23 Home Business Ideas for 2026 (+ How To Start)

A home business idea is for any company you run from your house, garage, or spare room instead of an established place of business like an office or storefront. Your company could be a one-person online store run from a laptop and an in-home stockroom, or you can have employees report out of your home for a licensed service business.

US Census Bureau data shows 29.8 million nonemployer businesses made up $1.7 trillion or about 6.8% of the 2022 US economy. Data shows that most of these are self-employed individuals running small unincorporated businesses, many of which may operate out of their homes.

This guide covers how to choose a home business idea that fits your skills and schedule, 23 proven ideas with examples across ecommerce and services, and the steps to legally start and market your own home-based business.

How to choose a home business idea

A home business is a business that you operate out of your home, rather than a rented office, warehouse, or storefront. This could include any kind of company, from a one-person dropshipping store or a licensed in-home daycare with employees to a freelance writing business or a candle brand made in a personal kitchen.

The tools to start a home business, like an ecommerce website builder, payment processor, and laptop, all cost far less than renting a commercial space.

But you need to find the right idea for your skill set, your space, and the time you have to dedicate to it. Use these three questions to help brainstorm:

• What assets, like skills or a network, do you already have? Assets like a network or skill honed in a previous job, a long-time hobby, or a social media following you’ve built can give you a head start in building your home business.
• How much time can you give it before it needs to pay you back? Service businesses like freelance writing or bookkeeping can start bringing in income as soon as you find clients. Other types of businesses, like becoming an influencer or content creator, can take more time to build momentum.
• How much money are you willing to risk before your first sale? Some ideas can get started with a quick website and some LinkedIn posts, which doesn’t cost much or take much time. Others, like a home daycare, require licensing and startup capital before you can legally get started.

For a first home business, online services, print on demand, resale, tutoring, and digital products are some of the most beginner-friendly starting points. You can find out if customers are interested in what you’re offering before having to buy inventory, hire employees, or rent space. 

Finding customers is what ends up being the most difficult challenge for most new home business owners. In a 2025 Shopify survey* of store owners, 36% cited finding customers as a top Year 1 challenge, and 53% cited word of mouth as their most common Year 1 growth strategy. 

That means the fastest route to a first sale is usually the people you know, which is why existing networks are valuable. Look to past coworkers, neighbors, and your current social following for your first customers or group of clients.

23 best home business ideas

There are many types of businesses you can start from home, all depending on your skills, budget, and how much time you have to dedicate to it. Here are 23 business ideas and examples to consider:

• Buy products in bulk and sell them online
• Sell homemade products
• Start a dropshipping store
• Start a print-on-demand business
• Offer online services
• Teach online classes
• Sell digital products
• Grow an audience you can monetize
• Buy an existing small business
• Rent out a spare room
• Play video games professionally
• Sell your art
• Launch a photography business
• Start a beauty business
• Start an affiliate marketing business
• Start a daycare
• Flip items on marketplaces
• Start a dog-grooming business
• Open a pet daycare
• Sell books online
• Start a business with the help of subcontractors
• Start a home catering business
• Run a spa or salon out of your home

1. Buy products in bulk and sell them online

When starting your first home business, don’t reinvent the wheel. Instead, try a reliable, low-investment business idea, like buying popular products in bulk and selling them individually for a profit.

Find products people already want, negotiate a deal with a wholesale supplier, then build an online store to promote the catalog. A no-code, drag-and-drop website builder like Shopify makes that setup fast.

The key to a successful home reselling business is savvy product selection. Ways to source profitable products include:

• Conducting trend research. Scroll through social media to find trending products before they take off.
• Serving a niche. Target a specific audience, as catering to a niche market can be easier than a broad one.
• Importing from other markets. Bring products popular in another market or geographic location to your own.

For example, Founders Charlotte and Dave Cho started Soko Glam in 2012 to bring Korean beauty products to the US, a category that was still niche stateside at the time.

Buying wholesale is a versatile business idea. You can create a simple reselling store, but there are other ways to turn this into a unique home business.

Start a subscription box business

The global subscription box market is set to grow from $41.47 billion in 2025 to $49.7 billion in 2026, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.8% in a single year. That growth is exactly why new direct-to-consumer subscription brands keep popping up alongside major retailers experimenting with recurring boxes of their own.

If you can curate a desirable product selection, you can start a subscription business from home. 

Founder Ashley Reynolds did this when she bundled surplus products into subscription boxes to sell on her ecommerce site, Cloth & Paper. An existing ecommerce business can use the same model to move otherwise dead stock.

Sell used items

Whether inspired by sustainability or frugality, 93% of Americans bought a secondhand item in 2025. When sold or marketed online, the practice is called recommerce, combining “reverse” and “ecommerce.” It means moving products back into circulation through resale, refurbishment, or peer-to-peer marketplaces. 

ThredUp’s 2026 Resale Report estimates the global secondhand market to reach $393 billion by 2030, growing two times faster than the overall apparel market. That growth reflects the various ways to build a home resale business, depending on where you source inventory.

• Liquidation. Liquidation auctions and wholesale liquidation pallets sell overstock, returned, and shelf-pulled goods from retailers at a steep discount, often by the pallet or truckload. This suits a reseller who wants larger, more predictable batches of inventory than one-off thrifting trips provide.
• Local flipping. Furniture, appliances, and tools listed for free or cheap on local marketplaces can be cleaned up, repaired, or repainted and resold for a profit without any shipping involved.
• Thrift sourcing. Buying underpriced pieces from thrift stores, estate sales, and yard sales and reselling them at a markup is the lowest-cost way to start.

For example, Adored Vintage started building her vintage store around romantic, feminine pieces more than a decade ago and is still going strong, even as she’s added in some new items as well.

Marketplaces like Poshmark and Mercari are common starting points for selling new, pre-owned, and vintage clothing, alongside Craigslist, eBay, and Facebook Marketplace. With an established social following, social commerce is another option. Shopify makes it possible to sell directly on Instagram, TikTok, and more.

2. Sell homemade products

If you’re a maker, consider turning that hobby into a business by selling your own creations. From homemade soaps and candles to handcrafted jewelry and artwork, the possibilities are endless.

Items crafted in your own studio, workshop, or kitchen can become well-known products with the right branding and marketing. Selling independent goods is also cost-effective, because it doesn’t involve wholesale buying, putting pricing and production in your control.

Craft brand Peg and Awl began as a way for husband and wife Walter and Margaux Kent to sell items made from reclaimed materials in their home workshop. Their online store now sells bags, journals, and furniture.

A diverse product range can help a brand like Peg and Awl attract a wider audience, but a homemade craft business can also stay narrowly focused, like in these examples below.

Create an herbal product line

A family herbal remedy, or even just an interest in natural treatments, might inspire the wellness business idea that leads you to create your own line of homemade herbal products.

Lauren Haynes started Wooden Spoon Herbs in her kitchen, making plant-based products from American-grown herbs using traditional methods. Her online store sells herbal teas, tinctures, and wellness products, and even has a quiz that helps customers find the right treatment for them.

Create a candle brand

A talent for mixing and matching scents can make way for a home-based candle business. Strong visual branding can help you build a memorable brand and attract a larger audience.

Brooklyn Candle Studio’s minimalist packaging and scent range, named for travel destinations like Tulum and Santorini, evokes a feeling of luxury. 

Founder Tamara Mayne bought a candle-making kit in 2013, discovered a talent for the craft, and began selling candles at local markets from her studio apartment. A year later, she left her job to run Brooklyn Candle Studio full time.

As a candle brand grows, there’s often room to extend into related products, such as diffusers, room sprays, or bath oils.

3. Start a dropshipping store

Some businesses require you to buy or create inventory. Dropshipping is the go-to model for home business owners who don’t want to deal with inventory management. With dropshipping, retailers promote and sell products that a third party produces and ships, and the dropshipping supplier handles storage and shipping in exchange for a share of each sale.

Many home dropshipping businesses succeed by targeting a niche, like kawaii merchandise retailer Subtle Asian Treats. Curate products from different suppliers into a cohesive collection to have an even better range of options for your target market.

Shopify dropshipping apps connect a store to suppliers for sourcing and importing products. Shopify Collective, Shopify’s curated supplier network, is another option for finding and selling products from verified Shopify brands with no inventory required.

4. Start a print-on-demand business

Selling print-on-demand products is another home business idea that avoids buying or holding inventory, and with a $13.1 billion market estimate, it’s a business idea that’s holding strong. 

With this low-cost business idea, business owners apply branding and original designs to white label products, and when a sale comes in, the print-on-demand company prints and ships the item directly to the customer.

Print-on-demand products include books, hats, backpacks, blankets, pillows, mugs, shoes, hoodies, phone cases, and more.

Print-on-demand businesses can be built around a specific niche or shared identity. Raven Gibson launched Legendary Rootz to uplift Black women through T-shirts and accessories carrying positive messages, using a platform like Printful that connects directly to a Shopify store.

5. Offer online services

Selling a service instead of a product can be simpler to set up than a retail business because there’s no inventory to create or manage.

One way to build a home service business is to package your existing talents as available services. If your employer allows it, create a website to sell your time and experience directly to clients.

Service-based businesses also don’t need a large customer base to be profitable. Depending on your service and rates, just a handful of high-quality clients can generate a full-time income from the comfort of your home.

You can launch your services on a platform like Fiverr, Upwork, or Thumbtack, or through a Shopify website connected to an appointment booking app so customers can book time directly.

Writing, music, technical, or DIY skills can all be monetized over a website offering assistance or lessons. Here are a few popular service-based home business ideas to consider.

Virtual event planning

The virtual events market is currently valued at $145 billion and projected to grow nearly 18.4% each year through 2033. Every new online event needs coordination and promotion, creating an ongoing opportunity for remote and home businesses.

If you have events management experience and great organizational skills, a home business as a virtual events planner could be the perfect initiative. Find a niche, either in the types of events organized (conferences, meetings, webinars) or their purpose (personal parties, professional workshops, industry-specific shows).

Event platforms like RingCentral Events and Whova help manage the logistics. As reputation grows, repackaging services into a toolkit for other planners can add an extra revenue stream.

Social media management

With some research, experimentation, and self-taught know-how, you can start your own social media consulting or management business with a laptop and a smartphone. Start by building up your personal account to demonstrate what you can do, then invest in a few social media management tools, such as Shopify Inbox and Buffer.

The hardest part of a service-based business is landing the first client. The unique appeal of social media management is that you can build a portfolio and a network through the exact medium you’ll be using to execute work for your clients. 

Use platforms like YouTube and Instagram to show off your expertise, put some money behind paid ads to reach a wider audience, and start building a client base for your home social media management business.

Virtual personal training

The US personal trainers industry is worth an estimated $11.9 billion in 2026, and social media is the primary marketing channel for most fitness professionals. 

Among personal trainers surveyed by Fitness Mentors in 2025, 30.2% said social media brings them the most clients. Among that group, 42.2% named Instagram as the best platform to promote a personal training business, followed by 20% who pointed to Facebook and 15.6% who preferred YouTube.

Because social media can play such a big role in fitness training now, you can even create an online or virtual training program for clients. This would allow you to expand your client base in other locations and manage your clients from home.

Check that you have the relevant certification to back up the service, then you can start marketing yourself to an audience that wants to get fit from home.

Bookkeeping

If you’re good with numbers, you may want to consider an at-home bookkeeping business. According to ZipRecruiter, the average annual pay for a bookkeeper in the US is $50,573, but a freelance bookkeeper can earn more by raising their rates and building a client base over time. And you can set the business up as a limited liability company, or LLC, to protect your personal assets from business liability.

Social media is a common place to promote bookkeeping services. Use your social media accounts to explain what clients can expect from working together and share practical financial tips to build trust with followers.

Web design

While drag-and-drop DIY builders make website building easier than it’s ever been, there’s still a need for web designers. Whether it’s bringing skills to a more complex website or building out a simple website design for busy business owners, web design businesses can still see success.

The global web design market is estimated at $61.23 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $92.06 billion by 2030. With businesses, nonprofits, and public figures all leaning on websites to build an online presence, there’s steady client demand across different types of work, especially because website design often incorporates other skills like visual design and branding.

Platforms like Upwork and Dribbble are solid starting points for finding first customers. Shopify Partners is another option, offering web design services directly to Shopify store owners.

Freelance content writing

Companies are always going to need writers. Whether it’s for their product descriptions, sales landing pages, blog content, social media captions, or email newsletters, a good writer can help a business go a long way.

According to ZipRecruiter, the average annual pay for a freelance writer in the US is $48,412, with ecommerce writers, digital marketing writers, and blog writers among the most in-demand specialties.

Podcast editing

With nearly 160 million people in the United States tuning in every month, podcasts have become a mainstream pastime (or even a career option) in recent years. There are more than 4.5 million podcasts in existence, with around 340,000 new ones launched each month.

So if you can hone your audio editing skills, there’s a market for a home podcast editing business. Each recorded episode needs an editor to cut together sections, strip out coughs and filler words, and refine the audio.

Market your podcast editing services on social media by explaining your editing philosophy or sharing before-and-after audience reception to a finished product.

Virtual assistance

Virtual assistants handle tasks like answering emails, researching ideas, community management, and scheduling meetings. Platforms like Belay and Zirtual connect virtual assistants with clients, and LinkedIn is a great avenue for building direct relationships with potential clients.

6. Teach online classes

You can monetize and share teachable skills through an online course. There’s an audience somewhere for nearly any skill, whether it’s how to develop your own recipes, how to crochet a baby blanket, or how to fix a clogged drain.

Platforms like Teachable or Thinkific are perfect for hosting your online course, and you can create a Shopify website to help promote your course to new customers. Courses are often prerecorded so students can go through the lessons at any time (and as a way to generate passive income). 

But live courses or workshops can be a great way to command a premium price point, especially if you offer a Q&A or hands-on assistance as part of the experience. Or if you prefer a smaller group, mentorship, master classes, or online tutoring are great alternatives to a full course.

Here are a couple more options to consider.

Offer virtual meditation sessions

A meditation instructor can offer live sessions, prerecorded guides, or even a meditation app. There’s no specific certification required to teach meditation, but a deep understanding of the practice and techniques, plus a calm, welcoming space for sessions, is expected.

As your business grows, consider adding specialized sessions for different groups (children, seniors) or specific goals (stress reduction, sleep improvement) to expand your offering.

Teach journaling methods

If journaling is important to you, and you have a method for staying committed to it, you could teach this practice to others for a fee.

Ryder Carroll did just that when he created his own journaling method that grew into a home-based business. He now sells journal products and journaling advice through his website, Bullet Journal.

7. Sell digital products

You can create digital products that generate income without worrying about inventory or making new physical items for every sale.

Genna Tatu, founder of Crochet by Genna, started her home business by selling crocheted plushies. After feeling burned out offering made-to-order items alone, she started offering digital patterns instead. 

“They are passive income, which is key to having sustained growth, especially when you’re in a market like crochet where it is so manually intensive,” Genna says.

Digital products worth considering include:

• Designs or patterns
• Licensable assets, such as stock footage, photos, or music
• Downloadable reports
• Digital templates

8. Grow an audience you can monetize

A blog, YouTube channel, Instagram account, or podcast can all become home businesses once you’ve built an audience big enough to monetize.

Alex Cannon presents a unique way to monetize an audience. He started his career as a model and social media influencer before he cofounded Craftd, a men’s jewelry brand with celebrity fans like USMNT player Chris Richards. He’s been able to build his jewelry brand to what it is today due to his pre-existing audience.

Building a loyal audience and brand affinity takes patience and consistency. It isn’t the fastest way to start a home-based business, especially in the short term, but growing a following around something genuinely loved can be one of the most rewarding paths.

9. Buy an existing small business

If you don’t want to start from scratch, you can always buy and manage an existing business. The costs associated with this vary based on the business’s health. Some businesses already generate revenue and are ready to take over as is.

Others no longer generate substantial revenue and need rebuilding, but may still hold valuable assets, like an email list, social media following, existing content, or brand reputation you can grow.

10. Rent out a spare room

Short term rental sites like Airbnb, Homestay, and Furnished Finder allow you to rent out a spare room in your home or apartment if you’re not using it and want to bring in extra income. 

If you jazz up your space a bit, you can make your listing even more appealing. The more renters you have, the more consistently you can rely on short-term rental revenue.

11. Play video games professionally

Esports and video game streaming platforms like Twitch have opened the door for gamers to monetize their hobby. 

Gamers can generate an income by becoming sponsored pro players, recording themselves playing various video games and turning them into YouTube videos, offering Patreon subscriber-exclusive content, or livestreaming to viewers in an attempt to earn gifts. Merch is yet another route, and Shopify makes it possible to make merch for Twitch streamers’ audiences.

12. Sell your art

If you have artistic talent, you can also turn that into a creative home business. Painting, digital art, sculpture, photography, or music can all become a livelihood for the right artist. 

Helen Levi, a Queens, New York–based potter, turned her art business idea into selling ceramics from her online store. Selling art online involves more than just creating the work. It also takes time to promote it, build your brand, and connect with an audience through social media, craft faires, art shows, and online communities. 

Saatchi Art, for example, can be an effective way to get your work in front of potential buyers. Etsy, eBay, and other Etsy alternatives are also options.

13. Launch a photography business

There are several ways to sell photos online, and most of them are highly competitive. Stock photography, sold through an online storefront or submitted to marketplaces like Adobe Stock or Shutterstock, can be a good source of passive income because the same image can sell multiple times.

For a more developed brand and a specific niche photography business, a career as a wedding, pet, fashion, or product photographer is another route, or you could set up a home studio specifically for portraits.

14. Start a beauty business

Health and beauty is a popular niche for at-home businesses. Working with a manufacturer to create an original makeup or skincare brand, or applying branding to white label products, are both common options.

New tools and gadgets keep hitting the market, like massage guns, red light masks, and hair styling tools, which creates ongoing dropshipping opportunities for a beauty retailer.

15. Start an affiliate marketing business

Affiliate marketing is a popular home business model built around promoting a brand’s products or services. When a customer buys through an affiliate link, the affiliate earns a commission on the sale.

Take the time to find the best affiliate program for you. You want to choose products and services to promote that you actually believe in so that your promotion doesn’t feel forced.

You can use social media platforms like Instagram or YouTube to promote partner brands, or you can build an entire affiliate website around relevant content and product recommendations.

16. Start a daycare

A reliable daycare is another home business idea that will never go out of style. If you’re good with children, research how many daycares already exist locally. You can also hop onto local Facebook or neighborhood groups to see if moms are consistently asking for recommendations for a childcare center. If demand looks strong, consider opening your own in-home daycare for the community.

Startup costs can include home alterations and the right licenses to legally operate. Research child care licensing requirements, plan for mandatory background checks, and complete the required health and safety training before taking on any children.

17. Flip items on marketplaces

Old furniture you have sitting around the house could be your starting inventory for one of the easiest home businesses to launch. See how you can upcycle it, then list it on a platform like Amazon, eBay, or Facebook Marketplace to make your first sale.

Selling one item on a marketplace like this can be relatively straightforward, but building a reliable income stream is less so. There aren’t many ways to promote your listings beyond the platform’s own search feature, and traffic driven largely by price can force sellers into price wars with competitors.

To increase your odds of reaching your target buyers, consider opening an independent store alongside your Amazon, Etsy, or Facebook accounts. Shopify makes it possible to sync storefronts across channels to stay on top of every sale.

18. Start a dog-grooming business

Pet grooming and boarding is roughly a $11.3 billion industry in the US, and space in a home is enough to offer grooming services without needing to rent a commercial storefront. And as your business grows, you can start to offer complementary products alongside the service itself, like treats, shampoos, and toys.

A dog grooming business doesn’t need to start big. If you have any dog owners in your family or friend group, you can start there and ask them to spread the word. Post in local Facebook groups and network in nearby dog parks.

Consider offering a lower introductory price in exchange for testimonials to build the reviews needed to attract more clients.

19. Open a pet daycare

Consider opening a pet daycare or start offering pet sitting services. Pet owners often need reliable and responsible care takers when they go to work or on vacation, giving you the perfect in-home pet business option.

Look into any certifications or insurance you need to get to create a trustworthy pet daycare center. But you get the freedom to choose which hours or days of the week you want to be open and how many pets you’re able to accept.

To market your daycare, you can create a website and use local SEO to attract dog owners in your area. You can also hop in local online communities to spread the word.

20. Sell books online

Turn your creative writing skills into a book business. You can write and independently publish your own novels, poems, or short stories.

Or you can follow in the footsteps of entrepreneurs like Jelani Memory, who started A Kids Co. to write books about racism for his children. Since launching, Jelani has expanded the offerings to include topics like depression, bias, addiction, and disabilities, partnering with public figures like LeVar Burton and Jessica Biel along the way.

You can sell physical copies of your books directly through a website, or grow your ebook business with Shopify’s built-in tools and support.

If writing isn’t your thing but you still want to work with books, an online bookshop is another option. Dropshipping books with suppliers like BooksRun and Half Moon Bay avoids storing and shipping inventory, making it easy to run a book business from home.

21. Start a business with the help of subcontractors

Some businesses can’t run entirely from home, but subcontractors can handle the on-site work while logistics, like scheduling and client reminders, stay managed from a home office.

There are a few different options you can consider here.

Gardening

Gardening or landscaping is a task many homeowners want help with but rarely have the time or expertise for themselves, and the US landscaping services industry is worth an estimated $176.7 billion in 2026.

A landscaping business can mean anything from routine grass-cutting to building elaborate backyards with ponds and imported trees. An initial client visit to understand the vision is usually necessary, but a trusted subcontractor can carry out the physical work.

House cleaning service

Demand for home cleaning services keeps growing and the market is expected to hit $12.8 billion by 2030. Many cleaning businesses hire employees or subcontractors specifically to cover more homes without the owner having to do every job personally.

Naturally, you’ll need to conduct necessary checks on any employee or subcontractor representing the business, and you’ll need to budget for business insurance, but otherwise a lot of the business administration work can be done from home.

Home organization

A love of creating functional, clutter-free spaces can morph into a professional organizer business. And once you’ve developed your go-to organizational system, you can teach it to subcontractors who help implement it for clients.

Molly Graves and Ashley Murphy started Neat, a home-organization brand, after realizing they shared a passion for organization. They created and branded a decluttering method that has since become a franchised training program for professional organizers across the country.

While the initial business model was out of the house, the two founders have since published a book and grown a much larger business that doesn’t require as much hands-on work.

22. Start a home catering business

If you have a love for cooking, consider starting your own catering business, tailoring menus to clients’ dietary needs and preferences from a home kitchen. As your business grows, you can expand even further into branded products, meal kits, or cooking lessons to add revenue beyond one-off catering jobs. 

As an example of what this kind of business could look like, Southern California–based meal delivery service Organic Oren opens online ordering once a week, with pickup in Los Angeles or Montecito and home delivery available for an additional fee.

Keep in mind that most states regulate food prepared at home for sale under separate “cottage food” or home-kitchen rules, which typically cap annual sales, restrict which foods qualify (often baked goods, jams, and other shelf-stable items rather than anything requiring refrigeration), and require a food handler’s permit or a passed health inspection before the first order ships. 

Some states also cap direct-to-consumer sales and prohibit shipping across state lines. Check with a local health department before getting started, because the rules vary significantly by state and county.

23. Run a spa or salon out of your home

A home spa experience, offering massages, haircuts, facials, or manicures, is a strong option for anyone with the proper professional licensing and the space to create a comfortable setup who doesn’t want to pay for a salon chair or deal with a commute.

Promoting services on social media, with a link to a booking website in the bio, is the perfect start for filling up your client calendar.

How to start a home business

Once you find an idea that fits your skills and experience, it’s time to start. Work with a small business lawyer and accountant to make the early steps easier.

This quick checklist covers what most home business owners need to sort out early:

• Zoning. Confirm local zoning rules allow a business to operate from your residential address.
• Licenses and permits. Identify which state, county, or city licenses your business needs before making sales.
• Tax rules. Understand sales tax collection requirements and estimated income tax payments.
• Business insurance. Confirm whether a homeowner’s policy covers business activity or a separate policy is required.
• Business structure. Decide between a sole proprietorship, LLC, partnership, or corporation.
• Separate business banking. Open a dedicated account for all your business transactions.
• First sales channel. Choose where your first sale will happen, whether that’s an online store, a marketplace, or a direct client relationship.

1. Come up with your business idea

Your first step is pinpointing the right idea that excites and inspires you to start your home business. It might be one of the ideas covered above or something completely original.

But before you invest too much time or money into your idea, go through a demand validation checklist first. Thinking critically as you develop your business idea matters more than finding something you think you can do and running with it. 

A few quick ways to test whether people actually want what you might be selling include:

• Search volume and competitor research. Search for the product or service category to see how many competitors already exist and what they charge. If your business will operate locally, you’ll also want to see how many similar businesses are in your area.
• Solicit feedback. Validate your business idea with a simple focus group process.
• A landing page and waitlist: Build out a basic page describing the offer and an email sign-up to discover whether potential customers are curious enough to opt in with an email address.
• A small pre-sale batch. Sell a handful of units or book a few client slots before you fully build your business to see if there is demand.

2. Create a business plan

A business plan puts an idea into a recognizable, actionable structure that can set you up for success. A good plan should include:

• A company overview or executive summary
• Product or service offerings
• Your target audience
• Financial projections
• A competitive analysis

Alongside these components of a business plan, you’ll also want to create a plan for bringing in those first key sales. Plan out things like who your first 10 customers are likely to be, where they’ll be reached (existing network, a specific marketplace, a local community group), and what it will take to convert them. 

A business plan template makes it easier to put the full plan together without overlooking critical points. If it’s helpful, start with a lean business plan. Shorter and more high-level, it works as a foundation while you gather information for your comprehensive version.

3. Start the legal process

Now’s the time to choose your business type, apply for a business license, and set up your business’s legal entity. Working with a small business lawyer can help set everything up correctly. 

The four main types of business entities are:

• Sole proprietorship
• LLC
• Limited liability partnership
• C corporation

Licensing and permits vary significantly by industry, city, and state, but the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) guide to business licenses and permits is a good starting point for figuring out which apply. Zoning matters too, because some residential areas restrict commercial activity, client visits, or signage. Check out the SBA’s guide to choosing a business location so you know what to check before assuming a home address is fair game.

While you might think you can skip out on business insurance, it protects against liability that a homeowner’s policy typically doesn’t cover, from a client injury during an in-home service to product liability on something sold online. Learn more about getting business insurance from the SBA and which common types of business insurance are available.

Speaking to an attorney and a CPA helps decide which entity type fits and makes filing the paperwork easier.

This section is for general informational purposes only and isn’t legal or tax advice. Licensing, zoning, and insurance requirements vary by state, county, and industry, so confirm specifics with a licensed attorney, accountant, or the relevant local agency before starting a home business.

4. Open a business bank account

Keeping personal and business finances separate can make taxes less stressful and keep your finances more organized. Commingled funds can make it harder to prove business expenses during a tax filing or an audit, and for an LLC or corporation, mixing accounts can undermine the liability protection the entity is supposed to provide.

At minimum, open the following:

• A business checking account for revenue
• A savings account to hold money
• A business credit card for expenses

Shop around for the right bank for your business, and a local accountant or CPA can help you decide which accounts are best for your needs.

5. Start providing your products or services

Finally, it’s time to start selling. For an ecommerce business selling products online, Shopify makes it possible to build and run a store with little to no startup time or fees, and without the need for an expensive developer.

To help you get started, reach out directly to the people already in your network, like past coworkers, neighbors, local community groups, and existing social media followers, before investing in ads and other major marketing strategies. 

Once that first batch of customers responds, double down on your best marketing channels (i.e., a specific platform, a referral, a local group) to keep the demand going.

What are the pros and cons of starting a home business?

A home business can start and operate right out of your personal residence, often on a flexible schedule. These are big pros of getting started, but it’s important to weigh them against cons like having enough space and meeting industry regulations.

Here are the pros and cons to consider before deciding whether a home-based business is the right fit.

Pros of running a home business

• Home businesses often have few overhead costs, including office rent or warehousing fees.
• Ecommerce functionality (and especially dropshipping) means a home business can target a local or international market from the exact same setup.
• Working from home may improve work-life balance, which can be a big help for parents or retirees seeking additional income.
• A family business lets relatives or a spouse help run day-to-day operations.
• Home business owners may be able to claim tax deductions not available to a traditional employee. 

Common examples include the home office deduction for a space used regularly and exclusively for business, a share of internet and utility bills tied to that business use, and business-related mileage. The IRS’s guide to business use of a home covers the specific rules and eligibility requirements.

Cons of running a home business

• Dedicated space to work, store equipment, or hold inventory is often necessary, and not every home has room for it.
• Meeting regulations for the relevant industry, such as food hygiene standards or required permits, is the business owner’s responsibility.
• Business insurance and ongoing compliance aren’t cheap, and skipping them to save money early can leave a home business exposed to liability their homeowner’s policy won’t cover.
• Competing with large, established businesses that can access extra capital can be tough for a home business with limited startup funds.
• Working from home offers freedom, but it can also be isolating without a team or coworkers nearby.

*Based on a 2025 survey of 500 Shopify merchants conducted in English across Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States. Respondents were established merchants with more than two years on the platform. Results reflect the experiences of this specific sample and may not be representative of all merchants.