What Businesses Can Women Start From Home and What are the Common Challenges They Face?

It might come as a surprise, but thousands of women continue to shatter glass ceilings in today’s business world.

In fact, many  of the leading companies in the world today are led by successful women entrepreneurs

The good news is, you can be one of them, too.

Even if you’re a stay-at-home mom, there are countless money-making opportunities available for you.

If you’re thinking of starting a business – one that will support your lifestyle – we’ve compiled a list of business ideas you can start from home below.

1. Interior Designer

Do you love arranging and rearranging your home? Do you have some creative taste? Do you love watching HGTV and think that you can do everything they do on the show, and even better?

If so, interior designing might be a viable business for you to start. The best part is, if you’re really good at it, you might just work your way up to a six-figure salary.

If you think interior designing is for you, the first thing you need to do is to build your portfolio.

You can offer your services to your friends and family for free at first, and take pictures of your work. You can even think of it as practice.

Since you’ll be starting your business from home, setting up a website would be an excellent first step. You can also put your portfolio there to make it more accessible to your potential clients in the future.

2. Hairstylist

If you’re a hairstylist who wants to enjoy the luxury of being your boss and working at your preferred time, this is the ripe time to consider running your beauty salon business.

Some hairstylists usually worry about budget and location when starting their business. But you can easily find a viable fix for that.

If you don’t have a physical location yet, you can start doing your services at home. You can convert one room in your home into your workstation.

You can also offer home services to your regular clients. If you need more capital to cover the costs of the equipment you need, you can always try your luck with small business loans for beauty salon businesses.

It’s also essential to market your business to the right people. If you have some regulars coming in, ask them to recommend you to their colleagues and friends.

You can offer free haircuts or discounts for referrals to incentivize them to promote your business.

3. Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping is an in-demand skill right now. Many small businesses are looking to outsource the job because apparently, it’s cheaper for them to hire a freelance bookkeeper than keep an in-house one.

That said, if you have a knack for numbers are who loves math, you might just make a great bookkeeper.

The good thing about it is that you don’t need a college degree to get a job. There are a lot of free courses online that can help you in your training.

The best part? You can perform your duties at home and even accept multiple clients at the same time. All you need is a working laptop and a fast internet connection.

Salary-wise, bookkeepers can earn as much as $60 per hour of service. So if you have three clients and you work for at least 2 hours for each client, you’ll have a total of $360 per day, or roughly 1,800 per week if you work five days a week. It’s definitely not a bad start for a startup.

4. Writing/Blogging

If you love writing and can actually write good articles, you might want to consider using your love for writing into a paying career.

You can start your blog and talk about a topic you’re passionate about. Some of the most successful bloggers usually focus on one niche.

This allows them to build their expertise over time, so they can continue writing high-quality articles their audience would find valuable.

As more people discover your blog and read what you post, you’ll eventually rise up to become an authority on the topic.

Brands related to the niche you’re covering may even partner with you for promotions. Companies may invite you to speak at events and compensate you generously.

You can also start a career as a freelance writer and offer your services to digital marketing companies.

Freelance writers usually write articles about various topics, from health and fitness to small business management, depending on the client’s needs. 

As a freelance writer, you can set your fee based on the minimum word count per project or a per-hour basis.

In general, junior copywriters (2 years’ worth of experience or less) may charge as much as $80 per hour, while top copywriters usually charge as much as $200 per hour.

Common Challenges that Women Entrepreneurs Face

Starting and running a business as a woman can be fulfilling, but one can’t also deny that it’s harder for women to catch a break in the business world.

In reality, women experience unique challenges when it comes to running a business. We’ve laid out some of the most common challenges that women face in business below:

1. Funding

The reality of running a business is, you need to spend money to make money. As daunting as it may seem to take out an unsecured business line of credit or any business loan, it’s sometimes necessary to sustain your business operation.

Unfortunately, getting access to small business funding is much more challenging for women founders.

Banks are also hesitant to lend women-owned businesses because they don’t consider women as creditworthy, noting that they could easily give up on their business at any time.

Venture capitalists are also less likely to invest in women-owned companies because they think it’s not worth the risk.

For that reason, women entrepreneurs are left with no choice but to seek help from family and friends or use their personal savings to build their business from the ground up. Sometimes, they may not be able to raise enough capital to keep the company afloat.

2. Balancing Responsibilities

Unfortunately, the stereotype that women should give more importance to their families than their career is still very much evident in our society today.

Aside from managing a business, they’re also expected to tend to her family at home. In short, they have a lot of things on their plate on any given day.

Taking care of the kids alone can take hours. With the societal expectations of women – that they should spend more time taking care of their family than focusing on their careers – they’re forced to give less priority to their business.

This makes it harder for women to find the right balance to succeed in their chosen venture.

3. Lack of Support

Support plays a big role in the success of any business. However, female entrepreneurs usually get little of it.

One reason for this could be that there are lesser women in business who can offer their help and advice.

That said, it could be more challenging for women to grow professionally and excel in their chosen ventures. 

Ready to Start Your Business?

Women face all kinds of challenges when running a business, but that didn’t stop them from continually rising to the top.

The world boasts a number of successful women today, and you, too, can be one of them. With the right amount of research, motivation, determination, and passion, you’ll be able to rise above these challenges and see your business reach greater heights in no time.