3 In-Demand Products for Your Home-based Business

Home-based business ideas to start a profitable side hustle or small business at home. Even in a tough economy, some business sectors do very well. Selling services and products from home is both popular and profitable.

Over 15 million home-based businesses are active across the country, selling everything from handmade soaps to gym equipment.

The opportunities for you to profit and prosper in your own home-based business are good, but you have to carefully select your market niche and products.  

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Tips For Success Selling Homemade Products

Here are three in-demand products to make and sell from home.

You’ll find tips on how to make or source the items, the equipment and supplies you need, and some helpful resources for getting started.  

Tips for success in your home-based business: 

•   Evergreen Appeal: Look for products with evergreen appeal and avoid trendy, just-hot-right-now items. Thoroughly research your idea before launching the product. Test the market to see if it is viable. 

•   Legal Requirements: Learn what your legal requirements are. Different localized and national laws can seriously affect your success. Local laws sometimes prohibit or sharply define how home-based business activities get carried out. 

•   Skills, Hobbies, and Passions: Look at your skills, hobbies, and passions to find a hot product idea. You have good options with art and crafts items, but don’t immediately discount selling customized ready-made items either.  

•   Market Research: Do your marketing research first. Know who your target buyer is and focus your offer to satisfy their needs. This will help your product stand out from the competition.  

There is a growing demand for homemade products right now.

Home business owners are busily making money with organic and chemical-free bath and body products, hand-crafted art objects, and more.   

Here are top-selling product ideas for you to try in your own home-based business.  

Organic Soaps 

Organic natural soaps are in demand, and the trend is growing. You can create unique gifts by making one-of-a-kind organic soaps from scratch. There are two main processes for making organic soaps: cold process and hot process.  

Cold process soaps get made by combining oils with sodium hydroxide lye. Mixing emulsifies the combination, turning it into soap ready to cure.  

Lye is a reasonably dangerous chemical and demands careful handling for safety. Melt-and-pour hot process soaps are safer and more accessible for beginners to make because the pre-made base is ready to use, eliminating the need to handle dangerous reactive chemicals.    

The key to success with organic or other handmade soap products is precisely targeting your market niche and promoting your products. Careful outreach to target buyers and good branding and packaging will be the difference between so-so sales and success.  

Here is a list of some equipment you might need, average startup costs, and some resources you might find helpful.  

Equipment list for melt and pour soaps: 

• Digital thermometer 

• Soap molds  

• Glass mixing bowls and measuring cups 

• Heavy-duty mixing spoons and spatulas 

• Soap cutter 

You will also need a microwave, cling film, and a shelf or space to store/cure your soaps. To make a hot process, soap supplies needed include melt and pour soap base and cling film. Choose your natural additives for scent and texture. Safe cosmetic and food colorings are available in your local shops and online.  

To make cold process soaps, you will need a digital scale, immersion blenders, and specific containers to mix and measure the caustic lye. Invest in some quality safety goggles and gloves.  

Costs Involved For A Soap Making Home-Based Business

• Estimated startup cost: £1445 /  $2,000, including the factors listed below.  
• Supply cost estimate: £144 / $200 to £215 / $300 depending on the process you choose. 
• Estimated equipment costs: £215 / $300. 
• General liability insurance: £215 / $300 to £289 / $400 per year. 
• Website, marketing, and advertising costs vary depending on your approach. To get the best results, plan to spend £433 / $600 to £578 / $800.  

Packaging costs vary depending on your choices. Your best bet is hiring a professional to design your logo and packaging materials. Then, it will be easy to use your printer to produce professional-quality packaging. Look for freelance designers on sites like upwork.com at affordable prices.  

Useful Resources For A Soap-Making Business

Visit Wholesale Supplies’ online library for free soap-making information and educational materials. 

Soap Deli News blog has a wealth of information and inspiration for unique soap-making recipes and potential business opportunities. Follow Rebecca (Soap Deli News Blog) for all the tips and tricks on soap making for beginners.

Vinyl Window Clings, Stickers, and Decals 

Stickers of every sort and decals are always in demand. Transfers, holographic art stickers for windows, walls, and window clings are only a few of the in-demand products you can make and sell with a minimal investment. Equipment and supply costs are minimal, with lots of creative paper options that will make your product stand out.   

Essentially a good quality inkjet printer, print stock, and beautiful image graphics are what you need to get started. A Cricut or other brand vinyl cutting machine gives your products a crisp, professional look, lets you be more productive, and opens up new market niche opportunities. You can offer clever vinyl decals direct to the public and provide custom-made brand-enhancing products to help small business operators.    

Be clever, find sharply defined market opportunities to exploit. You have a lot of online marketplace options, including Etsy, Shopify, and more. Compare the vinyl decals on offer to help make your own standout. What makes the best-selling items stand out? Customer reviews will help you focus your efforts better. Having positive social proof will enhance your small business and help you to grow your business. 

What Does Decal Mean?

Decal is a specially prepared paper with a design that can transfer onto another surface. This could be a graphic, label, or specific design. The unique quality of a decal is that it is limited to always being one color, monochrome design. Once delivered to the customer, the application is easy as the decal design is sandwiched between the paperback and front.

What Does Vinyl Sticker Mean?

Vinyl and vinyl stickers, in comparison to decals, are produced with a detailed multi-colored design. This allows the creator to connect to a computer in order to use high-quality vector design files to produce vinyl graphic designs.

The final result is a high-quality, detailed design (often custom) for the customer to use. The beauty of vinyl stickers from a customer focus is that you can commission unique one-off projects for designers to create for your home or business.

Some things you will need for an on-demand graphics home-based business:  

Equipment List for On-Demand Vinyl Decal Home-Based Business

• Computer with design software and vector art software 
• A quality inkjet printer–average cost £108 / $150 to £216 / $300 
• A vinyl cutting machine (some models come with design programs included)–Cricut models £144 / $200 to £289 / $400  
• Vinyl and paper print stock. 
• Basic crafts tools. 
• Website, marketing, and advertising costs vary depending on your approach. To get the best results, compare hosting sites and lookup reviews by other small business owners.  
• Mailing/shipping materials. You can get quality and lower cost delivery for smaller packages with the Postal Service. It is well worth shopping around to find the best and most cost-effective shipping companies to work with. 

Costs Involved For an On-Demand VINYL DECAL HOME-BASED BUSINESS

With some careful money management, you can start promoting your vinyl decal or sticker business for less than £722 / $1000.

Consider targeted marketing via social media platforms highlighting your current products, customer testimonials, and upcoming sales.

Successful results depend upon finding the right target consumer and making your product stand out.   

Useful Resources For an On-Demand VINYL DECAL HOME-BASED BUSINESS

Jennifer Maker has a wealth of informative tutorials on her website to guide and teach you how to create papercrafts and vinyl crafts using a Cricut.  

You can also find an extensive list of creatives on Udemy who have created in-depth courses for you to learn how to make vinyl graphics to start your side hustle or small business. 

List Of Ideas For On-Demand Vinyl Decal Home-Based Business

• Vinyl labels
• Custom vinyl decals (transfer stickers)
• Recyclable window clings
• Logo sticker sheets
• Window vinyl
• Decals for walls
• Custom car decals
• Boat decals
• Personalized name decals
• Champagne glass wedding decals
• Pantry label decals
• Custom water bottle decals
• Nail art sticker vinyl sheets
• Custom celebration balloon decals
• Bachelor/bachelorette custom t-shirt decals

Art Therapy Products 

Life gets messy, and people get stressed. Satisfying the need to relieve stress creates many opportunities for you as an entrepreneur. Art therapy kits, adult coloring books, and posters are all products you can make at home and sell for a profit.  

Color me t-shirts, coffee mugs, and ceramic plates make excellent art therapy kit elements. Offer them separately or as a complete DIY kit with washable markers, acrylic paints, and brushes. Anything you can put a coloring page image on becomes a potential in-demand product. 

Here are tools, supplies, and equipment needed with estimated costs.  

Equipment List For An Art therapy Home-Based Business

• Inkjet printer 
• Cricut machine – £144 / $200 to £289/ $400 
• Computer graphics/design software – costs can vary from £216 / $300 to £722 / $1000 and higher. 
• Vinyl transfer stock, adhesive-backed decal stock. 
• Color pencils, washable markers, crayons, and acrylic paint sets. 
• T-shirts, coffee mugs, ceramic plates, and coloring paper. 

Do some research to study comparable price points, product reviews, and what products really stand out on the marketplace sites. Armed with data, your now unique product choices have an improved opportunity to catch the buyer’s eye.  

Useful Resources For an Art Therapy Home-Based Business

Here is a great resource to get you started. Visit Cutting for Business for more useful vinyl transfer business information and more in-depth startup cost figures.  

Blog Bonfire has the perfect blog post detailing how to design a coffee mug with your custom decals to add to your home-based business.

Also on Blog Bonfire, they have provided useful blog posts on T-shirt Design Trends for 2021 as well as How to Design a T-shirt to get you started on your new home-based business.

Conclusion

Now you’ve discovered just a small sample of the diverse range of in-demand products to make and sell from home. Before you go forward, stop and ask yourself this question. 

“How much do I want a successful home-based business?” 

If you seriously want it, even though it will take hard work, eat up your free time and possibly be the subject of your dreams, do it. Your hard work, good market research, and passion can lead to your own successful home-based business.