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Thinking of setting up a business from home? Maybe you want something to do in your spare time that earns you some extra money, or perhaps you want to eventually quit your day job and go in a new direction. Either way, here are some ideas for going about it.
Think about your skills
To set up a successful business from home, it makes sense to utilise your existing skills, as opposed to trying out something brand new. Chances are, you already have a number of skills and experience you can monetise from previous jobs and hobbies. Perhaps you’re already a keen hobby baker so a baking business makes sense. You might have other crafts that you’re good at that you could turn into a profitable company, think outside the box. For example if you’re skilled with a paintbrush you could design hand painted logos for businesses. In some cases you might be able to get started right away with the skills you have. Other times, it could be worth investing in a few courses to brush up on what you’ll need to make this work. Once you’ve highlighted your skills, you can think about business ideas and the direction you’d like to go in, along with the kinds of items or services you will sell.
Contact suppliers and potential outsourcing companies
The next step is to think about the logistics of running a company from home. Depending on what you will be selling and on what scale, you will likely need to delegate work elsewhere if you’re not able to do it alone. Outsourcing different areas of your business will mean you’re able to put your skills to the best use with the time you have and prevent burnout and becoming overworked. You could outsource your marketing for example, a professional company will have the knowledge to ensure you succeed, rather than you simply ‘having a go’ yourself. Not only will this take up time, but do it wrong and you could hurt, rather than help your business. If you’re selling larger items you might need to outsource fulfillment and shipping at a warehouse.
Set up a website
It’s so worth having a website set up, even if you don’t sell directly from it. Not only does it make your business look more professional but it allows you to be accessible to customers who can use it to find out more information about your business. Your website is the main ‘hub’ where you can link to your social media platforms, online marketplaces where you sell such as eBay, Etsy and Amazon. You can include information about what your business does, where you’re located or areas you sell/ ship to. You can include a gallery of your items or past work, testimonials and so much more. You could write a blog and link this to your site too, there are so many reasons why it’s important. Ensuring everything is secure and backed up to the cloud is crucial, have a professional company deal with cloud migration and the technical side of things if you’re not sure.
Set up social media platforms
Before you purchase the domain name for your new business, make sure you can get the social media handles too. Then once you’ve set up your site, create all of the social media you want to use too. Facebook is great as you can sell directly from it. Other social media sites like Tiktok and Instagram are fantastic ways to showcase what your company does and get the word out there. You will need to be creative with your video ideas and create the type of catchy, viral content that people like to see. It’s worth watching different videos from similar creators to get an idea, or again contact a company who can help you with this if you have the budget.
Take care of the legal stuff
Finally, it’s important to get registered to ensure everything is above board. It will depend whether you set up as a business or as self employed so do some research and work out which one is best for your situation. Once the initial registration and form filling is done, you’ll need to complete a tax return once a year. A tax accountant can take care of this for you and show you how to save and budget for this. Depending on what you do, you might need a number of different insurances to protect yourself as well so dont overlook this.
Starting a business could be one of the best things you ever do, both from a financial and a self development perspective.
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