If you are a frequent online internet surfer, you probably have come across many different advertisements for online businesses that you can run from the comfort of your home with only a few hours a day of investment to generate hundreds if not thousands of dollars per week. While there may be several nuggets out there, the general rule of thumb is that, you get what you pay for, still applies. If you invested little, chances are your income will be commensurate with your investment. So what do you do to assess these various opportunities for home businesses?

The basics include a realistic assessment of your revenue and also your costs to generate a net revenue statement of income that is available to you for other purposes. Evaluating potential revenue income means that you will need to understand in some detail how you will produce, sell, advertise and close sales relative to your home based business idea. Many advertisements for home based businesses on the internet advertise a package for a relatively small price, which will explain the concept and show you how to earn hundreds or thousands per week. Before you even take this initial step, you need to learn as much as possible about the business concept.

Check out blogs on the internet, complete various searches on the topic, read other web site material and build an information data base that you can utilize for your assessment. Build a spreadsheet that estimates sales per week, advertising etc. Most importantly develop a plan that you will carry out that focuses on generating and meeting the revenue targets that you have set for your self. As you go through this exercise, you will also uncover any costs of getting started as well as ongoing costs. These figures can also be entered into your spreadsheet in the cost section for later calculation of your net revenue.

When you have completed your evaluation and generated your net revenue statement there are still two more steps to complete before you decide to go ahead with your new home based business idea. First, ask yourself is this a realistic plan? Can I live on the net revenue that will be generated from this business? Is this what I want to do or are there other more attractive and interesting opportunities? The second question will assist in answering the first. Complete a sensitivity analysis. Decrease your revenue expectations by 25% and increase your costs for both getting started and ongoing by 25%. Ask yourself if this is still an interesting and profitable business to get involved with?

Once you have completes these steps you should be ready to make an informed decision about any home based business idea that you are assessing.