Before you decide what to do you need to educate yourself on the many different opportunities that exist, on the basic mechanics of running your own small business and at least briefly on five or six different types of business. From there you can compile a list of the best home based business opportunities for you and then simply select your top choice.

Here are a few ideas and examples to get your creative juices flowing:

When I was 12 years old, I had a paper route. Now paper routes are considered small businesses and they're available for sale. I got just a little older and dropped the paper route. I put an ad in the local newspaper offering services as an 'odd job guy'. I got calls and soon had a regular clientele, mostly of small businesses who needed clean up work done at regular intervals. At the time I was too young to realize that this was a very viable and potentially VERY lucrative business. You can very easily start a business as an 'odd job guy' or a 'handy man'.

I had friend who worked in a document printing shop. She started creating decorative stationary packages on the side. She sold them to friends and small businesses with whom she was aquainted. Soon afterward she had an e-commerce Website developed for her new business and started marketing it more. Soon she was selling a whole array of products that were related to her stationary. Before the end of a year she had to quit her job. She said she was losing too much money by working there. You could start a business selling products that you can make yourself.

As far as e-commerce Web 'stores' go, you don't have to make anything. Many companies offer businesses an opportunity to sell their products for a profit. You can sell trinkets, clothes, kitchen items, cameras, clocks, insurance!; the list goes on and on. You don't even have to buy stock in bulk, store it OR ship it. You can buy items as you sell them and have your supplier 'drop ship' the items directly to your customer.

Here's a twist: you can expand the above idea to include international buying and/or bartering. You could start an international bartering company.

Both my wife and I had normal jobs working for companies. My wife worked as a technical editor. She got layed off from one company and started work for another. Soon after, the first company started hiring her on the side to do work after hours. Before long she was working evenings and weekends for a few companies. We decided to start a small business offering technical writing and graphic design. At one point her company went through a major lay off and she along with a few hundred others was layed off. I determined that it was a good time for her to start working for our business full time and I launched a major mail marketing/cold calling campaign. Within one year we had so much business that I had to quit my job just to keep up with the work. Not long afterward I acquired a Microsoft® certification for software development. I started developing software for the clients we already had. We've made more money working for ourselves than either of us ever made working for a company. If you can write you can start a business as a 'writer'. If you can develop software (or can learn how to) you can start a business as a software consultant.

In our small business we contracted a bookkeeper. She had been working for a company as a customer service rep. and as their bookkeeper. She was very personable and had a reputation for being very trustworthy. People she knew from her customer service work started asking her to do their books for them on the side. Before long all her weekends and evenings were taken up doing bookkeeping. The company she worked for went bankrupt. She had to get another job. Instead she called every small business owner she knew and also went through the phone book calling businesses, offering 'off site bookkeeping services'. She never did get a job. She still has her own business offering bookkeeping services and makes more money than she ever did working for a company.

The same girl, now very excited about having her own business, started buying materials and studying other home based business opportunities. She learned of a popular business: 'Bill Auditor'. Unfortunately, many utility companies (phone, water, electric, etc.) consistently overbill their clients 'by accident', especially when the client is a business. Because their internal staff is too busy to check, most of these 'oversights' go undetected costing the company thousands of dollars over the years. She started offering 'bill auditing' which basically amounts to checking every single bill and then forcing the companies to fix any 'mistakes' and resend their bill. She also handles all of the bill paying for her client. She can easily market this service because she can offer it to them for BETTER THAN FREE! because of the the savings from the billing 'mistakes'. In the long run her service costs them NOTHING and instead they actually SAVE money.

I know a girl who worked for a medium sized business as a secretary. She started to get intrigued with the idea of working at home and started buying books and did some research. she learned that she could start a business in 'secretarial services'. She bought a computer with a built in fax and Internet capability. She studied enough to learn how to market it and put a few ads in some newspapers. She got enough response to gain the courage to quit her job and launch her business full time. She sent out a few mailings to small businesses and then called the same businesses. Soon she was getting more work than she could handle. Now she has employees who also work at home but for her business. If you can type and have a computer you can pretty easily start a 'secretarial services' business.

I know many people who learned to buy real estate as investors and soon after quit their jobs. You see infomercials on TV all the time about techniques for becoming a real estate investor. We're all skeptical but it's TRUE. You really CAN buy properties for 70% of market value, with NO MONEY DOWN (out of your pocket), even if your credit is less than perfect. In fact, the United States is currently in the middle of a foreclosure crisis. This misfortune is creating a very unique opportunity to cash in big on foreclosures while helping alleviate the problem. The banks are all but giving these properties away. YOu can do a little bit of research on how to buy a house with a 'short sale'. Basically, you convince the bank to let you pay off your seller's loan but at a very deep discount (as low as 50% of the loan balance). Where do you get the money? Do a little research on 'hard money lenders'. YOu can get the money VERY EASILY!

I have friends who are 'day traders'. That is, they buy and sell stocks at home, for themselves. This business does not involve offering products or services to anyone. You simply buy and sell stock all day, trying to make a profit on each transaction. This business does take a significant amount of start up capital (50K to 100K) and nerves of STEEL. I did it for awile and made pretty good money but the stress is very high. The trick is to NOT GAMBLE. That's right. Basically, I used a technique called 'technical analysis' and ALWAYS played WITH the odds. If a deal went south, I baled out quick. If it went my way I stuck with it until I EXPECTED a probable change and then baled out even if it was still going my way. I have friends who do this full time and make very good money doing it.

Many home based businesses exist. You can start a 'mobile car care' business. You would wash and detail customers' cars at their place of business while they work. You could start a lawn care or snow shoveling business. How about a 'mobile dog grooming' business. You can groom animals (cut their fur, shampoo, etc.) at their homes. If you don't mind a little education you can be a 'medical transcriptionist'. Are you a Certified Public Accountant? You can start a business as an accountant or maybe a 'tax accountant'. I have a tax accountant. You could start any number of construction companies. Many do not require special licenses. For example, you could be a drywaller or a tile setter. You could do pressure cleaning or run a concrete pumper. Some of these businesses would require some start up capital. Others really only require initiative.

So you see, if you have just a little bit of 'vision' you too can work at home in your own business. Chances are high that you can make more money than you ever will by working for another company. After all, they're taking all the 'profit'. Where do you start? Buy a few books and a few 'home business packages'. EDUCATE YOURSELF. Then start creating a list of the businesses that you think are the most appropriate for you. Study those businesses further until you've got a clear idea of what you're getting into. Then pick your top choice and GO FOR IT!!