Others leave because of office politics or poor pay despite all their hard work. A few leave a job because they’ve decided that it’s time to be their own boss. Maybe that’s you and you’re planning a new and exciting future away from the same old grind but you’re not quite sure how to exit gracefully.

Never burn bridges. Though it’s tempting to finally get everything you’ve been holding in off your chest, you never know when you might need that former boss as a reference or as a networking opportunity, so make sure that you leave gracefully.

Give a two-week notice and clear everything out of your to-do box to make the transition easier for the next person who will fill your shoes. Gather all of the contact information from colleagues and customers so that you can stay in touch with those you like and also to form new loyalties in the future with your own business.

Remember that timing is important. While it’s great to dream, you can’t pay the mortgage with a dream. So get the finances in order before you wave adios to your boss. Plus, you don’t want the stress of finances nipping at your heels.

Work hard before you quit to pay a few months ahead on all of your utilities and credit cards and other financial obligations. Tuck away enough money in savings to get support yourself while your business is in the start up phase. You’ll be glad you don’t have that pressure.

Being your own boss is exciting, but it can also be trying if you’ve never been responsible for a business before. First, do your homework. Have a focused marketing plan for your business and put it to work.

Remember that most businesses don’t see profit overnight. But with a steady dedication you will succeed. Remember the colleagues you said goodbye to? Now is the time to network with them. Tap into their circle of contacts to spread the word about your business.

Don’t buy into the myth that you have to spend a lot of money to make money. Your business budget shouldn’t be spent on fancy gadgets for the office or advertising. Instead, look for all of the free avenues you can take to build your business.

You don’t have to spend money to make it. Have a business plan and stick to the plan. You might even consider setting in place some trusted advisors and give them veto power to help keep you from making some of the mistakes that start up businesses commonly make.

Instead of sitting behind a desk and being told what you have to achieve for the day or for the year, you’re free to set your own goals and objectives. No more time spent working on projects that don’t fulfill you.

When you’re an entrepreneur, you get to set the goals, you get to choose the direction your business takes and which projects will be the best fit for your endeavor. Because you will be the one to know your company best, achieving your goals will not only feel financially rewarding but will also be personally rewarding as well.

In addition to getting to decide the direction your business heads, you’ll also be cutting down on the time it takes to get back and forth to work. For many people, their daily commute represents time that could better be spent on other activities like connecting with new clients and working to build their company’s brand – both of which are essential to having a successful business. For entrepreneurs working at home, the longest commute is from the shower to the computer (or laptop) freeing up valuable work time.

One of the most exciting work at home perks is the flexibility it offers you. When you run your own business, you don’t have to worry about being put on the schedule for holidays or on family birthdays. If you don’t feel well yourself, you don’t have to go in to work or beg your boss to stay home or get docked in pay.

When you work at home, you don’t have to clear it with your supervisors if you need to leave work early to pick up your sick child. You don’t have to work hours that someone else specifies.

Your schedule is completely your own. If you’d rather work in the wee hours of the night so you can spend more time with your loved ones while they’re awake, then you’re free to do so. When you work at home, you can be as free as you wish without worrying you’ll lose your job.

Another perk is the stability that comes from working at home. In this economy, even the most dedicated employees sometimes find themselves being let go.  But when you work from home, you never have to worry about being fired or downsized because you’re the boss.

Running your own business allows you the freedom to change directions, work your own hours, avoid the frustrating commute and the knowledge that your never have to worry about being laid off again. Plus, it’s so much more exciting building something yourself and seeing it take off than working for someone else to build their business.

That means you need to make sure that your online income doesn’t all come from just one source. A way that you can diversify that source is to start selling info products. You can create an information product in as little as a day, depending on what the product is.

One of the best info products to sell is to write and sell your own eBook. You need to write an eBook on a topic that people are searching for information about. The topic can be one that you’re very knowledgeable about or it can be one that you become knowledgeable about by researching the information you need to know. Other than eBooks, you can also create online courses or workshops sharing your expertise.

You can also promote products as an affiliate. You find a product that you believe is good and will sell well and you begin to promote it for a commission. Promoting just means that you’re raising awareness about a product by driving traffic to it.

You can promote products without cost to you and many people find this type of an online business one of the easiest to break into. You can promote products by writing articles about it and submitting them to article directories, or you can blog about it, promote it on your own website or on any of the common social sites such as Twitter or Facebook.

Many budding entrepreneurs create membership sites. A membership site means that you get paid to pass your knowledge onto others. Here’s an example:

Let’s say you’re an expert on how to fix computers. You set up a site where people can log in and get access to answers to their questions, they can participate in a forum there, etc.

Once you’ve gotten the hang of how to set up and profit from your membership site, you can turn around and teach others how to do it by writing a how-to eBook or by setting up a course!

Another way you can launch an online business is by offering freelance services. Freelance just means that you are your own boss – you can take on the gigs you want and turn down the ones that you don’t.

There are so many ways you can branch into having an online service business. You can do graphic design work, build websites, edit what other people wrote or you can write articles from scratch for other people.

What’s great about all of these businesses is that start-up costs are often cheaper than buying a meal out! To get started, you need to set up a website and you need a way to accept payment (PayPal is a great way to do that).

Once you begin to get to work and build your reputation, you’ll be able to take your pick of the kind of jobs you’d like to take on. One word of caution, though – if you don’t take a freelance job through an online service that matches jobs with those seeking them, make sure you define the work you’ll be doing in email or message board documentation so that there are no surprises down the road.

First, you’re going to want to select a niche that you’re personally interested in – even if it’s one that you don’t know a lot about. You can always learn what you need to know, but if the niche is too technical or you consider it boring, you’re going to be as happy working on it as you would be getting a tooth pulled.

Choose a niche that not only interests you, but one that you feel excited about working on. That way, you’ll stay pumped up and eagerly look forward to growing your business. To find a niche that’ll bring in the kind of money you’re after, seek what the big companies look for.

What are the hot selling items? You don’t have to know this off the top of your head. Look for these top selling items on sites such as Amazon or eBay or other market websites.

The bestsellers (just check to see what ranking the items have) will tell you what the pulse of the people buying is. So for example, if you see that on Amazon, a product sells well enough to be in the top ten, you know you’re onto something. Let’s say one of those products was a brand new fitness gadget and they were selling like hotcakes. You’d find plenty of potential by tapping into that market.

You’ll want to check out the self-help books to see what’s selling there. Books on depression, weight loss, and relationships always sell well and that’s a clue to let you know that the market is and always will be wide open for self help niches and the products that you can buy dealing with that subject.

If you become an affiliate, you’ll want to pay attention to the dollar amount you’ll earn by becoming an affiliate rather than the percent of commission. You’ll earn more money that way. Look for tangible products for your niche as well.

Make sure you don’t make the mistake of setting up a niche based on what’s considered a here today, gone tomorrow item. Remember the Beanie Babies? They were all the rage and people just couldn’t get enough of them. But where are they now? They fell off the scene because they were just a fad. You want to seek out a niche that has long term potential so that your business will thrive now and for many years to come.

Take a few minutes and consider which niches might fit with your passions. If you’re not sure what your passions are, imagine you have a whole day to yourself. What do you spend it doing?

Would you spend it perfecting new recipes? Exploring your city? Writing movie reviews? If you’re still having trouble, look at your existing hobbies. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time? What do you spend your money on?

Taking a moment to consider what you love doing will help you decide which niche is the best fit for you. Or maybe you recently discovered niche you’re passionate about. What do you do then?

Begin reading and researching. Fully immerse yourself in your chosen niche. Sign up for every email list that you can. It pays off in big ways to know the current issues and events in your niche.

Spend time browsing websites – both of experts and amateurs alike. Blogs are a great way to learn about what’s happening in the niche industry you plan to use for your business. Search blog directories for your category by going to a search engine and typing in “blog directories.” Then choose a blog directory and browse it by category.

By now, you probably have a list of potential niches just waiting for you to tap into. If so, it’s time to trim that list. Par it down to your top three. These three should be your main choices – the niches you have the most interest in.

Don’t just go by income level (although you should consider that, too). Just remember when your niche interests you, it shows to your customers and when you’re only in it for the profit you can make, that shows too. Choose a niche that you can earn an income in and gain personal satisfaction from.

Once you know which niche is right for you, take a minute and ask yourself, “What’s not being covered? Which audiences are being ignored? Who are the rising stars on the horizon and how will they change the niche?” Since you already have an interest in these niches, you’ll be better at gaining consumers that other entrepreneurs are missing.

But entrepreneurs that grasp the benefits of well-chosen keywords take the time to research because they understand the relationship between traffic and keywords. Proper keyword research will allow you to know which words get your target audience’s attention because those are the words they use themselves in a search engine.

Keyword research will position your website or blog at the top of search engine results so that your site receives plenty of traffic. When you’re targeting keywords, even subtle things like the plural form of a word make a difference.

For instance if your niche is pet training then it’s important to know that the word ‘dog’ receives forty five million searches a month while the word ‘dogs’ receives only sixteen million.

Your goal is to select keywords that will garner you the most searches per words. What you’re looking for is something with little competition but a lot of searches. You can shell out money to pay for fancy keyword tools like Market Samurai to help you in your quest, but there are free alternative tools like Google Adwords Keyword Tool where you still get the information you need to get the traffic you want.

Using the wrong keywords means you’re missing out on important traffic and missing out on the sales you could be making. You can use the wrong keywords and bring people to your site, but it’ll be those people who are not interested in what you’re selling. You want your keywords to be relevant to your audience.

When you build your site, you also want to make sure that you not only use keywords in your paragraphs, but you also want to make sure that you use keywords in your titles. When you pick a name for your website, select one with a keyword or keywords in the URL.

Remember the better you use SEO on your site, the higher it will rank when search engines display the results. One of the mistakes entrepreneurs make is naming their pages incorrectly in general.

Be specific. Don’t have an ‘About’ page. Going back to the earlier example about pet training, have an ‘About Pet Training’ page. When you put up a contact page or box, use a keyword phrase there as well. Such as, “Contact me for more information on pet training.” This nets you additional keywords.

The best and fastest way to install WordPress software is to use Fantastico. Fantastico is software included with most hosting companies that allows you to install applications like WordPress on your site easily. If you’re not sure if your hosting company supports Fantastico (most do), then contact their customer support.

If you see a Fantastico icon when you log into your hosting account, click on it. You’ll be taken to a page with many options. Look on the left side and you’ll see WordPress. Click the link and you’ll be brought to page with a few options.

These are easy options to fill out. Choose the correct domain name that you want to install WordPress on. Don’t worry about installing in a directory. Leave that blank and it’ll post the blog on the home page of your site. If you’d prefer, put the word blog there and it will install on yourdomain.com/blog instead.

Come up with an administrator name.  Don’t use something like ‘admin.’ It makes your site easy prey to hackers. Choose your password. Write down your administrator name and your password in a secure place.

Enter your admin nickname. This will be your display name and can be changed later if you don’t like it. You can use your name, your company name, or your initials. Enter the admin email.

This should be a working email address you have access to. Be sure to double-check it to prevent errors. Next, choose your site name. Your site name can also be changed later in the administration settings.

Enter the description of your website. This is your tagline or slogan. Once you’ve done that, click ‘install WordPress.’  A page will come up prompting you to review your choices. If they’re correct, click ‘finish.’ If not, hit the back button and correct any errors.

Once you install WordPress, it will take a few seconds to a few hours depending on your site and system before the site is set up and you can begin customizing it. You can log into your WordPress website when it’s complete by going to www.yoursite.com/wp-login.php. Enter the administrator username and password you chose earlier.

On the left side, look for a box that says ‘Settings.’ In that box, there will be multiple settings you can tweak including your site name, slogan, your local time, your email address and more.

If you have questions about these settings, consult with your customer support or read the WordPress Codex which contains a WordPress for Beginners section that answers the most common questions from new users.

Even if you think you don’t have time to take on anything else, you might be surprised to discover how much time you’re actually wasting during the day. You can start an online business whether you hold down a full time job or not.

Sometimes when it comes to starting a business, many people have the mental picture that it’s all or nothing – that in order to be their own boss, they have to take the plunge, quit their day job and put all of their effort into building an online business.

If you have a day job that pays the bills and provides you with health benefits, keep the job while you work on launching and growing your business part time. You can get up an hour earlier in the mornings to work on your business.

You can spend your lunch hour working on the business. Since your job will be online, you’ll be able to access it anywhere. If you commute to work via train or other method where someone else is in charge of driving, you can work on it then, too.

You can also temporarily give up the hours you used to spend sitting in front of the television. You can give up one hour of sleep at night to work on the business and work two weekends a month.

It seems like a lot of time, but if you work it around your day job and stick with it, you can steadily increase your income with the online business until you can comfortably afford to let go of the job you now have.

For some reason, let’s suppose you’re in a position now where you can no longer wait to leave your day job – it’s become unbearable, the stress is going to wreak too much havoc, or there’s something to cause you abandon your current career now.

Suddenly, you find yourself having the same forty plus hours you gave at the office to work on your online business. Always begin right away. If you start out working your online business when you feel like it, you could lose valuable initiative. Let the excitement drive you and propel you forward.

With the benefit of working your online business full time, you’ll be able to devote the steady attention the business needs to continually grow. Rather than squeezing it into the schedule, you’ll have the time you need.

It’s not so much about finding the time as it is taking the time and if you’ve always wanted to start your own online business, there’s no better time than this moment. Today will soon be yesterday and you won’t ever get that opportunity back.

Competition is a good thing because it can also prove the track record of a niche. What you want to do is bring something to the table within that niche that your competition is not offering.

For example, plenty of companies jumped on the bandwagon after the Kindle was released and began to offer protective cases in a variety of designs and colors to the public who purchased the Kindle and other electronic devices.

However, one company decided to create a niche with safety from theft in mind and created a cover that resembles an old book – protecting the Kindle from scratches and from the view of would be thieves as well. They took a niche and narrowed it down and charged ahead of the competition and are now making plenty in profits.

Any product that is specifically focused will always beat out the competition. If you want to work a niche on weight loss, you’ll discover that the weight loss niche is saturated with websites, books and other products dedicated to the topic.

It’s easy for consumers to get what’s called ‘blind eye’ when it comes to anything new on the weight loss scene because of that over saturation. So what you would do is take the topic of weight loss and narrow it down to only one small aspect of the weight loss topic.

You could narrow it down by focusing only on organic weight loss products or information. You could also narrow it down by targeting only women who’ve given birth and now want to lose weight and get back to pre-pregnancy shape.

The trick is to take an old topic and give it a fresh twist. Think of all the magazine headlines that you read. You never see a new topic – just a fresh twist on what’s already been around for centuries.

This is the part where doing your homework pays off. Once you’ve selected the niche that interests you, research all the competition on that niche. What are they offering? What audience are they targeting? Which audience is being left out? How can you take that niche and make it more valuable to the consumer?

One way to discover what people are looking for in a niche is by doing keyword research. You can find free keyword tools online and go through the keywords that your audience uses when searching for information about the topic. That may help give you ideas on how to narrow your focus for your niche.

First, always check out the reliability of the hosting company because it won’t do you any good to have a website if it frequently goes down. An easy way to research a company is to go to Google and type in the Company Name + Complaints. If you see multiple complaints about the company’s reliability, then look for another company.

If the reliability of the company passes the test, then check out additional features. There are three major things you should look for. The first one is the Cpanel you’ll be working with.

You want an easy to use control panel since you’ll most likely be using your hosting company for years. The second thing you’re looking for is a mail host. Some companies will allow you to have as many mail accounts as you want, but they limit your storage to one gigabyte. Others will allow you to have a certain number of mail accounts, but they won’t limit storage. Be sure to read about any restrictions on the mail accounts.

The third thing you’re looking for is Fantastico. This system will allow you to install various software scripts to your website without having to pay a designer. Follow three easy steps and you can install WordPress blogs, forums and more.

Once you’re satisfied that your hosting company has these features, then it’s time to look at their customer service track record. A few minutes spent searching the web will show you if they routinely ignore support tickets or if their staff is unprofessional or rude.

Now it’s time to compare prices. You should expect to pay between five and ten dollars a month for hosting one or more websites, but not more than that. If a hosting company insists you’ll need to pay more than ten dollars, then shop around for a new one.

Hostgator is one of the best hosting options out there. It has excellent customer service and a long history of reliability. They allow you to host as many websites as you like for ten dollars a month and include unlimited data storage.

You’ll want to choose hosting based on where you’re going in the future with your business, not where you are now. You may only have one site to start with, but when you grow more, you’ll want the right hosting already in place.