If you are searching for a great way to have a successful income and you like the thought of doing it from the comfort of your own home then a home-based business could indeed be right for you. Many people think of home-based businesses as being easier than an outside of the home business, but the truth is this is not so. Home-based businesses bring their own type of stress and challenges.The only way to know if home – based businesses going to be right for you and your lifestyle, is to weigh the pros and cons that it brings. Every year more and more home-based businesses startup. There are over 15 million people the describe themselves as being self-employed, meaning that they basically own their own business. The good news is that working from home with your own home base business is now accepted as a viable and lucrative alternative to working outside the home for someone else.Thanks to the constant changes and improvements in technology, working from home has become easier and easier. Basically, people from all over the world can network, and this makes a home-based business even more of a lucrative possibility. Of course you have to be technology minded in order to succeed in a home-based business. You need to at least have the basics down. You also need equipment, which would be a computer, a high-speed Internet connection, and the phone. Depending on the work at home business that you have, will depend on how technologically advanced you need to be.Some of the immediate advantages of having your own business are the freedom that you will have. Plus, you have the ability to make your own decisions and not have to rely on a boss that tells you what to do. You can set your own hours, you work when and how long you want. You get to choose the people that you work with, or in this case, don’t work with. Many people find that having a home-based business allows them to fulfil their potential. If you don’t feel that you are able to achieve everything that’s possible for you in an outside the house job then owning your own business lets you aim as high as you want. You are in charge of your own life.The disadvantages of having a home-based business must be realized as well, because if you’re unprepared you could find that your business will fail. The first and the most obvious risk is going to be financial uncertainty. If for some reason the worst happens and you either don’t find clients, or find clients that don’t pay you, you need to determine if you can afford to lose the capital that you have invested in the business, or that you need to live. Having your own business generally will mean the you wont have benefits. If you’re going to have benefits than you have to determine if you can afford that.Running your own business takes a lot of time and energy and some people get burned out. Work at home business owners are particularly susceptible to this because they generally handle all aspects of the business. The fact that you are home alone and working by yourself most of the time can be a negative aspect for some people. Some cannot handle the isolation factor. Another con to home-based businesses is an unsupportive family. If you cannot make your family understand that you actually are working, or if you work so much that you never spend time with your family this can cause many difficulties.