Perhaps you have made the decision to work from home, possibly by buying a franchise - but having decided that your day job is no longer inspiring you, and that your first thought on a Monday morning is to work out how long it is until Friday afternoon, what do you really need to do, in practical terms?

Generally speaking, people tend to opt to start a home business for one of two reasons, and it will be important to know which one feels to be your main motivation. The first group of people are those who are sick of hearing their alarm clock in the morning, dread going to work, and want to be able to enjoy a relaxed lifestyle, spending more time at home and experiencing less stress. The second group are those who have a passion for developing a business idea in their own way, and can't even go into someone's living room without wanting to rearrange the furniture and improve upon the current layout.

This first group are ill advised to pack in their day job and start working for themselves, unless they can also claim to be part of the second group. The reason is simply that working at home is not stress free, and rarely results in a more relaxed lifestyle with shorter working hours and more time to watch daytime television. The truth is that those people who work from home often find that they work longer hours than those who trudge to the office each day.

One of the common things which people often overlook when considering working from home is their families. Although in theory the idea of staying at home and running your own business from there sounds great, allowing you more time to spend with your family, it can often prove very difficult to balance family commitments and work needs.

It will require you to discuss your plans with your family, to make sure that they fully understand that although you are at home, you are really at work, and will need to be left alone to run the business when you are busy. With children wanting you to play, friends calling, a partner asking you to lend a hand, various household chores needing to be done and a dog that looks at you hopefully waiting for a walk, it can actually make you feel quite guilty for wanting to spend the time working!

But of course work you must if your home business is to succeed. Issues like these can be overcome, as long as you invest time and effort into making sure that solutions are considered and put into place. Your family must fully understands what you are doing, what you need, and why. Few problems are insurmountable with a little forethought and planning.

Another issue which is easily overlooked is that of accounts. Your business might be focussing on selling women's underwear, mobile phones, jewellery or children's toys, but ultimately, it is still about business, and inevitably, this means facts, figures, bottom lines and numbers. Preferably this will be numbers written in black ink rather than red.

But for many people this can all seem a little unreal to begin with, and as money starts piling in (hopefully!), it is tempting to focus more on the promotion of the business rather than keeping a careful track of stock, orders, payments and credit. The real trouble can occur when the taxman comes knocking wanting to see your accounts.

If you're at all unsure then before you commit to working from home, it is best to investigate all your options. Clearly hiring an accountant is the simplest option, but also the most expensive. There are plenty of simple accountancy software products, many of which are free, and becoming familiar with these before launching your business will save you a good deal of trouble later on.

Yet again this echoes the sentiment that to be successful working from home, you need to plan for success. Without a plan and sufficient research and preparation then you will almost certainly run into difficulties. Visit your library and read about starting a business, look on the internet and browse through the many hundreds of forums and bulletin boards where people are available to help answer your queries and offer sound advice, many of whom have already been down the very same road.

With sound preparation and a good knowledge of what it will take, a home business will stand you in good stead for the rest of your life. The skills and experience will increase, and with effort so will your earnings. The rewards are outstanding, and the feeling of achievement is one that is hard to beat in almost any other walk of life.