If you're looking to escape the hassle of your regular job, this article might just help! Here are the 6 steps to starting a home based business.

1. Pick what you want to do. You know that you want to run your own business from your own home, and escape your job, but that isn't enough. There are literally tens of thousands of different things you can do from the comfort of your own home, so you need to narrow it down. Pick something that you're passionate about. Do you like to cook? Try selling an ebook of recipes. Do you love to travel? Try offering travel packages or starting your own travel agency.

2. Setup your home office. You can't just use your home telephone line and the family computer to start a home business at your kitchen table, you do need some sort of an office set up. You need to have a place where you can work without interruption, preferably a room with a door (although it doesn't have to be a big room!) The best thing you can do is create a simple document with your "business hours", and post it either on your door or above your desk. This is the time you will dedicate every day to your business, and posting those hours will keep family from disturbing you while you're working away!

3. Make sure that you have a backup income. You can't just start up a business and assume the money will start flowing in immediately, you need to keep your existing income going until your business income can replace it for at least 3 months, and you have a build up of savings. It might seem counter productive to spend the majority of your time working at your job and only a few hours each day working on your business, but those hours add up, and every day that you have financial security from your job is another day you can spend building your business patiently - instead of panicking!

4. Pick a good domain name and register it with a good registrar. This isn't difficult, just make sure to pick a domain registrar that has been around for a long time (they're less likely to go out of business and take your domain name with them.)

Do NOT use the "free" domain name you might get with a hosting account. Why? Because if you ever decide to move to another web host for any reason, your original host can hold your domain name hostage!

5. Find a reliable web host. This is extremely important. No matter what you do, you need to have a website - and if you pick a web host that doesn't provide value, your website could end up with more down-time than up-time! You could be losing valuable customers every single day if you don't choose a reliable web host, so don't always go for the cheapest option - there are plenty of inexpensive hosts that can provide reliable service. Look for reviews online to find reputable hosts.

6. Design and market your website. This is absolutely critical. When you're running a business from home, your website is your store front, your office, your marketing materials, and your brand all rolled into one. Make sure you create a professional looking website, or even hire a professional web designer. It can be expensive to begin with, but the better web designer you hire, the more you'll get back from your investment. You can also join a business opportunity that provides a website, and skip this step - but you may want to supplement that with a blog as well.

Follow these steps and you'll be ready to start and run your very own home business!