From someone who's already been there....

Find Something You Love To Do and turn it into a career. Granted, you do want to make sure there is a market for it, but even taking that into consideration still leaves unlimited choices. If you are going through the trouble of setting up a home business so you can enjoy life more, do yourself a favor and build a business around something you won't be tired of doing by the end of the week.

Learn to be Self-Motivated because it's pretty tempting to blow off work when you don't have a boss to answer to. Set work hours and stick to them. I was really lax about this when I first started working from home and needless to say I was less than productive. I set hours of 10am to 3pm, 5 days per week for work and anything personal has to wait outside of those hours.

Get Busy Marketing and Networking to build your business. Market online and in print (although I'm pretty selective with my print advertising), and attend marketing events. While marketing online is effective, in person networking will always get you more clients. People like doing busines with people they know. Your local Chamber of Commerce or Business Group Organization is a great place to start.

Identify your Target Clients and stick with that vision. When I started my home business I pretty much worked with any client (hey, I needed the money), but today is a totally different story. After working with a few pain in the neck clients, I realized I deserved awesome clients. After all, I didn't become self-employed to work with people who were a pain. So, I wrote my Ideal Client Profile down on paper and worked on aligning my energy with those people. May sound like some voodoo magic, but it totally worked! You don't have to work with buttheads (sorry, that's a bit blunt).

Just Keep Going because eventually everything will fall into place. I started my home business not knowing the first thing about what I was doing - I just learned along the way. That makes it a little more challenging, but I found what works for me, which wasn't necessarily what everyone else told me to do. What works for you may be completely different too.

My last piece of advice would be to take time off. There may be times when you are working like a dog, but it's really important to step away from the computer to avoid burn-out. If you have to work and really don't feel like it - then take your laptop to the beach or park. Having that freedom sure beats a J-O-B in a stuffy office!