Finding a Business to Run from Your Home Base
A Home Business Article Contributed by Sharon Hill
Great Home Base Business Web Sites
Deciding on a business that you can run from your home base is not an overnight task. There are many factors you need to take into consideration before making your decision on what type of business to pursue.
A Good Choice for Your Home Base Business
The first step in your home base business decision is to take inventory - of your interests, your enjoyments, your skills, and your personality. Make a list of relevant factors, such as your education and training, your background, your recreational pursuits (what you like to do), your work as well as volunteer experience, and your temperament and personality. The next step is to peruse the material you've garnered in the first step.
Eliminate anything you really didn't enjoy and don't want to see yourself doing again. If, for instance, you spent eight years as an accountant and then quit that for the life of a jazz musician because you hated accounting, you're probably better creating a home base business repairing musical instruments than doing taxes.
Determining What Home Base Business is Marketable
Now start matching what you like with something that would be a marketable home base business. For a pre-existing list of ideas for your home base business there are several publications and sites available. One publisher, JIST, specializes in career and home base business ideas. They offer some terrific books, such as Occupational Outlook Handbook, Best Jobs for the 21st Century and Others. Home Based Businesses for Dummies is an excellent resource as well.
For women, Priscilla Huff offers 101 Best Home-Based Businesses for Women, though I can't imagine why this book wouldn't be excellent for either gender. Peter Davidson offers some thrifty advice for home based business product decisions in his, "Earn Money At Home: Over 100 Ideas for Businesses Requiring Little or no Capital." You can also head to your local library and ask for their ONet Directory of Occupational Titles.
These various sites and publications will give you resources for brainstorming some ideas on your home based business industry.
Once you've made a list of a few businesses you may want to pursue, you need to look at them for marketability. Will this idea, for instance, fulfill or create a need in your market? Is it a long-lasting concept? remember pet rocks? Does it have some unique aspect to it - not necessarily the product itself but what you do with that product. There has to be something that makes you stand out from the crowd. While the temptation is to try to be all things to all people, avoid this temptation.
You're far better off finding your niche and then becoming a specialist in that area. You might very well start to be seen as the local expert.
Make sure the market is not saturated. Too much competition and your business will fail. Your nearest small business resource center (part of the Small Business Administration - SBA) can help you with the market research.
Make sure, too, that you have the necessary finances. You'll need to evaluate whether you are able to quit your job and work full time on your new business, or perhaps take a part time job while your business gets underway. That old saw, "Don't quit your day job, " is good advice until you see that your dream is beginning to pay off.
