There's no place like home -- for work

Monday, Jan. 5, 2009

Markman's 12 stocks to jump-start your year
Speeding? You'll pay higher 'taxes'
Jubak: 10 key trends for investors in '09
Struggling Sears: The GM of retail

Perhaps it's the sour economy and the general feeling of job insecurity, but it seems like a lot of readers are thinking of chucking the 9-to-5 and working from home.

At least that's what I take away from the hundreds of thousands who took a look at the Home-Based 100, the best home businesses in America selected by our friends at StartupNation.com.

The package started with a look at how people are "Beating a bad economy -- from home," and included a slide show of the best of the best -- the winners in each of 10 categories, including the grungiest, the greenest and the downright wacky. And of course, we made it easy to find the full list of 100 at StartupNation.

It was an even bigger response than the one we saw a year ago when we ran the first HB-100 (which you can still read here.)

If you share the dream, spend some time with these lists of businesses making it work. You'll find all it takes is a unique idea, a particular passion and a great deal of hard work.

Richard Jenkins, editor-in-chief

New on MSN Money

TRUST, BUT VERIFY: After a terrible market year, news that some $50 billion disappeared under management of Bernie Madoff has to make a lot people wonder if they can trust anyone. Catherine Holahan lays out some guidelines in "Is your money manager a crook?"

KNOW THE SCORE: Unless you want to end up as a debt-troubled deadbeat like so many major banks, you need to know where your credit stands. Liz Pulliam Weston explains the new credit-score rules, including a change that makes having lots of available credit -- but not using it -- much more important. Read "New threats to credit scores."

BETTING ON THE BOUNCE: As we enter a new year, there's a lot of hope that the market has bottomed and that, while it may be rocky, the road from here leads up. With this in mind, Company Focus columnist Michael Brush has offered two lists of stocks worth a look: one of 10 stocks for a January bounce, and a second of 20 low-priced, cash-rich companies. There are no guarantees, but these could be as close as you'll find to money in the bank in this market.

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