There are many advantages to working online from your home: time with your family, a flexible schedule that allows you to be there for your children and spouse when they need you, as well as enormous savings in terms of commuting and daycare.

Any Internet business opportunity worth pursuing should have the following seven characteristics: Ignore these at your own peril.

1. Genuine/lawful. If you are to consider a business opportunity, it must be legitimate and legal. There are many purported business opportunities online that are neither. When evaluating an offer, the best course of action is to consult the State Attorney General and the Better Business Bureau.

2. Proven. While publications concerning some type of new fad may make the related business opportunity look golden, you should stay clear of uncharted waters. If other people are successful in that line of business, it is evidence that success can be had. If it is a completely new type of business and nobody is yet successful with it, how do you know that success is even attainable?

3. High demand. In order to achieve optimal success, every market opportunity which you contemplate ought to be highly desired. Regardless of the goods or services being offered, your chances of succeeding will be enhanced if the goods or services are very desired in the market.

4. Low initial start-up costs. Businesses are inherently risky. Your risk grows with the start up costs. Unless you are an experienced business person, avoid business opportunities with high start up costs. If your start up costs are under $1,000 and the business doesn't succeed, it would be far less of a financial loss than if the start up costs were in excess of $250,000 and the business doesn't succeed.

5. The time to reach profitability is minimal. It feels like it is to time consuming especially when it comes to business. This will likely include the time that is required to develop your business to the point that it is earning a profit. Your chances of success will be greater if you choose a business opportunity that has the potential to become profitable quickly.

6. Potentially long-lasting. Do Cabbage-Patch Dolls and Beanie-Babies sound familiar to you? While it might be possible to make some quick cash by jumping on the latest fad, business is hard work. Choose a business opportunity that you reasonably believe will still offer excellent potential 29 years from now. It would be tragic to spend a year or more building your business on a fad only to have the fad wither away just as your business is becoming profitable.

7. Opportunity for scaled growth. People who start small businesses generally have a dream of freedom from monetary and time pressures. In order for your business opportunity to provide you with the freedom that you seek, it will be necessary to grow your business. Employees will have to be hired. A manager should be brought on board at some point in time. The longer term goal is a well-run business that requires little, if any, of your time, hired employees take care of and manage every aspect of your business. If you really want freedom as a business owner, the venture that you choose must be capable of expansion to a larger scale project.