Stay-At-Home Parents – Great Business Ideas and Tips for You

I want to welcome tonight’s guest blogger, Janet Campbell. She emailed and asked if I’d be interested in an idea for parents who want to work at home. I said, “Yes, please!” And this is what she wrote . . . 

​If you are a stay-at-home parent looking to contribute to the household income, then it is a good idea to start a business out of your house. These days, more people are working from home than ever before and there are many great business ideas that you can turn into a full or part-time job. Rinda Beach shares these tips for businesses you can start, and how to get your idea off of the ground.
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Part 1 – Business Ideas: The evolution of technology has made it so that just about any modern office job can now be done from the comfort of your home, so you have many options when it comes to creating your new business. When you are considering potential ideas, think about what you are good at or what you enjoy doing and the odds are that you can make a career out of it.

Source - Unsplash

​So, if you love writing and corresponding with others then you could be a professional freelance writer. If you are good at playing a particular instrument, then you could start a business where you tutor others online. If you still need help coming up with an idea then there are many other at-home jobs that you could consider, including:

​​* Professional dog-walker                       * Consultant 
*  Massage therapist                                   * Virtual assistant                        * Personal Trainer            
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Part 2 – Building Your Business: Once you know the type of business that you want to start, it is time to start building your company from the ground up. One of the most important steps will be choosing a business structure.

You could start a sole proprietorship, an LLC, or a corporation. Determining factors may be what the future may hold. If you want to limit your liability and gain tax benefits and flexibility, then an LLC is the way to go.
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Since you will likely be doing much of your correspondence and business dealings online, you will also want to have the proper protections in place to prevent cybercrime. In addition to antivirus software, backup servers, and a strong firewall, you will also need to create a recovery plan. Essentially, this is a strategy that you can fall back on should you be hacked or targeted by cybercriminals, and it will dictate the steps that you should take after a breach, including which programs you will need to recover first, how you will do so, and how you plan to notify your customers of the intrusion. 
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​Part 3 - Getting Paid on Time With Invoicing Software: If you're running a small business, there's a good chance you're doing a lot of your billing and invoicing manually. Perhaps you're using Excel spreadsheets or Word documents to track what your customers owe you. Or maybe you're still using paper invoices that you mail out (or hand deliver) each month. There's nothing wrong with any of these methods per se, but they are all somewhat ineffective and inefficient.

This is where invoicing software can come in handy, which offers a number of benefits for small businesses. Perhaps most importantly, it can save you a lot of time. With automated invoicing, you can set up recurring payments so that customers are billed automatically on the same day each month. This means you don't have to spend time creating and sending invoices each month - the software will do it for you.

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Part 4: Designing a Logo:  A logo is more than just a pretty image - it's an essential part of your business brand. Your logo is one of the first things that potential customers will see, so it's important to make sure that it makes a good impression. A well-designed logo will convey professionalism and instill confidence in your business. It can also help to build customer loyalty, as people are more likely to remember a business with a recognizable logo. The easiest way to create a logo is by using an online logo maker. This tool offers a large variety of logo templates to choose from which can be customized with your choice of icons, design elements, and images.        
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​ Part 5: Finding Customers:  Once you are all set up, the next step is to find your customers. As a first step, you should create a website that explains what your business does, how you do it, and how you can be contacted. As you start getting customers, it is a good idea to ask them for reviews and then put those comments on your website so other customers can see that you have a high-quality company.

With your website completed, you now need to find a way to market your services. Many people choose to go on social media to talk about their business. Consider trying social tools such as Facebook and Google Ads. For a small fee, you can use these products to elevate your marketing strategy so that potential customers will see your business first before your competitors. Finally, when you do land customers, ask them to refer their friends, and before you know it, you could have a substantial following.

If you’re a stay-at-home parent with a great idea for a business, it’s time to put it to the test. By building your business, using invoicing software, designing a standout logo, and finding customers, you can launch your venture and set the stage for the extra income you need. 

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