Summary:

This article is a guide to starting a successful home-based business while avoiding the pitfalls of wasted time and money.

Article Body:

In this day and age, it is almost impossible to maintain a decent standard of living on one paycheck, but in a family where children are involved, it is not always feasible for both dad and mom to have a job outside of the home.  Daycare expenses, the need for a second car, and too much time away from the children are some common drawbacks.  This, however, is the exact situation that a Home-Based Business works to its greatest advantage.

Home-Based Businesses are great and can be extremely profitable but without the proper knowledge and tools, you can waste an incredible amount of time and/or money which defeats the purpose you started with, namely to make money and have time to do the things you want to do. This article was written to give the average person like you and me a practical guideline to getting started in a home-based business the right way, and to save you wasted time and money.

My experience has shown me that there are 3 main pillars or principles of a solid home-based business.

Pillar #1: It must have a minimal startup cost

A home-based business that has a high startup cost will take longer to see a profit, and as we said earlier, time is one of the things we are trying to cut down on. The minimal cost will also make the home-based business more assessable to a larger amount of families or individuals who are just starting.

Pillar #2: It must be easy to set up and maintain

The more complicated your home business project, no matter what it is, the more likely you are to give up out of sheer frustration before you see a profit. A business that is easy to set up and maintain will give you confidence and a sense of accomplishment as you complete each simple step in the process.

Let’s face it if you enjoyed wasting a lot of time and effort maintaining a home-based business you would not be reading this article. This is about freeing you to spend time with your family and doing the things you love, not creating another taskmaster to replace your job! The first two pillars of a solid home-based business are necessary for the third to occur.

Pillar #3: It must have a quick Return On Investment (ROI)

You can spend months building a home-based business but there is never any real profit generated in a reasonable amount of time many people may get discouraged and give up. What is a reasonable amount of time? I would plan for a time frame on the order of weeks instead of months. Depending on the type of home-based business some people have had a decent ROI within days, and unbelievable as it may sound some businesses that deal with affiliate marketing and sales can see profit as early as 15 minutes from startup!

You may be thinking to yourself “that’s too simple!” Let me say that within these 3 pillars there is plenty of detail to keep anyone busy. The business that you choose to start should definitely be something that interests you and possibly even something that you already have a measure of experience in doing. Whatever home-based business you get involved in making sure that it is propped up by the 3 pillars listed in this article. Do not make the mistake of overcomplicating your efforts or you will see very quickly that you will get bogged down with a lot of needlessly wasted time and effort.

Here’s to your home-based business success.