There are more types of home based businesses today than ever before. There have been a number of causes for this including the growth in telecommuting, increased economic hardships, and lower entry-level wages. It can be overwhelming the first time that you try to choose between all of the different types of home based businesses that are readily available. Fortunately, by looking at the three defining characteristics that every opportunity has, it can be easy to automatically eliminate a large percentage of the options available. The key is understanding these characteristics and how they will affect your business as a whole.Online vs Off-lineThe first basic characteristic of home based businesses that you need to consider is whether you prefer to work online or off-line. There are certain things that are true of most online businesses. You will spend most of your time in front of a computer. You will have a flexible work schedule and you will be dealing with a nationwide or worldwide audience. Off-line businesses tend to be much more locally targeted and have a more strict set of hours. They also tend to require you to deal with people via face to face contact rather than over the internet.Product vs ServiceThe next fundamental characteristic of the different types of home based businesses is that they either feature a product or service. This is important to consider for a number of reasons. If your business is largely product driven, then you will be required to either purchase or create the products yourself as well as stock them in your home. If you are focused on providing services, then you may not have to house anything in your home, but you will be limited as to the number of clients that you can accommodate based upon how much time you want to spend working every day.Full-Time vs Part-TimeThe final characteristic of all types of home based businesses is that they will either require a full-time or part-time commitment. There are a growing number of part-time business opportunities that are designed for people can only dedicate a few hours per day or even per week. The goal of these types of business is to help people generate extra income, but not enough to replace their current employment. On the other hand, full-time home based businesses tend to require 30-40 hours per week or more in order to be successful.With so many different types of home based businesses available, the easiest way to limit down your potential candidates is by the basic characteristics that they posses. The three most basic decisions are between: online/off-line, product/service, and full-time/part-time.

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