There are many reasons why people choose to start a home-based business. Some of these are:

1. Dissatisfied with your present employment situation. 2. Out of work due for whatever reason. 3. You need to be home to care for young children. 4. You need to be at home to care for an infirm family member or aging parents. 5. You really want to be your own boss. 6. You really could use an additional income source. 7. You wish to have more time to spend with family or friends.

Over years I have learned to recognize two of most important factors in recognizing people who should not be starting a home based business. If a prospective entrepreneur says something like...

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

or,

"I really want to start a home-based business but I don't want to spend any money on business until I start making some money."

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

First, It takes a lot of time to successfully market and promote a new business and, if it is an internet business, a whole lot of “savvy” and information and resources you have probably never heard of. For a pretty good “first start” effort at setting up your internet business, see my article Tips For A Successful Internet Business.doc, also available through this resource – GoArticles.com. 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.

Second, spend some time researching your business idea. The internet is a great source of information.

Third, learn as much as you can about small business. go to http://www.sba.gov/ and navigate to sections dealing with home based businesses.

Fourth, write a business plan. Beyond my own eBook on starting a Homebased Business, here are a couple of Small Business Administration website locations that should prove useful:

Let’s take a look at Business and Business Philosophy. A business exists to 1) provide a service or product to customers and 2) to make a reasonable profit for business owner.

In past this took form of two kinds of traveling salesman (the itinerant traveling salesman, working out of his wagon or truck, who brought otherwise unavailable products to places who simply could not economically travel distance required to find those products….and “drummer”, or “route salesman” who went to various “fixed location” businesses and sold them their “restocking supplies”) and “fixed location” businesses (stores) who carried a selection of “most needed” products in their store for customers to come in, select from and purchase.

Pretty much this mode of operation stayed true from mid 1800’s to late 1900’s. But by 1990 there was a new inroad into this model of business – and business philosophy. Or was there? And just what was that inroad?

The Inroad was “The Internet”, in existence since 1960’s, started “going commercial” by about 1990. It is now 2005 and this commercialization is an ongoing and evolving process. Business has changed and is changing. Many fixed location store fronts also have web locations and offer home delivery for online ordering, even for local customers. But how about “Business Philosophy”? It is changing, also? Or is it?

Right now internet businesses are proliferating at an alarming rate. I cannot count and possibly no one can count total number of internet businesses in world today. There are probably between 100 and 1000 “new” internet businesses starting every day somewhere in world, and this figure could be much higher. There even is a “new category” of business which has evolved, sort of to keep track of those businesses.

No, it is not electronic store front which offers products or services to customers anywhere in world (though this is a major evolution from a standard “fixed location” real store front on your local street), nor is it “hosting service” which electronically locates and “displays” your electronic storefront for customers to find. They are not unlike building owner who sublets space for offices and stores. The new type of business is “search engine” which “locates, catalogues and categorizes” all of these various business enterprises and allows you to find what you are looking for.

It is said that there are hundreds of different search engines out there, proliferating and multiplying like lemmings….and, like lemmings, falling by wayside for various inadequacies. Except for best and biggest. The number one “search engine” is probably Google. However, MSN is gaining and Alexa, All-the-Web, Alta Vista, AOL, Ask Jeeves, Lycos, Matilda, Scrub Web and a few others may be considered “major” search engines, those which comprise, say, 95% or more of total search engine use worldwide.