Once you have caught the I-want-to-work-at-home bug, you will become very anxious to find the best home based business idea to suit your circumstances. You can't wait to get started but haven't a clue what would be the best thing for you to do. When you see the number of home based business opportunities advertised on the Internet, you get the idea that finding the right opportunity to suit you should be easy. Actually, being spoilt for choice is no help when it comes to choosing your first home based business idea because everybody is different.

The number one worst way of choosing a home based business is to make the selection on the grounds that it looks as if it should make good money. Of course making money is important, but it is not the best starting point when home based business ideas are being evaluated. You have to love what you do if you are going to be successful because you are going to be spending a lot of time building up your business, you will need to put in some hard work and you will probably be risking some cash. If you don't love what you do, you will be far less likely to persevere when things get tough and more likely to give up easily when obstacles arise. It is far better to think about what you would love to do day in and day out and then find out if there is a way to make money from it.

The second worst way to choose a home business is to pick one just because somebody you know is making money at that particular thing. You need to take into account whether you are similar in circumstances and ability to that other person before you start assessing whether the same business opportunity would suit you. For example, think about virtual assistance work. This is one of the fastest growing home based businesses and there are many areas in which a good Virtual Assistant can make good money. You might even know somebody who is currently working as a Virtual Assistant, who is making a lot of money and who loves working at home. It all sounds great but, before you get carried away with the idea and quit your day job, you need to consider if you have the right sort of skills and an acceptable level of expertise to become a highly paid Virtual Assistant. Virtual Assistance is about more than being able to do some basic keyboard work.

Other things you need to consider are practical things such as family commitments and geographical location. If your cousin makes money doing mystery shopping and everyone says mystery shopping is an easy way to earn money from home, it does not automatically follow that becoming a secret shopper would be the best home based business idea for you. For instance, if your cousin lives in a big city and you live out in the sticks miles from any shops, you would have to add travelling time into the equation to see how much money you would be likely to earn. If your cousin has teenage kids and you have young children, you are not comparing like with like. With small children in tow, shopping trips are probably enough of a challenge as it is. The kids aren't going to be any less bored through being told you will get paid to go shopping, so a mystery shopping career should be put on hold until the kids are a bit older.

If you have never worked at home, it can be hard to judge which of the zillions of home business opportunities on offer is going to be best for you. I can tell you what home based business is right for me and I can tell you about others that might possibly be right for you. I can give you a whole list of things I wouldn't touch (either because I know I'd hate them or because they are scams) but the only person who can say what would be the best home based business for you is yourself. Always remember the words of J M Barrie: "Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else."