I’m guessing that if you’re reading the 11 good products to sell from home you’re probably a stay at home parent. Nothing wrong with that – I was that for a while, before the grace of God intervened and both kids were off to school at the same time.
The whole thing about selling from home is that you have to come up with what works for you. Are you a maker? Do you love creating something that you can sell online or locally? In that case, you’re essentially capitalizing on the skill you have in making that product. If you love doing it, you practice more, so your skill improves, which essentially improves quality and shortens the manufacturing time – giving you an economic advantage.
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Or are you a smart shopper who can spot a deal when it’s available? Ebay spawned an entire population of wholesale buyers who essentially bought low and sold high – anything from pen caps (I imagine) to unicorn droppings (I imagine). In this case, you’ll really need an upfront investment cost covering the large purchase – be it one or many – and then space to keep the inventory until it sells. Obviously, since you can’t foresee when something sells, it wouldn’t be a good idea to buy anything with an expiration date.
One thing – you should check local laws if you need to secure a necessary permit before selling from your home. I know this is the case for some towns where food involved, but even then it’s inconsistent. In some cases it’s ok if you do it but dont advertise it. In others it’s ok if the food is through a website, etc. Just do your homework – that’s what I’m saying. This is to ensure that if you ever piss off your neighbor and the bitch rats on you- you’re good. You won’t have a problem on them knocking on your door because you don’t have a business permit.
You may want to look back on our list of the 10 Most Profitable Business to Start from Home in 2016 for more useful ideas.
We’ve compiled a few ideas for you (you’re welcome) using AnswerThePublic. Here are 11 good products to sell from home in alphabetical order.
11. Avon
The oldest direct to consumer company I know is Avon. The products they have are cosmetics, perfumes, and underwear – mostly for women. David H. McConnell is the founder. He somehow was inspired to recruit women as sales representatives, probably capitalizing on a sexist assumption that the social capacity will lead to more sales. They’re still around although I personally know NO ONE who dares utter the word, let alone buy or use their products. I’m imaging a Walmart shopper who voted for Trump and is living paycheck to paycheck as the typical Avon user, although I have no stats to back that up. But if you find someone who’s holding an Avon product who doesn’t work for the company and also isn’t missing any teeth, I’ll take those lasts few sentences out of this article on good products to sell from home.
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10. Cakes
You have the passion for baking? Start selling your delicious homemade cakes! As we all know nothing that beats the taste of homemade delights. Cakes, next on our list of good products to sell from home for some reason were this big thing a few years ago. Fondant, royal icing, filling, edible glitter, non-gmo, vegan; the list of things that sets a cake apart are endless. The thing is, it’s important only to taste good and look good. Looking good is more important, on that note. I actually know a baker who said that the more extravagant the cake, the lower the profit margin. Apparently cooking easy cakes can still cost a lot more than the sweat involved warrants. Keep that in mind.
If you have the hutzpah (I dare you), do what DT did and just copy cakes you’ve seen before. Then do the right thing, unlike DT, and step down as President of the free world.
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9. Candles
This one’s cool because you can add a design element that’s unique, making your stand apart from the rest. Unlike cakes, these don’t have an expiration date. If you can, the next time you’re demonstrating how a candle works (you never know) try to shove a lit one down DT’s throat.
I actually bought wax once, wholesale, for a project. The thing about candle making is that it might seem easy, but here’s what I found. Wax is heavy. It’s not heavy if you’re holding a tealight. But it’s heavy if it’s in a glass votive, and it’s super heavy if there are many in one box. So think about shipping cost. Your customer will tack on the shipping fee to his overall purchase, but you’re not getting that money. Also, if you decide to work with scents, your nose will malfunction and die. I swear. Scents are not cool. They drive you nuts if you smell them too long. And lastly, wax is messy. Even if you know exactly what you’re doing and you have a process down, you’ll most probably need a dedicated messy space (shed, garage, deck, etc). Keep that in mind.
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8. Clothes
This is an easy one to buy cheap and tough to sell for anything. I’ll tell you why. There’s a site that’s Chinese and it rhymes with Ally Mama. It’s GOLD for cheap shit, I swear. Even clothes. The best part is that you can even put in an order for clothes to be made, and manufacturers will come back to you with their quotes. Pick the best one and you’re good to go. Keep in mind that this is a saturated market. Getting people to by clothes from people they dont know is Hard. But if you’re a min Ralph Lauren, who am I to tell you differently.
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7. Cookies
Next on our list of good products to sell from home are cookies! Yum. Pushing a beloved blue furry monster out of my mind’s eye right now – let me see how many types of cookies I can roll off my tongue – chocolate chip, macadamia & white chocolate, pecan chocolate & coconut, linzer, mexican wedding, black & white, oatmeal, garbage can (all of above, basically), and … now I’m hungry. Let’s pretend you’re not on the paleo diet, or even better don’t like cookies (please…), then this is a great option. The thing about this is that cookies are perishable but not immediately so. Also, you can make the dough ahead of time, cut & shape, and freeze. Then when an order comes, just bake (8-12 minutes, in my experience) and you’re done. A lot of people who aren’t bakers can’t fathom baking from scratch so if you’re unafraid to learn, you’ve already got a head start.
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6. Cupcakes
Another homemade delight that the kids and adults will surely love that definitely deserves a place on our list of good products to sell from home. Just another version of cookie except this has more volume. You can disguise the unhealthy aspects of this sucker but a couple of small tricks – add some whole grain oats and call it a muffin. Skip the frosting and instead dust with sanding sugar – again – muffins! My daughter’s old school didn’t allow cupcakes at school so I sometimes did this trick. I backed a cupcake , slit it horizontally, put some frosting in the middle but made sure none showed when you put the top back on. That way, when she bit into it, she tasted a cupcake, but when the teacher walks by it’s plain ‘ol bakey thingy. I’m the man.
5. Made to Order Breakfast
Ever wake up on a Sunday and wish someone would just serve you? Well you could do it for someone else and charge ’em. I used to live in an apartment building where there was a woman who sold made to order stuff (or it might have been me daydreaming that was the case). If you’re an early riser and love to cook, you might find a few neighbors who’d be willing to pay a pretty penny for a delicious breakfast that they didn’t have to cook.
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4. Mary Kay
Like Avon, but pink. Think Avon had a baby with Pepto Bismol. Mary Kay, next on our list of good products to sell from home also offers beauty products that focuses on cosmetics. They’re unfortunately accompanied with the shitty branded name of Mary and Kay in the same term, for a result of Mary Kay. Looking below, I get pinky overload. Yikes, I need to look at some brown or black right now.
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3. Digital Design
If you have the passion for art together with the skills in using technology, you can market your very own digital designs. This is great in one way in particular because you can do what fits your needs best : you can create premade graphics and sell them, or sell customized one. You can also work in the middle of the night (while kids sleep), and there’s not materials needed. So you won’t have to deal with inventory.
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2. Errand Service Business
Unlike the spiffy guy seen here in this picture, you can run errands in your sweats if you need. Some of the stuff that businesses hate doing and are willing to pay for you to do stuff for them. Again, this can be customized for online errands if you’re more comfortable with that or in person if you’re an outside person. Now let’s see the first place on our list of good products to sell from home.
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1. Custom Made Products
We’ve already mentioned clothes but custom made products are not limited to tailoring. Do-it-yourself items are on the rise but some people don’t have the patience to do these projects. Food, knitting, sewing, embroidery, woodworking,.. the list goes on. Take note that you have to good time management skills.
If you try hard I’m sure you can add to this list of 11 good products to sell from home. The world is getting more populated and smaller at the same time. That makes way for individualized skills – out of necessity really. Good Luck:)
