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| (Photo by Images of Money) |
11. Rentals. There are plenty of things people would do better to rent than buy: formal gowns, maternity clothes, UN Day costumes, Halloween costumes, Linggo ng Wika costumes, non-convertible infant car seats, musical instruments (when you're not yet sure your kid is going to stick with those saxophone lessons), videoke machines, chocolate fountains, LCD projectors, lighting and sound systems, required readings for college general education subjects like Soc Sci II (read them two days, never open them again), vans ... my imagination runs out, but I suppose you get the idea by now.
12. Tour guide. If you live near a tourist area, why not advertise your services as a tour guide? You'll need to learn a lot about the nooks, crannies, and history of the place, but you'll get to go out a lot and meet new people and get paid too!
13. Business card/invitation/letterhead designer. Big companies probably have their own graphics artists to do this for them, but startup homebased businesses often don't. If you've got an eye for design, offer your services online. We homebased businesses who want professional-looking stationery could use your help.
14. Album/scrapbook organizer. Am I the only person in the world who finds it too much trouble to have my digital pictures printed and to put them in an album for posterity? If I could send you my digital files and you can send them back to me as printed pictures arranged chronologically in an album, I'd be willing to pay a reasonable price.
15. Homebased concierge. Mr. X keeps forgetting his wife's birthday; he would love it if somebody would remind him and order flowers for her every year. Ms. Y wants to book a Cebu Pacific flight, but she doesn't know how to use their online portal or she just can't afford to wait two hours waiting for the d*mned pages to load. Mr. J wants to buy gifts for all his godchildren but simply does not have the time; he doesn't mind the purchases being done online as long as somebody else does it for him.
Have you ever been in situations such as these? I know people who have. If there were somebody who could do these things for them, they'll pay. After all, how do you put a price tag on your wife's affection because you remember her birthday and send her flowers unfailingly every year?
16. Project manager. Oh, I personally know three homebased businesspeople who need this (but only two of them realize it. The third is my husband, ha ha ha).
If you know how to manage projects, create timetables, and coerce people into keeping the sched, then this could be the job for you!
17. Pet sitting. This could be a lucrative job if you give your client base time to grow. You don't need a big yard. Most of your prospective clients keep their pets in condo units anyway. If all you have is a condo unit too, but you promise to take good care of their pets, make sure they stay safe, hydrated, walked, and well fed while their masters are gone, your business could be good to go!
18. Marketing/advertising consultant. Have experience in marketing and advertising? Then why not share your skills with the rest of us who need it? We have businesses, we want to grow it, but we don't know how, and we're afraid to approach consultants because we don't think we can afford you, but if it turns out we can, why wouldn't we want to?
19. Public relations agent. My biggest inspiration today, Ms. Nancy G. Pascual of NGP Integrated Marketing Communications, started out as a public relations agent 14 years ago. She had one client. She did all her work from her house.
Today, she has enough clients that she can afford an office in Shaw Blvd. Some of her clients are household names in banking, cookware, baby products, softdrinks, fuel, and transportation. The first time I heard who her clients were, I exclaimed, "Talaga? Kliyente n'yo 'yun? (Really? They're your client?)"
But let me highlight one fact: it took her 14 years to get to where she is now. There are no shortcuts to starting a homebased business.
20. Private investigator. Honestly, missus, have you never wondered if your husband was really going to so many meetings or if he was meeting somebody else all that time? If you have the wits to find people's secrets out, we who are less skilled but just as suspicious may find use for your services. (But don't offer it to me; I know where my husband is all the time.)
Okay, just one more list to go. After that, we'll talk about how to find clients and funding! Stay tuned for next!
Are you already doing any of these businesses? Let us know and we'll post a free blog article to let the world know about you and the services/products you are offering!
