Devoted to WAHMs -Work at Home Moms

Wendy Piersall at The eMoms at Home Blog has posted on the Top 10 Internet Home Business Ideas You Can Start and Run in Your Underwear. Her article is a must-read if you are just getting started working at home, or if you are considering leaving your day job to work at home. As usual, Wendy has filled the article full of good advice and well thought out points.

There is one point in Wendy's piece that I wonder about. Wendy's article states, "Don’t expect to make any real money for 365 days (or so!)."

I'm not sure what Wendy means by that. If she meant that it might take a year before you have enough money to completely replace the full-time income that you earned in the job that you left before you starting working for yourself, then I agree. If she means that you should work for nothing for a year, then I disagree.

As a freelance writer I received payment for my very first writing assignment. In fact, I wouldn't have accepted the assignment without payment. I needed the money. That was in the days before I had a blog, so I got that writing assignment on the strength of my resume, which showed strong corporate technical writing experience.

Of course, a unique thing about freelance writing is that you have virtually no start-up costs. I already owned a computer and software and we would have had an Internet connection anyway. I know that some businesses do require startup costs.

I do think that Wendy's comment about waiting 365 days for real money is probably true of businesses #1 (Affiliate Marketing), #2 (Blogging), and #4 (E-Commerce) on her list. As a blogger who participates in affiliate marketing I can personally attest to the fact that it can take months before you receive any income at all from your blog.

I'm just not sure that the long wait for income ("real money") applies to all, or even most, of the businesses on Wendy's list.

I know that Work From Home Momma has readers who run some of the businesses that Wendy included on her list, so I'm asking for your feedback. What about you?  What type of business do you run and how long did you have to wait before you earned an income from your business?

Image Credit: Image used by permission from elvissantana.com (through stock.xchng).