60 Best Home-Based Business Ideas For Moms

I used to work for a VC fund in Florida and focused on investments in early-stage consumer brands. I was also the COO of a luxury eCommerce watch company as part of the VC fund. I noticed a consistent rise in US & Europe based startups that focused on disrupting the mattress and the sleep market - these startups were bringing sleep products that were traditionally sold offline to an online-first model. Plus there was a lot of innovation in the product itself. Being someone who had experienced difficulties with sleep and actively looking for the best products that the market has to offer, it piqued my interest.

Treat your company or your startup as a child - nurture it, grow it, and make it ready for the world.

The catalyst to start the business was the pursuit of my parents for a good mattress. They spent more than three weeks in this quest and ended up buying a mattress for an absurd price of Rs 30,000. Upon asking my mother what mattress she had purchased, she was not very sure. The experience of my parents and the potential opportunities in the Indian mattress industry sparked the idea of building a startup focusing on sleep.

My name is TJ. I am currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer and 50% owner. I was originally hired to help my business partner Peter wash dishes and make breakfast. Peter had been meal prepping for about 1 year before he brought me on board. When I was hired, I saw that he was a fantastic chef, handled sales, and was able to grow without efficiency.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. That one Facebook video doubled our client base overnight.

I filled in the gaps and taught him how to properly scale the company, hire more employees, and both structure and organize it into a self-sustaining business. I lacked the sales and cooking experience he had. So we were very yin and yang.

I was always the art kid growing up, so I naturally began my post secondary education by pursuing a degree in Fine Arts. I spent my summers refinishing furniture and doing photography and that’s how I got my feet wet with business, so by my second year, I was also pursuing a minor in Commerce.

I had never really done much woodworking at all but became a lot more interested in design and home decor during those years. After finishing my third year, I was itching to do something more practical than becoming a gallery artist, so I set my sights on furniture design and enrolled in a college cabinetmaking course instead. It really wasn’t where I had ever expected to end up, but it was sort of a natural progression and I’m so glad I did it!

I started making mountain shelves in the morning before class to sell on Facebook and Kijiji. It was intended to be a fun side project but they were so popular that I started my business shortly after graduating with the mountains as my first product.

Once upon a time, I was an elementary school teacher with a growing family. During this time, my husband and I were considering ways that one of us could be at home to meet the increasing demands that a family of four growing children needs. I loved my job as a teacher but the inflexible work schedule was becoming unmanageable. As fate would have it while on maternity leave, I started looking at a couple of services that were referred to me by a friend that also owns an online business: FE International and BizBuySell. I signed up to receive emails from both. After personally corresponding with one of the brokers at FE International explaining that I was looking for something education-related, I was given early notification of BingoCardCreator.com. I relate this process very much to knowing you want to move to a new area, calling a real estate agent in that area, and then the agent gives you the heads up as soon as something pops up that they believe will be of interest to you.

When I first got wind of BingoCardCreator.com, I was actually quite surprised because up to this point of about six months of actively searching, I had seen nothing in my education niche. So when I received word from the agent at FE International that the education-focused site, BingoCardCreator.com was for sale- I actually had a subscription to BingoCardCreator.com as a teacher- I was really excited. My first offer was originally rejected leaving time for another offer to come in. Not wanting the opportunity to slip away and considering the fact that the asking price was still in the threshold of what we were willing to spend, we decided to come in at a full price. Once the seller accepted my offer, FE International took over the process making the sale and transfer easy.

It has been quite a journey ever since. Never having any business experience, I had to learn everything: The world of digital marketing, business finances, not to mention understanding the technical aspects of the service we offer. To do this, I read as much as I could from experts like the folks at Digital Marketer or from Perry Marshall. As I quickly learned, however, most things business-related require a lot of money and take up a lot of time which are two things I did not have much of. So I took the approach of just taking it one day at a time, and letting my small successes like adding a new blog post, bingo cards, or making contact with a developer on Upwork, to keep me moving forward. Given my lack of money for proper training, I would use any free resources I could find on YouTube or blogs, to help me figure out what my next step would be. Often, I find that by just starting with a simple question like, “What was my organic traffic the past three months?” leads me to figure out what I need to do or learn, next. I have made a lot of mistakes and at times I was completely overwhelmed by what I did NOT know, but by plugging away at the day to day, ultimately I find that the answers come and I believe the journey has been worth the risk. Although the income is modest, it has allowed me to contribute to my family’s finances with complete flexibility. I work when and where I choose. Not only that, I have a whole new skill set from which to draw from that gives me the potential for future endeavors.

Kelly:

I got into a new relationship and was told that females tend to lack real hobbies. Not just make-up and toenails, a real hobby.

I remembered I liked art as a child so I started to self-learn how to again. Being naturally progressive, I decided it would be ideal to sell my art and eventually let it replace my workplace income of being a business teacher.

My journey started after high school, in 2014 started in sales. Selling anything I could get my hands on for profit. I learned how to communicate, provide value to the marketplace, and achieve small wins. I had my ups and downs throughout the process which was tough and time-consuming. I then discovered the Kingdom and all it had to provide for me and those who believe and take action.

I began to study and slowly was changing my philosophy about life and meaning. I then go to know Jesus Christ and built a relationship in a short period of time and I was all uphill from there for me. I give all my credit to God because he gave me the idea to start documenting my experiences and applying these financial concepts to improve my financial situation and others. I had no background or expertise or any experience for that matter.

I have learned that starting a business in the 21st century the fastest way to gain authority over a specific topic or skill is to simply document your experience through video.

Growing up I’ve always had this unique passion for art and all things creative. I was that artsy girl in all the art classes in high school and even took a few art classes in College.

When strangers were noticing my art and asked if I had a website, business card, etc., it really pushed me to start the business.

I never thought I could actually have a “successful career” with art so I majored in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. I worked as an Assistant SLP for 2 years after graduating and worked for a pediatric home health company. I truly enjoyed working with special needs children with language disorders and thought this was my calling. However, after applying to grad school and receiving rejection letters for the grad program, I was completely devastated. I felt like a huge failure and was so discouraged. In response, I started painting again.

I’ve been planning trips for myself and others for about 20 years. Before I took Whisked Away full time, I was an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher in the public school system for seven years, and I was really struggling with policy changes and how they were affecting my students.

Planning travel was a bright spot for me. I could envision the people I love having the time of their lives on the trips that I had planned for them, and it took my mind away from the issues at school.

My husband and I were on a weekend trip in Savannah, GA and, of course, I had planned the whole thing. We were having drinks at this cool rooftop bar, watching the boats come in and the sunset and he asked if I would ever consider planning trips for others, as a business.

Ok, this has the potential to be a long one, so maybe grab a cuppa or a coffee ☕.

I'm a first-time entrepreneur with a fairly eclectic background.

I studied French and Russian at uni (Oui, Я немного говорю по русски!) and began my career in policy design for the UK government. After 2 years of trying to fit in and failing terribly, I decided to jump ship and retrain as a UX designer.

I was terrified, but also fired up. I had zero experience of anything to do with being self-employed, I had literally never sent a manual invoice the day that I quit my job. I don't even think I had a business bank account by that point.

I’ve personally kept a journal for 10 years now, ever since I first went into therapy to recover from PTSD. My mum took her own life 2 years prior to my breakdown, and I never really got to grips with my emotions or how to process everything that had ever happened.

When I started therapy I was still stuck in the mindset that talking about how I felt was not something I should do. So talking therapy was the most unnatural experience for me. So to help, my therapist recommended I tried journaling – as a way of privately thinking about how I felt and what was on my mind. It was a game-changer of a moment for me.

My mum took her own life 2 years prior to my breakdown, and I never really got to grips with my emotions or how to process everything that had ever happened.

In June 2018, I left my corporate gig after 16 years. I had a severe repetitive stress injury in my neck and shoulder that just wasn’t improving. I figured there was no way cubicle culture was going to allow me to get better. I told colleagues I was leaving to pursue “creative projects.”

Don’t wait until you know what you’re doing. Just start. Say yes more than you say no.

Those projects turned out to include naps, walks with my dog, cooking healthy meals, journaling, yoga, meditation and a series of personal growth courses.

It began as a side project while building a web app. I had wanted to launch something helpful to a broad set of people. And I wanted to launch something that could run without my interference.

In the company that I co-founded, to do ad sales we were constantly building biz models and outreach in Google Sheets. My co-founder earlier this year mentioned that all my Google Sheets look great. And are way above anything else he had seen.

I didn’t have to validate it, necessarily, before creating it. I just launched the damn thing on a Friday. Landing page, 4 free videos, and 4 paid videos. I set a price and moved on with my life. Come Monday I had a sale, and everything blasted off from there.

The database consulting was a natural progression from my day job. People were asking me for help on projects outside of my workday so the work fell into my lap. It was then that I realized I could turn this skill into something for real on the side.

Look at your business idea as a brick wall that needs to be built brick by brick. Don’t get overwhelmed by the amount of things that are involved in starting a business or side hustle. Instead just focus on the one brick in front of you. Go slow and steady. Be sure to add a new brick to that wall every single day.

At the time I started doing the side work I was in massive debt from school. I was already paying for my lifestyle through my regular job so I knew any income I earned on the side could go to directly paying off my student loans. It worked. I paid off my loans a few years ago and now have the flexibility to use my side income for other things.

I never set out to start a software agency. Growing up I never thought I would be an entrepreneur, or even get into tech.

But when I got to college I decided to take an intro to Computer Science class. My plan at the time was to teach math in the Peace Corps. I didn’t like math enough to be a math major but figured Computer Science would be interesting and involve a lot of math.

Learn what makes you great and where you need help. It will be worth every penny.

After 8 years of interior design blogging and running my e-design business, I needed a change.

Building a business has taught me more than I could ever have imagined. I have learned a lot in regards to working with people and setting proper expectations from the beginning. Whether it was an with an employee or a fabric company, I learned that being upfront with expectations is very important.

I knew I wanted to stay in the design world and had always dreamed of opening a little store. Since textiles have been a big passion of mine, a pillow shop seemed like a natural fit.

My Grandmother taught me to make Face Cream when I was about thirteen. While I enjoyed the time we spent together, moisturizer was not something I used and while it was wasted on youth, the impact of women lining up outside her front door was not; it’s one of the things I remember most.

Fast forward to the ’80s, and you’ll find me working for a large medical center. I had a creative side and was asked by the Administration to decorate two medical facilities for the holidays. When I inquired about funds to make this holiday magic happen, I was told to “have a bake sale.” Baking cookies is not my thing so I reformulated my Grandmother's face cream into solid moisturizing bars - which by the way, were just beginning to show up in the marketplace.

Making them at night in my kitchen, I sold them during my lunch hour at a table strategically positioned between the front door and the cafeteria and on weekends at Medical Center sponsored events. I pulled a volunteer team together to help decorate and sell, and each year we raised enough money to fund the raw ingredients and decorations.

I came up with the idea of Dreams & Details after losing my job for 5 years during a tough time in my life while being a single mother to an 11-year-old son. Failure was so scary.

I was at my desk one day and after being notified of the job loss I decided that I was going to follow my dreams of event planning. I had worked in public service for 10 years and served 8 years in the United States Army.

My mos in the Army was an Automated Logistical Supply Specialist and I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech Communications so I knew I had what it took to host, plan, manage events and execute events. I have always enjoyed planning events and organizing projects.

I’ve always been a thrill-seeker/adrenaline junky, so online business to me was the perfect outlet for that energy.

When I was younger I struggled with paying attention in school, I thought it was pointless. I was really smart, but only when I was interested in something. I barely managed to graduate high school due to skipping class and partying too much.

The thought of going to University sounded terrible to me, and I got depressed after resigning to a future of working a job I hated. I just didn’t see a compelling future.

This led me to work as a carpenter for 6 years in the pouring Vancouver rain, and I hated it. It wasn’t until 2015 I stumbled upon The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris and my mind expanded to the possibilities of the online business world (and how it would be my escape from construction)!

It was a bad habit. Buying books and not finishing them...

One tap on Amazon, and bang, there it was on my kindle or my doormat the next day. I’d fleetingly read a review or even just a crunching blurb and my key words, curiosities or aspirations had slapped me round the face and before I’d considered a sensible swipe-by it was too late.

I’d become a heavy user. Buying non-fiction books at quite a click. But the problem was not so much the cost — at the most I was spending £20 a month — which I saw as a solid investment in potentially 2–3 life-changing reads. The problem was I couldn’t get past page 100 (or 25%) of almost all of the books I’d bought.

This idea was birthed over one night over Mexican food while talking to a friend who is in the coffee industry. I’ve always flirted with starting a business in the coffee industry or doing something with coffee, however, the NZ market is heavily saturated so I never saw an opportunity.

I found celebrating even the little steps was so helpful to feel like I was going in the right direction and that this wasn’t just another job but it was my own.

When we were dreaming of this subscription service it didn’t take much convincing for me to start it. I love working with people so being in a position to work with the amazing coffee roasters and the customers was a winning situation for me. When looking at the market at the time there were only a couple roasters who offered subscriptions so being able to have a subscription that featured more than one brand was what I thought was a brilliant idea.

I am a lawyer and engineer with an artsy streak. I took evening art lessons through engineering undergrad and held an art show in the faculty lounge at my law school.

After graduating during the height of the downturn in 2009, I moved home to live with my parents while working my way into the perfect legal job at the best intellectual property law firm in the country. I forgot all about art until shortly before my babies were born. I painted to decorate their nurseries. And from that, the business was born alongside our second son (we literally launched the website from my hospital room in the maternity ward).

Then life was back to normal. Two working spouses, kids in daycare, and little time to ourselves. Like many new parents, we were not sleeping enough, and feeling pent up and frustrated. We needed a change, a refresh. We used to travel so much before careers and kids, and now do we really have to wait 18 years to do it again? So we decided to press pause on the American Dream and, with lots of planning, are trying out a different way of life for a year. A life where we pick up our heads and give ourselves permission to be endlessly fascinated by the world around us. In August of 2018, we rented out our house, packed everything into a 10x20 storage unit, and left the country to travel the world with four backpacks and a pack n’ play. During this time, we finished and just published our latest and greatest book: Einstein’s Trampoline. (Bilingual edition coming soon because we are learning Spanish!).

I have always had a passion for animals. I was going to school full time at the University of Rhode Island as a Pre-Vet student while working full time at a local veterinary hospital AND picking up pet sitting and dog walking clients on the side.

Since my late teenage years, I have known that I wanted to work with animals. While working at the animal hospital, I saw a great need for this type of service, and soon after decided to start this business!

I would often come across clients who had not traveled in years because their pets required specialized care or medications or because they did not know who to ask or whom they could trust with their pets and their home.

In true Hipcooks fashion: I’m not a culinary school graduate — I’m a hack! Here’s my story:

I’m first-generation American (Mom is from Germany and Dad from Argentina). My parents were young foreign students in the US and their friends were the other international students: I was a kid surrounded by people from different nationalities, like Spain, Russia, France, and the UK. I was a child foodie and loved to experience culture through food.

I caught the travel bug early, living in Argentina (studying economics in college), traveling through Europe, and moved to England for graduate school (I have a Master’s in Economics from LSE.) While in school, I cooked my way through a series of London restaurants in the gastro-boom of the ’90s, just for fun. My first job was on the West Coast, as an econometrician at the RAND Corporation.

My name is Gary Fox, and I run HostButlers, an Airbnb concierge service in Dublin, Ireland.

Since we started nearly four years ago, we have hosted over 200,000 people and have been profitable from month 5.

After working 90+ hour weeks in investment banking at Rothschild for a few years out of college and then transitioning to private equity two years after that, I thought I had it made. I landed my dream job in private equity in my dream city (Boston) and had a much more healthy work/life balance.

The dream, however, quickly turned into a nightmare. In my first review less than 4 months on the job I was fired on the spot and asked to sign a waiver and take $10,000 to go away. I was confused and my confidence was shattered.

Even worse, I was blackballed from private equity in Boston. Every time I had an offer in hand it would get rescinded because the employer that fired me would only say that I worked there and wouldn’t give me a reference -- probably out of fear because I wouldn’t take the $10,000 or sign the waiver.

I have always been an entrepreneur. When I was in high school, I wanted to start my own business, so I took to one thing that I knew how to do- mow lawns.

Afterward, while I was in college, I started a mobile DJ business, which was a great way to earn some extra cash in college. After graduating from NDSU with a degree in Computer Science, I took a full-time job working as a software developer. While working as a developer, I really wanted to start a SaaS Company, which translates to “Software as a Service”, so I did just that. I created Midwest Streams - Simple Funeral Webcasting, which helps funeral directors webcast their funerals.

I ended up spending too many hours working on Midwest Streams while I was at my software developer job, so my employer fired me. (If you are reading this, I really am sorry!) This happened in February of 2014, and Midwest Streams was only making $400 a month. I decided not to go back to work and try my hardest to grow my company. I had some savings, but burnt through it pretty quick, as it’s really hard to survive with only $400 a month.

Back in 2013, I had already discovered my passion - personal development - and had realized writing is the best way to express myself. So I combined these and started a self-improvement blog.

Starting the blog was the best decision and not giving up on it over the years (even when no traffic or money was coming in) was what helped me move forward.

It was first just a hobby and I knew nothing about blogging. Over the years, after publishing a ton of content, gaining traffic, learning about SEO, email marketing, social media, and all the ways to monetize a blog, it became a real business.

We’ve been friends for awhile - we met right out of college in New York and stayed close even though we took fairly different professional paths.

Saara worked in the corporate world for a number of years before moving to Mexico where she launched a jewelry business aimed at rehabilitating sex trafficking survivors. Stephanie was a business consultant before going to law school and becoming a corporate lawyer; along the way, she launched an argan oil company that empowers women in Morocco.

I come from an entrepreneurial family. My father works for himself and my maternal grandfather started a clothing factory. Working for myself has always been encouraged by my family, but before I could get started, I needed to learn a skill. At Georgetown, I study international politics and business. Most students with these backgrounds go on to work at prestigious firms like J.P. Morgan. I really didn’t know what kind of business I could start, and frankly, planned to work as a (boring) data analyst after graduation.

If you have an idea but don’t have the knowledge to execute, use that idea as motivation and go learn how to turn your vision into reality.

Tutoring first came to mind because I had spent significant time working for other tutoring companies and cutting my teeth/learning how the industry works during my teen years. I first started tutoring when I was 15. I was hired by College Experts, a local test prep center in Davie, Florida. My first student was three years older than me, and I spent our first session teaching him how to use his calculator rather than trying to explain any complicated formulas. Being a student myself, I was able to bring a student’s perspective to tutoring. I worked for College Experts until my senior year of high school when I began tutoring on my own and finding clients on Craigslist.

We have been running a design agency for the past 10 years as a side business. After gaining inspiration from some of our competitors in this domain providing a productized service, we came up with an idea for an even better process that is more optimal and efficient bringing out better results at a more affordable cost comparatively.

The most effective method we tried for our validation was initiating a conversation with every person who visited our website to understand more about what they were looking for and what would make Draftss an ideal provider for their needs.

We wanted to productize the design and code service domain, where a design team is like a product subscription. You buy a Design or Code subscription and equip yourself with a design or/and development team that can get everything done for you. Subscribe when you require projects to be completed, unsubscribe once you are done.

I started Live Fit because I felt I was running out of options in the industry I loved so much. Personally, I felt the misses in the personal training industry and wanted to change that. Personal Training, as well as all types of fitness, can be very intimidating to most people. And honestly, the people that are most intimidated by fitness are often the people that need it the most. I set out to create a company that provided the same types of exercises, programming, and results as generally all fitness companies, but I wanted to make it a comfortable experience from the moment a potential client stepped through our doors.

All our processes, our studio layout, our team of trainers we have hired, and our entire mission are based on making clients feel comfortable, appreciated, and valued. We do things differently and over the past 10 years, I have seen other companies in our area follow our lead. Long gone are the days of slamming weights, extremely loud music, and uncomfortable gym environments. People want to go where they feel comfortable and respected.

I have always loved sports and started at a young age, with my dad as my coach. I continued athletics through high school and went on to run college track where I based my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees entirely on building my career in the fitness industry. The last thing I was willing to do was to throw it all away based on a lack of opportunity, so I created my own with Live Fit. I believe in spirituality and the law of attraction and base my life on those principles. So in early 2011 when I couldn’t focus on my spiritual study and spiritual growth because my mind was consumed with running numbers about opening my own company, I knew that was a sign from God it was time to create something great.

Back in the early 90s, I had developed a marketing training workshop and newsletter. When people attended our day-long workshop, we were flooded with standing ovations and positive reviews; people claiming they learned more about marketing and advertising from us than in their entire MBA programs. The testimonials about the events were awesome.

While we serve all kinds of businesses, we know our sweet spot. Businesses that are currently generating between $500K and $5M per year are our primary target.

But we found going back to those folks in weeks or months that IMPLEMENTATION rates were abysmally low. We weren’t happy with that. And, while you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink, I decided maybe the chances of them drinking would go up if we shoved their faces in the water. The idea of a rigorous Coaching program was born.

This business idea was born in 2016, but the journey really began in 2014.

After working for a company for 8 years, I hadn’t really gotten far financially and felt stuck. I decided to find a job with better financial prospects and the possibility of advancement. After 6 months of searching, I was hired at a new employer and managed to double my salary in one fell swoop!

Just start! That little voice inside your head giving you doubts will always be there. Push through that voice and keep going until you reach a point where you’re lost.

I began my business career with the family in-store sampling business, C.A. Courtesy, in the 1990s, while at the same time attending college at Johnson and Wales University, where I pursued a degree in Web Management & Internet Commerce.

I’ve always had a knack for marketing and technology, and when I left C.A. Courtesy, I was the Vice President of Marketing and Technology.

People don’t remember what you say as much as they remember how they felt when you said it.

Hello, I am Akshay Patel from Albuquerque, NM the land of enchantment. I started an event rental and decor company that led me to an event venue. The View Event Center is a lavish space that is an indoor and outdoor event venue with panoramic city views. Our high-end venue with experienced staff will assist from venue decor to the smallest details entailed in making memories of a lifetime. Simply Decor, Tents, and Events ensures exclusive decor and thrives to bring your event to life through customized, elegant decor for all of their clients.

The full-service company will individually work with every client to design their event that will intrigue every eye in the room. Our company is broad that we get many different types of customers and we make many great connections with them as well. The company was making upwards of $380,000 a year.

For as long as I can remember I have always been attracted to the idea of being a business owner. I’ve tried many businesses starting with my own DJ company. I got some business cards, printed them at Staples, passed them out, and waited for the calls.

It took a bit of time, but eventually, the calls started to come in and bookings started to happen. I did that for a couple of years until one of the DJ gigs some gangsters got into it and I was almost in the middle of a gang fight. Thank GOD things calmed down, but after that, I started looking for another business!

During this same time, the whole tech bubble was growing and I wanted a part of it. I took some coding classes in college and started using HTML to code my website from scratch. I kind of borrowed a lot of ideas from Yahoo but it was going to be mainly focused on my local city. I visited some businesses and got some of them to advertise. Things seemed to be going well when the bubble burst and I was once more left to venture out and look for something else.

Five years ago, my mum was diagnosed with cancer and given just nine months to live. My baby girl was just five months old at the time, and I made the difficult decision to relocate to the UK to help care for my mum during her final year.

I left my husband behind, so during that time, we flew back and forth from Sydney to London four times in 9 months. Flying with a baby is difficult and I was no exception. The airline bassinets are in the main thoroughfare of the plane and there’s so much going on. This over-stimulates your baby and makes it near to impossible to get them to sleep when they need to – which in turn it leads to overtiredness and this is the worst problem to fix.

Lesson learned – even if you’re using an agent and they say they’ll carry out Quality Control….external, independent Quality Control is an absolute must.

My personal background is in B2B enterprise sales, and at my previous employer, things were going great for the first 2.5 years that I was an employee there. I moved up quickly, was promoted twice, and actually had the opportunity to build out a team. Unfortunately, one day that all changed and I realized that I was deeply unhappy, and after years of trying and failing to start businesses online I thought that maybe it was time for one more go.

Your pot of gold and freedom is out there somewhere, but you will never find it until you start looking for it.

The company I was working for announced that it was being acquired, so I decided to give my old friend Derek a call. Initially, I pitched him on starting a recruitment agency together (both of us had started our careers at an executive search office together). He said that he would think about it, and actually came to me with the idea for an SMMA (Social Media Marketing Agency).

I’ve been starting businesses since I was 15. During school, I worked part-time in a mobile phone store and learned how to fix phones. During the weekends, I started my own market stall and advertised online to fix phones, replace screens, and started to earn cash that way. During college, I scaled up this business to a physical location at the University I was attending here in Ireland. I approached the college and rented an office space from them and opened my first store!

I was terrified of running out of money and for the first 18 months, I ran the company entirely on my own. I remember one particular day where I met 18 different guests at 18 different locations across the city.

Between classes, I would work in the store and when I was in class, I hired classmates and friends to work for me. Looking back now, it was an incredibly fun time but I wish I hadn’t reinvested so much money in the college bar!

Courtney Joy always wanted to be a teacher as a little girl. She used to pretend to teach in her childhood home basement on Long Island, New York. Growing up in an artistic family, she became a figurative and landscape artist and eventually attended art school. After college, she decided to merge her two childhood passions together and became an art teacher.

Lindsay Ann expressed herself through art in a different way. She was in the theater and went to school for drama in New York City. While pursuing her dream of acting, she also made beaded jewelry on the side. It quickly became a passion of hers and would help lead her down a new path in life.

Within our first 3 months, we sold over 100 orders, resulting in more than $3,000 in revenue. By the end of our first year, we had sold over 2,300 orders, resulting in more than $65,000.

In 2011, coming out of college, I miserably tried to start a penny auction website. I studied Political Science at University, which had absolutely no bearing on this idea. I knew I wanted to do something entrepreneurial and was consumed by this auction model. I had my own specific mechanics that I thought would make the game a lot more fair for the average consumer. But alas, 6-8 months later, after burning through thousands of dollars trying to get the technology right, I was absolutely nowhere.

I was resigned to not give up, but the mechanics of the auction are critical to the smooth operation of the website and if you can’t get it right you don’t have a business. So I decided to start taking on some freelance writing work, just to get some cash in.

One thing led to another and I started getting some bigger clients with bigger asks. Eventually, I snowballed hiring some writers and copy editors. Turning this thing into a full-time business operation.

When I started Mommy on Purpose, I started with ZERO knowledge of the internet or how online businesses work. I could hardly type, to be honest, I didn’t even take a high school computer class (and I have no education beyond high school).

I waitressed through all of my 20s and had entered my 30s at a desk job - making slightly more than minimum wage. My husband and I had decided to start a family, and I full well knew that there was NO point in my “going back to work” after I had a baby… paying for childcare meant I’d be bringing in less than 200$ per month.

You won’t learn how to be successful until you find out what doesn’t work.

My name is Sasha Weekes and I’m the 25 years old owner of Timber Grove Studios. Our home-based woodshop is nestled in the hills of PEI’s countryside, and we specialize in decorative shelving and home decor with a focus on minimalist design and simplicity. Each piece is made to order with 20+ color options, meaning it will be the perfect fit for each customer's space. We ship Canada and U.S. wide.

Moving twice in two years has definitely caused organizational, financial and opportunity hiccups, but the business has grown steadily regardless so we’re very excited about where 2020 will take us. We’ve learned what to focus on during which months, as revenue can range anywhere from $2000 during slow months to $10,000 during high months. Net profit has run anywhere between 20-50% throughout the life of the business and varies month to month. It’s closer to 20% right now as we’ve been spending all we can on new tools and materials for our new larger products and our Christmas stock.

Hey there! My name is Amber Barrett and I’m the founder and CEO of Arranged by Amber. I started this business in 2018 as a Professional Organizing service, but through pivots and lots of trial and error, this business now supports other Professional Organizers by implementing business systems and automation into their businesses.

Today, Arranged by Amber averages $8,000/month helping Professional Organizers implement business strategies and systems that save them time and money.

My name is Adam Elliot, and I started Dick At Your Door, an e-commerce shop for people who like to gift pranks, gags, and funny novelties to their friends and family.

Yes, you read that correctly... Dick At Your Door sells chocolate penises you can send as a fun prank to friends and family.

Bonjour! My name is Anthony Rosemond. I'm a Parisian chef & founder of Pastreez, an online French bakery.

We’ve sold over 1 million macarons to this date, with only a team of two.

My name is Sarah Giller Nelson and I am organized. I experience a sense of calm when I walk into well-ordered spaces. I enjoy feeling unencumbered. Knowing how to sift through, sort out, and organize all the “stuff” a household needs comes naturally to me and is a skill that I draw upon all the time.

I currently have a staff of three professional organizers operating in two states. We serve on average 95 households per year. About 85% of our clients are repeat customers, buying 10 hours or more of organizing services. Typically, they hire us to work on one space, like a closet or a kitchen. Once they see how quickly we can make the changes that they need, they hire us to organize many other rooms in their house as well.

Hi! I’m Rebecca Ringquist. I’m an artist and entrepreneur living in Portland, Oregon.

Ten years later, that Original Sampler is by far the best seller and comprises at least 25% of yearly sales annually. Dropcloth Samplers started on a whim, but is now my full-time job, grossing over 15K a month.

The star of HGTV's 'Staged to Perfection' spent 18 years working as a screenwriter, but her career path was completely unscripted.

• In 1998, Meredith Baer offered to renovate her friend's home that has been on the market unsold for over a year. With her own furniture and potted plants, she decorated the place and showed buyers how they can live in this space. The house was sold for $500,000 and with this, her journey as a home stager began.
• Soon brokers started reaching out to her and she was flooded with projects staging numerous properties. This is how her company Meridith Baer & Associates was born.
• In 2012, she renamed her company Meridith Baer Home.
• Her company touched new heights year after year and she expanded her business from California to Connecticut, New York, Florida, San Francisco, Las Vegas and to global locations like Cabo San Lucas.

Read the full story on entrepreneur.com ➜

I am Janet Wischnia and I am the founder of American Blossom Linens a direct-to-consumer brand of bedding made completely in the USA from USA grown cotton. Our flagship product is our classic made in USA organic cotton natural sheet set and we sell online in the USA to people interested in quality sustainable products.

We started right before the COVID 19 pandemic started which we thought was going to make the growth trajectory very hard but much to our surprise we grew our sales by 400% in 2020 and have continued to grow in 2021. We introduced a line of cotton blankets and plan on introducing many more new products.

I am David Buchanan, a professional chef, and owner of Chefs-Resources.com, a website geared towards providing professional chefs with free detailed culinary info (seasonality, flavor profiles, etc.) about fresh fish, oysters, and cuts of meat, as well as tons of free kitchen management articles. Paid subscribers get access to our premium kitchen management resources such as Excel sheets (prep sheets, recipe templates, ordering guides, etc.), video tutorials, and kitchen management articles.

The site is not about recipes, but I am a Chef, so here is one of my favorite personal creations...seared scallops, spring pea puree, lemon beurre blanc, fingerling potatoes, golden beets, asparagus, corn kernels.

Hi, I am Julmar Grace Locsin, and I am the owner and co-founder of Filipino Virtual Assistance by FVA Business Consultancy. FVA offers online and offline training, coaching, consulting, workshops, services, franchising-related virtual assistance, offshoring, outsourcing, and remote work for brands and businesses, here and abroad.

Our very mission is to equip freelancers, empower marketers, and enable businesses. We envision FVA for global digital leadership that will impact the world through digitalization, one life at a time. FVA has three arms, namely FVA Online Academy- have trained 25,000 students from our 31 courses, FVA Services- from training to hiring programs, and FVA Franchising with 16 Coaches assigned from different territories. And we are fifteen in the FVA team, including FVA co-founder Jay Locsin and me.

My name is Chris Crawford and I am the founder of RinseKit. We design, manufacture, and sell the RinseKit- a portable pressurized shower that’s like having a hose to go. It doesn’t require pumping or batteries, fills from a hose spigot or sink in 30 seconds, can maintain pressure for up to a month, and is entirely portable. We started the business back about 5 years ago and have since grown to average over $1.5 M in sales each year.

My name is Gareth Parkin and I am the owner of GoPromotional, one of the UK’s leading online distributors of custom-branded promotional products. We supply businesses and organizations of all sizes with quality merchandise that can be branded with company branding and marketing messages.

Over that past decade, GoPromotional has grown its annual turnover to around £3m putting it in the top echelon of the UK promotional product market.

Hello, my name is Cédric Sigoire and I am the owner of the DEMAN Translations group.

We will reach more than 6 million euros in the year 2021 and my target for 2022 is 10 million euros!