The concept of a Home Based Business has been around since the dawn of time and they are now more popular than ever before. This is mainly because of 1. people want more control over their income, 2. the possibility of lower overheads/business costs, 3. freedom of choice with regard to lifestyle. There are many different types of Home Based Business and we will discuss a few of them here.

When you’re operating a Home Based Business you’re basically going to do one of two things: sell a product or sell a service (if you’re smart you will combine both into one business!)

Sell a Product

Product – your choices are to make/source your own or sell someone else’s product. This could be anything from food, clothing, flowers, gifts, games, toys, art, plants, or craft, to name just a few. You could make your own products – many successful businesses started out as a simple cottage industry at home. Visit local markets, search online, read local newspapers and/or industry magazines for ideas.

Or you can source the products either locally or from overseas. Attend a trade show for your industry, read industry magazines. It is probably easier to become a distributor than to import a product yourself, but again it depends on your experience in the field.

Sell a Service

Service – use an existing skill you have, or learn something new. Think carefully if you enjoy this activity, is your skill level sufficient, can you expand your knowledge or skill level. Is there another skill you can add that will make you more valuable to your customers?

Service can include anything you can do for someone else and is only limited by your imagination. Some examples are, gardening, accounting, consulting in many different areas, business coach, personal training, house cleaning, computer technician, interior decorator, architect, pet minding/walking – the list is endless and don’t be put off by the fact that someone else may already be doing it – you could do it better or simply be better at finding customers or provide superior customer service. So, where could this all go wrong?

One of the biggest problems with starting your own product or service home based business from scratch is that you also need to be good at all the other aspects of the business – you are effectively a "one man band" (of course you can outsource – but this can be expensive for a fledgling business). The main thing you need to be able to do is MARKET your business – you could be the world’s best accountant but if no-one knows you exist it will do you no good at all! So marketing, sales, administration, bookkeeping are just some of the skills you will need.

So, consider this when looking at starting this type of business as you can have the perfect business up and running and find yourself with no customers. This is where many small businesses fail. Now, you may also be good at these tasks or have the money to outsource – just make sure you include it in your Business Plan and Budget.