Do not be afraid of competition

Do not be afraid of competition, but do expect to work harder if you want to make money working at home in a competitive field.
You don't need a lot of of tools to start making money working at home. In my case I use a laptop with high speed internet access, an email account, a second phone line separate from my personal line, a printer, and efax to receive faxes.
You could get by with just a good internet connection and a decent email provider to start, Don't use a free email account like hotmail or yahoo. Be professional!
I learned how to build simple websites for my products, how to advertise the products both online and offline, and how to use my telephone for follow-up.
This took a while and I have found that joining a good affiliate program can provide you with products, training material, marketing tools, websites and more to help you get your make money at home business off the ground as you are learning.