At one time or another, most people have considered self-employment or a work at home scenario.
It's tough to know where to begin.
Many people get stuck trying to come up with a good idea.
They think that they need to invent the next Facebook in order to start their own business.
The reality is that they are many good opportunities to work at home.
The first thing you should realize is that you aren't trying to start by climbing the tallest mountain.
You need to start small, learn as you go and grow your business into something significant.
I'm sure you've heard the hundreds of stories about the guy who started working on an idea in his garage and it turned into a million or billion dollar business.
The key for them wasn't that they had such a great idea to begin with.
The key is that they started off with something manageable and sustainable and were able to stick with it long enough to allow success to happen.
The work at home industry is full of failure but in many (or most) cases, the failure is due to people quitting which doesn't really mean that the business failed only that the person failed the business.
Here are a few ideas to get you started.
One of the most straightforward options is to find an employer who is willing to let you work at home but still be treated like a traditional employee.
Many companies will save a lot of expenses but allowing or encouraging employees to work at home.
This does require you to be in a field where your work doesn't rely on your physical presence in the workplace and that your output can be sufficiently monitoring by your supervisor.
This option does allow you to work at home but typically doesn't allow for much income growth or freedom.
Your second option is to perform contract work.
There are many sites such as elance.
com where people and companies post projects they need completed and accept bids to perform the work.
If you have some expertise in a particular area, especially online tasks such as programming and technical or creative writing, among other things, then this option could work well for you.
This option does require you to be constantly on the lookout for new contracts and this can make it a stressful way to live until you earn enough to provide a bit of a financial cushion to carry you between contracts.
You will be able to work at home though and enjoy the benefits of that lifestyle.
A third option is to own your own home based business.
There are significant advantages to this which include the possibility of generating sales and income automatically and having more control over your schedule and paycheck.
Some of the choices here include being an affiliate, a distributor for a direct sales company or selling a product or service online.
Getting started can be difficult but it doesn't take much more than some work and a few hundred dollars to get established.
The learning curve can be steep but there are a lot of resources that can help you learn.
If you truly want to work at home and enjoy all the benefits of this life, a home based business is the best way to achieve it.