Home based business is a way of life for me. Even when I operated an award-winning restaurant and catering business, I also had a thriving Bed & Breakfast in my nine-bedroom antebellum home.

A few years later I launched a regional golf magazine from my kitchen table and grew it to 50,000 monthly readers before I sold it.

Now I operate my lead generation and marketing business from a spacious home office overlooking a lovely garden teeming with birds and other wildlife.

Working from homeon my own termsdefinitely fits my personality.

I don't know about you, but I often say I'm "unemployable" or "self-unemployed." I work from home, doing my own thing because the life-style suits me. I like being my own boss, even though I sometimes rant and rave over having to do all the work myself.

Don't get me wrong. I tried working in an office a couple of times. Showed up at 8:00 and left at 5:00. In the beginning I felt like I was on vacation only working eight hours a day. And after I left work each day, I didn't give my job another thought.

It was heaven.

For a while.

After a few weeks I knew something was missing. I'm a risk-taker at heart. Creative, resourceful and hard working. Whenever I worked for someone else, most of my fellow employees begged me to slack off. It seems they thought I was overly zealous and made them look bad.

The only good thing about working for someone else was getting a steady paycheck, but to tell the truth, even that wasn't very satisfying. I started to dread going to the office every day and began to daydream about going into business for myself again.

I love the whole process of conjuring up a business out of thin air, operating on a shoestring if necessary, and bootstrapping my way to CEO. It gets the creative juices flowing and makes my heart sing. I've done this several times and I enjoy the process.

First, I get an idea for a business. Then I do market research to explore the viability of the idea; I test the waters with some direct response advertising; and then I plunge full steam ahead. I take the business as far as I can on my own and then I sell it to someone else who wants to take it to the next level.

That's my modus operandi and it works for me.

If you are self-motivated and focused, you may be ready to start a home based business, too. If you're considering it, I assume you have the necessary skills to proceed, such as sales and marketing skills, computer skills and time management skills.

A key ability that I consider tremendously importantwhich you may not have considered'is the ability to work in spite of your fears, such as the fear of failure, the fear of success, or the fear of rejection. No matter how seasoned, self-confident, and professional you are, to be successful in a home based business, you must be prepared to work through the emotional highs and lows of being in business for yourself.

When you are the CEO, the buck stops where you are.

There are no guarantees that you will be successful, but then, that's part of the fun. Bootstrapping your way to CEO in a business of your own creation will test your mettle. Are you ready to discover what you're made of?