Do you want to start a home based business? Do you think you have what it takes? I'm going to tell you how I failed at my first home based business. Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes and succeed.

There are many home based business opportunities. Some of them are internet related and some are not. You can start something out of your own imagination. Or you can order a plug-n-play system from somebody else.

I want to tell you about a home based business and why I failed at it. It's because I had unrealistic expectations. I dreamed about being my own boss and quitting my day job. I came across an opportunity that seemed too good to be true. And it was. Don't get me wrong. This opportunity was legitimate and a lot of people have made a lot of money with it.

My problem is that I got so overwhelmed with the potential that I didn't pay attention to the details. I saw that I could make really big money and that's all I saw. In the back of my mind I knew that I would not enjoy the work required to make this business a success. But I just kept looking at the dollar signs. I kept telling myself that I could do something that I wasn't comfortable doing if it meant becoming rich.

You see, I'm not comfortable with person to person sales. This job required that I make face to face sales. It required that I run advertising to promote my business. It then required that I make numerous phone calls to sell my product and build a down-line.

I spent a tremendous amount of money on advertising. And I got a lot of results. But each result required that I call the person and try to make a sale. I was so uncomfortable making these calls. I would spend several hours making the calls and by the time I was done, I would be so stressed out that I couldn't relax. It got to where I couldn't sleep at night. Eventually I got so stressed that I stopped making the calls. All of the advertising amounted to a huge loss because I was unable to follow up on the leads.

Here are some important points for you to follow if you want to succeed.

1.Examine the business opportunity and be realistic. If the job is going to require you to take actions that you are uncomfortable with, then you won't succeed.
2.Ignore the $$$ and pick something you like doing. If you don't like what you are doing, you won't succeed.
3.Stay within your personal potential. Just because John Doe makes $1000 a week doing a business from home doesn't mean you will. It takes different kinds of people to do different things. Not everybody can succeed at the same thing.
4.Stick with a budget. Don't let somebody else talk you into spending more money then you can afford.

In summary, pick the business opportunity that is right for you. Don't start a business just because somebody else has made money on it. Concentrate on building a business that is right for you and the profits will come.