Starting a business is among the toughest decisions of life. One has to consider different aspects and conclude a decision whether it is pursuing a dream, switching from a tiresome and unrewarding job, starting a journey towards financial stability or seeking personal and family contentment. Your reason for starting a business can be anyone, but you must include a factor of serving the community.
A business goes well if it is initiated to resolve a problem and facilitate the people. However, a home-based business brings peace and comfort to you in addition to the target customers. It can help you set a schedule, pursue a passion, negate job security, and build a stable business while minimizing the business expenses.
Pakistan is a developing country that gives you immense opportunities for starting home-based businesses. The ideas are many, but it depends on you how to choose the one that relates to the knowledge, experience, funds, and learning resources you have. If you are young enough to learn new skills, there are countless business ideas for you to begin with. The older ones can utilize their existing expertise.
Following are some of the home based business ideas you can evaluate and choose from.
1. Food supplies
The food industry is huge in Pakistan. People frequently travel from city to city in search of a job, education, and business opportunities, but they often fail to find hygienic food in the entire struggle. it is one of the best business ideas for housewives. Look around the areas where you live to find the gap in the food industry to devise a solution according to your available resources. Starting a small home kitchen is the easiest, to begin with. It can be started within your small kitchen.
Reach out to a few offices and hostels where people are interested in ordering from your healthy menu or you can start with one dish to remain focused. It requires you to be an expert in making local cuisines with amazing taste. Take care of quality and punctuality in delivering food and these will be your regular customers. If you have a spare room in your home, you can use it for dining as well by offering such a facility to neighbors.
As soon as you get regular orders, implement the expansion plans by reaching commercial markets where shop owners would like to have fresh food delivered straight to their shops. Expand by adding baked food and sweet dishes too.
2. Freelancing
Freelancing has grown exponentially in Pakistan as it provides the ease of getting clients and projects of different skill sets from the comfort of home. Freelancing is the art of selling your skills. Do you have a skill? Offer your services to the global community of entrepreneurs and employers, and get hired from anywhere around the world. You are not bound to work at a specific time or location.
Get the work, continue traveling, and ensure the work is delivered in time. All you need to be a freelancer is to polish your skills, a laptop, and a stable internet connection.
You can start freelancing in different categories that include IT and solution development, design and creative works, sales and marketing, admin and customer support, writing and translations, accounts and finance, real estate brokerage, and tax consultancy. The list goes on. There are famous freelance marketplaces to explore such as Freelancer, Upwork, Guru, Fiverr, etc. These are famous in general. However, if you want to work on a specialized platform you can have it too. try 99designs for graphics-related gigs, SEOclerks for search engine optimization jobs, Toptal for technology and business freaks, and WriterAccess for writing aficionados.
Similarly, you can develop a website of your own for showcasing your skills and portfolio to taking business directly from the clients and reduce reliance on freelance marketplaces.
3. Online teaching
Teaching is indeed a noble profession, but unfortunately, teachers were not paid well in Pakistan before the boom of the internet and technology. The teachers who were unable to commute to bigger cities were compelled to teach the locals free of cost or at a salary range lower than the national minimum wage.
Now, if you have a smartphone or can afford a tablet, you can teach students around the globe with little familiarity with these gadgets and communication applications. If you are unable to find students on your own, try creating profiles on famous teaching websites such as teachable, Chegg tutors, tutor.com, Skooli, etc. You may start teaching on YouTube as well by creating a channel, putting a complete course in a playlist, or create a course on Udemy.
4. Clothing business
Women in Pakistan are obsessed with clothes. They have to order stitched and unstitched suits for different parties, weddings, and general gatherings of their community. Though clothes are available in shops nearest to their homes, they are now interested in ordering unique and different clothing designs from online stores.
The increasing trend makes it one of the profitable business ideas for housewives in Pakistan. they can start with a meager investment by ordering 20-30 suits from a wholesaler of the nearest city and start promoting it in different Facebook and WhatsApp groups and spreading the word in the local community. This is the smallest business model; however, if someone has more resources then he or she can start with a bigger online store. It can lead to setting up a bigger brand. It may be for kids, youth, professionals, or plus-size clothing. Work on finding any unique idea where you have to face lesser competition and establish your business.
5. Birthday cakes
The local bakeries and confectioneries of any city of Pakistan are producing products of decade-old taste and style. Few of the famous brands have updated their product lines, but there is still a major gap in baking themes and customized cakes. People love to order cakes with unique theme and decoration that represents the occasion.
E.g. there can be the demand for an army-themed cake for a soldier’s birthday or promotion, pink-colored cake for the 1st birthday of a baby girl, or flag-shaped cake for celebrating Independence Day. For any baking expert man or woman, setting up such a home-based business in Pakistan is the easiest one. They have to invest in utensils, ovens, and food products. Some professional chefs spend a lot in constructing state of the art kitchen within their homes so that they can produce excellent items.
6. Art and craft
Selling art and craft is not a new business idea as women have been doing it for ages in Pakistan. You might have seen women sewing sweaters, scarves, paranda – decoration for a braided tassel, home decoration items, clay pots, bed sheets, and shawls, etc. the list goes on as every city of Pakistan carries its own unique cultural and traditional craftwork.
The artisans and craftsmen sell their creations to the local vendors who then bring them to bigger cities for higher profit margins. With the help of digital marketing tools, the latest communication channels, and fast payment methods, one can easily sell art and craft directly to consumers. if you have a skill and can create traditional items, you can say goodbye to the middlemen and turn it into a complete online business.
7. Customized printing solutions
If you ever visit a printing press, they will tell you we print in a lot of 100, 200, and 300. What if you need to print 20-3- invitation cards for a small family gathering? Here comes the need for a home-based printing business. There is a dire need for such businesses and you can fill it with a small investment.
Buy a desktop computer with a medium-scale printer and acquire a basic understanding of graphic designing software. Since you do not have commercial equipment, you are not bound to printing lots. Spread the work locally and start taking small orders. With time, you can introduce printing on mugs, caps, and T-shirts as they are ordered the most for birthdays and other events. This business can also be combined with composing services where you can establish contacts with local schools to compose, print, and deliver exam papers confidentially to the school premises.
8. Female Beauty Products
Selling female beauty products is a promising home based business for women specifically for those who are working already in the field such as beauty parlor owners. However, socially active women can also make the most out of this business as they can seek affiliate marketing of a few famous brands, promote their products, and get commissions.
Various business models can be adopted in selling beauty products. For example, women can become distributors of a few brands and start delivering products to beauty parlors and shops. They can run parallel streams of income by putting products on eCommerce portals and classified ad websites.
9. Men’s watches and jewelry
Men in Pakistan are fond of old-style watches while the youth are chasing innovative series of smart and digital watches. Choose a product type and start low. You can sell them on different online platforms from the comfort of home. for the sake of inspiration, you can search the trending and demanding watches on eCommerce websites such as Daraz, Goto, Symbios, and Telemart.
Men’s jewelry includes gold and silver rings, bracelets, and chains. There is a great variety you can choose to offer on sale. Follow the trends on famous video-sharing websites like Tiktok, YouTube, and Facebook Watch and display them on your virtual shop.
10. Grow Organic Food
The world is returning to organic food because of the immense genetic modification of readily available products. People want to consume organic food that is free from chemicals and harmful preservatives. You can come up with a solution by growing or producing natural food products. It is one of the productive home based business ideas in Pakistan that can enlist you among social entrepreneurs. Start with the easiest growing vegetables such as peppers, herbs, onion, tomatoes, etc., and pursue organic poultry meat and eggs. Organic farming is difficult and the product may be lesser in amount, but the returns are higher. There are dedicated markets in Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi that are regularly visited by people in search of naturally grown products.
11. Selling auto parts
Car lovers are fond of installing unique and attractive items on their machines. If you are familiar with the entire import process, you can offer customers to request for any item to be imported and delivered to their doorstep. It is an unconventional business that may stand you apart from the common auto parts shop.
Final words
Starting a home based business has become much easier with the advent of mobile technology and easy internet connectivity. A decade ago, such businesses were confined to a few streets or towns, but now they can promote their products and services across the country. A female weaving a carpet in far-flung areas of Sindh can sell it online to a housewife in Islamabad. All it needs is internet literacy and the willingness to expand beyond cultural norms and borders. The ideas shared in the post will surely help you succeed in setting up a home-based business if you struggle to leave your comfort zone.
