You may wish you could start a home-based business tomorrow. You can start it tomorrow but honestly it could take six months to a year until you open for business or find a job. I wish I could offer you some kind of timeline to success but it just isn't possible. I know we all see a lot of advertisements that offer overnight success or thousands of dollars per hour earned. Actually that's not practical but honest truth is that most home based businesses take 1 to 3 years of hard work before you may even see these types of returns.

Home-based businesses on net have produced millionaires. Countless people started with limited resources and now earn unlimited wealth. What did they do? They recognized an opportunity and took action at right time. They had eyes for opportunity and ability for taking an action. That is what makes them stand apart. They were able.

Taking an action at right time is second step to tapping opportunity. Action taking is a must if you want to benefit from an opportunity. Otherwise opportunity is as good as no opportunity. With internet expanding at such a fast pace, potential for starting a home based business is much more than ever before. But only those seek with conviction and vision will find one. Moreover, only those who are courageous enough to take action will find their way to enormous wealth.

People who lack conviction, courage or both will not find any wealth or/and path in home based business or for that matter anything.

You should choose a home business. If you're already working, stay there and run your home based business part time. There is no need to create more stress when you can ease your way in to it. Most importantly never ever give up, if you fall down, pick yourself up and start over, persistence and determination will pay off. Persistence is key.

Copyright © Aneesh Nat

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in its entirety free of charge, electronically or in print, provided it appears with included copyright and author’s resource box with live website link.

I was lucky enough to find The Tank at a tag sale in San Francisco many years ago. The seller only wanted one buck for this beautiful piece of equipment. Can you believe it? An original IBM keyboard for $1.00. Score!

Hopefully The Tank will live forever so I don’t have to resort to using modern day keyboards!

No More Sliding at PO

stamps.com is a fantastic tool and an incredible use of Web. I login to my account, purchase and print postage for standard letters, postcards and special delivery packages.

The best part of using stamps.com is I no longer have to wait in line at my local Bronx post office, where my average wait time was nearly one hour. That’s a lost hour in my book – time which could be better spent working with my clients or snuffing out competition.

Cool Timer (http://www.harmonyhollow.net/)

This little gem of a desktop timer is one of my fave freebies. I set timer at start of scheduled interviews, always setting timer for 30 minutes. Cool Timer then bellows when time’s up. It’s free, it’s small and incredibly useful.

Just Fax, Ma'am (All right ... I know it's an old joke!)

eFax gives me freedom – freedom from having yet another piece of equipment on my desk! In addition, company’s monthly pricing is on par with what I would pay for a separate telephone line. You must scan hard copies of documents before faxing, but I do very little of that type of faxing, anyway. My outgoing faxes are either Word, PowerPoint or Excel documents.

Check them out at www.efax.com.

Funny Web Site Name; Great Little Tool

I love “Memento” software from Guys with Towels (http://www.guyswithtowels.com/downloads.html). Little desktop sticky notes which I use to jot down fleeting thoughts and other ideas. Keep ‘em on your desktop or hide ‘em away when you’re done.

Must … Upload … Website

My FTP (file transfer protocol) software of choice is CuteFTP Professional by GlobalSCAPE. Easy to use and also loaded with enhanced capabilities. A girl’s gotta have a way to upload her site! See them on web at http://www.globalscape.com.

Clip, Snip & Share

TechSmith’s (http://www.techsmith.com/) SnagIt is a fab-u-lous screen capture utility. SnagIt allows me to capture a wide variety of things, include text, images and web pages. The program is super easy to setup and use, as well.

I hope I’ll never be stranded on a deserted island – truth is, I’m afraid of deep water! In unlikely event I’d ever have to run my business from an island, I’ll need to ensure I’ve got my top 10 tools handy and ready to go!

I’d love to hear from you. What are tools you simply cannot live without?

** All products and names are trademarks of their respective company.

Copyright 2005 Lori Davis. All rights reserved.