If you have determined you are not cut out for working independently at home, it is nothing to be ashamed of. There are many people working for others who are not capable of being a manager or those that have no desire to get into management. That is OK because every business absolutely needs people to work the front lines and if you are happy with your position, it should be considered your own personal success to have a job that you enjoy doing and know you do it well.

On the other hand, if you are serious about starting your own business at home, you will have to decide if you have the self-discipline, the dedication and desire to work at home and can deal with all of the distractions associated with working out of the house. When you sit at home everyday, you are probably going to spend most of the time alone and if you are the type of person that needs others around you, spending all day, every day working by yourself, chances are you will start looking for ways to mingle with others, usually at the expense of focusing on your business.

You need to realize up front that your income is not going to come in the form of a paycheck on a regular basis. Your livelihood is going to depend on how dedicated you are to the tasks that you assign yourself, based on the needs of your clients or customers. This truly puts you in the position of working more to earn more. If you choose to take too many days off, it will be reflected in your income as well as the number of past-due bills that arrive in your mailbox. If you are single and on your own, you are the only one affected by any decisions you make, however if you have a family they will benefit or suffer from your dedication to your business.

There will be no one looking over your shoulder and assigning any tasks for you to get done, nor will there be anyone handing you jobs that are needed. You will not only have to be dedicated to get any work completed on time, you will first have to hustle in the marketplace and find the work to do. This desire to have a lot of work and therefore a good income will have to be tempered by knowing your limitations. Taking more work than you can realistically get done on time can be just as bad as not finding any work.

The first thing you want to look at when selecting a program to join is the overall sales page. Does the page look professional or like it was put together in a few minutes? Your first impression says a lot about whether or not it is a program you should consider joining.

After getting past your first impression, it is time to dig a little deeper. Look at the content and the message the program is trying to convey. A legitimate home business will split up the content between how you will benefit from joining and a little about the features. You want to know what you are going to be doing.

Far too many programs ramble about how much money you can make from the program, but leave out the part of how you will make money. If the sales page claims there is a fully automated system that will make all of the sales for you, think again. You should know exactly what is involved in order to make money.

One of the main reasons so many people fail with an online business is because of a lack of training. When looking for a legitimate home business, look for one that offers extensive training. The more training that is offered, the more you know the company cares about you. There should be an e-book, video tutorial or audio to help guide you in the beginning stages.

The last thing you want to look for is contact information. A true business is more than willing to answer any questions you may have prior to signing you up. If there is no e-mail or phone number for you to call prior to you signing up, chances are it is a scam. All it means is that they are too afraid to talk to you and would rather hide behind the business name.

There is a lot you need to take into consideration when looking for a legitimate home business. There is no saying which company may be a scam and which may be the opportunity of a lifetime. As long as you do your research and take the information in this article into consideration, you will have no problem finding a winner.

What can you do with less than $5,000 to make a great web-based business? First, don’t skimp on design. Work with a great designer who understands user experience. You should interview several web designers who are local to you so you can sit down and explain your vision to them. Logos are less important than usability– how usable customers find your web site.

Avoid gimmicks, excessive advertising and anything that detracts from your message and consumer-based content. Customers like to be able to leave feedback on products and services, and connect with each other, so give them a way to do that. One system I personally like is Joomla. A competing product is WordPress. Your web designer may choose one of these two, but both are modular and allow you to add plug-in components to make your site consumer-driven. For instance, on my site I have user-to-user chat, user-to-user private messaging, and user forums where people can go and talk about various topics of their choice. I jump in and comment on occasion, but usually that’s only in an area where I’m a subject matter expert. At some point, Joe might log in to see if Suzy is on to chat with–now you have a consumer staying on your site.

Your initial e-commerce site will probably cost between $2,000 and $3,000, and the plug-ins are between $10 and $30 each. For no cost at all, you should add all the social networking media available. Twitter, LinkedIn, FaceBook, Plaxo–you name it. Create links and RSS feeds off of your site so people can be updated on what you are doing–and it doesn’t always have to be about business.

Make it easy for people to buy. They shouldn’t have to hunt for what you’re selling. Don’t delete candid feedback from visitors, and make it easy for them to tell others about your site using “share” buttons.

Instead of integrating merchant accounts right away through a bank, which can drive up your startup costs, you can accept PayPal, which takes about 3 percent of your sales in fees. This requires your consumers have a PayPal account, so you might still choose a merchant system, which will run you about $25 per month. Be sure to protect your system with an SSL Certificate that your web developer can integrate.

Danielle Babb is the founder of The Babb Group, an online entrepreneur, a professor, an author, public speaker and consultant. She has a Ph.D. in Organization and Management with a Technology emphasis, as well as an MBA with a technology emphasis. She is featured regularly on top networks such as CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Fox Business and the Today show. She is also the author of The Online Professor’s Practical Guide to Starting an Internet Business, available from Entrepreneur Press.