It's one thing to know that you want to work at home and run your own business. It's another thing completely to know what kind of work at home business you will make the greatest success at. The best way of achieving success with any work at home business idea is to find something that is a combination of both your skills, and the things you are interested/passionate about.

Knowing what interests you and fires up your enthusiasm is usually easy to identify. Being able to completely assess your own skills isn't quite easy because most people have a tendency to underplay what they are capable of doing, whilst glossing over things that they have little or no ability with whatsoever! If you want to create a profitable work at home business, this isn't going to work. You need to complete an honest inventory of what skills you have.

When you decide it's time to start seriously considering your dream of owning a work at home business, set aside a couple of hours when you won't be disturbed, and sit down with a pen and piece of paper. Draw a line down the center of the paper creating two columns. At the top of one column make a heading of "Skills" and at the top of the second column a heading of "Challenges". Now comes the tricky bit. Seriously think about your natural abilities/skills and education and make a note of every positive attribute you possess in the "Skills" column. Make sure you include things such as an ability to write, garden, make puppets, find bargains etc. Once this list is complete, turn your attention to the things that you aren't so good at and make another list identifying these points. If you have a friend or family member you trust and who knows you well, ask them to take a look at the list and tell you if they agree with it, and if they can think of anything you have missed off. Often it's the people closest to us who are able to identify our strengths and weaknesses easier than we can ourselves!

When both lists are complete, it's time to assess what kind of work at home business would be most appropriate for you, and which ones to avoid. For example, you may have a degree in garden design and love plants - but if you hate being outdoors then gardening is not a good business idea, or if you hate working on your own then working out with other people perhaps in a sales or consulting capacity will be better ideas than working as a web designer where you have little contact with anyone else.

It's human nature to spend more energy on the things that really interest us and that we feel we are good at. By spending the time required to accurately provide an honest assessment of your personal skill set, you are setting in place the foundations for a profitable work at home business which focuses on your personal skills, and so will ensure that you give it the attention it needs to grow.