There are more people starting, or thinking of starting their own businesses from home, than ever before and there are good reasons for that. Firstly: economic. If you can set aside a spare room in the house, or even an outhouse for your enterprise, you will save considerably, as opposed to renting fresh premises away from the home. Secondly, there is the security issue. You are far less likely to have stock or equipment robbed or vandalised at home, than you might elsewhere.

And anyone who has sat in traffic jams going nowhere day after day, or fought their way through increasingly congested motorways, might think that making their way from the kitchen to the spare room, to start work, must be akin to paradise. No travelling, no time lost, no fare bills, not even the need to get togged up in a suit if you don't want to. And you have the freedom to work the hours that suit you, rather than for an ever-demanding boss elsewhere.

But if you are going to start your own business from home, make sure it is a GOOD one, a PROPER business. Just because you are operating from home, you must not lack professionalism, nor is it an opportunity to waste time and money experimenting on hopeless ideas. You would have to have the brain of a clockwork rat to imagine that some of the so-called business opportunities doing the rounds right now will enable you to establish a decent business. A business that will provide you with a good income, a business that must support you and your family. Build yourself a PROPER business from the ground up.

The Internet is crammed to the gunwales with folks trying to sell business opportunities of every crazy type. You have to ask yourself this, if these ideas are all so wonderful, why are the sellers not carrying them out themselves, rather than trying to sell a manual for 49.95, or whatever the figure might be. The answer of course is because those same sellers are making more money selling the book, rather than putting the idea into practice. Either that, or worse still, the proposition simply doesn't work anyway. It happens.

I was invited to join a business venture not so long ago, and part of their blurb read: 1.6 million people already involved, and rising fast! Seeing as all those 1.6 million souls had the same rights to sell the same products as I had, what did that say? Saturation point was not far away, that's what. Who wants to try selling the same things to an ever-diminishing customer base against an army of competitors trying to do exactly the same thing? Not me thanks. Get yourself a PROPER business. And that means being imaginative. You must be different from the competition. You must have an angle, or an idea that not everyone else has. Think about it. You need a USP. A Unique Selling Point. That way you will increase your chances of success enormously. If you can't offer something different, however slight the difference might be, the chances are, you will fail.

99% of all businesses are about selling, either goods or services. It matters not whether you are a tattooist, a masseur, running a magazine, a stamp dealer, or deal in priceless precious stones, you must find customers, and you must SELL. So don't start out by saying in a slightly wimpish voice, I am not very good at selling. Running a business is about selling, so get used to the idea. If you don't want to sell, go and become a traffic warden, or a lollypop person, and that's no disrespect to the lollypop people.

Do you think Sir Richard Branson or Sir Alan Sugar started their businesses by saying: I am not very good at selling. Of course they didn't, more likely their philosophy was: Let's get out there and knock 'em dead! That is unquestionably the right attitude, and the attitude that you must adopt too if you truly desire to be successful.

What is the point of starting a business anyway? From home or anywhere else. The answer is: to make money. Without money, cash that comes through real SALES, that word again, your business will wither and die. If you are thinking of starting a business, be serious about it. Tell yourself, it IS going to be successful, and you will do whatever it takes to achieve that. After all, who wants a business that will lose money, become a drain on your resources, or become a worry, or a burden? No one that's for sure, so make sure your business is a PROPER business, with real customers, and genuine sales, with money coming in the front door, and profits being made. Profit is not a dirty word. It is a beautiful word.

Half the fun of running your own business is developing it, and spending some of your newfound wealth on new equipment, premises, stock, vehicles, and whatever else you need to make your business grow. But that will only happen, if your enterprise is built on sound foundations, and with a little clear thought. Deep down you will know what is going to produce a long-term venture, and what is not. Think success, and you are half way there. It takes effort, of course it does, but you will get there, you really will.