A lot of people would wonder what the difference is. Are we splitting hairs? Isn't it the same thing regardless of what you call it? Actually, no. There is a very big difference between working at home or building a home based business. In some areas there is overlap, but for the most part there is a big distinction between the two.

A work at home is just that, a job. This is where you get paid a certain amount of money, either hourly or salary for doing a particular job from your home. This is often referred to as telecommuting. Common telecommuting jobs would be data entry, typing, Internet research and web design.

For example. Let's say you head on over to Monster.com and find a telecommuting job for web designers. You send in your and they hire you. They will then contact you with an assignment. XYZ company wants to have a web site designed for high school students. They send you the specs and tell you when they expect the job to be completed by. They will also tell you what you will be paid, whether for the assignment itself or for how many hours it took you. If hourly, they'll make you fill out a time card and send it to them.

That is an example of a work at home job. There is no overhead, no advertising expenses, you're paid for the work you do and most likely you'll get a 1099 at the end of the year so that you can report all the money that you made. The only difference between what was described above and an office job of the same type is the location from where you're working.

A home business is something quite different. For starters and this is the most important difference, you're not paid for the work you do. Yes, you may ultimately make some money and hopefully a lot of money, but there is no guarantee of payment. You're putting in the work you do in the hopes of being able to make some kind of income from it. You may ultimately decide to start your own web design business and do the same kind of work that you did at the job but here is where the two are quite different.

In starting your own web design business, nobody is going to give you an assignment. You have to advertise your business and let people know that you are available to do custom web design. You'll put up a web site, do some advertising on the Internet at a number of places and then sit back and hope you get a few emails with requests for work. You will then have to tell your customers what your rates are, how long the job will take and then finally get the specs for the design itself. You are in charge of and responsible for everything.

There is of course a plus side to running your own home business as opposed to working a job at home. With a job at home, there is only so much you're going to earn. With your own business, while you may make absolutely nothing, there is a very good chance if you promote regularly and work hard that you can turn your business into a very lucrative income.