Business Ideas You Can Start from Your Apartment

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By Jacob Maslow

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people were either out of work or working at home. Those who were accustomed to working in an office got a taste of completing their workday tasks in their pajamas. It may be not so surprising that many of these people did not want to venture back into the office

According to Pew Research, of those people who were working at home due to the pandemic, 60% said they wanted to continue working from home, and many people are doing just that. Not all companies agree to this, which is leading people to make a career change in favor of something they can do at home or to start their own business. 

The following are some ideas of businesses that can be run from home, even a small apartment. 

  1. Affiliate Marketing
  2. Teach Online Classes
  3. Pet Sitting and Dog Walking
  4. Dropshipping Store
  5. Sell Handmade Objects
  6. Freelance Writing and Editing
  7. SEO Consultant
  8. Virtual Assistant
  9. Cleaning and Home Repair
  10. Personal Trainer/Coach

Affiliate marketing is kind of like marketing, but it is focused on one particular client. The company pays commission to someone who does not seem associated with the company to promote their products and services. The appeal of affiliate marketing for companies is that affiliates provide an appearance of the “average joe” who is a fan of their brand or products. Affiliate marketers get a percentage of all of the sales they are responsible for as a result of their marketing efforts. 

Teach Online Classes is ideal for those who like to teach but don’t like to deal with classroom issues or have specialized knowledge that may not find its way into formal curricula. Whether it is an art or craft, how to repair things or if you want to tutor algebra, Zoom has changed the face of education and more people are open to online learning. 

Pet sitting and dog walking may require you to venture out of your home office, but you can certainly take calls, make a schedule and handle your finances from there. If you love animals and have a large number of local contacts, you can walk dogs while people are at work and feed and cuddle cats when they are away on vacation. 

Dropshipping has some of the benefits of eCommerce without the drawbacks. It means opening up an online store without having to deal directly with any inventory. Basically, you develop a brand or a store, advertise products, and when customers make purchases, you order a shipper to send them the items. Dropshipping means dealing with a reliable shipper, but there is relatively no overhead, no merchandise you need to deal with directly and you can run your store from your bedroom. 

You can sell handmade objects such as jewelry, vases, art, and quilts on a website or through platforms such as Etsy. There is no need to go it alone, but you can get together with friends, pool your efforts, make your own merchandise, and split the profits. 

Freelance writing and editing may be competitive but many people earn a living this way. There are certainly a lot of writers and editors out there, but there is also a healthy demand for content, proofreading, and ghostwriting services. You will have to show samples and clippings to get some jobs, but once you get your first client, you can build up your samples to get more work. 

An SEO Consultant is becoming a necessity for every business. With the huge number of websites and social media pages, it can be hard for businesses to reach out to customers. Keywords from web searches are still quite effective in bringing traffic to websites and pages. Not every company needs or wants to hire a full-time in-house SEO person, so they often outsource these tasks. 

Taking a course in SEO, getting work experience researching SEO, and recommending strategies can be lucrative careers. If you are also a gifted content writer, you can combine these skills for a solid profession and steady at-home work. 

A Virtual Assistant allows you to have an office type of job without leaving your home. In the lockdowns during the COVID-19 crisis, many administrative assistants got a taste of what it was like to work as a virtual assistant. While many returned to the office, some have not and have decided instead to offer their services as virtual assistants.

This involves many of the types of duties that would be done in the office, such as handling correspondence and communication, drafting emails, and updating spreadsheets, but they are done remotely. People who are accustomed to running a business from home may naturally prefer a virtual assistant rather than have someone working at their elbow. This is particularly true if the boss likes to work in her pajamas too. 

If you are good at cleaning and home repair why not offer your services to those who live in your city? Like many people who start out working for themselves in this industry, you can also expand and sit behind the desk while you send qualified cleaners and repair people to work on behalf of your company. Just make sure that you understand how to stay safe with this type of business and avoid legal and tax issues.

There is a personal trainer/Coach for virtually everyone nowadays, from getting in shape to self-improvement, parenting, and more. If you have credentials, skill,s and experience in a certain area, you can hone these skills and the knack for teaching and motivating people and create a coaching business. You can offer sessions by Zoom or in-person or a combination of both. 

This is just a brief list of home business ideas. It is estimated that 26% of the US population will be working at home through 2021, and surprisingly to many employers, productivity can be higher with at-home work. Now is the time to start your own business from your apartment and earn a living without having to leave the house.

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