Using The Lakota Method To Create Your Best Home Based Business

Searching for the best home based business idea for you and your circumstances can be very frustrating. Have you browsed through long lists of ideas, like our huge list of 107 ideas, and found many ideas that are interesting, but not quite right for you?

You are not alone.

The reality is, though, that it is unlikely that you will find your perfect idea customised, personalised and served up to you on a list.

The essence of the problem is that, when you search through lists of home business ideas, you will probably discard ideas that have elements that are relevant to you. If you use a method that keeps these "personal gems" and then uses them to visualise your perfect home business, you will create the right idea for yourself.

To do this, we developed a method we call "The Lakota Method".

Background

The Lakota Indians are native to the Great Plains of North America. They have a symbol depicting the convergence of sun and earth that looks like this:

The symbol suggests a "bottom up" approach converging with a "top down" approach and that is the essence of The Lakota Method.

The Lakota Principle In Action

It is important to apply the method in this order:

1. Bottom Up Research: Browse through lists of home business ideas and make a note of ideas that have an element that is interesting and/or relevant to you, even if the idea isn't quite right. Once you have compiled the list, go through it and add category descriptors to each idea. So, an idea could be marked as "unique product", "personal service", "involving children", and so on.
2. Top Down Research: Define the criteria for an ideal home business for you, personally. These criteria should include both your interests, skills and experience, as well as the constraints you may have (such as storage space or transport). Then, browse through lists looking for ideas that meet these criteria.

The reason why you should do things in this order is that, by starting with the top down method, you may constrain your thinking unnecessarily and exclude ideas that have merit.

Finally, you would think about the shortlisted ideas against your own interests and experience. In practice you will find that, with some imagination, you can create an idea that incorporates the best category descriptors for yourself.

In the article, "Using The Lakota Principle To Find Your Best Home Based Business", we have a real life case study about a woman who created a flourishing small business producing unique, high quality socks.

Who would have thought?

And, as you can guess, I am her most loyal customer!