If you’re looking for the top 10 ways to make money from home, look no further. I will show you how you can take charge of your life right now and be your own boss. I’ll walk you through the exact process I followed that allowed me to leave my corporate job and start my own business.
COVID-19 has created a lot of disruption in our lives. We’ve had time to reflect on what’s important and what’s not. Some of us lost our job. Others learned new ways of doing theirs by working from home or taking meetings on ZOOM.
What will your life look like post-COVID?
Maybe you want the freedom to work from anywhere. Perhaps you want to quit your job and be your own boss, realizing that you don’t want to go back to the 9 to 5 rat race. Or, maybe you want to create a side hustle to earn some additional money each month.
Now is the time to make that pivot and chart your new profitable path.
Step 1: Get Your Mind Right
The first thing you want to do is get your mind right. Move away from worry, fear and anxiety. Create a mindset of positivity and abundance.
This is the number one thing that I had to change in my life in order to succeed at my own business. My mind was so conditioned to think as an employee. My paradigm was one in which I traded my time for a paycheck. Then, I lived in fear that I was going to lose my job. I was caught in that cycle.
Once I changed my thinking, it gave me the courage to take a leap of faith, quit my job and start my own business. I discovered that people will pay me for what I know as long as I’m solving a problem for them.
You have everything you need to get started. Your own unique set of skills, experiences and relationships are the foundation for determining what your new work-at-home (or from anywhere) profitable business will be. So, start taking stock of what possibilities lie ahead for you.
- What are you good at?
- What do you love to do?
- What got you super excited as a child or a teenager?
- What special skill or knowledge do you possess?
- What are you passionate about?
- How can you turn your unique experience into something of value for others?
This is also the time to start thinking not about just surviving and paying the bills, but about how you’ll create a thriving business that will create wealth for you. Time for some bold moves!
Step 2: Assess Your Current Situation and Resources
Now it’s time to assess what resources you have. Access to resources will differ from person to person. Realistically, where are you financially? Are you living week-to-week or do you have some savings set aside to cover expenses as you build your business?
Are you currently working? If so, can you start a side hustle around something you’re passionate about or utilizing some special skills or knowledge you have, while your job pays the bills? I did this for a while.
Or, is this a full-time venture? Maybe you lost your job or are thinking about quitting and doing this full time. Either way, do you have the resources to pay your monthly expenses until your business starts generating revenue? Can you get unemployment? Can you ask your current employer to keep you on as a consultant or contractor and work part-time?
Resources also come in the non-monetary form.
- Networks and relationships you’ve developed. Can you turn to them for support?
- Your skills, knowledge and other intellectual capital.
- Your contacts. Probably your most valuable asset.
Think about eliminating expenses or downsizing, if you can. Early on in my pursuit of being a freedom entrepreneur, I sold everything I had (earned money) and lived in an Airstream trailer while I hatched my new business. All the stuff you accumulate can actually weigh you down emotionally. It can be really liberating (not to mention lucrative) to get rid of your excess baggage, so to speak.
Step 3: Create Income Streams – The Top 10 Ways
There are unlimited ways that you can make money from home. And, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel in order to be an entrepreneur. There are plenty of existing opportunities in high demand and many of them can be up-and-running fairly quickly.
Learn to become an affiliate marketer
Affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting other people’s (or company’s) products. You find a product you like, promote it to others and earn a piece of the profit for each sale that you make. This is how most people who create online businesses get started.
Full disclosure, it’s how I got started.
The basic approach is you find something you’re passionate about or want to become an expert in. Then, you build a niche website around that topic. Your goal is to help people solve a problem related to that niche. For example, my first affiliate marketing site was a site that helped family caregivers find the best care for their loved one.
You then promote products that are associated with that niche. When someone clicks on a link to that product (called an affiliate link) and purchase the product, you earn a commission.
You can earn money while you sleep. A dream job, right?
There are a lot of platforms that will teach you about affiliate marketing. I used a company called Wealthy Affiliate. I wrote a thorough review of Wealthy Affiliate if you want to check it out.
Be a virtual assistant
Do you have office experience? If you have any of the skills below you could work as a virtual assistant. Virtual assistants are in high demand.
- Answer emails and phone calls from customers
- Make travel arrangements
- Schedule appointments
- Make cold calls to generate leads from a provided spreadsheet
- Create content to post on the company’s social media channels
- Conduct online research to find address and contact details for a given list of companies
- Prepare presentations according to instructions given
- Perform data entry
- Social media management
- Customer service
- Updating websites, or
- Managing calendars
Do freelance work
Freelancers are in high demand for a lot of different skills. Many content creators such as writers, artists, musicians, graphic designers, and marketers are all popular. Or, become a freelancer in your current line of work. I was an HR Director for many years and have done freelance HR work for small businesses who couldn’t afford their own HR person.
There are dozens of websites committed to connecting freelancers to those in need of their services. Some of the more popular ones are:
Teach a course
Do you have a skill that you can teach? Maybe you’re an existing yoga instructor, personal trainer or love teaching people how to cook. Move your classes online. The sky’s the limit here. Millions of people are searching the internet for training or instructions on how to do just about anything. Turn your teachable skill into an online class.
You can offer private lessons (or small classes) using the Zoom conferencing platform. I think most of us know how to use Zoom by now. I know someone who taught an online class on how to use Zoom! Facebook Live is another option. If you need to get up to speed on the Zoom technology you can register for a class to learn the basics.
If you are uncomfortable doing “live” teaching events or want to scale up your teaching platform, you can film an on-demand course. There are several platforms where you can host your course including:
Sell your products online
Are you a maker? Are you crafty? Do you knit, sew or make something that you can sell online?
Etsy is a great platform where you can sell just about anything. If you’ve been on Etsy you know that you can find just about anything there. Turn your craft into a profitable online business.
If you want to have your own storefront to sell products, Shopify and WooCommerce are platforms that will help you get your own storefront online.
Write a book and publish on amazon
I remember someone telling me recently that everyone has at least one book in them. Write a book and publish it on Amazon. Traditional publishing has been on the way out for a while. Now, it’s easier than ever to publish your own book on Amazon.
I published a book several years ago and can attest to how easy it was. Coming up with the content is all you need to do. My book was not an international best-seller but, yours might be.
Consider this:
- Over 70% of books are sold on Amazon
- 310 million book buyers through Amazon last year
- Those buyers accounted for over $178 billion in sales
- It’s easier and faster with Amazon self-publishing
Self Publishing School has created this step-by-step guide on How to Publish a Book on Amazon.
Make deliveries
If you have a car and want to earn some money, consider making deliveries.
Seniors and others still need groceries, prescriptions and meals. By becoming a delivery driver or personal shopper, you can help them stay safe at home. There are some top-name companies providing delivery services such as InstaCart, DoorDash, Postmates, and Uber Eats. And, the demand for these services continues to grow.
For an in-depth look on those and other delivery companies, check out this article on the 10 Best Delivery App Jobs.
Start a blog
Many successful entrepreneurs make their money from blogging. By creating content that is relevant and engaging, you can organically grow an audience to your blog. You can monetize your blog by building up a following and gaining sponsorships and ad revenue, or promoting their online courses.
Here are other ways you can monetize your blog:
- Make Money With WordPress Affiliate Marketing.
- Display Google AdSense on WordPress.
- Use a WordPress Advertising Plugin to Sell Ads Directly.
- Sell Sponsored Blog Posts.
- Get Paid to Write Reviews.
- Earn Money by Flipping Websites.
- Get Public Speaking Gigs as an Influencer.
Blogging or vlogging can be profitable in the long run, but are not to be considered quick cash. It will take commitment and time to build up a devoted audience.
Sell your photographs online
If you’re a photographer, why not sell your photos online and make some money?
As a photographer, you can easily earn some extra cash (or even start a new career!) if you know the right places to sell your photos online. Photographers of various skill levels are in high demand for their work, now more than ever. Everyone from large corporations, small and medium size businesses to bloggers, graphic designers, marketers and publishers buy and use photos regularly online.
A few of the top websites that sell stock photography are:
Flip items from flea markets and thrift shops
Did you know you could make A LOT of money flipping items from Flea Markets and Thrift stores on eBay?
Rob from the Flea Market Flipper is the MASTER flipper and made over $130,000 flipping items from Flea Markets and thrift stores PART-TIME online.
You do not need to have a lot of money to start either. Rob recommends that you start with a budget of $20-$50 to find items. Based on that, you should be able to make $100-$300 (mostly reselling on eBay) and then take some of the profit and do it again.
Step 4: Take Action
Your time is now.
I hope this article has given you some inspiration to start taking action toward being your own boss and making money from home. Building your own business and creating streams of income is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It will take focus, discipline and some hard work.
Every job, every experience, every relationship, etc. that you’ve had up to this point has prepared you for this next chapter. Write your new story. You have something of value that other people are looking for and will pay you for.
Leave a note in the comment section below if I can help you in any way on your journey.
Go for it!