Businesses to start from home

[XJ75]

My wife has recently found herself in a position whereby she will be on 4 months gardening leave. She hasn't enjoyed her job and is looking for something new to do. Whether or not she ends up back in a 9-5 aside, I am trying to think of something that she can start from home, which could potentially grow into something to replace the 9-5 long term.

Ideally something with minimal overheads/start up costs, in case it doesn't pan out and she goes back to an office job. I used to be a web developer so I'm leaning towards something web-based as I'll be able to help get her set up.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

[singlecoil]

XJ75 said:

Ideally something with minimal overheads/start up costs, in case it doesn't pan out and she goes back to an office job. I used to be a web developer so I'm leaning towards something web-based as I'll be able to help get her set up.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Minimal start up and running costs puts her in the same bracket as a great many other people. When the barrier to entry is so low then there will be a lot of people entering.

A web site will be of little use without a good way of driving traffic to it.

[XJ75]

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.

She's a business analyst in banking, but doesn't necessarily want to pursue something similar. She enjoys problem solving/analysis, but I don't think many businesses that you can start from home would lend itself to that. Income is relatively irrelevant, she/we don't need her to make any income to get by. Either a lifestyle business or a proper business. We have no children or other commitments (yet), but that may change in the future.

singlecoil said:

Minimal start up and running costs puts her in the same bracket as a great many other people. When the barrier to entry is so low then there will be a lot of people entering.

A web site will be of little use without a good way of driving traffic to it.

Don't mind some start up costs, she's just not in a position to plough £100k into something that might not succeed.

I know digital marketing and SEO relatively well too, so I can help her with that also.

[BoRED S2upid]

singlecoil said:

Minimal start up and running costs puts her in the same bracket as a great many other people. When the barrier to entry is so low then there will be a lot of people entering.

A web site will be of little use without a good way of driving traffic to it.

Depends what content is on the site

[chonok]

As above, generally to start up a business that will turn into a 'proper' business that can at least provide you with a worthwhile income, you will need at least one of the following;

A skill/service you can offer
A great idea for an invention/new product
Lots of start up capital
A passion for something

Please just don't let her go down the route of something like forever living products if she has any friends...

[XJ75]

I personally think there's mileage in a web design company specialising in template-based sites for small businesses with small budgets. Knock together a Wordpress site in a couple of hours and charge £200.

There are a lot of agencies out there that would charge Joe Bloggs Dog Walking Services £1k for a static 5-page website.

[singlecoil]

XJ75 said:

I personally think there's mileage in a web design company specialising in template-based sites for small businesses with small budgets. Knock together a Wordpress site in a couple of hours and charge £200.

There are a lot of agencies out there that would charge Joe Bloggs Dog Walking Services £1k for a static 5-page website.

I've no doubt that between you you could offer a good product at a good price. Thing is, how are you going to get the customers? Being good at SEO will help, but I think you will need more than that.

[jamoor]

singlecoil said:

I've no doubt that between you you could offer a good product at a good price. Thing is, how are you going to get the customers? Being good at SEO will help, but I think you will need more than that.

I don't even think you need to get that far, it may just be an online presence for businesses that are generally established by word of mouth.

A good example may be a car mechanic, alot don't have websites as their custom is through word of mouth however a web presence always helps.

[daemon]

XJ75 said:

I personally think there's mileage in a web design company specialising in template-based sites for small businesses with small budgets. Knock together a Wordpress site in a couple of hours and charge £200.

There are a lot of agencies out there that would charge Joe Bloggs Dog Walking Services £1k for a static 5-page website.

I've thought about that before and i've thought it could actually work.

Also, if you charge them a small ish maintenance fee per month then you've got some income coming in regularly too. It could be just updating with the latest offers or some sort of social media presence

A good friend of mine is a car body man. Does not advertise online. No idea how to, but really needs to as his customer base has faded over the years.

I'd have thought a simple website, a social media presence and some free adverts on gumtree would go a long way - but hes no idea how to do it.

[bearman68]

OK, here's a view from a 'car mechanic' guy.

I hate the idea of monthly ongoing maintenance costs, and this would drive me away from a web designer.
I would be happy to pay for someone to tidy up our website, and I would like him to come to me, and have a chat, and sort things out for me. I'd be happy to put words on paper, and make some photo's. I would want an easy to use site I can edit whenever I fancy, and I would be happy to pay for training - nothing too formal, just a few hours, and a few phone calls for when I get stuck. I'd then be happy to pay for upgrades or major rewrites.

I'd be willing to chuck in £1000 or so for the service up to a rewrite.

Is this helpful for you? - I suspect I am representative of many small businesses, especially in the car game.

Cheers

[daemon]

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.

And you're building up an income stream, rather than just a one off payment in one month.

[singlecoil]

bearman68 said:

OK, here's a view from a 'car mechanic' guy.

I hate the idea of monthly ongoing maintenance costs, and this would drive me away from a web designer.
I would be happy to pay for someone to tidy up our website, and I would like him to come to me, and have a chat, and sort things out for me. I'd be happy to put words on paper, and make some photo's. I would want an easy to use site I can edit whenever I fancy, and I would be happy to pay for training - nothing too formal, just a few hours, and a few phone calls for when I get stuck. I'd then be happy to pay for upgrades or major rewrites.

I'd be willing to chuck in £1000 or so for the service up to a rewrite.

Is this helpful for you? - I suspect I am representative of many small businesses, especially in the car game.

Cheers

So you would evidently like a bit more business, and yet there is no link to your website on your profile. Not even an area, just 'United Kingdom'. You could be missing an opportunity there. It's perfectly allowable to put such info on your PH profile, and there will be threads sometimes where it would be quite in order to tell people what you do, then it's up to them to look at your profile and contact you.

[Bikerjon]

XJ75 said:

Knock together a Wordpress site in a couple of hours and charge £200.

Very easy to spend twice that amount of time just writing emails and having telephone conversations with the customer before you've even setup the hosting! Get a fussy one and the endless tweaks and adjustments that follow could see you working for less than minimum wage. Not saying it couldn't be done, but you have to be ultra careful when working on a fixed price. The kind of customer who jumps at the prospect of a website for £200 won't be the one who signs up for monthly maintenance either.

I think there's a better market for a combined website/SEO/PPC/social media expert for small businesses. I think that would be a much easier sell for a monthly fee too.

[Yipper]

Brothel.

[akirk]

XJ75 said:

I personally think there's mileage in a web design company specialising in template-based sites for small businesses with small budgets. Knock together a Wordpress site in a couple of hours and charge £200.

There are a lot of agencies out there that would charge Joe Bloggs Dog Walking Services £1k for a static 5-page website.

Think it through carefully, not convinced it is a good idea...
- as others have mentioned you will blow your budget with support calls.
- you are competing against hundreds of websites offering free or cheap Wordpress templates
- you are competing against the big boys like Template Monster who offer thousands of templates from c. £50 with really good documentation and support - they are so good that we use them for many of our clients and we build websites from cheap to many tens of thousands - a good template saves design money and allows us to put more into the business process areas...
- the web design market is very strange, large agencies at one end of the scale, and then at the other end companies providing cheap solutions to a sector of the market who basically don't want to spend money and can be a nightmare to deal with.
- Generally those wanting to spend £200 actually don't want to spend anything and will look for free Wordpress templates, those prepared to spend sensibly are prepared to spend more than £200 on a website...

[daemon]

akirk said:

- Generally those wanting to spend £200 actually don't want to spend anything and will look for free Wordpress templates, those prepared to spend sensibly are prepared to spend more than £200 on a website...

What about - as was subsequently suggested - wrapping that up in a monthly fee to include the initial site, updates to site with say, a regular blog, a social media presence and online advertising?

[MockingJay]

Ecommerce + Facebook ads is a winning formula. Find something she is passionate about to sell and she should do reasonably well as long as she researches the market properly beforehand. Start up costs can be next to nothing.

[jamoor]

daemon said:

What about - as was subsequently suggested - wrapping that up in a monthly fee to include the initial site, updates to site with say, a regular blog, a social media presence and online advertising?

And subcontracting the entire thing to an Indian or Bangladeshi.

[daemon]

jamoor said:

daemon said:

What about - as was subsequently suggested - wrapping that up in a monthly fee to include the initial site, updates to site with say, a regular blog, a social media presence and online advertising?

And subcontracting the entire thing to an Indian or Bangladeshi.

That made me laugh out loud. But yes, probably the way to do it - front the sales, then offload the boring bit to a cheap resource.

[daemon]

MockingJay said:

Ecommerce + Facebook ads is a winning formula. Find something she is passionate about to sell and she should do reasonably well as long as she researches the market properly beforehand. Start up costs can be next to nothing.

Genuine question - and hopefully you're advising this based on experience - isnt "selling" on facebook groups / gumtree / ebay saturated these days? Plus how do you get a line of stock that every one of your more experienced competitors can probably get in bulk for less?

My three passions are computers, gaming consoles, and cars. Have tried reselling all three over the years. Waifer thin margins due to a saturated market driving the prices down constantly.