The 5 steps to starting a business from home are: first, making a list of your skills and talents; second, study the list to generate business ideas; third, check local and online markets to see what people are looking for; fourth, make a business plan and calculate your profit potential; fifth, put your plan into action. If the type of business has already been decided, then going through these steps will help in organizing the business and deciding where certain talents can be used within the business to make it better.

When starting a business from home, the first thing that needs to be done is to make a list of all the skills and talents you have that could be used to help someone else, provide a service or make a product. Everything should be included on this list. If there are going to be partners in this home business then both partners should make a list. Include skills like carpentry, interior design, and glassblowing, for example. Also include talents like good with people, problem-solver, and stays organized, for example.

The next step in starting a business from home is to generate business ideas. Look at the list of skills and talents and see how they might fit together. Good with elderly people and patient might fit together to make a business being a paid companion. This is a home business that has emerged from a generation with aging parents who need companionship but their children are busy professionals who don’t have the time.

The third step is checking local and online markets to see what people are looking for. This step could actually be done in conjunction with the last step, because finding a market often spurs the idea of a business from home which will answer the needs of that hungry market.

The fourth step is essential in starting a business from home. The profit potential must be calculated and a business plan must be made. To calculate the profit potential, all the expenses must be taken into consideration. Does a home business license need to be purchased? What are the advertising costs, if any, and what materials or supplies need to be purchased? The cost of the expenses must be subtracted from the revenue to calculate the profit. Generally, the cost of starting up a business from home that sells products is much greater than the cost of a business from home that sells services.

A business plan for starting a business from home doesn’t need to be long and complicated. It should have some essential elements, such as defining the business strategy, identifying competition, organizing, analyzing, and marketing procedure. The purpose of the business plan is to grow the business from seedling- the idea- to flourishing money maker. The old saying of plan your work and then work your plan is very relevant here.

Once the first four steps are completed in the process of starting a business from home, the fifth step is much easier to carry out. Putting the plan into action is the last step. For some people planning is easy and doing is not so easy. The important thing to remember is that it is in the doing that the income is created.