If there was ever a time you were confused about anything, it would have to be in choosing a home business.

There are just too many options. Don't get me wrong, options are a good thing, but what are the criteria for choosing the option? It's a mystical catch-22 scenario that has no end in sight unless you set down the qualities that are important to you in a business.

The one thing that you must keep in mind when you begin to set your criteria, is that whatever business you choose, there must be a hungry market for your product or service. If not, you'll be working a lot harder trying to convince people that your product is the solution to their problem-a problem they may not even want solved.

Now, let's get that hungry market out of your mind, at least for right now. Your first step is to identify your skills, interests, strengths, and/or passions. You'll be much happier building a business on something that you actually care for and enjoy doing.

Your learning curve will be a lot shorter if you build your business around something you already know, rather than something you have to go out and do research on.

Now, I'm sure your brain is churning right now trying to figure out what are your interests, strengths and passions.

Just ask yourself what interest you the most. What do you dream about? What is the one thing in life or two things in life you are passionate about? What areas do you have a lot of knowledge in? Are you good at building birdhouses? Do your strengths lie in arts and crafts? What is it that you can do reasonably well?

If you honestly feel, you don't have any knowledge, strengths or interests, then maybe ask yourself this: if you could volunteer somewhere, where would it be and what would you be doing?

Now find things that would be related to it. For example, if you would volunteer at an animal shelter (animals are your passion), then a business related to animals would be good. For example, you can market custom dog collars, custom dog bowels, or cat sweaters. You can have an animal adoption service, animal walking service, animal sitting service and the list could go on.

You can also think about your hobbies or maybe jobs that you've had that you really enjoyed. Perhaps it was a service you did for someone that you felt good about.

Brainstorm harder if you have to. Write down your favorite kinds of music, television shows, sports, or awards and trophies you've received. Look at your list and decide what areas you feel the most connection or passion to.

That may be where you want to start your business. But passion by itself won't get you to where you want to be. This is where most people stop. They identify their passion and decide to build a business on it without doing the second part, which is the research.

Sometimes a person will get lucky and get their passion into a successful business, but more times than not, their passion will lead them to an expensive hobby, not a business.

Now that you've got a list of your interests you want to do research and find where your market or target audience is located at on the Internet (it's easier, faster, and cheaper using the net).

For example, if your interest is in classic cars, your market would be classic car dealers, classic car parts, classic car shows etc…

You find the market where your interest lies and find out what problems they are having that you can solve for them. A good home business is where your passion and a hungry buying market intersect. This will create a profitable business you will enjoy doing year after year.

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