Determine the vision for your business opportunity at home. Assess your skills and knowledge base as well as your likes and dislikes. If you're especially adept at working with transmissions, for instance, you might be interested in specializing in this work. However, if you're a jack-of-all-trades, so to speak, you may want to do general repair work of all kinds.

Create a business plan for your new found opportunity at home. Your local "Small Business Administration" office can help you with this. It will need to include your mission, your goals and your methods. A representative from your local office will also assist you in finding financing for your business, if necessary.

You will need to find a location for your business opportunity at home. If your home shop is already set up for your use, you may want to work from it. If this is the case, you will need to check with your city or county for any zoning and code issues. You may need to get your property zoned commercial. If you want to set up shop somewhere else, be sure the property has everything you need. Electricity, water, restroom facilities and heat are all necessities for a year-round shop. Additionally, you need plenty of parking room for various vehicles as you work on them from this opportunity at home.

Purchase and organize your tools, equipment, parts and supplies. If you already have all the tools you need, organize them in an orderly fashion. If you're charging your customers by the hour for work, you don't want to run up their bill because you can't find a specific wrench or socket. Also, in order to have quick turnaround time, you need to have basic parts and supplies on hand; these might include oil, filters and belts, and as you create this business opportunity at home, you will have the ability to store lots of parts that you can profit from in the future.

More importantly you will want to set up an office. Whether you keep a paper trail on all work completed or you computerize your work details, you need to be organized and keep records. If you work within the city limits, you will need to have a city business license and display it prominently as you create this opportunity at home. Keep up with accounts payable and receivable. Keep track of sales tax you owe and make regular payments. If necessary, hire an office manager to take care of all of this for you.

Market your business opportunity at home by Word-of-mouth advertising.It is always the best way to network. Join your local chamber of commerce and attend networking events.Meet others who are creating they're opportunity at home, Offer member-to-member discounts or specials. Use direct mail with a special or code that can be tracked. Use radio advertising. Often, you'll catch people in their cars, when they're thinking about maintenance or repairs.

Keep up to date with the automotive repair industry and with those that also have this opportunity at home. Read magazines and trade journals and attend any workshops pertinent to your line of repair business. Vehicle technology changes constantly, and in order for your business to sustain, you must always be up to date.