I quit my 60-hour a week corporate job three years ago when our first child was born. After a miserable pregnancy when we almost lost our baby, twice, it didn't seem fair to return to the job and leave our miracle baby in an expensive daycare program. So, I decided to stay at home. Soon after that I was pregnant again, and was quite shocked to hear that I was expecting twins! That's when I realized that going back to work just wasn't practical, not with these three little ones. 

Life had completely changed. In 2 years we had 3 kids. While a family like this was what I had dreamed about, life started to become a little difficult. We were surviving on my husband's income alone. While we were well fed and taken care of, we were just getting by.  That's when I started my research to find out how I could to be with my kids at home and still earn a substantial income from the few hours that I could squeeze out of my very busy days?

Starting my own business was the only way to go. But, what could I do from home? I put together a checklist that consisted of the following questions to help me determine what business was right for me:

• Is the business MLM (Multi Level Marketing)? Not that MLM is a bad concept, but I need something that generated income quicker then the typical 1-3 years with MLM.

• Does the business opportunity offer a selling system, and how mature is the system? Replicating success is much easier then creating from scratch.  I want to buy into something that has already worked, not start something new.

• How difficult is it to explain what the business does or sells? Do people get it without significant time on the phone trying to explain?

• Are the costs to starting the business as low as possible? It does take money to build a business.  But, do I have to stock my garage with products that I pay for before making any sales?  Is there a huge cash outlay, and it's going to take years to break even?  I wanted a low cost opportunity with maximum upside.

• How difficult is it to run the business? With a proven system in place (see above), the the busiiness should be pretty simple, but I'm willing to do the work to make it a success as well.

• Is training and support provided? Personal mentoring would be nice, but a team oriented approach to a business is ideal.

• How much time would I need to spend working each day? I want to be able to choose my own hours.  Working at home should be fun (actually another piece of criteria). 

• Do I need to do cold calls and get into stressful conversations? Again, I'm hoping that a marketing system would help take some of this stress out of the process.

• What is a realistic first year income, and how many others are making it?  Why would I want to go through the trouble of getting started in a business if I can't make a lot of money right away?

• Is the opportunity too good to be true or a scam? Who has been successful, and are they feeling good about what they do?

I hope this criteria helps you.  If you have any questions or would like to add to my list, please feel free to comment.