Online travel agency- All you need to know to start one

onlibe travel agency

Starting an online travel agency is no mean feat, I have had my fair share of travel mishaps.

I wished that I used a travel agency to properly arrange my travel itinerary

I once traveled with my hubby and little kids, unfortunately for us, we were delayed a bit at the immigration point.

Because of that, we could not contact the cab driver who usually picked us upon arrival.

This meant we had to pick up anyone that was available.

Our mistake, because between handling 2 tired and cranky kids and offloading our travel bags when we arrived at the Hotel.

My hubby forgot his 3 cell phones in the cab, the cab driver had left before we realized it was missing.

Unfortunately for us, it was never returned.

We called the airport hoping he took it there, but since we could not give the name of the cab driver, he could not be identified.

That was how we lost those cell phones, It amazed us that those phones were never returned.

The moral of this story, had we used the services of an online travel agency,

We will probably have recovered those phones because it could have been traced to the person who picked and dropped us off.

Having said this, online travel agency is a profitable business venture which anyone who is willing to start an online home based travel agency business can engage in.

In this post, I lay it out to you step by step how to start an online travel agency.

1 Decide the Niche you will be serving

2 Search out the Host agency to use

3 Set up your online travel agency Business

4 Market your Business

Steps to Starting An Online Travel Agency Business

1 Decide What Niche You Will Play in:

Deciding on a Niche to play in your business is a major question which everyone who wants to start any business online must answer.

In the world of online business, especially with starting a new online travel agency.

The only way you can make an impact and succeed is by deciding to play in a specific niche.

The jack of all trades master of none syndrome will not play here because

even Google, who you will need to advertise your business will not pick your website to display it when people search for travel agencies.

You may decide as you grow to increase your areas of expertise

But in starting out you cannot afford to be everything to everyone, you are not ice cream hahaha,

So choosing a niche to play in is a major hoop you have to jump.

This one single decision will determine how you will attract your customers online and how you will market to them.

In making your Niche Decision you need to answer these questions

a Are you passionate about this niche :

Passion is a key decider of what you are going to do online because an online business requires that you be willing to work on it until you succeed.

Are you passionate enough about your niche to create products that will wow your customers?

For example, in marketing any product online, you have to write about it, that is blogging.

In some cases, you have to talk about this niche in the form of podcasting.

Now if you are not passionate about your product niche you may find yourself struggling to build this business.

even though you were excited about it a moment ago.

So before you set on starting your online travel agency, you have to answer that question, what niche will I serve and am I passionate about this niche.

b Do you have the skills to serve this market:

In starting an online travel agency, do I have the skills to serve my market?

If you have worked with an established travel agency before you may be able to quickly answer this question because its something that you have been trained to do.

However, if all you have is just a desire to serve this market,

Then its time to take a course that will help you to acquire the skills you need in other to start an online travel agency.

You may also want to take some certifications in other to gain more credibility.

This is because people will always trust someone who was certified to do something, than someone who is just doing it without any formal training.

To become a certified travel agent you can look here for some courses to help you.

I will highlight some of the necessary certifications in the later part of this post.

Please note that these certifications do not necessarily mean you can not start an online travel agency without them.

It’s just that you will need them for credibility.

In the latter part of this post, I show you a shortcut to having the benefit of these certifications without you paying to acquire them.

Please understand that there is a difference between, certifications and training for your job.

Training for the business you want to start is just to help you to acquire the skills needed for you to set up and start your business.

While certifications are industry requirements which give you credibility.

c Do you understand how this market behaves :

In acquiring the skill you need, you may also want to check your industry statistics to understand what are the uptimes and downtimes for your industry.

For example, it’s not hidden that a lot of people travel during summer in the western part of the world.

That’s because the weather is good and people love to be out and about

But what you may not understand is the reverse is the case for people who live in the tropics who want to experience the cold winters in the west.

So understanding how your industry operates is a major issue in setting up your online travel agency.

Examples of Niches available in this market

-Cruise travels

-Luxury Travels

-Group Tours

-Destination specialist travels

-Disney

-Adventure travel

-Women only vacations

-Men only vacation

-Grand travels

-Disabled travelers

-Travelers with pets

d Do you have a travel agent business plan:

In starting your online travel agency, you will have to figure out how to make money in this business.

Afterall you are in business to make money right?

What will your income streams be?

An example of the income streams in travel agencies include:

-Book travel tickets for a commission

-Sell travel guides

-Book tours for Groups

-Sell travel insurance

-Offer consulting services to people who want to set up a travel department

-Sell online courses for people who want to start this business

To learn how to write your travel agency business plan read this.

2: Search Out A Host Agency To Use:

Remember the shortcut I talked about earlier, yes, this is it.

Using a Host agency as a base for setting up your online travel agency is the shortcut you will need to bypass having to get some certifications required by the industry.

So what is a Host Agency to an online travel agency

A host agency is like that big corporation that is into a travel agency business,

You sign up with them and you present your business to other people with their qualifications.

This means that the certifications they have are available to you because you have their permission to sell for them.

Think of your host agency as the big guy that has subcontracted its part of finding customers for it to you.

You get to use their Booking number and other certifications that are required for you to be accepted as a travel agent.

Pros of using a Host travel agency

-You bypass a lot of legal requirements which may require that you have your own accreditation before you start a business.

-Some of these requirements may be licenses and certifications

-Low start-up cost, because you do not have to worry about paying for accreditation before you have made money

-Opportunity to work with a known brand which already has credibility built up hence you cut down your time to market.

-Free training from them because they want you to succeed.

-You get to build up a portfolio of networks and suppliers and customers through them.

Cons

-Your business is typically dependent on them if they go south you go south

-You may find that you cannot build your own personal brand because you are using their name and number.

-Pay is commission based which will only come in after the buyer has used the service.

I am sure by now, you are itching to know the best Host travel agencies are available so you can begin to apply,

Not to worry here they are

Types of Host Travel Agency

-Avoya

-Travel Planners International

-Dugans travels

-Gifted travel network

-Nexion

-Cruise one/ Dream vacations

-Flight center independent

-Oasis travel network

To learn how to choose the best travel network, watch this video

Now that you have settled in your heart the Host travel agency to use as a travel agent, its time to set up your business.

3: Set up your Online travel agency:

To set up your online travel agency you need to take note of some legal aspects, they include:

Business license:

This includes either to set up as a DBA or an LLC or perhaps even an enterprise or a corporation.

Whatever you decide to do, ensure you are well informed as to what the tax liabilities are.

For more information on this visit Small business administration

Set up your Business:

This includes deciding from the word go how you will want to operate your online travel agency.

If you want to become an independent travel agency that has its own licenses then you have to be ready to get the required certifications and licenses.

Here are some of them

Certifications

Certified Travel agent- CTP

Travel and Tourism Professional- TTP

Total Travel certification-TTC

Professional travel agent- PTA

All these are not necessarily required before start off but they give you credibility.

Therefore, even though you may not have any as you start out, it is advisable you get one of them.

Apart from these certifications which help to boost your credibility, you are then required to have an accreditation number which helps suppliers to recognize you as an accredited travel professional.

It gives you the ability to book tickets, collect commissions and generally function as travel agency professional

Some of this Accreditation agencies are as follows as culled from Hostagency reviews

ARC- Airline reporting corporation: This is basically formed to operate for US-based travel agencies.

It acts as an accounting firm that handles financial transactions between airlines and travel agencies.

You do issue ticketing if you have the accreditation.

It may cost you up to 2000 dollars to get this accreditation and you will still get to pay 210 dollars annual fee.

To learn more go here.

IATA: International airline transport association: This accreditation firm is quite big and offers a variety of accreditation options for their accreditation number.

Their accreditation number is recognized worldwide.

In fact, if you ask me, I will say this is probably the one I have always known until I started writing this article on online travel agency.

So here are the varieties

IATA- For international travel agency with air ticketing

IATA- International with no air ticketing

IATAN- US based travel agency with air ticketing

IATAN US based with non air ticketing.

To read more about how they operate go here

CLIA- Cruise line international Association: This accreditation is for travel agencies who sell cruise line bookings.

They are specifically for travel agencies with more than 50 agents.

This means that you gotta be big before you can apply for this one

If you are just starting out this may not be for you.

However, if you want to play in this niche then the best thing to do is to join a host agency and become a hosted travel agent.

This will give you the opportunity to use their own CLIA number since you may not have one.

TRUE: Travellers retailers universal enumeration

This accreditation is mainly for independent travel agencies who sell small tour packages, they cater to mostly niche operators and are internationally recognized.

They do not sell airline ticketing but basically tours and cruises.

People who have this code can also work with a host agency so it’s a double plus for them.

To learn more about acquiring TRUE go here.

Benefits of Having your own accreditation number

-Direct commission paid to you without splits

-Build volume and status and acquire your own customers who remain yours

-You build your own brand albeit slowly

-Choice of marketing and sales cahnnels

-You choose what suppliers you want to work with

-Elevated credibility and status as a travel professional

Diffferent ways you can start your online travel agency firm

Independent travel agency: In this case you have your own bouquet of customers, you build your brand and get to pay for your own accreditation.

You also have to be responsible for training, marketing sales, and customers service.

In fact it’s like running your own full-time business.

Hosted Agent: In this case, you work as a travel agent under the hosted agencies mentioned above.

The cost is minimal, except for registering your buinsess, all you do is partner with them.

They provide you with the required traning and resources to succeed, you get paid on a commission basis.

You have access to multiple accreditations without paying for it or maintaining it.

Corporate travel department: In this case you work as an independent corporate travel departmet official for a company.

Where you are responsible for booking flight tickets and making resrvations for a companies personnel

You are like a staff member whose job it is to do such jobs, you will decide how much you are paid for your services.

If you have made up your mind on how to play in the industry, the next thing you need to do is to set up your website online.

To set up your website you will need to first choose a hosting plan

A hosting plan here has nothing to do with a travel agency in this case.

It’s just a rent you pay your online landlord so that you can build your online business which in this case is a travel agency.

When choosing your hosting plan, you should consider these key points,

The speed of your of load of your site: How long does it take for your site to load when clicked on. The industry average is 3 seconds

Percentage uptime: What is the percentage time your site is up- 99.9% is great.

Cost: How much does your hosting plan cost

There is a variety of hosting plans out there, but the one that beats all of them hands-down is Bluehost.

That ’s why I recommend it.

Because you will get a low-cost package with a very great speed of load, a high percentage of uptimes and finally great customer service available to help you with the setup.

To get Bluehost plan, click below

If you have never built a website before and you are afraid,

Not to worry, this 10 dollar resource will make your website set up, a walk in the park.

You just watch and do and your site is up within 2 hours.

To get the resource which is a Video which walks you through from the time you get your link from your hosting plan seller to when your site will be up

Go here to purchase it.

Wordpress Installation Guide — WordPress Installation Guide

4 Market your online travel agency:

If you have done a thorough job in following the steps outlined above

Then you will not find it difficult to get the customers you need in other to get your business rolling.

This is because as at now you should have determined who your customers are.

What niche you want to play in and assessed yourself to see if you have the requisite skills required.

We move on to the main gist of the matter, that is marketing your new online business.

Now that you have set up your website, the next thing is to market it to the right audience.

Before you get into marketing you have to determine what your target audience persona is

Set up your audience Persona

What is a Persona

A persona is like a fictitious person who has the characteristics you will desire in a customer.

For example, if you chose to cater to people who do special vacations like Honeymoons,

You will be looking to about to weds who may be considering going for a vacation for their honeymoon.

Some characteristics to look out for will be: their age group, market size, earning potential and also willingness to buy.

Finally, when are you likely to have a spike in the demand for such services.

Set up your social media channels

Create a brand from the onset: To learn how to build a brand for a small business go here

Blog about your service offerings

Start an email list: where you offer your readers lead magnets so that they cam optin to your email list

Partner with parallel workers in your industry: For instance, if you do honeymoon vacations partner with wedding planners and ask them to recommend you to their customers for a commission.

Launch your business: let your family and friends know that you are into this business, ask them to recommend you to their friends for a fee, this may mean setting up affiliate commissions for your customers who refer you.

To start your Online travel agency get your hosting plan now

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7 side hustle you can do to make money

7 side hustle you can combine to make money from home — 7 side hustle

This post is about that momma who may not want to start a full-fledged business but wants to make money from home. In this post, I want to describe7 activities that you can do at home to make money from home without necessarily running it as a full-time business. It does not mean it’s not hard work but it’s like a side hustle that brings you that extra income while you stay home to take care of your kids.

Most of this ideas are not full-time businesses, this is not the place where I ask you to start a Blog, because I know that Blogging is a full-time job if you want to make a success of it. These are called side hustles for a reason, they should not detract from you doing what you normally do.

So here we go

Freelance writing:

If you are what people call a wordsmith, then its time to use your skills to make money from it. When you go to places like Upwork and freelancer.com you will find that people are posting their Gigs, that is advertising their projects for someone to help them with.

Registering on such sites will give you the opportunity to sell your skills for potential income. If you are really good at copywriting you can have the opportunity to charge people who need copies written for their products which they want to sell. Another way you can make money is by registering with sites like Digital Nomads and watching out for companies that are looking to hire writers for their blogs or websites. The good thing about freelance writing is that you get to choose your own timing and how much work you want to do.

Delivery:

This a cool way of making money without having to carry people in your car.The good thing about this idea is that you can just load up your kids into the car, have a wonderful ride while making money at the same time, how cool is that.

Companies like Doordash have restaurants signed up with them who then have freelance workers like you sign up with them to help them do deliveries. The good thing is that you get to choose your working time. Another company that partners with people to help do their delivery is postmates, they do all kinds of delivery for their customers.

Personal Shopper

Are you a person who loves shopping, there is something for you to do, you can sign up with companies like thumbtack a platform that connects personal shoppers with those who need their services in that area. Personal shopping often is interwoven with personal styling, so you can find yourself thinking of taking it to a full-time business as you help more people do their shopping and styling.

Web search evaluator:

A web search evaluator analyzes search results for quality and relevance. It’s a job that algorithms do but the only issue is that it lacks the human angle to it. People are often hired by companies like Appen to help do these tasks.. You can also get to rate videos and ads quality while at it. The only downside to this job is that it is repetitive and boring and sometimes your project may end without you getting another.

Online surveys:

Online surveys are the king of side hustles if you are willing to sign up to as many as possible and be patient enough to take the surveys to make you money. It’s a major way some people make money from home, it may come in different ways, some require that you take their surveys as they are sent your way. Some pay you cash while for some you get points which you can trade for your own needs. Example of such survey companies is Swagbucks, pinecone research opinion post, survey junkie.

Transcription:

You can join companies that are looking for transcribers for their business. A Transcriptionist help transcribe audio recordings into written formats. You can also join platform like Upwork where you advertise yourself as a transcriber and get to bid on transcription jobs posted on their platform. The good thing about doing transcribing as a side hustle is that it requires little skills, all you need is your ability to listen intently and write down what you hear. An example of companies that hire transcribers is Rev

Dosh app:

Doshapp is a new app that is still in its beta testing phase but you get paid to do your shopping in participating companies.what is more, you get to make money from other people when they use your referral link to sign up. This means that you can use your Facebook page to invite people to sign up for the service and you get paid for their referral. Dosh app pays you some money when you shop and travel using hotels that are part of their network.

In conclusion, while you may not be able to combine all these activities at once, you can stager the activities by starting out this way

First, combine this set to start off by making money from home, this is because they require minimal effort and do not require much to start off.

They include Using the Dosh app, registering for online surveys, web search evaluator and delivery. As you become more comfortable, you can then add freelance writing, personal shopping, and transcription.

Do you want more of this type of posts, sign up for our Newsletter

Home staging Business 101( All you need to know )

Turn your passion for decorating into a home business. Start a Home staging business today — Home staging Business 101.

HGTV anyone, raise your hand if you love watching that show. I watched like tons of it, I loved watching how ugly homes were bought, transformed and sold at a good amount. I loved Fixer upper Flip or Flop and Love it or List it.

My love for interior décor and design started long ago when I moved to a new home. I was involved with the designer that designed my home, I got to pick the colors that worked for me and that home turned out perfect.

Today I will be talking about starting a Home staging business from the perspective of a Home business, I know that sounds cocky but I guess I will let it slide. For those who love to watch HGTV or are interested in real estate, you will always see those guys who offload the furniture and arrange empty homes to make it look beautiful before it is listed for sale, those people are called home stagers.

The work of a Home stager goes a long way to help increase the value of a home, real estate agents have been known to sell property well above their value because they engaged a good home stager who brought out the beauty of the home. They also help to create the ambiance which makes people consider buying a property.

Home staging portfolio Guide by Debra Gould — Ultimate Portfolio Guide for Home staging by Debra Gould

To start a Home Staging Business here is what you need to do.

1.Understand your Market

Home staging is like an accessory to the real estate market. This means that most Home staging business jobs in conjunction with real estate agents or homeowners who are looking to sell their homes. Home staging helps to bring out the beauty in a home and also enhance the essential qualities in a Home in other to make it more appealing to the buyer.

You will need to study your real estate market before you decide to start your business for instance, here are some questions you need to answer

-Where are the homes selling, what seasons do you see for sale signs everywhere?

-Where are the real estate agents who are involved in selling these homes and how will you approach them to market your services?

-Where is the next real estate fair taking place and how will you participate?

These are some of the questions you need to ask yourself so as to get a good knowledge of what the market is about before you dive in.

2.Put together a Portfolio:

One of the beautiful things about Home décor and Home staging is the fact that a picture is worth a thousand words. This means that once people see your photo shots, they quickly have an idea of what you can do. So in starting Home staging business, the first thing you may need to do is to put together a Photoshoot which you can use as your own portfolio, this will give people an idea of what you can offer.

Remember to take the before and after pictures so as to illustrate the difference that your services made in the home you staged. If you are just starting out you can use your own home or friends home. You may even reach out to Homeowners who are trying to sell their homes and offer to home -stage for them for free in exchange for recommendation and referrals.

3.Network with Real estate Agents:

When one is starting a business, one of the most daunting tasks is always where do I start from, how do I reach out to people who need my services. I think the first thing you may need to do is to connect to people who are selling homes, that is the real estate companies and agents and offer to work with them.

You can choose to start by showing them your portfolio or even offer free services for a start so they can see your handwork before perhaps making a commitment to you.

Another set of people that you need to connect with are Furniture sellers, renters, and logistics people and generally, stores who sell their goods to homeowners. You can also connect with local people who live in your area they are often the ones who know what homes are hot on the market, those who are eager to sell.

4.Write a one Page Business Plan:

A business plan is a document that enables you to know how to make money from your business. I know that when people hear the word business plan, their mind gets switched off especially if you don’t consider your self-business savvy but it does not have to be something fanciful, just a One-page business plan will do.

If want one, please go here to read my post on the one page business plan. Your business plan will enable you to plan and itemize your income streams and decide how you are going to make money from those income streams.

Home staging business training — Home staging Business training

5.Marketing:

Your Marketing plan is an integral part of what you will be doing in other to land your first client. Getting your name out there may require the following marketing drives

–Set up a one-page website:

To learn how to start a one build a one-page website you can read my post on how to start a Blog when you are not Techy, yes it’s not a Blog that you are starting but a simple website is no different from a Blog setting, that’s why I refer you to that post

Set up your Online Presence:

Start by setting up your different social pages like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Because Home staging business is a visual-based business, you cannot afford not to be on Instagram and Pinterest, It pays to understand what platform will enhance your business more.

Offline marketing activities will include

-Attending local reals estate fairs and distributing your marketing materials aka, cards, Fliers, and banners.

-Checking out your neighborhood for recent listings or even properties that haven’t sold in a while. Perhaps your staging business can contribute to enhancing its value.

-Submitting your portfolio to Real estate offices.

Skills that you may require start off

Home staging business is an unstructured industry, therefore, you may not need any kind of licensing in other to set up your business. Except of course incorporating your company, businesses want to deal with businesses, not individuals.

–A Natural talent for decorating, designing and staging: This may be an innate quality which you have within you in that case you just need to brush it up by reading up materials which are related to the business and increasing your knowledge. You may also decide to take a course if you can afford it.

One of the people I will advise you take a course from is an industry professional who knows what she is talking about when it comes to home staging business. You can look up Debrah Gould from stagingdiva.com she is an all-time industry personnel who offers courses in Home Staging. Her courses are pricey but I know they are worth it

-A good Knowledge of Interior designing and Home décor will be of enormous advantage.

A keen eye for organizing things: Since home staging is about arranging stuff to tell a story or create an ambiance, you should have a keen eye for organizing things to make it work

Love for shopping and decorating: You love to shop for furniture decor accessories, you know how to get a good bargain.

Revamping furniture: Love for refurbishing and refinishing Furniture to make it look new

Color combination: Natural sense of color combination and coordination

Business skills: Which includes marketing, budgeting, negotiating, proposal writing, contract drafting.

Photography: Ability to take pictures from an angle that gives the best benefit.

P.S: You may not have all these skills but if you have a love for decorating and interiors, you can begin to actually learn and implement on your small projects till you perfect it.

Turn your Passion for decorating into a full time Home business. Learn how to start a Home staging business here. — How to start a Home Staging Business

Types of services you can offer as Part of your Home Staging Business

Home staging for Sale: This involves when you are staging a home for real estate agents who want to sell their homes

Home staging for Rent: This involves when you are staging a home because the owner wants to rent out his home perhaps to vacationers or even long-term living.

Color Consultation: This involves color consulting for the homeowner to know what types of colors suits them so as to guide them in choosing the best color spectrum for their homes.

Home decorating: This involves furnishing and decorating homes for individuals who want such services and are not interested in hiring an expensive home designer.

General consultation: This includes general consultation that can be done online for people who desire to decorate their homes themselves but have no idea where to start from. This could involve, coaching calls, online written instructions.

Resources you will require to start a Home Staging Business

-A business license and structure

-A good camera

-Laptop

-Phone

-Home office

-Initial start-up capital

For more resources on how to start a Home Staging Business visit here

10 Trending Home Business Ideas in 2018

It’s a brand Newyear, and the Newyear resolutions are flying up and down, a lot of people have made decisions on how they intend to live their life this New year.

For some people, they are looking for Trending home business ideas in 2018 to tap into, while some already have their own business idea and are thinking about how to start it, for some it may be a change of job or even starting a new job

I am sure you have also made yours, perhaps you are a stay at home mom who has been longing to start a home business but has not found the guts to start one. This may be the year for you or maybe you are a new mom who is on maternity leave and you are beginning to think about how hard it will be to leave your baby and return to your workplace.

You may even be someone who is tired of the daily grind of the job that you are doing, you are in a dead end Job, you get up, work and pay the bills and the cycle continues, you have no joy in what you are doing. The prospects of you moving up is not on the horizon, and you feel stuck.

If any of this scenario applies to you, this year is another year to make a decision that will change the course of your life. The decision you need to make is to start a home business that works best with your lifestyle.

If you are working full-time somewhere else, then start a side hustle that you can build a business with. Whichever situation you are in, don’t make the mistake of ending this year the way last year ended, liberate yourself and use this post to start your life all over again.

Join my email list and get weekly posts that will encourage your journey and give you the needed boost and fresh ideas to explore.

To help your journey, today I will be talking about the 10 Trending Home business Ideas in 2018.

1 Online Restaurant

The first on my list of Trending Home business ideas in 2018 is the Online restaurant business. It is a type of Home business where you get to partner with local restaurants that you love and who provide good food.

You curate such restaurants and you partner with them by marketing their food to your audience, once you make a sale they will be responsible for the delivery of the food to the consumer, kind of like restaurant food drop shipping business.

This is a good business you can do from the comfort of your home, once you are able to develop the partnerships you can then go ahead to market to your audience.

You can make money by taking a percentage of the sales of each meal sold or by marking up the product. Any way you look at it, you can run a good side business with this idea.

All you need to do is to be sure of your delivery times and time to process it. This will work perfectly for you if you are a foodie and you already have an audience around you that share the same likes. A quality camera will be of use as you take pictures of what you hope to sell.

Statistics posits that there is also a high demand for the on- go meals, especially for busy professionals who value good and healthy food. They are also willing to pay extra for the convenience of having such meals delivered to them.

Take a look at the trend below where 55% of people surveyed looked to ordering online takeout restaurant meals as their way of eating.

Online Restaurant Trending Home business Idea in 2018 — Culled from Luxresearch

Be sure to know the rules guiding the business before you get into it.

2 Professional Organizing/Decluttering:

With many people wanting to go minimalist in their ways of living, being a professional organizer can be a lucrative business. According to Abc News, lots of Americans are choosing the minimalist living and also making it a movement.

You can offer professional organizing as a consulting service where you take a look at the entire home and you design a decluttering plan for your clients to help them move into minimalism.It will surprise you how many people do not know how to declutter their lives, they also do not have an idea where to begin their minimalistic journey.

Sitting down and consulting with such people can make a huge difference as they work towards getting rid of the clutter that their homes have become.

The Newyear is often the time when people make such decisions so now is when you can get your clients signed up. You can structure your services to be a one time service or an ongoing service where they get to pay a subscription to get your professional advice or in-house consultation.

3Virtual Recruiter ( A Trending home business in 2018)

The American economy is on the rise, this creates availability of new jobs especially as the Tax cuts occasioned by this administration will be encouraging a lot of startups and new businesses and also onshoring of funds. This article posits that the only thing that will slow this growth down is the paucity of people to man the jobs that are being created.

This creates a huge opportunity for anyone who has some level of experience in Human Resource or Recruitment. You can start a Virtual recruiting service that provides talents for new businesses. If all you have is just your skills and no money to own start a company of your own, you can sign up with a company like Relode, that is offering a hefty commission for helping them to recruit medical professionals from your network.

There also a lot of recruitment agencies who are looking for Virtual recruiters who will deliver the needed professional talents for their business to outsource to their businesses. Therefore you have no excuse not to use this as a side hustle if you work full time now and are looking to make more money in this new year.

4 Social Media consulting:

We can’t talk about the world we live In right now without talking about social media, it has become the melting pot that connects a lot of buyers and consumers to the sellers. The only issue is that companies and businesses are often struggling to learn the best strategy to reach their own consumers if you have skills in social media marketing, this is an opportunity to start a consulting business form the comfort of your home.

You can offer your services to companies who will pay you a handsome amount for your service. If you are business minded, you can develop strategies for them that will enable them to win in the marketplace. I believe that this is one business that you can start with and work towards not just running it a home business but a full-fledged consulting firm as time goes on.

5 Resourcing Talents for Homecare needs for the Elderly:

As the American population ages, more and more services are required to keep the elderly comfortable as they live longer and longer. This has thrown open new business opportunities as the companies who run the facilities for elderly care are in constant need of skilled talents who will provide the services they require.

If you have any skills or training that has to do with caregiving, you can start a resourcing company that provides talents for the elderly care industry. This is a huge market that needs lots of eye for details. The need can be for those who provide in-home care or for those who provide care for the elderly care in their facilities. Whichever one it is, you can earn a living just by resourcing fresh talents to this industry.

6 Freelance Writing:

Do you have a skill for writing good pieces that people love to read? then the freelance writing world may be your recourse to starting a business this year. I listed this option as part of the trending Home Business in 2018 because I see a huge demand for content as more and more businesses start a blog for their business.

Many people make a living writing for other people without necessarily having a blog of their own, In fact, in the blogging world, freelance writing is considered an income stream. So if you are seeking a home business that you can start, becoming a freelance writer is a sure way of starting your dream home business.

This is because there are lots of companies out there who require a writer that will consistently write for their blogs. They perhaps do not want to hire a full-fledged writer, of course, so using freelance services means that they can fulfill that need without adding to their payroll.

Some freelance writing gigs pay up to 500 dollars a post depending on how good you are. Here the more popular places you can get a freelance writing gig Elance, Upwork, ProBlogger, freelancing.

7 Online Box Subscription services:

Box subscription business is currently on the rise as many people are buying into the idea of getting boxes of products or services that are curated just for them. The first thing you have to do here is to discover which niche you want to play in if you want to know how to discover your niche, get my free ebook

The reason I wrote online subscription box is that I am actually looking at curating materials which are not necessarily physical but which are digital that can be delivered once the person pays. It could be digital materials designed to train someone in a specific area of their need or it could even a potpourri of courses carefully selected to help someone out of a specific issue. Subscription boxes are the rave now and so you will find a huge market for it amongst bloggers and online business people.

8 Dog walking services

This is a home business idea that is evergreen because for so long as humans are here, the pets will be here too. If you have a love for dogs, you can start a dog walking service in your area to help you make an income from home.

If you have special knowledge which you can deliver to your customers to better take care of their animals then you are well on your way to having a Dog walking service that has a consultation as part of its service portfolio.

9 Virtual Assistance :

Due to the boom in online businesses and home-based businesses, many home business owners now require the help of virtual assistants in the day to day running of their home businesses. I picked this option as a trending home business in 2018 because I am a blogger and I know many bloggers who have become successful because they outsourced some part of their blogging requirements to virtual assistants.

This has made it possible to scale their businesses as they became much more focused on the part of their business that they were exceptionally good at.

Starting a Home business that is into virtual assistance can be a way of making that income that eventually replaces your fulltime work income and hence enables you to get the life you want.

If you want to learn how to become a virtual assistant, then get this Bundle compiled and written by Sarah of sarahtitus.com You will find that She is a champion when it comes to becoming an excellent virtual assistant. She will teach you via her materials and blog also all you need to do to be able to start up and run.

Binders and Planners by Sarah titus — Binders and Planners By Sarah Titus

10 Data mining and Analysis:

With the boom in online business and digital marketing, corporations and businesses are consistently collecting data and churning out data that they don’t know how to use to make their business grow.

Becoming an online data analyst can be a good home business to do in 2018. It made my list for the trending home business in 2018 because Big data is the in thing right now, companies want to make sense of their analytics in other to predict consumers needs and demands in the future, I also know that data analysis is important not only to big businesses but to small businesses as well. Even people who start a blog have to keep track of their data if they want to make meaningful decisions that will grow their blog.

Now you have read all through my trending Home business ideas in 2018, over to you, do you want to start a business? sign up for my email list to get fresh ideas weekly.

The next thing will be to Join a group of like-minded individuals in a Facebook community where we encourage each other.

If you also have other ideas that I have missed, drop your comment below.

4 strategies to Jumpstart your Newyear as a Home Business owner.

It’s the last of day of the year 2017, today is probably a day of reflection for many people. It’s a time to recheck the different areas of your life to see how you ran throughout this year.

Those different areas could be your home, marriage, finances, relationships, business or career depending on which divide you fall into. You may be wondering how to Jumpstart your Newyear in the area of your business so as to ensure that you have an early start for the first quarter of the year.

Today will be that day you will be wondering how you have fared throughout the year if you had plans for the year you may want to pull out your plans and compare notes to see what you achieved.

While for some, this is an exercise that will bring exciting news as they see that they have achieved all that they have set out to achieve. For some, it may be sad because they could not achieve all they set their mind to, whichever divide you fall into, thank God that you are alive to make new plans and dream again.

Today you can take a look at those areas and begin to work and strategize to see how to take a different approach to achieve success where you failed before. In doing this I would like to share with you

4 strategies to be mindful of as you Jumpstart the New year as a Home business owner.

1 Planning ,Strategy & execution:

You may have started the outgoing year without planning or strategy talk more about execution. If this was how you ran the outgoing year, then do not repeat this same thing in the incoming year, even if you are afraid of planning, its time to whip out a Planner and begin to plan for the next year. You have to set down a laid down path to your success for the coming year if you want to Jumpstart your new year on a good note. To learn more about how to plan your week please read my post on how to kick chaos and plan your week as home business owner.

It’s a wise saying that he who fails to plan, plans to fail, Its time therefore for you to do some research on what strategies you will employ to ensure that your plan is executed. A big plan and strategy on paper without execution is useless.

A blogging binder that features — Honest Bloggers Binder by Sarah Titus

For you to execute all that you have written down, here is what you need to do

– Write down what goal you need to achieve per quarter

-Break it down into targets for the week

-Break down your targets into daily to-do lists and mark it as done once you have achieved it

– Measure and Test: You have to measure your success and see if your strategy is working. For instance, if your quarterly goal is to reach a pageview of say 3000 per month, then you have to write down your initial pageview before you begin your strategy.

You can then track your progress by writing down your weekly stats to see if you are making progress or not. This will help you to change strategy should what you not be seeing any results.

– Finally, if you have got the hang of it, rinse and repeat if it’s working for you.

2 Your Product.

Your product or service is what you are offering to the consumer in exchange for their resources, that’s how you make money. For you to jumpstart your Newyear you have to take a good look at your product line and outline what income streams you expect to produce your income this year. In doing this, here are some pertinent questions you need to answer

-Does your product meet the consumer desires? is there a demand for your product?

-Do you think your product makes an impact on the consumer’s mind? if it does not, then its time to either repackage it to make it more attractive or throw it out completely and find something else that is of value to your consumer.

-If you are a blogger, its time you did your audience analysis, what are the characteristics of the audience you desire? and are you attracting same? if you are not, what do you need to do to attract your desired audience?

Everyone will be willing to pay good money for what they consider valuable to them, so in checking the characteristics of your product, here are key points you should consider

– Is it valuable- Does your target market consider your products valuable enough to pay your money for it.

-Is there a demand for your product-

-Does is it solve a particular problem for the consumers

– Is it Unique, perhaps not in content but in approach to the consumer’s needs

-Does it have a mass appeal at least to your target market

-Is it simple to use, that is you can easily explain how it works without any issues

If your product or service answers all of this questions then you are good to go. If it does not, then you have to go back to the drawing board to either craft out a new product or re-design what you already have to answer the following questions

3 Your Finances

In this Newyear, as a business owner, you will have to take a good look at your finances both in the business and home.Perhaps its time you set goals for the amount of money you want to make per month. Do you know that setting goals often forces your subconscious mind to begin to think of ways of meeting it?

If you set a specific financial goal for your business, then you will force yourself to do everything possible to meet your goals because you know that in meeting it, you will attain a level of success that will give you the kick you need to go higher.

If it is your personal goals that you need to deal with, then go ahead and set them but remember that there has to be a pipeline that feeds it. For example, if your personal goal is to be able to save a certain amount by the end of the quarter, then you have to look for what will feed in that pipelines in other to meet that goal. It may be through budgeting, cost cutting or increasing your ability to earn more.

Your ability to successfully set a financial goal for your home business will give you a boost that will enable you to feel better as you go on to meet your life’s needs. If you are able to meet most of your financial needs as they arise, you often feel successful because that’s what it is. Your business or career is that pipeline that enables you to achieve the life goals you have set for yourself by giving you the needed finances to meet it.

4 Your Marketing

In the online business world, especially if you are a home business owner you can’t do without marketing, in fact, marketing is the lifeblood of any business. So for your business, you must have a marketing plan in place. You have to be deliberate in following through with your plans if you want to see tangible results and jumpstart your Newyear.

In your planning stage, you have already itemized what worked and what didn’t work for you this year in your business, so the next stage is to take what worked and plan how to make it work the more this year in other to yield better results. You can also put new marketing plans in place in other to see if this will make your business better.

If you have no idea how to prepare your marketing plan then its time you did a little bit of research, search for marketing plans that have to do with your niche. For example, If you want to start a blog or perhaps you are already blogging but you are not seeing results, its time to check out what your competitor who is doing better is doing so you can know what to adapt and tweak to fit your own audience.

To wrap this up, I do want you to know that running a home business is no mean feat but you have to be willing to put all you have into it to make it a success, as I champion you on via my blog.

Thank you for reading my blog all through this year, I wish you a very successful Business year ahead. God bless you and see you next year.

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Drop a comment below if you have other strategies I have not thought of below.

4 strategies to Jumpstart your newyear as a smallbusiness owner

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