Yes, I run this as a business. It’s young, and in its infancy it hardly makes a cent for me. I put in hours and hours of work, and have yet to make anything worth mentioning. I am in the red, because it costs me to run the site. Internet home-based businesses are a lot of work! You won’t hear the Internet gurus espousing how much work it really is initially – at least not until you’ve spent hundreds or thousands of dollars to buy their programs. While there are some good things out there, realize that running any home-based business is like running a non-home-based business, just the office is different.

If you are serious about working at home, then you need to examine what kinds of activities you could seriously do day after day. I like to bake, and have even managed a bakery (that was my job for a couple of years in university – paid part of my tuition). but I couldn’t do it full time. I love the food, enjoy the process, but it would drive me nuts to have ot make breads, cookies, cakes, and such all day long. Not to mention the marketing and management aspects that I would have to do to make it work.

I have been a silversmith-artist. That I enjoyed for the most part. But I was terrible at marketing my work. And I didn’t understand business well enough to make a really good living at it. I went after the wrong things, because I saw how well someone else was doing with it. That cost me thousands! I would do it completely different if I were to do it again. And I’d probably make a reasonable living from it. But I didn’t realize all of the issues involved when I started.

If you are thinking about a home-based business make sure to do your research into the business itself. Do not buy any kits or how-to items on a whim. If the kit is available today, it will be tomorrow. Look into the business and the work it entails to be sure that it is something that you could enjoy doing. I’ve heard that the best is to pick something that you really would enjoy doing for free for eight or ten hours a day. Then that should be your business. For me, it’s things like the writing I do for this page. And I am doing for free (for now). But that’s not my long-term plan. And it shouldn’t be yours!

To find more about what questions to ask, to get more information on any work at home program or business you read about, or to complain about something in a scheme or program, visit the Federal Trade Commission Web site (in the USA). In Canada, visit the Canada Business site. There is a great fact sheet on starting a home-based business available from the Canadian Government called Home-Based Business. I recommend anybody, anywhere at least have a read through this before starting any home-based business. It has tips, a large number of ideas, and some pros and cons of working at home.