Best Types of Home-Based Businesses

If you're interested in becoming your own boss and want to

In my book, Home-Based Businesses for Dummies (cowritten with Paul and Sarah Edwards), we list 10 great (and profitable!) home-based businesses. They include computer-repair technician, bodywork/massage therapist, computer tutor, coach (business or career), technical writer, elder caregiver, virtual assistant, personal chef, Web-site designer, and pet sitter.

If none of these get you very excited, I suggest you take a deep look inside yourself to see what you would like to do. Doing the work you love — and throwing your entire heart and soul into it — can make the difference between profit and loss. If you would like to first try working at home for another company before starting your own home-based business, check out SOHO Jobs, which has a pretty good collection of reviews and links to other sites offering work-at-home opportunities.

Before you choose a business, let me offer one more piece of advice. Whether you start your own home-based business or work at home for another business, research the opportunity thoroughly before diving in too deep — there are a lot of scams targeted at people like you who want to work from home.

As you weigh the options you might also peruse our Checklist for Starting a Home-Based Business to get an understanding of the logistics of that endeavor. Remember, also, that your dreams of working at home may not align with the real demands of running a business out of your house. Considering the requirements of balancing work with family might help you envision the work-at-home scenario.

— Peter Economy