Most Americans work a bare minimum of 8 hours a day, five days per week. In most cases, individuals see there co-workers more often and for longer periods of time during the day then they see their spouses, partners or family. Needless to say, it is essential to the mental and emotional health that people feel comfortable in their work environment. To achieve this, many individuals seek working from home through creating home-based businesses. But what is the best home based business for you and how do you get started?

The first key in starting a home based business is separating fact from fiction. Take a browsing spree through Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com. Many companies advertise "Work From Home!" The first thing you must remember is that working from home does not mean that you necessarily have a home based business. One thing that you will want to avoid are MLM, or multi-level-marketing schemes. These "businesses" often involve pushing a product, like herbal supplements, cosmetics etc. Many people start these businesses to support their own habits and often find that the income is negligible or non-existent.

So what is the best home based business option for you? The first thing you need to analyze and balance are your passion and your knowledge. What is it that you love to do? And, what do you know about doing it? For example, you may love dogs, but you may not know a lot about dogs to begin a doggie day care. This is where research comes in.

The next two items you need to consider are market and financial needs. The first of these, marketing, is essential. You basically need to do the grunt work of seeing what companies are out there that are similar to yours. How are you going to present your services or products as unique and different? Can you offer your products or services more cheaply? In other words, what is your competitive edge? Then, you have to look at your finances and build a financially sound business plan. What can you afford?

This is just the jumping off point for starting your home based business. The most important aspects of starting your business are passion, research, planning, and hard work!