an idea of what you want is key to finding what you want. All business ideas are different and produce different results. Thanks for the article.
I definitely should try the pros and cons idea. I get TONS of at-home ideas, and want to run with them all, but haven’t… yet.
Hi first time here. You know I think the first thing you said about taking some quiet time to just figure out what you want to do is the best tip.
Sometimes we are inclined to rush and that is a recipe for failure. So I am going to take your advice tomorrow and see what I can come up with.
I’ve been visiting your blog for a while now and I always find a
gem in your new posts. Thanks for sharing.
I run a related blog and recently was quoted saying…
Sometimes the best place to start with your Wahm career is where your out of the home career ended. Many women find that they can become independent contractors in the field that they previously worked in. You can use your previous work experience as a launching pad for your Wahm career. Some of the ways to use your experience to your advantage are: finding a company that hires people in your field to work from home, using your previous experience to become an “expert” writer in your field or starting a business related to your previous field.
You can see the full post as well as the full context of the
quote above by checking out the page on my blog…
http://www.bushgreen.com/public_html
Bye for now,
Isabela.
Thank you for you sharing information.
Great stuff! It is quite a challenge looking for home business ideas but once you’ve finally come up with the most feasible business idea then be ready for a hard start, it can be quite frustrating but just work hard.
Remember that success is not by chance, it is by CHOICE!
Cheers,
Genesis Pure Business Opportunity
Starting a business is a great idea… but you need to be aware that when you do start a business up… you stay focus and alert all the time.
Although its fun and exciting to create a business idea of your own, you will also know that it can be very tough indeed. So just be aware of that!
This is a pretty good suggested progress. One thing I would add (and perhaps this is in the pros and cons section) is the “quality of life” variable. Different businesses have different time and location commitments.
It was important to me to find a business that allowed me to have the quality of life I wanted, in terms of free time, time with family, etc.
Your Right Darvin,
Its important to have a business that allows you to have a good quality of life. You need to think long and hard about that too!
Great post! I really appreciate when people put out quality content like this… it really helps me, and I know many others to understand more! Thanks.
its all about the brainstorming!!