Given the minefield of home based business opportunities available out there, it makes sense to go shopping with a list. Personally, I had 3 very strict criteria that I set for myself when I went looking (ok, I did have the benefit of hindsight. As a previous ‘homepreneur’ I did know the questions to ask and the mistakes to avoid, and I was damned sure that I wasn’t going to make the same mistakes twice!) Any business that I was going to plough my energy, effort and determination into a second time, had to be able to deliver on a BIG scale. Basically, I was looking to answer the classic question: “Is the Prize worth the Price”. Because, believe me, there is always a price to pay. Ask any Olympic Gold medallist.So, what were my 3 criteria, and how will they help you in your search?1) I decided that any home based business I would seriously consider, had to have the potential to earn me £100,000 from my first year. That was my figure. Now, that doesn’t mean to say that I was looking for that money to fall out of the sky and land in my lap. On the contrary. But I had to be able to see that the commission structure or compensation plan was robust enough that, given my own energy and determination, that figure was realistically available to me.Decide what you personally want from any home based business that you start. I speak to so many people who tell me they “hadn’t really thought about” how much they would like to earn. WHAT?! This is YOUR business. YOUR future. Are you seriously trying to tell me that you know what you want from your life if you don’t even have any idea of how much money you are going to need to achieve it? If you are only looking to earn £50 a week extra to ‘top up the bills’, then you don’t really need to be looking at setting up a MacDonald’s franchise do you? Knowing what you require your home based business to earn you is going to narrow down your search tremendously. How will you know that you have hit the bullseye, if you don’t even know which wall the dartboard is hanging on?2) I knew that any business that was seriously going to be able to deliver on my requirement of £100k per year had to have a proper system of training and support in place. After all, you can have the best business in the world but if there is no proper system in place when you start, you are going to waste an awful lot of time looking for the missing pieces in the jigsaw.Ask yourself, do you really want to be the ‘fish on the end of the hook’, and when they have ‘landed’ you, you are left high and dry to find your own way round the maze? Or are you looking for a system of training that will enable you to fast track yourself out of the gate?3) Finally, I understood that, particularly in this uncertain economic climate, any business that I was entering into, had to be in a growth market and not a market that was suffering from the vagaries of the so-called ‘recession’. In short, I had to feel confident that as I grew, the business was going to grow with me. It is no good trying to trying to paddle upstream if the tide on your opportunity has already turned and is going the other way. All businesses have a period of growth, plateau and then, if a new idea is not launched, they will go into decline.Choose wisely. Ask the question: When did the top earners have their best year income wise? This year, last year, 5 years ago?My process of due diligence served me well. I sincerely hope that, armed with the above questions, you find the business that is going to propel you to where you want to go in your life.Finally, there is one more essential piece of body armour that you are going to need if you are going to navigate your way successfully through the minefield: Self Belief. Henry Ford put it best: “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re probably right”.Good luck!

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