Starting a Home Based Business from Scratch or Buying into a Home Based Business Opportunity?

A Home Business Article Contributed by Elizabeth Fox-Wise

You Have Decided You Want a Home Based Business but do You Want to Buy an Opportunity?

First of all, not all home based businesses were built from the purchase of a business opportunity. Some very successful home based businesses were born from a business idea grown from scratch into a home based business.

When starting a home base business, first you have to make one basic choice. Do you want to build a home base business from scratch or would you prefer to purchase a home based business opportunity.

What is a Home Based Business Opportunity?

A home based business opportunity is also commonly known as a "turn key" business opportunity. Typically, when buying into a home based business opportunity, you pay start up fees and sometimes royalties or membership fees in exchange for owning a piece of another business. With these fees you will usually get use of the parent company's name, the parent company's marketing and other materials, the parent company's products, and perhaps most importantly the parent company's reputation. By definition, the fact that it is home based means that the business is run out of your home.

Comparison of a Home Based Business Opportunity vs. a Home Based Business Built from Scratch

There are advantages and disadvantages to both purchasing a home based business opportunity and growing your own home based business from scratch. Which one is best for you is determined more by your own personal style, strengths, weaknesses and preferences more than the strengths or shortcomings of either method of establishing a home based business. Studies have found very similar percentages of success and failure in both approaches to home based business ownership.

However, there are some innate differences to the styles that you should be aware of before making your choice.

A start up home based business being built by a business owner is much like baking a cake from scratch. The home based business owner is taking his idea (it does not necessarily need to be a unique idea but the success rate is greater if the idea has a unique twist or targets a unique market)and mixing it with his dedication, skills, talents and interests to create a home based business.

Like the cake being made from scratch, all of the ingredients must be included in equal parts for the end product to be a success. Many built from scratch home based busineses are built off of the owners passions leading to a high dedication level and a high success rate if combined with good business practices and skills.

Like we mentioned above, a home based business opportunity is more of a turn key business ready for you to grow using the parent company's tried and tested methods. In the example we used above a home based business opportunity would be like a box mix cake. The recipe has been tested again and again and proven to work. Again, however, the baker (or the business owner) must take this box mix and follow all of the directions provided for the end product to be a success.