Thousands of people, just like you, have a dream of running their own home based business and what could be more rewarding? But few really appreciate the challenges they will face when leaving a regular job to run their own business.

As a qualified careers adviser, before teaching online technology to small business owners, I found many of the people who came to see me also had a burning desire to start their own home based business. To be honest, the majority of them had no idea how they would go about it, or the strategies involved in making money online. This is not surprising, you see many of those individuals had been employed in the corporate world for many years. They had gotten out of the habit of making their own decisions and relied on others to tell them what to do and when to do it. If you are thinking of leaving your regular job to run your own home based business then be aware that it takes discipline, motivation, tenacity and a lot of hard work as you take control and make all your important decisions.

But here's the good news, you don't have to re-invent the wheel as thousands of others have been successful running their home based businesses and making money online for years. These are the individuals you need to tap into right from the start. Gain knowledge and keep yourself informed by learning from others who are already market leaders and successful in their field, as they will teach you a great deal.

Research their products, their marketing methods, the messages they communicate to their market, their pricing plan, what value for money do they offer to their customers? All of this information will help you build your home based business too.

With over a quarter of the world's population now connected to the internet, there has never been a better time to launch a new business. But warned, the internet is an extremely busy, crowded place with over 15 billion web pages trying to grab our attention.

Focus first on the people who have made it work for them, as their formula could also benefit your business model, stay informed and continue to invest in yourself and your knowledge.