10 Best Small Business Ideas For the Home

More and more people making the decision to work from home. There are literally thousands of possible ideas available, many with very affordable startup costs.

Direct Sales

There are hundreds direct sales company options to choose from. Whether you love jewelry, home décor, cooking, crafts, pets or clothing, there is a direct sales company for you. Typically, all that is required to begin is the purchase of a “Starter Kit” of products and paperwork and acquaintances who are interested in hosting parties.

Personal Shopper

If you love to shop, this job is for you. Many people don’t have the time or desire to shop and will gladly pay someone to do it for them. Offer to shop for everything from groceries to gift items, on a weekly or biweekly basis.

Lawn Care

Lawn care services might include mowing, sidewalk and driveway edging, raking leaves, pulling weeds and lawn irrigation. You can start out small with just a push mower and a few other inexpensive yard tools.

Pet Sitting

Pet sitting services can typically be provided in your own home or the home of a client. You can specialize in taking care of just dogs and cats or offer to care for birds and exotic animals as well. Some pet owners may require that you be bonded.

Personal Chef

If you love to cook you can provide generalized cooking and baking services or target a favorite niche, such a vegetarian, Chinese or low-carb menus. Typically, cooking in someone else’s home does not require licensing.

Web Design

If you love to create web pages, this is a home business that requires very little in startup funds. In addition to creating web sites, you can also provide clients with banners, logos and graphics.

Senior Care Services

With the increasing number of seniors who want to stay in their homes, a senior care service is typically a lucrative home business. Not only that, helping these folks with the tasks of daily living can be personally rewarding, as well.

Affiliate Marketing

If you love sales and the Internet, affiliate marketing might be just what you’re looking for. There are millions of products to choose from and several ways to market them. Companies pay you a percentage of each item you sell.

Tutoring

Turn your knowledge into income. Individuals seek tutoring services for everything from music lessons to crafts to cooking to general educational topics. You can choose to offer services at your home or the home of a client.

Cleaning service

There will always be the need for cleaning services. You can offer to clean homes, commercial buildings, attics or garages. Typically all that is required to get started is a wide variety of cleaning products and the physical ability to perform the job.

SaleHoo – Your Convenient Way of Doing Business Online

A lot of people are looking into another source of income aside from their jobs. This is because many are feeling the effects of the economic crisis. And to find more ways to earn money is the hope of many to make ends meet each day. And since traditional sales business is so complicated to get started, people have found ways to do business online. Now there are lots of online stores that sell anything you will need.

With an online business, one can have the freedom to sell anything they wish without spending capital money. This is because of the many dropshipping companies out there like SaleHoo. This is the largest online directory wholesale listing of possible product suppliers for your online store. It may carry all sorts of items like clothing, accessories, electronics, gadgets and even crafts. SaleHoo has tons of suppliers that can provide the products you want for the online store that you are putting up.

SaleHoo has made doing business more convenient and easier. This is because all processes that your business needs to go through are done through the internet. An online seller just needs to get in touch with a supplier for the items. This way, the seller can post the photos of the items in his or her online store. Once an order is confirmed, the seller will just have the supplier ship the items directly to the buyer. Doing business is as easy as that with SaleHoo.

With SaleHoo, you do not need to worry of running out of stocks since it carries lots of possible suppliers for your online store. You can also have tons of time for yourself since almost all transactions will be made using the computer. Now, you can do your work while your online business is running.

The Full Time RV Lifestyle – An Alternative Lifestyle That is Increasing in Popularity

In North America there are an estimated one million full time RV’ers. Many who are not acquainted with this lifestyle will usually have a vision of an old decrepit trailer in a mosquito infested RV park near a swamp. But the truth is far from this picture. The Full Time RV Lifestyle is becoming the lifestyle of choice for many retirees and mobile workers. RV’s have also come a long way from the trailers seen in low budget movies. Now a days it is common to see beautiful coach type motor homes and large fifth wheel type trailers on our highways and parked at various tourist attractions. These are the modern day RV’s.

A look around the inside of one of these modern RV’s gives the sense of home. All the conveniences are built in. Many of the new units even come with washer dryer combination’s and even dishwashers. Except for the size these units are comparable to almost any other type of home. The major difference is the fact that the view out of the windows can be changed at will. Your home can be in the mountains one day, and on the seashore the next. You can be parked beside that beautiful fly fishing lake in Canada, or on the beach in a small Mexican town. I have done both.

A luxurious RV can usually be purchased for much less than the price of a home. Once the RV is purchased, long term Spots in high class RV parks can usually be found for less than $500 per month. This price usually includes things such as power, internet, water, sewer, and park amenities such as swimming pools, meeting rooms, saunas, jacuzzi s and laundry rooms.

It does not take very long for a person to realize that the RV lifestyle affords very luxurious living at a very economical price. In many cases much less than most peoples current lifestyle. A case in point is a co worker who pays more just for the property taxes on his home and small property, than I pay for my long term RV pad. I have access to a swimming pool, sauna, jacuzzi, and also included are free internet, water, sewer and mail service while he has to pay extra for each one of these.

If my coworker gets tired of where he is living he has to attempt to sell his home, then buy a new one and make a move. All at great expense. I on the other hand just have to start the engine and search for a new view that I can enjoy for a period of time.

For a retired person who has always wanted to travel, the RV lifestyle is ideal. A person can have their own home, wake up in their own bed, cook their own meals, and yet for a very reasonable amount of money can travel almost anywhere they want to in North America, and stay as long as they want.

With the advent of internet connections through cell phone and through satellite both for a very reasonable amount of money, a person can also run a business on the road. A customer is not going to know if you are working out of an office with a view, an office in your basement, or out of your RV which is parked on that Mexican beach. My wife runs a virtual assistant business out of our RV, and rarely sees her clients. The beauty of this approach is the fact that many of the expenses of the RV lifestyle can be written off, since visiting clients around North America in your RV would be a legitimate expense.

The RV will also enable a person to visit relatives and friends around North America, but not have to rely on these same relatives and friends for accommodation. A welcome will not be worn out near as quickly if you have your own home parked in the driveway, or at a nearby RV Park. For short term stays, all that is needed is usually a place to plug in for enough power to run the fridge and keep the batteries charged, and possibly a tap for water. But an RV can do without these and be totally self sufficient.

As full time RV trend increases, the real estate sales person will be replaced by the RV sales person, and as with any trend, when demand increased we will see more and more beautiful RV parks, and services for RV’ers.

My wife and I have lived the Full Time RV Lifestyle for over 10 years, we could not see ourselves back in a stick and stones type home. Many of the fantastic Full Time RV’ers that we have met seem to share the same sentiment. It is a lifestyle that is waiting to be discovered my many other people.

Accent Furniture or Occasional Furniture – The Difference

What is the difference between accent furniture and occasional furniture? Many people are unsure of this, but does it really matter and what makes an item ‘occasional’ or ‘accent?’ the terms are not truly definable, but can be explained by offering examples or by describing the function of each – so both ways are used here so that you can understand the relative terms when you hear them used.

Accent or Occasional Furniture – Does It Matter?

Does terminology really matter? Generally no, but it can do if people use the term to you in conversation or even when you are looking for new furniture for your home. However, in general terms it does not matter at all whether your table is described as an accent table or an occasional table.

In some cases occasional and accent furniture can be the same – but to say that, the definition of these terms must first be agreed. The term ‘accent’ should be easy to understand – just like an accent in language, furniture of this type should emphasize a certain style, such as a statue of the jackal-headed god Anubis in an Egyptian-themed room – a home accent need not be furniture!

Examples of Occasional Furniture

Coffee tables and end tables are examples of occasional furniture. There are alternative definitions for this type of furniture, the two most common being furniture that is used ‘on an occasion,’ and furniture that is used only ‘occasionally.’

Each of these definitions is so broad, that they could practically be said to be fundamentally the same. The former definition would include coffee tables, used on the occasion of drinking coffee – or any other beverage or drink. It would also include all furniture used in a lounge used only when visitors arrive, or even in a spare guest room. Definitions are a poor way to describe furniture.

The second definition used ‘occasionally’ would refer to exactly the same furniture, but also include rockers, particularly the old-style hickory rockers that you might use occasionally when in the mood. You might occasionally use an ottoman to sit on if all the family arrived to visit. Quite frankly, definitions are needless when people know what occasional furniture is.

It is not a sofa or armchair, and is not a dining table or a bed. Fundamentally, occasional furniture comprises the minor pieces that support the principal items of furniture in a room. The tables mentioned above are two examples, as are other functional pieces such as the lift chair that is used only when an elderly relative visits or chest, nightstands and ottomans that are occasionally in use.

Examples of Accent Furniture

Often referred to as ‘accent pieces,’ accent furniture is used to add character to a room or to emphasize a theme – such as the Anubis statue mentioned earlier. A chess table used for decoration is accent furniture, as is a decorative small round table holding a vase of flowers or a reed diffuser. An accent piece is generally smaller in size than the main furniture in a room, and often has little practical use other than a decorative one.

A small table in an entrance hall is accent furniture, along with a chest in a hallway and a large free standing globe in a home office. It sets a theme or a mood, emphasizes a trend or even complements the purpose of a room such as an ornate oriental footstool in a living room.

These are definitions of accent furniture and occasional furniture in the eyes of many people, but if you asked any individual for their own definition they would either be unable to answer or would likely offer a different one.

You can use accent furniture to complement the decorative style of a room, and this type of home furniture is most commonly found in living rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms and hallways. It is rare in a kitchen, since most kitchen furniture is functional, and even rarer in bathrooms although large bathrooms can be enhanced by accent furniture in the form of free standing toiletry racks or carousels for lotions and decoratively colored bath salts.

Much occasional furniture is completely functional and used regularly, such as ottomans used with recliners and coffee tables that are in daily use. The terms are given, not to define the pieces, but to establish a compartment that separates such smaller items from the larger forms of furniture common to specific types of room such as the jewelry cabinet from the dresser and the end table from the sofa.

How you define the respective terms of occasional furniture and accent furniture is your choice – there is no rule, and in this case definitions do not really matter.

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