Healthy Work at Home Tips For Homeschooling Families

I’m assuming that most who read this blog are working from home. What type of business are you in? There are so many different options these days that allow you to work in your PJ’s and not commute. I met some people today who do software development for a newspaper in Boston, yet they live all over the country and move frequently to satisfy their need for adventure. There are those who do data processing at home. People run daycares or consult on the phone.

Regardless of what you do, most businesses need to be marketed. Someone, somewhere needs to know what you have to offer and then desire you product or services. The most common method of marketing is to sell people on your offering. But people hate to be sold and not many like to sell either. What if there was another way to connect and network? What if you could bring people into your sphere and get to know them and their needs first? Doesn’t this sound like more fun?

When I’m not wearing my clinical social worker hat, or my mom hat I work in network marketing. I don’t sell. I don’t accost every friend and family member with my product or opportunity. Instead I spend my time building relationships online and offline. Sometimes I can help people. Sometimes they help me. Occasionally someone wants to know about my company and I tell them. It’s easy and fun and puts me in touch with interesting people from all over the world. (I make money too, but it just happens naturally). I call it attraction marketing. The way that I network with people can be learned by watching a series of free videos. Click here if you’d like to watch them. I believe what you’ll learn can be valuable in any business that requires marketing and people skills.

What type of Business are YOU in? Please answer by sending a comment. Also include how you juggle your business and your homeschooling, if that pertains to you.

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If you are investigating different home business options, the magazine entitled Success From Home, may be of interest to you. Every month this independent publication showcases a work at home company.  Most of the issue that month is devoted to product information and business information.  They usually include interviews with people just like you who are experiencing success and enjoyment with that company. You can purchase Success From Home Magazine at Barnes & Noble Bookstores and at Borders Bookstores.  I have written about the upcoming June issue in one of my other blogs. You can read it by clicking here.

I took a vacation. It wasn’t an exciting vacation. I didn’t even leave my town. But I took time off from working on the computer and blogging and writing articles. I spent time reading books and playing with my daughter outside of our homeschooling time. This, is the beauty of self-employment. This is also why there have been no new posts in a couple of weeks, but that’s OK. I work for myself. I create a stream of residual income. Money comes in even when I take a break from my day-to-day work.

When one talks about balance in life–a delicate synthesis between work and play, childcare and self-care, not enough money and just enough to feel blessed–what one often thinks about is developing one or many passive streams of income that allow freedom of time and finances. I recently read Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki for the second time. If you have not read it, I’d highly recommend that you do. He reframes the way that one looks at money, wealth, time, education and jobs in a way that is enlightening.

As homeschooling families we already have moved to a different manner of thinking in terms of educating our children. We have walked away from the mainstream education system in order to better prepare our children for the real world, as it is today and to inculcate them with the values that we hold dear.  Being self-employed, creating residual income, having multiple streams of passive income are all means for living that life that we desire and value without sacrificing our health and our family.

It was great to take a vacation from the computer and all the writing that I do. It was wonderful to know that I could do that, just because I felt like it and that the networks and structures I’ve set up both online and off would continue without my constant diligence. That is beauty of self-employment in the field of network marketing

If you’re reading this blog and your under 30, you’re probably going to laugh. But for those of you who are almost two decades older than that, this is big news. Social Media, social networking and social bookmarking on the internet is where you need to be if you really want to see increased success in the 21st century. I’m new to this just like you. I thought Face Book and My Space was just for kids. Here are some statistics I came across.

Social media giant Facebook is currently ADDING a million 25+ (non-student) adults per week to their rosters - that’s 52 million new users a year…

YouTube.com gets over 50 million unique visitors per month… over half a billion a year…

MySpace.com sees over 49 million unique visitors each month - over 1.6 million a day…

62% of MySpace visitors are older than 25 (40% are 35+), and 83% are making over $30,000 a year… and 19% are making $100,000 and up…

Facebook.com, is a little younger since it started with college students - but that’s changing in a hurry - 46% are over 25 and 34% are 35+… but they’ve got deep pockets - 88% make more than $30,000… and 23% make $100,000 or more.

…And those are just the big ones. There is Digg.com and Technorati.com, along with at least 50 other social networking/media sites. Some are specific to a certain industry or topic and others are more broad. What’s important to know though is that you can create a presence online by utilizing these sites and thus expand your sales market.

For the more mature among us, adapting to Web 2.0 is not easy. It’s a new language and a new paradigm for thinking about sales and marketing. If you have high school age kids they can probably help you get started. At least they understand the basics of what people are doing on these sites. Once you understand that it comes down to creating your online presence and learning how to form relationships in cyberspace.

Squidoo is a good place for business people to begin. It’s a social networking site geared more towards people with businesses. My partner just created a Squidoo Lense last week. It’s still a bit rough, but she said it only took her about 1/2 hour to create what you’ll see if you click here

Squidoo is a way for you to design and promote a web page of sorts that you can then share with whomever you like. Also, people searching for a particular topic on Squidoo will find you..and Google likes to crawl around Squidoo pages to find what people are deeming important. All good news for you marketing efforts.

Another thing you need to do is to create public bookmarks on different social sites. According to the experts, this is how to quickly drive a large amount of traffic back to your web page or blog. I wrote a short how-too for neophytes on my business blog. You can see it here.

Of course you need learn about and understand all this while you’re running your business the old fashioned way and homeschooling your kids. But do not fear. This is the future, so you have time. Learn a bit each day. See what other people are doing. Put search words like “tag and ping” into Google and read what comes up. Even when it all seems like so foreign that you don’t thnk it will ever make sense, keep going. It took my partner and about 3 months to all of sudden “get it”. Now we feel like we found the keys to the vault…the system. With it, you can sell or market anything from car products to ebooks to network marketing opportunities!!

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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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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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