65 Best Home Based Businesses You Can Start in Singapore

Thinking of starting home based businesses in Singapore? Being able to work from home in Singapore seems too good to be true. You can work when you choose to, work in the clothes of your choice, and you don’t have to worry about the stressful environment that you usually deal with in the workplace. Doesn’t this sound like the perfect situation?

All you need is a computer, reliable internet connection, a phone, and probably a printer and fax machine at most. You will also need a dedicated work space that is free of distraction, this means no T.V.!

When starting home based businesses in Singapore, it is best to focus on a business that complements your skills. This helps you to start fast, instead of having to wait while you learn how to properly operate your business.

Now that we have gotten that quick advice out of the way, here are 65 home based businesses that you can consider starting in Singapore.

Graphic Designing

Businesses are always going to need creative people to help them communicate their message through logos, advertisements, and websites. Graphic designing business has very little overhead, your most expensive business cost will be design software, and work can be done from anywhere with a dedicated computer.

Bookkeeping

If you are a trained accountant who would like to work from home in Singapore, this is the perfect business for you to start. It is not necessary to be a Certified Public Accountant in order to become a freelance bookkeeper in Singapore. But, you must have the background knowledge related to bookkeeping that courses at any educational institute can offer. Freelancing bookkeeping is especially needed for small businesses in Singapore that don’t need or can’t afford a full-time bookkeeper.

Home Inspection

When people are in the process of purchasing a home, having a professional home inspector go through the house to determine the condition of the building and point out any potential problems is very important. Home inspectors must meet the state regulations for the profession, which varies from state to state.

Home Massage Therapist

People who workout a lot or have stressful jobs are always in need of a good massage. The licensing requirements for massage therapy can vary from state to state. Those interested in being a home massage therapist can go through the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork to fulfill their local requirements. Massage therapists have the choice of working out of their own home or making house calls with a portable massage table.

Tax Preparation

Many people hate doing taxes and paying taxes, but they must be paid no matter the state of the economy. This makes at-home tax preparation a great business for anyone with a tax background, or anyone willing to take training courses. Due to yearly changes to the tax code, you will be required to refresh your training each year, and you will also need to register with the IRS as a tax preparer. Tax preparation is a seasonal business, rather than a year-round operation, but it can be a great way to earn some extra income during winter and spring.

Doula

A doula is a labor coach that helps a birthing mother in any labor environment. They can operate from a hospital, a midwife clinic, or a home. Doulas are non-medical professionals who provide information, emotional support, and physical assistance during the process of giving birth. Being required to have a license as a doulas is not required by most states, but getting certified by DONA International, the only certifying body for this profession, would be advised. Being a doula will mean having an unpredictable schedule, but you can easily can do this work from home.

Hair Stylist

If you have experience cutting hair and giving manicures, opening up a home based nail and hair salon in your home is an excellent way to start your own salon. It is important that you follow all of your state’s requirements for doing salon care in your home, as they can be very strict.

Interior Designer

Having a degree or certification is not required in order to be an interior designer, having either or both is necessary in order to make sure you can meet the needs of clients. Being educated in the history and theory of design will allow you to understand trends that you may not like, but your clients do.

Related: Why you should start a business immediately »

Copywriting

These are writers who creates sales copy for businesses, including ads, websites, newsletters, commercials, direct mailings, and many others. Most people who are copywriters tend to have a degree in advertising, marketing, English, or communication, but any excellent writer can do a great job copywriting.

Virtual Assistant

This is a worker who handles any number of small tasks for a business or individual. Tasks include answering emails, data entry, scheduling, managing blogs, and even shopping. Anyone can become a virtual assistant.

Courier Service

If you live in a area where a lot of activity occurs, there is a great possibility that local businesses near you could use a local courier service. Unlike your big competitors, you can offer more flexible pick-up and drop off times, which would provide immense value to many small businesses.

Marketing Consultant

Whether you are providing a business with traditional marketing materials or consulting them on the effective methods of blogging and social media, this is a business that provides unlimited potential for freelancers.

Editing

Like copywriting, this is a freelancing gig where it’s helpful to have a background in English or communication, but any attentive writer could do great job in this profession.

Web Design

Assisting clients with developing the best design for their website, helping them to attract customers, is a great way to make a living from home.

Translation

If you know a second language, or many languages, you can make a living at home translating documents. It’s an international marketplace, and even the best translation software can’t understand all linguistic nuances.

Video Production

Everyone wants to make big money from having a popular YouTube channel, so talented freelancers can make a great living producing videos for companies and organizations. The rates you charge will vary by area, equipment, and background.

Internet Security Consulting

If you’re tech savvy and understand how to secure computers from online hacking, you could be a huge asset for small businesses. Unlike the big businesses, these companies can’t afford huge cyber security budgets, but they still have to be able to protect their internet customers.

Green Consulting

Small businesses need to find ways to make their processes greener without spending too much green money. Your task would be helping them figure out ways to improve their carbon footprint without overextending their expense budget.

Grant Writing

Non-profits, universities, hospitals and other community organizations are in a continual search for grant money to bolster their budgets, but grants can be very difficult to write. If you are experienced writing grants, or want to learn how to do it by improving your skills working pro-bono for a few non-profits, you can start a lucrative freelance grant writing business.

Medical Transcription

These type of opportunities almost seem too good to be true. But in reality, the medical industry has a great need for individuals to transcribe audio dictations into coherent reports. When seeking to become a transcriptionists, you will need education to qualify. This is generally a two-year degree, which validates that you are well versed about arcane medical terminology.

Debt Collection

You will need to have very thick skin to start this business, but debt collectors only need a telephone and a computer to work, the criteria for a great home based business. A plus is that it is a recession-proof business. The required license varies from state to state, so you will need to do your homework before setting up shop.

Call Center Representative

Call centers are notorious for having foreign individuals work on their behalf, which tends to frustrate American customers, due to the language barriers. But you can be a part of the homeshore movement, which is trying to hire more independent contractors to work from home handling customer service issues. If you’ve got a phone line and an internet connection, you can work from home as a call center rep.

Blogging

It will take time to grow an audience and find ways to monetize your blog, but if you have a passion for writing, this can be a good way to work from home. Niche blogs are very popular with people seeking particular information. Pay can vary widely, but the income potential seems to have no limits.

E-book Author

If you want to write a book, you no longer need the approval of a publisher. Anyone can have their work e-published, making it very possible for anyone to make a fortune off their writing. If you have a passion for writing and will be dedicated to doing your own promotional work, writing an e-book is an excellent way to make money at home.

Building Furniture

People love to have one-of-a-kind, handmade furniture. If you’re already building furniture as a hobby, why not make it a business? E-commerce websites such as Etsy, are an excellent place to start selling without having to worry about the overhead cost of a physical storefront.

Sewing

People will want clothes made or need them altered, if you have the skills to do both, your sewing machine could provide you with a home-based business.

Personal Organizer

If you love organize messy closets for fun, create an organizing business, offering your services to busy and disorganized individuals and businesses.

Home Staging

If you have fun rearranging furniture, home staging would be a great home-based business. You will be responsible for helping sellers get their homes looking exceptionally beautiful in order to entice interested buyers to purchase as quickly as possible.

Herb Farming

Gardening can be very lucrative, considering we have a growing world population that will need food. As an increase in interest for alternative therapies has grown, as has the demand for locally grown and organic foods. As an herb farmer, you can find plenty of customers, especially if you’re in an urban area. You will need some space for growing, but herbs are fairly small and nearly any home can be modified to allow for an extensive herb garden.

Electronic Repairs

If you enjoy taking computers apart for fun, setting up an electronics repair shop from your home would be a great business for you to start. People love their electronic devices, so repairing tablets and phones would provide you with a great deal of business, as people tend to crack their screens, damages that can be costly to repair via a manufacturer. Median salary: $49,170.

Baking

If you are gifted at cooking and decorating cakes and cookies, and other pastries, you will find a hungry demand for your services.

Personal Chef

Busy, health conscious people are in need of a personal chef. This means people who want delicious meals and have the money to spend for this luxury.

Mystery Shopping

Getting paid to shop seems like a dream job. Therefore, you must be aware of many mystery shopping scams. You should never accept a gig that requires an upfront fee – a good sign it’s not a legitimate offer. According to Scambusters, legitimate mystery shopping can pay anywhere from $8 per job up to $50 to $100 per job.

Bargain Hunting

If you are always looking for a bargain and have become great at finding one, you could help others learn how to save money, and make money doing so. The Grocery Game’s Teri Gault is the most famous at-home bargain hunter turned millionaire, but you could be next.

Personal Stylist

If you are into fashion and follow the latest trends, always shopping for clothes, and know what styles look best on certain body types, you could turn your passion for fashion into a business by becoming a personal stylist/shopper. You’ll make others look great, getting paid to boost their confidence.

Catering

If you love to cooking for a lot people, why not start a home-based catering business? The money you could make will depend on the scale of the jobs you take, and your ability to accurately project the cost of your materials. But this is an industry where you can start small and expand to bigger gigs as word-of-mouth spreads about your cooking.

App Designer

Developing a popular app for smart phones isn’t necessarily about having the best or most innovative idea – it’s about creating the best user experience for the consumer. This enables app designers to have the ability to work from their home full time,living off the passive income their app provides.

Furniture Refinishing and Repair

If your hobby is refinishing and repairing furniture found at garage sales or discount stores, you could turn your skills into a business by making old furniture as good as new.

Landscape Design

If you find peace and happiness when landscaping your yard, you might want to turn landscaping into a home-based business.

Tour Guide

You probably know every street, building and favorite destination spot in your hometown, but it might not have occurred to you that you can turn this knowledge into a business. Offering themed tours or other niche tours would be an especially good idea to make your business stand out.

At-Home Daycare

If you are a stay-at-home-parent who needs to bring in some extra money, babysitting kids for busy parents would be a great idea. The license requirements for an in-home daycare varies from state to state, but you must ensure that you comply with your local regulations.

Off-Hours Daycare

Though this is somewhat the same as the business above, it is slightly different. Finding someone who can watch children during off-hours, like second shift, weekends, or very early mornings, can be extremely difficult for parents. Offering child care services during irregular hours means that you can command a higher fee for your services.

Elder Care

As a work-from-home elder care worker, you will make daily house calls to your patients, helping with meal preparations, self-care, and possibly minor home repairs. Median pay: $20,170.

Lawn Care

Once the seen as a summer job for teenagers – lawn mowing, gardening, raking, and snow removal can be a legitimate home-based business for any adult looking for ways to make extra money.

Dog Walker

If you live in a large community of dog lovers, walking dogs can be a very profitable business for you to start, especially since most dog owners are busy at work during the day.

Pet Sitter

Pet owners want to make sure that their pets are well taken care of during the day, and not destroying their home. If you can find owners who are willing to bring their dogs and cats to you, you have a home-based business. If not, you’ll need to be willing to live at other houses during the day, or visit 3-4 times a day, while you’re working.

Pet Grooming

Most pet owners don’t quite have the patience or the time to clip their pet’s nails, bathe them, or give them haircuts. Making a couple of small tweaks to your bathroom, basement, or laundry room, could provide you with a full pet grooming service in your Singapore home. It would be important for you to double-check your local requirements for operating this business out of your home.

Travel Planning

Anyone can check an aggregator site for the best prices to fly to their destination, but planning an elaborate trip can be too time consuming for some travelers. As a travel planner, this is where you provide your services, using your skills to find the best trip, including flight, accommodation, rental car, and tours – within your client’s budget.

Meal Planning

People who want to eat healthy, at an affordable price, meal planning is an option they are looking towards. Meal planners put together a list of the week’s recipes, and write out a grocery list, for busy but budget-conscious shoppers.

Resume Writing

If you are talented at effectively communicating people’s skills on their resumes, you could offer your services to job seekers.

Party Planning

If you have a passion for planning weddings, birthday parties, corporate events, or conferences – something that is too frustrating for most people, you could turn your passion into a profitable business.

Child Proofing

People are always looking for the best way to keep their children safe, but they aren’t exactly sure how. If this is something you have knowledge in doing, a professional child proofing business is an inexpensive business for you to start up, but there will be state regulations to adhere to.

Digital Media Conversion

It’s very time consuming and difficult to convert dated media into digital files. If you have excellent tech skills, this is a service you can offer to those who are technically challenged.

Home Tuition

Having a background in education is helpful for providing home tuition, but is not mandatory. All you will need is vast knowledge in one or more academic areas, and you can get paid to help local and online students do better in their classes.

Patient Advocacy

With the complexity and confusing methods of modern medical billing practices, there is a demand for patient advocates. These individuals scrutinize over hospital billing paperwork and argue with insurance companies over their payment methods.

Personal Trainer

If you are a gym rat and are well versed in the ins and outs of nutrition and exercise. You could share your expertise with novice exercisers, either from your home or through a local gym.

Junk Removal

Removing junk can be as simple as hauling away unwanted objects to the dump, or it can be as complicated as separating out the trash from the treasures and handling the actual sale of the goods.

Appraiser

If you watch Antiques Roadshow then you you anticipate the moment when an owner learns how much their antique is worth. Becoming an antiques appraiser will allow you to live that moment every day. This business will require a background education in the subject and you will need to have access to an excellent reference library.

Music Teacher

Teaching music lessons from your home is a great way for stay-at-home spouses to make a little extra cash.

House Cleaner

Low overhead and a skill set that is very easy to learn, makes housecleaning one of the easiest businesses to start. Depending on your ability to grow, the income potential is pretty limitless.

Online Store

You no longer need a storefront and its high overhead cost in order to sell a product. The internet allows you to sell anything to anyone anywhere in the world.

eBay Sales

If you don’t have the time to develop an ecommerce website, your best option would be to become an eBay middleman. Millions of vendors sell their items on the online auction house. If you can find an inexpensive source for saleable merchandise, you can make this a profitable business.

Micro Jobs

The creation of online portals, such as Fiverr, has brought about a very new way to assign and accept work – little jobs for small payouts. While the gigs involve little money being paid out, apps like Gigwalk and sites like Mechanical Turk make it possible to sustain a living with lots of little assignment each day.

Internet Marketing Affiliate

If you have your own website or blog, your site can earn you money by becoming an affiliate. You have the option to either sell products directly and earn money, or you can sign up others as affiliates, selling products and you are paid a percentage of their sales.

Get Paid for Social Media

If you have a huge social media following, you can leverage those followers into paid gigs offered by advertisers. If you are an expert when it comes to social media, you can use your expertise to earn money. People want to reach your audience in order to sell their products and services and are willing to pay you for it.

Well, you have a comprehensive list full of 65 home-based businesses you can start in Singapore. If any of them match your skill sets, start your home-based business immediately and start earning money while you work from home in Singapore.