Home-Based Businesses Ideas That Can be Done in a Small Country Like Brunei

‘ve noticed that there aren’t that many home-based businesses in Brunei. Either that or I haven’t been out much. But besides the physically built and established home-based businesses, there are other ways to start a business or a trend where you can make money just by being at home. To me, I do not have the skills nor effort to do any of it. But I do know how it all works but it is just not me. Because you see, sometimes some businesses works from some people and some don’t. Some would like to do the dirty work at an extreme environment and others would like to do the simple and yet well-structured environment. Different people, different businesses.
So here’s what I got listed down on what kind of Home-Based businesses that I have scoured over the internet that can be implemented in a small yet, resourceful country like Brunei. But of course, it would all depends on how you would work at it and see if you enjoy it. I would recommend doing something that you enjoy doing regardless if the pay is little but worth it.

• Writing - You can try writing. You’ve seen authors who made books and made some plenty amount of money in this day and age. Back when there wasn’t internet, books were in and it still is now. Try writing one. Whatever it is. Novels/Educational/Cooking/Manuals/etc.
• Singing/Dancing/Music - Now maybe plenty of you have done singing alittle bit of dangdut songs or do alittle bit of breakdancing or the popular now a days in Brunei is “Shuffling”. But if you’re creative enough you might actually make some decent amount of money out of it. Make your own songs or join a band that know songs or a crew. And Sing, Dance and make Music! Write up some lyrics/Organize a choreography/be musical and entertain Brunei and then the world! That’s alot of work and not recommended if you don’t have the talent. But if you enjoy it, then by all means.
• Drawing - Now here’s a kicker. I’ve seen graphiti here and there in Brunei. Few are even smart enough to actually make some cartoon images. Now this talent can be harnessed if you actually put up a webcomic. Just imagine if you sell your webcomic daily strips to Borneo Bulletin/Media Permata/Brunei Times/Pelita Brunei. And why stop there? You can even sell it off to the syndicates if there are any in South East Asia.
• Proofreading - This in particular is funny and yet needed nowadays. If you actually pay attention very closely to some websites (I’m not gonna mention any), you can find some grammatical errors and punctuation mistakes. And hey, maybe you have a better idea for their slogans or sentences they used in ads, charge them if they want it. Not only that, there may be some people like the orang putih who needs proofreading to help them understand malay in Brunei or vice versa for Bruneians to understand English.
• Cleaning - I know what you’re thinking. An Amah(housemaid) comes your mind, right? Well you’re right. Amah can do all of this cleaning stuff. But you know who doesn’t need Amahs? Businesses. Now in some businesses, they do have janitors or custodians to do the job. But most of the businesses (like restaurants), usually have their own employee or employer to take care of the place. It’s quite a lucrative job. That’s where you come in. Offer your cleaning services at night or in the evening when they are closing down and arn’t that many people to disturb while cleaning. Especially window cleaning the most. You could charge them B$5-B$8 a night on a weekly basis to keep the place clean regularly.
• Teaching - Now I’ve seen plenty of these almost everywhere in Brunei. In newspapers, websites, flyers, leaflets, brochures, etc. Most of them are home-based tutoring. You can do the same thing as well but be prepared. It’s quite competitive in Brunei. I had my experiences in teaching and I enjoyed it.
• Network Marketing - This is a very dreadful word and task especially towards to some conservative people. Now in such cases, network marketing requires you to recruit people into the bigger network. Now looking at Brunei only has around 350,000 people and let’s say you can recruit 1% of that is 3,500. That’s a big number but sounds like a lot of work. But it depends on the network marketing company that you wanna work for. Some are scams and some aren’t worth it and some are just too out of your league to join in. Still it doesn’t hurt to try but remember “To Look Before You Leap”.
• Speaking - I can see that people are trying their best to send their message but they have this stage frightness which keeps them from doing any public speaking. Well that’s how strict Brunei is. But there is no harm in giving a speech on a good topic and no negativity can come from it. Like hold a seminar or a webinar at ICC or Rizqun Hotel and invite the public to hear your speech on how to reduce global warming, save electricity, how to get prevent H1N1 Virus, etc. The only source of income would be the people who pays the ticket to hear you speak.
• Internet - Last but not least, the internet. There’s plenty of potential in the internet. You can make an e-commerce website and sell stuff like qqestore. And if you look hard enough like I do (I major in Business and IT), you’ll know that you can make some hard cash from the Internet. Hehe~

And that’s about it from what I know on how to improve Brunei through home-based business. Anyone in Brunei can do it. But of course, you have to do it legally however. You’ll never know it might be illegal to do moonlighting like in America. So tread carefully, do your research, and all the best to your new money-making machine.

Image via Wikipedia