We recently compiled a list of the 12 Most Profitable Businesses to Start from Home in 2024 and in this article we will look at the most profitable business.
Entrepreneurs Making a Living from Their Homes
Freelancing has altered the landscape of work and entrepreneurship. As of 2023, 64 million people in the US were engaged in freelance work. Ali Rahmon is a Syrian refugee, residing in Romania and working as a graphic designer. On June 5, Business Insider covered Ali Rahmon’s journey as an entrepreneur. Ali Rahmon shifted to Romania in 2014 and pivoted his freelancing career to create design templates for clients in web and 3D design. After 2 years of consistent hard work, Rahmon then chose sports templates as his niche. He made a professional website using $2,000 from his savings using WooCommerce to showcase his work. The site was launched in February 2016 and after a few weeks, Rahmon decided to enhance his presence on the internet using social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. His social media accounts linked back to his website. He also hired influencers on YouTube to promote his work. After a year of working towards his goal, ESPN reached out to Rahmon for a custom design template offering him $2,500 for the project. In 2020, he started to experiment with TikTok to grow his popularity. His content started getting engagement from NBA teams, contributing to his success. After establishing a strong online presence, Rohman started to earn somewhere between $10,000 to $15,000 per month.
Providing virtual fitness training services is another great business idea that can be started from home. On December 9, 2020, Business Insider quoted the story of BreeAnna Cox who made $450,000 a year as an online personal trainer. Cox is the founder of BodyByBree and has been working in the personal training business for more than 14 years now. She also published a range of podcasts on her website that talk about the physical and mental well-being of individuals. She also owns a BodyByBee training application that comes with a 14-day free trial. Cox’s 100% online business grossed over $450,000 in 2020. As of June 12, BreeAnna Cox has over 104,000 followers on Instagram.
The keyword “affiliate marketing” had a global search volume of 744,600 in the past 30 days, as of June 12. People were also curious to know what affiliate marketing is, garnering 22,200 in global search volume. 5,400 searches prompted search engines to understand how to start affiliate marketing and 2,900 searches questioned the legitimacy of it. 27,100 searches came from the keyword, affiliate marketing programs, and 22,200 searches were in favor of Amazon’s affiliate marketing program. Such explains why affiliate marketing is considered to be a popular business idea. On May 17, 2023, Business Insider brought Bruce Paulson’s story to the limelight. The freelance SEO specialist made $203,000 in revenue from affiliate marketing in 2022. Before stepping into affiliate marketing, Paulson had been running an SEO agency since 2015. While he did have clients, growing his business was quite a challenge. In 2020, he ventured into affiliate marketing and learned how to build affiliate websites. He would get a small payout for every purchase of a product or service he recommended. He currently has six websites and plans to grow his business even more. He typically earns somewhere between 3% to 10% in commissions for every sale.
Is Upwork the Best Freelancing Software?
Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK) is one of the best freelancing platforms in the world. The platform is functional in more than 180 countries across the globe and offers over 125 categories of work to freelance workers. The company celebrated a milestone in the first quarter of 2023, logging over $20 billion in lifetime freelancer earnings, doubling from $10 billion within three years. In the first quarter of 2023, the company’s clients reached 872,000, up 5% year-over-year. The company currently has the lowest take rate in the industry at 17.7%, strengthening its ability to produce opportunities for the platform with strong monetary returns.
Analysts and investors like the stock. In Q1, the number of hedge funds that held stakes in UPWK was 31, with total stakes amounting to $284.61 million. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group grew its position in UPWK by 318% in Q1. Moreover, The median 1-year price target for the stock implies an upside of 77.24% from current levels of $10.72 and the stock has a consensus Buy rating.
Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK) is making strides in product innovations, AI, and Machine Learning, increasing its gross sales value (GSV). The company reported 70% year-over-year growth in GSV in the AI and machine learning subcategory during the fourth quarter of 2023, and 50% year-over-year during the first quarter of 2024. Upwork’s Freelancer Plus subscription, comprising AI-backed tools and features to enhance skills and visibility, had more than 100,000 active subscribers in the first quarter of 2024, driving 76% growth in revenue. Overall, innovation and investment in new products have been a primary driver of Upwork Inc.’s (NASDAQ:UPWK) financial success in 2023. The company hopes to keep the trend alive for the coming year.
The company is in the right direction when it comes to leveraging AI to its benefit. On April 30, Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK) reported interesting updates to its AI segment helping businesses and freelancers hire and work more efficiently. Uma is Upwork’s Mindful AI, developed using leading large language models. Uma is capable of enhancing the hiring and working process for businesses and freelancers, helping parties discover each other more efficiently. The tool can power Upwork’s Best Match insights feature, which is available in beta. The feature allows businesses to find the right person for jobs instantaneously based on client reviews and the skills required. Uma is also capable of conversing with clients and freelancers on Upwork.
Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK) is part of the industry that is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.5% and reach $14.39 billion by 2030, as per estimates by Grand View Research. We think UPWK may be worth exploring while it’s trading at 2 times its sales, lower than its 5-year average P/S ratio of 6x. Over the past 5 years, Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK) has grown its sales by a CAGR of 22%, and analysts anticipate a further 13% growth in sales in 2024.
While we acknowledge the potential of Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK) to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Our Methodology
To gather a list of the 12 most profitable businesses to start from home in 2024, we consulted threads on Reddit and over 10 rankings and reports on the internet. We picked the business ideas that appeared in 50% of our sources and then ranked them.
At Insider Monkey we are obsessed with the stocks that hedge funds pile into. The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
The Most Profitable Business to Start from Home in 2024
1. Graphic Design and Editing
Starting a graphic design and editing business is the best business idea to start from home in 2024. On average, a graphic designer on Upwork earns somewhere between $15 to $150 per hour. Designers can also earn money on a per-project basis depending on the requirements of clients and recruiters. On May 18, 2022, Business Insider quoted Brett William’s story as a freelance UX designer. Brett Williams, a self-taught graphic designer, started his career as a freelancer and eventually launched his design subscription service, Designjoy, bagging $150,000 per month. Clients were able to assign one task at a time and he would complete those as soon as possible. He submitted his landing page to Product Hunt to market his service and to his surprise, his website logged 40,000 unique visits on the first day of launch. As mentioned above, another freelancer Ali Rahmon from Romania went from freelancing to starting his own design brand on the web that was marketed well on social media. A few months into operation, Rahmon was able to make $10,000 to $15,000 in earnings per month.
To explore more profitable businesses that you can start from home now, check out our report on 12 Most Profitable Businesses to Start from Home in 2024.
At Insider Monkey, we delve into a variety of topics; however, our expertise lies in identifying the top-performing stocks. Currently, Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology stands out as one of the most promising fields. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than NVDA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published on Insider Monkey.