Maybe your someone who is sick of the 9-5 Rat Race or a student that is dreading the day that they will leave college and have to get a real J.O.B. To help you escape whatever situation you are running from I’ve made a list of 5 Businesses that are easy to set up that you can run from your own laptop.
The beauty of these business models is that if done correctly you can create your ultimate “Freedom Business”. All you need is a laptop, an internet connection and the mindset to get up and do it!
Web Designer
If you have ever created your own site or blog then you are qualified to sell this service to others. Platforms such as WordPress make this super simple to do and most if not all of the work can be outsourced to professionals on Freelancer.com or Odesk.com
Sites like Themeforest.net and 99Designs.com will provide you with all the templates that you need. All you have to do is target businesses who could benefit from this service and make them an offer they can’t refuse.
Niche Blogger
If you are passionate about a subject why not create a blog on it? Most blogs make their money from ad space that they rent out but for this to be profitable you need to be hitting a couple of thousand unique views per day. If you write good content and have a good social media campaign this is very achievable. You don’t even need to write the content for yourself as this can all be outsourced for pennies on sites like textbroker.com
Keep adding content and encourage visitors to share around the web and you will soon start approaching the kind of visitor stats that will have interested advertisers knocking on your door.
SEO Services
We all know traffic is money and businesses are quite happy to pay for services that will help them generate more traffic to their sites. Search Engine Optimization is a very popular service that is sold to these businesses because much of the work can be outsourced to India or the Philippines for very little money.
Again most of the work involves pitching to clients and convincing them that it makes sense to purchase SEO from you. For this to work it’s best to target clients who rank poorly for their chosen keywords, set up a meeting and show them how great their competitors are doing and then get them to sign on the bottom line.
Software Developer
Software is big business nowadays with people being very happy to pay for something which automates a certain task they have to perform. The beauty of this kind of service is the high “perceived value” that software/plugins have.
And don’t think that you need to be some coding whizkid to develop a program. There are plenty of marketers out there who just employ a full time programmer who takes care of everything from production of the plugin to the support. All you have to do is bring it to market and monetize.
Social Media Manager
Social Media is the most powerful way that businesses can expand and attract new customers. Sites like Twitter, Facebook etc. allow businesses to build relationships with customers and turn them into repeat buyers.
If you package this into a service and demonstrate how this will benefit their business you will be onto a winner. Every business which is worth anything knows the value of social media and small to medium size enterprises and slowly catching on to this phenomenon and you can be the one to capitalize on it’s popularity.
So there you have it, 5 Businesses that you can run from your laptop making you totally independent and free to do as you wish. Most of the services mentioned above can be outsourced for pennies allowing you to enjoy a healthy profit margin.
The hardest part is convincing yourself that it is possible to succeed which is why having the right mindset is so important. If you can get in the right headspace and pick the right business model there is no reason in the world why you can’t build your very own “Freedom Business”
Thanks for reading,
Noel.
Want to read more posts like this? Then you’ll enjoy these posts from the archive…
Hi Noel,
5 very good businesses to be in. I have made a good living from 2 of them, Web Design and SEO, I have trying blogging but yet to make any real money from this. Social media management is something I am going to add to my SEO business and software development is the only one I haven’t tried. Tell a lie, I developed a property management application in 1992! If you are considering this business I recommend that you look at mobile apps, come up with what people want at it will go viral.
Anyone interested in starting a web design business come along to my new website. I am currently developing a training course to show you exactly how to succeed as a web designer.
Cheers
Roger
Hi Roger,
That sounds great, I think Web Design is big business today because it’s so important to get offline companies “online”. Anyone with any marketing experience and the confidence to get on the phone and make those first few calls to clients can really make a success of it.
Thanks for your input 🙂
– Noel.
Hi Noel
Cool blog, like the header and cartoon.
Came across it in the partnership forum.
Good post on businesses you can run from your laptop, very informative
and written in a very clear style.
All the best
James
Thanks James,
I’ve seen you around the P2S forum – good to connect with you here.
Cheers,
Noel.
Hey Noel,
A great post to whet the appetite of anyone who’s thinking of starting out online.
I bet a lot of people didn’t realise how many of these services can be outsourced once you’ve done the legwork of getting a client.
I can imagine that anyone relatively new to the online business world will have a lot of thoughts racing through their heads after reading this.
Regards,
Dean.
Cheers Dean,
Yes, I think the main work is getting the clients…once you do that you can outsource the work to professionals and make a hefty profit 🙂 It’s all about Sales & Marketing and most of the other work can be done by contractors…
Thanks for dropping by,
Noel.
Hi Noel,
Cool list of online business ideas. I think as Internet Marketers we will have to wear several hats from your list such as SEO, Niche Blogging and Soc. Media Manager. It seems everywhere I look people are always staring at their mobile phones so I think there is a lot of potential with that medium as well (apps, mobile ready websites, etc.)
-Karl
Hi Karl,
You’re 100% right, as IMers we already possess a lot of these skills because we’ve had to learn them for our own businesses. With a little bit of tweaking and some further research there is nothing stopping any of us from selling these skills as a service of Offline Businesses.
The possibilities are quite exciting with these kind of idea’s.
– Noel.
Hey Noel
I personally use 2 of the above to earn an online income. Niche blogging and SEO, have been thinking for sometime about maybe dipping my toes into the software side of things.
Just need to keep my eye on the ball for the first 2 before taking on something new 😉
Cheers
Paul
That’s cool Paul, I’d love to really go hard at Blogging cos I think it’s a great model and rewards can be really good. The software side of things really interest me aswel but I think the main thing with that is to have a proper road to market and some good contacts that will make the launch successful.
Exciting stuff and something I want to learn more and more on.
Enjoy the Weekend,
– Noel.
Hi Noel,
Here’s another one to add to the list: Dropshipping.
My first true online business was an e-commerce store and I drop shipped everything. It was a great business model for me at that time. Low start-up, zero inventory, little tech skills necessary. Worked out pretty well for me.
I created a product about it actually… it’s floating around out here somewhere 🙂
Have a great weekend!
~Christine
Hey Christine,
That’s a brilliant example, I read about drop shipping before but never investigated it further. It’s actually a really cool business model, I know of a guy who did it with hearing aids and made an absolute killing…
I must remember to look into this further.
Have a great weekend too,
– Noel.
A few good ideas for online income. I think it is a good idea to try more than one in case one area has a slow down you still have another one or two. I would love to get into the Web design aspect. I also have an interest in learning more on drop-shipping. Problem is having too many ideas and not enough follow-through, lol. Great post, thanks
Jenny
Hi Jenny,
Ya, it’s a good idea to diversify just in case any of them go through a downturn so you’ll be covered. Drop shipping is a really nice area, can’t say I’ve any experience in it myself but it’s def something that catches my interest. I know of a few guys involved in it and they seem to be doing well…
Thanks for stopping by,
– Noel.
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