The sheer gamut of types of home-based business seems to boggle the mind. With internet connections and shipping and picking at small warehouses, the sky is the limit. One popular type of home-based businesses are catering and other food businesses. Service businesses can run from Medical Billing to temporary staffing companies. Public Relations companies abound from home offices as well as other types of writers and advertising people.

     Sales and shipping of goods can be done, with the shipping done from a “pick ‘n pack” warehouse. You make the bulk shipments to this type of warehouse. They then can take your email instructions to pick orders and ship them out of this stock. Orders can be sold by you the owner, or your hired sales representatives, on the phone or at trade shows. Spending thousands to open up week-long exhibits at trade shows may seem expensive, until you remember that you’re not paying $10,000 a month for a downtown office, you are working from home.

      David P. decided that he could put his enthusiasm for playing pool to work. He designed his own brand of pool table with the assistance of a professional designer, and had it made in China, as his own brand. Next, he opened a store on eBay. The pool table is shipped to a warehouse in Southern California, with 3 to 20 pool tables orders to customers shipped out from there. Shipping is by specialized carrier, which is a bit of an advantage, since David has less competition. He says that “UPS or the USPS are not going to handle anything that heavy and irregularly shaped, so the bigger difficulty in shipping opens up the market more to me, and keeps out people who can’t stand the hassle.”

     Another idea is to heavily use contract employees. If you have contract employees, they don’t have to be in the same office as you are and you can meet them periodically at home or at a coffee shop, and otherwise network with them over phone and email. These can be sales people, by-the-sheet designers and even bookkeepers. Many banks that provide factoring services, the early cashing in of accounts receivable at a discount, also for a small percentage fee will do in-house accounting and tax services. 

     Please remember to take zoning laws seriously. Once you start bringing employees into your home, you start facing parking issues and other matters that have to be dealt with locally. A huge amount of Americans are involved in home-based businesses, with some estimates as high as one in ten U.S. families involved in this. With the high costs of commuting and downtown real estate space, internet networking and phone connections have taken the place of many office based businesses.

     Many people love the idea of a home-based business, but fear the isolation. This can be dealt with in several ways. Join a trade association and come to meetings. Have parties and get-togethers with former co-workers and current suppliers, where possible. Trade shows are great to go to, even if you are not exhibiting.  Bring a lot of business cards and work the crowd, you never known who you will meet. Many people use methods to conceal their home-baseness, at least until they get to know a client. You can use a mail box store type place. Most such stores let you put your box number as your “suite.” Likewise, apartments in large residential buildings can seem to outsiders like offices. 

          Types of home-based businesses are as numerous as the ideas people can dream up. Key niche markets are the goals of home-based organic food businesses. They can supply local outlets, and chains such as Whole Foods Market and Trader Vic’s. Green business has also hit the home-business target screen. These include the installation of solar panels and other green contracting, but also all sorts of businesses that get certified for energy consumption reduction. Businesses, including home-based business can purchase renewable energy, and “carbon credits,” signifying a commitment to lowering the emissions of CO2 and its alleged association with climate change. In some areas, home owners can purchase energy from wind farms and other “green” sources.