With the economy the way it is many people are looking for home based business ideas. Over the years I have been involved in many network marketing or multi-level marketing businesses where in order to succeed you must build a business by getting other people to become distributors and then get those people to also find distributors and on and on.Well… it looks good on paper, but the reality is that 97% of the people only bring in 2 or 3 people. No matter how good the products are, or how enticing the compensation plan is, the reality is that most people simply won’t talk to their friends and neighbours about business.I became very good at giving in home presentations on different products from different companies and for awhile seemed to be headed for the stars in each program that I became involved with. However, like most people I learned that I’m a little reserved and don’t have that bold entrepreneurial attitude to talk to everyone about my great opportunity using the 3 foot rule. That’s the rule that says that you have to talk to everyone that gets within 3 feet of you.So although the companies I joined all had very good products, and their compensation plans looked like I could be a millionaire, after considerable effort and expenditure on products, demonstrations, and various forms of advertising, I was told I simply didn’t have a big enough dream, or my why wasn’t important enough.So was it time to quit? Absolutely not. I don’t think it’s time to give up on home based business ideas. The internet is the great leveler when it comes to the 3 foot rule. You see, you can be scared to walk outside your front door to meet the world each day and still be a huge success online. If you know the right techniques you don’t have to approach anyone…they will approach you…online.You can be a great success online. There are definite strategies and techniques that you can use to make your online business a success. Below I have listed just 5 of the many possibilities for marketing your home based business ideas.1. Search Engine Marketing: This form of marketing is achieved by promoting a website through paid placement with venues such as Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter, and a host of others.2. Blogging: This is like a journal, the term coming from the words web log. In it you place regular entries of events or commentary that the search engines pick up so your website becomes visible.3. Interactive Marketing: This is the ability to remember what the customer has said by collecting customer information online in what is commonly known as a contact management system.4. Viral Marketing: From the word virus which implies a spread of ideas, viral marketing can be used to increase awareness of products and ideas.5. Web Analytics: Understanding how people use the internet can translate into much higher response to your marketing.There’s lots more. So…don’t give up. The potential for home based business ideas and particularly for network marketing on the net is huge and I have barely scratched the surface.

My years of practice and experience have directed me to these 10 top tips to having a profitable Home Based Business:
Make sure that having a home based business is the right thing for you. If you have the option of running your business from home or from an outside office space, base your decision as much as possible on what make sense for the overall business and keep your customers in mind.
I started my coaching business at home, but it got to the point where I had to meet clients all the time in person, so I decided to get an office. Of course I could still take calls from clients outside my area from my home, but now I can offer either phone coaching or in person coaching to my local clients.

Run a Business like a Business. One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make in regards starting a home based business, is to forget they are running a business. This hint will make things clear for you. Businesses are meant to be profitable; Hobbies are not!
If you are letting the daily household chores come first, well… you are not treating your business like a business. Time Management skills come very handy, especially for an entrepreneur home business.

Make it Legal. Not be a fool thinking that because you are working from home, you can skip the legal steps of starting a home based business. You still need to choose the right entity for you business, have your bookkeeping records up to date, pay your taxes, etc. If you don’t you will pay the price later, when you are successful.

Get insurance. Because we live in the land of lawsuits, you should make sure you protect your business, but most importantly, your family and your personal assests. Consider some business liability protection, or an add-on to your homeowner’s insurance to cover personal liability.

Look Professional. You only have one chance to make a good first impression, and that impression should be professional.

Here are few pointers that you could follow to make your home based business look more professional:

Your office should be separated from the house, at least with a door that you should be able to close.
Try to have a dedicated phone line for your business, but if not, just make sure whomever answers the phone during business hours know it could be a customer calling for you.
Get an answer machine and/or voice mail, a toll free number will be ideal, a fax, set yourself with an email dedicated only for your business
Order business cards and don’t scrimp on them. A good quality and well designed business card, is a better marketing tool than many ads in the newspaper.
Stay up to date with technology. As scary as it sounds, you should make sure you have:
A computer, where you can have software for word processing, customer service, time management, finances, etc.
Printer, fax, modem, answering machine, calculator, etc.

Develop a Marketing Plan. This is the most feared task of any entrepreneur (besides financial tasks). People, including us women, are afraid of marketing their businesses.

In today’s world, word of mouth isn’t enough to have a profitable home based business. You need to use networking, and the internet in order to get more clients with less marketing dollars spent.

Time Management. This is a key element for profitability. Click here to read more about time management.

Include your family. Without your family’s support it’ll be almost impossible to have a successful and profitable home based business; so make sure everyone is on board with the rules, schedules, and goals.

Stay in the loop. Join some of your local business organizations and some other ones using the internet.

Get a Coach. There are so many obstacles and roadblocks, that any entrepreneur has to face in order to become successful and accomplish a profitable home based business, let alone us; women entrepreneurs. We have to balance work – family – house- us; every hour of the day. This can be very stressful, which makes more difficult to do effective problem solving and brainstorming.

Having an extra pair of eyes that can help us visualize the problem from another angle, is most of the time just what we were missing in order to achieve our goals.