If this article interests you, it means you have a desire to have multiple income streams. Different schools of thoughts exist. Some schools give valid reasons why you should not have a job but rather run your own business. Others schools do not support the idea of taking the risk and as they would ask “why re-invent the wheel?” Well, you can have the best of both worlds if you are able to. There is always risk involved in starting and running a business, but come on we take risks everyday. Besides, the risk is minimised if you get the right information and mentorship. If you have cold feet as is often the case with newbies, you can hold a full time job and run your home business part-time. Have a feel, get some confidence and experience and when the time is right you can launch in full time. The best time to start is now.
The idea of starting and running a home business first came to me at a “Men of Honour” conference organised by my local church. It sounded like something I would love to do, but I never took it seriously. I was in my comfort zone and everything seemed OK. At least at the end of the quarter I get a pay check tax free. Soon after I got married and the pay check was getting stretched. Due to unforeseen circumstances, events took its toll on our only source of income and the comfort I once had was diminishing with each passing day. My tax free pay check was just sufficient to pay off accumulated credit card bills after which we were back to square one. It was a difficult period strategically occurring in the early stage of our marriage.
A couple of months into this drought, my pay check was delayed unexpectedly and our ship hit a iceberg. There wasn’t any credit anywhere to see us through. For the first time we were unable to pay our mortgage, purchase tokens for our utilities or visit the grocery stores. For those who understand, we were literally surviving on “Garium Sulphate”. You can imagine how, I must have felt not being able to provide for my home. I don’t know how other wives would react, but my wife never lost faith in me. She stood and encouraged me all the way as has always been the case.
Moses was asked what he had in his hand, and God used his staff to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt to the Promised Land. I then asked myself what talents God had placed in my hands and how they can be used to deliver us from our Egypt. I have passion for photography, music and programming. I am spiritually employed in my local church where I play the keyboard while photography and programming are currently income streams. No longer is our existence governed solely by periodic pay checks, if one stream dries up, we tap from the other all from the comfort of our home.
The world has become a global village permitting business transactions to be made just by the click of a button. I have listed 10 ways you can generate multiple income streams from the comfort of your home. Some of these require skills that come naturally, some skills you need to learn while others simply require a determination to succeed.
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Photography
Photography was a hobby to me, I always had a camera ever since I was able to afford one. You probably have one as well which you take to weddings and special occasions. With the advent of smart phones and selfies, everyone should have a camera at their disposal today. If you are passionate about it why not make money through it working from home. You may need to pick up one or two skills which you can find on the Internet for free. You don’t necessarily have to learn to take photographs in the confines of an institution. In my opinion, "Photography Comes from the Heart".
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Web design & development
Have you got the flair for programming and web development, a computer and Internet access? What are you waiting for there are lots of free tutorials, training and courses online where you can glean for information.
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Catering
Do you love cooking or baking? There would always be weddings and events that require catering.
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Event planning
Have you got the skills, links, patience and attention to details. A lot of events need proper planning and organisation.
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Window cleaning
Just as we were told at the men of honour conference, all you need is a bucket, water and a cleaning brush to start. Begin in your neighbourhood and you’ll be amazed how many homes would patronise you.
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Trading on eBay
With the Internet you can set up an E-Shop and sell practically anything. You can buy items from auctions at reduced prices, sell them on eBay and make a profit. All you need is a computer, eBay and PayPal accounts which are free, and some capital to start off with.
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Hairdressing
Are you good and hairdressing, I’m sure there a lot of ladies that need their hair doing.
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Affiliate marketing
If you feel you haven’t got skills that can be transformed into cash and you don’t want to do any trading, why not market other people’s products and get a commission. There are lots and lots of companies willing to pay as much as 75% of the cost of their products to affiliates. People have literally made fortunes from affiliate marketing alone.
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Pay Per Click Advertising
In pay per click advertising, you get paid for every genuine click a visitor makes on ads placed on your website. You basically need a website and Internet connection. You can get ads for free from various ads providers such as Google Ad sense, place the ads on your website and get paid for each click whether the visitor buys the product or not.
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Blogging
Simply put, a blog is an online diary. If you’ve got something to say, information to share or a skill to propagate why not set up a blog and create a community of readers in your niche. Blogging is one of the ways to maximise income from affiliate marketing and pay per click advertising. Unlike having a market stall, kiosk or office where transactions are made, you don’t necessarily have to sell anything on your web site to generate an income. All you need is traffic, people visiting your site regularly. You can also compile your posts into eBooks to sell online.
There are other ways you can generate income working from home which are not mentioned here. Please share your ideas and experiences for others by leaving a comment on this post. The good thing about starting an Internet business, apart from the fact that you work from home, is that you don’t have to do much work after it is up and running. However, you need to put in time and effort at the beginning to make things work. It is seed, time and then harvest. You invest time and effort, wait for it to mature them you reap the harvest. Get rich quick schemes don’t work, don’t be deceived!
Proverbs 12:11- He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread: but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding.
In the bid to set up your home business, be wary of ad that tends to suggest that it is easy wily. There is some amount of work involved especially with the Internet based income streams. You would need the right step by step guide to help you build traffic to your site. Having a website is one thing, getting people to visit your site is a different ball game altogether. There are affiliate programs that give you enough information to make you commit to them but they don’t tell you how to go about setting it up and running it on your own. For a newbie, this can be very discouraging, and you end up feeling misled and betrayed. The fact is that the affiliate programs do work but you need the right information to set you off.
Having said that, what you need to do next is concentrate on what would attract people to your site and keep them coming back time after time. See "Monetise Your Blog Through Affiliate Marketing" for more invaluable information about starting and running a business, how to generate passive income, how to work smart and not work hard. Check back from time to time as we embark on this journey to our wealthy place, the place of more than enough and an early retirement.
