You've made the decision you want to start a home-based business - you're clear on all the reasons why you're doing this, you've realised the disruption and inconvenience it could cause to your home life, asking your family to fit around a business run from home, but the benefits clearly outweigh the negatives, and so you've made the decision to 'do it'.

Plus the idea of 'being your own boss' combined with the significant reason to increase your income, all give you the motivation to start your own business. OK, great decision - the decision's made - great job! ...now here's where it all starts, what do you do? ...you want to increase your income, give yourself and your family a better quality of life, have the fun and benefits of working from the comfort of your own home, BUT what are you actually going to do?

Before we look at 'how' you make money from home, and go into every detail on how we are going to create together a successful home-based business , let's first look at the various things you can do from home, to make you money, in other words 'what' you could do to make money working from home, either part-time or full-time.

I have spent 20 years coaching people on how to successfully setup and run their own businesses from home, and I would say generally those home-based businesses fall into 5 key categories some of which are online (solely built over the internet), some are offline (built without using the internet), and some use a combination of online and offline (combination of internet and more traditional non-internet methods).

Thos 5 Categories are:

Service-based Businesses (online & offline) - some examples of this would be child-minding, web development, writing, gardening, catering, etc - it's a endless list. In fact anything that you are good at can easily be turned into a service that people need and are willing to pay for.

MLM or Network Marketing (online and offline) Businesses - regardless of what your initial opinion is of this category (if you indeed ever had one on this category), there are literally thousands of very good companies to choose from. The key areas of product lines from the most successful MLM companies tend to be health care products, skin and body products, and communication services, but there are many other companies with new emerging products. You will need to research product lines and compensation plans to find a company that is a good match for you. To build a solid business through network marketing generally requires you to both recruit people into the business and sell products.

Affiliate Marketing Businesses (online) - similar in some ways to network marketing (above) in that you earn a commission for sales that you make. These programs are promoted primarily online (though you can promote offline if you choose). While some merchants offer a 2nd payment tier for recruiting new affiliates, the majority of your income is derived from sales. Becoming an Affiliate Marketer is one of the easiest and most popular ways to earn money online.

Product-based Businesses (online & offline) - these can considt of producing/sourcing a variety of products that enthuse you or you feel there is a market for, then selling those products through either/both online and offline methods. The products can be either 'physical products' - products that you can physically touch and handle such as soft toys, car accessories, health products, etc - or 'digital products' - products that are downloaded such as an MP3 audio file, ebooks or guides, training videos, programs and utilities. The key with all product-based businesses is to be able to identify what a market needs, develop it (or have it developed) and market it properly.

Blogging (online) - this is something that any marketer should consider in addition to whatever business model they choose - it is as much a marketing plan as it is a business model. That said, blogging can also serve as a stand-alone opportunity to work from home and earn a decent income. You can monetize (make money from) a blog with affiliate programs, by selling advertising or sponsorships, by creating and selling products to your readers, or even by participating in the paid-to-blog opportunities.