1. Dissatisfied with their present employment situation.

2. Out of work due to being laid off or downsizing by their employer.

3. A need to be home more with young children, an infirm family member, or aging parents. 4. A yearning to be their own boss. Whatever your particular reason for exploring a home-based business, there are a few common steps you need to take in order to launch your business.

First off, you need to come to grips with reality...be realistic in your expectations. Far too many folks read advertisements that are hype and imply quick money, and lots of it, from a home-based business start-up. It will certainly take a year, and in some cases it may take up to three years, before you begin to truly make a significant profit from your business.

I have helped a large number of people start up their own home-based businesses using Internet. Over time, I have come to recognize two of most important factors for identifying people that should NOT start a home based business. If a prospective entrepreneur says something like...

"I'm broke and need to make some money, fast!"

or,

"I want to start a home-based business, but I don't want to spend anything on it until after I start earning some money."

...it is certain that they have not addressed reality and, with that mindset, they will most certainly fail.

It takes a lot of time to successfully market and promote a new business. If you are planning a home-based business in order to spend a lot of time with young children or care for elderly, a full-time business (and income) may not be a realistic objective.

If you spend any time online surfing Internet or any time reading magazines that deal with business topics, you will more than likely run across countless business opportunity offerings.

Business opportunities are in essence "turn-key" operations where a major company, or even a smaller company, is offering what are basically franchises or memberships in company. Any person who joins becomes entitled to use company name, company marketing materials and, of course, company reputation. It is therefore an easy way for many who have no inclination to start their own business, or who have no ideas of their own, to start a home-based business.

There are, however, as in anything, "pitfalls" and "advantages" to joining any type of business opportunity. Many times, one of "pitfalls" is fact that there is a membership price to pay when joining, which depending upon business opportunity, can be quite a staggering fee. It is wise, then, before paying any fees to join a business opportunity to research and ascertain following aspects of opportunity:

1. What kind of “fees or charges” do you have to pay “up front” in order to get started? 2. How long has business opportunity "been in business"? Longevity is important. You don't want to join a biz op that's "here today, gone tomorrow", taking your fees with it!

3. How do other members feel about business opportunity? If you can speak with other members, this would help immensely in any decisions.

4. How much money overall can you expect to make from business opportunity within first month? You should at least be able to recover any fees you've spent within first few months.

5. How many others belong to business opportunity? Too much competition with other members will make it difficult to make sales, while too few members indicates that it is not a popular business opportunity, so how can it be sold?

6. How often will you be paid? Some only pay when an associate reaches a certain amount of revenue (which if you're a newbie will tie up your money quite conceivably for a while).

7. Are there any "undisclosed" extra fees, such as fees for checks or other payment methods? This will cut into net revenues.