Home based business / income supplement.

Looking to start a small home based business for the wife. Not looking to earn big dollars (around 10k - 15k profit per year)

I've googled ideas but have found majority are scams or have very high start up costs.

So far ideas i have come up with:

• Ebay business - problem is what to sell? Also too many currently doing this.
• food / drink vending machines - high start up costs and won't see returns for years. Bit high risk.
• Facebook groups offer a lot of home based business deals such as selling candles, Tupperware, etc but most of this is a pyramid scheme setup and person above you gets most of the reward.
• Online data entry - bit skeptical about this.

I'm leaning towards an Ebay business but question is what to sell? Would be nice to find a niche market in something.

Any one have any ideas or perhaps a lead in the right direction for a home based business / income supplement idea?

 

If you're going to do the eBay thing, it would be wise to also start up a direct website in conjunction and diver all traffic there.
eBay fees are very high and cut into profits considerably.
When we started just over 10 years ago, we were pretty much 100% eBay.
Now, for online sales, our website is 90% to eBay's 10%.

 

@Ace in the Hole thanks for the reply, appreciate it. I actually thought of you as i was creating the thread. I recall you posting about your business on ss and how you out grew your factory. Something from nothing i guess!

Good tip about the direct website, never thought of that.

 

Airport Shuttle Bus?

 

Think about what skills you already have and write it down / brainstorm to give you ideas.

 

Those drink vending machines are located in hard to get to locations. The boxes weigh a lot. You have to lift them in and out of your vehicle and wheel to machine. If the lift is out may need to carry up stairs. Not necessarily ideal for a lady.

 

This was my initial thought. Plus the returns aren't that great. One listed on gumtree is advertising 12 vending machines in various locations in melbourne for $24k. Average weekly turn over is $750 with $350 being profit. If they break down or vandalised you're screwed.

 

Look at your wifes work back ground or interests then look for the opportunities

What about virtual assistants?(correct term?, I'll be back) A friend does it i found out recently but haven't had a chance to find out more.
She could manage the bills and repairs for time poor landlords!
Those are more "jobs" though

I wouldn't bother with the pyramid schemes! You know how many mums do that crap! Then they just their **** to each other and then obliged to buy the other persons ****! Makes no sense to me

 

I like this idea. I'm guessing it's fairly high risk high reward? Obviously you would trade small so any losses are minor.

Is it worth using a stock broker for something like this? There's a stock broker on 3mp Sunday morning spruiking his business but comes across a bs artist.

 

Airbnb hosting. If she does 4 she could have a full time income from it using not too many hours per week.

 

Unfortunately all our rentals are leased long term.

 

Another option is to advertise herself as an Airbnb cleaner/manager? Probably less lucrative than being the owner though in the early stages.

 

Thanks @The Y-man . Would you say you've come out on top so far or breaking even?

 

Small learning curve . Start up cost can be huge - trading with no education will lose you a stack of capital. That said, I did this when my kids were small.

 

Not sure what your situation is or if you have children that your wife will have to work around but I am seeing more and more services popping up for meal delivery. There are already lots that deliver ready cooked meals like lite and easy but now I am seeing new businesses popping up offering meals that have all the ingredients freshly prepped and just need cooking.

There are a lot of time poor professional couples and young people with lots of disposable income that are really into their health and fitness. I am astonished at the amount of people I see spending hours in the gym working out , going for coffee or lunch and then paying a cleaner to clean their house, a gardener to do the lawns and doing online grocery shopping "because they don't have the time". Makes my head spin but there is definetly a market there.

Maybe you could look at setting up a commercial kitchen at home just for meal prepping. Make up some recipe cards and then prep the food (you know peel and cut the vegies, portion out the meat and spices, etc and package it all up) and then deliver it. You would have to contact your local shire to see if this is something that could be done from home but relatively low start up costs

Another idea for this same market - personal shopper/personal assistant. Advertise yourself as a personal shopper. I see a lot of people doing coffee in the morning/ lunch and then end up ordering takeaway for dinner because they havent had time to get to the shops. Offer to do their food shop/post mail/drop off pick up drycleaning, etc while they are out having a coffee at the local shopping centre. Shopping centres are being designed as places for people to socialise in nowadays, there's restaurants, cinemas,cafe's massage parlours, nail parlours and all sorts to keep people there for hours. You rock up at the coffee shop, grab the shopping list /errand list do the shop/ errands while they sip on a latte and then head back and drop it off to them at the coffee shop. Probably not as lucrative as the meal prep because you would most probably have to work on an hourly rate but there are a lot of people out there that have either forgotten or don't want to do simple things like food shopping, cooking and cleaning - its way more cool to get dolled up in their $300 active wear and pay $120 a month to work up a sweat than it is to actually work up a sweat cleaning or gardening

 

Dog grooming, walking