This post is part of Sparkplugging CEO’s “Crowdsourcing Business How-To” project. The topic I chose was “How do I find the right business to run from home?” I’ve come up with a few guidelines to follow when thinking about starting your own home-based business. I also managed to sneak at least 20 business ideas in to the post.

Literally millions of people dream of starting their own home-based businesses. In fact, millions of them do. It generally happens one of two ways:

1. You are really, really good at something – baking cookies, for example. You enjoy the heck out of it and think, “I should do this for a living!” Voila, you’re the next Mrs. Fields.

2. You really, really want to work from home and realize that you’re going to have to come up with some sort of reasonable business to start.

If you’re in category number one, well, this article isn’t for you. There are probably plenty of other posts on this blog that you will find handy when it comes to hawking your baked goods, but this isn’t one of them. Seriously, you should check them out.

If you’re in category number two, however, keep reading this one.

Don’t Choose a Home-Based Business Just Because It Looks Easy

How many times have you, personally, uttered the following: “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is?” We tend to think that this rule of thumb applies to everyone but ourselves, and that’s just not the case. There are thousands of people starting blogs, for instance, because they are sure that they’re going to be able to retire off of their earnings in the next six months. Then they discover that they have to actually learn how to set up a blog. They have to figure out how people actually make money blogging. Let’s not forget that they have to have something interesting to write about, either.

I’m not trying to say that you can’t make a gazillion dollars blogging. I am saying that you probably won’t.

But, let’s not get all glass-half-empty or anything. There are tons and tons of home-based businesses (blogging included) that can bring in a decent income. There are just some basic guidelines to observe when looking for these gems.

Choose Something that You Are Pretty Sure You Would Enjoy

Do you love to write? Maybe you should consider becoming a freelance writer. Do you love talking on the phone? You might want to start an answering service for local businesses. Would you love to spend every day outside? Perhaps a lawn-care business is the right way to go.

What I’m getting at here is that you can certainly build on the skills and interests you already have. You don’t necessarily have to go back to school to learn design because your limited vision of a work-at-home professional has always been that of a web designer. Brushing up and acquiring new skills is certainly a great idea, mind you, but it’s not the end-all-be-all for starting a home-based business. Nearly anything you enjoy doing can be turned into a business.

I know, that sounds a little far-fetched, but it’s true. Obviously, some things are going to be a little trickier than others. If watching Desperate Housewives is your favorite thing to do, then you might have to work a little harder to actually make money from your hobby, but it can be done. Let’s see . . . you could start a fan site on the internet or design clothes based on the characters or start a 1-900 line for people to get caught up on what they missed the night before, complete with theories about this season’s big secret.

Maybe you are a desperate housewife. If you love kiddos, you might want to get licensed to offer childcare. Or you could travel to people’s homes and help them babyproof. Heck, you could take your little ones along as a visual aid for that kind of business. Write those Happy Meals off as a business expense. If you spend a lot of time scrapbooking pictures of your little angels, you might find you can get paid to scrapbook pictures of someone else’s hooligans.

Make Sure You Have Time for Your Home-Based Business

Have I been learning this lesson the hard way, or what? The idea of working from home so you can spend more time with your children is wonderful and noble and blah, blah, blah; but it’s not exactly simple. If your child cries every time he is put down, then a job that requires you to type, for example, might not be all that convenient. If you can put him in a Baby Bjorn while walking dogs around the neighborhood, however, you may just have a business.

If you’re working full-time and going to school on top of that, a business with strict deadlines might be a little difficult to manage. Something with more flexibility, like scheduling haircuts in your in-home studio, might work quite well, though. Making sure that you have enough time to devote to your home-based business is going to be one of the biggest predictors of its success.

Perhaps you have a lot going on during the week, but you feel like you could really set aside your Saturdays to earn a little extra dough. A business where you help someone organize their home office could fit in just perfectly to that kind of schedule. If you plan in advance, you could have your Saturdays full for a couple of months to come. What other things could be accomplished with one long-ish sitting? A photo shoot or two could certainly be done in this amount of time, if you happen to be talented in photography.

The idea here is to determine not only how much time you have to devote to your home-based business, but also how that time is arranged. One eight-hour stretch lends itself to different opportunities than two hour stretches four times a week. It’s the same number of hours, but it’s not conducive to the same types of work.

Decide Whether to Invent the Wheel or Hitchhike

Starting your own business is awesome and rewarding and can make you a better person. (Well, it could.) It’s also a whole lot of work. Rather than doing all of the research, planning, and design – not to mention the billing, the taxes, and the delivery of products . . . Wait, when are you supposed to do the actual work? I’m confused.

In order to avoid becoming as discombobulated as the preceding paragraph, you might want to jump on some other business’ bandwagon. Do you love sales? Why not consider Tupperware or MaryKay or Avon? Sure, some of those types of businesses get a bad rap, but there are a whole lot of people who genuinely love hosting Candle Light parties or selling Body Shop products through catalogs. For the more artsy sorts, you might consider being a Creative Memories representative, for example.

Sometimes we get so caught up in trying to come up with the “next big thing” that we forget about the previous big things that are still actually pretty big.

In Conclusion

Seriously, it’s the best sub-header I could come up with at the moment.

Anyway, there are literally thousands of business ideas out there. Think of them like you would a new car. Kick the tires a little. See what will fit in your budget. For heaven’s sake, don’t come across as someone having a mid-life crisis or overcompensating for a small . . . paycheck. Instead, choose something that has some zip but will still get you to your destination safely.