Developing what’s often referred to as a “side hustle” is all the rage these days. You see them all over, especially if you’re active on social media. Stay at home parents, teenagers, college students, corporate executives and retirees alike all seem to be building site hustle muscle. You may even be in a position where you’re ready to launch your own, but it’s easy to be daunted: If you do a basic search online to figure out what the ins and outs of starting a home-based business are, you may conclude that it’s overwhelming, complex, or worse… expensive. 

 But I can tell you that with Internet access, a laptop, email, $100 and determination to control your own financial destiny, it’s entirely possible — and I’m not talking about average “get rich quick” schemes. 

 Before we jump in, however, it’s essential to be mindful that yes, success can happen if you have drive, knowledge, persistence and passion, but there are also no shortcuts. Statistically speaking, most who attempt to build businesses fail. In my experience, though, such failures aren’t due to lack of ability or inadequate modeling, but instead are reflective of an unwillingness to crawl before running. You might dream of raking in seven figures every year with your home-based enterprise — and that’s great; you need to aim high — but the key to success is focusing on the long-game. Too many people, myself included (at least early on), overestimate what they can accomplish in a month and further underestimate what they can accomplish in a year, or even a decade. The focus should be on making a hundred dollars, then leveraging that into a thousand-dollar success, then a ten-thousand-dollar success. Put simply, break those audacious goals you have into smaller ones and celebrate each victory as you progress. 

 Five home-based service businesses that you can start today.

 Graphic design company.

 Consider this: just about every person owning and/or managing a company (large or small) and their associated business needs graphic design support. And before you dismiss the idea because you don’t have a degree in that field, hold on: You’d be amazed at just how easy many of the graphic design programs out there are to learn. PC/Apple desktop apps like InDesign and Affinity Publisher, while sophisticated, are easy to approach at first. Experiment, explore, watch some YouTube videos and just be inquisitive. You’ll be stunned at how quickly you can teach yourself. 

 Web development business.

 The marketplace for web development is nearly infinite in size. While the competition is fierce, you can make great money building websites for clients who have no idea what they’re doing or simply don’t have the time to build and manage their own. (And later in this article, we’ll discuss how to properly invest in yours.) With a bit of training in a platform like WordPress, you can collect handsome fees. I like WordPress both because it’s a market leader and because it’s easy to learn to use. And here’s a little secret: If you pick the right template out of the thousands available, most of the heavy lifting could already be done for you. Obviously, you’ll have to personalize and otherwise provide your own touch, but you’ll be ahead of the curve nonetheless. 

 Social media management agency.

 If you’re a regular in posting pictures of your life, family, food, friends and activities, you’re qualified to start a social media management business. Tens of thousands of companies exist out there that need someone to manage their content and social media activities. That could be you! 

 T-shirt design and printing.

 You might be thinking that this sounds complicated, even more so than the other ideas listed thus far, but it’s actually one of the simpler businesses to start. Custom T-shirts have never been more popular, and the market is ripe. Many years ago, starting this kind of company required a ton of work, including managing design, manufacturing, inventory and shipping. All you need today, however, is to come up with amazing design ideas and then market your products, because there are websites like Bonfire and Spread shirt that will guide you through the process step by step. You’ll never have to deal with manufacturers, inventory or even shipping: your job becomes creation and marketing

 Content writing service.

 Have you written an email to a friend? How about one to a potential customer or colleague? If you have, you can become a freelance writer. The opportunities here are plentiful as well. You can generate blog posts, articles, resumes, copy and scripts for YouTube videos… the list goes on. It’s helpful, certainly, if you have a natural talent and passion for writing, but as long as you’re willing to take small steps, there are few barriers to entry in this market. The keys to getting started are persistence, patience and consistency.