With COVID-19, we’ve begun seeing life in a completely new light. As enduring as it has been all this while, there is so much to take away from this experience – the time is now.

With the work-from-home culture buzzing up not just our lives but our virtual lives, such as the influence of our Facebook and the newfound rise of TikTok, we have started living a parallel life, one we could not have imagined before COVID. But frankly speaking, COVID fast-tracked our ideal life for us. Most of us feel stuck in our jobs because we need to earn money. Many times, we take the first job offer we get because the package’s good and they might give us a car too!

We take those jobs because time is running out, and the question that attaches itself to us, almost as if it’s a part of us, 

Will we save enough till we retire?

Well, we’ve got you covered! See, the real worry is not just making money, and it is making enough money. Will prices for everything rising and our expenses catching up with it, we start to wonder if we’ll really be able to take that girl’s trip to Mauritius after we retire. Well, the simplest answer is, as daunting as it sounds, be your own boss!

We’ve got you an ultimate guide to making money doing what you love, and that too from home! This seems like a task because there is one question you haven’t answered, and that is

Do you trust yourself enough to make it through?

Experiences and facts suggest it is tough to start a one-woman business, but when you sit down after receiving payment on your first order, do you not feel empowered? More than the money, it is the realization that clicks to you when you realize,

“Oh, I’m pretty alright on my own, really.”

HERE ARE A FEW WAYS YOU CAN WORK HOME, AND THERE’S A BONUS: IT CAN BE ANYTHING YOU LOVE TO DO!

Cloud Kitchen

Image Title: woman cooking.

Alt Image Title: food is ready at home.

Photo Description: A woman can be seen cooking sauce at home.

Wait, did we just say cooking at home and selling it? Yes, we did! So many of us find our solace in the kitchen, but expenses, time constraints, and investment stop us from unleashing our potential and sharing our palates with the world. 

The idea of a cloud kitchen can help a lot and keep you safe since that is really the biggest priority right now. 

To sell a business, you need an idea and a social media account. Love for food is unanimous, so all you’ll need now is a social media account. Facebook has a step-by-step process for making accounts, and TikTok will give you followers overnight, really. You can use YouTube to document your videos and to make them more engaging, and you can even make vlogs!

A cloud kitchen is smart because it saves your kitchen cost, rent, and time focusing on the place, and you can utilize all of that time and energy. If you love to cook and want to make something big out of it, instead of investing in a physical space, invest in recipes! 

Take trips to the local food market and select fresh produce. You could make vlogs and upload them on your social media accounts. That will give you engagement, and people will begin to confide in you. 

Cooking is not just about what’s on the plate; and it’s about what goes into it, starting from the chef’s heart. 

Your social media accounts can promote your food, it will have your menu, pictures of your products and will put you out there, and that would really help boost up your morale. 

Start a Review Blog

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Alt Image Title: Review handtyped on a typewriter

Photo Description: A typewriter is seen printing the word review

A review blog requires a laptop and a knack for knowing what’s good and what’s not. If you love to talk or even engage, you can begin a review blog. What a review blog does is that it writes reviews on products that the public would need to buy on a regular basis or buy something of importance. 

Before buying any gadget or product, we often think twice and ask for opinions. Well, you’ll be giving opinions. But then again, why would people listen to you? 

This is because you’ll convince them that they should, and that’s where your skill and involvement come in! As a public figure, you will write or present your experience with a certain product. But why would a company ask you to review for them? Here are two reasons:

a) Reviews present a conflict of interest. Companies need to market their product in the most natural way. Sure, a billboard advertisement helps, but what has your attention more, a billboard advertisement or your Facebook timeline?

b) can a company really deny a personality that’s looming over people’s explore page on Instagram? #NewBloggerInTown!

Image Title: A phone and food

Alt Image Title: A table full of food

Photo Description: A phone with what looks like a food picture and a table full of food

However, getting big brands to send you their products will take time, but trust takes time, so that’s alright. But until these brands trust you, why don’t you pump yourself up? Work on your online engagement, focus on your personal health and gain traction. 

Once your Instagram followers exceed that 5k mark, your success is going to be the newest topic and a positive one at that!

With so much doubt and vagueness going about our daily lives, we seek comfort in our mobile phones. So if a bubbly face with so many nice things to say pops up on our feed #LetsSmileToday, our face might light up. TikTok’s purpose is essential for followers to engage, and it is a very engaging app where everyone is in conversation, and they are out there. 

Freelance Writing

Image Title: An image of a few words

Alt Image Title: Words to motivate a writer

Photo Description: This photo is motivating to write your heart out

Do you write to express yourself? Is writing where you find solace? Does creating an alternate reality help you forget your own? Do you create fictional characters so you can forget the ones who exist in your life? Well, why don’t you showcase your talent then? Freelance writers are very much required in the market, and you can use your skill to earn plenty. 

As you slowly begin to earn and stabilize, you can start saving up and investing it where you feel it is good enough for you.

For many people, writing is one way to let their problems go, leave them aside, and truly enjoy their presence, and it can be uplifting and empowering. The beauty of writing lies in the freedom to make as many changes as you like, without the fear of being judged or questioned.

Freelance writing gives you the edge to do it on your own terms, charge as much as you like, and work at your own pace. You can be an independent individual living your life, but you won’t be burnt out because you will be living strategically. 

Working as a freelance writer will give you the opportunity to explore yourself as well without feeling tied down or chained onto something. 

One problem we tend to make is that we wait till our body shuts down completely and then take action. When you take action before time is due, you stay motivated relatively, and it helps you make future plans positively and because you want to, not because you have to. 

Image Title: Two women on their laptops

Alt Image Title: Two women working together

Photo Description: Two women can be seen working together

You’ll be living not according to your job, but your job will be set according to your lifestyle. As humans, we are destined to have fun as well because all work and no play make Jack a dull boy. 

What About Photography?

Image Title: photo of a waterfall

Alt Image Title: someone took a photo of a waterfall

Photo Description: A focused picture of a waterfall can be seen through the lens of another camera

How do you feel with a camera in your hand? Having an eye for the camera is a talent, and if the world can see your talent, isn’t that a good thing? What if one of your photos end up as someone’s phone wallpaper, or be a photo they can relate to?

With 500px, you can get paid for the photos you take! The newest phone models have exceptional camera specifications as well, so you wouldn’t need to hang out with a DSLR around your neck. 

Behance is the leading platform (online) where individuals can showcase their creative work. You first need to register with Behance either using a social media account or an email address. A social media account is preferable because you’ll be connected to people as well, and you won’t be isolated to your email address. 

After you have created an account, you upload a project you feel is worth showing the world. Behance will then let you personalize your page in any way you like and feel will catch your attention. After you have personalized your page, you can add tags so if anyone searches using specific keywords or phrases, your project emerges in their search.

You can continue editing your blog as per your suitability, but you will need to explain your project on your page, highlight what’s makes you different, write about what your forte is, and essentially sell your talent with the pictures you take. Your talent will talk for you.

Image Title: a lion 

Alt Image Title: a focused image of a lion

Photo Description: a lion can be seen expressing emotion at its peak and that is captured through photography.

Doing What You Love

One of the biggest injustices women may face is not being allowed to do what they love. This can have many factors, and while that is a conversation for another day, it does not mean that there’s nothing that can be done about it. 

When something does work in the way that it should, you take a few different turns and try again. When you are sent back hopelessly, even then, what you do is that you try again. The only time you work should ever be questioned when you’re not doing right or compromising anything to achieve it.

It can be tough to live in a world where you have to justify yourself, but you still deserve to do what you love. 

Your passion may not be any of the above, and it may be anything else. And that’s alright. This is a guide and more a shoulder you can get back to when you feel dejected, alone, or need a support system. Fighting can get tiring, and this guide is essential, as the name suggests, a guide for you. 

Continue to do what you love, and do it whole-heartedly. Making money from home might be a tough task, but if it involves what you love to do, then you have a hand to hold on to. 

Our lives don’t come with a package plan, they don’t come with reassurances, and they also don’t come with convenience served on a plate. We will have to go above and beyond to get twice as far, but fortunately, our only competition is our own self, and so, our success is compared to no one but us. Does this not mean that the demon may lie within us?

That our personal growth may hinder our process? And is this question not our answer? You can make yourself, or you can break yourself with the decisions you make, 

So what do you choose?

Conclusion

Starting your business from home might seem like a task that requires more than one person and most definitely more than one person’s experience, but there will always be the first step. Feeling scared and having questions is also anxiety-inducing. 

However, that’s just the first step. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll find yourself soaring beyond the clouds, and you’ll realize the potential you have. To discover the potential and the depth of your talent and explore the profundity of your passion, you will have to walk through the dark and find where you can turn the lights on from. 

The essence of your journey lies not in the results you achieve but in the journey itself. 

Women are powerful when they are not contained in a shell of social constraints. The value addition they can do in an economy can be enormous if they are given the right platforms and freedom to operate as per their creativity and grit. 

If you want to be your own boss, you will have to know how your employees function, what ticks them off, and what triggers them. In order to understand that, you will first need to understand your own self. After all, a good boss needs to be the most patient as well.

If you decide to start your creative craft business that’s where I come in! Check out my success path group to help creatives start their handmade business, more than just wreath making!