Many thousand of people work from home throughout the world and many more are looking for a good legitimate home business. But what might be a good home business to one person may not be the next person's cup of tea.

Take for example someone who has their own beauty salon at home. That is a perfectly legitimate home based business but is limited to someone who has the skills. Some people need the daily contact and interaction with other people. Others are quite capable of working solely on their own.

Let's break our question down into two parts.

Firstly the word legitimate.

Simply speaking this means a business that does not violate the laws of your community, your country and generally acceptable social standards. To this you can add a business that doesn't contradict the beliefs and standards of your own conscience.

You also need to be wary of the hundreds of scams that pop up daily, the ones that offer the world, and untold fortunes, for very little effort. If it sounds too good to be true it usually is. Follow your gut instincts.

The second part of the question is the definition of a home based business.

This could be anything that can be run from home. It could be a medical practice, a panel beating business, multi level marketing, importing and exporting, insurance broking, stock broking, internet marketing, book keeping, a photographic studio or a million other things. Each person is different and what floats your boat may sink your friends.

So a good home based business (legitimate) is something that suits your character and unique situation. If you need social intercourse on a daily basis then a business run from home that requires you to go and see people, or have people come to you, would be better than an Internet based business that requires no physical contact with other people. If you don't want daily contact with others but would like less frequent but regular contact multi level marketing, with its weekly or monthly meetings, might be the route for you.

How many hours you actually want to work and whether these will be fixed hours will be a determining factor in your selection.

Once you think you know what you want to do try and find someone who is doing something similar and ask them if you could sit with them for a day or two to see if it will suit you. You may have to go out of your local area to do this as you could be considered a competitor by someone in your area.

For me keeping my overheads down and limiting long term commitments was a major factor in my choice of a home based business.

So in summary a good legitimate home based business is one that suits your unique talents and requirements, is legal and gives you the finances and lifestyle you are hoping to achieve.