When we are young it is all so simple. We know exactly what I want to "be" when we grow up.

You know what it's like: "I want to be a fireman." I want to be a ballerina." "I want to be a movie star." "I want to be a nuclear physicist specializing in embryonic schisms in post-menopausal subatomic particles."

This aspect of growing up came back to haunt me recently when reading a magazine article by someone working in television who had always wanted to be a celebrity. To paraphrase her words, "It never occurred to me that I might have to actually do anything."

Well, here I am, a fully-grown adult. Or perhaps I am no longer fully grown – I'm not sure at what age we start shrinking! But I do have a confession to make; I never knew what I wanted to "be". I knew only what I wanted to do.

What I wanted to do was design cities, urban spaces, bus routes. No, that's not true. What I really wanted to do was design maps...but most map companies want map designers to simply mimic city's existing design. Geesh, where's creativity in that?

So I was led astray, falling in love with politics instead. For a while I worked as a political aide, plotting to become King of World. Amazingly, it took only five years for reality to grind my idealistic innocence to sawdust and send me on a frantic search for a do-it-yourself lobotomy kit. (I never did get to be King of World, nor did I ever find that do-it-yourself lobotomy kit.)

BUSINESS. A big word. A big commitment. A big step.

Very quickly, we can round everything up about staring an online business in four very simple steps. Understand. Prepare. Do it. Sell it. There are no short cuts to working at home, let’s put it this way. If you’re looking for a short cut that you can use to start a work at home business, you may want to ignore this article. But in order to start your own online business, there are tons of things to be done. The best thing is for you to hold on to your day job (if you still have one) and take all four steps we recommend here and THEN you quit your day job.

Understand

Research industry. That’s first thing you should do if you are really serious about starting an online business. Starting new online business is not difficult at all. In fact, it is relatively easy and needs minimal funding. Do your homework; look at what your competitors are doing. See how successful they are, emulate their good points and avoid their bad ones. Define your services or products by researching on feasibility of your online business. Remember, working at home is a career, not a part-time job. Even if you’re still under employment, you’ll still need to know everything there is to know about your online business environment and industry. No two ways about it.

Prepare

Next, you need to write your work at home business plan. Even if you don’t have everything right down pat about your new work at home business, you’ll find that fog of uncertainty will start clearing up when you write your work at home business plan. It’s when you’re sitting there, writing, preparing and planning your online business that jigsaw puzzle pieces starts floating into place quite effortlessly.