How to start an online business from home

Are you thinking of starting your own home business? The first step in starting a small business is to come up with a winning business idea. Here are some tips to help you get started. 

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1. Come Up With Your Business Idea 

Ideally, you will develop a business that is of interest to you and meets the needs of the market. A good way to do this is to identify the problem that is frustrating you. Is there a problem that someone wants to solve? This may be your next business venture.

2. Flexibility

One of the biggest myths about starting your own business is that great ideas are easy to implement. Being your own boss means you can skip the commute and work the time you choose, but you spend as much time as you do in your "real" work. You should expect to spend a lot of time on your new business.

3. Long-Term Preparation

Think of your business as if you were raising a child. It will be exhausting and frustrating at first, and at some point, you will definitely question yourself. Remember that it takes time to build a business. So when you prepare to make a living from it, be sure to wait at least a few months before you quit your day job. Most people start their business while continuing their traditional work (at least part-time). The most important thing to remember is that it takes time to get things going. 

4. It's A Labor Of Love

It may sound obvious, but make sure you're passionate about the business you're starting. It's hard to imagine that if you don't love your business, your customers will. 

5. Ask For Help

Take advantage of local small business programs, government tax cuts, and even industry experts who usually seek advice on blogs and newsletters. Don't forget that Google can be a man's best friend. 

6. Not As Scary As It Looks

Starting your own business may seem like a daunting task to have great ideas. Sometimes it's important to remember that millions of other people are doing business online. You don't have to be a technician or a business guru to get your website up and running.

7. Find The Best Host For Your Business

If you want others to visit your website, you need to host it on the Internet. Your website hosting provider will do this for you. Choosing a good website hosting provider like one focusing on WooCommerce hosting, is very important as it is their job to manage your website online.

8. Test Your Business Idea

Now comes the time to get out there and test your business idea. This means you need to focus on making sales as a business's successes are measured against its profitability. There is no 'right way' to launch your business, and you may encounter quite a few missteps in the beginning.

In Closing

No matter the strategy you implement, you should be prepared to adjust as you go. The important thing is that you're creating a solution that is relevant and fills your customers' needs. With these tips, you can start your own online business right away. Good luck!

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This post was written with the Life According to Steph audience in mind

TWTW - birthday weekend #1

Friday Up early to work early, also folded endless laundry and changed sheets. I had lunch at my Mom & Rich's for my upcoming birthday and Pop's, which was actually Friday. My nephew was there too and my uncle stopped by. It was a nice break in the workday and mom sent me home with cookies and Easter candy and of course my birthday gift. Friday night my brother and Aubrey and my nephew came over. Dad & Carol ordered Chinese food, Carol made cupcakes, and it was a nice end to the week. I got to see my nephew twice in one day and he is a riot and so loveable and smart. We missed my niece but she was out having fun!

Saturday Was absolutely miserable. The weather was cold and wet, I had gotten about five hours of shit sleep the night before, my stomach was off, and I was filling out identity theft paperwork because someone filed a tax return in my maiden name. My credit and identity are locked so that's as far as they've gotten. I opened birthday cards and won $30 off a scratcher from Carol's parents. Whoop! We packed up the car and made our way back down to the shore where nail polish birthday gifts awaited. GBBO all day and night, picked up library holds, unpacked, Randazzo's hoagies for dinner, too many cookies, and I fell asleep on the couch before 7 and didn't get into bed until 4:30. 

Sunday Another frigid day and we are well over winter. I read the newest Harlan Coben that comes out tomorrow, watched endless GBBO, and rested. A total reset and time to re-think who and what I give my energy to. This is required periodically, and if I'm not forced into it by a life circumstance I do it around my birthday. If I don't do it I keep doing things that do not serve me just because I've always done them or because it is what others expect. We took a quick jaunt down to the beach when MFD got home but the blowing sand was too much. I hope that was true winter's swan song. Salad, frozen pizza, and more GBBO to round it out.

Birthday Eve! If you're new around here birthdays don't always mean grand plans, but they do mean doing whatever I want including nothing. And they always include not working on my birthday so I'm off tomorrow. 

Annnnnnd I need to go to Target because I left my wireless keyboard in Philly. Hiss. 

Kitchen gadgets - what's worth the space?

Happy Friday friends!

New kitchen gadgets are invented almost every week and there’s always something interesting and unique to see out there in mags and on shopping channels. When I was younger I stocked my kitchen with so many things that would make things "easier" and then, you know, never used them. I hate things that take up space but get no use. Sometimes it was because they actually didn't make things easier, and sometimes it was because the quality was not what I thought it would be. 

When something costs $5 or $10, that annoys me, but not as much as when it's $50, $80, $100. The countertop appliance realm. 

Air fryer

The air fryer (affiliate) is the most useful piece of equipment I own aside from the coffee maker or toaster. Most people overlook an air fryer as basically a small convection oven. I have the Cosori and love it, and got my Dad & Carol the same for Christmas one year. Air fryers have plenty of useful functions and they’re extremely convenient to both cook with and clean. They can quickly heat up frozen foods in small batches and you can make almost anything in them. When I'm at the shore and our house is rented in the summer, this is how I cook food. There is no better way to make wings. 

Instant pot

I am not down with the Instant pot but I know a lot of you are. An instant pot is essentially a convenient pressure cooker with lots of handy presets. While many people get worried about using a pressure cooker, they have multiple points of failure that make them extremely safe to use assuming you get a well-known brand.

Whether you’re cooking meat, rice, or even entire meals inside of an instant pot, there are plenty of great ways to use it in your everyday cooking. You can learn how to make instant pot basmati rice at biteswithbri.com, you can learn about the presets to see what other unique foods it’s capable of making, and you can learn more about pressure settings to get your recipes perfect every time without needing to ever look inside the pot as it’s cooking. 

Rice cooker

No interest in an Intstant pot but you eat a lot of rice? Rice cookers have entered the chat. You can cook it in a regular pot, having a rice cooker allows you to set it and forget it. You can even leave the rice in the cooker for some time and keep it warm throughout the day so you always have a fresh bowl of rice whenever you need it. If you have leftovers, you can fry them the following day with some vegetables and protein for a filling lunch or even a hearty breakfast.

Small gadgets I'm into? Basically only the pineapple corer. Worth it every day and twice on Sundays. 

What's your most used small appliance?

Thursday Thoughts - Could you smile when inside you just want to cry, want to cry

1. Sometimes I get stuck in a loop with a song, and it's never a new song. Last year it was Midnight Blue at some point by Lou Gramm. Right now it's If I'd Been the One by .38 Special. Who I always envision in my head as ZZ Top even though I know they do not look like ZZ Top. They look like this. And of course the title lyric is from this song. This has been a glimpse into the mind of an 80s kid. Come back any time.

2. This week's birthday month behavior: painted my nails and toes at home, got my hair spruced up by Kristi at Salon Harmony (this is the before, obvi), did some maintenance acupuncture for wellness, made a comfort food casserole as part of my use all the shit in the freezer and pantry quest, and ordered two holographic nail polishes from mooncat. 

3. We also caught The Dinner Party episode of The Office, which is one of the top TV show episodes of all time. 

4. I was in the city yesterday, which means elevator selfies and other people's coffee and train station steps. And not much else because the rain. I was there with no umbrella or hood like an idiot (descrip below) who has forgotten how to operate in public. I also had to use my wool jacket as an umbrella to walk the half mile back to my car at the end of the day.

It also meant lunches out with coworkers, which I miss. Walking the three blocks back to my office in a particular monsoon time meant water literally dripping from my face and having to dry off with paper towels. Do not recommend. 

5.In many book talking spaces on the internet it appears people buy all books and when libraries are suggested it is clear they do not know libraries are free for ALL people, you just need a card. So in case anyone out there doesn't know, you don't need to buy ALL books. It is great to buy to support some authors and if you want to read books the library does not have, but in general please use your public libraries.  If you only read e-books, you can do that through your library as well and a librarian would be happy to help you figure out how to do that. Libraries are a community resource and one of the very few things in this country that remains FREE and available to ALL.

6. Do we need this at this time? I don't want to speak for you but I do not. Giant spiders dropping from the sky not welcome

7.  Pantry cleanout means mixing pasta remnants. MFD had to learn yesterday. I did a post on stretching your food budget yesterday. Not an easy world out there right now on so many fronts. Hope you're all hanging in there. 

8. Dad & Carol are here this week for dad's other cataract surgery. The dogs have been pleased. They get tired of just us sometimes...even if you can't tell from these pics

9. Reminder via itsbananacrush - I know when there is so much to be done or when so much is going on within you and around you it seems like the best option is to push through, but that's not usually the case. Most of the time it's to pull back and regroup. It took me a long time to learn this, I hope it takes you less. 

10. Ecards - 

What appears beyond the hyphen in Thursday Thoughts titles is what I'm listening to when I'm starting this - this week is If I'd Been the One by .38 Special

Resourceful to the bone - making the most of your leftovers and stretching your food budget

Everyone is feeling the cost of food rising. If you want to save or cut down on food waste, maximizing your food is the best place to start. Packaged, processed, and convenience food might seem easier, but it is absolutely not cheaper and it is 100% not more environmentally friendly. Individually packaged shit is yikes. With the cost of everything up, now is the time to make the food go further, and resourcefulness and leftovers are the best way to win this battle. 

People have a hard time finding the time to cook from scratch. This is not surprising given that most households are running 24/7. Here's an oldie but still relevant from me: my meal prep tips for an easier life. When we do have the opportunity to cook, we've got to make sure that those meals go further - cook once, eat twice or three times. Leftovers are an absolute treasure trove of opportunities. 

Redefine “Leftovers” As “Ingredients”

What you make the first time is not how you have to consume it the second or third time. When we have a bunch of leftover vegetables, this doesn't just have to be a side dish but can be the foundation for something else completely. For example, cooked vegetables and a can of tomatoes instantly create a healthy pasta sauce. You can blend your vegetables into an amazing soup or add vegetables to a frying pan with a few beaten eggs and you've got yourself a very healthy frittata. 

Ditch the Recipe and Use What You Have

You don't need to follow recipes exactly. Substitute with what you have in your fridge/freezer/pantry and wing it. It will be edible 90% of the time, I promise. 

Make Your Dinner Your Lunch

Another amazing way to save time and money with your leftovers is to leave a bit of your main meal aside so you've got some lunch for the next day. It only requires a little bit of extra planning and you can create a week's worth of healthy lunches for work or school. Even if you've got only a tiny bit left after your main meal, cook and add more vegetables, rice, quinoa, or pasta to bulk it out. 

Have a Leftovers Night

If you have a fridge stocked with bits and bobs of leftover foods, this is a money saving opportunity. Putting all those ingredients together may seem like a recipe for something particularly nasty, but creativity is the road to deliciousness. If you've got leftover ham, rather than slapping it in a sandwich with some mustard, turn it into a delicious bean soup. There are two ways to make 15 bean soup, including a crock pot. If you're short on time, take the easier route. All you need to do is put it on in the morning before you start your day and when you're done, it's done! 

Storing Your Leftovers Better

Food lasts longer if it's packaged to store correctly. Be savvy with how you store your leftovers. Freezing any leftover vegetables in airtight containers or ziploc bags is a simple way to ensure that you are storing everything and not wasting a signal morsel of food. Certain foods don't store in the freezer very well, but when it comes to vegetables, make sure that you label and date the contents so you can take them out and cook them up before they get that horrible freezer taste. 

Make Stock and Broth With Any Scraps

Bone broth is a very trendy food item these days, but rather than paying through the nose for it from a  store, make it yourself. Because bone broth is just something that everybody's grandparents made to ensure they ate nose to tail but is also an amazing way to ensure there's more flavor in your food. It's such a simple thing to do: all you need to do is keep any leftover bones and freeze them. When you have enough, take them out of the freezer and put them in a slow cooker for 24-hours with a bit of apple cider vinegar and a few herbs and you've got an amazing broth that can be a stock for soups and can even add flavor to your scrambled eggs. Let me know if you want to talk bone broth making.

Don't Throw Your Bread Away! 

If you buy high-quality bread it can lose its freshness after a couple of days. You can freeze it, or  salvage it as a side dish. Cut the loaf in half, drizzle some olive oil onto it, rub the side with half a ripe tomato, season it with some salt and pepper, and bake it in the oven until it's warm. Enjoy with soup or by itself.

It's the little things that add up to savings. What are some ways you're stretching your grocery budget right now?