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This month, we’ve been discussing many ways homeschooling parents can earn money. Today, I’d like to focus on starting and running your own home-based business.
The advantage of having a home business is that you set your own schedule and you don’t need to leave your kids home alone or with a babysitter. Sounds great, right? Well, before you get too excited, that also means that you’ll be the one handling whatever crises come up, which can at times take over your life. But hey, everything has its pros and cons, and you just need to choose which ones you prefer to deal with.
Choose a business idea
So how do you go about setting up a home-based business? Of course, you need a profitable product or service that you’ll offer your customers or clients. The possibilities are limitless and beyond the scope of this post. Do your market research, test your products, and take your customers’ feedback seriously. If you need ideas, check out this blog post: 13 Home Business Ideas That Let You Work From Home. If you need to learn new marketable skills, you can take affordable online courses and even get a nanodegree at Udacity (which is currently offering a 60% discount on all courses – use coupon code CYBER60).
Set up your website
Once you have your business idea, most likely you’ll need a website. Of course, some people sell their products from their homes to local customers, have a steady customer base, and don’t need a website. Unfortunately, many of these businesses were hard hit by the pandemic. The good news is that in today’s digitally connected world, you don’t need to limit your business to your local community. If your products are physical, you can sell them anywhere shipping companies ship to. And if your products or services are digital, you can sell them anywhere in the world where people use the Internet.
If you have money to invest into your business, you can hire a web designer to build your website. If you’re starting from scratch, or if you’re more of a DIY person, these days you can design a website yourself using simple and affordable tools.
You’ll need two things for your website: a domain name and a webhosting service. Ideally, your domain name would be your business name with “.com” added. Just make sure it hasn’t been taken. You can read more about choosing a domain name in this blog post: How to Choose the Best Domain Name (14 Tips and Tools).
Many webhosting services can also help you with your domain name. I use BlueHost for both domain names and webhosting. It is affordable and very user-friendly. Once you create an account, you can search for a domain name you want, purchase it if it’s available, and create a website through their interface. I use WordPress to build my websites. BlueHost also allows you to create email accounts you can use for your business communication.
Set up an email service provider
Another thing you will need for your online business is an email service provider AKA autoresponder. You will use it to maintain your email list of customers and potential customers. Every time you have a promotion or put out a new product, you can email your existing list and let them know about it. They say repeat customers are the best customers.
There are many email service providers out there, in a wide range of features and prices. If you’re just starting out, I recommend MailerLite – it is free for the first 1,000 subscribers, is reasonably easy to use, and has great tech support. I’ve experimented with several providers and ended up settling with MailerLite.
If all this tech stuff sounds too overwhelming, you can still sell online without setting up your own website. You can set up a store on Amazon or Etsy marketplaces. Of course, you’d have to pay commission to your marketplace, but it might be worth it if it saves you the tech headache.
Invest into marketing
Once you have your website or online store set up, expect to spend a significant percentage of your time and efforts on marketing. Most businesses are slow to start, so don’t get discouraged if your sales are low in the beginning. But do increase and improve your marketing efforts. Learn as much about digital marketing as you can. You can take affordable online courses at Shaw Academy (which offers a 4-week free trial) and Udacity (which is currently offering a 60% discount on all courses – use coupon code CYBER60).
Lastly, don’t do this alone! Running a home-based business while homeschooling is not easy. Connect with like-minded friends for advice and inspiration. Find mentors you can turn to when you get stuck. And feel free to reach out with any questions in our Facebook group.
Good luck! You can do this!
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