Healthy Work at Home Tips For Homeschooling Families

This post is specifically for those of you who are trying to market your business online, particularly your network marketing business.  I just received this information and wanted to make sure I passed it on before it was too late.

This is not a pitch. As someone who you look to for information I wanted to make sure that you heard of this opportunity before it expires. I’ve mentioned Magnetic Sponsoring on other posts on this site. I have learned an amazing amount from these programs about the true nature of marketing online. I have to say that when I came across Magnetic Sponsoring et al…a few months ago, it completely changed the way I ran my business and where and how I focused my energy.

Anyway, the point here is to let you know that the MLM Traffic Formula has been selling for a limited time price of $497. That’s about to change forever on January 1st, when the price will go up to $997. Many of you may have read blogs and posts by Ty Tribble (one of the web/blog gurus on the internet). Ty says this about the MLM Traffic Formula, “{MLM Traffic Formula has had the most impact (of any training materials) on my business in my 15 years of Network Marketing….I made tens of thousands of dollars over the last six months using the techniques taught in the MLM Traffic Formula.”

To allow people one last opportunity go purchase the Formula before the price goes up, Mike Dillard is offering the entire MLM Traffic Formula Program for just $397, for just 3 MORE DAYS. Here is the link: MLM Traffic Formula

We’re in that period of time that I’ve always loved. Christmas is over. The New Year is not here yet. It feels like a time that somewhat separate from real time. We all know that once New Year’s day is over it’s time to get back to business…whatever that means for you. But right now we still have the luxury of waiting, planning, even relaxing a bit.

When your year is spent more in a “school year” calendar than a regular calendar, this time of year is often a big exhale from the first burst of “school”. This is true whether you homeschool or not.  Twenty years ago when I was a teacher I recollect the ebb and flow of the energy of the school year being intimately connected to the holidays. From September until Christmas there were many holidays, culminating in the Christmas/New Years break. It was clear to all that coming back from break in January, it was clearly time to get down to business.

So here we are, December 28th…four more days before it’s time to get serious.  Four more days to prepare your mind, your curriculum, your bookkeeping…and of course your resolutions for a year of regular exercise and good health.  Writing things down tends to make them more real. When I work with clients we often write down goal, plans, promises and affirmations.  If there are things you’ve been thinking about incorporating into your day or your life…ideas for the kids, marketing for your business, a new workout routine for your body…write down. Here’s how:

Write it down as if it were true. Stay away from “I’ll try…” or “hopefully I’ll…” Make statements that are specific. “On Tuesday mornings from 10-11 my friend Mary will do an art lesson with the kids while I go to Pilates.”  Or, “I will learn how to advertise on the computer using Google Adwords and will have my first ad up and running by January 15th.” When you set concrete goals like this your brain is better able to wrap around them and take action. When you say, “I’m going to exercise more this year”, there is really no boundaries to work withing and you end up doing nothing.

So take out a nice new pad, or piece of paper or open a new file on your computer and write. Happy New Year to you and yours!!

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By now hopefully the shopping is done, the crafts are complete, the presents are wrapped, the cookies are baked and the house is cleaned and decorated. It’s wonderful when the four days remaining before Christmas fall on a weekend. It’s an even better excuse to stop working and just be still. Even if Christmas is not the holiday your religion celebrates at this time of year, there is something magical in the air right around now.

The shortness of the days gives the light a different glow. The waxing moon creates a beautiful sparkle on the snow. ( I happen to live in a town that recently got 4 feet in one storm…so snow is a large part of the magic here).  People generally are walking around in good cheer. There are parties and gatherings, singing and home cooked meals.

Winter solstice was traditionally a time of family, warmth and celebration that the darkness of winter was shifting and the days were going to begin getting longer again. Decorating with lights developed from the ancient traditions of bringing light indoors to  illuminate the long, cold nights.  Trees were brought indoors to remind people of the look, feel and smell of nature, hidden for a time beneath the white.

There are four days left until Christmas. It’s the weekend. Be conscious of the this special time. Take a break from the holiday busy-ness and from your business. Be with your family, be quiet, watch the light change as the sun sets on the shortest day of the year. Remember all the blessings of home, family, friends. Pray for peace and love to be the dominant forces of the coming year.

Happy Holidays to All!!!

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I found this article last week, written by Greg Six. He makes some good points that can help all of us who work at home. (All the links in this article belong to Greg).

When the home has to be both a home and a business, conflict can occur. In order to operate a successful home-based business, there must be a separation between the home and the home-based business. Conflict is likely to occur when there is a breach in the home/home-based business barrier. In order for the business to operate smoothly and the family to live comfortably in their home, communication must be established between the family and the business owners. A family and business require individual attention when it comes to designating space for each. If this does not occur, then four areas of family functioning are likely to be affected.

The needs of the family should take priority over the needs of the home-based business. Before a home-based business can be launched, space needs to be set aside for operational purposes. The household should answer the following questions first: How much space will the home-based business require within the home? What does the family absolutely need from the space in the home? Will the space that will be set aside for the business cause the family extreme discomfort? Is there a way for you to create a space management plan for the household space that can accommodate both your family and your home-based business? Family cohesion shouldn’t be severely impacted by a home-based business.

When a business intrudes on the household space, it also intrudes on the time schedules of everyone within it. Operating a home-based business is particularly difficult for families who have full schedules that are fixed and interlocked. In an instance such as this, the business’s needs would take a back seat to the schedules of those who are running it. Personal and family time schedules tend to be disrupted by home-based businesses if the business is given first preference, and the business tends to suffer if the situation is reversed.

Perhaps the biggest conflict occurs when the family feels as if their space has been violated as a result of having a home-based business. Consider all of the needs of the business. Does the business need extensive storage space or an area for customers to pick up merchandise? If customers and workers are constantly parading through your family room while your family is trying to relax then they will likely feel as their space is being violated. Designate particular areas of the home that business can be done in. Office space can be used for meetings, paper work, and other such activities. If a pick up area is necessary, then the most public areas of the home should be used.

Separation of space between the home and the business is not only beneficial to the family and business, but it is necessary for tax purposes if you plan on taking off deductions for business expenses. You must decide if a part of the house has too many uses to be used for both family and business matters.

While there are millions of different types of home-based businesses, almost every one of them can be grouped into a category: production/service; consulting or counseling; sales or marketing and mail order. Every business has different needs. Think about what category your home-based business falls into and consider the amount of space will be needed. Storage space, space for office equipment, production space, an area to meet with clients, and an area for pick up and delivery should be factored into the division of space.

The area in which you operate your business also plays a role in the success of your business. Make sure that there are no county codes that prevent you from operating a business in your neighborhood. If your business generates a lot of traffic, then consider how your neighbors might take to this. A neighborhood with a lot of children who play in or near the streets or even in a culda-sac are likely to become concerned with safety if your business generates a lot of traffic. The hours that you operate your business may also conflict with the comfort of neighbors. Operating a business extremely early or very late may cause tension. Your business hours aren’t the only ones to consider; pick up and delivery can also be disruptive. Shipping and deliveries could be made to post office and you can pick them up from there in order to minimize neighborhood traffic.

Greg Six has been a successful entrepreneur for over 15 years. After having owned motels and rental properties, he found success using internet marketing. He now spends his time assisting others as they search through the maze of internet offers to find the piece of the puzzle that is legitimate, and will ultimately allow an individual to create longstanding, stable wealth, without sacrificing integrity and honesty. Email Greg directly to request a F*R*E*E 30 minute coaching call to discuss your business goals and objectives… Just Ask. http://www.LegitimateBusinessFromHome.net/?conflict

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Greg_Six

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After three posts covering different types of organization you should now be totally organized and feeling sane. Too bad the holidays are just around the corner, creating more craziness.

In truth it takes time to get organized. Make a plan and move forward as you can. Try an accomplish one small task per day, or even 2-3 per week. Even if a task is a simple as creating a receipt folder or setting up the family calendar. For more help setting up your home business whether new or one that you’ve been working on for awhile, there is a free newsletter that offers some tips. The newsletter is geared towards people in the network marketing industry, but many if not most of the information will be helpful to anyone working at home. Since it’s free there is no harm in gathering the information offered and using what you find helpful to your situation. Click here to link to the subscription page, where you will find details about the newsletter and the topics for each issue.

This is the third part of our organizations series. Once you’ve tackled your space and your time and your “to-d0″ list it’s time to straighten out your bookkeeping. Many people with home businesses get overwhelmed when it comes to taking care of their business finances and their home finances. It really is important to get a handle on this. One of the main reasons is taxes. I’m not an accountant or even professional bookkeeper, so keep that in mind as you read on. What I do know from having multiple home businesses and having filed taxes for the last 15 years as a sole proprietor is, you need a system.

The reason you need is system is that many of your business expenses are tax deductible, but only if you can prove them. In addition, you need to keep track of your income and your outgo in order to determine what taxes you need to pay. (Here is where you go and talk to your accountant). What I’m going to help you with is creating the system.

First keep all receipts, write down all appointments and milage, list any expenses. Even if you do all this in simple notebook with a calendar and a big envelope for receipts, you’re doing well. Keep your home finances separate. If you work out of your home and plan on deducting part of those expenses, speak to your accountant about how to keep it all clear. There are many computer programs that will organize it all for you. If you have one of those, great. If not, the old fashioned way works fine as well, as long as you do it.

I find it useful and the IRS likes to see, separate checkbooks for business and home. If you have a number of businesses, have a checkbook for each. Even if you don’t make sense of everything until tax time, just having money go in and out of the correct location streamlines the process substantially.

One of the beautiful things about home based business, particularly selling-type businesses, is the deductions. Again, talk to your accountant for the details but the IRS is aware that it takes a few years for a new business to turn a profit. As long as you can show that you are working in the business to make a profit, not just as a hobby you can deduct those expenses for a number of years even if your business has a loss. This type of thing can often offset other income coming into your household and lower your overall taxes.

Subscribe to Healthy Freedom Secrets, a FREE newsletter to learn more about organizing your home based business.

We all have them. The dreaded to-do list. There was probably a time in your life, prior to having a family and homeschooling and working your own business, that your to-do list was a nice little thing that helped you remember that your best friend’s birthday was next week. For many busy mom’s I know now, their to-do list is crucial to their day-to-day survival. If picking up Suzy at violin lessons at 3:00 is not on the list, Suzy will be sitting with her violin teacher for many hours to come. Some of these lists are so long, that only 10% of the things to do actually get done on any given day. The other items get rolled to the next day and the list grows exponentially. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Here is another way to approach the to-do list. First of all, do you remember the family calendar and the individual day-timers that I wrote about in the last post? It is here that all the appointments and scheduling need to happen. Your daily homeschool time, music lessons, doctor’s appointments, etc…should all be on the calendars. Your to-do list is for something different.

Just by removing the scheduling piece, your to-do list should shrink noticably in size. Now you need a new notebook that’s fresh and clean with no scribbling in it. You want to have 3 sections. Some people divide each page into three columns. Some people have three distinct sections of the notebook. Do what works for you. One section is for things that have to be done today and are very specific to today. For example, send flowers for aunt Hilda’s birthday tomorrow or sew Charlie’s costume for the play dress rehersal tomorrow. It is crucial that you write in this section only things that must be done today and that you know you can get done today. There should be no carry-over into tomorrow.

The second section is for things that have to get done soon, usually in this next week or so. so. List those things in order of priority and try to do one or two of them per day. Add to this list as you need to. Some examples might be to call the phone company to change your phone plan to a better one, or contact other parents in your homeschool co-op to discuss carpooling to gymnastics after the holidays.

Your third section is the long term list. This will include things like cleaning out the hall closet, or painting the third bedroom. As you become more organized in all aspects of your life, you will find you have time for these types of projects. Each week you can look in this section and if it seems reasonable, move one of these projects into your first or second section.

You can organize your home business to-do list in the same manner. As you do this for home and business you will find yourself becoming more efficient, hopefully calmer and definitely less overwhelmed. Getting started is the key. A clean fresh notebook and an hour or two of quiet time should get you on your way.

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When you homeschool your children, being organized is crucial. When you work at home, being organized is crucial. To be organized you need time to get organized and this is often where people get overwhelmed.

There are two basic, but very large, areas of organization in a home. One is the organization of time and the other is the organization of stuff. There is also financial organization, but I find that focusing on this, even though very important, is difficult until you’ve conquered the first two. And then there’s the organization of goals, priorities, to-do lists, etc…Again, it is hard to focus effectively on this if you feel scattered in terms of time and overwhelmed in terms of stuff.

Getting started is harder than continuing. If you are swimming in disorganization, where do you begin? I believe it’s with the stuff. There is a wonderful book called It’s All Too Much, written by Peter Walsh. The book offers “an easy plan for living a richer life with less stuff”. It’s too much to spend time here summarizing what Mr. Walsh has to say…so read the book. The plan is simple and clear and he makes his method accessible to even the busiest mom and dad. Once your space feels calm, it is remarkable how much easier it is to function.

As for time. There are two things to look at. The first is the quantity of things that need to be scheduled into any given day or week and the second is the actual scheduling. Since we’re dealing with a family here, get a big calendar. There are some calendars on the market now that have section within each day for each family member. Take the time at the end of each month and the end of each week to write down the appointments, events, commitments of each family member. In addition, block off your homeschooling time, your work time, exercise time, and family time. It’s amazing how things are more likely to get done once they are written down.

Each adult and teenager in the family may also want to have their own “daytimer”. If you are working in or out of the house, this will be a necessity. Take the time set out for work on the big calendar and break that time down in your personal calendar. Make sure you allot time for meditation or taking a walk. Again, if it’s written down it’s more likely to happen.

Do the same thing with your kid’s homeschooling time. Once you have time blocked off on the big calendar, have a separate one for organizing what each child is working on and when. If you are using a curriculum, this is somewhat simplified. If not, you may want to try planning a few months in advance.

Not wanting to overwhelm you with too much at one time, I’ll save the financial organization and the to-do list, for my next post.

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