You're deeply unhappy. You want to quit your job. You want to start your own business.

But what business will you start? Don't focus on a "business" idea yet. Think in terms of buying and selling. Nothing happens in business until someone sells something.

You can trade your way into money. That is, you can buy something lots of people want, and sell it for at least three times more than you paid for it. If your margin (the difference between what you buy something for and what you sell it for) is wide enough, and if you sell enough of the product you choose, you're well on the way to a successful small business.

The Internet makes it easy to become a small trader. Take a look at eBay (www.ebay.com). Thousands of small traders make money on eBay, selling everything you can imagine, and then some.

=> Buy cheap

First comes product. What do people want? To get ideas, check the Lycos 50 ( http://50.lycos.com/) to see what people are searching for each week.

Another site for getting ideas for products is Ubercool at http://www.ubercool.com/

Basically, when you're choosing a product, it comes down to your intuition. What do you think will be popular enough, so that you can sell enough to make a good profit? Take your time over making a decision.

Tips for making your product choice: