Finding the right business idea is often the most difficult part of setting up a home based business. Any business is successful only when you solve a problem specially when you don't have lot of money to make people use it, which is mostly done by big companies. 
When starting your first business, it’s not always the smartest idea to dive in head first, especially if you don’t have the money or expertise (yet) to dominate a brand-new industry.

Ideas are worthless. So many entrepreneurs waste time trying to find a "big idea" and bring some new concept to market. Just stop. Look around and what people are spending money on. Sell that stuff.
Ideas don't make someone a millionaire. Selling the finished product is what produces revenue.

How profitable and how high a potential your business idea has absolutely nothing to do with how technically superior your offerings are against the competition but has all to do with the strength of your network. If your idea or business is leveraging on an already existing pool of quality leads, great (it doesn't matter if this is personal to you or provided for by a third party). If not, good luck building your own.
Read: 8 Steps to a Perfectly Written Business Plan 

Be prepared for challenges and keep innovating.

10 Profitable Home-Based Business Ideas

You can start any of these home based businesses for lowest investment

1. Toilet Roll Production

If you are in Nigeria where I am writing from, you’ll know that the government has banned the importation of finished toilet rolls. There can be no better time to veer into this business. As a toiletroll producer your income and profit potential is unlimited plus you can start the production of toilet rolls in a small way and grow big over time.

For those who are also well capitalized, you can be sure that it’s a business you’ll never regret venturing into.

Market analysis alone show that we need over 1 billion toiler tolls per anum, while at present total production estimate is still below 500 million. This supply gap provides the smart entrepreneur with tremendous.

In this article we’ll not recommend any toilet roll making machine but bear in mind that there are very good locally made machines and cheap imported ones that can produce over 800kg of toilet paper daily.
Also read:

• 3 Simple Steps to Business Success 
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2. Woodworking business at home

Woodworking and wood carvings are the early age industry in USA, Europe and Asian country and one of the fastest growing industry in Asian economy. Apart from mainstream wooden furniture,  wooden handicraft also possesses a vast cultural and ethnic diversity which is applied to a range of themes, techniques, and crafts. Much of this growth is fueled by the huge demand for the domestic market and access to modern machinery to meet this demand. Technology up-gradation & capacity expansion is a strong focus area today for the woodworking business entities in Asia.

Woodworking business can be initiated as small scale and home based basis. The field is hugely diversified and only you need to select the right product. American Woodwork Industry uses various kinds of woods, for example, Walnut, Sandalwood, Teak, Sheesham, Deodar, Ebony, Redwood, Rosewood, Red, Cedar, Sal, and much more. Recently, embedding of brass wires has gained lot of attention worldwide.
Also read:

• 20 Home Business Ideas for Entrepreneurs 
• 15 Low-Cost Home Business Ideas That Anyone Can Start

3. Digital Photography Center/School

Turn your love for photography into a big business in the coming year. The photography market is a multi billion dollar market. That is why many big corporations like Sony and others are into it.

If you have a passion for pictures and photography but you are not perfect, then you can do two things. Take an online course on udemy and learn all there is about it. Secondly, you could decide to work for a professional photographer as well before going solo.

There is enough market for digital photography, enough to net you 100-500 thousand dollars annually. But you have to think outside the box. You have to network with the big players and be different from the road side photographer.
Also read:

• Top 10 Best Budget Cameras for Bloggers 
• 4 Recommended Camcorders and Cameras for Vlogging

4. Specialized Skills Center

If you have a passion for helping others, then you can open a centre for empowerment and organize specialized skills impartation trainings. This is an area of business I am involved with and I can tell you, it’s worth it.

Though it’s not a get rich quick business opportunity, the point is you’ll be doing what you love and making cool cash doing it.
What specialized skills would you teach? There are hundreds and thousands of them. Fish farming, laptop repair, web design, sales and marketing, etc.

You don’t even need to know any of the skill. You can invite those who have it and be the proprietor.

5. Hotel Lodging Agent

This overall need to travel that's shared by average citizens and corporate denizens alike means that this is an excellent time to launch a travel services business. The travel industry is huge. Research by the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA) indicates that the travel and tourism industry generates $1.3 trillion in economic activity in the U.S. every year. That's equivalent to $3.4 billion a day, $148 million an hour, $2.4 million a minute and $40,000 a second. No wonder the opportunities for aspiring travel services business owners abound.
If you want to keep your overhead low and your profits high, this could be the type of business for you. Thanks to the internet, home-based agents have at their command all the same tools that used to be available only at a traditional brick-and-mortar travel agency. The internet also has delivered another important advantage to home-based travel services: Such businesses are no longer expected to be brick-and-mortar.

6. Envelope Production

Envelope making business opportunity demands little knowledge about school and office stationery supply. The envelope is still an important office and school stationery item even in today’s internet era. Apart from that, every greeting card needs to have an envelope. In the domestic market, we find different types of the envelope such as the plain envelope, coloured envelope, envelope printed with organization’s details, envelope with window and envelope made of useless papers.

By establishing small envelope making unit you can produce desired quantity paper envelope automatically. Envelope making is one of the most profitable home based manufacturing business ideas one can start as part time also.

Apart from paper envelopes, there is an another potential market for synthetic paper envelopes. From the same unit you can produce this also. The demand for the synthetic paper envelope is also increasing day by day in view of making envelopes for despatch of magazines, books etc. Because of its strength, good printability, weather resistance, synthetic papers/envelopes are preferred.

7. Conference Vendor

Many organizations hold specialized meetings and conferences every year. Knowing this provides one with a unique business opportunity.

A conference vendor is not an event manager. Rather one that produces gift items and souvenirs those organizations will issue to their conference participants. Gifts or conference packs like bags, pens, books, etc

There is no doubt that you can start this business without capital as all you need is ability to walk around and talk a lot and tell seminar or conference organizers what you can do.

Of course you need to do a small home work like knowing exactly the cost of each item you’ll be proposing to produce for the conference organizers. You also need to keep your eyes and ears open on TV s and radio to know upcoming events and socialize quickly with your proposals.
A facebook page about your service is a great place to start your marketing from.

8. Public Relations Service

Public relation specialists’ goals are to have the media take notice of their clients’ accomplishments and on-going work. With an education and background in advertising, public relations, communications, and journalism, they are good at portraying their clients’ public image to garner worthy recognition and attract the attention of prospective customers.

Success Tips: Join a local PR/media organization and any industry associations related to your PR niche to develop networking contacts and find potential clients. Encourage client referrals; and keep in touch with current clients with a web site, regular e-mails, your own business’ releases, and the use of social networking sites.

9. Landscape photographer

Landscape photography takes focus and observation, qualities many introverts naturally embody. Opportunities for a landscape photographer can be enormous, and there’s immense room for learning. There are a number of ways to generate income from being a photographer: shooting for websites or publications, selling prints or usage rights of your images or, if you’re skilled enough, offering classes to other aspiring photographers.
The steps to create his business were simple: coming up with a name and purchasing an LLC. Although equipment can be expensive, there are alternative ways to keep down costs -- renting equipment and studio space is a viable way to save money in the beginning.

10. Catering – Specialized

Business owners, individuals, hotels, conference managers, event planners, and others who are holding special events all seek caterers to supply their meals. Have a standard price with add-on extras. Only a couple U. S. states permit commercial cooking from home, so be sure to adhere to all licensing and food preparation regulations. Many food entrepreneurs plan from home, but rent commercial kitchen space for the actual food preparation.

Success Tips: Formal chef training and work experience in the industry will hone your skills and establish your expertise. Stand out from competitors by offering specialized menus such as low-carb, low-sugar, vegetarian, ethnic, or other specialized foods to your clientele.

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