Forums For Business
Five forums for home business you can’t afford to miss 

Forums for business is a list of 5 diverse forums that are helpful to home business. As with other forums, you can find answers to your current business concerns and problems. Finding compatible forums and regularly participating in them can bring you into worthwhile online communities.

As we mentioned on the forums main page, you can learn a lot about home business topics from the people posting questions, answers, and comments in these forums. Some of the forums listed may not specifically mention home based business, but many business techniques are similar for any type of small business whether home based or not.

Included with each forum description below, we show examples of outstanding posts that may interest you.

Forums for Business #1
UK Business Forums

This is a very large forums for business site with multiple forums concerning all types and sizes of business.  The forum categories on this site are Running A Business, Forum Community, Starting a Business, Technology, and Business Sectors. There is also a private forum for paid members only. In addition to forums there are over 27,000 blogs, a directory of forum member businesses, and a marketplace with ads placed by paid members.

Example of a post in this forum: 

We are No Limits in Life. I am Chris and along with my good friend Ben we have started a website aimed at helping people break through their limits in life.

The site is not quite finished yet but our hope is that we will have monthly challenges that people can take part in and receive feedback from as well as maybe win a few prizes. The challenges will range from fitness and tourism to business. 

The idea is that we will be marketing certain products that we believe can help people break through the limits by which they live and live the lives they want, this is how we will be making our money. Eventually building a recognised brand and our own range of products. 

We have signed up to a company that offers an affordable online start up business for other people like me that don't want to work in a high stress environment and spend all their time away from their families like I did. We have also signed up to a fitness company that sells home workout products, both me and my wife use them and know they work. We will be providing homegrown tested advice based on our own experience and engagement through challenging people to do better for themselves. We genuinely want to inspire people to do what we are doing.

Forums for Business #2
Flying Solo:  Micro Business Community 

This friendly forum says “we exist to support those who have chosen their own path, often turning their backs on traditional careers, to create a new way of living and working”.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics lists solo and micro businesses at over 70% of the total small business sector.  Many of these are home based businesses. This forum is open for all to view, but you must be residing in Australia to join.

Flying Solo says: “Small business and lifestyle business are Australia's fastest growing sectors – this lifestyle business community site was created for those running a small business of one to five people. Here the solo, micro and lifestyle business owner will find a wide range of useful categories."

Example of a post in this forum: 

Creating a Product

Hello fellow fliers. I have a question, and it may sound very basic but it is something I'm having a really hard time finding out.

I have wanted to be an entrepreneur for a long time, and finally have an idea I believe can be successful and viable. I am working on a prototype at the moment. 

It isn't a complicated product at all, but it is as far as I know quite unique. My question is, when I have a prototype I am happy with, what is the next step? Looking up manufacturers I can see plenty that have existing products that they can manufacture but how do I go about finding someone that can make something new? Without going into too much detail the model of the business is where people will order this product online and have it sent to someone. Is there any way I can have that process done directly from point of manufacture? Sorry to ask what may seem like basic questions but it is something I'm having trouble finding the answer to. 

Forums for Business #3
Small-business-forum.net 

Although this medium-sized forum is for small business, not specifically home based business, many of the threads apply to home based business. This is a busy example of forums for business with current posts, and good business questions and comments.

On this site the most popular forum categories are Starting Your Business, Managing Your Business, and Introduce Yourself.

Example of a post and response in this forum: 

Post:  “If you were advising someone who was just thinking of starting a new business what sort of business would you advise them to start? A service business? A business that manufactures a product? Why would you give the advice you would give?”

Response:  “Inc. magazine does a list every year on what the growth sectors in the economy will be. #1 recently was business technology services. Anyone who gets into this and tries reasonably hard should do well. You don't even really have to know it that well - it's more an issue of being able to manage customers.”

Forums for Business #4
Startups

This forums for business site has great sections for starting and operating any business, with details about specific kinds of businesses. The nav bar lists What to Start, How to Start, Franchising, Tech Startups, How They Started, and Grow Your Business. This is a very popular web site with many articles and a great forum. It is based in London.

The forum categories include Startups, Franchising, Ideas, Rate My Website, Tech, Job Board, Legal Forum, and Offers Forum. The Startups category is by far the most popular.

Outside the forum, find the Home-based Business category at: Home>What to Start>Home-based business. There are numerous topics including: Why Start?, Finance tips, Virtual Offices, Setting up, Insurance tips, Home business ideas, Tax tips, and Equipment needs.

Example of a start up question and answer (edited) from the forum:

Q: I’m in the start up process of my own Makeup cosmetic company. I have a few start up questions.  How much should I be looking to spend on a website? I will want it smart and stylish, customers to be able to make payment, Facebook group to go with (as one company has this in on deal), help figuring out how to work it after it has been set up. I basically have no idea of what I need and what I need to know about having my own website to sell my products.

A:  I know you’ve already gotten some great advice but I thought I could offer a few thoughts. For me a website was at first difficult to figure out. You want it to be awesome but you don’t have the money to make it awesome (at least that’s the case for me anyway). So I researched a load of website builders and still it was a little on the pricey side.  The best thing to do is use WordPress. It’s free. All you need to do is register your domain. It will cost £10 [about $12 US] max. Then I suggest getting a theme (you can just google free WordPress themes and you’ll have a load to choose from. Plus YouTube is awesome it literally tells you how to do anything. There’s a website also called fiverr.com where if you’re pressed for time you could get someone to design you a website at a discounted rate.

Forums for Business #5
THE FORUM SOUTH AFRICA – Let’s Talk Business 

This is a large and active forum with many interesting topics.  There are also business blogs and articles on the site.

Major categories include: General Business (finance, accounting, marketing, entrepreneurship, and tech), Regulatory Compliance, Social, Interest Groups (electrical contracting, energy and resource conservation, food industry, MLM industry, pest control, and book forum)

Example of a helpful home business post:

Make the Leap

If you are going to build a successful Home Business, you need 3 intangibles:

First, you must have a strong WHY.

Secondly, you must BELIEVE that it is possible.

Third, you must make THE LEAP.

The lesson here is that you will never really be READY to start a homebased business. You simply have to start one. This is what I call "MAKING THE LEAP".


For an introduction to home business forums, go to our forums main page: The 5 Best Home Based Business Forums.