Remote Business Ideas: Be Your Own Boss & Work in Your Pyjamas

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With the increase in population and increasing job loss, it is no doubt that people are actively searching for remote business ideas. Starting a remote business gives you a boss status and the option of working on your terms.

Furthermore, as a remote business owner, you have the opportunity to become a digital nomad. In addition, most remote businesses have extremely low startup costs. Some can be started just with what you already have.

This article has a list of the most lucrative remote business ideas you may use to launch your next business and potentially replace your 9-5 job.

Let’s get started.

1. Transcriptionist

Sitting down to listing to a one-hour audio file can be boring for most people. It is for this reason that outsourcing the transcription of such files is the best option to adopt. However, if you have enough time in your hand, this is one of the remote business ideas you can easily take up.

In addition, you’ll easily make a lot of money if you are transcribing a file from other languages to English. Files that be transcribed are audio, video, podcast, and webinar files. Furthermore, podcasters and video creators will like to repurpose their podcasts and videos and turn them into blog articles. That makes them your potential clients.

You can use Rev.com, Fiverr, and Upwork to land transcribing gigs. Similarly, you can approach bloggers who do podcasts or are Youtubers and offer your service directly to them.

2. Virtual Assistant

A virtual assistant’s major responsibility is to assist individuals in carrying out tasks, primarily through the internet. As a result, this is an excellent employment choice for those with a lot of leisure time, such as stay-at-home parents.

 While you may feel that this is merely a part-time job to supplement your monthly income, it does necessitate effort and focus. Other businesses will want to engage a virtual assistant so that they can focus on the things that are most essential to them.

The beauty of this business is that it will give you the opportunity to learn a lot of skills, depending on who or what business you are working with. It will also afford the opportunity to meet people and make connections beyond your borders.

SEE: How to Make Money as a Virtual Assistant

3. Video Editing

The world is advancing, therefore certain things that may not have much appeal are now yielding money. Video editing is one of such. While you expect media houses to have their own video editors, instead, they do outsource it and cut down on cost.

Most commercials on TV, social media channels, big Youtubers, etc., make use of video editors. This is done to free up time for other essential duties. With that being said, video editing is something that can be learned and mastered within a short space of time.

There are numerous videos on YouTube that will show you how to edit videos. You might find video editing lessons on Skillshare, Udemy, and Teachable if you choose to pay for your education.

Openshot, Adobe Premiere, Camtasia, FinalCut Pro, and other popular tools can be used to learn video editing.

4. Selling Websites

If you are techy enough, you can opt to go the route of setting up websites and selling them for profit online. There are people who will not want to go through the hassles of starting a website from scratch, they rather prefer to purchase an existing one and scale it up.

The ideal approach to make money with this business idea is to make sure the website you’re selling already has a lot of traffic. Moreover, if the website is already making money, then you are sitting on a goldmine. You can easily sell a website already making money for twenty times its profit.

Finally, a popular platform for selling websites is Flippa. Head over to Flippa and list the website you want to sell. Once accepted, you’ll start receiving bids for your website. Please ensure you use escrow service to avoid scammers.

5. Domain Flipping

This is similar to selling websites, however, this time just domain names are being sold. Short and premium domains are obviously in short supply. If you’re thoughtful enough to come up with a memorable domain name, you can sell it for a lot of money.

To come up with domain names, you can use domain name generators. You can also come up with domain names by visiting websites that curate expired domains. Expired gems with domain authority, backlinks, and organic traffic can be found on such websites.

Finally, your domain name can be sold on Flippa, Sedo, or Warriorplus. While selling any domain name, it is best to list out the features of the domain and what the buyer stand to gain. This will help you to easily sell off the domain.

SEE: How To Make Money Flipping Domains

6. Article Writing

There are lots of online publications that require the services of article writers. The best part is that you can easily carry out this service over the internet without meeting your client in person. All you have to do is to get the gig, write the article, deliver it to your client and collect your pay.

To be able to succeed in this business, you’ll need some form of research skill and be able to work without supervision. You can sign up to Fiverr and Upwork to get writing gigs. In addition, you can utilize Facebook groups as well.

SEE: How to Make Money as a Writer

7. Forex Trading

Probably you didn’t see this coming however, with enough capital, this is one of the most profitable remote business ideas. This is one business that cannot only be done from home but also using your phone.

There are lots of videos on YouTube and also online courses that will teach you how to trade forex. One thing to be aware of in this industry is “greed”. You must be willing to set your daily target and once reached, just leave the market.

In addition, don’t start forex trading with an amount you are not comfortable losing. This is simply due to the high risk and volatility involved in the currency market. Try as much as possible not to open multiple trade positions at once. Before this is done, ensure that already running trades are at breakeven.

If you intend to get into forex trading, brokers like FBS, Hotforex, and Exness are a good try. Finally, try to demo trade for a sufficient amount of time before trading live.

SEE: Effective ways of making money trading forex

8. Affiliate Marketing

When you make a commission by selling other people’s stuff, you’re doing affiliate marketing. You don’t have to own the product you’re selling to be successful at affiliate marketing. Simply direct more people to the sales page, which will result in more sales and a greater commission.

You can sign up to promote other people’s items on a number of different platforms. WarriorPlus, Jvzoo, Clickbank, Amazon Associates, Digistore, and other similar sites can be used. Please keep in mind that while some affiliate networks demand approval before you can promote any product, others do not.

In addition, it is best to only promote products you have used and can actually write quality reviews about. This will enable you to review the product from a better perspective.

Furthermore, one approach to adopt as far as affiliate marketing is concerned is to do launch jacking. With launch jacking, you’ll be promoting upcoming product launches that have less competition.

SEE: How to make money with affiliate marketing

9. Create an Online Course

Do you think you have sufficient experience in a sector where others require assistance? Then simply create a course and profit from your expertise. Before you launch an online course, you don’t need to be a certified teacher. The only prerequisite is that you know a little more than the person next to you.

An ebook, a video, or a subscription platform can all be used to structure an online course. When it comes to selling digital courses, you don’t always need to know everything there is to know about the subject. You should be able to find the information you need by conducting a quick online search.

In addition, one advantage of setting up an online course is the little startup cost involved. If it’s an ebook, you just need to put down your knowledge into written form and you are good to go.

You can sell your course through online learning sites after it’s ready. Using a well-known online selling platform with a large user base is preferable. You’ll start noticing sales from the platform’s users this way. You can also hire affiliates to help you market your course, but you’ll have to compensate them for their efforts with a commission.

SEE: How to create an online course like a professional

10. Blogging

On a daily basis, the knowledge industry is growing, as such people are turning to the internet for information. This is one of the best remote business ideas that run from anywhere in the world. You just need access to a laptop and internet connection.

Before venturing into this business you need to first validate your niche to be sure there is a demand for it. To be successful with this business, you have to be consistent with posting on your blog. Note that your blog will experience Google sandbox for a period of time before your blog will start showing up on the search engines.

You can monetize your blog by displaying Google Ads and accepting sponsored posts on your blog. Affiliate marking is another means of monetizing your blog that you can explore. Depending on your niche, Clickbank, MarketHealth, WarriorPlus, and Jvzoo are affiliate networks you can use.

SEE: Best ways to monetize your blog

11. Drop Servicing

You can easily make money providing services online without ever doing the job yourself. For instance, you can set up a website for a logo design service or article writing, once you receive an order, you simply get another person to perform the service for a much lesser price.

Logo design, article writing, video editing, transcription services are some of the gigs that can be drop serviced. The earning strategy in this business idea is to price your service high and get it fulfilled for a much lesser amount.

To get clients for your service, the best way to go is to use paid Google advertisement.  This way, your service can be easily seen by people searching for such services online. Finally, you can use websites like Fiverr and SEOclerks to fulfill your order.

FAQs

What is remote business?

A remote business is such that can be run without meeting your client in person or at a physical location. Obviously, it is a business that can be done from anywhere in the world. In most cases, remote businesses are majorly done over the internet.

Are remote businesses taxable?

Yes. You are liable to tax returns irrespective of whether you work remotely or not. However, this is subject to the enabling tax laws where you live.

The reason for this is because the most government sees remote businesses just like a day-to-day regular business.

Conclusion

The remote business ideas in this post will ultimately serve as a springboard for you to start a business. The best business to start is one with less startup cost and in which you have existing experience.

However, you must know that while starting out, you must be ready to face certain startup challenges. This is typical with any new business but varies from one business to another.

Out of the lists of remote business ideas mentioned above, my recommendation is to start with blogging and if you have some digital skills in demand and administrative skills you may want to become a virtual assistant.

You can check out this post, it contains a list of businesses you can start with low startup costs. As you make money from your remote business, you may want to consider those.

Thanks for reading.