For a lot of people, however, the financial benefits of working at home are very attractive. The amount of money that you could earn is now directly proportional to your own performance, without waiting for a boss to give you a raise or promotion. Whether your business provides your sole means of support or a secondary income, its earning potential now depends on your ingenuity, determination, and willingness to work at it.

What's more, people who have been frequently shut out of the job market --homemakers, students, retirees, and the disabled, to name a few -- can use their home business to create new income opportunities. To a housewife with two or three kids, being self-employed and making $20,000 or $30,000 a year looks a whole lot better than being "employed" at $4.50 per hour. If you're handicapped, a home business may be a perfect solution to your special employment problems. For the seniors without employment but not yet eligible for social security, a home-based business can be a wonderful bridge, giving you not only personal satisfaction but income that otherwise might not be possible.

In addition to the money you can earn by working at home, there's also the money you can save. By working at home, you automatically save money on clothes, lunches out, transportation expenses, and day care costs. The reductions in the cost of transportation, business lunches, wardrobe, and children's day care are cause for celebration.

Think what you can save if you do not drive to the office everyday. Simply by eliminating the need to commute to and from work, the home-based worker stands to realize savings ranging from a few hundred to several thousand dollars a year. If you normally use public transportation, your savings will naturally be lower. However, if you are currently driving your own car each day, the savings can be considerable, including money saved on gasoline and oil, maintenance, parking, and insurance. Wear and tear on your car will be reduced, and your auto insurance would probably decrease.

Business lunches -- often hurried, unappetizing, and overpriced affairs -- need no longer be mandatory daily occurrences. Home-based businesspersons have the luxury of eating what they want and when they want to eat. Plus, there's the satisfaction of knowing that they got their money's worth (assuming of course that you can cook).

While we're at it, do you know how much you spend for your work clothes? Unless you wear a uniform, you probably can't wear the same thing everyday. Working out of your home also gives you the freedom to dress as you choose, thus reducing your clothing costs by doing away with the need for a separate "work wardrobe." Casual clothes probably will be the rule - blue jeans, warm-ups, or even a bathrobe may be your uniform of the day. Unless your business is one that constantly requires you to present a professional look (doctor, attorney, consultant), you may need only a few "dress-for-success" outfits for seeing clients.

There's also big savings to be had on eliminating day care expenses. Children's day-care centers, a fact of modern life in single-parent families or those in which both parents work, can put a big dent in the family budget. High quality care are not only difficult to find, but can be very costly, particularly if more than one child is enrolled. A home-based business enables parents to be with their children and still earn an income. Children receive the care they need, and the money that would otherwise be spent to provide it could be used to improve the family's overall standard of living. The benefits to all are obvious.

Another benefit of locating your business at home is readily apparent: the money you can save by not renting office space. Rent payments, in many cases the single largest expense in running a business can be a major stumbling block to getting started. The high overhead costs that kill so many new businesses are low, sometimes nonexistent, when your home becomes your place of business. The reduced overhead means a lower operating break-even point.

Even when the money for rent is available, the accompanying requirements for a security deposit, maintenance, and cleaning fees or the pressure to sign a long-term lease can be overwhelming. Converting a portion of your home into workspace enables you to avoid this, lowering both your costs and your risk. Some business people use their office rent savings to buy houses or other real estate investments.

Where a non-home-based firm may struggle, a home enterprise can not only survive, but also prosper.