Practical, Work at Home and Home Business Ideas

Here's a list of work at home and work from home tips and home business ideas. These are not the usual get-rich-overnight-while-doing-nothing schemes, though some of them have potential for huge income.

Some of work at home ideas have a longer learning curve. Please d o keep checking back for updates.  

1. Garage Cleaning: Most garages need cleaning or complete overhaul. It is a task that many people will gladly pay someone else to do for them. You could be that someone else. Offer your services to home owners, especially in medium to high income brackets.
2. Commercial Cleaning: Residential or business (office) cleaning is in demand, and some people are cashing in and making nice incomes. Offer business and/or upper income residents to do their office/home cleaning work. You choose to be paid room, squire foot or hourly.
   Starting a Cleaning Business
   Instant Office Cleaning Kit
3. Concierge/Corporate Concierge: Help individuals and firms with tasks like picking up dry cleaning, returning videos, finding limousine services, event planning, taking cars for oil change etc.
4. Child Day Care: A child day care in your home if you have a basement or extra room/space. You need to purchase small chairs and tables, games, toys, and outdoor play items. Prices vary with area and/or neighborhood. Most states require a license and some training, especially 1st Aid and Child CPR. Starting a Day Care Center
5. Information Abstractor: You sum up an article into a paragraph or two, without loosing the essence. You have to be fast and knowledgeable in your chosen field.
6. Errand Service: You charge hourly to perform a wide variety of errands for clients. Busy moms, single parents, executives and seniors are good targets. If you have a van or truck you could deliver packages and pick up supplies for business.
7. Web Writer: Track down articles on certain subjects. A genuine interest or knowledge in the subject helps a great deal here. You put the pieces together to make one tasty and satisfying snack.
8. Relocation Consultant/Specialist: Your work is to help new people moving into a city find a home/apartment, job, schools etc. according to need. This works best in high-population cities.
9. Perfumer: Play around with different combos of essences until you come up with a fragrance that’s pleasant and unique.
   The American Society of Perfumers
   Perfumers World
10. Personal Shopper: Not to be mistaken with Mystery Shopping (below). Your job is to shop for busy executives. You charge hourly, and might include gift wrapping.
11. Mystery/Secret Shopper: You get paid to pose as a customer and shop at department stores or malls. Your work is to report back to the company about service, cleanliness etc. You get paid hourly or by gift certificates, and in most cases you keep your purchases. Shopping Jobs Here
12. Personal Chef: Requires great culinary skills or you be a trained chef. As a personal chef, your work is to create and prepare great-tasting customized meals for individuals and families (that can afford the service, of course). United States Personal Chef Association
13. Bed & Breakfast: You need an extra room or two that you can rent out. You don’t need an extra bath but highly recommended. Best around tourist attractions. Breakfast can be simply coffee and/or juice and a bowl of cereal. Starting a Bed And Breakfast
14. Computer Tutor: If you have a knack for working with computers you can earn some extra cash helping newbies to learn how to operate systems.
15. Export Agent: Learn the basics of exporting (the better if you’ve worked with exporting firms). Offer exporting services to small-medium companies/manufacturers for a commission. Start an Import Export Business
16. Resume Writer: Many people find resume writing scary and would gladly pay someone else to do it for them. You can make a full-time living in Resume writing- some resume writers make six-figure incomes! Resume Writing Course
17. Hair Care:  If you're good at cutting/styling hair, offer to cut or style at peoples' homes or offices. Charge slightly lower than the barbershop/salon. This saves busy people time and money. You could arrange to do this on regular basis, so they get their hair done regularly and you have a steady income.
18. Lunch/Dinner Delivery: Most people would like a nice home-cooked meal, but don't want or have no time to do the cooking. If you’re a good cook you can offer to deliver home cooked meals for lunch, dinner or both. You could also specialize in ethnic dishes if you have a large population of a certain community in your area.
19. Drop Shipping: You can s ell products that you don’t have to ever store, ship, or even touch. Buy for wholesale price and sell for retail (read profit). Better still, you get to use your customers’ money to buy the products that you’ve already sold leaving you pure profit. This is the beauty of Drop Shipping. The drop shipper packs and ships the products to your customer in your name. How sweet is that? Directory of Dropshippers
20. Candle Making: People, women especially, love candles for themselves or as gifts. They would especially love unique handcrafted, scented candles. This could be both fun and financially rewarding for you.  Gel Candle Recipes 101
21. Crocheting: If you love crocheting, you can make some extra cash with this. Better still, this is something that can be done at odd moments- what's better than to earn some money utilizing time that would have gone to waste, while doing something you love? Crochet for Profit
22. Photography: Banks, insurance and advertising companies need up to date and accurate photographs of cars, boats and properties. It’s impractical to have company representative in all areas and will gladly pay someone to do this. You could be that someone. Easy Photography Home Business
23. Online Auctions: People are making handsome incomes from home through online auctions, especially eBay™. And no, it’s not about emptying your garage (what happens when your garage runs out of stuff?). Also works well with Drop Shipping (#19 above).
    eBay Sales Machine
    Make Loads Of Cash On eBay

Remember, you need very little money to start a work at home or home business venture, and you can start in your spare time. I will continue to update this article with more ideas and tips. Keep watching this page.

--------------------------------------------------------------- 

About the author: David Kamau is the owner of http://mercantilecentral.com which specializes on work at home resources, ideas and tips as well as self-improvement. Receive updates, work at home and home business tips and ideas as they come- go to http://mercantilecentral.com/subscribe.htm  
  

**Attn Ezine editors/Site owners** 

Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site so long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content and include our resource box listed above. You may substitute affiliate links with your own.