With the world economy in a recession and with factory closures and layoffs becoming a daily occurrence it’s time for anyone with any smarts to really think about earning at least a part-time secondary income. Off-line. Online. It doesn’t matter – start taking steps to protect the financial interests of your and your family. The recession will end and the economy will recover but over the next 24 – 36 months never, ever take your eye off that ball. One of the best ways to generate a secondary income is to have a home based business.

So what will your new home business be about? That’s the biggest hurdle which most people face. Most people go for the instant answer of MLM (bleh…nasty) or some other pyramid marketing fiasco that only makes others rich and poor people ever poorer. Then there are franchises and business opportunity fairs but you normally have to fork out thousands to tens of thousands of dollars to even get started in these ventures.

Remember we want to start generating a second income here. Make money. Not spend even more money you don’t have. It’s amazing how many people will max out their credit card(s) on a business opportunity that goes nowhere. Crazy!

So how can you generate ideas for a home based business?

Take a notepad and write down every single hobby, interest or skill you have. Don’t think about it too much. Just brainstorm it and write down anything that comes to mind. It could be surfing, flower arranging, antique collecting, owning pets, being a computer whizz, shopping on e-bay. They’re just random ideas that came to mind while I was writing this.

Keep writing for at least 30 minutes. Don’t stop. Don’t ring a friend to chat. Don’t watch some TV. Just write and keep writing until you have no more ideas left.

Okay now take the list you’ve just written and read through it.

Circle all the ideas that appeal to you.

Narrow that list down to the top 9 ideas.

Now narrow it down to 3 ideas.

Which of the 3 ideas or topics jumps off the page at you?

Which of them sets a fire in your belly and makes you feel passionate about it?

Which of them is something you’d love to do each day as a full time job?

That’s how you track down the perfect business idea for generating a secondary (or maybe full-time) income from home.

Oh and keep that ideas list in a safe place!! You’ve just done some excellent brainstorming – it will come in useful in the future.

If you’re interested in learning how I make money from home then I can highly recommend the following book for you to read:

How to become an affiliate marketer.

I’ve been posting a bit on books I’ve been reading lately. I’ve taken a break from the psychology stuff to read something a bit more motivational in nature. The Road To Shambhala is the last in the Celestine Prophecy trilogy – I finished The 10th Insight (part 2 of the trilogy) about a week ago.

The final book is a little different to the others in that the story takes place away from the continental United States and moves further east – still a great read however.

Why do I read these books? One simple reason – they focus me. They make me look outside my life as it is now and helps me develop the life I want. The same is true of two of my favourite things to watch in the whole world. They are:

The Secret

What The Bleep Do We Know 

If you’ve never seen these before then you need to watch them as soon as you possibly can. If you’ve already seen them then do yourself a favour and watch them again – they’re even better second, third and fourth time around.

Inspiration and motivation won’t come knocking on your front door – you need to go looking for them.  

Every so often a book comes along that makes you review your entire life in a positive and eye opening way. A few years ago a friend of mine in Canada (Calgary to be exact) recommended that I read a book called the Celestine Prophecy (there’s a trilogy). I hummed and hawwed over this for ages but never got around to reading them. Finally she gave in and bought them for me (thanks Alia!!)

The Celestine Prophecy is more than just a novel. It’s a story about our lives now, in the past and in the future. If you’ve ever felt that you had a “life itch” that you just couldn’t scratch then you need to read this book and let it settle with you. Do you find yourself surrounded by coincidences and just can’t explain them? Yes? Well then you REALLY need to read this book.

What’s it all about? Well it discusses 9 Insights that will be revealed to mankind that will change how we see and treat ourselves and the world around us.

Some of you will struggle with the concepts presented in this book but it’s part of the growing process as described in the book itself. Highly recommended.

Every so often a book comes along that simply changes how you see your life and life around you. Recently I had the pleasure of reading just such a book. One of those rare books where you simply can’t put it down and you find yourself smiling and laughing to yourself all the way through as it opens your mind to a new way of thinking about life. I was lucky enough to hear about this book through a blog I regularly read -> http://www.jamesbrausch.com
So what’s the name of this marvellous book? It’s called Illusions – The Adventures Of A Reluctant Messiah. Now before you throw your eyes up to heaven and sigh no…it’s not a religious book by any means. The title is somewhat misleading in that regard but the book itself is eye opening on a lot of levels.
Read this book as soon as you can….. you wont’ regret it.