For those living in cities, urban farming is an exciting home based business idea. Urban farming is a lucrative enterprise, which, with good planning can provide you with an income of up to $100,000 per every acre farmed.

Before you get down to farming here are a number of things you need to consider:

• General knowledge on Agribusiness – understand the basics of farming as an enterprise
• Have a strategy – you need to know what, how much and how best to achieve it
• Choose the crop or type of farming carefully
• Market – do a market survey to understand what commodities are in high demand

Making profit with urban farming, just like with any other type of industry, you’ve got to be passionate, brave all types of weather and be prepared to work out for longer hours. Whether you have a big residential farm or a fairly small plot of land, you can turn it into profitable farming. According to a recent Census of Agriculture analysis, the farms with the highest production, based on cash value of crops per acre are either found in or around urban areas.

Although farming on small plots such as below one acre can still fetch a livable profit, many urban farmers using this method fail to make much out of it apparently for doing it the wrong way.

One of the best ways of utilizing small plots of below one acre is through a system known as sub-acre scale design. According to proponents of intensive small plot farming known as SPIN – Small Plot Intensive, to succeed in this kind of farming, you’ve got to allocate your land to different areas of production intensity. Ideally, this system requires that you have three different layouts – one area is referred to as the least intensive and set apart for one of the lower value crops per season. The second area is set apart for sequentially growing two crops of higher value per season while the third area is left for a sequence of intensive relays of 3 or more types of high valued crops per bed per season. The idea is meant to have the different zones fetch you various levels of income.

Depending on where you live and the type of urban farming you’d want to engage in, there are a number of options that you can adapt. You can use a backyard farm, a community managed garden plot or even where possible rooftop green houses. You can choose to acquire your own land, rent or even lease, based on the size your farming specialty requires.

If you are able to get a huge chunk of land, you can use it for different specialties of farming, based on the market availability. You can even turn some of your hobbies into profitable opportunities. Some of the areas you can try your hand in include Vegetables, flowers, mushrooms, fruits, herbs, ornamentals, fish, chicken and goat farming among many others.

The good news about urban farming is that there’s ready market as there are so many metropolitan consumers who have ready money, looking for what to spend money on, including farm produce. You can indeed tap this market and make a good profit working at home. Some of the places you can supply your farm produce include restaurants, farmers markets, supermarkets and food stores as well as selling directly at the farm.

While being a stay-at-home mom presents a rare opportunity of taking care of your kids, having time to run your home and so on, you’d also want to earn an income and even contribute to your family finances. Whether you simply feel that you want to bring in some extra income or want to kick start a long awaited entrepreneurial dream, there are a number of inspiring opportunities befitting a stay-at-home or a wannabe mom. Indeed a huge number of US companies operate as home-based businesses and a fair number of the most famous brand names were started by stay-at-home moms.

I’m not trying to suggest that it’s easy to find a good idea for a home based business. I receive a lot of enquiries from stay-at-home and wannabe moms investigating about the most suitable home-based business ideas. The following are some of the most practical work from home business ideas suitable for a stay-at-home mom.

Offer Assistance in Events Planning

Helping people plan events such as weddings, parties or other community based events can be a good point of entry towards becoming a successful entrepreneur. You don’t need a lot of experience to start. You can begin by offering light services such as researching on the best pricing of venues, bookings, making phone calls and so on. You can charge hourly or a fixed amount per project, depending on the type of an event.

Operate a day care Center

If you have some experience and passion about this field, you can apply to be licensed as a day care operator. Some of the requirements to be approved as a day care operator include minimum space per child, provision of meals and the number of children per licensed day care worker and so on. Many parents prefer taking their children to day cares operated in a home environment and if you can do a good job then this can turn out to be a lifelong business opportunity.

Start Your Online Store

You can make an income through selling stuff online. You don’t need a lot of money to begin. There are so many online merchant stores such as eBay, Amazon, Etsy among others and you can even start with clutter of stuff you’d want to rid of your home. Alternatively, you can source some items that are in demand from junk or yard sales or even from charity shops and resell them at a profit.

Make and sell Gift Items

If you are good at some arts and crafts and you can make some items such as gift baskets and you can establish good relationship with your customers, then this could turn out to be a perfect idea for you. You only need to be creative and keen on design and you can begin by selling your products to the local stores.

Start a pet Services Business

If you love animals and you wouldn’t mind offering a service for pay then this could just be another great idea. You can provide pet sitting, grooming, and dog walking among other services.

Write your eBooks and sell online

Writing can be fun, especially if you are an expert on something and passionate about it. Think about a problem you can provide solution for and nail down a book about it. Amazon has one of the best eBooks stores and it’s pretty easy to upload your eBooks there.

If you are senior or nearing retirement, you’d want to investigate some of the home based business ideas or work–at-home opportunities. Working at home can be a great solution towards meeting your retirement needs, such as supplementing your social security benefits or even financing some of the extras you’d want to acquire during retirement. Most people who are retiring or nearing retirement find themselves in a difficult financial situation and that’s why it’s important to consider having a workable home based business idea. The following are some of the home based business opportunities that can earn you a stable supplemental income during retirement.

Start a Home based Consultancy

You can turn your wealth of knowledge into a regular flow of income during retirement. As an expert or an experienced senior, you can help the upcoming entrepreneurs on how to start or operate their business. You may also want to offer consultancy to firms or small businesses that might be interested in your expertise and long experience.

Become a trainer

Training others is another amazing way you can use to translate your experience into an income. The best way to do this is through conducting classrooms or practical training in the field of your expertise and earn from it. You can also offer tutoring lessons online where you can earn an hourly commission. What you need are credentials from a college or university in North America and experience in subjects such as English, math, social studies and science. With such credentials you can simply access online tutoring opportunities by logging in to a site such as tutor.com and make from $10 per hour or more from home.

Engage in Network Marketing

Bill Gates once said that if he’d be given a chance to start all over again, he would choose network marketing. Indeed, if done systematically, network marketing can earn you a good residue income that can support you throughout your retirement. What you need to do is to choose between online and offline setups, pick a reputable company and a good product and begin looking for prospects to grow your business.

Offer Catering Services

If you like cooking, you can make some stuff and supply them to offices, possibly starting with your former office. You can also make and supply confectionery products to schools since many Kids love biscuits, candies, chocolates and so on.

Start a Home Based Franchise Business

Although starting a home based franchise business is a bit challenging, the advantage is that you will be working with an established brand name. It is easier to market an established brand than starting and marketing your unknown brand from scratch.

To succeed in a home based franchise, you’d need to do some research on a number of things. Apart from putting your home office in place, there are a number of things that you need to do to get your business running – like a business plan, getting a client base, settling on the businesses you want to do business with and so on. It’s important that you get in touch with groups that deal with home businesses and franchisees for advice. Some of the resources include The American Franchisee Association (www.franchisee.org), The National Franchisee Association (www.nfabk.org), for legal assistance, product and service knowledge and advertising opportunities. You will also be able to compare different business models and know where franchisee events are held around the country.

One way of being successful in any business is through invention, finding something that works for you and capitalizing on the market gaps or existing opportunities. Making soap can be full of fun, and if you are creative enough, you can turn it around into a thriving home based business. And the good thing about it is that it doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg to begin. Indeed this is one of the most hassle-free businesses, which you can even start from your kitchen. Here are some of the most important steps towards building a successful soap making business from home.

Specialize to satisfy your target Market

Before you start the hunt for raw material and putting in place other logistics, you need to think about your target market. If for instance you want to provide an inexpensive alternative to luxury or a classic gift sharing idea, you may want to plan in terms of using organic ingredients and cozy designs. The type of the market you choose will dictate your soap’s scent, color, oil base and other ingredients. Do you for instance intend to have a special design for children? In that case you may want to use natural ingredients to produce gentle soap specifically for babies. Ideally, you want to make soap that appeals to your target market.

Choose your Soap Making Process

The type of process you choose will among other things determine how much soap you can make within a certain period. You can decide to use hot process – melt and pour method or cold process, both of which require mixing lye with oils. Melt and pour method is the easiest process and requires less time to make your soap for it involves buying pre-manufactured soap in bulk, where you can later add your choice of scent, fragrance and other additives.

For cold process, you have to make your soap from the scratch and it can take you up to three weeks before your soap is ready for sale. The advantage is that you have full control of your soap making process. You should consider having reliable suppliers of oils, lye, organic ingredients, molds, colorants and fragrances.

Plan for Equipment

To set up a successful soap making business from home, you’ll need to have the right equipment. This will largely be informed by your choice of soap making process. The types of equipment you need to plan for include blenders, mixers, pots and a microwave.

Marketing Your Soap

Before you start selling your soap, it’s important to make sure that you have complied with your local government trade requirements such as licenses, insurance and so on. To sell your product online, you should also consider having your own website, a merchant’s account or even selling on other famous online stores such as eBay among others.

To test the market, you should start selling to the local shops and craft booths. You may also want to organize promotional drives such as setting up a hand washing stand at fairs, festivals, farmers’ markets and so on.

Make use of such opportunities to advertize your business to your potential customers. Unleash your brand through giving out catalogs bearing your logo, website and any other information about ordering your home made soap.