It is just about every mother's dream to be able to stay home and care for their children. Unfortunately, this dream is becoming harder and harder to obtain. Within every minute of every day the price of our necessities is rising. It's not just the fuel that we use in our cars and to heat our homes, but every other utility, household product, and now more than ever, the food that we eat.

Because of this, many stay-at-home-mom's are now scrambling and searching for a "perfect" home-based business. They don't want to lose their dream. They finally managed to cut-back to the bare-minimum, they have learned how to frugally cook and thrift shop like the pros, there is no way they can trim the budget any further; and yet, after all their hard work they are finding themselves in a panic over their finances once again.

The variety of home-based businesses is much larger than it used to be, and according to my research a new online business is created every 10 seconds. You can imagine how confusing this can be for someone with very little business experience. Because so many mothers are now looking for online businesses I have pin-pointed some questions you may want to ask yourself before deciding on a particular business.

1. How much do I have to invest?

2. On top of the initial investment, do I have to purchase a certain amount of product each month?

3. Do I have to sell anything? If so, how do I go about selling my products? Will anyone be available to help me when I have questions?

4. How will I be paid? How often will I be paid? Who will pay me?

5. Am I paid on commission? Is the company considered to be an MLM? What is an MLM? If it is an MLM, how many levels will I be paid for?

6. How do I advertise? Do I have to pay for advertising? How much will I be able to budget for advertising? Is it possible to "successfully" use free advertising?

7. Do I have to have long-distance available on my phone? Can I afford to pay for extra fees on my bill? Do I need call-waiting, DSL or three-way calling? Will I be able to keep my children quiet while I'm on the phone?

8. How long will it take before I start to see a profit?

9. Do I need a website? Does the company supply a website? If not, who will help me create a website?

It's important to understand that ANY business online can be successful as long as you learn it, practice it, and master it. Whether it's a business that requires 12 hours of your time a day or just 2-3 hours, you will have to commit to learning it inside and out. An online business is still a business and it should be taken seriously.

If you're thinking about starting your own online business I suggest you do your homework. Explore as many areas as you can, and most importantly ask questions. Decide what's most important to you, is it the amount of hours you'll need to work each day or how much you will have to invest just to get started? It may be confusing, but it's actually a good thing there are so many business opportunities available to us, it means there really is a "perfect" business out there for each of us!