Sports Memorabilia

• One home business idea for Illinois is a homemade sports memorabilia business. You can make clothing items like hats and gloves, or other sports memorabilia like framed photos you take at sporting events or other sports related crafts. Use team colors, like blue and red for the Chicago Cubs, black and red for the Chicago Bulls or Blackhawks, navy and orange for the Bears, or college colors like orange and white for the University of Illinois or purple and white for Northwestern University. Illinois has several professional sports teams and universities with popular sports programs. Promote your business online to fans around the world, as well as in person at various sporting events across the state.
  
  

Writer

• A writing business is another home business idea for Illinois residents. You can offer a variety of different writing services, such as a copywriter for marketing agencies or a technical writer for product manuals or instructional documents. You can also do freelance writing for different clients, or write for Illinois newspapers or national papers like the Chicago Tribune or the Chicago Sun-Times. If you live in the southern part of the state, you can write or blog about all the latest political happenings in the Illinois capital city of Springfield. The Internet lets you write for just about any client or publication from the comforts of your home.
  
  

Consultant

• A consulting business is another idea for a home-based company in Illinois. Consultants specialize in a certain skill or industry, and are hired by companies or individuals to assist in that field. For example, a marketing consultant helps a company launch marketing campaigns, and a project manager consultant helps manage and plan various projects for companies or people. The advantage to starting this business in Illinois is that you are in the central time zone, so you can have clients on both coasts with business hours that overlap with your business hours. Also, if you are near Chicago, you have access for two major airports to easily travel anywhere for client visits or in-person consultations.
  
  

Illinois Tourism

• Start a business that revolves around the various tourism opportunities in Illinois. Chicago draws millions of tourists each year, many of which look for locals to help them plan accommodations, travel itineraries, dining and things to do. The rest of the state has many tourism spots as well, such as Starved Rock National Park, Six Flags Great America theme park or President Lincoln's childhood home in Springfield. You can help tourists plan and book trips to Illinois and give them the local inside knowledge on all the fun things to do.