With so many uncertainties in the job market such as growing unemployment, layoffs and curtailed freedoms in traditional office settings, many people desire to work from home. Christians too wish to have independence, financial freedom and time in order to serve God and attend to their families. If you are like many Christians, you might have thought of starting a home based business. But you may be wondering which one wouldn’t get in the way of your faith or compromise your devotion to God, especially when there are so many scams disguised as money making opportunities. Here are some of the most dignified ideas and strategies of starting and running a home based business.

Starting your Business

The first step towards starting your business is to conceptualize the idea. There isn’t really any difference on how Christians and other people start their business. The distinction lies in how you choose your idea and how you plan to execute it.

In your preliminary planning there are a number of things that you need to have in mind.

Business Idea – after making the choice of business you want to start, you may want to share your idea with family members and your closest Christian friends, such as your prayer partners or cell group leaders. Those who own small business owners may be of greater help to you. Your aim is to get their feedback or any additional suggestions. They don’t all have to like your idea. Some may even criticize or doubt your assessment. But remember this is your plan and you don’t have to be discouraged if they don’t seem to be as excited.

Business Plan

With your business idea in place, the next thing you want to do is to draw a plan. You need to know who’ll be your customer and why you think they need your product or service. The cost of your product or service, startups, business registration, insurance costs and so on. Then you’ve got to plan how you intend to deliver your goods or services to the consumers.

Will your product or service be distributed to the local stores, community or on the internet? For web-based products, you’ll have to set up your website or use online marketplace such as Etsy or eBay.

Suggestions for Home-based Business

Some of the ideas for a home based business for a Christian include:

Selling Ornaments and Crafts

If you are creative, you can make some handicrafts such as baskets, gift items, jewelry and so on and personalize them with inspirational messages or Christian symbols. You can also design and make other items such as greeting cards or even church cookbooks for fundraising.

Wedding Planning

Every girl dreams to have a wedding and people are always getting married. Being a wedding planner can be a great opportunity and you can even begin by helping those getting married in your local church plan their weddings

Make products and sell Online

There are many Christians all over the country and across the world looking for specific products. You can either create your own online store or sell through affiliate programs.

Join Christian based Affiliate Programs such as:

Disciples Cross – a Christian home based company where you can buy supplies and use them to make necklaces and sell back to the company or anywhere you want at a profit.

My Precious Kid – become a sales rep of a Christian owned company selling child ID safety kits.

Premium Designs – this is a biblically based direct sales company dealing with jewelry.