When work is pleasure, life is a joy! When work is a duty, life is slavery.

Now is a wonderful time to be thinking about working from home! With the advent and development of the Web, it is easier now than ever before to work from home, whether in the capacity of telecommuter, freelancer, consultant, business owner, or franchise operator.

Apparently a lot of people agree with this because, according to the prominent research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), there are 40.2 million home-working households in the United States. This includes about 24 million people who are running home-based businesses.

In a recent year, people with home offices spent nearly $30 billion on hardware and software and another $43.4 billion on telephone services alone. IDC also reported that home offices accounted for about 68 percent of all United States households on the Internet.

IDC further reports that, in general, the work-at-home market is affluent and educated. According to IDC, home-business owners are more likely to have college and postgraduate degrees. The average income for home-office households is $59,000 versus $45,000 for households overall.

Today there are many opportunities open to those of us who wish to have home-based careers. This could take any one of several forms:

1. Starting up and running your own business

2. Purchasing and operating a franchise

3. Consulting or freelancing -- both forms of self-employment

4. Telecommuting, which means you work from home but are in the employ of someone else

All of the above have some elements in common and other areas where they differ. In the following chapters, we will explore a number of these possibilities. And for those of you who are considering establishing your own businesses, we will talk about how to choose a business and how to write a business plan.

Working at home requires a particular set of skills and a specific mind-set. Do you think it is well suited to your abilities and temperament? Take the following quiz and you might glean some interesting insights into the question: Do you have the right personality to work at home?

1. Are you self-motivated?

2. Can you avoid distractions?

3. Are you organized?

4. Are you self-disciplined?

5. Are you detail minded?

6. Are you serious about succeeding at this business endeavor?

7. Are you focused?

8. Can you juggle many aspects of projects and/or many projects at one time?

9. Are you good at marketing and selling -- particularly "selling yourself"?

10. Are you able to "switch hats" to meet the necessity of the job at hand -- for example, from marketing professional to salesperson to successful worker?

11. Are you an independent person?

12. Are you an able communicator?

13. Are you good at meeting deadlines?

14. Are you capable of prioritizing work?

15. Are you good at managing your time?

16. Are you flexible?

17. Are you able to work alone without feeling isolated?

18. Are you proficient at "surfing" the Web?

19. Are you familiar with fax machines and other kinds of office equipment?

20. Do you have an area in your home that would lend itself to becoming a home office -- one that is separate and distinct from the rest of the house?

If you can honestly say yes to many of the above questions, perhaps you would do well as a "homebody." Read on!