Working from home/Freelance/Business

If you work from home, are freelance, have a business etc. how did you get into it? How did the idea come about? Did you have to do any training/studying first? Is it successful? How do you make it work?

I did it for 7 years. I was already a qualified accountant and it is the kind of work that lends itself to working from home. It gives clients/customers some reassurance if you have some kind of qualification or accreditation, and you may need to consider professional indemnity insurance depending on what you are doing, but even public liability insurance premiums could depend on qualifications/ experience, so they can assess how likely you are to have a claim!
You need to find a gap in the market. This may not be a service or product, but geographical - remember the advert where a man was compaining there were never any taxi's in his area, so he started a taxi firm himself.
It helps if it is "self funding", for example it doesn't cost much to set up and get going with money coming in straight away, so you are not kept awake at nights worrying about repaying loans or spending money you may not get back. Sort out a business plan. It's not as scarey as it sounds, just write down where the money is going to come in from, what could affect that up or down, what yours fixed costs will be - ie what you will have to pay out regardless of selling anything or performing any services - and the actual costs of what you are doing, for example if you are selling, how much is it costing you to buy them in. With selling,consider how much stock you will have to buy - and keep up a stock before it is sold - and how much that will cost.
It also helps if you can get into a "bread and butter" contract, that is some regular work that is guaranteed, which takes up a certain amount of your time then add other jobs/services on top. That will give you some security (such as it is! )
There are loads of good books on this, or PM me with any specific questions. It's a huge subject.
Good luck!

Thanks Deccy