The following message was posted by Joel on 7/11/2006:

There are a lot of legitimate home business ideas out there... the question is: 'Which one is appropriate for your personality, your interests, and your talents"?
Some ideas that may be worth considering are: an event planning service, consulting service (what's your area of expertise?), wedding consultant, gift basket service, selling merchandise on ebay, running a home-based daycare business, being a professional organizer, being a cake decorator, running an antiques business, medical billing, candle making, home or office cleaning, making and selling cookies, crafts, photography, being a mortgage broker, real estate agent, dog groomer, freelance writer, and Internet marketing affiliate. (I'm involved in the last two.)

BTW... a couple days ago, I took my standard poodle to a home-based dog groomer who was generating all the business she could handle from word-of-mouth advertising and an eye-catching display ad in the local PennySaver. She also had a sign on her SUV and a systematic referral program.)

The keys to success are: being motivated, starting out with a lot of knowledge or being committed to learning what you need to know, prioritizing quality, professionalism, and customer service, and pursuing a business that you're genuinely enthusiastic about.

Regardless of what you may read on the Internet, there's no such thing as a 'get rich quick scheme' and all businesses entail an element of risk (not to mention continuous hard work and determination). If you have the entrepreneurial spirit, then the appropriate home business might be the perfect way to escape the 'rat race'. ('Perfect' being a relative term!)

Good luck and proceed with caution!

--Joel Sussman
Optimal Marketing Communications"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This message was posted before we switched to the new Cyberschmooz format. You can read any responses to the original post at https://www.businessownersideacafe.com/cgi-bin/maincs/dcboard.cgi?forum=workathomemoms&az=list&database=archive.