Small Business Ideas for Women at Home: Working with Realities

Eva Rosenberg is the owner of www.irsexams.com, a home-based online business she founded based on her expertise in accounting www.irsexams.com

Small business ideas for women at home are driven by two realities.

The first reality is the constraint of obligations at home. Whether by the choice or duty to care for others (e.g. children), most women staying at home do not have very flexible work availability when it comes to time and location.

This does not even necessarily mean these women need to work less hard and fewer hours; they just need to do it on their own time and at their own location, said Eva Rosenberg, owner of www.irsexams.com and www.taxmama.com.

Most small businesses started by these women, therefore, are Internet-based, which affords them the flexibility in time and location.

One route women at home can take is starting Web sites or blogs and monetizing the incoming Web traffic through online advertising (e.g. Google AdSense) and affiliate marketing.

Another route is to set up Web sites to sell their own products or services.

To get started and achieve success, Rosenberg suggested attending reputable conferences and reading helpful guides. One trusted resource for online entrepreneurs is Ken Evoy’s www.SiteSell.com, which still offers this helpful free eBook, said Rosenberg.

The second reality is that women at home often have more to offer than some of them may think.

Many of these women have hobbies and expertise that can translate into successful small businesses. By staying at home, they may also be extremely familiar with the needs of running a household.

Moreover, many women find success by building on top of their husbands’ existing careers.

Jacqueline Freeman, for example, set up www.equinenaturalmovement.com to market her husband’s horse training expertise, according to Rosenberg.

Rosenberg started www.TaxMama.com to dispense tax advice and www.irsexams.com to teach courses on passing the Enrolled Agent (EA) IRS Exams.

Shari Fitzpatrick, with “only a $1,500 cash advance and a passion for chocolate-dipped strawberries,” managed to build her home-based small business into a multi-million dollar empire. (Today, her brick and mortar operations have shut down but one of her online operations, which she sold to Provide Commerce, still exists).

“They key is to follow their passions,” said Rosenberg.