Home Businesses You Can Start Fast for No Money

Five Home Business Ideas That Don't Need Money to Start

By
Leslie Truex
Leslie Truex
Full Bio
​Leslie Truex has over 20 years of experience as a writer and a home entrepreneur. She was the Home Business Expert for The Balance Small Business in 2013.
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Updated on November 20, 2019

There is a saying that states you need to spend money to make money. With a home business, that isn’t necessarily true. It is possible to start a business from home without having to invest much money. Sometimes, all you need to supply is time.

Using the knowledge, tools, and resources you already have, you can start a home business today. History is littered with successful businesses that were started with little or nothing, except a giant desire and the commitment to make it work, no matter what. In fact, commitment and tenacity are two of the most important assets to have in ensuring home business success. If you want the freedom and flexibility to work at home as your own boss, here are five ideas you can start now for nothing.

eBay and Amazon

Ebay Reports Quarterly Earnings
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

One of the great aspects of eBay and Amazon is that you can start by selling the items currently cluttering your home and attic, and you don’t have to pay anything until after you've made a sale. 

The trick to success on eBay and Amazon is to find what sells well and at a good profit, and then find a resource for more inventory. For example, if you have name-brand children’s clothes from your kids that sell well, you can take the money you earn from eBay sales to buy more at the local thrift store or consignment shop.

Finally, eBay and Amazon are not your only choices. There are many websites where you can sell your used and unwanted items to make money from home.

Blogging

Two food vloggers making video while prepping vegetables in kitchen
Klaus Vedfelt / Getty Images

The most successful bloggers invest in a domain name and web hosting, which, of course, isn’t free. However, many of them started their blogs on free blogging sites, such as Blogger.

Once they started making money, they bought a domain ($10-$15) and forwarded it to their free blog URL. When they made even more money, they bought hosting and moved the site.

Along with affiliate income, you can make money blogging by using ad feeds, such as Adsense, through an email newsletter (you can get free email list services at MailChimp), and creating your own information products, such as ebooks and courses. All of these can be done free.

Service-Based Business

Dog licking face of female interior designer working at home office desk
Hero Images / Getty Images

You can take nearly any skill you have and start selling it simply by telling people you can help them.

Are you handy around the house? Let your friends and family know you’re available to help them with repairs, painting, and other honey-do items. As long as you have the equipment already, it costs you nothing to access your network. 

There's a ton of service business ideas you can perform, from pet sitting to organizing to tutoring. Don’t want to leave your home to work? There are many service business ideas you can do from your computer, such as web design, tutoring, writing, virtual support, bookkeeping, and a host of other ideas. Simply pick a task you're good at, then find people who need help and are willing to pay you.

Writing

Serious young student writing in book while studying at table in university
Maskot / Getty Images

While you can offer writing as a service as mentioned above, you can also write and sell your own works. This includes writing books, information products, and home-based courses. People go online for information and they’re willing to pay for it if it’s something they believe they’ll enjoy or that will help them.

Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing allows you to publish your digital or print books for free (or for a fee if you want more services). Plus you can sell them from Amazon's site. Amazon can also distribute your print books to other retailers, such as Barnes & Noble.

Microwork

A young person with his feet on a desk
PJB/Getty Images

Microwork isn’t a home business as much as it’s freelancing, but it still allows you to work from home on your own schedule without paying money to start. While microwork seems like a lot of work for little income, it’s free and there are reports of people making $1,000 to $2,000 a month. 

What is microwork? Basically, businesses need small, time-limited projects done, such as researching, proofreading, writing, and data entry, and they crowdsource the work to hire someone to get the work done. 

There are many microwork sites, suck as Mechanical Turk and TaskRabbit. To maximize your income, you’ll want to join and work at several microwork sites.