There are two groups of people that you should be thinking about daily as the owner of a home business: customers and competitors. You have to keep a close eye on what your competitors are doing to ensure that you win over your fair share of the paying customers. Without these two groups of people your home based business has no chance of surviving. This in turn means you have no chance of survival without home based business leads.Business leads are simply contact information for people who could become future paying customers. They are members of your target market and they are the lifeline of your business. If you don’t have the leads you don’t have enough customers to sustain a profitable business!The Importance of LeadsBusiness leads take on even more importance when you are running a home based business. You don’t have a storefront on a main road where passerby can stroll in and take a look around. You could be sitting at home in your underwear watching TV while making your business a success…and no one would ever know!The catch here is you have to do the work online to make your home business a success. This means advertising online and pulling in lots of home based business leads. Once you know how to do it, obtaining these leads online is even easier than it is to obtain business leads for an offline business. You may not have a storefront on that busy street, but you have something even better: around the clock information online.Every day, millions of people turn to the Internet to get information on products, services, medical issues, and even information on local businesses. Whatever your industry may be, you can guarantee that there are people online right now searching for information on what you have to offer. Some may be ready to make a purchase and others may need some convincing, but if you offer the right information online you can convince them to give you what you need: home based business leads!Securing LeadsSo, how is offering around the clock information online going to help you draw in home based business leads? When you offer information through a well designed website and/or blog you give these searchers (potential customers) exactly what they are looking for: information. In exchange, many will be willing to give you what you need: contact information which translates into business leads.The fact that these people come to your website or blog searching for information and then hand over an email address or phone number shows that they are within your target market. They are the best business leads you could ever ask for because they have at least some interest in what you are offering.All you need to get started capturing these easy home based business leads is a way to collect contact information online. You might offer them a free report or eBook in exchange for this information or you could just let the high quality information on your site do the convincing for you.You can consider every home based business lead you secure a leg up on your competition. That lead is your direct access to one potential customer and your competition wants to win them over. Unfortunately, the lead has fallen into your hands first!