It seems home based business opportunities are a bit more common in the US than in Europe. However the European marketplace is quickly catching on to the phenomenon of home based business and network marketing. The advantages of a home based business are evident: low cost, flexible working hours and tax benefits, to name but a few. But these advantages have pretty much been there for many years, so why the sudden growth? Why do so many people start their own home based business right now, and why would network marketing be a good thing to consider for so many others?

First of all there is worldwide economic uncertainty and many economies are either facing a recession or are in the middle of one. Turn open any newspaper and you can't miss articles on companies downsizing and laying off employees by the thousands. Network marketing offers people the chance to create a part time auxiliary income, right beside their day job. This kind of extra income has proven a great help to many families across the world. Of course many network marketers have made a full time living out of there business. Some of them have made fortunes. But this level of success, although available to anyone who is willing to do the work, will not be for most people. Most network marketers run a part time business for a small number of hours a week earning them a couple hundred bucks a month.

Then there is the phenomenon of cocooning, where the consumer tries to shield itself from all sorts of marketing messages. Do-no-call lists are in place, making it harder and harder for companies to get their messages across to the consumer. Network marketing, which is based on moving a service or product to the end consumer based on personal relationships, delivers a strong answer to these challenges. More and more traditional companies have discovered that network marketing is a very cost effective way to reach consumers.

Of course we can't forget about the internet. This technology has greatly helped making the world smaller, making it easier to find and disperse information. Network marketing companies have pioneered the internet to inform, train and motivate their independent distributors.

The cost of home office equipment has decreased considerably.

These days you can set up a home office for just a couple hundred bucks. Some may argue that you don't even need that much. Any computer with an internet connection and a phone would be enough for most network marketers to operate their business. This makes it affordable for everyone to start a home based business. Compare this to the cost of running a normal business and it becomes clear why more and more people are being attracted to a home based opportunity.

And then there is the growing lack of trust in the corporate world. Not too long ago, people where quite used to having a job for life. Or at least until they decided to quit. Nowadays many people have come to realize that job security is a joke. Too many people have lost their jobs more than once only to find out that they were nothing but a number to their corporate employer. It's not just the fact that you have to go out to find another job to feed your family. It's also the fact that you've been listening to your employer bloating about the importance of their human assets when in the end in turns the employees where just considered human asses.

Network marketing not only offers people a chance to create some extra income, it also provides them with the opportunity to get some of their dignity back. Helping them realize that they don't necessarily have to depend on their employers paycheck. The support structures that many good network marketing companies offer are a great help to individuals joining this type of business. Not only will they receive the proper training on their company's products and services. They will also be educated on personal development

The advantages of a home based business are evident and in the near future we will certainly see more of it. Looking at today's trends in the economy it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the era of monolithic companies offering jobs for life has ended. It's time to have the courage to bet on yourself again and home based business is a good way to do so. And for those people that decide to take this step, taking a serious look at network marketing is just common sense. Even in a time where common sense isn't that common anymore.