How to start your own home-based business

Make the most out of the summer by making money without leaving the comforts of your home. This April, Entrepreneur magazine offers tips on starting your own home-based business.

Try to fill a demand in the market. Frederick Tajonera and his wife Justine put up Mom Massage Services, Inc. after discovering that “many pregnant women want to be massaged and are willing to pay premium rates just to get special kinds of massage.” Look around your community to see if your neighbors are clamoring for a certain service, capitalize on that need, and do enough research to know your market. Tajonera shares, “We knew that pregnant women generally don’t like going out that much because they don’t feel ‘pretty’. So we focused on home service massage.”

Turn your passion into a business. Making money out of doing something you love can be very satisfying, and you don’t have to wait to be a certain age to get started. Nineteen-year-old Czarinna Andrea Maralit tells Entrepreneur that all she wanted to do was dress up and be stylish. “People around me always thought of me as maarte, tamad, or walang ambisyon,” she says. To prove them wrong, she put up ANDIEniabLY faB, an online shop selling fashion accessories that she creates herself. “I’m now an enterprising student—one earning from this kaartehan that I must admit is constantly growing,” she says.

Get your business out there. The current economic crisis is making entrepreneurs turn to below-the-line marketing strategies to promote their products. Make full use of social networking sites to drum up some business, maximize the Internet as a cost-effective vehicle for advertising and explore and join trade fairs and bazaars to create more awareness for your product.

Create a separate budget for the business and for your family’s expenses. Entrepreneurs invest a lot in their businesses. However, losses are unavoidable. Keeping a separate budget for the business and the household ensures that any losses you may incur in your business will not result in a depletion of your family’s living allowance.

Get more tips on building a home-based business in the April issue of Entrepreneur, available in newsstands and bookstores nationwide.