The state of our economy in the last few years has had a terrible impact on employment in our country. Companies of all sizes are laying off employees regardless of their talents, years of service or contributions they’ve provided. What is even harder to witness is the closing or splitting up of some large corporations that had employed so many individuals. Many of these people are now looking seriously at ideas for creating income working from home. The question then becomes what are the top home based businesses one can start quickly and with little initial investment.One way to approach starting a home based business is with providing a service or product out of your home. Ideally, the product would be something you are talented with making, but if you don’t have the talent then look for something you can learn quickly and doesn’t require years of practice.If you enjoy being creative and working with your hands, look at top home based businesses that you would enjoy creating products for. Some examples might include:Jewelry Making – Wire jewelry making is easy and with only a little practice you can create some stunning work. There are loads of how-to books on wire jewelry design in the craft stores and you can start with inexpensive material and work your way up.Baking – If you can create some tasty but healthy treats, you might be able to find various health food stores that will buy your goods.Custom T-Shirts – If you look around at the t-shirts marketed towards the younger crowd, you’ll see that lots of them have a grungy, rough, worn or splattered appearing design on them. Just splash a few colors of paint on the front, stamp on the words “Work in progress”, and watch the kids line up for these unique and “cool” shirts.If you are the type of person that is more comfortable with physical work, some top home based businesses might include:Carpet Cleaning – For a small investment you can buy commercial carpet cleaners like the ones that are rented out at many department stores. These do a great job with just hot water and some cleaning solution. They even fit in most cars.Lawn Care – If you already own a riding lawn mower and a truck you can buy some ramps to get the mower into the truck bed. Or, you can get a trailer to put the mower on. As you get more business you can invest in better equipment that lets you complete more jobs in the same amount of time.Cleaning Homes – Take the hour or so you spend each day exercising and clean homes instead. You’ll get the cardio workout from the cleaning and get paid as well. Most clients already have the cleaning supplies they want you to use, so don’t feel you need to stock up on all the supplies.Additionally, some top home based businesses that let you utilize your computer would include:Freelance Jobs – Sites like freelancer.com provide outsourcing for large and small businesses to find experts to complete various projects and tasks. Companies are looking for skills like writing, designing, data entry, sales and marketing as well as technical skills like programming, administration and engineering.website Design – Website design has become much easier as the technology and software has improved in recent years. While it’s a good idea to be familiar with some of the technical jargon, you can focus on the design and flow of a website and outsource the technical development of the sites to someone else.Medical Billing or Coding – this type of online work has become popular as hospitals and insurance agencies are trying to keep costs down. You need to learn the billing or coding process to take on these types of jobs.As with any endeavor you will want to do proper and thorough research in your area of interest. While the list above of top home based businesses is not complete, it provides a few realistic examples and thought starters that will help you get you on your way.

If you’re stuck wondering how to be a successful small business owner, know this: running a small business often simply means making good use of successful small business ideas. Successful small business owners face many ups and downs throughout their work. They know that small business ideas cannot turn out successful unless they use the proper approach and strategies.If you want to be one of the few successful small business owners, remember that having a good strategy is crucial. Without the right strategy and a proper approach, you are not likely to achieve your goal.Some small business owners manage to overcome their everyday challenges, while others seem to give up after a while. So, let’s find out what successful small business owners do differently from the unsuccessful ones. Let’s turn their experience into your success through your small business ideas.1. MAKE ANNUAL REVISIONS OF YOUR BUSINESS PLAN AND BUDGETEvery business goes through changes every now and then, including your small business. For this reason, your business plan and budget should be somewhat flexible to bear such changes along with your business goals. Without revising your business plan and budget, you shouldn’t expect your business to flourish and expand.The flexibility of your business plan will help you avoid and overcome the eventual unpleasant surprises on the market. Also, such flexibility will give you some time to adjust to certain changes you may experience on your way.Every business experiences both success and failure points each year. In order to detect and estimate these points, you should revise your budget and business plan every year. While revising, you should check if you are still going in the right direction. If not, you may need to make some changes and adjustments to achieve better results in the upcoming period.Successful small business owners don’t hesitate to reallocate funds, if that is what it takes to achieve success. In order to increase profits, after they conduct a business revision, smart business owners define and implement the necessary changes immediately.2. UPDATE YOUR OFFER AND ADD VALUE TO ITPeople change, as do their needs and habits. As soon as you notice that you aren’t selling as much as you used to sell before, it is time to make changes. If people aren’t purchasing what you currently have to offer, that’s a clear hint that something needs to be done.A simple price cut may be the first thing that comes to your mind. As much as lower prices may seem more appealing to your customers, they also point to a devaluation of what you offer. Devaluation of your products or services is never a good thing, so try doing just the opposite – add value to your offers.The best way to update and add value to your products and services is by developing new offers. If possible, try to offer something completely new to your customers. You could offer product bundles, training programs and workshops, and so on.3. DARE TO BE DIFFERENTMost successful small business owners believe in daring to be different. They know their target consumers. Trying to target everyone and anyone as a consumer will get you nowhere fast. Instead of trying to make products for the masses, focus on a clearly targeted community and grow with it. Once you target your consumers, it is easy to understand their needs.Understanding your consumers is the secret to a successful business. When you know their needs, you can modify your products and services in order to satisfy them. Satisfied consumers will not only become your regulars, but they will also spread the word about what you offer. This may become the best marketing strategy for your business.Spreading the word about your products or services is called a referral marketing strategy. It’s been proven that most of the faster growing small businesses turn to this kind of marketing rather than relying on traditional advertising.4. KNOW YOUR COMPETITIONSuccessful small business owners know their competition. They know that keeping an eye on the competitors and understanding their policy and pricing is crucial to the business. It is wise to consider your direct competitors in your area, as well as indirect competitors.A direct competitor offers the same primary services to the same target group as you, and they are easy to follow on the market. However, an indirect competitor company offers the same or similar products as a segment of a wider product or service offering.In some cases, the indirect competitor may offer a product that is an applicable substitute for the original product. Successful small business owners know how to position their company against the indirect competitors. They take both types of competing companies seriously and they account for them in their annual business plan.5. HIRE THE RIGHT PEOPLEEven though hiring the right people for your business sounds obvious, it can be a really tough job for small business owners. Also, not hiring the right people could be a huge downfall for a small company. People who don’t share the concept of your business approach and goals are not the type of people you want to engage in your business.Candidates who don’t have the right temperament, skills, or talent for the job position that you offer can be too pricey for your company. Having the right people in the right job positions can make your company outstanding. Exceptional companies recruit exceptional people.6. ACCEPT TECHNOLOGY CHANGESTechnology changes on a regular basis nowadays. Successful business owners are very well aware of that, so they change accordingly. Doing things the way they were done years ago will not provide the same success nowadays.Accepting technological improvements can help your company become more effective and efficient. Keep yourself informed about the latest in new technology, and the improved solutions it brings. Choose the most appropriate ones for your business and adopt them. Your customers will be grateful and you’ll experience great benefits.7. TRUST YOUR INTUITIONIf you believe your intuition has been serving you well so far, listen to your inner voice carefully. Your instincts can lead you a long way. If you still feel strongly about something, regardless of the lack of facts or data – act on it. What seems right for other businesses doesn’t necessarily mean that it will work for you as well.Relying on intuition is often the first step out of your comfort zone, and the first step towards becoming a leading company on the market. While you watch your business grow and spread, remember that having faith in yourself and the business you are running is crucial. Being aware of your inner voice can lead you to making business decisions with more confidence and a greater success rate.

You are searching the internet for the right home based business that will make you much money, your head is buzzing with excitement, you feel like this will be your answer to all your problems. You will be able to buy that car or house you have always dreamed about, but most of all you will have money in your pocket and plenty of it. That’s positive mindset.

So why do you feel like that? It’s a great feeling I know. Well, when you start reading these home based business websites sales copy or even the emails that you received, it all seems so simple to do. The promise of making mega dollars a month, the promise of someone will show you how it’s all done once you join their business opportunity. What can go wrong? It’s all being offered to you on a plate, all you have to do is pay a signing on fee and the money will start to roll in. Your head is full of things that you will be able to do once it all starts working you have no doubt this is it.

Now that you have joined your home based business opportunity, you have received a welcoming email explaining what you should do next and how to get going. You log into your back office of your new business and start reading the start up procedures, you are told to watch the training videos and take notes. You are still feeling great but not as good as you were when you were searching for your new home based business. Your mindset is starting to fade a little, but you are still positive.

It’s been a month since you started your new home based business and you are starting to get confused with what to do next. Your head is all over the place, what’s happening is you are now going into information overload, you have been reading and watching so many videos on how to build you home business, and now you are not sure what to do next. Your mindset is now changing from positive to neutral, but you still keep going.

It’s now 3 months on since starting your home based business, to date you have not made one penny from your business, you have been spending money on joining other sites that make claims that you will need their product to help grow your business, so what gone wrong? your mindset is falling off now to negative, you start to think you have made a very big mistake in joining this home based business.

Most people when joining a home based business opportunity don’t do any research into the opportunity, they automatically believe it’s that simple to make a living online. Then when they realize it’s not what they thought, they start to go down hill, and one of the first things they say is I have been scammed. So now they have gone from being totally positive to totally negative, there mindset has fallen.

The people that succeed in their home based business are the one’s that research first, then get some form of coaching or training, that will give them the basics of how to run any business, they find a good sponsor, someone who has a good reputation, one who is always ready to help and point them in the right direction. These people keep that positive mindset and normally go on to be very successful.

Conclusion: To keep that positive mindset, before you jump into any business be it online or offline, do your research first, find out what is required of you, will you have to invest anymore money in your business? Take your time, don’t rush, then research what form of coaching or training is required for your home based business. I am sure that if you take your time and don’t rush into things you will have all the success you desire with your home based business.