There are a lot of people out there who are excited about the idea of working from home and starting their own home based business. Unfortunately the opportunities to do so are somewhat limited unless you are willing to work really hard. Basically there are two types of home based business ideas that you might hear about. One kind is designed to make money for the person selling it, and the other kind is a legitimate idea but will require a tremendous amount of effort on your part. Most pitches you will hear try to combine these two into a fantasy that does not really exist: they are trying to sell you on an idea that they say is super easy to do and will not require much effort on your part, but will still make you bucket loads of cash.Some of the home based business opportunities are simply busy work that actually equates to making less than minimum wage. For example, stuffing envelopes or taking internet surveys online generally works out to be worth only about a few cents or maybe a dollar an hour. If you do manage to turn one of these flimsy ideas into a profitable side business for yourself then you will be working like a dog to make it happen. Is that really what you want in a home based business? Probably not.There are ideas out there for good home based businesses but they all require real work on your part to make them successful. There is no shortcut to success, but that does not mean that there are no good opportunities out there.