Practical Home Business Ideas
Posted by on July 25, 2009
In these times of recession, each responsible family member wants to contribute to family’s finances. Stay-at-home moms are no exception. But what could you do from home? Something that can help you manage your household chores plus spend your free time making some money?
Some thoughts:
1. If you live in big towns where most women work, you can sell your services to them. The errands you run for your home – like bring milk, veggies and other supplies, collecting kids from bus stops, booking gas cylinder, paying bills – you can start doing them for others in your colony, for a small fee.
2. Supply tiffins or lunch boxes to office goers.
3. Prepare food items like masalas, papad, namkeen etc and sell them to your local grocery store. If you can prepare things like “batti” or “dhoop batti”, sell that. Paper envelopes are another huge item. You can target medicine stores for their sale.
4. If you live near a factory, you might be able to start a sub-contractor-ship with them. For example, the bindi factory ‘outsources’ some of the tasks like sticking bindis in a pattern on their card. The children’s toy factories ‘outsource’ things like making dresses for the dolls, assembling the dolls (putting their head, hands and legs together), packing etc. You could approach someone from the factory to help you on this.
5. Teach.
- Take tuition classes.
- If you have a computer at home and are MS Office savvy, take computer classes for school going kids.
- If you are good in crafts etc, open a hobby center.
- If you can teach dance, start dance classes.
- If you can explain cooking, start cooking classes.
6. (My personal favorite) Write. Blog. Do internet marketing. Do copywriting. Write paid reviews, newspaper articles and more. (To know more about blogging from basics to advanced, click on the header image on this page. This leads you to a fantastic resource / workbook to help build “your” blog in 31 days.)
7. Take a paying guest, or start hostel / guest house if you have a room or two to spare.
8. Babysit. Open a crèche.
9. Open a beauty parlor or a boutique if you are qualified. There are govt. grants available if initial investment is an issue.
10. If you have the inclination and resources start creating homemade greeting cards and sell them. You can also sell your other handmade stuff online at www.etsy.com
Got any ideas yourself? Or do you do any of these already? Do let me know. I will be happy to help generate leads or spread the word. 
