What Is a Home Based Business, Really?

A home based business is a business you own and run yourself, usually from your kitchen table or spare room, where you choose your hours and you are responsible for the results. That last part is the bit most people miss. It's not a remote job, and it's not a get-rich scheme. It's you, running a real business, often using someone else's products, tools and training.

My business partner Eric Green and I talked this through in the very first episode of our Follow This Plan podcast, two regular guys making money online. I'm in Cornwall, Eric's in Ecuador, and between us we've tried most of the ways you can work from home. Here's what we said, without the waffle. If you'd rather watch the full episode, it's right here.

I fell into a corporate job. I won the rat race, but I was still a rat.

I was an area sales manager. Parts of my patch were three hours from my house, and they wanted me there for 9am. So I was up at half five, out the door at six, away from home two or three nights a week and often working weekends. And there I was in my 30s and 40s with a grown man telling me when I could have my lunch.

Could I have done with more money back then? Of course. Look at what fuel and food prices are doing right now and most people could. But the thing I wanted most wasn't the money. It was freedom.

This is the distinction Eric made on the show, and it clears up most of the confusion.

A remote job is great. Plenty of people are happy in one. But you're still an employee. Someone still decides when you log on, who you report to and what you earn. You've just swapped the office for your living room.

Eric spent years in sales, and he gravitated towards self-employed commission roles where the company gave him the training, tools and support, and then said: it's up to you. Generate your own leads. Close your own sales. That gave him his first taste of freedom, and it's the closest thing to how a home based business really works.

• Remote job: someone else sets your hours. Home based business: you do.
• Remote job: your pay is set for you, and it has a ceiling. Home based business: there's no ceiling, but there's no guaranteed paycheck either.
• Remote job: the company can let you go. Home based business: the skills you learn come with you if you ever need to move.

Eric and I have had to move businesses before. But at least we could.

Every company Eric worked for wanted him to have a business mindset. They just didn't want him to use it for himself. They give you a salary and a feeling of protection. That's how they get you. That's how they keep you.

You hear it from people who stayed somewhere 40 or 50 years: "When I was 35, I almost started my own thing." But it was the security. It was the paycheck.

Here's the problem. You think you've got security because you've got a job, but they can get rid of you at any minute. One of the best things about working online is that you can create your own security instead.

There are a million ways to make money from home. These are the three that new people come across more than any other, and we've done all three.

T-shirts through print on demand, handmade jewellery on Shopify, buying and selling on eBay. I've done it and made some money doing it. But it's not generally for us.

Think about everything you have to figure out. What are you selling, and to whom? How do you get enough eyeballs on it? Do you need to learn content marketing, or paid ads, or both? Then you launch the thing you were sure would work, it's a bust, and you start again. That costs money. And if you're packing parcels and queuing at the post office, is that really freedom?

Network marketing gets a bad rap, usually from people who don't understand what a proper company looks like. A pyramid scheme just moves cash around and it's illegal. A real network marketing company has a real product. (And yes, a digital product counts. A PDF of a book has the same words as the paperback.)

The way I explain it is a pizza franchise. Say I open a pizza place, put the hours in, perfect the dough and upsell every customer. Then head office says they're putting Eric in my city too, and they'd like me to show him the ropes. Why would I help my competition? Because they'll give me 5% of his takings. Now if Eric does well, I earn even in a week I take off. That's leverage, and when it goes right, it's the beautiful thing about network marketing.

We're always going to be honest with you, though. Amazon has hurt a lot of these deals, because you can order the same vitamins and skin cream and have them tomorrow.

Eric's tip if you're looking at one: judge the product, not the pitch. Could you do well just selling the product, without building a big team? If most of the money coming into the company comes from new reps joining, that's a no-no. Do your due diligence. Put the company into an AI tool and ask it hard questions. Don't just believe everything it says, but don't blindly join anything either.

You already understand affiliate marketing, even if you've never heard the term. If my bank pays me and a friend a little thank-you when I refer them, that's affiliate marketing. Companies save on advertising, so they give you a cut for sharing.

Here's my favourite example. Years ago I sold computers at PC World. It was nearly all Microsoft, apart from one dark little corner for Apple. When a customer asked about a Mac, we'd panic and go and find Rob, the Apple guy. We'd write our name on a piece of paper and hand it to Rob. If the customer bought, Rob passed that paper to the till, and the commission came to us, even if all I'd said was "Go and see Rob, I'll take you to him."

That piece of paper with my name on it? That's an affiliate link.

Why it's our favourite: there's usually no team to build. The company creates the product, distributes it and handles customer support. Your job is the introduction. And with some programs you can get started without spending anything.

Whichever model you pick, Eric closed the episode with the part nobody puts in their adverts.

You'll see the fun stuff: the travel, the three weeks off, the walk on the beach on a Tuesday morning. What you rarely hear about is the actual process. Because it doesn't sell. Imagine sitting down with someone who tells you the next 12 months are going to be uncomfortable, you'll have to do things you don't want to do, and some people close to you won't be cheering you on.

But the more you understand that up front, the better your chances. After all these years, the people Eric still sees succeeding are the ones who never quit.

He also pointed out you don't see me at midnight, three hours deep going back and forth with AI trying to work out why something isn't working. You see me living by the sea. Both are true.

Here's my side of it. Yes, you'll have to do things you're not comfortable with, but only because they're new. I once spoke to a nurse who said changing a link in a series of 12 emails sounded like a lot of work. I asked how that compared with a 12-hour shift as a nurse. "Oh yeah," she said. "I see what you mean."

I failed all my main exams and stacked shelves in a supermarket before that corporate job. Everything I've done online, I taught myself. If I can do this, anyone can.

So a home based business is freedom you take responsibility for. Once you've got that mindset, the next question is which kind of income to go after.

That's exactly what Eric and I cover in Episode 2: one-time commissions versus recurring ones, and how to work out how many sales you'd need for the income you want. Watch Episode 2: Types of Income You Can Earn Online.

And if you want to see the system I use for my own affiliate marketing, with a done-for-you funnel, follow-up emails and a daily plan so you're not figuring it all out alone, take a look at the HBA Turnkey System here. Quick heads-up: I earn a commission if you join through my link. Your price doesn't change.

Required Legal Disclaimer: Typical affiliates earn no income. This is not a get-rich-quick program. No sales = no income. Full earnings disclosure: thehba.app/income